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The best thing about the Marine Corps was watching individuals be negligent with their firearms safety. Face meet sand, with a decent amount of velocity of course.
 
Something else to consider with the oft used :
"Well you need a license and training to drive a car " is spouted off....

If licenses and training were so damn good...then why do we still have auto accidents...?
A license and training is no guarantee of good safety practices.
You cannot license safety.
You can practice safety.

It is helpful to be able to learn from your mistakes.
Unlike many other things....a mistake with a firearm can make for a life altering event.

When at a public shooting area :
Be aware of what is going on around you...
Keep your finger off the trigger , until you are ready to shoot...
Make sure your muzzle is pointing in a safe direction....
If in doubt with a firearm or situation...ask someone.....

Should be simple...too bad it ain't.
Andy
 
I was at the range with a friend a few years ago. I'm a member, he was my guest. Members have a key to the gate and you are your own RSO. The vast majority of people I've met there are very safe.

Cold range was called, and we were standing around talking. My friend made a mistake, wasn't thinking, picked up his unloaded revolver and was handling it. He was not pointing it downrange or at a person, but it was a safety violation and I was at fault too, since he was my guest. He is a (former) Marine and should have known better. Another member who was there (neither of us knew him), loudly and with profanity told him to put it down and don't pick it back up.

My friend was so embarrassed that he left. He told me that he hadn't been spoken to like that since Basic, and he is a proud Marine, not a snowflake. Even worse, maybe 15 minutes later that same guy was bore-sighting his own rifle while I was downrange on a cold range. What a hypocrite. I packed up and left. There is a time to be loud and make yourself heard in no uncertain terms, but most times a more instructional tone is far more effective. More often than not, the problem is thoughtlessness and/or ignorance of safety rules.
 
Safety is no joke. When goons like that invade your lane, leaving is usually the best option. You can't fix stupid.
Years ago I used to drive out to the quarry off of Hwy 26 and would plan to be there at 8am. Was almost always empty. I would back my truck in and go set up targets out on the flat. Again, no problem. I could usually shoot for 30-45 minutes before anyone else showed up. One or 2 other couples ws fine. Then a Jeep backs in 10+ yards from me. One guy knew what he was doing the other 2 were newbies. I had my loaded shotgun set to soot when I see one of the newbies pick up an AR and point it out the front window (away from the quarry and towards the road. Paid REAL CLOSE attention after that! When he pulled it back and out the back of the truck I called him out like a Tomb guard! The guy who knew something looks up and realizes what was happening and grabs the AR. The was a magazine in the AR. Didn't think it was intentional, just being ignorant. Safety first. Made me only teach one person at a time. Teaching 2 at a time means that you are not watching one of them.

Usually I would be gone from the quarry by 9:30 once there got to be too many people to keep an eye on. Pay attention in an LGS as people are trying out guns and not being aware of sweeping the store, and on the indoor range pay attention to those around you. Too many You Tube videos of silly safety errors.
 
As bad as some of this stuff is, I'm actually encouraged at the safety culture that is becoming more and more a part of the 2A community. The fact that so many of us are incensed at violations of firearm safety rules proves that we've taken these rules to heart.

I remember when I was much younger, I didn't give nearly as much thought to basic safety. I was always fairly safe since I had good instruction growing up, but didn't really take it to heart until I'd been around a while, and seen and heard the heartbreaking results of carelessness. I'm pretty hard-core about safety now, especially teaching my kids.

I'm not a big fan of mandatory training, but I do think we can continue to improve our safety culture. I'd like to see it voluntarily pushed more at gun shops. Rather than just a simple "Read the manual, here are the safety rules", even a sincere, solemn two-minute safety discussion with a newbie buying a gun would help. Learn the safety rules. No, I mean really learn them. Take some basic safety training. Safety is your responsibility, and it's life-and-death important.

I used to shoot out in the hills on public land. I'd usually find a place to myself, and occasionally have someone ask to shoot with us, but if all the spots were used up and the people in a shooting spot appeared safe, I'd stop and ask if they minded us shooting along side them. It was nearly always fine. One time I do remember a guy (politely but firmly) replying that that would be fine, but he had some safety rules that he would like everyone to follow if we were to be shooting together. They were all basic common-sense stuff, and I appreciated the fact that he came right out with it before we even parked our vehicle. If I still shot on public land, I'd do just what he did.
 
I have a saying, "every accidental shooting was done with an unloaded gun".
Some people dont get it... but its true.

Half of my visits to Wolf Creek range Ive been swept with guns, some I know were loaded. I stopped going there and just go to a few spots I know on my own.
 
Some shooters simply haven't learned safe handling practices for firearms, for some reason. They've been going to the woods, never learned. Maybe some have never fired at an organized range where an RSO is on duty.

When I shoot "off range," I try to do it when there aren't apt to be other shooters around. Like morning hours, weekdays.

When I used to drive down to Reno, there is a city-owned range outside of Carson City. It's a nice outfit, but there are no RSO's on duty unless there is an organized event going on. The times I've been there, shooting was self regulated. When I wanted to set targets, I'd call for a ceasefire myself and go through the motions. The other shooters were always agreeable. I've been a credentialled RSO myself, so I felt comfortable doing it.

