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Concealed Carry course

December 16th, 2006 by Double Tap

I took a Concealed Carried Weapons (CCW) class today, and it really was a positive experience. I highly recommend it to any gun owner, if your state offers that type of class.

I had taken the class because as I said before, carrying a pistol on my hip - 18 hours a day for a year in Iraq - I gained a greater appreciation for being armed in potentially dangerous situations. Even on the FOB, there were enough shady characters around (locals working at the base) that I was always watching my surroundings.

Each state varies in what is required to be taught, but the cool thing is that several states have reciprocity, or honor each other’s CCW permits. For example, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Ohio and South Dakota all have reciprocity with their permits. The Arizona permit is also honored by law enforcement in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and many other states. The website Packing.org has full details for each state.

Items taught in the class included:

  • Safety, cleaning, and storage of weapons
  • Pistol and handgun selection - reliability, caliber, comfort, concealment, firepower, and cost all being factors. The big item there was reliability, which meant cost was going to be more (beware $25 pieces of crap).
  • Bullets you should be using - remember, you are shooting to kill here - penetration and diameter were important factors (instructor recommended 9mm Parabellum as a minimum and I agree with him). Generally, all things being equal, the heavier the bullet, the deeper the penetration. They even had a good video demonstrating effectiveness and penetration for various calibers, plus the research on real incidents to back it up.
  • Mental conditioning - awareness of your surroundings (the four color codes), and how to act in different scenarios
  • Deadly force - when you can legally use it, and when you can’t. By the way, we were instructed, “Once you start shooting, don’t stop until your magazine is empty - and then reload and prepare to shoot again.” Update - The reason you keep shooting, as illustrated to us in class with many case histories, is that most people do not die right away from gunshot. It’s not like in the movies where the bad guys drop immediately after being shot. In many cases, the bad guy has lived long enough after being shot to kill his shooter. Also, most people don’t feel any pain at the time of traumatic injury. The pain only comes after about 10 minutes.
  • Some very basic tactics - move to cover, prepare for the attack, if justified unload on them (seriously), never reload except behind cover or concealment, always use an authoritative voice.
  • How to deal with the police - so you don’t have them perceive you as a threat, and to protect your own rights
  • When you can or can’t carry - concealed or not, to include traveling across the country

We were also required to fire 10 rounds into a square, about a foot wide, from about 7 yards, and then back around 15 yards (I can’t remember the exact distances), using our own pistols. That proved to be an interesting event. Several people had brought one of those aforementioned $25 pieces of crap and had a difficult time of it, with several jams. One guy kept doing stupid stuff, was warned once, and then proceeded to do it again. He was kicked off the range and didn’t complete the class - $119 fee down the drain.

The demographics of my class were rather interesting. Of the 30 in the class, there was a single Black man, and maybe one or two Hispanics. There were only three women, and they appeared to be with their husbands or boyfriends. The rest were all White males. As far as financial status, the best I could tell from the cars in the parking lot was that there were three or four rich guys or couples (two brand new Corvettes), one beater truck, and the rest looked like something your typical middle-class man would drive. As far as age, it ranged from lower 20s to mid-60s.

Speaking of wives, by the time the class was nearing its end, I was wishing I had brought my wife in on this class too. The level of knowledge imparted in the short 8-hour block would have been very beneficial to her as a potential gun owner or shooter - the legal aspects of defending oneself especially. Even if someone didn’t care about carrying concealed, the class still would have been very good.

How did I do in the class? Well, I shot a perfect score on the range and got 100% on the written test. Not that big a deal, considering I’m a fairly experienced shooter. Believe me, some of those people were lucky to get anywhere near their target.

So, a good day - especially because I got to shoot my new Springfield! By the way, if you are considering purchasing a pistol, I have been impressed so far with my XD in .45 ACP. It handles well, holds 13 of those big bullets in a magazine, shot a tight little group - and that with inexpensive ammunition, didn’t hardly kick, and had several other improvements over the typical Glock (which is still a very good weapon).

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2 Responses to “Concealed Carry course”

  1. CatWommn, on December 18th, 2006 at 4:22 pm Said:

    What a great post. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this up.

  2. DoubleTap, on December 18th, 2006 at 5:34 pm Said:

    My pleasure, and again, I think every gun owner should take one of these classes.

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