Instructor License

[SUB-ZERO]

Hello all,

I'm considering getting licensed as a firearms instructor here in sunny California. For those of you who know, or who are instructors already, is the licensing process the same for us as it is for civilians?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[JP1805]

Hello all,

I'm considering getting a licensed as a firearms instructor in in sunny California. For those of you who know, or who are instructors already, is the licensing process the same for us as it is for civilians?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Your question is a little unclear. What kind of firearm instructor license/certification do you wish to obtain? An NRA licensed instructor? A California Peace Officers Standards and Training (CA POST) certification?

Also, who and what exactly do you want to teach? Civilians? Military? Cops? CCW courses? Basic shooting skills? Security Guard firearms courses? Police firearms courses?

Let us know the answers to those questions and I can probably help you out or at least point you in the right direction. I am a certified NRA Pistol and Shotgun Instructor, CA POST Firearms Instructor, and a California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (CA BSIS) Firearms Instructor.

[hermosabeach]

TJ in Orange County trains NRA instructors

https://www.allsafedefense.com/

Most POST classes require the instructor to be POST certified / LEO


Many civilian instructors don’t have a Instructors license.

They have the experience and started teaching

NRA makes available an insurance policy but you have to follow 100% of their program. Anything done beyond their material and the policy will not cover you

[SUB-ZERO]

Your question is a little unclear. What kind of firearm instructor license/certification do you wish to obtain? An NRA licensed instructor? A California Peace Officers Standards and Training (CA POST) certification?

Also, who and what exactly do you want to teach? Civilians? Military? Cops? CCW courses? Basic shooting skills? Security Guard firearms courses? Police firearms courses?

Let us know the answers to those questions and I can probably help you out or at least point you in the right direction. I am a certified NRA Pistol and Shotgun Instructor, CA POST Firearms Instructor, and a California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (CA BSIS) Firearms Instructor.

Thanks for your response to my post.

I want to obtain the most appropriate firearm instructor license/certification so that I can teach civilians basic handling/shooting skills and legal restrictions/ramifications in California (I'm not 100% certain certification which would be most appropriate for my goals). At this point, I do not have interest in teaching CCW, Security Guard firearms, or Police firearms courses. But that may change down the road.

If I may provide some background: I'm in the Army Reserve and I've always had an interest in all things military and weapons related, and so I've been fairly comfortable with firearms for some time now.

A few of my close buddies recently inquired about becoming first time gun owners, and as I've been passing on my knowledge and experience to help them make informed decisions, I'm getting more interested in teaching this subject to others.

A few of these friends and I are heading to a basic pistol course at Burro later this month. As I've been researching the subject, it's become apparent to me that those who are unfamiliar with guns are more unfamiliar with guns than I expected.

I think there's a thick curtain between the reality of firearms, and folks who are new to guns. Kind of like cars. There's a pretty vast knowledge/skill gap between people who know cars vs. people who just drive them. And however gun laws go in our state, the current situation is that we live in a society with people (law-abiding and non-law-abiding) who have guns.

Arming my friends with more knowledge about guns and all that's involved with guns has gotten me interested in sharing this skillset with others who may want to understand more, but are apprehensive about it at first.


Any help in pointing me in the right direction is very much appreciated.

[SUB-ZERO]

TJ in Orange County trains NRA instructors

https://www.allsafedefense.com/

Thanks for this resource. I think I will sign up for some of these courses here. And it's local to boot. Appreciate it.

[JP1805]

Thanks for your response to my post.

I want to obtain the most appropriate firearm instructor license/certification so that I can teach civilians basic handling/shooting skills and legal restrictions/ramifications in California (I'm not 100% certain certification which would be most appropriate for my goals). At this point, I do not have interest in teaching CCW, Security Guard firearms, or Police firearms courses. But that may change down the road.

If I may provide some background: I'm a Sergeant in the Army Reserve and I've always had an interest in all things military and weapons related, and so I've been fairly comfortable with firearms for some time now.

A few of my close buddies recently inquired about becoming first time gun owners, and as I've been passing on my knowledge and experience to help them make informed decisions, I'm getting more interested in teaching this subject to others.

A few of these friends and I are heading to a basic pistol course at Burro later this month. As I've been researching the subject, it's become apparent to me that those who are unfamiliar with guns are more unfamiliar with guns than I expected.

I think there's a thick curtain between the reality of firearms, and folks who are new to guns. Kind of like cars. There's a pretty vast knowledge/skill gap between people who know cars vs. people who just drive them. And however gun laws go in our state, the current situation is that we live in a society with people (law-abiding and non-law-abiding) who have guns.

Arming my friends with more knowledge about guns and all that's involved with guns has gotten me interested in sharing this skillset with others who may want to understand more, but are apprehensive about it at first.


Any help in pointing me in the right direction is very much appreciated.

Based on what and who you want to instruct then NRA Instructor is the route you want to go. Hermosabeach gave you a link to TJ Johnson. I attended three of his NRA instructor courses and can vouch that TJ is an excellent instructor and his classes are top notch.

[code_blue]

Unless you're operating as a formal, professional instructor requiring licensing certifications don't mean anything. I'm sure that many of the folks who have been around for a while understand that there are good instructors with certs and really, really bad/FUD instructors with certs.

NRA certs are all money. BSIS is all money. POST certs have their own politics behind them. You're in the military, so you understand that the quals for all of these cater to the lowest skill set at the bare minimum score needed to pass. It's arbitrary and gives students a false sense of skill level.

Where you will excel is if you use those credentials to instruct beyond the basics or regurgitated information of other instructors. There are still instructors that teach "don't modify your weapons or you will be prosecuted" to their students. Some still teach the squat and poop variant of isosceles. The good ol, "Do what I say because of muh certifications" vs explaining the pros and cons and helping the students to find out what works for them as individual shooters.

Anyways, the point is use the certs as a tool but never as the authority. Be data driven and continue to evolve. Some of the best instructors and shooters out there don't have officially recognized certs, so we must be humble in remembering that certs don't make us hot sauce.