Hunter Education changes

[ghosthunter]

I received a email today from a past instructor inquiring about future classes. The following was my response.


I am not totally sure I will be doing another class. I have been waiting to see what the policies are. If in fact they insist on serial numbers of my own firearms than I may be done doing classes. At this moment I have not given any time to the consideration of another class. From the emails I am getting the serial number issue seems to be the tipping point for a lot of instructors. Not surprising
because it reeks of Big Brother.
 
At this point I am on the fence. If I can continue to bring in firearms with trigger locks or a double instructor sign off and not use orange guns. Provide no serial numbers of my own guns than I can think I can live with that. If they insist on the serial numbers of pernonal firearms than I would encourage any instructor to leave the program.
 
It is wait and see for now. They would have been better advised to do this process during the slow months instead of the middle of the teaching season. 
 
Bobby Beddome

 My gun permit was issued December 15, 1791 and never expires.
Give your rights some exercise or lose them forever.

 





Bobby:

Josh would like to know when you are going to hold your next class.  He would like to get his son in.  Alex
 

[pianoman9701]

I received a email today from a past instructor inquiring about future classes. The following was my response.


I am not totally sure I will be doing another class. I have been waiting to see what the policies are. If in fact they insist on serial numbers of my own firearms than I may be done doing classes. At this moment I have not given any time to the consideration of another class. From the emails I am getting the serial number issue seems to be the tipping point for a lot of instructors. Not surprising
because it reeks of Big Brother.
 
At this point I am on the fence. If I can continue to bring in firearms with trigger locks or a double instructor sign off and not use orange guns. Provide no serial numbers of my own guns than I can think I can live with that. If they insist on the serial numbers of pernonal firearms than I would encourage any instructor to leave the program.
 
It is wait and see for now. They would have been better advised to do this process during the slow months instead of the middle of the teaching season. 
 
Bobby Beddome

 My gun permit was issued December 15, 1791 and never expires.
Give your rights some exercise or lose them forever.

 





Bobby:

Josh would like to know when you are going to hold your next class.  He would like to get his son in.  Alex

In light of your passion for hunting and our 2nd Amendment, I find it interesting that you would consider not doing the program anymore. That's the one action that will leave us with fewer proponents down the road - not having enough instructors to teach the up and coming young-ins. This is not the time to quit Hunter Education.

[Oldguy]

Instructors in the Hunter Education program are volunteers and they have the option of leaving if they choose to. A lot of the proposed changes are hard to swallow and that could cause some instructors to leave, but those who belittle anyone who opts out is more than welcome to fill the spots. Do I hear anyone volunteering?

[ghosthunter]

I received a email today from a past instructor inquiring about future classes. The following was my response.


I am not totally sure I will be doing another class. I have been waiting to see what the policies are. If in fact they insist on serial numbers of my own firearms than I may be done doing classes. At this moment I have not given any time to the consideration of another class. From the emails I am getting the serial number issue seems to be the tipping point for a lot of instructors. Not surprising
because it reeks of Big Brother.
 
At this point I am on the fence. If I can continue to bring in firearms with trigger locks or a double instructor sign off and not use orange guns. Provide no serial numbers of my own guns than I can think I can live with that. If they insist on the serial numbers of personal firearms than I would encourage any instructor to leave the program.
 
It is wait and see for now. They would have been better advised to do this process during the slow months instead of the middle of the teaching season. 
 
Bobby Beddome

 My gun permit was issued December 15, 1791 and never expires.
Give your rights some exercise or lose them forever.

 





Bobby:

Josh would like to know when you are going to hold your next class.  He would like to get his son in.  Alex

In light of your passion for hunting and our 2ND Amendment, I find it interesting that you would consider not doing the program anymore. That's the one action that will leave us with fewer proponents down the road - not having enough instructors to teach the up and coming young-ins. This is not the time to quit Hunter Education.

I have often heard this argument. I do have passion for the program. But I cannot sell my soul in the name of the children. At some point so much needless regulation takes the fun out of it. You spend more time worring about all the needless restrictions than teaching the class. I am willing to change, to try new ways , providing serial numbers of my personal arms just because I bring them to a class is needless regulation and does nothing to improve the quality of the program.

