Some things are just so insanely foolish, they can’t be made up. This is one of those. Get in the clown car because this circus is crazy.
The Bloomberg billionaire-backed gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety is rolling out a new firearm ownership campaign to teach gun owners how to be safe and responsible with the firearms they’re bringing into their homes. It would be easy to dismiss this as the stuff of comedy writers. In fact, it was hardly believable until NSSF staff saw it with their own eyes at the recent National Conference of State Legislatures held in Boston, Massachusetts.
Everytown is the same group that wants to ban guns, require firearm registries, permits to purchase a firearm, prohibit young adults from legally purchasing a firearm, enact waiting periods to take possession of legally-purchased firearms, keep guns under constant lock-and-key, restrict their use to designated areas and charge exorbitant taxes and fees just to purchase one. This is the same group that tells people to bring up gun control as Thanksgiving Day conversation, like a nonchalant weather chat. In short, there isn’t a proposed barrier to lawful firearm ownership Everytown doesn’t support.
Now they’re pitching themselves as go-to firearm safety experts. Everytown calls the program “Train Smart.”
So-Called ‘Experts’
That’s like getting barbecuing lessons from vegans.
NSSF representatives were on hand when Everytown’s Greg Lickenbrock presented the gun control group’s “Gun Ownership 101” class. If that name is – or isn’t – familiar, NSSF exposed him for the token “I’m a gun owner too” Fudd who is the latest in the series that includes such illustrious spokesmen as Ryan Busse and David Chipman.
One member of NSSF’s staff was quickly recognized and Everytown’s team scurried to ensure Lickenbrock knew he was in the room. That was followed by a polite wave and a smile from NSSF’s representative. But here’s what NSSF learned.
Everytown is rolling out their new “Train Smart” initiative which appears to be an extension of their “Be Smart” safe firearm storage effort. That effort attempts to mimic NSSF’s award-winning Project ChildSafe campaign.
Project Childsafe, though, doesn’t lean on a foundation of laws requiring that guns be locked up. Project Childsafe encourages gun owners to ensure firearms are unavailable to those who should never possess them, including unsupervised children, those suffering a mental health crisis or prohibited individuals. Project ChildSafe also encourages gun owners to explore safer firearm storage options that best meet their lifestyle for when firearms are not in use.
Project ChildSafe has partnered with over 15,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states and five U.S. territories to distribute over 41 million free firearm safety kits, including a locking device.
“Train Smart” is rolling out several segmented lessons, including “The Smart Guide to Buying a Gun,” which features a one-hour course for prospective gun buyers who “want the facts about gun ownership without a sales pitch.” Everytown will teach those gun buyers about why people own guns, facts surrounding gun ownership, secure storage, protecting a home, “universal” guns safety rule and what to look for in a gun.
This is the same group that preaches that guns are the root of all evil, claims that gun owners can’t really protect themselves and are actually at greater risk when a gun is in the home.
Note the derogatory “sales pitch” language. Gun owners know that today’s modern gun retailers and ranges are a long way from the “Hey little lady” stereotype. In fact, of the 26.2 million Americans who became first-time gun owners over the past five years, the fastest growing segment of that group was African American women.
Those new gun owners have learned that local firearm retailers and ranges are the primary source for learning to become a safe and responsible gun owner. Those ranges offer lessons, provide advice on storage options and even help explain the laws and responsibilities that come with lawful gun ownership.
That’s a far cry from headlines that are published by Everytown’s mouthpiece The Trace or The Smoking Gun that demonize the firearm industry and gun owners to scare people away from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
But Wait, There’s More
That’s not all that Everytown’s bringing to the table with “Train Smart.” There’s also a two-and-a-half hour “The Smart Guide to Owning a Firearm” class. It includes all the same topics as the one-hour class, but will be presented by an “expert” instead of scouring YouTube. So…same drivel, more time and likely more money to hear from their “expert.” Those “experts” are unnamed, but can only be assumed to be like Lickenbrock, who as a self-described expert, lobbied Colorado to ban modern sporting rifles.
Or gun owners can simply ask the actual experts at their local firearm retailer or range.
Everytown’s “Train Smart” initiative will also host “Raise Standards in Your State” classes, which doesn’t even make an attempt to hide their efforts to convince people to press for laws mandating permits, licenses, and instructor certifications, which — amazingly! — can now be provided by the newest firearm training program in town.
Lastly, if those aren’t enough, “Train Smart” plans to offer a “Train Smart Gun Safety & Marksmanship” class, which ought to be hoot, since the gun control group has yet to shoot straight on anything they say. They say that’s going to be an eight-hour class to teach people how to handle and use firearms responsibly and serve as a role model for others. Topics covered in that class are the same as the two shorter classes, except they’ll also talk about suicide prevention, de-escalation tactics, pistol marksmanship and…wait for it…“much more.”
There’s no word if those classes will include any actual range time – or that any gun range would even want to host Everytown.
One can only guess that class will have lessons on how to properly dispossess oneself of their Second Amendment rights. Here’s a hint…you shouldn’t just dump a(n illegally purchased) handgun in a trash can like Hallie Biden, Beau Biden’s widow who was then dating Hunter Biden. That’s true no matter how much money Bloomberg and Everytown gave to Hunter’s father to push the most radical, antigun agenda yet.
The whole thing is so bizarre that it couldn’t possibly be fiction. Honestly…you just can’t make this stuff up.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
It’s not April the 1st!
Rosie O’Donnell claims that she guns too. In fact many liberals claim they own guns as well.
