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Originally Posted by pax, post 43
The actual rule you should be teaching your students is, "do not handle firearms – any firearm, loaded or not – unless you have a safe direction."
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Originally Posted by pax, post 48
If you (generic you, not specific you) are going to allow students to handle firearms inside your classroom, you absolutely must have a genuine, real, definite, true safe direction in which to point the gun. That includes a solid backstop that would definitely stop the bullet from bouncing into a student's arm.
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While I am by no means anything more than a beginner on my best day, I think I have to disagree with Pax's absolutist statements from above. While the 4 rules should be followed EVERY time, I think we add more to the rules, making them impossible to follow.
Case in point: Rule #1 is often stated "All guns are always loaded." This is a logical fallacy, and, IMHO, silly. I know that my gun is capable of having the ammunition removed. I can remove the magazine, rack the slide, open the cylender, run the extractor, and remove all ammunition from the gun. By advocating a rule that is PATENTLY FALSE, we are teaching people to BREAK THE RULES anytime we advocate dry fire practice, cleaning a weapon, etc. I do not believe hyperbolic rules lead to better safety, but rather lead to more carelessness.
In the same vein, it seems as though Pax's statements of what a "Safe direction" are equally hyperbolic, pointed out by Aguila Blanca's rather pointed rebuttal.