The 4 Rules of Gun Safety

The 4 rules of gun safety were put in place to ensure that no accidents happen. If these rules are followed 100% of the time, you can rest assured that you will never have an accident with your firearms.

These rules vary depending on the source, but the below list happens to be our favorite.

The 1st Law:
The Gun Is Always Loaded

Imagine you’re at the range and a buddy of yours has a new gun that he just picked up. He asks if you want to shoot it and you say “Well, obviously!”. Even if he shows you that the gun is clear and sets it down, the first thing you should always do when you pick it up is to safety-check it. This also applies to setting it down again. Whenever the gun is out of your control, even if you set it on a table for 30 seconds, you ALWAYS want to safety-check it when you pick it up. There is no exception to this rule.

The 2nd Law:
Never Point The Gun At Something You Are Not Prepared To Destroy

If you’ve done your safety-check and are absolutely sure that your gun is unloaded, that does not give you the go-ahead to be careless with it. Remembering the first rule, The Gun Is ALWAYS Loaded, you should never point it toward anything that you are not prepared to destroy.

The 3rd Law:
Always Be Sure Of Your Target And What Is Behind It

Bullets can go through – and beyond – your intended target. Knowing what’s behind your target is an essential step to safety and responsibility.

The 4th Law:
Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Sights Are On The Target

This 4th rule, arguably the most important one, should be practiced 100% of the time (as with all of these rules). With any modern firearm, as long as your finger is away from the trigger guard, your firearm will not discharge. Knowing this, there should be 0% chance of a negligent discharge. Notice we didn’t say ‘accidental discharge’, because there is no such thing. It’s negligent, period.

Every single time that you pick up a firearm, you should be doing it as shown in the image to the right. With this mindset each and every time, it will become second nature. Should you have to draw your firearm one day, you will instinctively place your trigger finger along the frame and slide instead of directly on the trigger or inside the trigger guard.