The vast majority of gun owners practice safe gun handling on a regular basis. The four rules of firearm safety are easy to memorize and simple to follow.
You have to break at least two of them for something bad to happen.
But with 330,000,000 people in the US, the law of averages means there will always be a few idiots out there who the rest of us will have to keep our eyes on. And one of the places to be particularly vigilant is at public ranges.
You have to tip your hat to the RSO in the video above for being alert and quickly stepping in to defuse this situation.
FYI, this cringe-worthy event reportedly occurred at the Top Gun range in Houston, but it could have taken place at any public range in America.
Let’s be careful out there.
Sure fire way to get escorted out and asked never to return. WTF man!
Glad to see a range officer on the ball.
Get that guy the FO.
Zero respect. Zero respect for the possible consequences of his actions. Zero respect for the capability of what the firearm can do. Zero respect for the safety surrounding it’s handling. Zero respect for the guy he is pointing at. Zero respect for the range officer that has to teach him respect.
Guns are not toys. The second you don’t respect firearms, Murphy’s law kicks in. You have to always respect firearms as an active deterrent, against Murphy’s law.
If it had been loaded, with those two guys, I think one dead and one up at Pen State would have been a win-win for the free world.
Had a friend from the Hungarian army who lost a friend when two soldiers were playing a game like this. It doesn’t end well. Don’t play with guns.
Just put down the phone already. People spend way too much time on their phones and not thinking or paying attention to the world around them.
-sent from my IPhone
Wasn’t this from like two years ago?
Lol… just saw the disclaimer at the bottom.. I need remedial English
Jezeeee
WTH
Seen a lot over the years but that’s a bad one
WOWZERS!!!
There truly are some people out there who are just too stupid to live. Give them a chance and they will prove it too you!
Record-setting response time on the part of the RO. Something must have set off his Spidey Sense when the two numbskulls walked in…note he was right there and had eyes on them.
I’ve see ROs shadow plenty of people. Usually the wild ones talking shit, waving phones around, and in groups of 3 or more.
I had a malfunction on cheap ammo that required me to pull the slide off my PPQ 22 to clear and The RO was wondering why I was “cleaning” my gun at the range. I said it’s clearing not cleaning and I didn’t want to box it with a round still in there. That’s the only time I was ever approached by a RO adversely.
Ranges are safer if phones are banned. You’re not going to hear anything anyway and the potential for accidents is greater if your distracted by them.
I had a split .22LR casing jammed in the chamber of my pistol once. I asked for the RO’s help in clearing it. That way everyone knows you are not being an unsafe jerk.
We don’t need to ban phones from rule abiding people just because some dumbasses misuse them.
That’s what I thought. He made sure he was close enough to the ahole to shut him down fast. Probably should have denied them admittance due to suspicious behavior, to begin with. I know…discrimination vs. Life safety.
Good way to get preemptively perforated at my range.
Been there, done that. Got a couple of T-shirts. Funny how the offenders always seemed to pissed at me for saving their life. This before selfies were a thing.
And thus the reason I don’t frequent the nice “tactical” range that’s only 3 miles away and I drive further to an older range, with more mature clients.
Yup. It’s why I like my range.
Yeah I don’t touch my local ranges on the weekend. Weekdays only when it’s mostly fairly empty and even then I keep far away from others.
My good friend watched a guy 5 feet away from him and his wife, get shot in the gut with an ar when a line break was called. Some idiot with a likely new rifle had it pointed back towards the benches and obviously didn’t know how to empty his rifle safetly on a crowded weekend.
Heck I saw a guy likely cause permanent damage to an ro’s hearing when he touched a round off onto the ground during a line break while the ro was trying to help him unload his “new ar” sans ear pro.
I don’t go on weekends anymore.
Jeff,
And that is why I frequent the “tactical” forest about 3 hours north of us where I don’t have to be concerned about anyone.
I implore everyone to make a day (or even a weekend if necessary) of going to a safe and secluded forest location where they can REALLY practice. You will not regret it.
I see minimal value in traditional shooting ranges. It seems like their value is limited to:
(1) verifying that your firearm goes bang
(2) familiarizing you with your firearm’s recoil
(3) sighting-in your firearm
(4) developing minimal marksmanship
That last point “developing minimal marksmanship” refers to the fact that the overwhelming majority of ranges only allow slow-firing a few rounds at a time. Many/most ranges prohibit full magazines, rapid fire, shooting from “awkward” positions, and moving while shooting.
