November 2nd, 8:15
Nov. 24th, 2006 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
secret_historyDisclaimer: My knowledge of guns and their handling is limited, not to say nonexistent. I have relied on the very helpful information provided by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fearsclave, but any errors contained in the text are due to my lack of understanding and nothing else. Please feel free to point out where I have erred, so that I may fix it later when I edit this text. Thanks!
~secret_history
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Have I got your attention? Good.”
Kurt stood in front of the small group, holding a rifle in both hands, the barrel pointed very deliberately at the floor. Chuck was off to the side, leaning against the wall with one shoulder, his arms folded across his chest, one leg casually crossed over the other, looking disgusted with the entire proceedings. Upon learning that most if not all of the survivors from the metro wanted to arm themselves properly, Kurt had appointed himself as a temporary instructor on firearm usage and safety. Kitty was sitting in Michaela’s lap, her thumb firmly in her mouth, index finger curled over her nose, watching the proceedings with her eyes wide.
Kurt held up his rifle. “This is a Ruger 10/22,” he said, looking at the gun rather as though it were his girlfriend rather than an inanimate weapon. “It’s a semi-automatic rifle, and it uses .22-calibre ammunition. This is the gun we’ll all be using today, for simplicity’s sake. It’s the only one we’ve got enough of to go around, and that means I only have to give you one demonstration instead of three or four. It’s also pretty easy to use, and it’s one of the models we have here that’s better-suited to what we’re trying to accomplish. I could give you a telescopic-sighted hunting rifle, but it wouldn’t really do you any good. We’re talking about firing at reasonably close range, and not hunting and sniping.
“Also, with several Butler Creek after-market high-capacity magazines, it goes a long way in terms of how much ammunition your can carry around. Six bricks of ammo. isn’t exactly light to haul around, but you can carry it all day in a pinch, and that’s three thousand rounds. It’s also light, handy, simple, low-recoiling, and all in all one of the easiest guns around to operate and shoot. So, the Ruger it is.
“Questions so far? No? Good. Before we get into the mechanics of loading and firing, I want to make sure you all know the basics of gun safety. Just because we’re fighting off zombies and it’s like we’re caught in a bad remake of a Romero flick, doesn’t mean we don’t want to avoid negligent discharges. In fact, I’d say that especially because this is an unusual situation, we need to be extra-vigilant about this. You’re going to be learning on the fly, and we’re all strung out and nervous about being eaten by the undead, or whatever. The last thing we need is someone getting hurt just because they ignored the basic rules of firearm safety.”
Mickey found herself smiling at the young man’s enthusiasm. If Kurt wasn’t a licensed instructor, she’d be very surprised. She had heard very similar speeches coming from her instructors when she’d taken the Canada Firearms Safety Course in order to get her Possession and Acquisition License a few years back. Her uncle had been an avid hunter when she was little, and by the time she was eighteen she’d learned how to operate a number of hunting guns, her uncle’s theory being that children who knew how to handle guns would be less likely to mess around with them and get hurt. She’d had a PAL for nearly nine years now, and although she had never felt the desire to own any kind of gun, she knew she could handle herself around one if she needed to.
“There are very simple ways of remembering the basic rules of safe handling of your firearms,” Kurt was saying. “The one I like best is the acronym ACTS. One: Assume every firearm is loaded. That means that no matter what gun you pick up, you always act as though it has ammunition with it. Even if someone tells you it’s unloaded, you don’t take their word for it. Two: Control the muzzle direction at all times. That means, don’t point the muzzle of a firearm at anything you’re not willing to destroy. Three: Trigger finger must be kept off the trigger and out of the trigger guard. In other words, unless you are in the process of firing your weapon, your finger should be nowhere near the trigger. I don’t care if the safety is on, or if your gun is unloaded. Don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you’re ready to fire. I can’t stress this enough: level your gun at your target, and only then put your finger on the trigger and squeeze. You’re not going to save any time by keeping your finger on the trigger, and you’re far more likely to shoot something —or someone— you didn’t intend to shoot. Four: See that the firearm is unloaded, and PROVE that it’s safe. Everyone with me so far?”
