So the NRA in their infinite wisdom has decided to put the classroom part of the NRA Basic Pistol online.  They do that and then contact the NRA Instructor for a 4 to 5 hour bit of range time.  I've been kind of getting the run around from the training division.  I keep being told that its going to bring in more folks for training and its better... I haven't found anything besides the little blurb they had on the NRAinstructors website.


What my little mind is thinking is the NRA will charge the people a certain amount to do the online training and leave the instructors swinging in the wind.  Because why would a person pay for something twice?  I have to charge to pay for facilities and ammo and what not and yes I do instruction because I think it's fun, but I do like a small monetary gain from doing it and I do like to ensure everything is covered.

And another besides, a live human instructor is WAY more interesting than death by powerpoint.

Another thing that bothers me is I have a bunch of people that don't do the internet.  Most my students are older than I am and, hell, there's lots of places here without internet.  So, in short I think the NRA just killed pistol training through its organization.

Thoughts? Opinions? Advice?

all good points, here in Fl lots of old people do not use the internet.  interesting that the NRA did not ask the instructors what they thought before making these changes.  No doubt its about making more money for themselves.

Where did you get this info? it still shows as class room/ range time for me? In a way it would be better for me as I would be getting a student with some (hopefully) knowledge and finding a room to teach in is a hassle for me but not a range.

Saw this recently as well. Also was warned by my trainer this was planned and coming. I se it as NRA wanting more money and it hurting the hands on portion of the training. How can you evaluate someone before hitting the range much with out classroom time?

It may show as classroom range time for the moment, but as soon as you are out of your packets and certificates you're done.  You can't get anymore.

I tried to go online and take the class but it can't be found yet.  I wanted to see if there was a charge and how the actual content was taught.

But Rocky is right.  How do you flesh out the nervous nelly's with no favetime in the classroom?  The class time is where I begin to decide how we proceed in the range time.

I've spoken with a few sheriffs in the area about this and they agree that this is a mistake.  We are currently coming up with a non NRA basic pistol course that doesn't do the internet.

That's the current plan anyway.

So yesterday I had a good half hour - forty-five minute argument/ discussion with a nra rep.  All he did was circle argue with me and waste my time.  It sucked.  Oh, and it does seem like they are going to charge $50 for the online bullpucky.  Not Awesome.  When I asked him about that and how it's going to piss off he students and just drive them away he pretty much said they don't care about us and what we are able to make and bring in.  They aren't in the business of us having a business.

So I'm just going to continue instructing and give out my own certificate with BETTER requirements that will actually help the students better than what they set up.  Benchrest with a pistol, that is out!  It was out any way but now I'm not even going to mention it.

Oh, I had also spoke with the sheriffs in the area and they said as long as I make the students meet certain requirements they were fine with it.


What are you folks going to do?

I am waiting for my Tax Returns to have the money to take the classes to become an NRA instructor.  I am VERY interested in this discussion.  This will be a side business for me, not how I feed my kids, but yes I would like to make a small profit.  Can the students choose to do the classroom part with the instructor instead of online?  Most reasonable people will realize that live instruction is always going to be better than online.

No, there will be no choice.  That was one of my arguments with them.  I said they should have left a choice for the students to do either way if they desired.  The NRA said they didn't care, this is the way it will be.  If enough instructors went to the NRA and said it was bs we could probably get it changed, but getting folks organized and to do something is worse than herding cats.

Probably let my certification run out and not renew. If I cannot actually "help" people learn properly, I see no point in wasting my time and effort into just putting money in the hands of the NRA.

I only got into this because I watched another instructor head people through these classes a dime a dozen, with absolutely no knowledge when they hit the streets. I wanted to be the guy that helped those that wanted to actually learn something. These types of decisions ultimately take that ability out of my hands.

I have been doing a lot or reading about this today.  The basic consensus is this is a bad idea.  A lot of instructors are going to quit teaching through the NRA,  looking for other organizations who endorse firearms instruction.  I also see that this will greatly increase the cost to the students, instructors will not lower their costs by much if at all, plus the student will have to pay whatever the NRA will charge.  I also see it taking a lot of time to complete....a student will have to sign up on the NRA website, wait for materials to come, do the online course work, then sign up for the live portion.  Are enough instructors going to quit to make the NRA change their minds on this blended training...I hope so.  I was so excited about healing up from my hernia surgery (10 days ago), getting my tax returns, and signing up for my instructor's course....I feel a bit deflated now.

The Basic Pistil Phase Ii lesson plan is up at the NRA instructor portal,  it's still calling for at least three hours of classroom time,  plus two hours of classroom/range time.  There is evidently a checklist of tasks for the instructor to sign off on in that time,  as well as actual set standards for the shooting portion,  with three levels of qualification.

