I suspect that things have changed enough in recent months that the typical CHL seeker has much less experience than ever before. I do agree that the classroom portion is arbitrarily long, but many of today's CHL seekers need more than the required 2 hours of range training. In fact, I've talked with a lot of instructors in the past few months after deciding to get my CHL, and in many classes in my area roughly 50% are teachers these days. At least half of them have at most fired a handgun once under someone's direct supervision (husband or SO usually) or have never fired a handgun before ever. Many of the others in the classes bought their handgun specifically for the class in the weeks preceding and have put at most a box of ammo through it, and for many of them it is also their first experience with a firearm. And in talking with the instructors they all agreed that most of their students are not inclined to get any more training than the class provided.whoownsyou wrote: I have yet to meet anybody who has a CHL or shown interest in acquiring one that wasn't already either versed in basic firearms competency or immediately surrounded themselves with such individuals, increasing their own knowledge well beyond the scope of the required courses.
After thinking about my own recent training class, I had to wonder: how many of you actually got 2 hours of range training as a part of your CHL class - split in some reasonable way between actual shooting and instruction or advice about the fundamentals (grip, stance, etc.)? I don't mean 1-on-1 constant supervised training in the form of shooting drills, etc., but enough supervision to make the training worthwhile? Those of you who teach, how many actually give each student 2 hours of range training?
I ask because it wasn't that way in my class, nor has it been for anyone else I know who has gotten their CHL in the past couple of years. For me, it consisted of 2 instructors for a class of 30. We had 2 hours of the 12 set aside for range training, but it was split into two sessions of 15 people each session so tops 1 hour for each student. No actual instruction happened unless you were obviously fumbling around (in my session, the guy who got cut by the slide on his semi-auto and the lady that literally missed the silhouette entirely with the first 20+ rounds at 15 feet got all of the instructors' attention). And if you "qualified" in your first 50 rounds (I still don't know what that really meant, the instructor looked at our targets and all but two people were told they qualified but there were several that looked pretty questionable to me!), you were done in less than half that time so *maybe* 30 minutes. If you wanted, you could continue to shoot for the remaining 30 minutes of the slot (which I did) but even then, max was less than an hour, and total of 100 rounds.
For me, it wasn't really a problem - I put enough lead downrange each year to keep me proficient with all of my firearms but for many in my class what we received was woefully inadequate, certainly it was inadequate from the standpoint of satisfying the requirements of the law. And this wasn't an el cheapo no-name instructor/class, this was a supposedly well-regarded instructor recommended by at least two ranges and two LGS in my area.
What about you? Tell me your experience as a student or trainer. If you do not want your name attached to the post, PM me and I'll post it as an anonymous submission in the thread.
Mods, if this belongs somewhere else due to the potential sensitivity of the topic, feel free to move or even remove it if warranted (though I wouldn't mind a PM if you do).
Just a (Curious) Shooter