I'm encouraged by all the positive discussion surrounding firearms safety in this group and hope that my situation is not repeated. I never have felt the need to carry a gun but I would never tell someone else not to carry, it is your constitutional right, but for the sake of public discourse, if you were approached by someone that felt uncomfortable about your unintentional mishandling of a fire arm, what would your reaction be?....
First, I follow the 4 rules of gun safety. The only time anyone would have reason to believe a gun is being mishandled is if we are at a shooting range (official or out in the desert) and we are there for the purpose of shooting. My sidearm stays in my holster unless there is a situation where I need to draw to defend myself or I am at the range. Period. If my gun is out and aimed in your direction, it is because I believe you are a threat warranting deadly force - it also means you have the ignoble honor of being the first person I have ever aimed a weapon at in my life.
I strive to keep my firearm concealed at all times, but sometimes someone notices it printing if I'm leaning over. I have only had one person take issue with my carrying, and that was a whole story involving a cop, his wife, and trying to put pressure on me to not carry because the cop doesn't like anyone else to be armed. It had nothing to do with unsafe behavior and was entirely political.
So, to the premise of the question. If I mishandled a firearm and was called out for a mistake -
good! I screwed up and deserve to be called out so that I pay more attention in the future. I have been on the other side of this conversation more times that I want to recall when people are being blatantly stupid, including having loaded firearms pointed at me, people handling firearms during a cease fire, setting up their firing line with others down range, and numerous other examples of stupidity. I don't hesitate to call people out on dangerous behavior and if I have done something dangerous then I deserve no less.
