Who Can Recite The 4 Universal Laws of Firearm Safety?

[g.i. joe]

you can carry your loaded weapon in the car, not on your person if you have your CPL

Are you on the right thread?

 

[Cardoff]

My 6 year old son would answer yes, yes, never had the chance.

 

[cigars]

My gun safety haiku...

The gun will kill it
Regret is often costly
Make good life choices

 

[No_Regerts]

My gun safety haiku...

The gun will kill it
Regret is often costly
Make good life choices

I got one too!

Wanna see my gun
Dont worry I just cleared it
Oh schit my bad dude

 

[gryghin]

Yes, yes, and yes...

 

[IronMonster]

While I know, observe and believe in the Col's 4 laws.. I also think we are human.

Have you never tripped, dropped a glass, cut yourself? The four laws of handling a firearm are meant to reduce the likelihood of bad outcome when a negligent discharge happens. NOT to magically make you impervious to being human.

NG's will still happen. There is simply no way to 100% make them go away and just following the 4 laws will not make them disappear. It will make you far, far less likely to have one and if by chance you do less likely to harm you or someone else... HOWEVER it is my humble opinion that there is far too much "That could never happen to me!" in the firearms community. I have seen it happen to several very skilled and vigilant firearms owners. Typically when the worst does happen the response from the firearms community is "Well, he obviously was just an idiot, that would have NEVER happened to me!"

Of course the other thing is people get real defensive when you simply say "we are human, mistakes happen" when it comes to firearms. I think ignoring the fact that accidents do happen makes us less safe, not more. We need to observe the 4 laws AND understand that we still must be hypervigilant and prepared for things outside of our control.

Triggers get snagged. We fumble. We have reflexes that cause us to do things that we would not "decide" to do. We forget. We do things without thinking. Guns are mechanical devices, we are not perfect beings. Those things do not make you an idiot, they make you human. I honestly think that if you handle firearms long enough there is a high likelihood that through some act, either negligence or non negligence but outside your ability to stop, you will have a unintended discharge. I have yet to have one, that does not mean I think I am somehow immune to all the things above.

Every time I bring this up someone gets butt hurt and gets on their mighty high horse and tells me how it would never happen to them. Honestly I think these folks are dangerous as anyone who thinks this is simply not taking firearms and the handling of firearms as serious as they should. It could happen to you, if you think it couldn't that does not make you safer, it makes you arrogant which in turn makes you less vigilant when it comes to safety.

Ok... Now that I have rubbed half the old timers on the site the wrong way..... I am going to go to work and try not to kill myself around the hundreds of machines in the shop who all want to kill me if I let my guard down.... Just other mechanical tools, just like a firearm.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

If you are around firearms long enough , you will have a "Oops moment"...Unfortunately a "Oops moment" with a firearm can mean death or injury to yourself and others.
Keeping this in mind every time you handle a gun is very important...as the old saying goes:
Familiarity breeds contempt...or maybe in this case complacency...

It is good to occasionally remind yourself and review your actions to see if you are indeed practicing safe firearm handling procedures.
Also it is good to keep in mind that what works safely for you , may not work for another person or even for you in a different set of circumstances...
A set of rules that are unable to be adapted to the situation at hand , can be just as dangerous as no rules at all...

Case in point:
After clearing a rifle to ensure its empty...how many of us have then sighted the rifle on a object , away from other people and pulled the trigger?
We do this to see if the rifle "fits" us...or get a feel for the trigger pull / sights...etc..
We have "broken" two rules of gun safety...finger off the trigger until you want to shoot and never point your gun at something you don't want to shoot.
If you have cleared the rifle...and perhaps double checked the rifle to make sure its empty...then do the above action...are you still safely handling the rifle...if we use a strict unbending interpretation of the 4 safety rules?....

Note to all I am not saying that the two most basic rules of :
Finger of the trigger until you are ready to shoot...
And never point your gun's muzzle at something you don't want to shoot ...
Should be ignored or abandoned...

I am just saying to not let yourself be lulled into a false sense of safety 'cause you know the rules , from way back...and that the rules will always keep you safe , no matter what...Also be willing to adapt to the situation at hand to be as safe as possible.
Andy

 

[CLT65]

I had a discussion with an acquaintance a while back regarding the first rule. He thought it was kind of silly to treat every gun as if it was loaded, because once he's checked a gun to verify that it is not loaded, it is certainly not loaded. Why must he consider it loaded when he knows for sure it's not?

