In its nearly 50 year history, Gunsite Academy in Arizona is credited with creating and training thousands of military, law enforcement and civilians in the modern techniques of combat with firearms. Today, OWDN’s Jim Shepherd takes a look back-and forward- at the world’s oldest and best-known gunfighting school.

Ken Campbell

47 plus years…

Ken Campbell

Absolutely. But first I’ll tell you that when Buz and Sonia Mills came in here in September 1999 and saved Gunsite. There was another owner between Jeff Cooper and Buz and Sonia and Gunsite was run into the ground. I was one of the part time instructors then. And our great instructors were what saved Gunsight during. Buz had been a student, was a follower of Jeff Cooper and he knew what the place was. And he knew it had to be saved. It was an icon in our industry. So they bought the place, and they put a lot of money in it. And we’ve rocketed since then. It’s an exciting time to be at Gunsite.

Ken Campbell

Oh, yeah. expansions and improvements. Some of the buildings have exceeded their useful life.

Ken Campbell

Colonel Cooper was a very smart man, as you know, he was a curmudgeon, but he was a very smart man. When he developed the modern technique, it was developed so it could evolve. And it has evolved. How many (shooting) schools can you think of that when the principal of that school left, died, retired, sold it, whatever, the school went away? Well, Jeff died in 2006, and I think we can say we've, we've passed that milestone.

And the modern technique has evolved. You know, in 50 years ago, the 1911 was the gun that you could work with and change and make into a good fighting pistol. Pistol mounted optics were not even a space dream, at that point.

We've evolved with that. But the core discipline of what we teach - the modern technique - is still there. So people come to us not for the facilities, they're cool. But it's for the knowledge and experience and wisdom that our great instructors bring and can offer.

A lot of places can kind of teach you how to shoot, but we're going to teach you how to fight and gosh, darn it, you're gonna have fun while you're here, too.

And when you're having fun, your learning curve rockets.

Now, if you want us to yell at you, and have you do push ups and pull ups and so on, we have that skill set. But you and I are past that in our lives, and most people are.

So if you can come here, just bring us up a gun in a box and say, Can you help me cut the seal on this? We're going to, we're going to make you stronger.

If you're an experienced gun person, we're going to make you stronger too.

Ken Campbell

That's fair to say. And we are not that dogmatic. The newest pistol we've approved and come out with is a Gunsite Glock service pistol. And I've heard “Oh, Jeff Cooper is rolling over in his grave and blah, blah, blah.” Jeff Cooper believed in a robust, reliable, accurate fighting person's gun.

Nobody can convince me that a Glock is not robust and reliable pistol. Yeah, I think they’re butt ugly, but I can take it bury it, come back and dig it up two years from now, run the hose on it, probably -maybe without any lube- it’s still going to run.

So we have evolved because we aren’t that dogmatic- but we believe the doctrine itself evolves.

Ken Campbell

No. But again, remember, back in the early days, we were teaching revolvers, because that's what department issued. Then we started seeing more nine millimeters and so on now. And I understand the argument, even when I say nine millimeter bullet technology has changed everything.

If you can control, you can shoot quickly and accurately, a nine millimeter better than you can a .40 or a .45, then that’s the answer. And if your department says “this is the guns thou shalt carry,” who am I to tell you not to?

My job is to make you the best fighting person with that particular pistol. But I'm not going to stand downrange and let you shoot a .22 at me. I don't want to get shot with anything. I like 45. That's what I'm carrying today. But I don't feel “under gunned” carrying a modern load and a nine millimeter pistol.

Ken Campbell

Correct. We do youth classes ages 12 to 16. They strap on just like you and me. We'll let them shoot .22s, but it doesn't impact the steel the same as the nines and 45s. Generally the kids then realize, “gosh, I can shoot this nine millimeter” and we'll get a nine in their holster before the week's over.

We teach “just folks,” but a lot of folks think it's all military and law enforcement here.

Our bread and butter is Americans. I call them earth people. I stole that term from Pat Rogers, earth people are our bread and butter.

