Detroit City Hall Insider

Category: City Council

First perk for new council members: Free CCW classes

Attention newly elected City Council members: If you want to pack heat, Rick Ector is your gun guy.

Displaying entrepreneurial and promotional grit that would make Barnum proud, the owner of Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit is offering all council members free concealed weapons permit training so they can be fully strapped -- and legit -- while considering the city's business.

His eight-hour instruction classes normally cost $150, plus fees that can tack on another $35. Days after a controversy erupted about newly elected members with CCW permits Ector blasted his deal on Twitter and Facebook.

"Absolutely, it's a legitimate offer," said Ector, a systems analyst for an auto company who moonlights in the CCW biz. "I would consider it an honor to have another armed council member."

Newcomers Gary Brown, Charles Pugh and James Tate are already locked and loaded, and so is veteran Kwame Kenyatta. The Rev. Andre Spivey picked up a CCW application last week -- and Ector has his sights on him. He's called Spivey's church, but the reverend said he has more pressing issues such as getting ready for the term that starts January.

City ordinances ban concealed weapons in public buildings, and Ector said fears of council members going Yosemite Sam the next time one refers to another as Shrek, screams "that's disrespectful" or breaks into "Onward Christian Soldiers" are unfounded.

"That's a lot of hysteria ...," Ector said, explaining that initial fears of Wild West behavior subsided after the 2000 CCW law went into effect. "We've proven them wrong."

So far, no council members have heeded his call, but what the hay, Ector figured. "I'm just trying to cash in on free publicity," he acknowledged. "I like to stir things up."

"I'm pushing the cause for gun ownership. If we can make crime a more hazardous work environment for criminals, it'll be safer for people who are anti-gun," Ector said.