Detroit, Michigan – -(AmmoLand.com)- Over a decade ago, Rick Ector from Legally Armed In Detroit (LAID) and Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit, embarked on a journey that turned into a fulfilling passion.
I had a chance to catch up with Ector and talk to him about his upcoming woman’s shooting event in July. Ector is celebrating the 11th year that he’s been putting on this 100% free to participants educational program, and hopes to add more numbers to the many thousands of women he’s already trained with his team. One of the things that always struck me as interesting, was the genesis story of the woman’s shooting event. Ector explained some of that to me:
11 years ago, I was watching my local news broadcast here, I believe was the local Fox 2 affiliate and I saw a very disturbing story. One that I had not really paid much attention to if it had occurred before, but it concerned a woman whose body, and I say body because she was killed, whose body was found nude, discarded in a trash can after she was raped, sexually assaulted. And I thought that that was a particularly heinous crime, you know? And it really stuck with me for a minute. I don’t know, in a way, man, I can say it haunted me. I was like, “Wow, somebody needs to do something, you know, someone needs to do something.” I just sat around, and I was just waiting for somebody to say, “Well, hey to address this heinous event, this evil crime, this is what we’re going to do to help women and men.” I saw nothing. And I was talking with some friends of mine in the gun community. And one of them is a guy who’s been a mentor for me ever since I started walking down this path of gun ownership and becoming a firearms instructor. And gun rights advocate was my buddy, Mr. Ken Blanchard, from Maryland. He runs a website and he’s still going strong. It’s called black man with a gun.com…I got to talk with Mr. Ken Blanchard and I was telling him about my plan…to his credit, like a true mentor, he counseled me, he mentored me, he gave me advice, he was free with his time. And this idea hit, it sprang forth. Luckily for me, there was six firearms instructors that I told about this program and they felt really enthusiastic about being a participant in it. And lo and behold, 11 years ago, me and these six other guys, we launched this program…
To Ector, what were steps towards a simple solution to a complex issue, has morphed from having trained about 50 women during his first event, to just shy of two thousand in 2020. During the peak of the pandemic it’s Ector’s belief he was able to pull in so many participants because of what was going on at the time. Ector told me a little about what the program means to him:
it is one of those things that I think that, many people if they’re lucky, in life, that they get involved with a program or a project, that they can honestly feel really proud of what they’re doing. And for me, it’s this particular…this program, and every year, myself, and an army of firearms instructors and range safety officers, we provide a shooting experience for women of all ages…
When Ector says “an army of firearms instructors”, he’s not being hyperbolic. I know from just following Ector and his work, that instructors come from all over the country to donate their time and experience to this cause. One set of instructors I know, a husband and wife team, specifically went out and got credentialed training from a creditable firearm training organization specifically so that they could participate in Ector’s program in an official capacity. In talking to Ector, he said he has about one hundred instructors per day involved in making the event a reality. He’s a stickler when it comes to who he works with, as having credentialed trainers is a top priority to him.
For many, getting valuable firearm safety training and an introduction to the use of arms is truly priceless.
If you ask Ector about how much he charges the women that he trains, he’ll tell you.
The price, get this. If you think of it in financial terms, it is absolutely minimal. It is zero. It is completely free, free of financial costs. And I’m gonna be really clear when I say that, you won’t have to pay one red cent you won’t have to pay for admission. You won’t have to pay for the professional firearms trainers and rain safety officers who are educating you who were running you through a rain safety briefing and who are with you. – Rick Ector
Ector’s goal is to get the ball rolling for women that are interested. He notes that some just wanted to get an introduction, but others end up jumping in with both feet after getting a taste of smokeless powder. It’s important to introduce women that are interested in taking control of their own self-defense to their options. In his own words, about the program he said:
In the aftermath, we have a debrief, and we answer any questions that they have, and point them in the direction on their path on their personal journey. Some people, you know, continue on down the rabbit hole of learning about personal protection. And other people. Were just curious. Either way, we want to inform and train women about firearms, safe gun handling and marksmanship.
The 2022 woman’s shooting event is scheduled to occur on July 30th and 31st at two different locations. it will be at Recoil Firearms, and at Target Sports, both of which are in Taylor, Michigan, a suburban community right outside the city of Detroit. As far as signing up and getting more information on the program, Ector says to follow him and his pages online:
There is online required registration. Registration will open on the 23rd at eight o’clock am Eastern Standard Time. Well gee Rick, where will they find these links? Let me tell you. if you can find me Rick Ector on social media on Facebook. I have a Facebook profile Rick Ector, facebook.com forward slash Detroit CCW or Rick’s firearm Academy of Detroit which is facebook.com, forward slash Legally Armed In Detroit. I will also have these links on my blog. I don’t have the links on the blog yet, but there’ll be forthcoming. Hopefully, I’ll get those up today at my blog, which is Legally Armed In Detroit.com.
For more information, visit one of Ector’s numerous pages, where information will be posted on how to sign up and support the cause.
In parting, something that Ector said to me that really drives the importance of self-reliance home has to do with Supreme Court opinion on the topic. Ector laid it out:
Here’s the bottom line, especially today when we’re looking at our local newscasts and we’re hearing about crime…starting to become a serious problem in Metro Detroit and all across the country. The key thing is that I want you to realize is that legally, according to the United States Supreme Court, and two different Supreme Court decisions, they have determined that the police are not responsible for your safety. That’s a constitutional fact as evidenced by two Supreme Court decisions. But there is someone who is responsible for your safety. And that person is you,
If you’d like to tune in to the full conversation that Rick Ector and I had, you can check it out HERE or in the embed below.
John Petrolino is a US Merchant Marine Officer, writer, author of Decoding Firearms: An Easy to Read Guide on General Gun Safety & Use and NRA certified pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructor living under and working to change New Jersey’s draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. You can find him on the web at www.johnpetrolino.com on twitter at @johnpetrolino, facebook at @thepenpatriot and on instagram @jpetrolinoiii .
