I've read enough of your posts, LS, to know you're not guilty of being one of those ranger officers who thinks they're a god dispensing justice on the firing line.
Let me give you an example:
A couple decides to spend Sunday afternoon at the firing range because a friend told them it was fun.
She takes the .38 snubnose she bought for home protection which she's never fired, and he takes that 30.06 his uncle gave him twenty years ago.
Now, I know and you know that they should take a safety course before they go, but nine out of ten people learn safety at the range as they go along.
When they approach the firing line they see a multitude of signs of "do's and don't's".
"HEARING AND EYE PROTECTION WILL BE WORN AT ALL TIMES!"
"ALL BOLTS WILL BE OPENED AND CHAMBERS EMPTY EXCEPT ON THE FIRING LINE!"
"KEEP WEAPONS POINTED DOWNRANGE AT ALL TIMES!"
"NON SHOOTERS ARE NOT PERMITTED BEYOND THE WHITE LINE WHEN THE FIRING LINE IS HOT!"
"ETC, ETC".
Now, they've been nervous all day thinking about coming out here.
They start trying to assimilate all the rules, and the nervous tension increases considerably.
Right here the range officer can make it or break it.
If he is helpful and courteous he can ease the tension and add a couple of shooters to help our cause.
If he comes across like a DI in bootcamp, he makes the situation worse, and the couple are terrified before they even fire the first round.
More than likely, they'll put their weapons back in their car and never come back.
They'll tell their friends, "I don't shoot. I hate guns!", and we'll have two more gun grabbers to fight for our Second Amendment rights.
I talk gun talk to people every day.
I'm always surprised when someone, usually women, will say, "I don't like guns".
If I can get them to trace it back, they've had a bad experience with guns so they're an enemy forever.
They don't understand guns, and they don't understand people who like guns.
Those are the people we need to reach, and your job at the range is the perfect place to win converts.
I admire you for your courage (yep, it takes courage!) and your dedication to shooting.
I'm always leery about government support for anything, and shooting is no different.
With support comes control, and we have way more than enough of that.
I agree that shooting can be an intimidating thing to get into for newcomers. The way we try to get around the intimidation thing while ensuring safety is fairly low key.
There is an extensive safety briefing that all first time customers must have before being allowed on the range. We get some of thier shooting history out of them during this briefing, and if they have never shot before, someone will always spend some extra time with them on the range. This allows us to get them thinking safely from the start, and we can usually, in less than an hour, impart the very basic essentials of marksmanship, so that they will have fun. It is all done with a very relaxed attitude, more like a bowling alley than a shooting range. Any employee who treats the paying customers like a DI ( which I have never seen happen where I work, although I have seen it other places) will very quickly be unemployed.
We do not have designated range officers, as a matter of fact. Any employee or customer can call a cease fire upon observing an unsafe act, which will then be dealt with by an employee. We have video monitors so we can observe shooters without making them nervous or hovered over.
I spend a pretty good amount of time on the firing line test firing guns, explaining to people why you have to hold onto that Glock for it to work, clearing jams, removing squibs, sighting in guns, and giving the occasional lesson. Not to mention my own personal trigger time. It is amazing to me that I do not see more unsafe acts than I do.
I hated uptight idiot range officers, back when I had to deal with them, so much that I hope to never turn into one.
To the best of my knowledge, there has been only one serious injury at this range in fourteen years of operation, and that was a fatality. A woman who had been shooting there fairly regularly came in, rented a revolver, put twelve or thirteen rounds downrange into her target, and then one into her head.
So while I agree that there is a fine line between safety concerns and making the experience enjoyable, it can be done. Any range that cannot manage it is not staffed by professionals, and that is about all there is to it.
My livilihood depends upon attracting more shooters to the sport, and I am certainly not going to do anything of which I am aware to drive them away, although I have seen it done. I do not understand a lot of what goes on in the firearms business, why the customers get treated the way they do some places--you know what I am talking about. I just wish things were different, industry wide.
Stay safe, Cowboy