Why YSK: Even if you don’t own a gun, there is a chance you can encounter one at the home of a friend or family member. These are the four core rules of gun safety, but the same can be used with airsoft/paintball guns, nerf or even chemical spray bottles!

First, treat every firearm as if it were loaded. Even if it was clear the last time you saw it. If looking at a gun with someone else and they assure you it’s not loaded, you can respectfully ask them to clear it in front of you before you handle it yourself.

Never point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy. Pretend there is a lazer beam coming from the barrel. Don’t let that “beam” point at anyone. That is known as “flagging”. In nearly all cases keeping the barrel pointing down between your feet is a good move.

Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. This includes the whole trigger guard area. Most people keep their finger on the frame well above the trigger guard, pointing their finger in the same direction as the barrel. This is known as “trigger discipline”.

Finally be sure of your target and what’s behind it. Bullets can still travel a long way even after they pass through a target. If you are target shooting make sure there is a solid backstop. If in a real life situation you must positively ID the threat, no shooting at shadows or noises.

  • DFX4509B@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    Also, couldn’t most of this also apply to things like industrial paint guns or grease guns given the very real possibility for a horrible death by high-pressure injection with those?

    • Hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      4·
      23 hours ago

      I practice safe handling with the handheld barcode scanners at the hardware store checkout.

      • Do not point the scanner at anything you do not intend to scan.

      • Keep your finger away from the trigger until you’re ready to scan.

      • Be aware of your surroundings including what is behind your target.

      I would extend it to any gunlike, or vaguely gun shaped object, even those that cannot cause harm. Don’t become complacent with safety practices even when it doesn’t matter.

    • sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io
      3·
      1 day ago

      “High pressure injection” made me think of some gruesome deaths from paint and grease that I’m certainly sure can’t be what you mean 😬 vivid picture though.

      • DFX4509B@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        1·
        13 hours ago

        Basically, if pressure from a stream of liquid is high enough, 100psi/6.8bar is enough to hurt a person, it’ll break your skin and there’s your injection; this is why for, say, anyone working in the diesel mech field, for example, never touching a leaking fuel line is rule #1 because of the immense pressures those are typically under, which will result in a hydraulic injection injury if ever touched, basically as Bytemeister already pointed out.

        Industrial paint guns or grease guns also operate under high enough pressures to cause an injection injury.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        23 hours ago

        There is a good Hydraulic press video of high-pressure injections into clear ballistic gel, and it’s fuckin wild. You can have something that looks like a little dribble of water coming out of a flexible line. Grab the line to remove it and bam, you just had a bunch of hydraulic fluid shot into your bloodstream, which will create an oil embolism and kill you.

        • DFX4509B@lemmy.wtfEnglish
          1·
          13 hours ago

          Holmatro does as well, specifically with that injury being simulated using a ballistic gel arm with fake bones in it, at 750 bar/10.4k psi. The oil from that simulated 10.4k psi leak blew right through that fake hand.

          I kinda don’t wanna imagine how terrible that would be to happen to someone in the real world if they touched an actual leaky hose at those pressures in the field. Also…

          …you just had a bunch of hydraulic fluid shot into your bloodstream, which will create an oil embolism and kill you.

          • Or, you’ll lose a limb from infection, degloving (literally losing your skin) is also a thing from stuff like this, again, due to infection, this sorta thing is horrible to happen to a person.
        • DarthFreyr@lemmy.world
          2·
          19 hours ago

          That’d have to be at close range though, to create some sort of a temporary seal, right (as far as my physics intuition says)? Otherwise it should behave roughly similar to water in an open environment, where it would have to be the speed of the jet hitting you that does the raw damage.