Monday, March 19, 2007

How Not to Introduce a New Shooter to Firearms

There is no sound on this video, none needed. It is a short, 18 second, display of lack of concern for safety and for the new shooter.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lessee how many idiocies we can locate.

Shooting into a dark drain - not seeing your target or knowing what's beyond. No eye protection. No hearing protection. I'm not even going into form, which is horrible. I'm surprised the gun didn't leap out of her hand.

Video taping this was a smart move [/sarcasm].

The Brady's will probably run with it. Heck, knowing how desperate they are for 'proof', it wouldn't surprise me if they manufactured the video.

Fits said...

I see similar almost every day. Here, hon, crank out a few rounds from this and lemme know what ya think.

Can't educate the uneducatable. I've seen guys and gals sharing a handgun, without hearing protection, glasses, or even a cap,and indoors to boot.

Anonymous said...

This sort of thing really makes me upset. No, concern what so ever for the young lady. No, eye or ear protection to speak of.

You can tell there was no block of instructions concering the trigger finger discepline.

Shamful, just shamful.

John R said...

It is shameful, and just plain wrong.

Besides being unsafe, it was a bad experience for her. She flinched worse with each shot and may not want to pick up another firearm. We may have just witnessed the birth of a future anti.

BobG said...

She should have had proper protection, better form, a better place to shoot, better safety, and, personally, I would have introduced her to a 22 as her first pistol.

Stan said...

I've never heard nor seen of people shooting in culverts, but either they were stupid and/or trying to minimize sound/ricochet.

The culvert(dark target, etc.) and poor form are my big two concerns.

AS for hearing protection, I guess I should start. But I shoot outside in wide open spaces, mostly my open sight 30.06 which is rather loud whether you're shooting it or watching it.

Drew said...

While the shooting into the dark is definitely bad, and he obviously hasn't given her any education about shooting, we can't be certain she's not wearing earplugs. The last girl I introduced to shooting far preferred a good set of earplugs to a good set of muffs. The eye protection is something I slack on a bit, though I always make sure new shooters have it, and I wear at least sunglasses when teaching.
I did end up letting one girl use a .45 as her first introduction to pistols, but that was due to lack of other available handguns. She didn't care for it, but she put a few mags through. She went back to the .22 rifle and said she'd like to try a smaller caliber pistol.
While this video shows a lot of bad, I think you guys may be a little hard on it. I certainly hope the girl got to try things that were better suited to her.

John R said...

I have heard of, but never seen, firing ranges that use culvert pipe on the firing line to help prevent folks from shooting over the berm. There is a weathered shooting bench in the video, so that may be the case here.

The person teacher her to shoot should have been right there with her, helping with grip, stance and encouragement. I generally start new shooters with either a single action revolver in .22 or a .22 pistol. If they wish, we then move up to 9mm then .45. By the time we move to the heavier calibers, they have a good handle on at least grip so they don't have to worry about bouncing casings off their forehead.

No eye or ear protection and a piss poor grip made this young lady scared of this firearm. She was doing a good job of "cowboying up", but was flinching even before she pulled the trigger.

When you introduce a new shooter to firearms, you have the responsibility to do it correctly. What you do that first day in the range will stay with them forever.

Anonymous said...

Yikes. I'm suprised she didn't shoot the heck out of the wooden stand at her end of tunnel.

Just makes me more appreciative of the extremly professional handgun class I took when I decided to try shooting.