This weekend a friend stopped by the house. I knew that he had recently gotten his CCW, so I asked what he had decided to carry.

He reached into his pocket and brought out a KelTec 380 in a home made pocket holster. After he explained how he made the holster I asked how the KelTec shot for him.

"Oh, I've never shot it", he replied. "NEVER" I asked incredulously. "No", he replied "I just haven't got around to it yet".

I offered to let him fire it at my test range but as he had no spare ammo he didn't want to do that. This guy should know better. I was dumbfounded.

Yep . . .

The only difference between genius and stupidity is that there is a limit to genius.

That's kinda scary.

Does he know how to fire it? Don't laugh at me b/c I would have to look at it for a while to figure out the safety, whether there was one in the chamber, etc. Never fired or held a Kel-Tec, personally.

Be safe.

quote:

Originally posted by The Big D:
That's kinda scary.

Does he know how to fire it? Don't laugh at me b/c I would have to look at it for a while to figure out the safety, whether there was one in the chamber, etc. Never fired or held a Kel-Tec, personally.

Be safe.

The amazing thing to me about this is that the guy is not some kid. He is 40 years old and grew up around firearms. To get a CCW in Ohio you take the NRA Basic Pistol course with additional class time on Ohio CCW laws and have to spend a certain amount number of hours on the range.

I'm just flabbergasted that that someone who should know better would be so careless. I carry a KelTec and while I know some people put them down I'm happy with mine. However I would not have dreamed of using for CCW until I had fired it enough to feel confident.

I've had several people show up for CHL class with the gun they had been (illegally) carrying, but had never fired.

Some of the guns were broken and unsafe to fire. One of them demaded we reload the gun and give it back to her loaded, even though we told her it was unsafe to fire. I put a cable tie in it and gave it back empty.

Several had borrowed guns that they never had personally fired, and didn't know how to load.

More than one has had a gun that was not functioning properly, and wanted me to "see what it needs." Sure--stop class and work on guns??!?!

And after the simple safety test in CHL class of "can you load your gun and shoot a target at 3 steps" some are done with "training" and ready to carry without taking a shooting class or practicing.........

As one of our top OK instructors asks, "Is your gun a weapon or a magic talisman?"

A P3AT is the last gun in the world I would carry without test firing it with my carry ammo.

Eh. Better, marginally, than having no gun at all I suppose. At least it offers deterence value and the round in the chamber should at least go off (after that, it is anyone's guess).

Some LE agencies and the military will issue guns out to people on assignments that they've never had a chance to personally fire or zero in. It is never an ideal situation, but sometimes you have to work with what you have.

Maybe his widow can file a wrongful death against Kel-Tec.

Maybe Kel-tec will nominate him for a Darwin Award.

PUUURFECT!
One hopes as is the case most often, he'll never have to think about pulling it, much less firing it? Yikes!

Your friend obviously isn't serious about carrying a gun for personal defense.

quote:

Originally posted by 18DAI:
The only difference between genius and stupidity is that there is a limit to genius.

I believe that Einstein is the originator of that saying.

He is the type that thought that he solved his personal defense needs by purchasing and just carrying the KelTec. I'll bet that he perceived your dumbfoundedness and it will now occur to him to at least shoot a box of ammo. Sometimes people grow in stages, I know I did (25 years ago). You probably influenced him more than you know.

A sad but not uncommon senario and it's not limited to civilians.

IIRC there was an incident that I believe was related in a book or magazine by Massad Ayoob (I could be mistaken about the author) about being on partol one day and entering a gun store with his partner. The partner picked up a new revolver that he had the shop order for him. He looked it over, loaded it and promptly stuck it in his holster and headed back to his car.

To me that shows either an immense trust/faith in the gun you just purchased or a complete lack of.............well a lack of something.

The reality is that there is no magic number of rounds you HAVE to fire through a weapon before you can rely on it to do what it was designed to do when you need it.

Regardless of the number of rounds fired you never really know if the next one will go off or not? The idea is to at least make the effort to see if the weapon functions as designed, is sighted with the load you chose so that you can reasonably expect to hit where your aiming and to familiarize yourself with it's operation.

If you can fire a cylinder or magazine full right out of the box with complete reliability and hit where your aiming your pretty much good to go as additonal rounds aren't going to improve on perfection.

That, IMHO is the bare minimum before you should carry any firearm for any purpose be it defense or sport.

Continued practice is icing on the cake at least for those that choose to embrace personal protection as a way of life and not just a fashion trend.