Citizens Safety Academy - CSA Gateway Instructor Certification
2026-06-06 08:00 - 2026-06-07 18:00 (America/Chicago) | MeadHall Range, 2181 S Blackberry Dr, Mcloud, OK, 74851, United States
Course Overview
This course teaches experienced shooters how to teach a basic defense-oriented pistol curriculum in the paradigm of “gateway instruction” developed by Citizens Safety Academy.
Course Details
There are many instructor certification courses available, but most suffer from at least one of three common shortcomings. First, they often spend too much time on shooting and not enough time on teaching how to teach. Second, they often focus on teaching intermediate-level shooters without enough attention paid to the nuances of managing a class full of brand-new, first-time shooters. Third, many instructor courses tend to ignore the cultural and demographic dynamics of today’s market of firearms trainees.
With the recent explosion of gun purchases by urbanites, millennials, trauma victims, and others who don’t fit the traditional stereotypes of gun ownership, firearms trainers must adapt to the rapidly-evolving 21st Century market. CSA developed what we call the “gateway” instructional model in an effort to fill those gaps in the training community.
Instructor candidates will learn and demonstrate organizational and teaching skills via participation in practical exercises during the course (including leading a line of live-fire shooters through a course of fire). Candidates will also have to pass an instructor certification examination and a shooting qualification course of fire. The course also includes an Instructor’s Guide that participants can take home with them for future reference.
Topics Covered
Every class is a little different, so we often have to make adjustments based on time and facility constraints; but our standard Gateway Instructor curriculum includes the following:

Adult learning theory
Effective communication skills / public speaking
Depoliticizing instruction, content, and facilities
Designing and using effective training aids
Connecting with inexperienced, fearful, and non-traditional students
Making classroom lectures interactive and engaging
Effective use of multi-media in the modern classroom
Concepts from the pivotal text, “Telling Ain’t Training,” by Keeps and Stolovitch
Classroom management
Range management
Teaching basic principles of lawful defensive force
Managing students with past trauma or emotional triggers
Effective assessment / written examination design
How to control and command a firing line
The “Less is More” principle
Effective range commands
Student-centric range exercises
Differentiating between skill drills and performance drills
Managing students with physical limitations or disabilities
Teaching both left- and right-handed students
Managing firing lines with revolvers and semi-autos of different action types
Effective use of assistant instructors
Safety protocols and emergency procedures
And much more!

Prerequisites
Instructor candidates must possess and demonstrate a solid background in firearm safety and shooting skills acquired through previous firearm training and/or previous shooting experience. Candidates will be required to demonstrate how to safely handle, load, and unload both a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol.
What is “gateway instruction”?
When we say “gateway instruction,” we mean true entry-level content, designed for students who overcome boundaries, obstacles, social disincentives, or other adverse odds to learn to shoot for the first time. We have found that many “beginner” classes on the market today are often weighed down by assumptions and misperceptions about what new shooters typically bring to the table. These classes often take for granted that every student has the same opinion about guns, everyone has the same understanding of gun safety, and everyone generally understands how guns work and what they’re used for. But that’s not the case.
At CSA, we take a different approach. Gateway instruction levels the playing field by allowing all students to enter the firearms training world without any pressure to know more than they know or to be someone other than who they are. One of the many benefits of this teaching technique (and the reason we call it “gateway instruction”) is that it increases the chances of students investing in more training and becoming members of the training community rather than just visitors or sightseers. We hope to be an “on-ramp” for those who might otherwise see themselves as outsiders to the gun world.
