This is an absolutely
GREAT idea. I got a group of friends from work together a couple of years ago and went shooting up near Bellingham, WA and it went extremely well. We took along a couple of shotguns, a CZ-452 .22, a couple of .380's, my 9mm Sigma and a .22 Buckmark. A friend brought along a Mossberg 500, a .45 and a .38. So, 4 guys, an almost empty range, a couple of thousand rounds of ammo, 300 paper plates and a staple gun = TONS OF FUN!
Even better was that over the next week, 2 other guys and a gal expressed interest in going along if we did it again. Forget the arguing and debates - win them over with the love of shooting. Sure everyone wants to shoot the Mossberg from 5 yards, loaded with slugs but they get over it and become curious about how things work, aiming and controlling the gun rather than gun control.
After returning to Memphis, while getting ready to come to Europe, I reconnected with my best friend from college and we met for coffee at a Denny's. After a few cups he wanted to go for beers but I replied I couldn't. He assumed I was a recovering alcoholic or something and pussy-footed around a bit but eventually asked if I wouldn't go and sit while he had a beer. I finally told him, "well, I would but I have a .40 semi-auto on my back belt." His reply? "No problem, we can lock it in the trunk of my car with this Ruger under my shirt." The next week we took a tactical course together and had a blast.
My kids got into it as well and their friends would ask but, unfortunately no parents ever consented to their kids taking a trip to the range. Ah well!
So, to me these incidents prove how important it is to not act like you're so nervous about people finding out you carry. I love the Wal-Mart report from the other poster but we need to be matter-of-fact about our exercise of choice and rights as others are about their religion, politics and eating habits.
So, yeah, take a friend (or six) to the range - have some fun, but be SAFE!