We all understand that the individual shooter is responsible for his/her actions, and that a disqualification is on the shooter, not the Range Officer that calls it. As an RO, a shooter having a DQ should be a disappointment, not an achievement. A DQ is ultimately the result of something that the shooter did, not something that the RO caused. “You didn’t DQ him, he DQ’d himself, you just stopped him for it” is a common description of the situation.
There may be times, however, where RO action may prevent a DQ. Here are a few examples:
- A few years ago at the completion of a stage at a local match the RO gave the “Unload and Show Clear” command and the shooter complied but did not drop his magazine (he displayed an empty chamber to the RO but had a loaded magazine in the gun). The RO started to give the next range command (“If Clear, hammer down…) and another match official (my angry Ginger friend Walk) on the squad yelled “STOP! He’s still loaded!” The RO (and shooter) looked back at Walk and then (flustered) the RO re-issued the ULSC command. This time the shooter dropped the magazine and safely completed the process. The RO then confronted Walk and said “I saw he didn’t drop the mag, but thought it would be considered coaching to correct him, besides, it’s his gun, his responsibility, not mine.” After a brief explanation from Walk (which may have included some colorful language) the RO came to understand that preventing an imminent Accidental Discharge was indeed the RO’s responsibility. This example is pretty clear cut: by rule the shooter MUST present the empty gun, and the RO MUST inspect it. We don’t walk the shooter through an AD.
- At a recent state match where I was the RM and my friend Mike (also a certified RM) was the Stats Chief, he observed a shooter going into the Safety Area with a gun on his belt and a gun box in his hand. Mike asked the shooter, “Hey what’s up, got a gun problem?” The shooter replied that indeed he did and was going to switch to his back-up gun. Mike said “OK, let me call the RM over here for you.” The shooter told him not to bother, he had it under control. “Oh no, you really want me to get him over here before you switch guns, let me explain why…” This was all before the rule for unauthorized gun swap was changed from “will” to “may” result in a DQ. Mike may have saved that guy’s match.
- We show a video in the Level 1 RO class where a shooter completes a course of fire and realizes he has skipped a target after receiving the “If Clear, Hammer Down, Holster” command and the RO is halfway through “Range is Clear”. The shooter re-draws and reloads his gun and shoots the last target. This video is presented as an example of a DQ under 8.3.7/10.4.3 for taking a shot after ICHDH. At recent class a student asked “Could the RO have said ‘STOP’ when he saw what the shooter was about to do?” Although not required to do so, I believe that the RO certainly could have said stop before the shooter shot the last target and prevented the DQ.
In all of these examples the shooter was totally responsible for their own actions, and would have been (or was) DQ’d without RO intervention. In the first example (involving ULSC) the RO was absolutely wrong to willingly allow an AD that (he claims) he saw coming. In the second example (gun swap) that was reasoned, conscious decision by a match official to prevent a DQ that didn’t have urgency (not during a course of fire). In the last situation, the RO can hardly have been expected to see what the shooter was doing in time to process the action and make the decision to call “STOP,” but if he had he may have prevented the DQ.
The argument can certainly be made that preventing a DQ will change the outcome of the match, and that by saving a shooter from a DQ penalizes his/her competition. Match results are absolutely impacted by DQ’s, therefore preventing DQ’s will also impact match results. There may also be an issue with “competitive equity” where you have some RO’s proactively preventing DQ’s and others passively letting them happen.
The question is: if you can prevent a DQ, should you? As the examples above indicate, the answer may vary based on the situation. Personally, I am going to continue to do everything I can within the rules to keep shooters in the match rather than allow them to be DQ’d.