The South Australian Government has been blamed for delays in implementing a safety measure designed to stop people killing themselves at public shooting ranges, following the third such death in Adelaide.

After the first two deaths, the state coroner recommended guns be tethered or that a barrier be introduced so unlicensed shooters could not turn the guns on themselves.

Four years later, those recommendations still have not been adopted.

The owners of the shooting range have been accused of complacency in the wake of the latest death in December.

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But correspondence and images seen by the ABC's 7.30 program have revealed a different side.

Photos show a tethering system the range's owners say was developed back in 2012.

It is almost identical to those already in use in Queensland.

Legal correspondence seen by 7.30 suggests this proposal has been waiting for State Government approval for at least three years.

It noted: "The only thing preventing our client from voluntarily introducing the tethering apparatus is an apparent unwillingness on the part of the Firearms Branch to inspect and approve the apparatus so as to allow our client to modify its range for its installation."

Neither the range owners nor South Australia's police ministry were available for interview as the owners' licence is currently subject to a legal challenge.

But in response to questions about why tethering had not been introduced in the interim, South Australia's police ministry reiterated an earlier statement that said a committee had now been appointed to investigate the feasibility of tethering and/or bulletproof screening.

That came more than four years after the coroner made his recommendations.

It was a devastating blow for Lorraine Jast, whose husband Ray was the second person to end his life at the range.

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"When I first heard there'd been another life taken, I was stunned and so saddened for the families, because it's just so hard," she said.

Six years on, she still struggles to understand how it could happen.

"Allowing a person without a gun licence to walk in off the street and within a matter of minutes have a weapon in their hands, I find that amazing," she said.

Ms Jast hopes the tragedy of her husband's death will lead to real change in public shooting galleries across the country.

Former president of the WA Sporting Shooters Association Paul Peake said tightening access to public shooting galleries was long overdue.

Owners of shooting ranges say that while nothing is completely fail-safe in preventing deaths, a tether can be a strong deterrent.

He used to work at one of Western Australia's biggest indoor shooting galleries but quit, in part, over concerns for safety.

Since he left, there have been two suicides.

"I could see it coming, I could see that it was inevitable," he said.

"I am not opposed to public-access ranges, but I think the way they are organised and managed could be much better."

His old workplace has since installed its own tethering system while the state coroner investigates.

The laws around tethering guns in public shooting galleries differs between states and territories but the latest death in Adelaide has brought sporting shooters, gun control advocates and mental health professionals to a rare agreement.

"The coroners have made very sensible recommendations, and we have already seen in some states where those recommendations have been implemented," said chief executive of Suicide Prevention Australia Sue Murray.

"What Suicide Prevention Australia would like to see, is that those recommendations become legislation in every state."