People do fire over the backstops, I’ve seen that happen.
Two miles though? Would you be able to hear the gunshot from that far away under these conditions. Forget about the bullet going that far.
A high-powered rifle bullet could go 3 miles easily. You’d have to point the weapon up to nearly a 45 degree angle though. A bullet fired at or near the horizontal can only travel as far as its velocity can carry it while it is falling toward the ground at 32 ft/second squared.
The sound of a rifle being fired could carry two miles, especially if the wind is right. However, it is likely that the bullet would arrive at the point of impact long before the sound did. Subsonic bullets, again, won’t get far if they are fired at or near the horizontal. Bottom line is it is serious misconduct or seriously bad range construction if a shooter fires over or through a backstop.
I make no judgement about whether the round that hit the golfer came from the range. However, if the club isn’t supervising its members shooting practices, then they are wrong and liable. Sometimes people do stupid things on a range if standards are not enforced, especially by and among the shooters themselves.
from Decal:
Go to the range’s website to read their side of this - it won’t make pleasant reading for pro-2A types, but nobody who’s lived in SA since Chairman Julian got elected mayor will be much surprised (”Rifle Range Legal Action” under the Home link).