Safety encompasses a wide area, some of these require close monitoring: examples are.

 

Safety at home. We are firearms owners, we do have a family, I believe that we have a responsibility to ensure that every member of the household is knowledge in the safe use of firearms and they exercise the respect firearms deserve.

Safety in the field. It is very terrifying to visualize new hunters or new target shooters participating in their sport in isolation (alone) this is potentially a very dangerous undertaking. We should try to establish a buddy system.

Range Safety. Although our primary concern is personal safety, we must be alert and diligent, we must be able to look for potentially unsafe practices and try to correct them in a very amicable manner. We must look out for our fellow competitors and spectators.

Incorrect ammunition. Research indicates that quite a large number of injuries are associated to the wrong use of ammunition. The individual does not spend time to ensure or determine that the ammunition matches the firearm he or she wishes to use. Vigilance and education will help to reduce this problem.

Unsafe transportation of firearms. Some individuals still take their firearms to the range and field wrapped in blankets or stuffed in duffle bags. One individual took his pistol to the range in his pocket. These are definitely unsafe transportation practices and should be discouraged immediately, making sure that the consequences and the danger associated with them are fully understood by the individual.

 

Improper target placement. There is definitely a total disregard as to how and where targets should be placed, what happens if someone shoots at a misplaced target, are they aware of the dangers associated with shooting at one of these. The realities must be imprinted in their minds, we must be able to police and enforce these rules.

Safety in our clubs. It is much more difficult to monitor safety in a multi discipline club than one which has just one discipline. For any club to operate safely it is suggested that a safety committee be established with a very strong and vigilant policing team, this team checks the activities on a regular basis, this team must report to the committee of any unsafe practice and immediate disciplinary action must be taken. We must all realize that these actions are necessary for the shooting sport to be safe and enjoyable.

Personal protection. Many shooters have lost some of their ability to hear and see properly, it has been suggested that eye and hearing check up should be done by a qualified person on a regular basis, and that any short coming should be corrected. The inability to hear or see properly lends to unsafe situations on the range, remember the quality of corrective equipment used by the individual enhances or limits his or her performance.

In conclusion, we must continue to be committed and diligent enough in helping to make the sport of our choice enjoyable and safe.

Author Allman A Vieira 

KIDS AND HANDGUNS!

IT SEEMS reasonable to assume that at some time a handgun bug will have a golden opportunity to bring together a clean-cut young fellow and a well-kept pistol. Some of us who haven't given this matter quite a lot of thought might be confused by such questions as how to start, when, with what, and where.

 

Let's begin by imagining a young man, married, with a fair amount of plinking and target work under his belt, and a handgun or two of his own. Pretty soon a son appears. Pop has gone his unthinking way; merely keeping his guns locked away from the snoopy fingers that we all have in the house at times. I think he could continue this until his son (or daughter) has reached the age of about four years.

 

This brings up the main point I want to stress in the whole chapter. Let's be frank about it. No matter if you never teach anyone anything else about firearms, please, for the sake of all living things, pound into a beginner's head the fact that he should NEVER un- intentionally point a gun at anything that would be damaged, to his sorrow, if the gun should be fired. Talk about the old-fashioned teacher's hickory stick; in this case you have my permission to use a hammer, if necessary! I don't mean this word-for-word, but I mean it!

 

Can you imagine a call from the Police? "We have your son here. Please come down as soon as possible!" So it turns out to be a shooting-scrape, and after end- less questions your son says, "Dad never taught me anything about guns, and the gang had them.

I think you would sleep pretty damned poorly for a long time after that scene.

 

Now that I've blown the main top, let's get back to the four-year-old stage. It seems that your own guns should still be left out of sight and locked up when they're not being used. Junior is probably running around at full speed and shooting up his playmates with his toy six gun.

 

BUT, let's remember, many gun wise parents won't let their children have anything to do with such toys, except, perhaps, when they are handled with exactly the same care that real guns rate. Such discipline isn't easy to instill and maintain when children are tiny, but it has been done. Such children aren't involved in tragedies with guns that "look like real," and are. Those who are allowed to "quick-draw" and "shoot it out" with each other get so awfully fast that you'd hate to face such speed with a real gun.

 

Maybe they make you think. Anyway, somehow you feel a little older already.

Cheer up. That part will continue as time goes on. But will it hurt if it brings a safe and efficient pistol man into the family? He'd better be safe from the first; so if you put thumbs down on undisciplined play with toy guns, perhaps you're right, and most of the neighbors wrong!

