March 20, 2023 • 28 mins
Tudor welcomes you to her brand new podcast! Tudor introduces you to Rick Ector. Rick is an NRA Firearms Instructor and owner of Rick's Firearm Academy in Detroit, Michigan. Tudor and Rick talk about their first meeting, which happened to be the first time Tudor shot a gun. They discuss the importance of gun safety and dive into details around the Michigan State University mass shooting. Subscribe now to the Tudor Dixon Podcast and listen for new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Buck Sexton and you're listening to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast, part of the Clay Drivers and Buck
Sexton podcast Network. Hello everyone, I'm Tutor Dixon and I
am so excited to have you joined the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Let me start by telling you a little bit about me.
I started off my career in manufacturing for many years
before becoming a mom, and when my four little girls
(00:23):
were a little a friend asked me to step into
a totally different world, the media world. I had a
little experience in media from college and just out of college,
but this was a mostly totally new adventure for me.
We created a news program for middle and high school
students designed to focus on news of the day and
Pro America stories. And the funny thing is those Pro
(00:45):
America stories led me down a whole new path into politics.
As some of you may know, I was the Republican
nominee for governor in the state of Michigan last year.
I stepped away from my career completely and I campaigned
for about eighteen months. It was a totally incredible journey,
and not only did I learn about all the different
cultures across my beautiful state, but I met the most
(01:08):
amazing people as I traveled along on this journey. I
really felt that I needed to share some of those
stories with other people, and that's what inspired me to
do this podcast. And one of the people that I
met along the way was named Rick Ector, and it
was probably one of the most nerve wracking moments of
my campaign for me because Rick offers free gun training
(01:29):
for women, and I'm going to confess I had never
shot a gun before that day, but turns out I
was exactly who Rick was looking for because he wants
women to feel confident that they can protect themselves, and
that day I lined up with hundreds of women in
the Detroit area to learn more about how to use
a gun safely. The reason I want you to meet
(01:50):
Rick is because his story really touched me. It's raw,
it's true life, it's kind of superhero in the making
type of stuff. And Rick is an awesome guy. He's
not arrogant, he's not forcing other people to be on
his side, but his life changed in a moment and
he used that experience to help others learn to defend themselves.
(02:11):
Whatever you think about guns, I think you're going to
find Rick's story very interesting. Rick Ector is the owner
of Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit, and I'm pleased to
have him here with me today. Rick, Welcome to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast. Hey, I thank you so very much
for having me on the show. I'm excited. I am
glad to see that you're out. You know, you're continuing
(02:32):
to share the word about what it is that we
want to accomplish in our state and across the country.
And it's an honor to be here, and I want
to thank you for having me. Well, thank you for
being here. So I want you to tell your story
because my understanding of your story you can correct me
if i'm wrong, is that you never actually owned a
gun until you were staring down the barrel of someone
(02:53):
else's gun, and that kind of inspired you to change
things in your life. Is that right, That's pretty close.
I had a shotgun at home that I bought at
the urging, and the advice that was given to me
by men in the family. They say, hey, you're a homeowner.
You need to have some means of defending yourself and
(03:14):
your family if you ever needed to do so. So
I dutatively, dutily, dutifully went to a gun range, and
I purchased the twelve Gates shotgun, bought some shells, and
that was all the interest I had in owning a firearm.
And that pretty much changed one day when I was
coming home from work one day at the time of
(03:34):
the year reminiscent of where we are now when it
gets dark early and maybe six PM or soul in
my driveway, I was accosted by two men. I did
not know they produced guns. They robbed me and fortunate
that I survived that event, but it put me on
a journey, and that journey was to learn more about
(03:57):
firearms and personal protection. I refused to be like other
neighbors in my community who were crime victims, who decided
to just walk away from their homes, sacrifice their equity,
and just start over somewhere else in the area. But
I continue to do that, and I learned how to
defend myself. I receive a concealed pistol license here in
(04:20):
the state of Michigan, started training and teaching, and man,
that took me down another rabbit hole, and I just
started doing other events. Lo and behold, today I am
the organizer of an event. We're now heading into our
twelfth year in which we give free shooting lessons to
women by the thousands. The lifetime number of women that
(04:44):
we have trained with the rain safety briefing and a
free shooting lesson is now at seventy five hundred and going.
And keep in mind we only do this program on
one weekend out of the year, and that is where
I learned to shoot a gun. So that was very
exciting for me because it was I'm like amazed because
I did not know that that first year you came
(05:06):
the year before this last one, that that was your
first time shooting. I didn't see you actually shoot then
because I was off doing other stuff. But I know
I was around for the last the last iteration, and
I looked at your target, man, and you are amazing. True,
that's because you have such a great program. I mean,
and I'm serious, you do have a great program. Because
(05:28):
I was nervous, and I think that if you've never
used a gun before, I mean, I can tell you
from my personal experience, I was nervous. It's a lot
of power in your hands, and you think about that situation.
Would I'd be able to use that if I were
in that situation where I absolutely had to it as
I was walking in that line with all of these
other women, And to be honest, these were mostly black
(05:50):
women from Detroit who were concerned for their safety, and
they were telling me they come every year, or some
of them had brought people that were there for the
first time, and they said they just felt like it
was it was the safest thing for them to know
how to use a gun to have their own personal protection.
And we've heard there's there's kind of mixed reviews from politicians.
Some politicians and especially police chiefs will say the best
(06:14):
thing is for people to be able to protect themselves,
and some are saying that we should wipe out guns altogether.
