Leadership

Ed Lovette

Founder Emeritus and Capo di tutti capi

Ed Lovette is a retired CIA paramilitary operations officer. He was a captain in the U.S. Army Special Forces and is a 10-year law enforcement veteran. Ed is the author of The Snubby Revolver and coauthor of Defensive Living.

Michael deBethencourt

Founder

Michael de Bethencourt is a thirty year student of the martial arts and a twenty plus year student of police defense tactics. He is a nationally recognized defensive revolver, weapon disarming and improvised weapons trainer, and an internationally recognized tactical folding knife instructor-trainer.

Jason Chandonnet

Founder

Jason Chandonnet is a self described classical shooter systems enthusiast and a researcher/student of classic police defense tactics systems. Jason brings decades of Software and I.T. innovations combined with his passion for martial arts and historic firearm research together for the benefit of his fellow snub shooting advocates.

Staff

Bob Lose

Staff Writer

Bob Lose is a retired police officer with the Anne Arundel County (Maryland) Police Department. On the job he worked Patrol, SWAT, Criminal Investigation Division (Armed Robbery Squad), and for 9 years was a full time firearms instructor at the Police Academy. After retiring, Bob was a full time law enforcement and military firearms instructor for the NRA Law Enforcement Division. Since 2012 he has been Manager of the Law Enforcement Training Department, NRA LED.

Conrad Szymczak

Staff Writer

Conrad has hands on experience with designing weapons and weapon systems for the US military. As a member of the Armed Forces, he taught small arms to US and foreign forces. As a civilian instructor, Conrad taught firearms safety, advanced self-defense, and hunter education. Hobbies includes hunting & gunsmithing. He is a retired aerospace and combat engineer.

Frank Groth

Staff Writer

Hany Mahmoud

Staff Writer

Hany has been a law enforcement officer for the last 22 years. An LE firearms instructor for 21 years, civilian firearms trainer for approximately 20 years. Fulltime academy and inservice firearms instructor for the last 5 years.

Jim Higginbotham

Staff Writer

Jim Higginbotham is the Director of Training and Senior Instructor at American Institute of Marksmanship up until 2021 when A.I.M. closed. Jim taught his first firearms class in the fall of 1969 and has been involved in law enforcement since 1971, serving 29 years as firearms instructor with one agency. He has served as the “Small Arms Subject Matter Expert” for the State of Kentucky.

In this capacity, he trained officers of the Kentucky State Police, Various Sheriff’s Offices, Corrections Officers, SWAT Teams, Kentucky National Guard Units, and members of the 20th Special Forces Group. He has testified as an expert witness several
times in court.

Jim was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for developing the Ky. National Guard Weaponcraft Program, training the instructors and deploying soldiers.

Jordan Bell

Staff Writer

Proficient shooting cameras as well as guns, Jordan is a regular contributor to a handful of gun magazines with hundreds of photos published as well as several full, feature articles. He grew up immersed in gun culture and history. Guided by his father, a veteran gun writer and lawman, Jordan is doubtless a chip off the old block.

Lee Santo

Staff Writer

Lee Santo is a life long firearms enthusiast and shooter, not a very good shooter but a shooter nonetheless, in fact, the broad side of the barn is probably safe!

On a more serious note, Lee is a veteran of the US Marine Corps, a 30-year Texas peace officer and police trainer. He is a certified police firearms instructor since 1997.

He is currently the police academy coordinator for a regional police academy in central Texas. During his tenure there he has served a subject matter professional for several instructional courses including the basic law enforcement firearms instructor course, patrol rifle instructor, armed off duty encounters and vehicle defense.

Lowell Anderson

Staff Writer

Mike Boyle

Staff Writer

Mike Boyle has been an instructor in firearms and use of force disciplines for over 39 years. Captain Boyle served with the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife, Bureau of Law Enforcement and although retired from active service, he continues to work there as a law enforcement training specialist. He has been an assistant police academy director, rangemaster and remains active as an instructor providing both recruit and instructor level training.

Mike has been a frequent contributor to law enforcement and firearms periodicals and has also authored a book, Combative Shotgun, for Looseleaf Law Publications. He has been featured in a number of training videos marketed by Panteao Productions.

Nils Grevillius

Staff Writer

Removed from school, and 86d from polite company, Nils Grevillius has since spent his years as a soldier, a contractor, a Pinkerton Agent, a Private Detective. And now he is also an occasional author.

Rob Garrett

Senior Contributor

Rob had been a lifelong shooter, first learning on his fathers 1959 S&W K-22. He spent 38 years with the Columbus Georgia Police Department, retiring in 2016. He has been a writer for Combat Handguns, and other publications since 1984, and continues to write for Athlon Outdoor Group and GunsAmerica. He is a huge fan of J-frames and is a knowledgeable contributor to Snub Noir.

Russell D. Howell CISSP

Staff Writer

Russell is a Security Practitioner in the Mid-West. He specializes in Red Teaming and training healthcare organizations in physical and cyber security.

Russell has completed dozens of firearms related courses including Tactical Defense Institute’s Snubby Revolver class. He also polishes his bad guy skills by assisting Ohio law enforcement agencies as a “Threat Actor” and simunitions sponge.

Martial arts study including Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, and Victorian era martial arts are his favorite past times.

Steve Rustad

Staff Writer

When I was five, two of my dad’s nicknames for me were “Roscoe,” and “gun.” I met my first snub-nosed revolver in Berkeley during the Vietnam War riots. I carried a Roscoe around the world many times over as a Federal Sky Marshal. Today I teach handgun safety.

TJ Parmele

Staff Writer

TJ has over 20 years experience within the firearms industry as an instructor, gun store owner, and armorer. His interest in revolvers, particularly snub-nosed revolvers began after seeing Casablanca at a young age and seeing a Colt Detective Special for the first time. This memory stuck, and the interest was further enhanced when researching family WWII bring-back firearms. Ever the perennial student, he hopes to pass on useful and humorous material. He is a former board member of the Virginia Gun Collectors Association and is a volunteer firearms trainer for Operation Blazing Sword.

William Bell

Staff Writer

Bill has been a shooter for some 45 years and spent 38 years in law enforcement as a deputy sheriff, Border Patrolman and Customs Officer. He has shot in team competition with the Kentucky Army National Guard, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Dept. and U.S. Customs. He’s also competed in IPSC, bowling pin matches and Cowboy Action Shooting. Bill has also been handloading for over 40 years. His first gun article was published in 1983 and he began writing for Harris Publications in 1988 with an article in Combat Handguns. Bill now writes for Athlon-Outdoors doing gun tests, law enforcement topics and cowboy action shooting articles. He also maintains a Facebook page THE FIRING PEN.