He's gonna have the range time in prior to taking the online course. Just because he doesn't have his permit yet doesn't mean he's inexperienced with firearms. As far as we know, he may be a world class shooter with more range time than any of us. One shouldn't assume he's a noob to shooting and firearms handling.
I don't see how the online course would be a waste of money. When I took my MN course, I shot a total of 8 rds through my 1911 and was done. The majority of the 8-hr class was just basic self defense law review. Informative? Yeah, but I can find the same, if not better, info online by going to the source.
I agree one needs to practice as much as possible AFTER they get the permit. However, a person shouldn't have to spend hours on the range just to prove they can hit a paper target in order to get a permit. But if you're gonna take carrying a weapon as serious as one should, then you need to hit the range often and practice real world drills, not just bullseye shooting.
My opinion, which doesn't mean much, is that you should do the online course if it's a legit course. Cheaper and more convenient for you. Good luck, and welcome. It's always good to hear of another law abiding citizen carrying a gun!
Thanks for that, oh I agree there on what you say.
I have never owned or used a firearm before, in fact when I went to the local gunshop to preview and chat with the owner before getting my acquire permit, I asked about a class. He said he used to teach law enforcement in the police dept, but that he doesn't teach classes to the public due to the insurance costs. So I asked about another instructor and he didn't know of any around here in rural NW Iowa town of 1,800 and actually had suggested that I might have to just go to the range and shoot/practice that way.
I said and thought, that doing that is a lot like learning how to drive a tractor trailer by watching a youtube video- looks easy in the video, but when it's you behind the wheel trying to back up a double trailer into a narrow loading dock with cars parked on either side, it's a whole other ballgame!
I had to search around and then called the sheriffs dept where I got the permit, and they gave me Jamie Buenting's number to call. I found he has a web site and offers several different classes, including one for women only, defensive-in the home etc. Only the basic class seems to be held on a Saturday but at this time it's scheduled for this Saturday and I was the only registrant as of a week ago in a class limited to 10 students. So if there's not enough for the class this week, he said he has another basic class 2 weeks later and it's only a little further away, about a 40 minute drive.
So one or the other, I will have the hour classroom and 4 hours on the range to start with.
To clear up a few things, this gun is going to mainly be for home defense, I thought as long as it's a simple matter to get a carry permit- just one more short form and a class, that I would go for it mainly with an eye on things such as if I take the gun to a range in my car and I have a carry permit, it's going to be better as I won't have to go thru the lockup, separate the ammo into the trunk my car doesn't have, and such steps I otherwise would if I didn't have the permit.
Then if I WANTED to carry it or take it somewhere other than places where guns are banned, I could without legal worries.
I'm not going to be packing heat at work, on the subway, at the ballgame or something like that, I live in a tiny town of 1,800 people, I don't "do" alcohol/bars, hunting, sports and I live alone so no worries about a kid getting into the gun.
Long story short, I DO have a screwball stalker in another state who is presently in jail on parole violations (real long story trust me!) the guy blames me (and everyone but himself) for his problems, and me for my having reported his activities some 13 years ago to the police which resulted in his world caving in around him. His wife divorced him. he lost his million dollar house and everything else, mostly from stock market hits.
Back then he had a lot of money- talking millions, and he hired a PI to get all of my info- name, address, workplace, unlisted number, SS#, DOB, photos of the outside of my house taken from a vehicle on the road, all of that and distributed it among his drug and other shady buddies on-line and urged them to "pay him a visit." He posted a similar thing on a wierd web site- after my work was featured in a major newspaper he put a link up to the article.
He was busted on major drug hauling charges and got the sweetest sweetheart deal of a lifetime, then blew that and went back for 3 years on parole violations.
I'd since changed my name in court, but before that and his last arrest he had continued sending me harassing anonymous emails, and messages thru youtube's system etc. calling me at work or trying to and leaving messages with the secretary from "an old friend" with a bogus phone number. Nothing making actual threats that are actionable, but still, unwanted contacts and he says he will never forget. The guy is an expert on shielding his ip, using proxies and covering himself, but he still had made careless mistakes over the years and I have a complete dossier on him. Myself and a group of people are monitoring his every action that we can.
He gets out of prison in Nov, and while I doubt the guy would ever show up on my doorstep, he or one of his drug cartel buddies COULD, and rather than being a sitting duck if they did, I got the firearm and I'm going to get ready for anything that might come down the pike so to speak.
I may acquire a small easily concealable gun to carry, but it would have to be small, out of sight and not on my person as I work, but would be good for the returning home to an empty house phase at the end of the day. My house is somewhat isolated in that there's no other houses within 300 feet on the edge of town, and most of the rest is 40 acres of hayfields.