But you were actually inspired by a young woman's story
who didn't make it, and that's why you did this.
Is that right? Yeah? I was watching my local newscast
and I saw a very disturbing story, at least I
(06:34):
felt it was. I saw a story in which it
was recounted that a woman's you know, partially new body
was discovered, you know, literally laying on the street, presumably
raped and killed. And I thought that that was a
particularly heinous crime. It really set on my heart, and
I thought, man, that someone should do something about it.
And you know, I was bold enough to talk to
(06:56):
a few friends about it and I say, man, we
should we should like put together program and they were like, well,
what type of program? And I was able to pull
a few favors from various people, got some people to
help sponsor the event, got a place to donate their
range and to allow us to use their facilities, got
five six other firearms instructors to donate their time, and
(07:20):
we trained fifty women that year. And I was speaking
with a good friend of mine, Ken Blanchard, that runs
a website called black Men with a Gun in Open Marlborough, Maryland.
He encouraged me to continue and so we just organically
grew it year after year, and our high watermark was
at the high point of the pandemic two years ago.
(07:41):
We trained almost two thousand women in just one weekend.
And I've been encouraged and emboldened to go forward and
we're looking to add maybe another fifteen hundred, sixteen hundred
women is year. Wow, that's amazing. And we heard that
there was an increase in gun sales during the pandemic.
You mentioned that that was your high point for training people.
(08:03):
Why do you think that was I know, we've seen
a lot of it seems like we're hearing more about
violence in the news, and I think people are more
concerned about their own safety. Do you think that has
anything to do with that increase in sales? It is
the principal reason why people are exploring options to protect themselves,
(08:24):
particularly when you look at some of the news media
reports from all across the country where there was a
lot of civil disturbances and cities across the country, and
they were watching law enforcement officers on the scene, watching
these bad events unfold, and the officers weren't doing anything,
(08:44):
and people were just Some of the media outlets called
it peaceful protests. Well, since win is burning buildings and
torching homes and setting fires and assaulting people, Since when
is that peace? But you know, those those images and
the things that people were seeing and hearing across the country,
(09:06):
you know, it was such a groundswell of interest and
personal protection. And then you couple that with the fact
that we were on you know, lockdowns. There were a
lot of people who wanted to do something about safety.
Plus they were stuck in the house, not necessarily stuck
in the house, per se but there was nowhere to go.
So why not doing to a free shooting lesson? Why
(09:28):
I learned how to protect myself? It seems like you're
taking care of two birds with one stone, learning more
about personal protection and you get to entertain yourself. And
you know the great thing about it, you know, I
don't make you know any assurances that you know that
this is going to change your life. You know it could.
It could protect your life, it could save your family.
(09:49):
But if you were curious about what it takes to
protect yourself and to protect your family and had no
resources to turn to, I removed all the all of
the reasons excuses why people might not explore guns because
you know, maybe it's too expensive, you don't know anyone,
it's intimidating. I thought I would create a welcoming, warm
(10:13):
environment to get them to show up. I did everything
but have a daycare center set up so as long
as they've made it, you know, they were warmly received
and we got them trained, and man, it's just great
to see all the lives that this program is touched
over the years. So have you heard anything any feedback
from any women? Have there ever been has there ever
been a woman who's come to you and said what
(10:34):
you provided for me really changed my life or saved
my life. You know, I've heard numerous anecdotes and stories
that have been shared with me with varying degrees of
involvement on part of the woman that went through the program.
You know, I've had some women who tried it and
in a very fortunate few said hey, you know, at
(10:56):
least I tried it, and they weren't interested. And then
we've had women that try, actually bought a gun during
the actual events, signed up for training courses, got their
concealed pistol licenses. There have had been some women who've
had to produce their firearm under a very dangerous and
stressful situation and they needed to attempt to use it.
(11:17):
In many of those cases, those those women found out
that the bad guys, once that there was a reasonable
potential threat to their safety and trying to effect a robbery,
rape or a murder, they decided to run. And of course,
you know, outside your home, you can't shoot even bad
guys in the back, so you know, you let them
(11:38):
run and you call the police, and you know what,
I've actually have had a few students who have actually
had to actually shoot someone. And in some cases there
were former intimate partners and in others they were complete
strangers that they had not met before. But you know,
these are encouraging stories. You know, I never would like
to hear about someone being shot, but I won't lose
(12:00):
too many tiers about a violent criminal being stopped by
a law abiding citizen who merely decided to take on
a more active role in their personal protection. Let's take
a quick break more with Rick Ector. Next, Welcome back
to the Tutor Dickson Podcast. We continue our conversation with
Rick Ector. So let me ask you a little bit
(12:22):
about what you think in Michigan right now, we are
seeing a lot of proposals for gun reforms, is what
they're calling them. It's funny to me because when you
read the newspaper, they say common sense gun reforms, which
is so ridiculous that they use this terminology, And it's
like they're trying to trick people into believing that they
(12:46):
need to have these, that this is something that you
absolutely have to have. But I have a feeling that
you probably disagree with a few of these. I've seen
your NRA commercial and so I want to get your
opinion on what's going on in Michigan and in the
United States. It's because Joe Biden has also President Biden
has also put something out saying that he wants to
have some reforms as well. So give me your thoughts
(13:09):
on that. Man, you open up a cannon worms on
this topic. Let me tell you, you know, just looking
at the past couple of weeks, there have been some
very disturbing crime stories that happened here in southeastern Michigan.
