Gun guru and firearms fashionista Colion Noir shares the commonly held belief that hands-on experience with firearms is the key to “converting” anti-gun rights voters to a pro-gun rights position. And proves it above. Well, not entirely. But it’s a valiant, entertaining effort. And his initial point – that kids need basic firearms education – is well taken. As we’ve said before, the NRA needs to move beyond Eddie Eagle to introduce . . .
a more advanced in-school program teaching the four safety rules. Or at least the most important one: never point a gun at something you’re not willing to destroy. If schools did a “firearms intervention” role playing course – “Hey look! I found my Dad’s gun!” – to show tweens and teens what to do when someone else brings out a firearm, hundreds of lives would be saved. What are the odds that union card-holding, left-leaning American educators would allow such a thing?
That’s great that he helps folks learn to shoot. The only thing I would change is it’s a bit risky starting someone off with an autoloader. Too easy to forget there’s another one in the pipe.
I think the best gun would be an inexpensive 22 revolver, perhaps a Heritage (under 2 bills) after they they master trigger control, they can graduate to something a bit more formidable, and they will still have the 22 for fun.
I usually start newbies off with a single round the first couple of trigger pulls. It helps to calm some of the fear that the gun will “flip around” under recoil and discharge again pointed at their noggin (seems to be a common fear for those unfamiliar with recoil).
No rule says there has to be another in the pipe. For someone as timid as the new shooter in this video you can load just 1 in the mag for the first shot.
I’m personally more comfortable handing control over to a brand new shooter with the safety activated. That way you can correct trigger finger discipline before the safety comes off.
I also like to start with .22 rifle from a bench / sandbags to reduce concerns about muzzle discipline, at least until the bang and the recoil are no longer mysteries.
I did like how Colin demonstrated the gun first, though. I always do that.
“Muzzle discipline” That’s a big one! I’ve seen newbies swing a handgun around to lay it on the bench, still loaded, and ready to go, finger on the trigger. And of course when they lay it down, it will pointed at the Range Master, and it will have “muzzled” two or three bystanders.
That sly dog.
If only it were that easy. I find at my age a tad over lets say 60. Folks I know are too set in their beliefs to take me up on the offer to go and shoot. Some will at least listen but are so set in their ways and beliefs. For me its talking to a brick wall.
Its up to you younger readers. Get a non shooter out to try.
The only one Ive been able to get out there is my sister.
She took a safety class and we went to the range.
With my 22s. She wouldnt touch anything larger.
At least now her fear is lessened. But he beliefs only slightly changed.
Same more or less as the women Noir had at the range.
The first one or two times I went I wasn’t convinced either.
But each time gave rise to a little more curiosity and had me change my opinions a little bit more than the last.
It was planting a seed and giving me my own tools to decide where I wanted to go with it.
Time and politics and events progressed and shaped my views as well.
Now, here I am with an “arsenal”. 2005 me wouldn’t have tolerated that, much less predicted it.
I’m really glad he didn’t pull the all too common jackass move of dropping a 10ga shotgun on her and laughing at the shrill she makes from the magnum loads. I hate the jerks that do that stuff to women and kids, and then wonder why those people grow up unsupportive of gun rights and gun owners.
Colin gets it. Think people. Be a good ambassador. Sell the hobby and lifestyle.
It has been known for newbies to DROP a weapon when they were not expecting heavy recoil.
If you don’t mind get your guns dinged up, and maybe a broken stock, then go ahead and hand your 12 year old daughter a 10 ga.
My first round from a 12 gauge was with a high brass magnum turkey load. I was told the end of the butt stock 6″ from my shoulder before firing. I pulled the trigger and fell on my a$$. There was even a small crowd to laugh at me. I was about 13 at the time. Then again, our current generation of millennials is not terribly resilient.
I’ve taught hundreds of young teenagers with bolt action .22s and 12 gauge target loads.
As a confirmed OFWG, I can say, what a delightful couple! Colin Noir and his pupil are the future of our Second Amendment interests, and God bless ’em. If we People of the Gun can bring more responsible gun owners and shooters into the fold, what more could we ask? This was a thoroughly enjoyable video!
