Everytown’s new firearm training classes are about as honest and realistic as the journalism produced by its paid staffers at The Trace. In fact, the amount of anti-gun propaganda produced by Everytown’s Train Smart instructors may actually exceed the anti-gun propaganda shoveled out by the plucky kids at The Trace. Suffice it to say, it’s a close race.
The fun began with a 1.5-hour video class called “The Smart Guide to Buying a Gun.” Cost for the class was $20. Students can take the course live or on-demand. There are two additional classes, including an 8-hour trip to the range, which you watch from home.
“Nellis” and “Jake” were the instructors. None of Everytown’s trainers provide their last names, which is very telling in iteself. Most real instructors provide all of their training and experience in addition to their full names.
Nellis, according to her bio, is “a mother and advocate, she is committed to building safer environments and believes that all children deserve a future free from gun violence.”
Jake’s bio is just about as bad: “As an instructor, Jake strives to create welcoming spaces where everyone can learn to feel safer and more confident with firearms.”
Neither of the instructors ever mentioned what their kids actually deserve or how they create “welcoming spaces.”
Besides their missing last names, none of Everytown’s training staff list their actual instructor credentials or even where they were trained, but they’re all beautiful people and very diverse, which was probably much more important to the folks at Everytown than what’s in their CVs.
Before Nellis and Jake were even on screen, Everytown unleashed a massive liability warning.
By participating in this training and viewing this recording, you acknowledge and agree that Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and its affiliated organizations are not responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from, in connection with, or as a result of your use of firearms, and you agree to release and hold harmless Everytown of Gun Safety Support Fund from any claims related to your participation in the training. If you require specific advice or expertise about your use, possession or ownership of a firearm, please consult a qualified professional or consult your local law enforcement. (emphasis added)
Does that mean Everytown’s firearms instructors aren’t “qualified professionals?” Can’t real firearm training serve as a defense if you ever have to use a firearm to defend yourself or your loved ones?
Instructor Jake began by cautioning viewers that no students should have access to a firearm during the course. Then he warned the class . . .
We’ll be talking about tough topics like firearm homicides and suicides.
If anyone wanted to learn more about gun ownership than Jake and Nellis were willing to teach, they were told to go to Everytown.org. The instructor duo then presented an incredibly fictional group of statistics, which the site claimed came from the Annals of Internal Medicine and American Journal of Public Health.
By owning a gun, they falsely claimed, you double your chances of dying by homicide. And access to a firearm inside a home triples your chances and everyone in your home’s chances of dying by suicide. These, however, were not the worst claims they tossed out.
“The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that the woman will be killed,” Nellis claimed. “And according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, when a male abuser has access to a firearm, the risk that he’s going to shoot and kill a female increases by 1,000 percent.”
Everytown has always had problems with the truth. Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns have claimed hundreds of school shootings each year, but when the shootings are actually examined, they consist of incidents that often doesn’t involve actual bad guys or students or schools. Or guns.
One so-called school shooting involved a school bus being hit with a BB. Others involved negligent discharges by SROs. Many didn’t even happened during school hours. When their list was examined thoroughly, many of the claims were found to be seriously overinflated.
Nellis, too, had her own problems with overinflation, not to mention numbers, tactics and the truth. She claimed that . . .
Since 2020, guns have been the leading cause of death for children age 1 to 17.
All weapons, she said, should be kept unloaded—period. Her reasoning was nonsensical.
That might be a little controversial. It might even defeat the point, but hold on. Every second matters when you need a gun. Some people believe it’s okay to keep a gun on a nightstand. If you’re moving so fast that you don’t have time to access your gun, you likely don’t have time to confirm your target before shooting. Once that bullet leaves your gun, it ain’t coming back, and you may actually live in a state that requires you to lock up your gun.
Jake brought racist police officers into the training.
Police interactions may be risky for black gun owners. We want to acknowledge that. Gather more information about police in your area.
The two instructors then stressed the false benefits of home security systems—alarms, signs, decals, doorbell cameras, fences, landscaping and other external barriers such as cacti and thorny plants. These are all great ideas…until the bad guy enters the victim’s home.
Their solution then?
Adopt a dog. A lot of self-defense instructors say dogs are better defense against intruders than guns. Consider getting a dog.
When the dynamic instructor duo described the types of guns that are available, they somehow forgot to even mention the country’s most popular rifle. The video doesn’t show a single photo of an AR or any other popular semi-automatic rifle.
Takeaways
What Nellis and Jake excelled at was sprinkling in small doses of actual gun safety information without giving the author the credit they deserve. They showed a quick video that stressed Col. Jeff Cooper’s Four Firearm Safety Rules. The good colonel, of course, was never mentioned.
