Firearm Instructors

Firearm Instructors: The Teachers Who Shaped Modern Training

Nearly every technique taught in today’s handgun, carbine and self-defense classes can be traced to a specific instructor. Some developed close-combat methods for soldiers and intelligence officers during the Second World War, while others built civilian schools, wrote the standard textbooks on the legal use of force, or tested ideas such as the reactionary gap that are now part of police and armed-citizen training nationwide. Good instruction makes gun owners safer and more confident, and it gives advocates firsthand knowledge of responsible firearm use.

Minuteman University.com currently lists 56 instructors and training figures below, from 19th-century NRA founders to current trainers. Each profile covers the instructor’s background, schools, books and contributions to the field.

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Rex Applegate: OSS close-combat coordinator during World War II and author of Kill or Get Killed (1943).
Jeff Cooper: Created widely taught firearm safety rules and was the first president of IPSC in 1976.
Massad Ayoob: Founded the Lethal Force Institute in 1981 and wrote In the Gravest Extreme (1980).
Dennis Tueller: Salt Lake City police sergeant whose 1983 SWAT magazine article “How Close Is Too Close?” introduced the Tueller Drill.
Tom Givens: Founded Rangemaster in Memphis in 1996 and has trained more than 46,000 students.
Kathy Jackson: Founder of The Cornered Cat and author of The Cornered Cat: A Woman’s Guide to Concealed Carry (2010).