This is not your normal gun safety topic but most likely one of the most important safety rules that you must practice
Let me run a scenario by you and I really want you to think about it consider the repercussions of the action
You decide to do some shopping at a shopping center pull in go into a store only to find that while they don’t have what your looking for the store down on the other side of the center does, So you go back out jump in your car and pull around to the other side of the parking lot……. Did you put your seat belt on? With todays seatbelt laws being in effect as long as they have and such about 80% of you would say yes, Even though you are on a private property and only moving a few hundred feet or yards you would have locked your belt in as soon as you jumped in your car without even thinking about the action. Its just muscle memory. Now there is nothing wrong with that, In fact most vehicle accidents happen only a few minutes or miles from a drivers starting point.
The problem is not the fact that you strapped on that seat belt without even thinking about doing so … or is it?
Consider this, What is the purpose of a safety checklist I have seen some as short as ten topics others as long as an 100 and seen people with years of experience and thousands of hours performing the tasks at hand use those checklists every single time they start the task or day. Believe it or not the years of experience and thousands of hours is a big clue to the primary purpose of a checklist? Complacency!
When you do something over and over the same way every time when it becomes a 2nd nature instinctive action one that you do not even think about it, This is when something will slip through the cracks and sneak up and bite you.
I have over 20 years’ experience driving a truck and have been in the trucking industry over three quarters of my life with only these last few years deciding to make a change. While working as an Terminal assistant and trainer our terminal started experiencing an higher than normal safety incidents and injuries that called for us trying to find out what was going on and why was the numbers rising, we did have some drivers with only a couple of years’ experience so I actually thought I knew the answer what I discovered however amazed me. It was not the new drivers that was making these (in most cases) stupid mistakes but the drivers with 5 to 10 years’ experience I was baffled and even more so because I knew a lot of these guys personally and knew that they where not stupid or reckless in any form so what was leading to these people getting hurt or getting into a safety related issue, the answer Repetition of an action and COMPLACENCY
When we discovered why, we started a safety awareness blitz that focused on our experienced drivers and saw a dramatic drop in issues. Further the teacher became a student when a driver said something very profound “ If we use the same caution and respect and fear that we had as new drivers along with the experience and knowledge we have gained throughout our years we would be the safest drivers in the fleet. We need to slow down go back to the basics
They were going through the motions but it was on auto pilot not really in front of the mind like it should be and this whole page leads to this SAFETY FIRST MEANS IN FRONT OF YOUR MIND THINKING ABOUT EVERY STEP AND CHECK BOX.
Now while my learning experience on this problem came out of old profession it still applies to us in our hobby.
I shoot a lot and love doing so and freely admit to being guilty of the very same thing, I have caught myself going through the motions without putting the action in the forefront of my mind.
I challenge you this year to put safety back in the forefront of your minds. And remember this does not just apply to one safety topic but to ALL
Hunting season is just around the block for many of us, Feeders are being put out blinds and tree stands erected
Lets slow down think about our steps and stay safe
Have a fun successful hunt and be safe
) now I forget things all the time,
