Firearms Instructor Offers Free Gun Training Workshop For Women

A Detroit firearms instructor is offering women a free gun training course in hopes of encouraging more to arm themselves.

The workshop, organized by Rick Ector, owner of Rick’s Firearm Academy in Detroit, will be held on May 21 at Top Gun Shooting Sports Gun Range in Tyler, Michigan, which has generously donated its range for the all-day event.

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Other members of the community have chipped in to help make the event happen. Many have donated ammo – according to the event’s Facebook page, the event requires 12,000 rounds – while other firearm instructors are donating their time to help Ector teach the program.

Four sessions are being offered throughout the day; the first session begins at 9 a.m. and the last ends at 5 p.m. Participants will learn gun safety, how to load a pistol, and then will be given the chance to fire off 21 rounds.

Ector will celebrate his sixth year hosting the workshop.

“Six years ago, I saw a [media] story about a woman whose body was discarded, and I thought ‘someone should do something.’ Then I thought, ‘why don’t I do it?’” Ector told the Detroit News.

The first year Ector offered the course, approximately 50 women attended. Last year, that number rose to a whopping 400. This year, he’s hoping for more than 600.

“You’re seeing more and more women arming themselves,” Ector to the Detriot News. “If giving women a free lesson by a credentialed professional translates into women just trying it, it’ll be a productive use of my time.”

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