Shooting Range Etiquette (Or, “The Range Safety Rules Explained”)

We have our Range Safety Rules posted on our website, and on a huge placard above our range door. Something tells me not many people ever read them on our wall. There are a lot of safety rules, but it’s about “how to behave on the range.” When my wife and I had small kids, we always tried to “give the moral reason why” for everything we asked or told them to do or not to do. Below, I’m listing our Range Safety Rules again, each one with a “why” explanation next to it.

SharpShooters Range Safety Rules

• Children must be at least 12 years of age to be allowed on the range. Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and supervised at all times.
  • WHY: Safety and behavioral issue, plain and simple. When you bring in your kids, they need to be ready to accept the behavioral requirements of a shooting range. We’ve learned that kids under 12 are generally not ready to do so, though there are exceptions. And kids that are 12-17 are minors, so they come under your responsibility as their parent or guardian.
• All first time visitors to SharpShooters USA are required to view our Safety Video before being permitted to shoot on the range.
  • WHY: Kind of like reading these rules, it’s necessary to understand how to behave in a room where there might be 20 or more firearms. It’s the little things, and this Safety Video is one very simple way we can introduce new shooters to Range Etiquette.
• Always treat firearms like they are loaded. Always.
  • WHY: Because even when someone says it’s not loaded, do you believe them? You should not only treat every gun like it’s loaded, but you should check it yourself to be absolutely sure.
• Always keep the muzzle (the barrel) pointed down range.
  • WHY: Because accidental discharges happen, period. That means your gun can accidentally fire off a round. No, you didn’t mean to. Your finger hit the trigger on accident, or it got caught on your backpack strap. That might happen, and if it does, and your gun is pointed down range, no harm is done.
• Always keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot.
  • WHY: Are you an expert at firearms? For most people, that answer is “No”, which means your trigger finger is not trained and disciplined to only pull exactly when you want to pull. That said, even at the highest level of military warfighter training, this rule still applies. If your finger is on the trigger, there is a very good chance that trigger will get pulled.
• All shooters must be aware of their target and what is behind the target.
  • WHY: For hunting and for actual combat, this whole rule is important. That’s how many deer hunting accidents occur: one hunter thinks they see a nice big buck in a thicket, and they don’t positively identify the target as a deer, and it turns out it’s their hunting buddy. As for what’s behind the target, what if you miss the target? Whatever is behind the target has now become the target. At an indoor shooting range, what’s behind the target is not the important part, since that’s a bullet trap of some sort. But your target is your target, and you shoot only at your target, not anyone else’s target.
• Range Safety Officer (RSO) commands must be obeyed at all times. Upon the command, “CEASE FIRE”, stop all shooting immediately, put down your firearm, and back away from the shooting booth. Shooters may not re-enter the booth or pick up their firearm until an “ALL CLEAR”signal is given by the RSO.
  • WHY: At any shooting range, the RSO is like the Lifeguard at a pool. The RSO is 100% in charge of the range at all times. If you do not obey the RSO, you will be asked to leave. It’s that simple. RSOs are there for your protection. What they say is to be considered the gospel.
• Eye and ear protection are required prior to entering the range, and must be worn at all times on the range.
  • WHY: That’s the rule. In reality, we require anyone who is waiting at the range door to have their “eyes & ears” before they enter the range. The “why” behind this rule should be obvious, but to many, it’s not. One gunshot without ear protection can cause permanent hearing loss. One spent shell casing to the eye can cause irreparable harm to your eye. Guns are always loud – even when “suppressed”, and shell casings are flying all over the place all the time in every shooting range.
• Range visitors are encouraged, but not required, to wear a hat with a forward facing brim prior to entering the range and while on the range.
  • WHY: Until you’ve experienced having a fire hot shell casing going down your tucked-in shirt, you may not quite get this one, but we’d prefer to spare you that agony, and possible harm to others, and just recommend you wear a hat.
• All firearms must be cased and unloaded while going into and out of the SharpShooters USA facility.
  • WHY: When you walk into the store holding your gun in your hand, that sets off all the mental alarms in the heads of our employees. We don’t know your intentions. We don’t know if your gun is loaded. We don’t know if your finger is on the trigger. If you don’t have a case, we have one your can borrow to come in the store, and then we’ve got plenty you can buy before you leave the store.
• Use only one firearm at a time. When finished, unload and case the firearm before uncasing the next firearm.
  • WHY: No double fisting, ok? You’re not Johnny Rambo, and there’s no practical reason to practice handling two guns at the same time. If our RSO sees you firing — or trying to fire — two guns at the same time, he’ll politely ask you to pack up and leave the range. If it’s not safe, it’s not fun.
• No firearm handling is allowed outside of the shooting booth.
  • WHY: This rule is a little hard to understand. First, we have to define “shooting booth”. That’s the approximately 4 foot wide area, with bullet proof glass on both sides and a table between the two glass walls. That’s your shooting booth, your work space. There, and only there, is where you uncase, load, unload, and fire your weapon. Nowhere else. Why? Because accidents happen, and if there’s going to be an accidental discharge (“AD”) or negligent discharge (“ND”), then it’s better to be surrounded by bulletproof glass when that happens, than to be out in the open walking area behind the shooting booths.
