I was at the Sharon Valley range with some family, and had a disagreement with the range officer. I'm told he is a range officer, although he is not an armed conservation officer like the two gentlemen who arrived later. Toward the end of the discussion, he threatened to shut down the range and said that he could get someone in to "fix [me] up" real quick. Some time later, the first conservation officer arrived and had a chat with the range officers. Purely by coincidence, I was on my way out of the range at that time, followed by a man equipped with a recording device and permission to record any conversations to which I am a party for the day. I was stopped by the conservation officer, and had a small conversation before we resumed walking. A few yards from my car, he said something to the note of "you can stop walking." I politely declined. Upon hearing this, he shouted that I needed to stop walking right that moment. A county Sheriff deputy pulled in around the time the CO was gesturing (behind my back) just where I needed to stop and got out of his car in time to hear me explaining that "you can stop" is a permissive statement rather than a lawful order, and that I had acted on it as such. Once the deputy was present, the CO became less aggressive and more professional. We had a chat. After a while, another CO arrived. We also had a chat.
Once the COs had had a chance to talk to each other, the range officer, and me, they approached me again and explained that a range officer's idea of safety trumps any rights or laws and mentioned that DNR ranges are essentially private property. On the way out, I glanced back to see that the range officer had adopted a much less dominant stance than he had maintained during the rest of the incident.
The unsafe condition was my nephew firing a .45 Colt, loaded with one round at a time, under very close supervision. I had my hands around his the first time, and around/above the revolver the second time. Once the officer identified the controlled, now-unloaded pistol as unsafe, this was discontinued. Apparently they shut down about 20 minutes early, after I had left the range and been stopped in the parking lot.
I'm three for three at this range with that officer, so it might be time to step up the search for other venues in the Jackson area.