New Website!

After much work over the Winter, our new website is now online! 

You can now access our Calendar to see class dates, as well as register and pay for classes online. 

The new site will also be hosting out blog, so this will be our last Blogger post.

You can find the new site, and the new blog here:

www.qsitraining.net

See you there!

An Open Letter to Gun Control Supporters

On the day of the Sandy Hook murders, I took some time to meet with some friends from the MnGunTalk forums for an early dinner. We were all just as horrified by what happened, and discussed amongst ourselves ways that horrible crimes like this could be prevented. 

Within hours of the murders, celebrities, politicians, and members of the media began to blame us, and people like us, for the violence that had taken place. 

 

My friends and I are not murderers or criminals. We’re ordinary people, just like you, who happen to own guns. We have friends and family, children and pets. We’re decent people who are just as disgusted by this tragedy as anyone else.

 

To claim we are somehow responsible for these murders is offensive and demeaning. Gun owners don’t want people – especially kids - to be murdered. Many of us are parents ourselves and we don’t love our children any less than anyone else. And believe it or not, we don’t want criminals and dangerous or unstable people to have guns. We strongly disagree that banning our guns will prevent other people from committing crimes, and we’re not willing to give up our rights to enable someone else’s false perception of safety.

 

Now, at both the Federal and State level, we are seeing proposals to ban ownership of certain types of guns.

 

There is empirical evidence that this legislation would not work. Applying this legislation to the Sandy Hook events shows it would not have prevented those murders. 

 

There are other reasons for opposing these gun control proposals as well. Enforcement would be an expensive and time consuming process which will take away already scant law enforcement resources. From a legal point of view, such bans may violate the Supreme Court “Heller” and “McDonald” decisions and are more likely than not unconstitutional. 

 

If all of the above are true, what then is the aim of the legislators who want these bans?

 

My perception is that what we are seeing here is group punishment. These legislators have hated gun owners for years, suffering one political defeat after another. Now that they perceive themselves to be in power, they are only too eager to criticize, discriminate, and marginalize us. The passage of these laws is, in my opinion, motivated not by a desire for public safety, but a desire to get even with and punish political opponents. Any public safety benefit claimed is a rationalization.

 

So, here we are. There is talk of massive civil disobedience – and worse – if these laws are passed. Myself, I’m getting ready to lose three days of work so I can do down to the Capitol to oppose these laws. I personally resent having to do that, but not doing it is certainly not an option for me. 

 

My plea – and it is truly a plea – to politicians and others who hate us so much, who see us as a public safety threat, who want to destroy our culture and our way of life, is simple.

 

Please, please, please….LEAVE US ALONE. 

 

If you choose to do otherwise, you can expect us to become very interested in your political career. We’ll take the time to organize candidates to run against you. Even if we don’t live in your district, we’ll travel there to rally support against you. We’ll do whatever we can to kick your butt out of office and send you packing. 

 

Gov. Cuomo’s approval rating has plummeted 13% since he rammed gun control through in NY state. Let me make something perfectly clear – Minnesota gun owners are better organized than NY gun owners. There are close to 100,000 of us with permits to carry. Thousands of us hunt deer, fowl, small game, and predators. There are over 4 million members of the NRA nationwide. 

 

If you support gun control, we’re going to stand against you, and you’re going to lose. 

 

LEAVE US ALONE.