When I was young and growing up in gun-loving Texas around gun-loving people, the notion that you should just be tossing guns around and displaying them everywhere like some yahoo—the idea that guns are safe and we should feel “comfortable” around them—was strongly discouraged. Guns were locked away and we were told that they are very dangerous. But while that’s surely a smarter move if you want to minimize accidental shooting, the correct belief that guns are dangerous had to go because it’s clearly stifling gun profits. There’s still a little bit of talk about gun safety on the right, but it’s just a little ass-covering. The emotional pitch now is that guns are safe and they should be everywhere all the time until you forget how fucking dangerous they really are.
Guns are dangerous. No one has ever -- repeat
ever -- disputed that. But the notion that a visible gun is more dangerous than a concealed one is ludicrous, as is the notion that discomfort with weapons somehow fosters safety.
Let's make an analogy to power tools. They are extremely dangerous if you don't know how to use them. The appropriate response to a power tool is to learn how to use it or leave it the eff alone. You don't park the bandsaw in the living room and say, "I'll just let it sit there until I'm comfortable with it, and then I'll let 'er rip!" Nor do you scream "Danger! Danger! Bandsaw!" and then stash it out of sight lest you put yourself at risk through too much familiarity and "comfort."
What you do is learn about the machine and how to operate it safely, with guns as with power tools. The right kind of familiarity leads to competence, safety, and ultimately comfort.
The NRA -- yeah,
those guys -- have a course called Home Firearms Safety, in which no guns are fired. Students learn the basics of safe handling and safe storage, and then are taught how to safely unload all the major handgun and long gun platforms, using dummy ammunition. Y'know, so that if you find a gun in the woods you can make sure that it isn't a danger to you or anyone else. That's gun safety.
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