How much do you pay for LEOSA qualification? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 2/9/2026 4:24:53 PM EDT
| My department charges $150 for qual and card. If you are retired from the agency it is free. |
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My agency doesn’t charge anyone; they just have to bring their own ammunition. My agency provides the POST targets. We don’t care where they retired/separated from, but we won’t print them a LEOSA ID unless we were that agency. They get a POST qualification card though (which the state mails to their residence). |
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Seriously? My agency has no charges for any qualified retired LEO. I'm a retired LEO and Firearms Instructor and I was running the LEOSA quals for the Sheriff's Office awhile after retirement. I was getting paid for it as a "Conditional Employee". I passed it on to another retired Firearms Instructor but I still qualify stragglers a couple of times a year. I just qualified a guy last week. ETA: Retirees have to bring their own ammo, shooting glasses and hearing protection. I would supply the targets and paperwork. They turn the paperwork into the Civil Department and get a call when their card is ready to pick up. |
Nobody is coming. It's up to you.
| I retired from an out of state agency and my local sheriff's dept does not charge us anything to qualify. Like a previous member posted, they supply the targets and we bring our own ammo. They give you a nice laminated card as proof of qualification. |
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Originally Posted By ThatGuy91K: We do it for free regardless of whether you retired from us or another agency. Same here. |
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$40-50 last I heard. I haven’t bothered yet. I don’t travel much and our agency’s nearest site for it is 2 to 2.5 hours away. I’d spend that in gas easily. My county sheriff doesn’t even do their own retirees last I heard. The adjoining county does though. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
| $75 and you supply your own ammo... you get a laminated agency ID card with a 24 hour desk number |
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Mass is weird. Mass State Police issue the LEOSA instructor certification. I am certified to qualify MA retirees or MA resident retirees and I have done it for retirees for $75.00. I issue the qualification card. MA requires that they have a valid MA LTC ($25/6 yrs for residents, $100/yr for non-residents) and their retired ID issued by the department they retired from. I supply targets, range, and qualification card. I moved to NH and can still qualify MA retirees or MA residents (regardless of where they retired from) at the NH gun club I belong to. However, NH is also weird. Only active LEOs can run a LEOSA qualification and departments don't want retirees from other departments using their ranges for "liability reasons". The day that a NH LEO retires, s/he loses their POST certification and can no longer teach this (I confirmed this with one of our detectives). I go to MA and pay a retired Mass State Police trooper $75 each year to qualify me. I don't think that my former department would ever qualify a retiree and it would be a 3 hr RT drive if they did. |
NRA Firearms Instructor
Moved to NH!
Moved to NH!
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Originally Posted By laxman09: My agency 100% abandons you once you retire. I need to figure out where to go locally to qualify. Ours did for a while. The agency had mostly governor appointed lawyers at the top over its two LE segments. They saw it as being liable if a retiree actually used their firearm. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
| Oregon dems want to exempt retired LEOs from firearms permit to purchase and what they call hi cap magazine (>10 rounds) restrictions. No offense intended, by if you're retired, why do you need weapons of war without restrictions like the rest of the population? Why aren't retired military trigger pullers offered the same priveledge? |
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You’re supposed to qualify in the state where you currently reside. See # 4 here: https://www.state.gov/law-enforcement-officers-safety-act-leosa-faqs-4#what-is-leosa |
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Originally Posted By KitBuilder: You’re supposed to qualify in the state where you currently reside. See # 4 here: https://www.state.gov/law-enforcement-officers-safety-act-leosa-faqs-4#what-is-leosa Yes, i reside in VA. |
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Originally Posted By gojo96: Anyone know of an agency in VA that will qualify an out of State retiree? I tried my local sheriff and they wont. https://xcal.com/events/leosa-qualification-course-for-retired-law-enforcement/ https://www.pwcva.gov/policetraining |
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| 60 bucks here at the range about 20 minutes away with a retired ATF firearms instructor. In fact, I’m about due coming up in June to do mine again. Thanks for reminding me. Once I get that done the renewal I think is $20 through Arizona DPS. Once submitted, it comes back in the mail within the week. It’s nice out here. |
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Originally Posted By AZCOP: We don't charge anything. Jay @azcop Hit me up, I bet we know some of the same people. I could’ve gone the free route with my former PFI and his connections with another agency, but it was offset by like six months. Curious if we know people in the same circles. |
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Loudoun Co, VA https://www.loudoun.gov/4652/Retired-Law-Enforcement-Officers-Firearm |
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| I never charge to do retired qualifications. My dept gives me the targets and they bring their own ammo. We have a private range and I make a good day of it. I bring a grill and everyone brings something for a cookout. The retired guys have a blast catching up. Some informal competition to settle bets after the qual is over. |
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County Sheriff's office, Swat/Firearms instructors. They provide targets, and have two personnel from the Admin unit come down to the range to take pictures and your qualification card is ready when you're done shooting. Minimum 2/1 shooter instructor ratio with designated medics and standby response vehicle. Shoots are once month on Thursdays between March-October, 10am-2pm, with 8-10 shooters on the line each hour, so roughly 48-50 qualified each month for 6 months...max of 300 a year. Currently only does residents of the county or out of county if you qualified with them before 2022. The only cost is the ammo, and the process is amazingly professional and efficient. Show 15 min prior to line time for paperwork, safety brief, shoot and pick up your card...all is done in a little less than an hour. |
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Originally Posted By laxman09: My agency 100% abandons you once you retire. I need to figure out where to go locally to qualify. I conducted retired LEOSA quals over lunch at SPG and SET; its not our agency, its your lead abandoning or otherwise choosing not to help retired brothers out. |
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Originally Posted By Mopseydocks6014: Charging for that is a bold move. Should be zero everywhere. In a perfect world, any PD should qualify any retiree living in their area. However, that isn't reality. So many of us can't afford to be a charity. |
NRA Firearms Instructor
Moved to NH!
