ShootingClasses.com Blog

HOW MUCH DOES GUN TRAINING COST & WHERE DO I START SHOOTING LESSONS?

Thu, 18 May 2023 19:00:02 -0400

When your interest in firearms begins, you’ll probably wonder the following: How much does gun training cost? How much do shooting lessons cost? How about the cost of firearms training courses? How much does a CCW license cost so I can carry a firearm?

These answers aren't easily explained. And I have found over the previous three decades, it's not easily understood either.

The closest comparison I can make is the cost of being a parent. At its very base form, the cost is zero.

The cost of being a parent is somewhat monetary for sure, but 95% of the effort is how much time you put into it. If you father a child and have nothing to do with them, you can call yourself a parent, but in reality, you are not.

The same adage applies to firearms training and the CCW world. You absolutely can show up at a gun show, sit through a two-hour lecture, fire one round into a barrel and then apply for your license. Assuming you meet the background requirements, your license will be issued, and it will be legal for you to carry a weapon.

The reality is, you're no more qualified to carry a weapon than a person who never sees their child is qualified to call themselves a parent. That is just the hard reality of life.

So, how much does gun training cost?

Price is how most prospective students evaluate CCW classes. That is the last thing that should be considered. For students with no prior military or law enforcement training, your goal should be to learn as much as possible about the law and the use of deadly force and then continue to seek additional training. A mistake could cost you the majority of your life.

If the difference between a two-hour course and a four-hour course is $100, ask yourself this: how much is your life worth if you are in jail for 20 years because you didn’t know the law? At a difference of $100, that equates to $5 per year for each year of imprisonment. Yeah, it does not make sense.

If a class offers additional hands-on firearms training, the class should teach you a good base to BEGIN your training in order to be competent with a firearm.

If I had a nickel for everyone who told me they'd been around hunting and guns their whole life, I would be Warren Buffett. You could add another fortune to my net worth for those who told me their dad, uncle or grandfather was a cop or in the military.

They always look surprised when I respond with, “If you shot the wrong deer, were you ever brought up on charges?" "What caliber did the deer shoot back with and how many people could have died during the incident?"

My all-time favorite response is, “If your father was the best surgeon on the planet, I've got news for you: YOU are not performing surgery on me.” I guess they have a firm belief in the theory of osmosis.

All of these responses are intended to get people to think about what they are getting into and to understand that they do not know what they do not know. Hunting is not self-defense. It has zero in common with the use of a firearm in defense of your life. In hunting, you ambush prey that (for the most part) cannot fight back. The prey does not know you are there, and they are not actively threatening you.

I've got news for you.

If you ambush someone, you will be, most likely, reading my next blog post from a jail cell. Being around guns teaches you nothing. Guns do not impart knowledge by their mere presence.

The Importance of Investing in Training

A U.S. Special Operator spends years training before they ever go into combat. After a deployment, they come home, decompress and then train back up. This ritual goes on for an entire career, constantly training, constantly learning, constantly honing their craft.

Why do these elite operators, whose physical and mental prowess are already greatly superior to 99.9%of the U.S population, continue to train? Are they just bored? Or should they have just attended the $55 CCW class that held all the keys to life?

If the CCW class is the answer, the U.S. government has wasted hundreds of millions, if not billions, in training dollars.

Ask yourself this simple question: if this country's elite operators train for an entire career, why would you be capable and ready to use a firearm to defend yourself or another after just one two-hour course? The mindset that a license or permit means you're ready is just unbelievable to me. If you get your driver's license at the age of 16, you have absolutely ZERO percent chance of being capable of racing at Daytona.

In the firearms world, people actually believe in this type of thing. I can get a building permit, but I still have zero knowledge of construction.

People actually believe that because they can shoot on an air-conditioned range, at a stationary target, in the bright light of day, fully rested and well fed, with no objects or people between them and the threat, both hands on the weapon and the time to line up a shot and breathe out as they press the trigger that it's realistic to expect the same result in a 3 second confrontation.

