Gun show safety reminder

Lightning · Mar 18, 2015

Bought an old Stevens pump 22 off Gunbroker years ago. Seller shipped it USPS. First thing I did while unpacking it was clear it. SURPRISE!!! Round in the chamber and hammer down on the firing pin.
Never assume anything.

tac · Mar 18, 2015

Seems that in the US it's mostly with sales of muzzle-loaders 'sight unseen' where the 'loaded when you get it' happens most.

The number of times I read about this happening to posters on the various muzzle-loading fora is very depressing.

tac

SmokeEater · Mar 22, 2015

Old friends of ours (who know zilch about guns) have a pair of Civil War era, double-barreled, caplock pocket pistols on display in their living room. I called attention to their choice of display location, atop a fireplace insert that stuck out from the hearth. They never used it as a heat source to my knowledge.

I asked them if they had checked to see if they were loaded. They tossed it off with a "Don't be silly - they're antiques!" I grabbed a #2 Yellow pencil and stuck it down the barrels, then measured the distance. All four barrels had something in them, just the right length for a powder charge and a .36 caliber ball. I told them they were likely loaded and offered to extract the charge for them. "No sir! I don't want anyone messing with Great-Grandad's pistols!", she said.

A few months later we went to their house for a Halloween costume party. She answered the door dressed in a sexy pirate costume and waving one of the pistols around, the other in her belt. We threatened to leave unless she put them away immediately. She did, but as she drank her normal two bottles of wine, I kept a close eye on where the pistols were stored.

They are something like this. Love to have them - but I would unload them.

Nightcrawler · Mar 22, 2015

g3169 said:
Taught my kids to never accept a firearm without the action open its education that prevents accidents ....three things you never trust in this world #1 the guns not loaded #2 she's on the pill #3 the dog doesn't bite

You forgot #4 I'm not (or never have been ) married

ZigZagZeke · Mar 22, 2015

IronMonster said:
It shows the vender was clueless on more than one level. I am just a random smuck but the first thing I always do when handed or pick up a firearm is check the chamber. Its just what you do. Its just what anyone with any sense does. How many times did he have to handle that firearm without checking it? 2? 4? 10?

And he may have checked it several times. Yes, he should have checked it before handing it to you, because someone with nefarious purposes could have slipped a live round into the chamber when he wasn't looking. Who would do such a thing is for you to figure out, but let's just say there are a lot of vocal organizations that would just love for an "accident" to happen at a gun show. If I were a vendor at a show today you'd have to prove yourself to be a very seriously interested buyer before I'd untie the action for you.

shootnscoot · Mar 22, 2015

That is a video of a Kentucky cop at a gun store blowing off his finger while looking at a display gun that was left loaded. Luckily his shot didn't hit the people standing a few feet away. Treat every gun like its loaded and you don't do things like blow your fingers off.

mjbskwim · Mar 23, 2015

shootnscoot said:
That is a video of a Kentucky cop at a gun store blowing off his finger while looking at a display gun that was left loaded. Luckily his shot didn't hit the people standing a few feet away. Treat every gun like its loaded and you don't do things like blow your fingers off.

What a way to lose your bonding and insurance. Just think,your insurance company gets to make up the difference in his pay and L&I payments,till and if he gets to got back to regular duty.
How would you feel if someone was killed just because you were too lazy to claer a weapon?

Stomper · Mar 23, 2015

Flopsweat said:
If you were really OCD you'd call it CDO.

Actually that's lysdexia...

Flopsweat · Mar 24, 2015

Stomper said:
Actually that's lysdexia...

Actually, the joke is that it's alphabetical. You'd have figured it out, but I'm strangely compelled to tell you anyway...

Brutus57 · Mar 24, 2015

SmokeEater said:
Old friends of ours (who know zilch about guns) have a pair of Civil War era, double-barreled, caplock pocket pistols on display in their living room. I called attention to their choice of display location, atop a fireplace insert that stuck out from the hearth. They never used it as a heat source to my knowledge.

I asked them if they had checked to see if they were loaded. They tossed it off with a "Don't be silly - they're antiques!" I grabbed a #2 Yellow pencil and stuck it down the barrels, then measured the distance. All four barrels had something in them, just the right length for a powder charge and a .36 caliber ball. I told them they were likely loaded and offered to extract the charge for them. "No sir! I don't want anyone messing with Great-Grandad's pistols!", she said.

A few months later we went to their house for a Halloween costume party. She answered the door dressed in a sexy pirate costume and waving one of the pistols around, the other in her belt. We threatened to leave unless she put them away immediately. She did, but as she drank her normal two bottles of wine, I kept a close eye on where the pistols were stored.

They are something like this. Love to have them - but I would unload them.

If there are no photos of her in the pirate outfit then it never happened...

Brutus out

Stomper · Mar 24, 2015

Flopsweat said:
Actually, the joke is that it's alphabetical. You'd have figured it out, but I'm strangely compelled to tell you anyway...

I seen your alphabetical, but it conveniently fits with it also being lysdexical, too. It's like one of them onamonapias, or somethin'!

CLT65 · Mar 24, 2015

tackleberry said:
I have taught my family to chamber check any firearm even if I checked it 2 seconds ago and handed it to them and I do the same any time I am handed a firearm. check, check and then check again. the phrase "I didn't know it was loaded" is unacceptable.

I'm glad I'm not the only one, and so many of us do this. It's neither OCD nor silly. It's more like establishing a learned instinct (yes, I know, contradiction in terms, but it makes sense to me).

If you do something automatically every time without fail even when you feel silly doing it, you will still do it when you aren't thinking clearly enough to realize the danger. That day WILL come when you are severely stressed, tired, or distracted and this silly bit of OCD behavior could save the life of yourself or a loved one.

I used to feel silly checking and double checking my guns, until one day years ago I pulled a rifle out of my safe that had been in there since the last time I'd gone to the range weeks or months earlier, and it was LOADED. If someone had asked I would have sworn I could have never done something like that, but clearly I did. Had I compulsively checked it before it went into the case at the range, then again before it went into the safe, that wouldn't have happened.