(I'm not using the Royal"we" or the Editorial or Patronizing "we" here. Rather, I'm using the Inclusive "we"; the fine folks who contribute their comments to published articles are as much a part of this website as am I. Of course, I do retain editorial control and responsibility ... as does Rivrdog at this own website, which is eponymously named "Rivrdog".)
In response to a recent article which refers to the role of the Range Officer at an IPSC/USPSA match, both the original text and a "Comment" from a reader refer to the Range Officer (RO) whose presumptive duty was to ensure that safe practices were observed, even under the most extreme conditions ... such as are extant when a competitor is running with a loaded gun, safety off, and trips.
(If that doesn't sound scary to you, please let me assure you that it was scary to me and I was only watching it from a safe location! Also, this is not as rare as you might suppose. What other shooting sports accept running and falling as an exciting, but not unique part of competition?
Rivrdog's comment:
Say, Hobo, aren't you and Jerry a bit cornfused [sic] over the titles here?This is a good question, and speaks to the unique organization of Practical Shooting competition.
I'm an NRA-Certified RANGE SAFETY OFFICER. On a range, during organized competition or not, I am concerned SOLELY with safe gun handling, range practices and shooting.
A RANGE OFFICER is the official in charge of the match aspects of the match being conducted, and he ALSO notes safety and communicates with the RANGE SAFETY OFFICER if he observes unsafe practices, but yes, he WOULD also be involved with paperwork and referee decisions.
BTW, you do have Certified Range Safety Officers at your Practical shoots, don't you?
I am recently certified, and the differences were pointed out several times in the classes leading to the exam and certification.
I replied in the Comments section of that article, but here is the expanded version of my comment.
The first responsibility of a USPSA "Range Officer" (RO)is Safety. That is, the RO is responsible for both Safety and Administrative [competitive] issues.
Other responsibilities include enforcing the rules of competition, scoring targets, and helping competitors.
Yes, the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) has an extensive (and expensive) Range Officer Training and Certification program, supported at the national level (by the National Range Officers Institute, or NROI.)
I've been a Certified Range Officer (RO) since 1993, and a Chief Range Officer (CRO) since 1997. I recently took a 'refresher course' because USPSA implemented a dramatically modified (and improved) rule book on January 1, 2008.
The Hobo Brasser is also a Certified Range Officer, although I do not know the date of his certification. The same with Walt.
In fact, Range Officers have so many responsibilities that it is perhaps an over-simplification to suggest that his only responsibility is to "keep your eye on the gun", although that is certainly the central and over-riding priority.
The Range Officer is responsible for EVERYTHING that happens on the stage while he is performing his office. This is no different from any other shooting competition.
Range Officers are always working to increase and improve their skills, understanding of the rules, situational awareness and peripheral vision.
Because Practical Shooting includes element of movement with a loaded gun, changes of position and stance, reloading (changing magazines) while moving, non-standard and often confusing stage designs, I think it is fair to say that a USPSA trained, certified and experienced Range Officer can be considered among the most accomplished and competent Range Officers of any shooting sport in the world.
If I had confined my response to the Comments section, that would have been an over-simplification of the duties of the RO. It would also have been lost in the venue of the original post. I think this subject is too important to be lost in Comments, so I decided to use it as the basis for an extended post on the responsibilities of the USPSA Range Officer.
The NROI has much to say about that, in the Range Officer's Creed.
The NROI establishes and maintains a staff of highly trained, experienced instructors who have all achieved the highest level of certification: Range Master (RM). All Certified Range Officers are volunteers. They are not compensated for their service.
Range Masters:
RMs are the penultimate arbiters of decisions concerning safety issues and penalized violations of the rules of competition at Major Matches. These are tournaments at a state level or above.
Their only competition is that their travel, food and lodging expenses may be reimbursed on a per diem basis by the host club.
Their training is expensive, in terms of time, effort and money. RMs come from the members of USPSA who have already been certified at the Chief Range Officer (CRO) level. The RM program requires approximately one year to complete. The final test of a fledgling RM is to work a Major Match as a RM, which is allocated by USPSA only after the RM has completed a course of training (beyond CRO level), testing, and an Oral Exam conducted by a board of experienced RMs.
Most travel, lodging and food expenses incurred during this process are paid for by the RM candidate. There are no NROI costs for RM training ... all of the trainers are, themselves volunteers.
I have not attempted this level of training, so the following comments may be mistaken, misleading, or incomplete. Perhaps active Range Masters can provide corrections.
The duties for which a Range Master is trained (beyond CRO level), somewhat overlap Match Director (MD) duties ... which are purely the administrative responsibilities for hosting a match and will not be detailed here:
- Designing a Major Match in the selection and 'tuning' of unique, challenging yet legal stages;
- Balancing the various 'types' of stages so that no single stage is so time-consuming or difficult that it constitutes a bottleneck in the passage of a squad of competitors from one stage to the next;
- Identifying problematic stages (eg: stages which physical construction is subject to mechanical failure, requiring excessive repairs during conduct of a match);
- Identifying problematic stages (eg: stages which may be engaged in a manner not consistent with the rules of competition);
- Identifying problematic stages (eg: stages which may be controversial, subject to misinterpretation as to the prescribed manner of target engagement, failure to define appropriate shooting stance/position/location;
- Correcting or replacing problematic stages as mentioned above, or replacing them with 'better' stage designs which will not slow down the timely progress of competitor squads from one stage to the next in approximately the same period of time;
- Generally understanding how to to channel 400 competitors through 12 stages in 12 hours shooting time (in other words, how to allow a 2 pound chicken to lay a 3 pound egg without protest or discomfort);
- Working with a Match Director whose expectations may exceed the resources of the host club (stages require more special targets than are available, etc.)
