Watch Instructor Violate Laundry List Of Basic Safety Rules In 45 Seconds

There are times when we get a sense of why firearms accidents happen – and one video posted to social media indicates it’s from a bad example set by someone who really should know better: a firearms instructor.

Firearms accidents have declined by almost 50% from 1999, when 824 accidental deaths from firearms discharging occurred, to 2024, which saw only 450 accidental deaths, according to CDC data. In the video posted to X by TácticaYSeguridadGT, a Guatemalan self-defense training company, the instructor, who appears to be with ECOLVIP, a Colombian company that trains security guards, violates at least three basic firearms safety rules in less than a minute.

The video shows a Spanish-speaking instructor providing some training to students. Firearms instructors have an important duty to teach the safe use of firearms to those exercising their Second Amendment rights, but this one appears to be failing big time as he is waving what looks like a Beretta 92 (or a clone) around.

First of all, in this class, he is using a real firearm loaded with real bullets. Now, while the point of instruction is to teach people how to safely handle firearms, the real gun with real bullets probably shouldn’t be used in a confined space with multiple students, especially when dummy firearms are available and reasonably cheap.

Second of all, the guy’s muzzle discipline is non-existent – he sweeps across the room multiple times, including across one female student next to a table (the only student seen in the video). One very basic rule of firearms safety is to keep the muzzle in a safe direction.

“This is the primary rule of gun safety. Common sense dictates the safest direction, depending on different circumstances,” the NRA’s website says.

Third, the instructor fires a shot while waving the gun around—meaning his finger was on the trigger at some point. He did fire the round into the target, but was this a sign of his competence, or just pure dumb luck?

“Firearms training should be a safe, enjoyable, and rewarding experience for students. Instructors play an extremely important role in introducing new gun owners to the world of firearms training,” a spokesperson for the NRA told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “That’s why the NRA has been dedicated to teaching marksmanship and firearms safety for 155 years, and why our over 100,000 certified trainers are held to the gold standard of safe and effective firearms training.”

The NRA has a policy in which instructors who disregard firearms safety rules (including having live ammunition in a training classroom), provide “inadequate training,” have a negligent discharge or who “bring discredit to the NRA or the NRA training program” can have their certification revoked.