Missouri Concealed Carry Training
Greater St. Louis Area
FLASH! John Ross Now UTAH Certified! You can now be legal to carry in Missouri and 27 other states for 5 years with a $59 license by taking his class!
To sign up for a class, Contact John by visiting the contact page.
Missouri is a shall-issue Carry state. To qualify, the applicant must have received specific, CCW-appropriate training by a firearms instructor authorized under the statute to provide the specific training mandated by the statute.
John Ross is such an instructor and his Concealed Carry Training covers all required elements. This 8 1/2-hour course satisfies the training requirement for a Missouri endorsement as described in 571.094 RSMo. It also satisfies the training requirement to get a non-resident permit (by mail, and good everywhere in Missouri) from Maine, Florida, or Utah, for those who prefer that option. More on this in the FAQ below.
Price of the class is $125. If you bring at least one other person with you, it's $100 per person.
This $125 (or $100) is for the 4-hour classroom session. At the end of class you will receive course completion certificates that will allow you to immediately apply for Utah, Maine, and Florida non-resident permits, as these states do not require the range session. Most opt for the Utah permit as it is good in 28 states, lasts 5 years, and costs only $59, with 5-year renewals that can be done for $10 online.
John encourages everyone to come to the range session (it's fun and you learn a lot) but ammunition costs have risen to the point that John can no longer supply so much ammo to so many people as he has in the past. To shoot his guns with his ammo on a range day, it will cost an additional $20, payable when you show up at the range. Given that he now qualifies people for a 28-state, 5-year $59 permit, his class is an even better deal than it was when ammo was included. The $20 covers range time (on John's private range--no distractions), guns, ammo, targets, hearing protection, and a grilled lunch. John has some eye protection but asks you to bring yours if you have any.
You don't need to bring anything to the classroom except a pen, $125, and a cheerful attitude. Courses are available at least once every week (except if John is out of town.) We are not at this time booking courses long in advance as that becomes a logistical nightmare when people cancel, want to reschedule, etc. Check this page for when the next classes will be held and email or call when you are ready to take the class.
Classroom time is currently held in one 4 1/2-hour session on a variety of weekday evenings 6PM-10:30PM, and (for Missouri-issued permits) a four-hour live-fire and discussion portion completed on the weekends. You do not have to do the live-fire weekend session on the weekend immediately following your class--you can do it on a later weekend if you have schedule conflicts. You can do your live-fire session BEFORE the classroom session, if that is more convenient.
Classes have centerfire calibers available: .38/.357, 9mm, .44 Magnum, .45, and .32 auto. We use S&W Model 60, 340, 66, 686, 27, 329, and 29 revolvers, and Glock, SIG, S&W, Beretta, Ruger, Colt, Seecamp, and Kel-Tec semiautos. Rimfires (S&W Model 45 and 41) are used to identify problem areas and for inexpensive practice.
I have classes and range sessions every week unless I am out of town. Classes are usually on Thursday or Friday but not always. Below are the ones scheduled for the near future. Please don't ask for a specific date months away and not yet listed UNLESS you can guarantee a big turnout. If you can guarantee at least 10 people, I will do a private class just for your group on any free day or evening at any location near St. Louis. Make sure at least 10 actually show up. If there are 15 or more people, one of them (your choice, usually the host) gets it for free.
Classes are held at Legion Post 101, behind the Schnucks supermarket that's at the intersection of Manchester Rd. and Brentwood Blvd. The Legion Post is at the SW corner of the Schnucks parking lot, behind the Edward Jones storefront. Look for the American flag and the Bud Light sign 50 feet behind Edward Jones and Mr. Goodcents.
Range sessions include lunch of hamburgers and other grilled meats, various chips, bottled water, and a chance to shoot some interesting guns:
S&W 9mm
SIG 9mm
Ruger 9mm
1911 .45
S&W .38/357s in various sizes & weights
Seecamp & Kel-Tec .32s
9mm Tracer ammo is available.
Tracer ammo, food, and exotic guns to shoot--Do the other classes you've looked into offer that? Why full autos and tracers in a Concealed Carry class? Because making any course more interesting, exciting, and memorable promotes both learning and knowledge retention. No wonder people come from other states just to take John's course!
Frequently Asked Questions
I took a [fill in the blank] firearms training course years ago. Will that satisfy the training requirement?
No. The Sheriffs will not accept a certificate from any course taken before September 11, 2003 because the law requires that the course in question include instruction about 571.094 RSMo itself. No one could have taught such a course before May 5, 2003 because the law didn't exist. As a practical matter, no one started teaching courses which included such instruction until after the legislature overrode Holden's veto on 9/11/2003 and it was known that the measure that the legislature passed on May 5 would become law.
I'm not in St. Louis County. Will my sheriff accept a training certificate from your class?
Yes. Statute 571.094 RSMo specifies what credentials the instructor needs and what material must be taught. John Ross has three accepted credentials (only one is needed) and his course has specifically been designed to comply with the new Missouri law. His credentials and course syllabus are on file with every sheriff in the state. If your sheriff tells you that he's accepting only training certificates given by certain people (i.e. his deputy), he is not complying with the law and will soon be compelled to do so by a judge. As a practical matter, John has trained a large number of people already and both he and his course are rapidly becoming known in Missouri counties other than St. Louis. Furthermore, his credentials are on file in all 114 counties. Your sheriff may have a specific form he wants John to sign. Get one of these forms in advance and bring it to John's class.