My thoughts and explanation of this are that when you consciously make a habit of treating each and every gun that you handle with the respect due a loaded and ready to fire gun, you rewire your brain over time to do that automatically and without thinking, to where it becomes almost instinct.

The reason this is important is there will come a time at some point in your life where you are distracted, tired, distraught, scared, etc., where you may not have the full presence of mind to check, and you will be holding a loaded gun that you thought to be unloaded. Instinctively treating it as a loaded gun may save a life. If you say it can't happen to you, you're fooling yourself. Develop some strong safety habits and they will serve you well.

Added: I know, it's an old zombie thread, but it's a good one!

 

[CHLChris]

You know the Catholic crossing they do? Father (forehead), Son (heart), Holy (left shoulder) Spirit (right)?

I like to remember the 4 rules of gun safety in the same way, by touching chamber, trigger, muzzle, rear sight.

Chamber="always" loaded
Trigger=booger hook off bang switch until boom hole is on bad guy
Muzzle=don't point at good, only bad
Rear sight=identify target and surrounds

 

[41mag]

my 12 year old grandson has learned them as he is required (REQUIRED!!!) to recite them before we start any range session;

he even has thrown in his own observations about "back stop" to clarify;

even his older sister has almost learned them all by herself, and almost knows was 'backstop' means.

He's had a few more range days than she has

 

[Koda]

Lately there have been too many Negligent Discharges that result in Death or great bodily harm.
My question to all of you on NWF is:
1- How many of you know the 4 universal laws of firearm safety well enough to recite them at any given time?
2- Do you follow them?
3- Do you correct others who you see violate these laws?
I realize that there are at least 2 versions of this law out there, but regardless of which you follow, please respond back honestly with a "yes, yes, yes", a "yes, yes, no" or what ever fits your current status in regard of these 3 questions.
If you are a NO on any of these, make a public statement here, dont be ashamed, but decide publicly that you are going to change any unsafe attitudes.
Here are the 4 laws as I have learned them.
1- Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
2- Never point the muzzle at anything your not willing to destroy.
3- Keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you are ready to fire.
4- Know your target and what lies beyond your target.
I believe Negligent Discharges are 100% operator error, and if everyone would follow these laws, I believe these tragedies would come to an end.

yes, yes - religiously, not always... Ive gotten into too many arguments and so I just immediately leave.

 

[Koda]

They are not "universal". They are the Cooper Four.

There is another, older set of three, put out by the NRA.

I'm an instructor, so the answers to your questions are foregone conclusions-- but I wanted to point out that there is more than one set of safety rules. (And more than one means that, by definition, there is no standard.)

Safety rules also vary between ranges-- at a fixed, outdoor range for NRA Bullseye, one waits for a cease fire, and then stands behind the red line until the range is clear, and then heads downrange to change targets.

At an indoor, hot-line range, one never steps forward of the firing line, and most people never notice the red line.

The path to real knowledge has many instructors, and learning from as many different people in as many different places (ranges) as you can is a good thing.

I always thought the basic NRA safety rules were pretty weak, and then all of them are more complicated NRA Explore | NRA Gun Safety Rules

The additional range rules you mention are specific to those ranges. What I like about Coopers 4 rules are the simplicity and ease to remember and they cover all gun handling on or off a range in all scenarios.

 

[Koda]

While I know, observe and believe in the Col's 4 laws.. I also think we are human.

Have you have never tripped, dropped a glass, cut yourself? The four laws of handling a firearm are meant to reduce the likelihood of bad outcome when a negligent discharge happens. NOT to magically make you impervious to being human.

NG's will still happen. There is simply no way to 100% make them go away and just following the 4 laws will not make them disappear. It will make you far, far less likely to have one and if by chance you do less likely to harm you or someone else... HOWEVER it is my humble opinion that there is far too much "That could never happen to me!" in the firearms community. I have seen it happen to several very skilled and vigilant firearms owners. Typically when the worst does happen the response from the firearms community is "Well, he obviously was just an idiot, that would have NEVER happened to me!"

