Opinion Post - Administrative Gun Handling

Definition - "Administrative Gun Handling" is the area of gun handling where most "accidents" (negligent discharge or N.D.) happen. It is loading and unloading, cleaning, transporting, holstering, or unholstering. As a matter of fact, its anything you do with a gun besides shooting it.

There is a school of thought that administrative gun handling (AGH) should always be minimized. I disagree. As long as Cooper's Four Rules of Gun Safety are ALWAYS observed, the more you handle your firearms, especially your EDC, the better. I am constantly swapping guns around; loading and unloading, changing magazines and holsters on my EDC, switching between EDC and bedside gun, switching between semi-auto and revolver, etc. In my opinion, each time I handle my firearms by AGH, and conscientiously do so safely, I am training. I never let my guard down and allow my self to become complacent or flippant. To me it is no different than the safety procedures I always follow when shooting or reloading. My club range had a couple of chamber flags on the back bench in the range house for members to use. I bought a good supply off eBay for myself and engraved them with my initials.

That said I have the "advantage" of having my own N.D. in 1984 that luckily went harmlessly into the ground, and learned from it. It was multiple failures on my part with a 1911. Call it being scared straight because it was my one, as in "everybody gets one." But I actually got two, because I should be at worst dead and at least a paraplegic from someone else's N.D. in May of 1989. Inside my car. My 7 month old new car. But I was lucky. The lumbar support in my drivers seat deflected the .22LR bullet away from my spine and harmlessly to the floor and then into the door. It cost the shooter $1000 to repair my car.

A couple of detailed examples:

Pistols; when I clear a semi-auto, I drop the mag, rack the slide and eject the round into my hand, and lock the slide to the rear. Then, maintaining muzzle and trigger discipline, visually inspect the chamber AND the mag well to ensure both are empty. If I am placing the gun into storage, the slide is moved forward and the gun goes immediately into storage or a carry case. If the gun is left out or handed to another person, the slide stays back with the chamber open. If the gun is left out on the bench assembled, it is flagged. If handed off, the other person is reminded to maintain muzzle safety and trigger discipline, and to inspect the chamber and mag well themselves. I watch to make sure that they do. It is the same with a revolver, with the cylinder remaining empty and out of the frame. The photos below were taken in my hardened gun closet.

 

Glock 21 Gen 3, empty chamber... CHECK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And empty mag well. Firearm CLEARED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chamber flags fit nicely in an empty Berry's Bullets container

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleared and flagged, Cooper's 4 Rules of Gun Safety still apply!

My Ruger GP-161 revolver in .357 Magnum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With rifles, it is just a little different. My chamber flags are used more regularly. Whenever the gun is moved out of the safe or carry case, the removable (if there is one) magazine is removed or if integral emptied, the action is opened and then both are inspected. On a loaded lever action, you must ensure muzzle and trigger discipline, and work the lever until the tubular magazine is emptied and no more live rounds are ejected. You should be able to observe the magazine follower in the receiver if the magazine is empty. If the gun is going back into storage or into a carry case, the action is closed and the safety engaged. If the gun is to remain out, a chamber flag is inserted in the chamber and the action stays completely open. If I am shooting multiple rifles at the range, each one is uncased, action opened, a chamber flag is inserted, and the rifle is placed in the rack at the rear of the firing line. If I have to go down range, any firearms left set up on the bench get a chamber flag in the open action, and range rules state no one touches any firearms. Since I am usually at the range by myself, this is not a problem. If there are others shooting at the same time, I will insist they follow my practices.

My Marlin 1894CB in .38SPL/.357Mag. Empty mag, action open and flagged

 

IMHO... if you are not confident enough to regularly handle all of your firearms, then you need to up your game, or think about selling them.

Since this is a gun post, I will also write about my new dual mag carrier from On Your 6 Designs for my Glock 21. I had one from Bianchi forever that used velcro flaps to hold the mags in place. It was bulky and flat and even though it was made for the Glock 21, the flaps seemed too short because the velcro barely mated up. The flaps popped open on me a couple of times, which was not acceptable. So today I am carrying the Glock with the new mag carrier to see how it does. It's only been a couple of hours, but so far so good.

On Your 6 Designs Glock 20/21 dual mag carrier in black Kydex

They are custom made per your order; firearm, single or double, left hand or right hand, bullets facing forward or backward, and lots of colors to choose from. They come with 1.5" belt loops mounted and 1.75" optional belt loops for you to install. You can also adjust the cant if you wish, but they come straight (and that's how I like them). With the Glock magazines, they molded an indentation to match the catch slot. The magazines lock into the carrier with a positive click. This particular one cost me $34.01 with the 15% off first time order coupon and flat rate shipping. Turn around was less than a week. The curvature is great and way more comfortable than my Bianchi carrier was, especially sitting all the way back in a chair. I will give a full review in a subsequent post.

The gun is carried in a Blackhawk CQC holster #2100298 with a position 1 forward cant and the belt loop mount because I did not care for the paddle mount. There are many places that ban these holsters for what I am going to call a fucking myth. Supposedly, in excitement or stress, shooters somehow hook their finger used on the release button on the trigger and N.D. themselves in the leg or foot. With my gun empty, no matter how hard I try to fuck up or purposely drag my finger from the button position to the gun on draw, I am nowhere near the trigger. My finger normally lands right in the take down button groove. If I look down and try to force my finger in alignment with the trigger, because my finger is still straight from pressing the release, my finger lands on the forward portion of the trigger guard. I can't quite figure out what these people are possibly doing wrong, but I doubt it is caused by the holster design. N.D.'s are caused by the shooter themselves 99% of the time, not equipment failure.

My typical load out with the Glock is three 10 round mags with one in the pipe, for a total of 31 rounds of SIG 230 gr JHP V-Crown ammo. It felt really heavy with the old setup, but the new one doesn't feel much different than my 9mm Ruger SR9c and the same load out. I believe it just carries better on my belt. Since Kommiecticut banned dreaded 13 round high capacity magazines for this gun (all mine were lost to the bottom of a lake in that canoe accident) I am down 9 rounds from my optimum, which in the eyes of the gun-grabbers means the world is now safe from me committing a mass shooting because I would have to reload. Certainly not the fact that I am not a criminal or murderer, right?