Klepic had been shopping for a gun with her husband, Robert Klepic, around 2 p.m. Sunday when she was shot in the abdomen and died after being flown to York Hospital, which is why the autopsy was performed in that county. There are 5 basic rules to gun safety, the 2 most principal rules were violated in this instance. Don’t muzzle anything you are not willing to destroy or part with. Keep your booger hook off the bang switch until you’re ready to fire. I feel for this man for having lost his wife because it is such a heavy punishment for a mistake. That’s the thing with firearms though. They are unforgiving, harsh, and require strict attention. Often I see people get careless while handling a firearm using the excuse that it’s unloaded. The bottom line is even when you know it’s unloaded, unless doing something such as cleaning, you should always be following good muzzle control. It helps keep the habit solid and helps prevent allowing your brain to be careless. If you’re handling a firearm and you’re not immediately disassembling it to clean it, treat it like it’s loaded even if its not. Train your brain to think about where the muzzle is at all times. Even when cleaning I avoid muzzling anything until disassembly has started. For example in an AR, upper and lower is separated, a 1911 or XD has the slide and barrel removed, in a revolver the cylinder is removed. As long as the hammer can find the firing pin, I treat the firearm as if it is “loaded”, since it has the potential energy in all the right places that if a round was in the chamber, it would go bang. Same thing goes for reassembly, once that condition becomes true again, muzzle control is strictly enforced. Continue reading →