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Gun novices drawn to dead earnest training
By Michael Kelley The Commercial Appeal In converted racquetball courts designed to evoke the image of an upscale health club, Tom Givens is urging 20 students to change their way of thinking. Givens, 46, is a 20-year firearms instructor who is imparting his knowledge on the subject these days at RangeMaster, an upscale shooting range, gun shop and training center with a Web site that lists businesses it would like you to boycott because they prohibit weapons on their property. Students bring nothing to his classes except guns and misinformation, says Givens, unless they've been through formal firearms training before. Firearms knowledge is fading here and everywhere else he's taught, Givens says. His job is to start from square one. Some students show up with guns they've bought months before and have never taken out of the box, he says. Others come only for the documents they need to carry a permit and mistakenly think they know all there is to know. About 40 percent of the students are women. One of at least three indoor shooting and firearms training facilities in Memphis, RangeMaster gave 2,400 students the training and documentation they need to apply for firearms carry permits. Rangemaster has attracted plenty of media attention, including being interviewed during preparation of two segments on kids and guns scheduled to air today and Tuesday on the CBS Evening News at 5:30 p.m. on WREG-TV Channel 3. A few women and African-Americans are in the eight-hour class I've decided to audit. It's primarily a male, white crowd with a wide range of ages, from people in their early 20s to their 50s. Derek Farris, 40, a network analyst at St. Jude, is here so he'll qualify to carry his 9-millimeter semiautomatic legally from now on. "I have a 16-year-old daughter, and I want her to grow up," Farris says. "I want to bounce a grandbaby on my knee one day, and the way society is, there's a lot of people out there who just don't care, who don't feel the same way you feel about those things and would try to take that away from you in a few seconds." Jim Cooper, 65, who has been robbed at gunpoint twice as he made the rounds picking up the proceeds from his carwash business, has decided to put himself on something closer to an equal footing with his assailants if it should happen again. "When you have a gun pulled on you and you're looking down the barrel and you don't have any means of defense, you wish that you did have," he says. "And, you know, it scares you. You don't know whether they're going to kill you or not."
We all have our reasons, and we're a dead serious bunch, listening as Givens talks about safety issues, personal defense strategy, legal issues of gun ownership and why as many trained, sober, properly licensed and responsible people as possible should be on the streets with sidearms. Givens, who has taught firearms skills to police departments, the military, private security and civilians, refuses to live the way most of us do - walking around like so many wimps without control over our own destiny. Carrying a concealed weapon gives you options when confronted by one of the ubiquitous bad guys on the mean streets of Memphis who are after your money, your life or your body, he says. And guns need to be worn to be of any use for defensive purposes outside the home, Givens postulates. A gun in the glove box serves no purpose except to provide thieves arms. Thinking of carrying a gun only when you might need it? If you know of a place where you anticipate needing a gun, Givens says, don't go there. Instead, he says, wear your gun on you all the time - just in case.
To reach reporter Michael Kelley, call 529-2392 |
