WWJCD? (What Would Jeff Cooper Do?)

[hog slayer]

for those who are about to die, we salute you

Frost, there is a much more diehard argument here within INGO about exactly what safety rules should be taught. Before this gets completely derailed, congrats on taking your boy to the range and having a good time. I'm sure it's only the beginning for the two of you.

 

[ATM]

ATM yes that is the foundation of everything I have taught him from day 1. They are always loaded and always point them in a safe direction. I think the moment caught up to him with his first trip out.

Bill of Rights he is 12 years old. I have waited this long because I was waiting until I felt he was mature enough to handle a trip to the range with adults. We have discussed safety since he was old enough to understand. He knows how to clean every gun I own and puts some of them back together faster than I do. He knew as soon as he did it and I pushed the muzzle away from my direction he had messed up. He apologized over and over. Like I said, after that he was calm and deliberate in all his actions for the rest of the time we were there. The excitement of his first trip might have been the distraction in the end. It's an ongoing learning process for him and me.

I see. You taught him they are always loaded, but he is smart enough to know better. When he reasonably concluded it was unloaded, he didn't truly give proper weight to the second thing you taught him (which is actually the most important step to safe gun handling, mitigating risk to himself and others when handling any gun).

I suggest keeping the most important things first. Loading or unloading a gun is a far lesser consideration in handling guns safely and mitigating risks.

I wish you every success in ensuring he really gets this right, rather than merely by rote, to safeguard and guide his handling, all he will learn about guns, and all that he will one day teach to others.

 

[ATM]

for those who are about to die, we salute you

Frost, there is a much more diehard argument here within INGO about exactly what safety rules should be taught. Before this gets completely derailed, congrats on taking your boy to the range and having a good time. I'm sure it's only the beginning for the two of you.

Let us reason together, that all may benefit and advance.

 

[Old Prof]

When I was learning to fly there was the assumption that when you got into the cockpit, your IQ dropped in half. The reason was that your normal patterns of operation no longer applied, and you were having to think about everything you did. If you fell back into rote, you screwed up. The better you got the less this was true, but there is a reason pilots use checklists. The same is true with guns, and again, the newer you are at it the more likely you are to do something stupid and dangerous. Training helps. Slowing down and thinking helps. Being corrected (kindly, but firmly) helps. And like pilots with checklists, even experienced people (perhaps, especially experienced people) follow rules that shouldn't be necessary except that mistakes happen, like only cleaning in an area where no ammo is present.

So don't ruin a new shooter, but educate them. And if they keep doing it, increase the motivation to remember.

 

[SMiller]

I went to a class to get my Florida CC permit as a class is required before getting a "permit", when we did the shooting portion it was without a doubt the scariest thing I have ever seen, I literally jumped off the hot line as hot weapons were being pointed everywhere, fingers on triggers, people had no idea what they were doing.

At the end of the class the instructor offered me a job helping teach the class, I was nothing but taillights as soon as he signed my certificate! And to think he couldn't figure out why I wasn't on he line when it was turn to shoot...


You guys that are range masters/Nazi must have brass balls as SOME people are way to stupid to be handling firearms.