I need some advice

[LawDog]

As a creative articulation, suppose that you have a young person who has zero firearm experience.

Now, supposing that you have taught this person the basics: the Four Rules, This End Bad/This End Good, Bang Switch Here, but you don't trust yourself to be objective in further teaching of this person.

Further posit that this person is young, shy and female and wants to learn handguns up to the CHL level.

Which school or course would you send her to and why?

LawDog

 

[Oleg Volk]

I'd send her to Defensive Edge in Minnesota, because Sully did such a great job of interesting my parents in shooting well and a great job of teaching the skills.

http://www.olegvolk.net/gallery/sully

On a more serious level, I have experience only with Sully's and Tactical Response courses. Both were excellent. I hear very good things about LFI, but have not personally attended them...and I hear they are not for the shy. Sully's is the best bet for a reticent or shy student, IMO.

 

[Old Dog]

Long way from where you're at, but up in this neck of the woods, Firearms Academy of Seattle (FAS) http://www.firearmsacademy.comoffers women-only classes and Gila Hayes has a superb reputation as an instructor and mentor for young females, particularly when it comes to instilling confidence into women who may be new to shooting and carrying firearms ... Enough FAS graduates raved to me about the curriculum, quality of instruction and the facilities, that I'm planning on sending my daughter down there next summer, in fact ...

 

[wmenorr67]

Find any NRA sanctioned course in your area. Most areas should also have women's only training also.

 

[hso]

If you've taught her the basics, but can't go any further I assume she is a relative or daughter of a close friend. You might look at your "shoot'n buddies" and pick the one you would want a kid of your's to be trained by and have them come along on one or two of these early lessons. Once she's comfortable around the other trainer have them take over. If you trust them she's more likely to trust them. If she get's used to them them she's less likely to be so shy she can't learn from them.

 

[PaulBk]

Long way from where you're at, but up in this neck of the woods, Firearms Academy of Seattle (FAS) http://www.firearmsacademy.comoffers women-only classes and Gila Hayes has a superb reputation as an instructor and mentor for young females, particularly when it comes to instilling confidence into women who may be new to shooting and carrying firearms ... Enough FAS graduates raved to me about the curriculum, quality of instruction and the facilities, that I'm planning on sending my daughter down there next summer, in fact ...

While I am neither young nor female, Gila (and FAS) ARE GREAT, especially for beginners. I believe she teaches "Female Only" classes as well.

-PB

 

[jsalcedo]

In my experience classes with predominantly male instructors can be intimidating to the point of being detrimental to new women shooters.

I would suggest a women only class to start off with until she can become more confident and comfortable.

Don't get me started on range masters homing in on small attractive women
"to help them learn proper positioning"

 

[Preacherman]

Lawdog, you have PM.

 

[LawDog]

Don't get me started on range masters homing in on small attractive women "to help them learn proper positioning"

I'm sure that learning that one of his officers was heading out to a range with a baseball bat for a "Come-to-Jesus meeting" would qualify as Maalox Moment for the Sheriff.

Thanks for the posts, folks.

LawDog

 

[Stickjockey]

+1 OldDog and PaulK-

IIRC, our own Pax teaches up there occasionally, yes? If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is.

 

[Justin]

What about Louis Awerbuck's courses? I assume he probably schedules a few in the Lonestar State every year.

 

[bratch]

There is a school West of Dallas a couple hours that is supposed to be pretty good can't think of their name but they do alot of long range rifle stuff.

I've had good experience with Tom Givens and I know he teaches there a couple times a year.

 

[pax]

I'd send her to Gila Hayes at FAS. Gila teaches a lot of beginner classes, some of them women-only classes which are really a good idea for shy folks, and there's a good network of women shooters around that school.

But if I lived clear across the country and didn't have the money to send my new shooter that far, I would look around and see if I could get her hooked up with a local, experienced woman shooter as a mentor. I'd prefer to find a qualified instructor if possible, but if not an instructor at least someone who knows her way around handguns and whose mindset about carrying seemed straightforward and worth imitating. If the mentor turned out to be an NRA qualified instructor, that'd be a plus -- but I wouldn't use it as the sole criteria.

The most important thing a newbie can learn is mindset. Because mindset is more often caught than taught, a mentor with the proper mindset is worth her weight in gold. Women often have concerns that wouldn't occur to most men, or that most men simply haven't thought about. Additionally, it often happens that women (especially shy women) will ask other women questions they wouldn't ever be brave enough to ask a man.

If the female mentor weren't a qualified teacher herself, I'd take her recommendation for where to get instruction and go with it.

And if I didn't know and couldn't find any other females qualified to teach a newbie, then I might instead go looking for a grandfatherly type with the same basic qualifications -- good mindset, patient with questions, knows his way around firearms -- who could take her under his wing. Same basic reasoning as above; in order to develop the right mindset about carrying and defense issues, newbies need to ask questions. The less threatening the newbie finds her instructor, the braver she will be about asking the questions she needs to ask.

pax

 

[AirForceShooter]

a woman only class is a fantastic idea.
Check with the NRA.

AFS

 

[SomeKid]

Regarding women instructors...

When I took my TN mandated course, it was female led. I do not live in any major area, and the gun shop is quite the rural southern kind. They are around, make some phone calls. Shouldn't be at all hard.

 

[NMshooter]

LawDog needing advice...

I have to admit, while some women do not mind learning from men most prefer female instructors.

And patience, lots of patience, instructors without it do more harm than good to new shooters.

Had to take firearms pointed at me more than once with numerous explanations why it was wrong to do so, some folks are a bit too high strung to take that kind of treatment.

I suspect you can find someone in Texas who meets those criteria.

I also suspect pax could teach basic firearms classes, and do a good job too.

