Went to the range. Got shot at!

Hi everyone!

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

On occasion, I have posted here about some of the unfortunate trends in range behavior. Sometimes, it’s people trashing ranges, being disrespectful of other shooters, or even careless gun handling.
Yesterday, I had an experience that just tops them all in awfulness.

Arriving at the pistol range, there is one adult male accompanied by his three kids on the firing line. They were shooting a couple pistols. The father was giving instructions. He seemed conscientious and aware.
The only other person present was a friend I regularly see. He was on the adjacent rifle range. A large berm separates the two ranges.

I got set up with my range gear, but with guns locked in the car. I waited until they paused their shooting.
I then asked if they would mind if I walked downrange to set up my target stand. They were fine with my request.
I made a point of saying, “So, firing line is clear and safe to go downrange”. Reply was made in the affirmative. I see their pistols on the bench pointing downrange.

Maybe 45 seconds later, I have my target stand placed.
My back is to the firing line.

Then, suddenly….”Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang..”
In a split second after the first shot, I processed that the sound was not coming from the neighboring rifle range.
I turn to my left and the ground next to me is kicking up with chunks of dirt as the bullets strike the back berm! His cone of fire is such that the closest shots are, maybe, 6-8 feet from me!
The adult is shooting his pistol, and I am practically in his line of fire!!
Immediately, I am screaming, “Stop! Stop! Don’t Shoot!”
My hand reaches instinctively for my concealed revolver. But, I can’t bring myself to even draw, knowing that there are young kids on the firing line.
The father immediately is in full panic.
He shouts back, “Oh man! I’m sorry!”

I quickly get back to the firing line. This guy is profusely apologizing. “I’m sorry”…”I don’t know what happened”. ….”I don’t know what I was thinking!”
I was surprisingly calm. I just said something like, “I thought we understood that the line was clear! I….What….” And that’s it.

I walked off the line and headed over to the rifle range to talk to my buddy.
I had just begun to tell him what had happened. Meanwhile, the guy with the three kids had, apparently, packed up. He quickly speeds off in his car.

When I got back to the pistol range, I found that, before leaving, the guy placed a full box of ammo on my shooting mat.

There’s a lot more I’d like to say.
But, I’ll keep it short. I’d like hear what you guys think.
Rather than being shocked or traumatized, I feel more like, “I’m surprised it took this long!”
There’s a lot of people out there that simply buy a gun/guns, some ammo, then head to a range with no instruction or, apparently, much attentiveness or common sense.

How does somebody forget, or not notice that, before loading, picking up, and then discharging a firearm multiple times, that a person you were just conversing with, is standing in plain sight of your line of fire?

Cannot put a like to your post, but thank you for posting it.

As for “I’m surprised it took this long!”, I think this goes for all ranges without an appointed line controller. The nearest I came to this was when returning to the line a guy at a nearby bench looked up and exclaimed, "OMG, there was one more guy down range." Best I could do was make a crack about knowing a good optician.

I love target trolleys.

Thank God you were not shot.
This story brings to mind another one that I heard on Paul Harveys show years ago, about a father who brought his son to the range and somehow assumed the boy was still behind the bench in a safe area, only to resume shooting not realizing his son was behind the targets looking for bullets. Ended up killing his own son.
These stories are sad, but necessary to remind us.

Every so often, a man would do well to ponder the definition of average intelligence.
Really spend some time on understanding what that really is.
Then understand that half of the population is dumber than that, and act accordingly

Curious is this a private or public range ? Obviously no range officers present Friday - are there ever? Is there anyone to report this to ?
Thank you for the clarification below. And I’ll add to the thank goodness you were not hurt.

Baxter6551 said:

Curious is this a private or public range ? Obviously no range officers present Friday - are there ever? Is there anyone to report this to ?

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There is a network of public ranges in SC that are on state or federal land. They are unmanned. Some are free access. Some have a pay box where you take a numbered envelope and ticket, put cash in the envelope, deposit the envelope in the pay box and retain the ticket in case a warden stops by.
Big fines are levied if you are caught having not paid.

There is one guy who works at the capital to whom concerns can be submitted. And, there is another guy who drives cross-state to do maintenance.
On occasion, ranges have been shut down for extended time periods (6 months to 1-2 years) if things get really trashed.

A few months ago, the SC state gov’t approved a set of range rules that are posted at each range. These supercede the old rules. More importantly, they lend the weight of “state law” to enforcing conduct.
In theory, violating safety rules is thus a state crime.
In practice, though, how is that enforced?
And, what good does it do if people don’t read?

i am glad you did not get hit

First time i went to a state-owned range and the Range officer started telling me the rules. I thought to myself i might as pack up and go home. This guy is a overpowering control freak. And on that trip i seen a lot of Rookie mistakes on the range and understand why it is run so strict.

moosedog said:

Thank God you were not shot.
This story brings to mind another one that I heard on Paul Harveys show years ago, about a father who brought his son to the range and somehow assumed the boy was still behind the bench in a safe area, only to resume shooting not realizing his son was behind the targets looking for bullets. Ended up killing his own son.
These stories are sad, but necessary to remind us.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is a horrifying story to think about. What a burden of guilt that man must’ve felt.

Given how quickly this guy vacated the range, I asked myself later, “What if I had been shot?”
“What would that guy have done with no immediate witnesses?”

Conceivably, he might’ve just done the same thing: pack up and make a run for it, except in this scenario, leaving me to die.

As you said, “Thank God you were not shot.“

Given that this incident happened on Good Friday, the very same thought did cross my mind! And, yes, I did indeed say my Thanks.

