Gun SAFETY !!!

One of the most important things you can do when handling a hand gun is pay attention to what you are doing. Multitasking while dealing with a firearm is not the most intelligent thing you can do.

Let me give you an example:

I may not have told you this story before, to be honest I have only told a couple people. Being Stupid is not usually one of the things I like to brag about.

A few years ago, I came home from a ride with the club. Being one of the longer rides that actually went somewhere meant I had taken some photographs. Back then I wrote edited the Motorcycle Club blog. So..

I parked the bike, went inside said hello to my father (wheel chair, first floor), headed upstairs to the computer desk. I sat down, removed my Sigma 9mm from my shoulder harness,

 and set it on the bed, I pulled the spare clips off the harness and set them with it.

Normally I would at this time, eject the magazine, slam the slide to clear the chamber, clear the weapon a couple more times, (to be safe) clean the weapon and put it away.

Instead I fired up the computer, connected the USB cable, plugged in the camera, set the photo names, set the system to delete the pix from the camera. I then reached over, picked up the weapon, double checking that the clips were there, I did something I never do, I dry fired the weapon. 

Luckily I had the sense to point the thing away, it was aimed at a pile of laundry on the floor...

What I ended up with was three shirts that had multiple holes in them (twisted and balled up) a hole in the carpet, a hole in the linoleum, a hole in the floor boards, and a father who thought I had committed suicide.

By not paying attention to what I was doing I had skipped the step where I remove the clip from the weapon. Seeing the two clips lying there I automatically assumed I had taken the clip out. What I did then to be safe was clear the chamber again just to make sure it was safe, unfortunately this actually loaded a round into the chamber.

Luckily no one was hurt, nothing really damaged, and I learned that I could be stupid.


klay