by Brian McCombie - Monday, July 26, 2021
The National Rifle Association’s award-winning and free Hunter Education online course is now state-approved for residents in North Carolina as NRA works to make it available to hunters in all 50 states. Since the program was launched in 2017, the NRA has provided nearly 65,000 students with online hunter education, gratis, helping to attract and recruit new hunters and shooters across the country.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) now offers the NRA hunter education online course as a convenient alternative to the classroom course requirement. Once the online hunter education course is completed, a new hunter can print his or her temporary hunter education card and then purchase a North Carolina hunting license.
“The NRA's online hunter education course has made hunter education more accessible to our constituents and increased the number of opportunities for hunters to be compliant with North Carolina law,” said Travis Casper, Interim Chief of the NCWRC Wildlife Education Division, who shared his thoughts on the course with the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum website, NRAHLF.org.
“The NRA developed this free online course with one main goal in mind: to make it easier for new hunters to get into the field,” said Joe DeBergalis, Executive Director of NRA General Operations. “We are pleased to partner with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to bring this no-cost program to the residents of the Tar Heel State. NRA has been and will continue to be the leader in providing the very best hunter education and training in the country.”
The NRA created the first-ever hunter education program in the United States in 1949 for the state of New York. Today’s NRA Online Hunter Education course offers a fresh and fully comprehensive approach to hunter education. The 15-chapter online sequence features attention-grabbing videos, eye-catching graphics and diagrams, interactive modules, audio recordings and dozens of action photos. Materials are presented in appealing, easy-to-access components that provide the best method for teaching future hunters lessons they will remember for the rest of their lives.
All the instruction is available at students’ fingertips so it is on hand for whenever and wherever they can complete it. This no-cost option also removes the prohibitive cost barrier some students face with other online courses, encouraging new hunters to take the first step and making it easier for seasoned hunters to revisit the material.
North Carolina joins Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia as states that accept NRA Hunter Education as a prerequisite for hunting licensure.
To take the NRA Online Hunter Education course or to learn more, visit NRAHE.org.