If the shooting you get into involves a wayward person running down range at your local range, who turns into a piece of paper and then does not move after threatening you, then yes, you are ready. The point is it's absolutely ridiculous, and if you believe this, congratulations on your ability to read this far. The reading lessons must be working.

Never Stop Training

What I am trying to say in a long-winded way is to research your firearms instructor and his or her pedigree. How long is the course and how much hands-on instruction will there be? How many rounds will you shoot?

A few years back, I had the honor of shooting with an Air Force JTAC operator. I asked him how many rounds a month he shoots during training. He stated, “About 10,000 rounds a month." I'm not saying you need to bring your skills to elite operator status, just understand that these operators train, train and train.

Shooting is a perishable skill, meaning it goes away when you don’t use it. A person who last shot a firearm five years ago will not be anywhere near their previous skill. I don’t make the rules, I only report them. A one-and-done course is of no service to you, and no service to the people you may need to help.

If the class is priced to push as many people through as possible, you will learn the very, very basics. One thing I have learned in life is that most of the time, you get what you pay for. If you're looking for the bare-minimum class, do us all a favor and just don’t carry.

We encourage everyone to carry a firearm, but “everyone" means people who are trained, seek constant training and are an asset, not a liability, to themselves and the people around them.

Interested in shooting lessons? Search firearms training classes in your area.

The need for preparation and training in the era of civil unrest

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:46:55 -0400

You don’t have to do anything more than turn on your television to see what is going on in these United States and understand the need for training and preparation. It is all over the 6 o’clock news every night now, as angry mobs loot and pillage with no regard for human life or property, all under the pretext of protesting a man’s death who didn’t deserve to die. It is truly a sad state of affairs that got us to this moment, and for a lot of you I am quite sure it has caused you to miss a few hours of sleep.

If you live in a densely populated urban center, you may have witnessed these protests with your own two eyes. Or if you live in the suburbs, you may now wonder when it will spill over to your neighborhood. Regardless, it leaves a mark. That mark could be physical or psychological, either because you are directly involved or caused by the worry of what may be. The big question many are having is: “What do I do now?”

I always pose this question to people: “When is the best time to prepare for a disaster? Before it occurs, while it is occurring or after it is over?” The obvious answer is always A, before it occurs. Many have pushed off those preparations because they think “it won’t happen here.” I think we can all agree that reasoning is naïve and a form of ostrich training (you stick your head in a hole and hope it goes away). Problems that are ignored only grow – and worry that is not dealt with only gets worse.

How do we overcome the worry of what may be without putting on our ostrich suit? The answer is that we get moving, we get active, we take an active role in our own survival as well as those that depend on us for it. Action always trumps inaction. With preparation comes serenity, with preparation comes safety, with preparation comes calm.

We all deal with threats in our everyday lives very differently, and the reality is you are your own first responder. When you need a law enforcement response in seconds, it is only minutes away. You can use up a lifetime in a few minutes. For those of you that think “this training will take too long to learn,” trust me the time will pass. The only question is whether you use that time to get more prepared or just a few months older. Your destiny lies in your own hands, no one else’s. The sad reality is that no one is coming to save you, it is up to you to save yourself.

At shootingclasses.com, we assist firearm and first aid instructors in the administration of their business. We make it easier for them to do what they do so they can assist more of you to take an active role in your own destiny. Self-defense training is not just how to shoot a gun, self-defense training is a lifestyle that will change your world and your outlook toward it. Whether it is actual training in civil unrest, first aid or the basics of concealed carry, you can find it all here. I urge you to go to our shooting classes site, type in your zip code and find shooting instructors that will prepare you for what we truly hope you will never use. But I will promise you this, it will service your psychological mind and give you the tools to protect your physical body.

