Should firearms safety begin...at the gun store???

[shoengine]

I avoid moving guns below my waistline because it get snagged on my, um, uh....... yeah.

View attachment 816148

Oy, that's a bad case of hemorrhoids!

 

[GrayGoose]

No - it should start at home with a competent family member from early youth.

True, except for those unfortunate kids raised by incompetent liberal parents.

 

[JRuby]

A person with safety in mind will find a safe way to handle a firearm even if it means not handling it and an individual who does not think about safety is rarely safe. Its a mindset more than a location.

 

[Member 5605]

We cannot be afraid to say something.
move jumped people at ranges, gun store counter monkeys and my own family members who don't exercise proper control, muzzle discipline or boogerpicker control.

See something, say something. You may save a life.

 

[STEELE]

Third grade should include "Life Issues" such as responsibility, loyalty, family, geography, buying, career/job, kindness, banking, respectfulness, driving, laws, community service, proper speech/reading/writing, history in-depth, dressing properly, hygiene and medical care, environmental concerns such as plastic trash, personal and communal safety, emergency preparedness and why not to stick your tongue on a frozen metal pole.

 

[No_Regerts]

A person with safety in mind will find a safe way to handle a firearm even if it means not handling it and an individual who does think about safety is rarely safe. Its a mindset more than a location.

Completely agree.

 

[Wombat of Doom]

Third grade would be a good starting point.

a little late there?I started broaching the subjects at 3 and 4

 

[American123]

We cannot be afraid to say something.
move jumped people at ranges, gun store counter monkeys and my own family members who don't exercise proper control, muzzle discipline or boogerpicker control.

See something, say something. You may save a life.

This. I've talked to random strangers at ranges when I've seen behavior that would lead to dangerous situations. I try to come across as helpful, most of the time it is received that way.

 

[tac]

Well, I started taking in gun discipline at around age six, which is when I started shooting. I'm guessing that this willy-nilly pointing thing is an American habit. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen here, because I'm sure it does - but I've never ever seen it happen.

That's probably for a number of reasons, so let's lay them out.

1. Access to a gun store here in UK is controlled by the staff. They either know you, or you wave your FAC in front of the camera if they don't know you. That way they can rightly assume that you are not going to walk right in [you can't], take a gun off the rack [you can't do that either] and start pointing it at everybody else in the store.

2. Having got into the store, you have to ask for what you want to see, and it has to be unlocked off the rack for you, and handed to you in a safe manner. See, here we tend not to have gun-store clerks who were, last week, flipping burgers or stacking shelves. Working in a gun-store here is a reserved occupation, and you usually have to have a BGC to apply for the job - no adverts in the local press for 'Help needed in Wally's Guns'.

3. To support that, I've never met any staff who were not shooters of some years experience - no real youngsters, that is. Plus everybody here who has a Firearms Certificate has had at least six months range-time training in gun handling BEFORE they can apply for their FAC - and getting it can take six to eight months, during which time they are STILL shooting other people's guns and learning.

I've never had a gun pointed at me in an American store, BTW, and believe me, I've been in a few in my time.

 

[Dinglenutz]

Most of the very poor gun handling I've seen has been from customers but seems like that it can be with employees as well. I understand that it can be difficult to look at a gun in a crowded store but I try to never flag anyone (after I personally have cleared the gun myself). I find the safest direction when checking out the sights and grip. Should employees, as tactfully as possible, guide people looking at guns to following basic gun safety rules?

The gun store I went to during my brief residence in LA would say "that is downrange" and point to the back of the store before handing over a firearm. I really liked that. Despite their efforts, I did see some horrifying things from customers. Most scary, probably, was the little old Jewish man buying his first handgun, a Glock 19, and pointing it at everyone in the store while trying to perform the state mandated safe handling demonstration.

Up until that moment I resented the demo law; after that moment I have mixed feelings about it.

The scariest gun things I saw were not in a shop, they were in the range at LAX, when "gun tourists" would stop by to "fire a real gun" for the only time in their lives. Most humourous: a group of 3 Pakistani guys who managed to load the magazine of a Sig pistol with the ammo facing backwards, and then asked for my help (I was the lucky one who was in the next lane) figuring out why their pistol was "jamming".

Scariest were the seemingly endless stream of teenage and early 20s girls who would come and stream each other shooting an "assault rifle" - they very often managed to leave 5.56 tracks in the ceiling. Sometimes I would get extra holes in my targets. Fun.

 

[Lead Ball]

I as well took a class wayyyy back in junior high it was called the great outdoors we learned survival skills we tied flies we learned how to load metallic shells and shotgun shells we went to the skeet range and were able to bring our own guns if we had them so on the bus and through the halls I went with mine and the same with my new compound bow during the archey phase of the class and during all this nobody freaked out got hurt and we learned to respect guns and people those were the good old days

 

[titsonritz]

No, firearm safety should begin at home at an early age. If you're learning gun safety from the guy behind the counter you may as well get your training from Hollywood.

 

[CountryGent]

No - it should start at home with a competent family member from early youth.

^. This. All six of my father's offspring, including yours-truly, were raised with firearms safety being ingrained from a very young age. I, and the siblings that have also reproduced, have done and/or are doing the same. I learned late last year that I am now a great-uncle, one of my nieces having had a baby boy. She's an avid bird hunter, so I'd wager she'll do the same.

 

[Tony617]

When I go to the gun store or visit my FFL who keeps a bit of inventory I always check the firearm is unloaded first and then aim it at place where someone isn't standing. I know the sometimes the gun counter is crowded but I will not aim at anyone. With my FFL I have to make an appointment so there only my FFL and myself.

 

[Dinglenutz]

I as well took a class wayyyy back in junior high ...

We used to have a class called "Hunter Safety" that kids could take around the time when they were about to turn 12, which was (maybe still is) the age when a person could get a hunting license in Oregon. Of course my dad started us shooting way before that but the class was easy credit and did have useful legal info and whatnot.

 

[WillametteWill]

I agree with all that say it should begin at home but I'm afraid that there are too many homes that are either non gun owners or gun owners with possibly less common sense than their kiddos. Awesome points here for us to ponder. I hoping we can all take something away from this wonderful genepool that is NWF and stress gun safety efforts. It does nothing but assist our cause; less fear about the unknown, fewer accidents, more guns voluntarily secured from unauthorized persons, etc.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Firearms safety should begin in the womb.

 

[JRuby]

Firearms safety should begin in the womb.

Heck of a place to have an neglegent discharge

 

[American123]

Heck of a place to have an neglegent discharge

A negligent discharge might be how the baby got there to begin with.

 

[WillametteWill]

Firearms safety should begin in the womb.

One of our old ultrasounds... we were still working on muzzle control a bit.