19Sept05 On training Accidents, from a friend in Nuclear Security: "We have the same fear-mongering attitude here. It drives everything 'management' wants us to do. We are supposed to maintain our pistols, but neither opportunity nor facilities are provided, and we are not allowed to take them home and clean them there. Thus, no maintenance is ever preformed. Even rifles carried by 'tactical responders' are always unloaded with no magazine inserted. Magazines are kept in a zippered bag, which is never opened, and magazines are seldom checked to see if they are fully charged. Signs glibly listing Four Basic Rules of firearms safety are posted everywhere. They are nearly as ubiquitous as 'clearing barrels.' If spite of all our anal, fear-induced 'safety procedures,' last night I watched one officer inadvertently point his rifle at a shift supervisor and a radio operator, all in one, smooth, fluid motion. He was, of course, oblivious, because all guns here are always 'unloaded.' So, instead of developing confident, competent, independent operators, we have careless, naive, neglectful oafs who 'feel good' about themselves. But, few of them will stand and fight, because, deep inside, they know the truth. They know, as does management, they have no real skills. It's all just 'let's pretend.' Thus, we will continue to have gun accidents here, and, in a real emergency, most armed guards will panic and run when the first shot is fired. Every time there is a gun accident, management first does a Curly, Moe, and Larry imitation, then scurries for cover, then finally admits they are completely 'mystified.' Nothing changes, and we go back to where we were. Management's reply to us is that our concerns are 'overstated.'" Comment: Loosely translated: "We don't care. We don't have to." /John

19Sept05

Gun Handling Story, from a student:

"After a day at the range, I took my G32 out of its holster in order to unload it, so it could be cleaned. My backup pistol, of course, remained i n its holster and fully loaded.

Holding the G32 in my master grip, I turned the gun ejection port down and pulled the magazine out of the gun. I then racked the slide backwards and let it go, then locked it to the rear.

A single, live round dropped out from the magazine well. I guessed it was the one from the chamber. I was wrong! Adhering to procedure, I then chec ked the magazine well, bolt face, and chamber with my little finger. It was the n that I felt another live round, this one still in the chamber!

Apparently as I pulled the magazine out, the top round came loose and fell out into the magazine well. As I subsequently racked the slide back, the extractor evidently failed to pull out the round that was actually chambere d. Fortunately, there is sufficient redundancy built into our unloading proced ure, including tactile verification, that, even with this unrepresentative sequence of events, I still didn't endure the embarrassment of firi ng a round into my Safe Direction Bag while inside my condo!

As gun carriers, we handle weapons a lot. If the chances of an unforeseen circumstance, such as described above, are only one in a thousand, we are going to run into that event within a single year or two! Manual verificat ion of a 'cleared' weapon is thus a must, and I'm glad that this ha s been hammered into me."

Comment: Here we have the real crux: the gunfighter whom you will become during a true "reckoning" is probably not the person with w hom you are most familiar. He is instead a developing entity within your primitive brain. All your training is solely in building up this inner, evolving warrior. Correspondingly, anything you do to undermine him will come back to cost yo u when the true test comes, and the true "test" may not be a fight. It may be an accident avoided when doing something as simple and routine as unloading a pistol you've carried around all day!

/John