Services

Offerings include our Safe Start Concealed Handgun Permit Program,
which is our most basic firearms course for the private citizen who wishes to
be legally armed as they go about their daily activities or who simply wishes
to safely and competently maintain a firearm at home for self-defense. This
classroom session on safety, rules, regulations, and self-defense law is the
starting point for most of our students. Attendance at this four hour
educational experience fulfills the training requirement for issuance of a
Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit to law-abiding citizens. The Safe Start
program is offered on an "open enrollment" basis.

An optional, but highly recommended follow-on activity to the Safe Start
classroom session is the Small Group Weekend Range Session. Along
with a small number (16 or fewer) of their fellow students, individuals who
have completed the classroom portion of the Safe Start course will be
coached in the proper application of shooting fundamentals as they relate
to handgun use in self-defense. After building familiarity with these
fundamentals, students will engage in basic practical shooting exercises at
defense-relevant distances, and will be given recommendations on
handgun selection as well as further training and practice.

The Introductory Range Appointment is best for many people who are
new to handguns, or those who simply learn more effectively in non-group
settings. In a private session, an individual, couple, or up to four training
partners meet with a certified PPI instructor on our private range facility,
who will introduce them to the fundamentals of shooting for self-defense.
The student learns stance, grip, sight alignment, trigger control, and
follow-through under the guidance of a patient instructor specially trained in
working with new shooters. Students may train with their own firearms, or
use a wide variety of handguns provided by the Institute at no extra charge.
This allows the student who has not yet selected a firearm to make a
decision on his or her preferences before making a purchase. The learner
is shown how to practice most productively for self-defense shooting, and is
given homework exercises that will support the development of their
shooting skills. The Introductory Range Appointment is the ideal setting for
introducing a new person to handgun shooting.

For the somewhat more experienced student who has already selected a
handgun for self-defense, our Handgun Practical Skills Program is
ideal. In this full-day small group session, the learner will explore the three
major areas of self-defense shooting, namely Marksmanship, Gun
Handling, and Tactics. This is the ideal range session for the armed citizen
who wishes to move from simply maintaining a firearm for home defense to
daily, concealed carry. In this session, students will be taught safe draw
techniques from concealment, stressed reloading, malfunction clearance
techniques, and other essential skills. A low-light simulation is also
included, as is an introduction to defensive tactics and use of cover and
concealment.

For students who have decided to take their handgun skills to a higher
level, we offer the Handgun Skills Mastery Program. This long weekend
program (one evening, two days) takes the armed citizen to a very high
level of defensive handgun skill. In addition to confirming the skill set taught
in the Handgun Practical Skills Program, students are pushed to their limits
both on the conventional range and in tactical simulations. Ranges are
extended, time frames shortened, accuracy standards are increased.
Exercises include downed/injured shooter drills, weak hand exercises,
flashlight techniques, and an actual night fire course. Heavy emphasis is
placed on decision-making and the use of cover while engaging single and
multiple targets during real-time threat assessment. Experienced shooters
enrolling in this program should bring plenty of ammo, a sense of humor,
and be prepared to check their egos at the door!

We also offer graduates of our intermediate and advanced programs a
one-day session known as Defense Practical Problems, a full day of
realistic tactical problems that might be faced by the law-abiding citizen.
These sessions include low-light situations, multiple threats, use of force
decisions, and force-on-force simulations. The problems faced by the
student change from session to session, and include time for expert
critique of the tactics employed and skill levels displayed by the shooter
after each "run", something that is not typically a feature of the commonly
available "tactical competition" found at many gun clubs. This program can
be used by the serious shooter as a recurring realistic assessment of their
skill level on a regular basis.

For our clients who wish to go beyond the "basics", but whose personal or
professional situations demand extreme discretion, we offer all of the above
levels of instruction on an individual or closed-group basis. Handgun
instruction is available in a programmed Private Lesson P ackage of
modules that follow a logical progression of skill building and development
of competencies. The private lesson format involves a series of meetings at
our range facility with an instructor during which time the student works on
assigned concepts and skills for that session. The ideal frequency for
private lessons is one module per week, but other intervals are possible.
Training in support weapons such as defense shotgun or carbine can be
added as modules to these instructional packages.

This format is ideal for those for whom it would be inconvenient to attend
group sessions, or those who must keep the fact that they are engaging in
such training confidential. Identities of students who participate in private
sessions are never revealed to the public. This format has proven
especially popular with physicians, attorneys, members of the clergy,
corporate and political figures, and prominent families who wish to train
together, but is available to any student who feels they would benefit most
from private instruction. Contact the Institute for further details on
individualized private lesson packages.

Interested in developing your skills with support weapons? The Personal
Protection Institute offers two programs for private citizens. Our Basic
Defensive Shotgun Program is a full-day session that introduces the
student to the shotgun as a formidable defense weapon. Our program
focuses on the use of a sporting shotgun the student may already own,
rather than requiring the use of so-called “combat shotgun”, although
these are welcome.

Our Basic Defensive Carbine Program serves the same function with
the defense carbine; illustrating how a light, handy carbine firing either a
pistol cartridge, the 5.56 mm NATO round, .30-30 or 7.62 x 39mm ammo
can be an effective addition to some self-defense batteries. As always, we
focus on the defensive use of support weapons in the hands of the private
citizen, rather than on police or military scenarios.

For experienced students wishing a real weapons workout, the Handgun
Skills Mastery Program, Basic Defensive Shotgun and Basic Defensive
Carbine programs can be bundled into a five-day Three- Gun Course.
Contact the Institute for scheduling on these events.

Those who are truly committed to learning about personal safety and
self-defense in an extended study format should consider our Advanced
Threat Management Course. This semester length evening course
looks at personal protection from the perspectives of Awareness,
Avoidance, Evasion, and Resistance, exploring patterns of criminal
behavior and conditioning, and the types of defense situations these
patterns produce for the private citizen. Students in this survey course
receive instruction in defensive planning, use of force law, unarmed
defense, chemical defense sprays, home defense, and weapons instruction
with the handgun, shotgun, and carbine. This program is presented
annually. Students in the program may be either law-abiding citizens with
proof of good character, or safety and security professionals. This program
contains certain restricted content of interest to both groups. Private
citizens wishing to register for Advanced Threat Management should
contact the Institute for information on eligibility.

		Special Programs and Seminars