Hey guys. I was at the range (On Target) a couple of times this weekend and I couldn't help but take note of some pretty questionable range safety violations that made me pretty uncomfortable.
The basic rule at On Target is that you are supposed to keep all guns in the shooting lane booth area, and to have them pointed down range at all times. That includes shooting, loading, reloading, unloading, clearing, etc. Twice in less than five minutes I saw two people in gross violation of that with both people seemingly unaware of where the business end of their gun was pointing.
In the first one the person was standing behind another shooter, messing around with a single action and when I looked down, I could see that it still had rounds in the cylinder (not sure if they were fired or not) and the barrel was pointed right at the back of the other person in the lane who was shooting with a different firearm. (I could see this because I was standing behind the person in my lane who was taking their turn at the target, and I glanced over when this person started jacking around with the gun in their hand.)
The second instance was someone who was fiddling with their semi-auto, but they were clear back near the wall, and again, there they are racking on the slide, seemingly with no thought as to where their barrel was pointed - you know, kind of waving it all over the place. I actually said something to that person. If you are reading this and you think that it might have been you, please do me the favor and think about what you are doing the next time you are at the range before you start doing something unsafe.
I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I'd rather sound like a whiner than for me or one of my loved ones to wind up seriously injured or even dead. It isn't like we aren't briefed about safety before we go onto the firing line.
Folks, I know that when dealing with guns that using them in a safe manner is supposed to be a forgone conclusion, but from what I witnessed this weekend, apparently it isn't. The purpose of this thread is to hopefully bring awareness to those who might not be doing things as safely as they should be, and you know who you are. If you are new to guns and shooting, or you don't really give the safety part of it too much thought, I would encourage you to sign up and take a Hunter's Safety course. Please. Or at the very least, adhere to the safety policies set forth by the ranges we attend. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU HAVE A GUN IN YOUR HAND!
Ok - rant over.
The basic rule at On Target is that you are supposed to keep all guns in the shooting lane booth area, and to have them pointed down range at all times. That includes shooting, loading, reloading, unloading, clearing, etc. Twice in less than five minutes I saw two people in gross violation of that with both people seemingly unaware of where the business end of their gun was pointing.
In the first one the person was standing behind another shooter, messing around with a single action and when I looked down, I could see that it still had rounds in the cylinder (not sure if they were fired or not) and the barrel was pointed right at the back of the other person in the lane who was shooting with a different firearm. (I could see this because I was standing behind the person in my lane who was taking their turn at the target, and I glanced over when this person started jacking around with the gun in their hand.)
The second instance was someone who was fiddling with their semi-auto, but they were clear back near the wall, and again, there they are racking on the slide, seemingly with no thought as to where their barrel was pointed - you know, kind of waving it all over the place. I actually said something to that person. If you are reading this and you think that it might have been you, please do me the favor and think about what you are doing the next time you are at the range before you start doing something unsafe.
I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I'd rather sound like a whiner than for me or one of my loved ones to wind up seriously injured or even dead. It isn't like we aren't briefed about safety before we go onto the firing line.
Folks, I know that when dealing with guns that using them in a safe manner is supposed to be a forgone conclusion, but from what I witnessed this weekend, apparently it isn't. The purpose of this thread is to hopefully bring awareness to those who might not be doing things as safely as they should be, and you know who you are. If you are new to guns and shooting, or you don't really give the safety part of it too much thought, I would encourage you to sign up and take a Hunter's Safety course. Please. Or at the very least, adhere to the safety policies set forth by the ranges we attend. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU HAVE A GUN IN YOUR HAND!
Ok - rant over.