Is it worth being an Instructor

Knob Creek

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Is it worth it being an Instructor? Between people undercutting and NRA Blending and not Blending Pistol Courses.

I started instructing many years ago. Working to hold classes at a club. Typically the Home Firearms Safety Course was generally $70 for most Instructors. And the Basic Pistol $125. With sometime a reduced rate when taking both.
Now in my area in about a 8 mile radius we have about 6 gun shops offering classes as low as $49 for a three hour course.
It looks like there is a price war going on and classes are being shortened to make more of a profit. Another company is advertising to train more instructors. Do we really need more instructors or is this just a money maker?
At the same time there is talk of Massachusetts moving to require Live Fire for LTC. Most of these Shops and Instructors have no facilities to accomplish this.

Not sure where this is headed.
 
Well NRA just increased the cost of HFS student kits by almost 50%, add shipping and sales tax to it and a single kit cost $18.57. Per unit cost drops if you order enough kits. Most of us have to pay for use of a classroom and use of a range (if you can find facilities that will work with you) . . . clubs that offer classes by the club usually will not let instructors teach there. Yes there are lots of instructors giving away the courses. Running a business is very different than running a hobby at an intentional loss.

If you add up all the costs, it is hard to make any real money teaching unless you have free use of a classroom and range.

There are many instructors cutting corners to make money or giving away classes

Yes MSP is leaning heavily to change things and require live fire. No idea if it will really happen but the rumblings are that way.

Nobody knows what NRA will be doing, but they killed off BP by their recent actions.
 
If you are in it to make money, it can always be worth it. It is like anything in life- you get what you pay for.

If you want to compete with the $49 specials you pack 20 people in a room and bang them out. -20*49= $980

If you want to provide a more comprehensive LTC class, with live fire, personal training, variety of handguns, ammo, eyes, ears etc all supplied, you can certainly charge a rate commensurate with the offering.
6 x 195 = $1,170.
 
, you can certainly charge a rate commensurate with the offering.
The trick is finding customers willing to pay. A huge portion of the market is looking for "quick, convenient, cheap" and is only interested in the sheet of paper they need with their LTC application.

MA Firearms gets a steady stream of students because it is a regular and reliable supplier. Anyone contacting MFS looking for license training will find a course at a convenient time. When they charge premium prices for advanced courses, you get instructors like Robert McQuarrie (swat guy), not a gun hobbyist who spent a weekend getting his instructor's certificate.

Like any other business, success is tough, and takes risk, perseverance and hard work.
 
If you are in it to make money, it can always be worth it. It is like anything in life- you get what you pay for.

If you want to compete with the $49 specials you pack 20 people in a room and bang them out. -20*49= $980

If you want to provide a more comprehensive LTC class, with live fire, personal training, variety of handguns, ammo, eyes, ears etc all supplied, you can certainly charge a rate commensurate with the offering.
6 x 195 = $1,170.

The sad fact is that the majority of people (including most that have no clue what a real gun looks like other than in online games/TV news) go for the $49 special thru GroupOn that bangs them out in 3-4 hours. That is what the MSP is thinking about trying to address.
 
I paid about $250 for my NRA instructor course back in 1987.

It paid for itself tenfold over a few days when I was called to expert witness (I was the designated shooter in a noise test). Best part is I never had to testify - they ran out of time and both sides agreed to stipulate that the test firing was done by me as described by a previous witness. It was like getting paid to not raise hogs.
 
Well NRA just increased the cost of HFS student kits by almost 50%, add shipping and sales tax to it and a single kit cost $18.57. Per unit cost drops if you order enough kits. Most of us have to pay for use of a classroom and use of a range (if you can find facilities that will work with you) . . . clubs that offer classes by the club usually will not let instructors teach there. Yes there are lots of instructors giving away the courses. Running a business is very different than running a hobby at an intentional loss.

If you add up all the costs, it is hard to make any real money teaching unless you have free use of a classroom and range.

There are many instructors cutting corners to make money or giving away classes

Yes MSP is leaning heavily to change things and require live fire. No idea if it will really happen but the rumblings are that way.

Nobody knows what NRA will be doing, but they killed off BP by their recent actions.

Yes, It could be the combination of the NRA making Basic Pistol a undesirable course to teach and more LTC applications just being processed by a heavily discounted Home Firearm Safety only certification could be driving the MSP to make a change.
 
I taught for 8 years, gave it up when the blended learning started. I charged $150 per person, each student shot 50 rounds of .22lr, 24 rnds .38 and 25 rnds of 9mm. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and each student always said they enjoyed the class. Occasionally people seek me out for training, because they have taken a course from an instructor and never fired a gun, others have said they never even got to handle a gun. One person actually told me that the Instructor told the students that he doesn't have anyone handle firearms in the classroom because they don't know what they are doing. This is real scary.
 
The NRA blended learning is a train wreck. Students pay the NRA directly to take the 1st half of the basic class on line. Then "knowing everything" they find a local instructor to "verify knowledge and do live fire training" Although they are working on it there is no quick fix in sight.

Last weekend I became a USCCA instructor and think it is a superior course for people that are looking for more than just the basic requirements. Even their basic course is much more focused on real word. Obviously the USCCA is not a big as the NRA but is well established in the south and mid west.

