MANNERS MAKETH THE MAN

By: Eddie Pretorius

Have you noticed how little emphasis is placed on manners today? As a boy my father taught me to offer my seat to any lady or elderly person on the bus. I don’t see this happening today and I ride the train daily. Likewise as a youngster I haunted gun shops and the old-timers behind the counters made sure that that my gun manners were impeccable. Just what are good gun shop manners? As a customer I would expect the sales person to greet me, listen to my queries and give me good advice, talk with me, not at me, and not bullsh** me. If I am making the wrong decision on a gun, knife, or any other purchase, I expect to be guided and advised, give me the facts and /or benefits and let me make the decision.

As a young man, I worked in retail/ women fashion, wore pretty suits and still haunted gun shops. I did not look like a gun person, if a person could be identified by his or her appearance. I know that in many cases when I went into a gun shop where I was not known, I would get a look of disdain from the younger sales persons. In many of these cases, I had been shooting longer than the sales persons had and my firearm knowledge was better than theirs was, but they judged this book by its cover and spoke at me rather than with me. I have known gunmen to come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. In one instance whilst in a Johannesburg Gun Shop I overheard a youngster telling a customer that the Black Talon 230 grain bullet exits the muzzle at over 1500fps. The look the client gave the youngster said it all. I stepped in and saved his rear end by saying that he had confused the velocity of an Eliminator at 1510fps with that of the Talon. It transpired that this client was not only a gunman but also a very knowledgeable collector. The young sales man almost blew it by giving incorrect information as fact, rather than deferring to someone else in the store or finding out the correct information and giving it to the client. As a customer, it would be considered good manners in a gun shop to ask the salesperson to make a firearm safe before he gives it to you if he has not done so already. When showing me a firearm I expect him to demonstrate the firearm is safe before giving it to me and not to point me or sweep me with the muzzle When receiving the firearm don’t grip it with your finger on the trigger but alongside the slide/frame above the trigger guard. Don’t dry fire the firearm unless you have asked the sales person for permission to do so. Dry firing some firearms can damage the firearm’s firing pin rendering the gun out of commission. If you don’t know to operate the slide release, then ask, rather than rack the slide and push and pull on every other lever and knob. The same applies when removing the bolt from a rifle or taking down a shotgun. When you enter the gun shop as a customer and you wish to hand over your firearm to the sales man, don’t draw it out of the holster and begin unloading and racking the slide. How would you feel if somebody came into your house and started waving a gun around? First ask if you can draw the weapon and then ask in what condition the salesperson would like you to hand it over. I prefer the customer to hand me the firearm with out unloading it. It is much safer for me and the other customers if I can make the firearm safe behind the counter pointing the muzzle in a safe direction. Good gun manners are an absolutely imperative on a shooting range. Disregarding range rules could not only get you thrown off or banned from the range, and if reported to the SAP, even have your licenses revoked, but could get you killed. On a shooting range, it is your responsibility to ensure you are conversant with the range rules, no matter what your level of expertise. Too often we see people handling firearms on the firing line or at the bench whilst others are patching targets, checking scores out in front of them. We say the devil loads firearms for good reason. Too many people have been shot with an unloaded gun. Good gun manners, safety rules or range rules are there for a reason, to protect you and others like you, whether on the range, in the Gun Shop or in your home. Being a responsible gun owner and setting a good example to others is as important part of owning a firearm as it is knowing how to use it safely and correctly. Become a responsible gun owner today.

Stopping power

Once again, the myth of stopping power has raised its ugly head. Too often we have clients wanting ammunition that’s top of the stopping power chart and it’s just not available. After all you can’t get a bus into a gun barrel, and it’s only the bus that’s going to stop you in your tracks. An attacker is stopped in exactly the same way the animals we hunt are stopped or killed, by bullet placement. When hunting the diminutive Springbuck we use high powered rifles with ammunition that generates a great deal more terminal energy than does the puny handgun cartridge that we use to try and stop our attacker. An animal is stopped in one of three ways: • Brain/ Neck Shot, which switches off the lights with immediate effect taking out the central nervous system. • Heart/ Lung Shot, which bleeds out the animal quickest thus reducing blood pressure and blood getting to the brain. This will also switch off the lights after a very short while. Men are no different from animals. Our bodies work exactly the same. The movies fuel the myth that a bullet is going to pick you up and slam you through a plate glass window, out into the street and under the passing bus. But this is just entertainment worked with pulleys, wires and sugar glass windows. Reality is a very different movie. Newton’s Third Law of Physics states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Just try and imagine holding onto the gun that fires a projectile that has enough energy to pick a man up and throw him down. Arnold and Chuck maybe, us mere mortals... hmmm