Many of you have heard about the shooting at Tombstone this week. A regular cadre of actors reenacts famous gunfights for the tourist trade. In season it can draw quite the large crowd. The shows take place right on main street and are both interesting and entertaining for self-defense experts and spectators alike.
The accident seems like a pretty unique set of circumstances to have any “lessons learned” for the average civilian gun owner, but I think it does. If you own guns and you ever load or unload them, this can happen to you. If you own guns and other people ever interface with them, this can happen to you via the old, “Don’t worry. It’s not loaded” nightmare. If you have snap-caps or dummy rounds in your possession, this can happen to you.
I could go on and on. But here’s the problem. It’s not one of the next 60 examples I could invent that needs to be worried about. More often then not, it is the one nobody thought of. Looking into this exhibit, it appears they have a myriad of protocols in place to keep such things from happening. This is done for insurance reasons. The last I heard, a particular actor or group of actors were running late for the scheduled performance and corners were cut getting ready.
The older I get the more I count my blessings. Because if you have spent any amount of time doing even moderately dangerous things, close-calls happen. You see things and you hear stories: like the fighter pilot who used to turn off a bunch of systems since it was too much to keep track of. The night a US Aircraft Carrier almost ran over a small civilian boat in the middle of the ocean. The SWAT team that was getting ready for their 3rd hit in a week and shorted the pre-brief only to have to actually shoot someone. The police officer who worked an entire shift with an unloaded gun. The P-3 Pilot who forgot to drop his landing gear before setting down. The Toyota Corolla driver who drove away form the gas station and dragged the $20,000 pump with them.
I used to laugh at these stories. Now I cringe at them. I think it’s the grey hair.
Marky
www.tacticaltshirts.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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