Neither Nellis nor Jake ever mentioned how the Four Rules became standardized or how they progress logically from one to another. Instead, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s acolytes acted as if they invented the rules themselves, which is about what you’d expect. Truth be told, Col. Cooper’s rules were about the only realistic information offered during the entire hour-and-a-half of training time.
The Train Smart video tried to scare students. Guns are dangerous and should be unloaded, disassembled and locked up, the instructors repeatedly said. The reality is Everytown’s so-called training course is chock-full of fear, which they use to try to scare folks so they won’t ever consider buying a firearm, much less carrying one. As you’d expect, this makes Train Smart propaganda—anti-gun propaganda.
It’s definitely not firearm training. It’s not even close.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
” Guns are dangerous and should be unloaded, disassembled and locked up”
Thus the bad guy(s) don’t have to be concerned about being confronted by any meaningful defense especially relative to deadly defense. What a joke, locked up is bad enough and add “disassembled” and there exists a means for bad and or deadly things to happen.
Oh, Mr Bad Guy, give me time to unlock, assemble and load my gun so that I can defend myself and others.
Sounds like Everytown’s instructors made A++ in dumb ass classes.
And like Debbie W, I did notice that they said nothing about the history of gun control or the political party responsible.
Is this for real?
“including an 8-hour trip to the range, which you watch from home.”
Instead of going to the range and actually learning about recoil and noise, you spend EIGHT HOURS watching a video of other people going to the range?
This is “brilliant” advice.
No one has EVER flinched taking a shot … that they were observing on video.
Theoretically, the shooters taking this program will be the most accurate shooters of all time. If the sponsors selectively edit the video, then the observers will hit the bullseye every single time during an 8-hour range session.
I have certainly never done that!
I told of this about a month ago. Nothing but anti-gun propaganda lies in an on-line package for idiots.
Now you owe me $20.00.
“….and you may actually live in a state that requires you to lock up your gun.”
Well, according to the SCOTUS decision in Heller v DC– any law requiring that is unconstitutional. From the decision, Case No. 07-290:
“…
Held:
….
3. The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment. The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of “arms” that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional muster. Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.”
Well, “Adopt a dog” isn’t really *bad* advice…
Great idea. But if Mr bad guy shoots the dog or distracts him with a piece of steak you’ll need backup.
To me the main purpose of the dog is as an alarm system. My Yorkie barks at anything heard outside the house especially if it in the vicinity of any door. The barking is an alert to get prepared.
Hush,
Agreed, and my beloved dog (Xena, the Warrior Princess – named by my younger son (hey, he and I agree, Lucy Lawless is hot), and the single most ironic name in the history of dog-human interactions. A 105 lb. GSD bitch, and the biggest wimp in the history of the GSD breed.) looks intimidating, and makes a hell of a noise, but she mostly wants to lick you and be your friend. But she is a good alarm.
But for reasons others have mentioned, while dogs can be useful alarms, unless it is a properly-trained security dog, they’re not much good as serious deterrents to criminals. Xena wakes my up; the rest is up to me and my Kimber.
My dogs bark like lunatics for nothing at all. The few times something actually threatening was afoot they all sat stone silent, frozen in place.
I thought it was pretty funny. All noise and bravado until shit gets real.
“Well, ‘Adopt a dog’ isn’t really *bad* advice…”
You are correct, it “isn’t really *bad* advice…” – in their stated context its absolutely horrible advice way beyond bad and will get you killed.
I’d like to go into detail explaining why, but after several attempts I can not get it to post because of that stupid ‘ghost post’ thing that goes on here. But I will say that in their stated context of “defense against intruders”, 99.9% of pet dogs as a primary defense are not going to help you one little bit to defend against determined (especially experienced) criminal intruders or attackers. You can’t just go get a dog and says “Yea Me! I’m ready to defend against all the bad guys now without a gun.” Unless the dog is usually and overly aggressive and extremely territorial (things which are usually not present in the majority of pet dogs) or trained, its pretty likely all the dog is going to do is run around and bark.
Its almost astronomically rare for a pet dog to be determinate defensive against a present imminent human threat like an intruder or attacker because hundreds of years of breeding for ‘pet quality’ have suppressed the natural ‘pack defense’ instinct, to make them more ‘sociable’ around humans.
So lets say you do have a dog that does ‘something’, what happens when they fail or are removed from the picture? Well, your primary defense is gone and here you are facing down intruders/attackers with no gun.
