Umm, Yeah... I Don't Think So

Yesterday, Alphecca linked to an article about a range down in Florida where customer's can shoot at each other using their own guns (modified of course). Per the linked article:

It's a place where people can take their gun and shoot at people -- and they shoot back. There are, however, important rules of engagement that the owner says makes his gun range perfectly safe.

The place is called Combat City.

Before you step foot inside the range, customers meet with owner Dave Kaplan.

“First thing, when you get here, everybody's checked. No guns, knives, ammunition on them,” said Kaplan.

He then modifies the customer's weapon, replacing the barrel so a live round will not fire but will still function as a regular weapon, shooting a soft rubber bullet instead.

“A revolver would work the same, semi auto, the action actually cycles. There's full recoil with the weapon. The assault weapon fully cycles,” Kaplan said.

Participants then suit up, protecting their head, neck and private parts.

But make no mistake, anyone who gets shot, feels the pain, which was described as more severe than being shot with a paintball.

RTWT.

I have to agree with Alphecca's assessment that, although there may some merit to practicing with your own carry firearm, there is something not right about this. Or, as he aptly states:

Better than AirSoft or paint ball, since you get to use your own weapon — the one you would be using in a real-life situation.

Still, something about this rubs me (a little bit) the wrong way; firing at other real people for practice.

As an instructor, I further concur with Jackson Davis, a commenter to Alphecca's post, when he says:

From a safety standpoint, the one thing that bothers me is the violation of rule one: Never point you gun at anything that you are not willing to destroy.

I don’t care if your gun is not really a gun anymore. I don’t care if it is safe. You are deliberately setting out to learn a bad habit, with potentially fatal results. Pointing your gun at people is something to avoid unless you want to shoot them (and kill or maim them)[.]

If we continually get in the habit of violating Rule 1 under casual circumstances, how long before someone forgets that they're not on that range any longer, actually have their carry rounds loaded, and trained muscle and mental memory no longer instinctively keep that muzzle pointed away from anything not intended to be shot?