Front Sight Firearms Training Institute
Circa 2006


 

This website was created to publicize the 2005 Forbes article about the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute and its founder's philosophy about firearms.


Dr. Ignatius Piazza, founder and director of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, expects his students to be able to handle situations, because he is aware of the fact that his gun training is in fact self defense training, and he expects all of his students to be able to defend themselves, no matter the situation.
Content is from the site's 2006 archived pages.

The current website for the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute is found at: www.frontsight.com/

Ignatius Piazza and Front Sight

Ignatius Piazza The Ultimate Family Mediator

Families from all over America flock to Front Sight Firearms Training Institute every year, not only to get the world's finest gun training, but to spend a weekend together developing skills that they each have a personal desire for, for one reason or another. Featured in an article in Forbes magazine, the Tibbett family is one such example of a family spending its vacation time at Front Sight. Founder and director, Dr. Ignatius Piazza, likes to call Front Sight "The Disneyland for Gun Owners". Funny enough, that's the other destination for the Tibbett family. According to the Forbes article, they switch annually between Disneyland and Front Sight. "It's hard to say which we like more," says Wayne Tibbetts, 49, a CPA and partner in a Mesa, Arizona tax firm.

Wayne first came in 2004 with his daughter Tracy, 19. The rest of the family soon followed. On a later weekend, he was attending with his wife, Kathleen, 43, daughters Tracy, 5, and Samantha, his brother George, and his mother-in-law, Janet Grimaldi. When the writer for Forbes asked Kathleen why they were so interested in getting Front Sight's gun training, she responded, "9/11 brought home our deep concerns for security. We wanted our kids to be able to protect themselves. I want Samantha to have 'stranger-danger' awareness. Of course, she's also having a good time."

And that is exactly what Dr. Ignatius Piazza expects and wants from his institute's gun training: increased awareness, and a good time. One of the first thing that Dr. Piazza ever realized about firearms training is that it is only as valuable as it is useful, and for him, if he can get a child to be better safeguarded against potential attackers or abductors, he knows he has done his one first step to protecting that child.

 


 

Firearms Training - Family Problems? Shoot Them Out Of Town!

Front Sight Firearms Training Institute is a gun training school that breaks all norms. First off, Front Sight is the world's first firearms training town. Based near Las Vegas, Nevada, Front Sight is a town wherein all residents are encouraged to own firearms and train with them whenever they please at one of the 20, 24-hour, state-of-the-art firing ranges. Or they can take one of the many courses and utilize the five-story urban tactics training tower in the middle of it all, a tower designed to train indoor defensive and attack techniques; stairwell, room-clearing and other techniques are trained herein. If they feel like they should be better trained in open hand self defense, the 12,000 square foot gymnasium allows for some of the best self defense training available.

The second norm Front Sight breaks is in its students. Obviously one doesn't need to be a resident in order to take courses at Front Sight. In fact, most of the course attendance is from non-residents. Front Sight is the nation's most successful gun training school, training more students annually than all other shooting schools in America combined. Its no surprise when you find Dr. Ignatius Piazza, the founder and director of Front Sight, is a Four Weapons Combat Master, one of the most illustrious gun training titles. What's more, Front Sight has a nearly perfect safety track record, one of the only incidents occurring when a student was hit by a piece of hot, flying brass.

Lastly, Front Sight is a place for the whole family! Front Sight offers not only firearms training, but also self defense training for the whole family. If you're worried about your five-year-old daughter in today's fast-paced, dangerous world, get her some self defense training that will increase her mental awareness and put her into a state of readiness to spot "stranger danger" and even have her shoot a .22 rifle, showing her what a gun is, what it does and eliminating the need to play with other guns. No matter the age or expertise, Front Sight creates safe, trained individuals with its stellar firearms training, entire families included.

 

COMMENT: I had mixed feelings about Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. I read a number of reviews on Yelp. One in particular was helpful.

*****Brittany T.Miami, FL
5/3/2019
I just completed the four-day defensive hand gun training class and I never thought I'd have so much fun. The instructors are top notch and really care about your progress throughout the course. Before coming to Front Sight, I had shot a pistol a few times but had very little to no knowledge on the tactics of utilizing a loaded firearm. Now, I can say that I am confident in using a firearm to defend myself and especially my loved ones.

This course teaches you the basic stuff (grip, front sight, holstering, etc.) and more challenging things (malfunctions and how to fix them, simulators, defense techniques, etc.) so it's great for the novices and experienced gun users, alike. Though the curriculum is great, Front Sight wouldn't be anything without it's awesome instructors. They are with you every step of the way; patient, understanding and rooting for you to get that perfect head shot from the 10 yard line. It's mainly because of them that I kept my head up and kept trying even after a sore wrist, calloused fingers and the scorching heat. The staff is really what makes the course level up from good to great.

