Honest, Safe

The "Honest Gun Owners" meme has been running around. As originally described by Nancy:

5 things that indicate, to me, that a gun owner or shooter maybe is an honest one; I say 'maybe' because I have known some seemingly honest gun owners to tell some really tall tales.

I'm not tagging anyone because I wasn't tagged and I figure you're all adults and can play along or not. That said, here's my five:
1) In the process of trying to sell me a gun, he talks more about the flaws than the positives.
2) He posts pictures or describes groups that are not consistently sub-MOA.
3) He isn't ashamed to have a couple cheap range toys (read: HiPoint carbine, etc).
4) He'll admit to carrying a piece without running 200+ rounds of carry ammo through it.
5) He'll tell me about the mistakes he's made so that hopefully I won't make them again.

And the The Miller adds in that we need a "safe" meme. Five things which indicate to me that a gun owner is safe. This is one I can definitely get behind.
1) He chamber-checks ANY gun he handles, EVERY time he picks it up, even if he JUST put it down.
2) He's not afraid to say, "Watch your muzzle!" to ANY person on the range.
3) He insists on eyes-and-ears, even if it's "just a .22".
4) He won't shoot gun-show reloads.
5) He chamber-checks ANY gun he handles, EVERY time he picks it up, even if he JUST put it down.


Yeah, I doubled on that one. Because it IS that serious. When I was at the NRA show and wandering around checking out the various and sundry display guns - that had all been checked, tagged, etc - I chamber-checked each and every one when I picked it up. One of the booth reps at Crimson Trace came over after seeing me do that and told me I was the first person he'd seen do that.

Yikes.