CalicoJack10
Regular Member
So I have to post this up here, just because of what it says about the difference in people around the state of Wisconsin.
I was at the range 2 days ago having fun with a buddy of mine, and his two sons. While we were there having a good time I was standing there watching one of the boys and my buddy Tommie shoot. There was a "Brass Catcher" there scrounging for brass and as usual I was paying close attention to what this man was doing. We have had more than one occasion where someone has just started walking down range during live fire (Like 2 guys did yesterday during the course i was doing).
While this guy was scrounging for brass, Tommie's oldest son stopped firing the rifle he was shooting (Ruger 22-250 bolt action) and like he was taught to do he clicked on the safety and opened the bolt so that everyone knew it was unloaded. Then he placed the gun at about a 30 degree angle facing across lanes but still down range in a safe direction.
This man proceeded to walk up to Tommie's son and start yelling at him for placing the gun on the bench the way he did. Then he walked over and started yelling at Tommie and Myself for the way his son placed the gun on the bench. Tommie (Being a multi tour/multi country combat veteran) took exception to this man yelling at his son. As the argument ensued between these two, I stepped in to try and calm things down a bit, just so that we didn't have a combat action on the range. Being that this guy was aggressive enough to make me start wondering if this was going to be an "Armed Conflict" I started trying to talk the guy down.
As I started talking to this guy, I asked if he was a veteran. Mainly because it is a range run by the Vietnam Veterans of America, and I saw that he was cleaning up while he was there. His exact response to me were "Sorta", to which I took exception and before I could get the words out Tommie jumped in and said "What the HE77 does SORTA mean?"
Another argument ensued between the two, and again I stepped in stating "The gun was unloaded, the breech was open, it was pointed away from you, it was safe", and to which he replied "Unloaded Guns Kill People!"
I looked him square in the face, from less than arms reach away and said "This Conversation is OVER!"
The following day (Yesterday) I was out on the range doing the "Intro to defensive firearms" course and as luck would have it, this same "Brass Catcher" showed up. I immediately turned to the group I was with and told them that I thought that this was the guy that I had the problem with the day before. Being that we were doing nearly a 90 degree cone of fire down range, and I wanted them to be aware of a potential conflict, I also made the effort to narrow our firing to 60 degrees while he was there. This shortened up out "Move and Fire" drills, but we were still able to get the drills done effectively.
We continued with our drills as we were the only ones on the range at the time this guy was there. But unlike the day before, there were no words exchanged. He went about his business as if we were not even there. I thought that was kind of amazing since we were using an angle of fire that he was very upset with the day before. As Wolf1477 pointed out "He even refused to look at us" while he was walking by. Though we still said hello, and I nodded at him. I was wondering if he would acknowledge my nod.
I think it is interesting to point out that I had told the guy during his attempts to argue with Tommie that I was an instructor and a range safety officer, and if Tommie's son had done anything unsafe we would have been on him "Like white on rice". The part this man didn't see is that Tommie's son had already been scolded for preparing to fire without his eyes and ears on and while we did not have our ears on either.
I was at the range 2 days ago having fun with a buddy of mine, and his two sons. While we were there having a good time I was standing there watching one of the boys and my buddy Tommie shoot. There was a "Brass Catcher" there scrounging for brass and as usual I was paying close attention to what this man was doing. We have had more than one occasion where someone has just started walking down range during live fire (Like 2 guys did yesterday during the course i was doing).
While this guy was scrounging for brass, Tommie's oldest son stopped firing the rifle he was shooting (Ruger 22-250 bolt action) and like he was taught to do he clicked on the safety and opened the bolt so that everyone knew it was unloaded. Then he placed the gun at about a 30 degree angle facing across lanes but still down range in a safe direction.
This man proceeded to walk up to Tommie's son and start yelling at him for placing the gun on the bench the way he did. Then he walked over and started yelling at Tommie and Myself for the way his son placed the gun on the bench. Tommie (Being a multi tour/multi country combat veteran) took exception to this man yelling at his son. As the argument ensued between these two, I stepped in to try and calm things down a bit, just so that we didn't have a combat action on the range. Being that this guy was aggressive enough to make me start wondering if this was going to be an "Armed Conflict" I started trying to talk the guy down.
As I started talking to this guy, I asked if he was a veteran. Mainly because it is a range run by the Vietnam Veterans of America, and I saw that he was cleaning up while he was there. His exact response to me were "Sorta", to which I took exception and before I could get the words out Tommie jumped in and said "What the HE77 does SORTA mean?"
Another argument ensued between the two, and again I stepped in stating "The gun was unloaded, the breech was open, it was pointed away from you, it was safe", and to which he replied "Unloaded Guns Kill People!"
I looked him square in the face, from less than arms reach away and said "This Conversation is OVER!"
The following day (Yesterday) I was out on the range doing the "Intro to defensive firearms" course and as luck would have it, this same "Brass Catcher" showed up. I immediately turned to the group I was with and told them that I thought that this was the guy that I had the problem with the day before. Being that we were doing nearly a 90 degree cone of fire down range, and I wanted them to be aware of a potential conflict, I also made the effort to narrow our firing to 60 degrees while he was there. This shortened up out "Move and Fire" drills, but we were still able to get the drills done effectively.
We continued with our drills as we were the only ones on the range at the time this guy was there. But unlike the day before, there were no words exchanged. He went about his business as if we were not even there. I thought that was kind of amazing since we were using an angle of fire that he was very upset with the day before. As Wolf1477 pointed out "He even refused to look at us" while he was walking by. Though we still said hello, and I nodded at him. I was wondering if he would acknowledge my nod.
I think it is interesting to point out that I had told the guy during his attempts to argue with Tommie that I was an instructor and a range safety officer, and if Tommie's son had done anything unsafe we would have been on him "Like white on rice". The part this man didn't see is that Tommie's son had already been scolded for preparing to fire without his eyes and ears on and while we did not have our ears on either.
