About Dan Morris

Most firearms training stops at the certificate.

You show up, you shoot, you go home with a piece of paper. The box is checked. That’s not what I built PRTG to do.

My goal is to help you develop the mindset, skills, and knowledge to carry and use a firearm responsibly — and to make decisions that hold up under pressure, legally and ethically, long after class is over.

My Background

I spent 10 years in the United States Air Force as a Military Intelligence specialist in Targeting and Weaponeering — the discipline concerned with the precise application of lethal force. That background gave me a technical foundation in ballistics and weapons effects that simply isn’t part of most civilian instructor programs.

Three of those years I spent as a full-time instructor in the Air Force. I hold an Associate’s Degree in Instructional Systems Development from the Community College of the Air Force and completed the USAF Basic Instructor Course — formal training in adult learning methodology, not just subject matter expertise.

After the Air Force, I transitioned to the private sector supporting the FBI as a contractor — training federal investigators in network intrusion forensics, system security exploitation, and advanced intrusion investigation. I then earned my Master’s degree in Information Security from Johns Hopkins University, and went on to serve as adjunct faculty at Hopkins’ Carey Business School for years, teaching five courses across both undergraduate and graduate programs in their information security concentration.

In my current role as a senior leader at a major defense contractor, I’ve developed multiple week-long technical courses that have been continuously taught for over a decade. I’ve also completed ongoing counterintelligence and counterterrorism training, and my work has taken me to locations around the world where situational awareness wasn’t a classroom concept — it was a professional requirement. That lived experience informs how I teach threat recognition, environmental awareness, and the mindset side of personal safety in ways that go beyond what’s in any curriculum.

The point isn’t the résumé. The point is this: I’ve spent most of my professional life figuring out how to take complex, high-stakes technical subject matter and make it genuinely understood — not just memorized, not just passed, but understood — by people with varying backgrounds and experience levels. That’s exactly what I bring to every PRTG class.

On the firearms side, I’m a Maryland Qualified Handgun Instructor, an NRA Certified Pistol and CCW Instructor, and a Rangemaster Certified Instructor — trained directly under Tom Givens. I’ve completed courses with the Modern Samurai Project, PNTC, and others, because I believe the best instructors never stop being students.

What You Can Expect

A lot of training teaches you what — what to do, what the rules are, what the correct grip looks like. PRTG is built around teaching you why.

When you understand why a technique works, why a safety rule exists, why the law draws the line where it does — that knowledge becomes yours. It travels with you off the range. It holds up under pressure. It makes you a safer, more capable, and more confident shooter than any checklist ever could.

Mindset First

Safety, legal responsibility, and situational awareness aren’t topics I cover briefly before getting to “the good stuff.” They are the foundation. If you don’t understand why, the how doesn’t matter.

Solid Technical Fundamentals

Modern defensive shooting technique grounded in research and real-world application — not outdated range habits, not shortcuts. Technique that holds up under stress.

Depth Most Classes Don’t Offer

I bring perspectives that aren’t in the standard curriculum: a military ballistics background, formal instructor training, and serious ongoing study of the legal and psychological dimensions of armed self-defense. I want you leaving class better equipped to make decisions — not just better equipped to pass a test.

Training That Meets You Where You Are

Every student comes in at a different starting point. Whether you’ve never touched a firearm or you’re an experienced shooter looking to sharpen your skills, the goal is the same — move you forward at the right pace, in a way that actually serves you. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all class.

Credentials

  • MAG-20: Armed Citizens’ Rules of Engagement — Massad Ayoob Group (2026)
  • Rangemaster Instructor Development & Certification — Tom Givens (2025)
  • Modern Samurai Project: Red Dot Pistol Fundamentals & Performance — Scott Jedlinski (2024)
  • Emergency Tactical Care — Spartan Firearms (2023)
  • Maryland Qualified Handgun Instructor — QHIC-2023-0893
  • NRA Certified Pistol Instructor (2023)
  • NRA CCW Instructor (2023)
  • NRA Range Safety Officer (2023)
  • PNTC Defensive Handgun, Tactical 2-Gun, Precision Long Range, Precision Rimfire (2020-2021)
  • MS Information Security — Johns Hopkins University (2004)
  • BA Computer Information Systems (CIS) – North Carolina Wesleyan College (2000)
  • Instructional Systems Development, A.A.S. — Community College of the Air Force (1999)
  • USAF Basic Instructor Course (1998)

What I Study

Good training is built on more than range time. These are some of the books and resources that have shaped how I teach and what I teach:

Legal & Use of Force

  • Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense — Massad Ayoob
  • The Law of Self Defense — Andrew Branca

Tactics & Technique

  • Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training — Rehn & Daub
  • Practical Shooting, Beyond Fundamentals — Brian Enos
  • Concealed Carry Class — Tom Givens

Mindset & Threat Awareness

  • Violence of Mind and Beyond OODA — Varg Freeborn
  • The Gift of Fear — Gavin de Becker
  • Left of Bang — Van Horne & Riley
  • When Violence is the Answer — Tim Larkin

Learning & Skill Development

  • The Talent Code — Daniel Coyle
  • The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition — Peter Hollins
  • The Way is in Training — Matthew Little

If you’re looking for training that goes beyond the certificate — that challenges you to think as well as shoot — I’d like to meet you on the range.

View Upcoming Classes ↗ Contact Dan ↗

— Dan Morris
Founder, Practical Readiness Training Group
Maryland Qualified Handgun Instructor | NRA Instructor | Rangemaster Certified | MAG-20 Graduate