Firearms are deadly and destructive devices.
Adhering to the following four rules can help keep you safe:
Treating every firearm as if it is loaded develops good habits that can prevent a negligent discharge on firearms that are assumed to be unloaded. When interacting with a firearm that you are not intending to fire, ensure that it is not loaded, do not assume. First verify that any mechanism capable of feeding ammunition into the firearm, such as a magazine, is removed or emptied. Next check that the chamber of the firearm is clear; that there is no ammunition present inside the firearm ready to be fired.
If these steps are performed out of order, a new piece of ammunition may be automatically and unintentionally placed in the chamber, rendering the firearm unsafe again. If you do not know how to perform these actions yourself, have a trusted individual familiar with the operation of the firearm clearly demonstrate to you that the weapon is not loaded. Clear the firearm every time you interact with it, even if you believe that it has not been tampered with.
A chamber flag is a common tool that may be inserted into a firearm as a visual indicator that the firearm is not loaded and cannot be fired.
If your firearm's muzzle is not directly pointed at a person, the odds of injury or death are greatly reduced if the firearm discharges. The act of pointing the muzzle at someone is sometimes referred to as flagging.
Some state that the firearm must always be pointed in a safe direction, but this is sometimes impossible. In such situations there will often be directions which are safer than others. Generally, pointing the muzzle of the firearm into the ground is considered safest, and pointing the muzzle vertically into the sky is also considered safe. Bullets can travel very long distances and still injure or kill, a bullet fired into the sky will come down and strike something. If the bullet is not fired exactly up, it will have more than just the force of gravity behind it when it returns to the ground.
Bullets can penetrate through materials and still injure or kill. In interior spaces, there may be people on floors above or below you, reducing the safety of pointing the muzzle down or up respectively. Bullets can ricochet off of hard surfaces and travel in unexpected directions.
Muzzle awareness extends beyond pointing it in safe directions. If the muzzle of a firearm makes contact with the ground, it can be obstructed by substances such as mud or snow. An obstructed barrel can result in catastrophic failure of the firearm if fired.
Dropping a firearm constitutes a loss of control of the firearms muzzle and some firearms can and will fire when dropped or jarred.
Special care must be taken to not allow distractions to change the direction that you point the firearm. Unexpected pain and discomfort, such as that from a hot ejected cartridge contacting your skin, must be ignored long enough to place the firearm in a safe and secure position. Another common violation of this rule with new shooters is when nearby people distract the shooter. If you are shooting a firearm and are distracted by a nearby person, do not swing the firearm to point at them.
Consider the consequences of missing your target.
Bullets can penetrate through barriers. A well-designed shooting range will have some combination of space beyond the target to allow bullets to land safely and material behind targets to stop the bullet from travelling futher.
Hard targets such as steel can result in ricochets and material from either the bullet or the target splattering towards the shooter. Ensure that a safe distance and angle is kept between you and a hard target, and consider using ammunition with a reduced risk of ricochet or splatter on such targets.
Only place your finger inside the trigger guard when you intend to fire. Ensure that foreign objects do not enter the trigger guard. Jarring impacts and inadvertent trigger presses can both result in the firearm being discharged, take special care when moving with a firearm across difficult terrain.
Beyond the four rules,
Some firearms are equipped with safety features, and some are not. Understand which features your firearm has and in what circumstances they can help, but do not solely rely on them.
Some malfunctions, such as those caused by a failure of the firearm to extract an empty cartridge, do not pose a high safety risk. Other malfunctions, such as a "squib load", can result in a catastrophic failure of the firearm.
Squib loads occur when a cartridge is fired, but insufficient energy is generated to push the projectile out of the barrel. This can sometimes be identified by a change in the sound of the shot (a reduction in volume) or the feeling of the shot (a reduction in recoil). If a squib load occurs, attempting to fire another round will likely result in the destruction of the barrel and possible injury or death. The remediating action for a squib load is to clear the firearm and to extract the bullet from the barrel.
Hang fires can occur when the trigger is pulled but the primer does not immediately ignite. The primer is responsible for igniting the propellant inside of the cartridge which is responsible for pushing the projectile out of the case and ultimately out of the barrel. If this malfunction occurs, maintain control of the firearm and keep it pointed at the target, or "down range", and wait some time before ejecting the cartridge. The risk from a hang fire is that the primer may go off after a delay, possibly resulting in the firearm discharging at an unexpected time or an explosion of the cartridge when it is outside of the gun. If the action of the firearm permits you to strike the same cartridge again WITHOUT ejecting it, you may attempt to do so. After waiting, eject the cartridge and inspect the primer surface for an impact and if possible compare it to another fired cartridge. If there is no impact or an abnormally light impact, the likely cause of malfunction is the firearm rather than the ammunition, and the failure was not a hang fire. If there is a normal impact, the cause of malfunction is likely the ammunition and it should be properly disposed of. Cartridges that fail in this manner are sometimes referred to as a "dud" and may still be dangerous.
Mechanical malfunctions of the firearm may result in a round being fired when chambered even without the trigger being pressed. Mechanical malfunctions may also result in uncontrolled follow up shots in which the firearm continues to fire until all ammunition is exhausted. Care must be taken to maintain control of the firearm at all times.
Lead is often present in primers, and shooting can result in lead inhalation. Shooting in properly ventilated areas can help reduce lead inhalation risks. Clean your hands after handling a firearm, and consider changing your clothing after shooting. Take special care to not eat with your hands before you clean them.
The most common material for bullets is also lead. Wherever your bullet comes to rest after being fired is now polluted.
Lead-free bullets and primers are available but are generally more expensive.
Firearms are loud enough that operating them without proper hearing protection can result in permanent hearing loss. Not all hearing protection is equal, and hearing protection which is adequate for open, outdoor spaces may not be adequate for enclosed, indoor ones.
Firearm malfunctions, ricochets, and splatter from bullets impacting a hard surface can all potentially blind you. Wear adequate shatter-resistant eye protection.
Store firearms appropriately for your environment. Children and adults capable of discovering unattended firearms and/or ammunition can injure themselves and others. Educate those around you. Firearms are often the target of theft. Not all locking storage containers are equal, and all but the most expensive and excessive will not deter a determined thief for more than a few moments. Smaller and lighter containers, particularly if they are not secured to the floor or a fixed object, can be easily taken to a separate location where time and tools are available to easily break into them. Be realistic about your threat modeling and determine if you are actually at risk of being visited by a determined thief (you probably are not). Strive for a container capable of at least resisting the efforts of a curious child, but be aware that many containers marketed as being capable of this are lying.
Do not operate a firearm while in a depressed, angry, or impaired state. Do not own or possess a firearm while suffering from depression or similar illnesses. If you already have a firearm and do not wish to sell or dispose of it, safely store it with a trusted individual educated on safe firearm storage and handling. Firearms are an easy way to kill yourself, forcing yourself to consider a more difficult way might be enough to save your life.
In the event of someone being shot or injured, reducing the time it takes for the victim to receive medical treatment is critical. Consider attending a "Stop the Bleed" or similar training, and ensure that appropriate medical supplies are maintained and available. Promptly call emergency services.
The chamber of a firearm is the location behind the barrel where ammunition sits immediately before being fired.
The muzzle of a firearm is the front-end of a barrel from which any projectiles will exit.