Yesterday at CYQS another interesting event took place. A local Air Cadets chapter had a display and an instructor (captain-ranked uniform) offering pamphlets and information about the program. They also had two air rifles lying on the table, as an additional teaser of the toys one gets to play with. All seemingly good stuff.

Several times a few of the young cadets took an air rifle out of its box, carried it at their hips with barrel pointing horizontally, swung around 180 degrees, until they came to a grassy spot where they would demonstrate pumping up and discharging it (unloaded). As a trained firearms owner and operator, I was quite disturbed that the kids ended up sweeping (allowing the weapon to point at people, even momentarily) me and others repeatedly as they were turning and moving. The guns were unloaded, but that’s not the point-those swept can’t be sure of their safety.

When dealing with guns, the issue of safety is paramount, and never sweeping people is a big part of that. The kids and their instructors could use a refresher.