New Shooter!!!

[cavscout09]

Ok I dont know if this is the right place to post this so mods move it if need be. So there will be another new shooter joining the ranks of PAFOA soon. The girl that helps my gf clean our house asked if I would teach her to shoot. This girl has never touched a gun before. So hopefully as soon as it gets warm enough outside Ill be showing her the basics with my 22!!! This is a girl that I thought would never even consider handling a firearm. She was worried when she first found out I carry almost all the time. Hopefully with a lot of practice she will be carrying!!! Im going to try and get her on here to learn some stuff about guns and shooting before I even get the chance to show her how to shoot.

[Greywolf]

Im going to try and get her on here to learn some stuff about guns and shooting before I even get the chance to show her how to shoot.

May I respectfully suggest that you NOT do this?

You may have noticed that not everyone on this site (or any firearms or RKBA site) agrees ... about any topic. If you toss a new shooter (or a prospective shooter) into a mess like this, she won't know who to believe and who not to believe, and she'll just get more confused.

Your primary goal here should be to teach her to shoot -- SAFELY -- so she will become unafraid of guns, and possibly even come to enjoy shooting. If you can get her to that point, THEN might be the time to start talking about carry and concealed carry and a LTCF, etc. Take it one step at a time.

Starting her off with a .22 is an excellent beginning. Fun, cheap, and not intimidating. Be sure to start off with the four rules of firearms safety, and be sure she understands what they mean (not just what they say). Keep her at close range at first -- not more than ten or fifteen feet. You want he to feel she's accomplishing something, and if she's not even on the paper she won't feel that. When she can keep all her shots in the black at ten feet, THEN you move it back to fifteen or twenty feet.

[cavscout09]

You right. I was thinking about it after I posted. I will take your advice and I thank you for it. My plan was to start off teaching her the rules of gun safety and also the basics of shooting. I never had anyone teach me so I learned a lot by reading, the internet and a lot of trial and error. Hopefully I can at least teach her the basics. I know I've still got a lot to learnand hopefully I won't teach her any bad habits. Again thank you for the advice.

[Greywolf]

Just to be sure we're on the same page, let's review the four rules. Please note that, although I am an NRA-certified instructor, I find Jeff Cooper's four rules much easier to understand than the NRA's three large rules and twelve small rules.

Cooper advocated four basic rules of gun safety (which are often misstated):

1. All guns are always loaded. Many sources then follow this with something like "Even if they are not, treat them as if they are." That was NOT Cooper's rule. The rule is, "All guns are always loaded." That way, you will NEVER pick up a firearm you "know" is unloaded and have it go off "accidentally."

2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Self-explanatory. Other sources will say "Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. That's the intent, but we NEED to always be mindful of the potential consequence of pointing the muzle somewhere it should not be pointed. If we use the word "Destroy," it begins to convey the importance of the rule. You cannot recall a bullet fired "by accident."

3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you are ready to shoot. Very important. People who watch movies or television will automatically stick their finger on the trigger when they pick up a firearm. This is a learned response, and it needs to be UNlearned. Part of new shooter practice should be standing on the firing line with an unloaded weapon, and practicing the routine of bringing the weapon up to the ready position while putting the finger on the trigger, and lowering the weapon while removing the trigger. It should become an autonomic response, like there's a string between the trigger finger and the eyeball. Gun down ==> finger off. ALWAYS.

4. Be certain of your your target, and what is behind it. This rule is less crucial at a range because a range will only have targets placed where there is nothing beyond them that can't or shouldn't be shot. If you are out in the country plinking on open land, it IS your responsibility to be aware of where your bullets could go. And, of course, if you are carrying for self defense, you have to always be aware of who and what is beyond any assailant you may need to shoot. Remember the recent incident of the Amish girl who was shot while riding in her buggy. The shot was fired a mile and a half away, from a black powder (muzzle loader) rifle that a guy was cleaning.

[twency]

Just to be sure we're on the same page, let's review the four rules. Please note that, although I am an NRA-certified instructor, I find Jeff Cooper's four rules much easier to understand than the NRA's three large rules and twelve small rules.

Cooper advocated four basic rules of gun safety (which are often misstated):

1. All guns are always loaded. Many sources then follow this with something like "Even if they are not, treat them as if they are." That was NOT Cooper's rule. The rule is, "All guns are always loaded." That way, you will NEVER pick up a firearm you "know" is unloaded and have it go off "accidentally."

2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Self-explanatory. Other sources will say "Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. That's the intent, but we NEED to always be mindful of the potential consequence of pointing the muzle somewhere it should not be pointed. If we use the word "Destroy," it begins to convey the importance of the rule. You cannot recall a bullet fired "by accident."

3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you are ready to shoot. Very important. People who watch movies or television will automatically stick their finger on the trigger when they pick up a firearm. This is a learned response, and it needs to be UNlearned. Part of new shooter practice should be standing on the firing line with an unloaded weapon, and practicing the routine of bringing the weapon up to the ready position while putting the finger on the trigger, and lowering the weapon while removing the trigger. It should become an autonomic response, like there's a string between the trigger finger and the eyeball. Gun down ==> finger off. ALWAYS.

4. Be certain of your your target, and what is behind it. This rule is less crucial at a range because a range will only have targets placed where there is nothing beyond them that can't or shouldn't be shot. If you are out in the country plinking on open land, it IS your responsibility to be aware of where your bullets could go. And, of course, if you are carrying for self defense, you have to always be aware of who and what is beyond any assailant you may need to shoot. Remember the recent incident of the Amish girl who was shot while riding in her buggy. The shot was fired a mile and a half away, from a black powder (muzzle loader) rifle that a guy was cleaning.

I like the spirit of Cooper's rules, but I'm always bothered by absolutes (ha ha).

"All guns are always loaded." If this were true, I could never field strip my Glock to clean it, which requires pulling the trigger. (Well, I supposed I could clean it at the range.) Do I point the pistol in a safe direction when I pull the trigger on an empty chamber? Sure. But not because I'm trying to lie to myself that I think it's "always loaded". Rather, I do it because I know there's a small chance I might be wrong about it being unloaded, and am taking a reasonable precaution just in case.

"Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy." When holstered on my hip, or sitting in a transport case, the muzzle covers all sorts of things I am not willing to destroy.

And so on.

Again, I like the spirit in which they're intended, but for some people (like me) I think they end up being unhelpful because instead of recognizing that there have to be some exceptions, they dogmatically brook no argument. The exceptions are thus left as an exercise to the gun-handler, who may or may not have a good idea of what modifications to the rules are appropriate.