18 Sept 17
Stupid gun-handling:
âBetter that men should be held to consequences of their own culpable carelessness, than that âcourts of equity’ should undertake to relieve them therefrom.â
State Bank of Drummond, 93 Wis 2d at 161
When Iâm involved in the investigation of an accidental gunshot injury (usually self-inflicted), I make it a point ask the shooter, the person who was holding the gun at the moment of discharge, why he had the muzzle of the weapon he was controlling pointed in an obviously unsafe direction.
As with counseling alcoholics, the first response is usually denial. However, when re-confronted with the evidence, the person eventually says something like, âI had no idea I was doing that.â
Like all bad/careless habits, inadvertently pointing guns at your own body parts (mostly hands, feet, arms, legs) is probably not something that will beget disaster the first time you do it. No, like all bad habits, careless gun-handling is a âtime-bomb.â But, you donât get to know how long the fuze is! Sometimes, people handle guns carelessly for years, decades, with nary an unhappy âincident.â Then, during one inconvenient moment, the fuze runs out!
And, after unintentionally shooting himself, the person will be heard to say, âThis is so unfair,â or this particular gun is âinherently unsafe,â … ad nauseam.
With the âunfairâ part, I conditionally agree!
I explain to the shootee that he has been âunfairly lucky,â right up to this point! After pointing guns at himself a thousand times, ten-thousand times, the lines finally crossed, and the inevitable finally happened!
Righteous gun-handling is an attitude, more than a âmethodâ or âpractice.â Righteous behavior always proceeds from principled mental posture, not a âset of rules.â
The wonderful weapons that it is our honor and prerogative to âkeep and bearâ are, yes, âinherently dangerous!â That is a given, and not a subject for debate. I donât believe it is possible to handle any of them âsafely!â
The best we can do is handle them âcarefully,â with the reverence and respect they, and we, deserve.
Even then, there are no guarantees! But, âkeeping and bearingâ arms represents a risk some of us gallantly and audaciously take upon ourselves, in the process of claiming our own magnificence!
âPracticed gun-wielders had too much respect for their weapons to take unnecessary chances with them. It was only with tyros and would-bes that you heard of accidental discharges, or âdidnât-know-it-was-loaded,â injuriesâ
Wyatt Earp
/John