General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Your Preferred Answer on Gun Control [View all]Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)I agree: CCW permits should be issued only to people willing to put in the time and effort to become competent (to a reasonable but meaningful standard) and to know the law. Anyone carrying should be expected to know when they can and cannot legally use force, and to hit what they aim at when the answer is "yes." All I had to do was be a warm body at a class. I was disappointed. The classroom part was good (it focused mostly on when it is and is not legal to use force in Oregon), but there was no examination to see if we learned those things. And there were a couple of real mouth-breathers in that class... And of course, no idea if I can handle a gun safely, to say nothing of shoot accurately...
I'm not sure if it's readily enforceable as a part of the law, but at the least, CCW permit holders should be strongly encouraged to practice at the range regularly. I can't state strongly enough how important that is in order to both ensure that you're not a danger to everyone, but also to be able to actually succeed if you have to defend yourself. It's said that people under extreme stress tend to do what they've been trained to do. If you don't practice, you've trained yourself to do nothing.
Okay, I'm rambling. But yeah...it infuriated me , too, that there are people who fail to take the grave responsibility of carrying a weapon as seriously as it demands. If they need the law to goad them into doing so, then fine. Change the law.