That is correct. I remember it quite clearly because I was quite confused about being sat down at a rifle and being told to put five rounds into a piece of paper when I had never picked up a firearm of any type before. That is why I specifically asked they guy who was giving the instructions for additional tidbits of info, such as how to even work the damn thing.

Of course, now that I’ve grown up and passively learned a bit more about firearms, I know how well, “try not to shoot anyone,” would have gotten torn up in court had a tragedy occurred. “Well, we tried not to kill anyone, Your Honor…”

Personally, I don’t really reflect the situation much on the Boy Scouts of America organization. Every group of people is going to have its share of idiots, and I blame that particular idiot for that situation. I enjoyed my time in Scouts, even though I did not get to attend that many outings due to pretty bad asthma and allergies (always a fun combination). The only reasons I quit before becoming Eagle was due to my inability to attend many of the outings and that the International Baccalaureate (which is French for “sleep deprivation”, I believe ) program in high school ended up devoting a majority of my free time to academics.

One of the lessons I gleaned from this whole experience is going to be enacted when I have children. I am not going to let any organization that is not specifically designed around firearms education to be my children’s first exposure to firearms. Either that means I take them to the range and teach them myself or I enroll them (and probably myself along with them) into a firearms education course. I just don’t want my kids going to a range of anyone’s creation and not knowing whether what is going on around them is safe or not. I would much rather they approach the range with some experience to count on, so that they can easily tell whether it is a safe range to be on.

This applies to any organization, whether it is the BSA, IDPA, IPSC, or the local range with the idiot who “doesn’t hear” the cold range announcement. The best way to keep your kids safe is to educate them, and this applies to anything that can hurt them: guns, drugs, alcohol, crime, sex, etc.