A court martial heard SAC Johnson was left with serious injuries, but was initially reluctant to report the accident for fear it would open the RAF to mockery from the Army.
The fool shot him, even after he told the fool to quit fooling around, twice, and he's worried about the RAF being mocked? It seems to me the only thing the guy who got shot did wrong was to stick around attempting to verbally dissuade the shooter instead of immediately (and rapidly) taking a hike.
Sometimes I wonder what planet I've wound up on, and how I got here... this certainly isn't Earth, where I was born and raised...
Wow. I understand loving your own branch of service, but that same branch of service accepted the enlistment of the fool that shot you. It couldn't have been that perfect.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Last week my youngest (adult, actually) son and I went to a local country gun range. It's nice. Awnings over the shooting benches, nice, tall berms, rest rooms - but no lifeguard on duty. The people I've met there have been really nice, and for the most part disciplined in gun handling just like we all should be.
Last week, though, we left before we really wanted to. A pair of shooters showed up after we'd been there about 30 minutes. They seemed nice enough. I motioned to them my son and I wanted to tape up targets, to which they smiled and indicated we should go ahead. We were just finishing up with the tape when to my great surprise they started shooting.
We were at the targets, they were 25 yards back at the bench. The lateral distance was something like 15 yards, so we were about 30 degrees off-axis from their shooting.
Just because a pistolero "knows" he can pull off a party trick with a gun, in violation of overt safety, doesn't give him any right to try.
Just because just about anyone can shoot 'till the cows come home without making a 30 degree error in shot placement doesn't give anyone the right to shoot with people forward of the firing line.
Personally, I feel pretty crappy about the whole thing. I decided not to correct the behavior of adults, figuring it's hard to fix stupid. We scooted to the cold side of the firing line, packed post haste, and left. The company managing the range was a short drive away and I informed them. They knew who the shooters were and contacted them, presumably to tell them to buzz off.
All was well, but I'm not happy with my decision not to say anything to the shooters, face-to-face. I could have done so in friendly terms, but I felt a little off balance. I first handled a firearm with supervision something like 55 years ago. In all that time I had never been on the wrong side of a firing line.
The reason for all the formality in gun safety is as much to keep safety a matter of sacrament as it is to merely not shoot anyone. If I chamber a round and leave my gun on the shooting bench, it won't go off by itself. But if I take shortcuts, my subconscious will quickly learn safety rules are casual things. I won't let that happen. I open the action before I go downrange.
Next time, I'll tell someone if I see egregious safety violations. I have always done so in the past, actually, to help others where I can. This time, though, I was jangled. Not scared, not even really nervous - we weren't really in physical danger - just off balance from experiencing that degree of bad judgement.
treadlightly wrote:Last week my youngest (adult, actually) son and I went to a local country gun range. It's nice. Awnings over the shooting benches, nice, tall berms, rest rooms - but no lifeguard on duty. The people I've met there have been really nice, and for the most part disciplined in gun handling just like we all should be.
Last week, though, we left before we really wanted to. A pair of shooters showed up after we'd been there about 30 minutes. They seemed nice enough. I motioned to them my son and I wanted to tape up targets, to which they smiled and indicated we should go ahead. We were just finishing up with the tape when to my great surprise they started shooting.
We were at the targets, they were 25 yards back at the bench. The lateral distance was something like 15 yards, so we were about 30 degrees off-axis from their shooting.
Just because a pistolero "knows" he can pull off a party trick with a gun, in violation of overt safety, doesn't give him any right to try.
Just because just about anyone can shoot 'till the cows come home without making a 30 degree error in shot placement doesn't give anyone the right to shoot with people forward of the firing line.
Personally, I feel pretty crappy about the whole thing. I decided not to correct the behavior of adults, figuring it's hard to fix stupid. We scooted to the cold side of the firing line, packed post haste, and left. The company managing the range was a short drive away and I informed them. They knew who the shooters were and contacted them, presumably to tell them to buzz off.
All was well, but I'm not happy with my decision not to say anything to the shooters, face-to-face. I could have done so in friendly terms, but I felt a little off balance. I first handled a firearm with supervision something like 55 years ago. In all that time I had never been on the wrong side of a firing line.