There were nods and murmurs of assent. Kurt nodded, satisfied. “Good. Now, PROVE is another acronym, like acts. This is how you make sure your gun is safe. One: Point the firearm in the safest available direction. That goes back to what I was saying with ACTS. Don’t point it at anything you’re not willing to plug full of holes. Two: Remove all ammunition. Seems straightforward, but you’d be surprised to know how many people forget this. Three: Observe the chamber. Make sure there isn’t a round still left in there. Four: Verify the feeding path. Again, you want to make sure there isn’t any ammo. stuck in there. Five: Examine the bore each time you pick up a firearm.
“So, these are your most important rules: ACTS and PROVE. I want everyone to repeat it back to themselves until you know it by heart. I don’t want any negligent discharges on my watch. There is no such thing as an accident where firearms are concerned. Accidents are the result of something that’s entirely beyond the control of the user, and that almost never happens because guns don’t point and fire themselves. A negligent discharge, however, is an unplanned discharge that is the direct result of the user’s failure to observe basic safety rules. Got it? Good. Any other questions?”
Donnie raised his hand, almost as though he was in school. His brow was furrowed in confusion. “So, if there’s no such thing as an accident and a negligent discharge is, like, a mistake or whatever, then what’s a misfire?”
“Good question,” Kurt beamed at him as though he’d just won a prize. “A misfire is when a cartridge fails to fire when an attempt to fire is made. It’s caused by a defective cartridge or a defective firearm.”
“Oh.”
“Any other questions?”
There weren’t, but Kurt grilled them mercilessly on the acronyms until everyone could recite them by heart, even Marlene who seemed reluctant to even pick up a gun, let alone use one. Kurt raised an eyebrow when Mickey was able to rattle off the rules on the first try, but seemed to chalk it up to her having a good memory, or perhaps just didn’t want to think about the implications too hard. While the others were memorising the rules, he strolled over to where Mickey was sitting with Kitty in her lap, and squatted down to talk to the child.
“Okay, Kitty. The grown ups are all getting a gun safety lesson, but you’re going to get a special lesson all for you. How does that sound?”
She looked up at him, then slowly removed her thumb from her mouth. “Okay.”
“Good girl. See, you’re a bit too young to be allowed to have a gun, and it’s really easy for kids to get hurt when there are guns around. So I’m going to give you four easy rules to remember if you ever find a gun when you’re by yourself. Think you can remember four rules?”
“Yeah.”
“Smart kid. Okay, here we go. The first rule, when you see a gun, is STOP. That’s pretty easy, right? Good. The second rule is: Don’t Touch. That means, no matter where the gun is, you leave it alone, and you don’t go near it. Got it? Good. The third rule is: Leave the Area. You get away from the gun, but you walk, you don’t run. And the fourth rule is: find a responsible adult. You find a grown up your trust, like your p— like a teacher, or a police officer, or anyone you know can help you. Then you tell them that you’ve found a gun, and you tell them where it is. Can you repeat the four rules back for me?”
Kitty thought about it for a moment. “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the room. Find a grown up.”
Kurt smiled. “Fantastic!” he held up his hand. “Give me five! If I had any gold stars, you’d be getting one right now. Repeat them to me one more time.” He requested she give him five once more when she got it right again. “I have to go check on the others, but I’m going to come back in a few minutes and ask you again, just to make sure you remember. Make me proud.”
He winked at Mickey, and wandered off to where the others were grouped together, quizzing each other and looking for all the world as though this was a day like any other, and that they were simply taking a class, and that the world wasn’t ending just beyond the store’s front doorstep. Mickey didn’t know whether to be grateful to Kurt for providing a distraction, or whether to scream and shatter the illusion of normalcy once and for all.
Instead she kept silent as Kurt called everyone to attention again, wrapping her arms closer around Kitty, conscious that she taking as much comfort as she was giving. Kitty leaned against her, and Mickey could feel her chest expanding and contracting slowly as she breathed, the warmth from the small body seeping through her clothes, steady and reassuring.
fearsclave, but any errors contained in the text are due to my lack of understanding and nothing else. Please feel free to point out where I have erred, so that I may fix it later when I edit this text. Thanks!~
secret_history“Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Have I got your attention? Good.”
