My range is apparently taken over with 4H today. About half of the ranges have some sort of event going. Good on them. I like the idea of what they do. However, the safety side of it was troubling. It looks like the inside of a Walmart. Kids running wild, climbing on berms of ranges, hanging off of steel targets that aren't in use, and no one is wearing eyes or ears except the shooters. I mean no one is wearing eyes or ears.

Conversely, I saw an Appleseed event up in Ohio recently. Everyone was wearing eyes and ears. Kids were contained to an area and not running wild. From watching and listening to them, they appeared to have a good grip on running a safe range.

Disconcerting.

Did you say anything to anyone?? Just asking.

what were the parents doing?

I am certified with the 4H shooting sports, I had to go to a 3 day certification class about 200 miles away and pay for the course myself. I thought the shotgun course was very good with a lot of information and shooting skills. I would have to repeat a similar class if I wanted to do 22Lr. I was just the instructor and not the leader. I left after about a year as there were no rules being kept by the leader. For instance he wanted me to also teach 22Lr to the kids, but not having take the course, I wouldn't be covered by any insurance should an accident occur. Then, when we went to the range, too many kids and not enough adults to watch over the class. I finally told the leader I would do shotgun only and only shoot at my trap club with kids over 12 years old and it had to be once a week and no more than 6 kids. His son didn't like the shooting club that I am a member because they stopped the shoot to correct something he was doing wrong and he didn't like to be corrected while in a group (too bad, that is life). So the leader would only go as a big group to a public range at Fort Dix, NJ. I left after that as safety was a major concern.

Sounds like an RSO needs some training.

This is interesting to me because some years ago, we had an incident at our range, where a kid, with apparently too little supervision, was injured by a ricochet from a steel plate he was firing at from too close a distance. As a result, our range no longer has steel plates for the members to enjoy . I was told it was a 4-H group .

Here is my take on what is happening:
Any sport or club that has little to no dues or associated fees get a large enrollment early on, and since there is no or little fee for the students the don't care if their kids miss classes or not. It is a place where parents can drop their kids off, and go shopping. While some parents stay around, the majority leave and come back and have no idea whether their child is learning or not. I have seen this many times while teaching Judo at a YMCA program for 15 years without pay.
While most kids at first are interested, they stay in a program and usually show up when it comes time to go to the range or tournament. The parents think the kids are learning and it gives them "bragging rights" to say their child is in such and such programs. The parents expect you the leader to give up your free time but don't put in the time themselves at home to reinforce what they have learned. Both the organizations I belonged to required me to be certified at my cost and I agreed to it. In the end parents are what ruined my enjoyment of teaching. In 4H, it was easy to walk away as safety concerns were not taken seriously but the leader. I can still shoot and enjoy the sport.

quote:

Originally posted by mrmn50:
Did you say anything to anyone?? Just asking.

Yep. I went to the range owners.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
what were the parents doing?

Most had their noses stuck in smart phones.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
This is interesting to me because some years ago, we had an incident at our range, where a kid, with apparently too little supervision, was injured by a ricochet from a steel plate he was firing at from too close a distance. As a result, our range no longer has steel plates for the members to enjoy.

Yeah, that's a good solution.

Don't respond by training, or by enforcing safety rules, just take the offending steel targets away from everybody. One kid mis-uses them because s/he is not supervised, so everybody who is using them correctly loses out.

Makes perfect sense to me.