The reason for all the formality in gun safety is as much to keep safety a matter of sacrament as it is to merely not shoot anyone. If I chamber a round and leave my gun on the shooting bench, it won't go off by itself. But if I take shortcuts, my subconscious will quickly learn safety rules are casual things. I won't let that happen. I open the action before I go downrange.
Next time, I'll tell someone if I see egregious safety violations. I have always done so in the past, actually, to help others where I can. This time, though, I was jangled. Not scared, not even really nervous - we weren't really in physical danger - just off balance from experiencing that degree of bad judgement.
I hope you informed the range office when you left.
I told the range manager, who was off site. That got the job done, but next time I'll try to evangelize safe gun handling one-on-one. But hopefully it won't happen again.
This time I was focused on getting self and son out of the situation.
treadlightly wrote:Last week my youngest (adult, actually) son and I went to a local country gun range. It's nice. Awnings over the shooting benches, nice, tall berms, rest rooms - but no lifeguard on duty. The people I've met there have been really nice, and for the most part disciplined in gun handling just like we all should be.
Last week, though, we left before we really wanted to. A pair of shooters showed up after we'd been there about 30 minutes. They seemed nice enough. I motioned to them my son and I wanted to tape up targets, to which they smiled and indicated we should go ahead. We were just finishing up with the tape when to my great surprise they started shooting.
We were at the targets, they were 25 yards back at the bench. The lateral distance was something like 15 yards, so we were about 30 degrees off-axis from their shooting.
Just because a pistolero "knows" he can pull off a party trick with a gun, in violation of overt safety, doesn't give him any right to try.
Just because just about anyone can shoot 'till the cows come home without making a 30 degree error in shot placement doesn't give anyone the right to shoot with people forward of the firing line.
Personally, I feel pretty crappy about the whole thing. I decided not to correct the behavior of adults, figuring it's hard to fix stupid. We scooted to the cold side of the firing line, packed post haste, and left. The company managing the range was a short drive away and I informed them. They knew who the shooters were and contacted them, presumably to tell them to buzz off.
All was well, but I'm not happy with my decision not to say anything to the shooters, face-to-face. I could have done so in friendly terms, but I felt a little off balance. I first handled a firearm with supervision something like 55 years ago. In all that time I had never been on the wrong side of a firing line.
The reason for all the formality in gun safety is as much to keep safety a matter of sacrament as it is to merely not shoot anyone. If I chamber a round and leave my gun on the shooting bench, it won't go off by itself. But if I take shortcuts, my subconscious will quickly learn safety rules are casual things. I won't let that happen. I open the action before I go downrange.
Next time, I'll tell someone if I see egregious safety violations. I have always done so in the past, actually, to help others where I can. This time, though, I was jangled. Not scared, not even really nervous - we weren't really in physical danger - just off balance from experiencing that degree of bad judgement.
I would have also left without addressing the individuals. I find dealing with this level of stupidity an exercise in futility, throw guns into mix...I'll pass. Reporting it was the right thing.
Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.
John Wayne
NRA Lifetime member
jmra wrote:I would have also left without addressing the individuals. I find dealing with this level of stupidity an exercise in futility, throw guns into mix...I'll pass. Reporting it was the right thing.
I agree. Something about "picking your battles" - not likely that they would have gotten hostile / out-of-control, but possible and not worth it.
Those guys had horrible judgement, and no telling what other slips of range etiquette we may or may not have survived if we'd hung around, but I did experience something pretty interesting before the radicals got there and started shooting at us.
There was a small group banging away when we first arrived. I have trouble with blinking, and with every shot they fired, blink, blink, blink.
I turned to my son to comment on what a weenie I must be, blinking at gunfire pointed (for the moment) the other way and 10 or fifteen yards distant.
When I started talking, I stopped blinking. When I stopped talking, after about three seconds, I started blinking with every shot fired.
Maybe if I recite Shakespeare as part of my defensive pistolcraft my eyes might stay open. If I couldn't accurately sling outrageous arrows at my attackers, I could bore them to death. Kind of like Davy Crockett grinnin' down a b'ar, To double-tap, or not to double-tap, that is the question. Whether tis nobler... Hey, WAKE UP!
But, seriously, when I was talking my blinking stopped. I'd like to be able to turn off my blinking when I shoot. I don't feel any compulsion to talk to myself, but if it works, I might just try it. Maybe off by myself.
