Gun Safety Rule No. 2, Russian version: No guns up booger pipes

Gun Safety Rule No. 2: Keep your booger hook off the bang switch.

The Russian cop in this story took that rule a step further, Do not use your gun to scratch your booger pipe.

An armed 23 year old policeman in Moscow fell victim of his own carelessness. He decided to scratch an itchy spot on his nose with a gun and accidentally killed himself, the Moskovsky Komsomolets reports. 

The tragedy happened in the court security facility. At 6pm the officer’s supervisor tried to connect with him over the phone to check on him. The sergeant did not answer his phone and the supervisor had to go see him with other officers.

The police found a locked door they had to break and the body of their colleague behind the door. The policeman’s body with a wound in the head was found under the desk.

The investigation ruled out a murder. There was no note that would indicate suicide.

The victim had been serving in police since 2007. He was single and was not registered with the staff psychologist. He was reported to be in good spirits on the day of the accident.

The sergeant allegedly scratched his nose with his gun and accidentally pulled the trigger.

 I'll try to remember this one for the next gun safety lecture in my concealed carry classes. H/T Fark.com

Sanity breaks out in Virginia: School kids to learn gun safety

OMG! Have you heard what those crazy redneck gun-lovers in Virginia are going to do? They're gonna teach GUN SAFETY to those poor defenseless kids in the public schools! Really!

Now that I'm through pretending to be a leftwingnut, here's the story from the Leftwingnut News, (AKA The Washington Post).

RICHMOND -- The Virginia General Assembly has directed the state's Board of Education to develop course materials for teaching gun safety to elementary school children that incorporate the guidelines of a National Rifle Association program.

The measure, approved during the legislature's recently concluded annual session, allows local school boards to choose whether to implement the program.

A leading Democrat in the state Senate had amended the bill to allow the state board to also incorporate materials from a second group, the National Crime Prevention Center. But Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has proposed stripping the amendment from the bill, leaving the reference only to NRA material.

A McDonnell spokeswoman said there is no such group as the National Crime Prevention Center. The similarly named National Crime Prevention Council, best known for its McGruff the Crime Dog programs, did develop a gun safety curriculum several years ago, but a spokesman for the group said it has not been updated in several years.

What could possibly be wrong with teaching gun safety to elementary school children? Nothing, but when the left knee jerks, that's what leftwingnuts do, protest anything with the word gun.

As an NRA gun safety instructor, I'm all for teaching gun safety to the kids in school. They just might know what to do the next time some jerk goes off with a gun on school property.

There's one exception to that statement. DO NOT allow this ex-federal DEA agent teach gun safety to anybody, much less a group of 8th grade kids in Orlando, Fla., on April 9, 2004. Really.

How to shoot straight: A TV cop who actually gets it right

Wow. I'm impressed. A TV cop show that actually gets something right about handgun safety.

At right is Kyra Sedgwick, star of The Closer as an assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department, demonstrating one of the basic rules of gun safety.

If the photo doesn't show this rule clearly enough, let me state it as clearly as I can: Keep your booger hook off the bang switch!

Now Kyra, as the polite Southern lady she portrays, wouldn't put it so crudely, but keeping your finger off the trigger until you're actually ready to shoot is one of those "duh!" rules that gets broken all the time in TV shows and movies about cops and crooks. And while I'm on the topic of Hollywood idiocy, notice something else about Kyra's pistol technique. She's actually holding her pistol with the sights at the top, where her lovely eyeballs can align the sight picture properly.

Turning pistols sideways only works in the movies. In the real world, it's almost a guaranteed way to miss what you're shooting at. But there's always some good in the bad as in this case, it keeps all those idiot gang members and other crooks who watch movies from shooting straight.

I could be a nit-picker and point out that Kyra's two-hand technique leaves much to be desired as she has neither arm locked, making her stance neither Weaver -- which locks one arm -- or Isosceles -- which locks both arms. Her relaxed pose has both arms unlocked, but let us give her the benefit of the doubt and say she's checking out the threat and holding her handgun in the ready position. When she goes into shoot mode, hopefully one or both arms will get locked.

But I won't be a nit-picker about Kyra's technique. At least she's got two of three things right.