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As many of you know, I've been active in a handgun shooting club for a few years. The club, Doubletap Shooters, was started by my friend Rick a number of years ago as a way to provide inexpensive additional training to his Concealed Carry students. (In most states, including the one I live in, you can get your CCW license with relatively little to no training. The shooting test here in NM is a joke. I've seen people pass the test who should not be allowed near firearms.) That said, we go to the range monthly (or at least we did pre-COVID) to get training from Rick (former Army Ranger and police officer) and run through a variety of practical defensive shooting drills. We're a pretty tight-knit group of friends who have fun and play safely. It's not a competitive thing, but more about personal improvement. Members range from college kids to doctors, current and former cops, bikers, musicians, and even a judge. Not all of the members of the club are former students of Rick's (including me...I got my training from someone else), and a few members have not yet gotten their CCW license. Over the last few years, several of us members have been more and more active in helping Rick, as either Range Safety Officers, Range Masters, or both. I'm quite often tasked with helping out the less-experienced members as a one-on-one coach and safety monitor.
Due to COVID, the club has been inactive since the first of March, and during this time off Rick has decided he'd like to step down as the leader of the club to be able to spend more time working on a book about his adventures in Vietnam and as a police officer. He turned 70 this year and the COVID shutdown allowed him to finally realize how relaxing retirement can be. (He's still teaching weekly karate lessons and running a worldwide karate society in his spare time, lol.) One of the requirements for the club to shoot at the public or private ranges here is that the club must be led by a state-licensed firearms instructor. Long story short, I stepped up to take over the club, and have started the process to get my state license to teach Concealed Carry and other firearms classes. Since it's for the club's benefit, my training has been paid for by the club, but I'll also be able to offer concealed carry classes on the side as a way to make a bit of supplemental income.
This weekend I spent two very info-packed days taking the USCCA Concealed Carry and Home Defense Instructor course. Rick is a certified NRA instructor, but he and I both like the curriculum and materials that the USCCA provides better than what the NRA offers. I did 12 hours of classroom learning, and spent 4 hours at the range doing live fire training and qualification shooting. As a prerequisite to the course, I also had to complete 8 hours of online training. I had a great instructor and even though I consider myself pretty experienced, I learned a lot of good stuff. I'm now certified by USCCA to teach Handgun Basics, Home Defense, or Concealed Carry classes. The next step is to get licensed by the State of New Mexico to teach those courses, but since the USCCA curriculum is already approved by the state, the licensing procedure is mostly an administrative process at this point. Within the next month or so, I should have my license in hand and be able to officially take over the club and also start teaching lessons.
All in all, this should be the start of a very interesting new chapter for me.
Due to COVID, the club has been inactive since the first of March, and during this time off Rick has decided he'd like to step down as the leader of the club to be able to spend more time working on a book about his adventures in Vietnam and as a police officer. He turned 70 this year and the COVID shutdown allowed him to finally realize how relaxing retirement can be. (He's still teaching weekly karate lessons and running a worldwide karate society in his spare time, lol.) One of the requirements for the club to shoot at the public or private ranges here is that the club must be led by a state-licensed firearms instructor. Long story short, I stepped up to take over the club, and have started the process to get my state license to teach Concealed Carry and other firearms classes. Since it's for the club's benefit, my training has been paid for by the club, but I'll also be able to offer concealed carry classes on the side as a way to make a bit of supplemental income.
This weekend I spent two very info-packed days taking the USCCA Concealed Carry and Home Defense Instructor course. Rick is a certified NRA instructor, but he and I both like the curriculum and materials that the USCCA provides better than what the NRA offers. I did 12 hours of classroom learning, and spent 4 hours at the range doing live fire training and qualification shooting. As a prerequisite to the course, I also had to complete 8 hours of online training. I had a great instructor and even though I consider myself pretty experienced, I learned a lot of good stuff. I'm now certified by USCCA to teach Handgun Basics, Home Defense, or Concealed Carry classes. The next step is to get licensed by the State of New Mexico to teach those courses, but since the USCCA curriculum is already approved by the state, the licensing procedure is mostly an administrative process at this point. Within the next month or so, I should have my license in hand and be able to officially take over the club and also start teaching lessons.
All in all, this should be the start of a very interesting new chapter for me.
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