ORLANDO, Fla. – This week on “Black Men Sundays,” host Corie Murray interviews firearms instructor Chris Louissaint.
With more than a decade of experience in security, government contracting and fugitive extraditions, Louissaint knows the score when it comes to the realistic importance of firearms safety training.
“The reality is, a lot of people in our community — a lot of the men in our community — don’t have the necessary skills or the training to be able to effectively protect their families. They think they do, but they don’t. So what do you do when that alarm goes off? They’re just gonna wing it. They don’t have the effective firearms training, the tactics training, basic CQB (close-quarters battle) training to understand the schematics of their home and how to maximize their protection to be able to dominate in a violent encounter, not including the laws of deadly force, right? You know, that’s why we see some of the things that we see,” Louissaint said.
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Louissaint owns and operates FTAC Security Solutions & Training, a private range in Volusia County where he holds firearms training classes that he says convey effective and real-life tactics and techniques.
“So effective July 1 (2023), just passed, Florida went permitless carry,” Louissaint said. “That mandatory training to get the concealed weapons license has been removed and effectively anyone that’s a qualified individual under the parameters set by law can just carry, that’s the main thing that they did, they removed that training portion and now, as long as you’re a qualified individual, you can carry on you in a concealed manner without any training.”
With any new law can come misconceptions, and HB 543 is no exception. To this point, Louissaint clarifies that Florida’s new carry law does not absolve you from background checks, only the mandatory training he mentions.
“That’s the biggest misconception we have, that’s the main one. ‘Oh, I don’t need to do this,’ no, you still have to do that, you still have to do the background check when you fill out the application at the dealership, filling out that ATF form, you’re putting in all that information, the FFL is going to run the background check,” Louissaint said. “Now the thing is, without a concealed weapons license, you’ll have to come back in three or four business days. With a concealed weapons license, you can leave within 20, 30 minutes or an hour, it just depends on how long it takes for the background to come back, but essentially you can leave the same day with that new firearm.”
Hear the full interview in Season 4, Episode 2 of “Black Men Sundays.”
Black Men Sundays talks about building generational wealth. Check out every episode in the media player below.
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