Twin Cities Carry Course with Joel Rosenberg

You've reached the course description page for Joel Rosenberg's Twin Cities Carry Course. I've been certified by the NRA as an Instructor in Pistol, Home Firearms Safety, and Personal Protection; by the American Association of Certified Firearms Instructors as both a Carry Permit Instructor, and a Certifying Instructor; by the Independant Firearms Instructor Association as an Instructor; and by as the Utah Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as a Concealed Weapons Instructor. In addition, I'm certified by the Minnesota Assocation of Defensive Firearms Instructors as a Minnesota Carry Permit Instructor, and also approved by the MN POST Board to conduct HR218 qualifications for retired Law Enforcement Officers.

And while there's others with who have collected some or most of certifications, I'm the only one to have collected all of them. I'm not sure how important all those merit badges are; I think the most important thing is that I do a pretty good carry class, and include what's important.

To sign up for a class, click here.

The Twin Cities Carry Course is my successor to the AACFI "MN Carry Permit Course" that I wrote, with a lot of additions and, I think, enhancements. It's intended to prepare you to get both your Minnesota handgun carry permit, and—if you choose to—several others.

To answer a frequently-asked question: yes, this is a one-day class. When you finish at the range, you'll be ready to take your certificate to your local sheriff and get your carry permit. Additional training is a good idea, and I'm a big believer in additional practice (and we spend quite a bit of time in class talking about how often you should practice, and how), but you'll be ready to get your carry permit after you finish the class.

Classroom time runs, typically, from four to six hours, depending on the experience, needs, and size of the class. For metro area classes the shooting/qualification is done at Burnsville Pistol Range on the same afternoon. There are regular short breaks every hour or so, to stretch your legs, and grab a cigarette or a cup of coffee, if you're so inclined.

The Twin Cities Carry Course is intended for people with at least some firearms experience. If you're looking for the Beginner to Carry course, click here.

What's all this I've been hearing about carrying in thirty-plus states?

I'm glad you asked.

Your Minnesota permit is accepted in Minnesota, and about fifteen additional states.

To be able to carry in more states, you'll need additional permits, and that requires some information (which I supply in the Twin Cities Carry Course), and particular qualifications of the instructor, which varies from state to state.

No, it doesn't require traveling to any other state in order to get any of the permits that I prepare you for; you apply for all of those while in Minnesota.

Some other instructors are doing multi-state courses, but only for around twenty states—nobody else, as far as I know, is qualifying and instructing students for as many as the states that are covered in the Twin Cities Carry class — and doing it without twisting a Minnesota carry class into a "Utah-based" one with what's important to Minnesotans tacked on as an afterthought*. (Surprisingly, there are some perhaps ill-informed instructors who will at least strongly suggest to Minnesota residents that a Utah permit will allow them to carry in, say, Colorado. It won't*; we'll discuss why that is in class.)

What does your class cost?

The TCCarry course costs $200, which includes both classroom instruction and the shooting qualification. You get the entire packet, including applications, the wallet card (don't leave home without it), the new Supplement, and most importantly the book, Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Minnesota.

Range fees and targets are included; you can either bring ammunition, buy it at the range, or from me. You can bring your own handgun, if you'd like, to the shooting qualification; you should have at least fifty rounds, although you'll likely only need 30. Burnsville Pistol Range does sell high-quality ammunition in common calibers at very competitive prices, though.

The simple way to sign up is to use the courses page on this website, and bring a check to class.

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I know I want to sign up for your class, but I want to just schedule it with you over the phone, rather than this web page—how can I just do that and skip reading the rest of this?

No problem. Call me at (612) 501-8229.

But please do read the rest of this; it will probably answer some questions you have about my classes. For more questions and answers about the MCPPA and carry reform in Minnesota, please click here.

What should I bring?

Loose, comfortable clothing; a notepad. A pen.

You don't need to bring hearing or eye protection; they're provided at Burnsville—but feel free to.

Do I need to bring a handgun? Holster? Ammunition? Targets?

