Worst breaches of safety at a firing range or gun store?

[speeddemon94]

Butter bars are so much fun to have come to the range. The last time downrange, a gaggle from some mayors cell all came to my range. So cute all dressed up in full battle rattle, with their Kevlar set just "so" as to not mess their hair. By the end they were throwing threats of action against me for continuing to enforce the standard, and make sure they did it correctly. Lots of flagging, and just plain careless behavior. Refusal to index when not on line was a huge infraction. Officers aren't much good until the latter part of Captain, when they learn to listen to NCOs.

I have knocked several private on their asses for lack of muzzle awareness too.

 

[DeadEyeMcGoo]

This one was the fault of employees at Wade's and is why I've never been back. I'm still upset about this:

A buddy and I are sharing a lane, following safe practices as we had in a dozen previous visits. I used to work in the area and came to Wades bi-weekly to shoot. While he was firing I decide to swap slides for a longer barrel on my .45 (There's a rule against this weapons diss-assembly. I had no idea at the time and had done this each time I'd shot there.) I'm seated on the bench minding my own business and in the minute it takes to disassemble my weapon I'm approached by three strangers who grab the gun out of my hand and pin me against the wall. They don't identify themselves. They aren't dressed in any kind of uniform and don't say what they want. They just assault me. Three strangers have just taken my gun (really just the lower) and have pushed me against the wall and are attempting to rob me? frisk me? rape me? I did what anyone would do. I fought back. Keep in mind that this has all occurred in just a couple of seconds since their approach. My buddy is still in his lane, blissfully firing away and unaware of what's happening behind him. As some point he turns around and sees me on the ground struggling with two guys on top of me and a third with his weapon drawn (!). At that point it really could have gone south very fast. For whatever reason my friend puts his gun down before storming over attempting to break up the fight. He completely ignores the guy with the gun drawn, and in hindsight he said that while he'd seen the gun in the moment he couldn't believe what he was seeing. A second moron draws his weapon and orders us both to back up. I'm screaming for someone to call 911 and demanding to know what they want. I'm alarmed and frankly, a bit scared. Finally they identify themselves as employees of Wades and I am completely dumbfounded. They had seen what they perceived as unsafe weapons handling and came to put a stop to it.

Now keep in mind that I'd shot there a lot up to this point. I hadn't been waving my gun around and the range was largely empty. They didn't sound the alarm to notify shooters to stop and they didn't identify themselves or what they wanted until after all of this played out. They took a minor infraction and turned it into an assault that could have gotten us all killed. Due to the struggle there was loose ammo and supplies all over the ground. I was in a state of shock and disbelief. They really and truly could not have handled this any worse. We immediately gathered our stuff and exited the store along with a couple of others who'd witnessed this. I called the police who interviewed the people involved and agreed that they'd "probably" over reacted but said there was nothing they could do. Never did an employee come out and talk to us and it all got swept under the rug. I could never get a Wades manager to return a phone call and the two follow up letters I sent were never acknowledged.

I was wrong to have not been better informed of the rules but NOTHING that I did placed anyone at risk. These overly zealous idiots from Wades though absolutely caused major risk to everyone that was there that day. I still think they should have gone to jail. The fact that Wades wouldn't follow up with me afterwards is why I've never been back and tell everyone I know to avoid the place.

 

[deen_ad]

YOU didn't know the rules and violated them and YOU'RE upset?

 

[JimmyS1985]

Deen_ad must be a choir boy. Rules were meant to be broken.

Really field stripping a gun doesn't sound like a major breach of safety to require getting tackled and them trying to keep the gun away from him and drawing theirs on him.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

I was teaching a home gun safety class a few days ago, and went through the procedure to clear a semi-automatic pistol. When I got all done with the demonstration I put the pistol down and said, "There now it's not loaded, right?" It gave me a warm feeling when all of my students said, "No, it's always loaded."

 

[DeadEyeMcGoo]

Dean-ad: ABSOLUTELY nothing I'd done that day required a physical confrontation. They had many, many options for correcting this issue and it NEVER should have resulted in assault or weapons being drawn. For that, these guys should have been arrested.

As stated previously, I'd been bringing this same gun to the range for more than two years and following this same procedure. Never once had I been corrected or reprimanded. I am always the polite guy at the range AND they knew me. (Well, one of the people in the range section knew me.) I didn't follow the rules. Granted. But their actions that day were inexcusable.

 

[Medic!]

