Wow, close call for the target patcher.
All joking aside, all it takes is one tragic event and we bring down a whole world of uninformed scrutiny, telling us how dangerous our sport is and we can't be trusted to own guns, let alone run around on a range shooting them.
Old guy talkin' now, We used to set up courses of fire with barricades, solid walls, ports, tunnels, hallways, and alleyways, entire first floors for the most amazing house clearing scenarios. I mean stages... oops. They were amazing, colorful, fun, and safe, always safe. It was my job as RO , and the scorekeepers job backing me up, to ensure things ran safely and smoothly on our range.
The range was cleared by the RO, that was me, I made it my own rule to be the last person to walk up from the backstop, berms, whatever and ensured everyone was done scoring, patching, picking brass, stage repair, whatever. My range, ultimately my responsibility. If I wasn't sure the range was clear, I would check again. Getting IPSC competitors to pay attention,listen, and actually hear... is sometimes like wrangling kids in the schoolyard, with all our cool toys, and friends and cliques, not to mention the mental baggage and all the #### we bring to the range everyday, sometimes it was a challenge.
It was and still is, every competitors job, every shooters, every volunteers job, to know what they are doing,where they are in time and space on the range,and be in the moment, we're human though, and we get tired and stupid, and hot and dehydrated, etc etc during a match.
One of the definitions of Entropy is, lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.
Lets keep this as reminder of what we do, I'll use it as reminder personally, and what a great teaching tool for potential RO's and CRO's, hopefully the folks at NROI, and IROA incorporate these little gems in the current RO training.