Defensive Handgun Courses

Defensive handgun courses

Fundamentals of Concealed Carry and Ohio CCW Course

The Safety Solutions Academy Fundamentals of Concealed Carry and Ohio CCW course is designed to accomplish two goals:  qualify you to apply for your Ohio CHL and educate you about the types of handguns that are most efficient for concealed carry, how to carry them safely and securely, and how to use them in the context of a life threatening violent encounter. This class is not your typical Ohio Concealed Carry Course.  Instead it strikes the perfect balance between the legal aspects of Ohio concealed carry, the equipment considerations for CCW holders, and the defensive shooting and decision making skills you will need to help you prevail in violence. SSA doesn’t train the most Ohio CCW students and there are many who will train you for less.  However, there is no concealed carry course in the state of Ohio that will rival the quality of information and the defensive shooting instruction your will receive with Safety Solutions Academy.

Please follow this link to register for Safety Solutions Academy’s Fundamentals of Concealed Carry and Ohio CCW Course.

Fundamentals of Home Defense Handguns

Fundamentals of Home defense handguns is an outstanding course for people who are new to the the defensive use of handguns or have never considered how handgun use in the home might be different than concealed carry or the manner in which armed professionals may use a handgun. Fundamentals of Home Defense Handguns is designed to help you determine the best type of handgun for defending your home, how to store it in a manner that keeps it inaccessible to unauthorized users but at the ready for defensive use when you need it.  Finally the course will provide you with live fire experience in the most efficient ways to use your handgun to defend your loved ones and yourself from an imminent home invasion with the potential for a lethal threat.

Please follow this link to find out more and register for our Fundamentals of Home Defense Handguns Course.

Fundamentals of Defensive Handgun and Concealed Carrydefensive handgun bad guy

This one day, foundational course will provide a solid introduction to the concepts and principles of defensive handgun use and concealed carry.  The course content will focus on the equipment you need to carry a handgun safely and securely and how to use that handgun to rapidly end a spontaneous, life threatening, violent encounter.  Fundamentals of Defensive Handgun and Concealed Carry is not focused on the specific laws of any one political area, but instead focuses on the overarching ideas that can be universally applied.  YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR A CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT AFTER TAKING THIS CLASS.  However, you will be infinitely more competent should you need to use your defensive handgun to protect yourself or those that you love.  This class is perfect for those that already have taken a CCW Course from another instructor but feel like there was something missing from the class.

Critical Defensive Handgun

Critical Defensive Handgun is our flagship course.  This is the course that you need to take if you have your concealed carry permit or are an armed professional that depends on your firearm to solve the problem of a Defensive Handgun Classeslethal ambush.  The fact is that your gun isn’t the solution.  You are.

This course will focus on teaching you skills that will work well with what your body does naturally when you are faced with a lethal threat.  You will learn responses that are efficient and will allow you to stop your threat as quickly as possible when you are surprised and don’t know what is going to happen next. In addition to the focus on practical real world defensive handgun skills, Critical defensive handgun has a strong bias towards the constant assessment and decision making process you will find yourself involved in when you face a lethal threat.

This class is about the real physical skills coupled with the crucial mental skills that will really make the difference when everything is on the line.

Introduction to Critical Defensive Handgun (1/2 day)

Introduction to Critical Defensive handgun is a four hour course designed to introduce you to the concepts and principles of Safety Solutions Academy’s Critical Defensive Handgun Program.  You will be exposed to the major skills and ideas that will help you to respond to a spontaneous, life threatening, violent attack with your defensive handgun in an intuitive and efficient manner.

This course is right for you if:

  • You are new to defensive handguns and want to start out with the best understanding of real defensive shooting.
  • You have your concealed carry permit and it has been a while since you have been to the range to practice your defensive shooting.
  • Your concealed carry class consisted of target shooting and didn’t seem to have a focus on defensive shooting.
  • You go to the range, but you aren’t sure what to practice.
  • You have purchased a new defensive handgun, holster or other gear and need to begin the process of vetting that gear for concealed carry.

Introduction to Critical Defensive Handgun provides a quick and simple format to learn the fundamentals of defensive handgun use, test equipment and refresh your skills.

Fundamentals of Critical Defensive Handgun (1 day)

Safety Solutions Academy’s 8 hour, 1 day, Critical Defensive Handgun Course is one of the most popular with our customers.

IDefensive Handgun Coursesn one day you will be exposed to and have the opportunity to train the critical concepts that you will count on should you need to use you handgun to defend your life or the lives of those that you love from a violent attack that could cost your life.

You will learn:

  • What natural reactions does your body have that you can learn to exploit to win.
  • How to safely and rapidly get you gun out of the holster and directed at the threat.
  • Where you need to put rounds on your threat to have the greatest likelihood of stopping them from hurting you quickly.
  • How to hit your threat quickly with multiple shots so you can stop their violent attack as soon as possible.
  • What simple steps can help increase your safety while you are stopping the threat.
  • Dealing with multiple threats.  Why you need to be prepared for more than one attacker and realistic strategies to win when you are out numbered.
  • Why gathering information is a fundamental skill that you need to understand to increase your odds in a Counter Ambush Scenario.

