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During Christmas break, Ohio State student Marissa Plakosh was shot by a family friend as he handled a gun. According to articles in The Lantern and on vindy.com, Marissa’s brother Michael, also an OSU student, had bought it for protection from campus crime. One article quoted Plakosh’s mother as saying that “the young men were passing the gun around, believing the safety was on.”
OSU’s academic administrators simply pretend that our students don’t own guns and never go near them. Their attitude is that if they believe hard enough, those silly “no weapons” signs on campus buildings will provide adequate protection, on and off campus. The Plakosh case is a horsefly in their ointment. My past columns challenging our administration on various practical safety issues have been ignored, but we now have a new administration headed by E. Gordon Gee. Perhaps he will understand that some students own guns for self-defense, and that information is superior to bureaucratic ignorance. Dr. Gee, we need to talk.
In the meantime, here follows some information on basic firearms safety. Adherence to these rules will prevent almost all negligent discharges. I use that term because when someone is accidentally shot, it is usually because more than one of these rules were violated:
Treat all guns as if they are loaded. Note that most folks are shot with “empty” guns. What decent person with half a brain would point a loaded gun at someone and pull the trigger? As for a gun safety being on, this is no excuse. The only gun safety that counts is cerebral, not mechanical.
Never point a gun at anything you do not want to see destroyed. Muzzle control is paramount. The only reason to point a gun at another person is in self-defense.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. Guns do not go off by themselves. Someone has to pull the trigger or otherwise render a firearm unsafe. Beginners need to be closely watched until their trigger-finger discipline is ingrained. Like all these rules, this takes practice.
Always be sure of your target and what is beyond. One does not shoot at sounds, shadows or ideas. Only confirmed targets are shot, and consideration is needed for bullets that miss.
These four rules should be memorized, even by non-gun owners. Knowing these rules will alert you if someone who is handling a gun knows what he is doing. If any of these rules are violated, get out of there.
According to press reports, the person who pulled the trigger was Daniel Buccino, who has been charged and pleaded not guilty. I am not going to comment on who is at fault here, but one question I have is “who handed Buccino a loaded weapon?” Think about it.
As for further training in self-defense, I am again offering my free, co-ed, six-hour “intro to self-defense” course starting next week. E-mail me if you are interested.
Karl Spaulding is eager to educate OSU administrators about weapons in modern society. He can be reached at [email protected].
