A couple of weeks ago this Friday, I had the opportunity to address members of the Buckeye Firearms Association. It was the second time they brought me in to spend a day talking about judicious use of lethal force by private citizens in lawful defense of self and others.  There were 299 ticket-buying attendees.  The day was partly a fund-raiser, but mainly an extension of the education program that has made this Ohio group one of the role-model grassroots organizations dedicated to the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Info can be found here: https://www.buckeyefirearms.org/ .

Among other things, BFA has been extremely effective working for gun owners’ civil rights in the Ohio legislature.  Its educational efforts have been extensive.  They include the FASTER program for training armed school faculty members.  Chris and Michelle Cerino, and John benner at Ohio’s Tactical Defense Institute, have done a magnificent job of creating this program, which trains the school personnel to a law enforcement standard with defensive handguns.

BFA is in the process of adopting a suicide prevention program created by the New Hampshire Firearms Safety Coalition, pioneered by 2a activist and longtime gun shop owner Ralph Demicco and Elaine Frank, retired head of the Injury Prevention Center, to show gun owners how to recognize and successfully intervene with people who show signs of possible intent to shoot themselves.

Go to their website above, and you’ll see how much good they are doing.  Groups like BFA working at the state level have been hugely effective in preserving and expanding the rights of lawfully armed Americans, and are most worthy of our support.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Their free newsletter is really worth subscribing to. I have been getting an email from them every week for several years & it’s always interesting & informative. The FASTER Program which they sponsor is the best training of its kind that I know of. Check out the videos of it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrWe7zOHQoM

    BFA is probably the most effective state gun rights organization in the country. Other state gun rights organizations should model themselves on the BFA.

  2. Thank you sir for dedicating your life to protecting our right to protect ourselves and our families…….!
    I have been a great fan of yours for over thirty years and share your wisdom at every opportunity. My oldest sons and daughter in law are LEO’s, and I buy and give every book you’ve written to them and hope to find time and money to attend one of your classes with them soon !
    Keep up the good fight sir, God bless you and your family !
    Leigh Leathers

  3. Enjoyed hearing you speak (and learning how to properly pronounce OODA). BFA also brought in Col. Dave Grossman this year. Bringing the great speakers in to town allows us to learn more for our money. Now we just need to get more younger members involved in these events.

  4. Even forty years ago, when starting to work in public education, I could see a need for a number of sheepdogs on site with big, sharp teeth to defend largely defenseless flocks of schoolchildren against mad killers. I had been blessed in my own early education to have thoroughly experienced WWII Army veterans for administrators. They were anything but Nazi-like, but understood and practiced effectively authoritative leadership, doing everything necessary for those days. It is past time for today’s school leadership to man up (women can act, too!) with these times and produce REAL SECURITY within the schools. BFA and FASTER are applicable today as it gets.

  6. Not taking anything away from BFA, but Ohioans For Concealed Carry was founded in 1999 and was the driving force behind getting concealed carry in Ohio. It continue to work both in the Statehouse on legislation, and in the courthouse ensuring cities adhere to Ohio’s firearms pre-emption law.

  7. I was one of the 299 attendees at that very informative presentation. Thank you for all the great information you provided.

  8. The suicide prevention program is exactly what all firearms groups should be doing. It puts a human face on gun owners, who have always been portrayed as uncaring, unsympathetic, and selfish.

  9. Mas, my nephew just graduated from a police academy, and will be serving in a smallish New England town straddling an interstate (sound familiar?). I was astonished that in 24 weeks of training, only one week was devoted to firearms. (Mostly handgun, with an introduction to rifle and shotgun thrown in). There wasn’t any “Hogan’s alley” stuff. I would gladly pay for him to take additional training. Any suggestions as to what would most benefit a freshly minted rookie?

    • Lead instructor Jim Mulla, and Russ Lary and all the rest of the adjunct staff at the NH Police Standards and Training Academy do a great job, in my opinion. We all agree that an officer can “never get enough” of this type of training. I’ll be doing a class in NH soon (see http://massadayoobgroup.com) and New England Shooters do a lot of fine training, much of it in the Pelham area. Tell your nephew I wish him the best.

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