PPSC Staff Profile
John M. Peterson
Mr. Peterson is a private contract instructor and consultant in the areas of firearms, tactics, personal security, antiterrorism, and self defense. He is a former U.S. Army Special Forces Weapons Sergeant, serving over 20 years between active duty and reserve component status. In addition, he has served for 2-3 years each as a full time employee of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Smith & Wesson Academy, Sigarms Academy, and as a Private Investigator. He is an adjunct/contract instructor for the Centermass Training Institute. He has served on Advisory Board as General Advisor of the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP) since being appointed in 1997. For the IACSP he has conducted a number of volunteer and charitable projects for this association related to antiterrorism and homeland security, and has had over 1 dozen articles published in the association's journal. He is a co-founder of and serves on the executive board of the National Patrol Rifle Competition & Conference. He serves on the advisory board of the TREXPO tactical response and high risk security conference.
He has over 10 years of full-time instructor experience, intermixed with a number of other professional experiences and positions. During this period he has had the privilege to lead, author/develop & lead, or assistant instruct in over 60 types of firearms and tactics courses ranging from 1 day to 5 weeks in length. Most of these were 1 week courses and included the entire set of tasks of researching, developing, manual writing, slideshow composition, designing courses of fire and drills, developing interactive training scenarios, and conducting the training. In other cases, he has ably served as assistant instructor, co-instructor, range assistant, line coach, and scenario role player. Mr. Peterson has presented at over 45 professional law enforcement and security conferences in the past 10 years, to include the two largest law enforcement conferences, ILEETA and ITOA, as well as multiple times each at SniperWeek, National SWAT Sniper Symposium, IACSP Terrorism Trends & Forecasts Symposium, 9 times at TREXPO, New England Police Sniper Summit (now called North American Police Sniper Summit), and others. The audience for these courses and conferences included all levels and types of law enforcement (local, county, state, federal), corrections, military, private security, armored couriers, executive protection, private citizens, and other armed professionals from every state and over 2 dozen foreign countries. The majority of these courses have been pistol and rifle courses, with a large percent of those being instructor development/certification courses. Additionally, he has specialized in and conducted courses and seminars on concealed carry, sniper/observer, night vision, low light, shotgun, submachinegun, revolver, instructor development, scenario driven training, surveillance, and a list of military, antiterrorism, and self defense topics. He has authored and/or been lead instructor of 14 different types of rifle & sniper courses. He has been an instructor for 19 different types of rifle and sniper courses among 7 different training entities.
John is a co-founder of the American Sniper Association and served on its executive board for its first 3 years. In 2003, he was named “Sniper of the Year” by another sniper association, “Snipersonline U.A..” For 3 years he was involved with the wartime charity www.americansnipers.org. In 2003, he became a life member of the Army Sniper Association. Since 1991, he has completed 11 sniper courses to include a 5 week and then a 6 week course for army special operations snipers.
In addition to many firearms and tactics courses, he has also attended over 60 conferences/seminars, 5 driving courses, and is living by the motto “once a student, always a student.” He has donated a number of articles to professional publications and websites. He co-authored and donated materials to the National Tactical Officers Association, to include an indepth policy manual for Law Enforcement Patrol Rifle available through the NTOA member information resource library. Other materials may be viewed on the online NTOA member only library. He is the author of an antiterrorism/personal security manual available from the IACSP and continues to conduct projects for the association. Additionally, he served as a contributor and/or reviewer for several different law enforcement and firearms books. While serving in the military, he endeavored to be involved in as many projects and additional duties as possible, to include serving as an instructor for the special forces sniper programs (SOTIC) of two different special forces groups, as an instructor for the Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course (SFAUC), and serving as his unit’s representative for equipment R&D (SOPMOD, NVEOS/VAD, and Weapons/Munitions).
John values most of all being able to provide the best training experience possible and getting the word out on survival, tactics, and good training. He attends training, conferences, and competitions regularly, being a perpetual student, practitioner, and research of all manner of self preservation, personal security, firearms, survival, antiterrorism, instructor methodology, and situational awareness.
Life Memberships: Special Operations Association, Special Forces Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars (Bronze Legacy Level), Police Marksman Association, International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals (IACSP), Army Sniper Association, Gun Owners of New Hampshire, Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts (‘Sustaining’), Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association (Endowment Level), and Gun Owners of America.
Annual Memberships: International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI, over 10 years), International Law Enforcement Trainers and Educators Association (ILEETA, charter member), National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA, over 10 years), Academy of Security Educators & Trainers, Illinois Tactical Officers Association, California Rangemasters Association, International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA), United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), National Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF), Glock Shooting Sports Federation (GSSF), Gun Owners of Vermont, Virginia Shooting Sports Association, Virginia Citizens Defense League, NRA Golden Eagles, NRA Business Alliance, the Heritage Foundation, and several security related associations.
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