Moved to NH!
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Originally Posted By Piratepast40: Oregon dems want to exempt retired LEOs from firearms permit to purchase and what they call hi cap magazine (>10 rounds) restrictions. No offense intended, by if you're retired, why do you need weapons of war without restrictions like the rest of the population? Why aren't retired military trigger pullers offered the same priveledge? You know why. The military needs a lot more people therefore they hire and retain a lot more people with poor judgement. I’m not saying you but damned if working outside a major US base was there a very high degree of WTF were you thinking incidents. Granted most were persons under thirty years of age but not always. Hell even the military officers didn’t want their soldiers to carry. They still don’t want the headache despite what Hegseth did changing the rules. yes, former mil, former MP, former LE. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
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Originally Posted By pa_ridgerunner: I never charge to do retired qualifications. My dept gives me the targets and they bring their own ammo. We have a private range and I make a good day of it. I bring a grill and everyone brings something for a cookout. The retired guys have a blast catching up. Some informal competition to settle bets after the qual is over. Ha! so true. I recall the retirees I knew really enjoying getting together on the range. I wasn’t retired at the time but it was a simple course. Some states had a fairly challenging course from some of the videos I saw. For decades our agencies own course of fire for quals was the most challenging with multiple targets to engage in a short timespan, movement to cover, changing side of cover etc, all on the clock. The Basic mandated state course was ten times easier. Before I retired the agency knuckled under and switched to the dummied down state mandated course……and quit issuing the Master, Expert, Sharpshooter and Marksman pins. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
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Zero. They even provide ammo for the qual. And since most of the instructors either worked for me on patrol, or when I was at training, or while I was a lead instructor, they usually let me shoot extra, try out their new guns, and stuff like that. Always end up talking shop for an hour or more. Helps when you are the one who encouraged them or pushed the agency to make them an instructor in the first place. They mainly do folks who retired from my agency, but will do other folks as well. Actually started also running a qual in a second state as well, so regardless of where I am located, 99.9% of the time I have a LEOSA card from that state. That one is also free, regardless of the agency you retired from. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Some of you are lucky. My former department never wanted to see your face after you retired or left. During my years, I only saw one retiree darken the doorway one time. From what my chiefs told me or by their actions, very few received retired credentials. Also, wrt LEOSA, MA voted against it and then took 4 years before creating administrative law that violates the federal law in a number of ways. The only good thing is that they allowed the state police to certify some instructors to privately do the annual qualifications. So either the instructor absorbs the costs or charges the retiree . . . that is the way MA rolls. |
NRA Firearms Instructor
Moved to NH!
Moved to NH!
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Yes, in MA you need 3 things: - A retired ID card. - A MA LTC (resident or non-resident) in order to do a qualification with a Mass State Police certified instructor. [This is a direct violation of the federal law, but MA doesn't care or abide by federal laws.] - A qualification card issued by the instructor after your annual qualification. |
NRA Firearms Instructor
Moved to NH!
Moved to NH!
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Originally Posted By Cooper1: Can instructors qualify themselves? That is an unbelievably bad idea…and would be raw meat to a prosecutor, etc. in the event of a use of force… I had a real jackass in my organization refuse to qualify with the rest of the proles and stated he was “self qualifying”. While the local feckless management had nothing to say about it since they were bros and all, our organizational HQ had a fit and made the mistake of thinking that would not have to be said…so they did a policy update and said it; No. You can’t qualify yourself… Subsequently when he did have to qualify with the ilk (I was the FI) his excuse for his less than perfect score that he allegedly always got was: “Ever since I’ve been accused in court of being a trained killer, I won’t shoot a perfect score anymore.” You can’t make that shit up…and I’m sure everyone has at least one of these kind of jokers in their own organization. |