Gun safety

(For discussions on politics concerning firearms and gun safety, see Gun politics. This page deals only with non-political aspects of gun safety. For a part of a gun that is called a "safety", see Safety (firearms).)

Gun safety is a collection of rules and recommendations that can be applied when handling firearms. The purpose of gun safety is to eliminate or minimize the risks of unintentional damage, injury and/or death caused by improper handling of firearms.

Gun safety rules and mindset

Example of safe firearm handling. The weapon is pointed at the ground and the handler's finger is off the trigger.

Gun safety training seeks to instill a certain mindset and appropriate habits, or rules. The mindset is that firearms are inherently dangerous and must always be handled with care. Handlers are taught to treat firearms with respect for their destructive capabilities, and strongly discouraged from playing or toying with firearms, a common cause of accidents.

The rules of gun safety follow from this mindset. While there are many variations, the rules introduced by Colonel Jeff Cooper are those most commonly taught during gun safety training:

• Always treat firearms as if they are loaded and ready to fire.
• Always point the muzzle away from anything you do not intend to shoot.
• Always keep your fingers away from the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you are ready to fire.
• Always be sure of your target and of what is beyond it.

Treat firearms as if they are loaded

This rule is a matter of proper mindset rather than a specific habit. Many firearm accidents result from the handler believing a firearm is emptied, safetied, or otherwise disabled when in fact it is ready to fire. Such misunderstandings can arise from a number of sources.

• Faulty handling of the firearm. A handler may execute the steps of procedures such as loading, firing and emptying in the wrong order or omit steps of the procedures.
• Misunderstandings about a firearm's status. For instance: A handler may think the safety is on when it is not. A round of ammunition may be in the chamber or in the magazine while the handler thinks it is empty. A handler may receive a firearm and assume it is in a certain state without checking whether that assumption is true.
• Mechanical failures. Wear, faulty assembly, damage or faulty design of the firearm can cause it not to function as intended. For instance: A safety may have been worn down to a point where it is no longer functioning. Broken parts may have given the firearm a "hair trigger" (a very sensitive trigger). A dented or bent body of the firearm may cause jams or premature discharge of ammunition. Sensitivity to impact may cause a firearm to discharge if dropped or struck against another object.

If a handler always treats firearms as capable of being fired at any time, the handler is more likely to take precautions to prevent an unintentional discharge and to avoid damage or injury if one does occur.

The phrase "The gun is always loaded" is often used. The purpose is to discourage mental habits such as "I know my gun is empty so (some) unsafe practices are OK." Inexperienced handlers often think this way and accidents can happen as a result. A gun safety instructor can respond to such reasoning by restating the rule: "No, your gun is always loaded".

Point the muzzle away from non-targets

This rule is intended to minimize the damage caused by an unintended discharge. The first rule teaches that a firearm must be assumed to be ready to fire. This rule goes beyond that and says "Since the firearm might fire, assume that it will and make sure no harm occurs when it does".

A consequence of this rule is that any kind of playing or "toying" with firearms is prohibited. Playfully pointing firearms at people or other non-targets violates this rule. To discourage this kind of behavior, the rule is sometimes alternately stated, "Never point a firearm at anything unless you intend to destroy it."

Two natural "safe" directions to point the muzzle are upwards (at the sky) and downwards (at the ground). Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Firing at the ground may result in a ricochet or cause hazardous fragments to be flung at people or material. Aiming upwards eliminates this risk but replaces it with the risk that the bullet may cause damage when it comes down to the ground again. Indeed, several accidents have been caused by discharging firearms into the air. It is also possible that the muzzle will inadvertently be pointed at a non-target such as someone's head or an aircraft.

When passing a firearm to another person, it should be passed such that the muzzle of the weapon does not point at, or "flag"/"sweep", the recipient or any bystander. If the situation permits it is considered good practice to show the firearm with the magazine removed or empty, and the breech unloaded and locked open before handing it over to the recipient. This is known as "show clear".

