diff --git a/sys/geom/geom_int.h b/sys/geom/geom_int.h
index 0323e016b663..cd67d19e0e68 100644
--- a/sys/geom/geom_int.h
+++ b/sys/geom/geom_int.h
@@ -42,10 +42,13 @@ TAILQ_HEAD(event_tailq_head, g_event);
 extern struct event_tailq_head events;
 extern int g_collectstats;
 extern int g_debugflags;
-/* 1	G_T_TOPOLOGY		*/
-/* 2	G_T_BIO			*/
-/* 4	G_T_ACCESS		*/
-/* 8	enable sanity checks	*/
+/*
+ * 1	G_T_TOPOLOGY
+ * 2	G_T_BIO
+ * 4	G_T_ACCESS
+ * 8	enable sanity checks
+ * 16	Allow footshooting on rank#1 providers
+ */
 
 /*
  * Various internal actions are tracked by tagging g_event[s] onto
diff --git a/sys/geom/geom_subr.c b/sys/geom/geom_subr.c
index 237e19928b3e..e2209fc417ac 100644
--- a/sys/geom/geom_subr.c
+++ b/sys/geom/geom_subr.c
@@ -418,14 +418,17 @@ g_access_rel(struct g_consumer *cp, int dcr, int dcw, int dce)
 	    pp->acr, pp->acw, pp->ace,
 	    pp, pp->name);
 
+	/* If foot-shooting is enabled, any open on rank#1 is OK */
+	if ((g_debugflags & 16) && pp->geom->rank == 1)
+		;
 	/* If we try exclusive but already write: fail */
-	if (dce > 0 && pw > 0)
+	else if (dce > 0 && pw > 0)
 		return (EPERM);
 	/* If we try write but already exclusive: fail */
-	if (dcw > 0 && pe > 0)
+	else if (dcw > 0 && pe > 0)
 		return (EPERM);
 	/* If we try to open more but provider is error'ed: fail */
-	if ((dcr > 0 || dcw > 0 || dce > 0) && pp->error != 0)
+	else if ((dcr > 0 || dcw > 0 || dce > 0) && pp->error != 0)
 		return (pp->error);
 
 	/* Ok then... */