Today we’d like to introduce you to Tactical Response. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Tactical Response was founded by our dad, James Yeager, in 1996. It started as a side gig teaching carry permit classes while he was policing full-time. He fell in love with it and dedicated himself to firearms training and living the martial lifestyle. It quickly became a family thing by opening up our home to students free of charge to make training more affordable. Today, that space is known as the “Team Room” and is still open. We both grew up in this industry.
Kayla Lewis, the older daughter, started taking professional classes when she was just 8 years old and has shot over 100,000 rounds in her lifetime. Heather Glover, the younger of the two, took a little longer to fall in love with it. When she did though, she fell hard. When James Yeager passed away earlier this year, he gifted the business to the two of us and made Joey Glover, Heather’s husband, CEO. Joey was directly mentored by James for over 10 years with the last year being a crash course in how to go from CEO to MFCEO. Now, after 26 years, we have had over 80,000 students and are still thriving.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’m sure our dad faced his own set of challenges along the way, but he was such a giant in the industry that we were unaware of them. The two biggest challenges we have faced are both still ongoing. The hardest was losing him at the same time we were becoming business owners. It’s hard enough for either of those things to happen independently of each other, but both at the same time were overwhelming, to say the least. He used to joke about only needing to work half days to be successful and by half days he meant 12 hours. When putting in that much time at the office, finding time to grieve has been nearly impossible. But if our dad raised us to do anything, it was to persevere.
Because our dad was this industry legend, he left us some really big shoes to fill. Being a woman in such a male-dominated industry is a challenge. We discussed it with him before he passed. We are navigating our way through it, but the world can be a cruel place, and we would be lying if we said it hadn’t already come up multiple times.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Tactical Response is a firearms training company that teaches good people how to kill bad people. We focus on Mindset above all else. We teach you how to fight with a gun, not just shoot it. Jordan Peterson said if you are not a formidable force, there is no morality in your control, you must be capable of violence and then control those capabilities. We do what we do to save people. The tally for students involved in gunfights is 62. 61 of them prevailed, and the only one who did not, didn’t have his gun that day so it wasn’t a gunfight, it was a shooting. That happened less than 15 miles from Camden, which is our home base. We have also had hundreds of students save lives with the knowledge they got from our Immediate Action Medical class.
We have a tribe here at Tactical Response. Among that tribe, we hold ourselves to a higher standard. James Yeager walked the walk and now we are doing the same. He made sure that we know how important it is to lead by example with everything: hobbies, lifestyle, choices, etc. Our dad had a saying “don’t go stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things.” It is your responsibility as a gun owner to avoid and de-escalate every single time you can. Living an honorable life is the best thing anyone can do. It is your best defense in court and your best chance of never having to use the skills you learn with us. Still, bad things happen to good people – so as our dad would say “Your responsibility to be ready for the fight never ends.”
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We have already started seeing a big trend take place. When Tactical Response first started, our students were typically middle-aged men that carried a gun for a living. Over the last few years, it has morphed into your everyday joe. Soccer moms, accountants, nurses, teachers, and pretty much any profession you can think of now make up our student base. There is no longer a “type.” 10 years ago, we may have had a female every couple of classes. Now, it’s reversed – we rarely have a class that doesn’t have a female in it.
It’s not just women though, it’s whole families. We see those numbers continuing to rise. Americans have seen an increase in active shooters and are catching on that you can’t legislate evil out of existence so they are taking responsibility for their own safety.
Pricing:
- 2-day class – typically around $600, one of the most affordable in the industry
- We also have a layaway program.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TacticalResponse.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tacticalresponse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TacticalResponse/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesYeagerofTacticalResponse
- Other: https://libertv.com/
Image Credits
Shelton King
