Ok, Lucy ‘splain this to me

[NFrameFred]

I worked in a steel mill when I was in college. One of the required pieces of safety equipment was safety glasses. At the time were given glasses that looked like these

A popular thing to do was to pop out the lenses. Why? Not really sure. Not me. The last thing I wanted was a shard of steel stuck in my eyeball.

Back in the seventies when I went to work for a mining company we had to go through orientation, safety and first aid training for a week prior to going on site or underground. One of the sessions was a film about various mishaps with various depictions (some reproductions) of the results/aftermath. But the one that caught my attention was the film of the actual surgery where a machine operator got a sliver of steel in his eye; they sewed his eyelid open to his eyebrow, cut open the eyeball at the puncture with a pair of surgical scissors and removed the shard with an electro-magnetic probe inserted into the hole.


It made an impression.

 

[crstrode]

Ignorance is not limited to the youths. I've heard quite a bit of absurd things by older gun owners as well.

Ignorance can be remedied by instruction. Arrogance, however is anathema to instruction.

Hence, know-it-all kids become know-nothing adults.

 

[LVSteve]

Someone once asked me why I preferred teaching women to shoot over young men. I said that women generally say, "I know nothing ... teach me." Men say, "Here let me show you all the cool stuff I already know." Also, women smell nicer.

I'll give you a variation on this. I came here from the UK, where firearm knowledge even before Hungerford and Dunblane (look them up) was pretty limited. Consequently, I learned everything about firearms from scratch, federal rules, local rules, shipping requirements, and even handgun shooting. My instructor was a bowling buddy who worked in the armed security industry. He said I was a pleasure to teach, mostly because I came without previous "help" from a father, older brothers, and the occasional crazy uncle.

Fast forward a few years and I found that coworkers were coming to me for firearms advice, especially when it came to possession and shipping laws. I guess word got around that I'd successfully navigated the law to own firearms as a non-immigrant alien, a Green Card holder, and as a citizen.

 

[LVSteve]

Back in the seventies when I went to work for a mining company we had to go through orientation, safety and first aid training for a week prior to going on site or underground. One of the sessions was a film about various mishaps with various depictions (some reproductions) of the results/aftermath. But the one that caught my attention was the film of the actual surgery where a machine operator got a sliver of steel in his eye; they sewed his eyelid open to his eyebrow, cut open the eyeball at the puncture with a pair of surgical scissors and removed the shard with an electro-magnetic probe inserted into the hole.


It made an impression.

I recall a similar safety film in the UK. People left the room retching and some passed out. Fun times.

 

[crstrode]

Being a boomer, I was mocking millennials for the standard things of not knowing cursive or no being able to do arithmetic in their heads. My daughter (late 20s) pointed out that it was my generation that

• Invented the participation trophy
• Decided to eliminate shop and home ec classes
• Decided to let 1st graders use calculators for arithmetic class
• Decided that cursive wasn't important
• Decided that children should never be out of sight when playing
• Decided that monkey bars are too dangerous
• Decided that everyone needs a helmet on a bike
• Decided that children can't go to school if it is cold
• And much, much more.

The previous generation is responsible for many of the ills of the current generation.

Whoever it was that raised that girl made a bunch of mistakes.

 

[Yaworski]

mostly because I came without previous "help" from a father, older brothers, and the occasional crazy uncle.

A local township rec department used to offer a target shooting "class." About half the students were new shooters and the other half were people who just wanted to shoot and have some camaraderie.

I signed up for the class for the second reason. There was a very attractive girl in the class who kept having all sorts of issues. I spoke to the class instructor about her, offering to tutor the girl if necessary. I was told that every week the instructor would help the girl dial in her sights but when she went home, her husband would make adjustments. Consequently, the girl would spend the next session trying to dial in her sights. That husband was really, really helpful.

 

[Yaworski]

Whoever it was that raised that girl made a bunch of mistakes.

I don't get your point. A whole generation of parents made a bunch of mistakes.

 

[LVSteve]

Surprising to many gun people to find that many gun owners, not just young ones, cannot tell you the make of their own guns. Ask them to tell you the difference between the extractor and ejector and all you get is a blank stare.

No kidding. On this forum the question of the operating mode of the Shield EZ came up. It's single action, of course. However, one participant in the thread had an issue with this because of the concealed hammer. And that makes a difference because...?

Then there is the stuff I hear on Youtube. "Striker fired guns are harder to rack than hammer fired guns because you are cocking the striker". Errrm, no. The striker engages the sear and the striker spring is compressed as the slide moves forward, not as you pull the slide back.

A striker gun has a strong recoil spring because it has to do all the work in controlling recoil. In a hammer gun, the forces are spread between the recoil spring and the hammer spring. Does this make a hammer fired gun easier to rack when the hammer is down? For a given caliber and slide weight it shouldn't, but it certainly feels that way. That is my experience with a Grand Power Q100 (striker) and a Grand Power K100 (hammer) pistols. I guess that is because the hammer is pushed back and then down to engage the sear. Without some way of attaching a fish scale to the slide of each gun and measuring the force required to rack both pistols, I cannot say if my feeling is accurate.

 

[steelslaver]

A lot of it is perception and a certain amount is preconceived beliefs. Lots of people believe the recoil of a 44 mag is almost unmanageable, mostly because they have learned to believe that from movies and nimrod statements. Then when they fire it their mind helps supply them with the results they expect

 

[taz666]

So to sum up ... lack of competent education.

 

[Sgt. Buzzard]

It use to be a standing (but true) joke, that if you saw several nurses looking at a piece of paper that they were trying to figure out what the doctor wrote.

AJ, that is so true. My shooting and motorcycle touring buddy was a Master Chief, Medical Corp who BTW, spend nine years attached to the Marines. He was so traumatized by doctors writing he's avoided knee surgery that's been really needed for a dozen years.

 

[BE Mike]

I'm glad that when I first started out being interested in guns that there was not an internet to plaster my ignorance all over. I cannot tell you how much I had to learn when I first started reloading with my Lee Loader in .38 SPL. Ignorance can be eliminated. Stupidity is here to stay!

 

[taz666]

My ol' man imparted a bit of wisdom to me as an apprentice ...
Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.

Mine is ... While you're young, be the sponge.

 

[Yaworski]

Probably because they got so hard to see out of during the day that the glasses became an even bigger risk to safety. Frames on passed the cursory test.

That's what they claimed but I had no problem keeping my glasses clean. The reality was that many didn't see the need for safety glasses, ear plugs, or metatarsal boots.

 

[taz666]

That's what they claimed but I had no problem keeping my glasses clean.

You had to be working to get 'em dirty "college boy"

The reality was that many didn't see the need for safety glasses, ear plugs, or metatarsal boots.

Kidding aside, you're right on this. Back then, safety measures were not on most peoples radar. Just thinking about what used to fly in the construction industry back in the '70s make you wonder how we made it to retirement.

 

[Yaworski]

Kidding aside, you're right on this. Back then, safety measures were not on most peoples radar.

The company took it seriously but many workers didn't Just like many people still choose to not wear their seat belts.

Since I wore my gear as directed, I never had to deal with the aftermath of not wearing my protection. However, I was told that if someone from plant safety caught you, there was heck to pay.