Of course, the one case where the disturbed individual who
(13:29):
decided that he wanted to go to the campus of
Michigan State and kill people. You know, it touches on
a lot of talking points and a lot of things
that people people discuss when talking about guns and how
do we make our communities safer. I don't think that
there could have been a greater illustration of the need
for protecting people than what happened on the campus of
(13:52):
Michigan State. You had an evil person who for whatever reason,
came onto that campus armed with, you know, a firearm
in a gun free zone. Of course, you can't legally
carry guns on the campus of Michigan State. Michigan State
has its own campus police force and they just were
(14:13):
not there fast enough, and this guy was able to
go on and commit all of these atrocious acts, and
you know, in the aftermath, you know, he wasn't found
and caught until an anonymous tip came in that he
had pretty much walked several miles back home, and then
of course he stopped himself by killing himself. You know,
(14:34):
I'm not really rejoicing at someone's loss of life, but
it just goes to show you that in this particular
isolated case, the law enforcement community just wasn't able to
get there fast enough to do anything that was going
to lead to protecting. But let me pick that just
a little bit more and unwrapped that a little go
(14:55):
a little deeper on that story, because in the news,
we immediately had Democrats call for these gun reforms. We've
got to have gun control laws. All of these extra
gun control laws are going to fix this. But isn't
it true that if this person had been prosecuted the
first time he was caught with a gun illegally, then
(15:16):
he would not have been able to buy and he
purchased this gun legally, but he would not have been
allowed to buy this gun legally had we not had
some of these prosecutors that are allowing people to continue
to commit crimes, just letting them back out on the streets.
So why do we have Democrats that are out there
saying we want these we want more laws if they're
not going to enforce the laws we already have. That
(15:38):
has been a main talking point from our side of
this issue for a number of years. We know we
have enough gun laws on the books where if they
were just merely enforced, someone actually did something about it,
and in this case, they did attempt to bring him
to justice. But then when he goes before Jush, who
(15:58):
has whatever political leanings or you know how they feel
about incarceration, that they fail to take appropriate action. And
you know what, we on the other side of this,
we would have never known the lives that would have
been that were saved because this judge locked up a
bad guy doing a bad thing that was not allowed
(16:19):
under the law. But you know, well, let me ask
you something else about this, because I want to know
if you find it frustrating that we have Democrats come
out and they get really upset when this happens on
a college campus. But you've talked quite a bit about
the increase in violence in Detroit. This increase has also
happened in Lancing. So this is happening two blocks over
(16:42):
from campus. But we don't hear democrats come out and
say we need to be safer, we need to protect
people until they can actually identify with the person who
got shot. Don't you think that's a little disturbing, You know,
I'll piggyback on that by saying this to me, it
struck a nerve to my core. Or when in the
aftermath of the shooting up at Michigan State there was
(17:05):
the post event press conference where they gave what they
called the pors mortem report, where they say they gather
all the information to give a good summary of everything
that transpired on that faithful day, and they were quite
proud of themselves about how many agencies were involved, how
fast they responded, how they communicated and coordinated, and that
(17:28):
they had a plan that was created you know, ad hoc,
you know, on the fly, but they all to a
person failed to get there, and that they were a
non factor. Those people died in vain. Despite their being
armed security on that campus with access to other law
(17:49):
enforcement agencies, they just could not get the job done
and there's no greater illustration of the insanity of not
allowing people to carry firearms legally with appropriate regulation and
gun free zones. I mean, in my opinion, they are
(18:09):
killing zones. You're telling a criminal you have free pass
to do whatever evil you want to do. Now, whether
this person was evil, or whether he was mentally challenged
or he had some moral deficiency, he still took a
firearm onto a campus full of innocent people who were
defenseless despite having campus security and kill them in cold book.
(18:33):
And I have yet to hear what their counter argument
is in the aftermath of this colossal failure that to
me is a big problem. Every time we see this
happening at a school, whether it's a high school, whether
it's an elementary school, whether it's a college, there are
opportunities to say, Okay, what can we do to do
(18:54):
something to either prevent the first bullet from flying, to
make sure that we take care of when For example,
with this person, if he had been rightfully prosecuted the
first time, this wouldn't have happened likely. But what about
the idea of protecting and allowing people we had I
want to remind you that the rock on campus was
(19:17):
painted the next morning to say that they wanted to
be able to carry guns on campus, and there was
outrage like who would have allowed this to happen? Now,
remember the students paint the rock. But they insisted that
this was some sort of right wing activists that came
and did this. But I believe that there are students
out there that say, hey, just like you, the women
(19:37):
that come to your trainings, Hey, I want that opportunity
to defend myself, you know. And it's just common sense.
I mean, police can't be everywhere, even when we think
that they should be. You know, Michigan State could do
a lot of things. They need to take a look
at their campus in terms of what type of improvements
to the actual infrastructure physically on the ground. Can they
(19:59):
make it not such an inviting atmosphere for a crazy
person to conduct target practice on campus? Do they need
to make investments in terms of security? Should we, and
I believe wholeheartedly allow qualified people who've jumped through all
the hoops, dot all the eyes, crossed all the teas
to carry on campus. This idea of making it a
(20:21):
gun free zone clearly is not working. And then you
have the people who say well, only law enforcement officers
should have, you know, firearms. And then there was another
incident here in Metro Detroit, and I believe it was
in Livonia, Michigan. You know. And first and foremost before
I use this example as illustration, I love law enforcement.
(20:42):
I have a ton of friends in law enforcement. For
a number of years, I support our police chief here
in Detroit and all the other Metro Department, Metroit Metro
Area community departments. You know. In this one particular case,
there was a police officer from a I believe, I
(21:02):
believe he and his ex wife or a strange girlfriend.
