What part of range safety don't you understand?

[Bawanna]

I'll bite. I ain't heard it Bawanna

I'll try to be brief.

I have a 30-30 Contender. I took it to one of the outdoor public ranges to shoot it. Depending on which elbow is running the booth they sometimes have me shoot on the rifle range, sometimes the pistol range. So I always tell them what I have and ask where to go.
This time he says pistol range. Says there's a range officer up there and one other member.
Off I go.

I get up there and there's a member in their little cordoned off area, a guy with his son, and a fat bald headed drill sgt type that I've dealt with in the past.
So I acknowledge their presence and lay my gear out on the bench.
Mr. Drill Sgt tells me to go ahead down and hand a target. So I according to the rules walk over to flip a switch that activates an obnoxious bell and flashing lights. Before I get there he tells me don't flip that switch, I'm sick of hearing it, just go down, I'll watch for you.
I confirmed that he was sure that's what he wanted me to do and hustled down to hang my target.
I come back and I notice they are BSing and Mr. Drill Sgt doesn't have his ear muffs on.
He finally hollers down and ask if I'm gonna shoot or what? So I informed him I had a large caliber gun and noticed he didn't have his muffs on and didn't want to damage his hearing. His response was hell my ears have been burned so many times don't worry about it, just go on........

Well I wanted to but I'm just not gonna do it, this Contender is louder than hell and especially so under cover in this enclosed area. So I notice that he's finishing up his conversation and started my way, he has to pass me to get to the exit baffle and out.

So I real slow like grab a 30-30 case by the rim and hold it up to load so I'm sure he can see it. I note he starts to pick up his pace considerable. Right before he gets to me I drop it in the chamber and close the action, at this point he broke into a full out run or as close to a full out run as a 300 pound drill sgt can accomplish. I aim down range, but I'm watching him and as soon as he bounced off the end wall and pushed himself around the corner I let if off. Dust flew out of the ceiling, I think the members kid actually swore.
Mr. Drill Sgt pokes his head around the corner and says you almost got me you little bastard! Semi joking, semi serious. I explained to him that I had him anytime I wanted, it was only cause I was such a nice guy that he's able to hear at all and no charge for the exercise of the 30ft dash he just completed.

Member and his son come down right off and wanted to know what kind of canon I just shot. Both father and son ended up shooting it, the son with a lot of support and supervision of course.

I like to think I gave Mr. Drill Sgt a nice lesson that day but I heard not much changed. That was 20 years ago. I recently looked into going back figuring things might have improved but alas I was told it was exactly the same.

I still chuckle about it to this day.

[garyb]

Good one. I can almost see it happening. Too funny.

[garyb]

Was at a range last year with my son and someone walked up behind me and tapped me on my shoulder just as I touched off a round....I turned around and saw 2 very nice looking Japanese young ladies standing there holding a rented Glock 19 magazine they were having trouble loading....Always glad to help out a new female shooter I looked at the magazine and it had a stuck round loaded they couldn't get out....

It was loaded backwards!!!, bullet end facing the rear of the mag....My son got the round out and showed them how to properly load the thing then we promptly loaded up and left....I won't go back there because not only do they not have a safety officer they will rent anybody anything they want, no questions asked and don't even ask if they have ever shot a gun before or show them how to use it safely.....

Exactly. Safety training is important. Look at what Bawanna did to that poor drill sgt. If he had only been safety trained...haha. LOL

[muggsy]

I have also found that if u fart or stick some smelly sh!tin ur pants or even sh!tin ur pants they will not lotter around long either. What ever works best. I have alot of sheep sh!t.
around my property, so I just stuff some of that in my pockets. Actually can't remember when anyone has ever stuck around my booth to long either

Becareful, Jocko. That post came very close to offending my delicate sensibilities. In the future please refer to sheep sh!t as poo.
Yer friend,
Muggsy

[Bawanna]

Range officers and safety training are a lot like government swings.
Some don't want to offend a person competence so they don't ask stuff like have you shot before. Like the gals in getsome's story. Who knows, maybe they are Olympic pistol champs and would be offended. In his case obviously they weren't and should have asked.
They should not have to be told to ask, or required too for that matter.

Others treat every soul they meet like they are the dumbest piece of crap wrapped in skin they ever met and want to show you how to hold your mouth, how to hold your hand, sight picture but mostly how to stoop and bow in their presence. Don't seem to be any in between.

