ACLDN Advisory Board
Lending their knowledge and expertise as advisors to the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network, Inc. are industry leaders Massad Ayoob, John Farnam, Jim Fleming, Tom Givens, Emanuel Kapelsohn and Dennis Tueller. Short biographical sketches of each follow, though it is difficult to completely convey the depth of experience represented on the board.
Massad F. Ayoob is an internationally-known firearms and self-defense instructor. As Director of the Lethal Force Institute in Concord, New Hampshire, he taught police and civilian self-defense techniques to both law enforcement officers and private citizens worldwide since 1974. Now he is head of the Massad Ayoob Group, through which he continues to teach. Ayoob frequently serves as an expert witness in trials where use of force or self-defense concerns are being argued. He has served as a part-time police officer in three departments and currently holds the rank of Captain in the Grantham, New Hampshire police department.
John S. Farnam, president of Defensive Training International, is considered one of the top handgun instructors in the nation. He has personally trained thousands of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel as well as civilians in the tactical use of firearms. In addition, he has authored three books on the subject, "The Farnam Method of Defensive Handgunning," "The Farnam Method of Defensive Shotgun and Rifle Shooting" and "The Street Smart Gun Book," and is author of numerous articles about defensive shooting and tactics published in magazines including Police Marksman, American Handgunner, Combat Handguns, Guns and Ammo and Soldier of Fortune. His latest book “Guns & Warriors –DTI Quips Volume 1,” is a compilation of his popular email commentaries.
Tom Givens is the owner and operator of Rangemaster Firearms Training Services. For over thirty years Tom’s duties have included firearms instruction, and he has trained law enforcement officers at the local and state levels; foreign government agents; and military personnel, including units of the 20th Special Forces, MP units, and the USMC High Risk Personnel cadre. At Rangemaster, he directs a successful training business that takes people from the ground-floor basics of gun safety to high-level tactical training. Prior to establishing Rangemaster in 1996, Tom completed a 25-year career in law enforcement and specialized security work, during which time he made hundreds of arrests, including taking numerous armed felons into custody. He has successfully used a handgun to defend himself and others against armed criminals.
Emanuel Kapelsohn has been a firearms, tactics and use of force expert in trials across the nation, defending use of force cases in federal and state courts, in both civil and criminal trials. Work as an expert witness has made him integral to cases involving self-defense use of force, officer-involved shootings, gun accidents, hunting accidents, home storage of firearms accidents, product liability cases involving guns, holsters and more. He has worked for the prosecution on some cases and for the defense on others. He is a certified shooting scene reconstructionist and also testifies about ballistics and firearms, human factors like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, sensory gating and other phenomena associated with the psychological responses present in deadly force encounters. He has provided legal advice, training and expert witness services to federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice and others, big city police departments and several state attorney general’s offices. He is on a DOJ list of attorneys on call to provide immediate post-shooting representation to federal agents.
Dennis Tueller is perhaps best known for researching and developing groundbreaking training protocol, as exemplified in his published seminal article, "How Close is Too Close." In that text Dennis identified the critical concepts dubbed "proximics", which influenced a revolution in tactical training doctrine, coming to be known as the "Tueller Principle." Beyond that noteworthy accomplishment, Dennis is internationally recognized and respected as a law enforcement instructor, acknowledged by peers in books and publications. He has served as adjunct instructor/coach for world-renowned training organizations including Thunder Ranch, Inc., Gunsite Training Center, U.S. D.O.E. Safeguards & Security Central Training Academy, Defense Training International, The Police Training Division, International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors and he is regularly invited to present at major law enforcement training conferences throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. He currently teaches for Glock in their police firearms instructor and armorer training division.