Last night I finally had the chance to listen to the latest podcast of When The Balloon Goes Up by Herr Ron Larimer.

I mostly hate short podcasts. If it is not rocking over 45 minutes, I consider it a waste of my time. But I enjoy the heck out of Ron’s work as he makes them entertaining and informational. The last one is his first on his lonesome (as in no guest thus Mr. Han Solo) and it was awesome so Ron, keep doing them!

Where I want to “disagree” (do notice the quote marks) is on his stance about the almost religious dogma of Col.Cooper’s Four Rules by the shooting community at large. He smartly and rightly points out that as we advance in our training, we sometimes “break” one or two of those rules because it is part of the necessary training or activity and again, he is right.

But what I want to point out is that we still need them not because they were engraved in the lonely hills of Yavapai County with a blessed 1911 on limestone, but because the Four Rules are the default position when our brains go into vapor lock around firearms.

We (and I mean all of us) that shoot will eventually make some sort of screw up with a gun and certainly have found ourselves in the brink of doing so. The Four Rules are the basic Operating System to we will default when we need to reset ourselves from a dangerous operation, unintended or otherwise. Basically it is a “In Case of Trouble, Break Glass,”  approved by the USCG Flotation Device or CTRL+ALT+DELETE. It is the anchor that won’t let us stray too far into the sea of stupidity and Lord knows we motorboat sometimes into the deep end of it.

Should we push our limits & envelopes? Yes by all means. But we don’t need to disregard Four Rules altogether (and PS, Ron is not disregarding squat in his podcast) just be aware that we are pushing and that if we engage in stupid actions, stupid consequences will probably follow. My fear is that there is an actual faction of idiotic shooters and trainers that eschew The Four Rules and like to do things their was because it looks cool or gives them some sort of name recognition in the field and may use Ron’s well thought ideas as support he did not intend to give. So yes, train pushing that envelope but always retreat to the Four Rules if things start to get out of control or you don’t feel safe.

Where I will get “nasty” with Ron (You skin that smoke wagon!) is his revisiting of the language of the Four Rules in the podcast: Holy Spent Cases! It sounds like I need a lawyer, dude! 🙂 (The party of the first shall issue the party of the second…..) Nah, keep them simple because just as in the military, you need short instructions that are easy to understand and will evoke an immediate safe response. Again Ron makes the caveat that his “variations” are for more advanced shooters and not those new in the culture, but some of us “advanced ones” might not be as bright as he thinks we are.

That’s it. Ron may probably enact a fatwa against yours truly for daring to disagree…nah. I am the dumb one on this equation anyway. Again please visit When The Balloon Goes Up, check the store (buy stuff), enjoy the info and listen to the podcast. …

…..And follow The Four Rules:

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

PS: Han shot first!