I'll talk more about my sister who used to be anti gun and now wants her own CFP. After I probed her on this, she related that as she gets older she feels more vulnerable. In addition, there is some low income rental housing going in 2 blocks from her house. She is afraid these will attract low life's and so the risk of burglary and robbery have gone up now in her mind. Still for my sister who has never touched a gun in her life, it is going to require a major revolution in her thinking to get her up to speed on guns and gun safety. I will first have her memorize gun safety rules in groups of 5 each. Five is an easy number to remember, and the five fingers on our hands make this sum conducive to remembrance. Gun Handling Rules 1 - Never point a gun whether loaded or unloaded at anyone or anything that you don't intend to kill, and never at yourself or any part of your own body. 2 - Keep your finger off the trigger until you are going to shoot. 3 - Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. 4 - Check every gun to make sure it is unloaded whenever you are handling it. 5 - Check every gun to make sure it is unloaded before you hand it to anybody else. Shooting Rules 1 - Keep your handgun holstered until you need to draw and shoot or clean it. 2 - Draw your handgun and bring it to one of 4 drawn positions when you need to use it: a - at the hip over the holster pointed downrange b - at the low guard position c - on target when ready to shoot d - in the vertical carry position when moving or for arm relief 3 - Before shooting, consider your target and everything around, in front of, and behind your target, to determine whether you can take the shot or not. 4 - Develop your draw from each of open carry and/or concealment so that you can shoot within 1 second or less. 5 - Fire a double tap, check your target, and fire another double tap if needed. Range Rules 1 - Place your gun on the bench in front of you and unload it when you arrive at the range. 2 - Keep your gun unloaded unless you are in the process of firing it. 3 - Keep the muzzle pointed downrange at all times. 4 - Load your gun and fire it until the magazine is empty before you set it back down. 5 - Check and clear the gun to make sure it is unloaded before you set it down on the bench again. These are the most important general rules that I want my sister to memorize before she ever touches a gun either at the gun shop or at the range or on her own. And of course the one overarching rule of guns older than all the rest is "always treat all guns as if they are loaded whether they are loaded or not". And a corollary to this is that guns are not toys so guns should never be played with.
Ah, got it. That makes sense. Sorry! It's good to have the ability for her to try a bunch of different options; find what fits her hands the best. My wife's a shooter; she actually runs a S&W 6906 9mm like a pro. She tried the Glock 19 but didn't like the way it fit her hand. She likes mine, but I had a grip reshaping done to it and upgraded the trigger; ultimately when funds allow I'm going to get one redone to fit her, but for now she's quite competent with the S&W. She actually once worked in the security field and qualified master with a full-house .357 mag too. I do love that woman!
I'd ask first before making the assumption that your sister wants a colorful gun. I know my wife didn't.
Wow. That seems like an overly complex checklist to expect her to remember. My grandfather started me learning Four Rules when I was young. Rule One: All guns are loaded. Rule Two: Never let the muzzle cover anything you aren't willing to destroy. Rule Three: Never put your finger on the trigger until you've made a conscious decision to shoot. Rule Four: Always be sure of your target AND what's behind it. Remember: As the Marines like to say: "SIMPLIFY!" (Just kidding, Marines!)
Substantive discussions are difficult during periods of intense partisan conflict. Throw out some good data once in a while and see if there is any interest. Sometimes there is. Good luck.
Well then your wife is already an experienced pro. That explains why she now has a competency with guns. Better not piss her off.
The women who carried the Walther liked it black and invisible. Their fashion sense was focused on making sure the gun was handy and could not be seen. Kind of like men who have to carry concealed. Untucked.com must be selling to a lot of detectives.
Yes you are correct, those are the classic Big 4. I decided long ago that these 4 are not enough. So I created my own groups of 5. My sister is extremely bright. We were both valedictorians in our schools. So she should be able to handle 17 rules in 3 groups of 5 plus 2 more. She is not a simpleton. Nor am I. If I were teaching a class I would stick to the Big 4 though, yes. Any class will always contain geniuses, idiots, and everybody in between. So you need one common denominator. When you are teaching one on one you can customize the materials to that specific student. That is a teaching theory principle.
When she first learns, my sister will be limited to whatever the indoor range at the gun shop has available. Color is not a factor then, obviously. After she has learned how to shoot and made her choice of what type of handgun she wants, then yes, of course, you cannot tell a woman what to buy. That would be like trying to give a cat a bath, as @Smartmouthwoman would say.
By the way @6Gunner there are many many rules that they make you memorize in the USMC. Here are a few: 1 - Get off the bus and stand in the yellow painted footprints on the tarmac you worms! 2 - the position of attention. 3 - to speak only when spoken to. 4 - the first and last words out of your mouth are sir. 5 - never ass-u-me. 6 - k-I-s-s ... keep it simple. Etc. K-I-s-s is the one you @6Gunner are obviously thinking about. They teach you all these in the Army, Navy, USAF, and USCG too from what I have heard. Only the general orders for sentries vary from Service to Service.
Ok, does anybody think the British will ever change their minds about being anti gun as they now are? One of our participants at least, who is British, suggested they would not, supra. He stated that crime is relatively low there, which is true based on the data I posted and linked from wiki, which was then attempted to be refuted by someone else under the guise of "increasing". It does from the above discussion and data seem that whereas crime is increasing in the UK it is however still 1/4th as much by rate per 100,000 population as in the USA. It seems to me that the British will never become pro gun and instead will continue to try to keep guns off their island, which is impossible to do 100%, but which they have done for the overwhelming majority of law abiding citizens and residents. Agree/disagree ??
Oh, I do my best not to upset her in any way! Of course, she knows I can outshoot her, so our disagreements are very..... civil (actually, she's the best thing that ever happened to me, but I don't let on publicly).
Personally, I think the British have taken the wrong tack. That's my opinion, plain and simple. There was a time when the UK had even less firearm regulation than the U.S. and their homicide rates were STILL tiny compared to ours. There is no arguing that the UK has relatively low rates of homicide compared to pretty much the rest of the world. It is arguable whether their gun control is the reason for it, or despite it. I believe the differences are cultural, and not due to their gun laws. At best, the prevailing science on the subject finds that gun control doesn't seem to affect things one way or the other. At worst, gun control makes existing problems worse. From a political libertarian standpoint I would rather have the right to make my own choice regarding the issue.
And yet every first world nation with gun control has MUCH lower gun deaths than we have. I guess its just coincidence
The point you have never had a valid answer for: Every one of those "first world nations" had lower deaths before they enacted gun control and NOT ONE OF THEM saw any improvements in public safety or death rates by enacting gun control. NOT ONE. Most actually had statistical increases in homicide and violent crime rates. Explain that, if you can.
Homicides go up or down for a variety of reasons mostly because of demographich changes. But they have consistently maintained lower gun deaths than we have
They have suffered increases in homicide while we have had reductions. I'll go with what causes reductions; not what causes increases. Your position is simplistic and short-sighted.
It is fair to say yours is incredibly simplistic. None of those countries want our gun laws.....for good reason
Yeah, and their good reason is maintaining power and control over the people. Again, ALL of those countries with low homicide rates already had them before they enacted gun control. NONE OF THEM saw any reductions in homicide or improvements in public safety. NOT ONE. We have expanded people's rights of self-defense and seen our homicide rates decrease dramatically. One policy creates increases and the other created decreases. I'll go with what has actually worked to improve public safety, thank you. That is not a "simplistic" position; it is SIMPLE FACT.
