Training Junkies

 Lot of talk lately about training junkies when it comes to classes. I noted several years ago that any training company that isn't nationally known (Gunsite) is likely to have 150-250 students, and those same students keep showing up, class after class. This is probably why some instructors do a lot of traveling, otherwise they'd be dealing with the same group, and that group by its very nature won't typically be enough to sustain somebody who is dependent upon this for their sole source of income. This article isn't really about income levels and professional instruction, but I will note that it isn't easy to make tons of income in this space. The number of instructors you know that are making their entire living from this endeavor is small. (Many have pensions from LE, other revenue streams, etc.)

So the real conundrum as an instructor is how to coax the tons of firearms owners out there into classes. Not the junkies, but the other people. Depending on who you want to believe, somewhere around 17 million guns were sold in the USA in 2022 alone. Now obviously many of those guns were sold to people that already own guns, but even a small percentage of that number going to new owners means that the potential audience for firearms instruction isn't shrinking.

A lot of those new firearms owners do take one class: concealed carry. They aren't interested in any further instruction, and the only reason that they did the CC class was due to state requirements. In their mind no other instruction is wanted or needed. As a side note, I don't want anybody to have to take a class or training in order to exercise any right. But I do want them to pursue training because they desire to, not out of any requirement. If I've seen anything, it is that governments do love to heap requirements on people's ability to carry a gun, and at some point it becomes so difficult, time consuming, and expensive, that most won't bother. This disproportionately affects lower income individuals, and so those requirements are really an exceptional tax on the poor.

If there were some reliable way to convert the CC class attendee into a student of other classes, it would definitely stimulate the training economy. If you've figured that part out, you're definitely winning. If I have noted anything, it is that most shooters are getting their education about shooting from the online world. In some cases I've seen people really do well from that, but I have also seen people miss substantive things through an incomplete education in that venue.

I taught a private lesson to a family several months ago. They were avid shooters, but didn't have a lot of understanding about achieving accuracy with a pistol. One of the family members talked to me about learning from Garand Thumb. Not that GT doesn't know what he's doing, but 99% of his channel is really entertainment. He is the online version of "come to a show, be entertained, possibly get some info." There are several instructors out there that do the same thing in person. Cool stories, engaging personality, and you go shooting with them, but any reliable feedback on your skill and abilities is rare.

So, if you have figured out how to get more gun owners into classes, share! I know Maj Toure is doing it community activism style, and that seems to be working for him. I ask these questions completely selflessly, as I only do private lessons currently. Open enrollment classes don't have a lot of upside for me right now, and my day job is also firearms instruction, so that is enough for me. But I would like to see the training community grow beyond the same group of people who keep coming back. (No offense to you guys, and I enjoy seeing you at every class I attend, but some new faces would probably be good for us all!)

I know some of the hurdles already: fear of failure, fear of the unknown, remote training locations, austere training locations, cost, travel time, and I'm sure there are others. Solving a lot of these issues would require a substantive and ongoing investment that most instructors either can't or won't afford, which is why you see classes held out in a remote field with a porta-potty if you're lucky. Things like running water and HVAC are luxuries when it comes to this training community as it currently exists.

Did I mention that I'm open to ideas?