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Driving is a privilege, not a right?
South Dakota was the last state to require driver licensing (in 1954). Most states started out with just issuing the licenses and all one had to do was pay the fee; there were no tests involved in many cases.
I'd argue that driving is a right that has been regulated, just as many other freedoms/rights have been regulated. One of the really bad side effects of gun regulation, imnsho, is that the mindset of the public is too often conditioned to believe that the RKBA is a privilege and not an inherent right in the U.S.
To sort of answer the original question: I don't have a problem with Texas' requirements for a state CCL. I think they're a little too strict on what laws one can break and still qualify, but I won't get into that. The fifteen hour required course I took was worth the time and effort; and I learned some things I didn't know about Texas statutes re guns. While CCL instructors in Texas vary in quality, they do have to be licensed by the state to teach and I think that's reasonable. I mean, if you're gonna require a license for carrying a gun, then the least you can do is make sure the qualifying course meets minimum standards, right? The gun safety part of the course was a plus. I don't think people can be reminded of these things too often, even if they've been taught about them from early on. The shooting requirements sure wouldn't get you a marksman medal, but it seems adequate for the purpose; and I don't suppose it's a bad thing to require that you prove you can put a minimum number of bullets in the proverbial barn side. I personally don't have any problem with the photo ID on Texas CCLs or that you get fingerprinted (twice!) to get their piece of plastic. I have a right to own and bear arms and this is a regulation by the Lone Star State on parts of that right, just as my Texas DL is, and I can live with both for the most part. All that said, I can't adequately verbalize how deeply against a national CCL I am. It would be just one more messed up federal regulatory bureaucracy over something certainly better handled by the states. No thank you!
Aside: I, too, have seen folks at ranges who obviously weren't raised with guns or at least certainly weren't taught about safe gun handling. I feel sorry for them and sorrier for the rest of us; but seeing such makes me appreciate my dad all over again. LOL (I wish I had a nickel for every time he told me, "Guns are always loaded; even the ones you can see have no bullets in 'em." I'd retire.) I just leave the range when the seriously unsafe show up; but I wonder if ranges shouldn't tell these woefully ignorant souls they can't come back until they've taken a course in gun safety.
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