Kurt stood in front of the small group, holding a rifle in both hands, the barrel pointed very deliberately at the floor. Chuck was off to the side, leaning against the wall with one shoulder, his arms folded across his chest, one leg casually crossed over the other, looking disgusted with the entire proceedings. Upon learning that most if not all of the survivors from the metro wanted to arm themselves properly, Kurt had appointed himself as a temporary instructor on firearm usage and safety. Kitty was sitting in Michaela’s lap, her thumb firmly in her mouth, index finger curled over her nose, watching the proceedings with her eyes wide.
Kurt held up his rifle. “This is a Ruger 10/22,” he said, looking at the gun rather as though it were his girlfriend rather than an inanimate weapon. “It’s a semi-automatic rifle, and it uses .22-calibre ammunition. This is the gun we’ll all be using today, for simplicity’s sake. It’s the only one we’ve got enough of to go around, and that means I only have to give you one demonstration instead of three or four. It’s also pretty easy to use, and it’s one of the models we have here that’s better-suited to what we’re trying to accomplish. I could give you a telescopic-sighted hunting rifle, but it wouldn’t really do you any good. We’re talking about firing at reasonably close range, and not hunting and sniping.
“Also, with several Butler Creek after-market high-capacity magazines, it goes a long way in terms of how much ammunition your can carry around. Six bricks of ammo. isn’t exactly light to haul around, but you can carry it all day in a pinch, and that’s three thousand rounds. It’s also light, handy, simple, low-recoiling, and all in all one of the easiest guns around to operate and shoot. So, the Ruger it is.
“Questions so far? No? Good. Before we get into the mechanics of loading and firing, I want to make sure you all know the basics of gun safety. Just because we’re fighting off zombies and it’s like we’re caught in a bad remake of a Romero flick, doesn’t mean we don’t want to avoid negligent discharges. In fact, I’d say that especially because this is an unusual situation, we need to be extra-vigilant about this. You’re going to be learning on the fly, and we’re all strung out and nervous about being eaten by the undead, or whatever. The last thing we need is someone getting hurt just because they ignored the basic rules of firearm safety.”
Mickey found herself smiling at the young man’s enthusiasm. If Kurt wasn’t a licensed instructor, she’d be very surprised. She had heard very similar speeches coming from her instructors when she’d taken the Canada Firearms Safety Course in order to get her Possession and Acquisition License a few years back. Her uncle had been an avid hunter when she was little, and by the time she was eighteen she’d learned how to operate a number of hunting guns, her uncle’s theory being that children who knew how to handle guns would be less likely to mess around with them and get hurt. She’d had a PAL for nearly nine years now, and although she had never felt the desire to own any kind of gun, she knew she could handle herself around one if she needed to.
“There are very simple ways of remembering the basic rules of safe handling of your firearms,” Kurt was saying. “The one I like best is the acronym ACTS. One: Assume every firearm is loaded. That means that no matter what gun you pick up, you always act as though it has ammunition with it. Even if someone tells you it’s unloaded, you don’t take their word for it. Two: Control the muzzle direction at all times. That means, don’t point the muzzle of a firearm at anything you’re not willing to destroy. Three: Trigger finger must be kept off the trigger and out of the trigger guard. In other words, unless you are in the process of firing your weapon, your finger should be nowhere near the trigger. I don’t care if the safety is on, or if your gun is unloaded. Don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you’re ready to fire. I can’t stress this enough: level your gun at your target, and only then put your finger on the trigger and squeeze. You’re not going to save any time by keeping your finger on the trigger, and you’re far more likely to shoot something —or someone— you didn’t intend to shoot. Four: See that the firearm is unloaded, and PROVE that it’s safe. Everyone with me so far?”
There were nods and murmurs of assent. Kurt nodded, satisfied. “Good. Now, PROVE is another acronym, like acts. This is how you make sure your gun is safe. One: Point the firearm in the safest available direction. That goes back to what I was saying with ACTS. Don’t point it at anything you’re not willing to plug full of holes. Two: Remove all ammunition. Seems straightforward, but you’d be surprised to know how many people forget this. Three: Observe the chamber. Make sure there isn’t a round still left in there. Four: Verify the feeding path. Again, you want to make sure there isn’t any ammo. stuck in there. Five: Examine the bore each time you pick up a firearm.