They were both officers here I believe, at the Detroit
Police Department, but they were living out in a suburban community.
I believe it was Lavonia. They went through an incident
there apparently, you know, the husband that police officer, you know,
(21:23):
spaced out, flipped out and killed his woman, and then
he killed himself. You know. It just points to the
fact that anyone can be capable of committing some of
these atrocious acts giving the right set of circumstances. And
here's the thing you cannot say, well, only law enforcement
(21:45):
officers should have to access the firearms that you know,
that they are the only ones who can be trusted.
They are people, they are human just like anyone else,
and crime and island offenses can come from anywhere. What's
most important is that when it shows its ugly head,
(22:06):
that we do something about it to stop it right away.
And this same point illustrates the fact that we need
not only to make the proper investments in mental health,
but we need to make sure that when someone knows
about an incident like this that someone is in distress,
that he is actually you know, handled breakers under current law.
(22:29):
There's there's legislation where you can have someone picked up
for seventy two hours if they are threatened. Well, let
me let me ask you about that, because you're talking
about mental health and you're talking about there are genuinely
just bad guys out there. One quick question before we go,
I want to ask you because this new these new
(22:49):
gun laws that they're coming out with in Michigan and
the state of Michigan would say, there are some that
people agree with you in polling that are safe storage
things like that, but they're coupled with laws that would
say that they take away immunity for gun stores and
gun manufacturers. Do you think that the gun manufacturer or
(23:10):
the store that sells the gun should be held accountable
for what the gun does. Definitely not. I mean, why
don't we hold the alcohol distributors and manufacturers liable for
all the drunk driving crimes and incidents that happen. Yes,
if you're going to drive, you know, do so responsibly.
Don't drink and drive or be under any other intoxicating substances.
(23:33):
It's just a naked attempt at just putting the gun
industry out of business so that they can attack the
Second Amendment, you know, from through the back door. But
with regards to you know, at least the three laws
that are getting the most publicity, they're talking most about
red flag laws. Of course, you know that, of course,
(23:53):
is just a pure work of evil. Only someone who
was really a bad legislator could come up with such
a program where you're talking about eliminating due process on
a mere allegation of wrongdoing, that you're storming their residents,
and if you don't kill them upon securing their firearms,
(24:16):
you leave them there. Right, they're supposed to be a
danger to people. You leave him there to do whatever
danger you thought he was going to do. And then
there's no due process. You know, you don't have an
opportunity beforehand to defend yourself in court. You have your
guns stolen if you're not killed, and then you have
(24:37):
to somehow finance a court proceeding to get your property back.
You know, we don't do that in this country. You know,
you have a right to face your users. You have
a right to hear a case against you. You have
a right to a jury or a judge to make
a determination of your innocence and your guilt. Mandatory storage
is another thing that they're talking about. You know, how
(24:58):
in the world does that work? I mean, you you
have a situation in which someone irresponsibly didn't secure their firearm,
something bad happens, and then you want to just add
on another offense. Why don't we do something proactive, you know,
forward thinking, forward leaning. Why don't we introduce firearms safety
(25:20):
education in the schools. Why not explore would really shock
people one an, you know, any eagles stop, don't touch,
leave the area, tell a responsible adult. You know, why
not be more proactive and eliminate some of the mystery
that kids may have with regards to firearms. And in
many of these cases, when you do a deep dive
(25:42):
into it. It's usually a person who statutorially ineligible to
own and possess a gun in the first place. So
how do you stop criminals from breaking the law and
then when something bad happens, then punish all the good
people who didn't do it. It's just insane. And the
other law that they that they're pushing as this universal
registration right. They want to register rifles and shotguns. I mean,
(26:07):
when you look at the pure numbers, you know, more
people are assaulted and or killed with knives on the
four to one basis than a long gun, a rifle,
or a shotgun. And when you start talking about guns pistols,
by the time, by the time you get to loan guns, rifles,
and shotguns, you're on the order of how many people
(26:28):
are killed with rocks or blunt objects before loan guns
statistically become a problem. It's not about safety. It's all
about attacking the Second Amendment and defending the rights of
the citizens to defend themselves. And it makes me wonder,
is it really because down the road they want to
(26:50):
become tyrannical. I think that we're all wondering that, and
I appreciate your I knew you would have a lot
of insight on this. I knew you would have the facts,
and it was important for our audience to hear the facts.
But I like your idea of training in school, and
I will tell you that this is going to aige me.
But my husband actually took firearms training in high school.
That was part of their high school But you know,
(27:12):
it's it makes sense because I learned a lot from
your course, and I think that everybody would learn a
lot about the dangers of firearms and how to be
safe with a firearm if they had to take it
in school. But I don't know if that would ever happen.
Maybe that's a school choice issue as well. But thank
you so much. And you know, and the thing is,
(27:32):
it wouldn't take much to put these programs in place,
and in some cases volunteers from different organizations would be
willing to do that. But tunor before you cut me loose,
So I just want to let all of your listeners
know that I'm running for the National Rifle Association's board
of directors, and if they are so inclined to vote
for me to be on the board, I would be
(27:54):
truly indebted and I will fight for our right to
keep and bear arms until my last asperate thank you,
Thank you so much for everything you do for women
and just in general out there fighting against this machine
that is trying to take all of our guns away
and our freedoms away. So I appreciate all of the
hard work you do. Rick Ector the owner of Rick's
(28:15):
Firearm Academy of Detroit. Make sure you check it out
the next time you're in the Detroit area. And thank
you all for joining me on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
For this episode and others, go to Tutor Dixon podcast
dot com. You can subscribe right there and join me
next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have a great day.
