NRA Certified Pistol Instructor

That’s me!

This year is the year of training for me, so I started off early. Last weekend I took the NRA CPI class put on by Leroy Farris of Farris Firearms Training in Murfreesboro, TN. It’s a two day course where you don’t learn how to shoot–you learn how to teach people to shoot.

There were about twenty of us in the class and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of students strap on a Glock as part of their day job. I made some good contacts with people who already run training facilities across Tennessee and I’ll be reaching out to them later for class offerings.

One thing I did learn is that I really need to progress from shooting for precision to shooting for speed. When I started carrying 5 years ago, I could hit a silhouette at 10 yards about 80 percent of the time. Not the x-ring, or centermass, or headshots: anywhere.

Yeah, I was pretty terrible. I’m much better now 😀

On day 2 we did a little bit of shooting and the first exercise was 6 rounds in a target about 3×5″ at probably 10 yards. We paired up and one person watched while the other shot, the point being for the non-shooter to learn to look at the gun and not the target while giving instruction. After all twenty students had put six downrange, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who made six hits. That’s probably because all I practice is slow, aimed hits at a known distance against a stationary target with no stressors present. At the LuckyGunner class by Tom Givens, I was the only student to miss an a-zone hit when we were shooting against each other. So I know what I need to work on, now.

All in all, it was a good class. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes taking new shooters. My paperwork should arrive in the next few weeks and then I can submit an application to the state to teach the Handgun Permit class. I haven’t decided if I’m actually going to do that, though.