I can appreciate cutting the classroom time in half,  but not when the cost to the student for that portion is so much, unless it includes their student packets (what i saw of required materials mostly involved printouts,  which may offset some of the cost difference,  if we're not spending $11/student on packets).

My TC told me early this week that we will still be supplying packets (3-rules booklet and the spiral bound BP book) to students, printing out targets (from instructors manual) and printing and sending certificates after the class. We'll still need to rent a classroom and range, so I don't see our expenses going  down much.

Here's what's in the lesson plan posted at http://www.nrainstructors.org (which is why I say communication from the NRA has been horrible, clear information needs to be communicated to the instructors as to what is and isn't included, at the annual meeting, they claimed we'd have a chance to go through the online course to know what was in it):

We have had a 'mixed' conversation at our range on the new 'Basic Pistol' course and the jury is still out.  Some of our instructors think this might be OK but.....  Since the range that I am at is a 'non profit' range, none of the instructors make any money.  We are hoping that the new on-line course will give us more time to work with the students on the range.   The hunter ed course for our State is in two parts, part one being on-line and part two being class room.  It seems to work for them and their students.
One thing about the NRA on-line basic pistol course is that it will let people take the on-line part as they have free time.  What will be missing is the interaction among the students and the different level of knowledge.
We will see how this works out!!!!

 

There will still be three hours of classroom time, including the various drills of loading/unloading/handling firearms, with checklists of what needs to be demonstrated.  And nothing says you can't go BEYOND what the curriculum calls for, you just have to cover everything in the official curriculum.



 

This is only for pistol correct? I am planning on adding PPITH, PPOTH, Refuse be a victim, Rifle, and Home safety, I just did RSO and I might go the same route and make my own cerficates and basic pistol, Here in IL the basic pistol was used for  8 hrs of concealed carry.. Thanks now I can't do that anymore.

I have been reading about this a lot the past few days. I think in some cases it is good but in most cases it is bad. Students are going to have to goto the NRA website and pay $50 for the online training and then schedule the rest with an instructor and take the shooting portion and pay the range as well. Most likely costs for the students will go up and it will be more difficult to have a class of 10 people that have all done the online training. The majority of students I have want to come to a class learn basic pistol and have me add the state CCW laws and how to get the license. This being mandatory and not allowing for the regular class anymore are going to make things more of a challenge. I think in the future many instructors are going to keep the NRA instructor ID and use their own courses and certificates to issue to students to comply with state requirements. I feel the NRA is rushing into this to quickly and from what I read a lot of instructors are going to drop out. Though it may be a good thing to clear the ranks a bit.

If you're an NRA pistol instructor, you should have gotten an email with credentials to log in and test the online materials, I just found it in one of my email filters and will be logging in to do so soon.

Just a thought on this course. I do a lot of teaching at a local indoor range. They schedule the class 2 times a month. Generally speaking on the Sunday class there are always 2 or 3 people that basically sign up that day or the night before. This online course pre-requisite is going to prevent them from taking a class.

The majority of instructors I know are going to keep their NRA instructor ID but teach there own course for the state CCW requirements.

I'm a certified NRA instructor but never planned on teaching the NRA basic pistol anyway.  Make your own basic pistol curriculum and give a good class and people will get more out of it than some dumb powerpoint.

Shitty move by the NRA, I hope it bites em in the ass.

I recently took Phase I in order to take BIT.

I have taken hundreds of hours of online training.

I have been shooting for over 30 years.

That course was miserable.

$60?  They give you in the mail, later a HARDCOVER basic pistol book. Hardcover??


Anyway, it was.... basic.

There was no 'cheating' the system. You had to listen to every video and click on every action item in the frame.

You cannot 'test out' of a section, you must complete them all.

I go pretty fast through courses, it took me three days of a few HOURS a day to slug through that course.

The in-module tests were frustrating.

They start by telling you they aren't scored.

They don't tell you, that if you don't pass one question, you're stuck there until you can loop around and go through them all again.

One question had like eight steps. You get one step out of order, you're done.

The cleaning section - you had to click on the rag, so they could tell you what it was for. You had to click on the safety glasses to tell you what they were for.

One section was a NRA indoc video.


Obviously, I suppose there are people that need to be told these things, but I feel like you are going to get more than a few people that will get tired of the online format, and choke.

So, if that part costs $60, what exactly are they telling you to charge for the pow-pow-pow portion? After you pay range fees, your insurance, gas to get there and back, maybe you brought some snacks for the breaks, targets.... you're gonna make like $3 a student if you keep it to small instructor-student ratios.

The sad part of this is that the previous Basic Pistol book that came with the student packets was pretty good. I wish I could buy just those books to hand out to my students that are new to shooting.

I refuse to teach it.  I teach other States CFP courses instead.  Completely hands on, a far better course and I charge cash!  Win win for me.  All this after 35 years of teaching NRA courses.  No more!