...Target, Backstop, and Beyond...FAILURE = Death

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Double Naught Spy

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In order to comply with this safety rule, you need to have a backstop and you need to know what is in the distance. A Utah family was driving home from a family photoshoot when a bullet came through the side window of their jeep and struck Zachary Kempke in the head, killing him instantly.

https://kutv.com/news/local/family-...fter-14-year-old-boy-killed-by-target-shooter

https://fox2now.com/2018/09/24/targ...a4c&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

Another family was target shooting approximately a few hundred feet from the road with NO BACKSTOP! They said that they did not know there was a road in the direction they were firing and did not see the vehicle approach.

https://www.inquisitr.com/5088849/1...m-target-shooter-while-riding-in-familys-car/

Surprisingly, the family is very forgiving, but law enforcement may not be, though they are calling it an accident, apparently...
https://nypost.com/2018/09/26/family-of-teen-killed-by-stray-bullet-sees-tragedy-on-both-sides/
 
God that is terrible. What a heartbreak for that family. I have a few friends that are not as anal about backstops on their property. Yes they shoot away from the road, but nothing really behind it to catch the bullets. I'm sending them the links to prove a point and maybe they will remember terrible events like this before they setup some targets for an afternoon session.
 
It is not the responsibility of those driving on a road, remote or otherwise, to watch out for bullets. It is the shooters responsibility to know their target, and what is beyond, and under all circumstances, ensure that you are preserving the safety of those around you, even when shooting on your own private property. We shoot on our properties all the time, and I can't even imagine shooting toward a road, even our own private road. This is amplified even more by the fact that they were shooting into an obstructed backstop.
 
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I have no idea who these people are, but my heart breaks for them.
Shooting is fun. But man, I cannot fathom the guilt I'd feel for letting safety go by the wayside and causing an innocent person to be killed, or even hurt.
Cheygriz nailed it in the first reply to this thread. When the hammer drops, you are responsible for where that bullet goes.
 
This happened about 15 years back in our area. Hunter shot at a deer, bullet arched over a hill and hit a driver in the neck going down a nearby road. Bled out immediately and crashed. Driver was the husband of my coworker, who was widowed at a young age with two or three young children. I think the shooter was charged with manslaughter. Unbelievable freak accident destroyed two families.
 
A stark reminder that it only takes one and anyone of the billions fired each year can be “the one”.

How can you be less than 100 yards and not know it?

Makes me think of your thermal hunting thread recently. Where a seasoned shooter but new guy to the type of optic and area made things less than seamless. Wonder about the details that lead to the tragedy.
 
Stories like the ones above are what make me cringe when some folks post pictures of their personnel shooting range. "Oh.....but there are trees behind the targets and no houses for a half mile."
 
The+Injury+Pyramid+–+where+to+focus+our+efforts.jpg

If, periodically, drivers of vehicles unknown to a shooter are being shot in the head, there are exponentially more bad decisions being made. Which is completely unacceptable in my eyes. Unfortunately, it seems to be a part of human nature that a false sense of safety and security is bolstered with each repetition of a poor decision which does not result in a negative outcome. Or to put it more plainly: people do dangerous things and don't get hurt, so they assume those dangerous things are safe.

Topics like this are a reminder to us all, not to become complacent about our decision making. There is a book by Laurence Gonzales entitled Deep Survival, which deals with the psychology of survival and decision making. It is absolutely worth reading.
 
Let's all agree that the motorist in this story should not be criticised.
It isn't the motorist's actions that are to be scrutinised, it is the actions of the shooters.
These incidents make the shooting community look bad and we should be doing all we can to prevent them.
 
13 years ago an acquaintance of mine told me that he and his wife were looking for a piece of land out in the country where they could build their retirement home, a place large enough to accommodate a 100yd rifle range. He told me that they thought that they had finally found The Place ... and it had a perfect spot for that range.

I asked about the type of backstop, expecting him to say there was a hillside or that they would use the 'dozer after the basement was excavated to build one.
He said that they did not need a backstop because the was a tree lot between the "range" end and the next field over. :what:

Thankfully, they did not buy that place and found a nice place in the Valley that backs up against the Blue Ridge. Backstop problem solved. :)
 
#4 of Jeff Cooper's 4 rules of safe shooting.......Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
 
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Had an incident here in Michigan last spring where an idiot was target shooting and killed the neighbor lady who was standing at her sink in her kitchen doing dishes.
There is no conclusion other than the shooter is 100% responsible and negligent for killing someone if they are driving down the road or standing in their kitchen.
 
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Every bullet that goes down range has a lawyer attached to it. Every one of them.

Plays hell with the ballistic coefficient. :evil:


On a more serious note, you're right, in that we'd all of us be well advised to be very sure when we're plinking, or target shooting, or hunting ---everywhere we us guns --- we do so in a deliberate, safe manner, and know our surroundings!
 
If it was a public roadway, the family had a right to be there and were correct in assuming it was safe from gunfire. There is nuttin' in this scenario that could lay any blame on any of those folks in the car. Arguing there is, shows just how much responsibility one assumes when they shoot their own guns.
 
When a bullet leaves the barrel of the gun or rifle that you have pulled the trigger on. At that point you are legally responsible for where that bullet goes and any damage that it does.
 
As I have mentioned before, I was at a DCM shoot in Oregon, a woman, following what she thought was a road, drove right in front of our targets. I can understand the mistake, she just made a wrong turn. To add to it, we were shooting prone; so she probably wouldn't have seen us, even if she had looked.

Yes, it was definitely our responsibility to stop shooting. That being said, there should have been a system in place that would have prevented a person from inadvertently driving into the range.
 
This is why I'm glad my folk's farm is on the side of a mountain. Walk out the basement, turn left.... gazillion ton granite backstop hundreds of feet tall.
 
Sad.

There are many many videos of people shooting on youtube with zero berm of any kind, *including several highly-watched channels*, which is the really sad part. Whenever I comment that this is unsafe, I typically get attacked en masse along the lines of "this is wilderness; there are NO people back there, so there is no berm needed".
 
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