Common Ways to Break the Rules of Firearms Safety
Simple mistakes with a firearm are easy, but the consequences could be deadly.
Even though accidental deaths with a firearm are on the decline and are at a several decade low, the rules of firearm safety still exist for a reason. Unfortunately, these rules are very easy to break, especially if you become complacent or don’t work to form good habits.
I’ve been in the firearms world for many years and have seen a lot of people breaking the rules of firearm safety. Here are the most common ways I’ve seen people break the rules of firearm safety, and how to avoid these common mistakes.
All of these common ways people break the rules of firearm safety boil down to poor trigger discipline and muzzle discipline. Maintain awareness of the firearm’s muzzle by keeping your trigger finger indexed on the side of the firearm, and knock out two birds with one stone.
An “indexed trigger finger” means keeping your trigger finger high and along the side of the firearm, outside of the trigger guard. This allows shooters to point in the direction the firearm is pointing. When indexing the firearm like this, shooters will instinctively know where the firearm is pointing – making it easy to maintain muzzle awareness.
Written by Brian Purkiss - always a student, sometimes a teacher.
I don't consider myself a competition shooter - I think of myself as a performance pistol shooter. I am all about performing at as high of a level as possible. Towards that end, I am obsessive about learning how to perform. I spend a lot of my life learning from the best across the entire firearms world and even into other areas of performance and other sports. I am a USPSA Carry Optics Grandmaster, currently working towards my second GM title in the Open division.
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