33 Rules of Gun Safety Every Gun Owner Should Know

Use of guns has been extensively increased and spread all over the world, people prefer to keep guns and other firearms, within their access like in their homes, cars or offices, so that they could deal with spontaneous and unexpected tragedies.

Since, the rates of crime are extensively increasing all over the world, leading to severe security concerns of the people, as a result of which people usually prefer to keep themselves armed and weaponed with legal and licensed weapons so that certain situations could be dealt accordingly.

In order to arrange a safety guide for keeping a weapon in your home, we have proposed 33 tips to resolve and avoid such issues, which can be depicted as follows:

1. Deaths via Guns

According to a research report, it has been observed that approximately 114 children younger than 20 years, died because of accidental deaths via guns and other firearms in 2017.

Therefore, primarily it is recommended that whoever owns a gun, must always keep the weapon away from the reach of children and other adolescents who are unaware of the using methods of these weapons.

2. Keep your weapons in unreachable places

A person should always keep his weapons in such places which are unreachable for children so that accidental death and injuries could be avoided to a maximum extent.

3. Educational sessions for teenagers

Even if the young teenagers and children, aged above 5 years, are aware of the places where you keep your weapons hidden, then they must be thoroughly taught about the safe use of guns.

For this purpose, it is recommended that teenagers must be provided with educational classes and sessions from professionals so that they could be informed about mishappening and dangerous hazards which might occur due to unsafe use of weapons.

4. Never forget to unload your guns:

One of the major cases which have been observed in gun injuries or accidents is that people usually forget to unload their guns after coming back from hunting or other shooting sessions.

This is one of the most prevailing and dangerous factors which might result in drastically harmful effects as unloaded and unattended guns, when they will be grabbed by any of the individuals, might result in a sudden shoot out due to accidentally pressing the trigger of the weapon.

5. Never store in unlocked drawers:

A person should never place his firearms or other weapons in unlocked drawers, through which children may have their easy access to.

6. Keep it in the locker:

It is also recommended that firearms should be kept within a locker or any drawer or cabinet in the house which can be secured and locked.

7. The owner must keep the keys

The owner or head of the family must keep the keys, and should never hand it over to any of the untrustworthy person of the family including children, maids, servants etc.

8. Keep ammunition separate from the guns

The other equipment or ammunition of these firearms must always be kept separately from the guns, and both products should be unreachable for the children.

9. Place a trigger lock

Moreover, your weapons and firearms should always be equipped with a trigger lock, so that before using these weapons a person has to unlock the equipment.

The method of unlocking the gun should not be known by everyone, but if required, they must be taught and learnt about how to unlock the firearm in case of severe emergencies or accidental situations.

10. Put a Gun alarm

In addition, a person might also think about placing a gun alarm with the device, which will start buzzing once the device comes under the access of an unauthorized person.

This is one of the most helpful and effective methods for gun safety as the sudden buzzing of alarm will not only scare the person who has been trying to use it but also alert all the other members of the family so that they could take spontaneous actions.

11. Safety tips for visitors

In addition, if any of the visitors or guests, visiting your house are armed, you must ask them to provide their weapons so that they could be kept safely in a locked cabinet or drawer to avoid accidental shoot.

12. A separate place for Gun storage keys

A person should also keep separate places for placing the gun storage keys and other keys of different household areas.

Keeping all the keys at one place might confuse the children from taking the wrong set of keys. In addition, the gun storage keys should never be in access of the children.

13. Keep away from suicidal or depressed family members

One of the major concerns for people who keep armed weapons within their homes is that, if any of the residents of the home are either depressed or having suicidal thoughts, then it becomes more obvious that these individuals might reach out to the weapons to harm themselves.

Therefore, guns and other firearms should be immediately removed from the house if a depressed or psychotic person appears to be living in your house.

14. Guide your children about Gun use

Since children are the ones who need to learn the maximum amount of safety for the process of using guns and dealing with them in any way.

It is recommended that people should make their children learn about the dangers and hazards of the misuse of guns. Parents should take this responsibility for guiding their children and make a proper chart of rules and tips for using and handling with guns.

15. Keep other children aware of Gun use

If your children will be sufficiently informed and aware of the guidelines for using guns, they will also be able to make their friends and other children aware of safety and precautionary measures for using guns.

So, teaching your children will not only help your family, but it will help the society as well.

16. Teach about real guns and toy guns

Children and teenagers should be taught about the difference between real guns and toy guns, so that they may differentiate between them.

Also, they must be taught that real guns do not work like toy guns, and they are supposed to be extremely dangerous and might kill a person if not handled properly.

17. Misuses and Hazards of Guns:

One of the biggest concerns nowadays is, small aged children, watch these movies and try to adopt every single action performed in the movies which might lead to serious injuries and accidents of these children.

