TN House of Representatives Range Day: AEDC 2009

[BimmerFreak]

The staff of Hero-Gear/Hero Guns spent yesterday on the range at Arnold Air Force Base to conduct firearms awareness training with many of our elected officials from Nashville.

The annual event is organized by Representative Judd Matheny (Republican/47th District) http://www.juddmatheny.com/ was sponsored by Hero-Gear www.hero-gear.com and Barrett Firearms http://www.barrettrifles.com/ and conducted on ranges owned and maintained by the TN National Guard and Arnold Air Force Base.

After welcoming comments and a range safety brief, about 75 of our elected officials, to include the Commissioner of Veterans Affairs, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, and the Speaker of the House were broken into groups of 25, escorted to 3 ranges where they were given capabilities briefs and demonstrations and were then allowed to fire a host of different weapons systems.

Hero-Gear was responsible for running one of the 3 ranges, where we offered the opportunity to fire the: HK MP5, M4A1, FN P90, AK47, and several pistols and other assorted firearms.

Overall, I was impressed with the pro-gun attitude from most of the shooters. Most had some firearms experience, while others had never fired a firearm in their life.

With a 1/1 ratio, it allowed us plenty of time to explain just how important our 2A rights were, and how we were fortunate enough to live in a state where most of our Constitutional rights regarding firearms were still alive and had not been dealt away like they had been in other states.

I was given a few minutes to address the group prior to the ranges going hot, and took the opportunity to explain how I had been raised in California, spent 20 years serving my country, returned to California only to be faced with the mess CA DOJ had made of my rights as a citizen.

I let each and everyone there know just how important it was that we fight to insure that myself and my children would continue to have the rights and freedom of firearm ownership.

A few pictures:

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey getting it done

Me explaining to Lt. Gov. Ramsey how "...this P90 is one bad MoFo!)

Me, Chris Barrett, Ronnie Barrett

Chris Barrett "...have you told Lt. Gov. Ramsey what a bad MoFo this is?"

Ronnie Barrett

We also showed the our newest project: Momentum-Foundation

The Momentum-Foundation is a 501©(3) non-profit which provides a low cost aviation asset to law enforcement in TN.

www.momentum-foundation.org

[Mike.357]

pretty cool stuff. 20 years of service and a gun shop business open some good doors.

Did this guy really shoot with this grip?

[BimmerFreak]

pretty cool stuff. 20 years of service and a gun shop business open some good doors.

Did this guy really shoot with this grip?

We had a variety of "interesting" techniques demonstrated yesterday.

We made every attempt to tactfully make recommendations or suggestions when appropriate

[Angus]

Great job Joe, thanks for taking the time to represent us.....AGAIN. 20 years of service!!

I hope your message was recieved well...

PS: Mike...I was thinking the same thing.....^^^^^^^^^

[StumpyBeagle]

Ok, but did you make em' police the grounds for brass after wards.

[Mike.357]

We made every attempt to tactfully make recommendations or suggestions when appropriate

I was pretty sure he did not do too much shooting like that. Thank goodness he did not do it with a revolver, yikes.

It is cool to see beginner shooters and what they quickly will learn.

AND TO CLARIFY : I am in no way being critical or demeaning to a beginning shooter.

we all started somewhere.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Mike.357

[mac12]

Wow!!! What a splendid opportunity to help educate our legislators on the joys of gun ownership. Good job Joe. I was in the National Guard and served at the Tullahoma Tng. site for about 6 months back in the early 90's. This thread bought back a bunch of old memories.

[Guest db99wj]

Cool!

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Very good, I am very proud of you and what you did! Would have loved to been there! From a Navy Doc to a US Soldier.. Thank You!

[poak]

That's what I call pro-active.

Big thumbs up to Hero-Gear & Barrett Firearms!

[Guest Boomhower]

Kudos to each company/team represented here. Great choice and great timing.

