An Open Offer
Communication is a Good Thing
A couple months after I started doing carry classes under the new law, last May, I sent a message to Rebecca Thoman, the physician who runs the small group calling themselves "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota."
It read, in part:
I think that knowledge is a good thing, and that even though your members are opposed to the change in the law, it would be a good thing for them to know what we're actually teaching in carry classes. It would be a good thing for me, too; it bothers me that there's so much misinformation and disinformation going around.I don't think groups communicate very well with each other, so I'm not making this offer as a member of or a spokesman for any group, just as me, Joel Rosenberg, a guy who happens to be certified as an AACFI MN Carry Permit Instructor and Certifier, validated by the BCA as a Minnesota Carry Permit Instructor, certified by Oakdale Gun Club as a Range Safety Officer, and also certified by the NRA as a Range Safety Officer, Pistol Instructor, Home Firearms Safety Instructor, and Personal Protection Instructor, and one of the tens of thousands of supporters of the Minnesota Personal Protection Act.
I'm also, as you know, one of the folks who has written and spoken at length about the need to change the law, and I'm one of the very few Minneapolitans who had—and still has—a permit issued under the old law, "for personal safety, as needed."
Sure; we disagree on this issue. That's okay. But I hope that, perhaps, if your members and I have a chance to talk and listen to each other, we'll both learn some things.
So: you may tell your members, however many there are of them, that they have a standing offer for a $25 discount if they want to take one of my carry classes. You should, of course, feel free to have one or more of them register without mentioning that they're members of "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota," for other classes, to check and see if I leave out anything when your people are watching.
I won't, of course.
Further, in the interest of enhancing communication, I'm willing to make a presentation of the law and self-defense portion of my class, free, to any gathering of your membership that you'd care to set up at our mutual convenience. The only thing I need from you is a venue, and a place to plug in the laptop and projector. If it'll settle your members' nerves, I'll even leave all firearms out in the trunk of the car.
It should take about two hours, and I can promise that nothing dangerous or even scary will happen; it'll just be me, the laptop, and the projector, going through exactly what I teach my carry permit students about their responsibilities and risks as carry permit holders.
I think many of your members have a very mistaken impression about what we're teaching in the carry classes, and I'd like to correct that misimpression.
No tricks. And, in the interest of communication, after the presentation, I'll be happy to listen to any observations and concerns that you and your members express.
This is a standing offer, and I do hope to hear from you soon that you've got a time and a venue.
There Are None So Deaf as Those Who Will Not Listen
I've sent that email five times, now, and I've never received a response.The offer, of course, remains open.
Unlike, alas, the minds of the "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota."