Firearms instructor takes a shot at changing stigma about guns

Quiana Roberts was so scared her first time on a gun range that she swears she saw fire come out the end of the gun. She struggled with firearms training as she worked to become a federal law enforcement agent, often shaking and crying as she held the gun.

For most of her life growing up in Boston, Massachusetts, guns were associated with violence and crime. She was afraid and had been psychologically traumatized by them, she said.

Over time, Roberts redirected that fear toward gaining knowledge and understanding about handling a gun.

She grew comfortable. She grew confident. And now she wants others, particularly Black women like herself, to feel the same.

“To this day, I can put on my gun blind [and] I pick it up the same way,” she said.

Now living in Baltimore, she’s on a mission to create that sense of comfort for people who want to become gun owners. In fact, she believes she has an eye for spotting it in others, the same fear she once had about guns.

As well as being a seasoned federal law enforcement agent, she is also a part-time firearms instructor who wants to promote responsible gun ownership and safety and change the stigma about guns, especially in the Black community. Roberts is part of a growing, but still relatively small, group of Black women who are firearm instructors as the interest among these women has spiked in the last few years.

An estimated 7.5 million adults in the U.S. became new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021, according to a National Firearms Survey. Nearly half of new gun owners were women, and roughly 20% of them were Black. The uptick in gun ownership coincides with an increase in anti-Black hate crimes and continual violence against women, according to FBI Hate Crime Statistics and several organizations that collect data about violence against women.

Roberts said that most of her students are women and that in her classes she tries to stress that women can often be seen as soft targets to violence. They need to keep their head “on a swivel,” she said.

“I need my people to know that you should never be a soft target,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that crime is so rampant in our country the way it is, but we have to be empowered and prepared to protect ourselves.”

Roberts attended Morgan State University in the ’90s and “fell in love” with Baltimore. She decided to stay after she graduated. She started teaching family and friends to shoot 15 years ago before realizing she could help plenty more people. She helped a friend with firearms training classes before starting her own business — Every Second Counts: Empowered, Prepared and Protected. Roberts can retire in three years from her day job, and when she does, she hopes she can dedicate even more time to her business.

She teaches classes monthly for people to get their Maryland Handgun Qualifications License. She also teaches a class so people can apply for their Concealed Carry Permit. She doesn’t combine the classes because she thinks it’s doing the students a disservice to try to give them a ton of information at once. The handgun class is a minimum of four hours with a live demonstration, and the conceal-to-carry is 16 hours. She teaches in a classroom in Glen Burnie and often takes students to Guntry, a gun range in Owings Mills.

Roberts emphasizes that those who get the license should be at the range at least once a month and shoot at least half a box of rounds. You have to build muscle memory, she said, and be comfortable with the gun you’re shooting.

“It’s like a relationship,” she said. “You don’t marry the first man you date. You take your time and you get to know him.”

In both classes, she teaches people how to create a personal and home protection plan to prepare for the unexpected, like an intruder. She also stresses the immense responsibility gun owners have and safety rules to keep in mind.

“You have the power to take a life, but more importantly you have the power to save your life and save your kid’s life,” she said.

Roberts practices what she preaches when it comes to firearm safety and protection plans in her own home. Her two daughters, 12 and 15, are both educated on the dangers of guns and have both been to the range, she said. As she tells many of her students, she doesn’t want them to be afraid, but to be aware. In the event of an intruder, Roberts taught her daughters to protect themselves if she is unable.

She’s even given them guidance about what to do in the event of a mass shooting, which is often the lens through which guns are talked about. People continue to push for banning guns because of recurring shootings in schools, places of worship and other places.

Roberts believes that if lawmakers want to make firearms more restrictive, they need to consider that there are certain guns in different states that do not require permits. She also contends that “it’s not the individuals who went to the classes that are shooting folks.” She doesn’t align responsible gun ownership with those who are committing those acts.

Roberts said gun violence in Baltimore and throughout the country plays a role in her teaching. She uses scenarios with a Maryland focus like home invasions, carjackings and fights or arguments so students develop the mindset required to protect themselves while understanding the laws unique to the state.

Roberts doesn’t deny that people can harm themselves with their firearms even when they’re defending themselves. She reiterates four key safety rules to her students: Treat every gun as if it is loaded, keep your finger off the trigger until you have made a conscious decision to fire, don’t point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy, and know your target and what is beyond the target. She also urges people to vet good trainers and to continue going to the range after getting a license.

“You could become a victim of your own gun if you don’t know how to properly handle it,” she said.

Laura Green said she didn’t consider herself a potential soft target before she took Roberts’ class. She often visits the Horseshoe Casino with friends and leaves late. As a single woman in Baltimore, Green said, she started thinking more about what she can do to protect herself and her home.

Green was also afraid of guns, she said, but Roberts’ class “struck a chord” with her because she learned about safety and other information that deviated from using a weapon. Green said she went from not wanting or touching any firearms to picking out her gun by the end of class. She took both the handgun and concealed-carry classes with Roberts.

“I can‘t stress enough how less it is about the firearm and how heavily entrenched it is in safety and conflict avoidance,” Green said.

One topic Roberts touched on that stood out to Green was domestic violence. Nearly 1 million women have reported being shot or shot at by an intimate partner, according to Everytown Research. The same research found that Black, Latina, American Indian and Alaska Native women are disproportionately impacted by guns and intimate-partner violence. Green said she had a lot of “ah-ha” moments during the class and was very receptive to the information and guidance because it was coming from a woman.

Roberts said Black woman instructors were once a “needle in a haystack,” but she’s seeing much more than when she first started. She’s also seeing more students that are Black women. Roberts is a founding member of the Coalition of African American Firearms Instructors.

Over 600 miles away in Atlanta, Georgia, Marchelle “Tig” Davis, a firearms instructor and military veteran, said 98% of her client base are Black women. She even created the National Black Self-Defense Directory for people to easily find classes led by Black men and women.

Charles Brooks said he heard about Roberts’ class through his dentist. Brooks, a locksmith, said he didn’t have a preference about whether a man or a woman taught him how to shoot. Roberts, however, gave him key information that he truly appreciated, like how to check a weapon for ammunition and how to engage the weapon when ready for use.

“She was very knowledgeable about what she does and has patience beyond patience,” he said.

Roberts reiterates that not all training is equal and that people should be weary of instructors filling classrooms with a money-grab mentality. She hopes her smaller class sizes and individualized attention continue to set her students up for success.

“If I don’t give them the best foundation possible, I’m setting them up to lose,” Roberts said.

Jasmine Vaughn-Hall

jasmine.vaughn@thebaltimorebanner.com

Jasmine Vaughn-Hall is a neighborhood and community reporter at the Baltimore Banner, covering the people, challenges, and solutions within West Baltimore. Have a tip about something happening in your community? Taco recommendations? Call or text Jasmine at 443-608-8983.

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