Targets of criticism

Further, visitors to a firing range should not handle firearms anywhere but at the firing line, Raynolds said. In the photographs, players stroll around the range with firearms in hand, aimed in multiple directions.

Raynolds laid responsibility for the unsafe gun-handling techniques on the state police.

"[Each player] is at a police range. He's with police officers. He has to assume that whatever he's doing is OK, unless he's told otherwise," Raynolds said. "All they're [police] doing is teaching them bad habits - and potentially endangering them, because what if there's a round left in the chamber?"

Ralph Cindrich is a former professional football player and current sports agent who advises his clients - who include Farrior - not to carry guns.

While he agrees the safe-direction rule is inviolable, he said the Steelers' outing to the Greensburg barracks is "of low concern."

"They were at a shooting range with the trained professionals of the state police. The benefits of these players taking time to communicate with and learn from law enforcement far outweighs any one mishap that may have occurred there," said Cindrich, who played for the New England Patriots and the Houston Oilers.

Others weren't so understanding.

"These are not play toys; these are not the type of things you take a bunch of untrained guys out to play with," said civil-rights attorney Don Bailey, who has several lawsuits pending against the state police. "What if someone had gotten hurt? There needs to be a grand-jury investigation into the conduct and affairs of the Pennsylvania State Police's top leaders."