As I write this column today, the horrible news of another school shooting breaks the airwaves in Minnesota at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Two young children killed and 17 wounded by a cowardly, deranged demon with multiple guns. The suspect, a man identifying as a woman, took his own life after ending as many innocent lives as he could. Evil does exist and we need to prepare to confront it on both a spiritual and physical level. 

It is way past time for us to provide the same level of security for our greatest national treasure, our children, that we offer our banks and courthouses. I know many retired police and military veterans that would jump at the chance to protect these innocents, their teachers and administrative staff. We must do something different, not add more laws to punish law-abiding citizens that won’t change the outcome.

The main reason I started writing this column 16 years ago was to help people prepare to defend themselves from those that would cause us harm. We’ve focused intently on raising our situational awareness, techniques for armed and unarmed defense, improvised weapons that we can use everywhere we go from work to school and certainly at home where we spend much of our time.

Today I want to focus on a very good class coming up next month that I highly recommend for the women in our lives. Quick background, back in 1999 the National Rifle Association (NRA) decided to create a beginner level training course specifically for women, called Women on Target. They chose one highly experienced female instructor from each state and brought them together to develop this course and then bring it back to their home states to implement. The NRA certified instructor chosen by the state of New York, was Jackie Emslie and she taught 80 of these clinics all over New York and Pennsylvania, including in the heart of New York City where gun permits are few and far between. Jackie will be offering this wonderful clinic at the Belton Gun Club on Saturday, September 27th from 9 – 5. This full day course costs only $35, and all equipment will be provided including the rifles and handguns, eye and ear protection. All the students need to bring are lunch, non-alcoholic drinks, a folding chair to sit in at the range, and comfortable clothing based on weather conditions. The morning session will be held in the classroom reviewing safe gun handling, ammunition basics, and fundamentals of marksmanship. The small caliber .22 will be used for most of the course, which has very little kick, is enjoyable to shoot, and very accurate. Following the one hour lunch break, the afternoon session will be on the range applying the techniques learned in the morning. 

This course will be fun, safe, interesting and very informative. It will not be competitive or intimidating, and there’s no test to pass. The course is not political, has no physical requirements to attend, and is a basic course that doesn’t require the student to learn how to shoot and move, or draw a pistol from a holster. This is not a defensive training program, which would be a more advanced course once you learn the basics, if you wanted to continue shooting and training.  

Who is the typical student that attends this course?  Previous students ranged in age from 12 to 97, from stay-at-home Mom’s to teachers, lawyers, nurses and doctors, all races and walks of life. Some of their reasons for attending also run the gamut from curiosity to a one and done bucket list item, something fun and different to do, college students studying sociology, previous victims of crime that want to start learning how they can defend themselves, even women that did some shooting during their childhood, then had a family, raised their children and are now empty nesters, looking to reclaim some of their early joy of shooting.

In America, 25% of women own a firearm, and 50% of all new gun purchasers are women! Of the women that don’t own firearms, 40% say they might in the future.

Shooting is a family affair for Jackie, as her husband of 34 years, Scott is on the Board of Directors for the NRA and sits on 5 different committees. He supports Jackies’ drive for teaching since they both retired and moved to Florida, but continue to travel teaching and promoting gun safety across the country. 

If you’d like to find out more about Women on Target, please visit https://wot.nra.org. If you’d like to apply to attend, send a brief note with your name, address, phone and email along with a check made out to Ashely Widener for $35 for each person attending, to Ashley Widener  221 Rock Creek Road, Anderson, SC 29625, before September 20th. You can call or text Ashely with your questions at: 770-842-8202 or email her at: AshleyWidener@gmail.com.

Rick ‘Pirate Hunter’ Grover strongly believes we are all in this together, and the more we learn and train, the better we will be prepared for any eventuality. This makes all of us part of an amazing neighborhood team of American Patriots. 

God Bless America! 

Drop us a comment or question at email: StreeTactics@gmail.com●