I'm kicking around the idea of getting my instructor cert. I'm a current firearms instructor with a certain 3 letter federal law enforcement agency and looking into possibly doing this in retirement. It's not really to make any money, more of a time filler. I just wanted to gain a little feedback from you guys who currently do it. Is it worth it or too many headaches? How much time do ya'll usually dedicated a month to this? I've never really dealt with the instruction of civilians so there will be a little adjustment for me there.

Depends greatly on the state. I am in TX and the market is absolutely flooded with instructors. Some are great and some are very much not.

The state has stupid-fied the training to such a degree, it boils down to, "Who teaches the cheapest and most convenient." Now the classroom portion can be taken online, so I get frequent calls for just the handgun proficiency component and doing just that is DEFINITELY not worth the headache.

I maintain my credentials only to teach the occasional class to someone that will pay for private instruction and that means about 6 classes a year.

The TX LTC requirement is about four hours of basically safety training and the shooting...took half a day.

When I lived in NC the class was mandatory 8 hours...same stuff but more of it. (I didn’t need it as I was a cop at the time and my badge covered me) but I got one anyway when I retired as some people/places don’t understand LEOSA, and ther is also no annual qual etc....

My biggest hassle is cancelations.
I do not take deposits when people sign up, but I have sometimes 2-3 people cancel out of a class of 12.
Some have legit reasons, most not.
Many times I have a waiting list and if they notified me earlier instead of just not showing up I could fill the seat.

I've been doing it for 20 years now and I do 6 or so classes a year. Ohio still requires an 8 hour class.
I find it fun.. I use a modified power point program and it works well. I have learned that most of the women listen and pay attention to the course a lot more. And likewise out shoot their husband or boyfriend at the range. In the last year I have had more "new shooters" than I have ever seen. They have been doing well, as they also pay attention.

I'm a firearms instructor for my law enforcement agency. I kicked around doing permit to carry classes and what I kept finding is that there are not very many students who want to put any time or money into it. They want to shoot the minimum amount of ammunition in the minimum amount of time for the minimum amount of money.

I decided that I would rather not cater to that crowd.

After initially remarking in this thread, I called my friend who does this for a living and asked him about it. Here’s what he told me.

he owns the building he teaches in (rents it out on the weekends for events=extra cash). He also owns the range he uses for the shooting g portion. And after training he will open the gun store he owns if someone wants to buy a gun.

He charges $100 and provides the gun, the ammo, the target and lunch (pizzas).

He uses ruger 22 pistol and has a pallet of ammo, so he can continue teaching. If they have their own gun he tells em to leave them in the car until shooting time.

He makes people pay up front- it makes them show up on training day, he can accept Venmo, pay pal, credit card and takes cash. He learned this out early on.

He only allows a dozen people in each class, due to time needed at the range. He usually only has one person shooting at a time, so he can keep them from shooting each other, him or his buildings.....

He will take the show on the road if ten or more people sign up-think churches, social group or a business that hosts the training.

The cost work out to ammo-$1, gun-been paid for for years, food-40, certificates-$5 ea, targets are .50 ea, So the first person that pays covers the costs, everyone after that is profit.

He makes about $1200 a day for it. Not bad for one day of work. Again, no cost for range use and he owns the gun, and the ammo was purchased before all this madness and was pennies a round when he bought it.

Other people charge $100 but make you provide your own gun and ammo.

Just checked with the 3 places I'm familiar with near me.

One was $50, one was $60 and one was $80 for CCW classes.

Around here, the price varies from $50 at a gun show, where the class sits for the required four hours and listens to a guy drone on while pacing back and forth in front of the room. Each participant is handed a pistol with one round already chambered and s/he fires it into a barrel.

For $100, there are actual training classes available. Three or four hours of classroom presentation, discussion, demonstration, etc. Lunch break, then off to the range for some actual instruction that emphasizes safety, gun handling, and, of course, there is a fair amount of shooting.

I did it for a while, but it's 12 hours in KY and boring. Then the range-some people simply refuse to follow safety rules. It wasn't worth it. My cert expires in August.

I got my CHCL instructor certification 8 years ago, had a few life changes that didn’t really make keeping a schedule of classes possible. Any classes I do are for private groups and almost exclusively from friends and acquaintances. Might just be because I don’t do a bunch of classes but I’ve been cold called 4 times by people going on and on about all their qualifications and how they just need me to sign off and their training and make a few bucks. Seemed pretty obvious they were trying to catch me “selling” certifications.

I'm a certified NRA instructor.

Law Enforcement handgun/shotgun.
Personal Protection in the Home.
Personal Protection Outside the Home.
Certified Pistol.
State of IL. Concealed carry.
State of IL.Certified instructor
State of WI. Certified Instructor

I was the regional Firearms instructor for a International Armored transport Company. I used to, before retirement, offer concealed carry instruction for employees primarily located in IL.
In IL. 16hrs of training are required for a CCW permit. IL. charges $150 for a 5 year permit.
I charged $200 for the class (16hrs). I limited class size to 8 students. I feed and watered the class for the 2 days.A range session and qualification is also required and included in the class cost. Ammo was on the students to pay for.
Major problem was that I only offered training to work employees.I had the same problems as stated in other posts, Attendance.
I did not require a deposit. Since it was a 2 day class I would encounter students that did not make one of the days.I would then have to try to re-schedule them into future classes to make up the day they missed. I also encountered finding a gun range that allowed the range rental difficult. Most all ranges also offer CCW classes and did NOT want to rent to a outside instructor.
I also was VERY nervous about my liability. Most students made me cringe with there gun handling and there sheer ignorance.I always imagined some idiot that did NOT listen to information in class as to when and where they could use the gun and then sitting on the witness stand defending myself as an instructor when a student did something stupid and said "the instructor told me I could do that."
The final thing that caused me to stop teaching was personal. Most of my students were minorities. I would always begin a class bashing Democrates and stating that there main ambition was to remove Shooting rights. I would also explain that Republicans are the reason IL. even had CCW permits and helped get the Supreme Court to ORDER CCW permits in IL.
Most all the students were Democrats, they were all sitting in front of me dying to get a CCW permit but the concept that the people they vote for relentlessly vote to remove our gun rights went way over there heads. It made me fume!
I finally decided that the hypocrisy was too much. I could no longer tolerate it along with the liability, especially after I retired.
I keep my accreditation now only for close friends and family.
My Son's wife's family are democrats.
In the spring last year they suddenly decide that they needed a gun to protect themselves.They thought that all they needed to do is go buy a gun. I enjoyed telling them that first they needed a State of IL.FOID card and it would take months to get one. Then they would have to try and find a handgun and ammo. The final blow was that if they wanted to carry the gun they needed 16hrs of training.
I was informed yesterday that they both received there FOID cards. I will see them in a couple weeks for a family get together. I'm sure I will be asked to help them with there CCW permit.
It will NOT be a pleasant get together when I inform them that I will not give them the instruction because they are Democrats.

If you are comfortable with lowest-common-denominator training, go for it. When I did classes, maybe 10% of the students had any real motivation to learn. The rest wanted their ticket punched with the minimum exertion, mentally and physically, possible, no matter the effort I put into teaching the class.

Training in-service and pre-service cops was tough enough, I didn't need the extra headaches.