Firearms Training Associates, California CCW Carry Limits & Holster Retention

Estimated reading time: 5 min

Where to Try a Variety of Handguns in Southern California

[00:56]

A caller from Woodland Hills asked where someone can handle and shoot a variety of handguns at a single location before committing to a purchase. The answer is most indoor ranges with a rental counter. Nearly every indoor range carries a selection of guns available to rent by the hour, and a quick search for indoor gun ranges with rentals in Southern California will surface roughly twenty options in the region. The crew mentioned several by name: Magnum Range in the Inland Empire, Smoke and Barrel out in Simi Valley, Evans Firing Line, LA Progressive, La Point, and the Beverly Hills Gun Club. Even the Burro Canyon range in the foothills carries rentals. The standard advice is to call ahead, confirm what is in stock, and bring a friend: most ranges require a companion when renting because of the liability surrounding solo visitors.

One caveat worth keeping in mind if you plan to do this shopping in Las Vegas: the rental ranges there tend to carry full-auto exotica and suppressed firearms that are either restricted or unavailable for civilian purchase in California. It makes for a memorable afternoon, but you may fall in love with something you cannot take home. Better to try guns locally at a range like Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Eastvale, where the rental inventory reflects what California residents can actually own.

FTA’s Training Pedigree: From Gunsite to SOCOM

[03:03]

Bill Murphy has 46 years in law enforcement and brings a resume that most ranges cannot match. He has worked for Gunsite Academy, one of the most respected firearms training institutions in the country. He ran SureFire‘s training division for a number of years. He has been contracted by SOCOM to train Green Berets, by Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), by MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command), and he spent a decade teaching weapons to Air Force Pararescuemen. That is the curriculum that came home to Eastvale.

Firearms Training Associates operates out of Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises, where the facility includes dedicated classrooms with electricity and air conditioning, multiple purpose-built ranges, and a force-on-force simulation area where students engage in scenario training using simulation rounds. The course ladder starts at absolute beginner and climbs through pistol fundamentals, carbine, rifle, building clearing, night shoots, and low-light operations. Government agencies hire Murphy’s team to come on-site and train their personnel. The philosophy is direct: everything taught here has been validated in real-world law enforcement and special operations contexts, then stripped of institutional bureaucracy and delivered in Southern California weather to anyone who shows up ready to work.

Murphy’s benchmark for what skill retention actually requires is equally direct. Shooting is a repetitive task skill. Three practice sessions a year will not sustain proficiency, the same way driving or typing three times a year would not. The more consistently a shooter trains, the more the motor patterns hold under stress.

The FTA Greeny: A Gift Card That Never Expires

[05:21]

FTA offers a program they call a Greeny: a $50 deposit that locks in a 20 to 25 percent discount on any course. They never expire. Murphy recounted a student who called to redeem one 17 years after putting it down and was enrolled in the next available class with the full discount intact. The Greenies can be purchased in bulk and given as gifts, which makes them a practical option for families who want to get multiple people trained on their own schedule. Anyone sent by the Gunslinger crew is encouraged to say so when they arrive.

After completing a course, students can step directly into the shooting area at Raahauge’s to continue working the skills while they are fresh. The facility also has a private area where visitors can rent firearms and shoot without enrolling in a formal class, which ties back directly to the earlier question about where to try handguns before buying.

How Many Guns Can a California CCW Holder Carry?

[08:28]

California CCW holders are permitted to carry two loaded firearms on their person at any given time. How many guns appear on the permit itself varies significantly by county. Los Angeles County caps the permit at three listed firearms. Orange County imposes no upper limit, so a permit holder can qualify with as many guns as they choose to carry. Murphy’s team qualified a holder with ten guns on his permit the same day this episode was recorded. The record at FTA belongs to a husband and wife who each had 23 firearms listed, back when spouses could share guns on their permits and the two of them apparently lost track of whose was whose.

Murphy’s practical advice is to resist the temptation to list a large number of firearms. Qualifying with ten or twenty guns takes the entire eight-hour renewal window, and the result is shallow familiarity with many platforms rather than genuine proficiency with one. The permit allows it, but the training math works against it.

Leather vs. Kydex, and the Retention Question

[09:34]

On the leather versus Kydex question, Murphy’s answer is honest about where the money goes. A quality leather holster from a respected maker such as Milt Sparks runs around $300. It is a one-of-a-kind piece built for a specific gun and the person carrying it. But today’s Kydex options are genuinely good, they hold their shape, they do not absorb moisture, and they can be molded to accommodate weapon lights and ancillary gear in a way leather typically cannot. Murphy carries a Staccato on duty in a Kydex holster and considers the fit and function to be excellent. The choice ultimately comes down to the environment and how the gun will be used, not brand loyalty.

On retention, Murphy frames it as a continuum rather than a binary. For concealed carry, the garment covering the gun is the first layer of security. Nobody can grab what they cannot see. An open-top Kydex holster under a cover garment allows for a faster draw than a duty rig with multiple retention devices, and speed matters when the encounter develops in under three seconds. On duty, where the gun is visible and a potential threat can see exactly where it rides, two levels of mechanical retention make sense because the risk of a grab attempt is real. Murphy transitioned away from the Beretta he was initially issued at a large sheriff’s department partly because the combination of a manual safety and a two-level retention holster added too much time to the draw. He moved to a SIG without a manual safety and later to the Staccato, where he sweeps the thumb safety off during the draw stroke itself, keeping the retention device defeat and the safety manipulation inside a single fluid motion.

For anyone ready to get serious about carry training, Firearms Training Associates can be reached at (714) 701-9918. And when you are ready to find the right firearm to put in that holster, Gunslinger Auctions is the most transparent way to buy.