range paranoia

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This has me wondering.

If you are down range, and a person picks up your guns to steal them, are you legally allowed to open fire? Or do you have to wait for them to shoot at you first?

There's a difference between an idiot checking out your gun without asking because he's curious, a thief who just wants a clean getaway with your piece, and a killer who will shoot you in the head for your piece.

Very little warning if it escalates from #1, to #2, to #3.

So at what point do you send lead flying their direction?
 
Trent, that's the $50 question. Follow your heart and apply good common sense with an ear to legalities.
 
here in southern Arizona, the desert is full of drug smuggler activity. The range I go shoot at on BLM land is no exception. I always take my mini van and set my table up next to it. When I go down range to mess with targets, I always lock all my stuff in the van except the table and sandbags and I always take my AR carbine down range with me. I like to think I am being realistic, not paranoid.
 
Private range; locked gate. No RO. Motion activated cameras. I do go there alone, and shoot at handgun range. I take my ear protection off while resetting; gravel will give away anyone driving in or walking up close. If someone wanted to come in across the fields on foot and cause trouble, they could. They would be photographed and probably caught but wouldn't do me a lot of good after the fact. I guess I should probably go back to dragging someone with me.
 
Range I shoot at is a private range managed by the local Police department, all said though, I always keep a loaded sidearm on me. It just seems prudent, and I notice most everyone there does the same thing. The range itself is close enough to a road that someone would not have trouble walking up the short gated drive.
 
I've seen threads similar to this one. I've read more than one account of people taking turns on "overwatch" during a group shooting session, if the land they're using is an unsupervised shooting area.
I'm fortunate that I'm frequently the only shooter at my range (flexible work schedule), but there's always a range manager in his office.
Very few people even know there is a range there, and getting to where you could steal from, harm or threaten someone shooting would mean either descending from a steep cliff, or driving up an access road, and escaping the attention of the manager.
I feel quite safe there, but I do occasionally pause while shooting and just take a look around to keep my situational awareness up...
 
I travel a lot in very remote places with my 4x4, including places to shoot that are 20+ miles from the nearest tarmac road. I am always armed and my truck is always locked with the alarm set if I'm beyond effective handgun range from it. The keys are never in the ignition if my butt's not in the driver's seat. I go many places where my chances of survival should I be separated from my truck/gear are pretty grim due to a spinal injury. (There's no way I could walk even ten miles out of the woods, I'd be paralyzed after five.) As such I take the protection of my vehicle and gear very seriously and hope that if the 'worst case scenario' happens a jury of my peers will understand.

When shooting, regardless of location, I always concealed carry a backup handgun that I'm not shooting that day so that I always have a loaded gun on my person. If I'm shooting someplace remote by myself (doesn't happen much, but once in a while) I sling my folded Saiga .308 on my back when going downrange. I never leave a loaded gun on a bench or table when going downrange and if I'm going more than about 50 feet all the magazines go into a range bag to slow down the bad guy(s). Of course I keep a close eye and ear on what's happening to my stuff while I'm away from it.
 
To the OP's original question: Lock your doors and keep your car keys on you. If you have a pistol, make sure it is on you when you walk downrange (if its allowed or you are alone).
 
@ 22rimfire:

If you started taking pictures without permission you would be escorted from the property and served a trespass warning. The owner made that point crystal clear about two years ago.

The backstory as I heard it was that first, a group of regulars were using legal Title II weapons and some people were taking pictures. Those pictures were later found on an anti-gun group's web site as showing anti-government militia members training with illegal machine guns at a white-supremacist training camp.

During the time he was researching this, he googled the name of the range and discovered videos of people demonstrating nuclear-levels of stupidity in gun handling and safety violations. By banning the direct-to-Youtube video idiots he's eliminated a lot of the stupid. And as a side benefit he's seen less damage to range equipment. Go figure.

If you want to take some pix of your kid's first AR session that's fine, with permission.
Randomly pulling out a camera and taking shots of stuff that is not yours will get you escorted off the property immediately, no refunds.