I’ve taken quite a few firearms indifferent peers out to shoot.
While they all had fun they remain indifferent. They’d rather spend their time and money on other things and still vote on their mindless default preset of (D) because of lifestyle marketing.
Maybe if they removed themselves from the dead fish stagnation of academic utopia they’d be more inclined to alter their view but until then shooting is a novelty worthy of a selfie or two (for the irony if any hipster peers should see the pics) and the 2nd A isn’t even an afterthought.
The only ones the experience has altered permanently are the two who physically moved away from the area.
It’s tough to be different when everyone else is the same. Something kids should have learned in the shallow world of grade school but sadly many do not and grow into shallow drones of adults who delude themselves into believing their conformity makes them unique.
I went to the range to shoot my new XDM and it was apparently hipster field trip day. I’ve never seen a group of people more uncomfortable around guns. Their gun-owning chaperon brought a Savage .30-06, maybe not the best intro-to-firearms choice. They mostly stood around taking pictures through the spotting scopes with cell phones, I never saw one of them take a shot.
So while I applaud the dude and his friends for trying it, I sincerely doubt any minds were opened that day.
Liked the video. The lady was attractive and at least she gave it a try. Doubt she will change her mind about guns but that could happen later as some of this sinks in. Very difficult to change a mindset overnight. Was great that he got her to come to the range at all. Colin did an excellent job with her. Very diplomatic.
It is very hard to be an adult newbie. I was one only a few years ago and I did not have a friend like Colion Noir to introduce me. Then again, I don’t look like her. So I paid for private lessons at a range. That first shot was scary because you are so conditioned by the media, rumor mill, etc. that there will be a horrible recoil, you will drop the gun, and it will “go off” all by itself and kill you or someone else. As Colion demonstrated and as the instructor did with me, with a full size 9 mm the recoil is mild and easily controlled. It would seem to me that the NRA and other organizations like it, but especially the NRA because it has been around and has an appeal to older people, should consider teaming up with senior citizen groups, church groups, etc. to offer gun safety and introductory classes so that adult newbies can feel that the classes have been vetted by an organization to which they already belong. Retired LEO’s and retired military could be the bridge or the instructors (assuming they have been trained as instructors). With younger people it might be harder but the pro-2A organizations need to do some market research to find out what would make people like Ja-mes curious enough to take a lesson. A handsome guy like Colion or a pretty lady instructor like Ja-mes could be would probably be better than many of the rest of us..
I think this is the best episode yet of Noir.
I couldn’t help but have a big warm smile on my face while seeing Colion’s friend who introduced him to guns and watching Colion teach her how to handle a firearm. The genuine confusion she had when Colion stopped her from shouldering that “pistol” was also grin worthy.
They say to lead by example, and while we can argue about how many rounds he gave her or starting her on a pistol, he no less demonstrated how important our ambassadorship to others can be.
Who would have guessed the NRA would pay for and put their stamp something so innocent and fun?
I did something similar to this with my aunt. She wasn’t completely anti gun but she had the characteristics of a Fudd. I was visiting with her down in Georgia. I hadn’t brought any of my guns down since I was only staying a few days so we decided to rent some. She started to look through counter and saw a ruger lcr when she asked about it I told her that she might find it a bit snappy and uncomfortable to shoot so I pointed her to the S&W 63 since that was the only .22 in the counter besides a browning buck mark but she didn’t feel comfortable with a semi auto. She went in not knowing much but went out with some decent understanding and had a great time. At no point did I really feel that she was scared but I knew that she was in a place she wasn’t used to. Now when I go down to visit this is one of the things we find ourselves doing and putt putt because you know. Golf.
His point about lawmakers making laws about something they know nothing about is spot on.
Everyone “knows” how important free speech is so laws limiting speech are approached with great trepidation by law makers. If only he Second Amendment could enjoy as much respect in the legislatures.
It’s simply gross negligence on the part of legislators to ignorantly enact laws that bear directly upon Constitutional rights.
Gee I’d love to take my non-gun friends out shooting, but it’s a felony in my state now.
Thanks, Oregon.