We are living in a very unique time, and I highly doubt anyone can guess what comes next. Don’t wait for the devil to meet you at the door. Stand up, get active and take an active role in preparing for what may be.

In closing, stay safe, get moving and be your own first responder.

How much does gun training cost? It’s hard to put a price tag on your safety!

Interested in learning how to become a firearms instructor? You’re in the right place!

What Effect Does COVID-19 Have on Shooting Ranges?

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 23:07:41 -0400

ShootingClasses.com is the go-to site that assists firearms instructors with the administrative aspects of their business and for students to find shooting lessons. Recently, we rolled out our platform to shooting range owners. They can now focus on sales and in-person services, while ShootingClasses.com does the heavy lifting of customer tracking, sign-ups and payments around the clock with our fully automated process.

As the country starts showing signs of coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, many of you will experience a big surge in first-time gun owners wanting to train with the firearms they panic-bought. These buyers were completely unprepared for a pandemic, and they found solace in going out to buy a firearm. Yet all of us in the industry know that true security is found in “never the tool but a competent carpenter.”

After this national nightmare, many of these new gun owners will seek training so they can be more prepared to use their firearms. People who are properly trained react differently in a crisis. We believe your shooting range’s training division will be offering them peace of mind, so the lost and scared feelings they had at the start of this crisis never return.

We, as an industry, can make a difference going forward. We can now train a whole new customer base that was forced into our channel by this invisible enemy. We can also improve the skills of our current customers. In a large part, we feel this firearms training is going to be handled en masse by the range owners and their staffs.

At ShootingClasses.com, we realize that time is money. Employees are more valuable when selling or doing the actual training instead of all the administrative work. Paperwork, rosters, payments, email and text reminders, and customer tracking steal your staff’s time when it could be better used in other areas. That’s where ShootingClasses.com can help.

If you are interested in knowing more about how we can help you and your staff become more efficient – saving you time and increasing sales – learn more about the full breadth of capabilities we offer.

We are all in this together, and together we will come out of this. God bless every American, and god bless the United States of America.

Maximize Your Time and Revenue

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 18:50:22 -0500

People ask us all the time, “How do I grow my firearms classes business?” At the heart of that question – the real question people want to ask – is “How do I make more money doing what I love to do?” Well, the answer is simple: Teach more students.

Remember the old adage “Time is money?” It sounds so salesman like. I have news for you – you are a salesman. You have to start running your business like a business, not a charity. Your unique skillset is worth something in the marketplace. Whether you are an individual instructor, a group or range, you are selling one thing and one thing only. You are selling you. You are selling your worth, your knowledge, your experience and your time.

In order to run a successful business, there are a few things you must do.

You must have a constant flow of new business; without it you die. In a perfect world, new students would refer others to you, and then those new students would refer even more people to you, and it would repeat time and time again. Since that’s not reality, maximize your time by creating new business. If you maximize your time acquiring new business, your world will quickly become easier. People think it is really hard to be successful, yet I disagree. It’s easy to be successful; it’s hard to be a failure. It is easy to have a constant flow of business; it is hard to not have a constant flow of new business. Change your attitude and your world will change.
You must provide a quality service at a competitive price. Spend time on your curriculum, and continuously search for ways to improve on the product you are selling. Be the trainer who is always a student. The more you learn, the more relevant you are – students will notice this. This brings up another favorite adage: “Build it and they will come.”
You must make it easy for people to do business with you. People are fickle. The harder it is for them to contact you, find your classes, and register for courses, the more likely a student will move on to another instructor whose process is easier to complete. You must have an online presence for your firearms classes and active social media accounts so students can easily learn about what you offer and pay for classes when it’s convenient for them.

Prioritize your activities into what is profitable and what is not. Remember what we touched on earlier – “time is money.”

How to maximize your time

How many instructors – including yourself – spend countless hours on the following?

