Riding Shotgun With Charlie
#249
Janet Nyce
NRA BOD Member
I’m pretty sure I’d met Janet Nyce before at the Great American Outdoor Show (GAOS) in the last couple years at the NRA booth. She had to redo her Facebook account recently, and we weren’t FB friends, but I thought we were. I still felt I needed to introduce myself. She was excited to be on the show.
It was bitterly cold in February for the first weekend of GAOS. The cold wasn’t the only issue. It was the wind chill, too. But I was able to get the stagecoach warm before she got in. Janet has been going to the GAOS since before the NRA took it over 12 years ago. It used to be the Eastern Outdoor Show. Taking a guess, she and her family have been going for 30+ years. She used to bring her kids. Now her kids bring their kids.
Janet’s husband grew up farming, hunting, and trapping. He had her shoot a shotgun for the first time. It was a 10 gauge. She ended up knocked backwards on her butt. She was horrified. After they got their marriage license, they ended up at the Pennsylvania game commission and she got her hunting license. They spent their honeymoon hunting grouse in the snow. Again, she had too big of a shotgun for her.
After he started bragging that his wife was a hunter to his buddies and she could teach their wives to shoot. In reality, she barely knew anything. Finding that the NRA had a basic shotgun course, she decided to take it. Then there was a basic rifle course. Eventually, she became an NRA certified instructor for pistol, rifle, and shotgun. She finally started showing other women how to shoot.
When the PA game commission found out she was teaching, they started the Becoming An Outdoors Woman program. Teaching Hunting 101 and shotguns were her area. The National Turkey Wildlife Foundation took over the Women In The Outdoors program. Janet’s role was to run events for the program. These programs brought more women into the outdoors, showing them how to enjoy hunting and shooting.
Even with lots of shooting and hunting experience, there was a time she only wounded a deer. That changed her life. She decided to spend more time reading and practicing shotgunning. It’s great that she has learned to take game with several firearms all around North America.
As someone who has trained and educated through the NRA, she’s very much tuned into their programs. One of the things she thoroughly enjoys is seeing women go from being afraid of shooting and leaving with a shopping list for the next trip to the local store. Once she ran into a student’s husband at the gun store. The husband was at the store with a list of things his wife wanted. And he was excited that Janet was able to get her up and going in the sport.
About a dozen years ago, Janet was invited to be on the Board, but she was already involved in the Women’s Leadership Program. She was speaking and presenting around the country for that and didn’t think she could do both. Once she started digging and seeing what was going on during the WLP years, she decided she wanted to be part of the solution. She was the fifth person to join as a Patriot and work to make changes . Currently, she is in the middle of her second three-year term.
One of the things she’s working to do is educate folks that it’s ok to reach out to your politicians. They do work for us. Part of her goals is to teach others how to write to their politicians of any level. And then write again. And again. Instead of just complaining to them, give them a solution to an issue. This helps build the relationship between citizens and politicians.
As a retired individual, Janet spends about 34 hours a week volunteering. She’s working hard to get more women into shooting, citizens to get active, and still finds some time to get out and hunt and shoot clays. I’m looking forward to seeing her again.
Favorite quotes:
“I cannot tolerate wounding my prey.”
“I started taking every course I could. I started reading all the outdoor magazines. I learned how to shoot up and down, and windage.’
“If you really invest yourself in your firearm, there’s a whole world for you to get involved in.”
“If you really care that much, be a voice.”
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