If you use amateurs as your front line defense don’t be surprised when you get amateur results. An Oklahoma gun range has followed in the tradition of another asshole range owner by declaring their facility off limits to Muslims (How can they tell if somebody is Muslim by looking at them? Here’s the secret, “Muslim” is usually a code word for “brown person.”). Needless to say this has resulted in the range owner receiving various threats because issuing threats on the Internet is pretty much a risk-free method of demonstrating your disapproval. Hoping to share in the infamy spotlight a group of self-proclaimed patriots heeded the call, gunned up, and rushed to protect the gun range. One of the patriots demonstrated why you don’t want amateurs providing your security:
The gun fell out of the holster and discharged, with a bullet hitting the man in the wrist, Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson said, according to KOTV and the Tulsa World newspaper. The man was expected to survive.
First of all let us set aside the silliness of the gun falling out of its holster and discharging on impact. Although I’m sure there are exceptionally shitty holsters out there I feel safe in saying a vast majority of them will retain a firearm enough to prevent it from falling out. In addition to that most firearms are now equipped with a drop safety to prevent exactly this kind of scenario.
What’s more likely is this patriot pulled out his gun to either play with it or shot it off, dropped it, and inadvertently pulled the trigger when he attempted to catch it.
Not let’s address the issue of security. The range owner claims that he’s been receiving death threats, which wouldn’t surprise me as making such threats is almost risk-free these days. When you receive death threats you have to decide whether you feel they are credible or not. If you don’t believe they’re credible you ignore the. If you do believe they are credible you take measures to protect yourself. Hiring guards is one such measure a person could take. But there’s a difference between one of these patriots, which are almost always mouthy but otherwise mostly harmless, and professionals. If the range owner felt the threats were legitimate he should have hired professional guards to protect his business. Professional guards aren’t as apt to make amateur mistakes like play with their firearm. And if an incident does occur they’re more likely to have the training necessary to deal with it.