Gun Safety Rules

[ClayDowling]

Originally Posted by Ketsuban

given two people who've never held a firearm before, if one of them has received the safety lecture and comprehends the Rules enough to make a valid attempt at being safe even if he can't necessarily recite them from memory doesn't he stand an improved chance of not shooting his own balls off versus the other guy?

Gun safety is as much about muscle memory as knowledge. You have to build the habit of handling weapons safely.

Some weapons are also easier to handle safely than others. People are a lot less likely to make a bad mistake with a long weapon than a handgun, for instance, because it's a lot easier to turn a handgun and point it in a bad direction. Although the only time my grandfather (a police officer and one of the best and safest shooters I have known) was shot was with his own .22 rifle while crossing a fence. The doctor was not sympathetic and used the cotton swab he cleaned the wound with much like a ram-rod.

[Kalzazz]

The majority of people probably do use guns by default, but I dont see any reason they cant have at least some chance of not shooting themselves or doing other stupid things if theyve at least had some vague training

I mean, a few trips to the range and suffering through a hunters education course is not going to impart a point in guns, but should for someone who pays attention to such things avoid stupid mistakes

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publicat...ter_education/

Shows hunting related accidents yearly before and after the law for mandatory education . . . . the education isnt enough to get gun skill, but apparently enough to reduce accidents

How should this be modeled?

[ClayDowling]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

• guns aren't toys
• don't point guns at people unless you mean to shoot them
• the round exists the muzzle
• etc

Most people don't know these rules unless they're accustomed to handling guns. They may get the first point. They won't grasp the implications of the other points sufficiently to handle the weapon safely, other than to not handle it at all. As I've mentioned previously, safe handling requires building the habit as much as knowledge.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

Most people don't know these rules unless they're accustomed to handling guns. They may get the first point. They won't grasp the implications of the other points sufficiently to handle the weapon safely, other than to not handle it at all. As I've mentioned previously, safe handling requires building the habit as much as knowledge.

I'm pretty sure that most people know that the bullet exits the muzzle. That was number three on my list.

Knowing and doing aren't necessarilly the same thing, of course. Lots of people to know better.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Hmmmm...Common Sense- wouldn't this advantage tend to eliminate a lot of unsafe/improper handling issues?.

Isn't Common Sense an explicitly Metagame advantage, though? It's supposed to prevent the player from having his character do something mind-bogglingly idiotic.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Isn't Common Sense an explicitly Metagame advantage, though? It's supposed to prevent the player from having his character do something mind-bogglingly idiotic.

I'd say that a GM could certainly tell a player whose PC had the advantage that 'doing that with a firearm is something your PC knows that he ought not to do' if said PC was about to:

• pick up a dead/KOed bad guy's gun without even checking to see if it is loaded
  
• wave a loaded gun in somebody's face 'just to scare him'
  
• stick a gun in his waistband
  
• hold a gun sideways when shooting
  
• etc.

Mind you, I've not actually seen players have their PCs do these things, but I hear stories...

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

The majority of people probably do use guns by default, but I dont see any reason they cant have at least some chance of not shooting themselves or doing other stupid things if theyve at least had some vague training

I mean, a few trips to the range and suffering through a hunters education course is not going to impart a point in guns, but should for someone who pays attention to such things avoid stupid mistakes

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publicat...ter_education/

Shows hunting related accidents yearly before and after the law for mandatory education . . . . the education isnt enough to get gun skill, but apparently enough to reduce accidents

How should this be modeled?

Does it need to be modelled? I'm serious.

I mean, do we have GURPS skills for looking both ways before your cross the street, cleaning your body in order to to stay healthy and smell nice, tying your shoes, or changing the batteries in your smoke alarm as needed?

Some things are simply common sense or common knowledge and are not complex, deep, or broad enough to be skills in game terms.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Hmmmm...Common Sense- wouldn't this advantage tend to eliminate a lot of unsafe/improper handling issues?
I mean, an adult from any culture in which guns are known and understood to be potentially deadly wepaons (most of the Earth, now) without any points in the Guns skill should already know that

• guns aren't toys
• don't point guns at people unless you mean to shoot them
• the round exists the muzzle
• etc

I've never touched a gun, except for toy guns or BB guns. Dad had a firearms license*. At a carnival where there was some shooting thing (shoot 5 shots at a paper target, get a cheap toy if you shoot well). I was 10-12 years old, and wanted to try, I was rather careless at where the barrel was pointing so I got a firearms safety lecture from dad.

What I know about guns is that when you pull the trigger magic happens and a bullet comes flying at speed from the end with a hole in it.

*It expired many many years ago and since he didn't have a firearm he didn't renew it.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

I've never touched a gun, except for toy guns or BB guns. Dad had a firearms license*. At a carnival where there was some shooting thing (shoot 5 shots at a paper target, get a cheap toy if you shoot well). I was 10-12 years old, and wanted to try, I was rather careless at where the barrel was pointing so I got a firearms safety lecture from dad.

What I know about guns is that when you pull the trigger magic happens and a bullet comes flying at speed from the end with a hole in it.

*It expired many many years ago and since he didn't have a firearm he didn't renew it.

Well, you see once upon a time there was a wizard in the magic land of Cathay. He made a magic powder to impress princes and knights. But an evil spy stole it, someone stole it from him ad infinitum. Until it came to the land of Albion where they sprinkled the magic powder on their ships and used them to conquer most of the world. Including large parts of Cathay.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

What I know about guns is that when you pull the trigger magic happens and a bullet comes flying at speed from the end with a hole in it.

See, everyone knows this. Very few people handle guns like they know it. It's better to handle guns like the magic death wands TV and action movies represent them as, yet STILL people with little experience handling firearms pay almost no attention to where precisely the end that the bullet comes out is pointing.