Firearms Safety Rules (Airsoft, too!)

[Evil Zergling137]

[Ivan Daylovich™]

Backstop? When have you ever thought about backstops when playing airsoft? BBs don't travel as far as bullets and the consequences of them hitting things other than the intended target is much less.
I never intend to kill or destroy anything I point my airsoft gun at. (Except one unlucky mobile home.)
When guns aren't loaded they aren't loaded. After ever game I clear the chamber to reduce the chance of accidentally shooting it later. (When in the case, removing it from the case, ect.) If every gun was loaded even when it wasn't there would be no point to unloading them, also it would be impossible to do so.

Jerms are better, but are still more for real steel range shooting.

[Jerm_G]

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!

[bye]

For me, muzzle awareness is all I really care about whilst airsofting. My safety has become second nature to hit when derping around or otherwise not in an active combat situation. But I have to say, muzzle awareness is the worst in airsoft it seems. All the other unloading stuff I consider unnecessary in airsoft unless the whole day is over.

[Orwell]

Edited for clarity.

[Switchback]

Switchback's Rules of Safe Replica Firearm Handling:

1: Don't be a bleeding idiot. #situational awareness

/thread.


Or we could proceed to dick-measure to increase blood pressure and post count...

[Icepick]

[Ivan Daylovich™]

[Jerm_G]

I understand the title meant firearms and airsoft safety rules, based the use of the word "too". Im sure Orge will be around shortly to correct me if my interpritation is wrong.

Reasons for use of the safety durring play comes down to three reasons.

1: consistancy in training for those you have, use, or plan on using real firearms. An act takes 10,000 repititions to become mussle memory so why not help knock out some of those reps while you are playing. But by choosing to only apply the basics a few times a year,then blow them out one's a$$ the rest of the year dergades all the hard work to learn how to do something correctly, and intead causes bad habits to become the mussle memory.

2: It doesnt take any longer to disengage the safety than it does to leave it off safe. Your not giving anything up by using it.

3: the safety acts as another possible catch to help prevent a negligent discharge.

What is the reasons for not using it durring play? I dont buy the "i'm less likely to forget to use the safety durring a game" excuse. To me that just translates to "I have a vauge understanding of the weapons system I'm using, and dont posess the skills that are required to make it function as designed." I also dont support the "it's just plasitc BB's no one is going to die from it" lines as well. To me the excuse sounds like a line to justify lazness and incompitence. I laugh when I read about how people want to be mil-sim and "leet" spec-ops but refuse to learn the extreme basics to even handle the weapons systems correctly. The safety laziness is one of the big reasons airsoft is highly looked down apon by the shooting community and given a near herpies like stigma. I personally prefer to buck that trend and stigma if I was a community leader.

[Ivan Daylovich™]

[ogrejager]

[Jerm_G]

[Nodachi]

[Evil Zergling137]

[Ivan Daylovich™]