[Steelharp]

Tell me Susan Lynn wasn't there...

[Mike]

besides the pistol picture, which other picture showed bad gun habits?

Who cares. This is probably the best positive exposure that they can get in the ways of handling weapons. Showing our electorate that guns are not "evil".

Looks like everyone enjoyed it!

[E4 No More]

Kudos to you guys, but I would like to know how many Democrats showed up?

[Steelharp]

I'll bet Mike McDonald (D) was there; he's one on our side.

[Guest c_o_jones]

Joe, thanks for doing your part to educate our Reps.!

[BimmerFreak]

besides the pistol picture, which other picture showed bad gun habits?

I wouldnt be so quick to jump on these guys.

Some of them came to us with little or no firearms experience.

Our objective was to educate them to the positive aspects of firearms ownership, NOT turn them into steely eyed killers in one afternoon.

So before any of the "experts" on here want to talk smack, lets slow down and look at this for what it is.

*I can also guarantee that I can take each and everyone person here that is being critical of techniques and hurt their feelings out on the range, so lets not get too big headed here....

Who cares. This is probably the best positive exposure that they can get in the ways of handling weapons. Showing our electorate that guns are not "evil".

Looks like everyone enjoyed it!

Exactly.

These are very busy people that took a day out of their schedule to come down and learn about firearms.

Lets give the members that participated some credit!

Instead of sitting behind a desk in Nashville, they are taking time to go out and learn about issues they will be voting on.

Kudos to you guys, but I would like to know how many Democrats showed up?

Party lines were left at the door, but I will tell you that there was active participation from Dems/Reps alike.

[Paletiger13]

***** REMOVED BY ADMIN *****

[Paletiger13]

Oh, and Kudos to you guys and Barrett.

[E4 No More]

I wouldnt be so quick to jump on these guys.

Some of them came to us with little or no firearms experience.

Our objective was to educate them to the positive aspects of firearms ownership, NOT turn them into steely eyed killers in one afternoon.

So before any of the "experts" on here want to talk smack, lets slow down and look at this for what it is.

*I can also guarantee that I can take each and everyone person here that is being critical of techniques and hurt their feelings out on the range, so lets not get too big headed here....

Exactly.

These are very busy people that took a day out of their schedule to come down and learn about firearms.

Lets give the members that participated some credit!

Instead of sitting behind a desk in Nashville, they are taking time to go out and learn about issues they will be voting on.

Party lines were left at the door, but I will tell you that there was active participation from Dems/Reps alike.

That's what I like to hear!

[I_Like_Pie]

Joe...thank you for doing this. Few folks have the horsepower to do things like this and even fewer actually follow through.

Everyone here owes you a "thank you" for going out of your way like that

[Bigiron]

Many thanks to Hero Gear and Barrett for doing such a good thing for all gun owners. This hands-on experience was worth more than a thousand slick speechs. Way to go, guys.

[TGO David]

Folks...

Thankfully most of our members are seeing this event as what it was: important exposure for our elected representatives to the world of firearms and a reminder of why safeguarding our 2nd Amendment rights is so critically important. I spoke with Chris Barrett yesterday and his remarks about the event were extremely positive and reinforced my own belief that we have to educate at the local level if we are to be effective at the national level.

Joe, Chris, Ronnie... thank you for doing this. What an amazing way to "bring it home" to Tennessee.

Just as partisan politics was left at the door by our representatives, I would insist that it likewise be left at the door by TGO members in this thread. Let's keep this thread positive and focus on the good that was done here and not nitpick details such as who was holding what gun how.

Thanks.

--David

[Paletiger13]

Can we atleast post this in 2nd admendment issue or political issue? It seems to fit better.

[TGO David]

Can we atleast post this in 2nd admendment issue or political issue? It seems to fit better.

Is it bothering you here? I can see what it was relevant to the Show & Tell since the objective of the thread was to show pictures and share a little information about what was going on.