Quarterly firearms qualifications were over for the day for my agency. It was a hot one, most of the shooters were miserable, covered with sweat and probably with their fair share of lead dust and powder residue and they just wanted to go home but they still had some work to do policing up the spent brass shell casings. As they were doing so, one of the other firearms instructors, Pete G, got on the loud speaker and reminded them, in a loud, booming but very gleeful voice that: "A clean gun is a happy gun" (one of his favorite sayings) and then reminded all of them that cleaning equipment was available for them to clean their guns before leaving the range. Less than half of them did so. Heck, I was one of the instructors and I have to admit, I did not always clean my guns before leaving the range. I often did it at home the following day - shame on me because I knew better than to go back out on the street with a dirty gun.
There are varying reasons that you should keep your gun happy, or in other words keep it clean. The first and foremost is so that it operates properly. When we shot for pistol qualifications, we also always shot a good amount of rounds for tactical training. I am going to guess that each of us fired at least 300 to 500 rounds on any given qualification day, that all through one pistol. If someone had a secondary handgun, then they may have fired from 50 to 100 rounds though it too. One of the best ways to assure that Murphy will butt in when you need your gun to be in 100 percent working capability is when you have not taken the time to properly maintain your firearm with a good cleaning including any called for lubrication. Carbon deposits, brass shavings, copper fouling, unburnt gunpowder particles, lead buildup, oil residue can all go a long way to prevent a firearm from functioning properly. All it takes is one malfunction, at a critical time, and you could wind up the loser in a gunfight.
While maintaining proper functioning of a defensive firearms is the primary reason to clean your guns, you also want to clean them even if you only use them while target shooting or hunting and you want them to stay clean even if you never shoot them such as could be the case with a firearms collector. Cleaning and properly lubricating them keeps them not only in good working order but in good cosmetic order too and thus keeps their value up.
I was recently watching a new crime drama called Longmire. It reminded me of a reason, not often thought about, to keep your guns clean. Sheriff Longmire and one of his deputies were working on a murder investigation and he picks up a gun, then rubs his finger over the bore with a twisting motion, then looks at and I think sniffed his fingertip. The deputy is looking at him quizzically. He explains to the deputy, if it comes off smelling like oil, it has not been fired recently but if it comes off covered in powder residue and smelling like burnt gunpowder then it has been fired (at least since the last time it was cleaned). Now, while the sheriff's methods are mostly balderdash, stuff for television audiences put into the show by moronic imbeciles who make movies, there is some truth in what was depicted and having cleaned your guns, right after shooting them at the range, could potentially save you some trouble with the law.
Let me give a brief example, nothing as heinous as a murder. Say that have a nasty verbal altercation with someone. It could be a neighbor, relative or even a spouse with whom you do not get along, or maybe just a stranger in a public place. Let's use the stranger for our purposes. For some reason, you get in an argument with a peckerwood in the parking lot of your local Wally World. Maybe you inadvertently cut him off or he you, or whatever. It gets heated, a lot of yelling and screaming is done but you both finally get in your cars and drive away out of the parking lot - coincidentally or not - going in the same direction. Then you turn different ways and you cool; down and forget about it. All the while, during the confrontation, you were armed, carrying a pistol; in a strong side hip holster under your jacket. You never even thought of using it, the guy was just a blowhard. You drive home and have a beer.
Sometime, later that same day, after the altercation, when you are at home, the front doorbell rings, then there is a loud banging on the front door as if someone is knocking with all his might. Then your skin crawls as you hear someone yell loudly "POLICE, OPEN THE DOOR". You walk to the door and open it and there are 4 or 5 officers outside. They are not very friendly looking either, they mean business. They ask if they can come in. Maybe you let them in and maybe not. You ask what is going on and they explain that a citizen has made a complaint against you, saying the two of you had an altercation in the parking lot, then he said that after you both drove away, you pulled out your pistol and fired a couple of rounds in his direction on the road. You are in shock. You deny it. You tell the officers yeah you had a verbal altercation with a peckerwoodLongmire did for his television audience. His finger comes away with carbon on it, the gun has not been cleaned since you fired it at the range last week. It appears to have been fired recently.
If they were not going to arrest you before, they are probably at least strongly considering it now. You will be, at the very least, going to the station for questioning. My guess though it that you are about to be shackled. Why? Little did you realize it, but as you were motioning with your arms while discussing matters with Mr. Peckerwood, you gun was exposed for a split second and he saw it. As he drove out of the parking lot, he saw something else too, your license plate number and he wrote it down. Being the antagonistic type that he is, he decided to call the police and make a false claim against you. Maybe he was drunk, maybe he was a psycho, maybe just an asshole but the truth is that people, for whatever reasons, make false allegations against others pretty frequently.
You may be able to explain it all away and good investigative work should show your gun had not been fired that day - but do you want to depend on someone else to be doing good investigative work to get you off the hook. Then again, maybe it will not all be so easy to explain away. Maybe you went shooting out in the sticks, not at a commercial range, maybe you have no witnesses, maybe it was just the day before and the fouling and powder residue are all pretty fresh. You are going to have a serious problem. While you are facing a problem caused by a false allegation, it would be much less serious a problem if you had cleaned your gun right after shooting it. I would also point out it would be less of a problem if you had kept your mouth shut, did not hand them the pistol and called a lawyer but as I said, they may have come with a warrant and found the gun anyway. A clean gun would only have meant one of two things, you cleaned it once you got home after taking a shot at the guy or it was already clean and had not been fired since last cleaned.
Now while I set this up so it could go either way, and so you could mull this and that and maybe even try to debate the issue with me by saying the guy should have just not let the police inside or not given them the gun and not said anything - how about something a little more exigent. How about a situation in which the guy calls the police, 2 minutes after have the altercation, from his cell phone while in his car. They pull you over, a few minutes later, while you are still driving home. They approach guns drawn, this is a felony car stop. They ask if you are armed and you say yes and that you have a pistol permit but they pull you out of the car and pat you down. They take the pistol, they do the Longmire School of Investigations 'has the gun been fired recently test' and you wind up getting arrested on the spot. Had it been a clean gun, the outcome may have been very different, such as them asking if you would not mind coming down to the station instead of you getting a new set of bracelets or even letting you go. If you have to go in, going in voluntarily is much less stressful than going in shackled. Thus you would have some time to think straight about what to do (such as CALLING A LAWYER) before you get to the police station.
You decide which evidence you would want to present then decide on whether or not you want to keep your gun happy!
All the best,
Glenn B
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