Rick Ector

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13th Annual Free Firearms Training Event For Women In Detroit

July 9, 2024 by

Registration has opened for Rick Ector’s 13th annual introduction to handguns event for women in Detroit. His goal this year is to provide 1,700 women with a free shooting lesson. When he started his goal was 50 women and it has increased over bit by bit.

The event will be held on Saturday, July 27th, and Sunday, July 28th, at the Recoil Firearms range in Taylor, Michigan. Registration for the even opened yesterday (July 8th). Interested women can register for a 90-minute time slot here.

Here are the details of the event:

  • No previous experience required
  • Ammunition and firearms will be supplied
  • All women participants from age 12 to 80 are welcome
  • All minors must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian
  • Please register for only one 90-minute time slot
  • Over 10,000 women have been trained over the years

The event is presented by Legally Armed in Detroit and Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit with the aid of a cadre of volunteer instructors from around the US.

More information is available here.

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Four For Reform Elected!

May 1, 2024 by 3 Comments

The members of the NRA just sent a clear message to the Board of Directors. They want reform and they want it now. The old ways of doing business just won’t cut it anymore.

Jeff Knox posted this to Facebook approximately an hour ago.

The Four for Reform candidates – Jeff Knox, Dennis Fusaro, Phil Journey, and Rocky Marshall – got on the ballot thanks to the many members who signed their petition. Even with the shenanigans from the Nominations Committee of padding the ballot, all four were successfully elected to full 3-year terms.

Additionally, Rick Ector who bucked the Cabal by endorsing Wade Callender to be the next EVP was elected to a full 3-year term.

I have not seen who else was elected. I did see a comment from Gina Roberts on the Members Take Back Our NRA Facebook page that she did not win election. It will be interesting to see who will be running for the 76th Director.

As soon as I can obtain a complete list, I will post it.

Now for a word of caution. This was a great win for the members but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that the Board is just too damn large with 76 members and even five members committed to reform will have a hard time changing things. It will take time which, to be honest, the organization doesn’t have a lot of to spare.

One final note and this is not related to the Board election. Judge Phil Journey is the lead individual plaintiff in a Federal lawsuit along with the attorneys general of 21 states challenging the new ATF rule that redefines “engaged in the business” of firearm sales. I will have more on that suit in another post.

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NRA Ballots Due In One Month

March 28, 2024 by 4 Comments

Ballots for the 2024 NRA Board of Director election must be received on April 28th. Assuming you are a NRA voting member, if you have not sent in your ballot, do it now! Again, I would urge you to bullet vote and not vote for the full 25 candidates that you are allowed.

You can see my ballot here. I voted for the Four for Reform plus Rick Ector as he broke with the Old Guard to endorse Wade Callender for EVP. Owen Buz Mills is also worthy of your vote but he had requested people bullet vote for the Four for Reform. He was of the opinion that he would be elected anyway. I also voted to add the Chief Compliance Officer bylaw change even though I think it is closing the barn doors after the horses have escaped.

While I don’t think four or five people are enough to change the direction of the NRA but it is a start. With the issues facing the NRA and how the current Board has failed in its fiduciary duty, we need to start somewhere.

Below are two documents that were exhibits in the jury trial phase of the People of New York v. NRA et al. The first is a move by Joel Friedman, who by the way is on the ballot, to do most meetings in executive session so they can act in secrecy. This move was seconded by Tom King and Marion Hammer. Secrecy and “Wayne said” is what go the NRA into the trouble – both financial and legal – that it currently faces.

The second document involves a discussion of a Facebook group founded by Save the Second co-founder Ron Carter. Ron is a friend of mine and is one of the good guys. He is not only a competitive shooter but took a leave of absence from his day job in order to provide humanitarian aid to the civilians of Ukraine. Regardless of your opinion of that conflict, ordinary people needed help and he stepped up.

The discussion by the Board members revolved around certain Board members who had joined the Facebook group and what sort of retribution should be meted out to them. You will remember that the New York jury found the NRA guilty of retribution against whistleblowers. Look especially at the comments from Charles Cotton, Marion Hammer, and Willes Lee.

Here is a link to the document as it isn’t showing correctly when embedded.

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My 2024 NRA Ballots

March 11, 2024 by 3 Comments

Here are my ballots for the 2024 NRA Board of Director election and for the bylaw change.

Now to explain my votes. It should go without saying that I support the Four for Reform. I signed and promoted their petitions to be on the ballot as well as have supported them here. I would love it if they ended up as the top four winning candidates.

I would have voted for Owen Buz Mills except that he told Jeff Knox that he wanted people to bullet vote for the Four for Reform. As to why I added Rick Ector as the fifth candidate, his “missionary work” in Detroit in which he has introduced thousands of women is worthy of recognition. Just as importantly, he bucked the Old Guard aka “The Cabal” when he endorsed Wade Callender to be the next Executive VP of the NRA. These two factors were why I added Rick to the list of candidates for whom I voted.

