Risk Mitigation in the Firearms Industry

We talk a lot about risk mitigation in the safety, security, and personal defense community. It's vital that we actually identify the risks appropriately before we start coming up with plans for how we're going to mitigate them. We also need to consider the resources and how much time, money, personal investment we wanna put into mitigating risks as opposed to simply accepting those risks and driving on. When it comes to personal defense, we're talking about some of the highest levels of risk that one could ever face, that risk of death from an attacker, risk of loss of a family from an attacker. And what are we willing to do to mitigate those risks? Well, sometimes it might just be as simple as putting a good lock on our front door to make it harder for a threat to get inside. Other times it's very complex and it's gonna involve owning a firearm, training with that firearm, making sure that we understand how to appropriately and responsibly carry that firearm in the public space and being prepared for a much wider array of scenarios where we might bring that firearm into play, than if we only had the firearm behind that locked door in the quick access, safe in our home or workplace. So when we talk about risk mitigation in the gun industry, we need to accept the very real risks that confront us as well. If you sell firearms, if you train with firearms, if you teach firearms skills, whether they're target shooting or personal defense shooting, you are in an environment where there are some very unique risks. And some of those risks are physical, some of them are mental. We talk about the physical risks. I think they're pretty obvious, right? We know that there have been some very high profile incidents where instructors have been hurt by unskilled people operating guns, in some cases killed by unskilled people in their environment because they either hadn't set the class up properly in terms of safety rules and procedures or simply because they got sloppy. Maybe they push the boundaries of what most instructors would consider safe or reasonable to an area where they were comfortable but maybe that comfort was really overconfidence because they hadn't thought about the risks in a way that I would or maybe some other instructors would have never let those situations create themselves. In other cases, it may be something that's completely an anomaly, something that caught them off guard, something that none of us would have seen coming. And those are the true tragedies, but we can be informed by those strategies and now know that well, that happened once it could happen to me, it could happen to my friends. It could happen to my students. I'm gonna get in the way of that and mitigate that risk. The other level of physical danger that we also know unfortunately exists on the range is the issue of unreasonable rage. Actually having a student attack you or another student in the classroom. This is an incredibly rare occurrence. I don't wanna make it sound like this is something that we think about every day, but it's certainly something that is instructors or range staff or even attending a class, we need to think about. We can't afford to be complacent or much less deny that these things have actually happened and find ourselves in a situation where we don't consider looking for pre-attack cues or other indicators that someone may be about to go into a state of rage or may actually have malicious intent in that shooting range environment or in a class environment. So it's something to consider. Now, a lot of instructors talk about wearing body armor during the class or carrying a loaded gun during class. I've always told instructors that I think if you have to wear the big red vests that says firearms instructor and all the armor and plates and things like that, it may be sending a really bad message and intimidating message or a scary message to someone who's a new shooter or someone who comes into the range for the first time. Someone who wants to know is this safe? Well, the fact is, yeah, it's overwhelmingly safe. As I said, these issues I'm talking about today are anomalies. They're gross anomalies in the shooting community. They're real, but how you mitigate them is important. And remember, the risk of political attack from people who think going in a range is inherently and unreasonably dangerous is also very real. So we have to consider that as well. So body armor underneath your closing concealed or a soft body armor, not a problem at all. Concealed firearm, probably a great idea. If I carry it in the public space, why wouldn't I carry when I'm at work at the range or when I'm teaching a class, but again, the open carry, the overt armor may be a step too far, but you consider the risk and you need to consider your environment. It is also important to remember when you're going to a class, that you're part of that experiment that you're going through in terms of safety and risk mitigation. Don't simply give everything to the instructor or the range staff in terms of responsibility. You have a responsibility as well. If overhear something or see something in terms of the behavior of anyone in that environment that you think may eventually create a risk or be creating a problem, make sure that you address it. How you address it, obviously it's going to depend on the circumstance, but a good start it's going to be making sure that you let the instructor know what you're seeing, because ultimately it is their responsibility to run that range safely. If you're not in a class, you're in a public range environment, then let the range staff know as well. It's sort of an extreme version of if you see something, say something. The last thing you're gonna wanna do is get into a confrontation, right? If you think someone may have malicious intent, if you think someone may not be stable and they've got a firearm in their hands, probably not the time to get into an argument with them. But absolutely, getting yourself out of that circumstance maybe saying you hear your mom calling, you gotta go or bring it to the attention of whoever is in charge of that environment. Probably a great idea. Remember, you can always go to another range session or take another class or enter another competition. If you perceive a risk, listen to that gift of fear as it's called many times. That intuitive idea that something's not right and you should respond to it. The last area of risk mitigation I wanna talk about is your mental health or your emotional health. If you sell guns, if you provide this training, if you manufacture guns or holsters, if you're at all involved in the firearms industry and you haven't considered that the product or service that you are providing could end up involved in some kind of a tragedy, whether it's a malicious attack, some kind of a negligent injury or death or a suicide, think about it right now. Because thinking about right now, will help you mitigate the trauma of the aftermath of finding out. And that emotional aftermath can be very powerful. In fact, it can be physically and professionally debilitating. I know people who have had to step away from the gun industry or left the gun industry entirely after being involved in some kind of a tragedy that they really never accepted they could be part of. And whether that's being a gun shop employee with a range and witnessing an actual suicide taking place right on the other side of that glass barrier, or having sold a gun that someone used for a suicide or ended up being involved in criminal activity, someone being killed. In the case where there's negligence, especially for an instructor where someone's come through your class, you've given them the tools. At least you believe you have to make sure that they're gonna be a responsible and competent firearms owner. And then you find out that they shoot themselves, they shoot someone else in an act of negligence, that can also be incredibly devastating. If you think about it, not only is your own credibility when you look in the mirror hurt, but the credibility that occurs when someone says, oh, that's the instructor that had his student, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, can also hurt your business. Preparing ahead of time, making sure that you're accepting those risks, mitigating them as much as you can and I think taking them as seriously as possible, well, that's all part of being a responsible instructor, being responsible firearm sales person, being responsible range safety officer or being involved in any other way in the firearms industry. None of this is meant to scare you away from going to the gun range, competing, taking a class, teaching, manufacturing and selling firearms or participating in any way. But I do want you to know that part of personal defense is taking care of yourself, taking care of those around you. And that starts with accepting the real risks that are involved in this endeavor even if they're incredibly rare.