 

[Ala Dan]

The one that teaches this:

"To keep their booger picker OFF the boom switch"~!

 

[Smoke]

Without shipping her off to Colorado, I would be of no help.

Smoke

 

[Hawk]

I got my CHL training at DFW gun. "Beginner friendly" IIRC. My class had a female instructor if that makes any difference.

'Course if ya want to hob-nob with a Texas politico, the Grand Prairie Firearms Training Academy is home to Ray Allen. I didn't know he was an instructor there until I turned up at an NRA function stumping for re-election . Real nice guy - wish it was my district. I'll likely renew there.

I didn't even know a local instructor was a member of the Texas House and was there with Susanna Hupp getting our CHL through.

 

[Scott F]

4H shooting sports has Handgun Clubs to teach young people the basics threw marksmanship. Contact your county extension agent to see if there is a club in your county. If not then find out how you can become a leader and teach a lot of kids to shoot, not just yours.

I am a state level trainer for hunting clubs and am a leader for hunting, shotgun and rifle. It is fun and rewarding.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Without shipping her off to Colorado, I would be of no help.

Me too. We have a great trainer here, grandfatherly type, who has a BUNCH of patience with newbies.

Leonard Jimenez is the name, if anyone is interested. Anybody who applies for a CCW here, gets directed by the sheriff's dept to Leonard for training.

 

[GRB]

Find any NRA sanctioned course in your area.

A+++ for the above suggestion and here is why:

1) The course would be given locally and therefore is probably the most cost effective as opposed to the young lass being shipped off somewhere at fairly high expense to a specialty course taught by a great gun guru who may or may not overcharge in the first place.

2) There also usually are several NRA instructors within easy traveling distance of most not to far out of the way places in the USA. Therefore you can pick from among which you feel to be the best for her after contacting each of them. You may be able to find a female instructor too and this may help with the shy thing.

3) Many local NRA instructors have small classes another plus with the shy thing and; a plus because it is easier to devote more time to each student in a smaller class. Of course you could go to a real gun guru or gun god for classes that would be small, but my bet is they would cost more, a lot more, too.

4) The NRA offers a wide variety of shooting class types while some specialty places offer combat pistol, or handgun only. At NRA classes she can learn rifle, shotgun, pistol and revolver and even become a range safety officer or an instructor herself. There is a lot of room for expansion with the NRA classes.

5) Money, have I mentioned money yet? Cost effectiveness with NRA classes. If she does not like the class with an NRA instructor, she is not out all that moola she would have paid to go to a class several states away.

6) The NRA is regarded nationwide as the standard bearer for firearms instruction. IN NY State, for example, if you want to bring a child to shoot at a range you need to be a military firearms instructor, a Hunter Safety Certificate Holder (this is a joke because it does not train you to instruct in firearms), or an NRA certified instructor. My 14 years of firearms instructing for a federal agency were worthless in that one regard, they would not honor it. So I retook the hunter safety course (took it with my son) because my old NRA cert. had expired and because, as I said they would not honor my work certification. (I digress, so back to business.)

7) Classes at other schools often attract gun weenies, macho men, macho woman, know it alls and gun gurus. Therefore such classes can be quite intimidating to the newbie. NRA classes often attract more new shooters as far as I understand. of course you can get bone heads anywhere, I just think it more likely at those other types of shooting schools.

8) She will have taken an active part in functions offered by the NRA. Not only will this encourage her to apply for NRA membership, it may encourage her to become an NRA instructor and do likewise for others.

Good luck to her whatever she decides upon.

best regards,
GB

 

[AVESguy]

Where are you located? Randy Cain gives a ladies-only class once a year. The class was this past weekend at Southern Exposure in central Florida. I heard there was a young gal in this last one with her mom. Unfortunately, the next one won't be for a while, probably next fall.

Great class, according to my spousal unit, who has taken this class twice. His regular classes for both guys and gals are really excellent, too.

I am pretty sure that there are other women-only classes around. Also an idea would be the NRA class that has been mentioned before and is probably available locally.


AVESGUY

 

[dav]

What about Louis Awerbuck's courses? I assume he probably schedules a few in the Lonestar State every year.

Justin,
I really like Louis, but you have got to be kidding. He really knows his stuff, but he is an 'acquired taste'. I would not send a shy newbie female (or male, for that matter) to one of his classes, his personality can be a little overwhelming for the uninitiated.

I'd vote for FAS in WA State.

 

[Typhoon]

Re: Louis Awerbuck:

Oh, no! Not true at all. I am a female and took my first instruction with Louis around this time last year.

I am a somewhat experienced shooter. The class was set up by ITTS (Brett McQueen and Scott Reitz) with whom I have spent many hours. Brett did set up the Louis class to insure that most of the shooters were on the same level. That was simply good management on her part, as we were able to incorporate movement quickly and go through the Stage One evolutions sooner and at a faster pace than if there were significant discrepancies among all students’ abilities.

I was the only female shooter in that class. I asked Brett later if she or Scott said something to Louis beforehand, because he teased me at the outset. I responded in kind right back at him. Joking always. Brett did inform him as to my skill level.

However, it was very clear that if I needed the extra time or work, or if the class was not at the more experienced level that it was, the time would be happily taken. And, had I not responded to his initial tease at the outset, I doubt that he would have continued. I have no doubt of Louis’ abilities or desire to be patient with students. I experienced enough of those during my instruction with him.

I highly recommend him for all students, shy or not.

While I am at it, Brett's all women's classes in Los Angeles are highly regarded. For that matter, my absolute first handgun class ever was taken with Scott and I had a fabulous time. I learned a great deal, too. Uncle Scotty is not the intimidating civilian-averse instructor that he has been portrayed as....

Andrea