Afraid of Guns? Want to learn a life skill? Read this.

I was three years old. It was either a Saturday or a Sunday after church, my dad took me outside in the driveway with one of the several guns that he owned. We went to the front of the truck and he helped me hold the gun to my shoulder because it was too heavy, and I pulled the trigger. The first gun I have ever shot was a Hawkins Muzzleloader.

After this kind of experience, I’m sure you can guess what kind of life I lived after that. My dad was about 15 years old when he bought his first gun. He hunted to stay alive. His father taught him a little bit about guns and he picked it up from there. He became one of the master gunsmiths in his world and worked for the biggest gun dealer east of the Mississippi River. Needless to say, my life was filled with guns. I would shoot with him or by myself on a daily basis in the backyard-gun-range or at a shooting event like a clay pigeon shoot or even hunting.

To this day, now in my mid-thirties, I carry a revolver every day, no matter where I go (legally, of course). As I have been more and more exposed to the world, I see that people fear guns as if they are the things that are evil in themselves. Many people have heard the idea or seen the meme that if guns kill people, then spoons are what make people fat. This is really something to think about. A gun is a tool, for sure, but it can also be a weapon, just like a hammer, a chainsaw, a digging iron, a bulldozer (Marvin Heemeyer), or basically anything else.

When a kitchen knife cuts a piece of meat, it is a tool. But when it stabs some promiscuous female in a silly horror movie, it becomes a weapon. A weapon then, is only such when its wielder decides that it is.

In any event, this post seeks to teach a man to know what he should do when he runs into a gun, perhaps, at a friend’s house, at the gun shop, or even a life or death situation.

I am about to teach you a life-skill.

There are three rules that you should know. Number one is that you should always treat every gun as if it were loaded, even if you know for certain, that it is not loaded. This is the best way to have a healthy fear for guns, because the risk factor is much higher than, say, seriously injuring oneself with a hammer. What I mean by a healthy fear is that you want to respect the gun, just like you would respect a piece of heavy equipment, or a dirt bike, or a ceiling fan, or a sharp kitchen knife. You have a healthy fear of all of these things to some degree. For instance, I was working at a job once where one of my co-workers brought his dirt bike in to share with the co-workers during lunch break. He would ask, “Have you ever ridden one of these before?” Hopefully, you would answer with the truth. If you didn’t, it was known by the entire company that you were lying, and people instantly lost respect for you if you instantly popped a wheelie and tried to hold on to the dirt bike while it was up in the air and you were running after it and finally dumping it on the ground. After this, the person who lied to him would then tell the truth… and pay for the damages. So having a healthy respect for the machine is a good thing. If you do not have one and jump right into it like it is your job, you will soon learn what it means to have a healthy respect. Make sure you treat the gun as if it is loaded, even if you are certain that it is not.

Secondly, and just as important if not more, never point a gun at anything unless you’re ok with whatever you’re pointing it at becoming destroyed. Usually the ground is the best place to point the gun. If you are with a bunch of bros who are about to go shooting, be honest with them, tell them you have never shot a gun before if you haven’t, but you have read about proper safety in an article such as this. When it is your turn to shoot the gun, don’t be afraid. Just follow these two rules. You will be fine. It is not going to blow up like a stick of dynamite and kill anyone. That seems to be how many people treat guns, but it is definitely not the case. Do not point the gun at anything unless you intend to destroy it. Think of it like a light-saber that has a never ending beam coming out of the barrel. Don’t let that beam touch anything that you do not want to destroy. 

The third rule is always keep your finger out of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire. Do not put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to pull it. People are fallible. We make mistakes. Focus on safety and you will have nothing to worry about. after a while, you won't have to think about it because it will just come naturally.

My father drilled these into my psyche growing up. I was around 12 years old and we were walking through the woods hunting, when we came to a big tree that was fallen. Going over top of the tree was the only way to move forward. When I went over, I laid the gun on the tree and unbeknownst to me, it was pointing at my dad. We both knew that it wouldn’t go off unless the hammer was pulled back, and then the trigger pulled, but still, he made a huge, dramatic event about it. For good reason… I got the idea. 

No modern gun will go off unless the trigger is pulled. Do not be afraid of them. Watch some YouTube videos that help you learn about Gun Safety and Gun Handling. The above information is the most basic rules of Gun handling and safety. They are by no means complete, but they will get you started.

Don’t be afraid of it. You are in control. The more you are around them, the more comfortable you will become. So, when you encounter a gun, no matter if you own it or not, always treat it as if it were loaded (keep your finger off the trigger), and don’t point it at anything unless you are ok with what you’re pointing at becoming destroyed. Think of it as a never ending light saber. May the faith be with you.

–1 Corinthians 16:13-14