Just to add to this, it’s a more helpful way to think about it, because people hear “don’t point it at” and they think of “pointing” as an intentional action, like gesturing or taking aim, instead of thinking about all the small ways that a weapon moves as you reposition it or transition from one grip to another, and so on.
A pretty good analogy. I’ve been taught that the gun is always loaded and ready to go unless it’s fully disassembled. Only exception is when you personally checked that it is not and the gun haven’t left your hands after checking it. And even then you don’t point it to anything you don’t want a hole in.
And the same rule applies no matter the type of gun you’re holding. A bb-gun, .22 or .308, pistol or long barrel or whatever, they are all always loaded.
While this is accurate and true, the laser rule, for the reasons described above, helps people to really visualize the danger created by a weapon as it moves around. Just saying “The gun is always loaded” isn’t enough. Too many people see this as simply a skill challenge, like “Well of course I’m not going to accidentally pull the trigger, I’m too good for that.”
I guess to put it another way, just thinking of the gun as always loaded isn’t enough, because at some point in the process of operating a firearm you inevitably have to do things with it while it’s loaded. So you have to teach people how to safely interact with a loaded firearm. The “always loaded” rule is really just affirming that whatever you would do with a loaded firearm, you do with every firearm.
A slightly different way to think it I guess. I’ve been also learned that intentionally pulling a trigger is not the only way to fire a gun. There’s always a possibilty for the mechanism to trigger if you accidentally bump the gun or drop it or trigger guard can get tangled with something or whatever, so the ‘laser pointer’ part is sort of included in that as you need to be aware at all times where the gun is pointing and how you move around and interact with it.
And it obviously applies to things like chambering a bullet, removing clip from the gun and so on. I’ve personally seen a .22lr pistol to fire when slide was released on reloading, it was a old gun with really dirty mechanism so just the bump from the slide hitting the frame of the gun was enough to trigger it.
But no matter what ever way or analogy you’ve been thaught to work with guns, proper handling does not kill or injure anyone, specially not in your living room.
Hadn’t heard “laser rule” before, I assume it’s the same as “don’t point it at anything you care about”.
Yes.
Essentially always pretend there’s a deadly and infinite laser coming from the muzzle.
Just to add to this, it’s a more helpful way to think about it, because people hear “don’t point it at” and they think of “pointing” as an intentional action, like gesturing or taking aim, instead of thinking about all the small ways that a weapon moves as you reposition it or transition from one grip to another, and so on.
Yup.
It makes you think about not just where you point it, but everything it might “slice” as you handle it.
Or even how you set it down, or move around one sitting on a table.
A pretty good analogy. I’ve been taught that the gun is always loaded and ready to go unless it’s fully disassembled. Only exception is when you personally checked that it is not and the gun haven’t left your hands after checking it. And even then you don’t point it to anything you don’t want a hole in.
And the same rule applies no matter the type of gun you’re holding. A bb-gun, .22 or .308, pistol or long barrel or whatever, they are all always loaded.
While this is accurate and true, the laser rule, for the reasons described above, helps people to really visualize the danger created by a weapon as it moves around. Just saying “The gun is always loaded” isn’t enough. Too many people see this as simply a skill challenge, like “Well of course I’m not going to accidentally pull the trigger, I’m too good for that.”
I guess to put it another way, just thinking of the gun as always loaded isn’t enough, because at some point in the process of operating a firearm you inevitably have to do things with it while it’s loaded. So you have to teach people how to safely interact with a loaded firearm. The “always loaded” rule is really just affirming that whatever you would do with a loaded firearm, you do with every firearm.
A slightly different way to think it I guess. I’ve been also learned that intentionally pulling a trigger is not the only way to fire a gun. There’s always a possibilty for the mechanism to trigger if you accidentally bump the gun or drop it or trigger guard can get tangled with something or whatever, so the ‘laser pointer’ part is sort of included in that as you need to be aware at all times where the gun is pointing and how you move around and interact with it.
And it obviously applies to things like chambering a bullet, removing clip from the gun and so on. I’ve personally seen a .22lr pistol to fire when slide was released on reloading, it was a old gun with really dirty mechanism so just the bump from the slide hitting the frame of the gun was enough to trigger it.
But no matter what ever way or analogy you’ve been thaught to work with guns, proper handling does not kill or injure anyone, specially not in your living room.
Ah, a Sig owner, I see.
Don’t treat a gun like Tony Stark treats particle beams from an accelerator.