Trust NO ONE!!!!!

 
Trusting a fellow shooter can get your hurt – or dead. My personal example. A very good friend of mine had a .45 1911 worked on quite some time back. He was very happy with the job and was anxious to show me. It was a defensive weapon that he kept on an upper bookshelf in his den. He reached for it, dropped the magazine and went to hand it to me. I asked him to check the chamber. “Don’t worry; there isn’t a round in the chamber.” I acknowledged he was probably right, I just asked him to humor me. And he did – imagine his surprise as a cartridge was ejected as he racked the slide. Was I angry? Nope. While it’s fully his responsibility to know the state of his weapon and to only hand it to me when he was sure it was safe (and he was sure), it is MY RESPONSIBILITY to know that each and every weapon handed to me is safe – PERIOD. Do not depend on someone else to save you, to protect you or to prevent you from being harmed – it is YOUR JOB to do that and no one else’s.

In my classes, I display over a dozen firearms. Double and single action revolvers, .22 cal, 9mm and .45 cal semi-automatic pistols and even a 6mm airsoft pistol. The images below show you how I present them to the students. The action is open, the cylinder open, the loading gate open and all magazines out. They stay this way throughout the entire course and any time a firearm is passed from me to a student or from one student to another, the chamber and the magazine are double checked before the exchange happens. This, IMNSHO, should be done in all firearm classes – period. If it’s not – remember your safety is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. Don’t surrender your safety to anyone – check each and every firearm to make sure the magazine is out, the chamber is empty, the cylinder is open or the loading gate is open.

Remember, help is not coming, you are not going to be saved, you are responsible for your own survival and safety – period – YOU.