Source KSL.com – HERE

Salt Lake City, UT – Sixteen-year-old Maile Fine was pronounced dead at Intermountain Medical Center Thursday after an apparent joke about Russian Roulette went horribly wrong.

Though friends with him at the time said he had taken the bullets out of the gun, when Fine pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger the firearm went off and the bullet struck him.

The 4 basic rules of gun safety as advocated by the late Marine Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper can not be stressed enough:

1. All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)
3. Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.
4. Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

It’s just not worth taking the risk and violating any of those points.

Some popular books and DVDs by Jeff Cooper:

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