By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters

Very few people would disagree that concealed carry training, or at least some sort of firearms training, prior to carrying a gun is necessary. Unless a person is raised around guns by someone who has had a considerable amount of training, the fact is that you need some instruction before you start toting a pistol in a concealed carry holster.

It’s the same reason why a person has to take a hunter’s safety course before most states will sell you tags to get in the field. A person should know the laws and ethics regarding hunting as well as firearms safety and maybe some basic marksmanship before they take up a shotgun or rifle and start pursuing game. In fact, that’s also why most states mandate some sort of concealed carry training before they’ll issue you a license.

But is that asking too much?

Some people might opine that it is, and with good reasons. First, there’s the precept that the Constitution says we have a right to keep and bear; it doesn’t say anything about a license! A lot of people take that idea to heart and in a sense that’s absolutely right. It also doesn’t say how a person may keep and bear arms and as a result, that requiring a license (and prerequisites for that license) is not explicitly forbidden either.

Feel free to hash that out in the comments, but the fact remains that licensure is required in many states and so is mandatory minimum training, though some states allow for constitutional carry or to get a license if one prefers.

Second, and this is perhaps a bit more pressing depending on whom you ask, mandatory training and licensure imposes extra fees that some may not be able to afford and time requirements that some may not be able to meet, especially the working poor. Those with a middle class or working class income can afford to cough up a few hundred bucks for a training course. A person in less advantageous circumstances may not be able to do so as easily.

Which brings up another salient point – the latter person is actually the person more likely to need a concealed carry pistol. One of the truths about violent crime and gang activity is that it occurs far more frequently – though not exclusively – in low-income areas.

Granted, many states don’t have exclusionary requirements. Of the states that require training, most only require NRA Basic Pistol or a standard hunter’s safety course (typically they’re pretty cheap; in my area the former can be found for about $150 or less, depending on the 5 W’s) or something like that. Coughing up that amount (or more; some states have even more stringent required training) can be a really big ask for a person living on McDonald’s wages. Add in the cost of the license itself, time needed and transport to the local PD or sheriff’s office? That can be more than a person can save up for in a year.

The ability to arm one’s self in case of a threat should not be barred to people of lesser means. Especially when people of lesser means are more likely to be subject to violence or exposed to it. Let’s face it; people in the suburbs have more to lose but are far less likely to have it taken from them.

Also, most studies of police response times find that they are pitiful in urban areas; the person in the ghetto can appreciate axioms about how police can only get there to mop up afterwards in a far more immediate sense than the family with the McMansion close to a golf course can. Therefore, people living in those areas have far more reason to arm themselves if they can do so lawfully.

Again, the need for training is clear. But is mandating that people purchase training imposing too-high a barrier for the people who need to carry the most?

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Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.