The WRONG way: Sign up for an internet or mail order course.
About all the internet courses are good for is taking your money.
Mail order is only marginally better and I'd argue the "marginally".
These will get you started on doing hobby work on your OWN guns, but not for other peoples guns.
Consider: You own a expensive car that you HAVE to depend on and you drive at high speeds. Would you like your mechanic to be some guy who learned car repair on a computer or by mail?
Apply for a job with a "degree" from one of these schools, and your resume gets pitched in the trash as soon as you're out the door.
There are several ways to become a true professional.
1. Apprentice with a gunsmith.
Problem: Is he a truly competent gunsmith who also is a good teacher, or is he a hammer mechanic that will teach you to be a gun butcher?
In many cases you have no way of knowing for sure.
Second problem, if you intend to get a job, the teacher has to be a well known gunsmith who has a history of turning out competent students, and is known for this in the industry.
A resume listing Joe the Gunsmith who no one ever heard of will not get you a job.
Last problem, FINDING a good gunsmith who'll take an apprentice and can spend the time to teach you sometime this century.
2. Attend a good gunsmithing school.
Top schools like Colorado School of Trades or Trinidad Junior College are internationally known for the quality of their graduates.
They have a reputation for turning out hard corp professionals.
A degree from either will get you an interview.
A business looking to hire a gunsmith will hire graduates from these schools.
There are other good schools also.
3. Attending a machinist course to learn how to operate lathes and milling machines is a good way to get a leg up in school.
However, being a good machinist does NOT make you a good gunsmith.
Most good gunsmiths are good machinists.
Most good machinist are horrible at gunsmithing.
4. Opening your own business right out of school is a very fast way to go broke.
No matter what, you'll starve the first year of two. If you can't survive financially that long you'll go bust.
Remember, something over 50% of all new businesses go broke, and it doesn't matter what they are or who's running it.
Always remember if you open your own business that you are NOT a gunsmith. You're a BUSINESSMAN who's business happens to be gunsmithing.
Most of your time will be spent doing businessman functions like talking to customers, ordering parts, filling out forms for the government, running your books, etc.
Somewhere in there you get to work on guns.
Don't plan on making a lot of money.
The average self employed gunsmith is working for about minimum wage at best, considering the number of hours he has to put in doing all those businessman functions and doing gunsmithing.
The only gunsmith's who make good money are those who work for someone else, or who own big gunsmithing companies like Wilson's.
There's an old joke: "How's a pizza and a gunsmith alike? Neither can feed a family of four".
Best advice: If you're serious, attend one of the good gunsmithing schools.
Take some business courses either at the school or in community college night schools.
Go to work for someone else for a few years. Learn your craft working on guns for 8 hours a day while HE does all the businessman stuff.
Buy equipment as you can, and build up contacts for a potential customer base.
Investigate WHERE is a good location to open a new business and learn what type of work that area is most in need of.
Even then, remember, that you stand at least a 50% chance of loosing your shirt.
Here's as list of gunsmith schools:
Colorado School of Trades
1575 Hoyt Street
Lakewood, CO 80215
Phone: 800-234-4594
Lassen Community College
P.O. Box 3000
Susanville, CA 96130
Phone: 530-257-4211
Modern Gun School
80 North Main Street, P.O. Box 846
St. Albans, VT 05478
Phone: 800-493-4114
Montgomery Community College
1011 Page Street
P.O. Box 787
Troy, NC 27371
Phone: 800-839-6222
Murray State College
One Murray Campus
Tishomingo, OK 73460
Phone: 580-371-2371
Pennsylvania Gunsmith School
812 Ohio River Blvd.
Avalon
Pittsburgh, PA 15202
Phone: 412-766-1812
Piedmont Community College
1715 College Drive
P.O. Box 1197
Roxboro, NC 27573
Phone: 336-599-1181
Pine Technical Institute
900 4th Street
Pine City, MN 55063
Phone: 800-521-7463
Trinidad State Jr. College
600 Prospect
Trinidad, CO 81082
Phone: 800-621-8752
Yavapai College
1100 East Sheldon Street
Prescott, AZ 86301
Phone: 520-776-2150