Gun safety is not rocket science. It's common sense. Sadly a rare commodity and getting rarer by the minute.

[garyb]

"What seems like common sense to those whom have learned that sense, is ignorance to those whom are untrained in that common sense. "
Quoted by Abraham "garyb" Lincoln
There it is...safety education is important still.

[SlowBurn]

What part of range safety don't you understand?

"What seems like common sense to those whom have learned that sense, is ignorance to those whom are untrained in that common sense. '
Quoted by Abraham garyb Lincoln
There it is...safety education is important still.

+1 At a very nice public range, with an officer around somewhere I noticed otherwise sensible appearing people at the firing line handling their guns when the range was "cold" and shooters were down range changing their targets. When I explained to them they quickly understood and put the guns down and got behind the safety line. Seems obvious but so do a lot of things after you know. I prefer a more tightly controlled range.

[b4uqzme]

Gun safety is not rocket science. It's common sense. Sadly a rare commodity and getting rarer by the minute.

+ a bajillion

What seems to be even more rare these days is awareness. People are so involved in themselves, their cell phones, their lives, etc. that they aren't even aware of situations where they should apply some common sense...or common courtesy for that matter.

[garyb]

+ a bajillion

What seems to be even more rare these days is awareness. People are so involved in themselves, their cell phones, their lives, etc. that they aren't even aware of situations where they should apply some common sense...or common courtesy for that matter.

Can't disagree about that. We agree about the common sense part. Still, you need gun safety training. We did not learn gun safety by osmosis. We got trained. That's the simple point. WE all agree that a lot of people don't have good common sense. These are the people who would not want gun safety training if it were not required AND will do stupid things. If it is required, they must take it...and people do learn from it. WE agree on the common sense part. It is only common sense to those who learned that common sense through the training. It still needs to be learned through training, whether it is voluntary or mandatory.

[tv_racin_fan]

The infringement is in the cost of this mandated training. Lets say it starts at $20. I could live with that but how long would that be good enough for the anti gun crowd? Now make the cost of that mandatory training $300 and tell me how that works for you.

Right now in some states the cost of the mandatory training and the permit to carry a handgun is $300 and more.

[garyb]

The infringement is in the cost of this mandated training. Lets say it starts at $20. I could live with that but how long would that be good enough for the anti gun crowd? Now make the cost of that mandatory training $300 and tell me how that works for you.

Right now in some states the cost of the mandatory training and the permit to carry a handgun is $300 and more.

Cost is a consideration for sure. I've got more than that in training, multiple State conceal carry permits, etc..., so I guess $300 isn't running me off, especially for good training. Have you looked at Front Sights prices?

[Bawanna]

The best way to assure that I won't do something is to say that it's mandatory. Even the violets here at work have learned that if they say a meeting is mandatory you can guarantee I will be someplace else that day.
When training becomes mandatory to carry a firearm I'll be going over to the other side.

Many think I'm already there.

[Barth]

Much of what we learn on our own stems from trial and error.
We burn or cut ourselves and then take more precautions.
But being shot and dead isn't something you come back from.

I really don't think all important aspects of gun safety are natural, obvious and self evident.

I continue to be an advocate for gun safety training.

[garyb]

I understand. I've got a younger brother that is like that. He makes everything a challenge for himself, bucks the system and struggles along rather than turning lemons into lemonade. On the other hand, I try to turn it around and make the best of the situation...in this case to learn. Then again I've always been a strong advocate of education and have jumped through all the mandatory requirements to get ahead. I was able to retire very young as a result. As for gun handling, I'm always ready to train and learn, mandatory or not. I guess we are all different that way. For me, thank God for training and most States smart enough to require training before putting guns in some folks hands. I believe it does help and so do the trainers.

[getsome]

I have always been careful with guns and taught my kids that guns can never be unloaded and to treat them as such but I have to say the one thing that drove home the point was I think either here or on the S&W forum I can't remember which but a guy who was very experienced in safe gun practices got complacent one day while cleaning his 1911 .45 and somehow shot himself in his upper inner thigh and the bullet traveled down his leg and exited his outer calf....

He posted pictures of the wound and continued to do so as it healed and MAN that really got to me big time...That was a VERY ugly wound and I think about that guy every time I pick up my guns and how even a split second of inattention can end up with a life changing or ending accident....Anybody else remember that guys post?