Gander Mountain

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Photon Guy

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So I've heard that in certain Gander Mountain locations they have handgun classes. Does anybody know much about this? How good are they? How much shooting do you do?
 
As far as I know there is no actual shooting, I don't know of a Gander Mountain that has a shooting range in it. I am quite sure it is only classroom.
I could be wrong.
 
I have no experience with Gander Mountain training but the quality of any training is going to depend heavily on your instructor(s).
 
Most have a classroom. They rent or make other arrangements with instructors of many courses on many subjects. The Dayton area fly fishing club hosts fly tying classes there in the winter. The Gander CCW courses in my area use ranges at other locations to qualify. It is a pretty nice class room. Not Gander staff giving the classes.

I signed up for my first CCW class there and ended up pretty ticked. Was 40 minutes from where I lived at the time and I was the only one to show at 7 am on a Saturday, so the instructors canceled the class. Wouldn't even give me a discount on the next class. Gander Mountain basically said they just rented the facility and not their problem.
 
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To give the NRA pistol course, shooting the handgun is required. (In NY state that seems to be waved because it is illegal) The instructor at the local Gander Mountain here is a good man.
 
rebs: In NY state it is illegal to even hold a handgun unless you are licensed. And in my county (each county has it's own requirements) the NRA Basic Pistol Course is required to even get an application for a license. So you end up with people getting a license to carry, sometimes with restrictions, before they have even held a pistol.

It's stupid, yes. Would you give a person a driver's license who has never driven a car?
 
That is plain nuts to give an NRA class without the shooting part. How are they going to learn how to handle a gun safely ? What are these politicians thinking, are they all nuts ? These gun laws are getting so out of touch with reality.
Your right it is like getting a driver license without a road test.
 
In NY state it is illegal to even hold a handgun unless you are licensed. And in my county (each county has it's own requirements) the NRA Basic Pistol Course is required to even get an application for a license. So you end up with people getting a license to carry, sometimes with restrictions, before they have even held a pistol.
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Unbelievable.

I've often thought the anti-gun folk here in MN would like to stop anyone who is mentally ill from buying a handgun and their definition of being mentally ill would be to want to buy a handgun. (Apologies to Catch-22.)

Sounds like they almost achieved it in NY...you can't get an application for a gun without passing the course and you can't pass the course without shooting a gun...thank goodness (I guess) the NRA waived the shooting requirement.
 
A friend of mine and his wife took a basic pistol class at the local "Gander Mt. Acadamy."

Jon is a combat veteran Marine who sat in on the class just to see the quality of instruction, his wife was a novice shooter and wanted some formal "Non-Marine" schooling.

John said the instruction was actually quite good and the instructor was quite good.

As mentioned in earlier posts, it mostly comes down to the instructor.
 
It's stupid, yes. Would you give a person a driver's license who has never driven a car?
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Well no I wouldn't but you see, in order to drive a car you have to have a driver's license but in order to get a driver's license you have to drive a car which you're not able to do in the first place unless you've got a driver's license to begin with so its a catch 22. Of course with driving there's a way around that. Prior to getting your license you're able to drive under certain conditions such as in the supervision of a driving instructor. Therefore I think NY should make certain exceptions to not being allowed to handle guns without a license. For instance, before getting a license you should be able to handle and shoot guns in the supervision of a firearms instructor.

If NY doesn't allow that they should at least use simulated guns in their classes.
 
It sounds like the airsoft business should be booming in NY.
As well as the number of homes for sale on their real estate market.
 
Unfortunately, common sense is not part of NY. Except of course for "common sense" and "reasonable" gun safety control. NOT
 
Well the fact of the matter is, to buy a gun in most states you don't need any instruction or experience with guns beforehand. In PA all you need is a state driver's license and you can buy all the long guns and even handguns that you want. Even in NJ you don't need to take any classes and you don't have to have ever used guns prior to buying one. To buy long guns in NJ you need a Firearms ID card and to buy handguns you need a special handgun purchasing permit and you need one permit per handgun. Both those you have to get at your local PD but in both cases you don't have to show anything that says you've taken a class or that you've ever fired a gun before. So in some ways you could say that even in NJ you don't have to navigate through as many steps to get guns as you do in NY.

So congratulations NY, you've beaten out NJ in terms of stupid gun laws which is very hard to do.
 
NY should make certain exceptions to not being allowed to handle guns without a license. For instance, before getting a license you should be able to handle and shoot guns in the supervision of a firearms instructor.
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I can see the logic behind that train of thought, but I can also see it effectively prohibiting the majority of the people wanting to obtain a hand gun for financial reasons. The added expense on top of the ridiculous expense already.

I probably shouldn't have typed that out loud, it'll give em ideas! :p
 
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