Basically, relying on a dog as the primary means of defense against intruders and attackers as this stupid thing from the fake Everytown pretend trainers posit will more than likely get your family or you seriously injured or killed.
Correction for: “Unless the dog is usually and overly aggressive and extremely territorial (things which are usually not present in the majority of pet dogs) or trained, its pretty likely all the dog is going to do is run around and bark.”
should have been…
Unless the dog is unusually and overly aggressive and extremely territorial (all three things which are usually not present in the majority of pet dogs) or trained, its pretty likely all the dog is going to do is run around and bark.
The idea here here is, basically, that a dog barking or presence would deter ALL intruders or attackers. This is more myth than anything. Once that ‘intruder’ gets in or the attacker is right there unless a dog is ‘trained’ to defend a dog is basically worthless – its not like in the movies where Fido comes to your rescue ’cause he loves ya a bunch. Some dogs remain aggressive acting towards strangers, but this does not mean they will be aggressive or effective enough to be useful in defending you.
First, normal domesticated ‘pet’ dogs presence, overall, do not deter determined ‘intruders’ and attackers. There are literally thousands upon thousands of cases over time where the ‘home invasion’ or attack still happened even though Fido was there are barking his head off.
Second, a defense trained dog can be very useful in defense but it can’t be your only line of defense. For example; Our dogs, four normally very friendly and fun loving dogs that always want to play would not harm a fly but will defend or attack on command and fight to the death if necessary to defend us, and will shred any attacker or intruder so we are fine with that but this capability is very rare without training and we spent a lot of time and money for that training. But we also know the primary weakness in any defense lies in its first encounter moment with the threat so, basically, if that defense does not start off successful in a manner that has you taking the advantage then with each passing moment it becomes harder to overcome and defeat the threat, so if something happens to the dogs at the beginning (i.e. the bad(s) guy kills the dogs) and the bad guys are able to continue aggressing what happens then? Well then its up to us, and that’s where the firearm comes into play.
Its the same with with all dogs in that aspect, once the dog is not effective for defense (and 99.9% of them will not be unless specifically trained) – then its up to you. All this together is why the dog thing as a primary defense is basically a myth, and why its actually really bad advice if your plan to have the dog actually defend “against intruders” in place of having a firearm.
Have intruders/attackers run off because a dog barked a lot? Sure they have, but its actually not a common thing and rare and the more dedicated experienced types will ignore the dog and proceed with their home invasion or attack because they know its not likely a dog will actually do something to actually defend you and will be no more than just, maybe, an ‘irritation’ they can ignore or dispose of without any meaningful resistance.
Bad guys, overall, no longer fear being ‘detected’ committing their crimes. Many decades of ‘wrist slaps’ by the judicial system, adapting to the prevalence of ‘security cameras’ and alarm systems, and overall increase in aggressiveness and lawlessness, and an overall pandering decline in ‘society rejection’ of criminals in certain demographics, has emboldened them and made them less concerned about being ‘detected’ committing their crimes, heck, they even flat out attack law enforcement now in full public view – ya think they are worried about a barking dog?
Well, crap…the post I did earlier that ghost posted and would not show up and did not go to moderation has shown up.
.40cal,
As I explained above (and my dog COULD have been a credible defense – 105 lb. GSD bitch), most dogs, unless trained specifically as security dogs, aren’t much of a primary defense. They are an alarm. A pretty damn good alarm, in my experience (and I know from reading the comments that others have have different results), Xena will reliably bark her damn head off, and she has a LOUD bark (and teeth like a damn crocodile). I don’t expect her to attack and tear the arm off of an intruder, but I am confident that, if someone she doesn’t know enters my house? She’s going to raise hell (before she goes over and licks them and says, “Can I be your friend??”).
And that’s all I need. Plenty of time to access my ‘ready’ defense weapons, position myself, and get ready to deal with the situation. Besides, she’s great company. I think adopting the right dog is a great idea . . . but I admit to a serious bias on the subject.
I keep mine in a gun safe with fingerprint scanning tech. Not because it’s an ideal situation but because of twin 5 yr old grandkids. They want to handle everything they see. My guns are always clean, rubricated and loaded. The ex-Marine in me won’t tolerate a dirty weapon.
“Adopt a dog.” Anything on training the dog, or what to do if someone in the household, like my wife, is strongly allergic to pet dander (which also precludes cats and ferrets; goldfish are not very intimidating)?
Give a goldfish a face and neck tat, some shades and a tec-9. That fish is intimidating.
Gotta think outside the box. 🙂
Or tank. 😎
John C.,
While I am a strong proponent of dogs, I agree. Yes, there are dog allergies, and they are real. The bigger issue, IMHO, is that only a minority of dog owners have any clue what they are doing. Like acquiring a firearm, I think everyone has the right to do it, but I’d be a lot more comfortable if people did some homework and training before they did.
What if you don’t want to take care of one? How much are those robot dogs? Hey, that would solve your allergy problem too!
“Most real instructors provide all of their training and experience in addition to their full names.”
Well, their names are Jake Anti Gun and Nellis Anti Gun. And obviously they are trained and experienced in lying about guns because they told some whoppers.
But ignorant left wingers will take this training and the information they get from Jake and Nellis will ensure they get killed when the time comes to use their guns for defense.
Everytown’s Firearm “Training”: Where Fear Is the Curriculum and Facts Don’t Apply.
https://www.ammoland.com/2025/10/everytowns-firearm-training-where-fear-is-the-curriculum-and-facts-dont-apply/
I have said for awhile that Everytown should be sued for false advertising since they don’t offer any safety classes.
“Their solution then?
Adopt a dog. A lot of self-defense instructors say dogs are better defense against intruders than guns. Consider getting a dog.”
Yeah, this is a really bad idea and false.
Getting a dog is actually really bad advice if your plan to have the dog actually defend “against intruders”, and no, sane and knowledgeable actual firearms self-defense instructors do not say dogs are better defense against intruders than guns. The dog thing as a primary defense is basically a myth.
The idea here here is, basically, that a dog barking or presence would deter intruders or attackers. This is more myth than anything. We are talking about ‘defense against intruders’ and attackers. Once that ‘intruder’ gets in or the attacker is right there unless a dog is ‘trained’ to defend a dog is basically worthless – its not like in the movies where Fido comes to your rescue ’cause he loves ya a bunch (and heck, even movie dogs need to be trained to act like that), all 99% of untrained dogs would do is continue to either bark or just watch. [The majority of] ‘Pet dogs’, within and for their nature, are selected and groomed into suppressing the natural instinct to ‘fight’ a threat (the ‘pack protect’ instinct has been suppressed in pet breeds by hundreds of years of breeding for pets) so they will be well behaved around people. Some dogs remain aggressive acting towards strangers, but this does not mean they will be aggressive enough to be useful in defending you.
First, normal domesticated ‘pet’ dogs presence, overall, do not deter determined ‘intruders’ and attackers. There are literally thousands upon thousands of cases over time where the ‘home invasion’ or attack still happened even though Fido was there are barking his head off.
Second, a trained dog can be very useful in defense but it can’t be your only line of defense. For example; Our dogs (normally big fun loving ‘kids’ that would not harm a fly) will attack on command and fight to the death if necessary to defend us, and will shred any attacker or intruder so we are fine with that but this capability is very rare without training and we spent a lot of time and money for that training. But we also know the primary weakness in any defense lies in its first encounter moment with the threat so, basically, if that defense does not start off successful in a manner that has you taking the advantage then with each passing moment it becomes harder to overcome and defeat the threat, so if something happens to the dogs at the beginning (i.e. the bad guy kills the dogs) what happens then? Well then its up to us, and that’s where the firearm comes into play.
Its the same with with all dogs in that aspect, once the dog is not effective for defense (and 99% of them will not be unless specifically trained) – then its up to you. All this together is why the dog thing as a primary defense is basically a myth, and why its actually really bad advice if your plan to have the dog actually defend “against intruders” in place of having a firearm.
Have intruders/attackers run off because a dog barked a lot? Sure they have, but its actually not a common thing and rare and the more dedicated types will ignore the dog and proceed with their home invasion or attack because they know its not likely a dog will actually do something to actually defend you and will be no more than just, maybe, an ‘irritation’ they can ignore or dispose of without any meaningful resistance.
Bad guys, overall, no longer fear being ‘detected’ committing their crimes. Many decades of ‘wrist slaps’ by the judicial system, the prevalence of surveillance by ‘security’ cameras, adapting to the spread of alarm systems and ‘deterrence’ methods, and overall increase in aggressiveness, has made them less concerned about being ‘detected’ committing their crimes, heck, they even flat out attack law enforcement now in full public view – ya think they are worried about a barking dog?
Depending on where and how a person has their guns stored varies and it seems to me that a dog, if it does nothing else, will buy the homeowner some extra time to prepare. Al tho the amount of time may be minimal, it seems that any extra time is a good thing. Only having a dog vs other security systems or having a gun is not a good idea. If all a person has for defense is a dog, then they just as well have gold fish and avoid all the barking.