[pianoman9701]

Ghosthunter, this is not selling your soul. No one's asking you to do something immoral or unethical; pretty dramatic, don't you think? It's adjusting to new regulations. That's all. Can we teach the program effectively without live weapons? Of course we can and we still have an optional live fire session we can do. Is it harder to teach? Maybe, but I doubt that the difference is noticeable if you're not focused on it. And, this is not just for the children, because many of the people taking hunter education are adults. This is literally for the future of our sport. If we don't have enough instructors to teach all of the people who want to hunt, we lose opportunities and we lose bodies. We have to stem the hemorrhaging of hunters from our sport or it will go away over the coming years. We can't have more hunters without the needed instructors.

[Special T]

I have heard of a couple HE instructors that will likely only do the archery education from now on... They still get to give back, and help others, they just don't have to let Big Brother into their business.

[ghosthunter]

Ghosthunter, this is not selling your soul. No ones asking you to do something immoral or unethical; pretty dramatic, don't you think? It's adjusting to new regulations. That's all. Can we teach the program effectively without live weapons? Of course we can and we still have an optional live fire session we can do. Is it harder to teach? Maybe, but I doubt that the difference is noticeable if you're not focused on it. And, this is not just for the children, because many of the people taking hunter education are adults. This is literally for the future of our sport. If we don't have enough instructors to teach all of the people who want to hunt, we lose opportunities and we lose bodies. We have to stem the hemorrhaging of hunters from our sport or it will go away over the coming years. We can't have more hunters without the needed instructors.

Ive been teaching 17 years I have adjusted to lots of new regulations. Some of them  I was the first to try. At some point its just too much regulation. Instructors not teaching the classes will be the least of the problems in this state. Hunter numbers are down. Sauces rates are down, Access is down,costs for everything is up.

Everyone teaches for their own reasons. Mine was to give back and to turn out excellent gun handlers, not shooters, gun handlers. Young folks who could pick up most firearms and do it safely. The program allowed me to do that in the beginning. I brought in a variety of firearms and let students explore them. The students needs where met and my intrests where met, underlying is my support of 2A and the right to bear arms.
Some of the new policies like fake guns, and required serial numbers go against my beliefs. So it is like selling my soul. When you give up the things you be live in just to fit into a group. I am not sure I can do it, thus I am taking a break.

[pianoman9701]

Ghosthunter, this is not selling your soul. No ones asking you to do something immoral or unethical; pretty dramatic, don't you think? It's adjusting to new regulations. That's all. Can we teach the program effectively without live weapons? Of course we can and we still have an optional live fire session we can do. Is it harder to teach? Maybe, but I doubt that the difference is noticeable if you're not focused on it. And, this is not just for the children, because many of the people taking hunter education are adults. This is literally for the future of our sport. If we don't have enough instructors to teach all of the people who want to hunt, we lose opportunities and we lose bodies. We have to stem the hemorrhaging of hunters from our sport or it will go away over the coming years. We can't have more hunters without the needed instructors.

Ive been teaching 17 years I have adjusted to lots of new regulations. Some of them  I was the first to try. At some point its just too much regulation. Instructors not teaching the classes will be the least of the problems in this state. Hunter numbers are down. Sauces rates are down, Access is down,costs for everything is up.

Everyone teaches for their own reasons. Mine was to give back and to turn out excellent gun handlers, not shooters, gun handlers. Young folks who could pick up most firearms and do it safely. The program allowed me to do that in the beginning. I brought in a variety of firearms and let students explore them. The students needs where met and my intrests where met, underlying is my support of 2A and the right to bear arms.
Some of the new policies like fake guns, and required serial numbers go against my beliefs. So it is like selling my soul. When you give up the things you be live in just to fit into a group. I am not sure I can do it, thus I am taking a break.

Have you used or seen the inactive firearms? They're real guns, not fake. They're just unable to fire. I'm not sure what the perceived problem is because if you have active guns in class, there's nothing you can do with them that the new guns can't do. Active firearms are still allowed for the optional live-fire.

Ghost, your 17 years as an instructor show your incredible level of commitment to the program. Thanks for the probably thousands of hunters you've added to our ranks. I hope that I've been able to give this much to our sport when my days are done. 

[JJD]

Yeah, I've seen and handled the new inactive firearms. 
The state does not allow us to put a minimum age on perspective students, have you seen an 8 year old try to handle one of these adult sized arms?  IMHO, we are setting them up for failure in the field course.  Be like you trying to control one end of an 8 ft, 2x8 from the opposite end.