POST FALLS, Idaho – The first class of students in the North Idaho College (NIC) AR-15 Armorer course have been meeting since early March at the college’s Workforce Trainer Center in Post Falls, Idaho. The program intends to certify all fifteen students in AR Armory by the end of the three week course.
This course is the first step in developing a year-long General Gunsmithing program to train students as certified gunsmiths. It focuses on complete assembly, disassembly, and troubleshooting of rifles.
After spending the first few classes of the 40-hour course on the history of ARs and its part nomenclature, instructor Adam Snodgrass has his students partner up to assemble the upper and lower components of each rifle. Each session begins with video instruction before students spend the rest of the time working in pairs.
“It’s more hands-on than anything,” Snodgrass said. “They’ve got to be familiar with each part.”
Students of this inaugural class have a wide diversity of backgrounds, with some being longtime gun enthusiasts and others like Andreas Braunlich just getting familiar with firearms. For students like Braunlich, an NIC graduate, this is their first non-academic class.
“I have associate degrees in graphic design, photography, and political science,” Braunlich said. “This is by far the funnest class.”
“It’s okay to be new at something,” Snodgrass said. “The most important thing if you don’t know is: slow down, take your time.”
assembled rifle before he must
disassemble it again.
Other students like Brad Thompson who are more familiar with firearms have been waiting for a course like this for a while. In this course, students like Thompson, who has cleaned and field tested his rifles before, get a more intimate understanding of how their rifles work.
“It’s probably kind of overdue,” Thompson said. “I would think the college would have already done something like this.”
“This is North Idaho,” Braunlich said. “This part of the country, I would think it’s a requirement.”
Students of Snodgrass listen to classic rock and crack jokes while they learn the anatomy of rifles. Safety classes are also a necessity as spring powered detents can go flying at any moment. It’s not uncommon to hear someone shout “NASA” as they accidentally shoot their parts across the room.
The final session in this course will be March 23. Snodgrass said the final test will involve shaking up the parts in a container and having his students assemble a rifle from the mess. Those who succeed will receive their AR Armorer certification.
NIC intends to have future gunsmithing courses depending on community interest. Future courses include basic lathe, antique firearms, re-barreling, and a semi-auto/striker fired handgun course that the current students are particularly interested in.
The AR-15 Armorers course originally had all twenty seats filled up, but had to cut five students as the school did not have enough toolkits.
“I haven’t seen this much excitement about a program in a while,” said Colby Mattila, NIC Executive Director of Workforce and Economic Development in a press release.
“I’d be game to take some more [classes],” Thompson said as he assembled his charging handle.
Students can use their gunsmithing certifications to work in different careers where the knowledge is required. Snodgrass has used his certification to work in security and at Center Target Sports in Post Falls.
certificate to build custom rifles.
The AR Armorers course is set to recur every quarter. The hope is to have all General Gunsmithing courses NRA certified, which first requires three years of graduated classes.
“We’re happy to be able to put something like this together,” Mattila said in the same press release. “If there’s enough community interest in something, we’ll find a way to make it happen.”
