When it comes to the rules of gun safety, most people recite something similar to Col. Cooper’s 4 rules. I used to do the same, but over time came to prefer the NRA’s gun safety rules.

1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

Why I believe that’s a better rule set is another discussion for another time (Karl Rehn of KR Training does write about it). What I want to focus on here is the notion of “safe direction”.

We are to ALWAYS keep guns pointed in a safe direction. Thus, we need to know what a safe direction is. Here’s how the NRA elaborates on rule 1:

This is the primary rule of gun safety. A safe direction means that the gun is pointed so that even if it were to go off it would not cause injury or damage. The key to this rule is to control where the muzzle or front end of the barrel is pointed at all times. Common sense dictates the safest direction, depending on different circumstances.

Emphasis added. I think that’s pretty plain and clear.

The reality is, while the definition is clear and simple, putting it into practice isn’t always so easy. The reason is, “safe direction” can change. What you may need to think about is “the safest possible direction, right now”.

Let’s say you’re at the gun range. You’re at the established firing line. Given that, it’s reasonable to say that pointing your gun downrange is a safe direction: if you pointed a gun downrange and the gun discharged, the bullet would eventually be stopped by the big dirt wall or whatever it is the range has as a backstop/bullet trap. The only thing that might be damaged between the gun and the backstop is the target you were shooting at, but of course that’s acceptable. Thus, downrange is a safe direction.

Right?

Well, generally speaking yes. But what if a person walked downrange because they wanted to put up a target? Now is downrange a safe direction? I would say no. This is why gun range rules have it that no one goes downrange if there are people/guns on the firing line, and that if people are going to go down that all guns are rendered safe (e.g. benched, unloaded, action open; holstered; etc.) and everyone steps off the firing line with no gun handling permitted while folks are downrange.

So when handling a gun, if your safe direction no longer is the safe direction, what do you do? You have to find what the safest possible direction is now.

Could that be up in the air? Maybe, but remember that gravity is always in effect: if a bullet goes up, it’s going to come down. Do you know where it’s going to come down? Can you guarantee it will not cause damage, injury, or death?

Could that be down at the ground? Maybe. I wouldn’t say directly down at your feet, given you probably don’t want to destroy your feet. Perhaps then angled down pointed just a few feet in front of you? Perhaps. Consider the ground surface. If it’s dirt, that’s one thing. If it’s a hard surface like concrete or tile, that bullet will splatter.

How about at that wall? Maybe. Could that wall stop a bullet? If it’s drywall, like most homes and buildings use for walls? No, that won’t stop a bullet at all (even birdshot will go through drywall). Cinderblocks and bricks? Better chance of stopping, but that could depend (e.g. a 9mm handgun round should stop; some rifle rounds could go right through). Consider that where the bullet comes to rest doesn’t stop where your eyes stop. My eyes cannot see through the wall, but I know that while the wall stops my eyesight, it does not stop a bullet. So, I must continue to consider beyond my eyesight to the point where the bullet would come to rest. If you want to see what bullets can go through, check out The Box O’ Truth for much information, experiments, and pictures.

What if you were in a personal defense situation? Let’s say you’re at a crowded shopping mall and hear shots fired. There are innocent/uninvolved people all around you. Where is the safe direction now? Of course, if the bad guy is in front of you, you could argue the safest possible direction at that moment is pointing the gun at him!

I’d like to think it should “go without saying” that pointing a gun at yourself is not a safe direction, no sir, not even a little bit safe. Alas, there are more than enough stories of people pointing guns at themselves, “relax, it’s unloaded”, press trigger, and tragedy ensues. Lots of rules violated, but that’s the one thing about safe direction: if you follow it ALWAYS the worst you might end up with is manageable damage to property, and injury to your pride.

This is also why there are multiple safety rules, because they provide layers of protection: there must be violation of multiple rules for truly bad things to happen. Point the gun in a safe direction but fiddle with the trigger? That can be OK. Point the gun in an unsafe direction and the trigger is never touched? That can be OK. Point the gun in an unsafe direction and press the trigger? That’s going to be a problem. This doesn’t permit you license to knowingly violate one rule while following the others; all the rules begin with ALWAYS and that means always.

