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Bryan Berg

Founder & Lead Instructor

I'm not sure it's fair to say "I grew up around guns," but it seems likely that by the age of 12, I had accumulated more time carrying a gun (my single-shot, bolt-action Winchester 99, chambered in .22LR) than most of my northeast Seattle fifth-grade classmates.  My family had a ranching connection in remote British Columbia, and one of the delights of visiting was shooting the ground squirrels that threatened the well-being of their cattle, which grazed on the green grassy rolling hills of their many hundreds of acres.

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I never owned or fired a handgun until my senior year of college.  The concealed-carry phenomenon was catching fire, and as a young adult moving out into the not-particularly rough world of southwestern Idaho, I wanted to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights.  So I paid my $75, warmed a seat in a classroom for four or five hours, sent a few rounds downrange without hurting anyone—or, likely, my target—paid a fee to the county, and soon had a laminated card telling the world that Bryan Berg was unassailable—practically deputized!

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Little did I know how little I did know.

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In 2019, I visited Front Sight, a now-defunct resort-style firearms academy near Las Vegas.  it was their Four-Day Defensive Handgun course that finally introduced the techniques and skills that I had incorrectly assumed I had learned in my previous "training."  In four days, i fixed twenty years of ignorance—two decades of incorrect, dangerous assumptions, rooted in grossly deficient education and staggering overconfidence.

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On the 10-hour drive home, I resolved to elevate the level of firearms- and self-defense instruction in southwest Idaho.  Thus was born Ministry of Defense.  Of course, I have trained well beyond those first four days of epiphany at Front Sight.  Having embraced the lessons of that experience, I continue to broaden and test my perspectives because it brings me satisfaction as a student and greater range as an instructor.  And to my delight, for the first time in my life, I have something I can authentically refer to as "a calling."

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You are WORTH PROTECTING!  I will always do my best to show you how.

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-Bryan Berg, Ministry of Defense

Training History

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Instructor Credentials

  • Feb. 26, 2023: Tom Givens "Rangemaster"-Certified Instructor (ranked 3rd in a class of 17)

  • Jan. 29, 2022: NRA Instructor Certification—Shotgun

  • Nov. 6, 2020: NRA Instructor Certification—Rifle

  • Oct. 23, 2020: NRA Certification—Chief Range Safety Officer

  • Sept. 30, 2020: NRA Instructor Certification—Personal Protection In the Home

  • Sept. 30, 2020: NRA Instructor Certification—Personal protection Outside the Home

  • Sept. 30, 2020: NRA Instructor Certification—Pistol

 

Training

  • September 15-17, 2023: The Guardian Conference, presented by Concealed Carry, Inc.

    • Skillbuilder 50: Jumpstart, with Bryan Eastridge

    • Intro to RDS Performance, with AJ Zito

    • Mastery of Shooting on the Move, with Mickey Schuch

    • Square Dancing in a Minefield: the Anatomy of a Self-Defense Prosecution, with Don West and Shawn Vincent

    • OC Spray and Less Lethal Options, with Chuck Haggard

    • See Better, Shot Better, with Riley Bowman

    • Handgun Performance, with AJ Zito

  • May 17, 2023: MoD Staff Trauma Training, presented by Idaho Medical Academy

  • Feb. 24-26, 2023: Tom Givens "Rangemaster" Basic Instructor Development Course (Ranked 3rd in a class of 17)

  • Nov. 8-11, 2021: Front Sight's 4-Day Handgun Combat Master Prep

  • May 17-20, 2021: Front Sight's 4-Day Practical Rifle (AR-15) (I was the only Distinguished Graduate out of more than 30 students)

  • Feb. 21, 2021: Stop the Bleed, presented by Idaho Medical Academy

  • Nov. 20-23, 2020: Front Sight's 4-Day Practical Rifle (AR-15)

  • Nov. 18-19, 2020: Front Sight's 2-Day Advanced Tactical Handgun

  • Oct. 4, 2020: NRA Chief Range Safety Officer Course

  • Oct. 3, 2020: NRA Basic Range Safety Officer Course

  • Sept. 17, 2020: NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home—Instructor version

  • Sept. 16, 2020: NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home—Student version

  • Sept. 15, 2020: NRA Personal Protection In the Home—Instructor version

  • Sept. 14, 2020: NRA Personal Protection In the Home—Student version

  • Sept. 13, 2020: NRA Basic Pistol—Instructor version

  • Sept. 12, 2020: NRA Basic Pistol—Student Version

  • Sept. 12, 2020: NRA Basic Instructor Training

  • Nov. 18-19, 2019: Front Sight's 2-Day Tactical Handgun

  • June 7-10, 2019: Front Sight's 4-Day Defensive Handgun (Distinguished Graduate; winner of Man-on-Man Competition)

  • ca. 2015: Idaho Concealed Weapons License class

  • ca. 2005: Idaho Hunter's Safety

  • ca. 2000: Idaho Concealed Weapons License class, presented by Intermountain Outdoor Sports

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