The boat ramps are open. Now release the rifle ranges.

Just outside Georgetown, S.C., you will find a shooter’s paradise named Backwoods Quail Club. It is an extraordinary operation, spanning hundreds of acres and offering sporting clays, 5-Stand, skeet, trap, a rifle range and a pistol range.

And here, in the midst of Governor McMaster’s panic-demic, it is open.

Why?

Because they are the private sector. Because they view their clients as adults. Because they believe anyone who can be trusted with a gun can be trusted to remain six feet away from another person.

South Carolina’s manned public ranges, however, are closed.

“Manned” means there is a DNR officer on-site to ensure gun safety rules are followed. For those unaware, Department of Natural Resources game wardens are a highly trained, elite organization of men and women who carry firearms and risk their lives every day … after all, enforcing the state’s hunting rules means dealing with armed hunters.

Based on their training, we believe they can be trusted to say, “Stay six feet apart.”

That is the entirety of what would be involved in re-opening manned public ranges: Add to their duties the words, “You need to stay six feet apart, so we’ll be shooting every other lane to ensure the distance is sufficient.”

The professionalism of the Palmetto State’s game wardens is known and respected by every hunter and shooter in the state. Perhaps Governor McMaster should view them with equal respect, trust them to add one sentence to their list of duties and allow taxpayers to experience the ranges they paid to use.