“So, these are your most important rules: ACTS and PROVE. I want everyone to repeat it back to themselves until you know it by heart. I don’t want any negligent discharges on my watch. There is no such thing as an accident where firearms are concerned. Accidents are the result of something that’s entirely beyond the control of the user, and that almost never happens because guns don’t point and fire themselves. A negligent discharge, however, is an unplanned discharge that is the direct result of the user’s failure to observe basic safety rules. Got it? Good. Any other questions?”
Donnie raised his hand, almost as though he was in school. His brow was furrowed in confusion. “So, if there’s no such thing as an accident and a negligent discharge is, like, a mistake or whatever, then what’s a misfire?”
“Good question,” Kurt beamed at him as though he’d just won a prize. “A misfire is when a cartridge fails to fire when an attempt to fire is made. It’s caused by a defective cartridge or a defective firearm.”
“Oh.”
“Any other questions?”
There weren’t, but Kurt grilled them mercilessly on the acronyms until everyone could recite them by heart, even Marlene who seemed reluctant to even pick up a gun, let alone use one. Kurt raised an eyebrow when Mickey was able to rattle off the rules on the first try, but seemed to chalk it up to her having a good memory, or perhaps just didn’t want to think about the implications too hard. While the others were memorising the rules, he strolled over to where Mickey was sitting with Kitty in her lap, and squatted down to talk to the child.
“Okay, Kitty. The grown ups are all getting a gun safety lesson, but you’re going to get a special lesson all for you. How does that sound?”
She looked up at him, then slowly removed her thumb from her mouth. “Okay.”
“Good girl. See, you’re a bit too young to be allowed to have a gun, and it’s really easy for kids to get hurt when there are guns around. So I’m going to give you four easy rules to remember if you ever find a gun when you’re by yourself. Think you can remember four rules?”
“Yeah.”
“Smart kid. Okay, here we go. The first rule, when you see a gun, is STOP. That’s pretty easy, right? Good. The second rule is: Don’t Touch. That means, no matter where the gun is, you leave it alone, and you don’t go near it. Got it? Good. The third rule is: Leave the Area. You get away from the gun, but you walk, you don’t run. And the fourth rule is: find a responsible adult. You find a grown up your trust, like your p— like a teacher, or a police officer, or anyone you know can help you. Then you tell them that you’ve found a gun, and you tell them where it is. Can you repeat the four rules back for me?”
Kitty thought about it for a moment. “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the room. Find a grown up.”
Kurt smiled. “Fantastic!” he held up his hand. “Give me five! If I had any gold stars, you’d be getting one right now. Repeat them to me one more time.” He requested she give him five once more when she got it right again. “I have to go check on the others, but I’m going to come back in a few minutes and ask you again, just to make sure you remember. Make me proud.”
He winked at Mickey, and wandered off to where the others were grouped together, quizzing each other and looking for all the world as though this was a day like any other, and that they were simply taking a class, and that the world wasn’t ending just beyond the store’s front doorstep. Mickey didn’t know whether to be grateful to Kurt for providing a distraction, or whether to scream and shatter the illusion of normalcy once and for all.
Instead she kept silent as Kurt called everyone to attention again, wrapping her arms closer around Kitty, conscious that she taking as much comfort as she was giving. Kitty leaned against her, and Mickey could feel her chest expanding and contracting slowly as she breathed, the warmth from the small body seeping through her clothes, steady and reassuring.
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The 10/22...
Date: 2006-11-25 12:30 am (UTC)A semi-auto also has a bolt, more or less, but it's just called that. To operate a semi, you shove a magazine in, yank the charging handle back, release, and rock and roll in accordance with all precepts of firearms safety.
Bolts are slower and must be operated manually, but allow the use of higher-powered cartridges for less weight than semi-autos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolt_action_rifle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiautomatic_rifle
Re: The 10/22...
Date: 2006-11-25 08:49 pm (UTC)