Every shooting range in this country has a line painted on the floor. Walk up to it and think about where you are standing. On either side of you are strangers, every one of them holding a loaded firearm. Some have been shooting for forty years and some bought their first gun last Tuesday, and you cannot tell which is which by looking.

And the only thing keeping every person in that room alive is that all of them are following the same four rules, at the same moment, without anybody checking.

In this one, the seven kinds of people you meet on that line. The man who only shoots fast, and the version of him who waits for a nervous first-timer to set up next door. The safety violator, and why "it's not loaded" is the sentence every range officer is tired of hearing. The man with every piece of gear, and why that makes his advice dangerous. The one who would like to try your gun, and the etiquette that runs in both directions. The one filming himself. The quiet shooter everybody underestimates. And the curious one, who I think is the best person in the building.

Along the way: the cease-fire rule and why the whole range rests on it, what to do if you drop a loaded gun, why you never pick up somebody else's firearm from a bench, and how to speak up when you see a muzzle crossing people.

Then at the end, which of these is genuinely dangerous. It is not the one you are expecting, and the answer ought to make every one of us a little uncomfortable.

Every gun is always loaded. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you have decided to fire. Know your target and what lies beyond it.

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