Associated Press reporter Brian Slodysko, his fellow members of the anti-gun media, and gun control groups are very upset that Indiana Governor Mike Pence has asked the National Rifle Association to help train the state’s National Guardsmen to safely conceal carry their personal handguns while on duty.

The National Rifle Association has been instructing Indiana’s National Guard members on how to use concealed weapons after Republican Gov. Mike Pence directed the state’s military bases and training centers to beef up security in response to recent attacks in Tennessee.

According to a survey by The Associated Press, Indiana is the only state to enlist the NRA’s help in the training, which the gun-rights group says it will conduct free of charge for any guardsman who wants to carry a concealed handgun.

Although National Guard members traditionally have not been allowed to carry weapons while conducting most stateside duties, Pence is one of 14 governors who decided to arm them in the wake of a gunman’s attacks last month on two U.S. military sites in Chattanooga that left four Marines dead.

Gun control advocates argue it’s inappropriate for a state to involve a political lobbying organization in training members of the military, and even some National Guard officials from states that allow guardsmen to carry weapons question why a civilian organization is needed.

Gun control cultists don’t want the National Rifle Association to train Indiana National Guardsmen for a very simple reason: it reinforces the NRA’s credibility in the eyes of the public as authorities on the subject of firearms. When the NRA is recognized as a leader in firearms safety training—and with 120,000 certified instructors it most certainly is—then it makes it that much harder for gun control groups to appear credible as opposition.

This is especially true when you consider how many times supporters of gun control have been proven to be incredibly ignorant about the basic function of even the most common firearms.

Its important to remember that the National Rifle Association was formed in 1871 by Union veterans of the Civil War who were disappointed in the basic shooting skills of Union soldiers during the war, and who wanted to increase the marksmanship ability of soldiers. It’s a simple historical fact that the National Rifle Association has been training National Guardsmen to shoot for more than 140 years. That’s longer than the modern National Guard (formed under the Dick Act, or Militia Act of 1903) has existed.

The “political lobbying organization” that gun control organizations are whining about, the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) wasn’t created until 1975, 104 years after the NRA started training America’s citizen-soldiers.

Despite the whining of gun control advocates and some poorly educated soldiers like Lt. Col. Joel Lynch of the Arkansas National Guard, civilians play a very significant role in training soldiers how to fight.

In fact, the more elite a unit is, the more likely they are to get training from civilian instructors in specialized techniques. Most top shooting schools have military only or military and law enforcement only classes as a result, and it isn’t uncommon at all to see both elite American units and the top tier of allied foreign special operations units being trained in shooting schools run by American civilians.

From top-tier operators to entire mainline infantry units, civilian marksmanship instructors have long helped train American servicemen. Project Appleseed, for example, has helped train servicemen from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team prior to deploying to Afghanistan because the techniques Appleseed teaches make soldiers better long range marksman. In the Army, soldiers learn to shoot to 300 meters. Appleseed provides marksmanship training that stretches their range to 500 meters and beyond.

The arguments against the NRA training Indiana National Gaurdsmen are laughable, shallow, and are entirely political.

Is anyone surprised?