Answer:
Learning the safety rules and standards, practicing them until they are ingrained, instinctive, and muscle memory (when applicable) is the most critical and important thing that any/every owner or user of a firearm should do. Before anything else.
Please allow me to repeat that. Before anything else. Before selecting accessories, before getting a holster or a sling, before taking it to the range, before zeroing in the sights, before testing various ammunition, before anything else.
Not only should the rules of safety should be learned and strictly followed before doing anything else, they should (because of learning them first) they should be followed through any other use of the firearm, always and forevermore. To put anything other than safety first, is to misuse or abuse the firearm.
Marksmanship is a learned skill that can be improved with practice and/or instruction. But if safety is not the first concern during that process, then one is on their way to becoming an “unsafe marksman”. Which is a danger to all. Great, they can hit a target, but if they ignore or break the basic rules of safe handling why doing so, they are endangering themselves and anyone within range of their firearm. That is a recipe for tragedy. Preventable tragedy. One of the most unacceptable flavors that tragedy comes in.