While I consider the bylaw change to add a Chief Compliance Officer independent of the EVP as closing the barn doors after the horses have escaped, it is a reform in the right direction. I worked for 25 years in the financial services industry and we always had a Chief Compliance Officer. There were times I thought they were a bit “nit-picky” but their goal was to protect both the company and the client. If I had questions on something such as a political contribution, I knew I could reach out to them for advice on the best way to handle it.

While the appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer must wait until the vote is tallied, it appears that a candidate has been hired in anticipation of the bylaw change. Robert Mensinger was hired by the NRA in September 2023 as a Managing Director. He holds a law degree, has had an extensive career as a compliance and business integrity officer, and spent almost 25 years working as a Special Agent/Criminal Investigator for the Small Business Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Treasury Department. My only reservation about Mensinger is that he was selected for his present job by Wayne LaPierre upon the advice and counsel of Bill Brewer. Other than that, he seems ideal for the job. Only time will tell if I was worried about nothing which is my actual hope.

UPDATE: This is just a reminder that you should vote by NAME and not by NUMBER. There are 5 or so different ballots and the order of the names varies. It is randomized as a security measure.

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I Endorse Four For Reform

February 3, 2024 by 1 Comment

The NRA’s trial in New York has provided more than enough evidence that many members of the Board of Directors ignored their fiduciary duties. Many thought loyalty to Wayne was the same as loyalty to the organization. It was not.

The ballots for the 2024 Board election go out to eligible voters in the March issue of the NRA official magazines. Not only has the Nominations Committee stacked the ballot with retreads, they are the same people that allowed the rot and corruption to grow. They include people like former NRA President Carolyn Meadows who currently is considered too ill to testify either in person or virtually in the NY trial. It also includes 2nd VP David Coy who served on the Audit Committee for many years who voted to approve questionable expenditures after the fact.

There are four people on the ballot who were not put there by the Nominations Committee. Dennis Fusaro, Judge Phil Journey, Jeff Knox, and Rocky Marshall are on the ballot by petition. In other words, enough of you who are voting members said you wanted them on the ballot. They are untainted by the corruption of the past and are running on a platform of reform. I wholeheartedly endorse all four and would urge you to give them your votes.

The only two current Board members I might consider voting for are Buz Mills and Rick Ector. As evidenced by his letter to the Board exposing the backdoor shenanigans to make Charles Cotton the next EVP, Buz is not a go-along to get-along sort of guy. Rick Ector had done phenomenal grassroots work in the Detroit area introducing thousands of women to self-defense through firearms training. He also bucked the trend with his endorsement of Wade Callender for the EVP.

If it were me, I would not consider anyone else on the list of candidates. The four petition candidates plus the two that have bucked the system are the only candidates that I think will work day in and day out to restore and reform the NRA. We need an effective and untainted NRA. Now is the time to do it.

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Training Women To Shoot In Detroit

July 25, 2023 by 2 Comments

My friend Rick Ector and his cadre of volunteer instructors will again be holding his 12th annual shooting class for the women of Detroit this coming weekend (July 29th and 30th). The goal is to introduce and train 1,500 women to firearms.

Rick talks about the event in this interview with CBS News Detroit.

He gives some more details here:


The ladies FREE shooting event will be held on Saturday, July 29, 2023, and Sunday, July 30, 2023, at both the Top Gun Shooting Sports (22050 Pennsylvania Road in Taylor, Michigan) and Recoil Firearms (22509 Ecorse Road in Taylor, Michigan).


There will be no charge for the Firearm Instructor’s safety briefing, the usage of a firearm, ammunition, and range time. Participation is 100 percent free for all attendees. No prior firearms training or experience is required of the women who desire to take advantage of the lesson. Further, experienced women merely desiring to improve their marksmanship skills are also welcome to attend.

If you are in the metro Detroit area and wish to participate, you can register for the event here. I have many friends who will be there as instructors and I know they get as much out of this event as the students.

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NRA Election Committee Report

April 16, 2023 by 8 Comments

I will have a more complete report on the NRA Meeting of Members up later. However, I wanted to get this statistics from the Election Committee out.

Bob Barr, former Congressman from Georgia and Director, was chair of the Elections Committee. He started out his report detailing how votes were tallied by an independent accounting firm and how they were read electronically.

Barr then gave these statistics:

  • Ballots Mailed – 2,535,798
  • Ballots Received – 78,327 or 3%
  • Valid Ballots – 75,454
  • Invalid Ballots – 2,873
    • 1,163 received after the deadline
    • 558 missing membership number
    • 503 not signed
    • 401 voted for more than 26 candidates
    • 168 voted for zero candidates
    • 47 used an improper ballot (last years or photocopied)
    • 33 had multiple votes for the same candidate
  • Ballots that contained write-in votes – 1,218

No write-in candidate received enough votes to be elected.

