In a moment of insanity, Michelle bought the boys a pair of Nerf dart guns last week. Despite my interest in guns (or maybe because of it), I have been reluctant to get them toy guns because I don't think they're great things to play with.

Anyway, now that they have them, I've been teaching them safe gun handling rules. It turns out watching TV and playing video games is a great way to learn exactly the wrong way to handle guns. I don't know why anyone would want to put the working end of a handgun near their head, but on every TV show, you see actors holding their gun up as they go around corners or through doors. The end with the hole is the dangerous part. Keep it away from your body parts...

There are four basic rules for safe gun handling:

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot.
3. Don't point the gun at anything you're not willing to destroy.
4. Know what's behind and beyond your target.

The neat thing about these rules is that you have to break two before something bad happens.

The first rule means that you should always assume a gun is loaded until you've proven otherwise yourself. When someone hands me a gun (like at a gun store), I always check to make sure it's not loaded, even if I just saw the person do the same. Even if I set my own gun down, I'll re-clear it when I pick it up. I don't want any surprise bangs.

The other rules are pretty self-explanatory, but they take practice to be aware. I'm at the point where I keep my finger off the drill and weedeater triggers too.

Anyway, regardless of what you think of guns, it's good to know how to be safe around them.