You’ve narrowed your choice of concealed carry instructors and their courses down to a handful or so. Now it’s time to reach out to those instructors and ask them a few questions. We’ve put together the 5 must ask questions that you should ask any concealed carry instructor that you are considering to train under (and the responses that don’t raise any red flags). Read our post on Our Answers To The 5 Questions You Should Ask Any Potential Concealed Carry Instructor.
1. Why Do You Teach NM Concealed Carry?
You’ll want to get an insight into why the have chosen to teach concealed carry. You should expect to receive an answer inline with an urge, calling, or want to add more legally and responsibly armed citizens to their community. The answers that you receive will most likely be similar to one another, listen for their tone and sincerity when they speak. Do they seem genuine when answering this question, did their answer come naturally or did it seem forced/rehearsed? You’ll want to steer clear of those instructors who don’t have an answer for this question or seem unsure of why they teach concealed carry.
2. What Is The Most Important Lesson That You Teach In Your Concealed Carry Course and Why?
The typical New Mexico Concealed Carry Course will cover roughly 12 – 15 topics/lessons. While each lesson in and of itself is important, there are some lessons that will, by themselves, be more important than others. With this question you’re looking for a passionate response. You’ll want to make sure their answer is genuine and natural, not rehearsed or forced. Any answer that is hesitant or seems superficial should be challenged with a question on why that topic/lesson is important to the student, how it can affect your life, and what his/her standpoint on the topic is. For example, if the instructor were to say “The most important lesson that we teach is how to complete a support hand only reload while moving between cover” you would challenge that with a question such as “How likely is it that I will need to complete a support hand only reload while moving between cover in real life?” or something similar (if the instructor says that that is the most important lesson that they teach you should immediately end the conversation and seek another concealed carry instructor).
3. What Is The Best Caliber For Self-Defense?
Any answer other than something similar to “the best caliber for self-defense is going to be relative to the shooter…” is cause for concern. While there is a minimum suggested caliber for a defensive round, it is not the instructor’s opinion on stopping power or best caliber for self-defense that should lead someone to choosing a caliber to have their defensive handgun chambered in. The best caliber for self-defense is the largest caliber that the shooter is comfortable, confident, and proficient with. The firearm that you choose to carry for self-defense must be one that you are comfortable, confident, and proficient with, you cannot miss fast enough with a .45 to stop a threat and while a .22 caliber handgun may not immediately stop the threat defensively accurate hits on the intended threat is more important than the caliber.
4. Can I Get In Touch With Any Of Your Previous Students?
We’ve discussed this other places on our web site and in our blogs. If an instructor is reluctant to allow you to speak to previous students, or would prefer that you didn’t, it should be a big red flag. However, many instructors will allow you to seek out or speak to previous students, the trick is to try and get in touch with those students that weren’t mentioned by the instructor. Instructors will have students that love them and found their course to be the best course ever. That is awesome, and that feedback should be sought out and heard. Try, also, to seek out the student that doesn’t immediately come forth, post a request on the instructor’s FB page and personal page seeking out previous students. In the request, ask that the student email, text, or call you personally that way they have some confidence in the anonymity of the conversation. As instructors we have heard of students being taken to a location in the middle of nowhere with cars used as bathroom walls and a five gallon bucket as the toilet. That is part of the reason that we are the only course in New Mexico that will allow any New Mexico concealed carry licensee to take our concealed carry course free of charge – click here for more information on that!
5. Why Should I Train With You?
And just listen. Trust your gut. Give us a call if you have any questions (505) 944-5247
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