Including ... Training for the Armed Citizen Pt 3 • Getting New Armed Citizens Started Right • President’s Message • Attorney Question • Book Review • Editor's Notebook • About this Journal
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Training for the Armed Citizen Pt. 3
Legal Training for the Armed Citizen
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
I started down the path of the armed citizen back in the 1980s after working for a few years as a police officer. When I left law enforcement, for several years I did not carry regularly, the gun being associated with police work in my mind. Nonetheless, when I needed to settle on a long-range career plan, I ended up going into private firearms instruction, having heard of companies like Gunsite, Lethal Force Institute, Defense Training International and others.
A new indoor gun range was opening in my area of metropolitan Seattle, and I figured why not give this a try? After all, I was a certified police firearms instructor already and a top-level competitor in NRA PPC. At the same time, I came to realize that regardless of whether or not I was in law enforcement, I should be carrying a gun full-time. When I got the teaching job, I needed to start planning a class curriculum, and told myself that I would not teach people how to kill, unless I also taught them when and when it was not legal to kill.
Getting New Armed Citizens Started Right
An Interview with John Farnam
Interview by Gila Hayes
There’s no disputing that the unrest of the past several years has resulted in a lot of new gun owners. While the mainstream media and occupants of academia’s ivory towers issue dire warnings of death and destruction and wring their hands over why Americans of all walks would want to own guns, armed citizens quietly welcome their new compatriots and reach out to share skills and experiences to help these newest members of our community. Perhaps new gun owners feel safer asking friends or family for advice, coaching, and mentoring as they enter the world of the armed citizen because often it is friends and family members to whom they turn for advice, guidance and answers to the many perplexing questions they encounter as they began to carry guns for self defense.
What should be the focus of our support and advice? I had the opportunity to pose that question to internationally-known and loved firearms instructor John Farnam, who with his wife, Vicki Farnam, has been introducing students to the armed lifestyle for over 40 years. When John visited not long ago, we had the chance one evening after his class to talk about the needs of these new armed citizens. We share that conversation here in question-and-answer format.
President’s Message
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
As I write this column, it has been exactly two years since the Network received a cease-and-desist letter from the Washington State Office of Insurance (OIC) Commissioner Mike Kreidler ordering us to quit conducting the “business of insurance” in Washington State.
At that time, we either could have ignored the order because we were not conducting the business of insurance in Washington State, or we could comply and appeal the order. Out of an abundance of caution, we chose to do the latter, and stopped selling new memberships in WA. We immediately appealed the order.
Two years of legal wrangling have passed. First, we needed to fight the order by appealing to the OIC itself. That was a joke, because it was the OIC that decided we were selling insurance in the first place, but in order to get our argument in front of a real judge, not a “presiding officer” who gets her paychecks signed by the insurance commissioner, we had to go through this process.
That took the better part of the first year, and when it was finally adjudicated, we were able to file a request for a judicial review in superior court. At that point, Washington’s anti-gun Office of the Attorney General took over the legal representation for the Insurance Commissioner.
Attorney Question of the Month
For this month’s Attorney Question of the Month, our Legal Services Director Art Joslin, who also does expert witness work, queried our affiliated attorneys about their experiences working with expert witnesses in self defense cases. We asked–
What has been your experience using self defense expert witnesses?
What issues have you found most common in getting an expert admitted?
Book Review
Self-Defense Against A Dog Attack
by Loren W. Christensen
LWC Books, 2012
$4.99 for 112-page eBook
Reviewed by Gila Hayes
My Internet search history must be catching up with me! Dog training and self defense–searched separately–are so frequently in my search parameters that I suppose it is no surprise that a recent Internet search unexpectedly turned up a book about surviving dog attacks. Naturally, I clicked the link which led me to a 2012 book by an author I hadn’t read for a while.
Editor’s Notebook
by Gila Hayes
Will the third try be the charm? The NRA Annual Meeting has been scheduled for May 27-29, 2022 in Houston, TX, after several attempts to meet during the height of the corona virus pandemic when cancellation indeed seemed a reasonable precaution. Next month, over Memorial Day weekend, the Network hopes to join hundreds of other exhibitors and thousands of visitors gathering in Houston over the holiday.
Mark the date on your calendar and come see us in the exhibit hall if you can. The Network team will be chatting with members and folks who are interested in becoming members in Booth #2331 in the exhibit hall in Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center. The exhibits are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 10 to 5 on Sunday.
As we have in years past, we gather our Network Advisory Board of industry leaders in our booth between 5 and 6 p.m. Saturday, May 28th for you to come by and enjoy a visit. If you are in the Houston area over the holiday weekend, we hope you will drop in and chat with us.
About this Journal
The eJournal of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. is published monthly on the Network’s website at http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/our-journal. Content is copyrighted by the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.
Do not mistake information presented in this online publication for legal advice; it is not. The Network strives to assure that information published in this journal is both accurate and useful. Reader, it is your responsibility to consult your own attorney to receive professional assurance that this information and your interpretation or understanding of it is accurate, complete and appropriate with respect to your particular situation.