Because guns are cool
That’s pretty much the only reason I need to take a class.
There’s a bit of debate on training classes and their relative effectiveness going on in the gun blogs:
Words can kill
Not all training is good training
Some good discussion here but, for the record, “need” has nothing to do with it.
Seems to me that everyone is right. A training class is not the end all be all of preparedness. Nor does anyone have any sort of moral obligation to take one. And not taking a training class is not justification for taking rights away. Ever. But you will probably learn something new. And you will get practice. And you likely will practice something that you don’t really do in your ordinary range sessions. And you will have fun. And, at the end of the day, you’re playing a game. And those are good things. But you’re not going to transform into an uber-cool, suburban operator with a tactical mini-van.
Take the class, if you feel like it. Have fun. You might learn something.
And, for the record, under no circumstance will I ever take a class that has me standing in front of the line of fire. That increases my chances of getting shot from roughly zero to something greater than zero. An instructor teaching a class, even the best instructor in the world, is always limited by his dumbest student. No thanks. “Big boys” make “big boy” decisions like that.
October 7th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Surprised at the lack of comments on this one.
The balls post must have distracted them.
October 7th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
lots of comments at other sites though.
And I’m not a mall ninja. More a mall pirate.
October 7th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
OMG!!!111eleventy!
it is absolutely imperative that you take $5000 worth of gun training classes (not including ammo costs) or how can we be sure that you are properly trained to carry a hidden, loaded, deadly, assault pocket rocket!!!
and if you ever do take all those classes and end up in court, we get to paint you as a gun crazed wackaloon who was just itchen fer sum killin’!
October 7th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I’ve taken classes to learn how to survive in the woods. Track someone down who is lost. Lead an armed scout team on recon missions. Practiced an Australian Peel in a park in Ponca City. Escape captivity in a foreign country and evade the bad guys in downtown Oklahoma City. Of course, I’ve also been in a field with 50 of my closest friends with nerf swords, bows, and arrows with tennis balls on the ends. At one time I made some bad-ass model rockets and launched them into the sky too.
Just because I am frickn’ computer programmer in Oklahoma doesn’t mean I can’t do some fun stuff. What for someone else is their job, to me is something fun I can do on a weekend. Who cares if you don’t plan on taking Fallujah? Running and gunning is fun or else there wouldn’t be IPSC, IDPA, and 3-gun matches!
I don’t intend on joining an Airborne unit any time soon, but I do plan on jumping out of an airplane soon.
Just gotta keep perspective.
October 7th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
This post sums up exactly how I feel about the situation.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
I took a class, to get my carry permit. It was a good class, the teacher was a local SWAT armorer. He was a fanboy too, even had a Glock holster. I am not a fanboy.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
A-frickin’-men.
As long as you understand that no amount of “classes” is going to turn you into an UberSEALDeltaOperator, knock yourself the frak out.