Introduced my roommates to guns

[zackattack784]

I have two roommates, one who is a British dual citizen, (and has lived in London since the age of 10) and one who is a native conservative Pennsylvanian. I told them about my purchase of a new Sig P238 and of course they were interested in seeing it. Neither of them had ever seen a real firearm in person. I'm not really a show and tell type of guy but I figured hey, here's a good way to safely introduce two kids who are genuinely interested in firearms into the world of guns.

In the safety of our apartment I grabbed my 238, dropped the mag, cleared it in a safe direction, dropped the mag and round in my pocket, and locked the slide back. I handed it to friend A (from PA) who immediately fell in love with it. I showed him how to close the slide and he had a hard time believing it was a real gun seeing how small a 238 is. Friend B (from London) was literally terrified of the thing. When he got to hold it he said his heart was literally beating a mile a minute. I tried to dispel his fears by calling him out on such an irrational fear and tried to explain how a gun is an inanimate object but logic just wasn't there. The British government has done a hell of a job brainwashing their subjects.

Friend A took the gun back and was asking about how to aim and I showed him how the safety works and how a single action trigger works. This next part is where it gets scary. While all this is going on my girlfriend texts me and tells me she's coming over. She doesn't have a problem with guns so I didn't think anything of it. Friend A is still playing with the gun (under my supervision of course) and is experimenting with Mexican carry. I explained how I have a holster and I never just tuck it in my pants etc., etc. My girlfriend walks in the door and Friend A pulls the gun out (slide closed), points it at her and yells "Freeze motherfucker!" I was sitting right next to him and I practically karate chopped his arm, to get the gun off my girlfriend, and yelled "What the fuck are you doing!?!?!?!" His response: "It isn't loaded." I wish I had broken his arm.

I launched into a lecture about the 4 rules of gun handling, something I probably should have done before letting them handle the gun but this whole interaction blows my mind. What would possess anyone to purposely point a gun (loaded or not) at someone? Even after explaining the rules of gun handling to them their collective response was "what does it matter if the gun isn't loaded?" I tried to explain that when you're dealing with life and death redundancy is always a good thing (like always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction even if you're 110% sure it's unloaded), but I guess you can't teach logic to idiots.

Friend A had never seen a real gun in person so I don't know if he was just acting off what he had seen in movies or what, but I learned a valuable lesson about gun safety. While I am anal retentive about gun safety there are plenty of people out there that have an attitude similar to that of friend A. Let this be a lesson to everybody that whenever you introduce a new person to guns, explain the 4 rules of gun safety and be 100% sure the person understands them before letting them handle a gun.

[ShooterInPA1]

Rule #5: Never hand over a gun to anyone who you even think may not understand the 4 basic rules.

[Gun Bowanna]

Yeah, you did well.

Always go over the basic rules with 1st time gun touchies.
Rule #5 is one to remember as well.

[zackattack784]

I ALWAYS go over the rules when I take someone shooting since there is live ammo involved. This was a tough lesson in reminding me that you should go over the rules whenever you hand the gun over to someone who has little experience with them.

[customloaded]

Yup, Kid A had the "TV POWER TRIP" goin on. I think its funny as hell but hey, we all got to learn about "THEM" at some point!!! LOL

enjoy,

CL

PS: Experience is one hell of a teacher ain't it?

[NShortino]

All I can thing is, good thing your girlfriend doesn't carry!

Hopefully the lecture got the message through to your friend, but the situation probably didn't help any to unbrainwash the other friend.

And I second the

Rule #5: Never hand over a gun to anyone who you even think may not understand the 4 basic rules.

A few of my friends are from states which aren't very gun friendly, and I think letting them hold an unloaded gun helps ease their irrational fears. That being said, I make sure they follow the rules and know what goes where before they get to touch anything, and even then there are some people I won't let touch them at all. I have a good grasp on which of my friends share a 'sense of humor' with your friend, and would rather them look but not touch.

[Philbert]

My girlfriend walks in the door and Friend A pulls the gun out (slide closed), points it at her and yells "Freeze motherfucker!" I was sitting right next to him and I practically karate chopped his arm, to get the gun off my girlfriend, and yelled "What the fuck are you doing!?!?!?!" His response: "It isn't loaded." I wish I had broken his arm.

I launched into a lecture about the 4 rules of gun handling, something I probably should have done before letting them handle the gun but this whole interaction blows my mind.

And by probably, you should say definitely.

My personal rule is that nobody gets to handle my firearms in my house, especially n00bs. If anyone want to know about guns I will take them to the range any time. They'll learn more that way anyhow.

[P89]

I would have introduced friend 'A' to a broken nose & the ER after something like that. A lesson lived is a lesson learned.

[God's Country]

My personal rule is that nobody gets to handle my firearms in my house, especially n00bs. If anyone want to know about guns I will take them to the range any time. They'll learn more that way anyhow.

Correct answer IMO.
Especially brainless young newbs.

[beefcakeb0]

What would possess anyone to purposely point a gun (loaded or not) at someone?

Either he has some sort of hidden sociological violent tendencies, or it is what he was indoctrinated to think guns are for. A lot of non gun friendly(read:not familiar) people think that all guns do is rob people or detain people. Hence the "freeze" sentiment.