What do you do when somebody shoots during cold range?

[Divernhunter]

Sounds like you used it as a learning/teaching experience for the kid/father. That was good.
I had that happen at a local club range and it was 2 guys about 80 years old and they where a bit put out of place when I called them on it. They puffed up, were offended I spoke up and pointed out what they did. I just let them know it would not happen again and they picked up their stuff and left.
The other puffed up want-to-be bigshot did nothing positive with what he did. I would be more concerned with the guy dressed up like a swat team member trying to impress everyone myself. I would have told him his reaction was wrong and he missed a good teaching moment he could of had with the kid. Then just tell him to go down to his area and play swat team or whatever ridiculous reason for being dress like that. There is no reason to act like he did and no good results will come from it.

You did right and I would hope/think it made a positive impression on the young man.......and maybe one on the father to watch what he is doing a bit closer.

I would rather have you and the kid on a shooting line when I am shooting than the want-to-be joker. High five to you.

[rromeo]

I'm generally mellow. People say that to me a lot. "How do you not get pissed at this?" I've dealt with a lot worse stuff than anything at work.
Anyway, when I was going home, I started to think "should I have been more upset at the father?" His kid did shoot at me. Not exactly at me, but that was one of my thoughts. My wife has a quick temper, and she was more upset at the range ninja, so I figured I had that going for me.

[Rickrock1]

O I think you handled it well and pretty sure that kid learned a valuable lesson and hopefully won't do that again. That other guy is perfect and pretty sure that he will be talking about it for days.

This recently happen to us on BLM land and the three of us setting up targets yelled at them from probably 100 yards out and and 25 yards wide. The people where clueless and didn't really understand or care about any rules.
Upon completion of set up I walked over and tried to explained the rules and they still really didn't understand and or didn't really care. Talk about being pissed.

[rromeo]

Update. My wife sent an email to the U.S. Forest Service. An officer called her a few days later, and asked some specific questions about the incidents. It seems that the mall ninja is a regular, and they have gotten complaints before.

[golfish]

That's what I was thinking. The father understood that he needed to watch the boy a little more.

Since you asked, I would have done what you did and let it go as a Lesson learned.

[racemedic]

I'll put my .02 in as well. I think you handled it well. As long as they learned from it and did not continue doing it, no problem. And yes, Mr. wannabe operator is a D-bag. I would have told him problem resolved now STFU.

[BennyAdeline]

Although it's scary, **** happens. It was a kid and I bet he learned his lesson well. We all made mistakes as children.

[mshill]

OP, it appears that you handled it properly. However, if I was the father, that boy would not have been on the firing line for the rest of the day. Handling weapons in an unsafe manner (eg. during a cold range) could be fatal and the sooner (young) people learn there are consequences to their actions the less likely the consequences will be harmful to others.

I recall being on the archery range at scout camp with an arrow in place, but not drawn, when I turned about 45 degrees to talk to a friend when I was immediately asked to leave the range. I never forgot that experience.

[ifilef]

'Passage-aggressive approach'. There is no such thing, and this was not a passive-aggressive approach either, it was aggressive and it seems to be if he were nasty about it yelling, etc. for an hour that he needs to see a psychiatrist. I would have left after a few minutes of it to avoid the ugly tirade.

Sounds like he over-reacted a tad. Father apologized, they were at extreme opposite end of the line, neither probably noticed you and your new friend who should now not be one of yours.

I'd have been angry also but would've gotten over it much sooner.

[Latebraker]

You handled it the right way IMO.
The other guy did not.

[IVC]

The other shooter took the passage aggressive approach, and just yelled insults from 75 feet away. He kept that up for about an hour. Then he came over to me and asked why I wasn't pissed off. I tend to keep things low key, and I told him I spoke to the father, and got over it.

You did the correct thing - evaluate the situation and see whether it's time to pack your stuff and leave. If you decide to stay, yelling or making a point achieves nothing. Instead, you watch them to make sure it doesn't happen again.

When you deal with guns (and many other items/activities,) your primary job is to be safe. Getting into rage doesn't contribute to safety...

[bsg]

nobody was injured and the father apologized for the transgression of the child. the father's apology is an acknowledgement of fault and of his own accountability for the incident.
if i felt uncomfortable about staying after the father's apology, i would have left. regardless of my choice to stay or leave, i would not have harassed the father and his child.

[Rorge Retson]

Once, handle it like you did. Twice? You're outta here and can't ever come back (i.e. @ my range).

Also, if it were my range, each and every weapon on the line would be required to have empty chamber indicators installed at cease fire/range cold.

[Someday]

Sounds like the father handled it well. Would I have been upset, yeah I would because anything could have happened, but, since nobody got hurt, you handled it right. It's much better to turn it into a learning experience than to put the kid off completely by jumping down his throat - especially since the kid already saw his father apologize.

When I was in the JROTC and we could actually shoot on campus (San Diego High had a range), us 10th graders were tasked with assisting in teaching the 9th graders how to shoot a bolt action rifle. The Command Sargent-Major gave his instructions; we were to supervise loading one round, closing the bolt, and preparing to fire. My kid was in the prone position and I was kneeling down next to him. My kid (a little anxious), loads the round, gets up on his knee (which caused me to stand up), put his finger on the trigger, and pointed his rifle right at my head. I (somewhat) calmly moved my head back, calmly asked him to remove his finger from the trigger, and gently pointed his rifle down range. Once safe, I gave him a talk about the finer points of gun safety and told him if he did that again, he would be off the range (I didn't want to get shot). Well, the next round he did exactly the same thing. I repeated the same steps, but this time unchambered the round myself and kicked him off the range. I don't recall ever seeing him again on the range. Kids should get one do-over, but not two in a row!

Another time I was a Senior Patrol Leader in my Boy Scout troop (I was about 14 or so at the time). We went up to Kitchen Creek (I guess I'm dating myself here). We had one boy who was SLIGHTLY ADHD. We had been shooting for a little while and I had been keeping an eye on him (as were the other adults). He was starting to feel comfortable with the rifle and got a little cocky. He loaded the rifle (a Ruger 10/22 if I recall correctly), swung the rifle around and pointed it at everyone on the firing line and said "everybody watch out, I'm going to shoot!". Everybody jumped back and he unloaded his rifle down range - since he was at least pointing down range, I felt it was too dangerous to try and grab the rifle from him. After he was done, he tried to re-load again, so I grabbed the unloaded rifle out of his hands and sent him off line. Furious, I ripped him a new one and lectured him about gun safety. I had him sit out the next hour or so. Once everyone was about done shooting, I brought him to the firing line, went through safety again with him, and let him shoot a few more rounds down range while I stood next to him to make sure he pointed the rifle in the right direction.

The point is, kids are going to make mistakes and do dumb things because they are kids. While that doesn't excuse dangerous behavior, they need to learn what can happen because of that behavior and how to correct it so that it doesn't happen, otherwise they won't learn a thing. If another adult can't understand that and, instead, chooses to over react, maybe said adult should have his/her gun taken away until he/she can calm down.

[FatCity67]

Scruff of the neck and sitting in the truck the rest of the time.

Never walk down range either until every single person acknowledges the break and steps away from their gun.