There are some people ya just don't want to take shooting with you, for various reasons. In my case, just recently, I determined two people were on my "don't take to the range" list. Both got on the list due to their attitudes.
One is a friend of mine that I took there a few years ago when he initially showed interest in obtaining his CHL. At first he was a good student, eager to learn, his only experience with guns was a couple times shooting in a field when he was a kid. He inherited a couple pistols from his stepdad and wanted to try them out. Trip #1 went great. Trip #2 he was very picky about what time we went, what day, we had to change plans a couple times, I don't know if it was nerves or what but he was very difficult. Okay, it happens. Since then he hasn't talked much about the range but he has shot with other people and developed the "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing" syndrome. For example, recently I asked him about how he keeps his pistol at his bedside for defense and he told me he "keeps the clip out, that way if someone comes in I can slap the clip in and start shooting". I explained that in his gun inserting the magazine does not feed a round into the chamber, so either he already had a round chambered anyway and was wasting time leaving the mag out or he would need to rack the slide to feed a round into the chamber. He just looked at me, despite repeated, gentle explanations. Then a few days ago I helped him clear his house out to be fumigated. He had me clear his pistols and his 9mm had a mix of 9x19 and .380 ammo in the magazine. I mentioned this to him and told him he was lucky nobody did break in since the chamber was empty and if he slapped a mag in and thought to rack the slide the gun would probably jam, at best. He just ducked out of the room in the middle of the conversation, not wanting to hear he made a mistake. Mind you I'm not being a jerk about any of it, just telling him like "umm, buddy? This isn't the best idea..." I can't trust him to be safe, so no range trips with him.
Person number two is a teenage relative. At 13 he was excited to go shooting and very open and receptive to instruction. He asked me questions about guns and was generally polite and curious. Now that he's hit puberty and turning 15, and has grown 7" in height, and spent the last year playing games like Call of Duty on xbox he has turned into a cocky punk when it comes to firearms. It's unfortunate, really. His grandfather and great uncle have taken him out shooting in the country a few times and as he recounted the story to me it was obvious he was busy telling them he "already knows everything I need to know about weapons, every gun is loaded, blahblahblah" and by the end of it after he had (poorly) shot their .22s and .38s and told them what time it was his great uncle handed him a 91/30 and said "this doesn't kick at all" so he could get walloped once and maybe listen to some tips to improve his stance, etc. Instead the kid got walloped then bragged that he was smart because he leaned his head way out of the way before he shot it so it wouldn't hit him in the face. At this point in his story I tried to suggest he could make some adjustments to handle the recoil and shoot better based on what he described to me and he cut me off, repeatedly, to tell me it was smart to lean his face away from the stock when he fired the gun. I am so disappointed in him. He wants to shoot my guns but he refuses to listen to anything I have to say regarding safety, etc. so he's on the list. No range for him.
Anybody else have people like this in their lives?
One is a friend of mine that I took there a few years ago when he initially showed interest in obtaining his CHL. At first he was a good student, eager to learn, his only experience with guns was a couple times shooting in a field when he was a kid. He inherited a couple pistols from his stepdad and wanted to try them out. Trip #1 went great. Trip #2 he was very picky about what time we went, what day, we had to change plans a couple times, I don't know if it was nerves or what but he was very difficult. Okay, it happens. Since then he hasn't talked much about the range but he has shot with other people and developed the "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing" syndrome. For example, recently I asked him about how he keeps his pistol at his bedside for defense and he told me he "keeps the clip out, that way if someone comes in I can slap the clip in and start shooting". I explained that in his gun inserting the magazine does not feed a round into the chamber, so either he already had a round chambered anyway and was wasting time leaving the mag out or he would need to rack the slide to feed a round into the chamber. He just looked at me, despite repeated, gentle explanations. Then a few days ago I helped him clear his house out to be fumigated. He had me clear his pistols and his 9mm had a mix of 9x19 and .380 ammo in the magazine. I mentioned this to him and told him he was lucky nobody did break in since the chamber was empty and if he slapped a mag in and thought to rack the slide the gun would probably jam, at best. He just ducked out of the room in the middle of the conversation, not wanting to hear he made a mistake. Mind you I'm not being a jerk about any of it, just telling him like "umm, buddy? This isn't the best idea..." I can't trust him to be safe, so no range trips with him.
Person number two is a teenage relative. At 13 he was excited to go shooting and very open and receptive to instruction. He asked me questions about guns and was generally polite and curious. Now that he's hit puberty and turning 15, and has grown 7" in height, and spent the last year playing games like Call of Duty on xbox he has turned into a cocky punk when it comes to firearms. It's unfortunate, really. His grandfather and great uncle have taken him out shooting in the country a few times and as he recounted the story to me it was obvious he was busy telling them he "already knows everything I need to know about weapons, every gun is loaded, blahblahblah" and by the end of it after he had (poorly) shot their .22s and .38s and told them what time it was his great uncle handed him a 91/30 and said "this doesn't kick at all" so he could get walloped once and maybe listen to some tips to improve his stance, etc. Instead the kid got walloped then bragged that he was smart because he leaned his head way out of the way before he shot it so it wouldn't hit him in the face. At this point in his story I tried to suggest he could make some adjustments to handle the recoil and shoot better based on what he described to me and he cut me off, repeatedly, to tell me it was smart to lean his face away from the stock when he fired the gun. I am so disappointed in him. He wants to shoot my guns but he refuses to listen to anything I have to say regarding safety, etc. so he's on the list. No range for him.
Anybody else have people like this in their lives?