TIPS:
Bring clothing for all kinds of weather. The facility is in the desert so we expected it to be hot every day - we were wrong! The first day was rainy, windy and freezing. Luckily, we had rain coats to keep us warm (not dry). Class still goes on rain or shine with the exception of lightning in the area, then you'll go inside for lecture.

Bring lunch. A big cooler with cold cuts and condiments for sandwiches is a great idea. They have a vendor where you can place an order for lunch every morning, but from what I saw and heard, it's not that great. So you're better off bringing your own and it'll save you a little money.

They provide water from jugs and sunscreen but it doesn't hurt to bring your own and your own water bottle to fill up on. And this leads me to my final and most important tip - STAY HYDRATED. The sun may not feel too bad, but you need to drink water every chance you get because you're out in the sun for 8 hours training and you may not even realize you're dehydrated until you get into the car to leave and you can barely move your fingers, let alone your legs.

Overall, an excellent experience and I can't wait to go back!!!

When I told our two teenage kids we would be going to Las Vegs during their spring school break, I asked them if there was anything in particular that they would like to do. "Spend some time at the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute", they both replied! Ok, I said, but let's take the recommendations of that Yelp review and be prepared. First off, lets make sure we pack our fall jackets. My older daughter announced in a voice like a game show host on TV regarding her North Face jackets: these winter jackets are warm and will never let you down come gales, or snow blizzards, you will be prepared! Check. Our insulated thermos bottles. Check. Sun screen, Check. Tylenol (for me), plus the usual...backpack, sturdy shoes, sunglasses and hats/ caps..the list goes on. UPDATE: The trip to Las Vegas was great amd for the kids the day trip to the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute was the highlight of our week trip. The tip about taking warm clothes was spot on. We actually took several North Face jackets for each of us. A warmer jacket for the early morning and late evenings as well as a lighter wind breaker. The middle of the day was warm, but early morning was really chilly. For folks from the east coast the temperature range was quite amazing, but we were prepared. Even if you are not a gun enthusiast, a day spent learning about firearms is really quite enlightening.

 


 

Front Sight Actively Bringing Families Together

The following quote is from Forbes magazine: Tracy [19-year-old daughter], her red hair done up in a ponytail, says that what she likes best about a shooting vacation is that she gets "good Daddy-time." "When he says, 'Good job, Trace,' I'm euphoric." That's right, according to this Forbes article, there is a place where fathers and 19-year-old daughters can actually get along, where fathers can praise their children and not get a pair of rolled eyes.

What is this mystical place? Where could such a magical, enchanted fairy land exist? In fact, it's only about an hour away from Las Vegas, Nevada. It's a place called Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, and it's the nation's finest firearms training institute. Front Sight started off in California but moved to Nevada by about 2000, due to Nevada's fewer and lighter gun laws and restrictions. And for what the founder and director of Front Sight, Dr. Ignatius Piazza, had in mind, he would need as few restrictions as possible.

Front Sight is the world's first residential community anchored around not golf courses, pools or racquet courts, but firing ranges. The town of Front Sight is a 550-acre gated community with 20 state-of-the-art firing ranges, a five-story urban tactics tower, 1000-yard rifle range, an air strip and hundreds of yards of underground training grounds, designed for low-light gun training techniques, along with about 170 1-acre plots of residential plots. Dr. Ignatius Piazza sees Front Sight as the safest city in America's future. He foresees no violent crime, no murder, no problems, because each of the citizens will be armed and have received the most responsible firearms training extant.

But one doesn't have to be a resident of Front Sight to train there, in fact most aren't. Take the Tibbetts, who come from Arizona with the whole family. As mentioned in the Forbes article, the Tibbetts have a wonderful time, with all of their kids interested in what they're doing (getting firearms training) and having a great time of it!

 

Ignatius Piazza and Front Sight
in Forbes Magazine

Kiddies With Carbines

Dyan Machan, 07.25.05

Mom, Dad and Junior all can have a blast on a shooting-school vacation

Samantha Tibbetts, 5, wears a pink T shirt with a lady on it carrying a sparkly purse. She squirms in her chair. Tibbetts, with big blue eyes and long blonde hair, is sitting in a classroom. But it's a classroom whose walls are cinder block, and her teacher, Paul, has a rifle cradled in his lap. Paul asks the nine kids, ages 5 to 16, to name the parts of the gun. "Can you say ‘trigger'?"