Of course the other thing is people get real defensive when you simply say "we are human, mistakes happen" when it comes to firearms. I think ignoring the fact that accidents do happen makes us less safe, not more. We need to observe the 4 laws AND understand that we still must be hypervigilant and prepared for things outside of our control.

Triggers get snagged. We fumble. We have reflexes that cause us to do things that we would not "decide" to do. We forget. We do things without thinking. Guns are mechanical devices, we are not perfect beings. Those things do not make you an idiot, they make you human. I honestly think that if you handle firearms long enough there is a high likelihood that through some act, either negligence or non negligence but outside your ability to stop, you will have a unintended discharge. I have yet to have one, that does not mean I think I am somehow immune to all the things above.

Every time I bring this up someone gets butt hurt and gets on their mighty high horse and tells me how it would never happen to them. Honestly I think these folks are dangerous as anyone who thinks this is simply not taking firearms and the handling of firearms as serious as they should. It could happen to you, if you think it couldn't that does not make you safer, it makes you arrogant which in turn makes you less vigilant when it comes to safety.

Ok... Now that I have rubbed half the old timers on the site the wrong way..... I am going to go to work and try not to kill myself around the hundreds of machines in the shop who all want to kill me if I let my guard down.... Just other mechanical tools, just like a firearm.

excellent post, very true.

I can only add this to that: Ive sat down and studied Coopers 4 rules and can tell you that while we are all human, and mechanics can fail... if your truly following Coopers 4 simple rules at all times, even if you did have a discharge no one would even get injured. Its impossible to shoot someone if your following Coopers 4 rules.
I challenge anyone to debunk that claim.

 

[Koda]

I had a discussion with an acquaintance a while back regarding the first rule. He thought it was kind of silly to treat every gun as if it was loaded, because once he's checked a gun to verify that it is not loaded, it is certainly not loaded. Why must he consider it loaded when he knows for sure it's not?

because we are all humans, and if we treat a gun as if its unloaded were building unsafe muscle memory gun handling habits for if or when the "human factor" happens.

there in lies the problem, these kind of individuals are the most dangerous... literally a sleeping timebomb, so to speak. Operating on luck... until luck runs out. They don't understand, even though they think they do, and probably even know the 4 rules.

I hear it all the time "its ok, I unloaded it"... I don't give a bubblegum what anyone did to the gun to make it safe, its never ok to treat it as if its unloaded, ever. Rule #1.

 

[CHLChris]

If you unload a gun, and it stays in your direct control (i.e. in your hands), then it is still unloaded. But it is just as much about building and maintaining safe habits by still refraining from pointing it at your friends...or your femoral artery.

 

[bbbass]

Yes, yes, no... I watched my dad jump into too many situations that should have gotten him beaten up; arguing with someone that is holding a loaded weapon is just stupid. However, when I am shooting with somebody I correct bad habits or we go home and I won't shoot with that person again. When shooting in competitions, yes I believe in "see something, say something". I do this as tactfully and respectfully as possible except when someone turns toward me with a loaded firearm... YIKES!!!

My haiku:

Zombie threads do suck
Totally wasting my time
This one not too bad

 

[bbbass]

If you unload a gun, and it stays in your direct control (i.e. in your hands), then it is still unloaded

When you get old, you will find this is not true... we get so spacy that we can't remember what we did two minutes ago.

 

[Koda]

I like the way Wikipedia quotes Coopers 4 rules best. Each rule is in bold font with a brief explanation behind it. I'm assuming this is the way Cooper taught it...

Cooper advocated four basic rules of gun safety:

1. All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)
3. Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.
4. Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.[10]

What I like about this is it directly addressed those that say "its OK, I unloaded it"...

Like I said earlier, If you truly follow these 4 simple rules its impossible for anyone to get shot. I challenge anyone to debunk that, you cant.

 

[Goosebrown]

When you get old, you will find this is not true... we get so spacy that we can't remember what we did two minutes ago.

I agree. Not just age though. Something can interrupt your process. Every time i get ready to pull a trigger, I check again. Quick. Easy. Safe.

I had an ND (pointing down range during a fire period so no one but me noticed). I had cleared the chamber and then dropped the magazine. Wrong order and there was one in the pipe. Because I was watching my son to be sure he was ok.

You have to be right every single time and you have to follow all the rules so if one fails the others will still prevent a tragedy.