The clock is running in this is Friday 15. My name is Paul Carlson and I’m glad you’re here with me today in this Friday 15 episode of the Safety Solutions Academy podcast. Today we’re going take a fast and direct look at what it is that’s important for people to know about guns if they’re non shooters. That’s right we’re going talk about what non-shooters need to know about firearms. Again want to thank you so much for joining me on the Safety Solutions Academy podcast for another Friday 15 now let’s get right into it.
You see folks there are a lot of things in life that I don’t have a great interest in. Some things I’m plain and simple scared to death off and don’t want to have anything to do with. At the same time a lot of these things have a tendency to be a real part of daily life. Maybe not daily life but life over the long term and the fact is we have to learn to live with dealing with some of those things whether we want to or not.
Let me give you an example and this is my favorite example of this kind of a situation. You see changing a tire; I’m not a guy that really enjoys working on cars I can do it if I need to. I can handle what it is that a real mechanic would call the basics. I can change a belt if I need to, I can take care of hoses and replace those, even patch them if I need to for short period time. I can change filters I can change oil and of course this example I can change a tire on a car. But the fact the matter is I don’t want to and in a lot of situations I would very much avoid trying to do so.
For instance on the side of the busy road, that can be a downright scary situation and it’s exactly for those kinds of situations that I have a AAA membership. You see that kind of a membership is a great idea but it doesn’t mean that someday I’m not going to have to change a tire on the side of the road because help isn’t available. Maybe the tow truck is going to be three or four hours, maybe there’s a storm and they can’t get to me at all. The fact is that even though I don’t want to change a tire I may have to.
Now there are a lot of folks out there that may not be particularly interested in guns and that doesn’t make them bad people it simply makes them folks that are the same way about guns that I am about cars. Now the question is do they possess those basic skills that they may need even though they have no desire to interact with guns on a daily basis? And some people might be asking do they need any basic skills?
I would argue yes, I would say that just because you don’t want to interact with guns doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to. Let’s not forget that if you are not a shooter you may have folks in your life that are shooters. If you’re listening to this podcast right now because you found it you have these people in your life. Maybe it’s your spouse maybe it’s a child, maybe it’s a brother or sister or friends, folks that you spend time with, folks that you care about that do not share your passion for firearms.
No if you’re listening to this podcast because someone else recommended it to you maybe you’re that person, maybe you’re the person that doesn’t particularly enjoy guns doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. Maybe you’re downright terrified of them that doesn’t mean that you’re not someday going to have to interact with a firearm even though you don’t want to.
See there are guns all around us, the houses that you visit, the homes you visit and people you spend time with. The homes your children visit there are guns in some of those homes. The people you interact with on a daily basis even out and about in public, those people may legally and with good intention be carrying firearms and you may find yourself in a situation where you need to deal with a firearm.
The fact that there are guns around you and you don’t want to be a part of guns it’s not a reason for alarm but it is a reason, it is a motivator it is a direct drive for you to make sure that you are educated about firearms. Just because you don’t love guns doesn’t mean you may not find yourself in a situation where you need to interact with a gun and you need to do so safely just like I might need to change that tire on the side of the road.
So let’s take a look at what it is that I think might be important for non-shooters to know about guns. And I think the first thing that people should know whether they’re shooters or not whether young or old adults or children you should learn what to do if you find a gun. Imagine you’re in this situation maybe you’re volunteering for your church and you’re asked to go and visit some elderly folks and spend some time with them. Folks that maybe don’t have family in the area folks that are lonely, maybe folks that need a little bit of assistance.
And when you stop by the apartment of a kind man that you spent time with before you sit down on the couch and between the cushions you find that there’s a firearm there. What is it that you should do in that situation? Maybe the person is gone and you’re dropping off groceries and there’s a firearm right in the middle of the table. Maybe you’re at the playground with your children and they climb inside that big tractor tire that’s half buried in the ground and they find a gun inside that tractor tire. What do you do if you find a gun?
Now the best resource that’s out there on this topic is Eddie Eagle Gun Safe. It’s a program that is sponsored by the NRA it is free of charge and if you connect with Safety Solutions Academy I will send you the link to be able to find Eddie Eagle. And obviously you can do a Google search for Eddie Eagle Gun Safe and you’re going to come right to the page that you need. The program is great you should share it with your children but don’t ignore it if you’re an adult. Just because it’s a kids program doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to you because it does.
So let’s find out what it is that you need to do if you find a gun and the steps are so simple the first step is stop. Take a moment and think just stop reflect on the situation and pause. Next don’t touch. You see guns… we’ll talk about this in a bit, they don’t work unless someone is working them. If they are just lying there on the ground or sitting on a table or even pinched between the cushions of the couch, the gun is going to do nothing until someone makes it do something. If you don’t touch it, it will do nothing.
Step three run away. Maybe you’re not going to run as an adult you leave the area, you’re going to go away. If you don’t want to deal with that firearm, if you don’t know how to do deal with that firearm the best case scenario is if you’re not around it. If the gun isn’t near you it makes it much more difficult for it to harm you so get out of there.
And next tell a grown up. The fourth step is to tell a grown up. Now you are a grown up, maybe we should take this for you and say find someone that’s responsible and understands guns so that they can deal with the situation appropriately. Maybe in that situation where you’re in the apartment of the elderly person you might let them know that that firearm is there. So that they can deal with that firearm and get it stored properly between the couch cushions, that’s not a proper place to store a handgun or stage a handgun for defense it just doesn’t work.
