Safety with Guns - Assignment Example

Your Profs Your es October 2009 Safety with Guns This essay gives a of the reasons and the motive in which I thought while giving my answers. I have also written the correct answers giving the logic behind why they are the right answers and why the selected few of my answers were wrong. I had gotten the first question wrong which was- A modern revolver can be carried safely with all chambers loaded because. My answer to this was (a) spring loaded primers stop accidental firing since spring loaded primers are part of the safety mechanism of the modern revolver which help prevents accidental firing. But the correct answer to this question is (d) because the modern revolver has a double action trigger mode which provides plenty of resistance to prevent accidental firing of the pistol. In the paper I got the second question wrong. The question was -When the command Cease Fire is given other than the range office. My answer to this was (b) Stop shooting immediately, lay the gun down on the bench and await further instructions. The reason I chose this answer was because when someone gives the command to cease fire it could be because there is some hazardous situation. Thus the best way to avoid any danger would be to stop firing and lay the gun down. But the correct answer is (d) since the correct thing to do would be to stop firing, point the gun in a safe direction and call or wait for the range officer to give further orders and if needed clarify as to why someone else gave the order. My answer to question 3 was because I felt that after notifying the range officer the best thing to do would be to open the action and remove the cartridge since in order to continue firing I would have to remove the faulty cartridge. But the correct answer to this is (d) since it is the range officer who is responsible to over see the removal of the cartridge. My answer to question 5 was (b) since in all the guns I have seen till date the safety switch has always been on the side and no where else. The correct answer to question is (d) since the switch can actually be on any side and is not on the side by a rule. The mechanical safety on a handgun in fact is just one of the ways in which one can handle a gun safely. Now in question 6, my answer was (d) since I thought that besides reading the manual and asking a competent person to familiarise you with the hand gun it would be important to load and unload the hand gun to get yourself used to it. Also I felt that test firing the gun would also be an important step since it would give me an idea if it handled well and worked properly. But this is not important to do as it is unsafe to try out a new handgun without learning and watching a person who is already familiar with the gun. The next questions that I got wrong was the seventh question which was "It is safe to handle a gun when there are shooters down range if". My answer to that question was (c) "the gun is pointed in a safe direction since other than down range". This was my answer of choice as my gun would have been pointed in a safe direction and so there would not have been any chance of danger. My logic was that if a person is down range it would me that I cannot point the gun down range. Thus I would have to look for an alternative direction in which it would be safe to point my gun and not use it but wait until the person has moved away and the Range officer gives the order to continue firing. The correct answer to the question is (d) "It is never safe to handle a gun when shooters are down range." This would be the correct answer since the only direction to safely point the gun is down range, but when there is a shooter down range even that will not be safe anymore so the correct thing to do would be to leave the gun on the bench, step back and await further instructions from the range officer. The 8th question asks the first rule of gun handling. My answer to that was (c) -keep the gun unloaded until you are ready to shoot. This was my answer of choice since in order to maintain safety when not firing would be not to load the gun, since a gun without ammunition is a safe gun as it will not fire. If a gun cannot fire how it could possibly do any harm. This is wrong and the correct answer is (a) - Keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. The main reason behind this is because one must never at any point assume that a gun is not loaded. This rule helps create a certain mind set. Otherwise there have been cases when people are confident that the gun is not loaded when it actually is or may have a bullet stuck in the chamber or anything for that fact could go wrong. Thus the best way to maintain safety is to always assume the gun to be loaded and point it in a safe direction. The last question that I got wrong was a true or false type question. This is question number 23 and I answered false as I thought that once the gun had the safety on it would not matter whether you pulled the trigger or not since the trigger became redundant with the safety on. But the correct answer is false since its unsafe to pull the trigger even with the safety on as many accidents can still occur. This can happen if the safety is presumed to be on but is actually on or if the safety mechanism fails. Thus it is best never to pull the trigger and to always assume that the gun is loaded and can fire. Thus I have reasoned with the three questions that I have gotten wrong amongst the ones that were asked to be explained. Hopefully the explanation was satisfactory and is what is required Read More