NRA Law Enforcement Training

Those of you who watched my video from last week know I was in Boise, Idaho for a NRA Law Enforcement Training class; specifically, Cosmo and I were students in the Pistol / Shotgun Instructor training program.

The NRA has a law enforcement division which puts on special classes for LEOs.  This course is specifically designed for trainers to teach pistol and shotgun to LEOs.  To participate in these trainer courses, you have to meet very specific criteria; typically, you need to be active or retired law enforcement. 

They guard this training jealously and vet all students’ credentials before allowing them into the program.  They do have another method of gaining entry though:  military.

A number of months ago we contacted the NRA and asked if our State Guard service would suffice, and they were more than amenable to having us enroll (with a letter from our S3 on Guard letterhead, of course).

Fortunately, our S3 (who happens to also be a superior court judge in his civilian capacity) was more than willing to give us a letter endorsing us for the program.  Yeah… there are a couple of pro-gun judges besides St. Benitez in California.

So with the enrollment confirmed, MAJ (CA) Taormina and CPT (CA) Lieberman (The Catholic Crusader and the Hebrew Hammer) grabbed their 1911s and their tactical shotguns and headed out to America.

I have never been to Idaho before, and I can certainly see why so many Californians are fleeing there.  Boise is, of course, an older and smaller city, but the closest suburb meridian looks downright like Orange County…  (well, Orange County with a healthy dose of state-guaranteed freedom).

The class itself was fantastic, and our fellow cop students were actually quite happy to have a couple of attorneys who defend cops in their midst.  The fact that MAJ Taormina and I could actually shoot didn’t hurt either.

(If you have arrived here from our newsletter, continue reading here…)

The class was divided pretty much half and half.  The first half of each day was spent downtown in the basement classroom of the Boise Correctional Department headquarters.  After lunch we would head about 15 miles south of town to the Boise Correctional Facility. 

Yep… a prison.

The prison has a series of tactical ranges that are used for law enforcement training, and boy those ranges were nice!  The fact that the inmates cleaned up the ranges for us each night, leaving them pristine for the next day, was kinda nice too.

I will say it was somewhat odd driving past the guard shack into a prison compound each day wearing a pistol and carrying a shotgun. 

The instructors were the best part of the class, without question.  Clint and Steve are seasoned law enforcement trainers, each having storied careers with their respective departments in Idaho.  Clint is the closest thing I have ever seen to Mike Rowe.  He vaguely looks like the “Blue Collar Sage,” and his voice and manner of speaking are spot-on.  If Rowe ever needs a body double, he can certainly hire Clint.

Steve is a throwback to a nineteenth century cowboy.  A student of history and an expert shot, he had the romanticized life of not only leading his SWAT team, but also, literally, riding the mountains of Idaho on horseback as part of his patrol. 

Cosmo and I were “recruited” by Clint and Steve to add legal perspectives to their lectures.  Most of what we talked about was liability mitigation for students, respective departments when it came to training, and curriculum development… but, of course, Cosmo had to bring up his advocacy of the Third Amendment.

All of the cops, including Clint and Steve, were aghast at California’s gun laws. 

The best part of the class, and for this I will thank Clint and Steve directly, was the range drills that they had developed. 

You can expect new drills to be added to both our Range Day with Steven and Sandy program and Club 2A within the next month.  The drills were awesome and have immediate practicality.

I told both Clint and Steve that we will be stealing them.  They were more than happy to know they will be incorporated into our curriculum.

All in all, it was a great training week, and now that Cosmo and I are official NRA Law Enforcement instructors we have been invited to take additional courses. 

We most certainly will.