EBR chamber to extend gun training program

It wasn’t exactly a typical chamber of commerce event. But the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge’s recent Gun Training Program proved so popular, the organization now plans to offer it four to six times a year, with the next session tentatively scheduled for May 18. Some 34 residents—three-fourths of them women—turned out at the Baker Range for the four-hour course to learn how firearms work and how to handle, load and unload them safely. “We probably could do it every week,” chamber Chairman Woody Jenkins says. “Our first class was packed out.” He says the newly formed chamber hosted the event as a way for business owners to reach out to a community that is concerned about crime. “We want to do things that will serve the community,” says Jenkins, who is also chairman of the Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish, which in January hosted a luncheon to advise people on the best guns to buy for self-defense. “I think there’s just a lot of fear out there with the crime rate, and people are realistically assessing their own situation and whether they’re really prepared to protect themselves, their home, their family and their loved ones.” —Penny Font