Hi! My name’s Christian. I’m a student of the various disciplines of self-defense with a little under 200 hours of formal training between shooting and combatives classes and some assorted medical and legal seminars. I’m a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Stout PGH Team Renzo Gracie. Technically, I’m also certified to teach NRA Basic Pistol, but I in no way consider myself an ‘instructor.’

I’m just a writer with a day job like most of the people [who probably aren’t] reading this: not an influencer, a professional ‘content creator,’ a shooting or grappling prodigy, or anyone besides a guy putting in the work to build skills and knowledge in training and practice…At least, as much as he can afford to.

Writing isn’t just something I find enjoyable—it’s a way for me to explore ideas, refine my own thinking, and share the fun stuff I’m learning with whoever is interested. I also like to think it can save aspiring self-defenders some time, money, and frustration by directing them to trustworthy sources of information. Hopefully, my own limited experience can also help them avoid the mistakes I made starting out and emulate the few things I managed to get right the first time around.

I’ll never try to pass off other people’s good info as my own, but I hope that I can introduce it to you, give the CliffsNotes when appropriate, splice in just a bit of my own opinion, and hopefully provoke some thought.

Someday, I hope to self-publish these collected insights in a book-to-be that I’ve tentatively titled Introduction to The Armed Lifestyle (I’m open to subtitle suggestions). That’s the distant future, though—I have a lot of training, practice, reading, learning, and networking to do before then.

In the meantime, I plan on sharing my journey and doing what I can to welcome people into the spaces and communities where good, safe, sane, moral, prudent people congregate.