Time to tell some stories
Jul. 11th, 2011 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI've been shooting for something like 40 years. I've spent a significant chunk of my life with a firearm in arms reach. I've spent more nights with a weapon that had rounds in the body (not in the chamber) than most people spend with their boyfriend/girlfriend (I'm leaving spouses out of it, but a significant number of marriages are for shorter timespans, altogether, than I've spent sleeping with an M-16).
It's why the story of Arizona State Senator Laurie Klein pointing a .380 at a reporter bothers me so. I know the ways in which things can go wrong.
I have had three cases of unintended discharge. One was on a range, with a rented revolver. I was firing single action and as I brought the weapon to target I put my finger on the trigger, which blew a hole in the ceiling. I don't where, exactly, because when I looked up I saw the entire are in front of all the stations was a tattered mess of acoustic tiles.
One was at an outdoor shooting area. Again it was a revolver. I'd not fired this .38, and I was going to dry fire it to see how the action was. It was handed to me. I emptied it. Pointed it downrange and promptly scared myself silly. I'd not double checked the shell count when I dropped the rounds into my pocket. One had been stuck in the cylinder.
Skip ahead. Maia and I had just started seeing each other. I was spending the night and a raccoon was after the chickens. She got the air rifle and I was lining up the shot when I discovered the trigger had a pull of something less than 2 lbs; and no slack. I put a hole in the tree.
Any of those could have been a disaster.
Iraq, June, 2003, the NW tip of the Sunni Triangle. I am (among other things) Armorer for OMT-5, which was a group of three Tactical HumInt Teams. We depended on our rifles to keep ourselves from getting killed. We spent a lot of time with them in, "Condition One" (i.e. loaded). Missions had a simple weapons drill, just before leaving the base, put a round, "in battery". Just after returning, clear it (i.e. remove the round from the chamber).
Clearing was done in a "clearing barrel". One put the muzzle of the weapon (pistol, or rifle), into a 55-gallon drum of sand, dropped the magazine, put the weapon on safe, and pulled the charging handle/slide to the rear. Put the weapon on fire, dropped the hammer.
SSG McKinnon did this, and when he put his rifle on safe... it went off.
I took that thing apart, trying to figure out what the malfunction was. Couldn't.
So when she says, "You weren't in any danger, my finger was off the trigger," I don't care. There are too many ways a weapon can malfunction. I've seen all sorts of weapons problems. I know what happens when something that's not supposed to be loaded, or live, or what have you (I was working, indirectly, for "The Crow" when Brandon Lee was killed with a, "prop" gun).
There is no such thing as, "safe" when a weapon is pointed at you.
It's why the story of Arizona State Senator Laurie Klein pointing a .380 at a reporter bothers me so. I know the ways in which things can go wrong.
I have had three cases of unintended discharge. One was on a range, with a rented revolver. I was firing single action and as I brought the weapon to target I put my finger on the trigger, which blew a hole in the ceiling. I don't where, exactly, because when I looked up I saw the entire are in front of all the stations was a tattered mess of acoustic tiles.
One was at an outdoor shooting area. Again it was a revolver. I'd not fired this .38, and I was going to dry fire it to see how the action was. It was handed to me. I emptied it. Pointed it downrange and promptly scared myself silly. I'd not double checked the shell count when I dropped the rounds into my pocket. One had been stuck in the cylinder.
Skip ahead. Maia and I had just started seeing each other. I was spending the night and a raccoon was after the chickens. She got the air rifle and I was lining up the shot when I discovered the trigger had a pull of something less than 2 lbs; and no slack. I put a hole in the tree.
Any of those could have been a disaster.
Iraq, June, 2003, the NW tip of the Sunni Triangle. I am (among other things) Armorer for OMT-5, which was a group of three Tactical HumInt Teams. We depended on our rifles to keep ourselves from getting killed. We spent a lot of time with them in, "Condition One" (i.e. loaded). Missions had a simple weapons drill, just before leaving the base, put a round, "in battery". Just after returning, clear it (i.e. remove the round from the chamber).
Clearing was done in a "clearing barrel". One put the muzzle of the weapon (pistol, or rifle), into a 55-gallon drum of sand, dropped the magazine, put the weapon on safe, and pulled the charging handle/slide to the rear. Put the weapon on fire, dropped the hammer.
SSG McKinnon did this, and when he put his rifle on safe... it went off.
I took that thing apart, trying to figure out what the malfunction was. Couldn't.
So when she says, "You weren't in any danger, my finger was off the trigger," I don't care. There are too many ways a weapon can malfunction. I've seen all sorts of weapons problems. I know what happens when something that's not supposed to be loaded, or live, or what have you (I was working, indirectly, for "The Crow" when Brandon Lee was killed with a, "prop" gun).
There is no such thing as, "safe" when a weapon is pointed at you.
