I've taught a lot of new gun owners to shoot in the last two months.  The crazy events of the year 2020 drove many people to buy guns and get training in how to protect themselves.  Four of my recent students (all women) brought with them a brand-new M&P Shield EZ handgun.  This gun is built by Smith and Wesson and chambered in .380 Auto or 9mm.   I think these guns are very popular because they are affordable, easy to rack and comfortable in small hands.   

Everyone that brought it to my course plans to use it for self defense.   However, once we got out on the range and started shooting each of the four students had issues de-activating the grip safety.  Sometimes the gun would fire and something they would have to readjust their grip to get it to fire.  This happened with four out of four students using an M&P EZ!  A grip safety is supposed to be automatically de-activated when you grip the gun.  You shouldn't have to think about it.  These ladies each had a correct two-handed grip on the gun (strong-side hand high on the backstrap) and did not always de-activate the grip safety.  I've never seen someone have problems de-activating a grip safety on any other makes of gun (such as the Springfield Armory XD or a 1911).  Due to the performance I've seen with these guns, I would NOT recommend you purchase one for yourself.

Bottom line:

• Pros: They are easy to rack and small and concealable.  Good trigger, grip texture and sights.  
• Cons: Grip safety:  will it go bang when you need it to?

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Americans have been buying guns at an amazing rate.

Fox Business reports that the National Shooting Sports Federation estimated that there are 2.5 million new gun owners since the start of 2020.  The Washington Times reported that Virginia guns sales were 77% higher from in the first five months of 2020 versus the same period in 2019.   

Guns sales traditionally spike when there is any sort of civil unrest that make people uncomfortable with the government's ability to protect them.  I know gun sales have surged even more since the George Floyd protests turned violent.  I appreciate that people want to have the ability to protect themselves.  

Congratulations to all of the new gun owners!  If you are one of them, I'd recommend you seek some training to give you the knowledge, skills and attitude needed to own and operate a gun safely.   Search for courses available in your area on NRA Training's website.

For everyone else, my encouragement to you is to not wait for the next big panic event.  Prepare ahead of time for the unexpected: a pandemic, riots or a hurricane that knocks out power to your house for 5 days.  Buy enough of whatever supplies your family will need to last through events like this when they aren't at peak demand.  

As I wrote recently, I was looking for a quick access safe in order to store a rifle in my bedroom.  I decided on an ARVault by GunVault.  When I opened the safe to prepare to hang it on my wall, I found the following warning (highlighting is mine):

"WARNING:  The manufacturers and distributors of the ARVault safe do not recommend, suggest, advise, promote or otherwise condone the ownership or use of firearms.  We at GunVault Inc. believe the decision to own or use the firearm is a serious decision that should only be made by an adult who has carefully considered the risks and benefits of such a decision."

Seriously, the makers of a gun safe, do not condone the ownership of firearms!?!  This was shocking to me and I immediately returned the safe.  When I spend money with gun makers and gun accessories, I want to spend my dollars with companies that will stand with us and support our gun rights.  Needless to say, I won't be buying any more products from GunVault.

Have you ordered your Virginia AR lower from Palmetto State Armory yet?  Not only is this a seriously sweet looking lower for your next AR build, $10 of your purchase goes to VCDL to help protect our 2nd Amendment rights in Virginia!  I ordered mine last week and can't wait to get it.

If you haven't built an AR, it is a really fun (and easy) process.  The lower is the only part of the gun that is controlled by the ATF.  So when you order your lower, you'll have to choose a local gun store to complete the transfer to you.  The rest of the parts can be bought at numerous online sites.  I'll include a picture of my first AR build below (that one used an Aero Precision lower).  

Mike Bloomberg has set his sights on Virginia.  He wants to push his own socialist agenda down our throats and his checkbook has bought him support from Democrats far and wide.  

This is a fight they shouldn't start.  Over 90% of Virginia counties have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries (see map below).  It is clear the vast majority of Virginians do not want more gun control.  As I mentioned before, gun control is not about guns or making us safer, it is about control.  Those pushing gun control just want control of the citizens.  They don't like us to be able to protect ourselves and our families.  

