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Originally Posted by WW2
You said you made your weapons safe. Did ANYONE verify that the other team members guns were made safe or did you just take each other's word for it?
Take a hint from competition shooting where the shooter removes their magazine, racks their slide to clear the chamber, and the must SHOW another person that their gun is safe. Only then can you claim that your team made the guns safe. No verification, no guns were safe.
Retrain the WHOLE team to verify guns are safe before considering them so. Also, get rid of the distractions (e.g. cell phone OFF).
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I think WW2 makes some very good points here, and perhaps a good suggestion for continuing to make safety a priority in your training. Perhaps, at the end of a drill, verifying not only that your own weapon is safe, but that your teammates weapons are safe as well, even by simply making eye contact with each team member and verifying the weapon is safe. If a team member is making the commands, than he or she should be the one to assure that commands are being enforced. If it is a 3rd party range master, than that person should be supervising all actions, including whether or not someone is doing something stupid. I also agree that banning all members from having cell phones on a hot range would be wise, and that once a cell phone rings, a range should go cold immediately before it can be answered.
As to the future of your teammate: I don't think he should be removed from the team. If he pointed the gun in what he saw was a safe direction and discharged it so as to empty his weapon, then we have no reason to believe he wasn't following the 4 rules. He knew it was loaded, knew his target, planned on destroying that patch of ground he shot, and intentionally pulled the trigger. I agree that it was negligent, in that it was not the safest way to clear his weapon with others on the range. I