a school offers those who hate guns to learn how to use them

The job of this instructor in Los Angeles already consists of convincing his students to take the weapon in hand.

Firearms classes take place at school “LA Progressive shooters”, or the progressive shooters of LA This name is also intended, in order to keep away certain gun enthusiasts, who are a little too enthusiastic. A journalist from Los Angeles Times attended a class, where no one shot for two hours. He compares the instructor to a yoga or surfing teacher, who puts a lot of emphasis on breathing and a large part of whose work already consists of convincing his students to take the weapon in hand, and to demystify the object for people , who hate it.

The instructor is not in a militant logic, notes the journalist, unlike organizations marked on the political left, such as The Pink Pistols where the John Brown Gun Club. One of the students cried at the weapon, which is apparently not unusual. She says she wants to learn to defend herself because she doesn’t trust the police to protect her, but was traumatized by her uncle’s murder in her youth.

Tom Nguyen, the instructor, is a man in his fifties, fascinated, and even initially obsessed, with weapons since adolescence. Except that he had brought his father’s pistol back to school and one shot had gone off, almost injuring a friend. This incident made him cautious and after quitting his studies, rejected by his parents and his girlfriend, he bought a gun with the idea of ​​committing suicide. He held on and gradually regained a taste for life.

He worked in marketing and the art world in Los Angeles, surrounded by liberals. One day in 2020, after the riots following the death of George Floyd, a musician close to him bought a gun and asked him for advice on how to use it. “I’m married, I don’t like guns, but I don’t want to be the only one not to have one”, he explained to her. Through word of mouth, other people from the art world, who were more resistant to weapons, came to see him. He ended up launching his own company in September 2020 which would have 300 students in 2024.

More and more Americans own a gun

2020 was a pivotal year in the United States, with regard to firearms, because there was this very particular context of tensions linked to the presidency of Donald Trump, the pandemic and especially the riots following the death of George Flyod. Riots, sometimes violent, which frightened many Americans, including liberals. According to a survey of NBC News, from September 2023, 52% of Americans say they have a weapon in their home, compared to 46% four years earlier. Among Democrats, the proportion increased from 33 to 41% over the period.

In California, the share of gun owners declared to the state jumped from 2.3 million people in 2018 to 3.5 million at the start of 2024. It’s a bit as if Americans were resigned and that the answer to the gun problem would therefore not necessarily involve fewer guns, but rather having one and learning how to use it.