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    • Meet the Team
      Here you can ask the Shooters Haven Firearms Training Team any questions you have. I have placed this sample letter here for our students to use It is neither complete or a full representation however it will give you a rough draft to work from.  And yes I did get a little carried away with the personal information.  choosing what to put in or leave out is something we work on in each case. Your Honor, Good morning.  I hope my letter finds you well and in good health.  I know all to well how little appreciation people in public service receive so please let me say thank you for your service to our community.  With that said please let me introduce myself and give a little of my personal history to you for the purpose of supporting my application for an Unrestricted NYS Pistol License in Onondaga County. Early on while living in the LaFayette, NY area I took up sports as an outlet.   I performed very well in several sports Football, Track, wrestling and Lacrosse) and received multiple scholarship in 2 sports, Wrestling (over 200) and Football (60).  I still hold records in both sports 40+ years later in both Onondaga County and Lafayette High School. At 10 years old while living in LaFayette I started Judo at the YMCA in Syracuse and was training/competing.  When they changed the program age limit 2 years later I was unable to continue at the YMCA and moved on to Karate with a local instructor.  Before finishing high school I had taken 3 styles of martial arts and was fascinated by them.  Also while in high school I was competing in Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling during my summers and traveling to tournaments in NY, Mass., New Jersey and PA.. I even competed in the Freestyle Nationals and the Olympic trials. Also while in high school I started working in bars as a bouncer.  This of course led to many arguments and several confrontations.  I made many enemies and over the years still have many people approach me and ask me questions and accuse me of being excessive.  My experience is that you are always accused of being excessive when the other person loses.....After high school I attended Syracuse University with a full scholarship having both wresting and dependency scholarships.  My father taught at SU for 35 years.  I attended SU and left after a year to go to work as a steeplejack climbing TV towers and antennas all over the country.  It was an awesome job and I did this on and off for 5 years.  I loved it but my life was to take another turn. While at work in Florida one year I met and started working as a bodyguard for a Florida based company that supplied security personnel.  I was recruited and because of my training and physicality was immediately hired.  It was at this point that I started to take my training seriously and begin a life mission basically taking every martial art I thought had value, training with law-enforcement and military many of who had retired and gone private sector.  at this point I became a self-employed security specialist and worked in this field until the age of 40 when I retired because of the birth of my daughter.   One thing I have discovered over the years is that you can never have too much training.  To this  day I still shoot, compete and keep my skills up as best I can.  Over the years I have worked with many of the entertainment industries greats providing security and safe passage to them as they travel.  Some of these people you would easily recognize and others you would not.  In 1998 I took a position as the Senior Field Rep. for a Tempe Arizona based company by the name of VIP event Services Inc..  While there I hired, trained, oversaw and  worked next to the 355 man/woman force that provided services for Concert and Events in Florida.  Two years later I came back to NY and started fresh here. Since that time I have been a Self-Employed IT Consultant and during that time was involved in several other martial arts, firearms competitions and training of all sorts.  In 2012 I decided to open a training facility with a dear friend Roger Hawn and we have been working with people developing their self-awareness and positive attitudes with respect to being prepared to defend themselves and others in a lawful manner.  In the past 3 years we have trained more than 700 people and are proud to say that we treat each as we treat each other. As i has explained earlier Your Honor, over the years I have made many enemies and even been stalked myself a couple of times.  As the public face of Shooters Haven I feel that i am at greater risk for imminent critical situations for many reasons.  Some of these are;
      • My life has been about education, discipline and self control.  I am always learning and have never smoked, drank or done drugs.  I am not prone to rash decisions and give merit to all side of conversations.
      • Our building has a name that says we have or hold firearms and people may assume we leave firearms in the building which we do not.
      • Because of my public face I am recognized as someone that would possibly carry firearms/money and that makes me a target.
      • Because I have a business everyone assumes that we have money and that some of that or other valuable assets would be on my person or at my home or shop.
      • With the recent crime wave hitting not only our nation but even our city locally we are all at risk from criminals.  With more that 30 shootings and stabbings since July I am pretty sure that means we are all potential targets.  Not a day goes by now without seeing someone get shot, stabbed or hurt in some manner.
      • Sheriff's all over the state are asking that law-abiding citizen carry all the time now in preparation.
      • When I travel to other cities to put on classes  I am at risk because I go to these areas where I know no one and am often taking and leaving with large amounts of cash, check and card revenues at night.
      • Also in my private life there is always a risk from unknowns whether I am walking into a store being robbed of being a target for the "knockout game".
      • I currently hold Conceal Carry Weapons Licenses in several states such as NY, PA, NH, AZ, Fla,  and UT.  I am able to legally carry in 38 states currently and travel often.
      On the training aspect, those of you reading this can look at our staff page.  Even though I own this company I have personally received more than 30 certificates myself in the past 3 years. It is for these reason as well as others that I request from you an unrestricted NYS Pistol License.  If you have any questions for me or would like to setup a meeting with me please contact me at (315) 751-5559 or dcolburn@shootershaven.biz anytime.  Thank you again for your time and consideration on this matter. Sincerly, David Colburn
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    • 8 years, 7 months ago

      when will cs go go on sale