Most of us learn the four rules of gun safety before we ever pick up a heater. They’re usually imparted by someone older and more experienced who figures they’re as good a place as any to get a new shooter off on the right foot – not to mention insuring he or she retains the full use of his or her right foot the rest of their natural life. The best thing about the four rules: they’re simple, easily remembered and pretty much all-encompassing. You have to violate at least two of them before something that will ruin your day happens. But this is National Safety Month (who knew?). And just like Gaston did when designing his first firearm, our perfection-pursuing friends at Glock have taken the opportunity to re-think the tried and true . . .
They sent an email blast yesterday across the gun world detailing their ten rules, along with a quote from VP Gary Fletcher, “Gun safety is at the core of GLOCK’s mission as a company, and we encourage all gun owners to take safety very serious.” So without further ado, here they are:
Rule 1: Train with all your guns.
- Every gun is unique in the way it feels, handles and fires, so it’s important to achieve a maximum comfort level with every gun you own by practicing with each one separately at a local dealer or range. Done on a regular basis, this exercise will strengthen familiarity and muscle memory, so each gun feels as natural and comfortable as the next, even in stressful situations. While training on the range, remember to always use acceptable eye and ear protection.
Rule 2: Handle every firearm as if it’s loaded.
Rule 3: Always point the muzzle in a safe direction, away from yourself and others.
- A safe direction means that the muzzle of the gun is pointed so that if it were to accidently fire it would not cause injury or damage.
Rule 4: Keep your finger outside the firearm’s trigger guard and off the trigger until you have aligned the firearm’s sights on a safe target and you have made the decision to fire.
Rule 5: Always be certain that your target and the surrounding area are safe before firing.
Rule 6: Know your gun’s safety features.
- The safety features of firearms vary in accordance with the mechanical characteristics of each gun. Since guns can be so different, never handle any firearm without first having thoroughly familiarized yourself with the particular type of firearm you are using.
Rule 7: Store your gun properly.
- Guns placed in drawers, closets, desks, cabinets, or other unlocked, accessible places are simply not secure. For proper storage always use a personal safe or single gun lock box with a trigger lock placed on the firearm for an added layer of protection.
Rule 8: Educate loved ones on gun safety.
- Take time to teach your loved ones, including children of an appropriate age, the basic safety guidelines outlined here. Bring them with you to the range to become more comfortable around guns and to see their proper, safe use firsthand.
Rule 9: Ensure all users are properly trained.
- Whether it’s a family member or friend, it’s essential that anyone else who will be using your gun is properly trained. Gun education, training and classes are widely available for both adult beginners and children over a certain age, are offered for a reasonable fee and can be taken at firing ranges and dealers in your area.
Rule 10: Properly maintain your gun.
- Gun maintenance includes proper use, cleaning and service. It is important to use good ammunition of the proper caliber. Occasional cleaning and lubrication will keep your gun functioning at an optimal level. To maintain the integrity of the pistol, GLOCK recommends leaving it in factory-issued form with no aftermarket parts. Should an issue arise with a factory-issued pistol, contact the manufacturer’s customer service.
An admirable attempt, to be sure. Yes, we could quibble that Rule 6 is covered by Rule 1. And good luck committing these ten to memory as easily as Jeff Cooper’s original four, but anything that advances the cause of gun safety is A-OK with us.
Cooper had his Four Rules. The NRA has its Three Rules. In Smith & Wesson manuals, you will find more than two dozen rules. So really, there are a lot of rules, and they’re all good.
+1 Ralph
tl;dr
Yeah. I fuzzed out at #6.
#1 has to do with guns you own– be as skilled as possible with all of them.
#6 has to do with other people’s guns. When your friend lets you shoot his gun, make sure you know how to make it safe before you hand it back to him.
I award myself for hopeless pedant of the day.
The NRA gun safety rules are not the only rules. They are just the shortest set that are the easiest to remember. I had to learn 10 gun safety rules. Glock’s rules are slightly different, but these may be standard in Austria or in Europe.
I also noticed Glock did not include “Know your target and what is beyond.” This is a very important rule. An acquaintance of mine shot his dog through the paper target at 500 yards or so. He couldn’t see the dog beyond it.
