"Tell Me No Lies, I'll ask you No Questions"
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Unless otherwise noted, my posts represent my personal opinion, and are not an official position, opinion, or endorsement by MGO or the MGO BOD.
If there were SEVEN RSOs in the room, and not one of them saw or said anything... they were taught wrong.
In the construction and other major industries, a short safety talk is given to the workers prior to the start of their shift. The topic will deal with safety issues that most likely come up during their work shift. Almost all of the workers know the safety rules, but the safety talk is a reminder so they will stay focused on safety, and be able to go home to their wives/husbands and kids at the end of the day.
I think if you guys are truly serious about range safety like you're saying here, it wouldn't hurt to give a range safety talk to shooters prior to shooting. Even if members should know better like you say, it would only take a few minutes and be a reminder to stay focused. Another thing that would help is safety signage on the range that will get the shooter's attention, and would outline or summarize the safety rules of the range. Everyone from management down to the clean-up people have to buy-in and be committed to safety in order for it to be successful.
It seems that everyone wants to be safe, but few are willing to do what's necessary to really achieve it.
A Range Safety briefing was held on the Range before shooting commenced.
Not going to offer up any excuses why this happened but after talking to a few of the RSO's and Instructors who were present at the time, here is what I believe happened:
This was at our Annual Meeting/ Election which was held at Post 46 on 7/26/2014. (Outdoor Range)
We had probably 50 or more shooters, some were in the initial group that went to the range and received the safety briefing.
When the cease fire was called all those present on the range adhered to the Command.
A couple of New Shooters, Non members had made their way to the Range during this time and proceeded to lay out their gear on one of the tables, thus prompting this issue.
In the future we will have one or two of Our MGO's monitor the approach to the Range area to prevent this from happening again.
Last edited by mikeb32; 08-03-2014 at 08:20 PM.
"Tell Me No Lies, I'll ask you No Questions"
NRA Life Member
MGO Member
NRA RSO
NRA CRSO
MOC Member
Unless otherwise noted, my posts represent my personal opinion, and are not an official position, opinion, or endorsement by MGO or the MGO BOD.
lesson's to be learned for the next event.
I don't want to come across as being "picky", but I've seen this happen many times at ranges, where new shooters come in during a cease fire. They are notified that it is a cease fire and to stand back away from the benches. If they appear to approach the benches, someone with a bull horn will notify them to stay away from the benches until the resume handling and shooting order is given.
I wasn't there and don't know how many range officers were there, but at least two are probably needed. Ones job should be limited to watching the benches and shooting area to prevent this sort of thing. And also the members who didn't go to check targets, bear some responsibility for watching for safety violations as well. Like I said earlier, everyone must buy-in and be committed to safety in order for it to be successful.
I agree with Topgun on the idea that safety is everyone's responsiblity.
I am not an RSO, but there have been a few times at ranges where I pointed out a 'mistake' someone has made and told them why. Depending on the nature and timing, my response has been measured, and I try to avoid embarassing anyone, unless there is an immediate safety concern.
In one instance, at a private range, someone was handling a firearm while I was checking my target; I noticed it as I turned around and they were setting their pistol down. I walked back to my shooting position, while watching them to make sure they did not handle anything else. I took them to the side and explained what they had done, nicely. They thanked me and there were no more issues after that.
Last edited by RogueLeader; 08-04-2014 at 06:27 AM.
Trustee
Heh, that was polite of you. One time I was shooting at THE PIT and a cease fire was called. Everybody was backed up except for one kid in the middle who was still finishing his magazine. Once he stopped, a couple people on both far ends started walking out to change targets. He clearly was not paying attention because he popped in another magazine and fired a shot.The weird part was that he had friends with him that hadn't bothered to make sure he was doing the right thing.
They then heard every last one of us at the site start yelling and saw most of us start running towards them. Well after that one shot and everybody reacting exactly as they should have, their group left within a few minutes because pretty much everybody was backing away from them and giving them a lot of unhappy looks.
The sad part is that I don't think they apologized at all, which we probably would have heard since pretty much everybody had taken off their ears after he finished that first magazine. It's like they thought everybody else screwed up instead of them.