This might be one of the dumbest things written here... and that is saying a lot.
When hunting, we don't stand shoulder to shoulder. We rednecks find that rather dangerous and not the best way to hunt with semi auto rifles. When we hunt with rifles, we aren't within rifle shot of each other, much less close enough to get hit by anything ejected from the rifle. Even when 2 hunt together, say a father teaching a son, who the heck would stand or sit in the path of ejected brass? My dad ALWAYS stood or sat behind me when teaching me to deer hunt.
When we shoot with friends/family, we shoot one at a time and never stand next to the shooter... always behind. Safety doesn't have to be just about expense. It helps to respect the weapon and to shoot responsibly. Sorry, but that picture of trainees shooting various rifles and standing so close to each other makes no sense to me. How can that be considered safe?
Oh good grief. Sitting beside my kids for close supervision when they first went afield far outweighed the inconvenience of my being beaned by their "dangerous" .22 cartridge. As for deer hunting, the regs here for supervision of kids mean you are closely supervising, not off somewhere else. How are you going to sit behind a kid in a tree stand? And we often hunt side by side with others because we spot for each other. But this is simply digressing from the point.
The point was the "spare no expense" comment was presented as an absolute, and several of us were poking various holes in it. From the standpoint of many clubs cannot afford it, to the Appleseed events being held on ranges they do not own, to not applying the same "spare no expense" criteria to yourself that is demanded of others.
As for shooters being jammed together, that probably depends on the individual range. That's not going to fly at most ranges here. Regardless, another problem with jamming so many shooters together is that this more effectively blocks vision of supervisors, so you need a lot more of them observing. And it makes you wonder about crossfiring onto other targets. Have seen that on sight in days at the range with wider spacing and target holders numbered to the benches.
But all this detracts from the main issue. Appleseed
claims to be seeing enough of a pattern and injuries and has banned the gun and are demanding a statement from the manufacturer before they allow it back. This has elicited a response from owners of the gun finding all sorts of faults with Appleseed, ranging from good to impractical, but regardless outside the scope of the issue at hand.
The comments that are more in line with the issue are asking why other guns have not also been temporarily banned, why no detailed information was taken at least for the incidents involving injury, etc. Was any attempt made previously to contact S&W about perceived problems or was this a knee jerk reaction to an injury, etc?
