In an old thread on Fetlife the topic of gunplay came up. Someone asked how risky it was, and how folks manage those risks. This was my reply, and itโs worth capturing hereโฆ
The actual risks fall into three categories. I’ll only really address two of them
The first is human error. It is possible to make a mistake in how you operate or check a gun. In fact, almost everyone I know who has been around guns for a long time has at least one story of "the mistake". Usually it happened when you got overconfident. Almost always, it only ever happens once – not because anyone gets hurt but because it scares the hell out of you. You are never complacent again.
Human error is combated with a layered defense. You do everything you can to double check everything you do, and you also set things up so no single mistake will matter.
For instance… when I desire to be maximally safe with a gun I will use in a scene I will do the following.
- Unload the magazine
- Check and clear the chamber
- Put on the thumb safety
- Do not fully insert the magazine – if I insert it at all
- Keep my finger out of the trigger guard
The S&W I use will not fire without the mag fully inserted. It will not fire with the thumb safety on. It cannot fire without a trigger pull and it is incapable of firing without ammunition. In that configuration it is simply impossible that that gun will fire.
A human error in any single, or any pair, of those precautions STILL leaves a weapon that is only as dangerous as any big chunk of metal with hard edges.
This brings us to mechanical error. It is possible that this weapon will suffer a mechanical failure that might render some of the safeties inoperable. 99% of the time that results in a weapon too broken to fire at all, but not always. In that case it is STILL empty and I am STILL nowhere near the trigger.
Granted, things get more and more risky as I get closer to a loaded and unsafe state of affairs… but the core dangers are the same. Mechanical failure and human error.
The third danger is the mental effect on the sub…and that is outside the scope of what I will discuss here ๐