They can. But they'd rather pull one. These kids are at Front SightFirearms Training Institute near Las Vegas--one of several family-friendly firing ranges springing up around the U.S. Kids learn nomenclature and safety while Mom and Dad take higher caliber instruction--"Handgun Combat Master," for example, or "Uzi Submachine Gun at Night."

Tibbetts, impatient, raises her small hand. "Can we shoot now?" Two other girls, Bethany LaBarge, 10, and Emma Stapleton, 8, are using felt-tip markers to draw shamrocks and hearts on their Styrofoam cups. They have a right to be bored. They already know the material. During class LaBarge explained the difference between a shotgun and rifle. Their families have come here on vacation five times in three years.

As for the Tibbetts family, they switch annually between Disneyland and Front Sight. "It's hard to say which we like more," says Wayne Tibbetts, 49, a CPA and partner in a Mesa, Arizona tax firm.

Five years ago Front Sightsaw little such business. Now 15% of the 10,000 shooters it trains each year are vacationing families. Programs run by Glock and Smith & Wesson report similar upticks.

Andrew Massimilian of Manhattan Shooting Excursions caters to affluent New Yorkers who want to shoot without having to go through the bother of getting permits. He transports them and their kids to ranges in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Connecticut. Says Massimilian, "I am seeing more families who want to lock and load for the thrill of it."

State legislatures, meantime, have made that thrill more attainable. Ohio and Minnesota are the latest to pass laws permitting citizens to carry concealed weapons. Today 38 states issue "concealed carry" permits, up from 14 in 1990.

"Usually men come first. Then they come back and bring their wife and kids," says Front Sightfounder Ignatius Piazza, a former chiropractor. Wayne Tibbetts first came in 2004 with his daughter Tracy, 19. The rest of the family soon followed. This weekend in April he's attending with his wife, Kathleen, 43, daughters Tracy and Samantha, his brother George, and his mother-in-law, Janet Grimaldi. "9/11 brought home our deep concerns for security," says Kathy. "We wanted our kids to be able to protect themselves. I want Samantha to have ‘stranger-danger' awareness. Of course, she's also having a good time."

Front Sightteaches kids to "trust their feelings" around "tricky" people. It also preaches firearms safety. Children memorize what they must do when and if they encounter a gun:"Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area and tell an adult."

On the firing range, under an unforgiving sun, Samantha presses up against her cheek the stock of a Chipmunk 22 by Rogue Rifle Co. She shoots at a square paper target. Older kids fire submachine guns, shotguns or handguns. James Minner, 14, was visiting Front Sight with his sister Sheila, 17, and parents, Gary and Sherry Minner of Delavan, Illinois.

Shooting instructor Charlene, an off-duty Las Vegas cop, takes down Samantha's target. Most of the 5-year-old's shots have found home. Samantha, clutching her paper, runs to show her mother.

"Daddy will be so pleased," says Kathy Tibbetts, hugging her daughter. She and Wayne have themselves been busy:she in a defensive handgun program, he in a four-day rifle course. "It's hard to express how much Front Sight means to us," says Wayne. "We come away with a real sense of accomplishment." Tracy, her red hair done up in a ponytail, says that what she likes best about a shooting vacation is that she gets "good Daddy-time." "When he says, 'Good job, Trace,' I'm euphoric."

 


 

Ignatius Piazza

Ignatius Piazza The Ultimate Family Mediator

Families from all over America flock to Front Sight Firearms Training Institute every year, not only to get the world's finest gun training, but to spend a weekend together developing skills that they each have a personal desire for, for one reason or another. Featured in an article in Forbes magazine, the Tibbett family is one such example of a family spending its vacation time at Front Sight. Founder and director, Dr. Ignatius Piazza, likes to call Front Sight "The Disneyland for Gun Owners". Funny enough, that's the other destination for the Tibbett family. According to the Forbes article, they switch annually between Disneyland and Front Sight. "It's hard to say which we like more," says Wayne Tibbetts, 49, a CPA and partner in a Mesa, Arizona tax firm.

Wayne first came in 2004 with his daughter Tracy, 19. The rest of the family soon followed. On a later weekend, he was attending with his wife, Kathleen, 43, daughters Tracy, 5, and Samantha, his brother George, and his mother-in-law, Janet Grimaldi. When the writer for Forbes asked Kathleen why they were so interested in getting Front Sight's gun training, she responded, "9/11 brought home our deep concerns for security. We wanted our kids to be able to protect themselves. I want Samantha to have 'stranger-danger' awareness. Of course, she's also having a good time."

