Today’s Fb post apparently struck a nerve. Over 100 Likes and more than 30 comments in less than one hour. The post?
“When I talk to women about their shooting experiences on outdoor ranges, the subject of disgusting, horrible, cramped, crowded, smelly, and did I mention disgusting porta potties almost always gets a mention. If you are a member of a range that wants more female shooters, or a member of a club that is trying to increase its female membership, the single best thing that your club or range can do to increase female participation is to improve the potty situation.”
Several people commented that putting in flush toilets may not be environmentally or financially feasible for some ranges. That’s true — but improving the potty situation does not have to involve running water. It can be as simple as:
- Cleaning the facilities more often.
- Keeping the facilities in good repair: no cracked seats, no broken toilet paper holders, no broken latches.
- Cleaning the facilities on Fridays (immediately before the weekend rush) as well as on Mondays (immediately after the weekend rush).
- Providing handicap-sized stalls instead of standard ones, so that users have enough elbow room to deal with multiple layers of clothing and gear without bumping into wet urinals.
- Providing a nearby safe area, with a good backstop, for those who need to remove some of their gear before they use the facilities.
- Putting a trash can inside the same building as the toilet (see “handicap-sized stalls,” above). There are few things more annoying than trying to deal with a used sanitary pad when there’s no place to throw it away discreetly, and no place to even set it down for a moment when you need to pull up your pants with both hands so that your holsters and mag pouches and other gear doesn’t slide into the slime on the floor.
Other suggestions?
AMEN
A major selliing point for our range is “toilets that flush and everything.” It’s not fancy; there’s only enough heating to protect the pipes, no AC, and it’s camp clean not Mom clean. (Of course down here in Texas heating is only necessary for a couple of weeks a year.)
We built a concrete block two-room building with two toilets and a sink on one side, a toilet, urinal, and sink on the other. The septic tank drain field runs out in front of the firing line.
Suggestion? Much of the funding for our restroom came from a Friends of NRA grant. (We’ve been holding fundraising events here for a couple of decades.)
And, by the way, when you get us guys off to ourselves, we’ll admit to liking real restrooms to porta-potties too.
our range just installed some porta potties near the pistol pits. otherwise, it’s a 3 min walk back to the range house. for a long time, shooting was mostly by men, and men have fewer needs, so any tree will do. and when you are building a range on a budget, far away from other things, you may not have a water supply, much less a building with a roof. costs money to run a water line all the way to the large plot of land used for the range.