Concealed carrying is a marriage of mindset, safety, and skills. Although the NRA course spends time talking about safety, the other two are severely neglected. Having a permit and handgun imparts no knowledge by themselves, only a sense of false confidence if you don't train beyond that.
A handgun fight is an ugly, brutal affair. You're going to be at extreme close range with your assailant(s) and can expect to take a bullet in the exchange. You also need to understand that you will be accountable for every round you send downrange.
I'm probably going to step on some toes, but I'm of the opinion that the basic CCW course doesn't go far enough to create competent shooters. Quite the opposite, I think it creates a population of overly confident gun owners who think they have all the training they need. They will probably never shoot more than a few boxes of handgun ammo in a static setting in their lifetimes.
Years ago, I took the basic course in CT. We spent 2-3 hours covering the firearm and range safety. We then proceeded to the range next door and emptied a magazine or two. I was then signed off and became legal to carry. I never did, btw.
Last year, my wife and I started shooting on a serious basis and took a more advanced handgun class. It was an 8 hour affair that covered the NRA basics in the morning session and was a repeat of what I'd done 15 years prior. But then moved well beyond that after lunch. We shot about 400 rounds from retention, while moving, from cover, and, as a final drill, from a car. The entire time you were yelled at and always felt a step behind. The idea was to put stress on you to make the training feel more realistic. I have to say that I didn't like it at the time, but later grew to appreciate the training value of that level of intensity.
I think this, at a minimum, should be what's required in order to carry a handgun.
With the current bar being much lower, I think there's too many people lacking fundamental skills who are a liability to themselves and potentially others around them if the shooting starts.
A handgun fight is an ugly, brutal affair. You're going to be at extreme close range with your assailant(s) and can expect to take a bullet in the exchange. You also need to understand that you will be accountable for every round you send downrange.
I'm probably going to step on some toes, but I'm of the opinion that the basic CCW course doesn't go far enough to create competent shooters. Quite the opposite, I think it creates a population of overly confident gun owners who think they have all the training they need. They will probably never shoot more than a few boxes of handgun ammo in a static setting in their lifetimes.
Years ago, I took the basic course in CT. We spent 2-3 hours covering the firearm and range safety. We then proceeded to the range next door and emptied a magazine or two. I was then signed off and became legal to carry. I never did, btw.
Last year, my wife and I started shooting on a serious basis and took a more advanced handgun class. It was an 8 hour affair that covered the NRA basics in the morning session and was a repeat of what I'd done 15 years prior. But then moved well beyond that after lunch. We shot about 400 rounds from retention, while moving, from cover, and, as a final drill, from a car. The entire time you were yelled at and always felt a step behind. The idea was to put stress on you to make the training feel more realistic. I have to say that I didn't like it at the time, but later grew to appreciate the training value of that level of intensity.
I think this, at a minimum, should be what's required in order to carry a handgun.
With the current bar being much lower, I think there's too many people lacking fundamental skills who are a liability to themselves and potentially others around them if the shooting starts.
Is the NRA Basic CCW course setting people up for failure?
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