Everytown’s new firearm training classes are about as honest and realistic as the journalism produced by its paid staffers at the Trace. In fact, the amount of anti-gun propaganda produced by Everytown’s Train Smart instructors may actually exceed the anti-gun propaganda shoveled out by the kids at the Trace. Suffice it to say, it’s a close race.
The fun began with a 1.5-hour video class called “The Smart Guide to Buying a Gun.” Cost was $20. Students can take the class live or on-demand. There are two additional classes, including an 8-hour trip to the range, which you watch from home.
Nellis and Jake were the instructors. None of Everytown’s trainers provide their last names, which is very telling. Most real instructors provide all of their training and experience in addition to their full names.
Nellis, according to her bio, is “a mother and advocate, she is committed to building safer environments and believes that all children deserve a future free from gun violence.”
Jake’s bio is about as bad: “As an instructor, Jake strives to create welcoming spaces where everyone can learn to feel safer and more confident with firearms.”
Neither of the instructors ever mentioned what their kids actually deserve or how they create “welcoming spaces.”
Besides their missing last names, none of Everytown’s training staff list their actual instructor credentials or even where they were trained, but they are all beautiful people and very diverse, which is probably much more important to the folks at Everytown than their CVs.
Before Nellis and Jake were even on screen, Everytown unleashed a massive liability warning.
“By participating in this training and viewing this recording, you acknowledge and agree that Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and its affiliated organizations are no responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from, in connection with, or as a result of your use of firearms, and you agree to release and hold harmless Everytown of Gun Safety Support Fund from any claims related to your participation in the training. If you require specific advice or expertise about your use, possession or ownership of a firearm, please consult a qualified professional or consult your local law enforcement.”
Does this mean Everytown’s firearms instructors aren’t “qualified professionals?” Can’t real firearm training serve as a defense if you ever have to use a firearm to defend yourself or your loved ones?
Instructor Jake began by cautioning viewers that no students should have access to a firearm during the course.
“We’ll be talking about tough topics like firearm homicides and suicides,” he warned the class.
If anyone wanted to learn more about gun ownership than Jake and Nellis were willing to teach, they were told to go to Everytown.org.
The instructor duo then presented an incredibly fictional group of statistics, which the site claimed came from the “Annals of Internal Medicine and American Journal of Public Health.”
By owning a gun, you double your chances of dying by homicide, they falsely claimed. And access to a firearm inside a home triples your chances and everyone in your home’s chances of dying by suicide. These, however, were not the worst claims.
“The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that the woman will be killed,” Nellis claimed. “And according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, when a male abuser has access to a firearm, the risk that he’s going to shoot and kill a female increases by 1,000 percent.”
Everytown has always had problems with the truth. Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns have decried hundreds of school shootings, but when the shootings are actually examined, they consist of a list of incidents that often doesn’t involve actual bad guys or students or schools or guns.
One so-called shooting involved a school bus being hit with a BB. Others involved negligent discharges. Many never even happened during school hours. When the list was examined thoroughly, many of the claims were found to be seriously overinflated.
Nellis, too, had real problems with overinflation, in addition to numbers, tactics and the truth.
“Since 2020, guns have been the leading cause of death for children age 1 to 17,” she falsely claimed.
All weapons, she said, should be kept unloaded—period. Her reasoning was nonsensical.
“That might be a little controversial. It might even defeat the point, but hold on. Every second matters when you need a gun. Some people believe it’s okay to keep a gun on a nightstand. If you’re moving so fast that you don’t have time to access your gun, you likely don’t have time to confirm your target before shooting. Once that bullet leaves your gun, it ain’t coming back, and you may actually live in a state that requires you to lock up your gun,” she said.
Jake even brought racist police officers into the training.
“Police interactions may be risky for black gun owners,” he said. “We want to acknowledge that. Gather more information about police in your area.”
The two instructors stressed the false benefits of home security systems—alarms, signs, decals, doorbell cameras, fences, landscaping and other external barriers such as cacti and thorny plants. These are great ideas, until the bad guy enters the victim’s home.
Their solution?
“Adopt a dog,” they said. “A lot of self-defense instructors say dogs are better defense against intruders than guns. Consider getting a dog.”
When the instructor duo described the types of guns available, they forgot to even mention the country’s most popular rifle. The video does not show a single photo of an AR or any other popular semi-automatic rifle.
Takeaways
What Nellis and Jake excelled at was parroting small doses of real gun safety information without giving the author the credit they deserve. They showed a quick video that stressed Col. Jeff Cooper’s Four General Firearm Safety Rules. The good colonel, of course, was never mentioned.
Neither Nellis nor Jake ever mentioned how the Four Rules became standardized or how they progress logically from one to another. Instead, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s kids acted like they invented the rules themselves, which is about what you’d expect.
Truth be known, Col. Cooper’s rules were about the only realistic information offered during the entire hour-and-a-half of training time.
This video tried to scare students. Guns are dangerous and should be unloaded, disassembled and locked up, the instructors repeatedly said.
Everytown’s so-called training course is chock-full of fear, which they use to scare folks so they won’t ever consider buying a firearm, much less carrying one. As you’d expect, this makes it propaganda—anti-gun propaganda.
It is definitely not firearm training. It’s not even close.
This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.
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About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
Lee Williams deserves a great big Atta Boy! He went way beyond the pale to produce this article. The things content producers for Ammoland do to presents us stories like this is extremely commendable!
Thank you, Lee. One question persists however. What do you plan on doing with that valuable participation certificate?
I dont think them paying 20$ for you to watch this drivel is nearly enough , they would have to be giving out free glocks and 10,000 rounds of ammo before I would think of wasting my time
Worse than all the lies and exaggerations that ET constantly spews, is realizing there are actually people who will seek firearms training from a known anti-gun organization.
Are there any (other) agencies, private or governmental, that accept that certificate as anything more than a total waste of your time?
This “firearm training” makes about as much sense as a forming a group titled “Christians Against Christ”.
Wow, that warning label makes me think they’re concerned about the responsibility of the actions of otherwise unconnected 3rd parties coming back to them. Wonder where they got that worry from?
collecting intel on gun owners,incase they ever build an army
Kind of an oxymoron to say that you don’t want people to have guns but yet train your group on how to use them? I think the real answer to that is to remove the oxy and then you have it.
At least we know if these fools are carrying and they get spitting mad and pissed off enough to shoot you, they will be one rack of the slide too late. LOL!!!
We e came up with a term for stuff like this, years ago! It called “Gorp!”
We all know how the Left operates. Now they can say, “…see? We told you we don’t want to take away your guns, we even offer firearms training courses…”. Then they’ll spew more non-sensical numbers like, “…we’ve determined that gun owners aren’t concerned with firearms safety. There are nn,nnn,nnn existing gun owners and nnn,nnn new gun owners but only nnn of them could even be bothered to take our low-cost firearms training course.” Just another funding gimmick… I wonder how much of the proceeds are pledged to the DNC. One thing about this that I do know for sure… they’re… Read more »
The article reads, “Train Smart” training is nothing more than existing propaganda spewed from the anti-gun group Everytown and a few others.
“You get what you pay for.”