Sharp as a Marble - Substitutions for one of the rules

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Firearm Safety

I met Greg for dinner on Monday since he's heading out to Iraq for a year. Something we talked about suddenly popped into my head.

We were discussing the whole accident vs. negligence thing and of course the 4 Rules were brought up. We as gunnies push them hard because you have to break two of them at a time to have bad juju happen. Then Greg brought up another thing that made me go hmmm..

Sometimes, you have to break the rules. And while I'd love to yell at every photograph with some dimbo in a bikini with her finger on the trigger, it's not necessarily wrong. Hell, when I was at Blackwater training with Todd Jarrett, he had to break pretty much all of 'em to illustrate certain shooting techniques.

But what Todd did was substitute a temporary rule to ensure safety. He had to illustrate from all angles how to grip the pistol as well as how things should look when the trigger is pulled, and that meant pointing a pistol in a direction more toward 'us' and less toward 'object he didn't wish to see destroyed'. Before he did this, he had MANY people inspect the firearm. He also continued to press-check to ensure a 'BB' (as he called them) didn't somehow sneak into the room, load itself into the magazine, then find its way into the chamber.

If you photograph guns, eventually there's going to be one pointed at the camera. It's not always possible to have a tripod and a timer, so you go out of your way to ensure that breaking some rules is mitigated in other ways.

The 4 rules are immutable. They should be taught to be nothing less. And I prefer to see photographs of people with guns following those rules. But on the occasions where you may need to bend them, make sure you stay as safe as you possibly can.

posted @ 3/10/2010 2:19:14 PM

Comments

Sailorcurt says:

on 3/10/2010 3:13:09 PM

On this we agree.

And that's why I've never liked Col. Cooper's version of rule 1.

Actually, there IS such a thing as an unloaded firearm.

If there weren't, we'd never be able to clean, repair, inspect etc.

I don't like the idea of a "rule" that, by very nature, is a fallacy.

I prefer something along the lines of "Assume all firearms to be loaded unless you have personally and immediately verified otherwise, by both sight and touch".

By that, I mean, if you're going to inspect the bore, you remove the magazine, check the chamber both visually and by placing your finger in it to feel for a round, and then you immediately inspect the bore...or whatever act it was you were preparing to perform.

If any significant time passes between the check and the action that you checked clear for, or if the firearm leaves your hand for any reason or any length of time (even if just placed in your own holster or on the bench right in front of you), the assumption of a loaded firearm is again made and it is re-checked.

It's a great idea to ask someone else to double check you, especially if their well being would be placed in danger should you make a mistake.

And I'm especially with you on the picture issue. That discussion came up a while back and I was one of the ones who said we shouldn't assume that someone was being unsafe just because a picture APPEARED to depict a violation of one (or more) of the rules. We have no way of knowing what precautions were taken and/or what was going on out of frame.

I've got video of a pin shoot from in front of the firing line. The camera was actually on the side berm well out of the line of fire and was unattended. I was willing to take the chance on a ricochet or errant shot damaging or destroying the camera because I felt the footage would be worth the risk. There was no danger involved at all to anything other than the camera itself, but to someone who didn't know that no one was operating it, it was just sitting on a tripod recording all by its lonesome, it might appear that safety rules had been broken.

That's not to say that the rules should be broken wantonly and for no reason; or that pictures that seem to glamorize or encourage unsafe gun handling should be lauded; but sometimes there simply is no choice but to break a rule for any number of reasons. If proper precautions are taken, that doesn't make it unsafe.

Or negligent.

Weer'd Beard says:

on 3/10/2010 4:04:59 PM

well when it comes to gun photography, if nobody is HOLDING the gun, it isn't an issue. otherwise every gun case known to man would be a rules violation, not to mention my horizontal shoulder holster...

Jeff says:

on 3/10/2010 4:56:03 PM

For demo purposes, the solid plastic training barrels are great. I won't point a live gun at a student no matter how many people have checked it.

Jake says:

on 3/10/2010 6:37:33 PM

I've always believed in the idea that if you have to break one of the rules, then a) substitute as you indicated, and b) only break one of the rules. If you can't do both, you really, really need to rethink what you're trying to do.

Just out of curiosity Robb, when Todd Jarret was showing you "how things should look" did he also have his finger on the trigger at the same time as he was pointing the weapon towards someone?

Crotalus says:

on 3/11/2010 12:07:49 PM

I wholeheartedly agree. I once bought a used revolver, and was advised to check cylinder-barrel alignment. This meant that I had to point it at something I did not wish to destroy, namely, my eye. I mitigated the breaking of this rule by following a variation of one other rule: it is ALWAYS LOADED. What I did there was make DOUBLE DAMN SURE that there were no rounds anywhere near that gun, let alone in the cylinder.

Crotalus says:

on 3/11/2010 12:14:15 PM

Also, IIRC, Lee Paige cleared his gun in that infamous video where he shot himself in the foot. What did he miss? The round in the chamber?

ctd says:

on 3/11/2010 12:58:42 PM

Cooper himself often lamented the imputation of "always always always" upon his Rules. He made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that under some conditions it DOES make sense to break the rules - at which point you tell yourself "I am breaking the rules for this reason, for this period of time, under these conditions, with these accommodations for safety"; you then proceed to do what needs be done (dry fire, drop hammer for cleaning, pose for photo, whatever) while adhering to what rules you can and still get the job done ... when done, return to following all the rules.

Cooper's rules, while correct, are not etched in stone by the divine. If you must break them, do so - just be aware you are, compensate accordingly, and return to full obedience ASAP. He was very reasonable about this, unlike the hysterics too many people wish to impute on him.

Gregory Morris says:

on 3/11/2010 1:31:06 PM

I still believe the rules should be taught to new shooters as immutable. When I take a newbie to the range, they are told, "ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED!!!1!". No exceptions. Period. The end.

The ability to make common-sense substitution rules, and to know when and how it is "OK" to break the rules comes with experience.

And, as many people have said, if you break the rules, only break one at a time.

Caleb says:

on 3/11/2010 1:44:23 PM

Lee Paige locked the slide back on his Glock Foh-Tay...and forgot to remove the magazine IIRC.

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