As of now, I am certified in the State of Texas to teach the concealed handgun licensing course.

I spent the past 4 days taking the class, and wanted to share some details about the experience.

I took the abbreviated class because I already have teaching experience (NRA Certified Instructor and my work at KR Training). The course was 3 days in the classroom and 1 on the range. The topics run the gamut of all things required for a CHL from legal issues to accommodating people with disabilities, how to deal with all the paperwork, and so on.

One thing I like to do in any firearms class I take is look at demographics. Why? It’s interesting, especially in working to dispel the notion of “gun owners are old white male rednecks”. Of the hundred or so people in the class, most were white men probably over the age of 50. There were some younger folk, there were a handful of women, and a larger handful of non-white folk. Take that for whatever it’s worth. One interesting thing was at least half the class were current or former law enforcement officers.

The three classroom days covered a range of topics. Matters such as use of force, relevant Texas laws, how to handle all the paperwork, the course of fire, non-violent dispute resolution, and so on. I’ve heard horror stories from old-timers, but it seems they’re really improving things. The course flowed well, lots of useful information. Even the information I already knew and had heard many times before was always good to hear again. The only downside was the hotel: the conference room chairs were painful to sit in, no tables so we could more easily write and take notes, and a few other issues.

The range day went pretty quickly. The course of fire for instructors is the same as for students, but it must be passed with a 90% or better score. Furthermore, instructors must qualify with both a revolver and a semi-automatic. I did take a bit of pride in being one of the few snub-shooters on the line (you should have seen some of the hand-cannons people pulled out).

The DPS facility is really nice, and that it’s just a couple of miles from Dawson Precision meant I had to stop in. Never been there before, they gave me a tour of the place. Oh man… what a setup they have there! Quite nice. I had to force myself to leave, else my wallet would have been lighter and an STI would have been with me.

A long week, but a good week. I’ve much work ahead of me. I do want to give credit and thanks to Sergeant Stuart Bamsch of the Texas DPS for all the hard work he and his staff did to put this week together. It sounds like he is working to make a lot of positive changes that will benefit his group in DPS as well as all CHL Instructors and CHL holders.

If you would like to come to me for CHL Instruction, please contact me through my company website, Hsoi Enterprises. I’m not quite ready to start doing CHL work, got some ducks to get in a row. But anything I do in that regard will be discussed on the Hsoi Enterprises company website (likely not here, since this is a personal blog).