Racking the Slide
Made a stupid little mistake today. A standard, classic, one. I was taking my P-32 out of my pocket to add it to the stack of guns to take out back and clean (I was starting with a spray cleaner, hence wanted to start outside).
It was, of course, loaded (and had a round chambered). So I casually racked the slide, watching the cartridge arc elegantly through the air. And then noticed that I hadn’t removed the magazine yet. So I dropped the magazine. And remembered to rack the slide again, watching another cartridge arc elegantly through the air.
And then I pulled the slide back to visually inspect the chamber. By this time, I’d actually managed to empty it.
Apparently people make that initial mistake all the time. And far too often don’t catch it right away, and don’t actually visually inspect the chamber—I mean, you saw the cartridge fly through the air, so you know it’s not still in the chamber, right? So why waste your time inspecting the empty chamber, right?
Defense in Depth
People make little mistakes all the time. That’s why there are hard-and-fast rules, and that’s why you should never, ever skip a step or break a rule. Because you’ll make mistakes some day. The rules provide enough depth that you can survive a mistake, and often you can even survive two mistakes.
As is so often the case, it’s that third mistake that kills you (or your television set, or your girlfriend). Sometimes, on a good bad day, it takes four.
The Fly
Twice now I’ve found myself about to leave my room with my fly unzipped. Once I actually did leave the room.
It’s not just that I’m old and senile. It’s that the operation of putting on my pants is more complicated than it used to be.
Getting the holster and gun positioned properly, and not letting them fall, takes up a hand and most of my attention. As soon as I have the button on the pants fastened, I want to adjust the holster and then fasten and adjust the belt, because often (depending on holster) it really needs the belt to be stable.
Which leaves zipping the fly for later. It’s also not the order I’ve been used to doing things in. Perhaps I’ll adapt to this new order and make fewer mistakes after a while.