And that is exactly what Dr. Ignatius Piazza expects and wants from his institute's gun training: increased awareness, and a good time. One of the first thing that Dr. Piazza ever realized about firearms training is that it is only as valuable as it is useful, and for him, if he can get a child to be better safeguarded against potential attackers or abductors, he knows he has done his one first step to protecting that child.


 

Concealed Carry Training Will Keep You and Yours Safe

Concealed carry training is one of the more controversial, difficult-to-understand aspects of gun training around. While most Americans are very comfortable with gun training, handgun trainingand gun ownership, some Americans get very nervous when they add to that equation the thought of some individuals carrying guns on their persons which are not revealed.

Concealed weapons are not allowed in most states. Carrying a concealed firearm is illegal in most, unless one has a permit. Such a permit is fairly difficult to obtain, but very possible. Specific gun training is one of the prerequisites, such training is called concealed carry training, and it includes not only safe transportation, carrying and use of a firearm, but also acceptable levels of force, how to spot escalating dangerous situations.

Concealed carry training is available at many firearms trainingschools, but the school with the most success is Front SightFirearms Training Institute. Front Sight, located shortly outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, is the nation's largest gun training school. Every year, Front Sight delivers gun training to more students than all other shooting schools combined. Small wonder, then, why Front Sight is considered the leader in firearms training, and why more and more students come to Front Sight in order to receive concealed carry training.

Why get gun training, though? Safety. Keeping yourself and your loved ones safe should be everyone's number one concern. Therefore, having gun training, knowing what a firearm does under different circumstances, knowing how to fire accurately and safely, all these things could save your life given the right (or very wrong, unfortunate) circumstances.

Dr. Ignatius Piazza, the founder and director of Front Sight, is one to know that safety is training, the more trained one is, the better equipped one is to keep himself and his loved ones safe.

 


 

Get Your 16-Year-Old Something Nice For His Birthday: Shotgun Training

Imagine you 16-year-old son or daughter opening their present and saying, earnestly, "OH WOW!" Front Sight Firearms TrainingInstitute encourages families all over America to realize that a fun, educational and responsibility-increasing activity that the entire family can engage in is shotgun training. But perhaps shotgun training is a bit to loud. Maybe it's the fact that it feels like getting kicked or punched in the shoulder. Maybe the fact that the weapon can often feel like it weighs several pounds that turns one or one's family off of shotgun training.

So for those, why not get handgun training? Defensive handgun training not only shows an individual how to carry a firearm effectively and how to take down an on-coming attacker, but it also shows what responsibility is, and it demands complete and utter understanding of the seriousness of a gun and of taking life, and of ever considering touching a firearm, extremely useful data for a young tyke.

But if that sounds a bit extreme for your 8-year-old son or daughter, maybe the .22 marksmanship course sounds right. Gun training is fun for kids, probably more so than for adults, because kids are constantly told not to point their fingers like guns, not to pretend to shoot things, not to play war. So finally, they get to shoot a real gun, with real kick and see their efforts pay off on a Swiss-cheesed target paper!

Gun training is not only fun for everyone in the family, it's also appropriate. Maybe your 22-year-old daughter is moving to the city, and you want her to understand what a firearm feels like, when she should be fearful of a situation, and what she should expect from a gun if she ever sees one near her. Training is certainty is safety in life, so get your family gun training.

Front Sight offers handgun training, shotgun training, rifle training, submachine gun training and armed and unarmed self defense for all ages and levels of expertise. Get your family trained and safe.

 


Gun Training is Your Friend, And Your Family's Friend

Ask an American this question: why get gun training? The average American might respond with something as simple as, 'so that you can be a better hunter'. Some might tell you it's because you need to know such things. Others might just say that guns are evil, kill children, go off at a moment's notice, without any provocation and are the source of most of the problems in today's society. I think we who are sane can all identify which of these responses is most wrong. The cadre of professional staff at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute have dealt with people like that their entire professional career.

Some of the instructors at Front Sight, the nation's largest gun training institute, are ex-military. I think we can all think, at one time or another, that we've had to stand up for our troops, even if we didn't agree with the war. Military personnel are very well-acquainted with distrust and dislike of their profession. Some of the instructors at Front Sight are police officers, both former and active. The police officers are also familiar with those who hate them just for the sake of standing for the place of justice and righteousness. But all the professional trainers at Front Sight know that gun training isn't wrong and that anyone who thinks that guns in general, or safe, effective, responsible firearms training is wrong are completely out of their minds.