But both of you can play with the rubber-band gun, which fires a projectile and must be handled safely. That will be at home, of course. Soon you both will graduate to an inexpensive air-pistol, accurate enough for fun and some instruction, and the whole family will join in. There's still no noise to disturb neighbors, but eyes and other tender places are danger spots. Junior's "Watch where you point it!" if needed, usually can have been brought to a fine polish by this time. Mean- while, he's developed some trigger-control and become used to a heavier gun than the Bullseye pistol. Watch your own example!

School soon starts to bother the family (or relieve it!), but in a year or two maybe Pop had better let his target pistol show up. Start for the club range early enough so as to let Junior sees the gun before he's pushed off to bed. Why not teach him to check to see if it's unloaded and, some other day, help clean it? (What better gift can you offer him than your time?) Don't go into over-much detail; but let him handle a real gun at home, under supervision. For comparison and instruction, tell him about football, baseball and other sports.

 

Possibly the pistol business should be soft-pedaled for the next few years unless he trends definitely in that direction. "Ramming a pistol down his throat" is a fine way to make him a gun-hater, even if you your- self love them, as no doubt you do.

Who can name an age when these youngsters will get the urge to become seriously acquainted with a handgun? But you can bet it will be before we older folks expect it.

 

If his interest stays high, expose him more and more to your own guns, making sure that they are un- loaded and never pointed where they shouldn't. Dry shooting might be OK, but I can't make myself think that quick-draw should be done in any kid's presence. They see too much of it on the screens. If Dad does it, too, it must be all right, they will think. In his early years the boy thinks Pop is next to God, almost. Later, you must earn his devotion. Halos don't come cheaply.

Sometimes a boy is well into the teens before he shows real interest in guns. It may never come, but if it does, these suggestions based upon my own experience might help.

 

For a beginner I'd pick a lightweight .22, to be fired single-shot until he's used to it. This holds especially for automatics, which reload themselves in a flash, literally, after each shot. A too-heavy gun is discouraging to try to hold at arm's length, even for us older guys who may not be much on the muscle side. Of course grip size must suit the hand. Flinching comes quite surely from an over-heavy caliber. I knew one young lady whom some idiot talked into firing a .45 Auto, and she had never shot a pistol before. She didn't again, for a number of years.

 

Now as to "Where?" Well, few of us would care to fire on a range next to a kid who had had no previous instruction! Let's find a good safe sandbank or steep soft ground for a backstop, out in the country and where the owner allows us. There should be no other people around, no animals and any stones, rocks or metal to cause a ricochet. Those glancing pieces of lead can go almost anywhere.

 

Best start with large targets, close-up, and graduate to quart or smaller tin cans. Your garage-man usually will be glad to get rid of them. When cans begin to feel unsafe under Junior's fire, it's time to start on paper targets, not too small or far away. They show exactly where the hits are, and they make a definite numerical record of progress. A little later the larger guns may appear, if the time seems right.

 

At about this time we should take stock of ourselves. Are we so smart, after all? Lots of us have had, at one time or another, good instruction. But as years passed, we slipped into our own little habits, and scores slipped, too. We had excuses like "Bifocals," "Nervous work at the office," or just plain "Getting older." Maybe we should take the kid to the range and to a really good instructor. Then, the first thing you know, you may be competing against the boy some night and come out feeling worth two bits less than nothing. It's been known, at this stage, for Pop to arrange different shooting dates for himself and the youngster! But you can pat your ego on the back by feeling that you gave him a fine start, anyway. He won't forget it; he'll be grateful.

Not all families will be like the imaginary one used as an example. "Junior" may be a girl, or there might be ten of them, or a variety. "Pop" could be a bachelor who has taken a friend's youngster under his wing. Does it matter?

 

 In closing this chapter I'd suggest that you train just one kid at a time. Usually, after just a little instruction, one youngster will be pretty dependable. But as soon as you get a crowd around to prod him on, he's apt to blow his stack, get careless, and show off a bit. Even adults sometimes give in to such strange impulses.

 

As an add-up, it looks as though you should always set a good example, catch your pupil when he or she; is really interested, start with the proper gun and ammo, finish with competent instruction-your own, sharpened up if need be, will do finely-and then stop worrying about Junior. By then he should be absolutely safe with a gun, and learning marksmanship so fast that, maybe, you'd better slick up your own laurels.

 

Good shooting to both of you!