by Jerm_G » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:45 pm
Ivan, I think you missed the thread title. The rules cover both. As someone who deals with those that transition from airsoft to real guns regularly, I can tell you the bad habits always carry over. Fingers in triggers, and near non-existing muzzle control to name a few. The thing is that for many, airsoft is a transition period for first time gun owners, and a hobby for current gun owners. The community needs to nip the bad habits in the butt to prevent some tard from killing him self or someone else.
As for safeties, this comes down to training. Training being the reason many LEO guns do not have safeties. Why, because most of them can barely shoot as is and almost never train beyond what is REQUIRED of them. This lack of training in the past, led to a rash of incidents where the officer has failed to take the safety of his gun and in the end resulted in his death. So in the infinite wisdom of the powers to be, the solution in their eyes was to take the safety off the guns instead of fixing the training issue. Interestingly enough, recent studies have found that officers were more likely to recover their firearm if it was removed from their possession by Mr. Bad Guy, if the firearm had a physical safety, because the bad guys were not learning how to use guns with safeties too.
The use of a safety is not fool proof, but does add one more speed bump in the long chain of negligent shazaam ups that has to occur for there to be an potentially debilitating issue. Those firearms safety rules are not mine, nor were made by me, but by those much wiser and experienced in the world of firearms. As for teaching a beginner on a firearm that has a safety, the worse that could happen (if all the safety rules are being followed) is that they are slower on getting the first shot off.
In short, these rules apply to airsoft as much as they do to real firearms. You want to prevent issues arising from negligence, incorporate all 5 rules. In the case of every N.D. that has ever happened, at least 2 rules out of the 5 were violated. In cases where a person was injured, 3 or more. So in short, pay attention, follow the 5 rules, and don't shazaam up!
"Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledge hammer." -Major I.L. Holdridge USMC