One of the most important parts of building a reputation that people can trust is making connections. We’re all deeply involved in our communities, but often in ways that are in very different circles than firearms training.

This past weekend, our instructors were able to meet more members of our communities in person and share some range time and camaraderie. No money exchanged, no specific class curriculum, just spending time sharing what we know and getting to know others.

We picked the name “Grassroots Defense” for a few reasons. We’re in Iowa, land of the oak savannah; we have members who were born here and members who have chosen to set down roots; we believe in connectedness. And, of course, we take no small inspiration from deep-rooted prairie plants that regrow after wildfires. There’s a lot to it.

We always want to be of the community, as well as for it.

…and it’s really good to see just where our various communities are at. Who has already been doing this work? What connections have they made? Who do they trust to give good advice? Who can we learn from? Who has already done the kinds of training that we hope to do? We’d much rather join together to keep on building than to try and step on a space others have already carved out and thrived in. Our project is one of mutual support and cooperation.

I know this all sounds pretty general, but it’s important. It’s important to clearly state your values, and to clearly and vocally state what you’re grateful for, too. There is an awful lot of frightening news flying around – especially for anyone in marginalized or targeted communities – and times like these make finding those shared values and shared supports critical. Not just to survive, but to thrive. That’s all still possible.

So what did we get up to this weekend? Made new friends, reconnected with some old friends.

• Got a friend’s AR’s iron sights zeroed and passed on some reliability advice from our wonderful AR-15 armorer Sean. Helped with pistol fundamentals. Talked to a young friend about the kinds of targets he finds fascinating, and worked on trigger and muzzle discipline too.

• Gave five people out in IC hands on time with a wide variety of firearms, both as a practical examination of future purchase choices for home defense and CCW, and to share what we’re lucky enough to own for education and a little bit of fun.

• Gave a friend focused advice and curation of possible handgun choices to find her best fit in terms of feel, shootability, features and optic choice.

• Saw a friend on a second time out with handguns consistently hit a steel a-zone target at 15yards – while showing great form. A little bit of coaching helped, too, but we sure can’t take the credit for that.

• Got in touch with new-to-us networks of people who have been putting in the work to train and learn and support each other over the past year and more. Hope to keep in touch and keep helping out.

• Shared some good meals as instructors after both days (special thank you to Exotic India in IC for exactly the kind of food we needed after an unseasonably hot and muggy September day).

All in all, a pretty great weekend. Here’s to more like it.

-the Grassroots Defense team