I am considering trying to become an NRA certified handgun instructor. I am in the military, I have been around the military since I was 10, and my wife comes from a military family. While I would promote the Second Amendment and firearms training to all responsible citizens, my ultimate hope would be to provide affordable or even free handgun training to military spouses in my area. I know that it gives me peace of mind to know that my wife is proficient with firearms and could use one to defend herself if I was on deployment and this is what I want for all military families.
I’m hoping to get some feed back on a couple of things from NRA instructors that are members of this forum. How much freedom do you have as an NRA instructor to conduct your own courses? Do you have to coordinate them through NRA headquarters? Can you conduct classes at a range of your choice? Do you have a lot of freedom in developing your own curriculum?
I’m not looking to conduct a high-speed tactical class or anything. I just want to give a crash course on the basics of handguns, get people proficient with their firearms of choice, get people over their fears and misconceptions about firearms, and promote the Second Amendment. I’ll probably think of some more questions later. Thanks in advance for the help.
When you say “your own courses”, you have plenty of freedom as long as you are teaching an NRA course from the NRA curriculum. If you want to teach a modified version of an NRA course that is a no go. You cannot attach the NRA name to something that is not NRA affiliated.
You can conduct a course yourself, but it would make sense to act as an assistant instructor first a few times. Also, the NRA likes a very high student/instructor ratio.
The NRA Pistol Instructor course material was pretty good, I thought.
You’re pretty much on your own. You can have them put your name in a registry for people seeking training through the NRA website for example, but there is no one looking over your shoulder when you’re teaching. I have no clue how they resolve issues with people that they’ve received complaints about deviating from the curriculum. They want to keep pretty tight control over what’s talked about in their name for liabilities sake of course. During bathroom breaks or after the class is when you might humor an off topic question. Well not necessarily off topic, but out of the realm of the curriculum. That being said it’s ok to have, more oriented towards those who haven’t laid hands on a firearm before than HSLD types. But everyone has to start somewhere and it has value to those requiring it as a big name for their insurance companies.
My Father been a NRA Instructor for like 8 years now at the range at one of our local private school. Ive never heard of NRA personel overseeing and i myslef was in the small bore rifle class form 3rd to 12th grade. The one thing I do remember him saying when he got certified was weeding the military types off the term “weapon”. He liked the instructor cert tho. He really likes it having a positive influence on kids and is a machinist, so he fiddles alot with making parts for the rifles. He even CNC off some huge scale demo 22lr and 223. rounds to show the parts of centerfire vs rimfire rounds. let me get a pic real quick.
Thanks for the warning. I’m used to dealing with out-of-date weapons training from the Marine Corps :rolleyes: That’s not really very surprising. Is there any other organization I can become certified through?
I disagree with that completely. A firearm is a weapon. It should be treated with the same respect as any other type of weapon whether it’s being used to clear a room, for competition, or for hunting. Sounds like there’s some PC in our ranks.
The curriculum has changed recently, and for the better from what I understand. They have Power Point presentations and the student manual and instructor materials were actually pretty good.
One of their priorities is to promote safety and responsibility with guns. I’m not saying that “weapon” is the only thing they should call a gun, but they should not force their instructors to use watered-down terminology.
Maybe I’m nit-picking. It just surprises me that that matters to the NRA.
It’s your call but if you can’t get past it then it’s on you not on them. They have made themselves clear on the matter. I personally think it’s a good thing to get the instructor cert.
You know what else they don’t allow? Live ammo in the class. That means you cannot carry a firearm into the classroom with you. There was a guy in my class that almost couldn’t get past that, but eventually he did.