Going back to the gun range situation, do not allow yourself to be lulled into thinking safe direction but violating it. I see it all too often where a line of people are on the firing line. Someone in the middle of the line goes to work the slide on their semi-automatic handgun. They want or need a little more strength, leverage, and comfort in working the slide so the gun comes in and gets turned sideways — much more ergonomic and better leverage for the person working the gun — but now where is the muzzle pointed? At the person next to them! If you point a gun at someone, that can be considered aggravated assault. Not to mention, it’s impolite, inconsiderate, and unsafe range behavior. Safe direction is an ALWAYS proposition.

The reality is, safe direction is fluid and dynamic. As well, sometimes the safest direction may not be an ideal safe direction: it may be the best you can do is point at the floor and risk some lead splatter in your shins because that’s the least risk of damage and injury of all possible choices. You must consider where the bullet will come to rest (a place you may be unable to see), what there is between the muzzle and that point of rest, if between those points there’s potential for damage or injury, and if that damage or injury is acceptable or not. You must ALWAYS point the gun in a safe direction. You must ALWAYS (re)evaluate if that safe direction is still a safe direction, and if not find the new safe direction and point it that way.

I wrote this article because I often mention safe direction, but can only give it lip service because I don’t want to distract from the larger point of whatever else I’m writing about. Now, I’ve got an article that elaborates on the topic and it’s simple to link to for further discussion. Feel free to link to this article to help in your discussions of gun safety and “safe direction” (please give proper credit). Shoot safe.

Via Unc, Herschel Smith has an excellent examination of Heller vs. DC and how that pertains to “assault weapons”.

It’s a good read and pretty much stands on its own. I just wanted to make a couple of comments.

On page 35, the judges jump into bed with Siebel when they parrot his own words.

The Siebel testimony moreover supports the District’s claim that high-capacity magazines are dangerous in self-defense situations because “the tendency is for defenders to keep firing until all bullets have been expended, which poses grave risks to others in the household, passersby, and bystanders.” Moreover, the Chief of Police testified the “2 or 3 second pause” during which a criminal reloads his firearm “can be of critical benefit to law enforcement.” Overall the evidence demonstrates that large-capacity magazines tend to pose a danger to innocent people and particularly to police officers, which supports the District’s claim that a ban on such magazines is likely to promote its important governmental interests.

A few things.

Tendency is for defenders to keep firing until all the bullets have been expended. Upon what factual basis is that statement made? I’d like to provide you with some hard data. It’s slightly old data, from 2009 (go to page 3, “Shooting Incidents, Common Factors”), and while there have been additions to this data set, overall I doubt the core numbers have changed much. As of that 2009 data, Tom Givens of Rangemaster had 48 students involved in self-defense shootings. The average number of shots fired? 3.8 (lowest was 1, highest was 11).

3.8.

Shooting until all bullets have been expended? Well, since we’re talking in the realm of “high capacity assault clips”, those all hold a LOT more bullets than 3.8. And even if we talk some really low capacity assault clips, like say the 7 rounds of a 1911 or maybe the 5, 6, 7 rounds that get held by a lot of pocket semi-autos, that’s still rather different from the average. So where are they getting that defenders have a tendency to keep firing until all bullets have been expended? Please, back up your assertions with data.

As for this “2 or 3 second pause”. Why might that time be critical to law enforcement in an active shooter situation? It means the gun is out of commission, so law enforcement can act, such as rushing in to take the bad guy down or just being able to pop out from behind cover and return fire.

Let’s step back from things. Let’s remove the notion of good guy and bad guy here, let’s just look at the people involved and the roles they’re playing. You have someone with a gun that was shooting but now needs to reload. Then you have someone being shot at that can now act freely because the shooter is out of commission. That means having to reload is a bad thing for the person doing the shooting, right?

Let’s step forward, but to the right a little bit… let’s swap the labels and make the shooter the good guy. If the time it takes to reload is bad for the shooter, that means if a good guy is doing the shooting, the less he has to reload the better, right? I think we can agree upon that, because police seem to always be exempted from “large capacity assault clip” bans… we want police to have lots of bullets and be able to fire them, right? If not, why not give police single-shot guns? No, we seem to understand that the good guys being able to keep shooting with minimal (or delayed) downtime is good.

So why deny this from law-abiding citizens?

Why do we want to put good people at a disadvantage?

You can ban all the large capacity assault clips that you want. By definition, criminals will not obey the law and will have access to all the guns and ammo they can get their hands on. The only people abridge, hurt, and otherwise crippled by such bans and laws are those willing to obey the law — you know, us good citizens.

So now through force of law the state has put the citizens at the mercy of criminals.