As for me, my Yorkie goes bonkers when the mail person delivers mail at the front of the house or if anyone else approaches the house. Do I depend on her alone, of course not, but, she serves as another layer of defense(alarm) that just may be helpful. When I am in the house she is within 10 feet of me at all times and I don’t have to get up to place my hand on a gun be it day or night. But that is me, what other do is an individual choice. Circumstances vary.
Hush,
ED ZACHARY!!! (if you know that silly old joke). My dog was adopted for companionship, but also for the fact that she is a reliable early warning system. Sure, some potential bad guys might be intimidated by her (105 lb. DSD, with teeth like a crocodile, who barks REALLY loud? Yeah, she’s intimidating), but at a minimum, not just me, but the whole damn neighborhood, will be alerted. As I posted, above, that gives me plenty of time to access my ‘ready weapons’ for self/home defense. Not a perfect system, but I don’t think those exist.
It’s not difficult to understand for .40 said it correctly, “Where Fear Is the Curriculum and Facts Don’t Apply.”
They emphasis a host of negatives and there really aren’t any positives. In other words, they teach/preach the negative and then leave it up to the student observer to make a decision about gun ownership. They in affect are saying here’s all the bad stuff; but if you still want a gun anyway! The words “firearm training” are bastardized by the Everytown instructors.
Everytown, on their Instructors page for this faux training, has several ‘instructors’ listed. None of them reveal their full names, the qualifications listed are either not verifiable or are not representative of qualifications for being a ‘firearms instructor’.
One of them ‘Crystal’ did a series of videos on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife youtube channel entitled “My First Big Game Hunt” and worked for them (2015-2020 – according to the Everytown ‘Train Smart’ page. Then there is this about ‘Crystal’ > “She logged four years of service on the board of a national hook-and-bullet conservation nonprofit that introduces hunting to people of color, and is a certified hunter education instructor and range safety officer.”
Note here the “on the board of A national hook-and-bullet conservation nonprofit”. It turns out that ‘hook-and-bullet’ although there is a single organization by that name, there are a bunch of ‘hook-and-bullet’ affiliate conservation nonprofits. Now remember “on the board of A national hook-and-bullet conservation nonprofit” so the question here is which one of those ‘hook-and-bullet’ affiliate conservation nonprofits is she with, and who ‘certified’ her to be a ‘hunter education instructor and range safety officer’.
See, this type of stuff is all through their list of so called ‘instructors’ – no full names, no verifiable qualifications, no known accepted certifications – its all just basically ’cause we say so’. Then the so called ‘training’ from Jake and Nellis, its rife with errors and falsehoods and even includes information that can get someone seriously injured or killed. Then they do things to obscure the identity of these ‘instructors’ and the need to verify the validity of the qualifications of their ‘instructors’, for example, this “on the board of A national hook-and-bullet conservation nonprofit” but never tells you which hook-and-bullet conservation nonprofit so there is no way to verify that thus no way to verify the qualifications claimed.
These are the types of things scammers do. People without verifiable names and qualifications are not ‘firearms instructors’. There is nothing ‘Train Smart’ about this.
There is nothing in the Everytown course title list that you can not already get for free on the internet from well known and vetted actual firearms instructor sources with full names and with traceable verifiable backgrounds and actual qualifications, that will give you the facts straight and leave out the false and lies and propaganda in the Everytown thing that will get you seriously injured or killed. And if you want actual range time with a qualified instructor with full names and with traceable verifiable backgrounds and qualifications, those are available too.
Once again here is link to free online training and no private info is required including: name, email address, location. Merely click the link and begin:
https://lsp.org/services/concealed-handgun-information/handgun-education-courses/
.40cal,
Everytown, setting up a completely bogus ‘firearms safety’ class?? Say it ain’t so!!
“The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that the woman will be killed,” Nellis claimed. “And according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, when a male abuser has access to a firearm, the risk that he’s going to shoot and kill a female increases by 1,000”
This quote indicates that a woman with a gun is MUCH safer than an unarmed woman.
“Preparedness is the key to success and victory.”
General Douglas MacArthur
These people are acting Weird!
So here’s a historical perspective:
Since 1775, we’ve lost 1.2 million Americans IN ALL THE WARS WE’VE FOUGHT COMBINED.
But, since 1968 alone, we’ve lost almost 1.9 MILLION Americans DUE TO DOMESTIC GUN VIOLENCE.
That’s 1.2m in 250 years due to OUR ENEMIES, versus 1.9m in 57 years due to OURSELVES.
Doesn’t look like our citizen militia is working according to plan.