Site News (2/28/2012)

• Demand for NRA classes has been OK, but not great. I was scheduling a Basic Pistol class every two months on Sundays, due to range availability. I have located a range facility which is not quite as crowded on Saturdays, and I plan to move the NRA classes to Saturdays. I hope that moving to Saturday will help increase demand. If so, I may start holding that class every month. I’m also considering a special two-day class (total of 16 hours) for absolute beginners, combining the NRA and CHL courses.
• The new facility has a smaller range, so I will have to adjust the maximum size of the classes accordingly.
• I think I have gotten most of the problems with the new registration script ironed out. The friends & family discounts are now applied automatically, and PayPal is properly told that there is no sales tax (I got kinda tired of processing all those corrections by hand). If you run into any problems when registering for a class, please email me a bug report with as much information as you can remember about what you were trying to do at the time, and I will try to fix it as soon as I’m able.
• The NRA has raised the price on the student packets, which means that I had to raise my NRA class fee.
• L-1 has succeeded in obtaining a state-wide monopoly on fingerprinting for the DPS, effective March 1st, 2011. All CHL initial applicants will have to find an L-1 fingerprinting location to submit your prints to the DPS for CHL application. This additional fingerprinting requirement means that it will no longer be possible for CHL instructors to offer “all in one day” classes. There is another change that makes things slightly more convenient, although it doesn’t really make up for the fingerprint hassle. Students are now able to complete the CHL application process almost entirely online. The only things that you have to send through the mail are your CHL-100 forms, and your photos (with the registration letter sent by the DPS). Unless you have special circumstances that require additional documentation, the application process is now much simpler than before. Renewal students no longer have to submit new fingerprints, so they get to opt out of that hassle.