I first met John Correia back when he only had 600,000 subscribers to his Active Self Protection YouTube page (he now has 1.3 MILLION). Back when he was still pastoring a church. Back when Active Self Protection was a side hustle. Back before he was profiled in The Atlantic magazine. Amazingly, all that was just … Continue reading
I found some extra material that got left out of my first three posts (here and here and here) reflecting on Matthew Ford’s study of military small arms innovation. So this is a bonus post reflecting on the idea of “Gucci kit” applied to those who carry concealed. Recalling Ford’s definition of Gucci kit (taken … Continue reading
Although I have been on a bit of a writing hiatus this summer, owing to my racket stringing side hustle and moving to a new house, I have continued my travels through American gun culture. On a sojourn to Texas in August, I spoke to the director of training at a large gun range. At … Continue reading
Although I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to observe Mike Seeklander’s instructor development course in New Mexico in November, a silver lining was that I got to spend a few days in Phoenix visiting with some of the amazing gun culture people/businesses there, like Wilderness Tactical Products, Haley Strategic Partners, and Cecil Burch of … Continue reading
The chapter on the private citizen gun training industry is just one of five or six planned chapters of my book on Gun Culture 2.0, but it is has been the most interesting to research and write. Although I have attended quite a few gun training events over the years, including the foundational MAG-40 class … Continue reading
Having discussed the rise of civilian firearms training industry, as well as various means of ensuring quality in training services offered, including professionalization, licensing, certification, and apprenticeship, this post will consider one final approach to quality assurance in the gun training industry: BRANDING. “Brands” originally were physical marks put on animals (and slaves, human beings … Continue reading