Returning phone calls to prospective students.
Returning emails about class details such as what to bring, where it is and when it’s held.
Sending e-mail reminders or making phone calls to ensure students will show.
Creating rosters, processing payments and designing certificates.
Capturing student data for future campaigns and marketing efforts.

If you don’t perform these activities in a consistent, prompt and efficient manner, you will not maximize your potential, and you risk losing students.

One of the biggest tasks that can hurt instructors if not done efficiently is processing payments. If you don’t process payments at the time the student commits, then you may fall into the struggling instructor group that reserves the range for 12 signups and only 4 actually show. This is when your business turns into a charity. If you don’t take the payments prior to class, you’ll still have to pay the range for a full roster, and you’ll lose not only money, but also the trust of the range owners. After that, they might no be interested in having you back.

Think about how you process payments for your firearms classes. Is there a better way you can be doing it? Should you create a refund policy? Some instructors are afraid of adding one, but when students know up front what they’re signing up for, they’re less likely to give you a hard time and complain later on.

How to maximize your revenue

Let’s go back to maximizing your revenue. You maximize your profits by concentrating your time in acquiring new students. There are so many ways to do this that we will save these activities for a future blog post. Here are just a few tips to get you thinking:

Send out a monthly newsletter. This is simple to set up and can be sent by e-mail. You need to be in front of people all the time. An easy way to grow your mailing list is by the traditional “fishbowl” sitting in a restaurant or range you frequent. Encourage people to drop their business card in the bowl as raffle for a free class. Then, add their contact information to your newsletter recipient list.
Join local groups with active and large memberships. Networking in your community is the key. But don’t fake it. Join groups that deal with something that interests you. Be the go-to person in your industry so you’re the person people think of first.
Create mutual relationships with a local shooting range. Offer to drive students to their facilities in exchange for discounted pricing on range rental. Offer to create a coupon for your students to use in the range or gun store. When used, these coupons increase the revenue of the facility you are using and, if negotiated properly, will reduce your expenses and increase your profitability.

The list of ideas for growing your business is endless. Nothing happens unless you make it happen.

If you need help automating your business, find out how ShootingClasses.com can help. By making your administrative management more efficient, you’ll create more time for you to be growing instead of dying.

Training and the attitude to make it count

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 17:42:27 -0400

You hear the word “attitude” all the time. It can apply to our personal relationships with our spouse, family members, friends and everyone we meet and interact with. It can even apply to your firearms training as a student or to your firearms instructor training. Your attitude can and will determine your success or failure in life.

A bad attitude is a magnet for bad experiences. It will do nothing but attract negative results and people. A great attitude is a magnet for positive experiences. It has a way of attracting positive and successful people and results. In other words, “you sow what you reap.” The world is a mirror and it reflects back what you give it. You determine your life’s course by your attitude towards it – cause and effect.

Attitude applies to training and being a quality instructor in a variety of manners. Eddie Rongey of Iron Gall Firearms in Kiefer, Oklahoma, was recently quoted as saying, “Never be so arrogant as to think you know everything. Never be so naïve as to believe everything you hear. Never be so self-impressed as to believe that everything you think is right.”

Those are wise words from a wise – and very successful – man. Let that sink in when you train or instruct. Are you arrogant? Do you know everything? Are you always right? Can you be taught and can you learn a different way? We all have the capacity to learn, but do we have the attitude to accept that there are other ways?

A world-class instructor in his own right, Wade Rorich of Bushido Tactical in Orlando, Florida, makes a point of saying, “What I am going to teach you is a way, it does not mean it is the only way. Take what you like and discard the rest.” People are different and they learn in different ways.

Be coachable and keep an open mind. Once your mind is closed, that is the day you will be the very best you will ever be. Every day after, time will march on and your knowledge base will not keep up. Eventually you will be outdated and irrelevant; you will be the wheel gun in a world of semi-automatics.

Each generation learns from the last and then improves on it. This is how society advances – are you? If you are reading this and then saying to yourself, “I learned this 30 years ago and it works well for me,” it just might. But will it work for the next 30 years?

