YORK, Pa. (AP) - As a pastor, Gary Smith has been guiding people in their Christian faiths for 30 years. Smith also trains people to shoot would-be attackers with a handgun - and he doesn’t see any conflict with these two roles.
“On this side of heaven, we live in a wrecked world,” Smith said. “Christians or not Christians, if legally we can carry or not carry, I don’t see anything wrong with a pastor or others carrying.”
Two months ago, the 59-year-old Agape Fellowship pastor opened Point Blank Defense, where he teaches the National Rifle Association basic pistol course. He’s already had about 100 students, who each pay between $50 and $65 for the three-and-a-half hour class, he said. Some also pay an additional $100 to train with him at a gun range, shooting live rounds.
On a recent Saturday morning, four new students attended the class. Two were women. The other two were both over the age of 50. They all shared a common fear - that they or their loved ones could become victims of a violent crime.
“With everything going on lately, I feel like I need protection,” York Township resident Felicia Shaffer said. “I was a little afraid of (firearms), but now I have my own.”
Violent crime overall in York is at a 28-year low, according to a recent York County Community Foundation report. However, with more than 60 shootings in the city so far this year, historical context may not be enough to make some feel safe. While city officials have hired a crime expert to curb shootings, some York County residents have decided to arm themselves and get permits to carry firearms in public.
Shaffer said she used to hate firearms. However, the 29-year-old mother gradually changed her mind. After a recent incident where an elderly couple was robbed at knife-point in a Springettsbury Township Weis parking lot, near her place of work, she decided to take the shooting course.
Shaffer’s aunt, Miriam Hammond, took the course with her. The 45-year-old Hellam Township resident said that where she and her family live “out in the country,” you can’t always count on the police to respond in time to a dangerous situation.
Hammond and Shaffer both own handguns, and they both have permits to carry them. Hammond said she hasn’t carried her handgun anywhere yet, but she’d consider carrying it in “an unfamiliar place” or a “crowded area.”
Class member Paul Murray said he bought his first handgun last year.
“With the amount of crime recently, I know how much time it takes 911 to get there,” Murray said. “By the time (a 911 operator is) done asking you questions, you’re dead.”
Though he didn’t grow up with them, the 65-year-old from York Township is no stranger to handguns. He retired as a lieutenant colonel from the Army, where he regularly trained with pistols.
That experience didn’t stop him from waiting to take the course before shooting his first privately owned handgun. “You can never learn enough,” he said.
Guns are among the most politically divisive topics, a fact only exacerbated by the looming election. Hints of politics manifested at the course, such as when Murray, who grew up in New York, briefly mentioned the Empire state’s strict gun laws.
At one point during class, Smith said television news channels such as CNN and MSNBC don’t often report on instances where a lawful gun owner stops an attacker. Later, during an interview, he restated this idea, pointing to a recent incident at a South Carolina nightclub, where a concealed-carry holder shot a man who was firing upon another person.
Even this instance illustrates the dueling narratives and lack of common ground that often frame hot-button issues during an election year. Though a lawful gun owner did stop that shooter, there wasn’t necessarily any evidence that he was a potential “mass shooter,” as the National Rifle Association quickly asserted, according to fact-checking website Snopes.com.
The NRA itself is one of the country’s most powerful lobbying agencies. It rates politicians according to their gun control stances and recently spent $3 million in anti-Hillary Clinton advertisements. At a time when children die of accidental shootings at a rate of one death every two days, according to a recent report, the NRA states that the odds of children dying in firearms-related accidents is “one in a million.”
It’s sobering figures like those, however, that allow Smith to keep the politics out of the classroom for the most part, he said. Mainly, his students want to learn the proper techniques and best practices that could prevent firearms accidents.
Smith said that, although he grew up hunting and learned about gun safety from his Marine Corps veteran father, he never had much interest in handguns until recent years. It was in part the business opportunity that piqued his interest, as well as his belief that if a person does choose to own a firearm, then they should be required to get proper training.
“Look, you can’t get your driver’s license or hunting license unless you take a safety course,” he said. “This is a firearm. This is a serious matter.”
Students seemed to agree. Shaffer said she and her husband keep their firearms locked up “all the time.” Hammond said she still gets “a little nervous” handling her pistol. Murray has never even loaded his gun.
With proper training, some of that fear goes away, but respect for the firearm only increases, Smith said. “The more I’ve learned, the more reverent and fearful I’ve become to make sure something doesn’t happen.”
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Information from: York Daily Record, https://www.ydr.com
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