My children are members of the junior division of our gun club. They shoot .22 LR target rifles, among other things, frequently. A range rule rigorously enforced by the junior division coaches is to wear ear & eye protection at all times. The club gives them disposible foam plugs of a somewhat reduced diameter so as to better fit their smaller ear canals. The kids are scrupulous about wearing them at target shooting, hunting, or working with any noisy tools at home. When they are shooting anything louder than .22 LR rifles (except in some kinds of hunting), they add muffs for double protection.

At the school among their peers, different standards apparently prevail! I have long kept extra plugs in all of our vehicles, packs, & BOBs. But no one (myself included) thought to go to the car to get them. I like Tom's practice of carrying extra sets of disposible ear plugs for others. I'm going to adopt it for future activities. At almost any other musical event, I would have insisted that they bring plugs. I allowed myself to become lulled into complacency by the apparent innocuousness of the event.

A couple of years ago, we attended an auto race. It was fun, but much louder than we had expected. And we were wearing plugs & muffs together. The noise was sufficiently loud that you could feel the vibrations in the ground and your entire body. I was amazed to see that about 1/2 the audience did not appear to wear any hearing protection at all! Some things are incomprehensible.

John