The Truth About NRA Blended Learning

It's true, the NRA Basic Pistol course will be taking a new format coming 2016. This new format will allow individuals to take a portion of the course online at their own time, and then complete their certification with an NRA Instructor in person. The online portion of this course will be hosted in a learning management system. Individuals will have the opportunity to learn the information at their own pace, in an environment suitable for them to best acquire and absorb the important information to basic pistol.

The topics that will be covered include:

• Gun Safety Rules
• Types of Pistols
• Proper Operation of Revolvers and Semi-Automatic Pistols
• Ammunition Knowledge and Selection
• Selecting and Storing a Pistol
• The Fundamentals of Pistol Shooting
• Clearing Stoppages
• Zeroing
• Pistol Shooting Errors
• Pistol Inspection and Maintenance

All these topics are extremely important to a beginner, and students will be required to complete a quiz at the end in order to move on to the next section. Once students have successfully completed the e-learning portion of the course, they must enroll in the instructor-led training (ILT) portion and demonstrate their knowledge to a certified NRA Instructor to complete their certification. 

NRA Instructors are vital to this course. They will be required to interact with students to detect attitudes, personalities, intentions, and assess a student's level of understanding and retention of course material, all prior to going on the range. Instructors will explain to students what is expected during the live-fire practice session on the range, and students must demonstrate a comprehensive application of gun safety rules, range protocol, proper handling, loading and unloading procedures, application of shooting fundamentals, stable shooting positions, live fire and shooting a final qualification.

NRA has conducted surveys indicating students desire much more time handling firearms and shooting on the range. It is important that a student and instructor leave feeling both comfortable and confident in all the practical skills. To meed this demand, NRA has developed a new ILT lesson plan that will incorporate much more range time than the current Basic Pistol course offers. 

While the final cost of the e-learning portion of the course has not yet been finalized, the NRA is taking a lot of factors into consideration, and like all our training materials, cost will be kept to a minimum. 

The NRA prides itself on the training we provide. We constantly strive to evolve and improve our processes to continue the legacy of the shooting sports and Second Amendment, and we are excited to bring the new blended NRA Basic Pistol course to millions of new gun owners in early 2016.