If you have children, please read this!!
This is very hard for me to do, but I want to tell a story of how I almost lost my son due to an error on my part. I hope it prevents a gun death in the future. I was lucky, my son survived but it still haunts me to this day.
He is now 19 years old and going to college and probably doesn't even remember the episode. I will tell it to him when he has kids of his own. It happened when he was about 6 years old. I always took him hunting with me and on occasion I would let him shoot a 20 guage at doves if we were sitting down. One day he asks to go along with me to shoot my .22 ruger revolver. We were sitting there having a good time, he was shooting into a bank about 20 yards away and I was right there at his side watching him. I taught him about gun safety and he was doing fine. I decided to walk back a couple of yards to sit and watch him as he fired into the bank. I ONLY TURNED MY BACK FOR 2-3 SECONDS!! I turned around and to my horror he had the gun pointed straight at himself looking down the barrel with the hammer cocked! This still raises the hair on the back of my neck knowing how his life, my life, my wifes life, his grandparents life could've changed due to that 2-3 seconds of inattention. THERE IS A GOD!! He never pulled the trigger and the gun never fired. I instantly grabbed the gun and yelled at him asking why he did what he did and lecturing him about doing something like that. He told me he wasn't sure how many bullets were still in the gun and he was just looking into the front of the cylinder to see how many were left. I've never told anyone about this until now. My wife still doesn't know how I almost killed our son that day 12 years ago. If that trigger had fallen, he never would've been prom king, made "most valuable" on the basketball team or been able to go deer hunting with me. I know I'm opening myself up for some sharp criticism about how he was too young or I wasn't attentive enough. I just wanted you to know how my life almost changed that day so that maybe I can prevent an accident with your kids. Thank you!!