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Safety Rules

Many accidents are avoidable. Common sense and logic would prevent many situations from arising in which someone might be injured or killed. Millions of shooters have enjoyed their sport for many years without ever being involved in an accident. In terms of the number of man-hours involved and the very low incidence of accidents, shooting sports are safer than are many other types of activities. However, when an accident involving a firearm does occur, it is deemed a newsworthy item. Even a minor injury inflected by a firearm will get more press coverage than a broken spine that results from a skiing accident except when the injured party is someone famous. Those of us who are involved in any form of shooting sport must remember that there is a large, vocal segment of the population who does not believe that we even have the right to own and use a firearm. They believe that the Second Amendment is some sort of collective right that was intended for militias but not individuals. That is remarkable in view of the fact that the other rights specified in the Bill of Rights are individual rights. Historians of my acquaintance who specialized in constitutional history at the doctoral level and studied the papers of the writers of that time say that the documents made it clear that the citizens of this country would not be reduced to serfs. It was clearly their intention that law-abiding individuals would enjoy the freedom to own and use firearms lawfully.