The Safety Primer—Finding a Shooting Range, Part IV

A little prep before you arrive for your class can make the experience of taking your first shots a smooth and enjoyable process.

In our last several columns, we’ve talked about finding a range that welcomes first-time shooters and interviewing an instructor so that you feel you’ll benefit from your time with them and have a comfortable, enjoyable experience taking your first shots. You know what to expect when you get to the range, you’ve paid for or put a deposit on the class you want to take, the babysitter is lined up for the kiddos, and you’re ready to roll. What’s next?

It wouldn’t at all be out of line to do a little bit of homework before you arrive for your class, and that homework should start with a review of the basic rules of firearm safety. You can find these rules anywhere on the internet with a quick Google search, but details matter, and the rules, in many ways, are tied together. In fact, I have a hard time putting one before the other, that’s how closely related they all are, so they’re best taken collectively. Yes, your instructor is absolutely going to cover these, but knowing a little bit about this subject up front is how you start to understand how critical—no, I take that back, how collectively essential—these rules are when it comes to being a firearm owner and keeping both you and those around you safe.

Safety First, Last, and Always

1. Treat every firearm as if it is loaded, every time you touch one.—“I didn’t know it was loaded,” is something you read about and hear far too often in reports of an accidental shooting. For me, this rule, above all else, is the one that should be front and center in your mind every time you touch a firearm. You can put this instantly to use during your very first time taking shooting instruction. Both during the classroom time, when your instructor is letting you handle unloaded demonstration guns so that you can understand how they function, and on the range when the instructor is working with you to get your first shots on target, that instructor will likely verify the gun is unloaded and hand it to you. The minute you put your hands on that firearm, you should do exactly the same thing: verify it’s unloaded. That should earn you a thumbs-up from the instructor, while also beginning to build the one habit that will keep you and those around you safe no matter what firearm is in your hands.
2. Always keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction.—This might seem like a “duh” statement. Of course you should keep your gun pointed in a safe direction. But just what is a safe direction? Your instructor will almost certainly have a couple or several firearms in the classroom for demonstration. They will be unloaded, and the instructor should show you they’re unloaded. (They may also use dummy guns, totally inert models that have the look and feel of a firearm but do not fire ammunition.) Now, take a glance at the first rule and the next—treat every firearm as if it were loaded, and never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to destroy—and “safe direction” can be hard to discern. As the instructor lets you handle or examine one of the demonstration guns, where are you pointing it? The floor is usually safe, but one of your classmates says something behind you and, as you naturally turn around to talk to them, that gun in your hand turns right around with you, sweeping the toes, feet, and legs of others in the class. And with that you’ve just broken the first rule. Relax. This happens to lots of first-time shooters, and it’s why classes like this don’t have live ammunition in them off the range or, at the very least, the ammo is completely separated from any of the demonstration guns. But, now that you’ve read this, you have a better chance of not making this mistake.
3. Never point a firearm at anything you don’t intend to destroy.—This rule naturally follows the first because any time you pick up a firearm, its muzzle is pointed at something. On the range, the muzzle is always pointed downrange—always. What you’ll need to be conscious of is where downrange it’s pointed as you, say, open up the cylinder of a revolver to empty the empty cases or load new rounds, or pull back the slide of a semi-automatic or remove the magazine. Loading and unloading, clearing a jam or other malfunction, or adjusting sights and optics all require movement with the gun in your hand, so you must always be aware of where that muzzle is pointed as you go about these perfectly normal manipulations.
4. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire.—If everyone who ever came across a firearm took this and the first rule to heart, there would never be an accidental shooting. Repeat after me: Guns do not fire by themselves. They require the pull of a trigger to operate. Keeping your finger off the trigger is probably the hardest thing to do when you’re new to handling firearms. Your trigger finger, your index finger, naturally curves around with the others when you go to grip something, and guns are designed so that you can easily and naturally access the trigger. Go find a canister of hairspray or other slim-ish cylinder you can comfortably grip with your entire hand. Now, increase the strength of your grip with just your pinkie, ring finger, and middle fingers. Tough to do without also having your index finger move inward, even just a little, isn’t it? That little bit of movement on a gun’s trigger could be enough to fire the gun. During any shooting class, your trigger finger is to remain off the trigger and outside/alongside the trigger guard until you have both hands gripping the gun as your instructor shows you, your sights are lined up on the target, and you have been given permission to fire. You still have to think about keeping your finger off the trigger when you’re done shooting, and especially during all those same times you’re mindful of where the muzzle is pointed, such as during unloading and unloading, manipulation of the cylinder or slide, and even when putting the gun away for safe storage.

Safety Off the Range

Firearm safety is not relegated to a firearm range under an instructor’s guidance. It’s something that, once you decide to own a firearm and, hopefully, take up one of the many available recreational shooting sports, you will practice and adhere to every time you touch a gun. How you begin to think about this is fodder for the next column.