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If I asked you to name some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country where you’re likely to get shot for just passing through them, which would you name?

Compton, CA? South side of Chicago? Downtown Philadelphia, Detroit perhaps?

How about your local gun range?

I’m at the range almost every day, and some of the things I see can make the most experienced range goers gasp in amazement.

So, obviously, all the YouTube videos, safety briefings, and social media content aren’t enough to help some of you learn the proper range etiquette. You know who you are. So, I’ll just have to hope this one might do the trick.

1. For most of us who love shooting guns, going to the range is both fun and therapeutic. Even prepping our firearms and ammunition gives us goose bumps.

When prepping your equipment, perform a thorough safety inspection of every firearm you intend to bring to the range.

Make sure your firearm are unloaded. No round in the chamber, and the magazine removed. You may preload your magazines ahead of time but keep them separate as you pack.

Most, if not all ranges, have signs on the door asking you to not bring in loaded firearms. Please comply.

2. Any well-organized shooting range is going to give you a safety briefing before you enter the range.

They tell you to open ONE door at a time. To put your eye and ear protection on BEFORE entering. To never have the gun exposed outside of the shooting lane, etc.

Please, especially if you’re a beginner, and even if you’re experienced but don’t shoot at a range often, stop what you’re doing and pay close attention to the safety briefing.

I see way too often range goers nodding their head like a yes-man while looking at their phone or picking up their bags and other items, and then break every rule as if they haven’t heard a word.

I know you’re excited to get in there and blast away, but these rules are for your safety and those around you. So, please pay attention and follow them. If you need them repeated or don’t understand a rule, ask them to repeat it.

They’ll gladly do it. In fact, they and everyone else will appreciate it.

3. There are 2 doors separating the shooting area and the gun store. There are clear signs asking you to open one door at a time. These doors serve as a noise barrier for the people in the store who are not wearing ear protection.

Again, too often, people ignore that request. Primarily because they don’t pay attention to the initial safety briefing. It’s excusable for your first time or two at the range. After that, get your act together, will ya?

The range is loud. Really loud. Make sure to put your eye and ear protection on before you open the first door, and do not take them off until you’re through both doors and back in the store area.

4. Once inside the range, you may only unpack your firearm in your shooting lane. Under no circumstances are you to carry an exposed firearm from the shelves or tables at the back of the range to your lane.

It doesn’t matter if it’s “unloaded”.

One of the 4 universal safety rules clearly states “Always treat all firearms as if they are loaded.”

So, we don’t carry loaded firearms outside of our shooting lane. PERIOD!

I had to remind several range goers of that even though they were given the initial safety briefing just moments before.

I am also sorry to say, that on one occasion when a range goer said to me, “but I checked, and it’s unloaded.” I took his gun back to the lane, pulled the trigger and lo and behold…it was loaded.

Yes. The magazine was removed, but he didn’t bother checking the chamber.

5. From the time you unpack the firearm until you are done and pack up, please keep your firearm pointed directly down range whether you are shooting or resting the gun on the table. Again, we treat all firearms as if they are loaded and thus they should point nowhere else but down range.

It is highly recommended that you perform a safety inspection before you begin your session, before you put the gun down after every drill, and before you repack your firearm and leave.

You can never be too safe. It only takes 5–6 seconds to do a thorough safety inspection and is worth its weight in gold.

6. If you’re shooting a semi-automatic firearm, your casings get ejected to the right and onto the shooter to your right. So, please keep the gun inside your lane. We all have to deal with our own shells bouncing at us. We don’t need yours too.

7. Occasionally, you’ll get a hot shell casing discharge from your gun, bounce off the divider, and end up in your shirt. Please, I beg you, don’t panic and start waving the gun around with your finger on the trigger while trying to shake it out.

If that happens, put the firearm on the table facing down range immediately, and then deal with the casing. This happens too often for my liking and can end up badly very quickly.

That’s why we recommend that you wear shirts with a high neckline, and closed toe shoes. The less skin that is exposed the less likely it is to happen.

I know it gets hot inside the range sometimes, so a high neckline t-shirt and sneakers should do the trick.

The same goes for any time you experience an issue you cannot or don’t know how to solve. Immediately place the firearm on the table withing your lane, facing down range, and call the Range Safety Officer to help you resolve it.

8. When you’re done shooting, please clean up your lane from the shell casings so the next shooter has a clean lane to come to. It takes no more than 10–15 seconds and is the courteous thing to do.

9. Most ranges provide you with free eye and ear protection if you don’t bring your own. If you do use them, please don’t place them back with the clean ones. Look for the container designated for the used ones and place them there. The staff will then disinfect them and make them available for others.

I am confident you all heard the quote, “Leave every place you enter better than you found it.” The range is no different.