Illinois Concealed Carry Classes

[ilbob]

Any out of state residents taking part in the process? Wondering when classes in Wisconsin will spring up for those like me who live north but travel south.


Willie

.

at present it appears non-residents cannot get either an instructor certificate or a license to carry due to some restrictions in the law that NR cannot meet.

 

[ilbob]

Plus $55-75 for LiveScan fingerprints.

fingerprints are not required for the carry license. only for instructors.

 

[Comrade Mike]

fingerprints are not required for the carry license. only for instructors.

Glad to hear that. I don't like submitting any personal information I don't have to.

 

[ilbob]

Glad to hear that. I don't like submitting any personal information I don't have to.

there is a fair amount of FUD about this from certain instructors. I suspect some sort of collusion going on with the fingerprint vendors.

the law allows the ISP an extra 30 days to issue if you don't give them your prints. they get 90 days with prints and 120 days w/o.

there is no real benefit to paying the extra money IMO just so that you might get issued a month earlier. everyone is sort of assuming that with prints they will issue on day 89 and w/o prints it will be day 119.

its also possible that they will just issue on a first come first serve basis and the wait will be mostly about how many people are ahead of you w/o respect to much of anything else.

the thing is that the ISP is required by state law to issue FOID cards w/i 30 days and routinely violates that provision and has for many years. there is no reason to believe they will not do the same thing with FCCL. having said that, to date they seem to be scrupulously following the law as written.

there just is no way to know with any certainty at present.

 

[Trent]

Until we get applications, I'm not teaching courses.

Everyone is in a break-neck hurry to "get everything done" so they can be first to apply on the 5th.

But until the applications are done, I'm missing one crucial point of the concealed carry training that I want to teach my students.

Which is... how to fill out the application.

I've been running NRA basic pistol so people can knock out the 1st 8 hours. But I'm not doing my 2nd 8 hour courses until everything is 100% concrete and clear.

Of course, I'm not doing this commercially, per se, so I set my own tempo. I'm not in a hurry to sell anyone anything. Nor will I be.

But I *do* have a list going. If anyone is in the central IL area and wants to be added to it, just shoot me a PM.

I'm charging $150 for the full 16 hours. This includes 8 hours of NRA Basic Pistol ($75, which will help you with out of state permits, which we will still need.). And then 8 hours of IL CCW specific training ($75).

For just the IL CCW training I'm doing $75 for the 8 hour course but need NRA Basic Pistol, DD214, or hunters safety + out of state permit to waive the first 8 hours.

I am giving $50 off for couples, trying to encourage partners to take the course together. (So either $150+100 for NRA Basic Pistol + 8 hours, or $75+25 for just the 8 hours).

My 8 hour CCW course will cover the legal aspects, lethal force, and practical application. We aren't just shooting the qualifier. We're running some of the drills you'd see in a personal protection class, too. I have four hours of range time to fill and I'm going to make it a comprehensive thing - not just "stand in the field for four hours waiting for your turn to shoot the qualifier"... While it's not an NRA PPITH course (because it's very IL specific), it will cover a lot of the same material for practical application.

Right now no dates scheduled but I've got a waiting list / interested list started.

 

[ilbob]

Until we get applications, I'm not teaching courses.

Everyone is in a break-neck hurry to "get everything done" so they can be first to apply on the 5th.

But until the applications are done, I'm missing one crucial point of the concealed carry training that I want to teach my students.

Which is... how to fill out the application.

Are you allowed to add stuff to the approved curriculum? Or did you include this in your course outline?

 

[jawman]

Wish I lived near central IL, I'd be taking my class with you Trent!

 

[Trent]

Are you allowed to add stuff to the approved curriculum? Or did you include this in your course outline?

When you do the classroom curriculum approval you sign off that you will cover X, Y, and Z. Whatever you cover beyond that is your business as long as you meet all of the mandatory requirements. E.g. 4 hours of range time must include practice drawing, and the qualification shoot. But there's a lot more you can put in to 4 hours of range time.

SOME instructors locally (not naming names), are doing the bare minimum. One of my friends took a course - 128 students for one single instructor. They literally stood in a farm field for 4 hours waiting their turn to shoot the qualifier.

Kind of sickening, really.

I want to make sure my students understand lethal force, when to use it, when not to use it, how to be situationally aware, how to respond to threat of force, etc.

