Firearm Type: Instructor Courses

The NRA Basic Instructor Training opens with an exercise on “How to Introduce a Speaker” designed as an icebreaker. You’re paired with another Instructor Candidate, spend a few minutes exchanging information, and then introduce each other to the class. Immediately you start learning how to talk on your feet while we teach you how to offer useful praise and constructive suggestions. You’re teaching. We help you conquer shyness and develop a communications bridge with a group of people who depend on you for positive instruction. Our classes establish an atmosphere in which your fellow students assist us in helping you succeed. Step by step we guide you through five key lessons that help you learn essential methods of conducting a formal NRA class in the use of firearms. NRA Basic Instructor Training concludes with “Preparing to Teach” and the trainer’s examination.

At that point you should be ready for whichever discipline-specific instructor training class comes next for you: Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, depending on your qualifications and enrollment. To make most efficient use of the day on which we hold this six hour class, we continue on to common elements of the discipline-specific courses (NRA Basic Pistol Instructor, NRA Basic Rifle Instructor, NRA Basic Shotgun Instructor, and NRA Personal Protection Instructor) for students who have registered in advance to go beyond NRA Basic Instructor Training into one or more NRA discipline-specific class. Or you can stop with the Basic Instructor Training class. (You are not considered an NRA Certified Instructor until you complete the discipline-specific class and the NRA Training Department processes your application and issues instructor credentials.)

You must have certification of completion for at least one of the NRA basic student classes: Pistol, Rifle and or Shotgun.

Questions with any NRA INSTRUCTOR COURSES Please email Chuck@gunforhire.com

An NRA Pistol Instructor Training class begins where NRA Basic Instructor Training stops: with Lesson VI. Then NRA Pistol Instructor Training proceeds through eight lessons that teach you how to conduct the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting course step by step using the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course Outline and Lesson Plans, and how to teach pistol shooting on a basic level. NRA Pistol Instructor Training concludes with the Pistol Instructor Examination and other preliminaries to certification by the NRA. We help you learn you what you need to know for success as an NRA Pistol Instructor and we help you apply your knowledge, skills, and attitude to teaching your own classes successfully. Photographs on this page show just a few aspects of how we teach a typical NRA Pistol Instructor class. Two photographs give you a glimpse of our hands on instructional method. First we teach you how to coach a student firing the first shots. Then we supervise you as you do an actual coaching session with a student firing those first shots. We explain, demonstrate, and guide you through what you need as a first rate certified Pistol Instructor. Look for us in the photographs and you’ll notice that we are always visible but never intrusive.

Certified Range Safety Officers may attend a Chief Range Safety Officer course put on by an NRA Training Counselor who also holds the Chief Range Safety Officer certification. This is an instructor-level course, so the training counselor must make sure that the individual has been through the NRA Basic Instructor Training, which is a minimum of 6 hours. This course, accompanied with the Basic Range Safety Officer’s course, is given to the Chief Range Safety Officer candidate. The Chief Range Safety Officer candidate will receive the Range Safety Officer Lesson Plans and Range Safety Officer Student Packet.