Safety: The Mandate of a Gun Culture

In my last post, I mentioned the American and Pakistani gun cultures. To me, the video clip illustrates an indispensable lesson -- a sine qua non of a gun culture.

In the video, the reporter is taken to a "shooting area" which happened to be on a roof in the middle of the village. He seemed to think it odd, yet he shot in a safe direction, toward the side of a nearby hill.

The fact that the village was not littered with bodies indicates an important fact. Although almost everyone was armed and many shots were fired through the day, those who handled the guns were practicing muzzle awareness.

I'm reminded of Theresa, my second daughter. When she was younger, she would not let anyone point a toy gun (or even a finger used as a play gun) at her, nor would she point one at any except imaginary bad guys. The lesson is that if you should not practice unsafe methods, even in play.

Maybe toy guns are a bad idea -- not because they're violent, but because they encourage sloppy gun handling attitudes.

Since it's always good to review the basics, I am including in this post Jeff Cooper's rules of gun safety in his own words:

We hoped by this time that the standard rules of safe gunhandling would have become universal throughout the world. They have been arrived at by careful consideration over the years, and they do not need modification or addition. We trust that all the family have them by heart in all languages, but for those who came in late here they are again:

1. All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)
3. Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.
4. Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

Those will do. We need all four and we do not need five. It should not be necessary to belabor this issue, but life is not perfect.