South Carolina CWP (Concealed Weapons Permit),
and Florida CWP,
and NRA Basic Pistol Certificate

Here is our current schedule of CWP and Basic Pistol classes in the Columbia, SC, area. We teach additional classes including special classes for women, business associates, friends, families, and church members.  If you don't see a convenient regularly-scheduled class, e-mail us to ask. Let us know if you have a group that would like a special class or a weekday class. Please include your local phone number(s) whenever you e-mail us so we can call to answer your questions and determine your needs.

Our class combines the required training for South Carolina's Concealed Weapons Permit (CWP) with the NRA Basic Pistol course to give you the most complete basic defensive handgun class possible. The class also qualifies immediately for Florida's CWP. We provide you with the South Carolina and Florida applications and guide you through their completion at no extra cost.

Why South Carolina citizens need
a Florida Concealed Weapons Permit too

First you need to understand that there isn't any "federal" Concealed Weapons Permit to cover you throughout the U.S.A. when you travel. The federal government does not issue a CWP. Concealed Weapons Permits come from the states, just as drivers licenses do. But there the comparison ends. Every state issues a drivers license but each state chooses whether to issue a CWP, who can get it, own and whether to honor the CWP or license from any other state. It's a tricky situation. It's why we advise people in our classes to get both South Carolina's CWP and Florida's CWP when they can, and why we help our students apply for both permits. Cover yourself.

"Reciprocity" between two states means that they've made an agreement to honor each other's permits. (Of course you need to comply with the laws of each state you enter.) South Carolina and Georgia do not have a reciprocity agreement. So if you want to carry your concealed handgun when you drive into Georgia, you'll want the Florida CWP too. Check our reciprocity links on the navigation bar at your left and you'll see that Florida has reciprocity with many more states than South Carolina. With the Florida permit you can travel through most of them legally armed. As a South Carolina resident the Florida permit does not cover you in South Carolina, but that's another reason why you want both permits. Our class lets you apply for the Florida CWP when you apply for the South Carolina CWP. We help you do both. We help you cover yourself.

It's also why we urge you to join the National Rifle Association now: the NRA is the major national organization that helps protect your ability to get and keep a Concealed Weapons Permit. Reciprocity, recognition, and gun laws can change in an instant, without warning. We want to help good people protect themselves and be safe. It's why we also support local organizations with similar goals.

South Carolina and Florida CWP / Basic Pistol class overview

Our classes are open to people who are legally qualified to own and use firearms. No experience needed. We'll teach you the basics and can lend you one of our own handguns by advance arrangement. We don't charge for use of our handgun or the holster for it. Our classes are small and tend to fill quickly. To reserve your place in a class please e-mail us now. Please include your local phone number(s) whenever you e-mail us so we can call to answer your questions and determine your needs.

Top of Page

We'll instruct you in the law and in firearms safety. (The photo shows the best way to check that a semi-automatic pistol is unloaded: you look and you feel. We show you what you need to know.) We'll teach you how to shoot defensively, to protect your life. You don't need experience or even a handgun of your own to take our CWP / Basic Pistol class. We teach you how to choose the right handgun for you and we can lend you one of our own handguns to use in class while you learn. 

Our class is approved by SLED (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) as the training requirement for South Carolina's Concealed Weapons Permit (CWP) and by the NRA for the Basic Pistol Certificate recognized everywhere. The State of Florida accepts our training certificate for its CWP.

Apply for both South Carolina's and Florida's CWP at the same time when you complete our class. It's worthwhile for many South Carolinians. Florida's CWP is recognized by many more states than South Carolina's, including by Georgia. We provide you with both the South Carolina application and the Florida application, and we'll guide you through them both.

We are on your side. We give you—and you keep—the NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting book, current South Carolina laws you must know, and other materials you'll find useful after you've completed this class. (If you take a CWP class elsewhere you might want to buy the Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting separately from the NRA for $19.95. It's an excellent book. You'll find it extremely helpful.)

We're committed to helping the people who most need to protect themselves. We welcome women, mature adults, couples, and people new to firearms or who are apprehensive about them. Our classes are small so you get individual attention and the help you need. If you want private tutoring before or after you take this class we are happy to arrange personal training for you. Click here to learn more about personal training.

Our instructors are both women and men--people who have raised children and have experience with firearms in the home. We have decades of fulltime professional teaching experience and years of advanced training in what we teach. We are certified by both SLED and the NRA.

We're not only Certified Instructors in all the self-defense disciplines but we're also the Training Counselors who teach instructors in those disciplines: in other words we're the teacher's teachers. Because safety really is our foremost concern, we're also Chief Range Safety Officers and factory-certified Glock armorers. Click here to learn more about us.

The all-important sections on Firearms and the Law in our classes are taught by instructors trained by Massad Ayoob, the nation's leading expert and expert witness in the judicious use of deadly force. Because we understand the need for CWP holders to behave responsibly in protecting themselves our instructors are among the earliest instructor members in the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network. We provide quality instruction in every way.

Top of Page

The major parts of our CWP / Basic Pistol class

Our CWP/Basic Pistol class has five major parts enhanced for the needs of civilians who want to behave responsibly and protect themselves and their families:

1. Handgun Knowledge, and Safe Gun Handling and Storage;
2. Firearms and the Law, and Avoiding Confrontations;
3. Ammunition Knowledge, Fundamentals of Handgun Shooting, and Handgun Maintenance;
4. Shooting Positions, Range Safety, and Fundamentals Reinforcement;
5. Livefire Exercises and shooting qualification.

Each of those parts is packed with instruction and information. We enhance each part with materials we developed to complement our teaching so our students can get maximum lasting benefit from the class.

E-mail us now if you want to take a class. Please include your local telephone number(s) so we can call to answer your questions and determine your needs.

Top of Page