If it’s on the playground maybe you’re going to call the police sounds like a good idea to me. You get the idea, stop don’t touch, runaway, tell a grown up, those are the steps that’s how you should share it with your children and explain in detail and its what you should do as well. Jump online connect with Safety Solutions Academy. Head to Eddie Eagle on the inner webs and make sure that you spend some time getting familiar with that program. It could save your life.
So the first thing you need to know is what to do if you find a gun. Next you need to understand the rules for safe gun handling. Imagine you’re in the situation; you walk into that apartment of the elderly person they take a gun out because they’ve got a question about it. They don’t realize you’re not a gun person they just think everyone’s gun person. Back in the day when they were young everybody knew how to use guns and they start to hand that gun to you.
Maybe this is a situation that you want to be able to take control of. You need to know and understand the rules for safe gun handling, you need to know that you should keep your finger someplace other than the trigger. You need to know that you should keep the gun pointed in a relatively safe direction. You need to know that you need to stop and think because you’re in control of a deadly weapon and if you use it incorrectly you can hurt or kill yourself or somebody else.
You need understand that you should minimize handling of a gun and that no one person should have the authority to declare that gun unloaded. You need to know these rules and understand these rules. My quick review of them here it’s not enough, get out there and get some quality training in gun safety. If you’re not a shooter you need to know the rules anyway because you may find yourself in a situation where you’re forced to handle a firearm.
If you’re not a shooter I think you need to know how to unload a gun and verify that it’s unloaded. Imagine that you and the loved one that’s in your life that carries a gun are involved in a car accident. They’re carrying their gun at the time, they have to go to the hospital, the injuries aren’t serious but they’re to take a ride in the ambulance. They let the law enforcement officers know they’ve got a gun and the police officer looks to you and expects you to take control of that gun. Maybe the gun wasn’t in a holster maybe the police officer removed it from the holster to hand you a loaded gun. What is it that you do with that?
You need to know how it is that you should unload a gun and verify that it’s unloaded. That’s an important skill for someone even if they’re not a shooter. Now we’ve been looking at this from the standpoint of someone that happens to come across a gun in passive circumstances but you know what you could come across a firearm in violent circumstances as well. Where someone is trying to hurt you or other innocent people with a firearm and there are some things that you need to know even if you’re not a shooter in those situations.
First of all you need to know that guns don’t operate on their own people need to be operating the gun for it to do anything. We talked about that briefly and we talked about it between the cushions. If you just leave it there nothing’s going to happen until someone responsible comes to come take care of it. Guns don’t operate on their own when they’re trying to hurt people either. If you need to stop someone from hurting people with a gun you can stop that person you can shut them down.
Let’s say a fire extinguisher to the back of the noggin applied vigorously and repeatedly that’s going to stop that gun from hurting anyone, why? It’s not going to hurt anybody because guns don’t hurt people. People with evil in their hearts hurt people. Guns don’t operate on their own, did you know that guns don’t always work? When guns run out of ammunition they don’t work until they get more ammunition. If you find yourself in a violent circumstance and you see that pause you see that person pulling the trigger but nothing’s happening that gun could be out of ammunition.
That is your time to act again fire extinguisher, two by four, brick to the back of the skull however it is that you need to take care that person to keep them from reloading that gun again that’s the time to act.
Know that guns malfunction they don’t always work correctly it will look exactly the same in many ways as someone running out of ammunition pulling the trigger nothing happens now is your time act. Maybe you don’t have time to wait understand that guns can be caused to malfunction stay out from in front of the gun and put your hands on the moving parts and that gun is going to stop working and that gives you the opportunity to do something else.
These things apply whether you’re a shooter or not a shooter. Also understand that guns need to be pointed at something important to have any kind of an important effect. You know we talked about this with our gun safety rules keep a gun pointed in a relatively safe direction. If you can change were a gun is pointed you are going to reduce the person’s ability to harm things that are valuable and I’m talking specifically about human life.
You know these are things that you need to know as a non-shooter so that you can keep yourself safe even if you’re shooter and you don’t have the ability to use a firearm to stop a person with another firearm it doesn’t mean they can’t be stopped. If you remember that guns don’t always work then you can do something about the situation, whether you enjoy spending time with firearms or not there are some things that it pays to know. If you’re not a shooter think about what it is that you need to know so that you can keep yourself safe.
Folks if you appreciated this Friday 15, if you got some insight about what it is that non-shooters should know about firearms I would like you to connect with me and with Safety Solutions Academy so that you can learn more. When you connect I’m going to send you a link to some free resources that I talked about in this episode. Some links to help you find out what it is you need to know simply take out your cell phone right now start a new text message. And I want you to text the word Friday 15 the number 33444. All one word lowercase letters Friday in the numbers 1 5. Friday 15 text that to 33444 and I’m going send you that link where you can download your free information about today’s episode all of the other Friday 15 episodes and future episodes, we’ll have information posted there as well.
Thank you so much for spending time with me today, thank you for connecting with Safety Solutions Academy. I hope that you learned something new about what it is that non-shooters need to know about guns. Thank you so much for spending time with me, make sure you get on out there. Get yourself some training when you do make sure you keep it simple. Please stay safe and as always have a great day.