Online Concealed Carry Training, can it work?

Now, before we get too far into this post, full disclosure, I will be slightly biased on this topic, as I have developed – and received approval from the State of New Mexico for – an online New Mexico Concealed Carry Course. I am not the first, nor am I the only one with an online concealed carry course that meets New Mexico’s requirements for a New Mexico concealed carry license. Calibers was the first and handled most of the legal legwork in setting a precedent for approval of online CCL courses.

Here’s how a traditional concealed carry course is conducted:

Students arrive at the classroom location, slightly nervous, anxious, and eager to learn. The course will usually begin with introductions and preliminary questions and will progress into lectures and discussions. These lectures and discussions will make up the majority of the course itself. Once students have completed the firearms safety portion of classroom lecture/discussion they will move to the live-fire range where they will shoot the prescribed qualification drill. Once this has been completed the students will meet back in the classroom for more lectures and discussions. Pretty simple, right?

Here is how our ONLINE concealed carry course is conducted:

Students will enroll in the online course and have the option to immediately begin the course (regardless of time or location). The course begins with a student introduction post within a forum where they will reply to other students’ introductions and post any informal questions for the group. From here the student will progress through online video lectures, training videos, discussions, quizzes, and several short assignments. Once the student has completed the online portion of the course we schedule the live-fire range portion where students will spend three hours working on, and gaining practical defensive handgun skills. During the three hour live-fire range portion students will also have the opportunity to ask any questions, as well as the obligation to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the topics presented online.

Can it work?

Yes, absolutely, and it already has.