Massad Ayoob's "Citizen's Rules of Engagmennt

You’re a single parent or a retiree with grandkids.  Perhaps a professional with a family, or a small business owner concerned about employee safety.  You’re aware of what is occurring in your neighborhood and around the places you frequent…and things have changed. You watch local events and see disturbing incidents and trends.  You understand that you are responsible for the security of yourself and your immediate circle.  You somehow know that self-defense involves more, much more than simply carrying a weapon and relying on ancient gun lore from an uncle. You’ve decided to exercise your rights, responsibly, and take decisive action to prepare.  Importantly you “know you don’t know”, and that is a powerful bit of knowledge.  Maybe you’re just gun-curious.  Possibly you’ve been at it for a while and want to expand your skills.  Either motivation has driven you to seek the best, most relevant to your life training available to enable your goal of “just get home.”

Our course curriculum is derived from this end state driven philosophy and is designed to impart requisite skills and understanding to make you that “best person.” Our classes are designed to provide a modular path from absolute novice to a highly capable and effective Citizen-Defender.  These modules introduce concepts, skills, and practices in a logical manner that maximizes your most precious commodity, time. Our approach is holistic, mixing soft skills such as verbalization, movement and de-escalation with hard skills…drawing fast and shooting straight, and then best practices to cope with the legal aftermath.  These components are hallmarks of the Citizen-Defender.

We will respect your time and provide high quality training and educational experiences relevant to a citizen responsibly exercising their fundamental right of self-defense. You’ll be treated with dignity, respect and encouragement at every step of your journey with us.

Ken is an active peace officer in a Virginia community with over six years of service. Ken has trained extensively with industry leaders, as well as in his law enforcement capacity. In addition to his firearms training resume, he has professionally coached tennis for decades and finds significant crossover between the two disciplines.

Matt is a “regular guy” that has been shooting all of his life but got serious about seeking the best training about a decade ago, with the first step being to check his ego. He started teaching in 2017 and has pursued Rangemaster instructor qualification, as well as having trained with other industry notables. His love of training has grown into a mission to put as many morally good people on the streets with skills to recognize, identify, avoid, and/or self-rescue themselves and their loved ones.

Kyle is a Rangemaster Advanced instructor and has trained extensively with industry greats like Craig Douglas, Greg Ellifritz and Paul Sharp.

Gary has trained with Tom Givens and holds Rangemaster’s “Advanced Instructor” rating. He has also trained with Kelly McCann, Greg Ellifritz and Massad Ayoob. Always a deep thinker, Gary brings years of experience to our classes from both on and off the range. Gary is an NRA-Certified Instructor, an NRA Range Safety Officer, and a Certified Glock Armorer. He is a U.S. Army veteran with combat experience. He has received training through U.S. military programs, government sponsored training activities, and civilian training activities.

Salvatore DeGennaro is a firearms instructor, IDPA shooter, and a contributing author for USA Carry, Concealed Nation, Ammoland, and the creator of Reflex Handgun.  He is a life-long shooter and concealed carrier who strives to serve as a conduit of reliable information to the legions of armed citizens in the United States.  Salvatore has taken many classes from the best firearms and self-defense instructors in the field and has acquired hundreds of hours of professional training.

Monique Clarke is a highly experienced firearms instructor with a passion for promoting safe and responsible gun ownership. With over 15 years of professional experience, she has trained numerous individuals in various aspects of firearms handling, marksmanship, and self-defense. Monique retired from the Marine Corps in 2024, and her certifications include Marine Corps Combat Marksmanship Trainer, Rangemaster Advanced Handgun Instructor, Tactical Anatomy Instructor, NRA; Handgun, Rifle, Shotgun, Concealed Carry, Personal Protection inside/Outside the Home, and Refuse To Be A Victim Instructor, Chief RSO, Last Resort Firearms Active Shooter Instructor, Citizen’s Safety Academy, Gateway Instructor, and NAAGA Concealed Carry and Red Dot Pistol Instructor.

Tim has been involved in formal firearms training focused on citizen self -defense issues for more than 20 years with training from a wide variety of recognized experts in the field like Tom Givens, Todd Green, Craig Douglas/Shivworks, Greg Ellifritz, Rob Haught, Ken Hackathorn, Pat Goodale, Mas Ayoob, Kyle Defoor, William Aprill, and many more.  He holds a Rangemaster Professional Pistolcraft Instructor and Advanced Shotgun instructor ratings. He has presented at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference Presenter 2019-2025 and is scheduled again in 2026.

With over 20 years of experience in the defensive firearms training industry, John is a Rangemaster Master certified instructor and has trained under numerous defense industry leaders: Tom Givens, John Farnam, Louis Awerbuck (RIP), Kelly McCann, Pat Rogers (RIP), Jeff Gonzales, Pat Goodale, Craig Douglas, Greg Ellifritz, Massad Ayoob, Andrew Branca, Mike Green, Brett Harnish, David Spaulding, Chris Sizelove, Kyle Defoor, Karl Rehn, Phillip Groff, Tatiana Whitlock, and William Aprill (RIP)John served in the Marine Corps for ten years and retired as a DOD counter-terrorism analyst in 2021 after 15 years of service