“Wait, what? You mean ‘hot range’ as in there might be might be people walking around during cease-fire with loaded guns?”
“Yes.”
“Are you nuts? How on earth are people supposed to know it’s safe?”
And that–that right there–is why I first came to question the cold range.
Please, let me explain.
Remember Rule One?
I’ll start with another idea from the sacred-cow slaughterhouse: I argue that the cold range, and specifically the cold range mentality, inherently violates Rule One. I fully understand that nobody means to do that, but that’s exactly what’s happening.
Rule One states:
All guns are always loaded.
Needless to say, we are now getting to the real point of what that simple statement really means.
On the hot range, during cease-fire, guns are known to be loaded, so Rule One is obviously in play. There’s no ambiguity there. But on the cold range, when the rangemaster calls out, “Okay, range is cold!”…
Well, are those empty guns on the table loaded then?
I mean, you can see the actions open, the magazines out, the people backed away. There is physically no way those guns could fire on their own. This is unequivocally, absolutely true.
But are they loaded?
Yes, this is a psychological distinction–not a physical one. But it is a critical one; really, it is The Point Entire when it comes to, ahem, bulletproof safety practices, or the “lifestyle change” as Clint Smith puts it. The very minute we consider any gun “safe” because we believe it to be “unloaded”, we have violated Rule One, and the door is then open for us to get further careless with it.
We shouldn’t do that.
(For the record, I have never, ever liked walking downrange in front of uncased guns that remain on the firing line–cold range, hot range, whatever. Yeah, I know, I can see the open bolts, the removed magazines, the no-people-nearby…it doesn’t matter. I don’t like that.)
Safety beyond the dedicated range
Aside from the Rule One objection, I would argue that cold range practices, as we have them now, were designed, primarily, to reduce and prevent accidents at the range itself. For the record, I believe that these practices do, in fact, accomplish that goal, and quite effectively.
Great, but what happens when students go home?
Are we suggesting that there are different safety practices for the range, than there are for away from the range? Or do we need to treat our hunting rifles and carry pistols with cold range practices everywhere?
Hopefully you can see that this is at the very least a bit…messy, in terms of the signals we’re sending to student shooters.
In contrast, the hot range and its practices, are exactly like the rest of everyday life. The only substantive difference, really, is that on a dedicated range that is a hot range, you are simply expecting some shooting to be going on; whereas in non-range, everyday life, any shooting would be an unexpected, or at least an unusual, event.
You may ask: but isn’t it at least a little bit nerve-wracking, walking around among other people you don’t know that well, but who you know to be armed, right here and right now?
I would hope so!
Actually, witticisms aside, I don’t know that “nerve-wracking” is the right word here. In that situation, of course, I will naturally be in Condition Yellow, which means “alert and prepared”; if anything drastic goes wrong, I’m already aware that it could happen and I already know what I can do about it. But then again, mentally, I’m always in Yellow when out and about.
Really, is the hot range cease-fire situation any different than going to my local restaurant, or supermarket, or any number of other places, where I also know that some people will be armed in a similar fashion–in a manner over which I have no real control?
It’s not.
And that’s why I value the way the hot range trains us–trains our minds–for the sort of safety we need to practice even after we leave the range. Hell, by watching our fellow students “make ready” before coming off the line, the hot range even gives us a visual reminder of what we should never forget in the first place.
Do you realize who you sound like?
One more critical observation, and then I’ll leave the poor cow alone.
Look once more at the exchange at the top of this article. I hate to say it, but doesn’t the character who simply can’t imagine anything other than the cold range…sound a whole lot like a gungrabber?
He will not like to be thus compared (speaking from personal experience here), but think about this for a minute. He can’t imagine the idea that arbitrary people might be running around with dangerous weapons, without the rigid control measures of the cold range that equate “safety” with the requirement that nobody touches a gun…
I presume I need not develop this any further.
Look, I don’t mean to belittle people’s personal commitment to safety here, and I do not, even for a minute, believe that most cold-range advocates deserve acerbic ridicule. (If nothing else, advocating even the coldest range still means that people are shooting. 🙂 )
I just think it would serve us all well, to recognize when we say things that make us sound foolish–hell, none among us is immune to that–and once we recognize that it is a foolish statement, maybe we should rethink the statement itself, and what’s behind it.
The place for the cold range
Is there any place for the cold range, then?
Yeah, there is. Two places, arguably, but ultimately they’re related. One is for the individual student who has not yet demonstrated himself ready for the hot range. The goal there is to use cold range regimentation and procedure (while trying to avoid the pitfalls of the mentality) specifically to prepare the student for the hot range environment. This cold range period will vary among students, of course (and some may never be prepared), but it needn’t be very long; we’re just looking for dependable Four Rules discipline, good attention, and the right attitude.
I would argue that it is important, during this period, that the instructor, at least, conduct himself with hot range rules, even while imposing cold range procedure on his student(s). Give the student a frame of reference for what is expected, and a clear picture of what the right behavior looks like.
The second, arguable, place for the cold range is a public range which may simply not be able to function at all without uniform cold range practices. I may bristle at that in concept, but unfortunately, for some locations it is an unavoidable reality. Too many people, and/or too many people who are clearly not ready for grown-up time, can quite rationally drive range practices that prioritize mitigating crowd risk, over actually training hands and minds. (I suspect many such range owners are not happy that it has to be that way, and I can respect that.)
Personally, I am fortunate to have access to multiple hot range locations, even for firearms. I also have the luxury of not having to take on too many students at once, and those students and I will have willfully chosen each other anyway. Consequently, I will initially use a modified cold range practice for any new student I work with, until he proves that he’s ready for the hot range.
From that point forward, though, we’re off and running, never to look back, training for life. It’s time for…
The hot range
Okay, enough with the comparisons. Let’s summarize what activity on a hot range is like; the most illustrative way to do this is to describe what happens at the call for a cease-fire.
Cease-fire
When the instructor or rangemaster calls for a cease-fire, each student will put his gun into the condition he wants it, and only then step back from the line to indicate he is ready. Once everyone is off the line, and thus ready, the instructor openly verifies everyone’s condition and declares the range clear for downrange activity.
Acceptable “conditions” for any gun, upon stepping off the line, are:
- Cased and ready for transport, as on the cold range;
- Open and empty on the table, as on the cold range;
- Holstered, in field carry condition, for handguns; and
- Slung, in field carry condition, for long guns.
And these worn guns are, of course, presumed loaded at all times–Rule One all the way. However, importantly, do note what is not an acceptable “condition”: an uncased gun in your hands. You might imagine that an uncased gun in your hands might get you some very immediate attention from your instructor, or from your peers.
Damn right. Just like if you were at the grocery store. So, don’t do that.
Resume fire
To resume after cease-fire activities, the instructor verifies everyone as back behind the line and ready, and declares the range available again, whereupon students can again step up to the line.
At that point, handguns can come out of holsters, long guns can be unslung, and students can resume fire.
That’s it.
Just like real life
The hot range. The very idea still freaks some people out, but it’s every bit as safe as the people who are there with you.
No different than the grocery store, really.
Just observe the Four Rules, set Condition Yellow, and proceed with whatever you came to do.
That’s training for the life you actually live.
Rifleman Savant 