Owning (and carrying) a gun is an individual, inalienable right. So, your respect and support, while appreciated, are wholly unnecessary.
I never said anything at all about it being necessary. My point was, a stupid post on the internet made by a gun owner is not a reason to decry all gun owners. Likewise, a statement made by some instructor is not a reason to decry all instructors.
So, who the hell is "you folks," Mr. No-Stereotypes?
If it wasn't obvious that I was referring to you, then let me make it very clear. YOU. And anyone else that arbitrarily bashes instructors as a group.
Again, those who open carry are exercising a constitutional right, which is different from "you folks," who are able to separate people from their money due to unconstitutional and immoral government enactments. You are a cog in the machine, whether you like it or not.
Buy a clue, since obviously you don't have one. In the first place, nobody has ever been forced to take training from me. Even those people who have come to me seeking state-compliant training to obtain a CCW endorsement have the choice to A) take their training somewhere else, or B) open carry without a permit if they so choose. Secondly, I have NEVER denied training to someone who legitimately could not afford it. I've given more classes away and discounted more classes than I can count. Third, in Missouri THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to carry a concealed firearm. In fact, our Constitution SPECIFICALLY excludes the carrying of concealed firearms from being a protected right, so before you go shooting off at the mouth about something, do yourself a favor and do some research.
Honestly, boo-freakin-hoo. Cry me a river. Perhaps you should be putting those HUGE amounts of time and money into the struggle to reassert our rights, rather than actively participating in a system that is wrong.
Again, you don't have any idea of what you are talking about. There IS NO state requirement that somebody take training in this state so that they can carry a firearm. In addition, even though there is a training requirement to obtain a state-issued concealed weapons endorsement, there are plenty of other avenues a person can take to lawfully carry a concealed firearm in this state that do NOT require them to take training from a Missouri instructor. People that come to me for training do it because they WANT to. Because they feel that they have a NEED for the training for whatever personal reasons they might have. My organization only provides one state-compliant course out of the 11 courses that we offer. Ten of those courses have nothing to do with any state or government requirements. Like it or not, people are not born with defensive pistol skills. Many of them believe that attending good training classes is a efficient way to learn and develop those skills.
As to reasserting rights, not that it's any of your business, but I am much more active and involved than you will ever know, and probably more active legislatively than a good portion of the "advocates" here. We all have different ways that we go about trying to effect change. Just because the actions a person takes aren't posted on Youtube for the world to see doesn't mean that they don't exist.
I didn't even know who you were previous to your diatribe; ergo, I could not be attempting to shame you. Maybe you do deserve shame, maybe not; we all have to face a higher judge some day. However, I know that I will face Him saying that I did everything possible to allow my fellow citizens to exercise their God-given rights without government interference, not that I was a camp follower in Caesar's army.
Your attempt was to shame, or decry, ALL NRA instructors, as if they've somehow done something to personally harm you. I feel reasonably certain, being how I've actually met and worked with dozens of different NRA instructors, that the vast majority of them don't become instructors due to any government mandates. Most of them have a genuine interest in firearms and in teaching others about firearms. I'd also guess that most of them bring many more new shooters into the "fold" than you've ever thought about (of course, I could be wrong). So before you start preaching about how much "holier than than thou" you think you are, you might step back and realize that there are a lot of good people out there doing a lot of good things.
