Riverside Sporting Gear

                       Jon and Bob at September  2009 class this  Fall at Monticello 

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All Monticello Classes held at Monticello Sportsmen off County 25

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Good instruction is not an accident.  It is important that we as instructors continue to hone our skills and to learn from the best.  Bob and I attended John and Vickie's Basic/Intermediate class in August of 2007.  In May 2008 we are hosted John Farnam's Advanced Defensive Handgun with Combat Shotgun class. In August Jon hosted and  attended the Urban Rifle class taught by John and Vicki Farnam.  In September 2009 we hosted and attended an intensive IDPA training session with IDPA Master and USPSA Grands Master Ben Stoeger.  Coupled with our active participation in IDPA and other forms of gun related competition this will help us bring to you the very best instruction for a reasonable price. 

In January 2009 we became NRA certified instructors in Rifle/Shotgun.  In March we traveled to Utah to obtain/retain Utah CFP instructor status.  A series of expert taught Rifle/Shotgun classes will be announced shortly.   Continuously training to serve you better!

Monticello Pistol League hosted a Fun Shoot in August 2008 for all club members.  I thank Johann for arranging for Federal Ammunition to supply all ammunition at no charge.

See more fun shoot photos here 

We continue to teach at snf be the official range trainers for  INRANGE on Dundas Road in Monticello, a new INDOOR range. Come and see this state of the art range with modern classroom and gear.  We offer a variety of courses taught by NRA certified instructors who are active action pistol shooters.  For your convenience and enhanced learning we hold small classes and use PowerPoint and videos to reinforce our lectures.

We do require advance registration and prepayment for all our classes to control attendance and costs.  We accept checks, cash or credit cards for your convenience. 

Use the convenient on-line registration option on the left of this page for either class.

     

 ILLINOIS FIREARMS RETAILERS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST CHICAGO. . . The Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers (ILAFR), a state affiliate of NSSF, has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of several recently adopted anti-gun laws designed to circumvent the Supreme Court's recent ruling in McDonald v. Chicago. In that landmark decision, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the fundamental right of all law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms, while outlawing the power of state and local governments to ban firearms. Read NSSF's news release.         

CHICAGO'S STRICT NEW GUN ORDINANCE TAKES EFFECT . .  A new gun ordinance in Chicago that officials say is the strictest of its kind in the country went into effect today, the Associated Press reports. As mentioned above, the Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers has filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance. The new regulations were pushed through quickly by Mayor Richard Daley and the City Council after the Supreme Court's decision last month. The ordinance permits residents to have only one working gun at a time in their homes and prohibits them from stepping outside, even onto their porches or in their garages, with a handgun. The ordinance also bans firearms retailers from doing business in the city.

MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR PUSHES ONE-GUN-A-MONTH LEGISLATION . . . NSSF and the Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) continue to fight Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's legislation (H4102), which, if passed, among many other things, would make it illegal to purchase more than one gun in a one-month period. Of course, the only individuals in the state impacted by this legislation would be law-abiding firearms owners, sportsmen and firearms retailers. As if existing onerous firearms laws are not enough in Massachusetts, this would further limit the rights of citizens in the Commonwealth. NSSF urges everyone in Massachusetts to contact members of the House Ways and Means Committee and urge them to oppose H4102.

 POLL: 67% SAY CITIES HAVE NO RIGHT BAN HANDGUNS . . . According to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, 67 percent of Americans say city governments do not have the right to prevent citizens from owning handguns. Support for stricter gun-control laws also has fallen to its lowest level in several years.

FIREARMS MICROSTAMPING STUDY BILL INTRODUCED IN HOUSE . . . U.S. Rep. Dan Boren introduced legislation last week (H.R. 5667) to direct the U.S. Attorney General to work with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive study of firearm microstamping. NSSF supports this bipartisan legislation as a means of ensuring adequate research of microstamping is completed, and the concept is proven to work reliably, prior to states mandating microstamping through the legislative process. Read more.

 

Jul 13, 2010 10:58 pm US/Central

Good Question: Any Changes With Conceal & Carry?

Reporting
Jason DeRusha

(WCCO)

 

When a man came at the bouncer of a Minneapolis bar this weekend with a knife, the bouncer ultimately responded by pulling his concealed weapon, and fatally shooting Tirso Gomez.

It's a rare time someone with a permit to carry actually used his weapon, and got us wondering about the result of the 2003 change to Minnesota's gun laws.

Has giving people the right to carry a weapon (concealed or not) really changed anything?

"Actually not very much and we're delighted," said John Caile, a certified firearms instructor and communications director of Concealed Carry Reform, NOW!

