Ten basic rules for handling firearms
There are around three million people living in Arkansas these days, and about 217,000 of them have concealed weapon permits — i.e. 7.19% of the population. About 30,000 people have enhanced carry permits, a slightly more significant concealed-carry permit.
On the other hand, Arkansas is one of the states that allows “open carry,” which means anyone over the age of 18 with no prohibiting history may carry a weapon almost anywhere in Arkansas without a permit, and it does not need to be concealed.
While Arkansas tends to recognize gun permits from all 50 states, only 37 of them actually have reciprocating agreements with Arkansas.
However, there are some places you may not carry a weapon in Arkansas. Most notable of these are schools, federal and state offices, churches and polling sites. Enhanced carry permits also conditionally allow a holder to carry a concealed weapon in a church (unless the church forbids it), the state capitol, college campuses, state and federal parks, and so on. Those recipients receive special training for occupying these areas plus extensive training on the gun range and classroom. They receive special training about what to do in the case of an active shooter situation.
While these may be considered general guidelines, persons with gun permits should check the guidelines for themselves. For instance, if you attempt to enter one of Benton County’s public office buildings, don’t embarrass yourself by trying to carry a weapon there.
There are a lot of guns in the homes of American citizens. In fact, the United States has over twice as many weapons per household than the next world country. Thus, it is no wonder that there are more gun-related incidents in our country than anywhere else in the world. Add to this the fact that while there are specific guidelines about who may or may not acquire a gun permit, the amount of training on how to handle and store a weapon safely is on the scarce side.
It’s true, every military or law enforcement person knows how to handle and stow weapons correctly, this whether they practice it or not. In addition, I suspect that conscientious hunters also know these basic facts. But that still leaves a lot of guns lying around under the care of people who aren’t really sure which end of the gun the bullet comes from.
At the risk of oversimplification, there are at least 10 basic rules about handling firearms that every gun owner should know and practice:
1) ALWAYS treat a gun
as if it is loaded. There are too many people killed yearly by people playing around with a gun everyone thought was unloaded, even on a film set.
2) NEVER point your gun at anything you do not intend to shoot. Last Halloween, a young boy came to our door and poked a gun into my gut asking for a treat. As I gently removed the gun from my stomach, he said, “It’s not real; it’s okay. My dad’s a policeman.” It was not okay, and I nicely informed him I also was a policeman and he didn’t want me to have to arrest him for domestic threatening with something that looked like a real gun.
3) Don’t just rely upon your gun’s safety; it might fail with severe consequences.
4) Be sure of your target. Don’t be a “scatterbrain” shooter hoping to hit something.
5) Know your gun and its ammunition. Using the wrong ammunition may allow it to blow up in your face.
6) Be sure nothing is obstructing the gun’s nozzle. A friend of mine hunting ducks once allowed his gun’s nuzzle to be filled with snow only to have it explode and the barrel split as he fell backwards into a mud hole.
7) Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. You might accidentally pull it.
8) If your gun fails to fire when you pull the trigger, be extremely careful. Above all, don’t look at the gun’s nuzzle to see if it’s okay. My handgun failed to fire one day at the range, and while I kept it pointed at the target, it suddenly went off.
9) Always be sure of your target and what’s beyond it. Many times, I have sighted in on a nice deer only to look downrange and see that if I missed my bullet just might have blown the coffee cup out of the hand of a farmer — or worse.
10) Keep your weapon clean and ready for duty. That means cleaning it after every time you shoot it. It doesn’t take long, but it causes you to learn how to dismantle and clean it.
Stowing a weapon at home is relatively easy. They should be unloaded and locked up, especially if children are present. Your local police department would be glad to provide you with a safety device for any handgun.
It’s a privilege to own a weapon in our country, but it is also a plague if you own a weapon and do not take time to learn how to handle it correctly.