[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The Four Rules (Page 1 of 4)
Posted: 11/29/2009 9:58:32 AM EDT
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1. The Gun Is Always Loaded. 2. Never point A Gun At Something You're Not Prepared To Destroy. 3. Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Sights Are On The Target. 4. Always Be Sure Of Your Target - And What Is Behind It. |
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I went to the range on Friday and ran into a problem related to these simple rules! The owner of the range was showing someone something behind the berm at his 25m range and decided not to tell anyone. People were shooting away, not knowing that the owner of the range was just a few feet behind the dirt they were shooting at.
Luckily I heard him and the other guy talking and we stopped shooting(I was not shooting at the time). |
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1. The Gun Is Always Loaded. False. And stupid. 
Jeff Cooper: RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED There are no exceptions. Do not pretend that this is true. Some people and organizations take this rule and weaken it;e.g. "Treat all guns as if they were loaded." Unfortunately, the "as if" compromises the directness of the statement by implying that they are unloaded, but we will treat them as though they are loaded. No good! Safety rules must be worded forcefully so that they are never treated lightly or reduced to partial compliance. All guns are always loaded - period! This must be your mind-set. If someone hands you a firearm and says, "Don't worry, it's not loaded," you do not dare believe him. You need not be impolite, but check it yourself. Remember, there are no accidents, only negligent acts. Check it. Do not let yourself fall prey to a situation where you might feel compelled to squeal, "I didn't know it was loaded!" |
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1. The Gun Is Always Loaded. False. And stupid. I went to the range once with a friend. I shot in a different section. I let him shoot my Mini-14. When I got back, the gun was already cased up so I loaded it up in the car. When I uncased the gun at home, there was a live round in the chamber, safety on. 
I never went to the range with him again. |
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Quoted: All other rules can be based on this one. If there is only one rule, this is it. All guns are always loaded!Quoted: Quoted: False.1. The Gun Is Always Loaded. And stupid. Jeff Cooper: RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED There are no exceptions. Do not pretend that this is true. Some people and organizations take this rule and weaken it;e.g. "Treat all guns as if they were loaded." Unfortunately, the "as if" compromises the directness of the statement by implying that they are unloaded, but we will treat them as though they are loaded. No good! Safety rules must be worded forcefully so that they are never treated lightly or reduced to partial compliance. All guns are always loaded - period! This must be your mind-set. If someone hands you a firearm and says, "Don't worry, it's not loaded," you do not dare believe him. You need not be impolite, but check it yourself. Remember, there are no accidents, only negligent acts. Check it. Do not let yourself fall prey to a situation where you might feel compelled to squeal, "I didn't know it was loaded!" |
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Always assume (and therefore act as if) every gun is loaded. There are no exceptions. Do not pretend that this is true. Some people and organizations take this rule and weaken it;e.g. "Treat all guns as if they were loaded." Unfortunately, the "as if" compromises the directness of the statement by implying that they are unloaded, but we will treat them as though they are loaded. No good! Safety rules must be worded forcefully so that they are never treated lightly or reduced to partial compliance. |
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Always assume (and therefore act as if) every gun is loaded. There are no exceptions. Do not pretend that this is true. Some people and organizations take this rule and weaken it;e.g. "Treat all guns as if they were loaded." Unfortunately, the "as if" compromises the directness of the statement by implying that they are unloaded, but we will treat them as though they are loaded. No good! Safety rules must be worded forcefully so that they are never treated lightly or reduced to partial compliance. I was explaining what action to take because every gun is loaded. I find no difference in my words- Always assume every gun is loaded and your words- The gun is always loaded. |
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Quoted: I did this thread about a year ago.  I was surprised at the number of people that wanted to argue about them. And, as has been noted, I will not go shooting with anyone that is so foolish.\ Some people just love to argue. They get a thrill out of poking holes in well established, generally accepted rules. Most of them are just foolish though.  |
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Quoted: Quoted: Does everyone here keep all their firearm loaded? I don't. There is an unloaded gun in my car right now. WOW! I dare you to put it to your head and pull the trigger. I triple-dog dare you.  Now why would I want to do that? I don't point guns at myself loaded or unloaded. |
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Quoted: Quoted: What do you call a gun that contains no ammunition? Loaded, or unloaded? There's no such thing as an unloaded gun. I lernd tat rite hear on arfcommy. I just wanted too see how far they will take dogma over logic. It's a good idea to pretend all guns are loaded, all of the time, but unloading a gun and checking the chamber will quickly prove that unloaded guns do indeed exist.  |
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I will go to the trouble to tell this long story.
I found out what it is like to "live" the four rules, all the time, when I went to Thunder Ranch. We were told that we could wear our pistols on our belts, or take them off and leave them in our vehicles. But we could not "mess with them", except on the range. Only when on a "hot" range, were we to remove them from our holsters and mess with them at all. You were welcome to reach down and remove the magazine from the pistol (without removing the pistol from the holster) at any time, to load mags or change the mag. At lunch, we could go into the welcome center to eat, with or without our pistols. I asked Clint, "Do they have to be unloaded?" He looked at me like I had asked him if the moon was square. He said, "All guns are always loaded." During his lecture, he pulled his pistol to demonstrate some procedure, but always pointed at a wall. I came to realize that his pistol was fully loaded. It did not matter, because he was going to treat it as loaded, whether it had bullets in it or not. Why? Because all guns are always loaded. At the end of each day, as we finished that last session, the instructor would announce over the loud speaker, "Put your weapon into whatever condition you wish for the trip to your hotel room." You could leave it on your belt, or remove it and place it into your shooting bag, but whatever you were going to do, you did on a Hot range. Then you left it alone and did not handle it until you were off of Thunder Ranch property. Clint was absolutely "nuts" about the Four Rules. And he told me that he had never had an accidental injury on TR. Many other facilities have had a number of them over the years. He warned students that one slight mistake concerning the Four Rules would get a warning. The next one, and you were off the property. No one has ever been accidentally shot by following the Four Rules. |
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What do you call a gun that contains no ammunition? Loaded, or unloaded? There's no such thing as an unloaded gun. I lernd tat rite hear on arfcommy. I just wanted too see how far they will take dogma over logic. It's a good idea to pretend all guns are loaded, all of the time, but unloading a gun and checking the chamber will quickly prove that unloaded guns do indeed exist.
Jeff Cooper explained it this way: "ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED The only exception to this occurs when you have a firearm in your hands and you have personally unloaded it for checking. As soon as you put it down, Rule 1 applies again. " Of course guns can be "unloaded". We do it all the time to clean and maintain them. But we "treat them" as loaded until we have personally verified that they are empty. And, like me, I bet that most of you would not even point a weapon at someone, even if you had personally unloaded it yourself.
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1. The Gun Is Always Loaded. False. And stupid. This. Once you check and confirm that it is not loaded....it ceases to be loaded. I always check when someone hands me a gun. You 2 are missing the point. As far as I'm concerned, that statement is not an exact reflection of the gun's status; it's a mindset to use while handling the gun. |
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1. The Gun Is Always Loaded. False. And stupid. This. Once you check and confirm that it is not loaded....it ceases to be loaded. I always check when someone hands me a gun. If you and I were shooting together, would you then point that "empty" gun at me? |