Here we are 5/6 through 2020 and the world remains in turmoil. For months we have suffered through non-stop BS being thrown at us, ever worsening as today, November 3rd, approached. But the real depressing news is that the Supreme Court has opted to ignore gun cases, leaving gun owners in limbo on many fronts. But the really, really depressing news is that it is very hard to buy guns as the store shelves are empty due to the panic buying caused by the pandemic. But the really, really, really depressing news is the ammunition shortage again brought on by the panic buying caused by the pandemic.
The silver lining in the shortage of guns and ammo is that some of it is the result of the 3+ million new gun owners in the good ole USA. The other good news is tat newly appointed Justice Barrett appears to support the Second Amendment.
A whole lot of formerly anti-gun folks found out that the politicians have been lying (goodness no!) whey they said the guns are easy to get. Ha! Lots of those new, I need a gun to protect myself during the pandemic, gun owners could not buy guns without the permission of the government – a.k.a a gun license. Then a lot of them ran into the problem of a broken NICS system which doled out a bunch of false positives and negatives. After all of that 3+ million managed to gut guns.
Good for them but bad for us. What’s that your say? Bad for us? Yup, I say bad for us. Us being consciences, law abiding gun owners who have been trying to do it right. Bad for those of us who get training and know the laws of self-defense. Why? Because very few of those new gun owners are learning the law and every time a legal gun owner does something dumb, like get in an argument and threaten t settle the argument with a gun, it becomes big news and makes us all look like a bunch of yahoos, giving politicians ammunition to use against us and our rights which are guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
The bad for us can be easily reversed into a great for us. We need to get the new (and old) gun owners training in the use or firearms for self-defense as well as education about both gun laws and self-defense. There is lots of great training available. For instance, in July and in August, Ian Strimbeck of Runenation was at the Riverside Gun Club (where I teach) and provided exceptional courses in advances pistol and advanced carbine, respectively. At Riverside we run basic pistol courses and advanced pistol courses. Every Tuesday evening, we run defensive/tactical workshops which are based on solid self-defense training principles.
Here is a fact. If you use a gun for self-defense, you will be asked to describe the training that you do and is it related to self-defense. If your answer is something like: I go to the range every couple of months and shoot 50 to 100 rounds into a bullseye target at 25 yards, the district attorney will be salivating at the prospect of eating you for breakfast. If your answer is something like: I train weekly doing a combination of accuracy and defensive drills and do counter threat simulations through a course of fire that is different every week. (Self-defense appropriate training which is realistic and court defensible.) In addition you show the DA a bunch of certificates showing completion of advanced training courses which are run by state and nationally known firearms trainers, the DA will think twice about bring you to court where you can demonstrate your knowledge to the jury. The difference between going to jail or going home is in your control. Get training.
It does not matter where in the country you live, there is really good training available. You just have to make a small effort to run an online query to find every kind of firearms training from the very basic to very complex tactical work. Get trained, you life or a loved one’s life may depend on it.