A bit of a slide while waiting for the show to begin...
I recently attended a CCW class in AZ. FWIW- AZ is a Constitutional carry state, therefore one does not need to obtain any kind of permit to carry open or concealed.
Because of a recent cross-country trip from AZ to DC, I traveled through NM, TX, OK, AR, TN, VA, and the awful district of disfunction. I will not confirm nor deny whether I was armed. All of the “STATES” that I passed through, share reciprocity with AZ regarding concealed carry. For this reason, and the fact that there are other states sharing reciprocity with AZ, 38 states in total, I elected to attend a CCW class.
The cost was $65 for the instructions and class time, and $60 for administrative costs to the AZ Dept. of Public Safety.
The time spent in class was 90 minutes- amounting to one hour of instruction and 30 minutes of fingerprinting and filling out paperwork.
The instructor used a slide show of do’s and don’ts and pitched some typical scenarios and some weird tricky scenarios involving self-defense by the use of a firearm.
He also had an airsoft gun that he discharged several times, even pointing the gun at some of the students and discharging it on at least 2 occasions while pointing the gun at them, which I found to be completely contrary to any gun safety rules I’ve ever heard quoted or written down in word form.
Towards the end of the class, the instructor remarked several times that he needed to wrap up because he was out of time and needed to be back inside the gun store next door to the classroom. This meant that he had spent too much time jaw jacking on scenarios and interacting verbally with the students as they gave their sometimes long-winded answers to the scenarios that he had pitched to them, leaving several teaching slides that were part of the syllabus uncovered.
In hindsight and for comparison, the oldest memories that I can recall of original CCW classes involved 16 hours of training over 2 days, with the time equally divided between the range and the classroom.
While the class was not a total waste of time, I would say that it was reduced to a mass-production factory cranking out widgets for a quick profit.
I would recommend a CCW class, primarily for the benefits of reciprocity with 38 other states, but I would not recommend the particular firearms training class that I attended due to the lack of professionalism displayed by the instructor. I give it a C- grade at best.
If you are in the metro Phoenix area and want to know the name of the gun store that I speak of, in order to avoid it, private reply to me via the internal mail system of FR.
" which I found to be completely contrary to any gun safety rules I’ve ever heard or read. " quoted or written down in word form. "
Licensing a Right is an oxymoron. And you’re out the $65.00 as well as exposing yourself on another government data base. Having the permit reeks of premeditation should you resort to your god given Right. No Thank you.
Enforce the Bill of Rights .........It is the LAW.
C-
That’s sad.