I want to emphasize safety again when dealing with firearms. I witnessed countless safety violations with some other patrons of a range where we were conducting training last weekend, and a 10yr-old boy was needlessly killed the weekend before that out hunting with his family when one of his hunting companions was removing a rifle from an ATV, and fired the rifle, striking the boy and killing him.
ALWAYS keep a firearms pointed in a SAFE DIRECTION.
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
ALWAYS keep a gun unloaded until ready to use.
Be Aware of your backstop, target, what's around it, and the ballistic potential of your cartridge/firearm system.
After watching some guys flag each other to the back of the head, lower back, and general cavalier handling of handguns at the range, we encountered a family who were not wearing any eye protection in the Cowboy town, to include an unattended 3yr-old boy. They were blasting away at the large steel targets in the bays, some of which are only 7yds away, and one boy was hit in the face with a ricochet within .5 seconds of me telling them they needed eye pro.
"Oh, he'll be fine." Plink, "Ahhhhhhhh!"
I was flagged to the face and chest immediately after that by one of the kids holding a loaded rifle as I attempted to equip the family with all of my extra eye pro.
Later on, they asked us to stop shooting, because....
"We're missing a kid!"
The little 3yr-old had wandered off, and could not be located. After a frantic search, he was found inside one of the shooting bays alone, sitting on top of the mock-up horse with saddle. They then moved on to the restricted LE range and shot out one of the windows. You can't make this stuff up, and I have several witnesses, one of whom is a forum member. It was madness.
If you haven't received an NRA course on firearms safety, I strongly advise that you do so. They are substantially different than the substandard safety training we received in the military, with priorities on what order you ALWAYS do certain things, starting with safe direction. Most courses have taught to ensure a gun is unloaded, which often leads to some moron determining that condition by pulling the trigger, and people that aren't gun educated don't know exactly what unloaded means, or how to determine it.
ALWAYS keep a firearms pointed in a SAFE DIRECTION.
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
ALWAYS keep a gun unloaded until ready to use.
Be Aware of your backstop, target, what's around it, and the ballistic potential of your cartridge/firearm system.
After watching some guys flag each other to the back of the head, lower back, and general cavalier handling of handguns at the range, we encountered a family who were not wearing any eye protection in the Cowboy town, to include an unattended 3yr-old boy. They were blasting away at the large steel targets in the bays, some of which are only 7yds away, and one boy was hit in the face with a ricochet within .5 seconds of me telling them they needed eye pro.
"Oh, he'll be fine." Plink, "Ahhhhhhhh!"
I was flagged to the face and chest immediately after that by one of the kids holding a loaded rifle as I attempted to equip the family with all of my extra eye pro.
Later on, they asked us to stop shooting, because....
"We're missing a kid!"
The little 3yr-old had wandered off, and could not be located. After a frantic search, he was found inside one of the shooting bays alone, sitting on top of the mock-up horse with saddle. They then moved on to the restricted LE range and shot out one of the windows. You can't make this stuff up, and I have several witnesses, one of whom is a forum member. It was madness.
If you haven't received an NRA course on firearms safety, I strongly advise that you do so. They are substantially different than the substandard safety training we received in the military, with priorities on what order you ALWAYS do certain things, starting with safe direction. Most courses have taught to ensure a gun is unloaded, which often leads to some moron determining that condition by pulling the trigger, and people that aren't gun educated don't know exactly what unloaded means, or how to determine it.
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