Guns: Range stupidity

Unfortunately, not every gun owner is a paragon of responsibility and safety. While maybe 8 or 9 out of 10 shooters are competent in these areas, there's always that bad apple in the bunch that could potentially make us all look like idiots. Xavier's long line of posts highlights this phenomenon, but I thought I'd talk about some of my personal experiences with (a lack of) range safety.

Last week, some guy blew the clip off his hanging target holder in his lane. It's no big deal, and it happens sometimes if you are a beginner and you can't keep your shots on the paper. You just have to own up to it and pay to replace the clip you just destroyed. This guy, though, caught up in his own machismo apparently, starts taking potshots at the rest of the steel target holder, and then lies about it when he gets out to pay. Apparently the guy doesn't realize that shooting at a steel target at that close a range can cause pieces of the bullet to ricochet back towards the firing line. Not to mention the possibility of him snapping the wire of the target holder completely, shutting down the lane for the day.

I've seen people at the range who honestly do not belong there. There are little specks of glass on the floor in front of the firing line sometimes. Where do they come from? Light fixtures. People actually shoot and, intentionally or not, hit the ceiling, shattering the fluorescent light tubes there. You also see people with their "booger hooks on the bang switches" quite a bit. I've even seen wannabe tactical instructors giving lessons to security guards - not so disturbing in and of itself, but when people start literally stepping off the firing line drawing loaded guns from holsters, things tend to get a little iffy...