 

[Willie Sutton]

"at present it appears non-residents cannot get either an instructor certificate or a license to carry due to some restrictions in the law that NR cannot meet"


Specifics? Because that conflicts with the information I have received elsewhere, and there is specific reference to out of state issuance in the statute. Not sayin' it isn't so, just interested in a source.


Willie

.

 

[orionengnr]

After leaving IL about ten years ago, I am really pleased to be able to put both IL and WI back on the list of preferred retirement destinations.

I still have about another ten years before retirement, so I'll give you a while to get it sorted out.

Keep up the great work. When I lived there, CCW was a ludicrous dream. Today (or tomorrow, or the next day), it will be an elusive reality.

 

[jawman]

SOME instructors locally (not naming names), are doing the bare minimum. One of my friends took a course - 128 students for one single instructor. They literally stood in a farm field for 4 hours waiting their turn to shoot the qualifier.

Kind of sickening, really.

I want to make sure my students understand lethal force, when to use it, when not to use it, how to be situationally aware, how to respond to threat of force, etc.

Trent, who are these instructors you speak of? Please do not be afraid to speak out. Doing so will only help others. RKBA/2A is a very heated topic these days, so we must all do whatever we can to keep what we believe in as clean and 'pure' as possible since it is constantly under the spotlight. Holding back is not going to help and will only hinder. It's on us to do this right because so much is riding on it. The more people that are informed about these 'deficient' courses, the greater the chance that they will do their diligence to take a better course which leads to knowledgable and experienced permit holders, and that's exactly what we need in order to to represent ourselves in the very best light. I feel you are doing a disservice to our community by withholding such information. The last thing we need are more uninformed, uneducated, sloppy, and ignorant concealed carry permit holders.

 

[Trent]

Jawman;

https://www.anywhereccw.com/

Quoting directly from my friend's social network post late October:

I took my CCW class today in Metamora il.
It took approx 9 hrs to complete. Most of the time was taken standing in a field waiting to shoot our thirty rounds to satisfy the shooting requirements. The rest was class room going over fed, state and CCW rules of the rode. To say it was painfully boring is a understatement.

We talked about it in person at our monthly rifle match first Sunday of November. He wasn't very happy with the course. They covered the required material by reading it straight out of the law. But no explanations. No self-defense instruction. No practical application of lethal force legal discussion. There was (according to my friend) over 120 students in the class, with only one instructor.

 

[SeanSw]

Jawman, yes, we were warned of this during our class in October. They pointed out the misinformation and said it was the reason they would not be integrating fingerprints into the class or their fees at that time. They are supposed to contact us when something becomes available, although I will probably use a more local option if one exists.

Once can only grimace at the thought of another fee involved with obtaining an IL CCW license.

 

[jawman]

there is a fair amount of FUD about this from certain instructors. I suspect some sort of collusion going on with the fingerprint vendors.

the law allows the ISP an extra 30 days to issue if you don't give them your prints. they get 90 days with prints and 120 days w/o.

there is no real benefit to paying the extra money IMO just so that you might get issued a month earlier. everyone is sort of assuming that with prints they will issue on day 89 and w/o prints it will be day 119.

its also possible that they will just issue on a first come first serve basis and the wait will be mostly about how many people are ahead of you w/o respect to much of anything else.

the thing is that the ISP is required by state law to issue FOID cards w/i 30 days and routinely violates that provision and has for many years. there is no reason to believe they will not do the same thing with FCCL. having said that, to date they seem to be scrupulously following the law as written.

there just is no way to know with any certainty at present.

Thanks for the info. I read the law and you are correct. The following is from Section 30, Contents of license application:

(8) a full set of fingerprints submitted to the
Department in electronic format, provided the Department
may accept an application submitted without a set of
fingerprints in which case the Department shall be granted
30 days in addition to the 90 days provided under
subsection (e) of Section 10 of this Act to issue or deny a
license;

 

[AFT]

Cost of Classes

Hi, to respond to the original question about class prices, there IS a huge price difference from one company/instructor to another.
We for example are running a sale for March for only $75 per class and include a lot for the price.

There are a lot of much more expensive options some are very good instructors, some are trying to make a quick buck.

Feel free to contact us directly www.aftccw.com if anyone needs some help or advise.