What do NRA members think about first-aid training as a prerequisite for gun permits?

• I'd like to receive critiques of the proposal below: -Prior to receiving any handgun purchase/carry permit in state X, the applicant must complete first-aid training with a group of 5-20 peers and other permit applicants, administered by a trained first responder and overseen by a law-enforcement officer. -The single-day first-aid training course would cover responses to gunshot wounds, along with general first-aid techniques, to include CPR. -Successful completion of the program would result in approval for the handgun permit, based on written and physical exams, and would also receive a certificate for the first-aid techniques mastered. There would be no mandatory waiting period between certification and receiving the permit. -An applicant could continue to retake the exams until a passing grade is received. -At the training venue, representatives from volunteer first-aid organizations would solicit training participants to consider enrolling for search-and-rescue and other civic-assistance programs. -In general, LEOs would observe whether applicants are in a dissociative psychological state, are fit to use a handgun, or have been the subject of recent investigations or checks on personal welfare. -The applicant could benefit from the first-aid knowledge, along with participation in a civic-minded group activity that confers recognition for his or her training and suggests a personal role in assisting his or her community. Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state

• Answer:

  If the training was offered as part of a state-sanctioned CCW training course, possibly.  There is a problem with your proposal.  You've inserted psychological evaluation into the mix under the guise of first aid: In  general, LEO oversight would ensure that applicants are not in a  dissociative psychological state, are fit to use a handgun, and have not  been the subject of recent investigations or checks on personal  welfare. Law enforcement officers are in no way trained or qualified to make that evaluation in the context of a first-aid course.  This would have to be dropped. It would have to be a Red Cross class and not a state-demanded curriculum.  People should not be required to train to the level of paramedic in order to qualify.  And the class availability should not be conditioned on the receipt of a permit.  Like any training requirement, the lack of training can be used as a defacto ban or restriction.  If the requirements of the class can be changed at will, it becomes a restriction on a right.  So if you can't sign up to the one class the anti-gun state has scheduled at 2am on a Sunday once every 3 months that requires 100 participants and a passing grade of 99%, you get the permit and can take the class when available. And since so many people argue the police are there to protect me, allow me to turn it: the paramedics are there to provide medical attention, not me.  What if the criminal survives after the permit holder shoots them and then sues on the basis their attempt to apply first aid aggravated their injuries?  And what do you do about states where carry doesn't require a permit? I don't see how this proposal is civic-minded.  I see it as just another hurdle to the exercise of a right.  If anything, I would make a condition of a driver's license since that is a privilege, not a right.