And the RM will have been trained, and so experienced, that the match runs smoothly and all competitors are convinced that they have participated in the best match of their life.
The trained, experienced RM can make this happen; or, he can fail miserably and the host club never achieves 100% participation again.
No pressure. Just business as usual for the Range Master.
There are fewer than 100 Range Masters in USPSA/NROI. There are approximately 15,000 competitors in USPSA. There is no question why more competitors do not volunteer for RM training and certification.
Instructors:
A very few of the limited number of Range Masters are, by virtue of their training and experience accepted by the NROI as "instructors". These highly trained, certified and experienced individuals spend several weekends a year teaching classes at the RO and the CRO level. Their expenses are not out-of-pocket; instead, they are paid by the host club which must fix the variable cost to students low enough to attract the people who need the training (CRO or RO), yet high enough to pay the instructor costs of travel, lodging, and food. If a host club is not able to balance this equation, the class will be canceled at great disadvantage to the students, the host club, the NROI instructor and USPSA in general.
Every canceled class discourages the students and the host clubs, and the sport has fewer people qualified to officiate at local and major matches.
Chief Range Officer:
The Chief Range Officer candidate pays for his own training. This course of instruction requires two consecutive days over a weekend, and the cost of training (as mentioned above) depends on the cost of bringing a trainer (RM) to the training location, rental of the facilities, and training materials.
The CRO candidate learns the current rules, and also learns how to design a stage ("Course of Fire", or COF). If the submitted COF does not follow current rules of competition, the candidate will be required to submit a 'better' COF design. The candidate is not permitted to 'pass' the course until a legal, viable COF design has been presented and accepted.
Course expenses include whatever training materials provided by the Instructor, from NROI.
In the class I attended this year, this included a "Course Design template" CD, which was the result of a certain software development effort.
I note that while I took the CRO course this year to learn the new rule book, I have not yet submitted the required COF design. Instructor Carl Schmidt was generous in that he did not threaten to rescind my previously established (1997) CRO certification if I did not submit an acceptable COF. Thanks, Carl.
Certified Range Officer:
The course emphasis is on understanding, and demonstrating an ability to apply and enforce, the current Rules of Competition. This course is unique in that it includes a 'range time' component, in which the candidate will act as RO while a fellow candidate shoots a 'difficult' COF.
The successful candidate will have submitted a legal COF design.
He/she will also complete a written test demonstrating his understanding of the current Rules of Competition.
Annual:
Range Officers at the RO and CRO level (at least) will successfully complete an annual written test provided by USPSA, to demonstrate that they do understand the nuances of the current rules. Pass level is 85%, which means you can 'miss' no more than 3 of the 20 questions presented. This is an "open book" test.
Failing this test requires successful participation in an RO (or CRO) course, including all course-design requirements.
Only currently certified Range Officers are permitted to officiate at Major Matches.
Range Masters are required to meet annual standards of participation in Major Matches --- at least officiating as Range Master in one Major Match a year. *(The standards may be higher than described here.)* Their expenses are not necessarily always under-written by the host club, but this is the expectation.
SUMMARY:
Range Officers serve as volunteers, their most frequent justification is "to give back to the sport". They personally bear the cost of most of their training, and much of their manatory yearly re-certification. Serving as Range Officers most frequently interferes with their original goal of participating as a competitor. Range officers typically (even at the local level) spend more time working as Range Officers than they do as Competitors.
Supplementary:
The Range Officer voluntarily places himself in the unenviable position of acting as the "Range Cop" to his friends and colleagues usually, with penalizing a friend by kicking him/her out of the match for a safety violation, he (she?) may experience the angst of '"do the right thing" vs "he's my friend, and I don't want to cause him the embarrassment of a Match Disqualification".
But we do it anyway, because if the safety rules are not strictly enforced, this sport would no longer be one in which WE are comfortable in participating.
Running with guns, safety applied, drawing from the holster, reloading on the move, shooting on the move ... there are so many actions involved in IPSC/USPSA competition which are contrary to intuitive standards of safety. Yet, we are trained to do these things, and we know that every step of the way there is a Range Officer looking over our shoulder to make sure that if we err, we will usually be stopped before our error nears the unacceptable limits of endangering our fellow shooters.
you, the reader, may not be a frequent practitioner of the "Run&Gun" shooting sport. You may not understand why we accept the risks, and trust ourselves to the carefully crafted rules and regulations to keep us safe from our friends and to keep our friends safe from us.
But the safety rules have survived 20 years if empirical testing, and they work. I have witnessed thousands of competitors at IPSC/USPSA matches, and literally millions of rounds fired downrange. I have seen ONE competitor who drew blood due to a gunshot wound ... and the bullet fired did not actually strike him (it was a 'near miss", hitting the carkeys in his pocket.)
That competitor was back on the range before the end of the day, and is now one of the safest and most accomplished competitors I know.
To respond to the questions posed by Rivrdog:
Yes, we do train and certify our Range Officers (which are the same as other shooting sports refer to as "Safety Officers".)
In fact, we hold our Range/Safety offers to the highest possible standards.
In USPSA competition, we absolutely require the highest level of safe gun-handling. Penalties are as extreme as we can realistically impose for a violation of safe gun-handling; if you screw up, we don't let you shoot with us any more today.
And we actively solicit new shooters. We do require that you demonstrate a standard of gun-handling proficiency (we don't care if you can hit the target), and if you don't meet these minimal requirements you will not be permitted to compete.
How many other Shooting Sports meet this standard?
Rivrdog, when is the last time your local club denied competition privileges to a new shooter?
In USPSA, we do it on a monthly basis.
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