The recipient should personally check the firearm upon receipt, even if he has seen it clear while in someone else's possession. This may sometimes seem superfluous, but the consequences of failing to check could be severe; for instance, if the person passing a gun checks the chamber but does not realize that a round is in the magazine, closing the slide will chamber a round, with the result that the weapon is loaded when it is being passed and could accidentally discharge.

Keep fingers off the trigger

This rule is intended to prevent an undesired discharge. Normally a firearm is discharged by pressing its trigger. A handler's finger may involuntary move for any of several reasons: being startled, not keeping full attention on body movements, or physiological reasons beyond conscious control such as a spasm. Handlers are therefore taught to minimize the harmful effects of such a motion, by keeping their finger off the trigger until the muzzle is pointing at the target and the handler wishes to fire.

The trigger guard and area above the trigger of a firearm presents a natural point for a handler to keep their finger out straight alongside the weapon, so as not to violate this rule (see picture above). A properly indexed trigger finger also helps remind the person holding the gun of the direction of the muzzle. The handler's trigger finger should only contact the trigger once the target has been sighted and the handler is about to fire the weapon.

In popular culture, such as movies and TV shows, this rule is often violated, even by characters who should be trained in gun safety such as military personnel or law enforcement officers.

Be sure of your target—and of what is beyond it

This rule is intended to eliminate or minimize damage to non-targets when a firearm is intentionally discharged. Unintended damage may occur if a non-target is misidentified as a target, if the target is missed, or if the bullet hits something or someone other than the intended target.

Handlers are taught that they must positively identify and verify their target. Additionally, they learn that even when firing at a valid target, unintended targets may still be hit, for three reasons:

• The bullet may miss the intended target and hit a non-target around or beyond the target.
• A non-target may pass in front of the intended target, obscuring the line of fire to the target.
• The bullet may pass through the intended target and hit a non-target beyond it, so called "overpenetration".

Therefore, this rule requires a handler to be sure of both the target itself and anything along the avenue of travel to and beyond the target.

This may create situations that present dilemmas for a handler. Such situations are for instance a police officer in a riot, a civilian facing a possible intruder at night, or a soldier in a situation where civilians are near the enemy. Indecision or misjudgment of the handler's abilities in such a situation may cause undesired outcomes, such as injury to the handler due to hesitation, or the handler violating rules of engagement and causing unintended damage.

To mimimize the risk of such outcomes training is required. Target practice increases the precision with which the handler can discharge the firearm and thus increase the chances that the intended target is hit. Education about terminal ballistics gives the handler knowledge about the characteristics of a bullet after a target is hit. This knowledge coupled with insight into the handler's own capabilities makes it easier for the handler to make appropriate decisions about whether to fire or not, even if given little time and/or put under severe stress.

Ammunition can be chosen to reduce the risk of overpenetration; see Terminal ballistics, Stopping power, and Hollow point bullet.

Gun safety for firearms not in use

Trigger lock fitted to the trigger of a revolver

Gun safety for situations where firearms are not in use are intended to prevent access to and subsequent discharge of a firearm. Preventing access to firearms serves a double purpose in that it also protects the firearm from theft.

At home

An effective method of preventing access to a functioning firearm is to store it disassembled and to keep the parts separated. If a certain part of a firearm is required for it to fire, the handler may remove that part from the firearm and keep it in a separate location. Ammunition may also be stored away from the firearm.

Sometimes this rule is codified in law. For example, Swedish law requires owners of firearms to store the firearms either with the "vital piece" locked up in a safe place or put the entire gun in a safe or lockable gun rack.

A lock that prevents motion of the trigger, blocks the chamber or in any other way prevents the firearm from being discharged may be used for additional safety. This also makes the firearm less useful to thieves as the firearm cannot be used unless the lock is removed. Such locks are commonly designed so that they cannot be forcibly removed without permanently disabling the firearm. This method is considered less effective than keeping firearms locked in a safe or a gun cabinet since locks are more easily defeated than approved safes.