Perfect practice is actual, meaningful practice. Throwing rounds down the shooting range just to hear the bang! bang! bang! is fun, but it is not making you a better marksman. Perfect practice is mastering the fundamentals and being able to call your shots when the trigger is pressed. It is being cognizant of the correct way of doing things and then doing those things with each purposeful shot. Perfect practice is then self-correcting between shots. It is the understanding of where you failed and then making a conscious, purposeful effort for the next drill.

The point of this post is just to get you thinking about how you can improve as firearms instructor or a student. You might already have a great, open attitude, train with a variety of people, and are always willing to learn. If you do, then you are in the top tier. If not, there’s always room grow.

At Shootingclasses.com, we hope to improve how instructors run the administrative side of their businesses. We want to show you a better, more efficient way. How it has been done in the past doesn’t mean that is how it should be done in the future. Learn about the features of our software that can help you improve your firearms training business.

Do You Want to Save Lives? It’s simple: Stop the bleeding.

Fri, 24 May 2019 14:07:45 -0400

This blog post is not a discussion of soft targets or hard targets. It is not a discussion on arming teachers or hiring more officers in schools. This is about saving lives. When a mass shooting occurs or someone is injured by a firearm, STOP THE BLEEDING.

“Stop the bleeding” is not a slogan or a jingle. It’s a vital part of what happens after an attack or accident in which people’s lives are in danger. It doesn’t matter whether or not you carry a weapon. With just a little training, every single one of us can save a life.

When the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurred in 2012, 20 children and 6 adults died. If there were people on the scene who were trained in the use of a tourniquet, how many lives could have been saved?

A major injury to the arms or legs can cause someone to die within minutes. A simple tourniquet applied in a reasonable time frame can save lives. And the best part is that it’s so easy to learn even a child can do it with proper training. Seriously. The application of a tourniquet doesn’t take extensive training or a medical degree. All it takes is the availability of a tourniquet and the desire to save a life.

In an article recently published by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, a Texas Tourniquet Study Group evaluated 1,026 patients with vascular injuries of the arms or legs who were admitted to 11 urban Level I trauma centers in Texas from 2011 to 2016. After multivariable analysis, the non-tourniquet group had almost six times greater odds of death than the group of patients who received a tourniquet. Yes, you read that right. Applying a tourniquet could increase the odds of living by that much.

Stopping the bleeding can be the key to saving lives. Most schools have AEDs readily available in case a child or someone at the school has a heart attack. But for the vast majority of schools in the United States, no one has easy access to tourniquets and supplies to stop the bleeding when a traumatic injury occurs.

We all should be advocates of bleeding control training: those who carry a weapon, those who do not, teachers, administrators and students. Write to your school board about why it’s so important that they provide teachers and students the knowledge they need during an emergency situation.

Everyone should be trained in stopping blood loss, similar to how so many of us have taken a CPR course. Start by inquiring with a Red Cross location or local fire department to find out if they have a bleeding control course. You could also look for an instructor who teaches tactical casualty combat care – or TCCC – on ShootingClasses.com.

I’m passionate about this subject, and I know that together we can make a difference. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at bill@shootingclasses.com. Together there is nothing we cannot achieve.

Remember: The next life you save just might be your own.

Founders of ShootingClasses.com discuss the evolution of firearms training and recent law changes

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 13:13:12 -0400

The founders of ShootingClasses.com have been discussing recent happenings in the world of firearms and spreading the word about their marketing and administrative platform for firearms training instructors. Watch and listen to recent interviews to learn about ShootingClasses.com, firearms training and more.

Shooting Straight Radio

Israel Matos and I talk politics with Royce Bartlett on the Shooting Straight Radio show. Hear us discuss changes to laws across the country on bump stocks, assault weapons and background checks. (Audio begins at 4:02)

Center Mass

Bruce Corey joins Fred Mastison to discuss how firearms training has changed over the years. Fred says, “From the days we spent listening to bullhorn instruction to modern day run and gun, we are going to cover it all!”