I thought the same thing when I first skimmed them. But check number 5. I think that’s their version.
11. ALWAYS clear your weapon (and PROVE it is cleared) before pulling the trigger during disassembly.
That would be “ALWAYS clear your Glock,” because there are plenty of striker-fired handguns that do not require a trigger press for takedown. E.g., Smith & Wesson M&P, which incorporates a sear release lever, avoiding a potential problem.
Gotcha, Ralph. I knew you’d take that bait. 😉
While the M&P DOES have a sear release lever, it’s a PITA. Personally, I just use the trigger to release the sear, because it’s so much faster.
IDK why that bothers so many people. It boggles the mind to think that there are people out there that don’t check the chamber to see if it’s loaded before pulling the friggin’ trigger.
It’s an asinine design. Plenty of manufacturers have managed to offer a striker-fired semi that doesn’t require a pull of the trigger for field-stripping. The trigger is for one thing and only one thing: making the gun go “bang”.
Don’t shoot rifles much do you? Every Mauser design I can think of (other than the 1903) requires you to pull the trigger to remove the bolt.
What Mausers are you talking about? A 91, 93, 95, 96, 98, 09 etc and 1903 all use the bolt release on the left side of the receiver. In fact you remove them cocked so they can be disassembled (91,93, 95, 96). the 98 and others cock on opening. Perhaps you mean the Moisin?
I was referring to striker-fired semi-automatic pistols, and you’re going to jump to bolt-action rifles? Okay. You’re right; I’m wrong.
12. Do not fire your Glock without the protection of an EOD suit.
Rule 7: Store your gun properly.
Guns placed in drawers, closets, desks, cabinets, or other unlocked, accessible places are simply not secure. For proper storage always use a personal safe or single gun lock box with a trigger lock placed on the firearm for an added layer of protection.
DISAGREE.
Locks and single gun lock boxes can be defeated with moderate effort. Truly securing a firearm involves taking it apart and stashing the parts in separate locations. For those of us with double digit gun collections, it is wise to ensure one’s gun safe is integrated into the building structure its located in.For whatever can be wheeled into a home on a dolly can be wheeled right back out the same way.
While not all of us can afford a really nice safe, I think this is a rule of minimal effort. Point taken though..
Truly securing a firearm involves taking it apart and stashing the parts in separate locations.
Burglars and kids will find anything you stash, even if there are parts all over the place. Kids are also smart. They’ll find a way to reassemble the gun.
“Hiding” firearms has never worked. At best, stashing parts all over the place merely renders the gun temporarily inoperable. And while a $5000, 2000 lb gun safe is certainly the best protection, most people won’t buy one to store their $400, 10 oz. Ruger LCP.
A defensive weapon, unloaded, disassembled, and parts scattered is no longer a defensive tool. When confronted with an intruder, the crime victim needs a prepared tool that is near to hand and easy to access.
These two are all about keeping a certain firearms manufacturer safe from torts claims (NTTAWWT):
Rule 6: Know your gun’s safety features.
The safety features of firearms vary in accordance with the mechanical characteristics of each gun. Since guns can be so different, never handle any firearm without first having thoroughly familiarized yourself with the particular type of firearm you are using.
Rule 7: Store your gun properly.
Guns placed in drawers, closets, desks, cabinets, or other unlocked, accessible places are simply not secure. For proper storage always use a personal safe or single gun lock box with a trigger lock placed on the firearm for an added layer of protection.
because if four, interlocking, rules for safety are good then 10 long-winded rules must be better…right?
That seem to reiterate what the original four basically said to begin with? Obviously!
I would have expected a list of gun safety rules from Glock to include “always use a holster which covers the trigger when carrying a handgun” that “glock leg” is a well known euphemism.
-D
He who has the gun makes the rules.
Mexican carry with a Glock is definitely ballsy… or cheeky, depending.
I don’t see anything wrong with Glocks rules.
they are different from the four, and I am sure others can throw in ideas, but anything that tries to break it down is good. Sure the four golden rules are something you can memorize. Glocks rules I could see being posted on the wall of something.