Most firearm experts do not promote the use of trigger locks. In most cases, the firearm can still be loaded and a round chambered with the lock in place. In some cases, the firearm can even be fired with a trigger lock secured around the trigger guard.

There are locks that prevent live rounds from being chambered into the firearm. These locks allow the firearm to be stored loaded with no ammuntition chambered, while leaving the barrel clear.

If a firearm is intended to be used for self defense at home, special-purpose locking devices exist that allow the owner to store the fully loaded firearm in a safe manner while still providing quick access to it. However, keeping a firearm in a continuous state of readiness to be fired presents certain operational problems as previously described, especially if children can gain access to the firearm. Therefore the owner should take precautions beyond just the use of locking storage containers (e.g., teaching gun safety to children).

Protective gear and health issues

When discharged a firearm emits a very loud noise, typically close to the handler's ears. Over time this can cause hearing damage such as tinnitus. Hearing protection is recommended to prevent this.

Firearms emit hot gases, powder, and other debris when fired. Some weapons, such as semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms, typically eject spent cartridge casings at high speed. Ejected casings are also commonly very hot from combustion of the powder and compression caused by the high pressure. Any of these may hurt the handler through burning or impact damage. Eyes are particularly vulnerable to this type of damage. Therefore eye protection is recommended.

Hearing and eye protection, known as "eyes and ears", can also be used to protect observers, bystanders, team members or others that may be close to the handler.

Another problem, highlighted in more recent years, is that of toxic effects from ammunition or cleaning agents. Lead bullets can release lead vapour when fired, and older ammunition may have mercury-based primers. Lead accumulates in shooting range backstops, often as fine powder which is easily inhaled, and ranges must be carefully decontaminated. Indoor ranges require good ventilation to remove pollutants. Ranges always require extensive decontamination if they are to be decommissioned.

Lead, copper and other metals will also be released when a firearm is handled and cleaned. Highly aggressive solvents and other agents used to remove lead and powder fouling may present a hazard to health. Good ventilation, washing oneself and cleaning the space where the gun was handled lessens the risk of unnecessary exposure.

Failures

Although firearm actions and ammunition cartridges are made to exacting tolerances and designed to perform reliably, firearms and their ammunition, like any device, can malfunction or fail. Ammunition-related discharage failures are known as misfires, the most common of which are failures to fire ("duds"), delayed discharge ("hang-fires"), reduced energy ("squibs"), and overpressure failures ("kaBooms"). Other failures are mechanical malfunctions, generally referred to as jams, and their possibility and frequency depend on the design of the firearm; they include failures to feed, failures to extract/eject, failures to cycle, and failures to lock back, which are mostly present in autoloaders and bolt, pump and lever-action weapons, while largely absent from single-shot and revolver firearms. Still others are caused by defects in manufacturing and can cause failures to fire or other mechanical failures, as well as overpressure failures.

Some of these failures are more serious than others, a failure to lock back (most autoloading designs hold the slide and breech open after the last round of a magazine is fired) probably being the least serious. Various failures to properly chamber the next round are more serious, followed by ammunition and pressure failures. In any case, failures are undesireable and are to be avoided. A gun that mechanically fails repeatedly or becomes unuseable due to mechanical failure should be serviced by a competent gunsmith. Ammunition that will not reliably feed into and fire from the firearm should be discarded and replaced, preferably with cartridges from a different brand or lot. High-quality firearms from reputable manufacturers reduce the chance of defects.

If a misfire occurs, the user should assume the firearm may discharge without further manipulation of the firing mechanism. Delayed and dud cartridges can discharge unexpectedly, and overpressure failures can damage the feeding mechanism or damage rounds held in the magazine, and thus the muzzle should always be kept in a safe direction. The handler should carefully unload the magazine if present and open the action to remove and discard the misfired cartridge. Squibs are also hazardous, as the normal result is that the bullet is lodged in the barrel, and if a subsequent round is fired the gun may explosively fail resulting in serious injury to the handler. This type of failure happens largely when the powder charge does not ignite when the primer is struck; that powder remains in the cartridge and chamber and can still ignite. The user must, in clearing the misfire, also clear the barrel of any lodged bullet and all unignited powder.