For all of those reasons and more, I go to great lengths to develop friendships with people in rural areas where we can do whatever we want on their private property “shooting range”. And sometimes I even go to safe, secluded locations in state and national forests for activities that are not a great idea even at private property “shooting ranges”.
Agreed. You’ll also learn a lot more about muzzle discipline when you get to move around. As much as everyone gives it shit airsoft is a good way to get these skills if you don’t have access to an area like you are talking about.
Dan W.,
Excellent point. AirSoft is a very good alternative platform for training and instilling safety if you do not have access to an informal private property “range” or secluded forest location.
And speaking to that point: even though I have pretty much unlimited access to two friend’s private property “ranges” (both less than 2 miles away), I still haul out my AirSoft pistol and even my air-powered pellet rifle fairly often for shooting in my own back yard.
Another point: I would shoot more often at my two friend’s private property “ranges” if I had suppressors. Alas I do not and I don’t want to subject the neighbors to incessant loud gunfire even if it is totally legal and even if the neighbors’ homes are 200 yards away. (Even at 200 yards, a lot of gunfire can be annoying.)
I would agree.
Generally I avoid ranges. Too much dumb shit and too many jaded RSO’s (I don’t really blame them because… dumb shit).
At a certain point I just decided that ranges weren’t worth the time and money.
That said they are nice on occasion when they’re empty and the RSO is a cool person who’s not stressed out by… dumb shit or a ton of newbies (which is common around here these days) who need assistance.
Regardless, nothing ruins a range trip faster than an RSO who’s having a bad day and just wants to be a dick. I had that happen once. I just went back up front, collected a refund and left. They must have known the guy was an ass because they asked me what the RO looked like and upon my description said “Oh, that’s Jeff…” while simultaneously opening the register to give me a refund. No surprise at all in their reaction.
Sure miss the family farm. Developed a lot of good load recipes, and skills, there.
Yeah I like the trips to the forest too, we shoot, clean up, and if I am lucky I get to toss my step sister’s salad if she’s in a good mood.
I do not like the fact that I have to let facebook have access to my browsing data in order to see the video, so I can’t view it. Please find another source next time.
If you did not watch weird porn videos you would not be so concerned about FB (or anything) “accessing” your stuff.
There’s a reason I prefer a range with thick concrete walls between the lanes…
“You have to break at least two of them for something bad to happen.”
If you break one of them, something bad is ALREADY happening. Breaking two of them is when things go from “bad” to “potentially fatal.”
Behavior that makes even Voda Consulting say “Dude, WHAT THE BLEEP ARE YOU DOING?!?”
Good job by the RSO, btw. That guy was like Batman.
I thought that video was going to end VERY badly.
This is what happens when you aren’t taught gun safety as a kid.
good grief.
the worst thats ever happened to be is some female wearing a spaghetti strap tank (she had big cans but was otherwise gross) had some hot brass go down her shirt and she muzzled my lane while freaking out over it.
1″ bulletproof glass in between and she only had a .380 so i wasnt scared. i just kind of glared/laughed and put my arms out to the side like “Ah…hey” while the RO ran over and put a stop to it. 😀
Similar thing happened around here in FL years ago, except no bulletproof glass…the gal got surprised by hot brass, and shot her bf/husband in the leg at point blank. It was a .45acp if I remember correctly, must have hurt a lot more than the hot brass lol.
You can tell these guys weren’t there to actually enjoy shooting so much as to just cheese for the camera.
Range Officers really should be issued a license to slap… Repeatedly.
They’re not from here, tourists or immigrants from a sh*thole country is my guess. In those countries, the culture of firearms is “it’s gangsta,” therefore it’s ok to do stupid things like that, they saw it in a movie or something and that’s all they know.
Complete fucking morons…That RO was too nice…I would have rabbit punched the idiot with the gun
Hilary voter…
Hillary voter…
Heh, the one indoor range I used to frequent suddenly had rules one day about not filming or using a cell phone on the range. Having filmed some of my footage for videos there, I was like “Oh, man, that sucks but I guess someone did something dumb.” The RSO was like, “Oh, not you. Here, we’ll stick you on the oveflow range so nobody complains that we let you film. You’ve been coming here forever, we know you’re not a retard.”