Open Letter To Training Forum Participants

[TGO David]

Folks...

Lately I have noticed something that I feel needs to be addressed. I hope that you will all read this with an open mind and set aside any predispositions you have for at least the amount of time that it takes you to get to the bottom of the page.

We have a training facility here in middle Tennessee that offers a slew of different firearms related classes. Some of those classes are geared toward practical application in the civilian self-defense world, and other classes are geared toward professional "tactical" occupations that many of us will never work in ourselves. I tend to think of training facilities like this as being service providers, and as with any service provider, you are going to have good reviews and bad reviews because everyone has their own different opinion on what constitutes good service. Or in this case, good training.

Some of us are aware that one of the parties involved in the formation of this training facility has some baggage assigned to their reputation. Merely searching the Internet for this person's name brings up numerous hits where an incident in Iraq is discussed ad nauseam. It's easy to find both supporters for and detractors against this person, and the facts of the incident have become so muddied by the hype and hyperbole surrounding it that it's almost impossible to tell truth from fiction, fact from slander.

The opinion you form of that one person based off of what you read on the Internet is your business. However I do feel that it is a bit unfair to crucify an entire organization of people (trainers) because of what you think of one guy, regardless of whether that one guy is the CEO, President or Founder. I might happen to think that Bob Lutz is a complete jackass but I am not going to say that General Motors sucks as a whole because he happens to a prominent figure within that company. Doing so would be unfair to the other employees and to the products that they produce.

Likewise I would ask that everyone please at least consider taking the same moral high ground in the case of this particular training facility. Disliking one person is your prerogative. Criticizing an entire organization because of that one person shouldn't be. It dilutes the validity of getting good training somewhere, anywhere and ultimately will push people away from this forum. I don't think we want that to happen.

That's my complete, unsolicited opinion on the issue. No one asked me to post this, no one even hinted that I should. Take it with a grain of salt if that helps.

Thanks.