Hey, this is Buck Sexton and you're listening to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast, part of the Clay Drivers and Buck
Sexton podcast Network. Hello everyone, I'm Tutor Dixon and I
am so excited to have you joined the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Let me start by telling you a little bit about me.
I started off my career in manufacturing for many years
before becoming a mom, and when my four little girls
(00:23):
were a little a friend asked me to step into
a totally different world, the media world. I had a
little experience in media from college and just out of college,
but this was a mostly totally new adventure for me.
We created a news program for middle and high school
students designed to focus on news of the day and
Pro America stories. And the funny thing is those Pro
(00:45):
America stories led me down a whole new path into politics.
As some of you may know, I was the Republican
nominee for governor in the state of Michigan last year.
I stepped away from my career completely and I campaigned
for about eighteen months. It was a totally incredible journey,
and not only did I learn about all the different
cultures across my beautiful state, but I met the most
(01:08):
amazing people as I traveled along on this journey. I
really felt that I needed to share some of those
stories with other people, and that's what inspired me to
do this podcast. And one of the people that I
met along the way was named Rick Ector, and it
was probably one of the most nerve wracking moments of
my campaign for me because Rick offers free gun training
(01:29):
for women, and I'm going to confess I had never
shot a gun before that day, but turns out I
was exactly who Rick was looking for because he wants
women to feel confident that they can protect themselves, and
that day I lined up with hundreds of women in
the Detroit area to learn more about how to use
a gun safely. The reason I want you to meet
(01:50):
Rick is because his story really touched me. It's raw,
it's true life, it's kind of superhero in the making
type of stuff. And Rick is an awesome guy. He's
not arrogant, he's not forcing other people to be on
his side, but his life changed in a moment and
he used that experience to help others learn to defend themselves.
(02:11):
Whatever you think about guns, I think you're going to
find Rick's story very interesting. Rick Ector is the owner
of Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit, and I'm pleased to
have him here with me today. Rick, Welcome to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast. Hey, I thank you so very much
for having me on the show. I'm excited. I am
glad to see that you're out. You know, you're continuing
(02:32):
to share the word about what it is that we
want to accomplish in our state and across the country.
And it's an honor to be here, and I want
to thank you for having me. Well, thank you for
being here. So I want you to tell your story
because my understanding of your story you can correct me
if i'm wrong, is that you never actually owned a
gun until you were staring down the barrel of someone
(02:53):
else's gun, and that kind of inspired you to change
things in your life. Is that right, That's pretty close.
I had a shotgun at home that I bought at
the urging, and the advice that was given to me
by men in the family. They say, hey, you're a homeowner.
You need to have some means of defending yourself and
(03:14):
your family if you ever needed to do so. So
I dutatively, dutily, dutifully went to a gun range, and
I purchased the twelve Gates shotgun, bought some shells, and
that was all the interest I had in owning a firearm.
And that pretty much changed one day when I was
coming home from work one day at the time of
(03:34):
the year reminiscent of where we are now when it
gets dark early and maybe six PM or soul in
my driveway, I was accosted by two men. I did
not know they produced guns. They robbed me and fortunate
that I survived that event, but it put me on
a journey, and that journey was to learn more about
(03:57):
firearms and personal protection. I refused to be like other
neighbors in my community who were crime victims, who decided
to just walk away from their homes, sacrifice their equity,
and just start over somewhere else in the area. But
I continue to do that, and I learned how to
defend myself. I receive a concealed pistol license here in
(04:20):
the state of Michigan, started training and teaching, and man,
that took me down another rabbit hole, and I just
started doing other events. Lo and behold, today I am
the organizer of an event. We're now heading into our
twelfth year in which we give free shooting lessons to
women by the thousands. The lifetime number of women that
(04:44):
we have trained with the rain safety briefing and a
free shooting lesson is now at seventy five hundred and going.
And keep in mind we only do this program on
one weekend out of the year, and that is where
I learned to shoot a gun. So that was very
exciting for me because it was I'm like amazed because
I did not know that that first year you came
(05:06):
the year before this last one, that that was your
first time shooting. I didn't see you actually shoot then
because I was off doing other stuff. But I know
I was around for the last the last iteration, and
I looked at your target, man, and you are amazing. True,
that's because you have such a great program. I mean,
and I'm serious, you do have a great program. Because
(05:28):
I was nervous, and I think that if you've never
used a gun before, I mean, I can tell you
from my personal experience, I was nervous. It's a lot
of power in your hands, and you think about that situation.
Would I'd be able to use that if I were
in that situation where I absolutely had to it as
I was walking in that line with all of these
other women, And to be honest, these were mostly black
(05:50):
women from Detroit who were concerned for their safety, and
they were telling me they come every year, or some
of them had brought people that were there for the
first time, and they said they just felt like it
was it was the safest thing for them to know
how to use a gun to have their own personal protection.
And we've heard there's there's kind of mixed reviews from politicians.
Some politicians and especially police chiefs will say the best
(06:14):
thing is for people to be able to protect themselves,
and some are saying that we should wipe out guns altogether.
But you were actually inspired by a young woman's story
who didn't make it, and that's why you did this.
