Donald Crangle, a 52-year-old gun instructor in St. Louis County, is accused of conducting inadequate concealed-carry training classes and falsifying documents in the process. His arrest has raised questions about what to do with thousands of gun owners who got certificates through his allegedly shoddy classes -- and the safety risk he has created through his poor training.
Authorities first noticed suspicious activity when an applicant who took his class went to apply for a concealed-carry permit in Clayton, with documents saying he had completed the mandatory eight-hour training class that day. It was early afternoon.
A following undercover investigation revealed that Crangle was routinely cutting corners -- and getting away with it.
Officer Randy Vaughn tells Daily RFT this morning that police officials have not yet decided what to do about concealed-carry permit holders who got their training through Crangle's class.
He says he can't recall fraud of this nature with a local gun instructor.
The Post-Dispatch, which has an in-depth look at the accusations, says that Crangle worked with at least 1,770 people who now have permits based on his potentially very incomplete trainings.
And the P-D has these troubling details from the undercover investigation:
The law also requires demonstration of firearm safety, yet the officers said they saw one student turn the muzzle of a loaded weapon toward her own face after it jammed.They saw another trainee fire at one target but hit the next one over, because of an improperly mounted laser sight. "Crangle told him, 'That's OK, at least you hit the center mass.'"
The official police report, on view below, says that Crangle, who lives on the 6400 block of Fort Bellefontaine Road in the county, is now facing a range of charges, including four counts of issuing a false certificate (a Class A misdemeanor) and three counts of a training instructor providing false information regarding the performance of applicant in a concealed weapon training program (a Class C misdemeanor).
Continue for more details on the charges and for the full report from county police.
