TexasCHLforum.com

rjr5545 wrote:Good afternoon, guys. Randy Riener Owner of CHL Now on this end, sorry to hear about the experience with John Bidmead, Instructor Number 01423232, he is indeed a state certified instructor, rest assured at CHL Now we follow the state laws and would never let anyone teach at any of my classes that is not certified. Sorry for the bad afternoon session, that's the feedback I need as I often will stop in and check on an instructor that teaches a class for me. I will talk with John and have him spend a little more time in my class observing me. Please feel free to contact me through here or the web site I'd like to know more about this session. Again, RM sorry I had to leave that day, but doing these everyday, I sometimes have to make an appointment that gets me out but I still try and make some of the class so you get the good experience that CHL Now is known for and that I thought everyone was getting, and that's for the good review, also. Its the feedback like this that makes us better.

i appreciate your response Randy, and i really did enjoy your teaching style as you were able to take the "legal speak" and put it into layman's terms so us students could have a better grasp of the material. and i understand the need for you to take an afternoon off every now and then (this was new year's eve when you had to set up your booth for the GRB gun show), i wasn't really questioning whether John was a licensed instructor so much as the manner that he addressed questions that i had during the afternoon part of the class. he just sort of rushed through the material, and the times that i tried to slow him down to clarify something he was rude, condescending, and gave me the impression that the interruption was unwelcome. i don't know him so it may be the case that he wasn't trying to be rude, but that's just how he came across.

with that said, i have been recommending your class to anyone i've talked to who has asked me about getting a CHL, and plan to have my wife take your class after she's more comfortable and proficient with her handgun. thanks again for taking the time to respond.

sjfcontrol wrote:If I were you, I'd contact DPS, and let them know the situation. If this person was not a qualified CHL instructor, your license (and anybody else in the class) may be in jeopardy. At the very least, the instructor that turned the class over to him is in deep trouble. My opinion, you're better off getting this settled now rather than after it becomes an issue. It's up to you.

yeah i'm thinking about emailing the instructor and seeing if i can get the other guy's info at the very least. i thought about it a bit more last night and i'm thinking he probably is a licensed CHL instructor, one of the questions during our Q&A session was about the requirements to be an instructor, and his answer made it sound like he went through the instructor's course.

sjfcontrol wrote:

rmr1923 wrote:

AustinMRH wrote:I took my class from an instructor who is a regular on this forum. I was also pretty disappointed by the class. I actually got more involved in reading this forum as a result of my poor experience with my CHL course. My course was heavy on crappy videos, military stories and stories of use of force which were clearly CCW use appropriate (though nothing about deciding continuum of force or fight vs flight situations), aluminum foil hat conversations about home security systems, and a visit (shill) from a semi local politician. Laws were almost completely glossed over as was a discussion on the where you can/can't carry. Instead we were essentially told the rules are in the book.

I'm hoping to attend a Cotton class someday. I've got a pretty good handle on my rights and responsibilities, but am on the forum daily hoping to learn more and improve my understanding of when to use and how to handle the situation following (God willing it will never be needed).

my class wasn't as bad of an experience as yours, but i did leave that day with a feeling that the instructor just got through the material as quickly as possible and wasn't very receptive to questions. in fact that's what led me to this site, one of my classmates told me about it and said i'd learn way more here than i could in any CHL class.

the regular instructor for my course had to leave at lunch and had a "friend" who was an NRA instructor come in and do the afternoon session, he just read through the powerpoints, paraphrasing as much as possible, and got done an hour early. so we sat there the last hour for a Q&A session, although he seemed irritated any time we had a question, and was more interested in talking about shooting competitions and hunting.

Was that "friend" an actual CHL instructor? If not, that REALLY needs to be turned in to DPS.

to be honest, i'm not real sure. he just said he was an NRA instructor.

he gave me his card at the time but i threw it away when i got home because i had no interest in taking any "advanced" courses from him.

AustinMRH wrote:I took my class from an instructor who is a regular on this forum. I was also pretty disappointed by the class. I actually got more involved in reading this forum as a result of my poor experience with my CHL course. My course was heavy on crappy videos, military stories and stories of use of force which were clearly CCW use appropriate (though nothing about deciding continuum of force or fight vs flight situations), aluminum foil hat conversations about home security systems, and a visit (shill) from a semi local politician. Laws were almost completely glossed over as was a discussion on the where you can/can't carry. Instead we were essentially told the rules are in the book.

I'm hoping to attend a Cotton class someday. I've got a pretty good handle on my rights and responsibilities, but am on the forum daily hoping to learn more and improve my understanding of when to use and how to handle the situation following (God willing it will never be needed).

my class wasn't as bad of an experience as yours, but i did leave that day with a feeling that the instructor just got through the material as quickly as possible and wasn't very receptive to questions. in fact that's what led me to this site, one of my classmates told me about it and said i'd learn way more here than i could in any CHL class.

the regular instructor for my course had to leave at lunch and had a "friend" who was an NRA instructor come in and do the afternoon session, he just read through the powerpoints, paraphrasing as much as possible, and got done an hour early. so we sat there the last hour for a Q&A session, although he seemed irritated any time we had a question, and was more interested in talking about shooting competitions and hunting.

sugar land dave wrote:I had a great experience at CHL Now. Randy Reiner was interested in his quality of work and said so before the class started. He was patient and allowed us to move at our own pace. I know that I asked too many questions, but we all laughed about that too, and he explained that questions brought about the best learning experience. I am impressed that he has as much energy as he does since he teaches classes every day of the month!

If you are near the west side of Houston, you might want to consider him.

PS: I hope you guys don't mind somebody saying something good about their class. I sat through a bad one once so I do understand how that feels.

Agreed, I took my class with Randy Reiner and the morning session was awesome. Unfortunately he had to leave after our lunch break and had another instructor come in to do the afternoon session... wasn't such a good experience with the other instructor.

TxKimberMan wrote:This seems to be a recurring topic, and as such is a little troubling. My personal CHL class experience was not one I would recommend to anyone.

something else that's at least a little troubling... one student asked our CHL instructor what you have to do to become a licensed instructor. he told us about the state-mandated training (36 hours or something like that?) but he pointed out that you don't have to prove that you're actually capable of teaching anything.

alvins wrote:i can say for myself my class was terrible.

the first half of my class was great, but we had another instructor come in after our lunch break and do the afternoon session and it was awful. FWIW, i learned most of what i know about the laws pertaining to concealed carry on this forum, and i'm still learning new stuff every day.

something else that i was a bit disappointed in was that there was very little discussion about how to properly carry a concealed handgun. i didn't expect hands-on training or anything of the sort, but i expected him to at least talk to us about different types of holsters, belts, clothing, etc. our instructor just told us what gun and holster he prefers to carry but didn't really elaborate beyond that.