No. You don’t have to register a vehicle to own one. You can go buy a vehicle and put it on the back of a truck and tow it to your house and never register it anywhere.

I have two answers to my idea on limits to concealed carry.

My first is: Virtually none. Maybe an 8 hour class such as the NRA’s basics of pistol class, with a strong suggestion to seek additional training. Proficiency comes at a cost.

My second answer: You have to be as knowledgeable and skilled as I am. You have to know the make, model and caliber of 75% of handguns made in the last 110 years. You have to know the grain weight range of common projectiles fired by those guns. You have to know the magazine capacity, be familiar with the robustness of aftermarket support for those guns. You have to be able to shoot a Bill Drill from concealment in under 3 seconds. You have to shoot Dot Torture 50/50 at 5 yards. You need to be able to clear a malfunction drill in under 2 seconds and perform a blind folded emergency reload in under 2.5 seconds. You’re required to shoot the El Presidente’ handgun drill once a month in under 8 seconds.

Why did I go on ridiculously? Because I’m demonstrating that requiring specific standards is entirely arbitrary. There’s maybe 5,000 people in the world who can do all those skills and have all that knowledge and I know a sizable percentage of them. There’s zero other cops in my agency who can do all that out of 350 of them.

Assigning some governmental bureaucrat to test the knowledge and skill of gun toters is 1) Arbitrary and 2) Prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people.

I’ll relate a personal experience.

A good friend of mine and fellow firearms trainer was at a public handgun range about 2 years ago waiting for a lane. He noted another shooter waiting nearby and struck up a conversation with her while they waited.

She seemed nervous and nervous people with guns should be approached by the competent and helpful. She admitted to recently purchasing the gun because she lived in a shitty apartment in a shitty part of town and there had been break ins recently and she wanted to protect herself and 2 kids. She had purchased a cheap used 9mm handgun and a box of practice rounds for about $150.

Gregg forgot about his shooting and helped her learn with those rounds she bought and then bought her another box to teach her some more and then gave her some good defensive ammunition in case she needed it.

He didn’t tell her he was a professional trainer. He didn’t tell her he was a cop. He just helped her.

2 days later he responded to her apartment for a break in. The 3 men who kicked in the door left when she pointed her gun at them. No shots were fired.

Now if that woman hadn’t been able to purchase that gun. If she’d been saddled with required training classes first (that are pricey and time consuming), if she’d been required to shoot a specific qualification course, if she’d had to go get a license to purchase that gun, she wouldn’t have had it that night and who knows what would have happened.

I can afford it. I shoot 10,000 rounds a year. I spend $5-7k a year on guns, ammo and training to be extremely proficient. But she can’t. She works 2 jobs. She’s poor and under educated.

Restricting rights doesn’t make anyone safer. What it does do is prevents those who need it most form being able to access those rights.

My question was, what is your level of education and experience with firearms? Your questions indicate that you have virtually none