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Originally Posted by TCRSO
My wife and I are NRA Training Counselors (A TC trains and certifies NRA Instructors), Chief Range Safety Officers (train and certifies NRA Range Safety Officers) and NRA Instructors. We have taught thousands of people in Concealed Carry classes. The reality is very few people will attend any training class unless required to to get a concealed carry permit. We support the idea that there should be no limitation on the right of a citizen to carry a firearm. However, please know when you can legally use a firearm in self defense. In teaching CCH classes, we would give students a factual scenario (based on cases in which the shooter was charged with murder) and then asked (by show of hands) those who that the shooting legally justified and those who thought it was not. Even after a three hour presentation on the law of self defense, most continued to misunderstand when they could use deadly force. Everyone please teach yourself or take a course in the use of deadly force. You don't want to get it wrong and end up in prison.
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Excellent post, and I certainly applaud and support the positive things that the NRA is doing, and has done, to make gun owners more cognizant of the risks of ownership as well as how to handle firearms in a safe, responsible manner. One effort worthy of mention is the NRA "Eddie Eagle" program; the only ongoing program that I know of that teaches young children what to do if they find a gun. As I understand it the training materials for this program are available online and are also available to any school that wants to teach it.
I take some exception to the supposition "The reality is very few people will attend any training class unless required to to get a concealed carry permit." There are undoubtedy such folks out there. However gun safety training is something that very many learn in an ongoing manner. From my own experience, I and my siblings grew up with guns. Dad was a collector as well as an amateur gunsmith. He knew guns and how they worked better than just about anyone, and my siblings and I learned early on not just to shoot, but how to handle guns (all types) in a safe, responsible manner. I rarely recall dad getting angry at any of us for any reason, but one incident that stands out vividly in my mind was the time deer hunting as a 17-year-old I neglected to clear the chamber of my rifle before climbing over a fence. I knew better, and deserved the lecture I got. Additionally many if not most of the schools back then (60s and 70s) offered gun safety training as an elective for any student who cared to access it, and just about all of us did, plus hunting and target shooting was something that was routinely engaged in, now as well as then. Of course, the point about many not knowing the law when it comes to self-defense is valid, but when I took my first permit-to-carry class (Minnesota, about 20 years ago) much if not most of what was taught I already knew. As did many if not most of my contempories. And to be honest, a short class can teach only so much.
I would also add that a constitutionally guaranteed right should not require any training in order to exercise it. "Right" is only one side of the coin. The other side reads "responsibility". No right exists apart from the duty to exercise it responsibly. Freedom of speech, (to use a well-worn example) does not allow any of us to yell "Fire!!) in a crowded theater, or to verbally threaten anyone. "But it was my RIGHT" would not impress many judges in such cases.
Responsible Americans take the exercise of ALL rights seriously. Yes, mistakes will be made. But the possibility of making a mistake as a reason for witholding a right flies directly against the spirit of the Constitution. I don't know who said it first, but (in paraphrase) "those who sacrifice a little freedom for a little security shall in the end have neither freedom nor security" says it best.