Safety Tips for New Gun Owners The Concealed Carry Guy

We have recently had a rather large spike in firearms sales in the United States. A large percentage of these purchases were first time buyers.

If you fall into that category I welcome you to the legion of citizens that legally own a firearm. In these uncertain times, many people are purchasing a firearm for self-defense or home protection. As a responsible gun owner, there are a few things that you need to know and a couple of things you should forget.

Forget Hollywood

Yep forget everything you have seen in the movies about gun handling. This is not a movie! Nope, not John Wick, not Die Hard. This is not the wild west heck the wild west wasn’t the movie version of the wild west. This is not pretending.

Rights and Responsibilities

The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects our right to keep and bear arms. But by doing so you have the responsibility to handle, store and use your firearm in a safe and thoughtful way. In this article, I will contain my self to four basic rules of safe handling of your firearm be it a pistol, rifle or shotgun.

How Not to Look Like a Newbie

You can not help being a newbie everybody has to start somewhere. Not having proper gun handling skills not only immediately brand you as a newbie but make you a danger to yourself and everyone around you. Learn the following rules of safe handling and make them a part of your firearms protocol.

#1 Treat Every Gun as if it is Loaded.

Never assume or take someone else’s word that the firearm that you are about to handle is unloaded. Whenever I pick up a firearm I automatically drop the magazine and open the action so that I can visually confirm the chamber is empty. I want to confirm the condition of that weapon. Why do I do this?

Let me tell you a short story. I was at a local gun shop one I had been to many times. I was looking at used handguns in the showcase. I asked to see a pistol the salesperson got it out of the case and doing his safety check he dropped the mag and racked the slide and out popped a live 9mm round. This gun had been in that display case for days loaded and ready to fire. Never Assume a Gun is Unloaded.

#2 Keep your finger off of the trigger until you are on target and ready to shoot.

Your trigger finger should not be on the trigger or even in the trigger guard until you are on target and ready to shoot. This is one that I see a lot of people get wrong. As soon as they pick up the firearm they hook their trigger finger into the trigger guard. This is a recipe for a tragedy.

Your trigger finger always goes alongside the frame or stock until you are on target.

#3 Keep the firearm Pointed in a Safe Direction.

This one sounds simple but it can be deceptively complex. A safe direction depends on your surroundings. If you are on a shooting range down range makes sense, but in an apartment pointing at a blank wall may put people on the other side of that wall at risk. Muzzle discipline is very important. Let’s go back to the gun shop. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a customer looking at a pistol holding it sideways. This is pointing it at every other person standing at the counter. Indoors the safest place to point the gun is down toward a corner where two outside walls meet the floor. If there would be an accidental discharge this gives the best chance of the structure stopping the bullet.

Never let the muzzle of your gun sweep or point at anything that you would not want to shoot.

#4 Always know your target and what is beyond it.

If you are shooting at a formal firing range your target is pretty obvious and what’s beyond it is a berm designed to catch the bullet without a ricochet. The same would not be true if you are plinking at old cans at the base of a rock cliff. Shooting targets in an open field could hit the farmhouse 1/2 mile away. You must have a reliable backstop.

Let’s think about Hollywood for just a moment. Think back to the big shoot out scene. Now realize every bullet that missed it’s intended target would in real life hit something or someone. You as the shooter are legally responsible for every bullet that leaves your gun.

Bullets can travel a long way but they will hit something. There is a youtube video of a professional shooter hitting a target with a handgun 1000 yards away. That’s 10 football fields! Now he was aiming at a target but a gun carelessly held at an upward angle can travel much further than that. So knowing what’s going to stop your bullet is very important

The Wrap-up

This is by no means everything there is to know about firearms safety but if you follow these rules they will go a long way to keep you and all those around you safe. I highly encourage you to seek additional training the NRA and USCCA offer courses that you may benefit from. I am no attorney just a guy that been shooting for over 50 years and an occasional Range Safety Officer so none of this should be construed as legal advice.

The Concealed Carry Guy

Vitally Important for Gun Owners