Statewide Access to Firearms Education and Resources (SAFER)
Introduction
With the introduction of LD 652 early in 2015, Gun Owners of Maine recognized that passage of the bill would create a need for effective, widely-available firearms education. Educating and informing firearms owners is at the core of Gun Owners of Maine’s mission, so we began to formulate a plan for universally-available, no-cost, comprehensive firearms orientation and training. That initiative, which we call Statewide Access to Firearms Education and Resources, or SAFER, is described in this document.
Objective
The purpose of the SAFER initiative is to ensure that firearms education and training is universally available to everyone, and to remove as many barriers to access as possible, including financial, geographic, and scheduling barriers.
The basic SAFER course will substantially exceed the current training requirements for a Concealed Handgun Permit under 25 MRSA 2003.
The course will reinforce the importance of training as a continuing pursuit, and very strongly encourage the student to obtain additional and ongoing training. To facilitate this, upon course completion, the system will provide the student with an up-to-date training resource directory to assist the student in locating and obtaining professional instructors offering skill-building training and more advanced education.
SAFER will also encourage students to engage with the local firearms community through local clubs, statewide membership organizations and social media in order to promote the student’s adoption of Maine’s culture and tradition of safe and responsible firearms ownership and use, and to foster ongoing dissemination of information of importance, particularly changes to the law affecting firearms owners.
Course Content
The SAFER course will be developed and written by NRA-certified firearms instructors. The syllabus shall include, at minimum, the following topics:
Principles of Firearms Safety
Responsibility first
Training as a cultural value
Causes of firearms accidents
Elements of firearms safety
Fundamental Rules of Gun Handling
Safe Use and Storage
Firearms Fundamentals
Introduction to Firearms Types
Handguns, Rifles, Shotguns
Firearm Parts
Firearm Action Types
Loading & Unloading Firearms
Ammunition
Concealed Carry
Practical considerations
Etiquette
Law for Concealed Carriers
State No-gun zones
Federal No-gun zones
Concealed Handgun Permits
Advantages
Out-of-state recognition and reciprocity
Self-defense and use of force
Frequently Asked Legal Questions
Moving Forward
Extending your training
Basic skill building
Intermediate topics
Advanced topics
Where to obtain training
Community
Culture of responsibility
Clubs
Keeping informed
Teaching others
Delivery Channel
SAFER will be primarily delivered as an online distance learning course, incorporating multimedia content. The system will be accessible, for free, by anyone with access to the Internet, and will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The interactive course will be self-pacing, and allow the student to complete the course as their schedule permits.
Alternate delivery channels could include CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, eBooks or printed matter.
The course will be organized as a series of lessons. Each lesson will consist of some combination of video instruction, a reading assignment, interactive exercises for reinforcement of concepts learned, and quizzes to test the student’s understanding before progressing to the next lesson.
Students will be able to interact with human instructors as needed, to ask questions or for additional assistance.
The course content will also include printable reference materials and texts for the student’s use.
Staffing
Gun Owners of Maine already has a volunteer corps of NRA-certified instructors among its officers and members, capable of creating the SAFER courseware and operating the SAFER system, as well as professional web software development talent. Anticipating the need for additional instructional capacity, GO-Maine is in the process of certifying a significant number of additional instructors within the next 60 days, and more if the need arises.
Partnerships
The SAFER system will work in partnership with a very broad coalition of the local retail firearm dealer network, the firearms instructor community, and gun clubs and organizations. Every retail firearm dealer will be provided with a brochure which will direct firearms buyers to the SAFER system, along with incentives to do so, such as discounts on goods or services from participating merchants upon successful completion of the SAFER course. The firearms instruction community will be invited to list their training courses within the SAFER system for student’s continuing education. Local gun clubs and organizations will likewise be invited to list their organizations to encourage students to connect with those organizations. Every member of the SAFER coalition will benefit from participation in the system, and the student will benefit most of all.
Commitment
Gun Owners of Maine began planning the SAFER system several months ago, on our own initiative, because we saw the need for a better firearms education system, and because providing such a system was fully in line with the purpose of our organization to educate gun owners and to promote safe and effective gun use.
Although we initially took on this commitment of our own accord, we understand the potential importance of what we have planned in SAFER to addressing some of the concerns with LD 652. We wholeheartedly believe that our SAFER initiative will provide an excellent, consistent, and indeed, superior, alternative to the existing training regime which is in place for Maine Concealed Handgun Permits.
Gun Owners of Maine hereby gives its good faith commitment to deploy and operate the SAFER system as described herein, should LD 652 become law.
We would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Todd Tolhurst
President
Gun Owners of Maine