I find it ironic that the firearms manufacturer who’s first and only line of defense is the weakest link in the chain, i.e., the MK I Mod 0 human, would “rewrite” the rules of gun safety. Glocks are intrinsically unsafe guns. A 1911 with the safely off is safer than a Glock.
+1000
The original design of the 1911 had only the grip safety. The manual safety was added later.
That’s because they wised up.
Considering how often people have problems with manual safeties, I think that’s pretty laughable. A well designed grip safety is invisible to the user, is activated automatically, and helps avoid NDs when something other than your finger is pulling the trigger.
I hear this complaint all the time from people whose main experience is from safety-less guns. I have been handling 1911s for 40+ years. Flicking off the safety becomes a reflex action. You can always choose to deactivate the safety with the gun in the holster if you feel like you might need it.
I’d agree with you if we’re talking Mexican carry. A Glock in a proper holster is as safe as anything.
As the Rabbi said, the 1911 is the easiest gun in the world to shoot someone with and the hardest to not shoot someone.
Assuming you sweep off the safety when you draw you are only 3lbs and a short trigger pull away from firing. Add in adrenaline and if you go near that trigger you are going to fire. At least with the Glock you have more margin.
The Standard 1911 trigger is 4.4 lbs. If you put it on a hair trigger than that’s your problem. Besides the difference between 3, 4.4 or even 10lbs when the adrenaline is flowing isn’t all that much. If you want a “I really mean to do it” trigger get a revolver.
Or a Kahr.
Glock has to have their own version of everything don’t they? 😉
Meh, it’s a lawyers guide to firearms safety. I suspect I’ll die of old age before I see a better set of rules than Coopers 4.
Glocks are still ugly.
Cooper’s rules plus some good advice plus some lawyerly yammering–I’ll take it under advisement.
The average American can’t remember the 9 members of the Supreme Court or the ten rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, or the Ten Commandments. How the hell are they going to remember Glock’s 12, or 14, or 67 new gun safety rules? I think Cooper’s four pretty much cover nearly every stupid thing you can do with a firearm.
I find this to be a long-winded solution to a non-existent problem.
That is, the four rules were just fine, thankyouverymuch.
The Four Rules, applied, saves property, lives and limbs. I think these are all gilding a lilly. For instance, not quite “getting” a safety feature is not a tragedy if the four rules are followed – keeping the firearm pointed in a safe direction and keeping your ass-scratcher off the trigger until the firearm is pointed at a safe target and backstop.
Under what conditions can the four rules fail to protect limb and life that the 10 rules will.
#4 The rules have changed since single action striker fired pistols without real safeties (Glock) have come to dominate the market. With a quality DA/SA design, there is no need for the obsession of having the trigger finger anywhere but ready to fire. I have witnessed folks under stress, attempting to move their finger from above the trigger to a firing position, accidentally catch the finger on the front of the trigger guard and have it slide down and around the guard, not engaging the trigger.
Rules are only as good as the people who do not know them.
Most people do not ‘play’ with guns and therefore will never consider ‘rules’. And, the only way to make guns ‘safe’ is to teach everyone about them. Teach them that they are not something to fear. That they must be loaded and trigger pulled to do harm. And that people, theirself and others, are the actor in shooting, making the gun a danger. Emphasize that people are the danger!
Awareness of the rules is good but the truth is what makes the rules effective.
Geeze! As usual all Glock management is doing is playing another game of, ‘Cover Your Ass’. The presumed last source of sound advice for any gun owner shouldn’t come from the one gun company that has quietly settled more gun safety law suits than any other firearm manufacturer in recorded history. What a farce!
Build a safer pistol and let the rest of us worry about how to use it. Glock’s much touted, ‘Safe Action System’ is – in truth – one of the worst gun safety designs ever marketed to the American public. All Glock, GmbH’s success proves to me is that (like P.T. Barnum said) ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’ Then, again, if this weren’t true let’s face it: Obama never would have become president, now; would he! 😉
The one undeniable, never-changing fact of this whole safety issue is this: no matter what handgun you choose, you must get off your ass and practice and practice on that firearm until you can trust yourself to handle it safely no matter what situation you find yourself in.
Use your gun for self defense.
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