A Specialized Team

Melody Lauer is a Rangemaster Certified Advanced Handgun Instructor, Deadly Force Instructor through the Massad Ayoob Group, and Agile Training & Consulting OC/Pepper Spray Instructor. She is an NRA Certified handgun instructor with fourteen years of experience teaching men and women how to defend themselves with a firearm. As the owner of Citizens Defense Research she has dedicated herself to quality, reliable self-defense information and training. With approximately 1,000 hours of professional development, Melody is one of the leading experts on armed conflict with children present. She continues to challenge herself through active participation in her local Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy and works as a front-end developer for a local programming firm. Melody is a mother of three and writer dedicated to learning and sharing the most effective skills in preserving innocent life.

Chris Cypert is a retired Special Forces Soldier (Green Beret), who spent the majority of his career serving in 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). A veteran of multiple deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, as well as numerous other operational deployments, he is experienced in the full spectrum of violence and threat mitigation from full scale combat to low-visibility and avoidance in uncertain environments. As a professional teacher of partner forces, who culminated his career teaching advanced skills to qualified Special Operations personnel, Chris is highly experienced and proficient in curriculum development and training. He is a RangeMaster Certified Firearms Instructor, NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, Agile Training & Consulting OC/Pepper Spray Instructor, and has attended a broad variety of open-enrollment firearm and self-defense courses geared towards civilian self-protection. Chris works hard to translate his experience and lessons-learned into the civilian self-protection context in order to help him better safeguard himself, his wife and four kids, and also benefit the lawfully armed citizens who want to protect themselves and those for whom they are responsible.

Caleb Giddings has been writing for the shooting industry for over 15 years. He has been published in Combat Handguns, America’s 1st Freedom, Shooting Illustrated, RECOIL, and many other online outlets. His personal passion is keeping the art of shooting revolvers alive for the next generation of shooters to experience. This fascination started at an early age, reading a giant coffee table book that described the S&W Combat Masterpiece as “the finest fighting handgun ever.” That obsession turned into a high-level journey through the shooting sports, where he holds Master class ranks in IDPA and ICORE. He has multiple top 5 finishes at IDPA Nationals, including winning High Master in 2014. Caleb is also an NCO in the Air Force Reserve, where he serves as a Combat Arms Instructor.

Ross Hick is a former EMT and current Probation Surveillance Officer supervising convicted felons in the community with 14 years working specialized caseloads including gangs, domestic violence, sex offenders, and the seriously mentally ill.  He serves as a field training officer, department armorer, and as an instructor in CPR/AED, firearms, Taser, search and seizure, and use-of-force for his department.  Ross has additionally taught firearms classes to lawfully armed citizens in his community for more than 16 years and is an NRA Certified Instructor in Home Safety, Pistol, Personal Protection in the Home, Personal Protection Outside the Home, and a Rangemaster Certified Firearms Instructor.

K.A. Clark has been part of the personal protection training community for over 20 years with 2,500+ hours of commercial firearms training experience. He is an accomplished shooter focused on technical excellence with a handgun deployed from concealment with highlights including: 3X perfect scores in one week from concealment at the elite Rogers Shooting School, 5X Rangemaster Tactical Conference match champion, Fast Coin #22, 2X Gabe White Turbo Pins, 2X Modern Samurai Project Black Belt patches, record holder or co-record holder of several shooting tests and drills, USPSA and IDPA Master class shooter, 2 division Steel Challenge Grandmaster and also is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Purple Belt. K.A. also has an academic background in Philosophy and a Master’s degree in liberal arts.