I went to the local indoor range tonight with my daughter. We were assigned lane 9. There’s a bench that runs the back wall so you can put your coats, range bags, etc. there, and where everyone usually keeps ammo and spare cased weapons they’re not currently using. When we go to put our stuff on the bench, a guy is standing right in lane 9’s bench area. Not a huge deal. However, he’s taking up lane 8, 9, 10, and 11’s bench area with a bunch of junk. I ask, what lane are you in? He says, “Lane 7.” I look…there’s nothing on the bench behind lane 7. I tell him we have lane 9 and would like to put our things down at our lane. He says, “I’m consolidating, I’m consolidating, I’m consolidating,” as he picks up some of his things. I didn’t think much of it. But then he moves all his things to be in lane 9’s bench space and then walks over to lane 7 and starts shooting. I look at my kid and think…this guy is an idiot. Then he crouches to fire and starts wiggling his rear and acting like an idiot. I just let it go and we fired our rounds and completely ignored him, although I kept a peripheral view, because you never know what an idiot is going to do when you’re not looking. The part of me who remembers my 20s wants to toss him out, but I remain cool and he eventually leaves.
I’m not sure why I wrote this here, but maybe, just maybe if you’re reading this and you happen to be that guy, can you do the world a favor? Grow up a bit.
Name one place where we can get away from them. I can’t. As I’m fond of saying, we need a shovel to find the new bar.
Gotta think to yourself, you can fix stupid but it’s going to hurt! Personally, if I found an open space on the bench , without missing a step, I would have put my non expensive gear at lane seven ( the empty space).
The rest at my feet. If anyone is dangerously rude at a firing range, these days, I’ll request my money back from the range master and when he asks why, just explain that you prefer to shoot in a much safer environment.
There are many more new idiots these past few years than I’ve seen in all my life!
I find belonging to my club has eliminated the idiots in my life. 300 plus acres, it’s generally 5 people at the most, split between pistol, rifle and trap ranges. Yesterday was 2 guys at trap, me at pistol where I finished up doing some offhand .22 rifle which is allowed, and one guy at the rifle range,who was leaving pistol as I showed.
I avoid weekends, though Sunday afternoon used to be me, Chris, and Kevin, a couple great guys, and that was generally it.
I used to shoot at the state range, 10 lanes outdoors, and often 3 or 4 total idiots keeping the 3 rso’s busy.
So I’m an antagonist. After mentioning it to him I would/have grabbed his stuff and relocated it for him, to lane 99 or something. Those kinds of guys are typically punks that expect you to be polite when they have zero manners. I don’t play that. I’m willing to help you with your manners if need be.
in the presence of live rounds, I would ask myself,
“Is it worth using my USCCA insurance over this idiot?”
You did good. Avoidance wins and is best for you and your blood pressure/your own aggravation/your own time.
You could reasonably work around it, so you did. Can’t really beat that.
I overpay for a membership at a local range that keeps an RSO on the line at all times. I say overpay, but I keep paying for it…because the RSO’s job is, well, a lot of things, but organizing that situation is one of them. Frees up other members (and non members, anyone can shoot there) from having to deal with it.
I sometimes get annoyed because they have some rules I don’t like (though I understand why they have them), but overall, to me, it’s worth having the RSO there…for situations like this and because they watch people’s muzzles
Jesse, two things…don’t you think writing a passive aggressive note and hoping it’ll reach his eyes seems less useful than buying a lotto ticket as a retirement plan. I’d suggest instead you take action during the issue and either confront him, or ask the range master to step in for you. Taking a more direct approach would have been FAR more useful and beneficial for you AND your daughter so she’d learn not to let people walk all over you. The second thing is people like this idiot probably have no clue what the etiquette is because people don’t stop and make them aware. So, honestly, you failed to help him be a better person and more responsible gun owner.
Avoidance wins? I tend to think avoidance in these cases and loser are synonymous which reminds me of an old movie quote, “Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f@#$ the prom queen.”
IF someone is a non-confrontational type, then ask the RSO or front desk to step in. Safety is everyone’s concern but not handling it some way means this idiot will do this again another time because there’s too many people who won’t correct the behavior.
I don’t see this as a safety issue.
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Such a bummer to what should have been a fun day with your daughter. You handled it well though.
Let see… @mattm had probably the best long term solution. Join a club, it will cost you extra but all the folks will be paying “members” and there is more of a family/club/4h atmosphere.
