DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – As the Michigan Legislature considers legislation pertaining to gun ownership, it is important to also evaluate their effectiveness in crime prevention according to firearms trainer and expert Rick Ector. 

The owner of Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit, firearms instructor, and rangemaster, explained how his career began on the other end of the barrel roughly 20 years ago. 

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“I was robbed at gunpoint in my driveway, previously I wasn’t a big fan of firearms in general but I did have a 12 gauge shotgun at home for home defense,” Ector said, “It took two young men robbing me at gunpoint to give me an epiphany and I decided that instead of doing what a few of my neighbors did, walk away from their properties and just started all over taking a financial hit, I decided to investigate how I could learn how to protect myself.” 

That investigation began with a gun safety class followed by a concealed carry pistol license in conjunction with learning all he could about guns, firearms safety, and personal protection, according to Ector. 

“I went from an armed robbery victim outside of my home, to being on the ballot for the board of directors for the National Rifle Association,” he said. 

 Now in addition to teaching others to be firearms training instructors, Ector holds numerous certifications ranging from Personal Protection 1 & 2 to Chief Range Safety Officer and metallic cartridge and shotshell reloading, to basic certifications in rifle and shotgun.     

After the recent shooting at Michigan State University, he shared his predictions on Facebook that some, including lawmakers, would blame guns and push related legislation.  

“Waiting for the state and the university to rush to blame everyone and everything but themselves for the loss of life in East Lansing. I hope they all look in the mirror. Their plan to protect students in a gun-free zone failed. End gun-free zones because vicious killers do not obey them. True story,” Ector shared via Facebook. 

He also commented on MSU’s classification as a Gun Free Zone, like many other Michigan Universities, and the ramifications.  

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“So the students that go there and the parents that send them there are with the tacit unspoken agreement that the university will be responsible for their safety. The university will keep them from being raped, keep them being physically harmed or killed – that’s the agreement.”

For Ector, the schools with similar gun free zone designations are incapable of protecting students while at school, and he suggested a possible remedy. 

“I believe a solution is to enable willing instructors, teachers, janitors, whoever is on that campus and who goes through whatever hoops that the university specifies, be allowed to get a concealed pistol license and carry on that campus,” Ector said, “The status quo is unacceptable, we see that it does not work.  Parents are sending their children off to be slaughtered and they don’t know whether they are going to live or not because they blindly trust that the staff is going to keep them safe, and we’ve proven that is false.”  

As of last week, numerous Senate Bills were introduced which would deliver Universal Background Checks, Safe Storage Laws, and Red Flag Laws to Michigan, which Ector took issue with. 

“None of these would have prevented the slaughter which they are attempting to remedy,” he said, adding that too much blind faith is put in police officers who are human too and capable of breaking the law. 

“[Legislators] want to use a criminal doing a criminal act to punish the rest of us who didn’t do anything to merit additional scrutiny,” Ector said. 

He singled out Red Flag Laws as the “most un-American thing I have ever heard of in my life,” because of Law Enforcement’s ability to seize one’s firearms without due process, then forcing an individual to prove their innocence afterwards. 

Additionally, after citing a recent alleged murder-suicide involving two officers near Detroit, Ector claimed that citizens cannot blindly place their trust in law enforcement.  

“Why should we give them special privileges above and beyond every regular and ordinary citizen,” Ector added, “I am not saying every Police Officer is evil or capable of doing evil acts, I’m saying that we should have the same rights as it relates to carrying and owning firearms – our rights should not be diminished.  This police officer obviously had some mental issues, and how the police department did not know this and did not act is unconscionable and I would even say it’s criminal.” 

Ector supports eliminating gun free zones, adding that “every place where  an individual is desiring to do evil, there is a good opportunity there will be someone there faster than the police to make it stop.”

The skills and knowledge he’s acquired have never been used to shoot someone or at someone, but there have been quite a few experiences when he was approached on his property in such a way to make Ector think an attack was imminent and when in the process of reaching for his firearm the people have run away. 

“I am glad that they ran, and that I didn’t have to shoot someone,” Ector said.