If you don't like that, there's other places to shoot.
 
Even when you're at the range, never be out of ammo. If you're shooting practice ball ammo, take your carry mag out, shoot, then put the carry mag back in immediately when you're done. If you're at a unsupervised range or a supervised range that lets you, keep a loaded gun on you at all times. When I'm out on state land shooting, I never leave my weapons unloaded. If I shoot a couple mags though the pistol and the AR15, I'll put a fresh mag in each and carry them downrange to check targets. Being separated from your weapons and having an unloaded weapon are equally unwise.
 
That thought has crossed my mind more than once. But a bigger concern of mine that actually happened to me was, when myself and a couple other shooter's at the unsupervised range informed the one and only guy still at the benches, that we were going down range to change targets. The guy clearly acknowleged us letting him know we were going down range, but after we had began to walk the 200 yds. back, he started shooting at his target. Talk about 3 guys hitting the dirst fast! I was wearing my sidearm and one of the guys suggested I fire a couple rounds off into the air to remind him we are still down range, considering he continued shooting for a good 5 minutes before realizing we were yelling at him and waving our hat in the air. But I didn't, and because that would be just as bad in my opinion and could have erupted into a fr worse situation. But when we got back up there we absolutely reamed him. He ended up packing up his stuff and leaving, and in a hurry too.

As a result, I don't shoot at unsupervised public ranges any more. Now I just pack up my portable bench and find an issolated spot to do my shooting. Too many morons out there that don't acknowlegde or care about range safety rules clearly posted at the entry gate.

GS
 
That thought has crossed my mind, mainly when I am there alone and it is early morning, before most people would bother to be there. I enjoy having the range to myself, as I don't like people who talk my ear off, try to tell me things I already know and basically want to just chat small-talk for as much time as I will sit there not shooting and just listening to them. When I go to shoot, I want to shoot, when at the range, I am working on loads, concentrating on a number of things. I don't need people interrupting me as I am trying to chrony my loads and see which loads are the most accurate.

Many times, when the rifle is unloaded on the rest and I'm 100 or 200 yards out at the target, I make it a habit to frequently look back at the benches, just to make sure I'm not about to get a bullet in my back.

The way things are today it is much different than when I started going regularly to the range around 1980. I also carry most of the time now, whereas back then, I might have had a gun on my hip or not. The way the world is getting and has gotten, I have a gun in my pocket most of the time.

I wouldn't hesitate one bit to throw my AR over my shoulder and carry that down-range with me when I'm there alone, besides, I might see a good shot at a coyote.
 
If you started taking pictures without permission you would be escorted from the property and served a trespass warning. The owner made that point crystal clear about two years ago.
Click to expand...
It's one thing to be on private property where photography is forbidden. In that case, it would certainly be kosher to ask the person to stop and/or leave.

Your initial statement said nothing about any particular range or its specific rules. It was a very general statement.
If I'm shooting at a public range and some joker starts trying to take pictures of my car, my gear, or me- there's going to be a problem.
Click to expand...
And the answer is still the same. If you are at "a public range" you have no right to create a problem if someone starts photographing you.

If you are at a a specific shooting range that has rules against photography, that's another story entirely. However, even in that case, it should be the owner/operator enforcing the rules, and not you, unless he has asked/appointed you to act as his agent in such manners.
 
JohnKSa said:
It's one thing to be on private property where photography is forbidden. In that case, it would certainly be kosher to ask the person to stop and/or leave.

Your initial statement said nothing about any particular range or its specific rules. It was a very general statement.And the answer is still the same. If you are at "a public range" you have no right to create a problem if someone starts photographing you.

If you are at a a specific shooting range that has rules against photography, that's another story entirely. However, even in that case, it should be the owner/operator enforcing the rules, and not you, unless he has asked/appointed you to act as his agent in such manners.
Click to expand...

Good post
 
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