Hmm, even though the shooter made a grave mistake and breach of range protocol it seems he recognized the error of his ways once it became apparent to him. I'm glad I've not been sent to the gallows for every mistake I've made, even serious ones.

Certainly glad you were not injured.

THAT IS SCARY !!
Thank God you were not injured! Your story will stick with me the rest of my life.
You have to wonder what is going through people’s heads sometimes. The 3 little kids/distractions was potentially a minor issue ( something I would not have done ), but still, Geeze . . .

Glad you're OK.
A lot of us aren't prone to panic or overreaction but still need time to process what or what could have happened when faced with something so far out of the realm of reason there is no way to understand the other's line of thinking. I doubt you'll ever figure this.
How young were the kids and what was the distance from the firing line? I can't imagine the distraction level that would prevent someone from noticing a person visibly downrange.

Puller said:

Hmm, even though the shooter made a grave mistake and breach of range protocol it seems he recognized the error of his ways once it became apparent to him. I'm glad I've not been sent to the gallows for every mistake I've made, even serious ones.

Certainly glad you were not injured.

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Yes. Like I mentioned, I was surprisingly calm and restrained.
Escalating the situation would not have helped.

smoothshooter said:

THAT IS SCARY !!
Thank God you were not injured! Your story will stick with me the rest of my life.
You have to wonder what is going through people’s heads sometimes. The 3 little kids/distractions was potentially a minor issue ( something I would not have done ), but still, Geeze . . .

Click to expand...

soFlaNative said:

Glad you're OK.
A lot of us aren't prone to panic or overreaction but still need time to process what or what could have happened when faced with something so far out of the realm of reason there is no way to understand the other's line of thinking. I doubt you'll ever figure this.
How young were the kids and what was the distance from the firing line? I can't imagine the distraction level that would prevent someone from noticing a person visibly downrange.

Click to expand...

The kids were well behaved. Probably between 10-15. Their conduct did not give me any sense of unease.
Maybe that’s part of what bothers me, in a way?
As someone who started out with a highly structured junior smallbore program, safety discipline was simply ingrained into every aspect of gun handling and range conduct.
Without proper training, good intentions don’t always suffice.

Ignorance at its finest, glad you’re OK Jim. I’m the range officer at the Tuesday morning old guy shoot every week and there’s been a couple incidents. I have to clear the line and check each gun to see if the chamber indicator is inserted and magazine is out before we change targets. It’s a 50’ indoor range. One guy I believe got banned, haven’t seen him a few weeks. He was too old to think correctly and a new shooter.

The same mindset is driving cars around playing with cell phones, scary. Different world with no common sense, Larry

As they say "**** Happens". sometimes really "Bad **** Happens".
Just really glad you are OK!!!!!
Had something similar happen, took me awhile to get over it, still think about it, makes me a hell of a lot more cautious and aware.
Bd Safe. Jim

1982, I am a range officer at Clark Brothers, near Warrenton Va. Live fire, even machine guns as long as you bought the ammo there. The range was barely over 100 feet from US 17.
4 men of apparent middle eastern decent are watching the firing line with an about 5 year old male child.
Out of the corner of my eye the child goes running downrange. I ran after him screaming CEASE FIRE as loud as I could. Grabbed the boy and ran back to the firing line to the 4 men.
When I got to the 4 men they seemed to think it was no big deal, which really pissed me off even more. I told them to get the hell out of here and they wanted to complain about not being able to use the ammo they had just bought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Told them they could take that up with the owner John Clark who was inside. That was 43 years ago.

That is almost incomprehensible.

Your Guardian Angel was there.

I will not go to any place where people are shooting guns that are not highly managed by trained range officers. I have a couple range buddies that enjoy shooting out in our open Arizona desert. I will join them if WE are the only ones in the area. The first time I see an unsafe action, I will pack up and leave.

I don’t believe there can be too much safety when firearms are being handled or fired.

Glad to hear you escaped this unscathed!

You had every right to be angry about it, but I think you missed an opportunity here.

None of us was born with the knowledge of range rules or firearms safety - we all learned it at some point in our lives. Many of you learned it in your youth, growing up in families that embraced firearms and the culture, some of us did not and learned it later (like I did in the military).

In any interest or hobby we all start out at zero and work up from there, some gain the knowledge and then develop an arrogance, viewing anyone earlier along in their pursuit of the thing as idiots or lacking intelligence; all the while not recognizing they themselves were once at the same knowledge level. I've seen that in amateur radio, dog obedience training, model trains, military vehicle collectors; any interest you can name.

There are a LOT of new firearms owners in the last decade or so, and many of them never went to boot camp, never took any training, or can even conceive of something like "range rules" or range etiquette. It's not knowledge you're born with.

You stepped downrange with total strangers at your back without ever confirming they understood range rules- for all we know it was their very first day ever shooting a gun.

So yeah, be angry and upset that some jackclown almost shot you, but perhaps civil discussion with the group might have been more beneficial for everyone. You could have used this as a teaching moment, especially with the youngsters present.

This won't be the most popular opinion in the thread.

I was the child's guardian angel. All I could see was him getting killed on my watch. John Clark came out and asked me what happened. I told him exactly what I posted here. He turned white as a ghost and walked back in the store. I never heard another word and the men never returned.
Sometimes you don't have time to think.

1 person with 3 kids is 2 kids too many. It should be no more than 1 to 1 or at least have a second adult to keep the kids corralled, especially at an unmanned public range. Way too many things for kids to get in to with far too much at risk.