12. Uzi Reaves
Uzi Reaves
“Before I dismiss you all this morning, I want to show you a video. Can somebody hit the lights for me,” I said, standing in front of the training room.
We had a good class this morning. The girls pretty much shot all morning, and at one point, my tough ass almost cried when I saw the growth with these women.
To be very transparent, when that shit happened with Tamera, I could feel myself losing hope.
I really went to my husband, damn near in tears, telling him that I felt like the work that I was putting in was in vain.
The purpose of this class was for women to learn how to defend themselves, but when that happened with Tamera, I questioned if my motive was being fulfilled.
It took a lot of motivational words from my husband, and my father even came in my dreams a few times, talking shit to me, motivating me, telling me not to give up on what I started.
He kept telling me that I was going to see the hard work pay off.
He kept saying that something good was going to come out of this.
I guess he knew what he was talking about because I had the women lined up in the gun range this morning, each taking their own post, and when I saw all of them shoot, giving perfect head shots, and doing all the skills that I taught them, it was a reminder that what I was doing wasn’t in vain.
That was confirmation for me, along with this video that I was getting ready to show to the class before I dismissed them.
One of the ladies in the back of the room cut the lights off, and I went for my laptop that was sitting on top of my desk.
I propped myself up on the desk, placing the laptop in my lap.
I made sure to mirror my laptop to the projector screen that was behind me.
I needed them to see this footage. It was imperative that I showed it to them.
“Amira, come up here for a second. You’re the star of the show, so you gotta stand in front of the class,” I proudly said to one of my students.
Amira was one of the pretty girls in the classrooms. Like, physically, she was pretty as hell, but that wasn’t the kind of pretty girl that I was referring to.
More so her mindset, and the way that she moved.
Before coming to this class, this girl never owned a gun, let alone touched one to know what it felt like.
Amira did well for herself. A young girl, just 24 years old, and she was a big content creator.
Had a mass following, always getting all kinds of brand deals, and she lived a luxury life.
She had no means of protecting herself though, which is the reason she signed up for the class in the first place.
I remember on the first day when she introduced herself, and she spoke on some scary encounters that she’s had with crazy fans, times where she’s been followed home before, and just not feeling safe in her own city.
She wanted to learn how to properly carry a gun, and how to shoot it.
She came to the right place, and when I showed this video for the class, I think everyone was going to be proud of her because Lord knows that she was one of the ones that I really had to work with in the beginning.
Amira stood up from the chair, and she made her way to the front of the class. While I sat on top of my desk, she stood next to me. She knew what I was getting ready to show to the class, which is why she stood next to me with a smile on her beautiful face.
When she sent me these videos the other day, and I saw the way she handled her business, I called her first, just to make sure that she was okay, but then I celebrated her, happy that she stood her ground, and took care of business.
I went ahead, and I played the first video.
Amira had a beautiful home out in west Pembroke Pines.
With the size of the house, you would think that she had a husband and kids in there with her, but it was just her.
I’m sure she purchased the home, thinking that she would be protected, since it was in a gated community.
Even with security at the gate, these criminals will still find a way to get into your home.
I never let a gated community be something that I put my all into.
All my kids knew was living in a gated community, but I still made sure that they knew how to shoot.
The video continued to play, and the footage showed as three masked men came in through her backyard.
Amira had cameras set up all around her house, and the footage showed damn near in 4k.
You could see the way they creeped around, going for the patio door.
They pulled it first, just to see if it was unlocked, but once they saw that it wasn’t, they were able to pick the lock and slide the door back.
Now, I played another video, showing the footage from inside the house because they were able to make it inside.
The thing is, when the patio door slid back, it triggered the alarm.
Not only was the alarm waiting for them, but Amira was waiting for them too because she had been watching them from the moment they made their way into her backyard.
I would always teach my girls to shoot first, and to ask questions later.
I couldn’t express to them enough that if someone was breaking into their house in the wee hours of the morning, they weren’t coming for a friendly visit.
They were coming to fuckin kill you! Amira told me that in that moment, it was my voice that she heard, preaching that to the class, which is why she was ready to kill.
I played the next video, when you could see Amira standing over by the stairs, with the Glock in her hands, that she was trained to shoot now, so the second the three of those men rounded that corner, and came over to the stairs, my girl sent straight head shots to them, taking each of them out in less than five seconds.
She didn’t leave them with any room to even reach for a gun.
I’m sure they thought that they were breaking into yet another ditzy content creators house, that didn’t have any means of protecting herself, which is why they felt the need to not already have their guns pulled out.
This was my first time playing this video for the class, but since Amria sent it to me, I had to have played it over 100 times. I loved this kind of shit. I loved to see a woman stand her ground and protect herself.
You could feel the love in the room for Amria.
Everyone was clapping for her, screaming for her, happy that she’d protected herself.
So many of the women were yelling out, telling me to play the video again, and that’s exactly what I did.
I played it back for them twice, and each time, she received the same reaction.
“This is the definition of hard work paying off. I know a lot of times some of you come to the class and might get a little bored with us doing the same thing every class. To become the perfect shooter, you have to be able to come to this class and repeat some of the same drills. I get it, it can get boring, it can feel repetitive, but you need these skills. If Amira didn’t have a gun, and if she didn’t know how to shoot it, I can guarantee you that she would not have been standing here today.
It sucks, but we live in a city where being a successful woman is a lick for a lot of people.
Half the time, you don’t have to even be successful.
You can just be a regular woman, minding your own business, and men will look at you as a target.
Successful stories like this is the reason why I’m doing this,” I got a little chocked up in the end.
My emotions really showed my passion for this. It wasn’t a good feeling turning on the news, and hearing about all these young ladies that were continuing to lose their lives, simply because they didn’t know how to protect themselves.
Knowing that I was sitting next to a beautiful, successful woman, that probably wouldn’t have been here if she never took this class with me, it made me a little emotional.
“Awww Uzi. We thank you for all that you do for us. Girl, I’m alive because of you,” Amira said to me, coming over, and she wrapped her arms around me.
The other women in the room could tell that I’d gotten a little emotional too because they came up, giving me hugs as well, thanking me for all that I’ve been doing for them.
I didn’t want people to ever take what I was doing lightly.
This was time away from my kids and husband that I was putting into this business.
Each class started at six in the morning.
Also, because it was down south, I would have to leave my house at least an hour before, so that I could get here on time.
I was running other businesses, still trying to be the best mom to my kids, and wife to my husband that I could be, while still trying to make time for these girls.
Being able to feel the love from them to today and having them thank me for all that I was doing made my morning.
They got my tough ass to shed a little tear too.
Once that was over, I went ahead and dismissed the women.
They all started pouring out of the room, while I stayed back, straightening up.
All the girls were in attendance this morning except for Riot.
She didn’t come to the event this past weekend that I put on for the girls, and this was her second class that she hadn’t shown up to.