2014 PDN Training Tour Update 7/29

Rob Pincus for another personal defense network 2014 training tour update. This last week, I was at a rare class for this late in the tour back on the East Coast in New Jersey. What actually happened was because we're going up to Alaska coming up very soon to end the tour, I was in the process of getting the truck upgraded and sort of on standby after finishing up all the work on the Pacific Northwest when we would normally end the tour in mid to late July. And I flew back to the East Coast for a shooting industry event called the Shooting Industry Masters that I see training company sponsors. We had a team there. We had a great time, saw a lot of great people and it gave me the opportunity to stay on the East Coast and do a two day combat focus shooting course at a new facility called Shooters. The Shooters is a world-class retail store fully stocked firearm section outdoor store beautiful building, and a great two section indoor rain. And of course they're interested as any facility is, in providing defensive training to their customers. It's important to note that this is happening in New Jersey. They have an incredible firearm selection. They've got a lot of customers have got a lot of members and they had a very busy range and we had a great class full of law enforcement and people interested in home defense and personal defense firearm skills. What I wanted to do is take a minute to talk to someone who works in a retail environment in the state of New Jersey. This was her first defensive shooting class, even though she's been in the industry for five or six years. And let her talk a little bit about her experiences in the class as a woman and the kinds of things that she deals with. When people come into the store, looking for a handgun for their first defensive purchase in what is generally seen as a very restrictive state. Now I've been very clear and on the record over many years that I think it's important that we as a firearms community, support illegal firearms owners fighting the good fight in the more oppressed areas when we can't all be in Texas and Arizona and Alaska and all the pro gun States all the time. And certainly not all Americans live in great States, as far as handguns ownerships, firearms ownership concealed carry permits, and the right and responsibilities they have to defend themselves. We need to be able to support those who are in the States like New York, like California, like New Jersey. Now, just this week, the federal courts handed down a decision that the district of Columbia the last jurisdiction inside of the U.S. that's still outright bans, the carry of firearms for defensive purposes must change their policy. So we had Illinois the last state that was a holdout fall in the past few months. We had a great federal decision on the state of California city situation mandating that it basically becoming easier for people to get concealed carry permit statewide. And now we're seeing the district of Columbia also before. It's not only to recognize those people who live in Washington DC's right to carry a firearm for defense but also it was very clearly stated that they may not restrict the opportunity for people who are non-residents of Washington DC to carry in Washington DC. So this is a huge victory for people. You know, there's so much awesome stuff inside of Washington DC, the Smithsonian, all the monuments that are there are great reasons to go there, but there are lot of people who've said I will never set foot in Washington DC our country's capital, simply because they can't carry a firearm to defend themselves and their families. And quite frankly I think that's a shame I'm looking forward to these changes in this continuing evolution. And we've seen over the last 20 years moving in the right direction for people's rights and the responsibility I feel they have to be able to defend themselves and be prepared to defend themselves in the public space as well as in their home. Of course, I'd love to see the laws are relaxed a little bit in New Jersey as well, and do a little bit more training like we did this past week. So now, without any further conversation, let's go ahead and hear what Jeanine has to say about her experiences as a woman in a combat focus shooting course as part of the personal defense network training tour and her experiences, dealing with people coming in to buy their first guns at her local gun shop in a restrictive firearms state. I sell firearms at a gun store in New Jersey. We often see a lot of new shooters come in more often than not a lot of new women coming in to start in the shooting. A lot of women have been coming in have been home protection, use of force in the home. If they need to God forbid they're home alone and their husband's not home. Or if they're single women living at home they want to be able to protect themselves and not feel helpless. A lot of the questions women have nowadays is what gun is gonna be best for them. A lot of women come in with that understanding that they want a small pistol. A lot of them don't understand that a smaller pistol is gonna have a lot more recoil for them. So we try to educate them a little bit more. If they're new to shooting in general, we often recommend a beginner's course to learn about the gun. Today I'm here at Shooters taking this course to improve upon my personal defense, self-defense, my skills, though I've been a shooter for 20 years. It's been more of target shooting less of a defensive type situation. God forbid again I would need to do something defensive in the home. I wanna have that skill and that knowledge of how to protect my family. What I've gotten out of this course today is a lot. I've learned a lot of new knowledge that I didn't even know existed to improve upon myself, my weaknesses, and how to improve upon my weaknesses. I was hesitant at first I had a lot of reservations about taking this course. One, I was thinking it might be all guys how comfortable will men be, you know with a woman in their class, but I'd rather deal with that uncomfortableness than have to maybe take a course with all women where the class is geared down towards women a little bit more. I wanna be able to do it where it's not gender specific. If it could be just gender neutral. Women's only classes tend to be a little bit more taught maybe a little bit more condescending towards the women. I wanna be treated like everyone else. Everyone should be taught the same. Not necessarily just because we're women, doesn't mean that we can't handle the guns the same. We should be able to handle the situation the same as men do. I have gained a lot of confidence. I'm glad I pushed back those reservations that I had as far as maybe not taking the course because it was gonna be all men. I think that having the diversity in the class means that I was able to learn say from the mistakes that others were making. Having worked in the firearms industry for about almost six years now, I would recommend to any woman shooter coming in for the first time to find a gun that they're comfortable with using, and then take a course similar to what I'm taking today.