I picked up a luger to check it out at a local gun store. It was in a holster with a spair magazine holder built in. The extra magazine was loaded!
I asked the sales person helping me if he wanted to just leave it that way?

 

[mancat]

1. Was at the range on a somewhat busy day, shooting on the 100. A kid showed up with his mom to shoot a tactical 10/22 slathered in Tapco gear. He was shooting it prone on the end of the 100 line while his mom sat behind him and watched. The line slowed, everyone on the line agreed to go cold, and called it out very loudly before switching on the lights. When a few of the guys were about 25 yards out onto the range, the kid opened up with rapid fire. The guys came scrambling back to the line, and me and another guy who had stayed back rushed over to stop him. He immediately and explosively stood up and started screaming in our faces for having touched him. This kid was ready to throw punches at two 20-somethings twice his size. His mom did nothing at all, just sat through the whole thing. The RO immediately kicked them out.

2. I was shooting AKs when a couple guys show up. One of the rifles they pull out is a Century M74. After they fuss with it for a few minutes, the guy brings it over to my table and asks if I can give them some help. He can't get the bolt carrier to rack back. I can see a bit of a rust film around the forward edge of the carrier, and on the muzzle brake. I get his permission to boot check the carrier on the ground. Out flies a rusted-up live surplus 5.45 cartridge, and he just says "oh bubblegum." The bolt and carrier were completely covered in rust, the barrel was sewerpiped. He said he just shot it a couple weeks ago and put it away, not thinking that AKs needed to be cleaned.

3. Only one I can think of that I've had myself was when shooting a Saiga .223 for accuracy getting ready to do some varminting with it. I was doing very slow trigger pulls and experienced a double. The young guy next to me looked over and smiled. I packed up my stuff and left the range immediately. I don't slow-pull the Tapco G2 trigger any more.

 

[mancat]

edit: double post. please del.

 

[oknow]

I also belong to private range but still see violations by memebers. Also, some members bring guests or don't pay attention or watch them closely enough,

I don't think he means that kind of private range I believe he means his own private range. I have one also and the only people invited are the ones I think will be safety minded.

 

[MarkAd]

1. Was at the range on a somewhat busy day, shooting on the 100. A kid showed up with his mom to shoot a tactical 10/22 slathered in Tapco gear. He was shooting it prone on the end of the 100 line while his mom sat behind him and watched. The line slowed, everyone on the line agreed to go cold, and called it out very loudly before switching on the lights. When a few of the guys were about 25 yards out onto the range, the kid opened up with rapid fire. The guys came scrambling back to the line, and me and another guy who had stayed back rushed over to stop him. He immediately and explosively stood up and started screaming in our faces for having touched him. This kid was ready to throw punches at two 20-somethings twice his size. His mom did nothing at all, just sat through the whole thing. The RO immediately kicked them out.

I thank you for doing what you did. But as an R/O at the range you and everyone on the line failed to verify a clear condition before going cold.

 

[mjbskwim]

I was at a range up in Mount Lake Terrace,years ago,shooting next to a couple.
I looked to my right,after shooting my mag dry,and noticed the girl had her cocked and NOT locked 1911 pointing at my foot,with her finger on the trigger!
I though to myself,that would hurt both directions.
So I stepped behind her and held her elbow as I raised her gun hand.
Her boyfriend's eyes looked at me then got real big as I told her to keep the gun pointing down range.
Yeah that was the end of that range day.

Then at a pit past Mount Si,me and another guy were shooting and doing fine. Then a guy drove up,got out,grabbed his targets and his little girl and walked past us to put targets on top of the berm.
No he didn't ask us anything and yes we were in shooting position,guns loaded and trained down range.
I said maybe he should put the targets below the top of the berm blah blah and he told me he knew what he was doing.

I guess he did cause he had the pit to himself in about 3 minutes.

And up here I have had a couple guys with new weapons sweep me a few times.

I like to shoot alone or I have just a few people I'll shoot with any more. Otherwise I'll come back when everyone is gone.

 

[JimmyS1985]

I think the scariest thing that happens with a gun is being muzzle sweeped.

Poor Firearms Safety Muzzle Sweep 1 - YouTube

glock accident - YouTube

Here are two good examples of muzzle sweeping. I'm not entirely mad at the shooters in either video since mistake do happen, it's human nature, the only problem with that though is the consequences are huge when you aren't safe around guns.

Then here is an example of a Navy SEAL. The Navy SEAL's are probably the most elite fighting unit's in the world and under go the most rigorous training of any military unit, particularly SEAL Team Six, which is why they were handpicked for the OBL raid.