Our range is very membership only and the standards are pretty high. We don’t have a lot of members but who we have are great guys/gals/families. No chest pounding, everyone wants to help everyone.
We host a lot of church shooting events and this summer will be our first ever open house alumni (USCCA former students) BBQ and for fun shoot off.
Then you’d be wrong. Shooters often carry weapons back and forth and having some new shooter or idiot carry what might be a loaded firearm from their bag across to their lane while it might be pointed at the concrete ground or in the direction of people in the lane endangers EVERYONE. I’ve watched people do it which is why I, like the OP am against this practice. The fact you don’t see this as a safety issue means you’ve either not see the worst in people like I have, or you’re not as experienced at the range yourself. Either way…leaving stuff anywhere other than behind your own lane is a MAJOR safety issue in the land of idiots.
I must have misunderstood. The way I read it, people were supposed to keep their gear on the bench behind the line, and the issue was that he was taking up more area on that bench than just the one lane.
I did not realize he was unsafely transporting firearms with muzzle direction issues. That IS a safety concern
$100/yr or $200 if you don’t do a 5 hour work party, which mainly includes a picnic now that we got a utility company putting up 3 wind mills and giving us a $1,000,000 for the privilege. I think we beat them to the punch buying the last 70 acres of land by their first 2 windmills.
Totally agree, everyone is friendly, on the same page, no yahoos. We have training every year, so add about 20-30 RS0’s to the roster annually, gave Appleseed events, Sheepdog tactical training, idpa, trap league, archery league, hunting, fishing yada yada…
Nice deal.
And big props for hosting Appleseeds.
See, now that’s what I’m talking about! 
Folks, don’t feel trapped in the city/burbs. Find a nice range (drive in the country) in a rural area. It is SO REWARDING!
I’m actually trying to teach my sons the opposite. When there is a non-confrontational solution, opt for that one. Even a fight stacked heavily in your favor is still a fight, and there’s always a chance of unintended consequences. Can’t let ego risk my life or my family’s.
Seems like an acceptable solution. So is requesting another lane that is not between the idiot’s lane and gear and/or having the RSO deal with the issue.
Yeah, I don’t normally post anything like this and have a history of confrontations of a variety of kinds. However, I have a somewhat adverse history from the age of 3 on…so when I have to confront someone, it usually goes from zero to 9000 in about 1/4 of a second and then bad things start to happen. My post was probably more of catharsis than actually thinking some dork at the range would actually read and learn.
I’m getting the distinct impression that we are more of an avoidance and retreat community rather than a self defense community. Why own a gun for self defense if we are only going to seclude ourselves (avoidance) in our homes and run (retreat) with our tails between our legs when a threat appears? This is why we are where we are. We, as a society used to be smarter and more honorable than this. It maybe politically incorrect, but I’m teaching my kids to stand up for what’s right. I believe that good will not triumph over evil, because evil has got us by the throat. Real men, courage, honor and bravery have left the building!
When the nuc’s start flying, retreat and avoidance will be moot!
Etiquette you say, there are too many elephants in the room to be concerned with etiquette. They are blocking all the exits, so retreat is out of the question and we are surrounded, no way to avoid! What does the book say about that? Any book???
So, we are on the big “range” of life and some guy is amassing a sizable nuclear force against a little guy. Well for all intents and purposes, the little guy should be running and avoiding, right about now! As soon as all the fun and “Games” are over another bully is going to take another little guy. Maybe we could help the little guy by explaining avoidance and retreat.
So tell me again why we own guns. What’s the point? We can’t even protect ourselves, we as a community are vilified, when we protect ourselves from evil we get sanctioned! We are the proverbial “ham sandwich”.
I live in the United States, when the cartels, China and Russia invade (when an idiot takes over spaces 8,9,10,11 and so on) where does a citizen retreat to, how do you “avoid” death. There’s NO PLACE” left to go! Some will say stand your ground, we have no ground to stand on! The chess pieces have been placed in every state, city and town. We are surrounded, no avoiding no place to retreat, do we throw our hands up in the air, get on our knees and bow our heads or do we get a grip? Just wondering!
“Mama put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore…”
Are we knockin on heaven’s door?
Or is Brandon kicking the door down without any regard for life?
The more you give in to a bully the more power he amasses. Just sayin!