The Washington Free Beacon reported yesterday that Rick Ector, a prominent firearms instructor in the Detroit area, founded an all-female handgun safety training event in 2011. Last weekend that event trained 1,938 Detroit women–twice the attendance in 2019.
The article notes that the Sunday session was so popular that the classroom portion had to be changed to an open-air event in the range’s parking lot due to overcrowding concerns and coronavirus-related precautions.
The article reports:
The event may serve as another indicator of the unprecedented demand for guns and training driven by the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest, and the 2020 elections. About 10 million guns have been sold in the United States since March—a record-setting pace. The diversity seen at the Detroit event coupled with dealer-reported increases in gun sales to minorities indicates the surge is bringing in new shooters from across the social and political spectrum.
The article continues:
Moner (Tanisha Moner who has had a gun pointed at her twice in her life. Once by two strangers who kidnapped, robbed, and sexually assaulted her when she was 17. And, again, by another robber as she worked a management shift at a restaurant.) said helping women learn to take a more proactive role in their own safety is now part of her life’s work.
“I don’t have my own personal police force around me 24/7,” Moner said. “It is my duty and obligation to take care of my own personal protection. They’re gonna come after the fact, if I’m lucky. But who is there in that moment? I’ve been in that moment on more than one occasion. There’s nobody there but me.”
Moner now spends much of her time teaching gun safety professionally. She’s racked up several different certifications to teach NRA training courses and offers a gun-carry course for those trying to obtain a Michigan permit. She says the women’s training event—which Ector is looking to expand again next year—is her favorite event of the year.
“I live for this event. I really do,” Moner said. “There’s nothing like seeing a woman pull the trigger on a firearm for the very first time. It’s like a light just goes off in her. It’s a moment of enlightenment.”
I hate to think that America is becoming the wild west again, but this may be a time when all of us need to take responsibility for our own personal safety.