Blake Miguez, a Loreauville native who serves as State Representative for Louisiana’s 49th District, is a man of many hats.

In addition to being one of the top legislators in the state and a successful businessman, Miguez is also one of the best competitive pistol shooters in the world.

Picking up competitive shooting from an early age, Miguez said that shooting has always been a family affair.

“I’ve been shooting competitively since the age of 12. My father started a year before me; he found competitive shooting in his ‘40s and liked it a whole lot,” Miguez explained. “I was getting old enough to where I could shoot in competitions too, so that was my way to spend time with my father on the weekends. He got me involved in the local level, and by the time I was 17 I had reached Grand Master, the highest level in the sport. I won the state competition and had won some World Speed Shooting competitions, so I was on my way to become the next professional level shooter.”

Miguez’s years as a competitive shooter has brought numerous national and international awards back home to Louisiana, including one year where he was the champion for all four levels of competition at once.

“About a decade ago, I became the world champion in Greece and became the National Champion in Las Vegas. I also won the Area Championship and the State Championship too, so I held every title there was in the sport at the same time.”

Miguez’s trophy cabinet includes gold individual medals from the World Competition in Greece and a silver medal from Indonesia. He has also won team gold twice with Team USA in Greece and France.

The sport has allowed the legislator to see the world, traveling to competitions on several continents.

“I’ve been to Greece, France, Indonesia, Ecuador, South Africa, Portugal, Serbia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Spain and Puerto Rico,” said Miguez.

“This year, I’ll be competing for the US Shooting Team in the Standard Division. We’ll go up against some tough competition from other countries.”

The competition, which will take place in the city of Pattaya, Thailand, will consist of over 30 different stages, featuring several different shooting scenarios and targets. Miguez said that for such a high level competition, he will rely on his years of experience to perform at his best.

“It’s very difficult and very technical, so international experience matters a lot,” he explained. “I have that going for me because I’ve competed in a lot of different world competitions since the age of 20. Match experience is very important, but so is shooting matches before. We just got back from the US Nationals where I placed 5th in the nation. You also try to get some range time, getting your equipment all dialed in and spending some time shooting rounds downrange.”

His equipment is an impressive array of firearms and gear that is perfectly made for Miguez, including guns that Miguez said costs around $5,000 each.

“I’m shooting a 2011 model, custom-built Akai gun in .40 caliber. I’m shooting on the Standard Team, which means you can only use iron sights, no compensators, and there is a magazine length limit. We max out at around 19 rounds in the magazines and one in the gun. We have to shoot a certain power factor, so my best analogy is if you compare shooting divisions to cars, I’m shooting the NASCAR division. It’s a lot of horsepower, a lot of recoil, and no shooter aids. You really have to be bearing down on the gun. A lot of guys shoot guns with red dot sights and compensators, those are like Formula 1 cars. My gun is a custom gun built by Akai out of Florida. It has a fiber optic sight, a bull barrel and a tungsten guide rod. The trigger is around two pounds and it has a very short reset. I won the nationals with this specific gun years ago. This gun has around 20,000 rounds through it and my backup gun has around 5,000. The frame has 150,000 rounds through it, when we wear the parts out we replace them.”

With all of that gear, you’d assume that Miguez would shoot much more than he actually does.

“Some people shoot as much as 150,000 rounds per year,” he said. “I have a lot of things that I balance in life. I happily serve the people of District 49 as a State Representative, I serve as House Majority Leader, and I spend a lot of time on constituent services to make our community a better place. I have to balance all that with my range time, but I do get in some shooting.”

Miguez estimates that he has around 22,000 rounds fired so far this year, which will put him far behind most of his teammates and other competitors. What he misses in practice, Miguez said he makes up for with experience and heritage.

“It will be less than a lot of the other guys that I’m competing against, but that’s always the case for me. I rely more on focusing on the match and experience plays to my natural talent,” Miguez said. “They say that it’s in every Cajun’s blood, we all get passed down the ability to be good shots.”

He needed to be a good shot just to qualify for the World Shoot this year. In addition to winning the local and state competitions, shooters need to perform at the top level for two years to make it to the USA National Team.

“The world shoot is every three years, but because of the pandemic we didn’t have our regularly scheduled competition. For the two years prior to the world shoot, you compete in two national events and your ranking is judged by the best out of four scores to get selected for the US team. I was selected based on my results in 2018 and ‘19. The next world shoot will be in 2025.”

All that shooting experience plays a major role in the way Miguez’s legislative career has progressed. For eight years, Miguez has been a leader in the Republican Party and has made a name for himself as not just an ardent supporter of fiscal responsibility, but also Louisiana’s second amendment rights.

“When I showed up to the capital as a freshman legislator, it gave me a sense of instant credibility amongst my colleagues,” Miguez said of his shooting background. “I had studied the constitution very closely so I understood the second amendment and it didn’t take me long to become the leader in the chamber for second amendment issues. In the eight years I’ve served, I’ve either written or co-authored every pro-gun bill that passed through the legislature. I also had a hand in killing any anti-gun legislation that came through. It’s fair to say that I’m the biggest advocate for the second amendment in the Louisiana legislature. From my background in constitutional law and competitive shooting, I understand all aspects of the legal and the practical side.”

His appreciation for the second amendment has also been crafted by his experiences with gun owners around the world. Miguez said that spending so much time around shooters from other countries has made him appreciate the freedoms that Americans have even more.

“All the firearm laws are different, but a lot of these guys wish they had the rights and freedoms that we have to own firearms,” he said. “Some countries have outlawed handguns altogether or certain types of ammunition. In Japan, those individuals shoot airsoft or virtual reality guns, so when they get to the competition they have a lot of problems dealing with the recoil of the firearm because they’ve never really shot a centerfire pistol. In the US, anyone who can afford the ammunition can shoot, so you get middle class shooters competing with upper class ones. In other countries, it’s only the upper class individuals that can afford to own firearms. We’re not an elitist society, so I’m very grateful to grow up in the United States.”

Miguez will travel with his family to the competition, which takes place from Nov. 26 through Dec. 3.

“We had to postpone this event due to the pandemic, it was supposed to be in 2020. It’s been five years since I’ve been to an international competition, last time my daughter was just two or three years old. This time, she’ll be able to remember it, so we’re excited.

Miguez will be sending The Daily Iberian daily updates and videos from his competition this year so his supporters back home can cheer him on.

“There’s 1,500 shooters and I’m the only Cajun,” he joked. “I want to bring back a gold medal to Louisiana.”