A friend and I took part in the VCDL gun rights rally this week.   It was amazing to see so many people from all walks of life united in one thing - our love for freedom.  There we people shoulder-to-shoulder for three blocks around the Capital!  The news coverage of this event was a joke.  They called it a rally of white supremacists and expected violence.  What actually happened was an enormous number of gun owners showed-up for a peaceful rally to remind our Governor and Legislature that they are supposed to represent us. 

The Senate already has passed a number of bad bills including Universal Background check, One Handgun a Month and the worst of the all: Red Flag Gun Confiscation.  These are an assault on our liberty and should not be tolerated.  I'm sure any of these that make it into law will be challenged in court but that doesn't mean we should depend on the court to throw them out.  Let's get really active in the political process and try to stop them from becoming law.  

I would guess that most gun owners, including me, have a handgun (or two) in the home for self defense.  In my case, these guns are loaded and in quick access safes to prevent an unauthorized person from getting to them.  If I need a rifle or shotgun, those are unloaded in my safe in the garage and will take significantly more time to get.  Ever since the slaughter of 26 people in a Sutherland Springs, TX church, I've been considering how to have a rifle in my house ready for quick access.  In case you don't remember that case, Stephen Willeford engaged a heavily armed and armored shooter with his AR and was able to stop the rampage.  Rifles are used for self-defense fairly frequently.  Over the summer, I wrote about a man fighting off five home intruders with an AK47.  Recently, I just saw this article about a pregnant women who saved her husband and his daughter from home invaders with an AR15.  

Right now, I'm considering three different options.  Two wall mount options: Gunvault or Hornady.  The third option is  a Hornady under the bed safe.  I like the idea of hiding a wall mount safe in my closet behind my hanging clothes.  Let me know if you have a rifle ready for quick access and what your preferred method of securing it is.

How safe are you at church?   Keith Thomas Kinnunen shot and killed 2 people at West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas over the weekend.  Thankfully, this church has a security team and the members of this team were ready to respond.  Within 6 seconds of the shooting starting, it was over and Mr. Kinnunen had been shot dead!  6 seconds!  

The current theory on the motive is that Mr. Kinnunen was angry that the church didn't give him money (though it seems they did feed him several times).  As most mass shooters, he was mentally ill and could not have purchased the gun legally.  

Richmond Firearm Training introduced church security training.  We do this for nominal cost with the goal of improving the overal security in Richmond-area houses of worship.    

​As I've discussed before, the second amendment is about freedom - the basic freedom to to protect yourself.  Check out the liberal agenda pushed by CNN in their article to discuss the latest homicide statistics compiled by the CDC.  This article quotes Daniel Webster, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins, several times.  None of his quotes have any scientific basis - just standard anti-gun rhetoric.

Here's one example: "The available data suggests that as we make it easier and easier for more and more civilians to carry guns wherever they want, we end up with more homicides and other firearm-related crimes," Webster said.  The statistics compiled by the CDC are for murders and are not for law abiding citizens.   He's drawing a completely incorrect conclusion from data.  

Halfway through the article, the writer finally provides a more reasonable perspective from Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America:  "Guns are deadly. But that also makes them effective for self-defense."'Breakdowns in society', a CDC-sponsored study from 2013 found that "guns are used in self-defense anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million times a year," Pratt said. "That means that compared to the CDC figures for 'firearm homicides' in 2016, guns are being used 35 to 208 times more often to save [lives]."

The newly elected state representatives and senate are in a rush to pass all sorts of crazy gun control schemes:  red flag gun laws, universal background checks, one handgun a month, 10 round magazine limit and even semi-auto gun bans have all been pre-filed for the 2020 session. 

It isn't about crime, Virginia has the fourth lowest violent crime rate!  Ultimately, gun control is about control of law abiding citizens.  Criminals, by definition, do not obey the law.

Gun owners - we need to get more active politically than ever to stop the loss of our freedoms.  Please join Virginia Citizens Defense League's Virginia Alert mailing list so you can be alerted of action items (you can do that for free!).  After that, send a generous donation to VCDL, Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association.