I’m sure almost everybody reading this site know the four rules of firearm safety. In case you don’t they are:
- All guns are always loaded (until you establish whether they are or not).
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction at all times: on the range, at home, loading, or unloading.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target (and you are ready to shoot).
- Be sure of your target. Know what it is, what is in line with it and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you haven’t positively identified.
This four rules are not to be questions because they were delivered down from Jeff Cooper himself. Alan over at SnarkyBytes is questioning the word of God Jeff Cooper.
He certainly has a point if the rules are to be treated as absolutes and always followed. I say this because it’s impossible to follow rule one while cleaning many firearms. In order to disassemble my Glock I have to pull the trigger. This violates rule one as I’m pulling the trigger in my domicile and thus not treating the gun as if it were loaded. Dry fire practice is the same thing.
It’s a good read and Alan makes a valid argument. Go over and read it.
I like his new rules.
I also just like the rule of “know the status of your weapon at all times.”
I had a ND 5ish months ago. Was dry fire practicing, then was going to clean it, and completely forgot that I had loaded it after I was done dry firing because I was busy watching TV (Firefly, to be exact), and upon pulling the trigger to remove the slide, gun went bang. Put a bullet into the house of the nice lady across the street. Oops.
Now I don’t dry fire or clean until I triple check the status of my weapon, and dry fire practicing is done on it’s own, and never in conjunction with cleaning, or with ammo/loaded magazines nearby.