Caile was one of the key people pushing for the new gun law.

The latest data compiled by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension shows about 76,000 Minnesotans have a legal permit to carry.

In 2009 alone, the state issued nearly 22,000 permits.

The biggest change has been the jump of permits in the metro area.

"The seven-county metro had only 1,500 permits [in 2003]. The metro now has 36,000 permits. That's a more than 20-fold increase," said Caile.

Interestingly, even one of the biggest opponents of changing the gun laws now admits that the doomsday scenarios have not come true.

"I would say it was a non-event," said Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville).

"People like me who thought there would be lots more killings were wrong. And people who thought crime would end because people were able to be vigilantes were wrong too," said Greiling.

Not including this weekend and the bouncer, the state has reported four times when someone with a permit legally used their gun to stop a crime.

"That's not surprising, and here's why," said Caile. "They don't get reported. It was 15 seconds in the parking lot of Cub Foods, someone calls 911, and that's the end of it."

The state's data comes from counties, and often a thwarted crime doesn't end up in that data, according to Caile.

But if the permit-holders aren't stopping crimes, they're not largely committing them either.

In 2009, there was 1 assault, 1 disorderly conduct, and 2 domestic assault convictions that involved a permitted gun.

The law is a money-maker. Permit fees shot $632,656 of profit into Minnesota counties last year.

What about the fear of accidental shootings? So far no data show any increase in those either because of the change in the gun law.

According to Caile, a lot of the people who get a permit don't end up carrying a gun all the time, as it's just too heavy.

Overall, as for the debate: "I think it was much ado about nothing," said Greiling.

Three Accurate Stories About Modern Sporting Rifles

Writers Mark Taylor of the Roanoke Times in Virginia, John Weiss of the Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minneosta, and Colin Moore of  ESPNOutdoors.com each filed stories recently that accurately discuss AR-style modern sporting rifles. NSSF, which has launched a campaign to correct confusion about these rifles, appreciates their professional reporting and invites you to read their pieces.

From Mark's article:

"[ARs are] one of the fastest growing segments in the market and if you've ever shot one you understand why," [John] Fink [of Remington] said. "They're just a lot of fun to shoot. They're light on recoil and they're surprisingly accurate."

Because the guns share the same basic AR-style platform -- the AR stands for ArmaLite, the company that launched the design 50 years ago -- there are many add-on parts and modification products available to shooters, many of whom are avid tinkerers.

From John's article:

Patrick Cellette, owner of Cellette's Guns Inc. of New Brighton, Minn. agreed that troops coming back from Vietnam set the stage for push to the modern rifle. "Everything just took off like a rocket from there,"he said. "These are not evil." About 90 percent of his business is AR-related. 

From Colin's article:

The growing popularity of these rifles follows a familiar pattern. The military adopts the latest, greatest fighting weapon, whether a Winchester lever-action or a Springfield '03 bolt-action, and soon those firearms enter the civilian market. That's also what happened with black rifles, whose fame began in the Vietnam War era. Vets, and second- and third-generation vets since then, notched out a place in their hearts for such firearms long after their terms of duty ended.

---

Read more about the modern sporting rifle and NSSF's educational campaign to correct the confusion surrounding these AR-style rifles. AR-style rifles look like military rifles, such as the M-16, but function like other semi-automatic civilian sporting firearms, firing only one round with each pull of the trigger.

• VIDEO: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON TRADITIONAL AMMO . . . A video on NSSF's Keane Insights blog sets the record straight on traditional ammunition. Says NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane, "Some groups are claiming that consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition containing lead components poses an unreasonable risk to human health. The truth is that eating wild game poses no such risk. And that's not me saying it, that's the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Play Video

• LEGISLATIVE UPDATES IN YOUR STATE . . . For information on current legislation affecting your state, bookmark NSSF's government relations Web page. The page is updated frequently with information on legislative threats and successes related to the industry and gun owners.

• Support Grows for Applying
  2nd Amendment to States

   

  NSSF / HARRIS SURVEY . . . With the U.S. Supreme Court set to issue its decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago in a few months, a new NSSF poll conducted by Harris Interactive finds 8 in 10 Americans agree with this statement: "State and local governments are bound by law to comply with the Second Amendment." The 80 percent who indicated their support in the March 15 online survey of general population adults 18 and over is an increase from the 77 percent who did so in an NSSF/Harris Interactive poll last September, prior to the Supreme Court hearing the case. At issue in McDonald is whether the Second Amendment will be applied to cities and states through the 14th Amendment, thereby making the individual right to keep and bear arms national in scope. The 2008 Heller decision guaranteed that right in areas regulated by the federal government only, such as the District of Columbia.

