Tea with Gabby Franco: #NoWeaknessAllowed

Where shooting instructor and NRA Commentator Gabby Franco talks about her new concept in training: #NoWeaknessAllowed.

She prefers hot tea instead of coffee, and likes some of the types offered at Starbucks. She ought to know about Starbucks, since Gabby Franco travels the country, expounding on her #NoWeaknessAllowed seminar mantra in classrooms and on shooting ranges.

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Gabby Franco at Special Forces Wives Day at the Range. (Barbara Baird photo)

This bundle-of-controlled-energy, salsa-dancing woman hails from Venezuela, where she competed on that country’s Olympic pistol team before she decided to emigrate to the U.S.

We are fortunate she made this decision, and I’ve seen firsthand how this woman operates. You may have seen her on Top Shot, Season 4 and the All Stars follow-on. She’s not any different in person.

In fact, I spent a day on the range with Gabby, at a Remington Arms’ hosted Special Forces’ Wives Training Day, last October in North Carolina, and I can tell you … this chica’s got the energy, training and attitude to shout out the #NoWeaknessAllowed theme anywhere she goes. As I wrote in a column last year, by the end of the day, women who had never shot a gun before were firing off “two to the chest and one to the head” on their targets. Loading, reloading, firing fast and clearing malfunctions became part of the routine, instead of something scary.  Gabby and her fellow instructor, Travis Tomasie, both sponsored by Para and Remington, became the dynamic duo in the eyes of the women who attended the event.

 

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(Barbara Baird photo)

At the end of the event in North Carolina, Gabby handed me her first book (which she’d signed), TroubleShooting: Mastering your Pistol Marksmanship, Vol. 1. Since then, I’ve read the book, and practiced some of the drills. Even though it’s geared to new shooters, the book and particularly the drills can be helpful – and made me go back and assess learned shooting techniques and practices.  Gabby wrote the book at a very personal, warm and conversational level. You feel like she’s talking to you throughout.

If you read the book, you’ll see where Gabby’s foundation of positive energy comes from. She told me she’s tiring of hearing negativity associated with shooting, which often comes in the form of fear. “We always think of the worst when we talk about guns and shooting,” she said. “Why don’t we think strength, instead of weakness?”

 

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(Photo courtesy of Gabby Franco)

“It’s a completely different mindset,” said Gabby. She likened the attitude of “NoWeaknessAllowed, to reversing of how we look at the bad in order to feel motivated to train ourselves to shoot firearms.

Wherever she goes now, she books a seminar before training sessions on ranges. The range training sessions are designed in 2 parts: for women and mixed classes. You can find her this year at seminars and on ranges throughout the country, including the following cities:

  • Fairbanks, Alaska – July 14 to 16
  • Cincinnati, Ohio – Aug. 14 to 17
  • Jacksonville, Florida – Nov. 13 to 15
  • Exeter, California – Dec. 4 to 6

For information on the other dates, check out Gabby Franco.com.

  • About Barbara Baird

    Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com.