Scheduled AR-15 training class leads to protest in McCandless
MCCANDLESS, Pa. (KDKA) — A gun training class in the North Hills sparked backlash.
A few dozen protesters gathered Friday morning outside Midwest Shooting Center in McCandless. They said they were upset over a scheduled class about AR-15s.
The protestors said in light of what happened in Texas and New York, there is no place for assault rifles in the hands of civilians.
"These are weapons designed for the battlefield. They do not belong in communities. They are the weapon of choice for mass shootings, for attacks on police officers," CeaseFirePA Western PA Manager Josh Fleitman said.
For about an hour, protestors chanted and rallied against the AR-15 class. Groups like CeaseFirePA said it is for mandatory training on guns, but this particular one should not be in people's hands.
"People are sick and tired of being afraid to send their kids to school, of being afraid to go to the grocery store, the shopping mall," Fleitman said.
The Midwest Shooting Center had a training class scheduled for this weekend. It was advertised "so you just bought your first AR-15. Now what?" It promised to have an NRA-certified instructor teach the basics of the gun.
"It was totally insensitive on their part," Barbara Richards with Coalition for Safe Community Spaces said.
Firearms Owners Against Crime said opposition to the gun is misplaced. It said the semi-automatic rifle is popular for sport and calling it an assault rifle can be misleading.
"It's psychology. They play the game to make sure the standard citizen who doesn't have experience with them is automatically tainted against them," Firearms Owners Against Crime board member Jim Stoker said.
He argued that it's not the gun that has caused these mass shootings. The organization feels it's the people behind these crimes who are the problem.
"When there's a mass murderer out there intent on doing damage, they will use everything from fertilizer down to a pressure cooker to a firearm to a vehicle," Stoker said.
The class at the Midwest Shooting Center is no longer set to happen. According to the shooting center's website, there is another class scheduled for July.
"After all that, I don't know why anybody would want to still hold seminars, teaching people how to use it. You see what it's used for in this country. It's definitely not anything good," Erin Simard with the Pittsburgh Chapter of March for Our Lives said.
Midwest Shooting Center had no comment on the protest.
