A few weeks ago, we mentioned that the anti-gun extremists at Everytown were ready to launch their own gun “safety” course. We speculated—somewhat jokingly—that the first step would be to discourage gun ownership. After all, the group has spent years promoting restrictions on law-abiding gun owners that can only impede and discourage gun ownership. It’s their obvious reason for being.
Well, the course has launched, and according to one report, our “joke” was pretty close to a bullseye.
Lee Williams, who many in the pro-2A movement know as “The Gun Writer,” recently took Everytown’s 1.5 hour, $20 video class called “The Smart Guide to Buying a Gun.” He summed up his experience by saying, “It is definitely not firearms training. It’s not even close.”
So, what was wrong? Quite a bit.
Williams notes that the “instructors” in the video he watched just offer their first names and never reveal where they received their training to teach a course on firearms or what (if any) training credentials they actually possess.
Anyone who has undergone a course from an NRA certified instructor, or virtually any other reputable firearm training program, knows that real instructors let you know exactly who they are (last name included) and proudly divulge ALL of the training they have received. That’s important if you want to know if your instructor is well-versed in the discipline you are hoping to learn.
I doubt anyone would want to pay to learn MMA techniques from some guy who just goes by “Steve,” and merely assures you, “Hey, I know what I’m doing.” Nor would you trust your child to learn defensive driving skills from “Bob,” when all he will tell you is, “Trust me; I do this all the time.”
Besides the lack of transparency regarding who these “instructors” are and why you should listen to them, Williams reported other glaring problems.
There’s the telling “liability warning” before the course even starts, which includes the statement, “If you require specific advice or expertise about your use, possession or ownership of a firearm, please consult a qualified professional or consult your local law enforcement.”
Williams wonders if this is meant to imply Everytown’s instructors are not “qualified professionals,” which does not inspire confidence. It is probably not a good idea to take a course in what Everytown says is “Firearms Training” if the instructors are not “qualified professionals.”
The course also offers what Williams describes as “an incredibly fictional group of statistics.” What he relates sounds like typical, boilerplate anti-gun messaging disguised as “facts.” Among the absurd statements Williams reports is the repeatedly debunked claim that, “Since 2020, guns have been the leading cause of death for children age 1 to 17.”
This has become a go-to claim for anti-gun extremists, and it’s so misleading that even the Washington Post has seen fit to Fact Check it.
Another seemingly outlandish claim mentioned is, “[W]hen a male (domestic) abuser has access to a firearm, the risk that he’s going to shoot and kill a female increases by 1,000 percent.” The source for this is given as the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), and while the name of the organization certainly sounds positive, a quick perusal of the NNEDV website shows the group supports a number of anti-gun proposals.
That “1,000 percent” claim appears to be derived from an anti-gun document created by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health—a “school” funded with hundreds of millions of dollars from anti-gun billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who also funds Everytown. And even though this source material appears to be little more than a very biased, misleading product from a known anti-gun source, it still does not substantiate that claim.
Williams also noted this “Firearms Training” course encouraged keeping all firearms unloaded at all times; suggested racism influenced how police interact with different gun owners; downplayed the benefits of many home security measures (alarms, doorbell cameras, fences, etc.); and indicated adopting a dog would be a better safeguard against intruders than buying a gun.
In other words, someone interested in acquiring a firearm is told to render it useless for self-defense (the most popular reason people purchase firearms); if you are black, think again, because you may run across a racist cop; and rather than get a gun and secure your home with proven crime deterrents, count on your cockapoo to save the day. (We admit they didn’t single out cockapoos, and we mean no offense to any cockapoo-owning Second Amendment supporters.)
What was the proverbial icing on the cake? The course, when describing guns to consider (if you haven’t succumbed to their discouragement ploy), never mentioned the venerable AR-15 or similar semi-automatic rifle platforms. Again, the course is called “The Smart Guide to Buying a Gun,” yet it ignores some of the most popular firearms in America today.
Thus, to whatever degree our original reaction to the idea of Everytown “firearm training” could be characterized as knee-jerk or judgmental, it appears to have been vindicated by this first-person account. We suggested they might present guns as more dangerous to own than any benefit they might offer for personal protection, and that about summarizes what Lee Williams described. We also thought they might focus more on anti-gun indoctrination than firearm safety, and that seems to track as well.
If anything, we might have even overestimated the degree to which the course would incorporate ordinary standards of professionalism and validate gun ownership to any degree. Certainly, marginalizing gun ownership remains a huge concern for Everytown’s rank and file supporters. Since we originally reported on their outraged reaction to the new program, a number of them have continued to vocally denounce the organization for “training” people to own guns they believe Everytown should instead be trying to demonize.
To summarize, if there’s any takeaway from the Everytown “training” course a gun owner or potential gun owner should pay close attention to, it’s their own disclaimer. Anyone “require[ing] specific advice or expertise about your use, possession or ownership of a firearm” should ignore what Everytown has to say and instead “consult a qualified professional[.]” For help doing just that, visit https://firearmtraining.nra.org/student-courses/.
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