  Industry News

   

  CONCEALED CARRY PERMITS UP, FIREARMS-RELATED FATALITIES DOWN . . . MSNBC.com details recent statistics that show firearms-related fatalities are falling as "millions obtain permits to carry concealed guns." Correctly citing CDC statistics, reporter Mike Stuckey goes on to note that "Americans overall are far less likely to be killed with a firearm than they were when it was much more difficult to obtain a concealed-weapons permit." Stuckey also reports that "the decline in gun homicides also comes as U.S. firearm sales are skyrocketing."

Firearms Industry Responds to
Mexican President's Calls for the U.S. to
Reinstitute its Ban on Modern Sporting Rifles 

NEWTOWN, Conn -- Following calls by Mexican President Felipe Calderon that the United States re-institute a ban on modern sporting rifles, or so-called "assault weapons," the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for America's firearms industry -- issued the following statement:

"While we respect the work of President Calderon to willingly take on his country's powerful drug cartels, we are disappointed that he, in the name of security, would urge our Congress to reinstitute a failed ban on so-called 'assault weapons.'

"Let's be clear, semi-automatic rifles, demonized as so-called 'assault weapons,' are not machine guns but modern sporting rifles that are used every day by law-abiding Americans for the shooting sports, hunting and home protection. Since 2004, when the Clinton/Gore 'assault weapons' ban expired, modern sporting rifles have fast become one of the most popular types of firearms for law-abiding Americans to purchase.

"Firearms that Congress would label "assault weapons' are functionally no different than any other semi-automatic civilian sporting firearm. They shoot only one shot per trigger pull, no spray firing as some allege, and use the same ammunition as other guns of the same caliber. What differentiates modern sporting rifles from other guns is cosmetic; for example, the type of stock on the firearm.

"According to the Department of Justice, so-called "assault weapons" are rarely used in crimes (less than 2 percent). Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established that banning firearms and ammunition have no effect on crime levels.

"Some 29,000 firearms were recovered in Mexico in 2008, of which approximately 5,000 were traced to U.S. sources. That means more than 80 percent of the firearms recovered in Mexico were not traced to the United States. Furthermore, according to the ATF, those firearms traced were originally sold at retail not recently, but on average 14 years earlier. This is completely inconsistent with any notion that a flood of newly purchased firearms are being illegally smuggled over the border into Mexico. And let's not forget, no retail firearms sale can be made in the U.S. until after a criminal background check on the purchaser has been completed.

"In recent years as many as 150,000 Mexican soldiers, 17,000 last year alone, defected to go work for the drug cartels - bringing their American-made service-issued firearms with them. It has also been well documented that the drug cartels are illegally smuggling fully automatic firearms, grenades and other weapons into Mexico from South and Central America. Such items are not being purchased at retail firearms stores in the United States.

"Even more, investigations and regulatory compliance inspections by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) into firearms trafficking along the Southwest border have confirmed that firearms retailers are law-abiding businessmen and women who are playing a key role in detecting and deterring illegal purchases of firearms. As part of a Project Gun Runner Impact Team firearms trafficking operation, more than 1100 firearms retailers were inspected by ATF. Of these inspections only one retailer license was revoked. One.

"Members of the firearms industry take seriously the criminal acquisition and misuse of their products. This is why our industry supports the Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2009, sponsored by Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), and will continue to work cooperatively with law enforcement. For nearly a decade our industry has partnered with the ATF in a national campaign called Don't Lie for the Other Guy that makes the public aware that it is a serious crime to illegally straw purchase a firearm. The program also helps ATF to educate firearms retailers to be better able to detect and prevent illegal straw purchases. It is our hope that Don't Lie will once again receive grant funding from the Department of Justice – a move that would allow NSSF and ATF to further expand this worthwhile program. For the last year, Don't Lie has been financed entirely by members of the firearms industry.

"Again, we applaud President Calderon for taking steps to stop the cartels when past Mexican administrations paid only lip service and allowed rampant corruption to fester. Still, it is wrong for anyone to blame the Second Amendment and America's firearms industry for the problems Mexico is currently facing.

"Sacrificing the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans will not make Mexico safer – especially when the sacrifice is rooted in unfounded allegations and hyperbole. President Calderon would be doing both his country and ours a favor if instead of pushing for already failed crime-control measures, he used his time in the United States to call for proven methods to combat criminal acts, such as putting more cops on the street and more prosecutors in the court rooms.".

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About NSSF

The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 5,500 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen's organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.