I'm still schooling my grandson, he's 12 now. First thing we started out with are the NRA safe handling procedures. We still talk about them every time we go shooting. The best learning is done young.
 
I like the private range experience. But, there is one RSO that truly believes he is the only one capable enough to own a gun. Everyone else is an incompetent idiot and should hire him as a body guard. I have witnessed him screaming at people, bullying, and on one occasion he reached around one young lady and snatched a loaded gun out of her hand because he didn't like the way she was holding it. Proceeded to humiliate her for putting her left thumb over her right. Screaming at her that the slide would "rip her thumb off", she was shooting a revolver.

Soured me on that range for a while.
 
No one but me thinks another way to handle things like this could be a gentle education? Coming unglued on a guy in front of his son is going to be extremely demeaning. That's not the best way to educate people. That's one reason I'm hesitant to, or downright refuse, to join a range with RSOs. I know the rules BTW. Cold range, hot range, the whole thing. But IF, you get yelled at for a minor mistake? No, EFF that.
Actually I do think just like you as I did say "nicely in front of his son". 😉
 
I wonder what % of new gun owners know the four rules of gun safety? And how many of those actually practice it religiously?

To us that have been shooting a long time hopefully it is automatic. But what about the newer gun owners?
 
I wonder what % of new gun owners know the four rules of gun safety? And how many of those actually practice it religiously?

To us that have been shooting a long time hopefully it is automatic. But what about the newer gun owners?
Not many.
 
Safety is no joke. When goons like that invade your lane, leaving is usually the best option. You can't fix stupid.
This x 1,000! Thank you.

Sometimes... you just have to WALK AWAY to save your SANITY and your LIFE due to dangerous behavior caused by STUPID - UNSAFE PEOPLE!

You can only explain and/or SHOW BY EXAMPLE safety and good manners to people so many times even when they THINK (?!?) that they are right and safe and they are NOT safe or right around firearms!

I believe that STUPIDITY in people of all ages and walks of life is only getting worse!

I don't care what the subject matter is but when it comes to SPECIFIC things in life especially GUN safety, driving safety, operating heavy or light machinery, being responsible in ALL areas of your life, etc. - well, it is pretty pathetic!

ADD that mess, stupidity, to VIOLENCE in general, violent people, criminals, bat s crazy people, those who think that they are above the law or whine and claim VICTIMHOOD like some SJW freak on drugs non stop every freaking DAY of their lives... well that dung gets OLD. You have to WALK AWAY and tune out the stupid and bat s crazy people - go home in peace.

Take care.

Old Lady Cate
 
No one but me thinks another way to handle things like this could be a gentle education? Coming unglued on a guy in front of his son is going to be extremely demeaning. That's not the best way to educate people. That's one reason I'm hesitant to, or downright refuse, to join a range with RSOs. I know the rules BTW. Cold range, hot range, the whole thing. But IF, you get yelled at for a minor mistake? No, EFF that.
No, you're not the only one, Mike. When I'm on duty at my range, I'm nearly 100% of the time the calm, gentle, old dude ready to help a n00b if a question or issue arises, slow to reprimand, and certainly not loudly/publicly - unless the violation is soooooooooo egregious that I would cuff my own mother for it!

Case in point... this one young woman was having a devil of a time with her handgun, with nearly every round an FTF or FTE. The gun was being exceedingly recalcitrant - it wouldn't eject, then when she was able to chamber a new round, it wouldn't go into battery, then when she finally got it into battery (???), it wouldn't fire, then she couldn't eject the unfired round. A real CF going on there! I motioned to my RSO compadre to watch the rest of the line, and I took a special interest in her, as she seemed like she could use some help or at least another set of eyes on the gun. Her BF in the lane to her right seemed oblivious to her issues with that gun. He was in his own little world. But when she started trying to rack her gun with it held across the front of her waist, pointing directly at the man in the lane to her left, with a not-empty mag and a live round in the chamber (even though the slide was not in battery), I leapt into action! From my position behind and to her left, I couldn't tell if she had her finger on the trigger, but that didn't even matter to me. I needed her to stop what she was doing, and toot-sweet!

But did I yell at her? No, because I figured that might startle her and she could conceivably shoot the guy to her left if I surprised her. So, with a gentle "Whoa there" and my hand guiding the muzzle away from her "target" next door and back to pointing downrange, I quietly told her not to point her gun at the guy next to her. She didn't even realize what she had done, and I don't think the guy to her left even knew what had happened. She showed what appeared to me to be some serious contrition. Yelling at her would not have helped the situation at all. By now, since there was a bearded, hairy, old man standing in close proximity to his GF, the BF took an interest and came over, and I quietly but firmly explained to the both of them that they needed to either take that gun apart and diagnose/fix its problems, or stop trying to shoot it. And in no uncertain terms, not to repeat what I had just stopped her from doing, or I would have to eject her. She put the gun away and he said they would take it to a 'smith in town for a peek-see. That was good enough for me. And then they proceeded to thank me profusely for the intervention. In the end, no yelling, no drama, no embarrassment...

So, you see, Mike, it's like @Kruel J said, "Depends on the range."
 
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