Licensed Doesn't Mean Trained

The number that should bother you

There are roughly 21 million active concealed carry permits in the United States right now. That number has actually been dropping for the past three years, not because fewer people are carrying, but because 29 states have adopted constitutional carry laws that don't require a permit at all.

So the real number of people carrying concealed handguns in public is almost certainly higher than 21 million. The vast majority of them completed the bare minimum training their state required, if their state required any training at all.

What "training" actually looks like

In Oregon, you can get your concealed handgun license by completing a safety course. The Oregon State Sheriffs' Association offers one online, for free. Pay $60 for the completion certificate, submit your application, and you're licensed to carry a loaded handgun in public.

No live fire. No demonstration that you can actually hit a target. No drawing from a holster, no managing recoil, no clearing a malfunction. You watched some videos and answered some questions. That's it.

Oregon isn't unusual. Most states with training requirements set the bar somewhere between "watch a video" and "shoot 50 rounds at a paper target from 7 yards in a well-lit, air-conditioned range where nothing is shooting back at you."

What happens when stress shows up

The NYPD studied officer-involved shootings between 1998 and 2006. These are trained professionals who qualify regularly, carry daily, and have institutional support for ongoing skill development. Their hit rate in actual gunfights averaged 18 percent.

At 7 yards or less, it climbed to 37 percent. At longer distances, it fell off a cliff.

Compare that to their range qualification scores, where the same officers hit around 90 percent. That's a 52 to 76 percent accuracy drop between the range and the street.

The reason is biology. Under threat, your brain stem floods your body with stress hormones. Blood vessels constrict. Vision narrows. Fine motor skills go away. The rational, decision-making part of your brain takes a back seat to raw survival instinct.

Training under realistic stress conditions can offset some of this. But studies show even that benefit fades within about four weeks without continued practice.

If trained police officers with ongoing qualification requirements hit their target less than 1 in 5 times during real encounters, what does that mean for someone whose only preparation was a free online course?

The gap between licensed and prepared

A concealed carry license is paperwork. It confirms you met a minimum legal threshold. It does not mean you can identify a threat, assess your backdrop, manage your adrenaline, and put rounds where they need to go without endangering the people around you.

One firearms instructor we train with teaches roughly 2,500 people per year to get their concealed handgun license. He offers every one of them a significant discount on follow-up training. About 5 percent take him up on it.

That means 95 percent of those newly licensed carriers walk away believing the hard part is done. They have their permit. They have their gun. They feel prepared.

They aren't.

This isn't anti-gun

Armed civilians stopped 199 active shooter incidents between 2014 and 2024, more than the 167 stopped by police in the same period. In those 199 civilian interventions, bystanders were accidentally shot in exactly one case. That's a 0.5 percent bystander injury rate, compared to a rate more than five times higher for law enforcement.

Armed civilians save lives. But think about who those 199 people actually are. They're not the ones who took a free online course and never touched their gun again. They're the ones who trained. The 5 percent.

The argument isn't "don't carry." It's "don't carry without training." There is a real difference between someone who is armed and someone who is prepared.

Why training before you buy makes sense

Most people do it backwards. They buy a gun, then maybe look into training later. Often they don't. The gun goes into a nightstand or a holster and stays there until something happens.

Training first changes that. Before you have a live weapon in your home, you already know the four rules, how to check a chamber, how to safely store and transport a firearm. You're not learning these things on YouTube while holding a loaded gun for the first time.

Handling different types of firearms during training, even inert training replicas, gives you a feel for what fits your hand, what you can rack, what you're comfortable with. People buy fewer wrong guns when they've handled a few first. You also walk into a gun store understanding that buying the firearm is the start of an ongoing commitment, not the finish line.

And the habits you build in training, trigger discipline, muzzle awareness, knowing your target and what's beyond it, become reflexive before there's ever a round in the chamber.

What we do about it

This is why our training parties exist.

You invite a few friends. We bring inert training firearms, no live ammunition, no range. Everyone learns in your living room, at your kitchen table, in a space where nobody is judging you for being new.

You learn to handle a firearm safely before you've spent a dollar at a gun store. You ask every question you need to ask. You figure out if a gun is even right for you before making that commitment.

Training for people who haven't bought yet, taught by people who believe the training should come first.

Next steps

If you're thinking about buying your first firearm, start here instead:

1. Book a training party and bring your friends. No experience needed.
2. Read our first-time buyer's guide for what to know before you walk into a gun store.
3. If you already have your CHL and want to actually learn to shoot, check out PDX Arsenal.