Does anyone belong to or know anything about USCCA?

swoop · Jul 16, 2009

Saw this ad for free news letter for concealed carry people and gave my E-mail..been gettin a push to join USCCA every day since. Doesn't look like a bad thing at 47.00 a year, but...do any of you know about Tim Schmidt and the USCCA? Thank's in advance for any info...

Ponytail · Jul 16, 2009

I hear ya! I signed up for the emails and was turned off by the hard sell I received. I have a pretty big opposition reflex! However, I got the chance to flip through one of their magazines when I was visiting a local holster shop and was quite impressed with the magazine! Plus, I discovered that Kathy Jackson of Cornered Cat is the editor!

I decided to give them a try for a year. So far we have received two of their magazines and each one was a cover to cover read (as opposed to the kind that you skip around and don't read completely). In other words, I love them! I recommend signing up for the organization. I don't think you will be disappointed!

swoop · Jul 17, 2009

Thank's for the info Ponytail, have you checked out the product testing yet? Think I will try them out for a year..see how it goes. They are all about concealed carry as am I, so that's a good start.

theLEMband · Jan 8, 2010

Swoop,
Did you give USCCA a try? What do you think so far?
Thanks

Fjolnirsson · Jan 8, 2010

I let my subscription run out a while back, just had to make some cutbacks. However, I absolutely recommend USCCA, they put out a top quality magazine. Well worth the price of the subscription. And yes, Tim Schmidt does do the hard sell thing, but I can't blame him, really. He's competing with the big boys, gotta get the name out there.

The Quiet Man · Jan 8, 2010

I have also thought about it but have been turned off by the hard sell. Being as old as dirt and having carried for nearly as long, I get bored pretty quickly reading "newbie" level articles, recommendations, and explanations. That is also why I quickly stopped looking at most of the "defensive carry" type forums where many of the armchair experts don't fully understand which end of the gun the bullet thingy comes out of. Most people on this forum seem very practical, well grounded with common sense, reasonably experienced, and willing to learn from other like minded people.

For those of you that so highly recommend USCCA, what is the level of information they put out? What is the nature of the information that you like so well? Who would find the information useful? Specifically WHY do you like it? What type of information is produced that isn't readily available in other publications? Just a few of the thoughts that ran through my old brain. Thanks.

swoop · Jan 8, 2010

theLEMband said:
Swoop,
Did you give USCCA a try? What do you think so far?
Thanks

Hey LEMband , funny you should ask as I just became a member this morning. They have three menberships to choose from now...silver, gold, & platinum the silver one is only 19.00 so thought I would snoop around for a while. I checked out the forum for a little bit and noticed 3 Oregonians right away. Looks to be set up pretty well, and if you join before 12:00 midnight...1/8/10...push push, you get some extra stuff.

I'll keep ya posted, Swoop'

pax · Jan 30, 2010

For those of you that so highly recommend USCCA, what is the level of information they put out? What is the nature of the information that you like so well? Who would find the information useful? Specifically WHY do you like it? What type of information is produced that isn't readily available in other publications? Just a few of the thoughts that ran through my old brain. Thanks.

Wandering around the web today, I spotted this thread & signed up just to answer this question. It's January, and that makes it a good time to look at where we've been and where we're going!

I'm the managing editor of Concealed Carry Magazine, and publisher Tim Schmidt has given me a very free hand in choosing the direction the magazine will go. Toward that end, my goal over the past year & a half has been to build on the magazine's historical appeal to the new gun owners, while reaching out to those who are more experienced and who already have a lot of training.

For example, one of our ongoing columns is "Ballistic Basics," which is absolutely a newcomer-level intro to some very basic concepts. On the other hand, we also just added a column titled, "Behind the Line," penned by experienced firearms instructors Marty Hayes (of FAS) and Tom Givens (of Rangemaster). This column is aimed at firearms instructors and trainers, not at newcomers, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

Every issue we feature a column from KL Jamison, our legal expert, about some aspect of the law as it affects concealed carry. Jamison's articles are always detailed, thought-provoking, and frequently tackle surprising topics -- surprising both in scope, and in how those topics relate to concealed carry.

Our "Armed Senior" column by Dr. Bruce Eimer tackles topics that range from basic to advanced, with an emphasis on subjects designed to appeal to senior citizens who carry a concealed firearm.

Gabe Suarez provides an FOF/training column each issue, while George Harris of Sig Sauer Academy also tackles training topics. In addition to that, I've worked pretty hard to seek out & run lots of training course reviews -- but NOT from the perspective of, "I had a cool vacation & you didn't." Rather, I encourage the writers to tell our readers what they learned in the courses. I consider these reviews a great way to bootleg a little instruction to our readers as well as a way to allow readers to decide which schools or trainers might be best for them.

Of course we do product reviews as well, both of firearms and gear. We have a regular gear column (Duane Daiker, Real World Carry Gear), and regularly run features about holsters and holster selection. But CCM isn't really product-centric. If you're really into product reviews, you'll be better served with another magazine.

Personally, I try to pen something to appeal to female concealed carry people at least every other issue, and our "Profile" section tends to be appealing to our female readers as well because it reinforces the notion that ordinary, normal-looking people do this. Our cover photos typically feature USCCA members, not models, and the guns they wear on the cover are their own guns, not some advertiser's product-placement request.

We ran only one or perhaps two articles about long guns last year. If you're interested in long guns, CCM isn't going to please you. Our focus is concealed carry.

If you want to discuss the politics of concealed carry, the USCCA website is a good place to do it. But we don't run much about politics in the magazine. There's just too much other important stuff to cover -- and frankly, a print magazine is far too slow and clumsy of a method for that anyway. By the time it makes it to print, the political story has usually lost its edge and everyone who was following it at all caught it online a month ago!

CCM doesn't run articles about "pretty guns" or eye candy. No high-end 1911 safe queens, no highly-engraved fantasy guns, no museum pieces. We're all about practical and functional for concealed carry. If you want to drool over gorgeous fashion guns, CCM won't make you happy.

We do run lots of articles from experts and trainers with how-to or why-to information -- like Mas Ayoob on gun retention, Gabe Suarez on force-on-force training, George Harris on one-hand skills, working counselors to discuss post shooting trauma, experienced prison guards talking about criminal mindset. And so on. I am by no means an inexperienced shooter myself, with over 500 hours of professional level training under my belt, but it seems as if every issue I learn something new & worthwhile from editing these types of articles.

Every issue we run a drill from a different shooting school, a suggested practice routine our readers can try for themselves. Again, these run the gamut of very basic to very advanced, and I try to keep mixing it up.

So that's the goal: a fairly solid mix of stuff for people of all ages and lifestyles interested in concealed carry, from beginners to more experienced shooters. Should be something there to appeal to you, but if not, that's okay.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to "think out loud" about what direction the magazine is headed in the coming year.

pax,

Kathy Jackson

The Quiet Man · Jan 30, 2010

... Thanks for giving me the opportunity to "think out loud" about what direction the magazine is headed in the coming year.

pax,

Kathy Jackson[/QUOTE]

Thanks for stopping by, Kathy. You answered my questions and some I had not considered. I suspect your efforts will be well received here and garner a number of new subscriptions, including mine. :s0155: