E.J. Smith is a Firearms Instructor in Charleston, West Virginia. Mr. Smith is extremely butthurt by West Virginia Senate Bill 347, for permitless concealed carry. See, Mr. Smith teaches a concealed carry safety course out of his garage. Seeing his source of supplementary income drying up, Mr. Smith opened his big, stupid, butthurt mouth to the media.
“Has this state gone crazy? Eighty percent of the people who go through my program are doing all kinds of things wrong…Now you want to turn everyone loose with a firearm without any training at all? Not another state will touch us for reciprocation other than Arizona. We WILL lose the 34 states that currently do reciprocate! I can’t believe that the NRA would want this…This is ridiculous and will lead to all kinds of accidents and Old West-type crimes. It will not be safe to live here anymore. When we upped the age (for conceal carry permits) to 21, I said, thank God. Think about how irresponsible and hot-headed you were at 18. Now they ALL can carry concealed without training!…I love my gun rights too, but this is irresponsible to the limit. Law enforcement has their hands full already. You are about to see them flee their jobs in droves. I would…The process is good…Almost no one is denied a permit. When they are, it’s for a reason, like domestic violence or a previous felony. Do you really want these people now carrying?”
Not once, but TWICE!!!
“We want our guys to feel safe and knowing that anyone can carry a gun just isn’t going to do that.”
There are currently seven states that have constitutional carry: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Vermont, and Wyoming. West Virginia has passed constitutional carry (over the veto of the governor), but the law has not gone into effect yet. In all of those states, especially the ones that have passed constitutional carry recently recently, I have not heard of any rampages, fender-bender gunfights, or other doom-and-gloom that is predicted as the result of any increase in the right to carry.
Why? Because it is always the same bullsh*t straw-man, arguments: A state goes from having no CCW provision to CCW and the streets will run red with blood. A state goes from may issue to shall issue and will become Dodge City. A state adopts Stand Your Ground and paranoid shoot-first gun owners will blow away every (usually black) person that twitches. A state approves campus carry and drunk frat bros will shoot up professors over pop quizzes. Has any of this ever happened? No, but why let that stand in the way of hysterics.
At least the miserable turd came clean as to why he is against WV constitutional carry.
“There is not going to be anybody coming out to take a class and spend the money, besides maybe a few people who want their youngsters to learn to shoot or something. [His business] certainly won’t be thriving, and the more likely event will be that I just close to doors on it.”
Here, let me summarize Mr. Smith’s sentiments for you. “Screw your rights, I gotta get paid.”
The harpies over at MDA have picked up on Mr. Smith’s quote, using if for their own nefarious purposes.
If you are serious about gun rights, you don’t give ammo to the antis. It’s a simple principle. One that E.J. Butthurt has violated in the worst way. And what caused this transformation to anti-gun Judas? The potential loss of an at-home gun safety business that I’m pretty sure he’s not making a living with.
I’ve never been to WV and I don’t foresee myself going there any time soon, but I am incredibly thankful that the WV State Senate overrode the governor’s veto to pass constitutional carry only because it’s gonna hit Mr. Smith right in the bank account.
With friends like this… never mind. E.J. Smith isn’t a friend of the gun community. His belief in gun rights ends with his ability to make a buck. He’s a slimy, sellout, turncoat, quisling.
“Has this state gone crazy?” Typical. Disagree with someone who wants more regulations and you are “crazy” for wanting fewer.
“Here, let me summarize Mr. Smith’s sentiments for you. ‘Screw your rights, I gotta get paid.'” That’s not unlike Intuit’s position when tax reform is on the agenda — they actively lobby against it. They can’t abide their TurboTax being negatively affected by anything that might benefit taxpayers.
We had some douche trainer post the same thing in the Georgiapacking.org forum. Trading rights for money. I’d make sure any Google search for that dudes school pops up his stupid comments first – in perpetuity.
An NRA instructor here. Training is a good thing. Mandated training to exercise a right is unconstitutional. Period.
@O2: you are doing it right.
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This, I say this all the time and I am teaching in California for Gods sake!
And serious instructors know that getting rid of the government tax to carry gets more people interested in dropping coin on independent training.
Of course bad instructors are horribly hit because now the end result will be knowledge and skill, not “I have this piece of paper that will allow me to get this other piece of paper.
>>government tax to carry
The “self-defense tax” or here in Colorado where we have constitutional open carry we sometimes refer to it as the “coat tax”.
O2
Hey, on the bright side, he spelled/used “loose” and “lose” properly.
