“I already have my LTC: how much of this do I really have to do?” It is the most common question Irving students ask, and the honest answer starts at the range, where the overlap is real, and then gets more complicated.

Where Your LTC Experience Genuinely Helps

On the range, quite a lot. The Level 3 firearms proficiency exam is close to identical in format to the Texas License to Carry proficiency exam. Same kind of firing line, same kind of scored target, same published course of fire. If you have done one, the other will feel familiar rather than foreign, and that familiarity is worth something on the day.

That resemblance is not a coincidence. Under §35.145, the qualification may be conducted using either the DPS Primary Issued Handgun Qualification Course or the DPS Approved LTC Course: the LTC course of fire is literally one of the two approved options. What holding an LTC does not do is substitute for the qualification. You still shoot it, as part of the Level 3 course, at a DPS-approved school.

One Thing the LTC World Has No Equivalent For

§35.146 sets out a shotgun course of fire specifically for commissioned security officers. That gives students the option to qualify with a shotgun in addition to the handgun. There is nothing like it in the license-to-carry framework, because the two credentials exist for different reasons: one is about personal carry, the other is about doing an armed job on someone else’s property under a set of duties.

The Half Your LTC Does Not Touch at All

Level 3 comes in two parts and the range is only the second one. Part 1 is the classroom material, delivered 100% online by East Texas Security Training Academy: the law governing armed security work, use of force, the duties that attach to a commission, and the written exam. Part 2 is in person and covers defensive tactics, firearms handling, and the firearms proficiency exam. Nothing in the online half involves firearms work.

The commercial consequence follows from that split: the online course price covers the online training only, and the in-person firearms qualification is scheduled separately and is not included. Plan for two separate steps rather than one appointment.

The Number That Trips Up Experienced Shooters

§35.144(c) sets the minimum passing grade on Level 3 examinations at 75%. That is higher than the License to Carry written test threshold, and it is the specific point where the “I already have my LTC” assumption stops being useful. Comfort with a firearm does not carry you through a use-of-force exam.

Also worth being precise about: Level 3 is the commissioned security officer course: the one that lets you carry a firearm on duty. Level 4 is the personal protection officer course, the bodyguard credential, with a minimum of fifteen classroom hours under §35.141(a)(3). They are separate courses for separate credentials, not tiers of one license. Under §35.141(a)(2), Level 3 is required for a security officer commission and for personal protection officers alike, which explains the confusion without excusing it.

Who May Teach It, and What You Walk Away With

• Course material is prepared by and obtained from DPS, and Level 3 may only be taught by a DPS-approved school using a DPS-approved instructor. Unlike Level 2, a licensed company cannot deliver it in-house through its own designee.
• Your certificate of completion is referred to on this site as PSP 30.
• Under §35.147, an approved school issues the original certificate within seven days of qualifying and retains training records for 24 months.
• Under §35.81(a), the commission application requires copies of both the Level 2 and Level 3 certificates, plus the other items DPS lists. The commission is issued by DPS. Passing the course is what qualifies you to apply.

Irving and the Corporate Campus Post

Irving carries a heavier concentration of corporate headquarters and office-park campuses than most cities its size in Texas, and that shapes the local security market. Alongside the airport-adjacent logistics and hospitality work, there is a steady demand for officers on gated corporate campuses, data and network facilities, banking operations and executive office buildings. The kinds of sites where a client contract specifies a commissioned officer rather than an unarmed one. Those postings do not come open to officers who have not already done this course.

You can read the underlying rules in 37 TAC Chapter 35. Once the commission is issued, the renewal course is what keeps it alive, and our FAQ page handles the questions that do not fit neatly into any of this.