Public Gun Ranges: A Dilemma

Public gun ranges can be very much a dilemma for preppers. On the one hand, they offer a convenient place to practice shooting our firearms. On the other hand, they are the place we are most likely to get shot.

Let’s talk about it looking at both examples and statistics.

But first…

Not All Public Gun Ranges Are Created Equal

There are many different kinds of public gun ranges, spanning from those tightly controlled and overseen by diligent rangemasters, through to busy state-run ranges without rangemasters on sight, all the way to rural, sparsely used ranges often found in state, county or city parks or conservation areas.

For the purposes of this article, I’m not going to include private gun ranges because there’s just too many different types to include.

In our experience, the safest ranges that Spice and I have gone to are the ones where there’s only us shooting. Since we are both exceedingly careful around firearms, and neither one of us is likely to “freak out” and shoot the other intentionally, there’s not really any safer way for us to shoot.

The second safest are the ranges where there is tight rangemaster supervision. At these ranges, you don’t have to worry as much about idiots who don’t know thing-one about firearms safety pointing guns at you.

The most dangerous ranges that we’ve personally seen are the ones that have no rangemaster controls, and yet are quite busy. I’m going to share with you a couple of examples of the kind of things that make us avoid this type of environment.

Don’t Point That Thing At Somebody!

Hopefully, we all know the four rules of gun safety. If not, here they are:

1. All guns are always loaded
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
4. Be sure of your target

If you follow these rules, and if everybody else around you is following the rules too, then everybody should be pretty safe.

Unfortunately, the world is filled by the ignorant and the idiotic. 

I’ve Told This Before, But…

Here’s a story that I’ve told before but I will repeat it here, about an incident I observed at one of these “busy uncontrolled” gun ranges.

One group at the range (the one at the far left end beyond whom there was nothing but woods) was obviously a family, two teen boys (guessing 13-16ish), a mom and a dad. Dad was sighting in his deer rifle at 50 yards (no idea why, he was well on the paper but that’s what he was doing), and it was making a heck of a boom (I picked up his brass later, 7mm WinMag). Mom was blazing away with an iron sighted 30-30 Marlin lever gun, and kiddos were popping mags full of Golden Bullet out of a pair of 10/22’s. 

The concrete shooting benches all were each covered by a beach towel, and the area is entirely open.

Mother inserts several rounds into her 30-30 and father squeezes off another round. Mother fires & and jacks another round into the chamber, which also cocks the gun. Boys are standing there blazing away.

Father says something to mother, who pulls the gun off of her shoulder and drops it onto bench from about 8 inches up, with the barrel pointed directly at her two sons. She dropped the gun so hard that it bounced.

The gun did not fire. 

Whoa!

So I was sitting there thinking “surely to GOD she had activated the hammer block safety” as they all walked downrange to check their targets. I grabbed my empty pop bottle, got out of my car and walked to the trash can that sits behind the benches. I looked, and could clearly see the “red” part of the safety, and that the hammer was, indeed, fully back and not at half-cock.

It must not have been one of both of those boy’s time to die, because God only knows why that gun didn’t go off.

You can click on the link to read all of the story, but this is just one of many examples of stuff people do every day at gun ranges.

Another Day, Another Bunch Of Idiots

Spice and I were driving home from an event over the winter, and the day was nice. We were driving past a state park that I knew had a public gun range, so I decided to drive over to it and check it out. 

I wasn’t planning on shooting, I was just curious about what the facilities looked like.

There were about 15 cars there, and you could see the entire range from the parking area. We saw a bunch of people over on the handgun side of things, plus a couple of groups on the longer ranged side. 

One group of folks caught our eyes, they were at the 25-yard target area. There were two men, two women and three children.

You Know This Story Is About To Get Cringeworthy, Right? 

One of the men reached into his gun case and pulled out an AR-15 wearing some type of optics and a front handgrip. He pulled out a loaded magazine, popped it in the gun (nobody had yet put on ear protection, he laughed turned towards the target area, charged the firearm and shot five rounds. 

Everybody around him cringed from ear pain, and (you knew this was coming, didn’t you), he laughed as he turned around and swept the muzzle of the still-loaded gun carelessly across the chests of every one of his family and friends (and the people down the firing line) with his finger still on the trigger. 

As the barrel looked like it was going to sweep the front of our car, Spice and I both ducked. I didn’t see if it actually swept us or not. I peeked back up as the idiot swept the gun back across everybody’s chest as they were standing there berating him. He pointed it back downrange, turned his grinning head back to face them and blindly fired off five more rounds.

I saw a couple of men rushing down from the pistol side (the side not swept by this idiot’s firearm) to confront him on his stupidity, so I decided to let them take care of the situation.

We were OUTTA there. 

The Range Dilemma

Here’s what I know. 

• Preppers need to practice shooting their firearms
• Most people (the vast majority) live in the city or the burbs
• There are limited options for firearms shooting ranges
• Private ranges can be very expensive
• Ranges with good rangemasters ted to be expensive
• Rarely visited rural public gun ranges are just that, rural

So, the dilemma. Do we spend the money for a good, tightly controlled range? Should we do the best we can at uncontrolled public ranges? Do we drive to a rural range? What do we do?

To me, one option is a non-starter. I’ve visited my last public unmonitored range that has other people using it at the same time I am. I’m done, I don’t need the practice bad enough to let some idiot shoot me out of carelessness.

If it costs money to go to a controlled range? So be it. If I have to drive to a rural range and take the chance that nobody’s using it? So be it. 

Options And Alternatives

I think preppers should practice their shooting and firearms skills regularly, as (frankly) most people don’t shoot nearly as often as they should.

If you find yourself in the situation that I’ve been describing above, I would encourage you to look into the following options.

See if there are any private ranges around that are in your price range. Spice and I have a private range that we are members of, it’s conveniently just outside of the edge of town where we live, and it’s also often available without anybody else using it. 

Another option is to get a discount at a controlled or indoor range if you go at an ‘off time’.

A third option is to use the available gun ranges, but go at really odd hours to limit the amount of people who are there.

Whichever You Choose

I encourage you to pay a LOT of attention to the people around you, and if they start acting unsafe, pack up your stuff and leave. 

Shotgun Training Ammo: Shoot More, Pain Less