Nope. As a matter of fact, if you haven't already selected a handgun for carry, you're probably better off saving going shopping until after you've taken the course, and read the book. And that's certainly true for holsters, and the other carry methods we discuss in the class. For the shooting and qualification, you can, if you'd like, use your own handgun, or borrow one of mine; I bring a few in both .38 and .45 ACP. (I don't rent guns; you'd be borrowing it for the shooting qualification, and there's no extra charge for that.) You can bring your own ammunition, or buy common calibers at Burnsville. If you're going to shoot something unusual (say, .25 ACP, .32 ACP, or .44 Special, do bring your own ammunition.)

If you do bring a handgun to the class, please do bring it unloaded, in a closed and fastened case, with any ammunition stored separately.

What will I leave with?

When you complete the class, you'll receive your certificate with the classroom portion signed off by your instructor. (That would be me.) You'll also leave with the applications that you need, and with the handouts that will give you step-by-step instructions for getting your additonal permits. And, of course, the book—which is uncluded in the fee.

Mostly, though, you'll leave with a thorough understanding, as required by Minnesota law, of "the fundamentals of pistol use, successful completion of a shooting exercise, and legal instruction on pistol possession, carry, and use, including self-defense." Most important, you'll leave with a clear understanding of not only what it takes to get your permit, but how to stay out of trouble. And no extra holes.

What's the course of fire?

The Course of Fire (CoF) consists of thirty rounds, fired at a Transtar II target. Each string starts with a loaded handgun, held in a "low ready" position. Fifteen shots—a five-round string, then a ten-round string that includes a reload—are fired from fifteen feet, then fifteen are fired from twenty-one feet. For realistic self-defense distances, these are fairly long. All strings start with a loaded hangun held in a low-ready position; this isn't a fast-draw qualification. What I've found, in practice, is that people with any reasonable handgun experience tend to score upwards of 120 points out of 150; the standard 105 points (70%) is passing. It's nothing to worry about.

Can I shoot my qualification with a .22 target pistol?

Maybe. (How's that for a clear answer? :)) There's nothing in the law that requires that you qualify with the handgun you're going to carry—and, in fact, since I'm suggesting that you choose your carry gun after you've taken my class, I'd be pretty hypocritical to set up a requirement that you qualify with a gun that I'm suggesting you might not even own yet. That said, unless you're planning to carry a .22, I think it's much more reasonable that you qualify with a handgun of a caliber that you might carry, even if you have to borrow the handgun from me for the qualification.

What's the difference between the Twin Cities Carry Course and the Beginner to Carry Course? And between the Twin Cities Carry Course and the AACFI "P2CC" course?

The Twin Cities Carry course is, as above, a handgun safety course intended to prepare people with some firearms experience to apply for and receive their Minnesota Permit to Carry a Pistol, better known as a "Minnesota Carry Permit," and sometimes referred to as a "Conceal and Carry permit."

The TCCarry course costs $200, and takes around six hours, including range time. As of June 1, range fees and targets are included in the class fee, just to make things simpler for everybody.

The Beginner to Carry (B2C) course is intended for people with very little or no handgun experience, to bring them to the point where they can take the Twin Cities Carry Course, and then to take them through TCCarry. For that reason, it's longer—both in classroom time and range time — requires a lower instructor-student ratio, and is more expensive. The whole B2C course takes around ten hours, including range time. The usual way it's done is with the introductory portion of the course on one evening, with B2C students joining a TCCarry class on any subsequent day. At the range, the B2C students go last, and do their initial live-firing one-on-one with either me or David Dyer-Bennet, before they shoot their qualification. The cost of the full B2C course is $320—and includes range fees and targets, which are supplied by me.

Which one is right for you? If you've got some firearms experience, TCCarry; if you're a complete novice, B2C.

"I want to take this course—what's my next step?"

The easiest way is to go to the courses page, find the course you want, and click on the "register" button to the right of it.

You can also just email me, or call me at 612-501-8229.

Can you do a private one-on-one or group class?

Sure, by special arrangement; click here for more information on TCCarry Express(tm). We can do the classroom work anywhere we can get a reasonable amount of privacy and quiet for six or so hours, but it is necessary to get out to a range to do the shooting qualification, too.


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* I think that's a bad idea, and a shady practice, m'self.