In this episode of You Did That!, I welcome Tom Nguyen, Founder, Instructor, and Range Safety Officer at L.A. Progressive Shooters. He founded the Los Angeles gun club in 2020 with the goal of creating a non-intimidating and inclusive community, focused on safety and education, for people new to firearms.
Main Topics Discussed:
Why did you find L.A. Progressive Shooters?
Tom: I like to joke that it was an accident, since I found it right around the time of the pandemic and a lot of civil unrest in 2020. I’ve never seen so many people in my communities—the BiPoc and Queer communities—who never cared for guns in their lives before to suddenly consider owning them. In these communities, we don’t have a lot of positive role models when it comes to gun owners, so my mission is to bring more people into this world and change those stereotypes.
What’s your approach as a firearms instructor?
Tom: I like to describe myself as “the most un-gun gun instructor”. I don’t answer for the gun industry. I answer to my community. I just want people to be safe and responsible when making this life-changing decision. If at the end of training, someone says that they’re still not ready to own a gun, then I say, “Great, at least you now know what you’re turning away from.”
When did L.A. Progressive Shooters officially start in your mind?
Tom: In the summer of 2020. I joined a lot of gun clubs but found that they were not as tolerant nor as inclusive as I wanted them to be. They were spaces that were cis-male dominated and could be very homophobic and transphobic. I knew there had to be a place where people could ask questions and not be judged automatically. I created the L.A. Progressive Shooters page on Facebook. I used the word “progressive” because I want to wear this on my sleeve unapologetically to let people know that we’re not marketing to everyone. We know exactly who we want in our community. This is a safe space for everyone that does not feel safe in traditional spaces. We’re here for everyone else.
When you had your first range day with 15-20 strangers showing up who had never handled firearms, what was going through your mind?
Tom: What was going through my mind was the huge burden of responsibility. “What exactly have I done here?” But people responded. People were hungry for this. I knew it was real when I met this Mexican-American couple who drove two hours just to get to this meetup, because they never felt comfortable in other gun communities.
What would your younger self think if they saw you now?
Tom: They would be happy for all the wrong reasons because I was a trigger-happy juvenile. I’ve matured so much since then in ways that my younger self could not appreciate.
Learn more about L.A. Progressive Shooters:
Visit their website: www.laprogressiveshooters.com
Follow them on Instagram: www.instagram.com/la.progressive.shooters