SAF, NSSF Host 6th Edition Of Gun Seminar for Novelists
by Peggy Tartaro
Managing Editor
“Write what you know” is a famous dictum for aspiring authors. While that would seem to be good advice, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for authors or their subject matter to grow.
“Write what you learn” might be better advice and is at the core of a program called Firearms & Fiction that is co-sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), which publishes Gun Week.
The annual seminar brings together fiction writers, most of whom work in the mystery/thriller genre, but with representatives from screenwriting and science fiction/fantasy as well, with firearms experts.
The program, which completed its sixth year this fall in Las Vegas, is co-sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which also hosts similar programs for journalists. The idea for the Firearms & Fiction seminars came about because SAF staffers, reading enthusiasts and consumers of popular culture, got tired of seeing blatant mistakes about guns and gunowners in books, movies and on television. While gunowners frequently fault the general news media for bias and errors, the impact of similar mistakes in books, movies and TV is vastly magnified.
The reasoning behind the seminar approach was that many of these mistakes were the result of simple ignorance or bad research, not malice.
Casual readers, television viewers and moviegoers who are also gunowners can probably cite half dozen bad examples off the top of their heads: Glocks with safeties, recovered revolver casings, magazines with an endless supply of ammunition, etc.
Over the life of the seminars there have been a number of changes, and the instructors have varied from year to year, but the basic curriculum consists of a one day classroom session followed by a day at the range.
Since its inception, Firearms & Fiction has instructed about 100 professional writers, all of whom have reported a good experience and many of whom have used their new knowledge of firearms in subsequent writings. Prior attendees usually refer fellow writers for the following year’s event.
Most of the attendees come to the program with little practical knowledge of firearms but with a willingness to learn and to get it right. This is unsurprising given that these are professional writers with a large stake in making sure what goes out under their name is correct.
The seminar agenda has developed so that after a welcome and introductions handled by SAF President and Gun Week Editor Joseph Tartaro and Founder Alan Gottlieb, the learning experience begins in earnest.
This year I moderated the first panel, Fiction vs. Reality, which included John Mullins, himself the author of the Men of Valor series, but also an ammunition designer, ex-Special Forces veteran and the leader of the Oklahoma-based T-CATT training group, and Mark Tartaro, a 20-year veteran of the Buffalo Police Dept., and trainer for Erie County Central Police Services Academy.
Examples used from books and movies drew the group into the discussion immediately.
Next up, Joseph Tartaro gave his “Brief History of Firearms and Ammo,” which takes the group on a lightning quick tour of the subject, beginning when David slew Goliath and ending with modern arms and ammunition.
Discussing sport and defensive use of an array of modern firearms in the next panel were: Mark Tartaro; Trey Minton of the T-CATT group, and Don Turner, an NRA director and manager of the Clark County Shooting Park, a world-class public shooting facility now under development 10 miles from Las Vegas.
The first of two classroom safety lectures followed, with Minton, Mullins and Women & Guns Publisher Julianne Versnel Gottlieb.
During the lunch break, writers and instructors got a chance to mingle and work on specific questions that arose from the morning program.
This year’s attendees included Michael Black (Freeze Me Tender) and Julie Hyzy (Deadly Blessing), both of whom have attended past seminars. Black, a Chicago-area police officer also assisted on the range.
Louisa Swann (Star Trek: Tales from the Captain’s Table), Theresa Schwegel (Officer Down), Pati Nagle (Glorieta Pass) and Karmela Johnson (The Garrison: Evidence) were all in attendance because previous year’s participants had encouraged them to do so.
Also attending were Jeannette Darlington, who writes under the name J.D. Isaacs (The MacPherson Criticality) and novelist-screenwriter Terrill Lankford, author of Earthquake Weather and screenwriter of “Blue Neon Night.”
During lunch Turner reviewed plans for the new Clark County Range with a Power Point presentation showing how this public facility will serve every shooting sport as well as hunter education and law enforcement training.
After the break, the group settled in for Torrey Johnson, a criminalist for the Las Vegas Metro PD. Johnson’s 90-minute presentation contains more information on forensics and ballistics than a dozen seasons of the so-called procedural TV shows could, with the added benefit of being based entirely on fact.
Johnson usually ends up giving away dozens of red herrings, plot ideas and twist endings, and stays to answer dozens of questions. Under the auspices of the Las Vegas Metro Police, he has been at every one of the Firearms & Fiction events and never fails to fully engage his audience.
Following Johnson’s presentation, Women & Guns Contributing Editor Gila Hayes, together with Mark Tartaro and Mullins discussed methods of concealed carry and the use of deadly force for both law enforcement and civilians.
Hayes passed around a variety of carry options, ranging from belly bands to Thunderwear, thigh and ankle holsters and a holster purse. Several of the attendees tried them on and a lot of notes were taken.
Mullins discussed the visual fiction of “gangbangers” holding their handguns on their sides, noting that it was a fictional conceit that has seeped into reality. Hayes mentioned the inevitable shot of a protagonist with the gun held very close to the face—noting that this had no practical application, but was merely done to get the actor’s or actress’ face in the same shot as the gun.
Alan Gottlieb returned to the podium for a quick review of the current legal and legislative firearms scene. His presentation provides an overview of hot issues, including “assault weapons” and “ballistic fingerprints” which provide balance to the normal media fodder.
SAF and NSSF provided a number of books and magazines for participants, including “Aiming for Accuracy,” a publication of NSSF which has a question and answer format. Hayes’ Effective Defense, along with Paxton Quigley’s Stayin’ Alive and R.K. Campbell’s The Handgun in Personal Defense, together with a glossary of commonly used firearms terms and schematics of a rifle, shotgun, semi-auto pistol and revolver. Black Hills Ammunition provided catalogs which offered the writers some basic technical information on various types of ammo.
Since so much information is presented verbally at the seminar, the references, along with several others given out, provide a basic firearms library for future use.
The T-CATT crew is able to offer civilians a rare look at training through the use of Simmunitions, a proprietary design for law enforcement and military training ammunition and the specially configured guns which fire the Simmunitions. Actual guns are fitted with a special barrel and the Simmunitions use a marking cartridge made of a detergent-based paint. The paint bullets are propelled by a primer.
The system is similar to paintball, but much more realistic and because it is expensive, rarely used outside law enforcement and high-end training circles.
Seminar attendees watched as several versions of a “Tueller Drill” were run by Minton assisted by April Clayton. Even in the relatively cozy confines for a classroom and with the demonstration being done by folks the attendees had socialized with for the better part of a day, the intensity of the drill, in which the smaller, knife-armed Clayton attacked the much bigger, armed and ready Minton from 21 feet away, was apparent to all.
Another safety lecture followed and the classroom portion concluded with a chance for students to try the Simmunitions guns prior to going to the range the next day.
Students were also given the opportunity to sign up for their own force-on-force Simmunitions experience to be run on the range. Those that chose to do so took another safety briefing.
A group dinner afforded a chance for unwinding and more questions.
It isn’t just the students who have questions. These get-togethers provided an opportunity for instructors to ask if the information being provided is useful, and presented in a constructive way.
The next morning, a gung-ho crowd of writers assembled for group transportation to the Desert Sportsmen’s Club, at the edge of ever-sprawling Las Vegas. That club has hosted the range event for the last five years. About a 20-minute drive from the Vegas Strip, the range is nestled in the shadows of Red Rock Canyon.
Before any guns were set out for use, those who were prepared to do so got ready for their individual Simmunitions, or “Sims” run. Those not in the action, including several spouses, got the unique opportunity to watch others.
The force-on-force scenarios varied slightly for each participant, but were variations on a similar theme: the student was confronted with a situation in which he or she was armed and came upon a scene in which an armed encounter was taking place. In some scenarios, the student was told that the encounter was taking place in their backyard. In some instances they were also told that the person on the ground (which alternated between Clayton and the much larger Chris Pollman), was a loved one.
First up was Jeannette Darlington. She quickly engaged the “bad” guy in a fire fight but later learned she had “shot” the police officer during the debriefing that followed.
When we talked after her experience she said that while she wished she had picked the right person to shoot, the run taught her many valuable lessons, including the fact that she could shoot at all in such a charged situation.
Julie Hyzy, who was unofficially named “Miss Congeniality” after last year’s seminar for her unflagging enthusiasm (we had to take her off the shotgun when dusk fell), also got a chance to run the Sims drill.
Giving Hyzy a run for the enthusiasm crown was Karmela Johnson, a diminutive dynamo who was the first one ready to leave for the range. Johnson decided to put herself in one of her character’s place, and gave herself an extra shot of adrenaline by running a few laps before her Sims experience. She approached her scenario with gusto—and a nicely executed tucked roll.
Afterward she drank a half liter of water in the blink of an eye, without realizing it, until Mark Tartaro pointed out to her that it was another manifestation of stress response.
Theresa Schwegel originally passed on the idea of doing the Sims drill, but decided she needed to actually experience it. Although the scenario did not end happily, she said she was glad she did try it.
As people involved with firearms on a daily basis, we often forget how alien it can be for a newcomer and how difficult it can be for a professional to admit they don’t know something. While we get the satisfaction of teaching students, and providing them with future resources, we often forget what a big contribution each student makes in the process.
After the Simmunitions runs and debriefings, the range was cleared and set for live fire. Once again, students got a unique opportunity, because in addition to a number of standard rifles—.22, .223, .308 with various actions— and pistols and revolvers of different calibers, they also got to try a Barrett .50 BMG rifle and full-auto Ruger in .223.
Students are started with .22 handguns to get the feel of live fire and from there are invited to try a number of other guns, including .38 Spl. and .357 Mag. revolvers, .45 ACP and 9mm pistols and several rifles as well as a 20-gauge shotgun. With ammo provided by Black Hills Ammunition, there was plenty of opportunity to try any and all guns, although the decision to try each gun was left to each student.
Everyone was game to try the Barrett and nearly everyone also posed with the massive gun. We joked that the images would make interesting greeting cards.
After a picnic lunch at Desert Sportsmen’s clubhouse, it was back to the range for most of the students who could then work with individual firearms and coaches.
This time provides an opportunity to more fully understand a particular gun, especially if a writer was considering using it for a character. Just about as many notes were taken as bullets shot. Off the line, writers could compare notes with one another and spend time with instructors.
In Nevada there doesn’t seem to be any twilight—one minute it’s day and the next, as the sun goes behind a nearby mountain—it’s night.
Participants headed back to the hotel for a brief rest and a final dinner, at which time Jeanette Darlington already had her laptop up and running with images from the day, eliciting instant recall of the day’s activities.
There were more questions at dinner, but also a deeper sense of camaraderie, and achievement.
Over the life of the program, we have been gratified to be included in a number of student’s acknowledgements but are most satisfied to help dispel many of the myths about firearms, provide a live fire experience, and act as an on-going resource.
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