From Kipling's
"The Secret of the Machines":
But remember, please, the Law by which we live,
We are not built to comprehend a lie,
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.
If you make a slip in handling us you die!
The Four Laws of Safe Firearm Handling:
1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never point a firearm at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you have made the decision to shoot.
4. Always be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.
Those safety rules were written in blood.
This is what happens when someone fucks up. It only takes a split-second's worth of carelessness.
That is a most impressive story. Glen's wife demonstrates true mettle.
ReplyDeleteFine verse.
ReplyDeleteFine post - we all need to re-read the rules on a regular basis. And follow them. And insist everyone we happen to be with follows them.
The linked story is still tragic even though the victim remains alive.
I hope the shooter never forgets what he did.
This is why I stopped hunting or even target shooting decades ago. I came within 1-2 inches of having my head blown apart by a .357 hollow point. By a good friend. Doing what would have to be called barely screwing around. But for a very convenient set of steps I would not be here now. And this was the last of the 4 similar but not quite so close episodes that convinced me that guns should not be in the hands of everyone. Not everyone is anywhere near as well trained and used to what guns can do as the people in the link. Nor do they have trained people right there to get them to a hospital.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the answer for the second amendment folks, but every Tom, Dick and dumbass does not need a gun. And a lot of those TD&D's should not be allowed to operate ANY dangerous equipment, not just guns. But guns have no other purpose than to kill and most of us never need to kill anything larger than a fly.
Please understand I have carried a side arm in the line of duty and keep a shotgun for those every present home invasions. So it's not the gun itself, it's the operator.
Now considering the direction many inside the government are headed and the paranoia present in a lot of those government entities I reserve the right to change my mind in a millisecond.