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I'm posting this as a reminder to know your weapon and how it operates before handling, loading, instructing others on how to operate it, etc.

Here's the story, many of the rules for gun safety were broken in this story, but one important one was followed thankfully. Let me preface this as my friend is not an experienced gun person and I don't even know if he's shot a shotgun before.

The other night a group of us were sitting around BBQing and got on the topic of guns and home defense. One of my friends and his GF just bought a house and he mentioned his brother gave him an "unloaded" shotgunand all he could do right now for HD would be to pump the shotgun to scare a robber/invader off (I know, whats the point of having an unloaded paper weight, I had this discussion with him already). Fast forward to this morning, so I guess he wanted to show his GF how to operate the pump of an "unloaded" shotgun just in case. Well he checked the the mag tube, saw no shells were in there, but tried to pump the action to check the chamber and it was locked, said he thought there was wasn't anything in the chamber so he told his GF to always point in safe direction at which point he aimed towards the ground and pulled the trigger..............BOOM, the gun was loaded and discharges into the ground.

Moral and leasons of the story (in no particalar order, they're all important):

1. Know your weapon, how to operate, etc before you handle it. Know how to safely load and unload, etc. If you are not familiar with a weapon do your homework to become educated on how it functions before handling.
2. All Guns are loaded, even if your brother gave it to you "Unloaded". Even if you unloaded it 5 minutes ago and pick it back up, its loaded until you check it again.
3. Never pull the trigger unless you have checked, rechecked, and rechecked to make sure it is unloaded. Even then I think you should have a good reason to pull the trigger if you're not target shooting or using it for self defense IMO.
4. Always point weapon in safe direction when handling (thankfully he did this)
5. Finger should not be on the trigger unless you are aiming at something you intend to destroy.
5. Once you are comfortable with you weapon and are comfortable shooting it, don't make it a paperweight, put ammo in it!


If I missed anything please feel free to chime in (I left out "know your backstop behind your target", which may apply if he was pointing it at a window, wall, etc..). I'm going to go over there and properly show him how to operate a shotgun. His GF was already scared of guns to begin with, hopefully this incident doesn't do her in permanantly. I'm just glad no one was hurt.