Front Sight is an excellent example of what happens when you get professional individuals together around a common, pro-survival goal and pump ethical, responsible, able individuals and leadership into it. Front Sight is quite young as far as most gun training schools go, and yet it delivers firearms training to more students every year than all other shooting schools in the nation combined.

 


 

A Present Your Wife Wasn't Expecting: Rifle Training

Rifle training is available at many shooting ranges and shooting schools, but it's only at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute that you learn all the ins and outs, and how knowing how to fire a rifle is one of the most important aspects of gun training one could ever receive. Dr. Ignatius Piazza is the founder and director of Front Sight, and he understands that while some Americans may be averse to the idea of rifle training, it is completely necessary and should be taken advantage of by every citizen.

He also encourages husbands and wives to buy gun training for their spouses for Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries. The ability to keep yourself safe and your loved ones safe can't have a price tag attached. Dr. Piazza knows that and so makes all his training, rifle training, shotgun training and handgun training available to all. Take a look at some testimonials to get an idea of what kind of people get Front Sight's training:
"The training I received at Front Sight exceeds all firearms training I received in the military while serving as a Navy Special Warfare Operator."
-Carlos Rojas, Navy Corpsman

"If you are serious about building or improving your skill at arms, take a class at Front
Sight."
-Palmarin Merges, Artist

"If you plan to exercise the right to own a firearm, then you must get properly trained to use it. Front Sight is the best!"
-Omar Abuabara, Sales

"This is far better training than I've ever had, even after 6 years in the Navy (Guard force, reaction force, shore patrol, PRP Program). This was much better!!!"
-Bob Faulk, Computer Programmer

Front Sight's training is top-notch, and even something like rifle training can make you, your family and all of your loved ones much safer, should the need ever arise.

 


 

All the Family Gets In on Handgun Training at Front Sight

Handgun training falls under firearms training just as easily as shotgun training, rifle training and submachine gun training do. Many Americans can understand this aspect of training - that handgun training is a necessary part of firearms training, but not the reverse: shotgun training, rifle training and even submachine gun training are necessary parts of gun training.

At Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, civilians are regularly shown the safest, most effective methods to using firearms to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Dr. Ignatius Piazza, the founder and director of Front Sight, is what is known as a Four Weapons Combat Master (TM), one of the most difficult certifications to achieve in the gun training industry. Dr. Ignatius Piazza is, then, a professional and expert in the field of firearms training.

So when he says that handgun training, rifle training and shotgun training are all forms of self defense training - it just happens to be training for when you are armed - people listen! Firearms training at Front Sight is handled as seriously as law school or medical school. Except instead of stuck-up professors and difficult tests, the lesson book is the manual for the weapon, and the test is a practical application of what you've learned about firearms and their use.

Additionally, when at Front Sight, one need never worry about a drill instructor-style training. The instructors at Front Sight are not only knowledgeable and experienced, but there because they want to be there and want to help others achieve the proficiency of arms that others before them have reached. While some of the individuals are ex-military, they're not aggressive, they're not rude, and they're not drill instructors, so every student is treated as such: an interested, able student. No wonder Front Sight trains more students than all other shooting schools in the nation combined, annually.

 


 

Self Defense Training - Your Family's Best Defense is a Strong Offense, or Just Really Good Training

Front Sight Firearms Institute offers dozens of firearms training courses. These courses, often filled up weeks before the course begins, are very regularly spaced, so that one can always find a 1-, 2-, 3- or 4-day course that fits one's schedule. Front Sight offers gun training in all sorts of areas: handgun, shotgun, rifle, special pistol, unarmed self defense, but it all comes down to one thing: self defense training.

Do you ever fear for your family's safety or wellbeing? Do you ever wonder what would happen to your family if there was a gun-related situation on some city street? Would your family members be some of the people running in and out of stores screaming, with their hands over their heads, or would your kids be calmly finding cover and directing others to do the same? Would your wife be a woman paralyzed with fear, unable to move and potentially struck by a passing bullet, or would she be able to help others out of that fear and get them to lay down on the ground? Would your husband lose all common sense and start directing his family to an unsafe location, or would he keep his head, be aware of his surroundings and act accordingly?

Front Sight offers gun training and firearms training that equates to self defense training. The more training one receives on a subject, the more comfortable one is with that subject. Firearms training is the same way. Hearing gunshots is frightening, but it doesn't have to be. Self defense training allows one to calmly approach situations concerning fists, kicks and punches, gun training allows one to calmly approach situations concerning pistols and bullets.

 


 



Ignatius-Piazza-And-Front-Sight-In-Forbes-Magazine.com