Is that right? Yeah? I was watching my local newscast
and I saw a very disturbing story, at least I
(06:34):
felt it was. I saw a story in which it
was recounted that a woman's you know, partially new body
was discovered, you know, literally laying on the street, presumably
raped and killed. And I thought that that was a
particularly heinous crime. It really set on my heart, and
I thought, man, that someone should do something about it.
And you know, I was bold enough to talk to
(06:56):
a few friends about it and I say, man, we
should we should like put together program and they were like, well,
what type of program? And I was able to pull
a few favors from various people, got some people to
help sponsor the event, got a place to donate their
range and to allow us to use their facilities, got
five six other firearms instructors to donate their time, and
(07:20):
we trained fifty women that year. And I was speaking
with a good friend of mine, Ken Blanchard, that runs
a website called black Men with a Gun in Open Marlborough, Maryland.
He encouraged me to continue and so we just organically
grew it year after year, and our high watermark was
at the high point of the pandemic two years ago.
(07:41):
We trained almost two thousand women in just one weekend.
And I've been encouraged and emboldened to go forward and
we're looking to add maybe another fifteen hundred, sixteen hundred
women is year. Wow, that's amazing. And we heard that
there was an increase in gun sales during the pandemic.
You mentioned that that was your high point for training people.
(08:03):
Why do you think that was I know, we've seen
a lot of it seems like we're hearing more about
violence in the news, and I think people are more
concerned about their own safety. Do you think that has
anything to do with that increase in sales? It is
the principal reason why people are exploring options to protect themselves,
(08:24):
particularly when you look at some of the news media
reports from all across the country where there was a
lot of civil disturbances and cities across the country, and
they were watching law enforcement officers on the scene, watching
these bad events unfold, and the officers weren't doing anything,
(08:44):
and people were just Some of the media outlets called
it peaceful protests. Well, since win is burning buildings and
torching homes and setting fires and assaulting people, Since when
is that peace? But you know, those those images and
the things that people were seeing and hearing across the country,
(09:06):
you know, it was such a groundswell of interest and
personal protection. And then you couple that with the fact
that we were on you know, lockdowns. There were a
lot of people who wanted to do something about safety.
Plus they were stuck in the house, not necessarily stuck
in the house, per se but there was nowhere to go.
So why not doing to a free shooting lesson? Why
(09:28):
I learned how to protect myself? It seems like you're
taking care of two birds with one stone, learning more
about personal protection and you get to entertain yourself. And
you know the great thing about it, you know, I
don't make you know any assurances that you know that
this is going to change your life. You know it could.
It could protect your life, it could save your family.
(09:49):
But if you were curious about what it takes to
protect yourself and to protect your family and had no
resources to turn to, I removed all the all of
the reasons excuses why people might not explore guns because
you know, maybe it's too expensive, you don't know anyone,
it's intimidating. I thought I would create a welcoming, warm
(10:13):
environment to get them to show up. I did everything
but have a daycare center set up so as long
as they've made it, you know, they were warmly received
and we got them trained, and man, it's just great
to see all the lives that this program is touched
over the years. So have you heard anything any feedback
from any women? Have there ever been has there ever
been a woman who's come to you and said what
(10:34):
you provided for me really changed my life or saved
my life. You know, I've heard numerous anecdotes and stories
that have been shared with me with varying degrees of
involvement on part of the woman that went through the program.
You know, I've had some women who tried it and
in a very fortunate few said hey, you know, at
(10:56):
least I tried it, and they weren't interested. And then
we've had women that try, actually bought a gun during
the actual events, signed up for training courses, got their
concealed pistol licenses. There have had been some women who've
had to produce their firearm under a very dangerous and
stressful situation and they needed to attempt to use it.
(11:17):
In many of those cases, those those women found out
that the bad guys, once that there was a reasonable
potential threat to their safety and trying to effect a robbery,
rape or a murder, they decided to run. And of course,
you know, outside your home, you can't shoot even bad
guys in the back, so you know, you let them
(11:38):
run and you call the police, and you know what,
I've actually have had a few students who have actually
had to actually shoot someone. And in some cases there
were former intimate partners and in others they were complete
strangers that they had not met before. But you know,
these are encouraging stories. You know, I never would like
to hear about someone being shot, but I won't lose
(12:00):
too many tiers about a violent criminal being stopped by
a law abiding citizen who merely decided to take on
a more active role in their personal protection. Let's take
a quick break more with Rick Ector. Next, Welcome back
to the Tutor Dickson Podcast. We continue our conversation with
Rick Ector. So let me ask you a little bit
(12:22):
about what you think in Michigan right now, we are
seeing a lot of proposals for gun reforms, is what
they're calling them. It's funny to me because when you
read the newspaper, they say common sense gun reforms, which
is so ridiculous that they use this terminology, And it's
like they're trying to trick people into believing that they
(12:46):
need to have these, that this is something that you
absolutely have to have. But I have a feeling that
you probably disagree with a few of these. I've seen
your NRA commercial and so I want to get your
opinion on what's going on in Michigan and in the
United States. It's because Joe Biden has also President Biden
has also put something out saying that he wants to
have some reforms as well. So give me your thoughts
(13:09):
on that. Man, you open up a cannon worms on
this topic. Let me tell you, you know, just looking
at the past couple of weeks, there have been some
very disturbing crime stories that happened here in southeastern Michigan.
