A Loaded Gun? II   (09/05/99)
	This post was written by Argentium, moonlight's owner and operator. Paladin writes: Safety tip: (probably an obvious one) If you hand load, just load casings with bullets, minus the primer and the charge. Most people (even those who have fired off a few rounds) would be easily fooled Exactly. In fact, that's exactly what I use is these "Dummy Rounds". Visual inspection of the bottom of the round immediately shows that the primer is missing. Now, when a primer is missing, there's this little hole into where the powder would be. Without the primer, the powder runs out very quickly when the bullet is turned bottom-side- down. I got to experience this effect when I was re-loading live rounds with the Dillon RL-550B reloader, and I had run out of primers. Shell + powder + bullet/projectile but no primer... Powder leaks out all over the shell-plate and the rest of the machine and makes a nice mess you have to spend time cleaning up carefully before you can continue. Kevin writes: I'll reiterate my position from when this came up a few months back: if you involve guns -- real guns, fake guns, DEWAT guns -- in a scene, YKINOK. Matter of fact, YKIStupid. Judgemental? You better believe it. Be judgemental all you like Kevin, I'm just glad you have no control over who I associate with, or what we choose to do together. That would be a non-consentual control over me that I do not, and will not consent to. Now if someone's using a firing-capable weapon with live rounds in a manner that is not consistent with safety standards suitable for firing ranges or responsible hunting, and that someone is also trying to convince me that gunplay outside those standards is an acceptable risk, I'll personally disagree with them. I wrote in one of my last posts: 3. I've got to come up with a whole host of things to ensure that something terrible DOESN'T go wrong. I wish to avoid death and/or serious injury of all involved or all that could be incidentally or accidentally involved. Kevin wrote in reply to that: I'd be interested in discussing these with you at greater length, if desired. Two things come to mind immediately: The first is to be absolutely familiar with your weapon. Absolutely agreed. Kevin wrote : Be absolutely sure that you are comfortable with every nuance of its functioning. This activity is dangerous enough, without inviting stupid mistakes. Again, full agreement. Kevin wrote : The second is more mechanical - use a weapon - I'm particularly thinking revolver here - with a heavy trigger pull. Possibly have the weapon smithed to INCREASE the trigger pull. I have an old Russian Nagant that will make the veins on your arm stand out. Again, we're interested in making it harder to do something stupid through carelessness. Actually, I don't personally agree with this point (for me), but it will definitely have merit for some people. I prefer to have the weapon operate exactly as I have become accustomed to, and I set my weapons to have a light trigger, but not so light that they have a hair trigger. For me, I found that a heavier trigger reduced my accuracy, and I really would like to hit what I'm aiming at (and thus not hit that which I am not aiming at.) :-) Since you (Dennis) wanted to discuss this further, I've included some of my thoughts on safety, firearms, and scening, and what I go through to ensure safety. I'm quite capable of creating the illusion of danger involving firearms while removing most of the risks, other than said firearm being used as a glorified clubbing device, or really odd-ball side effects (see the second list). Some of my personal safety steps include, but are not necessarily limited to: a) The weapon must have been test-fired at the range with live rounds, but the firing pin removed. This removes any doubts about the weapon being fire-able without said firing pin. b) Prior to the scene, the weapon must be thoroughly disassembled, cleaned, and re-assembled without the firing pin. c) The weapon must be used in-scene either with an empty chamber and magazine, or only with dummy rounds. Dummy rounds are a combination of shell, and projectile/bullet, but lack any powder or primer. They are not capable of being fired. They contain no explosive substances. They're dead-weight. d) The weapon, when not in use in-scene, will be kept stored in a portable lockable case, and/or portable (or not so portable) gun vault. (I don't personally agree with locking trigger guards, they can partially depress triggers and if the weapon *is* loaded present a dangerous situation where an unintentional discharge could occur. Of course, the government is a big proponent of these "safety" features... for the children. Gods, don't get me started.) e) In either usage described in (c), the chamber, magazine, and/or dummy rounds will all be carefully inspected, no less than two times each. f) No live rounds will be allowed at or near the scene. g) The scene will not be observable by unintentional third parties. This reduces the risk of a scene being mistaken for a clear and present danger, and a third party becoming involved (with unpredictable outcomes). h) All parties involved will do a self assessment of their own physical and psychological state of well being and health prior to the scene commencing. i) All parties involved will do similar assessments of each other. j) Consent to a scene involving firearms will be cross-checked with all participants. Some areas of risk that must be acknowledged: a) Paralyzing fear that results in a medical complication. b) Accidental situations such as dropping the weapon on a body part resulting in minor crush-damage to said body part. c) Allergies/poison factors: Lead, rubber, latex, gun cleaning oils, etc... To sum up, I'm damned paranoid about the use of firearms in-scene, but it can be done reasonably safely, while providing a serious edge to the play.