An interesting story of an anti-gunner learning the truth about guns and eventually opening her own factory to assemble AK-47's. And some of her AK variants are selling so fast she can barely keep up with demand. In 2013, she thought guns were bad. Particularly AKs. Now, it’s her favorite firearm. Still a young 39, Cassandra Harris has traveled quite the journey since entering the shooting sports industry six years ago. Her mindset about guns changed when she first began shooting. Harris started to understand why people felt so strongly about the Second Amendment and for her, it was an empowering moment. “Getting over the fear and looking at it as a tool to protect myself was the biggest change,” she explained. “It’s been life-changing.” https://gunsmagazine.com/discover/for-women/lending-her-voice/-
Whoever says that guns are only useful to kill other people has never spent a relaxing day at an outdoor target range with friends. I don't need to list the numerous recreational uses of firearms for those who hunt or engage in the numerous forms of firearm competition so I'll just mention one of the nontraditional applications I found for my S&W Mod. 29, .44 Magnum. I was working on an old, abandoned house in which I lived at the time & was drilling holes under the house in the nasty crawl space for thin gauge bell wire when the drill broke. I was about to give up for the day when I remembered the box of .44 Magnum ammunition JSWC (Jacketed Semi-Wadcutter) I had reloaded one rainy afternoon. One thing led to another & I finished the nasty job of "drilling" the rest of the holes in less time than it would have taken with the drill. So, the next time someone says that "guns are just for killing people", I simply relate that little story & remind them that not all "cordless drills" use drill bits.
We actually raise money for the local volunteer fire department with guns, specifically rifles. Myself and a couple of other residents approached the Chief and offered to build a small range adjacent to the fire station, using three truckloads of donated sand and donated railroad ties with my Bobcat we built a 12 foot wide 3 foot deep and 6 foot high berm that can stop anything up to a 30-06. Someone donated a used 12 foot picnic table that was placed about 25 feet from the berm. And members of the community provided the rifles and ammo, mostly bolt action .22's, but we also had some AR-15 and a few AK's. We posted signs around the community advising there was going to be a youth turkey shoot open to children from 5 to 18 years old on the third Saturday of that month, I had no idea of how it was going to work out but being a certified instructor volunteered to be the basic safety/shooting instructor for the event. We literally had 43 parents show up with 67 children, the fire station was emptied out and turned into a classroom/dining area, a number of local ladies brought food and drinks and a couple of local ranchers brought out a rather large charcoal BBQ grill and lots of hamburgers and hotdogs all donated. I and another instructor who I certified a few years earlier would take the children 12 at a time and give them a basic safety course followed by a basic lesson on how to hold and aim a rifle, some of the children already had Florida Fish and Game gun safety cards and where hunters, so they where recruited as helpers for the gun handling part of the lesson. On the line four children would shoot at a time, we had state certified hunters as Range Safety Officers, one per child, safety was paramount and I insisted on a 1 to 1 ratio, but we actually had enough volunteers that we could rotate out the RSO's every so often getting them out of the sun for awhile. End result was for $7 per person, each child was provided with 20 rounds of ammo matching the rifle they picked, 5 turkey targets to take home and a certificate of completion of a safety course, everyone had a free lunch and cold drinks and everyone had a lot of fun and the FD had almost $800 added to their budget. And guess what? No one got injured or killed, instead a lot of children and their parents had smiles and plenty of photographs to go home with and we had 67 children understanding guns are not evil, but are something to be respected and used carefully and 67 children and their parents who will never believe any of the lies proffered by the anti-gunners.
When you separate an anti-gun person from their ignorance, a pro-gun person usually develops. It is difficult to do this when said ignorance is willful.
The first turkey shoot was 14 years ago and while I am not longer directly involved in it the shoot has remained very popular, they are now getting free advertising from a local newspaper who covers the event every time it is held and it has been covered twice now by a local TV station who presented it in a fair and positive manner. But you are correct, education is key that prevents brainwashing.
That used to be true. Problem is, many education institutions have been becoming indoctrination centers intolerant of different points of view from prevailing dogma.
Thanks for demonstrating how guns can be a catalyst for a positive community social event that was beneficial for all. Regrettably, MSM contributes to the demonization of firearms by refusing to feature events like the one you helped to create and only publishing events in which firearms played a negative role. On a much smaller scale, I've got a few friends who are either mildly anti gun or indifferent but, to their credit, they've allowed me to teach their eager pro gun children how to shoot safely. Of course they (the children) want to shoot an AR-15 or .44 magnum first but I insist that they first become proficient with a .22 & then, " We'll see..." I'm frequently surprised at how quickly some children demonstrate both safe gun handling habits and natural shooting proficiency in a relatively short period of time.
I was on the line relieving one of the RSO's and the next 8 children lined up to pick the rifle they wanted to shoot, a young lady probably 12 years old or so pointed to an AR-15 stating "I want to shoot that, it looks cool," he father told her "don't you think that gun is too big for you," she looked at Dad with a drop dead look and he relented. I advised Dad to let her try a single shot and if she doesn't like the recoil, I'll set her up with a different rifle, that seemed to be a good idea and he agreed. She had a short briefing as to operate the safety and then it was time to shoot. She was slotted in position 8 with no one to her right, she was advised once her Dad puts her hearing protection on, I'm going to drop the bolt and the gun will shake, don't worry about that, then when that guy over there yells out the "line is hot," I want you to fire 1 shot and then stop. She fired a round turned her head looked at Dad and exclaimed "that was not bad at all, this is sort of fun." Over the next couple of minutes she fired the remaining rounds and when it was all said and done she was center of target, with a pattern about the size of a silver dollar at 25 feet, which is nothing amazing, but for a girl of her age who never fired a gun in her life, it was something to be quite proud of. However what I found truly rewarding was not a single child tossed out their target, they took all their targets home.
Thanks for that very uplifting example of the positive applications of firearms. Not only did my students take home their targets but also their spent brass as if it were gold. A technique I've used to see if someone is flinching is to occasionally substitute dummy rounds in a magazine full of live rounds. That way the students can see for themselves if their flinching. Please keep up the good work.
Anyone can develop a flinch, or slip into poor trigger mechanics, even experienced shooters. Groups not as expected, self evaluation is a good place to start a diagnosis.
