Posted on 10/29/2013 8:27:51 AM PDT by JoeProBono
Pennsylvania gun range manager Ken LeVan said that he’s learned to read people's body movements and attitudes during his 20 years on the job, a skill that he claims has allowed him to spot potentially suicidal customers.
He has refused to serve customers from time to time at the Firing Line because sometimes "it didn't feel right." He once turned away a man because of his nervous pacing. "He was soaking wet from perspiration," LeVan said.
The man also wasn’t very talkative, which LeVan said was a "dead giveaway that he was going to do something silly."
At nearby shooting range The Heritage Guild, two 54-year-old men have used guns to commit suicide since April.
Millions of people go to gun ranges each year and the suicide rate is fairly small. The Firing Line hasn't had any incidents in the 28 years it's been open.
Gun range employees face a tough situation because there is "rarely any way of knowing” if a person is suicidal, said National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman Mike Bazinet.
"There are, from time to time, incidents of this sort at gun ranges but they're very rare," Bazinet said. "It's one of these rare tragedies."
LeVan's ability to spot suicidal customers might be less effective than the two to three police officers in the range at any given time. "We have lots of cops here," LeVan said.
But LeVan has learned that communication is key in identifying potentially dangerous people. "By talking to them for 25 minutes, you really get to know their mentality."
At the range here in FL, the police have their own day - Monday, where the range is closed to us regular shooters. I guess the police don’t want us to know what lousy shots they are ....
I've noticed how the range officers have upped their level of engagement with folks they do not recognize, going over and talking with them, etc.
He is/was the “LEO Zero,” the “Kwisatz Haderach” of all “profiling” complaint bleats by the liberal media and sheep in liberaldom.
So, this LEO was reviled, castigated, litigated and pilloried and we now, years later come up on a Seer who can spot “Crazy Gun Nut Suicideers”.....
How exactly and with what import will this Seer's talents be greeted?
Why would someone go to a range to commit suicide?
They aren’t going there to commit suicide. They’re going there to practice.
I can tell them a mile away. They’re ones not aiming down range. It’s just that when they hit their target on the money, they don’t get to reload for a second round. ;^( /s
Very similar to the target drawings of people about 25 years ago. You could cut out several weapons or item items and paste in where the hand was, then when the target popped up you had to see what the item in the hand was before you fired.
At the size it posted, the guy on the bottom left is the spittin’ image of a very close relative of mine.
I don’t like organized ranges as a rule
Folks in your koolaid
And gun know it alls blabbing and talking to you like you’re in school cause they have the latest AR or SIG
I prefer to shoot on my own land or privately
That’s what’s so cool about out west.....
I’ve been raised on guns for 50 years way before black guns took off
That right there changed ranges
Don’t get me wrong....I know black guns....everyone should...
Unlike many I have actually had real world use of them
But things went tactical and it changed the tenor of ranges from when you went there to sight in your rifle or show your kids or give Wifey firing time
Not I often see a lot of ego crap I just dont care for by people I don’t find welcoming
I hate to play to stereotypes but guns can make people bossy at range
I would not want to be a range master
Give me a clay pit in Mississippi or my berm in my back pasture with my lads
...OK....I’m prepared to take heat for these observations
And don’t get me started on having to register at NWRA ranges....with IDs and crap
I of course exclude Texas Cowboy Memorial from my snarkiness..lol
He’s learned to spot the suicidal customers. They’re the ones who kill themselves. Pretty simple.
They don't own a gun and can rent one there.
Nope.
There are no innocuous objects. The goal is right there in the target series' name: NO MORE HESITATION. Don't hesitate to discern the threat level, just shoot, shoot, shoot.
This is precisely how that 13 year old got murdered by a cop in California last week.
The training works.
“I hate to play to stereotypes but guns can make people bossy at range”
“I would not want to be a range master”
We call them “range Nazis”. Still, I suppose they are needed; some of the people on the firing line are real idiots.
That was the first thing I thought...why?
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