We’re human, but we must try to prevent tragic mistakes

I’d considered not writing this one.

I’d even talked with my editor about it and, initially, came away thinking I would just leave it alone.

The points about safety have been made many times and the chance of further hurting people who’ve already experienced enough pain are ever present.

But thoughts kept gnawing at me and, so, I decided to do it to still those thoughts.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve had a series of accidents in our state involving children and firearms. We’re still awaiting many details but, even after we have them, there will be questions.

Even so, what I do know is that we’re human and that one fact goes a long way toward explaining some of the things that happen to us.

Simply stated, we aren’t perfect and we make mistakes. Fortunately, most of our mistakes are small, the consequences minor, and, most often, we get to walk away a bit wiser.

We’ll stick a knife into a toaster to get the bread out and get away without a shock. We’ll replace an electrical receptacle without opening the circuit breaker and end up with only a light show and a melted screwdriver tip to tell us that we were lucky.

We’ll stand on the top step of a ladder and manage to break our fall by pulling down the gutters in front of us. We’ll decide not to take the board we’re drilling back to the work table and run the drill bit only a “little way” into one of our fingers. We look up from texting just in time to stop short of the car that’s slowed in front of us. We try to re-light the pilot flame in the stove without waiting for the gas to clear and only lose a few eyelashes.

We get away with these and a hundred other incidents with either little or no damage done because we get lucky. Alternatively, if we believe in a higher power, we walk away unhurt or without hurting others because a merciful God happened to be watching over us or, this time, decided to just throw a little scare into us so as to teach us a lesson.

But, again, we’re human and we forget what we know or what we’ve learned. And that’s the problem.

Very few of us (ignoring the minority who simply don’t care) ever start our day with the intent to harm ourselves (or others). We never think: “Well, today, I guess I’ll go out and try to amputate my fingers by cleaning the grass chute on my lawn mower while it’s still running.

Unfortunately — and despite having no ill intent — good, thoughtful, caring people start their day like everyone else, but end up where none of us ever want to be. And this will continue to happen until we cease to be a species.

But we can still try. We can remind ourselves. We can repeat mental warnings. We can make notes and post them where we’ll see them every day. All to keep us from doing something careless or dangerous.

We should especially do this in the arena of firearms because, there, we simply can’t afford mistakes — especially when kids are near. In fact, in this one arena, we should become almost obsessive about safety with respect to the manner in which we either handle or store them.

We can ensure that they’re unloaded and safely locked away when they’re not in use. We can ensure that we store ammunition in a separate and safely locked location. We can check and re-check that our firearms are actually where they’re supposed to be whenever we have the slightest inkling of a doubt that they’re not. If we’re handling them, we can ratchet our safety precautions up a few notches more.

In other words, as I am being now, we can (and should) become almost irritating to ourselves and others by reminding ourselves and others that there may come a time when not doing so can lead to tragedy and pain that none of us ever wants or deserves to experience.

Keep them safely stored and away from kids when not in use. Be even more vigilant when you have them out.

Become obsessive over safety.

Do this for everyone’s — including your own — sake.

Do this because there may come a day when you’ll be more than thankful that you did.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to larrysim@comcast.net.