Thursday, January 20, 2005
Shooting ourselves in the foot (so to speak)
Ok.....I've put up lots of "nice" posts, and hopefully a few "thought provoking" posts, but now it's time for a good old-fashioned rant.
Just what the heck is going on at Caswell's?
Check this out: Man shot at Mesa shooting range
Other customers? OTHER CUSTOMERS? Where the hell were the RO's? Who was in charge of the range?
There are four possibilities here: 1) accidental self inflicted wound 2) accidental wound, not self inflicted (from another shooter) 3) murder 4) suicide. An RO on the line might have been able to prevent #1 and #2 by keeping a close watch on his line. #3 and #4 probably could not have been prevented.
My problem isn't prevention. My problem is that the poor guy was left laying on the ground bleeding until other customers heard him moaning and went to investigate. Were all the RO's having a coffee break in the office? If somebody went down on MY range there would be somebody there to help him right now. The poor bastard wouldn't be left laying there with a gunshot wound to the head until another customer found him.
Way to go guys. Not only do the anti's have a case against gun rentals now (if it was #1 or #4.....he was using a rented gun), these bozos have given the anti's an "unsafe environment" arguement on a silver platter.
If there was an RO on duty and present on the range and he couldn't see every station and every shooter at all times, whoever designed the range should be sued and the range rebuilt.
If there was an RO on duty and he wasn't present on the range, he should be fired.
If there was no RO on duty, the place should be shut down. Period.
Either run the range properly or shut it down. Just one incident like this will do more to hurt our sport than 100 murders. How many people will decide not to become gun owners now because it's "too dangerous?" How many kids won't be allowed to join a shooting club because it's "too dangerous?" How many ranges will be shut down because they are "too dangerous?"
How many guns will be banned because they are "too dangerous?"
I'm trying to introduce a shooting program to the public school system and these numbskulls let some poor bastard lie bleeding on their range until other customers find him? This ought to really improve my chances.
Just in case I haven't made my position clear:
- Accidents and suicides will happen. The best we can hope for is to minimize the number of opportunities for these thing to happen.
- Failure to notice a wounded man? That's just plain old fashioned incompetence.
EDIT: I had to go back and edit this one.....my mother (or yours) may read this someday.
Just what the heck is going on at Caswell's?
Check this out: Man shot at Mesa shooting range
Other customers who were target practicing at the Caswell Shooting Range, 856 E. Isabella, reported hearing moaning and then noticing a man on the ground with a gunshot wound about 12:25 p.m., Mesa police Sgt. Chuck Trapani said.
Other customers? OTHER CUSTOMERS? Where the hell were the RO's? Who was in charge of the range?
There are four possibilities here: 1) accidental self inflicted wound 2) accidental wound, not self inflicted (from another shooter) 3) murder 4) suicide. An RO on the line might have been able to prevent #1 and #2 by keeping a close watch on his line. #3 and #4 probably could not have been prevented.
My problem isn't prevention. My problem is that the poor guy was left laying on the ground bleeding until other customers heard him moaning and went to investigate. Were all the RO's having a coffee break in the office? If somebody went down on MY range there would be somebody there to help him right now. The poor bastard wouldn't be left laying there with a gunshot wound to the head until another customer found him.
Way to go guys. Not only do the anti's have a case against gun rentals now (if it was #1 or #4.....he was using a rented gun), these bozos have given the anti's an "unsafe environment" arguement on a silver platter.
If there was an RO on duty and present on the range and he couldn't see every station and every shooter at all times, whoever designed the range should be sued and the range rebuilt.
If there was an RO on duty and he wasn't present on the range, he should be fired.
If there was no RO on duty, the place should be shut down. Period.
Either run the range properly or shut it down. Just one incident like this will do more to hurt our sport than 100 murders. How many people will decide not to become gun owners now because it's "too dangerous?" How many kids won't be allowed to join a shooting club because it's "too dangerous?" How many ranges will be shut down because they are "too dangerous?"
How many guns will be banned because they are "too dangerous?"
I'm trying to introduce a shooting program to the public school system and these numbskulls let some poor bastard lie bleeding on their range until other customers find him? This ought to really improve my chances.
Just in case I haven't made my position clear:
- Accidents and suicides will happen. The best we can hope for is to minimize the number of opportunities for these thing to happen.
- Failure to notice a wounded man? That's just plain old fashioned incompetence.
EDIT: I had to go back and edit this one.....my mother (or yours) may read this someday.
Comments:
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Len,
Good post. I have to take issue with two points though. The gun club I belong to requires that all members take an RO course before you are even accepted. The philosophy is that the first person on the range is the de facto RO. Once that person is leaving they can delegate that duty to someone else at their discretion. As all members have RO training, it works out pretty well (except for old deaf fuckers who are in the habit of nodding when people speak even though they know they can't here them, but that is a topic for another day.) The range has been open since the 60's and has only had one gun-related injury; I think it was a foot wound.
