My brother just called me up and told me that there was a negligent discharge at Markham this past Wednesday night and because of this, they are removing all of the tables on the back of the line.  Can anyone confirm this?  We were there but didn't notice anything wrong, but we left around 7:45 PM.

Haven't heard anything.  I'll be out there tomorrow morning for an IDPA match and I'll take a look.

Wouldn't really surprise me though.  They had something similar happen a few months ago which resulted in only an SO being allowed to move firearms from the shooting position to the back bench.  That policy has since been eliminated, but maybe the removal of back benches is the next attempt.

Remember, if you're there and you see something unsafe it's your responsibility to stop it.  Too many idiots and our friend Jenne will shut it down.  He's itching for an excuse already.

Quoted:  Too many idiots and our friend Jenne will shut it down.  He's itching for an excuse already.

Sheriff Jenne can't shut the range down, many years ago he tried , seems the family that owned the land the park is on was given to the county for public use, if at any time the county does not use it for the public, I believe it reverts back to private family ownership, I cant remember who ownes the land, but its just named after the Markham family. Just imagine the commercial Real Estate value of that land  !!...the county will not lose it....trust me
A few years back he wanted Markham range for his BSO troops only, but after finding out the county would loose the entire park, it was a quick NO WAY from the county commisioners

Got an email from the highpower club that shoots there saying that because of an ND that went into the classroom, all the back benches are being removed, and replaced with rifle racks at the front of the line.

Does anyone have any details on the ND?  Was the gun pointing back towards the clubhouse area when it went off?  What did it hit?

Some moron shot a hole in the window of the BSO training room in the clubhouse.

I can confirm that as of today all of the back benches have been removed.  Evidently they are also now limiting the range to 8 shooters per SO and 3 guns per shooter.

This has been an ongoing problem at Markham Park. There have been three NDs in the last year. One hit the building near the lady's room, one flew out into the parking lot, (an area frequented by the public) and the last penetrated the double glass window of the BSO classroom and scattered shrads of glass to the inside wall.
In order to keep everything pointed down range (reasonable), the first plan was to move the tables from the rear to the front of the line. That plan would have not allowed shooters to use the shooting tables which about 90% of the shooters do. There was much high level negotiations conducted with goal being to maximize safety without interfering with the sport. Much of the focus was on the staffing levels, selection, training and methods of the Markham Park Range Staff.
The rear tables and brackets have been removed. Racks with a capacity of four rifles with room for handguns have been designed with input from a number of members of the Sawgrass Rifle Club, BSO, and the Range Staff. One of these racks will be installed at each forward steel roof support by March 31, 2006.
The prototype rack has already been fabricated, modified, and is in production.
End result--little difference for most shooters, the High Power matches will experience little difference, you can expect the range officers to be attentive to muzzle direction. The shooting tables are avaiable as before.
There is discussion of each shooter having to go through a basic safety program.
The interests of the shooting public were represented and respected in these negotiations.

I can't imagine how many ND's have happened at other ranges which have little or no supervision and we just haven't heard about them.  

Big +1 on making any new shooter go through a basic safety program or NRA safety course type thing.

Isn't it wonderful when the occasional moron ruins things for everyone.... forever.  

What happened to the guy who had the ND?  Was he banned from ever coming back?  What did the RO's and other people on the firing line do when it happened?  Were there people downrange fixing their targets and whatnot when it happened?

what we did at our range was to issue a frequent shooter card, the only way you got one was if you somehow proved that you were a safe shooter, most customers had to get a few min safety class, a quick verbal test, just to make sure you were not a moron, and then we watched for a few min, at the end of the shooting session you got a neat membership looking card with your name on it, after about 2 months anyone without a card had to go thru the testing period

it really stoped a lot of the hood rats that thought they shoot before they ever got into the range  and started to be UN-safe...it was simple RSO to customer " got your safe shooter card " NO then short class, when the hood rats started with F*&^ that S$%^....then bye-bye, then when other customers made mistakes like shooting the string on the indoor targets or hitting the clips or target frames , we put a punch hole in their card, showing the next time they came it the RSO could recognize to watch there people as begining or troublsome shooters and keep an extra eye on them

My heart goes out to all you guys that have to put up with the crap at Markham, I was lucky enough to get smart enough to rise above the crap out there and head out to another range ( Pop's ), not that I dislike to follow the rules and regs, but the number of unsafe people that shoot there combined with the RSO and the strict policies, just made it NOT FUN to go to shoot at Markham anymore

I always thought having the tables behind the firing line was kind of stupid. I have seen some of the dumbest people at that range. It was only a matter of time. Heck I am surprised it went on as long as it did.

I hope they square it away.

Quoted: you can expect the range officers to be attentive

That would be a nice change.

Every time I'm at Markham the ROs have to yell at some idiot who's fondling his gun while people are down-range.  

tables or racks, it doesn't matter to me.  I'd prefer that the ranges do a bit more profiling, e.g. "you look like a hood-rat, and hood-rat day was yesterday."   Unfortunately, though, stupidity isn't the exclusive domain of the hood-rats.