Keepin' it Real

This is not a happy face. No, that's not a bloody teardrop, nor is it the remnants of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich explosion accident. It's what your face looks like after a bullet destroys your eyewear.

Last winter, I was shooting in a bowling pin match when one of those beautiful .45 rounds exited my GLOCK 21SF, missed the second to last pin (and I was doing REALLY well!), bounced off of a poorly placed metal frame and returned to hit me in the glasses.

As I am a bit ocularly challenged, I wear some stylish (for a few years ago) Ray Ban glasses to mend my nearsightedness. I never "saw it coming" physically or figuratively, though one of my friends said he saw it leave the gun and return. While I have been nicked by very light pieces of jacket before, it is EXTREMELY rare to have something so powerful plug you in the face. Most protective eyewear is usually suggested to prevent scratches to the eyes, not entire bullets traveling at high velocities.

When the bullet impacted into my polycarbonate lens, the lens broke free of the frame, physically pushing the frame into 3 pieces. While one piece ended up in the corner of the room and another was lost forever, the last bit of the frame hung from one ear as the lens impacted into my eye socket. The lens then cut my cheek, leaving me with the cut you see in the picture and the black eye I had the next day, which you don't see.

I wish I could tell you how I bravely followed every safety rule and calmly set the gun down... shock from the impact spun me around slightly and my eye was in so much pain that it made both eyes well shut. According to others, I immediately took my finger of the trigger (instinctually), but, as I had no way to know which way I was facing, I pointed in the only safe direction I knew: down. Someone asked me (I'm sure it was the range officer) to set the gun down, but, again, I had no way to know which way I was facing, I didn't know where the tables or booths were, so I set it the only place I knew existed: the floor.

While these aren't ideal, they're better than having a second accident or pointing a loaded gun at someone. Safety at the range is PARAMOUNT. Like skydiving or bungie jumping, shooting is a dangerous sport until all of the elements of safety are put into place. Getting proper training on how to do it safely in incredibly important. If you're skydiving for the first time they don't just take you up and say, "well, jump, then pull the chord when you want to stop falling." It takes a large amount of safety and experience (at least 25 jumps) before someone gets their USPA (United States Parachute Association) class A license.

Like skydiving, there is a lot to learn about a firearm before we should start using it on our own. While my friends might tell the story a bit more like: "Bang! Then he was like, 'F#%$' Then he just chucked this loaded gun on the ground!" ...none of them will ever fault me for having my finger on the trigger or waving the gun at them, because I never did. My training saved me from having a second potential accident.

With any dangerous sport there is a bit of assumed risk. (Again, See: Skydiving) Getting banged up a little is always a potential, but is mitigated through good training and safe practices. I once read that experience is when you learn from something you did, and wisdom is when you learn from something that someone else did. I had to learn that I need better eyewear. Hopefully you are wise enough to learn from my mistakes, so that you don't have to experience them for yourself.