Failures to feed or eject are less hazardous, but can, depending on the firearm and type of ammunition, be harder to clear and can still result in a cartridge discharging. The same procedure should be used; keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, the handler should unload the gun and open the action to carefully clear the misfed round.

Failures to lock back are more an operational hazard, as "slide lock" of an autoloading design is a visual cue that the gun is empty and must be reloaded, as well as allowing for faster reloads. If the gun fails to lock back, the handler will assume a round is loaded when this is in fact not true. It is a mechanical failure suggesting the firearm may need servicing, but the function of the weapon is largely unaffected; once the failure is discovered the handler must simply eject the empty magazine and insert a new loaded one, then cycle the slide to ready the weapon for continued firing.

Hazardous conditions/proper storage

Similar to many other materials considered hazardous, gunpowder and therefore ammunition must be handled with care. Traditional gunpowder (i.e, black powder) is highly flammable and explosive; smokeless powder (modern gunpowder) is highly flammable. Because of this, cartridges, free-form black powder used in muzzleloaders and smokeless powder for reloading ammunition, and weapons containing live cartridges (loaded either with black powder or smokeless powder) must all be kept away from fire and other heat and spark sources to avoid a situation in which ammunition can "cook off", upon the temperature reaching the flash point of the gunpowder. Moisture can affect gunpowders of any type, rendering them unuseable or unsafe; in addition, age can also affect smokeless powder, but not black powder, unless, during a long period of storage, moisture comes in contact with black powder. Other materials used in connection with guns, such as gun oils and solvents, are also flammable and in some cases are volatile (producing flammable/explosive vapor), requiring similar precautions as well as proper ventilation.

Lubricants and gunpowder/cartridges should be kept separated, as oils can penetrate the primer or powder and cause delayed discharge ("hang-fires"), failures to fire ("duds"), and/or drastically reduced energy ("squibs"). Such failures are always undesireable and can result in fatal situations; a "squib", for example, can result in a bullet being lodged in the barrel. If a subsequent round is then fired the firearm can explosively fail ("backfire"), seriously injuring the handler. "Hang-fires" (a delayed firing of a cartridge after the firing pin strikes primer) of up to a minute in duration have been documented; if the cartridge discharges during or after its removal from the chamber, the casing is likely to burst, again causing serious injury.

Impairment

Since handling a firearm is a complex task, with possible fatal outcomes if done wrong, gun safety dictates that a firearm should never be handled while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, even legal prescription or over-the-counter drugs. Since such substances may affect a person's judgement already after consuming relatively small amounts, zero tolerance is advocated by gun safety teachers. This is codified in many states' penal codes as a crime of "carrying under the influence", with penalties similar to DWI/DUI.

Exhaustion can also constitute a form of impairment, as reaction time, cognitive processing and sensory perception are all impaired by sleep deprivation and/or physical exhaustion. Many situations in which firearms are necessary also involve exhaustion, such as combat or police patrols or standoffs; these situations, however, should be minimized to avoid errors in judgement or negligence which can result in injury or death.

Correct ammunition

The handler must be certain the firearm is loaded only with ammunition that is approved for use with that particular firearm. Using ammunition of wrong caliber, or using an ammunition type for which the firearm is not intended to be used with, may result in the firearm malfunctioning or becoming damaged. This may cause the firearm to explode, resulting in severe or even fatal injury to the handler.

Ammunition may be manufactured manually, so called "hand-loading". It may be very difficult for an inexperienced or unskilled handler to discern what is the equivalent ammunition type for hand-loaded ammunition. As such, using hand-loaded ammunition without being experienced in that field presents an elevated risk of a firearm-ammunition mismatch, with possible consequences as mentioned above.

