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I may be moving from Southern California to the Dallas area in the next few months and I will definitely be applying for my CHL once I get there. I served 11 years in the Marine Corps and was wondering if the requirement for safety classes is satisfied by my military training (specifically the multiple qualifications I completed on the M9). Will I still have to go through a class, or am I good?

Thanks!

I believe you will have to go to the class regardless. The Shooting portion may be covered if your military training was very recent.

The CHL class will be 4 hours and the qualification is a cheap and easy form of range time in most cases. You will get a veterans discount from the state (I think). Military training and CHL training aren't the same and there is very little gun safety in the Texas CHL course. You should take the class and enjoy it...you might learn something new!!! Thanks for your service to our Nation!

Civilian laws for carrying and using a handgun are different from the military rules.

If you are active duty or less than one year since your separation Texas will not charge you for the license. If you are over a year, you still get half off. However, everyone takes the class. Some instructors give discounts for active and former military, you might want to check on that.

Welcome to the forum.

As said, unless you have proper the documents of your most most recent M4 qualification you'll probably be better off just going through the shooting portion of the CHL Class. As of this time I'd wait untill after Sept 1st when the class time gets drastically reduced. The only thing your out is the price of a box of shells and your good to go where as if you try to skip the range you have a higher chance of not having exactly what the state requires. Even my soldier son when he was active chose to shoot rather than go to the trouble of getting the right paper work!

First thanks for your service and welcome to the forum.

The class will get you up to speed on the laws.

If you have documentation of your pistol qualification, and it's not over five years old you can opt out of the shooting portion of the training. I teach a lot of Coast Guard active duty personnel and not one of them has opted out even though they are current on their weapons qualification.

Shooting is fun!

MoJo wrote:Shooting is fun!

True but there are some who worry the little grandmother in class is going to outshoot them.

Blindref757 wrote:The CHL class will be 4 hours and the qualification is a cheap and easy form of range time in most cases. You will get a veterans discount from the state (I think). Military training and CHL training aren't the same and there is very little gun safety in the Texas CHL course. You should take the class and enjoy it...you might learn something new!!! Thanks for your service to our Nation!

The class will be between 4-6 hours plus range time. As stated in another post if you have recent military range qualification with a pistol you may be able to show your score sheet as proof of shooting proficiency.

avarusbrightfyre wrote:I may be moving from Southern California to the Dallas area in the next few months and I will definitely be applying for my CHL once I get there. I served 11 years in the Marine Corps and was wondering if the requirement for safety classes is satisfied by my military training (specifically the multiple qualifications I completed on the M9). Will I still have to go through a class, or am I good?

Thanks!

Being a Texas CHL instructor since 1996 I've never had a Marine in any of my classes pass up the change to shoot. So why you want to pass on the most fun part of the class? By the way Semper Fidellis.

Mike