Concealed Carry: Appearing on bulletin boards in places including the Washtenaw Dairy and Stadium Hardware, Dan O’Bryan’s bold-lettered signs stand out among the usual postings for painters and handy people. “FIREARMS COURSES/Concealed Pistol License Training,” they announce. O’Bryan, they add, is a “Special Agent for U.S. Treasury, Retired.”
Affable and chatty, O’Bryan has long hair that makes him look more like an aging hippie than a federal agent. He explains that he supplements his federal pension by working part-time as a “court liaison” for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department and offering classes to gun owners. He currently has about a dozen students who pay $125 for eight hours of instruction, including time on a firing range. Though he carefully rehearses them, he says, some students are “very nervous” the first time they pull the trigger.
O’Bryan doesn’t ask students why they want weapons permits, but says that several have told him they’re hoping for careers in law enforcement. Another was an attorney who practices in federal court in Detroit. But he turned away one potential student who “seemed somewhat incoherent” on the phone and who, when questioned, reluctantly revealed he had a firearm conviction. (Michiganders convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors are not allowed to carry concealed weapons.)
While training people to carry concealed pistols, O’Bryan does not welcome the new “open carry” movement that encourages gun-owners to openly flaunt their weapons. “I believe in the Second Amendment. Also, I believe in a time and place,” he says. “You don’t have to push the envelope all the time.”