Is that right?

It’s not, in my book. But you know… insert snarky comment about how a lot of politicians are scummy corrupt criminals themselves, and perhaps we could see why they might think this way. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case: I think it’s just done out of ignorance. I used to be similarly ignorant, but I was enlightened.

It can be argued that not only is the 5.56 mm round and the AR style weapons a legitimate home defense weapon, it is in some circumstances the optimal one to use.  The District of Columbia and the judges find themselves in the uncomfortable position of saying that it is acceptable for citizens to possess a long gun shooting the 7.62 mm round, as long as it doesn’t have a collapsible stock, forend grip, or rails for lasers or lights (after all, we wouldn’t want individuals to be precise in their self defense, or perhaps we do because of the safety of others around them).  Or, substitute here a shotgun, even shooting slugs for self defense.  Yet one feature of the 5.56 mm round shot from any AR is that brick (and in fact multiple layers of drywall) shatter the round, turning it into shrapnel due to its tendency to yaw upon impact (and even during flight).  Thus, people in adjacent homes are at least as safe with the AR as they are with any shotgun, and they may be more safe.  The same holds true for rounds fired from pistols (from 9 mm and above in caliber).  Pistol rounds penetrate more layers of drywall than 5.56 mm rounds.

For proof and data to back that up, see here (part’s 1 and 3 are especially relevant).

So again… where’s your data to back up your assertions? Facts are useful things in persuasion. If you want me to see your side of it, present me facts, not hyperbole and emotion… or worst of all, ignorance.

A Palm Coast woman who was accidentally shot by her son said she’s fine.

[…]

Her 27-year-old son, Todd Johnston, was cleaning his 9mm Glock handgun at the dining-room table when he inadvertently discharged a round, which traveled through his mother’s hip and lodged in the wall, the report states. Investigators deemed there was no foul play.

[…]

The younger Johnston wouldn’t answer a reporter’s questions but told investigators he assumed the gun was unloaded when he left the shooting range Thursday, according to the report. He said he began “field stripping” the gun, a process that requires the trigger to be pulled to remove the slide, when it discharged.

Full story. (h/t Fark)

• That was not an accident – that was negligence.
• All guns are always loaded. (Cooper Rule #1)
• Yes, some guns require a trigger press to disassemble. There’s nothing wrong with that, so long as you have followed proper procedure (and we should not dumb down designs merely because people are negligent — that solves and improves nothing).
• Before you pack up your gun, verify it is unloaded.
• Whenever you pick up a gun, verify its state. Even if you set it down for just a moment, when you pick it back up you must verify its state.
• The way to unload a semi-automatic handgun? Remove the magazine. Point the muzzle in a safe direction. Pull the slide all the way back, quickly and firmly to eject any round that may be in the chamber; lock the slide back. Visually inspect the magazine well to ensure there’s nothing in there. Visually inspect the chamber to ensure there’s nothing in there. You can also use tactile methods, such as inserting your pinky into the magazine well and chamber (breech end, NOT muzzle end) to feel for anything. Verify again. In fact, verify a third time. Make damn sure there’s nothing in the gun. Once you are certain there’s nothing in the gun, pull the slide to the rear to release/drop it. Point the gun in a safe direction, and you can then press the trigger to do things like release the slide for cleaning, or just drop the hammer/striker to release spring pressure.
• A safe direction? There’s no hard and fast rule, but it basically means you have to consider where if a bullet came out of the gun, where would that bullet come to rest. Minimization of damage by that bullet’s travel and eventual rest is key. Remember, things like drywall and your mom’s hip will not stop bullets… bullets will go through them, they will cause damage. Don’t just consider things based upon what you can and cannot see — bullets may travel through, so what’s beyond?
• Do not clean your firearms in the same places you eat. Cleaning involves strong chemicals, you’re cleaning away things like lead… all sorts of things you don’t want to ingest. Don’t contaminate your eating areas; it’s not good for your health.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Luby’s Massacre in Killeen, TX. Austin YNN has a story remembering it.

“I saw Hennard, he’d killed an older man, and he said that the man’s wife was sheltering the husband’s body, Hennard came up and the woman looked at him, and she realized he was going to shoot her so she bowed her head and he shot her in the back of the head,” Cox said. “It’s been 20 years but I still tear up when I think about that.”

That man and woman? They were Suzanna Gratia Hupp’s parents.

Who is she?

I’m sorry for her loss. I’m thankful for her fight.