The Firearm Guide to Safety: Safety tips for firearms!

Everyone knows firearms can be dangerous.

- You right now, probably

But lets talk about some safety basics for getting started, and discuss how you might make firearms more dangerous.

No worries, I won't take too much of your time with these couple of safety tips for firearms.

The Firearm Guide to Safety Rule 1:

Protect your ears.

The average person starts to receive permanent damage to their hearing at around ~85db. (Source)

This, of course, varies depending on your exposure time as well as the how frequent you're hearing that in a given time period.

But, well, lets just keep ~85db as a solid baseline for this guide. For reference, gas push-mowers typically run at around ~85-90db, while a riding tractor averages about ~100db. This is, of course, assuming you're in the centroid of the noise area. (Source)

Well, guess what - firearms typically range from 140db-175db+, and you're always gonna be in the centroid, baby. (Source)

So, scientifically proven, it's probably a good idea to grab some ear protection (earpro) before you start pulling triggers. I run cheap foam earplugs or other cheap pairs you can usually find in most stores - just ensure they're ANSI certified and that you put them in right.

The Firearm Guide to Safety Rule 2:

Protect your eyes.

We all like to browse Instagram and look at food posts or morally questionable content (to each their own), so lets make sure we're able to, y'know, keep doing that stuff.

Let me start off with a quick story. I'm prior Military, and I definitely live by the "if it happens - it happens" mentality a lot of the time, mostly because I'm just stupid and I really do it to myself. But there's always the one time something happens, and it puts things in perspective.

I was walking towards a buddy of mine who was wailing on the sprocket of an armored vehicle trying to get it loose. I was, say, about 25-30 yards away, or maybe about four-to-five car lengths away, whatever - I was a good distance away - and I felt a hard impact on my dark pair of eye-pro that I like to wear because I hate the sun. It caught me incredibly off guard, and it took me a second to realize that my buddy was wailing on this big piece of metal and it had chipped. The chip had a vendetta against my right eye and would have put the little guy out of his misery had I not decided I hate the sun that day.

It's not an exciting story, because it was a pretty normal day, with normal tasks in the normal Georgia heat and fortunately I lucked out. I'm sure other people have wild one-in-a-thousand stories too - so take it with some care when I say that rounds can and will ricochet and possibly harm you.

Now the inherent danger isn't that a whole bullet will come flying back at you, but depending on what you're shooting a few things can happen -

• The bullet fractures and a piece of metal ricochets back towards you

• The object you're shooting fractures and launches shrapnel towards you

• An incredibly unlikely catastrophic event happens and a round blows up in your firearm's chamber

• You scope yourself It's not bad I promise - definitely gonna need some ice though

There's a lot that could happen, so minimize the risk by grabbing yourself some APEL-approved eye-pro (I like the dark shades) and try to wear them often where it makes sense.

The Firearm Guide to Safety Rule 3:

Protect your self and others.

Now I know what you're thinking -

"Heck yeah"

Except no, I'm not talking about using your firearm to be the hero of the day. I'm talking about basic handling of your firearm.

There's some key rules you need to familiarize yourself with and promise to live by.

If you think redundancy is dumb, then you're dumb, because redundancy provides safety net after safety net for a lot of things you'll do in life. I would bet most people reading this have a second set of car keys, or at least two pairs of shoes, or at work they have digital and physical copies of important records - all on the chance of "what if?"

So keep that in mind with these rules:

When you're first handed or pick up a firearm, ensure it is cleared.

I don't care if your buddy just ejected a round right in front of you. Build the habit. What if they ejected a round in front of you with the magazine loaded. You know what just happened then? They loaded another round - and it f***in happens more than you think. Its not about you being incompetent, its about building that muscle memory and being aware of what you're handling at all times.

Always treat your firearm as if its loaded.

Same understanding as before - build your safe habits. I don't care if you just cleared it. Decrease the chance an accident might happen. Practice your firearm clearing. Make sure it's on safe. I still feel nervous around even an empty firearm and that's okay because I'll be more likely to be safe around it.

Don't aim at anything you don't intend to shoot & always aim your firearm in a safe direction

Simple enough. Don't pretend to light your friends up. Don't pretend to shoot yourself. That's just immature handling of it. The minute you get into an environment where a firearm starts being treated like a joke, I guarantee you that the chances of a firearm-related accident will increase.

I had someone on Facebook who posted prayers for their brother because they were in ICU one day. Curious, I delve around a bit and found out that they were with their friends in a garage playing with a handgun and he jokingly pointed it at himself and, well, the rest you can guess.

That was preventable. So, prevent it.

Be cognizant of not just what you're shooting - but what's beyond it

Depending on your firearm, your rounds will travel on average anywhere between 900 to over 4000 feet per second out of the muzzle. Check out this chart for some neat references.

It doesn't take much to penetrate a lot of thin objects, and just like with protecting your eyes you have to be cognizant that you could fracture what you're firing at and cause collateral damage within a certain area. So don't shoot at stuff close to people. Really, nobody should be downrange of you to begin with and you should always have a hard backstop to catch shrapnel and rogue rounds.

Also, please understand what ammunition types your targets are rated for too, because just because something is 'metal' does not mean it can't be penetrated.

and finally:

Don't be scared, but be nervous.

This is a phrase I coined when I would talk about operating a tank. After all, if you let it, it will kill you. It's more of a respect thing, and the same applies to firearms.

Don't be scared to the point where you can't control your actions, because that in of itself is dangerous. That comes with practice and knowledge about your firearm. At the same time, always be nervous that an accident could happen. This will cause you to make sure nobody is in your firing lane, or that your weapon is cleared, or that your safety is on, or that your weapon is pointed at the ground - well, you get it. You'll constantly be looking to minimize those accidents and you won't get complacent - and that's the goal.

I hope this short(ish) guide helps highlight some of the big safety rules when it comes to firearm usage. As you explore more with your firearm and maybe go to a range or two, you'll eventually see that most of this falls under either common sense or muscle memory. As long as you walk with a "I don't want to accidentally kill my neighbors dog" kind of attitude, then you'll be fine.

So, grab some eye-pro, some ear-pro, and keep that muzzle pointed up and down range and have fun.