Can I qualify with my own gun and ammo?
Yes. You may, however, wish to take advantage of John's large array of guns to try. We use top quality revolvers and semiautos with match-grade triggers to identify the bad habits and ham-fisted techniques encouraged by some of the guns (with supposedly lawsuit-resistant "police" triggers) that are now on the market. Bring your own equipment if you want, but ask first about .40 caliber or 10mm guns, as these blow up if an errant 9mm gets in them, and we shoot LOTS of 9mm and have people loading mags at all times.
Tell me about the range you use. Where is it?
The range is John's private facility, a 15-acre rock quarry that he owns. It is cut into a hillside (you enter at the lowest spot--it holds no water) and has vertical faces hundreds of feet high to catch projectiles, which is how John can offer classes in shooting aerial targets with rifles and machine guns. It is a safe place to shoot any gun that is small enough to be brought in by a deuce-and-a-half (i.e. 105mm howitzer.) The quarry is in Illinois, up the Great River Road thirty miles north of Alton. John gives exact directions during class, or by email if you are doing the range session first. The range is not open to the general public. It is a very pretty drive on excellent roads with little traffic (a great run if you ride a motorcycle.) It takes an hour to an hour and a half to get there from St. Louis, depending on where you live. The range now has toilet facilities. You no longer need to stop at the Amoco station in Grafton on the drive up.
Your course is cheaper than other courses I've heard about or seen advertised, and you provide lots of different guns, ammo, targets, hearing protection, and free food. What gives?
The free market being what it is, people who offer classes are free to charge whatever they think appropriate, and see how many customers they get. John likes the idea of getting lots of people qualified to carry in Missouri. He wants to give an interesting, exciting, and fun course for a reasonable price. Apparently he is succeeding because his courses fill up quickly, he gets lots of referrals, and (most importantly) over half the class usually hangs around afterwards to talk. There are qualified instructors who may have courses available for less than John charges. Find out what is included.
About Your Instructor
John Ross has been training men and women in rifle, pistol, and defensive firearm use for over 25 years, and has offered instruction and familiarization courses in more advanced weaponry for the last 20 years. Classes are available for everyone, including people who have never touched a gun before but are interested in getting a Missouri Concealed Carry endorsement.
John Ross was instrumental in the fight to get Missouri's carry rights back. (Go here to get the whole story.) In 1992 he was the person who personally hired a professional lobbyist to find a helpful legislator and get a Right-To-Carry bill introduced in Missouri for the first time, where it passed overwhelmingly in the House but not the Senate. From that moment, the push was on to rescind Missouri's 1874 prohibition on carrying a firearm for protection. Between 1994 and 1996 John served as President of the Missouri Legislative Issues Council (now Missourians for Public Safety), the parent organization for all the pro-rights groups in the state who were working to make Right-To-Carry happen. During that period, John was averaging two days a week in the Missouri Capitol working to get concealed carry passed. Each year from 1992 on, support for Right-To-Carry in Missouri grew, and more and more people came on board to fight for their rights. In recent years John spent less time in Jefferson City but kept up the pressure in other ways. In May 2003 he wrote a pro-Right-To-Carry editorial for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that was widely quoted in the Capitol. This editorial helped sway key legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, to the point of building a majority big enough to override the Governor's veto. John is very proud to have been a part of the alliance that worked together and made the dream a reality on September 11, 2003.
Get your required training from one of the people that helped make Right-To-Carry happen in Missouri!
*Keep in mind that Missouri is the only state north of the Mason-Dixon line where slavery was ever permitted by law. Missouri was also home to Dred Scott and the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott vs. Sanford decision of 1857, which ruled that free blacks were not citizens. After the Civil War, the white ruling classes in the State Legislatures in Missouri and the other former slave states had to be creative to prevent now-free blacks from exercising their rights, such as the right to vote and to bear arms.
The legislators passed laws that said blacks had to pass literacy tests and pay poll taxes before they could vote. Guns were trickier. Some Southern states enacted laws banning the ownership of all guns not made by Colt or Winchester, as these were quality arms whose price was sufficiently high that only white people could afford them. Missouri, with less subtlety, passed a law in 1874 that prohibited the carrying of any weapon for the purposes of self-protection, including (and I am not making this up), a slingshot. In 1875 came the Constitutional notice, with the exact wording listed above amended in 1945. Over a century ago, it was a simple matter to enforce an anti-carry law only on blacks, as the police and sheriffs in Missouri were all white.
This was exactly what happened, just as the legislators had intended. With blacks disarmed, the Klan had free rein. Lynchings were common here in Missouri long after the Civil War. The prohibition on carrying a weapon for protection was selectively enforced on blacks alone for a full 90 years, until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. No white was ever arrested if carrying a weapon for protection was his only crime. (Naturally, when a white armed robber was caught, a concealed weapon violation would be added to the list of charges.) A team of legal researchers in 1992 could not find a case prior to 1964 where a white man in Missouri was arrested and convicted solely on a concealed weapons charge.
-Class Room Dates-
(6:00 PM-10:30 PM)
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Friday, July 18th, 2008
-Range Sessions-
Range sessions will be only two days in July:
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Range Times
(10:30 AM - 2:30 PM)
S&W .500 John Ross Special Edition.
