Common Sense??

So today I went to a fire arm safety class. The instructor spent almost 3 hours going through gun safety, which consists of: how to hold a gun, how to unload a gun, how to store a gun, how to transfer a gun safely from one set of hands to another, etc.

This is all fine and dandy, but everyone in the room, all 7 of us, already knew this information. Most of us teethed on guns (just a figure of speech), so why tell us what we already know? Why waste 3 hours of our time telling us old information? Because the instructor is required to tell us… apparently some people in the world do not understand basic gun safety.

Really?? What? I mean, I always thought gun safety came as natural to a person as working with a cooking knife: don’t play around with knives and keep your fingers and hands away from the blade or you are going to get cut = don’t play around with a loaded gun and keep the barrel of the gun away from yourself, other people, and objects besides targets, or someone is going to get hurt.

I mean, this is common knowledge, right? I guess not, because if it was, the poor instructor would not have had to tell us all this information. In fact, he kept using the phrases “A sensible person would know not to do……” and “It’s common sense people”

 One of the main things that continued to come up in his orientation was “Never point a gun at someone unless they are threatening your life.” And then he went into this whole list of all the times you should NOT point/shoot a gun at someone. And not just a list….a DETAILED list.

I was sitting there like “Really? You have to tell people this? Do some people serious not know this? Have some idiots really walked around with guns and do this?!” I mean, all of what the instructor was speaking on was COMMON SENSE! Do some people really not use common sense? Is common sense really alien to some people?? I thought this was only in the movies!!

Honestly, if you are a person that would point even an unloaded gun at someone just for fun, you are just plain (let’s face it) STUPID.

You do not put your finger on the trigger unless you are going to squeeze the trigger. Period.

You do not wave a gun around like it is a toy… or a purse (sorry….just had to bring up the purse thing up…inside joke… no condemnation here)

You do not loan your gun to people who want to borrow it and use it without your supervision.

You do not let a convicted felon or a mentally unstable person use or borrow your gun for any reason.

You do not let a child handle a gun without your supervision.

You do not threaten to harm people with your gun.

You do not put the barrel of your gun over ANYTHING.

You do not use a gun as a force to put a fight in your favor.

I mean, to use the poor instructor’s words: “Really! It’s common sense people!!”

A gun is a tool and a lethal weapon. It is not a toy. It is not the cool badge. It is not a fashion statement. It is not the cube of power. It is a GUN. In your hands it can become a fun hobby, a tool of defense, or an object to bring harm to others.