250,414 background checks were done this year in Florida... so far.
In 2009, 116,000 people applied for a concealed weapons permit in Florida. 250,414 (so far this year) background checks have been performed by NICS, the FBI branch that gives a buyer approval to buy a handgun – and that’s a lot of people buying guns – and a huge number of those folks are first time gun owners. I’ve owned weapons all my life, and have to say that when I am at the range, and the person shooting in the lane next to me has to ask where the bullets go, it scares me. Not that they own a weapon, everyone has to go through the learning process, but that they are at the range before they know how to maintain, clean, or even load the weapon. I’m positive they don’t know the range rules or how important it is to never touch a gun during a “Cease Fire,” or how deadly it can be to have a slow fire or hang fire – or what those terms mean.
So I decided that I would start a website for new gun owners, and as part of that website, I would include a list of the local trainers that are qualified to give the average joe (or jill) instruction on basic firearm safety, handling, and etiquette. But there were other considerations as well to consider… such as, local laws, state laws, concealed carry laws, open carry laws (illegal here), self defense rules, when you can draw the gun and when it needs to stay hidden, and a host of other issues and laws and regulations that will give anyone a headache trying to figure out. Most of these issues cannot be addressed on the internet – it takes a real live person to do that. The difference between a justified shooting, and a homicide conviction is in the details. So I decided to include a firearms training section and that I would take the class before I recommended it to you.
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