Safety Matters
Gun Cleaning
and
The Four Rules
By Kathy Jackson
The Four Rules
- All guns are always loaded.
- Do not point the firearm at anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target.
- Be sure of your target (and what's beyond it).
|
There's a tragic story in the news this week about a man who was cleaning a firearm,
and accidentally shot and killed his own son. Although the article doesn't mention
what type of firearm was involved, the usual online chatter has already begun. It's
all the gun's fault, of course. A faulty design, no doubt, probably one of those
which require the user to pull the trigger as a preliminary step to disassembling
the gun. But this mishap wasn't the gun's fault. In order for this tragedy to happen,
the man in the news had to violate not just one, but all four of the safety
rules.
So let's discuss: how do you clean a gun without violating the
Four Rules?
Rule One means that you never do anything with an allegedly unloaded gun
that you would not do with it if you knew it was loaded. This is the cardinal rule,
and all others follow naturally from it. So when you pick your gun up for the purpose
of cleaning it, you treat it with every ounce of respect you would give it if you
knew it was loaded and knew for certain that it would fire if the trigger were pulled.
Rule Two means that when you carry your gun to the cleaning area, you maintain
constant awareness of where the muzzle is pointing. Just because you are preparing
to clean the gun does not mean that it is no longer a gun. Rule Two also means that
when you are ready to disassemble the gun, you do not point it at your dog, your
left hand, your firstborn child, or at the expensive widescreen TV you cannot afford
to replace. You never allow the firearm to point at anything you are not willing
to destroy, nor at any human beings who aren't on your better-dead list.
Rule Three means that even after you have removed the magazine and made sure
the chamber doesn't contain a live round, you still do not put your finger
on the trigger until you have deliberately picked out the optimal spot for a bullet
to land. The firearm must not be pointed in some random direction when you pull
the trigger. Rather, you have deliberately considered which spot in the area would
be the most acceptable place to put a bullet, and you point your firearm at that
spot and at that spot only before you ever allow your finger to rest upon the trigger.
Rule Four means that when you choose that spot, you'd darn well better remember
that interior walls don't stop bullets. If you need to build a
solid backstop in order to have a safe place to disassemble firearms in
your home, you do so.
And that's how you disassemble a gun while obeying the Four Rules.
Next Steps
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Except where otherwise noted, all articles and images on
this web site © 2006-2009 by Kathy Jackson. For permission to quote, please
contact author.
Disclaimer: The author of this
site assumes that you are an adult human being capable of making your
own choices and taking responsibility for same. If you are not an adult,
or are not capable of taking responsibility for your own choices, STOP.
Do not read anything else on this site. The author has made a reasonable,
good-faith effort to assure that the articles herein are accurate and
contain good advice, but hereby advises the reader that the author is
a normal human being who makes the normal number of human mistakes. Deal
with it. If it sounds stupid to you, don't do it. The author accepts absolutely
no responsibility whatsoever for anything you might say or do as a result
of reading any material on this site. Live your own life.