Safety...

I don't think that I've covered this as a singular post yet, and for that I do apologize. My assumption being that anyone who reads this, all two of you, would be fairly well versed in the basic rules of handling a fire arm. However, it is possible that someone could just pop in and read this and I would have done a disservice to them had I not mentioned the following:

1. Treat EVERY gun as if it were loaded.
2. Keep your finger out of the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot.
3. Do not point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
4. Be aware of the target and what's behind it.

To elaborate on these, I may tell you how I do things. This is just my way of not dying in a self actuated firearm accident, your mileage may vary.

1. I check, double check and then check again every gun I pick up. That means the ones I own; the ones I look at in stores, the ones I use when I'm at the range with a friend. I don't care if the man behind the counter checks the gun and hands it to me with the action open or the cylinder hanging loose, I'm checking it again. My good friend could hand me a gun that he just checked, and I'll check it. I have guns at home that I don't even own ammo for and I check them when I pick them up. I'm a fanatic, but... I'm alive.

2. Your finger should never, ever, be in the trigger guard until you are about to actually fire the weapon. When you draw, when you hold a weapon your index finger (aka "Booger hook") should be indexed along the slide/barrel of the firearm. There is a saying "Keep your booger hook off the bang button". It keeps people alive.

3. Kids and adults have and will continue to accidentally shoot someone else simply because they pointed a gun, in jest, at someone else. Remember, guns are designed with one purpose only, to kill things. While the gun itself is not going to just go off and shoot someone, if you treat it like a toy, someone will eventually get hurt or get dead.

4. This is extremely important in an actual defensive scenario. If you're in a crowd and there's a bad guy and you shoot him (in a justified shooting) and the bullet goes through him and hits someone else...guess who's going to jail for that. Correct, you are. This is also important if you are shooting out of doors. Bullets fly for a long distance and still maintain a lot of their kinetic energy...

Again...be careful. Guns are safe and fun if you aren't an idiot. You can't hurt someone with a bullet fired from a gun unless you have broken one of these rules.

So, don't break the rules.