Remington Under Fire?

What kind of horrible reporting was that? CNBC claims that a Remington Model 700 is unsafe. That the rifle will fire when the safety is moved to the “on” position. They claimed that this was a major issue. That it happens a lot. I’ve been around firearms my entire adult life and fired many Remington 700s and never even heard of this happening.

My heart goes out to the family CNBC had on camera that lost their little boy due to an accident. The mother went to unload the rifle and the rifle fired, shooting the little boy. I’ve trained many people that claim they don’t put their finger on the trigger, but I see it happen all the time on the range. Not just civilians, but also soldiers, Marines, and police officers. I’ve seen top-level shooters have a negligent discharge during a competition. People do put their fingers on the trigger without realizing it.

The report found one firearms trainer that would talk about the “problem” and two lawyers. They also had two grainy videos with military dressed people in them showing the malfunction. They played these two videos multiple times, and let the lawyers talk. With a file and a couple hours I can make almost any firearm fire when it’s not suppose to. So the videos don’t hold much water.

No one from Remington, or any other major brand would talk about it. This is a smart move. No smart trainer or firearms industry person would talk on camera to a major news outlet. A really good media relations person taught me a long time ago, that you may win the argument, but will never win the auditing. The media will cut and past your comments to say what ever they want the public to here.

CNBC used this by only showing you that they bought one rifle and talked to 10 different stores, and only had footage from a couple. They couldn’t even get sales people to say anything bad about the rifles off camera. I’m sure they bought more then one rifle and if they could have made the rifle malfunction in any way it would have been on the report.

One of the lawyers talked about a rifle that malfunctioned in court, but they didn’t have the actual court documents, only the lawyer talking about it. Again if this happened all the time, there would be lots more proof. CNBC wouldn’t have to repeat things in their one-hour report.

This seems like one of those things that you shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV. I do not have any problem or concern with the safety of a Remington 700. I’ve operated and trained with many people using a Remington and not had any problems. After watching the report, I still don’t have any concerns with the rifle and wouldn’t be worried about anyone carrying one around me.

From the opening monolog I knew there was no one on staff at CNBC that knew anything about firearms. The report walked out with a rifle and his finger on the trigger (I hope they had enough sense to have the rifle unloaded).

Always follow the four firearms safety rules:

1. Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
2. Never point the weapons at anything you don't intend to destroy.
3. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire.
4. Know your target and what lies beyond.

Stay Safe,

Ben