Just ignore that law. It is what we’re being encouraged to do by the law enforcement who are indicating that they will not be enforcing it (in WA and OR). What could possibly go wrong?
Great use of the brace to prove how ridiculous the laws are. It drives the point home that the people making laws know little if anything about guns.
Great video. We should always strive to take a newbie shooting. But do it right, as mentioned previously. Drill the four rules before handing them a loaded gun and be right there when you do, because I guarantee you they will forget them all for a time after that first bang.
While getting people experience with firearms is important, that is only one component. The political philosophy aspect is also very important. When guns are banned in places like the U.K. and Australia, the gun owners there hem and haw and are upset about having to give up what is ultimately seen as a form of sporting and hunting. Virtually never do they argue about arms possession being an individual right for self-defense and checking the power of the State.
It is interesting to me how ignored this often is by intellectuals themselves. The idea that a people should possess arms to check the State, at the very least, comes from Aristotle, who argues for it in his book “Politics.” The great Roman, Cicero, who argued fiercely for preserving the Roman republic as he lived to see it break down and get taken over by Caesar, also argued very much for the right of the people to rebel against tyrants. Cicero also argued for the individual right of self-defense. St. Thomas Aquinas later expanded on Aristotle’s work and also argued for tyrannicide (right of a people to kill a tyrannical ruler).
Before the creation of liberal democracy, there had been a distinction seen between a just ruler and an absolute monarch. A just ruler was a servant of the people and if began oppressing the people, the people had a right to rebel, including killing the ruler if necessary. The possession of arms by the people to deter and check tyranny was seen as very important by people such as James Burgh, Machievalli, Harrington, Nedham,, Sidney, Trenchard, Moyle, Gordon, Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke, Blackstone, Sir Walter Raleigh, St. George Tucker, Noah Webster, etc…who heavily-influenced the Founders. In addition, if one looks at the political philosophers throughout history who argued in favor of absolute monarchs, one thing they emphasized a lot was the importance that the monarch disarm the subjects immediately.
Much was written about the individual right to self-defense over time as well. In addition to Cicero, it also is talked of by Charles Montesquieu and John Locke (who called it the first law of nature) and others that I am forgetting right now.
It is interesting to me how in talk about political philosophy and the ideas from the Greeks and Romans and such that influenced modern society, one rarely sees talk about the right to arms, whether for individual self-defense or checking tyranny. It’s like the intellectual profession has somehow forgotten that whole bit, to the point that you have educated people today who actually think that the concept of an individual right to self defense is a recent concept made up by the NRA and that the concept of the right to possess arms to check a tyrant was conjured up by the Founders themselves, that they basically made it up themselves.
It is dangerous, IMO, if gun rights rest upon concepts of sport and recreation, as that is what leads gun owners in the end to turn in their weapons, like in Australia and the UK. They see it as the morally right thing to do, as their sport doesn’t take priority over society. Only in the United States is the issue of arms still discussed in terms of political philosophy and the fundamental relationship that this represents between the people and the State. If/when the people give up their arms, they ultimately are rendered as subjects. They may be subjects of a soft tyranny, but they are ultimately subjects. The possession of the basic tools of war undergirds that, ultimately, the State, even when big and intrusive into people’s lives more than it should be, still ultimately answers to the people, and ultimately derives its powers from the people.
In the rest of the so-called “civilized world,” this whole discussion that used to be very important about the fundamental relationship between the citizens and the government, has been given up. It is viewed that we have reached some kind of state in history whereby such concerns are at best quaint and ancient. The government wants to take away your guns? Hand them over. Innocent until proven guilty? Deal with it. Government wants to limit certain speech it doesn’t like? Tough. Government wants to mandate you purchase something? Just be a good little subject and obey.
The reason for this recent thinking, IMO, is due to the relative comfort and security of Western societies. It has led to forgetting of the importance of arms in the relationship between the people and the State and the fundamental nature of the right to self-defense, even if one lives in a society where they likely would never have to exercise it.
Did anyone notice that the Wilson Combat Berretta 92G did not lock back on an empty chamber? I did, because mine didn’t either until I had it fixed.