It's all well and good to constantly preach the rules for safe firearms handling. But unless the
root causes of NDs are addressed, we will never succeed at reducing them. Completely eliminating them is not possible, as the major cause is simply the fact that we are human. Now that I've ruffled some feathers, let me give my opinion. In almost every human professional or sporting activity there are
safety rules that should/must be followed to
avoid serious injury or death. Take your pick. It doesn't matter if its boating, climbing, surfing, shooting, camping, hunting, skydiving, flying, biking, skiing, driving, building, etc., etc., yada yada, the list is endless. Firearms safety is no more or less important than rules for those activities. Regardless of safety rules, they will always be broken by humans at some point either due to
willful negligence at worst, or
momentary distraction at the least.
Beating the drums to keep the finger off the trigger is fine, but at some point we have to realize that it's much deeper than a few simple rules. And, we must recognize and accept that everyone that has a ND is not a complete idiot, or stupid, or willfully negligent. For example, some pistols require the trigger to be pulled to remove the slide (e.g. Glock). So, it's absolutely imperative that the firearm be cleared before doing this. So what prevents the person from being momentarily distracted in the midst of taking their weapon down, then returning to the activity
believing they had cleared the weapon, but actually didn't, resulting in a ND when they pull the trigger? Simply beating into their head to keep their finger off the trigger until the sights are on target has no application in this case. Were they negligent? Sure, but we must endeavor to find out
why. Therefore, we have to address distractions. That would be teaching that when distracted during an activity, and returning to it, start over. We also have to teach
recognizing being distracted, and teach that it is a
warning sign of possible danger ahead.
I am
not an NRA firearms instructor or CHL instructor, but I spent many years as an Infantry heavy weapons firearms instructor, and a helicopter gunship weapons instructor, and even more years as a corporate pilot instructor. The rules for small arms safety apply very well to heavy weapons and gunship armament safety as well. During my civilian pilot instructor years of training professional pilots, it was no secret that crew error accounted for the vast majority of all aircraft incidents/accidents. These
were not student pilots. They were professionals, most with decades and decades of safe corporate/airline flying. I know, I used the forbidden "accident" word when it comes to firearms, but that's what it is called in aviation. The key to avoiding these incidents/accidents is not just teaching a few basic rules. One of the main keys is teaching the person to recognize that factors that cause the loss of situational awareness, and the number one cause is
distraction. When any of these type pilots were involved in an incident that cased damage, there is not ranting and raving about "rules" and talk of stupidity or ignorance. It's investigated to get at the root cause(s), so that future incidents rates can be reduced or eliminated, and that approach has been very successful over the years.
Sure we must teach the novice shooter the basic rules. But each time we hear of an ND, simply posting the head banging emoticon, and invoking the "four rules" will do little to reduce the number of NDs in the future. I think firearms instructors, and all of us in the shooting community owe their students and anyone we may be mentoring more than that. But let me make it clear that I am not addressing the true imbecile that intentionally points a weapon at someone or something, and pulls the trigger thinking it's "funny. In those cases, and others like it, head bang away and I'll join you. Thanks for letting me vent.
Somebody should do something about that.
