My partner and I had a quite heated disagreement at the gun shop today.
I was looking at the holsters and came up to the counter where she was looking at a semi-auto and had been in discussion with the clerk about it, he had double checked it, taken off the trigger guard, she checked it, took the mag out and had been going over features.
Now, we've all done this at the range a time or two and (horrors!) stopped ourselves and corrected it - here's the scene.
You have shot your clip, the slide is locked back, then from 'muzzle down range', you momentarily turn the gun 90 degrees, essentially pointing it at everyone to your left, depressed the mag disengage then realized you were violating the 'muzzle down range all the time no exceptions' rule. The one or two times I came close to doing this, I didn't get 90 degrees and stopped myself and repointed down range. The gun was empty, but you NEVER point the muzzle at anyone, anytime, no exceptions.
Well, she was facing perpendicularly to the clerk, trying to find a safe direction to dry-fire - again, double/double checked, and then to my surprise, she turned the gun 90 degrees so the muzzle was pointing directly at the clerk.
I stepped forward and (I thought) gently redirected the muzzle off the clerk's abdomen, and said softly 'oh - don't point the gun at him' and gently took it and showed her how to get the slide locked back (requires the mag to be in), and then slide disengaged (had to drop the mag).
She was struggling and (potentially) not aware of the muzzle orientation.
Now SHE said 'hey, he cleared it, I cleared it what right do you have to swoop in and grab the gun out of my hand and tell ME not to point the muzzle at the clerk. Both HE and I knew it was empty'.
My contention was "I don't care, you NEVER, never do that no matter what".
She said (later) "well, if that's forbidden how do you examine a gun at a gun show. There's literally people everywhere and pretty much no place to point it."
I said "Well, first the gun has a tag-tie through the receiver, so it's one step beyond empty."
She said "If you ask, the merchant will remove the tag-tie and then you can look and work the slide and eject the mag and soforth is it OK THEN to point the muzzle where you like?"
I said 'OK that's a good point, but since the gun was in a level above cleared and empty with the tag tie, it's a little less important but I still try to handle it pointing at the floor'.
THEN she said 'ok (smartass) what if I took the just untagtied gun and put in the empty mag and pointed it at my own head and pulled the trigger'.
I was flabbergasted and said 'you'd be ejected from the gunshow and banned for life, probably'.
I just don't know how to get across to her that you never point the muzzle intentionally at anyone no matter what discussion took place before hand, no matter how many times cleared and if you do and someone helps you to redirect at a safe angle you should thank them not get mad and fume at them for an hour afterward. She said 'you made me feel infantilized and I've been handling guns, rifles, shotguns my whole life - a lot longer than you have (me)'.
I said 'ok, I do not want to dis your feeling confident handling the gun, but can you just take my word for it you must exercise proper muzzle control at all time'.
She said 'you're ******* me off, the clerk was OK with it'.
Thoughts?
I was looking at the holsters and came up to the counter where she was looking at a semi-auto and had been in discussion with the clerk about it, he had double checked it, taken off the trigger guard, she checked it, took the mag out and had been going over features.
Now, we've all done this at the range a time or two and (horrors!) stopped ourselves and corrected it - here's the scene.
You have shot your clip, the slide is locked back, then from 'muzzle down range', you momentarily turn the gun 90 degrees, essentially pointing it at everyone to your left, depressed the mag disengage then realized you were violating the 'muzzle down range all the time no exceptions' rule. The one or two times I came close to doing this, I didn't get 90 degrees and stopped myself and repointed down range. The gun was empty, but you NEVER point the muzzle at anyone, anytime, no exceptions.
Well, she was facing perpendicularly to the clerk, trying to find a safe direction to dry-fire - again, double/double checked, and then to my surprise, she turned the gun 90 degrees so the muzzle was pointing directly at the clerk.
I stepped forward and (I thought) gently redirected the muzzle off the clerk's abdomen, and said softly 'oh - don't point the gun at him' and gently took it and showed her how to get the slide locked back (requires the mag to be in), and then slide disengaged (had to drop the mag).
She was struggling and (potentially) not aware of the muzzle orientation.
Now SHE said 'hey, he cleared it, I cleared it what right do you have to swoop in and grab the gun out of my hand and tell ME not to point the muzzle at the clerk. Both HE and I knew it was empty'.
My contention was "I don't care, you NEVER, never do that no matter what".
She said (later) "well, if that's forbidden how do you examine a gun at a gun show. There's literally people everywhere and pretty much no place to point it."
I said "Well, first the gun has a tag-tie through the receiver, so it's one step beyond empty."
She said "If you ask, the merchant will remove the tag-tie and then you can look and work the slide and eject the mag and soforth is it OK THEN to point the muzzle where you like?"
I said 'OK that's a good point, but since the gun was in a level above cleared and empty with the tag tie, it's a little less important but I still try to handle it pointing at the floor'.
THEN she said 'ok (smartass) what if I took the just untagtied gun and put in the empty mag and pointed it at my own head and pulled the trigger'.
I was flabbergasted and said 'you'd be ejected from the gunshow and banned for life, probably'.
I just don't know how to get across to her that you never point the muzzle intentionally at anyone no matter what discussion took place before hand, no matter how many times cleared and if you do and someone helps you to redirect at a safe angle you should thank them not get mad and fume at them for an hour afterward. She said 'you made me feel infantilized and I've been handling guns, rifles, shotguns my whole life - a lot longer than you have (me)'.
I said 'ok, I do not want to dis your feeling confident handling the gun, but can you just take my word for it you must exercise proper muzzle control at all time'.
She said 'you're ******* me off, the clerk was OK with it'.
Thoughts?