Importance of gun safety...GRAPHIC

[Steve in Vermont]

I've been shooting damn near 50 years now, 27 of those as a working cop. For 40 + years we were trained to place your finger inside the trigger guard and on the trigger as soon as the barrel of your revolver cleared the holster. The finger off the trigger until ready to shoot rule is an excellent one, but I still have to remind myself of that from time to time. Old habits do die hard.

Ain't that the truth. We were fortunate that the trigger pulls of the revolvers we carried were as heavy as they were. I remember pulling the hammer back on a guy I thought was pulling a gun out from his coat pocket. If I had been carrying one of the new autos the outcome would probably have been different. I believe I'll stick to revolvers and not mess around with the trigger pull.

 

[Poodle Soup]

Well at least he knows his carry ammo does its job so hes walking away with one good experience.... but ouch ouch ouch.

 

[Bib]

Familiarity breeds contempt. This applies to guns, cars, almost everything we do.

In the same vein is the saying: "Routine is the enemy of Focus"

 

[Brian41]

I met a guy with his left hand all bandaged up and of course asked about it. Seems he was trying to break down his Colt Mustang to clean but had one in the chamber and put it through his hand.
He didn't seem to be that much of a gun guy either but did admit he was an idiot with what happened.
I had one AD that scared the heck out of me but had the gun pointed in a safe direction. I learned a valuable lesson that day and keep my finger off the trigger until I'm ready to shoot now.

 

[HELLSING]

Good god, that's gruesome. I can't remember what season, or episode I saw this on... but on "Doomsday Preppers" there was an episode about this guy who was a Marine, then got into Special Forces and was prepping for a terrorist attack or something, I can't remember. But anyways... he was at the range showing off his gun skills and ended up blowing his thumb off with a .22LR Marlin because he wasn't holding the gun properly and had his thumb OVER THE BARREL EXIT!

 

[QuickDrawMcGraw]

.. Coulda been worse' he was lucky*
Gave me the shivers

~ Joe

 

[mrbort]

A really good example of why the generally accepted rules for firearms use are generally accepted. If you mess up and forget one of the rules the result won't be bad (the way the cover each other explicitly prevents this). If you forget two of the rules, the results will be bad but not tragic (e.g. ND in a safe direction). If you forget anymore the results are likely tragic. They're so easy to remember, so easy to work with and keep in mind that it shocks me that people don't take more care to follow them carefully and keep them in mind handling any firearm, no matter how long we've been doing it. Also correcting anyone who you notice forgetting or ignoring the guidelines is useful and may keep you, them, or someone else alive!

 

[moosedog]

Rule number one. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.