In the world of firearms training it seems there has been a huge surge in the number of so-called firearms experts. Many are conducting training in the use of firearms in the anti-personnel role. Sadly, many of those seeking quality training have fallen prey to instructors who have replaced hard-earned experience with gimmickry, and inflated résumés. We live in a world where suddenly, a bunch of shooting awards from various organizations or a "special officer" badge from some unknown law enforcement organization, now qualifies people to teach gun fighting.

While elite competitors and firearms hobbyists may have something interesting to teach, they are hardly experts in the world of gun fighting. For those interested in truly learning about the use of firearms in real world defensive combat, there is a place the serious student can go to really learn how to safely and efficiently operate firearms in crisis situations.

Located in Southern California, International Tactical Training Seminars (ITTS) is operated by Scott Reitz and Brett McQueen. Scott "Scotty" Reitz is one of the few people I've met who has a near perfect balance of real world experience, teaching skill and an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of combat with firearms. Scott Reitz is almost totally unknown outside the law enforcement tactical community. No IPSC championships, he isn't a prolific gun writer, and he doesn't even have a "technique" named for him. Instead Scott has spent an entire law enforcement career at the tip of the spear inside the most elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, the famed Metropolitan Division, including 10 years in SWAT.

Scott currently is the primary firearms instructor for Metro and other specialized units. Between L.A.P.D. and his school, he is training 7,000 students per year. Scott is averaging over 20 students a year involved in shootings, which give a wealth of feed-back. Scott himself has been in five "in-policy," successful shootings himself. The instructor cadre at ITTS is equally exceptional. Most are highly experienced police officers, including some of the most respected and experienced gunfighters on the West Coast.

Scott was highly instrumental when I began training my own agency's SWAT team in 1989. I started training on a regular basis at ITTS in 2000, and have taken many classes with Scotty. It's one of the few places I can go and be totally challenged every minute I'm there. The classes are also geared to individual police officer skills, and skills needed by individually armed citizens. This is positive, in an age when we have many people trying to teach all sorts of specialized operations tactics - in many cases inappropriate - to people who will never need them. The cost is very affordable (usually $150 per class), and they are mostly one-day seminars.

Critical Experience
The question of instructor experience is one of those highly debated issues regularly discussed among trainers. The staff at ITTS takes this issue very seriously. Scott Reitz once related to me the analogy of surgeons. Would you have a guy teaching surgery who had never done it before, but had only studied it? Would you want this guy's "students" working on you?

Superior Ideas
One of the things making ITTS unique is the custom-built target systems and how they are incorporated. In the advanced classes, you are moving, the targets are moving - or both. The big mover will run more than 100 pounds of targets at more than 20 mph. This allows for banks of 3-D or cartoon targets to move rapidly and unpredictably. You must deal with both decision making and the ability to deliver precision hits on targets requiring lethal force.

Communication during crisis situations is also heavily emphasized. The knife attack simulator is flat scary. It attacks the student at an insanely real pace. It can both attack, and withdraw, all at the whim of the instructor running it. During some classes, force-on-force with Simunitions to recreate actual shootings are used. Recently a moving target system, for use within a vehicle, has been introduced. Vehicle classes are some of the best at ITTS. The law enforcement/military restricted vehicle classes are taught by an instructor who is experienced in engaging desperate felons in and around vehicles.

Attitude
ITTS holds most classes at "Eagles Nest" at the Angeles Range in Los Angeles. The facility is fairly Spartan, but the instruction and target systems more than make up for the lack of facilities. I actually like the whole simple, straightforward, pure shooting theme with no fluff. It truly mirrors the theme of what is taught at ITTS. They teach pure, clean training to win a gunfight. Classes are also held in other locations across the country.

One of the other great things about ITTS is it's a place where a student can hear quotes from Bill Jordan, Elmer Keith, Ed McGivern, Jeff Cooper and other true legends of shooting (Scott Reitz can also come up with a great movie quote for just about any situation). The idea the stuff that really works is not new is refreshing.

In the past, ITTS did no advertising. They were word of mouth, and most of the dedicated students preferred to keep this little gem of a gun fighting academy a secret. The secret is out. If you want quality instruction from people who actually know something about gun fighting from their own experience and not the experience of others, then ITTS is the place.