MA Firearm Safety

Archive for August, 2010

Mark Shean, author of #1 rated GUN SENSE on Amazon.

I initially got involved with giving the state required basic firearm safety course when my son became old enough,(15) to apply for his firearm identification card,(FID). I started looking for an instructor that would give the course, at that time it was a separate course than the one given for the license to carry, (LTC). I found instructors, but each one told me they only gave the LTC course, good only for 21 and older, “there was more money in it” an instructor told me. I retorted by saying to him, (because by then I was starting to get fed up) “when you dinosaur’s go extinct the shooting sports will go extinct with you because you ignored the kids”!

I could not believe how short sighted these people were. So I  became a state instructor, my son was my first classroom ‘victim’ for his FID card, then I began giving the course to the 15-20 year old group exclusively. Now the course will cover either age group with no distinctions.

I know how important it is to include our youth in the shooting sports, that is how I started,  it is the only way these traditions have any hope of surviving into the future. I think that we as adults kind of overlook how important it really is to talk to our children about their rights under the Constitution. If we don’t talk to them how will they ever know?        Share your passion of firearm freedom with them. Don’t depend on the public school system to educate them about their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Schools/teachers unions, are anti Second Amendment, their ultimate agenda is to rewrite history by leaving out, and/or ‘re-interpreting’ whole sections of our Constitution and passing it off as factual to our children.  By making the framers of the Constitution nary a footnote in history. So please talk to your children about their rights if you don’t want them to lose these rights. Home schooling is a good antidote to misinformation.

We fight hard to keep a certain class of politicians in line concerning our rights, we do not overlook their assaults on the Constitution, we can get very energized at the polls to ‘kick the bums out’ as we can on election day.  But stop and think, do you take the time to explain the way you feel about your freedoms to your children? Do you take the time to make sure they understand that these freedoms can only survive if they too fight someday against the agendas of a few bad people willing to abuse their powers while holding political office? It has to come from you, as the adult, as it did from your parents when the terror that was  WWII was very real in their lives. They held their freedoms very dear indeed.

The importance of this seems to become more and more diluted, as the years pass, than when I was young. Try a test to see what, if anything, has been taught to your children about the Constitution, the founders, or the Bill of Rights in school. Simply ask them if they have ever heard of the history behind the forming of American Independence, you may be shocked at their answers or lack thereof. It will be a clear message, and duty for you to teach them yourself in this area.

The Constitution is only as strong as the current generation who protect it. If our young have no idea it exists, their rights will cease to exist along with their freedoms in the not so distant future.  Firearm rights are the keystone of those freedoms.

Mark Shean,  Author of #1 rated GUN SENSE, found on Amazon.

written 8-27-2010

This is a quote from an original Patriot who understood this all to well;

” The voice of tradition. I trust, will inform posterity of our struggles for freedom. If our descendants be worthy the name of Americans they will preserve and hand down to their latest posterity the transactions of the present times“  PATRICK HENRY,   6-5-1788 

Submitted by Mark Shean Sr.

My new #GUN SENSE book, Rated #1 at AMAZON in the Shooting section!!

Back in November 2009, in my archives, I wrote an article titled;  ‘Zero Gun Sense= Uzi sub-machine gun tragedy in Westfield Ma.‘, it was written on 11-12-09. Fast forward, now in the Boston Herald on 8-21-10 I read that the former police chief of Pelham, Edward Fleury, the organizer of that fateful event where an 8 year old boy died, has filed a motion that the charges be dropped because he says that he could not have ‘forseen’ the accident. I find it fascinating that any judge would even consider the motion.

It is true that when we rise in the morning we really do not know what will happen to us, we have certain expectations of how our day will unfold, or hope it will unfold. We cannot control/foresee everything, of course not.  A drunk, or some nit wit texting, crosses over the center line and there is absolutely no time on your part to react…….you could not foresee this, this may kill you, this is one example, the list can go on and on…..

I do not believe for a second, (unless he is a complete imbecile) that Edward Fleury, who professes himself to be a ‘firearm instructor’ would not have foreseen that something bad would/could happen by putting a fully automatic micro Uzi into the hands of an 8 year old boy. If Fleury is actually telling the truth about not being able to ‘foresee’  this accident, why then was a complete imbecile allowed to run a firearms event of this nature?  As the Range Master/organizer, Fleury had final say in the events of that day.

