Attica Jack #23953 Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Last weekend, myself and a couple of friends went to a local gun show. While at the show I wanted to check out the feel of some semi-auto 9mm pistols. I went to several booths to check out those pistols. At one booth I handled 3 guns, not once did the vendor check to see if the guns were loaded, he just handed me the guns, the first thing I did was to rack the slide, show him the gun was empty. At the other booth the vendors did the same, just handed over the guns without checking to see if they were loaded. I really hate to see that type of unsafe gun handling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Maybe they knew the pistols were unloaded, but a sales person should always check if nothing else than to show the customer that they are unloaded. They should also always check to demonstrate to new and experienced shooters proper gun handling practices. I have experienced this silliness more times than I can count. I always say to the dealer “Will you verify it’s not loaded please?” I sometimes get dirty looks but more often than not they apologize and check the gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 A local gun shop proprietor dropped the mag and cycled the slide to guarantee the pistol he was showing me, was empty. The moment it hit my hands, I hit the mag release with my hand under the empty mag well, then I locked back the slide and checked the chamber myself. I looked at the man and said "Forgive my excess of caution, but I one time put a .45 hardball through an antique plate glass mirror." He allowed as he preferred a cautious customer to some he'd seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Saywut Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 No vendor should be offended if a potential buyer asks them to clear a firearm first before handing it over. There have been a number of negligent discharges over the years at the big Wanenmacher show in Tulsa, OK, once while I was there. Injuries have been the result, though fortunately that one time the casualty was the roof. The cause? Vendors bringing in loaded firearms to sell and failing to check them first, though the person inspecting them also failed to do a check. Can’t be too safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Harley, #14153 Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Nothing wrong with double checking a gun that has already been "cleared" by someone else. It's reflex for me to do so no matter how many times it's been looked at by others, even if I witnessed the previous "checking". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Until you have checked it yourself it's loaded. Yes, proper safety and etiquette is to hand a firearm to someone with the action open. But until you look into the chamber yourself you don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 If a man hands me a gun, I check it. If he checks it before handing it to me, I still check it. So whether he checks it or not before handing it over is irrelevant to me. I don't care whether he checks for himself, or whether he says, "It's okay - it's empty", or whether he says, "Be careful - it's loaded". I'm gonna look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex M Rugers #6621 Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Every gun show that I have been to in the last 10 years vendors have some kind of device , usually wire ties, through the slide or barrel of autos , and through the frame or around hammer on revolvers. Makes it unhandy to really check one out , but most of them will cut it loose for a prospective buyer , and then replace it if no deal is struck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irish ike, SASS #43615 Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Gun show a number of years back. Everyone was talking about and pointing to the big hole in the ceiling. A vendor racked and pulled the rigger on a shotgun and boom. He was told to leave and never come back. Lucky the gun was pointed up. And yes he said he "thought" it was unloaded. Ike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramblin Gambler Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 2 hours ago, Alpo said: If a man hands me a gun, I check it. If he checks it before handing it to me, I still check it. So whether he checks it or not before handing it over is irrelevant to me. I don't care whether he checks for himself, or whether he says, "It's okay - it's empty", or whether he says, "Be careful - it's loaded". I'm gonna look. What if it's a woman? This is the first rule I teach young'uns about gun safety. Check it. Even if i tell you it's unloaded (and I will always test them at some point before live fire) you check it. If you don't know how, that's great it's an opportunity for you to lean how the gun works. And then, once you know for sure it's unloaded, you treat it like it's loaded anyway. After that we go into muzzle direction, muzzle direction, and muzzle direction. You could argue one of those muzzle directions should be taught first, but chronologically you check the gun first. As for dealers at shows, I think they get into a complacent state because the show makes them check every gun and around here all the guns have zip ties. It's pretty hard for most guns to be loaded when the zip tie is properly installed. The guy I bought from last weekend cleared each gun he showed me after he removed the zip tie. When he did it I realized most of the dealers didn't do that. I think some have even been annoyed at me for checking it myself. Last year or the year before there was a discharge at a gun show in houston. In that case the dealer had bought a gun from someone who I think was a dealer but didn't have a table at that show. He was showing it to a 3rd dealer when the third guy pulled the trigger and ruined his display case. The middle dealer said he thought the first guy had emptied it, the 3rd guy said he trusted that the second guy had cleared it. I'm not sure if a zip tie had even been installed. If the first guy had been a regular customer at this show, a police officer would have cleared it and tied it when he came in. Many failures in that case and it just goes to show why you should always be diligent about clearing guns. It took me a while before I got comfortable even going to gun shows. All those guns pointing in my general direction no matter where I went just made me a nervous nellie. Turns