thetoastmaster
03-07-2007, 18:34
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http://slweekly.com/article.cfm/thetrolleyeffect
The Trolley Effect
A former SWAT officer worries more Utahns with concealed weapons won’t bring safer streets.
by Stephen Dark
Fair Warning Concealed Firearm Training Institute owner Clark Aposhian went to Utah’s Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) last week to hand in 60 concealed-weapon permit applications. They were from students who took his class on carrying a concealed firearm.
The Trolley Square shooting has swollen demand for such permits. “People felt helpless; they wanted to engage the shooter,” Aposhian says about the mall tragedy. “They wanted to find something to throw at him. People can’t come to grips with hiding.”
Those 60 applications are arguably a drop in the ocean of people lining up to arm themselves. Aposhian, also chair of the Utah Concealed Weapons Permit Board, says inquiries about his classes have jumped fivefold in the last three weeks. One local company president offered to pay the $50 class fee for any of his 70 employees who wanted to study with Aposhian. So far 50 people, including employee spouses, have signed up.
When Aposhian inquired at BCI about increases in the number of permit applications post-Trolley, he was told in the last two weeks they were receiving up to 300 a day. Before the shootings, that number was between 150 and 180, many of which were from out of state. The mall shooting, Aposhian says, is clearly behind the jump.
But that climb in permit applications has some firearms experts worried.
Dave Acosta got his concealed weapon permit a month ago. He carries his 40-caliber Glock 22 everywhere he goes. “I feel obligated to [carry it for] my family,” he says.
The ex-SWAT officer turned police-training advocate and security business owner, favors citizens carrying weapons. Yet, he says, “I’m scared for everyone else that’s carrying.”
That fear, he says, comes from his concern about permit-holders’ potential lack of training. “I don’t have a problem with people carrying,” he says. “But if they’re not getting professional training at ranges, that’s a problem.”
The BCI requires that people wanting a concealed-weapon permit earn a weapons-familiarity certificate. This means taking a class with Aposhian or any other BCI-certified instructor. Aposhian takes his students through Utah’s gun laws and firearm handling. But Utah law doesn’t require time spent at a shooting range. In other words, you can attend the course and, if you pass the background check, within several months walk the streets packing.
Founder and owner of Range Masters of Utah in Springville Mike Stillwell, who gives permit classes, puts it another way: “You could be the world’s worst shot, and I couldn’t fail you,” he says.
What really concerns Acosta are bystanders. While he acknowledges that state-certified instructors are top-notch, “still, a six-to-eight hour course [on gun law and use] and a great instructor doesn’t mean diddly-squat” when you’re ducking bullets and trying to return fire.
“When you’re exchanging gunfire, an untrained person doesn’t see all the people huddled in [the shooter’s] backdrop,” he says. “There’s nothing more dangerous than inaccurate fire.”
Even if permit-holders receive training, Acosta is convinced they must practice constantly. “It’s a perishable skill,” he says. “At least shoot 200 rounds a month to be confident and have a better idea of your abilities.”
This issue came up before the Legislature three years ago, Stillwell says. He’d just invested $1 million in his range. “I was tickled pink,” he says. Politicians, however, argued there weren’t sufficient ranges in the state for the demand created by mandatory shooting-range classes and the issue died.
Stillwell has also received double the normal number of calls about permit classes since the shootings. Not that the shootings changed people’s minds, he said. Rather, it forced fence-sitters to make a decision. “Maybe it’s time to look at [shooting practice],” he says, adding a permit “doesn’t invest you in any special privileges,” other than to carry a loaded weapon in public.
“I’m not saying don’t [get the permit],” Acosta says. “Just get yourself trained. Someone with a gun and no experience whatsoever is a danger to the rest of us.”
Acosta and Aposhian agree that concealed weapon permits aren’t for purposes of confrontation. Rather, they serve to protect family members and engage a shooter only if there’s no other recourse.
“Backed into a corner and it’s you or him, it had better be him,” Acosta says. “But the point is to avoid the fight. The trick to surviving is to not be in the fight at all.”
