I just registered to take an NRA Basic Pistol Instructor course, which will allow me to be a CCW Permit Trainer in my state (Louisiana). If everything goes well and I don't suddenly lose my ability to shoot and fail to qualify, I should be an instructor by the end of this year.As such, I'm brainstorming on the content of my course. I've taken the concealed handgun course twice now (once to get the permit 9 years ago, and once to renew 5 years ago). I've also been trained as an armed security guard for a job I had between undergrad and law school, which was a decent bit more thorough than either CCW class, but didn't cover the CCW statute of course.One thing that I've noticed, and that has really encouraged me to go ahead and become an attorney-instructor, is that most CCW classes are woefully inadequate on the legal side of things. Both of my CCW courses came in quite a bit short of the true 9 hour classroom requirement. I've also been told things that just weren't true at all. Beyond that, I've met many permit holders who say that the law says X is a prohibited location, when it isn't even mentioned in the statute, or otherwise got some bad info from an instructor doing a TL;DR of the statute. I hope to remedy that.I intend to read the entire statute in my class, as well as all of the statutes it references. For example, one of the most misunderstood provisions of the LA CCW statute is the prohibition on carrying in bars. The statutes says you can't carry in "Any portion of the permitted area of an establishment that has been granted a Class A-General retail permit, as defined in Part II of Chapter 1 or Part II of Chapter 2 of Title 26 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises." Instructors read this as "you can't carry in bars," or worse, "You can't carry anywhere that sells alcohol for consumption on the premises at all." Both of these are wrong, and in many parts of Louisiana, everywhere sells alcohol. I've heard other lawyers with permits say you can't carry in restaurants at all if they serve alcohol! This is just not true.I hear all kinds of bullshit on this one issue, from "no carry if there is any alcohol" to some "if 51% of their sales are alcohol you can't carry" crap. I don't even know who made that one up, and how the hell are you supposed to know that, anyway? Ask to see the place's profit and loss statements?But if you actually read the law, the rule is super clear. If you search in Title 26 for the definition of a Class A-General liquor license, it says "A Class A-General retail permit shall be issued only to an establishment where the state law provides that no person under the age of eighteen years is allowed on the premises except as provided." So the true and easy to follow rule is that if people 18 and under are not allowed, you can't carry. This is easily determined by the signs saying "No one under 18 allowed."This is only one example of the uncertainty I aim to clear up. But there are also uncertainties that are not clear, mostly because the courts almost never have to interpret this statute (because we CCW permit holders are so damned law abiding). Instructors need to be honest with their trainees about these areas of the law, and explain the risks of one interpretation over another, rather than just making up a rule that they think makes sense.So anyway, I'd like to hear everyone's input and "I wish my instructor had covered X" stories, so that I can start working on what I will cover beyond the minimum requirements. I intend my course to fill the entire require time, and to cover as much as possible. But as someone who has been shooting guns for a long time, I can't always anticipate the things that new trainees will not understand, or not even think to ask about. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2d62QiH
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