This wasn’t on my radar, but good to know it’s been – sort of – resolved.<\/p>\n
UPDATE: Washington Reverses, Says NRA-Certified Instructors Can Teach<\/a><\/p>\n The Washington State Patrol (WSP) appears to have reversed course on allowing certified National Rifle Association firearms instructors to provide safety training as part of the upcoming permit-to-purchase training requirement, TGM has learned.<\/p>\n The problem was first reported by TGM here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an email to subscribers of a list of potential instructors Monday, WSP Commander Kevin Baird advised, \u201cThe email sent September 11, 2026 regarding NRA sponsorship of firearm safety training resulted from a misunderstanding of the terminology used and how the statute is written.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pleased to report that the NRA Executive Director, Josh Savani, reached out to me on Friday to clarify the NRA\u2019s position. Based on that clarification, independent NRA-certified instructors may provide the firearm safety training required under RCW 9.41.1132 and RCW 9.41.070.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever,\u201d Baird continued, \u201cas with all other training providers, WSP must still review and certify the training curriculum to ensure it includes all elements required by law. Those requirements include:<\/p>\n RCW 9.41.1132(1):<\/p>\n (a) Basic firearms safety rules;<\/em><\/p>\n (b) Firearms and children, including secure gun storage and talking to children about gun safety;<\/em><\/p>\n (c) Firearms and suicide prevention;<\/em><\/p>\n (d) Secure gun storage to prevent unauthorized access and use;<\/em><\/p>\n (e) Safe handling of firearms;<\/em><\/p>\n (f) State and federal firearms laws, including prohibited firearms transfers and locations where firearms are prohibited;<\/em><\/p>\n (g) State laws pertaining to the use of deadly force for self-defense;<\/em><\/p>\n (h) Techniques for avoiding a criminal attack and how to manage a violent confrontation, including conflict resolution; and<\/em><\/p>\n (i) Live-fire shooting exercises on a firing range that include a demonstration by the applicant of the safe handling of, and shooting proficiency with, firearms.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe have not yet begun reviewing individual curricula,\u201d Baird wrote. \u201cThat process will begin once we have processed the majority of the training-provider applications.<\/p>\n \u201cMy apologies for the confusion created by the previous email,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are working to provide information as quickly and transparently as possible while developing the processes and procedures necessary to implement this significant undertaking. As someone described it to me last week, \u2018we are building the airplane while flying it.\u2019 We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through these implementation details.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week\u2019s announcement created a furor, drawing longtime gun rights activist\u2014and NRA-certified firearms instructor\u2014Jane Milhans into the fray. She singlehandedly brought the problem to NRA\u2019s attention, initiating a scramble on both ends, with NRA exchanging information with Baird.<\/p>\n The situation also drew attention from TGM, Ammoland News<\/a> and radio host Jason Rantz writing about it at Seattle-Red<\/a>.<\/p>\n As reported last week, an exchange of messages regarding whether NRA-certified instructors would be okayed to provide the necessary safety instruction required by the new state law,\u00a0RCW 9.41.1132<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0ignited the controversy.<\/p>\n A message sent last week by WSP to members of a ListServ P2P group, which stated, \u201cRCW 9.41.1132<\/a>\u00a0(3) states (bolding added for emphasis):\u00a0\u2018The training must be sponsored by a federal, state, tribal, county, or municipal law enforcement agency, a college or university, a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training, or a firearms training school with instructors certified by a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training.<\/p>\n \u201cWe reached out to the NRA to determine if an NRA Certified Trainer would be considered to be \u2018sponsored\u2019 by the NRA thereby meeting the requirement of \u2018a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe answer they provided is: NO. They said because these individuals are neither employees nor contractors, and the NRA is not involved in scheduling, promoting, etc. of the classes, the NRA would not be considered as sponsoring any classes for them.\u201d<\/p>\n This was the original message that set off the communications flurry resulting in Monday\u2019s reversal.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile NRA-certified instructors are not employees or contractors of NRA,\u201d Savani explained, \u201cholding a current certification does entitle an instructor to certain rights and privileges that could be seen to make them \u2018sponsored\u2019 for purposes of RCW 9.41.1132(3). For example, NRA certified instructors are permitted to use NRA trademarks in promotion of their NRA training courses. We do not allow use of our marks lightly, and use of these marks puts NRA\u2019s imprimatur on any of our courses being taught by a certified instructor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This wasn’t on my radar, but good to know it’s been – sort of – resolved. UPDATE: Washington Reverses, Says NRA-Certified Instructors Can Teach The Washington State Patrol (WSP) appears to have reversed course on allowing certified National Rifle Association firearms instructors to provide safety training as part of the upcoming permit-to-purchase training requirement, TGM … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118753,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118750\/revisions\/118753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}