Chris T,
And I’m not going to say they are liars – they may, in fact, own guns. It is their Constitutional right to do so. Unfortunately, they did not do the other things that folks like us consider part of the process, and actually learn about the guns, and how to use them. I highly doubt any of these ‘gun owners’ regularly use their firearms. And, frankly, I don’t need to be lectured about ‘safe gun ownership’ from some quarter-wit (I see our old “friend”, MajorLiar, found his way over here) who doesn’t actually know their @$$ from their elbow when it come to firearms.
But, they still have the right to own a gun, and the right to yammer about it. And I have the right to ignore them. IF they succeed in their decades-long effort to disarm the American body politic, I also have, and will exercise, the right to ignore that.
Everytown for Gun Safety will get you killed. They are going to take a bunch of naive people, pump them up to become ‘activists’, and completely misrepresent gun handling and ownership as being a ‘privilege’ and must follow their dictates which does not include defense or carry deployment – using the false-logic of ‘qualified cause they say so’.
What Everytown for Gun Safety is offering is not training – its indoctrination using fake ‘experts’ to give it an air of credibility. Its like their study’s, its going to leave out a lot to make their bias seem reality and its going to get people killed if they follow that and ever need to actually use that firearm for defense.
To add: The ‘de-escalation’ thing is one of the reasons, among many, as to why the ‘Everytown for Gun Safety’ faux ‘firearms training’ program called ‘Train Smart’ is a dangerous thing and will get gun-carriers who take this training and employ it injured or killed if they ever need to use that firearm for defense. 99.99% of defensive gun uses by ordinary law abiding people are the lone defender against the bad-guy(s). Everytown training ‘teaches’ a typical anti-gun faux concept of ‘deferral-reluctance-restraint’ towards ALWAYS not employing a firearm in an imminent or quickly-developing threat situation as their ‘de-escalation’. This is a faux concept under the guise of their ‘gun safety’ concepts pitched in a manner as to seem real but it really isn’t and such has been debunked and proven wrong thousands of times over in the past. They want you to stop and ‘judge the situation’ by their standards of this faux method – in a situation where you may only have an eye blink moment in time to save your life or the life of another. ‘de-escalation’ is the lest likely thing to help you in such a situation – its works in less than 3% of lone defender-against-badguy situations and even then its not even close to a sure thing to stop the threat, and the reason is the bad guy can simply choose to not go along with it or accept it at any time (99.99% of situations are lone defender-against-badguy).
A proper training class will teach a type concept of ‘deter-control-defend’ readiness – your life or the life of another may be on the line so do you really want to give the bad guy the advantage with ‘deferral-reluctance-restraint’ towards ALWAYS not employing a firearm in an imminent or quickly-developing threat situation?
I’m not saying you should always pull the trigger, but these situations are dependent on what the bad guy does which means the bad guys control the situation unless you do. So sure if you brandish or warn prior their attack and they run or back off or surrender immediately then don’t pull the trigger, but that can change in an eye blink from them running away to deciding to come back or them backing off or surrendering can change to them changing their minds to press the attack. Avoid any such situations you can, but the reality is most situations will be unavoidable if the attacker is determined or, more pronounced in today’s world, is some crazed violent TDS-ridden left winger or some violent Trans/gender/DEI-Insanity person. So stay ready, be prepared, have your mindset such that you may need to brandish your firearm or pull that trigger and if you can justifiably draw the weapon you are not required to, nor should you, depend on ‘de-escalation’ as a primary technique to avoid doing that when that threat is imminent or quickly-developing.
deter what you can (i.e. leaving the area, locking doors, parking in well lit areas, etc…), if deterrence hasn’t worked or can’t work then if needed control what you can (i.e. warn if necessary then leaving quickly, etc…), but remember, defending may become necessary because contrary to logic and common sense bad guys do not always just give up and not press their attack. Do not rely on the anti-gun concept of ‘deescalation’ as it can get you seriously injured or killed. And also remember, fleeing/non-firearms defense including calling 911 is not always an option nor is it actually safer (overall, only about 2% of people who try fleeing/non-firearms defense including calling 911 actually escape serious injury or death, its a chance, yes, but a very small – where those employing firearms defensive gun use correctly and swiftly have less than a 4% chance of being seriously injured or killed).
There Goes That Dem Narrative: D.C. Police Union Posts Numbers About Change in Crime Since Trump Action.
”
…
There have been more than 380 total arrests since the start of the operation 11 days ago.
In total…
– 59 firearms have been seized.
– Over 160 illegal aliens have been arrested, including known gang members and those with additional charges: assault, kidnapping, burglary, larceny, commercialized sexual offenses, smuggling illegal drugs like heroin, and more.
Last night 22 multi-agency teams were deployed throughout all 7 districts in D.C. There were more than 1,950 participants in last night’s operations.
…
DC Police Union
@DCPoliceUnion
DC crime since the announcement of federal control versus the 7 days prior:
Robbery ⬇️46%
ADW ⬇️6%
Carjacking ⬇️83%
Car Theft ⬇️21%
Violent Crime ⬇️22%
Property Crime ⬇️6%
All Crimes⬇️8%
While federal assistance gives us a boost, we must repeal the misguided Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act in order to make these changes permanent.
…”
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/08/18/dc-progress-since-trump-move-n2192931
If I were retired I would sit thru one these classes and take notes. I can’t imagine what dangerous advice they would lay out.
It might be as good as some of those u tube lefty yahoo.
Taking ‘gun safety advice’ from Everytown is akin to taking medical advice from a ‘spiritual healer’, or barbequeing advice from a vegan. I would rather receive advice from a knowledgeable source, thankyouverymuch.
OTOH, maybe they can teach me about the deadly ‘folding thing that goes up’, or the dreaded ’30 caliber magazine clip’, with which a ghost gun can allegedly fire thousands of rounds per minute. That might be useful knowledge, I guess, if it were real. Like most Leftist/fascist ‘knowledge’, it is entirely fictitious.