The good, the bad, and the ...

[unixronin]

There are good ideas, and there are bad ideas; and then there are ...

Well, and then there is this.

"This is the original Barrel Button.  It can be attached to any shoe or boot that has laces (snap closure).  It allows you to securely rest the muzzle of your unloaded shotgun.  [...]"

This is such an unspeakably awful idea that I really have no words to express the massive fail here.  Much though I'm opposed to frivolous liability suits, I have to agree with robhansen's comments:

If I were on a jury, I have to admit, I'd be torn about whether to hold the Barrel Button liable for someone losing their foot.

On the one hand, your own damn fault for letting the muzzle cross your foot.

On the other hand, given there is literally no safe way to use the product…

For those of you among my readers who are not initiates of the proper ways of safe gun-handling, allow me to cite the first two of the four firearms safety laws propounded by the late, lamented Col. Jeff Cooper (USMC, Ret.):

1. All guns are always loaded.  (Or, to clarify his intention, always treat all firearms as though loaded at all times.)
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are unwilling to destroy.

Which makes a device intentionally designed to rest the muzzle of a firearm (that you were CERTAIN was unloaded) securely upon a part of your body ... yeah.  It's that stupid.

Comments

[vatine]

I was taught "all guns are loaded until proven unloaded. The second your attention wavers, the ammunition gnome will load the weapon for you. So, always check before doing something that requires the weapon to be unloaded to be safe".

As for the barrel button, I do not know where to begin.

[robhansen]

With all due respect to Colonel Cooper, my good hillbilly relatives taught me a different Rule One — one which I believe is superior to Cooper’s.

1. The weapon is not in the state you need it to be in. If you need the chamber clear, then you must believe deep in your soul the chamber is loaded. If you need the chamber loaded, then you must believe deep in your soul the chamber is clear.

   If in a time of crisis you mag-check and rack the slide unnecessarily — then at worst you have wasted one round, but you are now guaranteed of having a ready chamber. In the grand scheme of things, that’s a big win. If in a time of peace you eject the mag and rack the slide unnecessarily — then at worst you have wasted an action, but you are now guaranteed of having an empty chamber. Again, big win.

[vatine]

I don't believe any firearms training I've had has much (if anything) from Colonel Cooper in its direct line of heritage. The ammo gnome will happily make sure that when you believe you have a round in the chamber but have not checked, it will be surprisingly absent. It is a perverse thing, that way.

Of course, for 75% of the firearms I trained with, "round in the chamber" is very transient during normal operations, only the venerable Mauser will have a round in the chamber for more than a fraction of a second if everything works as it should.

[robhansen]

A quick Google search shows this is not an isolated product. It’s sold via Brownell’s catalog, for crying out loud. Stuff like that makes me much less likely to shop Brownell’s in the future: it shows they care about my safety that little.

[unixronin]

I am ... somewhat surprised that Brownells would carry this. I should think that they, at least, would not be unaware of the potential liability issues.