Reflective Essay: The Door To The Classroom

The bitter coldness of the store discharged chills down my spine. The door to the classroom opened and the even colder air hit me in the face. Class carried on as usual and the firearm instructor started up the lesson by asking a simple question; “The number 1 rule of firearm safety is…?”, of course, having taken a firearm safety class and being an avid shooter, I knew the answer. “Keep your booger hook off the bang switch, sir!” I answered. The instructor responded with an awkward smile and a nod. Following this refresher question, someone had asked the instructor a question that seemed to touch him in all the wrong places. The question was, “Have you ever had any accidents that happened under your supervision?” The face the instructor gave

She did the right thing and called me over.” This is where the story seemed to just slow down time. “When I went over the first thing I noticed, and corrected immediately, was the lady had her finger on the trigger and was pointing the muzzle into the concrete rather than at the rubber backstop. When I asked her to pull back the slide of the firearm to show clear she had, in that same moment she had turned the firearm towards herself and pulled the trigger.” The faces in the class winced and shown remorse for what this man had to witness. “I had screamed copious amounts profanities because this lady not only killed herself, but put me in danger as well. There was blood spattered all over the shooting stall and many of the people that were there when this had happened were also scarred. And this is the exact reason I’m so tough on everyone with trigger discipline.” That story shook me to the spine and if my trigger discipline wasn’t already fantastic to begin with, it definitely puts life into perspective and how easily it can end because of foolish mistakes that can be prevented by being smart and safe. This negligent discharge is also proof that guns don’t kill people, people kill