My college and a school down the street from my college campus had a series of attacks happen. The attacks would either happen in the parking lot after late night classes or man would follow a female into the women's restroom, where he would proceed to attack her - rob her, rape her, basically whatever he felt was the best decision at the time. One girl pulled out her handy dandy pocket knife as protection. What happened? Her assailant turned her knife on her and proceeded to stab away. Luckily, after a short stay in the hospital, the victim survived, but hopefully we can take a lesson away from this. Carrying a weapon, no matter how small, is potentially dangerous if you do not have the proper training to handle it.

Front Sight Firearms Training Institute offers several forms of self defense training, not just gun training. Students of all ages and walks of life can get martial arts training and edged weapons training (knife training). Not only is this beneficial to people who reside in areas or frequent areas that do not allow firearms (like college campuses), but it is also a great idea for people who flat out do not want to carry a gun. Since these attacks happened on a college campus, students - all potential victims - cannot carry a gun, many of us resort to carrying things like pepper spray or pocket knives. As we learned from our story, martial arts training or knife training could have helped our victim. She could have been more able to prevent her attacker from taking her knife and turning it on her, probably even disabling him in the process. Maybe she could have made it possible for him to get caught. But he stabbed her and went on his merry way, and the only result was signs being posted throughout our schools, warning girls of an "unknown suspect."

Dr. Ignatius Piazza, founder and director of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute knows that there are places that do not allow firearms. That is why he offers other self defense courses. These classes are taught by outstanding instructors, so students can be confident that, like the firearms training offered at Front Sight, they will be receiving the best possible self defense training available. They are great for everyone, from people that are totally inexperienced and do not know how to throw a punch at a punching bag, to fourth degree black belts who can break a wood board with their palm. Students will learn everything they need to know, like how to handle verbal challenges, evasive movement, techniques in falling and striking, defenses against armed threats and how to handle multiple attackers. They will learn how to use their knife, if they are using one, and how to disarm their attackers.

Fred Mastison, a Martial Arts Instructor, said, "There are few places on earth that are sincerely driven to excellence. Front Sight is one of those places. The confidence to effectively shoot to protect has been by my time here. Thank you for serving."