We dont have any "public" ranges persay around my area, they are all private clubs with membership requirements, Although the one I frequent most which is conviently only 2.8-miles from my front door, used to have a very dangerous practice of no range-officers,it was just a check-in at the main house and go do your thing,
There was a few times that I felt uncomfortable with the crowd that was there, and I would simply leave and come back during odd-hours to avoid them, (I could usually tell when I pulled up in the parking lot,and there was a bunch of cars with the 5" diameter tailpipes with the trunk-wings and such on them )
Just recently they installed a 6-foot fence seperating the parking lot from the firing-range,making whoever showed up "funnel" past the grounds-keepers house, they added a bunch of new features on the pistol range,including overhead beams to catch strays, and during the busier times of the day,weekends etc.. there is a volunteer walking-about insuring everybody is co-operating,and following the rules,
Most everybody is on-board and easy to get along with, but ocassionally there is a couple yahoo's that wont keep their hands off weapons when range is cold, or will ignore the 3-round burst rule, (range is located in rural area,but among neighbors)
I couldn't imagine going to a range where it was just a free-for-all,,