Of course, the one case where the disturbed individual who
(13:29):
decided that he wanted to go to the campus of
Michigan State and kill people. You know, it touches on
a lot of talking points and a lot of things
that people people discuss when talking about guns and how
do we make our communities safer. I don't think that
there could have been a greater illustration of the need
for protecting people than what happened on the campus of
(13:52):
Michigan State. You had an evil person who for whatever reason,
came onto that campus armed with, you know, a firearm
in a gun free zone. Of course, you can't legally
carry guns on the campus of Michigan State. Michigan State
has its own campus police force and they just were
(14:13):
not there fast enough, and this guy was able to
go on and commit all of these atrocious acts, and
you know, in the aftermath, you know, he wasn't found
and caught until an anonymous tip came in that he
had pretty much walked several miles back home, and then
of course he stopped himself by killing himself. You know,
(14:34):
I'm not really rejoicing at someone's loss of life, but
it just goes to show you that in this particular
isolated case, the law enforcement community just wasn't able to
get there fast enough to do anything that was going
to lead to protecting. But let me pick that just
a little bit more and unwrapped that a little go
(14:55):
a little deeper on that story, because in the news,
we immediately had Democrats call for these gun reforms. We've
got to have gun control laws. All of these extra
gun control laws are going to fix this. But isn't
it true that if this person had been prosecuted the
first time he was caught with a gun illegally, then
(15:16):
he would not have been able to buy and he
purchased this gun legally, but he would not have been
allowed to buy this gun legally had we not had
some of these prosecutors that are allowing people to continue
to commit crimes, just letting them back out on the streets.
So why do we have Democrats that are out there
saying we want these we want more laws if they're
not going to enforce the laws we already have. That
(15:38):
has been a main talking point from our side of
this issue for a number of years. We know we
have enough gun laws on the books where if they
were just merely enforced, someone actually did something about it,
and in this case, they did attempt to bring him
to justice. But then when he goes before Jush, who
(15:58):
has whatever political leanings or you know how they feel
about incarceration, that they fail to take appropriate action. And
you know what, we on the other side of this,
we would have never known the lives that would have
been that were saved because this judge locked up a
bad guy doing a bad thing that was not allowed
(16:19):
under the law. But you know, well, let me ask
you something else about this, because I want to know
if you find it frustrating that we have Democrats come
out and they get really upset when this happens on
a college campus. But you've talked quite a bit about
the increase in violence in Detroit. This increase has also
happened in Lancing. So this is happening two blocks over
(16:42):
from campus. But we don't hear democrats come out and
say we need to be safer, we need to protect
people until they can actually identify with the person who
got shot. Don't you think that's a little disturbing, You know,
I'll piggyback on that by saying this to me, it
struck a nerve to my core. Or when in the
aftermath of the shooting up at Michigan State there was
(17:05):
the post event press conference where they gave what they
called the pors mortem report, where they say they gather
all the information to give a good summary of everything
that transpired on that faithful day, and they were quite
proud of themselves about how many agencies were involved, how
fast they responded, how they communicated and coordinated, and that
(17:28):
they had a plan that was created you know, ad hoc,
you know, on the fly, but they all to a
person failed to get there, and that they were a
non factor. Those people died in vain. Despite their being
armed security on that campus with access to other law
(17:49):
enforcement agencies, they just could not get the job done
and there's no greater illustration of the insanity of not
allowing people to carry firearms legally with appropriate regulation and
gun free zones. I mean, in my opinion, they are
(18:09):
killing zones. You're telling a criminal you have free pass
to do whatever evil you want to do. Now, whether
this person was evil, or whether he was mentally challenged
or he had some moral deficiency, he still took a
firearm onto a campus full of innocent people who were
defenseless despite having campus security and kill them in cold book.
(18:33):
And I have yet to hear what their counter argument
is in the aftermath of this colossal failure that to
me is a big problem. Every time we see this
happening at a school, whether it's a high school, whether
it's an elementary school, whether it's a college, there are
opportunities to say, Okay, what can we do to do
(18:54):
something to either prevent the first bullet from flying, to
make sure that we take care of when For example,
with this person, if he had been rightfully prosecuted the
first time, this wouldn't have happened likely. But what about
the idea of protecting and allowing people we had I
want to remind you that the rock on campus was
(19:17):
painted the next morning to say that they wanted to
be able to carry guns on campus, and there was
outrage like who would have allowed this to happen? Now,
remember the students paint the rock. But they insisted that
this was some sort of right wing activists that came
and did this. But I believe that there are students
out there that say, hey, just like you, the women
(19:37):
that come to your trainings, Hey, I want that opportunity
to defend myself, you know. And it's just common sense.
I mean, police can't be everywhere, even when we think
that they should be. You know, Michigan State could do
a lot of things. They need to take a look
at their campus in terms of what type of improvements
to the actual infrastructure physically on the ground. Can they
(19:59):
make it not such an inviting atmosphere for a crazy
person to conduct target practice on campus? Do they need
to make investments in terms of security? Should we, and
I believe wholeheartedly allow qualified people who've jumped through all
the hoops, dot all the eyes, crossed all the teas
to carry on campus. This idea of making it a
(20:21):
gun free zone clearly is not working. And then you
have the people who say well, only law enforcement officers
should have, you know, firearms. And then there was another
incident here in Metro Detroit, and I believe it was
in Livonia, Michigan. You know. And first and foremost before
I use this example as illustration, I love law enforcement.
(20:42):
I have a ton of friends in law enforcement. For
a number of years, I support our police chief here
in Detroit and all the other Metro Department, Metroit Metro
Area community departments. You know. In this one particular case,
there was a police officer from a I believe, I
(21:02):
believe he and his ex wife or a strange girlfriend.
They were both officers here I believe, at the Detroit
Police Department, but they were living out in a suburban community.
