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I agree. I live it, and teach it to my kids. Safety is everything when handling guns.

I do have one minor issue with the basic safety rules as they are preached, but it's strictly semantics. Does the term "Every gun is always loaded" bother anyone but me?

In the above video, Cooper takes issue with those who say "Treat every gun as if it were loaded".

I tell my kids "Assume every gun is loaded", but my overly logical brain rejects the "Every gun is always loaded" statement, because it is technically not true. Yes, I understand the purpose of the statement, and have no problem with it being taught as a safety rule because it is effective at getting the extremely important concept across, but for me personally it just doesn't work.

For example, my 11yo son is very literal minded, probably more than me. We were handling and talking about guns one day, and having the requisite safety talk. I read the safety rules to him, and the wording as it was written was "every gun is always loaded". He looked at me with a very confused look of his face. "But Dad, this one here isn't loaded. We just checked it twice; how can it still be loaded??"
I would just say, "every gun is always loaded, unless you yourself have checked the chamber". That's what it really means. In other words don't assume anything, don't take anyone's word for it, etc. you have to verify it yourself.

Furthermore it reinforces the mindset. Fe as Clint Smith says with the plastic gun, if you treat it with respect (ie "it's loaded") you will carry that practice in every situation dealing with any gun (ie you never make exceptions, ever).
 
I would just say, "every gun is always loaded, unless you yourself have checked the chamber". That's what it really means. In other words don't assume anything, don't take anyone's word for it, etc. you have to verify it yourself.

Furthermore it reinforces the mindset. Fe as Clint Smith says with the plastic gun, if you treat it with respect (ie "it's loaded") you will carry that practice in every situation dealing with any gun (ie you never make exceptions, ever).
I absolutely agree with the concept. I teach my kids to check a gun, even if they just saw me check it. When they hand it back, I'll check it again, not because I think they may have loaded it while I wasn't looking, but out of deeply ingrained habit. And even then I'm careful to point it in a safe direction, even when I'm personally satisfied that it's NOT loaded.

I tell them that these safety habits must be followed without exception, to the point where they are instinctive, something you do automatically without thinking. The reason for this is that there will be a time in your life, at some point, where you are distracted, exhausted, scared, whatever; and you'll forget to think about safety. BUT, you'll follow the rules anyhow without thinking, because it's automatic.

Again, my problem with "Every gun is always loaded" is just semantics, a silly pet peeve that's a result of an overly literal mind. Say I went into a firearm museum and told the curator that Teddy Roosevelt's Winchester on display there behind the glass was loaded. It's a gun, and all gun are always loaded, so I KNOW it's literally loaded with live ammo. They'd laugh at me and tell me to stop being so literal.

On the other hand, if I was the curator who took it down to inspect or store it, I would still double-check and handle it as if it were loaded. Not because I think that someone somehow loaded it, but because it's a deeply ingrained safety habit, and since it is a gun, there's always that chance (no matter how unlikely) that it is loaded.
 
I would just say, "every gun is always loaded, unless you yourself have checked the chamber". That's what it really means. In other words don't assume anything, don't take anyone's word for it, etc. you have to verify it yourself.

Furthermore it reinforces the mindset. Fe as Clint Smith says with the plastic gun, if you treat it with respect (ie "it's loaded") you will carry that practice in every situation dealing with any gun (ie you never make exceptions, ever).
You could re-word that as, "Every gun is always loaded, look for yourself and see".
If the person you tell that to doesn't know how, it will beg the question, "how do I do that?", and then you show them.
Either way, it challenges the person to actually, physically check the gun.
 
You could re-word that as, "Every gun is always loaded, look for yourself and see".
If the person you tell that to doesn't know how, it will beg the question, "how do I do that?", and then you show them.
Either way, it challenges the person to actually, physically check the gun.
Yes, the key if for each of us to physically check the gun, good point.
Just re-watched the video and fail to see where, at any point in the video, she is not taking gun safety seriously,
The whole point of the video is that gun safety is a serious thing. I don't see how you could've missed that.
Just because she did it in an "entertaining" manner doesn't mean she still wasn't serious about gun safety.
My issue with this particular video is she does not take the time actually check the firearms. When she clears the handgun after jacking the round, she is not even looking into the ejection port / chamber area and obviously did not physically check the chamber. Same with the AR, the gun was in a position where she could not even see in the chamber. These are not good practices to be teaching new gun owners. Agree with you completely that they stress a good point about the mag out first.

Their video is 45 seconds, Cooper and Smith videos were over seven and five minutes. The attention span of our society is shrinking. This is a problem where you need more than 45 seconds to adequately explain a subject that kills people if done wrong. (In my view obviously.)
 

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