Navy SEAL accidentally shoots himself in head while showing off gun to woman he met in bar | Mail Online

Anyways he shot himself in the head, because I would say he was much too comfortable around guns and clearly did not treat it with respect, also being in the midst of trying to impress a woman often doesn't work out very well for the physical health of the man. If he didn't die though, I wouldn't come down too hard on the man if he was still alive.

I remember the first time I showed my new firearm to a friend of mine, and he had some friends over, he had a friend with some kind of head injury I could tell and he told me immediately it was from a firearm accident. The friend of a friend said it was nothing personal but he didn't want anything to do with my firearm, look at it or touch it, so I was forced to put it away out of respect for the man's near death experience.

One breach of safety me and my brother did, my brother and I, for two grown men, aren't very mature individuals, we're like 15 year olds trapped in grown men's bodies on some of our levels of maturity. So I knock on the door to his house, he opens the door with his Walther P22 aimed at my chest area and says "You're dead James!"

Couple weeks later I got him back in the same scenario with my firearm, yes we were acting like idiots and I expect a lot of people to rip on me for even revealing this information, but at the moment we were just acting like idiots with our firearms to get a macabre laugh from each other. I'd like to say we no longer pull that joke on each other, but as recently as a month ago, I open the door to his house when he's expecting me to come over to see a 12 ga shotgun barrel pointed directly at me with him holding it and saying "boom!" Scared me a little, like in the back of my mind I thought I might die, because he often keeps it loaded since its his home defense gun, otherwise I'm not worried since I know my brother to be an otherwise mentally healthy individual.

He only pulls this joke on me though as far as I know, no one else, I guess because I take it light heartedly where most other people would kick his ***.

 

[drew]

Lots of good examples of oversight and poor handling. Doesn't surprise me. I'm surprised more people don't get shot as a result.

Jimmy, you need to stop your friend from pulling those stunts. Get a new friend, drop this one, or give them a butt whipping if they continue. It's not funny and you shouldn't put up with it.

 

[mancat]

I thank you for doing what you did. But as an R/O at the range you and everyone on the line failed to verify a clear condition before going cold.

That's true. It was the first time I saw someone fail to respond to a very long and drawn out "100 COLD" call. The fact that he had stopped shooting and was prone, unseen behind a bench, compounded our mistake and lack of awareness. I'm very wary of young shooters after that incident.

 

[jvbutter]

...... The revolver owner took one of the .38 S&W rounds, chambered it, and pulled the trigger to prove the clerk wrong. Fortunately he did at least aim at a wall.

How stupid can we be. really do we forget where we are at, our surroundings.... the stupidity level in people never stops to amaze me

 

[Otter]

I'm happy to say in my six years of being a member at two local gun ranges I've never seen a serious breach of safety at the rifle ranges. Failure to stay behind the yellow line during a cold range is the most common problem. Even guys that are clearly experienced will cross the line. My observation, especially at Tri County, is everyone on the line will generally say something to those that fail to follow the rules.

The worst offense was this one guy that kept adjusting his chronograph and lining up his rifle during a cold range while people were setting up targets. When other shooters on the line reminded him to stay behind the line until everyone was back, it resulted in a confrontational arguement that went downhill fast. Within seconds I saw at least three people pull out cell phones and call the range officer, who arrived within a few minutes. I was leaving around this time so don't know how it all turned out, but was very impressed with how the other members enforced the rules and how fast the range officer got there.

 

[8ball]

Humans are fallible and make mistakes. If they can forget their kid strapped in the back seat of the car and leave them there to die in extreme temps (which happens every few weeks in the US), you can bet they will forget the four rules. Even the most competent human being is capable of making a mistake.

I've been muzzled numerous times by people that have decades of experience with guns. I don't like it, but it doesn't really surprise me. I accept the risk just as I would if I was driving a car, hiking, skiing or operating a power tool.

You can always sell your guns and take up knitting.

 

[Cuthbert Allgood]

last spring while i was at larch mountain, some idiots were purposely aiming at the power lines, firing in all directions, and had been drinking. it was my last trip to that spot. i had a lovely conversation with a forest ranger on my way down the long grade about what they were doing. i'm sure he had a field day on those morons.

stay away from larch mountain. there are too many people who know about it, and there are too many morons who go up there.

 

[rapter87772000]

yea i need to join a range, at least there they enforce safety. in the woods its a crap shoot if the guy next to you knows what the hell he is doing or not.