“Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you’re ready to fire.”
When you pick up a firearm, whether it be a handgun or rifle, if you’ve put your finger on the trigger as you’re doing so, you might create a negligent discharge of the firearm and harm someone or something. Not something that you want to do. In the process, you’ve probably broken the first and second rule of firearm safety. If you maintain finger discipline, you’ll have little of a chance of doing that.
Finger discipline. What is it and why is it important? In its most basic form, it’s what this rule says. Keeping your finger off the trigger until your sites are on target and you’re ready to fire. This basic practice is imperative every time that you pick up a firearm. So where should your finger be when picking up a firearm? It should extend along the frame/receiver/stock of the firearm and slightly above the trigger, as shown in the picture at the top of this post.
This assures you will not have a negligent discharge of your firearm. However, you might say, if I’ve made certain the gun isn’t loaded and I maintain muzzle control, why do I need to worry about this? Let’s think about an example for a moment.
You’re at the firing line at the range. You’re there with your spouse or a friend, and they’ve just finished putting a few downrange and have set the firearm down on the bench, you walk up to it to pick it up. Are you 100% sure that they’ve fired all of the ammunition in the magazine or cylinder? Until you’ve checked it for yourself, no you aren’t. Therefore, if you pick up the firearm and place your finger on the trigger, remember it doesn’t take a lot of pressure for it to move to the rear and sometimes the trigger pull is approximately equal to the weight of the gun, and there is a round in the chamber, you’ve a good chance of creating a negligent discharge. You were maintaining muzzle discipline during this time, right? I certainly hope so or you might have to buy a new piece of bulletproof glass, pay a fine to the range for damages or worse, initiate a 911 call.
When I instruct my students, I’m constantly on the lookout for how they are handling their firearm. If I see a finger on the trigger before they are ready to fire, I yell, “FINGER” at them to bring them back in the thought process that they need to have to maintain range safety. It only take a few times of me emphasizing “FINGER” for the new shooter to remember the 3rd rule basic firearm safety.
In conjunction with the first and second rules of firearms safety, the third rule completes the safe handling rules trilogy to assure that whenever you pick up a firearm, you are handling it in a proper and safe manner.