I believe it was Lavonia. They went through an incident
there apparently, you know, the husband that police officer, you know,
(21:23):
spaced out, flipped out and killed his woman, and then
he killed himself. You know. It just points to the
fact that anyone can be capable of committing some of
these atrocious acts giving the right set of circumstances. And
here's the thing you cannot say, well, only law enforcement
(21:45):
officers should have to access the firearms that you know,
that they are the only ones who can be trusted.
They are people, they are human just like anyone else,
and crime and island offenses can come from anywhere. What's
most important is that when it shows its ugly head,
(22:06):
that we do something about it to stop it right away.
And this same point illustrates the fact that we need
not only to make the proper investments in mental health,
but we need to make sure that when someone knows
about an incident like this that someone is in distress,
that he is actually you know, handled breakers under current law.
(22:29):
There's there's legislation where you can have someone picked up
for seventy two hours if they are threatened. Well, let
me let me ask you about that, because you're talking
about mental health and you're talking about there are genuinely
just bad guys out there. One quick question before we go,
I want to ask you because this new these new
(22:49):
gun laws that they're coming out with in Michigan and
the state of Michigan would say, there are some that
people agree with you in polling that are safe storage
things like that, but they're coupled with laws that would
say that they take away immunity for gun stores and
gun manufacturers. Do you think that the gun manufacturer or
(23:10):
the store that sells the gun should be held accountable
for what the gun does. Definitely not. I mean, why
don't we hold the alcohol distributors and manufacturers liable for
all the drunk driving crimes and incidents that happen. Yes,
if you're going to drive, you know, do so responsibly.
Don't drink and drive or be under any other intoxicating substances.
(23:33):
It's just a naked attempt at just putting the gun
industry out of business so that they can attack the
Second Amendment, you know, from through the back door. But
with regards to you know, at least the three laws
that are getting the most publicity, they're talking most about
red flag laws. Of course, you know that, of course,
(23:53):
is just a pure work of evil. Only someone who
was really a bad legislator could come up with such
a program where you're talking about eliminating due process on
a mere allegation of wrongdoing, that you're storming their residents,
and if you don't kill them upon securing their firearms,
(24:16):
you leave them there. Right, they're supposed to be a
danger to people. You leave him there to do whatever
danger you thought he was going to do. And then
there's no due process. You know, you don't have an
opportunity beforehand to defend yourself in court. You have your
guns stolen if you're not killed, and then you have
(24:37):
to somehow finance a court proceeding to get your property back.
You know, we don't do that in this country. You know,
you have a right to face your users. You have
a right to hear a case against you. You have
a right to a jury or a judge to make
a determination of your innocence and your guilt. Mandatory storage
is another thing that they're talking about. You know, how
(24:58):
in the world does that work? I mean, you you
have a situation in which someone irresponsibly didn't secure their firearm,
something bad happens, and then you want to just add
on another offense. Why don't we do something proactive, you know,
forward thinking, forward leaning. Why don't we introduce firearms safety
(25:20):
education in the schools. Why not explore would really shock
people one an, you know, any eagles stop, don't touch,
leave the area, tell a responsible adult. You know, why
not be more proactive and eliminate some of the mystery
that kids may have with regards to firearms. And in
many of these cases, when you do a deep dive
(25:42):
into it. It's usually a person who statutorially ineligible to
own and possess a gun in the first place. So
how do you stop criminals from breaking the law and
then when something bad happens, then punish all the good
people who didn't do it. It's just insane. And the
other law that they that they're pushing as this universal
registration right. They want to register rifles and shotguns. I mean,
(26:07):
when you look at the pure numbers, you know, more
people are assaulted and or killed with knives on the
four to one basis than a long gun, a rifle,
or a shotgun. And when you start talking about guns pistols,
by the time, by the time you get to loan guns, rifles,
and shotguns, you're on the order of how many people
(26:28):
are killed with rocks or blunt objects before loan guns
statistically become a problem. It's not about safety. It's all
about attacking the Second Amendment and defending the rights of
the citizens to defend themselves. And it makes me wonder,
is it really because down the road they want to
(26:50):
become tyrannical. I think that we're all wondering that, and
I appreciate your I knew you would have a lot
of insight on this. I knew you would have the facts,
and it was important for our audience to hear the facts.
But I like your idea of training in school, and
I will tell you that this is going to aige me.
But my husband actually took firearms training in high school.
That was part of their high school But you know,
(27:12):
it's it makes sense because I learned a lot from
your course, and I think that everybody would learn a
lot about the dangers of firearms and how to be
safe with a firearm if they had to take it
in school. But I don't know if that would ever happen.
Maybe that's a school choice issue as well. But thank
you so much. And you know, and the thing is,
(27:32):
it wouldn't take much to put these programs in place,
and in some cases volunteers from different organizations would be
willing to do that. But tunor before you cut me loose,
So I just want to let all of your listeners
know that I'm running for the National Rifle Association's board
of directors, and if they are so inclined to vote
for me to be on the board, I would be
(27:54):
truly indebted and I will fight for our right to
keep and bear arms until my last asperate thank you,
Thank you so much for everything you do for women
and just in general out there fighting against this machine
that is trying to take all of our guns away
and our freedoms away. So I appreciate all of the
hard work you do. Rick Ector the owner of Rick's
(28:15):
Firearm Academy of Detroit. Make sure you check it out
the next time you're in the Detroit area. And thank
you all for joining me on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
For this episode and others, go to Tutor Dixon podcast
dot com. You can subscribe right there and join me
next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have a great day.
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