I never thought that I needed to worry about gun safety. I thought that my dad has always been so very careful. I learned that although he is very safe, keeps his guns locked up and unloaded, there is always that one time when things happen that you don’t mean to happen. I remember just hanging out with my girlfriend – now wife – in my room one day, just playing video games. My dad had gotten a new pistol and was cleaning it. I asked to see it and he showed it to me. As he walked into the room, he tripped on the edge of the sheet and accidentally pulled the trigger. The boom of the gun going off filled the room and my stepmom screamed. My girlfriend was in shock as we all looked at the hole in the wall – the gun had gone off and for some reason the gun had one bullet left. Dad swears he had unloaded it but he had left one in the chamber on accident. He had been cleaning it so the safety was off. I remember looking at the hole and thinking if I or my girlfriend had been moving, we would have been shot, in my own bedroom. My dad is the safest person I know. He keeps his guns locked up in a gun safe – he stores the ammo in a separate area away from the guns – he taught me gun safety from early on. All that yet he almost shot a human being, and I will never forget the lesson I learned that day – always, always, double check the safety is on and the ammo is removed. Instead of spending time as a family we could have then been planning a funeral.
