Firearms

Safety and Guns

Watch this video. 28 seconds into the video, look closely at the right side of the frame.

How close was that guy to the line of fire from the shots taken at 19 seconds? This makes my heart beat faster just watching it.

If the guy who was down there had been shot, who would have been at fault?

  • The designer of the stage who designed a stage where the ENTIRE stage wasn’t visible to the RSO
  • The RSO who didn’t make sure the down range area was clear before calling “hot range”
  • The shooter for taking the shot without verifying what was behind his target
  • The guy who was downrange for being where he was
  • The bystanders who didn’t keep an eye out and speak up

My answer? All of the above. We as shooters are ALL collectively responsible when things like this happened. There is a lesson to be learned from every incident. If we are unwilling to look at it with an honest eye towards safety, things like this will happen more often.

Safety isn’t just the responsibility of the RSO. Nor the shooter. It is everyone’s responsibility.

Design the environment so the RSO can see the entire shooting area. As the RSO, make sure that you are aware of the environment. The shooter needs to follow the four rules. The bystanders should keep an eye out for each other to make sure that every one of those who go down range to paste targets come back.

I have supervised people in all sorts of environments. SCUBA Diving, firefighting, HAZMAT, all sorts of things. Safety incidents are rarely the result of one thing that went wrong. It is often the result of a list of minor things that each went wrong. Each of us is responsible for what happens.

Like many shooters, I have had an ND myself. Two, in fact. I was much younger, and not as experienced as now. The first happened when I was 20 years old. I was at the range and pulled the trigger on my S&W 4506. I pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. I pointed the gun at a 45 degree angle, sort of down range, and sort of in the air. I pulled the trigger again. I was surprised when it went bang the second time. Luckily, the weapon wasn’t pointed at anyone.

The second was entirely my fault. I was doing dry fire practice. After being done with that, I reloaded the pistol. For some reason, I forgot what I had done, dry fired again, and blew a hole in the front of my dresser. Again, at least I wasn’t pointing it at a person. A violation of Rules 1 and 2.

Both of those incidents were more than 30 years ago. I have never forgotten them.

By Divemedic, ago

Child, felon, killer

News in the Orlando area about two kids, ages 14 and 12, who committed a burglary, stole some guns, then engaged in a shootout with responding police. The two kids ran away from a local foster home, the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home. The home has a history of trouble, with the police responding there as many as 200 times a year. In March, one of the foster kids residing there beat and murdered one of the home’s security guards.

The pair used a shovel, a crowbar and large rocks to break windows to break into the home, where they then used baseball bats to destroy furniture, toilets and a tub. They soon located the homeowner’s guns — an AK-47, a pump shotgun, and a handgun, along with 200 rounds of ammunition.

The older one, a girl, was recorded saying, “I’m gonna roll this down like GTA.” They fired on police for over 90 minutes while police tried to negotiate. Police finally returned fire, striking the girl in the chest. Video of parts of the shootout can be found here as well as here.

The 14 year old girl has been arrested for stealing puppies in 2018 and for setting several fires when she was at another facility in Flagler County. The 12 year old boy has been in foster care since 2016 and just a month ago threatened “to kill a student and spread his guts all over the bleachers” while at school.

Both of them now face felony charges of attempted first-degree murder of law enforcement officers and armed burglary. Sheriff Mike Chitwood has this to say about the juvenile justice system:

“The brainiacs in Tallahassee, they want to do this restorative justice stuff. They need to take a deep look and say, ‘Something’s not right here,’ because where the rubber meets the road, these kids are killers. They’re capable of killing. This juvenile citation (expletive) that you hear from these faith groups, they need to worry about what’s going on in the pulpit in their church, not worried about what’s going on on the (expletive) streets when you have 14-year-olds and 12-year-olds arming themselves,” Chitwood said.

I have layers of security. Cameras. Alarm system. Gun safe. All of it is designed to prevent amateur attempts and slow down more professional attempts. Please secure your weapons in a safe. Even a cheap gun safe would have prevented the teens from accessing the weapons, and one can be had for less than $150. If long guns won’t fit in a small safe, remove the bolts from the long guns and lock THEM in the safe.

By Divemedic, ago

Blogshoot

This post is a plug for the upcoming blogshoot that is coming up this Saturday. I am going to do a “first aid for the shooting range” quicky class.

Be there. We had a good time at the last one.

This is the only post for today because I am doing some training for the maintenance of my medical license. Gotta get that done.

By Divemedic, ago

NOLA shooting followup

More facts have come to light on the shooting that I posted about yesterday. The shooter was a 27 year old man who had a criminal history. The two victims who were killed were a store clerk, and what appears to be a female customer who was simply in the unfortunate position of being the backstop for the customers who were shooting at the killer.

The two who were wounded were the brother of the mass shooting criminal, and another customer of the store.

The shooter had a criminal record:

The family of the shooter claims that he dindo nuffin.

By Divemedic, ago

BREAKING: Gun store shooting

Early reporting says there are three dead and two injured. A man entered the gun outlet with a loaded, unholstered firearm. A clerk told him he should not have a loaded gun until he got inside the range. An argument ensued, and shots were fired. Two individuals were killed before he was engaged by other customers of the store, who were injured in the firefight. Other customers outside of the store also engaged the gunman, who was one of the three people who died in the firefight.

By Divemedic, ago

More demand = more $

In September of 2019, I was buying Anderson lowers for $49 each and using them to build sub-$300 ARs. Now Cheaper Than Dirt is selling those same stripped lowers for $300 each. Now let me say that I am smarter than that and won’t be buying one at that price. I don’t blame CTD for this price. After all, if you waited until now to buy an AR after seeing what the Democrats think about them, that is your own fault. Supply, demand.

My point here is this: Beto is no longer being considered for Biden’s “gun czar” position. I guess another Biden promise broken. The latest is that he is promising an EO on the subject soon.

I don’t think that a “buyback” will work, considering that I don’t think that people are buying $300 stripped lowers so that they can turn them in for $200.

By Divemedic, ago