On training requirements for license holders in the state:
Recent complaints to state officials pointed out that almost anyone who wants to carry a handgun to the movies, mall or church can do so. The shortcomings they cited include training that allows firing bullets without gunpowder, and passing students for merely pulling the trigger once or twice without ever loading or unloading a handgun.
Quickie permit classes had become so common, the National Rifle Association threatened this month to fire any NRA-certified instructor who didn’t use real guns to teach students in Florida.
Here in Pennsylvania, we don’t have any training requirement, so pretty clearly we must have innocent bystanders and children being shot on a regular basis, right? Second, NRA is just the certifying body. Instructors are not employees. NRA could revoke their credentials, but not fire them.
Shoddy training became an issue this month, more than a year after a retired military officer first complained to Gov. Charlie Crist about classes at gun shows.
“You can only train a corpse in 3 hours,” Col. James K. Otto Sr., an NRA instructor from North Florida, wrote to the governor. “Our NRA certified instructors take 3 days to a week to make sure their students not only know the law but also know how to handle firearms and ammunition safely with at least a half day firing at a local range.”
And no doubt this guy wants Florida to mandate a longer training course, which he so generously offers, at a fairly high price, I’m guessing. It doesn’t take long to teach someone to be reasonably competent with a pistol. It can be done in 3 hours, which includes going over relevant law. I’ve rarely encountered a new shooter who can’t shoot well enough to defend themselves if given the fundamentals. You don’t have to be a marksman to defend yourself. Most encounters happen in under 5 yards.
Hammer, a former NRA president and one of the state’s most powerful lobbyists, alerted NRA national headquarters. Within days, every NRA-certified instructor in Florida was warned they would lose their credentials for not using real guns with real bullets in class.
They should be cracking down on people who aren’t allowing students live fire. That is not up to NRA standards for training, and those people should lose their certifications if they are doing it. But it doesn’t point to a problem with Florida law.
“In Florida, where you’re permitting them to legally carry a loaded, hidden handgun in a crowded situation where people may be running all over the place and then you’re expecting them with no training to hit their mark — that’s crazy,” said Brian Malte, the [Brady Campaign’s] director of state legislation and politics. “Law-enforcement officers . . . miss their mark 80 percent of the time even after all the training they get.”
Cops who are good shots are good shots because they take their trade seriously, and train on their own. The same with CCL holders. The training is not meant to make people competent marksmen, it’s meant to give them a start. Competent marksmanship only comes with practice.