You need to change rule 4. I will never trust a weapon on "safe" ever again. A few years ago I inadvertently chambered a pellet in the house. It was in the most commonly purchased American made PCP airgun on the market. Most folks can figure out which one this is since it is most folks entry level PCP air rifle. Anyway, my plan was to take it to the garage and discharge it into a box of news papers used as a short range target for getting scopes reasonably sighted in before taking them to the range. I picked up the weapon in an unzipped rifle bag and started moving it to the garage. As it turns out my travels took me through a tight space in the room that was stacked with stuff we were planning to donate. The rifle is butt heavy and slipped out of the bag and hit on a carpeted floor. It bump discharged with the safety on. My daughter heard the bump from the recoil and came running up the stairs. The pellet entered four inches above my elbow on the under side of my arm and exited four inches below my wrist and stuck in the ceiling. I figure it went through 6 inches of my arm. That was almost three years ago. I currently have roughly 70% of the feeling back in three of my fingers and the other two are ok. Ligament damage is still working itself out but mobility is almost back to normal. Real gun shot wounds to the arms are not like TV where the wounded are ready to go in the next episode. I will never trust a safety again and will keep the bolt open until ready to fire.
The fun part was going to the ER and explaining to law enforcement what happened. All ERs are required to report gun shoot wounds to law enforcement. They couldn't believe an air gun could do that kind of damage and suspected a regular firearm was involved. They had me go over the story at least ten times. My daughter had to take them to the house and noted the pellet hole in the ceiling. They snooped around a bit but there was nothing to find.
Several months before this happened a dad in a neighboring town bought a pellet rifle for killing gophers in the backyard. His teen age son took it out with a friend when the dad wasn't home and it accidentally discharged. His son was killed.
Thanks Dennis for bringing this topic up. I never disclosed this before online but considered bringing it up several times. Your post was the perfect opportunity.
