Permits and requalifying

[David]

Hello everyone. This is my first post here. I've been doing quite a bit of reading though and have found some very informative posts.

I have a question. I'm fairly new to gun ownership and just received my permit. When I took my permit class the instructor said that technically you can carry whatever you want, but requalifying with the gun you intend to carry, if differnt than what you first qualified with, is a good idea in case there is a shooting and you get sued they will pull your file and use it against you if you used a different gun.

In a way that makes sense, but then it sounds a little far fetched.

For example, I qualified with a Smith And Wesson SW40VE, but have since bought and very much prefer a Beretta 96.

Should I requalify with the Beretta or is that really more of a business suggestion that they make to bring in a few more bucks to the range?

Thanks,

David

[Todd.Scallions]

First, welcome to the TFA Forum! I hope you decide to become a member and help protect your second amendment rights. I look at it like this, the $50.00 fee is a small price to pay to protect yourself from someone looking to discredit you in the courtroom. Just think, that $50.00 could avoid something like this:

"So Mr. David help the court understand. There was a class you could have taken, at your own free will, that simply states that a licensed instructor qualified you to carry this particular weapon, and you turned that down? Mr. David I would hope that for your own safety and the safety of the general public that you and any other permit owners would elect to qualify for any weapon you choose to carry."

I plan to take all four handgun fighting classes that RangeUSA has to offer (slowly... at $125 a pop it might take a while). But that also got me thinking. I wonder if that could be used against me as well?

"So I see here Mr. Scallions you've taken all these advanced handgun fighting classes. One of the classes here is chemical weapons certification. So you carry chemical spray as well? So why, may I ask, did you elect to use your handgun instead of your chemical spray? Here you had extensive advanced training, more so than the average citizen, and yet you opted to pull out your deadly .40 caliber Glock instead of a harmless 2oz bottle of pepper spray that would stopped the attack but prevented a life from being taken!

Oh who knows, I guess it all comes down to who can afford the better lawyer nowadays.

[David]

[aleekat]

I guess my questions would be, if you requalify with another handgun. And the instructor fills out another Handgun course completion. So you mail it off to the Dept. of Safety with no appication(you have one already), what do they do with it? I find it hard to believe they are keeping files on everyone.

[David]

I've been curious about that too. I can't remember what the instructor said about that specifically, but reading the Range USA site on "adding A Gun" it says, show up, pay $20, shoot a target and that's it. Doesn't say anything about applying again, or sending anything in to anyone.

When I was taking my permit class a guy came in to qualify with another gun. He came in, shot the 50 rounds and left. I don't remember him receiving a certificate or anything, so maybe they either keep it on file or send it off to the DOS for you.

I'm calling them today and will be asking those question specifically because I plan on going up there today to qualify with my Beretta and do a little more target shooting. So I'll post the response from them here when I find out.

[Todd.Scallions]

I think you might be getting my welcome message and the $50.00 fee confused. The $50.00 fee has nothing to do with the TFA. Sorry I made it sound that way. The $50.00 fee is how much it costs to qualify with another handgun. (The price may have changed). Nothing is kept on file with Department of Safety but rather you will get a copy of a form stating that you qualified with this weapon and one will be on file at RangeUSA. Again, the $50.00 I mentioned has NOTHING to do with the TFA. You can fin all the TFA membership information you need the front page. http://www.tennesseefirearms.com/

[David]

Thanks for the clarification, Todd.

I think the price did change. It's $20 to qualify with a new gun now, or at least that's what their site says.