It looks like a pretty good organization. They certainly have been around for a while, and have a huge array of offerings. I wish civilians could take some of the law enforcement classes.
I noticed in their description for their highest level civilian handgun course:
Because of the nature of this course of instruction few other courses will qualify for attendance. Please call for approval, documentation must be supplied prior to admittance to this course.
Review of levels 1 and 2. this is an aggressive handgun course and participants will learn how to shoot moving targets, tactical magazine changes, and planning home defense. Course of fire will require shooting moving targets, use of cover, movement from cover to cover, shoot and no shoot discretionary fire, and hostile environment assessment, all in the same course of fire. Steel, knock down and “kill steel” targets are utilized on this course as well. Participants will spend a minimum of classroom time and extensive time will be spent on range in live fire exercises.
All of that stuff is taught (and taught seriously, not just touched upon) in the
introductory courses at Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, Storm Mountain, Blackwater, and (yes, even) Front Site. Once you finish those intro courses, the next courses consist mainly of simulators where you get concentrated, one-on-one critique through shoot houses and the like. They assume you already know all the physical skills, and don't go over such things as tactical reloads and moving targets unless you appear to need it.
For example, Gunsite's highest pistol class is Advanced Tactical Problems. They teach you no physical skills whatsoever. It's all about problem solving, and using your brain. 100% of the course is in the houses, none of it is on the square range, and much of it is using simunitions against instructors. A passing exercise is typically one in which you never even fire your weapon.
I'm not trying to be a snob at all. My only point here is that A&S seems like a great training organization, and I hope they plan to offer higher-level courses for civilians in the future, since they seem to be a lot more qualified to teach than most organizations we have access to locally. Based solely on the description, their civilian classes look like mostly review for, say, a seasoned IDPA or IPSC shooter. Not saying that you wouldn't learn anything, just that it doesn't seem all that advanced for their highest level class.
scan0001.pdf