But he’s still a dimwitted slimy, sellout, turncoat, quisling.
All I have ever heard about states going to permit less concealed carry is that the training classes are overflowing with enthusiastic experienced and new shooters who want to do it right. He won’t lose a dime and will make more money, except, for his turd-like behavior that gave fuel to the anti-rights, anti-freedom, anti-gun crowd, he should be avoided as an instructor. He has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of our rights.
Not every West Virginian agrees with Mr Butthurt. I was born and raised there, and lived there for awhile as an adult, and carried there. Constitutional Carry is just that: Constitutional. Simpering ninnies like this with their fingers in a government-created till are to be ignored.
I’m not from WV, but my understanding is that 18-21 year olds will still be required to have licenses to carry.
I guess he found out he is not as important as he thought he was,pure baby.
I think I’m gonna have to differ here. Bear in mind that NONE of this is to be read to imply that E.J. Smith isn’t an ass.
Should there be some kind of mandatory training to OWN a gun? Hell no. That way lies NY-esque “fees” and “instructor certifications” to insure that only rich or connected people can buy guns.
Should there be some kind of mandatory training for CCW? I think yes. Not for “operator operating operationally” BS reasons, but just for the same reasons we have drivers’ tests when you get your license: to weed out the fruitbars and the totally incapable and to insure that each licensee has at least a basic knowledge of the LEGAL issues: what to do when you get pulled over, what the actual requirements of self-defense are (and each state is different and some states are pretty arcane: see NC’s original “halfway into the house” law*), et cetera. Example given: in my state, the range test is so easy that only if you were legally blind or totally cheeseheaded could you fail to pass… and that’s exactly what it is there for.
Set the bar low, link the cost of a permit to the cost of a drivers’ license (in fact you could just have it as an endorsement on the license, right next to the slots for motorcycle and heavy trucks), and go forward.
Of course, I’m also the guy who wants to reinstitute math and literacy requirements for voting (we’ve had way too many politicians voted into office by people who can’t understand that if John has 2 apples, and the government takes away two apples, John has no apples left).
*From Reconstruction till just a couple of years ago: If they are already INSIDE your house, you must follow the progression-of-force (words, soft hands, hard hands, et cetera); if they are OUTSIDE your house you can’t shoot at all (because you’re INSIDE and therefore not in real danger)… but if they’re IN THE PROCESS OF BREAKING IN, you can go ahead and shoot. Intuitive, no?
“Set the bar low…”
See, here’s the problem with that. You’ve set a bar. On a constitutional right. It’s not keep. It’s keep and bear.
And what is to stop the government from raising that bar any time it wants, suddenly making it harder than you originally intended? Oh, you only wanted to weed out the truly incompetent and people who should never touch power tools or hammers or forks? But what about (insert new group du jour here). They surely shouldn’t have a gun either.
Like Democrats with taxes, the government has never met a bar it couldn’t raise arbitrarily.
Sorry, I respectfully disagree with your viewpoint.
I respectfully disagree with you. You make the mistake of using the driving issue as the basis of the argument. Driving is a privilege, not a Inalienable right. I stick with the “recommended training”, not legislated. Just look up the facts. Pennsylvania, with no training requirements has no more issues than a State with minimal training requirements. All the facts are out there to defeat your position.
I was asked once about the women I teach who were all school teachers. The question was, “What good are those teachers being trained if they are not allowed to carry in school?” My answer was simple. How do you know they are not carrying already? I have spoken to an occasional teacher who has left me believing they will risk their job to protect their students and themselves.
8 States now have Constitutional Carry, no blood in the streets. That is 16%. With 2 more coming soon. I rest my case.
[…] Continuing the saga started by J. Kb. […]
Let’s not forget the impact the gazillion tourists have on states like alsaka Arizona Maine and Vermont. If with all of those extra people coming into those states now able to carry a gun but not necessarily familiar with that specific States laws haven’t caused a problem, there should be no doubt that the residents of those states will not cause any.
Constitutional carryis good for everyone and especially good for new England where you can easily be in 3 States without much effort in one day. You could hit them all if you really wanted to but not have much time left for the sights. I personally can now carry in ct & nh with my permits and Vermont and Maine without; I mostly avoid ma, NY, and RI surprise surprise. Here’s hoping nh can pull off Constitutional carry the next time around.
“Eighty percent of the people who go through my program are doing all kinds of things wrong”
I am thinking this guy is not exactly the best teacher if that is the case…