Barr then ran through the list of everyone elected or who failed to get elected. I had those name up earlier and you can find them here.

My first impression is that fewer and fewer members are bothering to even vote. Given a low turnout local or municipal election will have a response of 15% +/-, a response of 3% is horrendous. Either people feel their vote doesn’t make a difference or they just don’t care anymore. Bear in mind everyone who got a ballot was either a Life Member or a 5 year continuous annual member.

The second impression is that this is the time for petition candidates to get on the ballot. The bylaws state that for a petition candidate to be placed on the ballot the threshold is 0.5% of the valid ballots cast in the past election. That means a candidate would need 378 valid signatures to make the ballot. Compare this with earlier years when a candidate need 6-700 or more to make the ballot.

One final note is that Rick Ector was elected as the 76th Director for a one year term. Congratulations to Rick as this is recognition, in my opinion, for all his hard work in Detroit training thousands of women year in and year out.

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Doing Good Works In Detroit

April 28, 2018 by

Firearms trainer Rick Ector started a program seven years ago to offer free introductory firearms training to the women of Detroit. Legally Armed in Detroit has now grown from 50 women trained in its first year to what may be 800 women trained this year.

The press released below from Rick will give all the details and how to pre-register which is mandatory. Rick is doing the good work and it is a pleasure to help publicize it.

Detroit, MI, April 28, 2018 — Legally Armed In Detroit, a gun rights advocacy group, has announced that it will provide a free firearm shooting lesson at a southeast Michigan target range for 800 women interested in learning more about firearms and personal protection.


There will be no charge for the Firearm Instructor’s safety briefing, the usage of a firearm, ammunition, and range time. Participation is 100 percent free for all attendees. No prior firearms training or experience is required of the women who desire to take advantage of the lesson. Further, experienced women merely desiring to improve their marksmanship skills are also welcome to attend.


The free shooting lesson offer was the brainchild of Rick Ector, an NRA Approved Firearms Trainer, after seeing a local television newscast of a young woman’s body being discovered on an east-side Detroit street seven years ago.


This year’s event will be the seventh consecutive year it has been conducted. In the first year only 50 women were trained. However, last year the event grew sufficiently to teach almost 600 how to safely operate a pistol.


This year’s goal is 800 trained women over the day-long event. It is only with the cooperation of Ector’s fellow Firearm Instructor colleagues and supporters across social media that this event could even be attempted and safely conducted.


Ector believes that there are many women in the state of Michigan who are curious about firearms and their role in self-defense but are reluctant to investigate due to fears. He said, “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.”


The ladies FREE shooting event will be held on Sunday, May 20, 2018 at the Top Gun Shooting Sports Gun Range at 22050 Pennsylvania in Taylor, Michigan. FREE Advance Pre-registration is required for participation. Interested ladies should visit the following event page on Facebook for more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/334945773576906/


Rick Ector is a National Rifle Association credentialed Firearms Trainer, who provides Michigan CCW/CPL Class training in metro-Detroit for students at his firearms school – Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit. Ector is a recognized expert in Firearm Safety and Personal Protection and has been featured extensively in the national and local media: Associated Press, National Public Radio, MSNBC, The Guardian, Townhall Magazine, The Politics Daily, and Aljazeera.


For more info about the free shooting lesson and Detroit Michigan CCW Classes, please contact:


Rick Ector


Web: Legally Armed In Detroit.
Email: detroitccw@gmail.com
Phone: 313.733.7404

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Great Interview With Rick Ector And Kenn Blanchard

May 12, 2013 by

Cam Edwards of NRA News interviewed Rick Ector and Kenn Blanchard at the recent NRA Annual Meeting in Houston. I got a chance to meet Rick again in the media room. I was introduced to him last year at the Annual Meeting in St. Louis and have followed his work ever since.

As to Kenn Blanchard, what can I say? It is always good to catch up with Kenn. I’ve listened to Kenn’s Urban Shooter Podcast for years and have really gotten to know him at various events such as the Lucky Gunner Blogger Shoot and the various Gun Rights Policy Conferences. I feel privileged every time that I get to spend quality time with Kenn.

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Good Story On Women Getting Carry Licenses In Detroit

May 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

This is a great story from Fox 2 News in Detroit on women in that city stepping up to get Michigan Concealed Handgun Licenses to protect themselves and their families. I love the quote near the end from one woman who said, “I’m not a vigilante but I’m going to protect myself, my family, my property.”

I had a chance to meet their instructor, Rick Ector of Rick’s Firearms Academy, at the NRA Annual Meeting in St. Louis. He is one of the good guys out there and I think it is great what he is doing to bring firearms training to women in Detroit.

Women Packing Heat: More Getting Concealed Pistol Licenses: MyFoxDETROIT.com
My only criticism of the story is that I wish TV reporters would find another cliche instead of “packing heat” to describe women obtaining concealed carry permits.