Taking the Canadian Firearms Safety Course with Silvercore: a Beginner Student's Perspective

I recently took the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and Canadian Restricted Firearms Safety Course (CFSC/CRFSC) with Silvercore. If, like me, your knowledge of firearms is lacking, these are the courses you will want to pass before you can apply for your Possession and Acquisition License (PAL). This enables you to not only own firearms in Canada, but also ensure that you have the knowledge and understanding of firearms and the safe handling of them.

As someone who knows little about firearms, the prospect of taking this course was somewhat unnerving (i.e., I was extremely nervous). I grew up in a small town where practically everyone goes or has been hunting including my father, sister and friends. You would think that I would feel comfortable around firearms but I definitely did not. This was largely due to the fact that firearms, honestly scared me. I remember going target shooting with my family two years ago and the whole time I was constantly thinking, “do not mess this up.” Everything about them intimidated me including how loud they were and knowing how powerful they were. I am slightly accident-prone and I did not trust myself to be in control of something that could cause so much damage. This changed after I took the CFSC/CRFSC course.

Walking into the class I was relieved that I was not the only one with little experience or knowledge of the subject matter. There was an even mix of inexperienced and experienced students (many getting their license for work, to go hunting or for recreation). I am not going to go into too much detail about what the course covers but rather focus on what resonated with me after taking it. This is mainly because it covers a lot. It is a two-day course from 9:30-5:00pm and there is a lot of information to learn including everything from the history of firearms to the types of firearms, their parts, how they work.

Making this information stick and sound exciting could not have been an easy undertaking. Yet, my instructor, Greg Lukan, did just that. I think this had a lot to do with how everything connected back to safety. He was able to make the vast information interesting by demonstrating how all of this is relevant to staying safe and I think this is the nature of the course. For example learning the logistics of how a firearm works allows you to comprehend why you are following the specific safety measures being taught.  This was combined with another main proponent of the class, and that is confidence.  You must have confidence in what you are doing if you are going to be able to apply the safety procedures you’ve learned. There is no live fire component to the class, but there is handling of deactivated firearms. Lukan saw how nervous I was when handling these firearms. He assured that I was not going to break them and there was no need to be hesitant as long as you follow the safety steps being taught. I realized that confidence is just as important as memorizing safety procedures because it is what allows you to use the safety practices you have learned correctly and efficiently. It’s the same as driving: Someone who is confident in their driving and has taken the time to learn the material will always be a better driver than a nervous driver who has the same amount of knowledge about the road.

I went into Silvercore’s CFSC/CRFSC course very apprehensive and came out feeling a lot differently about firearms. A huge part of overcoming my nervousness was understanding how firearms work. The repeated practice of handling the firearms took out a lot of the mystery of what to expect when you actually do go to hit a target. Silvercore prides itself in being the, “Premiere safety training provider.” If Silvercore can take someone who was extremely uncomfortable around firearms and turn them into to someone who is excited to go target shooting when they next visit their family. I assure you, they can do the same for you!

Katrina