Follow this link to find out more and to register for a 1-day Critical Defensive Handgun course.

Critical Defensive Handgun (2 day)

This course is for you if you are serious about defending yourself and your loved ones with a handgun when it matters most.  You will learn everything covered in the one day Fundamentals of Critical Defensive Handgun and more.  With additional concepts and time to train those concepts in a practical environment you will increase you competence to new levels.  Whether you are a legally armed citizen carrying concealed or a professional that works in a field where you carry a gun to protect you life and the lives of others, this course is designed to develop and test the skills you will depend on when you are fighting for your life.

The two day format provides the maximum exposure to the concepts and principles and at the same time provides opportunity for practice in the execution of the vital skills that you will be immersed in.  The two day format also provides important down time between training sessions for you to rest, recover and reflect about what you are learning.  This in between time often provides students with the opportunity to gain the new perspective they are looking for when they attend the Critical Defensive Handgun Course.  At the end of two days of training students routinely feel that they gained far in excess of two individual days of training.  This is much more than two back to back one day defensive handgun courses.

Click here to learn more about Critical Defensive Handgun and to Register Today!

Advanced defensive handgunAdvanced Critical Defensive Handgun

Violence doesn’t happen the way you expect it to happen. You are likely to be surprised.  You probably won’t find out that you are in a fight for your life until after you have been hit, kicked, cut, stabbed, shot at or actually shot. You could be off balance, in a compromised position or even on the ground when you need to draw your firearm to protect yourself or those that you love. This class is all about the complex ugliness of a real fight.

Follow this link to register for Advanced Critical Defensive Handgun.

The Advanced Critical Defensive Handgun course is designed to expand the circumstances and conditions under which you can apply the skills developed in the Critical Defensive Handgun or Combat Focus Shooting Course.

You will learn to:

  • Safely and quickly present your gun from the holster to all 360 degrees
  • Deal with malfunctions in a way that will get your gun back up and running every time with both or just one hand
  • Reload your gun one handed with either hand
  • Shoot with speed and precision from unorthodox positions such as kneeling, sitting and lying on the ground
  • Use cover appropriately when its available
  • Get the hits you need to get when extreme precision is required or when you are forced to shoot at unreasonable distances

The ACDH Course is designed as a companion course for students who have completed the Critical Defensive Handgun Course or a Combat Focus Shooting Course from another instructor. It will provide you the opportunity to expand your skill set and increase your competence. Follow this link to take a look at a video of the “Flow Drill” which is one of the evaluation tools used in the ACDH course.

http://youtu.be/UDe3mdrS_sY

You will find this course both physically and mentally challenging which helps to ensure that you will be taking your confidence in your skills and your actual ability to defend yourself and those you love to the next level.

Register for Advanced Critical Defensive Handgun today.

Defensive Rifle Courses

Critical Defensive Carbine

Critical Defensive Carbine takes the concepts and principles of our Critical Defensive Handgun Course and applies them, where appropriate to the use of a carbine in self defense.  Carbines like the AR-15, AK-47 and other rifles like them, can be outstanding defensive tools when we understand the appropriate time and place for their use and train specifically for those situations.  That is exactly what we do in Critical Defensive Carbine.  This isn’t Critical Defensive handgun with a rifle.  Instead it is a careful application of concepts and an expansion of context so that you can maximize your ability to stop threats when it matters most.

Defensive Shotgun Courses

Critical Defensive Shotgun

The shotgun is known as a formidable defensive tool and rightfully so.  The shotgun has the ability to deliver multiple rounds to the threat with a single press of the trigger.  With that commanding power comes some serious challenges as well.  The shotgun has a stout recoil which is difficult to mitigate, its capacity is low which requires more frequent reloading.  The shotgun is also difficult to reload and has a complicated set of controls to operate when compared to the simplicity of quality defensive handguns.  All of this means that if you intend to count on a shotgun as a defensive tool, you need to learn how to use it properly.

Critical Defensive Shotgun will dispel the myths that surround the shotgun as a defensive tool and teach you how to run the shotgun in ways that are congruent with how your body is likely to react in a spontaneous incident where your life and the lives of those you love are on the line.

Other Important Courses

Legal Courses

Massad Ayoob is the nations leading resource on the judicious use of lethal force and we are pleased that NE Ohio and Safety Solutions Academy is a place where Mas comes to teach.  Join us for the most comprehensive legal courses available for those that need to understand the laws that govern self-defense.

Here is a podcast that I recorded with Massad Ayoob following last years MAG-20 Course in Cleveland, Ohio:

Massad Ayoob Group MAG-40 Course

It doesn’t matter if you have firearms for the defense of your home, carry a gun for self defense, carry a firearm as part of your job it is in your best interest to understand what actions can help you to prevail in a self-defense scenario and the potential legal ramifications of your actions.

This four day course will help you to:
    • how to use your firearm efficiently
    • how to prepare yourself for the use of lethal force
    • what skills you need to achieve fast and accurate hits when you need to defend yourself
    • how to deal with the immediate aftermath as well as the legal, psychological and social aftermath of the event you hope never happens
This Immersion course will provide an outstanding foundation for your continued understanding of self defense with a firearm and the legal aspects of the judicious use of lethal force.

