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How do you tell an "experienced" shooter....

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gsd:
One instructor I know seems to think a smack in the back of the head works. That being said, my opinions do NOT coincide with that belief. I usually try to politely say something to  them without sounding condescending.

I myself find my finger slipping into the guard from time to time, and after a few choice words tom myself, I correct the issue and move on.

it would be preferred that all shooters take constructive criticism with the acceptance that bullit mentioned, but we all know that will never happen.

Doesn't mean we cant try though.

Ronvandyn:
There are very few “concrete” firearms safety rules.  Being an instructor does not make one a “guru” of safety, it means that one has the qualifications to teach safety.  Beyond those few you get into the realm of opinion. 

Yet those few “concrete” safety rules are broken all the time, we see it nearly every time we go to the range.  As a guy just out having a good day shooting it’s not my place to talk to the offending party, it’s my place to move to a safer location.  Depending on where it happens it might also be my place to advise an R.O., after I have moved to the next range.  In life I have found that attempting to tell someone that they are wrong is an exercise in futility.  And the more “experienced” the individual is the harder the brick wall is that you are pounding your forehead into.  Maybe this is where the “Old dogs, new tricks” saying came into being. 

I don’t hang around unsafe shooters, I go elsewhere.  Even if it means that I have to go all the way home.  But this is just my personal preference, other people have different ideas.

JTH:
Here's the thing, though:  Most of the people who read my original post shook their head and thought about the other people they have seen at the range acting in an unsafe manner.

But---how many said to themselves:  "I wonder if I'm that guy sometimes?"  (Apparently some!  Good!)

Because none of these "experienced shooters" you've seen think that THEY are the problem, either.

If you were out shooting, teaching someone else how to shoot, and someone came up to you and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but please, even if the gun is unloaded and empty, PLEASE don't turn around and walk uprange (towards the open end of the bay) with it in your hand as you go back to your range bag" ----how would you react? 

Would you argue?  Or say "I didn't do that"?  Or say "It was unloaded"?  (Because they aren't going to say it unless they saw it, and it doesn't matter if the gun was unloaded, we don't point guns uprange.) 

(I bring up this specific example because I see this one all the time at the range, and even saw it during the IDPA classifier a couple of weeks ago when a local instructor was working with someone on a different bay while wearing no eye protection, and his student trotted back to his gun bag for more ammo/mags while holding a firearm.  Well, the instructor was waving his gun uprange as he pontificated also, so it wasn't as if the student was screwing up on his own.  But I'm sure it was unloaded.)

Or if someone said to you "Your finger was in the trigger guard when you loaded/reloaded/cleared your gun."  Would you say "It wasn't on the trigger"?

Because when I say "experienced shooter" I mean you.  (And I mean me, too.)  And if your reaction to that comment is a little indignation (because YOU have good safety practice, after all) ---why is that?  After all, in my original post I said "[you] know everything and it's worked fine all this time" ---isn't that how we all think?

Having a shooting partner periodically check your gun-handling safety is a good thing.  Even the most conscientious shooter can find themselves not noticing a gradual slide into "finger on the trigger" mode (or another safety error), without either harsh continual self-discipline or an outside eye paying attention.  We need to continually check ourselves on safety.  (And remember that humans aren't good at watching themselves when acting under stress.)

So if someone comes up and says "hey, there is a safety issue" we all need to hold back that knee-jerk reaction of "I did NOT!  I'm an experienced shooter!"  ---because they aren't going to come up and say it if they didn't see it.

While I really would like to have someone tell me a good way to go up to someone and tell them to fix their safety habits with firearms, especially when they are "teaching" someone else---all of us ALSO need to check our own. 

Because, after all, we ARE experienced shooters. 

...as a comment to the people who are saying "just move away" --- should we just let them continue to be unsafe?  Teach someone else to be unsafe?  Leave, so that the next person coming out to shoot still has to deal with them, who might not notice how unsafe they are being?

I'm not saying confrontation is the answer here.  But....I don't know if just walking away is the answer, either.  In a business like an indoor range (like Big Shots, Thunder Alley, or the Bullet Hole), you can say something to the guy, or just walk out and talk to the store RO, and they will hopefully handle it.

But at someplace like ENGC, or Ikes---it isn't like you can always find an RO to speak to.  I'm all for not being shot, but I don't want people to shoot themselves, either.  I'm thinking that I'm going to have to try to say something.  I'd just like to find a way to do it so that whoever I'm talking to won't automatically get all indignant that someone would even THINK that they weren't being safe.

AWick:
Myself being an offender that once pulled a bone head move that was corrected by our very own jthhapkido, (btw, I checked that video and the range was indeed clear, but not yet announced... still not a big no no to have the pistol out then and I thank you for correcting me in a calm and understanding way) I can't really harp on others... or can I? I know that safety is something that we continually have to work on and improve and I freely admit that I have been rusty at times. Now I pose a harder question to you folks, with no intent to insult the older crowd here:

What do ya do when the man that practically beat gun safety into ya growing up starts to age and completely lose his understanding and implementation of gun safety? I was visiting over Easter and showing him a new AR build and my IWB CCW set up, because he's interested in getting his. There were muzzle issues, finger issues, and other blatant issues. He even flopped down a pistol on the couch so it bounced over a pillow and pointed right at my face! Thank God he didn't rack the slide before he did that. I just about lost my freaking mind!!! I was so mad at him and things nearly went nuclear! Of course all I got were excuses and the whole "I know what I'm doing!"... I immediately cased the guns for the entire rest of the trip, no range time was had at all...

Advice? I posted this here vs a new thread because it's in the same vein and this is still a recent thread.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Mudinyeri:
I've had to do this in my own family.  I simply said, "I'm not going to shoot with you any more until you address these safety concerns."  I then outlined my concerns, packed up my gear and left.

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