Thursday, June 25, 2015

GSW OSh*t Contingencies, Everyday Variety

First, H/T to the always excellent blog of WeaponsMan , and in particular this post , for inspiring this follow-on riff. Read it first, or at your leisure.

A lot of us like to shoot.
Many of us realize that accidents can happen, even while shooting.
Some of us are even prepared for "B", if it happens during "A".

Please, try and make sure you and any club you patronize is in that last category.

Having a GSW OSK (O Sh*t Kit), for yourself, your friends and loved ones, or some random dumbass one lane/bay over is never a bad idea.
What to put into it is the subject of any number of posts and blogs. Visit them, do some thinking, and work it out for yourself. If you're smart enough to digest three or fourteen points of view, I'm not too worried about what you'll put inside it. If you aren't that smart, nothing else I write is really going to solve that.

But as important as what goes in the kit, is knowing WTF to do if you have to use it, including if/when you're doing so on yourself or a loved one.
So get properly trained - and no, just watching a couple of TCCC videos on YouTube isn't enough - to use whatever you decide to pack.
And because Two Is One, And One Is None, do your damnedest to make sure there are other people trained to standard and present as well, if more than one of you is going shooting. It's embarrassing when the Medic bleeds to death because he shot himself, and no one else knew WTF to do, right? It's also hard on their relatives.

And then, there needs to be a regularly updated Range Safety Plan.
Not some piece of CYA boilerplate BS known only to some insider Illuminati, but an actual explained plan known to the lowest schmuck above Raw Newbie Nevershotagunhbefore at that range on that day.

Oh, what's that, you say? Pre-paid annual range membership didn't get you that briefing, and you don't get an annual update in snail or e-mail? Then as good as your club is, it sucks balls in that respect. Bring it up with TPTB until they listen, or take your membership elsewhere. When they have an accident, you'll be able to buy them out for pennies on the dollar, sooner or later.

What it should comprise is knowing where you are, who and how to call 9-1-1, what to tell them, and how to direct them when they respond from the nearest paved road to where the bleeding body is actually located.

If that requires someone to be the "Follow Me" vehicle from the gate to Range B-23, so be it. If that requires 5 rodeo clowns to keep every other yahoo off the range road until the emergency is dealt with, so be it. Plan for the resources you have, to deal with what you might have to face.

And if possible, have/know a suitable nearby spot(s) where Lifeflight etc. could land and pick up the bleeding dumbass in a pinch, if this becomes necessary. That dumbass could be you, if some other dumbass shoots you.

DO ALL OF THIS WITH THE ADVICE AND INPUT OF THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD LIKELIEST FIRST RESPONDERS TO YOUR VENUE, AFTER HAVING THEM VISIT SAME IN PERSON, AND LISTEN TO WHAT THEY TELL YOU TO DO WITH A PURPOSE.
And if you haven't consulted adequate legal counsel in depth about all this beforehand, you're STILL doing it wrong.

And do NOT, under 99% of circumstances, half-ass some home-concocted "designated ambolance" out of Fred's flat-bed and Aunt Martha's Chicken Soup and Bedsheet Doctoring Supplies" unless you want to be taking it in the heinie from some lifer named Bubba for the five to ten years you'll get for negligent manslaughter for trying to cobble this together on your own.

If you either like the buttsecks, or have two to five school-trained and certified paramedics, trauma RNs, and an emergency or trauma physician present for duty, with a state-certified medical transport vehicle fully stocked standing by, along with a lawyer on retainer and speed dial, and a $10M liability policy that covers deliberate personal stupidity, and all your personal assets are shielded by an LLC, and your job won't mind the months you'll spend in court or prison, and your family can get along without you for those years, then by all means ignore the previous suggestions at your whim.

Bonus points: When was the last time your club, in conjunction with the likeliest 9-1-1 responder agency(ies), did a no-shit live drill of same, from incident to arrival at a Trauma Center/Emergency Department, or from incident to Lifeflight (etc.) departure from scene?
If the answer is zero in recorded history, your club probably still sucks balls on this, whereas if you've gone to the point of volunteering to provide a real-world training opportunity to one or more agencies, the only way they won't take you up on it is if their training directorate sucks balls. This is why your local politicians (who pay for those agencies) have constituent assistance lines. Just saying.

I yell because I care.