Bringing Awareness

It is quite often that through our social media we get stories that hit home. They are either a powerful message, a story, or a tragedy. It is sometimes scary to open a message from someone that we are not familiar with. It is a blessing and a curse. The message that is the reason for this blogpost is one that stopped me in my tracks. A few days ago I woke to a random message on TikTok of all places. It was from a gentleman that had come across our channel. We have been experimenting with all different forms of social media. The goal is to increase awareness for the important work that we do. It helps us educate, inform, and entertain the public. It’s a tremendous amount of work, but in the end it is worth it. If we can save one life all of this struggle will be worth it. We don’t need news stories to tell about what we do, it’s the stories that aren’t reported that matter. We hope to never hear about a child being hurt that we have met. We have heard many times about children being saved through our training.

A few days ago I woke to a message on TikTok. It was from a guy that came across us on the app. The message started by being appreciative of what we do then went into a very powerful story that happened to him. I was floored. I was sad for him. In a following video I learned the gist of what had happened to him. I have yet to get the complete story from him. We are just trying to learn about each other. This is what is so amazing about safety, it really has the opportunity to bring people together for a common goal, saving lives. His story began with something that happened to him when he was 8. Now that he is an adult he is still struggling with what transpired that fateful day. When he was 8 his dad told him to get his gun. Being 8 and just following instructions, he did. I haven’t got the entire chain of events because it’s still painful to this day. Long story short, he grabbed the gun and the gun went off striking his father. His dad ended up dying a few days later from his wounds. It’s this story that has impacted him to this day. Trauma happened in this situation a few ways, first he lost his father, it broke up his home because of the grief involved, and lastly he turned to drugs to cope.

I couldn’t imagine the impact this situation had on him or his family. All I can do is empathize with him and somehow use this powerful story to teach the public the importance of safety. The message I originally received really floored me, I hate hearing things like this, but unfortunately I hear about stories like this far too often. I’m glad people feel comfortable with me and what we are doing to entrust me with these personal type stories. Very often they involve more tragedy than tragedy adverted. What I try to do is to analyze the story, find out if there is a teachable moment in the story. I then try to put it out on a post in way that is respectful to the person that shared the story and to the memory of their loved one. I then try to use social media to tell the story in a powerful and impactful way. The goal is to educate and bring awareness to the importance of safety. Safety is and always should be paramount. There is usually an angle I can use to educate the public. This story in particular was painful for me. I could tell he was still struggling with the events of that day.

Fast forward a few days later, we were tagged in another of his videos on TikTok. As I began to watch it I could see the pain in his eyes. The regret and the sadness. It was really hard to watch. I thought hard on how best to use this video to educate the public. I decided to do a VoiceOver on the original video. It was the only way that I could let him tell his story and show respect, plus educate on the importance of safety. Once completed I shared across multiple platforms. The message resonated with the public. It was an important one. All I wanted to do was share this powerful story and to reinforce the importance of safety at all times. Sometimes a “gut punch” is all it takes to wake people up. Self awareness of ones actions and self governance is an important tool. We DO NOT need the government to intervene. This is a failed premise. We as responsible citizens can do our own part to keep people safe without the government.
You may wonder how we can do our part with self governance to help ensure our freedoms continue for generations. It’s really simple. We have to do better when it comes to safety. We have to reinforce principles and continue our education. Many times it will take changing a process inside of your home. We can make the changes on our own or can be forced by the government, what do you choose? It’s always easier to change our own behaviors than to be made too. I recommend always being present with your firearm. What I mean by that is when its on your person it is secure. When it is not it should be properly stored. This helps keep it out of the reach of your kids and helps prevent theft. There are few secure storage options that will help and you will still have instant access to your firearm for a defensive purpose. Check out Vaultek or The Gun Box for security options. Also you should be having conversations about your firearms with your kids. These talks will “normalize” your firearm for them. This will help teach them safety, discipline and respect for firearms. This will lessen the chance of a tragedy contrary to what the other side will say. There is no scientific data that will support their claims. We can attest that this process will save lives and we have 22k kids educated with ZERO accidents. So we must be on to something. We just need the opportunity to have our experiences heard. It’s daunting at times. Evil forces are at work to further restrict our freedoms. What they do not understand or in denial about is that there are an estimated 425,000,000 guns in the US. It will literally and logistically impossible to collect our firearms, plus we aren’t giving up anything!! So let’s try a different approach. Let’s try education. This is the way! So until next time, Be safe!