EXETER — Michele Ebeling doesn’t own a gun.
In fact, she never even touched a gun before Sunday. But after H and H Tactical’s “Gun Party,” she said she feels more comfortable around firearms.
“I learned a lot,” Ebeling, of Pittston Township, said.
Ebeling came out to the gun party to learn more about guns and now she wants to learn how to shoot for self defense.
“I want to learn it the right way,” she said.
And that was the theme of Sunday’s event. Chris Harding, of West Wyoming and owner of H and H, led the class of 10 people on how to properly use, disassemble and clean semi-automatic pistols.
The free, hands-on class had students who ranged in levels of familiarity with guns, from gun owners to people such as Ebeling, who have never used a firearm before. Harding provided pistols to those who didn’t own one. All the guns were unloaded before the class began and Harding worked with each person to ensure they were comfortable with each aspect of the lesson.
Harding also passed around a revolver during the class to show the difference between that type of pistol and a semi-automatic.
During the class, Harding and H and H employee Kayla Dyches demonstrated how to use the slide on the gun, from pulling it back to using both hands to push it. Then, Harding showed everyone how to disassemble the gun for cleaning purposes.
“It’s not something you rush,” he said during the class.
Harding took time to work with each person and go over different aspects of the lessons if someone needed more help.
Harding said throughout the lesson that he wanted people to get used to handling firearms, and become more comfortable with them.
After taking the guns apart, Harding and Dyches showed everyone how to properly put the firearms back together, and had them go through the steps multiple times to get the hang of it.
Dyches, of West Wyoming, said they wanted to provide the class as a service to the community.
“We wanted to help people get more comfortable with guns,” Dyches said.
She and Harding are both instructors certified by the National Rifle Association and she said there wasn’t a free class at which people could learn basic firearm handling in the area, so they decided to create one. They kept the class size small to so they could work closely with the students as well as keep everyone safe.
Dyches said she wasn’t expecting the event to be so popular, but they already have enough people signed up to fill a few more classes.
“(Sunday’s class) filled up within a couple hours,” Dyches said.
Overall, Harding said, he was happy with the turnout and the event.
“I think it went very well,” he said.
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