March 17, 2024

Using Study Guides

What do you know about firearms, self defense and the legal system by which you may be judged? How can you prove what you know?

Proving the knowledge you possess can be the difference between freedom and the possibility of prison, bankruptcy and a lifetime of being marked as a felon.

An empty courtroom with oak furnishings. There are seats for three judges.
Don’t go into court without the tools to prove your training, knowledge and mindset.

At WhereToTrain.org, we do all we can to help you find the best defensive training and information available. All that time and money could be wasted, however, if you cannot provide credible evidence of that training to a judge or a jury of your peers. You have to be able to prove that the actions you took were reasonable under the circumstances.

“The cornerstone of American Jurisprudence is the Reasonable Man Doctrine. Unless your case centers on some obscure legal technicality, the Reasonable Man Doctrine will be used extensively throughout your self-defense trial. What would a reasonable person have done under the same circumstances, knowing what you knew at the time? That phrase, my friends, will be your lifeblood during the episode of your life that will likely define you as a man or woman.” – Marty Hayes, published on the Personal Defense Network.

The first of many study guides at WhereToTrain.org is available here. We believe that good training requires reading, viewing videos, listening to podcasts and taking good hands-on classes. Good knowledge leads to good decisions. Through these study guides, you will be able to understand the material at a deeper level. You will also be able to prove what you know and when you learned it.

How to use study guides

1. Click on the link provided to go to an article, video, podcast or other learning resource.

2. Read, watch or listen to the material once to become familiar with the topic.

3. Copy the questions from the web page and paste them into your preferred text editing program. You can also download a text file of the questions. A download link is provided at the end of each set of questions.

4. Read, watch or listen to the material a second time, pausing to write a response to the questions as they are discussed in the material. The questions are written in the same order in which the information is given. Some of the questions may ask you to summarize or explain what you have learned.

5. Save the document in which you wrote your answers. We suggest you create a new folder for all your training notes. It is also a good idea to backup those files on a separate hard drive or cloud storage system like Dropbox, Carbonite, or Google Drive.

6. Print at least one copy of the questions and your answers. Write your initials and the date on each page. Place the pages in a file or large envelope. Once you have several study guides completed, use one of the techniques Marty Hayes discusses to preserve those notes as credible evidence. Should you ever be put on trial for a legitimate act of self defense, you can use these notes in your defense.

7. Consider printing a second copy of each study guide with your answers. Put them in a 3-ring binder. Occasionally, reread your notes to refresh your memory.

8. If you have learned new things that would change your answers, fill out a new copy of that study guide. Explain what you know now and where you learned the new information. Save the original set of answers, but follow the procedure given above to document your new understanding.

You should always be learning new information and expanding your understanding. Staying up to date on the topic of self defense is whole new part-time job. Take it seriously; your life depends on it.