• Cross lane shooting is prohibited. Shoot only at your target in your lane. 
  • WHY: You can easily see where this type of behavior could lead. “He shot my target! So I shot his target!” Use your imagination. You paid for your target, and your nextdoor shooting booth neighbor paid for theirs. Aim accordingly.
• Shooters should fire only at their target as rapidly as their own ability permits. Uncontrolled shooting resulting in damage to equipment is strictly prohibited. Violators will have range privileges revoked and will be held liable for all damages.
  • WHY: We have a simple example we reference when the opportunity arises for someone to fire a fully automatic weapon. We have several of those here, and a dedicated RSO is required when we rent those out. Why? Because 99.9% of people have never fired a full auto weapon before. When you pull and hold that trigger, the recoil begins and it never stops. That recoil energy propels the barrel of the weapon upward as your shoulder becomes the pivot point. The result is a lot of holes in our ceiling, which are both unsafe and unsightly, and the entire event scares the daylights out of the new shooter.
• Alcohol or drug use before or while shooting is strictly prohibited. Any person suspected of drug or alcohol use will be escorted off the property.
  • WHY: We shouldn’t have to explain this one. Drugs and alcohol are all too typically associated with “fun”, and we associate guns with “fun”, but the two do not mix any more than drinking and driving mix. Don’t do it.
• No food, drink, gum, or tobacco of any kind is permitted inside the range. Cell phone usage and texting on the range is prohibited.
  • WHY: Proper use of any firearm requires focus. Think about how distracted you are in your car when you take a sip of that Big Gulp, spill mayo from your Chick-Fil-A sandwich, drop your cigarette, or misplace your spit cup. On the range, you focus on safely operating your firearm 
• Drawing from the holster is prohibited.
  • WHY: If you’re not “Holster Certified”, drawing from the holster is prohibited. How do you get certified? By becoming a member, and passing our Holster Certification Class, offered approximately monthly. Now, why can’t anyone else draw and shoot from a holster? Because it’s more dangerous than picking up your pistol, aiming, and shooting. Unless you’ve been taught proper technique, and understand the inherent dangers of drawing your gun from a holster, you put yourself and others around you in danger.
• Only authorized firearms and ammunition are allowed. Steel core, steel jacketed, tracer, and incendiary rounds are prohibited.
  • WHY: There’s another indoor range just down the road from us, the Sandy Springs Gun Club. SSGC recently reopened after being closed for 4 years. It closed because someone fired a tracer round that ended up in the air filtration system and caused a fire that destroyed the air handler. The air systems in indoor ranges (good ones anyway) are not your average HVAC systems. Ours moves the air at 75 feet per minute (FPM) and recycles all the air in each bay every 90 seconds. That’s roughly half a million dollars sitting on the rooftop, and it doesn’t take kindly to sparks. Steel core bullets fired from rifles cause big sparks, as do tracer rounds. We don’t want to start a fire in our range, so once again, it’s for your safety that we prohibit the use of such ammunition. We’ve actually been called “retarded” in a Google review for this policy. We think of it as being safe and protecting our business assets.
• Know and understand all of the operating and safety features of the firearms you are using on the range.
  • WHY: Every gun is different. Different features, requirements, performance, projectile velocities, recoil, magazines, different ammunition requirements. We highly recommend that everyone who owns a gun invest the time in appropriate training to use their firearm, but we must assume that if you own the gun, you know how to use it at a very basic level. However, we still have RSOs on the range at all times.
• Report any unsafe activity or conditions to the Range Safety Officer (RSO) immediately.
  • WHY: We have great RSOs. In fact, every SharpShooters employee is trained as an RSO. But like the referees of your favorite sport, we can’t see everything all the time. And, while we do have “reply” (aka video), it’s not “instant” replay. If we don’t see it, and you don’t report it to an RSO, then there’s no way for us to do anything about it. If you see someone doing something unsafe on the range, you have an obligation to report it, and everyone on the range will thank and support you.
• When leaving the range, thoroughly wash your hands and forearms at the hand washing station.
  • WHY: Lead poisoning is a real thing. We clean our range every day, and our air systems remove most of the lead particulates from the air, but you just handled your gun and your ammo, and there’s lead on both of those. You have to walk past the sink on the way out, so it’s easy to do. Take a minute to wash your hands before you leave the range.
• SharpShooters USA is a lost brass range. If you need to pick up your brass, please inform the Range Staff during check in.
  • WHY: When people start picking up brass, they get focused on picking up brass, and may even wander into someone else’s shooting booth or — God forbid — out past the firing line onto the range lanes. Leave your brass. We will clean it up. If you’re a reloader and want to keep your brass, please let us know and we’ll work that out.

There are probably many, many more examples and different ways to explain each of these rules. This post is not to be considered exhaustive. However, you may be exhausted reading this by now, thus illustrating my very first point that I bet very few people have actually read these rules.

Stay sharp, and stay safe on the range…any range.