There is only ONE RULE to Gun Safety

Omaha Outdoors has a GREAT article about firearms range safety (see *overlink*), which I recommend highly for everyone no matter how long you have been shooting.

A few years ago I volunteered at my local club to instruct in an "Introduction to USPSA".   I taught the Rules of Competition, and coached new shooters on techniques which they would find useful.

And although almost every student in the class was familiar with the Three Rules of Safe Shooting, I boiled it down to One Sacred Rule:

DO NOT SCARE THE RANGE OFFICER! 

If a student, at the end of a stage, reached down to pick up his dropped magazine before holstering his pistol, I yelled STOP! 

I was scared that he would trigger a round into his hand. (Sure, he had already cleared his pistol because I was standing there to ensure that he had done so.  But what if he was practicing alone on the range and there was nobody there to tell him to "unload and show clear" and "holster"?)   The training was as much in safety as in competition; and if they didn't learn range safety ... they failed.

One of the stages I set up for them was to start facing up-range with a loaded gun; at the buzzer, turn and engage the targets.

I would stand one foot in front of them while they were facing uprange.  I would look right in his eyes, and say:  "okay, at the buzzer, turn and draw and engage the targets.  If you draw before you turn, your gun will be pointed at my feet.  Don't do that. "

Because Rule One was always: "Don't Scare The Range Officer!!!"

New shooters are usually apprehensive; the scary ones are those who are not apprehensive.

One weekend (the weekend immediately following the class) I attended a match where three of my new students were on their "maiden match".   After one of the students (the cocky one) finished his stage and returned to the spectator area to reload magazines, I stood on the other side of the counter and confronted him, saying: 

"Nice run.  Now what did you do wrong?"I don't know.
What did the RO say when you finished shooting?   Exactly?Uh ... "if you are finished unload and show clear.  If clear, hammer down and holster."
And what did you do next?Uh ... I cleared, then picked up my magazine.
And did you sweep yourself because you hadn't holstered?No, I did not.
No, but The RO didn't say "The Range Is Clear" so you could be DQ'd even though you had finished the stage and the gun was unloaded.    

That earned me a dirty look, because I was treating him like a newby.   Which he was.

His range experience had been unsupervised for the years he had been shooting ... and he was a military veteran with lots of range time.   He thought he knew all the important stuff.

But he had not learned to shoot competitively under the direction of Range Safety Officer who was using the required commands to ensure the safety of everyone ... not least the shooter himself.

Both USPSA and IPSC (and other organized competitive shooting sports) consider SAFETY to be the most important consideration; which is a difficult concept for very competitive people to assimilate because all they think about is to get good hits as quickly as humanly possible.  They want to be winners.

Range officers accept that, but their most important consideration is the safety of everyone on the range.   They want everybody to be survivors. (Okay, then there's obeying the stage rules, the range rules, and not using the "F-bomb" every time a reload fails ....)


ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM OMAHA OUTDOORS: *overlink*

Bad Holstering

I realize that this is parody, but you and I have seen people on the firing line who haven't been "significantly" less safe.

What IS "significant" is that the last time I checked, you can't DQ a competitor in IPSC/USPSA for 'sweeping" during drawing or holstering.  (I need to recheck that I am referencing the current edition of the rule book.  Or someone might check for me, and reply in comments.  I'd appreciate it.)

Which is, situationally, "cringe-worthy" because I've seen some people who are not practiced in competition use their 'off hand" to direct their pistol into their holster by placing their off-hand over the muzzle ... literally.  Rare, but not unknown.

The best you can do, as a "Range Officer" or "Safety Officer" (depending on your competition venue) is to quietly suggest that this is not normally considered a Safe Practice, and offer to work with them in the Safety Area to practice safer gun-handling techniques.

If they are unwilling to learn, they'll eventually perform some other "Unsafe Act" which is not protected by the rule book.  But then, you'll have another heart-stopping moment.  Cringe!

Getting back to the image, this breaks at lest three competition safety rules in several disciplines.  Which suggests that I have no sense of humor.

When it comes to range safety, I have no sense of humor.

Rule Number One:   Don't Frighten The Range Officer!!!!

Irons in the Fire: Someone had a post on 'Things a Range Safety Officer sees'

Everybody who has ever worked as a Range Officer (or Range Safety Officer), either at a Major Match or as a volunteer on (for example) "Hunter Sight-In Days" at his local range, has War Stories which would give you pause when considering the ultimate effect of the Second Amendment.

Specifically, everybody knows that there are some people who just Not Be Allowed To Handle A Gun.

