When I told him, “yup” his expression changed to that of a scared child and then again to a sort of withheld disgust. He told me I couldn't have a loaded gun in the store. There was a sign with some verbiage to that effect on the front door which I didn't see because it was held open for me. Ordinarily I'd have just taken my business elsewhere at that point but I had a co-worker from Washington (state) with me and wanted to keep trouble to a minimum. I denied his request to let him unload my pistol and asked him if it was ok to step outside to do it. After I did, and indicated that we would like a lane it was revealed that they do not permit those under 21 from shooting without a guardian. Well that was pretty much unacceptable as I turn 21 in 2 weeks, and the other guy just turned 20. I understand (but do not agree with) the policy from an insurance standpoint, but another guy behind the counter tried to blame it on federal law saying that 18 year olds could not possess handguns. Didn't feel like correcting him in his own store would be a good thing so we just collected our things. I asked if they knew of another range in the area without asinine policies (not in those words 
) and they said every range they knew of was the same on that point. Of course I knew at a minimum that the NRA range was not but I was trying to avoid that place for a few reasons. After we left, the first thing out of the mouth of my co-worker was, “those guys were kinda assholes”.Back outside we decided to go to the NRA headquarters to shoot. The building was pretty impressive and so is the range. It's very clean, well lit, long, and organized. However I cannot ascribe the adjectives, organized or efficient to the staff. The girl behind the desk (and generally the rest of the employees) was nice enough and went on to explain the paperwork and procedures. We walked over to some very comfortable chairs with the goal of completing our safety tests (through an atmosphere of various accents from Northern states) which took just a couple of minutes. We spent time waiting for our turn by watching people shoot (surprised by the number of females), and watching Tom Knabb tear apart some clays on the TV. After about 30 minutes we noticed that more than half of the lanes were unoccupied (despite other people gaining entry who had arrived after we did). That didn't change for the next 30 minutes until our name was finally called. I guess it just took that long to make our laminated range cards (which I never intend to use again). We paid $50 for the privilege of using the facility and had a pretty good time once inside. I was pleased by the lack of rapid fire and draw + shoot prohibitions, and the presence of a minimum of one RSO. The ability to send the target to a measured distance was a nice luxury. As always, the shooting calmed me down and I left quite relaxed. Of course that only lasted 'till I hit more traffic on the way home.
This evening reinforced my marked dislike of the area.
