As a teenager Vernon started studying kung fu and other Chinese martial arts. He never stopped. He also became fascinated with guns. He discovered that the father of one of his friends had a “serious” gun collection, and he started joining them on trips to the shooting range. At 19, Vernon bought his first rifle and kept it at his friend’s house, knowing that his parents wouldn’t approve. When he was older and had the money, he began taking training classes.
Vernon found a home for his intellectual interests at the Center for Inner City Studies, a south-side division of Northeastern Illinois University with a curriculum rooted in African and African-American studies. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and education before holding a number of positions there over the next 35 years, including admissions officer, retention specialist, and instructor.
In 1999 Vernon was nearly killed when a driver, confused at the Lake Shore Drive turnoff near the Museum of Science and Industry, slammed into his car head-on. Vernon had to rehabilitate for a year and a half before he could return to work. He now has screws in his right ankle and left arm and an artificial hip.
As soon as he was healthy enough, Vernon resumed taking gun training courses. He formed a business, Personal Protection Consultants, and began teaching more of his own classes in gun safety and self-defense (including one on “hand-to-hand fighting skills” that, according to the class description, “the average, everyday, unprepared, out of shape, person can use to defend themselves”). He says most of his students are middle-class south-siders.
He never discloses how many guns he owns. “I’ll put it this way: would you trust a plumber who only has one wrench?”
Of course, up until a couple of years ago he was required to store most of them in the suburbs.
One Sunday in 2009 Vernon’s girlfriend decided to walk the half mile from his house to Trinity United Church of Christ to attend early services. On the way she was robbed at gunpoint.