When Volunteering is Hazardous to your Health

[paradiseken]

Okay, maybe I'm nuts. I volunteer as a NRA certified Range Safety Officer a few days a week at a local gun club. We get so many inexperienced shooters that the job is somewhat stressful. Yeah, stress in retirement. Go figure. Have to watch folks like a hawk. One unsafe move with a firearm and I could be gone in a flash. It is rewarding when you can help people shoot safely, though. But.... it can be pretty scarey sometimes. :P

Anybody out there doing volunteer work that could be considered potentially dangerous?

[Joss]

I coached T-Ball for a couple of years; six year olds with bats and parents with attitudes. :P

[sweetana3]

I have found that any job working with animals (cats/dogs/etc) comes with its own potential dangers. Some people just dont know what a kitten can do with those needle sharp claws.

Once stupid me almost lost an eye.

[loosechickens]

Well, we usually volunteer awhile each winter at a national wildlife refuge right down on the Mexican border SW of Tucson AZ, keeping their remote solar installations in shape, etc. This refuge has literally thousands of illegals crossing it, as well as lots of drug running, and there have been several shootings and you take your life in your hands if you drive into Tucson (about 75 miles) and have to come back to the refuge at night while the Border Patrol and the drug runners are playing cat and mouse.......

last year we had to keep our little truck right next to our motorhome, and sleep with the windows open, with it chained to a several hundred pound picnic table and a tree by it's hitch, with a CLUB, and an electronic theft device to protect it after illegals stole five vehicles in one week, two within a hundred yards of where we were, including my sweetie's government work truck....of course that one was kind of poetic justice, I guess, as the refuge had obtained it in the beginning when it was abandoned on the refuge by smugglers.....

It's the wild, wild West out here sometimes. ;-)

but, other than that.....no.

LooseChickens

[cj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetana3 I have found that any job working with animals (cats/dogs/etc) comes with its own potential dangers. Some people just dont know what a kitten can do with those needle sharp claws. Once stupid me almost lost an eye.

I have volunteered at an animal shelter also, and yes, it can be hazardous! There was once a cat there who absolutely hated being put in a cage, and I refused to do it (insisted that a staff member do it) because the cat had inflicted serious damage to the faces of a couple people. They finally let the cat roam free at the shelter (a unique privelege!) until she could be adopted. After a failed placement with this cat (long story) I ended up adopting her. I've had her for 8 years and she's probably my favorite cat of all time. Yes, she's temperamental, but she really has a sweet side. I can't blame her for not wanting to be caged!!

Sorry, that was a bit OT.

CJ

[paradiseken]

Thanks for the replies. Loosechickens, I bow my head to you and your SO. You other folks working with animals (expecially cats) also have my respect.

[Culture]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paradiseken We get so many inexperienced shooters that the job is somewhat stressful.

Sounds familiar. I shoot at the largest range in Houston. There is at least one yahoo present every time I go there. There staff is very good at picking them out, and they are easy to locate at the range officers tend to hang out directly behind the idiots.

These are the guys who, for some reason, cannot resist fondling their guns during the ceasefire, cannot understand that "no rapid fire" means "no rapid fire," point their guns at placed other than the sky and downrange ... you know the drill.

Thanks for volunteering. I am assisting by taking as many of my non-shooting friends as possible to the range.

[bbbamI]

Yeah, I consider my volunteer time at the police dept. hazardous to my health.

I've been doing it for over six years now and so far I've been lucky. Most of the time, I'm calm, but every once in a while when someone would come in with both hands jammed down their coat pockets, I would feel a bit of the old panic mode. Thankfully, it's warm weather now...less places to hide a gun.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joss I coached T-Ball for a couple of years; six year olds with bats and parents with attitudes. :P

That's even scarier than inexperienced gun owners...........