Tanisha Moner, left, the Chief Training Officer for the May 19 class, conducted 10 different training sessions in the one day. Moner was introduced to firearms at one of Rick Ector’s events seven years ago. Ector is in the center next to new student Tracey Lee.
On just one Sunday, May 19 of this year, just over 800 women received a range safety briefing and were instructed in how to safely and accurately shoot a 9mm caliber semi-automatic pistol in a free one-day handgun safety training class.
This program, in its 8th consecutive year, utilized over 60 volunteer credentialed firearm trainers to teach the women attendees how to load handguns with ammunition and how to register accurate results on their respective posted paper target silhouettes. This one-day training program was conducted at a local gun range—Top Gun Shooting Sports—in Taylor, MI, that donated the use of its meeting rooms and shooting lanes.
Events founder Rick Ector is shown here addressing one of 10 training sessions that preceded the relays of new shooters.
This annual free firearm training event for women was the brainchild of National Rifle Association (NRA) credentialed Training Counselor (TC) Rick Ector of Detroit in 2012. It was launched one week after he watched a local evening news program in which Ector was horrified to see an account of a local woman who had been murdered with her body callously discarded in an isolated field. It is hauntingly familiar to the headlines in the news literally today about a suspected serial killer of women operating in Detroit, as of June 6, 2019.”
That initial story spurred Ector to take action after he devised a plan to empower women. He contacted six fellow credentialed firearm trainers to help him implement his idea. Ector’s friends agreed to donate their time and expertise and joined him at a local target range that donated their shooting lanes and a meeting room. Ector paid for the ammunition out of his personal funds and convinced his friends to allow the attending women to shoot their personal handguns. This program’s first iteration, using only social media posts, convinced 50 women to show up for a free shooting lesson. In contrast, the event’s most recent iteration on May 19 by Ector’s group officially trained 814 women how to load and shoot a handgun.
Students were required to attend a firearms training briefing which were scheduled at different times during the day to handle the huge number of participants.
One of Ector’s friends, fellow NRA credentialed firearm trainer Charles Simmons of Detroit, participated in that first ever class. Other than the program’s founder, Simmons is the only other firearm trainer who has donated his time to train women for free every year of the program’s operation. Simmons explained why he volunteers to teach women every year as the following, “I enjoy teaching and seeing the faces of those women who didn’t believe that they could shoot accurately. I gladly donate my time for this event and can’t think of a more worthy program for me to support.”
The credentialed firearm instructors who donate their time and expertise to this annual all-day training event are a committed bunch of men and women. In fact, one of them, Patrick Collins, traveled all the way from Atlanta, GA, to donate his time for the cause. In addition, every trainer working the event attends a mandatory safety briefing that starts at 7am. That session reviews fundamental firearm safety rules, emergency procedures, instructional techniques, and other topics germane to ensuring a safe program for attendees. The Trainers Meeting was co-chaired by Ector and NRA TC Ross Palmer. Palmer and NRA TC Joel Fulton served as co-Chief Range Safety Officers (CRSO) for the event.
The 814 women students ranged in age as demonstrated by this 65-year-old shooter proudly displaying her target.
As a CRSO, one of Palmer’s primary functions was to ensure that everyone working the event in the shooting stalls was following operational and program protocols that were established at the Trainer’s Meeting. He offered his opinion on one outcome of the event as the following, “One of the goals for this event is to give these women a pathway to becoming responsible gun owners, which will hopefully be the impetus for them becoming staunch advocates of the American Second Amendment.”
There was an abundance of experienced and credentialed volunteer firearm trainers working the event to ensure safety. Each student was instructed one-on-one by a vetted trainer. There were too many trainers to recognize them all by name but as a team they represented the following organizations: Black Bottom Gun Club (BBGC), Legally Armed In Detroit (LAID), Michigan Gun Owners (MGO), Michigan Open Carry (MOC), National African American Gun Association (NAAGA), National Rifle Association (NRA), and the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA).
The youngest shooters were limited to training with .22 rimfire pistols, but were well pleased with their first-time success as the grins on their faces indicated.
The doors of the range officially opened for training at 9am. The women arrived at their pre-scheduled times and were ushered into the classroom. Once there, NRA CRSO Tanesha Moner led the group training sessions for the women. Moner welcomed the ladies to the range and delivered a range safety briefing to teach the ladies everything they needed to know about firearm safety, fundamentals of marksmanship, and the established rules and procedures for the event. By the end of the day, Moner delivered 10 different range safety briefings. Unofficially, she also served as the “public face” of the event. It was fitting and apt that a woman be the Chief Training Officer (CTO).
Moner explained why it is important for her to volunteer her time at this event. “Six or seven years ago,” she said, “I was in the same place as these women. It’s an absolute joy to watch their transformation; it’s like witnessing my own. I’ve had women ask about my journey from being a new shooter to becoming an instructor as they’re interested in one day doing the same. To my surprise, one even said she wanted to be me! I can’t imagine being any place else. This event is amazing to participate in every year.”
Moner also served as the event’s emcee. As such, she introduced the program’s major sponsors who made it possible for the training event to be completely free for all of the women attendees. The following people were listed as major program sponsors: Erich Pratt (Gun Owners of America, Rick Ector (LAID), Terry Johnson (Firearms Legal), and Matt Peczynski (Top Gun Shooting Sports).
This group of certified firearms instructors was photographed outside the shooting bays as they were setting up for a full day of firearms training for new women shooters.
Moreover, this event also consumed a lot of 9mm ammunition to fulfill its mission. Thus, sponsors are very important. The top ammunition donor was Justin Nazaroff of Fenix Ammunition with a contribution of 7,000 rounds. He rationalized his participation as the following, “Fenix Ammunition believes in the right of every American citizen to defend their lives using the best available methods. Here in Detroit, women are vulnerable targets and despite their best efforts, police officers cannot be everywhere. We believe it’s vitally important to equip women with the knowledge and the tools necessary to provide for their own personal safety. Firearms are simply the best method to accomplish this task and we’re happy to do what we can to teach as many women as possible.”
Other significant ammunition donors with the round counts supplied are listed as the following: MGO (5,000), Freedom Firearms (2,000), Michigan Ammo (2,000), MOC (2,000), and the Home Defense Show (1,000). Moreover, Douglas Holloway of ATEi supplied all of the firearms needed to discharge the ammunition at targets.
This group of instructors photographed after the days shooting was finished is only a part of the 60 volunteer instructors who devoted their day to the program.
When students are done shooting, many of them traditionally turn to social media to share their targets with the online community. One woman who posted her results online was Kristina Nixon. After participating in this year’s event she said, “I started attending this free shooting event about four years ago, brought a couple of friends, and have attended every year since. It’s been nice to watch it grow and see more women interested in guns.”
Ector is very pleased with how this event has grown every year. He has already set next year’s training goal, “In 2020, I want to train 1,000 women how to shoot a semi-automatic pistol – in one day! However, the most important metric that we set and met was zero injuries of any kind. I hope that when people hear about this event, they share it with everyone that they know. There’s no reason why this event can’t be replicated all across the country.”
