As a Texas LTC holder, I will continue to renew every 5 years even though Texas is now Constitutional carry. First, I enjoy buying a gun in 10-15 minutes (or less) once I decide I want it. Next, LTC is tied to my vehicle’s license plate and should I ever be pulled over the LEO will at least know prior to contact that I submitted to and passed a significant background check. Then again, I’m also smart enough to lower all my windows and turn on interior lights. Probably all moot since I’ve been pulled over twice in 50 yrs of driving.
The biggest reason I’ll continue to pay the nominal fee to renew every 5 years is that one day, the left may retake Texas and then Constitutional carry may be rescinded. LTC could too, but we had LTC options long before Constitutional carry.
I certainly support Constitutional carry since we’ve had coast to coast thug carry since forever. Seems only fair the law abiding are given a fighting chance.
As to training, at least in the LTC class spouse and I attended, there were minimum passing scores with timed rounds fired at 3, 7, 15 yards, timed reloads and retired deputy oversight that had no qualms calling out knuckleheads. To this day, I remember him stopping the course of fire and advising shooter #1 he knew damn good and well the small handgun he was shooting did not have enough recoil to point at the ceiling after every shot…or at all
. And folks are right, a permit doesn’t mean someone can shoot. It would be wonderful if folks would take it upon themselves to hit a range at least quarterly. Maybe that wouldn’t help accuracy under stress, but solid fundamentals are certainly a good start.
With 28 years active duty, most of that in law enforcement/security, and shooting pistols and rifles regularly since I was 18 (now 66), it certainly wasn’t challenging. I continue to visit the range every week or two and go through a couple hundred rounds+ each time. Prior to pandemic, I was actually going weekly, however I had to actually cut back as lead in blood was rising…didn’t take long to return to normal.