Hell in a Handbasket

I found an Email in my tray a few weeks ago.

"I was wondering if you could train me and my soon to be 8 year old son!"

Oh, hey, sounds like a paying customer for a change! Now all I have to do is reply with my rates and...

No, wait! A 7 year old kid? What?

I didn't want to scare off a potential sale by writing back with my initial reaction, which was along the lines of "This is a joke, right? You must be an anti-gun reporter trying to find ammunition for a negative op-ed on self defense instructors. Well, screw you!" Instead I wanted to be polite and find out just what was going on.

So I wrote back, expressing surprise that my prospective client would want a child so young to learn the safe ways of handling a firearm. They replied in a few hours with....

"I thought this was boxing/ martial arts! Sorry and thanks!"

To be frank, I am sort of insulted that they confused my do-or-die, never-give-up course with a tame and low impact McDojo which would be deemed appropriate for a very young child. But at least they were polite enough to reply to my query instead of simply ignoring me out of embarrassment.

Because I know the question will come up, I think the proper age to teach a child about firearm safety is entirely dependent on the maturity level of the kid. Firearm safety is a responsibility, and there is no telling when a child will develop mentally and emotionally enough to handle such a responsibility.

That means it is up to the parents to decide when to introduce their child to the shooting sports, and it is entirely their responsibility to teach safe gun handling to their own kids. I wouldn't do it for all the tea in China, mainly because the liability issue is horrifying.

I notice that a few of the bloggers on my blogroll also offer to introduce people to the shooting sports, even strangers that they have never met. (There used to be more, but Breda was the only one I could find.)

Tell me, has anyone given any thought to getting sued?

My advice is to hire a lawyer to draft a liability waiver, and have every one of your students read, understand, and sign one. This will cost a few hundred dollars for the lawyer's time, but it will be worth every penny if some bozo decides that they would like to help themselves to single one of your possessions. And, whatever you do, don't rely on some generic liability waiver that you find on Teh Intertubes, and don't try to write one yourself!

Now, it is possible that some of you are wondering why they should spend the cash. After all, it isn't often that you will be called upon to teach someone, and it is extremely unlikely that they will be strangers. You wouldn't expect to need a liability waiver if you take a friend or family member out to the range and put a loaded gun in their hands, right? They wouldn't sue you in the case of injury! Besides, why spend all that money when it is you who are doing them a favor by teaching them for free in the first place?

I had a big explanation all ready, typed out and everything, just waiting for me to hit the PUBLISH button. But then it occurred to me that there is little I could say to convince you of the wisdom of my position you didn't immediately see that I was giving you some good advice.

And it is good advice! Maybe even the most important advice you will ever get if you decide to teach gun handling skills to a stranger.

Remember! Hire a lawyer. Get professionally drafted liability waiver. Have your student sign liability waiver.

There's other stuff I could pass along, my young Padawans. Like how you should require your students to give you photocopies of two of their legal ID's, and how you should get a police report to see if they have ever been convicted of a felony before you let them get anywhere near your guns. But that is something I will save for another post.