Take this newfound knowledge to the range—find firearm classes near you.

Firearms Training: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 13:45:14 -0500

The title of this article is confusing. Let’s break it down as it relates to the world of firearms training.

Hopefully, the instruction you give or receive is based on proven principles, gathered over time and passed from one generation to the next. Society advances by learning from the past. It’s the compounding effect of rapidly improving techniques or ideas.

We improve our ideas as new-found knowledge emerges. People who stay on the cutting edge will best utilize this new knowledge. Keep up or be left behind.

Service Value and Rewards

The rewards we receive are determined by the service we provide and the perceived value of that service. It’s that simple. The more service you provide, the greater your rewards. I don’t make the rules, I only observe the rules life established.

If you’re teaching 20-year-old techniques, your rewards will match your service, and you’ll find your firearms business going the way of Woolworth’s, or more recently, J. C. Penney or General Electric. They didn’t keep up with the times, and the times passed them by.

A Knowledge Challenge

I challenge you — have you looked at new ways to improve your instructor business, to make you a more valuable instructor? Have you attended a “train the trainer” course, such as a Sig Academy or Tom Givens?

Let’s look at this from a student perspective — and this applies to all of us, including instructors. Have you continued your training or was the four-hour CCW class the end of your learning curve?

Are you aware that you don’t know what you don’t know?

Experience is the best teacher without a doubt. Keeping your skills sharp and staying engaged, though, makes you a better student and a better instructor. Nothing worthwhile in life is mastered in four hours. Seek out firearms instructors whose resumes indicate attendance at recent schools and constant learning.

Consistently work on improving what you do, so you service stays effective and your rewards great.

If you’re asking yourself, “Where can I find firearm classes near me?” search our site for courses in your area. Or, learn about shooting lessons and keep your knowledge up-to-date by reading more on our blog.

Goal Planning for your Firearms Training Business (or any business for that matter)

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 13:00:00 -0500

Over the last three decades, I’ve learned a few things that might help your firearms business ventures. These things have certainly helped me.

Have a plan based on proven success.

Find someone doing it right and do what they do. You’ll be surprised how willing successful people are to help, but you must ask. Take someone to lunch, ask questions and for their advice.

Set goals.

You can't get anywhere in life if you have no idea where you’re going.

Imagine a pilot taking off from an airport without planning the route or using GPS, with just enough gas to get there in a straight line. Why would your business, with no goals and no plan, have any better chance at success?

Break down your goals.

Goals are not achieved all at once, they’re achieved over time. Define your long-term goals and then break them down to annual goals, monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals. This way, the task doesn’t seem so daunting. Understand what activities you need to do today, and tomorrow takes care of itself.

Prioritize your daily activities.

If you’re looking for one thing that immediately improves your business, here is it. At the end of every single day, write down what you need to do tomorrow. Look at the list and prioritize everything on it. When you get to work in the morning, start on the first task. Do no move to the second task until the first is complete.

By following this process, you’ll always tackle the most important issues of the day and become more effective.

Monitor your performance.

Check your results against your stated goals, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. By monitoring your performance, you can adjust your course early in the process if needed.

Be persistent.

There will be days that are great. There will be days that are not so great. Stay at it. I’ve found the difference between success or failure is to just keep going. You must be willing to do a little extra, every day, that most others will not.

Be responsible.

Understand you, and you alone, are responsible for your success or failure. If you’re failing, be responsible. Look at your practices as objectively as you would if you were looking at someone else’s business. Remember, nothing happens until you make it happen. Embrace it and own it.

Lastly, please understand the greatest labor-saving device ever created was tomorrow. The greatest goal achieving device ever created is today. Success in life or business is merely stringing together daily successes. Win today, and tomorrow takes care of itself.