Apparently, egregious violations of the Four Rules on the show floor at the NRA Meetings weren't limited to attendees.
Having someone point a long gun at your chest from a few feet away is disconcerting, to say the least. I once had a customer step off the range after finishing up with a rented MP-5. In describing a feeding issue, he took a firing stance with the weapon pointed dead at me from right across the counter. He seemed chagrined when I rather vigorously threw myself clear of the muzzle, and said to me "It's not loaded!"
Yeah, pal, but the one on my hip is, so watch where you point that thing, okay?
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14 comments:
Ijits.
I have a friend who once left the range in a huff because I yelled at him "KEEP YOUR BOOGER HOOK OFF THAT TRIGGER!"
Eventually, he brought his son to the range. For me to teach.
Glad you ducked. Keep ducking.
It might hurt if you shoved the gun up against his head very forceably...
Yepper. Nothing I enjoy more than some frickin moron bringing a loaded weapon into the shop or another idiot passing his/her ( almost always his though) muzzle over me and, when I say something and lean out of the way, letting me know how it's okay because it's not loaded. And as we all know, no one has ever been accidentally shot with a loaded weapon, only an unloaded one.
Personally, I won't let anyone who passes a muzzle over me or another person in the shop shoot on the range. That's my policy. I don't care if it's loaded, unloaded, or anywhere in between. Say goodnight, Gracie, because you're not going on the range today. And if you ever do it again, I will never let you use the range again if I'm there. I have a long memory for stupidity.
And for the complete ass who brings a loaded weapon into the shop despite the sign on the counter, the sign behind the counter on the wall, the signs on both sides of the entry door, the rules posted on the range walls, and the notice posted in the rules on the sign in sheet required to use the range, no, you stupid bastard, loaded weapons aren't allowed in the shop area. If I hit you in the temple with one of the rubber mallets we keep in the tool box as an attention getter, do you think you'll remember that next time?
Aaaaaarggghhhg!!!!!!!
Sorry, just had to vent there for second.
B
I have always been amazed that gun stores don't have 55 gallon drums with sand in a convenient location, to permit employees or customers to have a safe place to point weapons as they clear them...
When I worked as pay officer or check cashing officer, the finance office where checks or cash were returned had such a barrel to be used to clear your pistol and your guard's rifle before entering the finance office. About once a year that barrel would catch a round from a weapon improperly cleared.
A local gunstore owner/gunsmith got shot in the hand by a customer with a jammed rifle trying to demonstrate his malfunction. The victim was unable to leap across the counter in time to disarm his customer.
Keep ducking.
About a year and a half ago at the local gun show we had a VENDOR work the action on a gun to show a guy, then he pulled the trigger. Shot a guy in the back from about 25-30 feet. It was winter, so the guy had a heavy jacket on and it was a 22 and it luckily didn't penetrate. Scared the xxxx out of everyone. The vendor was asked to leave, the guy that got hit didn't press charges and everyone learned a lesson---------that they should have already known. Bad things DO happen.
I can't off the top of my head think that I dry fired anything at the show that I hadn't checked first - more by force of habit than anything. "Pick up pistol, check magazine, rack slide, blah blah blah". So much easier with revolvers.
The Four Rules should never be violated. I don't know how many times on the convention floor, I glanced to the side and looked down the barrel of a gun. Not a good feeling.
That said, the guns at the convention (as opposed to a regular gun show) are "neutered." The firing pins are removed, shortened, or otherwise altered. I checked firearms in a number of booths and that was the case. That still doesn't remove the idiot factor; the fool who takes the firing pins out of all the guns but one. Or, a gunmaker who "didn't get the memo."
Tam,
Whatever you do, if for some odd reason you come north, do not ever, ever, EVER go to Kittery Trading Post in Maine.
They have an entire (large) room devoted to guns, and rifles are ~ 70% of the firearms.
I can't go there any more, because the last three or four times I visited I had MULTIPLE weapons pointed at me. It's quite disconcerting to see a Remington 870 leveled at you and hearing "CLICK"...
Let me play as the devil's advocate here for a second:
At large shooting sports conventions; the Shot Show for a great example, there is not, literally, a safe direction to point as you pick up a gun, unless you are at a booth that is next to the wall and you can be sure that you aren't covering anybody with the muzzle.
I'd say that a majority of guns on display are either stored horizontally, or with a slight muzzle down stance, which makes the act of picking it up violate the 2nd rule. I follow rule three, of course, while I am at the show, but I'd like somebody to tell me how to avoid violating rule 2...
Speaking of weapons at conventions, wasn't there an AD at the SHOT show this year?
I've heard a couple variations on what happened, one of which was that it was a vendor's display weapon that one of the employees had reinstalled the firing pin in to use as a carry gun.
Point the gun down towards the floor, at least at an angle, to avoid covering other people with the muzzle. Without pointing the gun at anything other than the floor you can check that the gun is empty, try the fit of the grip, function the cylinder release, magazine release, slide release, charging handle and so on, dry fire the gun to get a feel for the trigger, and even line up your eye on open sights pretty well, all without pointing the boomstick at a meatsack.
Sure, you don't look ubercoool without a Weaver Grip pointing a gun at the nearest head or heart, but unless you plan on shooting something other than a wall or floor or sky, don't point the gun at it. Especially if it is me.
Today I stopped by Briley to pick up some CDNN goodness---a G22 and a HK P7 (yes we suck and you hate us). I watched the counter guy open the boxes, clear and check the pistols. When I got to them, I found myself automatically 1) dropping the mag, 2) racking the slide back and 3) looking inside the chamber---even though I'd JUST SEEN him do the same thing.
I remember when I first read Casino Royale, and James Bond went up to his room and did some silly stuff---checked under the bed, checked the closet, checked I don't even know what. The thing is, Fleming wrote that Bond didn't even notice, really, what he was doing. It was just habit, it was just "how things are."
Now, admittedly, I did once center punch Sam Donaldson right between the eyebrows with a 125 Remington SJHP out of a 3" Ruger GP100.
You'd think that dumping the rounds out of a revolver would be easy, right? Funny how one of them stayed in.
And yes, a 125 Remington SJHP .357 Magnum is LOUD in a 12x12' room.
Y'all can just call me Elvis.
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