(Sure, it's your right.  Go ahead and buy one.  But if you don't know what you're doing ... get training!)

Here, a minor selection of War Stories, and suggested war stories:

Irons in the Fire: Someone had a post on 'Things a Range Safety Officer sees':

,,, but I can add a couple of things: Walk right in with a semi-auto rifle with a magazine in place, and when asked to remove the mag and lock the bolt back demonstrate that you don't know how.  People will just love watching you demonstrate this. On a very busy day demand that you and a friend want two separate lanes. When told no say "We've been coming here for years, and today you start giving us crap?"   Because everyone likes an argument while the line behind you is building.

Interesting.

I looked it up, and found a couple of links on the internet (of course) which had a few juicy war stories.

One of them is at Redit "Lets Hear Your Range Horror Stories".

Another at The Firing Line forum site.

(Just as an experiment, I searched YouTube for "incompetent people with guns on ranges", and got more hits than were appropriate; mostly in the category of "Idiot Lets Girlfriend Shoot .50 Caliber Pistol And Laughs When It Hurts Her".   Not worthy trying to refine my search.)

Stupid, but interesting.  (No, not the blogger [IRONS] but the people we sometimes meet ... especially at Major Matches.)

Or on Training Sessions.

My FIRST DAY at training "Introduction to USPSA folks, I had 13 people attend.

I had nobody helping me out, to (for example) act as a DEMONSTRATOR so new shooters could see how they should act.   It was a hectic experience, because there no criteria about "experience in competitive shooting" or "familiarity with your firearm".  Anyone who wanted to take the class was accepted.   Many of the people who attended were either unfamiliar with basich firearms safety rules, or with the firearm they were using.

One guy failed to put his pistol on SAFE before holstering.  I told him he had to do that, and he replied: "Oh, this gun doesn't have a safety".

It was a 1911.  He had never bothered to explore what function that little flipper on the left side of his pistol served.   He never came back; good choice.

I've become more selective over the years.

Blackhawk's "SERPA" holster found to be unsafe

The SERPA Sucks, And That's Just All There Is To Say About It:

  ,,, the BlackHawk! SERPA holster is one of the worst holster designs currently manufactured.
 The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) Field Training Directorate (FTD) launched an investigation of the design after “four incidents.” The resulting research discovered that the user’s trigger finger ended up proximal to the trigger on 25-percent of the draw strokes, and that 13-percent of attempted draw strokes began out of sequence. They concluded (PDF) that the basic design of the holster was likely to greatly increase the likelihood of an “inadvertent discharge,” and concluded that it should not be used in any of their training. Here’s Guns & Ammo TV trying to argue that Serpa’s are “perfectly safe.” Watch what happens with the expert’s finger.

(Click link at top of the post to see videos in the original Bearing Arms article)

Competition Shooting IS safer than High School Football

Can we prevent high school football deaths? - CNN.com:
(October 23, 2015)

(CNN)On Thursday night, Bogan High School football player Andre Smith was hit during the last play of the game, his relatives told CNN affiliate WLS. The 17-year-old Chicago student collapsed while walking off the field and was taken to a hospital, where he passed away early Friday. An autopsy is expected later this week. Smith's was the seventh high school football-related death this season. According to an analysis from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research database, about 12 high school and college football players die every year. The leading cause of death isn't football-related trauma, but sudden cardiac arrest.

[emphasis added]

As many of my readers know, I instruct a class in Competitive Pistol Shooting (USPSA/IPSC ... look it up) and every month I teach from 1 to 15 people how to SAFELY use loaded pistols in an aggressive  competitive environment.

When people sign up for my class, I send them a list of equipment requirements and provide some verbiage about the sport.  One of the things I tell them is:

"IPSC competition is safer than High School Football!"

But it's heartbreaking when I go online to confirm that statement, and recent events have sadly proved that teens + football = "dead children".
 (Liberals indulge in outrageous statements to make a point, so I will too.)

Strangely, I have seen young people compete with loaded guns with 'nearly' a zero-injury safety record.  (* disclaimer below)

SAFETY IS EVERYBODY'S RESPONSIBILITY! (Our Worst Nightmare)

There are some uncomfortable questions that need to  answered here!

Borepatch: Complacency: All you can say is they all got lucky. If you ever work as an R.O. on a range for any event, here's the anti-complacency video of the year.

Range Officer Nightmare; and who is to blame?

Watch, think.  Then discuss:




This surprising event .. a man caught downrange taping targets after the next shooter is already halfway through shooting the stage ...

The questions that need to be answered include: