At the range this afternoon, I looked over and noticed a gentleman in the next lane pointing his gun across the range rather than downrange. As usual, I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Sir, you need to make sure the muzzle is pointed downrange at all times.”
A couple minutes later, he taps me on the shoulder and I’m thinking here we go, he’s going to tell me he didn’t do anything wrong and I should mind my own business yadda yadda yadda…
Nope. What he said was, “Thanks for pointing that out. I’m here all the time and would have said the same thing to someone if I’d seen them do that.” He was shooting a brand new SIG P238, which is a tiny little gun and very easy to point in an unintended direction. But he made no excuses and was a complete gentleman about the whole thing.
If the range was populated only by people who admitted their mistakes, the world would be a better place. And the range wouldn’t be one-tenth as crowded.
So here at pistol-training.com, we salute you, Mr. Behaves Like an Adult When He Makes a Mistake Guy.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
(FTC Disclaimer: pistol-training.com did not receive any compensation or free samples of Bud Light or any other Budweiser product in exchange for this post)
Wow – sometimes humanity surprises me after all.
Why can I see a whole slew of new aliases coming from this – The Real Men of Genius, NRA edition, Season 1?
It’s one reason I like being at the outdoor range when it’s arse-freezin’ cold or rainy: The people who are there on those days are, on average, the safest and most polite shooters to be found on a public range.
A similar thing happened to me once, early in my gun-nut-hood. My response was complete embarrassment, apology, and gratitude to the RO who pointed out my rule infraction.
Of course, we all complain from time to time about the idiot we spot at the range (like the guy who is trying to clear a while looking down the barrel…) But in my experience, there are far more polite, friendly, and helpful people at all of the ranges I’ve shot at. Even the children at the range tend to act more like adults than many actual adults elsewhere.
I bought one of those little two shot derringers, and it was surprising to me how the hard it was to hold the barrels pointed down range when reloading.
And don’t even think about asking about my accidental discharge (33 years ago yesterday)
A polite reminder is perfectly in keeping with the “treat others as you’d like to be treated” golden rule. I certainly don’t intend to do anything unsafe at the range, but if I do I hope someone will tell as soon as possible so I can correct it.