Have you taken a new person shooting lately?

Recently, a friend of my younger brother and I who had been out of the country for the past 2 years as a missionary returned home from Japan. He had turned 21 earlier this year.

We decided to take him shooting and try to do some converting of our own with this young man. He had an interest in guns, but didn’t feel particularly compelled at this time to buy a firearm. He had even had experiences in the past with firearms, all positive. Luckily for us, the ground work had been laid already.

We took him out and decided to give him a baptism by fire with an assortment of guns to peak his interest. IT WORKED! He was able to sample everything from a AR15’s and an M1 Garand, to a shotgun, an AK, and several pistols.



He immediately expressed interest in buying a handgun and taking a class to get his concealed firearm permit, as well as getting more involved in shooting, etc in general.

I was amazed at how fast this young man picked up the hobby and ran with it. He has been taught gun safety and terminology and picked it up very quickly.

In just a couple months, he now owns two guns and has finished his concealed carry training and certification. He now has his CCW. I would trust him to handle any of my firearms.

Now, I have taken out new shooters on many occasions. In fact, since I got married to my wife, my father in law and 3 of my brother in laws have bought self defense pistols. Some of them owned various guns, mostly for hunting purposes, but none of them had owned self defense pistols until just a few years back. They have all gotten their concealed carry permits. I take some credit (although not all) in getting them into shooting and being an influence for good in this regard. During one family reunion early on, I took it upon myself to get as many members of the family who were interested in shooting to go to the range together.

I also helped my sister and my brother in law purchase their first gun recently. This is a small sample though. I have helped many friends and family, including my wife (who was indifferent about guns when I met her) learn about shooting and firearm safety.

I am not really mentioning this to gloat as much as I am trying to demonstrate the amount of influence one or two people can have on others.

I’ve been heavily influenced by some people in my life to get into shooting. My older brother and a former Scout Master were tremendously influential to me. As a young Boy Scout, one of my leaders was instrumental in getting us to get our hunting licenses and taking us to the range.

I credit my oldest brother with getting me a decent education about firearms as I was coming of age.

The best way we can preserve our 2nd amendment rights is to share our knowledge with good people. The more good, armed law abiding citizens there are, the safer world we live in, and the stronger we as gun owners become.