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by The Annoyed Man
Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:12 pm
Forum: Never Again!!
Topic: Dangerous shooters at the range
Replies: 49
Views: 12045

Re: Dangerous shooters at the range

You're a better man than I am. I will speak up loudly to the person doing the sweeping. I've noticed that those who do the sweeping really can't be taught a lot of the times. The sensory overload of just being at the range and shooting is just overwhelming to them. Because it occupies so much of their prefrontal cortex, they have little to no processing capacity left over for processing through the safety rules in a calm manner. So repeating instructions about keeping the weapon pointed in a safe direction is an exercise in futility.

I once brought a coworker of my son's and her husband to DPC for a range session. She wanted to give him a range day for his birthday, and my son volunteered me because I have a range membership and a gun collection. I'm always glad to introduce new shooters to the shooting sports, and I said that as long as she paid for the ammo, I'd get them into the range as my guests and let them try shooting a bunch of different pistols. They are both hispanic, she being originally from Mexico, and he from Honduras. Neither of them had any prior gun experience at all. One thing that became extremely clear as the afternoon wore on was that he had that sort of hispanic cultural machismo severely ingrained in his character, and he was pretty dismissive of taking instruction from another man in front of his wife. He generally followed instructions, but you could see that he wasn't really taking things seriously, because it was important to him to maintain a macho insouciance about the whole thing. She, on the other hand, was delightful. And because she followed instructions and wasn't trying to prove anything, she rapidly began to outshoot her husband.

Now, over the course of the afternoon, we started them on .22 pistols, then .38s, then 9mms, then .45s, and finally Big Poppa, my S&W .44 magnum. With the hammer cocked and on single action it only takes an angel's kiss on the trigger to light the fire in that pistol. At one point late in the afternoon, while he was at the firing line and the rest of us were sitting on a bench in the shade behind him. He turned around and unconsciously pointed that .44 directly at us, loaded, with the hammer cocked, and his finger inside the trigger guard!!!! I immediately started shouting and waving in obvious alarm to point that gun away from us down range right NOW! I think that he was embarrassed, but he wouldn't show it because his wife was watching (and she also in the line of fire), and so he reacted with a smile and a wave dismissing my concern because he "Hey man, I'm not going to shoot anybody." After I got control of the pistol from him, and when his wife was not watching, I took him aside and in a low voice explained to him that what he had done was exactly how lots of people get shot dead every year, by other people who mean no harm and who don't think they are going to shoot anybody; and that if he did not follow the safety rules 100% from now on, which had been clearly explained to him, the range day was going to be over.

We lasted another 10-15 minutes, and then I called it a day. Before the scene with that .44, they had asked my advice about what would be a good gun for them to buy for home defense. I suggested a Glock 19, which they got to try that afternoon, and which she was able to handle and shoot fairly well. Her husband scoffed at the idea of a "mere 9mm" and declared that they had to have a .44 magnum like mine. I asked my son to explain to the wife later at work to A) ignore her husband with regard to gun choice and insist on the Glock if they had to have a gun, and B) to not let him have access to any gun in the home until he learned to be responsible about gun safety, even if that meant that she not buy one for now, because he might easily kill one of their children with his attitude about safety.

A year or so later, they invited my wife and me along with my son and DIL to a traditional honduran meal at their apartment for some kind of party. In a quiet moment, I asked the wife under my breath if they have ever bought a pistol. She gave me a knowing look and said no, not yet, because it wasn't a good idea in their home right now. I let it go at that.

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