Crazy newb encounter

[Dirt Sample]

My buddies and I were shooting steel targets at our local pit, when a Subaru Outback, came tearing into the pit, and skidded to a stop. A guy jumps out, and starts walking briskly toward us, Glock in hand, finger on the trigger, and swinging it around carelessly. He quickly found 3 AR15s pointed at him, and put his gun down on the ground, raising his hands. Turns out, skinny pant, man bud dude just bought the Glock 19, never owning, or even touching a gun in his life, . The guy that sold it to him loaded the "clip", and gave him directions to the pit we were at to shoot it. We took him under our wings, and taught him basic gun safety, trigger discipline, and taught him how to handle, shoot, reload, and hit what he was aiming at over the course of the morning. We told him to never come up on ANYONE the way he came up on us, that he is lucky he didn't get shot, and that courtesy dictates if someone is shooting at an area, you should move on to the next. He turned out to be a really nice guy, and really enjoyed shooting with us, and wants an AR now, after shooting Mike's. He asked if he could come back next Thursday, (our regular meetup day), and maybe we could teach his wife like we taught him the basics. Maybe he will be a regular with our group now.

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[shybladder]

Unfortunately, I've had this happen with true gun enthusiasts. Pissy because I was shooting in "their" spot.. on the bright side, one encounter the guy offers me to shoot his 50 cal and his flintlock.

 

[sobo]

A scary start, but certainly glad it all worked out OK in the end.

 

[Muggs919]

Yikes! Glad it worked out well.

 

[titsonritz]

Common sense isn't all that common.

 

[Bam]

Public lands.... First come, first served.

And if you roll on me aggressively with a gun in hand, best not point it in my direction. You may not get a chance to put it down.

I have a nice private range I get to enjoy now, so I don't bother with public land anymore. But when I did, I seen too many yokels doing stupid stuff that whenever someone else rolled in my shooting spot, i always kept a loaded weapon ready to rock and roll.

 

[titsonritz]

The guy that sold it to him loaded the "clip", and gave him directions to the pit we were at to shoot it.

Makes me wonder if they did a BGC.

 

[Dirt Sample]

Makes me wonder if they did a BGC.

Yes, he did the transfer legally. seller loaded the gun in the parking lot after transaction was complete. (which is totally not legal) We did point out that he can't carry loaded until he gets his CHL.

 

[tac]

The wrong is strong here.

 

[Flymph]

Glad he ran into some good people!

 

[Alexx1401]

WOW!!! Hope he learned well from the time you guys spent with him. You may well have saved him at min, some really bad legal problems and at worst being shot. Good on you all that after that scary start you took the time to teach him better.

 

[ma96782]

"......and that courtesy dictates if someone is shooting at an area, you should move on to the next."

That would be nice. And, Yes, he could have had a better approach.

However, you don't own the public areas. As you said he was new and unfortunately probably was told that the particular place was OK for the PUBLIC to shoot. He probably knows of no other place where it's OK to shoot.

Yup.....the Govt. is NOT building proper shooting ranges for its citizens. But they'll build/fund : basketball courts, baseball diamonds, boat launch ramps, dog walking parks, skateboard facilities, etc.....etc......

Aloha, Mark

 

[DB is Here]

Next time he shoots with you, maybe he won't be wearing wet piss-stained jeans....

 

[deadeye]

 

[solv3nt]

Yes, he did the transfer legally. seller loaded the gun in the parking lot after transaction was complete. (which is totally not legal) We did point out that he can't carry loaded until he gets his CHL.

Depends on if he was carrying concealed and/or if he was in a city/county that imposes restrictions on loaded magazines. The state allows loaded open carry to all or concealed carry for licensed hunter/fisherman in the course of active hunting/fishing.

 

[11Charlie]

Sounds to me like the guy got really lucky.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Good on you, OP. Glad you could educate the guy, and possibly prevent him from getting himself shot next time.

I pretty much stopped shooting on public lands a year or two ago. Mostly because, almost every time I did, at least one disturbing thing would happen including but not limited to:

1. Random (often sketchy looking) people stopping, apparently under the mistaken impression that you shooting with your buddies is an "open invitation" event. It isn't. And in most of the shooting spots I used to frequent, there really wasn't enough room for two separate parties to be doing their own thing anyway. Not to mention that if I don't know you, I don't want to be within "target distance" of you. Keep on driving, please.

2. As mentioned above, we had one older guy get peeved because we were shooting in "his" spot. Rather than drive away, he proceeded to take the passive-aggressive approach of just sitting in his car, waiting for us to leave. Of course that meant we needed to keep our heads on a swivel, which somewhat took the fun out of my buddies and I simply trying to enjoy ourselves. (He angrily sped away after 45 minutes, yelling something as he left.)

3. One time we heard the unmistakable sound of bullets whizzing past us. We wanted to hope that was the result of people just being insanely careless rather than malicious, but there was just one problem: given where we were shooting, we didn't see how it was even possible that those whizzing bullets could have been an accident. Needless to say, we left quickly. (Which may have been exactly what someone was hoping for. We never saw anyone, and it was a different time than when passive-aggressive dude stopped by.)

But I think the final nail in the coffin was when those people were murdered at a shooting spot just past Estacada a year ago. That incident reminded me of a couple things: (i) when you're out in the middle of nowhere, you really are on your own; and (ii) there are more than a few psychopaths in the world. BTW, was that crime ever solved?!? Seems like it just dropped off the radar.

 

[DirectDrive]

For initiation, I would have made him Official Target Holder of the Day.
Kind of like Officer of the Day only with a little twist.

 

[jleavy1977]

I sincerely love this! Thank you for your patience and willingness to help that guy out. I am certain that he will remember that experience for the rest of his life and will be grateful for the learning experience. Gestures such as yours are, IMO, the true essence of 'Pro 2A.'

 

[2A2Dend]

I'd have had a barrel of whatever I was shooting at the time, in their face, as well.
The UN-Educated, even the educated have swept me and my buddies and on-lookers to an unsafe, their leaving, or have left situation.
For whoever loaded the damn thing for them, me thinks they were also just as fool minded.