Risk Mitigation in the Firearms Industry

When we talk about risk mitigation in the safety, security, and personal defense community, it’s vital that we identify the risks appropriately before we make plans for how to mitigate them. We also need to consider the resources—how much time, money, and personal investment we want to put into mitigating those risks, as opposed to accepting them and driving on.

PERSONAL DEFENSE: TRULY HIGH RISK

When it comes to personal defense and self-defense concepts, we’re talking about some of the highest levels of risk that one could ever face, including the risk of death or loss of family from an attacker. What are we willing to do to mitigate those risks? In some cases, it might be as simple as buying and installing a good lock on our front door, to make it harder for a threat to get inside the home. Other times it’s complex and involves owning and training with a firearm, and being prepared for a wide array of scenarios in which we might need to use that firearm.

RISK MITIGATION IN THE GUN INDUSTRY

When we talk about risk mitigation in the gun industry, we need to accept the very real risks that confront us. If you sell firearms, if you train with firearms, if you teach firearms training courses, you are in an environment with some unique risks. Some of the risks are physical and some are mental.

PHYSICAL RISKS

Among the physical risks is the fact that firearms instructors have been injured and some even killed by unskilled people operating guns. Another physical risk is rage—a student attacking an instructor or another student on the range. Rob goes into detail about how to mitigate these risks and run classes safely.

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH

If you manufacture or sell guns, are a firearms instructor or range staff, or are in any way involved in the firearms industry, you need to consider the possibility that a product or service you are providing may end up involved in some kind of tragedy. Rob goes into detail about this too, so be sure to watch the whole video.

Rob has another video about risk mitigation that you may be interested in, Safety Third.