The best part is the instructor teaches in 100% in the class room so the students don'e show up with attitude they just learned everything on-line so "now just give me the gun and let me shoot".
 
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The NRA blended learning is a train wreck. Students pay the NRA directly to take the 1st half of the basic class on line. Then "knowing everything" they find a local instructor to "verify knowledge and do live fire training" Although they are working on it there is no quick fix in sight.

Last weekend I became a USCCA instructor and think it is a superior course for people that are looking for more than just the basic requirements. Even their basic course is much more focused on real word. Obviously the USCCA is not a big as the NRA but is well established in the south and mid west.

The best part is the instructor teaches in 100% in the class room so the students don'e show up with attitude they just learned everything on-line so "now just give me the gun and let me shoot".

I take it they have a course that fills the requirement for a Mass LTC.
 
The trick is finding customers willing to pay. A huge portion of the market is looking for "quick, convenient, cheap" and is only interested in the sheet of paper they need with their LTC application.

MA Firearms gets a steady stream of students because it is a regular and reliable supplier. Anyone contacting MFS looking for license training will find a course at a convenient time. When they charge premium prices for advanced courses, you get instructors like Robert McQuarrie (swat guy), not a gun hobbyist who spent a weekend getting his instructor's certificate.

Like any other business, success is tough, and takes risk, perseverance and hard work.


I took a class with Robert Mcquarrie at MFS a while back. Great instructor!!
 
I take it they have a course that fills the requirement for a Mass LTC.

The USCCA submitted a BFS packet to MSP last year but it was sent back with every other submittal the SP had. Once the MSP implements their changes to the BFS Instructor Requirements, USCCA should be recognized quickly. This assumption is based on ongoing discussions with MSP.

The USCCA also submitted their packet to the Connecticut SP for approval. After initial reviews, the final addendum is completed and under review for approval with Connecticut SP. The USCCA hopes to receive approval in the very near future for the CT State Pistol Permit Courses. Three individual CT USCCA Instructors have already been approved to use the USCCA Basic Handgun Fundamentals Course by CT SP. USCCA is waiting for the blanket approval from CT SP for any Certified USCCA Instructors to conduct CT Firearms Course.

USCCA is currently recognized by numerous states for firearms licensing/permitting.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/training/

Several local firearms instructors have made the move to becoming USCCA Certified Firearms Instructors. The main reason is being able to be in charge of your class and students, delivering an exceptional firearms training program. The USCCA provides probably the best NTO training courses available. It is geared to the defensive concealed carry student, and not a marksmanship student.

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/classes.asp
https://www.usccainstructors.com
 
Yes, It could be the combination of the NRA making Basic Pistol a undesirable course to teach and more LTC applications just being processed by a heavily discounted Home Firearm Safety only certification could be driving the MSP to make a change.

Nope, not even close. The discussions about changing the requirements started before NRA launched the blended course. I suspect both the NRA blended course and the desire of MSP to change things are mostly driven by complaints of poor training (see #11). Hunter Ed that I took, nobody touched a gun and the legal info given to us was mostly wrong, some could lead to a felony conviction, yet MGL says that PDs are "supposed to" accept it instead of a BFS certificate. The requirements for teaching the law or handing a packet are a joke (see most basic questions here by newbies) and don't serve the student well.


I take it they have a course that fills the requirement for a Mass LTC.

No it doesn't.

From looking at the list of approved courses, almost all are proprietary. There are only 2 easily available to all . . . NRA BP (blended is not actually approved) and NRA HFS, that's it.


If you were an Instructor you'd know the discounts are not worth it. Your comment is not helpful.

So true. I bought my SIRT gun thru Amazon, it was >$20 cheaper than with my NRA "discount". To date (~8 years) I don't think I've found anything cheaper with the NRA Instructor discount than I could get otherwise.
 
Is it worth it being an Instructor? Between people undercutting and NRA Blending and not Blending Pistol Courses.

I started instructing many years ago. Working to hold classes at a club. Typically the Home Firearms Safety Course was generally $70 for most Instructors. And the Basic Pistol $125. With sometime a reduced rate when taking both.
Now in my area in about a 8 mile radius we have about 6 gun shops offering classes as low as $49 for a three hour course.
It looks like there is a price war going on and classes are being shortened to make more of a profit. Another company is advertising to train more instructors. Do we really need more instructors or is this just a money maker?
At the same time there is talk of Massachusetts moving to require Live Fire for LTC. Most of these Shops and Instructors have no facilities to accomplish this.

Not sure where this is headed.


It's a commoditized market. Sell accordingly or get out. (If you're in it for the money you're fighting a losing battle from the start.)
 
If you're an instructor who's not busy enough, you can always volunteer to take you local scout troop to the range to shoot some 22's or skeets :)
 
For all the frustration of price increases and difficulty of having a location to run a course it's totally worth it when someone posts a photo of their first gun thanking you for the course.
 
Watching the confusion on the Officers face when he reads the Course Completion Cert that says:

Fred User certifies that Fred User completed the safety course

is priceless. I've saved hundreds in discounts offered to certified instructors, for instance Crimson Trace sells grips to instructors for darn near half price.
 
I am and they are. Yes they can be a hassle and some are not huge discounts but there are some nice discounts out there.

I should have been clearer. I didn't mean they were by themselves not worth it. I meant it is not worth it to become an Instructor just to get them.
 
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