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June 3, 2015 3:02 pm
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Israeli Shooting Course in Melbourne Teaches Locals How to Use Real Semi-Automatic Weapons

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avatar by Shiryn Ghermezian

An IDF training gym in Melbourne is holding Israeli tactical shooting classes. Photo: Twitter.

An IDF training gym in Melbourne is holding Israeli tactical shooting classes. Photo: Twitter.

An Israeli shooting course in Melbourne, Australia teaches participants how to use real semi-automatic weapons and lets them fire up to 250 rounds of ammunition, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

The IDF Training gym in Caulfield, southeast Melbourne, is behind the 8-hour Israeli Tactical Shooting classes, which cost $600 and are attracting people from all walks of life, according to the report. Gym owner and former Israeli soldier turned police officer, Avi Yemini, said he developed the idea for the class after the infamous Lindt cafe hostage crisis in Sydney in December. The first two classes sold out within 24 hours, the Daily Mail reported.

“I was shocked I cant believe the response we have had from the public – I thought it would take months to get people interested to fill a class,” Yemini said, explaining that people want to eliminate the “fear factor.”

“Some civilians just want to know how it works because there is fear in the air,” he added. “They see Australians going overseas and fighting and they think ‘these guys are coming back to Australia and they have all of this training and understand all of these weapons and I don’t know anything.'”

The course is open to anyone over 18 with no criminal record, and participants do not need a gun license, according to the gym’s website. The intensive course goes “from basic through to advanced Israeli tactical shooting techniques and it’s application under stress.”

Rebecca D’Angelo, a mother of two in Melbourne, said she hopes to never be confronted by a gunman but enrolled in the class to learn how to react in the event she is faced with an attack.

“I don’t want to shoot it or have to use it but if I was in that situation I think there would be a lot more confidence knowing that I’ve handled one before,” said D’Angelo, 39, according to the Daily Mail.If the situation arises that someone is pointing a gun at my head I want to be able to know what to do – I’ve got to protect myself and my kids. If that gun is on the ground and I have to race to pick it up between myself and somebody else, what am I going to do with it in my hands?”

She added that the Lindt cafe seige which resulted in three deaths, including the lone gunmen, made people realize that the threat of terror is closer than they might have otherwise thought.

“It’s the sort of stuff you used to read and hear about but it hadn’t happen in Australia,” she said. “What happened in Sydney has proved that it actually does happen here now – we do need to be aware that it’s a possibility for it to happen on our doorstep – it’s scary.”

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