Email the author here: comments@slweekly.com
http://slweekly.com/article.cfm/thetrolleyeffect
The Trolley Effect
A former SWAT officer worries more Utahns with concealed weapons won’t bring safer streets.
by Stephen Dark
Fair Warning Concealed Firearm Training Institute owner Clark Aposhian went to Utah’s Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) last week to hand in 60 concealed-weapon permit applications. They were from students who took his class on carrying a concealed firearm.
The Trolley Square shooting has swollen demand for such permits. “People felt helpless; they wanted to engage the shooter,” Aposhian says about the mall tragedy. “They wanted to find something to throw at him. People can’t come to grips with hiding.”
Those 60 applications are arguably a drop in the ocean of people lining up to arm themselves. Aposhian, also chair of the Utah Concealed Weapons Permit Board, says inquiries about his classes have jumped fivefold in the last three weeks. One local company president offered to pay the $50 class fee for any of his 70 employees who wanted to study with Aposhian. So far 50 people, including employee spouses, have signed up.
When Aposhian inquired at BCI about increases in the number of permit applications post-Trolley, he was told in the last two weeks they were receiving up to 300 a day. Before the shootings, that number was between 150 and 180, many of which were from out of state. The mall shooting, Aposhian says, is clearly behind the jump.
But that climb in permit applications has some firearms experts worried.
Dave Acosta got his concealed weapon permit a month ago. He carries his 40-caliber Glock 22 everywhere he goes. “I feel obligated to [carry it for] my family,” he says.
The ex-SWAT officer turned police-training advocate and security business owner, favors citizens carrying weapons. Yet, he says, “I’m scared for everyone else that’s carrying.”
That fear, he says, comes from his concern about permit-holders’ potential lack of training. “I don’t have a problem with people carrying,” he says. “But if they’re not getting professional training at ranges, that’s a problem.”
The BCI requires that people wanting a concealed-weapon permit earn a weapons-familiarity certificate. This means taking a class with Aposhian or any other BCI-certified instructor. Aposhian takes his students through Utah’s gun laws and firearm handling. But Utah law doesn’t require time spent at a shooting range. In other words, you can attend the course and, if you pass the background check, within several months walk the streets packing.
Founder and owner of Range Masters of Utah in Springville Mike Stillwell, who gives permit classes, puts it another way: “You could be the world’s worst shot, and I couldn’t fail you,” he says.
What really concerns Acosta are bystanders. While he acknowledges that state-certified instructors are top-notch, “still, a six-to-eight hour course [on gun law and use] and a great instructor doesn’t mean diddly-squat” when you’re ducking bullets and trying to return fire.
“When you’re exchanging gunfire, an untrained person doesn’t see all the people huddled in [the shooter’s] backdrop,” he says. “There’s nothing more dangerous than inaccurate fire.”
Even if permit-holders receive training, Acosta is convinced they must practice constantly. “It’s a perishable skill,” he says. “At least shoot 200 rounds a month to be confident and have a better idea of your abilities.”
This issue came up before the Legislature three years ago, Stillwell says. He’d just invested $1 million in his range. “I was tickled pink,” he says. Politicians, however, argued there weren’t sufficient ranges in the state for the demand created by mandatory shooting-range classes and the issue died.
Stillwell has also received double the normal number of calls about permit classes since the shootings. Not that the shootings changed people’s minds, he said. Rather, it forced fence-sitters to make a decision. “Maybe it’s time to look at [shooting practice],” he says, adding a permit “doesn’t invest you in any special privileges,” other than to carry a loaded weapon in public.
“I’m not saying don’t [get the permit],” Acosta says. “Just get yourself trained. Someone with a gun and no experience whatsoever is a danger to the rest of us.”
Acosta and Aposhian agree that concealed weapon permits aren’t for purposes of confrontation. Rather, they serve to protect family members and engage a shooter only if there’s no other recourse.
“Backed into a corner and it’s you or him, it had better be him,” Acosta says. “But the point is to avoid the fight. The trick to surviving is to not be in the fight at all.”
Email the author here: comments@slweekly.com
