To have and to hold – safely

No one enjoys staring down the barrels of a gun, so adopt best practice when it comes to carrying yours, whether or not it is loaded

- JONATHAN IRBY

It was Mark Hanbury Beaufoy (the Liberal MP and vinegar manufacturer) who wrote the now-famous poem A Father’s Advice in 1902. Framed and illustrated it graces an inordinate number of loos and boot rooms, and remains universally applicable today. The first verse is particularly pertinent when it comes to how to hold your gun safely in the field:

Never, never let your gun

Pointed be at anyone.

That it may be unloaded be

Matters not the least to me.

The first shotgun I fired was under the watchful eye of a great family friend and my shooting mentor, the late ‘Uncle John’ Pickering. He, along with my father, was my instructors and between them ensured that the importance of safety was clearly understood. To this day, I remember being told that nobody should ever find themselves looking down the barrels of my gun. If they did, the only person at fault was going to be me. They were my barrels and I was responsible for where they were pointed. Decades later, having worked in the shooting world for more than 20 years, there have been too many times when I have found myself looking down the barrels of someone else’s gun.