TexasCHLforum.com

What Charles said.

"I'm sure not going to get into a manufactured argument over semantics when we pretty much agree on the big picture."

What some call semantics, others see as facts.

"It's also your right to advance the pro-gun and pro-carry causes (freedom) by donating your time to give free lessons. Why not get on with it rather than just wishing others did it."

Do you have any idea of how many free classes and neighborhood gun safety seminars I have done? I doubt it.

"Why make money on helping people enjoy a basic individual freedom by getting their LTC? You don't have to charge for your lessons? Kind of crazy to profit from helping someone enjoy a basic right."

In case you don't know anything about LTC classes, it costs money to teach them, so I charge enough to at least break even.

"See how we can get mired in the mud when chasing rabbits?"

You chase rabbits, I continue to chase liberty as I have always done.

To me, there is no pro-gun or pro-carry. It is all just a part of pro-freedom. There is no such thing as "gun rights", there are individual rights. To some it is a gun issue. To me it is a freedom issue.

It would be a good thing for ranges and gun shops to offer a free one hour orientation class to anyone buying a gun. I'll bet a lot of instructors would volunteer a couple of hours each month to teach such classes. I would.
Wish I owned my own darn range.

Mojo, while I am a LTC instructor, as a Constitutionalist I see the right of self defense as being enshrined as a right which does not require the government's permission. Hopefully we will one day have Constitutional carry in Texas. That will take away some of my income, but my income is not as important to me as my freedom is.
Remember, a license is nothing more than the government taking away a right, then selling it back to you under the government's conditions.

May I ask, Tornado, would you require a free government class on how to speak "safely" or publish comments "safely" before you would allow people to exercise those rights?
Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to point out that we are talking about the most basic of human rights, and one guaranteed by the Constitution. Once you start requiring government classes, approval, training, licensing, etc. of one Constitutional right, you can start requiring it of all such rights.

I totally understand the need for safety, and some of my students get a little upset about how rigorously I enforce the four basic rules.
HOWEVER, to those who say that you should have to take basic classes, pass more stringent proficiency tests, etc. before you can carry, please answer the following question:
Where does the Constitution say that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed "as long as you pass a test", or "as long as you meet certain standards" or "as long as you have taken a class"?
Maybe I am the lone wolf here who believes that the Constitution means what it says, and once we allow the government to tell us that we have to meet its standards before they will allow us to exercise our God given rights, them we have no rights at all.