So we teach the youth. We teach the regular, and now, we do what are called “seasoned citizen classes.” You and I don't fight the same way we did 25 years ago.

So, with the season citizen classes, we didn't dumb them down. We made them more real. You're probably not going to be kneeling or going prone. You can fight from there, but we’ve about used up our ups-and-downs in life. Let’s not waste any more, right?

That's the fun thing about the kid’s class. We have enough youth class alumni now that we have a youth 250, youth 350 pistol, youth 499 pistol, and we also do a youth rifle course.

But anyway, the only differences are between their classes. On Sunday before the 250 Youth class, we have a barbecue. So the kids could all meet each other and so on. And they don’t “snap, crackle, pop and moan” getting up and down like you and I do. Well, they don’t have the bad habits that you and I do, either. They just absorb information. It is fun teaching those youth classes. That’s young America. All the mainstream media wants to talk about is the bad kids. But we see the good kids here, and it makes your heart leap with joy. So we do that we do the regular folks, if you will, and the season citizens we do various levels of shotgun and pistol and even close quarters pistol with seasoned citizens.

So we teach everybody. And we teach you to shoot what you bring. Now, we do try to say, in the 250 pistol class, you're gonna shoot 1000 rounds, let's not bring a subcompact. It's just more challenging to shoot. Your hand is going to hurt a little bit too after 1000 rounds, so let's bring a mid-size or a full size. But other than that we don't tell you what to bring or caliber to work.

Ken Campbell

Things have changed - for the better. We have an extremely good safety record. And I don't want to brag about that, because it'll curse me. But we've learned; we've evolved. We know what to do with with trauma dressings and tourniquets and so on, based on real world experience. We've always had trauma kits in the range boxes, but why not have them on our person?

So we learn, we evolve, and we think. That makes us better.

Ken Campbell

I've got a couple of things. We do off-site classes, three day off-site classes, Indiana, South Carolina, Colorado, and so on. So, okay, I don't want to spend five days and go all the way to Arizona, look at Nashville, Tennessee, look and see what we offer there - in a shorter time period.

It gives you a taste of what we can do. Now, I'll warn you, you'll get there and you'll take that three day class and you're gonna think “why didn't I go for five days and get even more and get the live fire shoot houses and the live fire outdoor simulators?”

So there are options? With all these 10 million new gun owners, more and more, the folks we're getting in our classes are non gun people. Not like you and me. You know, we grew up with guns and so on.

Well, we started a new class here called Day Zero. And it's the Sunday preceding your five day 250 (basic) pistol. And it's real slow paced. You shoot about 100, maybe 150 rounds. But we're literally saying “this is the muzzle.” “This is the trigger.” “This is why a gun functions the way it does.” “This is a revolver and why it's different.”

You shoot on a firing line for the first time well, and it's fewer people in Day Zero. So now you're getting used to people shooting around you. So on Monday, when you come into class, we talk about good holsters, bad holsters, gear and so on. And we cover those things, but we're moving pretty fast.

Ken Campbell

Yes, it is. That's that's a great analogy, freshman orientation. And selfishly, it's good for us too, because we maintain a one to four student to instructor ratio on the firing line. Well, if I've got four brand new people, I've got to dedicate an instructor to focus solely on them for the first couple of days. Well, that means I'm probably going to add another instructor. So if I can get them through day zero, we're better that way because they're more comfortable and we can be more comfortable. We're hoping it really takes off. We've got it preceding all our 250s the rest of this year. Just today, we’ve almost completed our 2024 calendar, and we’ve added them in there too.

• Chris Dorsey
• Alan Gottlieb/SAF & CCRKBA
• Scent of Success -- Sam Burgess/Wildlife Research Center
• Bill Wilson: Wilson Combat
• Q&A With Jonathan Shults, Co-Founder/CEO SilencerCo.
• Joe Bartozzi: President/CEO National Shooting Sports Foundation
• Jared Smith: Taking Over AMMO, Inc.
• Robert Nioa: Coming to America