To highlight the point in another way,…..  why not have Fleury give a child a hand grenade. Could Fleury claim he could not ‘forsee an accident? The child may or may not pull the pin, you cant really ‘foresee’ what he will do, but you can prevent something bad from happening by not giving the child a grenade in the first place! You can control certain circumstances like this by applying a smidgen of sense. The boy would have enjoyed being introduced to  the proper use of a .22 cal. bolt action rifle also.

If Fleury really did not understand the characteristics of a Uzi micro sub-machine gun, and that an 8 year old would not have the understanding, strength or physical coordination to control such a weapon, that would, at the very least, boil down to gross incompetence on his part, and for that he and others involved should pay. He allowed perceived ‘fun’ to trump safety and good sense. I hope the judge dismisses the motion and goes on with the trial.

UPDATE: On January 1, 2011, Fleury was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, and the three counts of furnishing a machine-gun to minors. He had organized the event and allowed a 15 year old with no instructor credentials to oversee the victim use a Micro Uzi. While I find it incredible that he was cleared of all charges, the Ma. jury has spoken. Two others, Domenico Spano, and Carl Giuffre are accused of supplying the Micro Uzi, they have pleaded ‘not guilty’ and await trial.

Mark Shean, 8-22-2010

NEW UPDATE: Nine year old girl accidentally kills instructor in Arizona with the exact same type weapon as in above story, a Mini Uzi, another case of ‘Fun’ before Safety gone very bad. See link;

http://news.yahoo.com/girl-nine-kills-arizona-shooting-instructor-uzi-accident-202638510.html

Rated #1 at AMAZON in the Shooting section!!

Two relevant quotes from one of our Founding Fathers.

  {“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion….in private self defense.”}

            {“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”}

                            -JOHN ADAMS- 

 NOTE: When I read these quotes, and others from the founders, I understand more clearly their warnings, and why enemies of freedom want to diminish and pervert the meaning of our Constitution today, there is nothing moral or religious about these people, many are in power in D.C., our Constitution is just a roadblock in their way. It is up to freedom loving Americans to be a roadblock in the ‘progressives’ way. It is up to you to teach your children to understand these threats for when they take control of things in the future. 

The Constitution, defend it always.  Mark Shean, submitted on 8-9-10  http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

    Eastern equine encephalitis or (EEE), a public health risk, certainly. Massachusetts health officials sent out an automated phone message on Tuesday Aug. 3rd. The message said that on Wed. the 4th and Thur. the 5th there would be aerial spraying from 8pm to 3am each night, and that you should keep windows closed and air conditioning  units off. Mind you, on these nights the humidity was very oppressive. I had to wonder what these ‘health officials’ were thinking in regards to the elderly who would have to sit in sweltering conditions while this spraying were going on? Could we wait for drier conditions? Maybe use OFF in the meantime?

    So on Wednesday night people turned off their AC units, buttoned down their windows, and sat in the heat, only to find out on Thursday that the spraying had been cancelled due to windy conditions. There had been no automated phone calls telling anyone of this, so one night of suffering in the heat needlessly, thank you ‘health officials’. Your looking out for us.

   On Thursday another automated phone message was sent out, this time giving the same warning as before, close windows and turn off AC units, again on yet another oppressively humid night. Wednesday night had been a trial run with no spraying,  now some more suffering for the elderly, and the rest of us.  Friday morning we find out that spraying had not been done in Plymouth Thursday night,  according to the police, that would be done on Friday and Saturday nights instead!  So, Thursday was another pointless night in the sweltering heat for no good reason, thank you ‘health officials’, again, looking out for the elderly and the rest of us once more.

   Now mind you, the automated messages tell us to close our windows and turn off our AC units while spraying is taking place between the hours of 8pm and 3am. This sounds dire, the spray must be bad for us to inhale, one would think. But the ‘health officials’ now wanted to spray, according to the message, on Friday and Saturday nights when the most people are out at restaurant’s, the movies, malls, weekend get-togethers having a good time. This is when the ‘health officials’ think its a good time to spray, on everyone’s head!  Wouldn’t the middle of the week, when most people are at home because they have to work the next day be a better time? Thank you once again ‘health officials’, your just looking out for us?

    From the governor who gave the ‘green light’ for this, right on down the line, it must be a prerequisite, that in order to be a public official, you must already be brain dead.

 Mark Shean, written on 8-7-10