DADE CITY, Fla. — Inside Tactical Decisions and Training, Scott Grant's firearm education extends past just learning how to fire a weapon.
"The more information you have, the less likely you are to ever get in trouble," Grant said.
The classes last about six hours; chock full of information about being a responsible gun owner.
"If you, God forbid, get into a shooting, what do you do after? Law enforcement will be there, obviously, and they're going to be asking questions. What do you do? How do you handle that? Do you talk to him? Do you don't talk to him? What do you do? Well, in a good class, they're gonna go over every bit of that with you. They're going to tell you what to do," he added.
However, come July 1, classes like Grant's will no longer be mandatory.
We wanted to know what that would mean from a legal standpoint, so we went straight to local attorney Matt Dolman.
"You're gonna see more individuals who are going to be carrying guns, plain and simple. There's no permit required anymore, although everyone should get a permit. Because if they want to travel to a different state, you know that allows you safe passage into other States that allow concealed weapons," he explained.
Florida is now the 26th state to allow people to conceal carry without a permit. While Dolman doesn't see much changing in the legal sense, he says it could still change the way things are.
"It's like allowing individuals to operate a semi-truck but not having to have a commercial license," he explained.
There are some misconceptions surrounding the law:
People will still have to get a background check and wait three days before getting a gun.
The law isn't open carry, so you must still conceal the gun.
A valid government ID is still needed when you have your gun.
Guns are still restricted on certain properties, like private property, schools, bars, and government buildings.
Dolman said the big difference here is education.
"The bigger problem is a lack of a safety course. There's no gun, safety, or instructional course required. So any Yahoo that wants to have a gun and have it concealed can now do so," he said.
But at Tactical Decisions and Training, that doesn't seem to be the case.
"We've actually seen more people that are interested in it," Grant said.
Grant sees it as a sign of more responsible gun owners, ones prepared no matter what.
"Education is the most important thing we're going to do. The more education you have, the smarter you're going to be."
