A Little About Jim:NRA-certified Instructor : PistolNRA-certified Instructor : Home Firearms SafetyNRA-certified Instructor : Personal Protection In The HomeUtah BCI-certified Instructor : Concealed Firearm Permit Course InstructorMember - National Shooting Sports Foundation (Accredited Media)Glock-certified Armorer : 2002-PresentLicensed Utah Armed Private Security Officer : 2002-2006Writer - CompuServe Information Service - 1993-2000 - PC's and MultimediaWriter - Various Publications - Firearms / LE / Security - 2000-2007Editor - JeepGunner.com Family of Publications - 2007-2011I have been a participant in the Shooting Sports since my youth, and have been involved in teaching firearms safety since 1985. I started shooting when I was very young, first on a .177 caliber BB rifle (Crosman Model 760) with iron sights, then with an optical scope. I then moved up to .22 caliber rimfire (Marlin Golden 39A lever action) with iron sights, then with an optical scope. I then trained with a .177 caliber BB pistol (a Crosman something) and moved up to .22 caliber rimfire pistols. One of my all-time favorites is the Ruger MKII Government Target Model (MKII-678G). This gave me an excellent basis - practicing breathing, trigger pull and sight alignment - without developing any flinch. Over the years I progressed to larger firearms, and as a scout participated in all of the shooting activities they offer. At one point, an instructor in a defensive and tactical pistol course recommended that I become an instructor after he observed me helping some fellow students. I did so, and over the years have obtained additional teaching credentials from the NRA and the State of Utah. I'm presently NRA-certified to teach Basic Pistol, Personal Protection In The Home, and Home Firearms Safety. I'm also certified to teach the Utah Concealed Firearm Permit course. I'm also a recruiter for the National Rifle Association. I also became a Glock-certified Armorer in order to take care of departmental and individual firearms and to expand my personal education. I'll take any educational opportunity I can find. I have training on batons, stun devices (including Taser), handcuffing techniques, subject and witness interviews, etc. I worked as an Armed Private Security Officer during some down time in the Information Technology world. I had the chance to work some interesting details - including work as a money-carrier escort/bodyguard on an armored car, providing security in a location filled with drunk, drug-addicted, and mentally ill individuals, and performing celebrity personal protection duties (which I was selected for because of my skills in Situational Awareness, Common Sense, and Command Presence when required). During this time I also started the process of becoming a sworn Law Enforcement Officer. My written scores were excellent, but a back injury prevented me from completing the physical endurance training process. However, during my first qualification shooting course (300 rounds), I scored 95.2% shooting a Glock Model 21 (.45 ACP). Most of the others in the class were scoring in the 70's and 80's. My next qualification score was 96% with the same firearm - and I have always been a better shot with a long gun than with a hand gun. I'm also an Amateur (Ham) Radio Operator (Extra-class FCC license) with extensive emergency communications skills and training. I have built a variety of vehicles for emergency communications, and have professional experience building police cars and motorcycles, and other emergency response vehicles. As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist, I have prepared and taught Emergency Preparedness and Amateur Radio License courses. I have provided emergency preparedness and facility security consulting / training services to hospital administrations, various businesses, data center facilities, and church and civic groups. I have HazMat responder training, advanced first responder training, and corporate security training. I have also designed and modified corporate security and emergency response plans - including mitigation, business continuity, and active emergency response aspects. I presently work as a firearms instructor, and as a writer covering the firearms industry and related topics. I'm also one of those frequently called on by the media to comment on firearms laws and firearms issues in Utah and nationally. I've been writing product reviews and news articles for a variety of publications and on-line services since the early 1990's. I love being able to explain things to help others learn and understand, and to be able to provide information and insights to help folks make the best decisions for themselves. Some years ago I got into Jeeps, and reasonably serious off-road rock crawling. You can read more about the Jeep I used at the JeepGunner.com site. It got 13 miles per gallon. Due to a new drive to work at my day job (and the fact that it was 13 years old), I sold it. We just couldn't afford the fuel and upkeep any more. It now has a good home as a pretty-much dedicated trail Jeep. I'm still very much into off-road activities, only now with a pair of 2008 Honda TRX-420FE machines. We love to take them out on weekends, and they are equipped for Search & Rescue and Emergency Communications Support. More on those can be found at the ATVGunner.com and HondaGunner.com sites. I also enjoy motorcycles and scooters. Honda makes a great product! On the IT side, I'm trained as an AT&T / Lucent Technologies / AVAYA Telecommunications technician on a variety of products and systems - Partner, Partner ACS, Merlin Legend, and Definity, up through the latest versions of Communications Manager and the S8xxx architecture, Conversant, CMS, AUDIX, Modular Messaging (both MSS and Exchange-integrated), Application Enablement Server, Vectors, VDN's, Agent ID's, ARS, World-class Routing, holiday tables, CTI, H.323, SIP, call accounting systems, etc. I have designed, installed, and programmed complete call centers from the ground up. Being trained on the hardware AND the software/OS, I can take it out of the box, rack it up, install the software, and program it to do whatever is required. The CEO of one company I worked for called me his "one man magic IT shop". I can also handle LAN/WAN systems, and general networking tasks. I know my way around Cisco PBX's, routers, switches, and firewalls, SonicWall firewalls, Mitel PBX's, Windows Servers, Active Directory, Exchange Server, call recording systems from Verint/Witness and others, too many desktop applications to count, Norton Ghost, Acronis TrueImage, Novell NetWare and Banyan (yes, Banyan VINES), and versions of Windows from Windows 386 on up to Windows 7 - plus every version of Windows Server (including the WHS). Having facility management and corporate security experience, I have managed a number of building access control systems, badge readers, badge creation systems, environmental monitoring and reporting systems, and a number of HVAC-related items. I have also coordinated entire data center moves, and corporate office moves from both IT and facilities perspectives. In terms of politics, I'm no longer a Republican. I consider myself to be an Independent. I believe that government should not be, can not be, and must never try to be the solution to all problems. I believe in a limited government, limited laws, and permitting enough freedom to allow WE THE PEOPLE to govern ourselves. The problem is that far too many people are willing to give up a little bit of the freedom in exchange for feeling like the government will protect them. If we have a government powerful enough to protect you wherever you are, you will find that same government very limiting in terms of freedom and privacy. I prefer to teach people good principles (such as personal protection, self reliance, and how to employ common sense) and let them govern themselves without government red tape and more and more laws. I believe that individuals are best suited to determine how and where to spend their money and to use their resources. I believe that charity is the realm of the individual, the churches, and corporations if they choose to be charitable. It is not the role of the government. Look at the "Occupy Wall Street" protest people. They want the government to step in, take money from those they consider to be "rich", and redistribute it to those that are not. A government powerful enough to do that will end up creating problems that they haven't even considered. Keep in mind that in the day in which they become "rich", the government would then step in and take what they have to give to others. The idea of "social justice" is not something the government should be involved in. Personally, I'd love to see a Utah legislative session where NOTHING is done except to repeal existing restrictive and expensive laws, and have our legislature review and eliminate many of the administrative rules and policies in this state. A good starting place would be the "emissions and safety inspections" that infests our state. It's an unnecessary burden that should be done away with. I believe in open access to public lands, and the principles of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY. I also believe that most things should be left to the individual and family to decide, and that government should stay out of most things. That's just a little bit about me. If you would like to know more, please check out any of the links above. |
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