Education Required, But ...
What Happens When A CCW Applicant
Needs An Unavailable Safety Course?
The California Department of Justice apparently no longer believes
NRA Certified instructors are good enough to provide firearms
safety courses for concealed carry permit applicants.
Earlier this month, a new law governing how someone can apply for a concealed carry permit took effect in California, and as one might expect, there is a training requirement.
Under Penal Code 31635, which took effect Jan. 1, 2023, the state Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) offered several options to meet the requirement. It can all be found at FindLaw.com, where one is advised how “Department Certified Instructor applicants shall have a certification to provide training from one of the following organizations, as specified, or any entity found by the department to give comparable instruction in firearms safety, or the applicant shall have similar or equivalent training to that provided by the following, as determined by the department:
(1) Department of Consumer Affairs, State of California-Firearm Training Instructor.
(2) Director of Civilian Marksmanship, Instructor or Rangemaster.
(3) Federal Government, Certified Rangemaster or Firearm Instructor.
(4) Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Firearm Instructor Training Program or Rangemaster.
(5) United States Military, Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) as marksmanship or firearms instructor. Assignment as Range Officer or Safety Officer is not sufficient.
(6) National Rifle Association-Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement Instructor, Rangemaster, or Training Counselor.
(7) Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), State of California-Firearm Instructor or Rangemaster.
(8) Authorization from a State of California accredited school to teach a firearm training course.
However, in November, along came Cal DOJ with an “emergency regulation” which pared down the options at the same time anecdotal reports indicated a whole lot of Californians interested in obtaining carry permits. This was all due to the June 2022 Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling, which forced Golden State lawmakers to scramble replacing the state’s restrictive carry permit process with something, well, almost as bad.
If you want carry one of these in California, you need a permit, but the state Justice Department is making that as difficult as possible.
To make matters worse, the emergency notice said this: “Initial and renewal applications must be completed and submitted on the Concealed Carry Weapon Program DOJ Certified Instructor Application, Form BOF 1034 (Orig. 01/2024), hereby incorporated by reference.
“Initial applicants must submit a copy of their training certification from one of the following: (1) Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, Department of Consumer Affairs, State of California-Firearm Training Instructor;
(2) Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), State of California Firearms Instructor or Rangemaster; or
(3) Authorization from a State of California accredited school to teach a firearm training course.”
Among other options, the long-accepted NRA-certified firearms instructors were evidently no longer good enough. Neither were U.S. Military instructors or Range officer/Safety officer types, or any of the other five non-state folks. The popular theory was that the DOJ simply wanted to severely reduce the number of acceptable instructors, thus creating a huge backlog and lengthy wait in order to take an acceptable course and apply for a permit.
Ban Starter Pistols?
Students at Seattle’s Ingraham High School and the school’s new athletic director apparently “freak out” at the prospect of starting track events with a starter pistol. According to the Seattle Times, the athletic director says some folks in his office get spooky when someone pops a balloon.
Starter pistols, as we all know, fire only blanks. They’ve been a part of track meets since long before any of us were around, but “wokeness” has evidently traumatized high schoolers and administrators so much that they can’t handle the report of a starting shot.
Somewhere in my collection of almost-useless stuff, I know there is about a half-empty box of .22-caliber blank cartridges for use in starter pistols. I was going to dig them out and donate them to the local high school’s track coach, but that is now off the table.
The Times story said a group of Ingraham students have started a fundraising campaign to purchase an alternative to the starting pistol. It was described as “an electronic starting system — which makes a duller sound and flashes lights instead of the loud, sharp bang and white puff of smoke the pistol emits.”
In fairness, an Ingraham student was fatally shot on campus in November 2022. However, he wasn’t killed with a starter pistol, and the shooter was apprehended.
What this story suggests is that anything gun-related is strictly a no-no anymore, at least at one Seattle high school. I’m not sure if there is a moral to this. Whatever it is, most likely, it is pitiful.
