Not long ago, I went to an area gun show and, of course, took a couple of guns to trade. At the safety table were two middle-age deputy sheriffs, nice guys. I handed one a double-action Smith & Wesson revolver and gave the other a double-action Colt revolver. The first deputy held the gun and just stared at it; he clearly didn’t know how to open it. I told him to push forward on that little button right there. He did, and the second deputy started pushing forward on the cylinder release on the Colt. No sir, you have to pull back on that one. The first deputy, with an embarrassed grin, said that you learn something new every day.
Now, while it is critical for law enforcement officers to know how to safely handle all sorts of firearms, and it is not a bad idea for the armed citizen, either. A family concerned about personal safety may have all sorts of firearms and every participating family member ought to know how to safely and properly handle each one. One simply doesn’t know which gun will be closest when violence visits.
Military folks also talk about “battlefield pickups.” This is where the individual’s firearm has gone empty or malfunctioned and there is another gun—someone else’s—lying nearby. The idea is to be able to pick it up and stay in the fight. That could also happen to law enforcement, and even the armed citizen. It is just a really good idea for you to educate yourself. Education is power, and it just might save your life.
Another good example is the person, new to personal defense, who buys a gun simply because it is the one being currently reviewed in all the magazines. It might be the right choice for the individual, but it might not. How is one to know? One of the best ways to find out is to shoot a lot of different guns and educate yourself. Many public shooting ranges rent guns to patrons, and a person can quickly get a lot of experience. Range staff will also be happy to explain the gun’s features and proper handling. For a little expense (and a whole lot of fun), a person can increase their education considerably.
Of course, one of the worst mistakes a new gun owner can make is to buy a gun and ammunition and just assume that’s enough because they probably won’t need it anyway. Instead, his or her education—and safety—grows in leaps and bounds when they take that gun to a defensive-shooting school and get professional training. A good instructor can quickly teach a student how to be more effective with the chosen defensive firearm or help the student find one that may be better suited for them.
Yet, education is clearly not just a school thing; it is a lifelong endeavor. I have been interested in guns since I was a little kid; never mind how long ago that was. And even all these years later, hardly a week goes by that I don’t learn something new. I’ll let you in on a little secret; gunwriters aren’t gun experts. We are students of the gun and we share what we learn with our readers. A good gunwriter is continually reading, studying and, of course, shooting. Our education is ongoing—and yours should be, too.
The gun magazines and books of my youth have been supported in more recent times by the internet. If there is not a particular gun topic to be found on the internet, I don’t know what it would be. It’s a pretty cheap source of educational material, but you must be careful in weeding out good information from bad online.
Whether we realize it or not, our personal education is an ongoing, lifelong thing in our everyday lives. Why isn’t it just as important in something as serious as personal defense, where our lives, and those of our loved ones, might be at stake? I think it certainly is.
Education is power, and it also opens the door to interesting things that we have never considered. I can’t begin to count the number of students who have shown up with their gun, about half scared of it, and ready for class to already be over. It is interesting to watch the change that comes over them when they realize that they can really do this and, what’s more, it is kind of fun. Pretty soon they are enjoying themselves, interacting with other shooters, and comparing guns and information. Many of them go from being a reluctant gun owner to being heavily involved in the shooting sports in general.
I continually say, “You are responsible for your own safety.” Education is an ongoing process and your safety, and that of your family, will tremendously benefit from your ongoing search for knowledge about this serious subject.
