Mike has an interesting post up of discovering his SIG had an empty pipe. Honest mistake, and I’m gad he discovered it without any ill effects, and I applaud his honesty.
I wanted to talk about Rule #1 of the Cooper Safety Rules
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
Now this rule is hands down the most controversial of all the other rules. In the most simplistic sense there are two ways of viewing this: A) “Pretend all Guns Are Always Loaded”, or B) “All Guns actually always have a round in the chamber”
Both of these aren’t good ways of looking at the rule. You don’t want to be “Pretending” with a potentially loaded gun, or an unloaded gun, because “Pretend” is make-believe, and it only goes so far, and even the most serious film and stage actor can only take the “act” so far. Also guns ARE unloaded. It happens all the time. Your gun runs dry, or you have various collection or practice guns which you don’t store loaded because you’re never going to be reaching for them in a time of need, because there are other guns for that. Also if you have a home defense gun or a self-defense gun that isn’t always kept under your direct control (like a pistol in the night stand, or a shotgun or rifle in the closet) keeping it fully loaded might not be the safest option, and it might be better to keep the chamber empty, and a loaded mag in the gun, or near the gun.
Also there are times when you break this rule. Dry fire and function testing a gun are the two big ones. A really serious one is testing the timing on a revolver by looking down the muzzle with the hammer cocked and a strong light shined under the recoil shield, and then cycling the action for every chamber.
These acts are inherently dangerous by nature…but in practice they can be 100% safe. If you check, and re-check your chambers diligently (and using snap caps when possible), and do your work in an area where no ammunition is present, the chances of an accident approach zero, and accidents can be chalked up to near 100% operator error. (BTW here’s another good reason to remove magazine disconnects from guns that have them, as running a semi-auto WITHOUT a magazine further decreases possibility of a gun getting loaded without the user’s consent).
Personally I like to divide the rule into two parts. Rule 1 basic and Rule 1 Advanced. Basic is for beginners, and generally people who don’t actually own their own gun. A new shooter on the range, or handling a gun under my watch MUST treat the gun as if it is loaded at all times. Period. Any abuse involves the gun getting taken away and the violation being discussed. Further I always stand in such a position so I can take control of the gun quickly.
For Advanced it simply involves ALWAYS checking your chamber(s) and magazines EVERY time I take control of the gun.
So this morning when I grabbed my 1911 for carry, I put on my holster, I picked up my spare magazines (noting that they were fully loaded), then I dropped the magazine in the gun and verified it too was fully loaded, and the did a press-check to check the chamber, then holstered and went about my day.
Now I carry this gun in the same way every day, and I had carried the gun yesterday. When I went to bed I simply unholstered the gun and dropped it in the safe, and put the magazines away. When I collected them this morning they were EXACTLY where I left them. I’d have been VERY surprised if things had been different.
Still guns are serious business, and you NEED to check your safety equipment. You check the gas gauge on your car before you start driving, don’t you? You check the battery of your cell phone before you leave the house, don’t you? In SCUBA you need to check the pressure of your air tank before you jump in the water.
The same goes for the other way. I was fiddling with my FAL last night. I keep it in the safe unloaded with loaded mags nearby (I could keep it fully loaded and ready to go, but I prefer it this way). I was doing dry fire and mag changes, so I started off by locking the action open on an empty well, and inspecting the two mags I was using for mag-changes that they too were empty, and my loaded mags weren’t in reach or where I was working.
I’ve been surprised both times. I’ve open the action on an “unloaded” gun and had a happy little live round hop out. I’ve also press-checked a gun I thought was loaded, and was surprised to see an empty chamber rather than a piece of brass.
It goes to the point of silliness. I’ll clean my 1911, then re-assemble it…then check the chamber before dry firing it in a function test. Yeah I was just running a bore brush down that empty barrel, and them dropped that empty barrel into the slide and mated it to the frame…then I double checked if any ammo has materialized.
I’ve also simply set a gun down on a bench while adjusting a holster in an empty room…and I’ll check the chamber simply because it wasn’t on my control.
A little silly, but a good habit to be in.
Carry your guns, and be safe out there!
