First things first, when dealing with firearms of any kind, for any reason, safety should be your number one priority. It doesn’t matter if you’re plinking, hunting, or engaged in combat, safety is still number one. There are no valid exceptions, period. If you glance off to the side, you’ll see four very simple rules that you should never break, ever.
Allow me to elaborate, some seem to think rules exist to be broken, these rules exist to maintain safety, and to ultimately save lives. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, I’ll go a bit further in depth. The rules, as I know them, if followed, will remove any and all possibility for any sort of negligent discharge. Note I said negligent, I can recognize a select, and very few cases in which a discharge can occur by genuine accident and these are all the result of the mechanical failure of a firearm. That said, poor quality, or freak manufacturing flaws aside, mechanical failure can also typically be traced back to – you guessed it: negligence.
I will state for fact, that if you treat your weapon as if it is loaded, at all times; keep your finger off the trigger and the safety engaged until you are ready to fire that weapon; never point your weapon at anything you do not wish to destroy; and continuously maintain awareness of your target, and the area around it; at no time will you ever accidentally shoot anything. I have followed these rules for some 16 years, and have yet to so much as “accidentally” have a hammer drop on an empty chamber.
Rather disappointingly, I have seen people who have been shooting longer than I have been alive fail to uphold, or even grasp those four simple fundamental rules of firearm safety. More alarmingly, I’ve seen younger people have no concept of safety at the range whatsoever. Thank God for Range Safety Officers, here in the Army they tell us that everyone is a safety on the range, and they’re right. If you see something unsafe, you need to either point it out to an RSO, or tactfully alert the offender.
The range is not the only place I’ve seen this happen. Even here in Iraq I’ve seen soldiers, people who have been professionally trained, and undoubtedly sat through countless safety briefings, walk around with a round in the pipe, and their safeties off – sometimes with a finger inside the trigger guard. I’ve seen soliders jokingly point their weapons at their battle buddies face – and pull the trigger. I’m sure you’ve all read the news stories that start that way. Now ask these two questions: Could any of that happen if the rules were followed? If death results, is the weapon at fault? Provided you maintain your sanity, and have a rationale grounded here on planet Earth, your answer to both will be NO!
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the problem lay not with firearms, but with a lack personal responsibility, and in the case of youth, a lack of education. The older offenders have less than no excuse, particularly the service member personnel, their negligence is either the result of a total lack of responsibility, or sheer ignorance, the latter being easily rectified by the motivated. I suggest the following, if you have young children, regardless of your position on firearm ownership, at a bare minimum teach them the four fundamental rules of firearm safety. Do not wait for them to “grow up”, I learned at 5 and the message took a good solid root.
On to the “tactical” rant, inspired by a few magazine articles, and internet forum threads I’ve read recently. There seems to be a ridiculously high population of Chairborne Rangers roaming about, packing the latest and greatest in “tactical” gear – from magazines, holsters, pistols, carbines, rifles, shotguns, and ammunition – training for their last stand when the proverbial fecal matter is shoveled into the fan. I am not saying that the multitude of pistol/shotgun/rifle classes available teaching civilians to shoot, move, and communicate are a bad thing. In fact, I support training, developing, and honing the skills required to effectively deploy your tools (firearms are in fact tools, do not let anyone tell you otherwise) in your defense, or the defense of others.
What I object to is the mentality that one man, no matter how heavily armed, is going to make the mythical stand against an army of home invaders, charging with violence of action into the living room, and single handedly clearing his home and emerging the victor of some glorious homestead battle. Can we be realistic please? If you have 5 elite super ninja deathmasters, all dressed in black, fast roping onto your roof from some silent helicopter in the dead of night you either need to wake up, turn off your Playstation, or seriously re-evaluate your business ventures.
Having a home defense plan is a good thing. Being willing to escalate to rapid violence of action to defend yourself and yours is likewise a good thing. However, one needs to be able to differentiate between times where a rapid and explosive offensive response would more likely than not end rapidly in your death or serious demise, and times where one should take up a solid defensive position, and call in the cavalry so to speak (911). Now, I know with all the multi-thousand dollar training you’ve invested in you’re elite, and ready to take on a small army. AHHHHH-NOLD did it in “Commando”, why can’t you!
Allow me to extinguish the potentially fatal flames of over zealous will to fight. Taking a defensive position and calling for backup (in the case of most civilians that would be the police) is not a shameful thing, it is not something “sissies” do, it is a good sound tactic. The men that wear body armor, carry 210 rounds of armor piercing ammunition, and wear BDUs because they have to use the very same tactic – and we clear buildings with platoons of men. If the odds go down the toilet, we defend our ground, and call in backup, artillery, CAS, and anything else we can get our hands on. In short, don’t feel like you absolutely must rush out into your living room to save your television from 3 armed robbers. Those are bad odds. Sure, you’ve aced stages of fire with 4 moving targets in 3 seconds. They weren’t firing back.
In short, unless I happen to be properly equipped, and manned, during a violent home invasion, or other urban (or rural for that matter) conflict. I will execute a plan of defense, using my knowledge of my own surroundings to afford proper cover and concealment while creating an appropriate sector of fire should anyone venture into my direct defended area, and call in the cavalry. In the end, the call is yours to make, and best of luck whatever your choice is, just don’t feel obligated by your tactical thigh holster to rush out into unknown odds and make the paper in the obituary section.
As a note, in extremely dire circumstances, it may well be time to go all or nothing – but that is something you need to decide as the situation dictates