out I like guns enough that I'm willing to take the chance. When I see someone trying out a gun and they have it pointed in the air I always wonder how they got it up there without sweeping anyone. Only time I've pulled that off is when the table was against a wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attica Jack #23953 Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 If you showed me any firearm was empty, and you handed it to me, I would check for myself that the firearm was empty....that is just me, I trust myself not some stranger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smuteye John SASS#24774 Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 8 hours ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said: Gun show a number of years back. Everyone was talking about and pointing to the big hole in the ceiling. A vendor racked and pulled the rigger on a shotgun and boom. He was told to leave and never come back. Lucky the gun was pointed up. And yes he said he "thought" it was unloaded. Ike That is what he got for thinking when he wasn't used to it. You don't take chances with firearms. You don't "think" a gun is cleared, you work the action and visually determine it is. That way, you know it's cleared. Folks have died because people get lazy and think instead of know. That being said, a gun ain't cleared until I clear it. Don't care what you do. Don't care where it's been. Don't care what's been done to it. When it hits my hand- every single time it hits my hand- it gets cleared. Off the table, out of the safe, from a case, it doesn't matter. That's the habit I have forced myself into and that's what is going happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Crimes Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 12 hours ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said: . And yes he said he "thought" it was unloaded. Ike It was always drummed into me "its always the unloaded gun that kills someone". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 14 hours ago, Rex M Rugers #6621 said: Every gun show that I have been to in the last 10 years vendors have some kind of device , usually wire ties, through the slide or barrel of autos , and through the frame or around hammer on revolvers. Makes it unhandy to really check one out , but most of them will cut it loose for a prospective buyer , and then replace it if no deal is struck. Same for me. Arround here it is a requirement set by the insurance provider. They also require anyone carrying a firearm into the venue to clear it and have a zip tie installed that will disable the action and show it has been cleared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 A local pawn shop removed a semi-auto pistol from a display case and handed to a customer. The "unloaded" gun discharged and the round struck another customer. I believe he lived but don't know for sure if he fully recovered. Here is the initial report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Old Man Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Other than playin Army, had never been around other people with guns. Saw my neighbor with 3 sons. Each and every one cleared the firearm. Went over to his house and he showed me a 22 semi, I was trying to clear it, but didn't know the operation, he showed me how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I always check a gun even if the person handing it to me checked it in front of me!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Grass Range #51406 Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Recent dealer rifle fired at Billings gun show. Guns coming in the front door are checked and tagged. Dealers bring guns in the back door with no one checking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Angus McPherson Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 As others have said, I, too, always check a firearm when someone hands it to me. Even if I just watched them clear it. I taught the same to my son. I'm happy to say he learned that lesson well. Many years ago, when he was still a lad, he asked to see a rifle in the safe. I'd have bet the house that I NEVER put a loaded gun in that safe. I opened the safe, he got the rifle out, checked to make sure the safety was on and there was no magazine in it, cycled the action and a live round popped out onto the floor. To this day I have no idea how that rifle managed to get into the safe with a live round in the chamber. All I can say is stuff happens. HE still gives ME crap about that. On the subject of muzzle awareness. Way back when I was a kid my dad loaned his pellet rifle to my grandfather to take care of some squirrels that were getting into his tomatoes. When the family got together for Christmas my grandfather returned the gun. My dad started playing with it, giving it two or three pumps, pointing it into the fireplace and pulling the trigger. No pellets were even in the same room at the time. About the 5th or 6th time my dad "fired" the rifle a pellet came out and hit one of the logs. Boy Howdy! That'll get your attention. Maybe not a "BOOM", but it sure shut down the conversation in the room for a minute. Angus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Saywut Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I just remembered this incident at Wanenmacher last spring, when a former deputy was working security at the check-in counter for walk-ins with firearms. He wasn’t familiar with a .22 pistol, and after dicking with it a while, pulled the trigger. Boom. https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/video-surveillance-footage-of-shooting-at-wanenmachers-tulsa-arms-show/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Ron Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Howdy, Funny thing. My brain goes to the day I was sitting in a shop and a policeman came in wanting to trade in a semi auto. I locked onto the gun as he handed it to the dealer without checkclear. The dealer handled the piece for a few seconds and finally checked and a live round came popping out. Another guy in the shop went on and on about how I nearly got shot. He just didn't realize that if that gun got aimed at me I was ready to hit the deck. At gunshows I always check when putting them on the table. I'm still waiting for the day some clown tries to load a gun on my table. I just wont go into the what ifs...... Best CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.