OT-Be Safe!

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f250

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Aug 9, 2014
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Mods, I hope this is ok, I know it's not particularly knife related, but I hoped to post it where it would get the most views.

I had a little wake up call last night so I just wanted to share it with everybody here in hopes that it will encourage increased safety awareness and maybe prevent some accidents. My dad shot himself in the hand last night while cleaning his ruger .380. Supposedly he checked the chamber and cleared it...I think his hand would disagree at this point. I know lots of members on here are not only knife fanatics but also collect and use guns and other tools/weapons that can cause serious harm. My dads ok, minimal damage, but this was scary. It could have been way way worse.

So be safe people! Basic gun safety, clear any gun the minute you pick it up if you're not planning on firing it, and treat every gun as if it's loaded. Be careful with your knives, don't let small children have unsupervised access to them, etc.

Again, I know this isn't strictly knife related, but knives definitely fall in the category of tools that can cause harm, along with guns. There's no doubt that the blade forums community collectively owns a VERY large number of potentially dangerous weapons :cool::cool:I know I sometimes forget the danger of some of the tools I use simply because they're such an every day part of my life. So, just take an extra minute today to remember the potential danger of the tools, knives, guns, and other gear we all use and enjoy. It's easy to get too comfortable with these things, and that's when mistakes and accidents happen.
 
Gotta drop the mag. I'm curious on how he shot him self in the hand. If it was an LCP you do not need to pull the trigger to disassemble it like you would on a striker fired pistol (Glocks, sigmas,etc.)
 
Glock owners seem to be notorious about this problem.
To remove the slide for cleaning requires:
a. drop the mag
b. clear the chamber (pull back quickly on slide and release it)
c. snap the trigger to unlock the trigger action.

Well, if the owner gets steps a and b in the wrong order, he ends up with an accidental discharge. It happens, usually ONCE, to many unfortunate Glock owners, regardless of years of doing this. Gosh, it's loud in the house!
Remember, when snapping any trigger, point the gun at the FLOOR first. At least then, you will perhaps only suffer embarrassment and momentary deafness and some jangly nerves for a while. And YES, your wife will YELL at you. It is SO HARD to try to explain how you did this stupid thing.
Remember, point the gun at the FLOOR before pulling any trigger. ALWAYS TREAT ANY WEAPON AS A LOADED WEAPON!

Stay safe, friends. You don't know just where that bullet is going to travel...
 
mattal21 said:
Gotta drop the mag. I'm curious on how he shot him self in the hand. If it was an LCP you do not need to pull the trigger to disassemble it like you would on a striker fired pistol (Glocks, sigmas,etc.)
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I still don't understand the logic of how he shot himself.....he said he was reassembling it, the breakdown pin (i think) got jammed partially in the gun, so he pulled the trigger? Doesn't make sense to me. It was painfully obvious that he was not being too careful or thinking very clearly about what he was doing. That's really why I posted the thread....this was a stupidly simple accident that should never have happened if he had been following basic safety rules.
 
Glad he'll be ok. Definitely a scary event.

The thing about the rules of firearm safety is, you have to violate at least 2 of them for something bad to happen.. as long as you only violate one rule, the others will prevent tragedy.
 
Glad everything is ok!

To add to this, I think you should also be careful on who you show your guns to.
One time I showed a close friend of mine my new AR and he said "can I hold it?" I said sure!
I handed him the gun (it was brand new out of the box, definitely not loaded) and he sprinted off to his brothers room, barged into the door and started pointing my gun at his brothers head. I freaked out and quickly grabbed the gun from him, and he had no clue why I was mad. When I told him "treat every gun as if it's loaded" he shunned it off and said that's stupid etc..

The same guy asked me where to get a FOID card (Illinois gun laws :rolleyes:) application, so I told him that Illinois isn't issuing them right now:D.
 
^ definitely was a good idea to put your "friend" on the wrong track with that one... people sometimes do soem scary things with potentially lethal objects, knives and guns among them. Even my 3 yr old knows not to point guns at people. No really, he knows.
 
JasonJ said:
^ definitely was a good idea to put your "friend" on the wrong track with that one... people sometimes do soem scary things with potentially lethal objects, knives and guns among them. Even my 3 yr old knows not to point guns at people. No really, he knows.
Click to expand...

Glad your pa is doing okay, it sure was a hair raising moment, can still feel it down my spine...

I believe it has to do with some innate curiosity humans have with forbidden and dangerous objects. Just as with guns, I find knife newbies run their thumb lengthwise ok the edge to feel how sharp it is, and flashlight newbies point the business end towards their eyes and switch it on.

I do NOT handover any object of these 3 categories to a newbie, as a rule.
 
Glad he is okay. Is that his only gun or does he have a bit of experience with firearms??


choombak said:
Glad your pa is doing okay, it sure was a hair raising moment, can still feel it down my spine...

I believe it has to do with some innate curiosity humans have with forbidden and dangerous objects. Just as with guns, I find knife newbies run their thumb lengthwise ok the edge to feel how sharp it is, and flashlight newbies point the business end towards their eyes and switch it on.
I do NOT handover any object of these 3 categories to a newbie, as a rule.
Click to expand...
Do you consider flashlights a forbidden and dangerous object? Have you met a lot of people that haven't used flashlights before??

As far as feeling how sharp the knife is, I remember one incident like this from years ago. I saw a guy run his palm down the edge of a sword...
Guess what happened?
 
Blades&Bullets said:
... Do you consider flashlights a forbidden and dangerous object? Have you met a lot of people that haven't used flashlights before??

As far as feeling how sharp the knife is, I remember one incident like this from years ago. I saw a guy run his palm down the edge of a sword...
Guess what happened?
Click to expand...

I meet many people who haven't used modern led based ones -- and for a small palm sized flashlight, they always miscalculate the amount of light it is capable of producing. Results in 15 to 30 minutes of stars and dizziness! :-)

Hope he did not end up with an opened up palm.
 
Thanks for the concern guys! He grew up around guns, and he owns several. Definitely not his first rodeo....he also tends to be careless and accident prone.

I am 100% for weapons and gun ownership, but some people should not own them.
 
Hope his hand is 100% functional.
There is nothing wrong with reiterating safety.

All it takes is a split second of not paying attention. Probably once (maybe twice) when checking my brothers SIG P250, the mag would be in and the chamber empty. I went to make sure that the chamber was empty and it was but I pulled the slide back just far enough to chamber a round. I noticed it when I did it so nothing happened. Just wanted to point out there can be a small window (with a mag in) from empty chamber to racking a round and all it takes is a split second of lack of attention or complacency and the weapon's status and potential for harm changes.
 
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