Beware of the Tourists

[Matt Harper]

Went to my local gun range, which has frequently been mentioned on here, this afternoon, to try out my new semi-auto.
It's been rainy here in FL today, so the place was quite busy with British tourists.
In the shooting-lane next to mine were 3 English lads (mid/late 20's) who were behaving like total morons.
Not certain if it was loaded or not, but one of these pricks inadvertantly pointed a rental pistol at me, completely ignoring the range rules about keeping weapons pointed down-range.
After suggesting to this tt that if it happened again, very, very bad things were likely to happen to him, he did this, having just reloaded the clip of a 9mm with his finger on the trigger.



Thankfully, they were all kicked-out, as a result, but didn't leave without getting mouthy and threatening with the range staff (all of whom are heavily armed).
Undoubtedly not representative of most tourist visitors, but it reminded me to be very aware of those around me, at places like this.

[Matt Harper]

I have to say that this range is, in my experience, quite well run, in that they do afford patrons a degree of autonomy. Perhaps they should be supervising absolute novices more closely, but I'm not sure how you determine who's an idiot versus who isn't based on a 1 minute interaction in the store.

I suppose the ideal way to run things would be to have supervised 'novice and tourist' sessions, but I think that may alienate the regulars.

I suspect it kind of goes with the territory, when you have a gun range offering rental weapons of varied description in a tourist destination.

I know that quite a few folks on here frequent this business when holidaying in Orlando - my point was not to cast any judgement on the range itself (I patronize the place frequently and have purchased a number of guns from them) - more to remind people to stay aware and be mindful of those around them in what is a fun place that can go bad on you in a heartbeat.