Jason Vanderbrink is the president of the division that makes Federal, CCI, and Remington ammunition. He releases a video on Friday regarding the ammunition shortage. He tries to dispel some of the misinformation, rumors, and out-right lies.
I think he has got it right – the increase in new shooters has increased the demand for ammunition. When you add that, COVID-19, and the need to train new employees, it does account for a good deal of the shortage.
Are you a new gun owner? Did you purchase a firearm to protect your family due to the pandemic? Are you looking for information about firearms safety?
The Self Defense Radio Network along with the Polite Society Podcast has created a series of short videos dealing with safety, safe storage, proper gun handling, and much, much more. These are intended to help the newbie get some training from highly respected instructors while everything is shut down.
The following video goes over the Four Rules. These were rules for gun safety created by Col. Jeff Cooper many years ago that, if followed religiously, will prevent accidents.
You can find the whole series of videos on YouTube. At last count, there are well over 60 of these short videos with more to come. I will be posting as many as possible over the next weeks and months.
All that Colion Noir knew about guns six years ago, he’d learned from TV or the movies. He never learned anything about it in school and that would include firearm safety. However, six years ago a friend took him shooting for the first time and his life changed.
In this episode, Colion Noir describes that first time and then takes a female friend to the range for the first time. We often pass around the phrase, “Take someone shooting”, but we need to do it. It is the best inoculation against the lies told by the Shannon Watts of the world.
During our recent trip to the Myrtle Beach area, we took an afternoon excursion to a shooting range in Murrells Inlet. I had planned the trip as part of the “things we did at the beach” this year. I had remembered that there was a range near where we were staying from past trips to the area. Checking with all parts of the family in advance, I got an enthusiastic response from everyone. Thus, in addition to the pool toys and beach hut, we brought with us an assortment of pistols ranging from my Sig P238 to my Daewoo DH-40 with three various 9mm pistols in between. I also dug into my ammo stash so we wouldn’t have to buy ammo at the range.
Coastal Sports and Range in Murrells Inlet is a very nice gun store with an excellent, well-lit, 5-bay indoor range. When we got there, store manager Woodie Pitts greeted us warmly, discussed the range rules, inspected all my pistols and ammo, and helped us pick out targets. We also rented a Beretta Neo and a Ruger 22/45 for the new and newer shooters to use. The rangemaster Michael Wiestling went over the operations of both pistols with everyone before we entered the range.
After donning our hearing protection and safety glasses, we went into the range area. It was separated into the five shooting bays and a glassed-in room where the non-shooters could watch. While there were nine of us in the party, only seven had originally
planned to shoot. The Complementary Spouse’s older daughter Wendy said
she didn’t feel comfortable shooting but did want to watch. That would change.
Michael was a great help in not only explaining how the range controls worked but in working with the less experienced shooters. While I was getting the ammo and guns set out in two of the bays, he was providing the less experienced shooters instructions on grip, trigger control, and sight picture. Our party had three experienced shooters and four relatively new shooters.
While my niece and nephew had shot handguns before, my sister-in-law Cindy had not and wanted to experience it. She strongly believes everyone should have some exposure to gun safety and at least know enough about guns to safely unload one. As you can see below, she went beyond that. Before the range time was over, she had shot both .22’s, her sister’s M&P, and my Sig P238.
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| Cindy with Beretta Neo |
My niece Grace who had shot before likewise got to shoot both .22s and one of the 9mm pistols we brought as did her brother Grant.
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| Grace with Beretta Neo |
While all the afternoon was good, in my opinion the best moment came when Wendy turned to the Complementary Spouse and said, “I think I’d like to try it.” And try it she did.
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| Wendy with Beretta Neo |
With help from the rangemaster Michael and her Uncle Larry, Wendy not only shot the .22 pistols but tried her hand at shooting the 9mm pistols. Like the former athlete she was, Wendy took instruction well and did great.
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| Wendy shooting Ruger SR9 with Larry coaching |
Like I said earlier, we arrived with seven shooters and left with eight including two first-time shooters. I think the smile on Laura’s face below captures just how much fun we all had.
If you are taking a trip to the Myrtle Beach area and want to take in some shooting, I can highly recommend Coastal Sports and Range. They were great and have a really nice gun store to boot.
Greg Hickok – Hickok45 on YouTube – has some good advice for new shooters on how not to shoot a semi-auto pistol. I’m glad he’s doing videos like this as they are needed.
At my company’s regional meeting that I mentioned yesterday, I spoke with at least two of my colleagues who were considering getting their first firearm. One of these colleagues also said his dad, a NRA-hating retired college professor, was also considering buying a gun for the house. My point is that there are a lot of new shooters out there who could use this type of info.
Cam Edwards of NRA News and Ed Friedman of NRA HQ took Jim Geraghty of the National Review shooting at the NRA Range. Geraghty has been writing positive articles about the Second Amendment for the National Review for some time. He has also attended a number of NRA Annual Meetings. Despite this background, he was a non-shooter and had never shot a firearm.
Now he has. The best part, in my opinion, is the wide grin on Geraghty’s face after shooting the select fire Uzi in full auto mode. It proves that shooting is fun and nothing that the dour sorts at the various gun prohibitionist groups will say can ever change that fact.
It is often said that one of the best ways to inoculate people against the gun prohibitionists is to take them shooting.
Yesterday evening I took the Complementary Spouse’s brother-in-law and nephew shooting at the Top Gun Shooting Sports in Arnold, Missouri. Scott may have shot a couple of times when he was a boy but not since. Grant is your typical 14-year old who is into skateboards, video games, and YouTube. Grant had shot an airsoft gun but never a true firearm. He had been asking his dad if they could go shooting sometime.
After dinner, we trekked over to Top Gun which is one of the nicer indoor ranges and shops that I’ve ever visited. I brought a Ruger 10/22 and a Ruger Mk II target pistol, hearing protection, and safety glasses.
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| Grant with the Ruger 10/22 |
I started Grant out with just one round in the carbine. He was a little worried about the recoil but I assured him that with a .22 it is very light. He later said he was both excited and a little scared. I’d say he handled it very well – his first shot was in the bulls-eye of the target. We progressed from there to multiple rounds and he did just fine. I had sent him a YouTube video with the Four Rules and he had watched it beforehand. He did well on the safety aspect as well.
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| Scott with the Ruger Mk II pistol |
I started out Scott in a similar manner to Grant and he did equally well. One of the best moments from the evening was when Grant turned to his dad and said, “This is fun!” Scott agreed.
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| Grant shooting the Ruger Mk II |
We spent about an hour and a half at the range. Actually they had to shoo us out as they wanted to close up. When we got home, Grant told his 12-year old sister all about it and said she needs to go. Next time I think we’ll have two lanes and two more new shooters!
Taking a new shooter out is one of the best things we as gunnies can do. Tom Gresham always talks about it on GunTalk and he is right. When some anti tells them guns are evil and only meant to kill, they will know better. I think if we all commit to taking just one new person shooting a year and making it a fun experience, it will be the best insurance we could have in protecting our Second Amendment freedoms.
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