Massad Ayoob Group MAG-20 Course

Massad Ayoob is a law enforcement officer, author, competitive shooter and the nation’s leading expert on the use of lethal force in self-defense.  His analysis of the legal aspect of lethal force are the standard by which other information is judged.

Whether you have firearms for the defense of your home, carry a gun for self defense, carry a firearm as part of your job it is in your best interest to understand:

    • how to prepare yourself for the use of lethal force
    • how to deal with the immediate aftermath of a self-defense scenario
    • navigating the legal aftermath of a use of force incident
    • what other challenges you may face and how you can best deal with them
This Immersion course will provide an outstanding foundation for your continued understanding of self defense with a firearm and the legal aspects of the judicious use of lethal force.

Courses in Criminal Psychology and Defensive Skills

Unthinkable: Concepts and Techniques for the Gravest Extreme

Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I keep myself safer?”  You probably have.  I have too and the answers aren’t always easy to come by.

When you ask the question, you are likely to hear many different answers and as a result forced to try and decide what the best course of action is for you.

This course will expose you to a systematic approach to these decisions. You will be engaged in a fast-paced format over a very full day of training for each block of instruction that you elect to experience.

You must understand two things very clearly:

  1. Defensive awareness is rooted in realization of risk.
  2. Defensive preparation is a commitment to mitigation of threats and the decision to be able to do something about it should your fears be realized.

Register today for one or both days of this fast paced, information filled and skill based days of realistic instruction designed to help you understand violence, those that willingly commit against innocent people, and the skills that will help you to prevail “In The Gravest Extreme.”

Your Instructors:

William Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting and Paul Carlson of Safety Solutions Academy, LLC

Course Topics:

Unthinkable: Concepts and Techniques for the Gravest Extreme (Block I)

April 25, 2015

Garrettsville, OH

  • Fatal Choices: Understanding Violent Criminal Actors and How They Identify Victims
  • Maximum Cadence: Increasing Your Defensive Shooting Speed
  • Threading the Needle: Shooting with Extreme Precision and at Unrealistic Distances
  • Open-Source Disarming

Unthinkable: Concepts and Techniques for the Gravest Extreme (Block II)

April 26, 2015

Garrettsville, OH

  • Open-Source Retention
  • Handicapped: Drawing Your Defensive Handgun from Disadvantage
  • Rapid Deployment: Getting the First Round on Target Faster
  • The 5 W’s of Risk: Constructing an Effective Pre-Need Defense Paradigm

Register for Unthinkable today.  You can select to train for either or both days to fit your schedule!

 

 

5 replies
  1. Tom Revolinsky
    Tom Revolinsky says:

    This month I am working on my first aid skills and updating my home and travel first aid kits. I am taking the Red Cross Basic First Aid Class. I am interested in the TFR class. I am hoping it would be more trauma specific at what you would expect for a violent encounter or an accident at the range.

    Reply
    • PaulCarlson
      PaulCarlson says:

      Tom –
      You are smart to be paying attention to your first aid skills. We prepare to face violent encounters and that is important, but me must also be ready to face the consequences of that violent encounter. Often times we won’t know that we are in a fight until the bad guy is hurting us or someone we love. That means that when we dominate that violent encounter, and we will dominate, we still may be injured. We may be injured to the point that without immediate self care, we may die a victorious hero. As victorious and heroic as that may be, dead is dead.

      The reason I prepare to fight in the first place is to live. So I better have the skills and the equipment in place to provide the life sustaining care that I need until professional medical help can tend to me.

      Good job Tom. Tell us how your classes go!
      pc

      Reply
  2. Zac
    Zac says:

    I just took the Ohio CCW course through Safety Solutions Academy. I would have to say that I went into this with an apprehension as far as how the training will go, who I will be training with, and how well I would do. Paul made me feel like I was right at the level that he was at. It was a no nonsense calls that made me feel like a professional. I learned more than I ever thought I would. Paul took us in detail what gun we should be using for Concealed Carry and why, how to react in a high stress situation, and a lot of the rules as far as what you can and cant do with a weapon in the State of Ohio. If you are shopping around, please stop shopping. End it here and take this course. I will definitely be continuing this training with Paul and the crew from SSA.

    Reply
  3. Rik
    Rik says:

    My girlfriend and I were lucky enough to get one of the spots in the Lone Star Medics training class Medicine-X.
    Paul was able to get Caleb all the way from Texas to come to his home range and do some actual scenario based medical training. It was way more than we expected. We drove 6 hours to get there…and almost talked non-stop about the course on the drive home. Learning some great life saving skills and making some new friends along the way. Hopefully we will see Paul soon for one of his other courses or maybe even a return of Caleb from Lone Star Medics.
    The range and facilities there were some of the best that I have seen and we wanted to move into the custom lodge that the class portion was in.

    Thank you, Paul and Caleb for a awesome time!
    See you both soon.
    Cheers,
    Rik and Jess

    Reply

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