Firearms, edged weapons and hand-to-hand combat are only tools for self-defense, and without training, education and awareness, they’re useless, says Gary Glemboski, director of the Savannah-based self-defense training company Global Tactical Training Group (G-Tac).
The purpose of G-Tac, says Glemboski, is to teach normal civilians how to increase proficiency with lethal force and how to avoid violence.
“People are under the impression that guns are like a car and that you know how to drive every car because you have a driver’s license,” said Glemboski. “Just because you have a gun license doesn’t mean you know how to shoot it.”
G-Tac has offered weekly class for almost 20 years and is expanding its services with continued demand and offering training classes to private companies.
Currently, G-Tac is training Gulfstream security for state certification.
The Georgia law, said Glemboski, who is chief of police at Hunter Army Airfield and served earlier as a police officer for 27 years, allows private corporations to have internal, nonstate-certified security. State-certification entails a 24-hour class, which educates officers on topics ranging from alarm response to defense without firearms.
Still, G-Tac’s focus remains on individuals.
“We make sure that people are not consciously incompetent,” said Glemboski, “and rather consciously
competent.”
Competence with firearms and self defense protection ranges from unconscious incompetence, perhaps due to a lack of education or training, he said, to the nearly impossible unconscious competence, when self defense is second nature and the individual is near perfect with his or her use of firearms and other weapons.
While Georgia recently passed gun laws that have expanded concealed carry, Glemboski has not seen any changes in class participation.
But, he advises people who carry a weapon to be trained and educated on its uses.
“If you’re going to make a decision to carry a gun, that’s a responsibility you carry and you need to be educated on it,” he said, “…lethal force and any force is often not the solution.”
G-tac offers one-day and two-day classes for $175 and $250, respectively, on most weekends at the Dorchester shooting range in Midway.
This past Saturday, G-Tac turned a scheduled shooting competition into a charity event, raising money for Jack Rollins, a 4-year-old boy diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer and 7-year-old Zachary Pritchett, who is in need of a kidney transplant.
With 100 percent of the event’s proceeds donated to the children, the event raised more than $1,500, with 40 participating shooters.
“It was our first time holding the event, weather was good and people persevered through the warm weather,” said Glemboski. “Everyone was pleased with the whole thing.”
Glemboski said he expects to hold similar events in the future, with hopes of increasing participation.
Awareness and avoidance
While Glemboski and his team educate and train on the use of lethal force, he said that often is not the best solution.
“We advocate not to use it at all costs,” he said. “You don’t want to get hurt just as much as the other person.”
He said awareness and avoidance can prevent people from getting into such situations.
“You don’t have to carry a gun, but you can still be aware and prepared,” said Glemboski, “so you don’t get caught in a situation where you might get hurt.”
However, having lethal force or the knowledge of how to use lethal force is added protection.
“If I’m the bad guy,” he said, “I’m going for the guy, home, business without the shotgun.”
Glemboski said his company has shattered people’s myths on home defense, such as those on the power of a bullet in close confines.
At the same time, he said there is not a need to live in fear.
“When 80 percent of people shot with a handgun run away, some die, but what happens to the rest,” said Glemboski, “they heal…the chance of shooting someone on purpose, with precision and under stress, is very low.”
For Glemboski and G-Tac, lethal force and knowledge of self defense offers protection but doesn’t promote violence.
“We make realistic training. You’re not going to be a SWAT guy, but you’re going to be better, and we’re constantly working to protect ourselves and our families,” he said. “You want to be protective, not violent.”