Therefore, children and their actions must be observed closely and should be taught about the merits and demerits of every action performed by them.

18. Do not play with toy guns

Children, less than 7 years of age, should not be allowed to play with even toy guns, consisting of pellets or small ball-shaped bullets, as these pellets might also lead to serious injuries like the eye, ear or nose injuries might occur if these toy guns are not handled properly.

19. Always consider that the gun is loaded

In addition, there are plenty of guidelines and safety measures which needs to be followed by adults as well. Firstly, the adults must always consider a real gun as if it is loaded, even if you are sure about the fact that the gun is unloaded.

As most of the times, when people consider the guns are unloaded, their assumption seems to occur inaccurate and leads to accidental deaths or injuries.

20. Handle properly while cleaning your guns

Cleaning a gun cautiously is also one of the most crucial tasks to perform, therefore owners of the gun must perform this task by their self only, as they are the ones who are completely aware of all the functions and operations of their guns. They must be extremely careful and conscious while cleaning their weapons to avoid any accidents.

21. Do not put your finger at the trigger

If you are not intended to shoot at the moment, never put your finger over the trigger if you are not ready. Even if you are aiming at a certain direction, keep your eyes over your aim, but your finger on the side of the gun, or you could also place your finger on the trigger guard. In this way, it will protect you from accidentally firing a shot until you are ready for your target.

22. Do not use Guns while being emotional

Never ever use these weapons or guns in the state of anger or frustration.

It has been observed that seldom when you are under influence of your emotions and being super excited, happy, or even depressed or frustrated, these exaggerated emotions might lead you to perform certain acts which will give you lifetime repentance.

Therefore, never use the guns in the state of overwhelming emotions in your heart.

23. Do not use in physically impaired condition

A person should not use these weapons either in a condition of physical impairment or disability like being blind, limping or any other state.

24. Do not use in mentally impaired condition

Also, a person should not be using these weapons when he is mentally or psychologically impaired, due to abuse or excessive misuse of alcohol or drugs.

25. Do not straight fire in the air

Since people have been observed to be using these guns and firearms on celebratory occasions like New Year’s Eve or 4^th of July, in which they usually fire off Stray bullets into the air, but these bullets might result in coming back to the ground with even greater speed and might lead to accidental and unexpected injuries.

26. Learn to use guns at the intruders

All the guidelines and tips must be learnt by the owner of these weapons so that in case of attack from an intruder, a person should not hesitate to use the gun over him.

As it might lead to severe consequences if, by any chance, the intruder overtakes the gun from you and handle it improperly over your family members or yourself.

27. Look behind your target

If you are shooting or aiming at a target then you must also look at other things as well which are either behind, beside or a few meters away from your target object.

If there are other living beings as well at some distance from your target, then missing of your targeted aim might also result in injury or death of other living beings which are present in nearby distance from the targeted object.

28. The trigger must be free from obstruction

Always make sure that your trigger is absolutely free from obstruction, as sometimes, there are chances for dirt or small pebbles to enter inside the chamber or barrel of your gun, therefore it is recommended to properly clean your gun when it is in unloaded state, and then load and aim to shoot.

29. Keep your ears protected

If you are targeting an object with complete preparation, then it is recommended to protect your ears from the explosive sound of a fire shot.

As, the sound of the fire shot might result in damaging soft tissues of your ear, therefore in case of targeted fire shots, you must always wear ear muffs.

30. Have detailed knowledge about the gun

It is also recommended that before initiating the use of your gun for regular purposes, you must always have detailed knowledge about how it works, and what are some of the key points which you must remember for gun protection and safety.

Moreover, the parts of the gun which might cause troubles while using must be evaluated so that it will not bother you while using it.

31. Check the expiry date of ammunition

Ammunitions which are being used in your guns have a certain expiry date. However, most of these weapons have a longer shelf life but some of them might expire sooner due to their improper storage conditions, therefore always observe closely whether your ammunition is expired or not. Also, keep them in a cool and refrigerated area.

32. Misfiring of the weapon

In case your weapon misfires, you must not immediately remove the weapon away from your target to check the issue, instead you must wait for half a minute and keep your gun aimed at the target.

If the issue is not delayed fire, then you must check the malfunctioning in ammunition or other obstructions in the gun which caused the issue of misfiring.

33. Practice as much as you can

Most of all, it is recommended that you must practice shooting as much as you can to make yourself more familiar with the weapon and sort out the issues within.

Conclusion:

Hence, in order to keep a legal weapon under your range, it is recommended that people should thoroughly go through the aforementioned tips and tricks so that unexpected issues and harmful effects from these weapons could be avoided and prevented. In fact, every resident of the house must learn the measures for gun safety to avoid accidental injuries, wounds or harms.