Point 2, is profanity. I faced this dilemna not to long ago, as my father thought I was using far too much colorful language on my blog. I tried restraint for awhile, but...well, it just didn't work. I spent more time on this post trying to figure out the swear words than anything else.
Just my two cents.
Regards,
Benjamin
Good post. I have to take issue with two points though. The gun club I belong to requires that all members take an RO course before you are even accepted. The philosophy is that the first person on the range is the de facto RO. Once that person is leaving they can delegate that duty to someone else at their discretion. As all members have RO training, it works out pretty well (except for old deaf fuckers who are in the habit of nodding when people speak even though they know they can't here them, but that is a topic for another day.) The range has been open since the 60's and has only had one gun-related injury; I think it was a foot wound.
Point 2, is profanity. I faced this dilemna not to long ago, as my father thought I was using far too much colorful language on my blog. I tried restraint for awhile, but...well, it just didn't work. I spent more time on this post trying to figure out the swear words than anything else.
Just my two cents.
Regards,
Benjamin
Hi Benjamin
Thanks for the feedback on the profanity. This post was made "in the heat of the moment" after I read the newspaper article. It felt good at the time to vent about it, but when I re-read it after publishing the post I was both embarrassed and impressed at the amount of creative profanity I had been able to pack into those few paragraphs. What you read was actually the third edit to reduce the vitriolic content. I went through this morning and removed the majority of the strong language because I work with kids quite a bit and some of them may visit this site.
I like your club's method of making the first shooter the defacto RO for the range, and it sounds like it's working well for you. My club has assigned RO's for each day of public shooting and it works well for us.
I'll support any method used to provide a safe range.
My issue with Caswells is that this guy had to be FOUND by other customers. Found....not seen....meaning that nobody actually saw what happened. IMHO, the range staff is present for 2 reasons: make the range as safe as possible AND provide immediate assistance in case of any emergency. All of our RO's are required to have first aid and CPR certifications in addition to their RO training.
If the guy intended to walk in and splatter his brains all over the shooting station there is nothing an RO could have done about it. If he had an issue with his firearm and shot himself in the head accidently an alert RO might possibly have been able to get his attention before anything happened. If someone else was being unsafe an alert RO might possibly have been able to correct the situation before anyone got hurt. All of these are 'maybe' situations. What is a certainty (in my mind) is that there should have been an RO on duty (a shooter or empolyee, doesn't matter) who would be able to see that something had gone wrong.
Finding him on the ground while investigating a moaning sound is not acceptable, in my opinion.
Thanks for the feedback on the profanity. This post was made "in the heat of the moment" after I read the newspaper article. It felt good at the time to vent about it, but when I re-read it after publishing the post I was both embarrassed and impressed at the amount of creative profanity I had been able to pack into those few paragraphs. What you read was actually the third edit to reduce the vitriolic content. I went through this morning and removed the majority of the strong language because I work with kids quite a bit and some of them may visit this site.
I like your club's method of making the first shooter the defacto RO for the range, and it sounds like it's working well for you. My club has assigned RO's for each day of public shooting and it works well for us.
I'll support any method used to provide a safe range.
My issue with Caswells is that this guy had to be FOUND by other customers. Found....not seen....meaning that nobody actually saw what happened. IMHO, the range staff is present for 2 reasons: make the range as safe as possible AND provide immediate assistance in case of any emergency. All of our RO's are required to have first aid and CPR certifications in addition to their RO training.
If the guy intended to walk in and splatter his brains all over the shooting station there is nothing an RO could have done about it. If he had an issue with his firearm and shot himself in the head accidently an alert RO might possibly have been able to get his attention before anything happened. If someone else was being unsafe an alert RO might possibly have been able to correct the situation before anyone got hurt. All of these are 'maybe' situations. What is a certainty (in my mind) is that there should have been an RO on duty (a shooter or empolyee, doesn't matter) who would be able to see that something had gone wrong.
Finding him on the ground while investigating a moaning sound is not acceptable, in my opinion.
Two comments:
One, it shouldn't be necessary for a range officer to keep an eagle eye on the range at all times. At neither the indoor range near where I work nor the outdoor range I'm a member of is there a range employee watching everyone every second. It's not humanly possible, and what is humanly possible would be prohibitively expensive.
Two, incidents like this tend to make insurance unaffordable, especially if people like us - who understand the risks of accident - eat our own when something like this happens.
Until I have more information about what actually happened there, I intend not to comment further about it.
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One, it shouldn't be necessary for a range officer to keep an eagle eye on the range at all times. At neither the indoor range near where I work nor the outdoor range I'm a member of is there a range employee watching everyone every second. It's not humanly possible, and what is humanly possible would be prohibitively expensive.
Two, incidents like this tend to make insurance unaffordable, especially if people like us - who understand the risks of accident - eat our own when something like this happens.
Until I have more information about what actually happened there, I intend not to comment further about it.
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