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Video: Cleaning Handguns

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Video Transcript
Hunter

If I were to stand here and methodically take you through cleaning each type of handgun, it would get boring. Cleaning guns isn’t much more exciting than cleaning your house, or refrigerator. At least your gun isn’t going to have unidentifiable green stuff growing at the back of it. If it does, you have bigger problems than we can help you with. Keeping your handgun clean is important so it functions reliably and provides you with years of service. So here’s how we’ll keep things interesting. Pretend you have one of those big, red game show buttons in front of you. We’ll start the video of the handgun cleaning process. When you see something you think is wrong, hit your giant button. We’ll stop the video, rewind, and correct the mistakes. Remember, I said it’s a pretend button, so we may not stop the show exactly where you want, but hey, play along. OK? Are you ready? Here we go.

A woman sits on an ottoman with a box of supplies. The supplies range from a hammer and other household tools to pipe cleaners, furniture polish, and a fuzzy pink sock. She places her gun and the supplies to her left and turns on the television. Then she picks up the gun and the cloth.

The buzzer sounds several times, and action stops on screen.

Hunter

OK, OK, yes, we heard you. Lots wrong here. One, the living room is not the place to clean the gun. Two, a dirty sock, furniture polish, and pipe cleaners are not a sufficient gun-cleaning kit. Three, no television. Safely cleaning your handgun requires no distractions.

On screen: Handgun Cleaning Rules—Choose an appropriate location. Use appropriate gun-cleaning kit. Make sure there are no distractions.

Hunter

Let’s try again.

The woman walks into a toolshed and puts on safety goggles. This time, she has a professional gun-cleaning kit set up on a table next to a clean white cloth. She begins to disassemble the firearm. The buzzer sounds over and over.

Hunter

Ah! Ah, uh, sorry, but I think I broke it. Somebody help us with this?

Hunter tosses the game show button out of frame.

Hunter

Oh, thank you. Did you pick up on the number one big gun-cleaning no-no of all time? She didn’t make sure that the gun was unloaded. One of the most common excuses for so-called accidents is a gun going off while it’s being cleaned. A gun can’t go off if you checked it was unloaded and opened the action.

On screen: Handgun Cleaning Rules—Always check that the handgun is unloaded before cleaning it.

Hunter

Let’s try again.

Still in the toolshed, the woman sits with her cleaning kit to her left and a screwdriver and box of ammunition to her right. She picks up the gun and removes the magazine. She checks to be sure it is empty, then sets it aside. She looks into the chamber and sits the gun down on the clean cloth. She then puts some oil onto the rod and puts the rod into the muzzle. Then, she inserts a screwdriver into the chamber. The buzzer sounds several times.

Hunter

Stop, stop, stop! Sorry, the button’s history, but we’ve got a couple of things wrong here. First, what is that ammo doing there? You most definitely don’t need ammo for cleaning your gun. It shouldn’t even be in the same room unless it’s locked up. Second, whenever possible, you should try to clean a barrel from the breech end, not the muzzle. Maybe disassembling this pistol to do that is what this gun owner has in mind, but that’s the third big problem. She’s definitely not following the instructions in the owner’s manual.

On screen: Handgun Cleaning Rules—Remove ammunition from the cleaning area. Clean the gun barrel from the breech end. Refer to the instructions in the owner’s manual.

Hunter

Let’s go back.

This time, the box of ammunition and screwdriver are not on the table. The magazine is already set aside. The woman disassembles the gun and uses the rod to clean the barrel. She then adds many drops of oil to the barrel. A preteen boy walks into the toolshed.

Boy

Hey, mom. What’re you doing?

Woman

Just cleaning my gun.

Boy

Oh, cool. Can I help?

Woman

Sure. Put some oil on that.

She hands the frame of the gun to the boy.

Boy

All right.

The buzzer sounds.

Hunter

Stop—please stop. We have moderate and major infractions here. We’ll issue a slap on the wrist for improper cleaning.

We see the woman dripping oil into the gun barrel again, and the universal-no symbol appears.

Hunter

Firearms work much better with light lubrication. But there is a major penalty for a child in the cleaning area. Remember, no distractions—especially not curious kids—unless you’re taking the time and have planned to introduce them to gun cleaning today.

On screen: Handgun Cleaning Rules—Use light lubrication on metal gun parts. Keep children out of the cleaning area.

Hunter

All right, one more time.

Back in the toolshed, the boy comes in.

Boy

Hey, mom. What’re you doing?

Woman

I’m cleaning my gun. Go get ready for baseball; I’ll be done in a minute.

The woman finishes cleaning the gun and reassembles it. She removes her safety goggles and leaves the room. The buzzer sounds.

Hunter

Ay yi yi—I didn’t think she could mess up any more in the final seconds. You don’t just leave a handgun sitting out where anybody can get at it. Let’s rewind.

This time, when the woman is finished reassembling the firearm, she puts it into a case and places the case in a lockbox on a high shelf.

Hunter

So how did you do? Sorry for the meltdown, but this is so important that I get emotional.