About

Welcome Citizen-Defender!

About You

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.”

About Us

We are systems analysts and historians.  Serving law enforcement and former military.  We’re retired from the intelligence community and from industry.  We have families and careers and competing life priorities.  In short, we’re just like you, but just a little bit further along the path you are contemplating. 

For years, decades for some of us, we have sought advanced training in the law, trauma aid, adult learning, pepper spray, shooting, and a host of other skills from leaders in the self-defense community.  These mentors honed our skills and held us to uncompromising high standards.  And along that journey, we found our purpose. 

To help you.

Our Philosophy

Effective self-defense begins with the recognition that you are worth fighting for and that in your moment of crisis, where seconds can be an eternity, rescue is at best minutes away.  The harsh reality is that you are the only person guaranteed to be at your moment of crisis.  We must be the best person we can be at that moment, as “fortune favors the prepared mind,” and that’s where we start.

Defining the Citizen-Defender 

The Citizen-Defender is aware of themselves, and their surroundings and understands how fast bad things can happen. 

The Citizen-Defender recognizes what trouble looks like and seeks to avoid these circumstances, but also is equipped deescalateand depart conflict or decisively deal with criminality. 

The Citizen-Defender has already made crucial decisions that enable a prompt, decisive, and appropriate response and is prepared for the consequences of these actions. 

Informed.  Aware.  Prepared. 

Citizen-Defender!

Our Curriculum

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.

Our Facility

Located five miles south of lovely Culpeper, VA.  A tad rustic, but 100% functional and with everything we need to conduct the most relevant armed self-defense training in the area.

Our Pledge

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 West

    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.

  • Matthew Turner

    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 Heath

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

  • Gary Jakl

    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

    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

    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 Chandler

    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 2019-2024 and is scheduled again this year.

  • John Murphy

    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:

    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

    .