Construction, modification and general condition of firearms

Modifying firearms to better fit their intended purpose is a fairly common practice, but not without its pitfalls. Firearms of any sort operate briefly at enormous pressure during firing, and enormous loads are placed on the pressure-bearing parts. If these parts are weakened by modifications or adaptations (such as drilling to fit telescope mounts, slings etc) there is a real risk of explosion. Similarly, if safety devices or mechanism parts such as sear engagement points, safety catches, de-cockers or trigger interrupters are modified or poorly adapted, great risks become apparent. Semi-automatic rifles may fire from an unlocked breech, allowing a case explosion next to the face of the firer; a handgun may fire unexpectedly or even "burst-fire" like a machine-gun. The potential for harm is obvious, along with the legal implications for those who modify firearms without a great deal of training and expertise.

Even without "metalwork" modifications a gun can still be rendered unsafe. A great deal of design effort goes into making sure a firearm can only be assembled one way, as it was intended to be, but occasionally it is found to be possible to assemble a firearm in such a manner as to render it unsafe. This knowledge is often only brought to light following a tragedy resulting from it. Therefore, anything more than routine field-stripping requires great care and preferably instruction from somebody competent in such practices.

The overall condition of a firearm is equally important. Rusted, heavily fouled or blocked barrels may bulge or explode (especially in shotguns), and mechanisms may fail due to contamination or corrosion. Any firearm should be kept clean and thoroughly checked for proper functionality before live-firing. If there is any doubt as to its condition, it should not be used until it has been properly repaired.

In the United Kingdom, firearms must be proofed before sale or use. This takes place at the Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof House, where each individual firearm is held in a test mount and fired with a severely overcharged round of ammunition. If it survives, it is inspected for distortion or other damage and if found to be free of such, stamped with the appropriate proof mark. Re-proofing will be required after modification to pressure-bearing parts to ensure continued safety.

Gun safety for children

Children who are generally considered too young to be allowed to handle firearms at all have a different set of rules which can be taught to them:

• Stop.
• Don't touch.
• Leave the area.
• Tell an adult.

The purpose of these rules is to prevent children from inadvertently handling firearms. These rules are part of the Eddie Eagle program developed by the National Rifle Association for preschoolers through 6th graders. If a child discovers a firearm, they should seek an adult to remove access to it as soon as possible. This may include turning it over to an appropriate law enforcement agency.

Older youth (age may vary per program) may take part in a program for safe rifle handling, such as the ones promoted by these organizations:

• Boy Scouts of America
• Americans for Gun Safety Foundation
• National Rifle Association
• Civilian Marksmanship Program

History and teachers of gun safety

While gun safety in different forms has existed since the creation of firearms, modern gun safety is often credited to Jeff Cooper. Being influential in the modern handling of firearms, he formalised the above mentioned rules of gun safety.

Other teachers of gun safety include Massad Ayoob, Clint Smith, Chuck Taylor, Jim Crews and Ignatius Piazza.

One widely known firearms safety program in the United States is the Eddie Eagle program developed by the National Rifle Association.

External links

• A public awareness program encouraging the safe storage of firearms
• Controversy over exact choice of rules for gun safety (specifically whether or not "the gun is always loaded" is an intelligent rule).
• NRA Gun Safety Rules. Also deals with issues such as eye and ear protection.
• Eddie Eagle, an NRA program to teach gun safety to children as described above.
• Project ChildSafe
• Canadian page about firearms safety
• Page about storing firearms in Canada

Movie clips of firearm accidents

• DEA agent accidentally discharges a weapon and wounds himself during gun safety demonstration
• Finger on a trigger and a negligent attitude results in two accidental discharges
• Toying with a firearm results in accidental discharge (Probably staged)
• Failure to use a proper holster and keep finger off trigger results in accidental discharge and injury (Possibly staged)