I went to Boy Scout camp every summer in my teen years, where there was no shortage of safety for the rifle range. They'd only let up 8 people at a time, while the others waited some 20 feet behind. Once you got there, you took a place in front of one of the 8 mattresses, and put on your eye & ear protection. Rounds were distributed in a wooden block with 10 little holes drilled into the top, and a bullet in each hole. This is where you'd put your shells when you were done too, and if they found less than 10 shells they'd know somebody pocketed a bullet. After getting permission to pick up the gun and fire at will, you shot your rounds at your paper target.

Once everybody else was done, you could take off the eye & ear protection, stand up, then walk out to the side to pick up your target. The targets were on posts in front of an enormous hill of sand, and a 50-foot square around the entire range was roped off through the woods with neon orange colored ribbons and warning signs. The rifles, of course, were left with the action open. The 8 boys would leave, and the next 8 were up. The barrels faced the targets throughout the entire day.

Is there a point to this little anecdote? I don't know. I was just inspired by this crazy video clip somebody sent me. But looking back, I'm glad I can say I had some instruction with gun safety. What happened to this dolt in the clip wouldn't have happened if he followed proper gun handling: you don't ever aim a gun at somebody unless you know for sure that you want to shoot them, even if you're 110% sure that the gun isn't loaded! In an ironic way though, his idiocy got the point across. "Put that down!"

Of course, the silly anti-ownership people think the solution to everything is to make legal gun ownership (and proper training) harder for responsible citizens, thus making it easier for clueless bad-asses to buy unregistered guns from the black market.

Yes, this is a sensitive issue for people. Just like abortion or capital punishment, it seems to be something that there are two sharply defined sides for, and people think they have to jump into one of them all the way.

If I offended anybody, tough.