Muzzle Safety

[Buffa1oso1di3r]

Alright, so, today, I'm checking my Cadet's clothing records to make sure that they have everything they have, right? I look up, and from the other platoon (made of all upper LET cadets), one points her weapon into my classroom. I'm immediately appaled by what I saw, so I report her to my Company Commander, who was handing out the weapons. What happens next?

"(My name here), iare you butthurt about the time I dropped you? It's a fake weapon, so there's no reason to be so angry!"

I left, and then, I started mulling over it. Since when did my program become so lax over rilfe safety? If it had been an actual weapon, one of my cadets wouldv'e died and it would be my fault.

My Lord, I think my commander's an idiot.

Edit note: Please move to General Cadet Dicussion.

[Billyd]

Seems some cadet somewhere needs a refresher on weapon safety. Just as a review, here are the four rules of weapon safety:

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target (and you have made the decision to shoot).
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

My source.

Notice that the rules do not distinguish between real and replica. It states ALL guns.

Maybe a discussion about weapons safety with your instructors might be in the works?

[grunt0311]

All I can do is affirm what BillyD said. Re-inform all of your cadets of the weapons safety rules. It IS a big deal when they are ignored, and they need to know that.

1. Treat EVERY weapon as if it were loaded
2. NEVER point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot
3. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire
4. Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire
5. (unofficial) Know your target and what lies beyond.

multiple re-writing of this will ingrain it into their heads.

[TruBlu]

To make matters worse, it's a school. Make sure you CO understands that if administration where to catch wind of that incident, not only would the cadet in question be suspended/expelled, but your rifle team and even the JROTC could be in danger.

[Buffa1oso1di3r]

Well, see, I already know weapon safety. I taught it to all of my cadets. However, there are two JROTC classes (each class is a platoon). My Company Commander is in the opposite platoon, and he's the one who was issuing them out.

He knows weapon safety, and whenever I bring it up, he brings up the incident when he dropped me for ten pushups for "being unsafe" when I was actually in an authorized carrying position that was not intended for combat
(6_6) it's BS, really.

[armysc_25b]

Several years ago, all AJROTC Marksmanship was halted due to a death on a range. That's the reason .22's are no longer authorized in the program, and there was talk that they would not restart Marksmanship Training in the program after the incident. Marksmanship is under VERY close watch from Cadet Command, and if someone from BDE or higher just happened to be there and saw that, it could become a serious matter.

Muzzle awareness is EXTREMELY important. Does he want to be that Joe that has to explain to Jim's parents why their son died in a friendly fire accident? Loaded or not, real or replica, it's a rifle/gun/whatever, and is to be treated as such.

[Drill for life]

He should be striped of rank, in my county if a Commander does not do anything about a cadet pointing a weapon they are reported and are demoted according to ther SAI,AI,SNSI,NSI,SASI,ASI. That is taken very serious in my county. If you point a weapon you are demoted also.