Chris Harris
Member
I know that organizations are resistant to change but if the practice day routine was changed so that before anyone was allowed to go down range, bolts would be removed and every one had to move at least five feet to the rear of the shooting benches, and stay there while the range was cold, I doubt that this would ever happen again. IMO the problem lies with letting people stay at shooting benches during a cease fire. No one could approach a bench except to walk between them, not to pack or unpack or any other reason. Also, someone would have to be designated to keep an eye on the line during the entire time of a cease fire.
Boyd, although I see something like this being a help, I am not certain that it stops what has happened to myself and others. We load, walk up to the firing line expecting to shoot, sit down and shoot. At most ranges the "hot range time" is multiples longer than the ceasefire. One tends to get into a routine of loading a few rounds, shooting, leaving the firing line, reloading, returning, shooting and so on. At times you will be the only person shooting (especially in the late afternoon/evening) so if you approach the benches it would be quite normal to sit down and shoot despite a ceasefire. If you are loading a ways back from the firing line you can miss a range call and not see the lights then you are at risk of shooting at the wrong time and with potentially devastating results.
I am been campaigning for changes to the setup at STL for a long time before my misfire. I never ever thought it could possibly happen to me. Yet, I felt victim to the very issue I was wanting to prevent. All I want is for it to get better. I still feel that bright flashing LED lights in front of your bench on the upright would be extremely difficult to miss. But it would also be good to consider as many ideas as possible.