re: #282 wheat-dogghazi

Isn’t it a basic rule of firearms safety to make sure your gun is unloaded BEFORE cleaning it? And, further, don’t point the barrel at someone you would rather not shoot, even when unloaded?

This is part of the thing: Even if you are a careful, responsible person, you will have a chance of an accident. You may be tired, you may have the flu, you may be distracted, emotional, what have you. I’m an expert cook, I’ve been doing it for years and years, and yet I occasionally cut myself, burn myself, forget and leave the oven on, touch a hot pat out of the oven with a bare hand, etc.

As I’ve said before, if a cop shoots someone in the line of duty on accident— and it isn’t clearly a case of on-accident-on-purpose or absolute negligence— I don’t think they should be treated the same way as an ordinary citizen. Why? Because the cops have to carry guns all the time, and respond to tricky situations all the time. Some of the time, they’re going to fuck up, and punishing them in the same way as normal citizens is broken. So what results is police departments covering up these accidents, just as doctors often cover up incorrect treatment.

This is also why I don’t like random citizens who have no real reason for it keeping guns in their homes. They may be ultra-responsible, but they are still going to have off days, they’re going to have guests in their house, they may have children. There is no way of rendering a gun safe and useful; the purpose of a gun is to not be safe, and if you take large measures to make it so you make it less and less useful.

Humans are highly fallible. Any system whereby you assume that they’re not is going to plow spectacularly into a shitshow.