Editor's Note: Our friend Paul Markel weighs in today on a problem that concerns many of us. Despite being in an inherently dangerous business, many refuse to look at a core fact about shooting: it is a dangerous activity and safety precautions should always be top of mind. In the world of professional gun carriers, few events kick you in the guts like a training related death. We all accept that preparing for the realities of physical combat requires strenuous and potentially hazardous activities. When one of our troops dies as a result of that training we must examine the instance and determine what caused it. Was it reasonably preventable? Could the incident have been avoided or the consequences mitigated? For the last three decades I've been involved in, in close proximity to, or made aware of numerous deaths, injuries and near-misses in the training arena. We live in an imperfect world with a lot of moving parts. Bad things happen there is no getting around that. Nonetheless, the quest for absolute safety is a dangerous illusion that hobbles and handicaps good men. A Dangerous World I recall being on a military training range and listening to the designated safety officer give the mandatory pre-training brief. "The most important thing on the range today is safety." He droned on with his lecture. My later comment was that the safety statement was a lie or at least a gross distortion. If the most important thing on the range was safety then we wouldn't be training at all and certainly wouldn't be issuing out live ammunition to the troops. Any time bullets are being launched there is an element of danger present. Shuffleboard is safe, shooting is dangerous. And, you know what? Skydiving is dangerous, as is deep-sea diving, motocross, bull-riding, playing football, hockey, soccer, etc. Every one of those activities is accompanied by a certain amount of risk and yet people participate in them every day. If your end goal was absolute safety, you could never get out of bed in the morning. Mitigate and Minimize The issue is not so much that an incident occurred, it is our reaction or after-action that will determine if the event is likely to be repeated or not. Case in point, the last military training unit I was attached to had a death during pistol training. While performing a drill, the victim lost control of his M9 service pistol. Instinctively, he snatched at the gun. Off-safe and in the single action mode, the pistol fired. A single bullet passed through the shooter's heart. He died before they could get him off of the range. Months later after the "post-incident" investigation had been completed we (the unit's firearms instructors) were briefed. The solution offered by the command was to add an additional iteration of dry-fire before the pistol course. I was speechless. It was obvious to the instructor corps that the victim had instinctively tried to snatch the gun out of the air. In the military culture dropping a gun is strictly frowned upon. The dead man had never been taught or, more appropriately, been given permission to let the gun fall if he lost his grip. In the fraction of a second it took to snatch at the gun, the shooter had no time to weigh the pros and cons of his actions. More dry-fire was not going to negate the laws of gravity, eliminate sweaty hands or the fallibility of humans. The problem was not a lack of dry practice. The problem was that how to deal with a fumbled gun was never addressed in the safety briefing or in training. Although the victim could never be questioned, we all felt it most likely that his concern at that moment in time was stopping the gun from hitting the deck. The Near Miss You cannot hide a training related death. Someone has to come up with answers if a troop is killed. However, when there is a training related injury or a near injury (near miss) the tendency of the powers that be is to minimize the incident or pretend that it did not even occur. I once worked for an agency that had a definitive "Near Miss" policy. When an incident occurred that resulted in relatively minor injury or a near miss of an injury the staff was encouraged to not simply report the "near miss" but to offer a valid solution that might prevent the near miss in the future. Also, the staff was strongly encouraged to point out safety protocols that may have been instrumental in the incident being a near miss instead of a serious injury or death. I'll give a personal example of how the Near Miss policy might be applied. While serving with the Sixth Marine Regiment a pistol was discharged by a fellow Marine negligently and the bullet passed within a foot of my head. Using the Near Miss Policy we can come up with two positive learning points. First, the shooter in question, although violating the "Treat Every Gun as if it is loaded" rule, followed the "Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to shoot" rule. (For that I am grateful). During the after action, the shooter stated that he "assumed" the chamber was empty even though he knew there was a loaded magazine in the pistol. Because of the policy of carrying firearms in "Condition 3" (magazine inserted, chamber empty until instructed to "load") the man thought it would be "safe" to snap the trigger. In the aftermath the young man received company punishment but the "Condition 3" rule was never addressed. The institutional mentality was that it was the fault of the man, not the policy. In the clarity of hindsight, I can say it was a bit of both. Carrying half-loaded guns leads to a false sense of "safety". It's a sort of "I don't need to be as careful as I would with a loaded gun, because it's not really loaded." No one ever had a negligent discharge and said "Damn, I thought the gun was loaded." Solutions Human beings are fallible, the world is an imperfect place and guns are dangerous. That being said, we can indeed mitigate and limit the risks associated with moving about armed in our world if we approach it from an honest and thoughtful point of view. Pretending that an incident never happened or simply saying "sh*t happens" does no one any good and essentially guarantees that a near miss will someday be an injury or an injury will someday be a death. If your agency or organization falls into the "no blood, no foul" mindset or if you are striving for some form of unattainable absolute safety, you are rolling the dice. That kind of thinking is akin to not carrying an umbrella for fear of encouraging rain. The Near Miss program, where staff members are encouraged to seek definite improvements/solutions as well as recognize the value of existing protocols, is positive step in the right direction. --Paul G. Markel © 2013 About the Author Paul G. Markel has worn many hats during his lifetime. He has been a U.S. Marine, Police Officer, Professional Bodyguard, and Small Arms and Tactics Instructor. Mr. Markel is the author of "Student of the Gun; A beginner once, a student for life." Signed copies of the book are available directly from www.StudentoftheGunGear.com