Dallas
I do not know if it was free or not but I do know for my nefews to get it, my dad had to take the day or two to take them to it cause their mom worked. I know I tried to get both of my girls to take it and they were not interested and my reasoning to them was that even if now they were not interested in hunting that they may be invited on a trip of the life time and not be able to go. Just such a thing happened when they were 30 years old and they were not prepared. I hear you and you should be proud of your involvement but for me, I still think it is stupid.
On the concealed and carry. It was $100 for two 4 hour days and I went cause my exbrother inlaw was all gung ho but to be honest, I did it to please him cause I always had one when I wanted with out going. Could I have got in trouble, yes, however, if I was feeling threatend and judging the odds of needing it, I took it and figured I would get a lawyer if it went bad. I don't carry all the time, infact, maby only three or four times in my life. I much rather have the law now where I need not be wrong and don't have to screw around with training that in the end will not give the person you are training comon sense if he has none.
One other thing about what happenned in the 70s just like you say. My birth day was before 1964 and so I did not even need it and was taught it in school with no special trip to some office I don't even know where it was. Now that people do need it you have to worki to get it. I think all these things are one more hassle for parents that have to juggle their time as it is and could do just fine taking thier own kid hunting rather then a class room if they were going to spend the time and do quite well showing thier kids hunter safty by example and do it on thier schedual. If they don't do that, I doubt they are going to take thier kid to some office to get it. After a kid turns 30 you should not need to teach them anything. They should have someone they can trust to do it by then.
I have open carried a lot. Usually when deer hunting and some times fishing.
I think my grip about there being no need to jump through hoops on something as simple as fire arms is lagitamate. That does not take away from the fact that as it is now, somebody has to do it and I have no doubt that you do it very well. I don't know if the 4 to 8 hours you have with them is as good as a life time with a hunter parent or friend.
This is not a put down of your particapation but is a differrent belief that it is a needed hoop added on to people to particapate and one that probly does make more poeple not invested in the gun culture in a way that they do not mind if you lose what you have. Poeple hate loseing thier stuff but don't seem to mind letting others stuff being taken away. If a 30 year old whos parents were slackers gets a chance to go with friends on a good trip but they find out that before they can they have to waste two more days to be eligable, they might just say screw it and be lost forever.
I still say that in the end, the bullet only comes out in one place and if that place is pointed at the wrong thing and the trigger is pulled, you could hit that wrong thing. It is not that hard.
https://www.hunter-ed.com/missouri/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Hunt_Missouri&utm_term=hunter%20safety&utm_content=Hunter%20SafetyI looked this link up and it says take the course on line and only pay after you have passed. Even though I like the ideal of not having to go to a special place at a special time, it still looks like a money grab to me.
Cheers
gww