It would not surprise me to see the State step in and start a whole new ball game. Instead of NRA Certified Instructors there could be MA Certified Instructors with a separate curriculum and shooting requirements. We don't need this NRA bull $hit in MA.
Better look again. NRA Basic Pistol and NRA Home Firearm Safety are only two of >20 acceptable courses. Some of those courses were developed by the state institutions. Simply dropping one as no longer acceptable won't have any impact on the LTC process.
Okay...... So I've seen this anti-online stuff before (all from people currently teaching classes.... sounds like a friggin' teacher's union).
From people who DO NOT teach firearms classes: Why is this a bad idea? I'm in CT and was forced to take a class 25 years go to exercise a constitutional right. I resented it then, and I resent it now. If one has no choice but to take a bullshit government mandated class what the hell is wrong with taking it online and not having to waste time/gas to attend a physical class? I don't see a problem!
The problem that some of us see is firearms safety in handling in particular and that the student has a proper attitude (e.g. takes gun handling seriously, isn't talking jihad or revenge, etc.) and actually knows how to load/unload a gun (dummy ammo) prior to heading to the range. If we don't see that, many of us don't feel comfortable meeting them for the first time at the range. [In MA you can't possess a gun prior to getting a LTC, thus they usually don't have the opportunity to handle, load/unload a gun (with dummy ammo) prior to meeting up FTF with an instructor. Not true in other states, however.]
- I just had a student last week who wanted an opportunity to shoot some guns. He had taken a non-shooting course previously. I spent 1/2 hour going over basic safety, using a blue gun, etc. prior to walking out on the range with him.
- Thus I predict that many of us more responsible instructors will take more time to ensure basic safety has sunk in prior to allowing the student to shoot. That will add additional time and expense to a student.
- After they pay NRA $50 or so for the online course, their expectation may be that the live portion shouldn't cost very much and the total cost may seem very high to them (even though it probably won't be much different than what they had to pay before). When we have to pay a $$/student range use fee, ammo costs (never mind chasing .22LR ammo), cost of firearms and repairs to same, cost of insurance (not one of my 4 clubs would ever protect you from liability even if you did it for free or for the club), etc. . . . very few that do it right make any real money. Only the money mill schools are making money teaching firearms courses.
I do not understand the hatred by many wrt instructors charging money for work done? I'll assume everyone here works for a living (or is retired from same) and gets paid for the work that they do. In general you are protected from liability working for a corporation and doing your job and your exposure to liability is quite limited. When it comes to teaching someone to shoot, if anything ever goes wrong at ANY TIME, the instructor can expect to get dragged into court and pay many thousands of dollars to defend themselves even if they didn't charge for their work. NRA won't defend them and 3 of the 4 gun clubs I've belonged to over the past 38 years don't even have insurance to cover officers/board members, never mind covering instructors! All three of them operated on ~$20K/year budgets and usually didn't have more than 2-3x that in their treasury (to pay lawyers or judgments). If one wants to work for nothing and risk their home, savings account, etc. more power to them . . . but expecting everyone to do so is a bit over the top.
Personally I prefer teaching more advanced shooters the Personal Protection courses, which won't qualify them for a LTC. I also find less risk in doing so, even though almost every class has had at least one student perform unsafe acts as they moved with their gun in hand . . . but they accepted correction and understood why it was a problem.
I am very much in favor of training but also very much NOT in favor of gov't mandates for training.
![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