As one might guess, this story attracted lots of reader comments, and the one which seemed to strike my bullseye was this: “I’m terrified for our country’s future. An athletic director who is uncomfortable with a starter pistol? Athletes petrified by the sound of a starter gun? Our government is trying its hardest to disarm us. God help us if we ever have to fight another major war. We used to play with cap guns. We had gun safety and marksmanship classes in school. We weren’t pansies. And the starting pistol was the norm.”
Busy As Beavers
This column frequently mentions the Second Amendment Foundation, and recently it was discovered the organization had (count ‘em!) 57 active court cases in various courts around the country, from the northeast to the Pacific Coast.
Alan Gottlieb and the Second Amendment Foundation had a busy 2023, and it appears this organization is raising its sights for 2024!
In a conversation with SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, he confessed there are so many irons in his fire he can’t keep up with all of them. The group is involved in several ongoing lawsuits just in California. It has a couple going in Washington and it is involved in two federal lawsuits challenging an Oregon gun control law which was declared unconstitutional in a state court back in November. That ruling was quickly appealed.
This year promises to keep SAF’s stable of private attorneys busy. The organization works with several attorneys around the country, and they have collectively developed a pretty good track record.
Gottlieb once estimated that SAF is responsible for about 80% of the gun rights case law, including one celebrated Supreme Court decision known as McDonald v. City of Chicago.
The gun prohibition lobby and the Biden administration is back to focusing on state legislative action because they have found they cannot get what they want from Congress or the courts. The strategy seems to be passing, where possible, state gun restrictions which will keep Second Amendment groups tied up in court challenges for the next few years.
President Joe Biden is allegedly “weaponizing” state legislators to push his gun control agenda at the state level because he can’t get anything through Congress and the courts have not been kind to gun control lately
Speaking of Biden
Last month, the Biden White House hosted a gathering of Democrat state legislators — no Republicans were invited — to unveil the administration’s “Safer States Agenda,” which includes the following recommendations:
• Establish a State Office of Gun Violence Prevention
• Invest in Evidence-informed Solutions to Prevent and Respond to Gun Violence
• Strengthen Support for Survivors and Victims of Gun Violence
• Reinforce Responsible Gun Ownership
• Strengthen Gun Background Checks
• Hold the Gun Industry Accountable
This effort is already underway in some states, and it just might get some traction where Democrats control things. In states with GOP leadership, not so much.
I sent an email request to the White House press office for the full roster of those in attendance. I did not get a reply.
We’ve Got Mail
Dave, once again a great read (“Flat as a Pancake,” Dec. 8) and the pancake is absolutely delicious especially for a 1911 which is my favorite. But the problem nowadays is that us old geezers (over 80) have worn out most of our holsters, especially the most comfortable leather. I have some of the plastic which gather dust because they are uncomfortable.
The biggest problem is now we can’t afford a knew pancake in leather and we need comfort concealed and fit. Why do I say those things is in the state I live in would like to see a law which wouldn’t allow old folks to carry. I served in the military during the 50s and 60s and was on scene for the 88-day war in the Middle East among other places. I was in law enforcement and finished my career as a training officer. All of that means nothing when you have to put food and medical as priority and one is disabled so new leather or even used good condition is out of reach. Yes, we are the forgotten protectors and many of us may end up without a roof but that seems to be what is in store for seniors. Maybe the movie “Solent Green” should be re-released. Keep up the great work and if you run across a good shape pancake for a1911 drop me a line.
Ric Fondren
Oregon
Dave replies: For openers, thanks for your years of service, and keep that 1911 loaded and lubed. You guys in Oregon are fighting the good fight, and it takes “old geezers” like you to remind the younger folks how it used to be before things got “woke” on both sides of the Columbia River. As for “Soylent Green,” I promise from now on to only eat stuff I grow or shoot. The end of that Chuck Heston flick added a creepy new meaning to what grandma used to say: “Now David, eat your greens!”
