I grew up around guns my entire childhood. My dad was a federal game warden, so seeing him holster up or clean his gun are some of my boyhood memories. Despite being around guns, I never really took an interest in them. I’m not sure why. I guess I just saw them as my dad’s work stuff. Nothing to get really excited about.
A few months ago, I had a sudden urge to shoot a gun. I called my dad on the phone. “Hey Dad. I want to learn to shoot a handgun. Can you teach me how?”
He was sort of surprised.
“Why do you want to learn to shoot a gun all of a sudden?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s just something I think I should know how to do.”
So my dad took me, my brother, and my wife, to the gun range and showed us how to fire a gun.
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It got me thinking. I know I’m not the only man out there who has gone their entire life without shooting a gun. For some of these men it’s a deliberate choice. They don’t want anything to do with guns and that’s cool.
But I’m sure there are a lot of men out there who have never fired a gun, but like me have the desire to do so. Or maybe you never shot a gun, but got invited to the gun range by some buddies. You want to go, but you don’t want to look like an idiot when you handle the gun. You’d like to have an idea of how to fire a gun safely and correctly before you go.
To get the lowdown on how to shoot a handgun safely and correctly, I headed over to the United States Shooting Academy in Tulsa, OK and talked to Mike Seeklander, the Direct of Training at the Academy. He explained the basics of firing a handgun so a first-time shooter could do so safely and semi-accurately (the accuracy part will take some practice!).
The Four Cardinal Safety Rules of Firing a Handgun
The very first thing Mike brought up were four rules, that if followed strictly, will keep you and others safe so you can have a good time unloading a few rounds.
1. Always treat every firearm as if it were loaded. No ifs, ands, or buts. Even if you know the gun is unloaded, still handle it as if it were loaded.
2. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction, a direction where a negligent discharge would cause minimum property damage and zero physical injury. According to Mike, even the most experienced gun handlers break this rule all the time. They’ll take a gun and start pointing it all over the place while exclaiming, “Ah, sweet bro, this gun is kickass.”
“They don’t even know they’re doing it,” says Mike, “which makes it even more dangerous.”
The safest direction to point a gun is always downrange (as long as there aren’t any people downrange!).
3. Always keep your trigger finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you have made a conscious decision to shoot.
4. Always be sure of your target, backstop, and beyond. You want to be aware of what’s in your line of fire. This isn’t usually a concern if you go to a professional gun range. They make sure that people and property stay out of the path of the guns firing downrange. Where this becomes a concern is when you go shoot with your buddy out on his property.
“Ask your friend what exactly is beyond the target and backstop you’re shooting at, especially when you’re shooting into a wooded area. Don’t just settle for, ‘Oh, don’t worry. There’s nothing back there.’ Ask specifically if there are any houses, property, etc beyond your backstop. Err on the side of being overly cautious,” says Mike.
September 3, 2010
