The first "gun" that I ever owned was a Red Ryder BB gun as a Christmas present when I was about 8, the first thing my dad said was "Read the owners manual, then we'll go outside and I'll teach you to shoot it". A few years later, I'd saved enough quarters and birthday checks to buy myself an 870 youth model 20 gauge. Again, my father told me "Read the owners manual, then I'll teach you to shoot it". A year later, when he got me a 10/22 for Christmas, same thing, and so on. Now.... I like to think every now and then that with each additional firearm (in the mid 20's last time I counted them all) I still do that each and every time, because, as much as I do know, there is a lot that I don't. Granted.... I shoot for work, I've shot to save my life, and I've shot to save others lives, but I still each and every time read it. I remember reading the owners manual when I bought my wife an M&P 9mm, and making her read it. Six months later I was trying to break it down to clean it and could not get the slide off for the life of me.... and of course I looked back and read the book and it all came back.
Now I know that the shooting sports are hurting these days (Also, let it be known I shot competitively all through middle school and high school, not for a school team as that was politically in-correct, but for a sportsmans clubs league.) and the only thing we have to keep our sport going is welcoming new members with open arms. The problem lies in the fact that people seem to rely on others to help them figure it all out these days. If your weapon doesn't work and its brand new, there is a good chance that you forgot to do something, or didn't read what you need to do, or are relying on what you think you know instead of what the manufacturer DOES know.
So.... any chance of getting people to read their damn owners manuals?
Also... is there a mathematical formula to show the correlation between lack of spelling and grammar skills and not knowing how to treat a firearm?
