5 Important Steps For New Gun Owners In 2020

Due to a bunch of scary stuff happening around the world right now, a bunch of people has entered into the gun world and you're now gun owners. 

So guys, welcome to gun ownership. 

Now we are going to give you the next five steps that you need to know now that you're a gun owner or you're about to be one. And that has to do with safety rules, operation, clearing, unloading, handling, some general safety advice, some next steps. 

1. Always know the condition of your gun, and always treat all guns as if they're loaded. This is a big failsafe. Everyone that's ever had a negligent discharge or accidentally shot someone – they all did it with a supposed "empty gun". So for intents and purposes, there's no such thing as an unloaded gun. And so we are always pretending, even if we know the gun is unloaded, we pretend like it is loaded. And that keeps us from having any horrible disasters. 

2. Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are aligned and the decision to shoot has been made. This is a good trigger discipline. And you'll see my finger is completely straight, over the trigger guard, and that's how it lives until I'm ready to shoot. And so, I line up my sights and I'm ready to shoot, then I can put my finger on the trigger and shoot. Bang bang bang. Until I'm done and then the finger comes off the trigger and then I can come down and whatever or put my gun down. Right, so finger off the trigger until the sights are aligned and the decision to shoot has been made. If you don't pull the trigger, then the gun cannot go off. Again, they're not little bombs waiting to explode. You have to pull the trigger to make this gun go off, right. 

3. Never point a gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. And so imagine there's a little laser coming out of this gun. You'd never let that laser cross any part of your hand, or your leg, or anyone else around. Never point your gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. 

4. Know your target, what's beyond it, in front of it, to the left and the right of it. And beware because bullets or ammunition can go through walls. So if I pointed this gun at this wall and there was somebody in the room next to me, then I just broke that rule. I pointed a gun at somebody that I didn't intend to, and I didn't know what was beyond my target, right. So those are the universal firearms safety rules. There's a bunch of other rules that apply as well. They're not the universal ones, but they're just generally good ideas. 

Alright, so the very first step was about safety. This second step is about operating your gun. So, knowing our safety rules, we're not going to ever break those. If our gun is down on a surface here, we'll make sure our finger is straight, hit the frame and we can go ahead and pick up our gun as such. This is a training gun, so this is shooting blanks right now. Pretty darn fun. Yay for that. And we'll basically just go over our general safety and clearing procedures, right. 

So the very first thing is our gun is presumably empty. That means there is nothing in the chamber, and there's no magazine in the pistol grip. I'll take my magazine right here, which has bullets in it. And if I wanted to load this gun, what I would do is insert this magazine flush, and then I'll grab the slide – and you can do these multiple different ways. 

One is you can grab over the top like this, and pull it back hard. Or you can, instead of going over the top like this, you can turn the gun sideways and grab like this, right. 

Now let's say I want to clear the gun out. Step one will be to drop the magazine. On the other side there is a magazine release button, and what I'll do is I'll just push this in with my thumb. Observe. And it falls. Groovy. Now there's still around in the chamber. And so what I need to do is clear that out. The way I'll do that is I'll grab the top and again I'm gonna cycle it violently and I'll see the round fall out. 

Now it should be empty, but we like to double-check everything. And so part of clearing or loading, unloading a gun – we have our safety protocols, but we also have systems that help us clear out. So if step one dropped the magazine, step two racks the slide, but we'll do it two times as a double-check. The third thing is, now that I know that it is, or it should be empty. I still wanna put a visual check. So this is really like a third check. What I'll do is I'll lock the slide to the rear. And on the other side, on the same side that the magazine release is, there is our slide stop release. So what I'll do is I'll need to push this up. There's a little notch right there, and so my job here is to push this up so I have upward pressure while pulling this back. And you'll watch this notch get back all the way up. And then I'll let the slide forward and it will rest against this piece. If I pull this down, the slide will go forward. And if I push up... it locks against it. This is step three. Step four will be I'll visually inspect the chamber. And some people will add a physical check where they'll put their finger in there. So observe. I look in the chamber. And I can put my finger in there if I choose. And some folks will add a double-check where they'll look away and then look back, just to have another look at the chamber. Alright, to put it all together. Looks like this. Step one. Two. Three. Four. Very good. That's how to clean your gun. Some people do it a little bit differently. Like I said before, the big thing is to have a system and stick to it. When it's time to clear a gun, you're not talking to anyone, you're not watching TV, you're not doing anything else. You're ensuring that your area is safe, you're not breaking the Universal Firearms Safety Rules, and you go through this exact system every single time. So that was loading and unloading or clearing. 

5. Step five, Don't be afraid to ask local instructors or people who are further down the line from you. You really just need good practice and some knowledge and some learning and some time as well, right.
 

Conclusion: 
So these are some important things that every new gun owner must know. Safety rules, operation, clearing, unloading, handling are important things for you.: