Range Safety Procedures
Maintaining a safe and positive shooting environment while avoiding fudd silliness.
Idiots who happen to also be gun owners seem to enjoy ruining things more than shooting. They’ll ignore stacks of free paper targets if they can instead wreck the club’s rimfire steel targets with a centerfire rifle, damage target stands/uprights, shoot obvious non-target items like trash cans, or just shoot random junk and leave a mess. It can be a problem.
As an example, one club I was a member of hosted rimfire Silhouette matches and initially made that targetry available for all members, assuming a large, obvious sign stating they were .22 rimfire ONLY targets should be enough. It wasn’t and, of course, the centerfire center-punched steel competition targets were wrecked by unsupervised anonymous cowards who never shot a Silhouette (or any other) match in their life. Locking up the targets had the same anonymous vandals targeting the stands the Silhouette targets would be set upon as mere unintended errant shots couldn’t explain the number of impacts. Even after the club built a reinforced berm to protect the stands, there were still a few bullet holes that could only have happened by someone deliberately going up range and purposely shooting the stands while aiming towards the firing line.
I’ve seen signs listing the range’s very reasonable rules mounted behind the firing line suffer bullet holes. Of course, this is damage and messes left behind. Unsafe handling, either deliberate or due to pure ignorance or negligence, often doesn’t leave a mess. Firearms are so reliable that even outright negligence often results in nobody getting hurt.
Thankfully, the vast majority of gun owners at least attempt good safety procedures and that is usually enough. The vast majority of gun owners also treat ranges with respect and don’t leave a mess. Unfortunately, it’s that tiny percentage of bad gun owners that leave a mark. Just as bad, this often leads to bad range rules.
As any current or former military personnel can attest, morons with a bit of authority love to make up and enforce stupid rules which is why many military qualification ranges are terrible and why so many military personnel are poor shooters. This can occasionally be found on civilian ranges, leading to poorly conceived and overbearing range rules, typified as a “fudd” range.
Understandably, some degree of order needs to be maintained. And some genuinely useful range activity might be problematic if attempted by very low-skill and undisciplined people. Shooting at speed, rapid gun handling, and shooting while moving are perfectly safe when done by shooters with a bit of training and practice but might be a potential problem if attempted by those without. Shooters who genuinely care about and respect the range and put in a little good training can be left to their own devices without problem. Of course, low-skill shooters rarely admit to such, and with no way to distinguish the difference, simple-minded range operators just ban such activity outright.
Sorting Performers from Plinkers
The best solution I’ve found is some formal approach to determining who cares and is demonstrably safe.
The first local shooting club I was a member of made the range available to members only and a prerequisite to membership required shooting the club’s matches. The club had no provision to maintain a range staff so any range use outside of formal matches was always unsupervised. Non-members were welcome to attend matches and other scheduled range days while only club members could shoot there unsupervised. Club membership also included access to target equipment, including stands and steel. Despite no supervision, vandalism was non-existent.
Another club I was a member of and served on the Board also could not maintain a supervised range. A prerequisite to club membership required attending at least two scheduled range events, such as a match or range clean-up day. Remaining a club member in good standing required attending at least two scheduled range events each year. Members in good standing after their first year received unsupervised access to the target sheds.
The idea for both ranges was that shooters with a vested, personal interest in the range (they shoot matches and/or help with clean up) won’t likely leave a mess or damage something even if unsupervised as they’re only creating a problem for themselves they’ll have to help fix. We felt that gun owners who wanted unsupervised access but complained our policy was “unfair” identified themselves as being uninvested; if they won’t attend a match or clean up twice per year, how much effort will they put in to clean up after themselves and do the right thing when unsupervised?
The best arrangement for a commercial shooting range I’ve seen was to have two membership tiers. Tier One is the default level for members and all range guests. Their shooting is limited to fixed firing points with no rapid fire or speed shooting/handling allowed; the typical “fudd” range rules. The “open” range areas are limited to Tier Two members only. Members could earn Tier Two level by attending two matches. The club hosted regular USPSA and IDPA events and shooting through all the stages in two matches gave range officers a chance to observe the shooter. There was no score requirement, just a demonstration of good, safe gun handling in a match setting. The range owners reasoned that anyone willing to shoot a formal, scored match in front of others, displaying safe gun handling, and a willingness to help other shooters (tape and reset the range) is likely trustworthy enough to not need direct supervision. Their reported vandalism rate is also quite low.
Great ideas. I especially liked the last one. Opportunities linked to responsibilities beyond just writing a check once a year is a win/win.