Reminds me of the time I was on a sailboat in the Bahamas...we were diving--had the dive flag up--and some idiot ran a power boat between a diver from our boat and the sailboat...the diver was, thankfully, deep enough to not be affected, but that's not the point. Crazy.
The acts of stupidity here are not education related...they are brain function related. Some people are just not wired to ask themselves: "What could go wrong here?" You've seen guys show up at meetings without a pen, hikers that don't have a flashlight, people in line at the checkout counter that forgot their wallet, people that try to buy plywood the day of the hurricane, etc.....my favorite is guys who pull their boats up on the beach.....spend all day 50 feet away from their boat....and not realize the tide went out and they are stuck. No amount of education will help these people.
I had the same problem, except it was the coast guard auxiliary and they then decided to stop and patrol/escort and proceeded to repeat the violation multiple times and would not answer their radio, even though I could hear my own voice on their radio across the short distance. This is why I permanently hate the CGA btw, that org should not exist.
"Pointing a gun and shooting blanks at someone could cause a problem."
Perhaps but our starting cannon is about a foot long , lashed to the deck , hard to think it was pointed at anyone.
The sound however is far louder than a shotgun ,( black powder starting blanks ), and does seem to be heard even by fools.