Trained (and Armed) to the Teeth: Gerald Vernon’s advocacy for Second Amendment rights
Gerald Vernon chuckled at the notion of having a single firearm.
“Let’s just say I’ve got more than one.”
Vernon was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and has been interested in guns since elementary school. His resume boasts more than six pages and 21 years of weapon-training courses. For Vernon, the right to bear arms, and more importantly, the right to defend his loved ones with lethal force if necessary, is a passion. There is only one problem: he lives in Chicago, a city with some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.
Gerald Vernon, the proprietor of Personal Protection Consultants (PPC), encourages proper gun education and training while advocating second-amendment rights. Photo by Eric Rahill
Vernon became serious about gun control and politics in his high school years and began taking security-training courses in 1984. Before he obtained his GED, Vernon vowed he would never join the military or the police force. U.S. foreign policy is not something Vernon admires, nor does he admire the relationship between the police and the South Side community. Vernon has become an expert in firearms independently of any public institution. He says he is his own man and is trained–and usually armed–to the teeth.
Certain events have inspired Vernon to become more involved in advocating for Second Amendment rights. The amount of horror stories he has about gun violence seems almost infinite. His defense for any anti-gun rhetoric often comes in the form of a gruesome, murderous, and exceptionally bloody story that could have been prevented by a sensible firearm owner.
In 2009 Vernon’s girlfriend was robbed in the Washington Heights neighborhood at 7:30 a.m. on her way to church. Before Vernon’s girlfriend could finish describing the perpetrator to church security, they knew exactly who he was; he had committed similar crimes in the neighborhood very recently.
Hours after the robbery, Vernon’s girlfriend’s credit card was used at a nearby gas station on Halsted and 99th streets, which had security cameras. According to Vernon, this was not enough for police.
“[The police] got his picture, his license plate, and everything they needed to catch this guy. And they assign it to some cop who’s going on vacation for two weeks. The gas station erases their tapes every week,” Vernon said.
Vernon’s lack of faith in the police to protect largely motivates his advocacy of gun rights. A motto of his is: “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”
The assault on his girlfriend greatly affected Vernon.
“That really shook me. Listening to her cry that night, and knowing that I couldn’t do anything legally to protect her any better tomorrow than I could the day before was just unnerving.”
After his girlfriend was robbed, Vernon became involved with Illinois Carry, an organization that is attempting to secure conceal carry rights for Illinois residents. Teaching at Northeastern University, Vernon led a group of students who were interested in gun rights in Chicago.
Vernon is also the proprietor of Personal Protection Consultants (PPC). Founded in 1991, PPC teaches “multi-level self defense training including hand-to-hand combat, knife, stick, combat cane, handgun, rifle and shotgun training.” To avoid Illinois’ strict gun statutes, PPC operates out of a gun ranch in Indiana. The course currently advertise on PPC’s website is called “Urban Rifle 1.”
Valinda Rowe, spokesperson for Illinois Carry, has known Vernon since meeting him at a second Amendment rally in 2008. According to Rowe, Vernon adds a unique perspective to the organization.
“Gerald is well-spoken, but soft-spoken. [He is] quiet and dignified, not an in-your-face gun nut. He’s not a gun totin’ vigilante. We’re all just quiet unassuming folks who want to protect our families,” Rowe said.
Though he is a die-hard supporter of conceal carry rights, Vernon does not feel the same about open-carry laws, or the right to openly carry a firearm in public. For Vernon, the right to bear arms is about self defense, not crime fighting.
“I’m not trying to be a vigilante. I don’t want to be Batman,” Vernon said. “All I want to do is live in peace and enjoy my retirement,” Vernon said.
In Vernon’s ideal America, every capable citizen should have some sort of firearm training, which was a driving factor in his establishment of PPC.
According to Vernon, every capable citizen should be allowed to carry. Teaching those who want to learn is his life mission.
“If someone walked up into this library right now and pulled out a gun and started shooting folks, what would you do? What could you do?” Vernon asked. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
by Eric Rahill
