TexasCHLforum.com

seamusTX wrote:

mr.72 wrote:IMHO, DPS should operate a firing range for the qual (which takes one person about 5 minutes), you pay $25, take a written test (the same test, is fine), do the 5-minute shooting qual and you should leave with a temp license just like with a driver's license.

It costs about $100,000 a year to operate a shooting range with minimal facilities (I know this for a fact). DPS could not possibly operate a range in every county only for the purpose of CHL tests and possibly use by their own personnel.

OK, Jim-

I wonder if your $100K/year cost of operating a shooting range applies to commercial/public shooting ranges? My suggestion is more about adding a range and on-the-spot licensing facility to an existing DPS licensing facility such as the driver's license office.

Adding it up in my head, it seems to me DPS could whip up a range on the property they already own and cross-train a driver's-test trooper to do the qual tests for CHL applicants for far less than $100K/year. But even if it did cost $100K/year, so what? We pay taxes. We might as well get something for it. DPS has been putting CHL money in the general fund for a decade. Why not take some of it out for a while.

Anyway this is just MHO... the method they use to issue a new driver's license is far superior in terms of cost, efficiency, and convenience for the applicant compared to the CHL process. I think it would be a major improvement in the CHL process if they were to leverage a system such as this as a template, rather than try and invent a whole new system.

Liberty wrote:I don't know much about apostrophes, but I think its outright rude to publicly correct someone on such a thing.

I happen to agree with Proverbs Ch. 9 on this issue:

7 "Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.

8 Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you;
rebuke a wise man and he will love you.

9 Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still;
teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.

Judging from the reaction people have routinely on many internet forums when they are offered correction, it appears that "mockers" and "the wicked" are rather common. Although I think maybe a PM to the poster could have instructed that person without inviting the accusation of it being rude. I wouldn't regard this as a public rebuke any more than it is just sort of a PSA... how to use apostrophes 101.

BTW please do correct me if I am wrong on an internet forum, even if it's about apostrophes. The last thing I want to do is be wrong on the internet

Getting back on topic, I think the license fee, the cost of the class, and the time required for the class all stack up to make it too much of a burden, either monetary or time or both. I am surprised this doesn't get more play as a civil rights issue. Clearly if we required $300 worth of classes and license fees, plus a day or more worth of leisure time to register someone to vote we would find Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson pounding the podium without delay.

I sold a guitar to finance my CHL class + license fee and had to take a day off of work to attend the class. I want my wife to get her CHL but we just can't find the money in the budget for it, and even if we could we would not have the money for another gun. 7 years of the tech economy sitting at idle while the cost of living goes up has not made it easy to find an extra couple of hundred bucks here and there.

IMHO, DPS should operate a firing range for the qual (which takes one person about 5 minutes), you pay $25, take a written test (the same test, is fine), do the 5-minute shooting qual and you should leave with a temp license just like with a driver's license.