Gebhard Solutions

I was born and raised in Germany, where I briefly joined a pistol team during my high school years and served mandatory military service in an airborne ranger unit prior to beginning my studies in mechanical/design engineering at the Technical University of Aachen/Germany.  In 1997, I relocated to Boston, MA for research on my Master's thesis.

By Spring of the following year, I took advantage of an engineering job opportunity in California and got interested in local shooting activities shortly after. The firearms experience from the military turned out to be not quite sufficient for sportive or civilian self-defense purposes, so I started taking classes with local instructors.

My enthusiasm sparked the interest of friends and co-workers and soon I found myself teaching them the basics. While having a solid foundation of knowledge about firearms and shooting, I did not have the abilities necessary to convey this knowledge effectively to someone else.

My research soon led me to the local NRA Training Counselor in the City of Orange where I received my qualification as pistol instructor. Qualifications as Range Safety Officer, Instructor for Personal Protection in the home and Low-Light Instructor through SureFire Institute followed.

In Fall of 2001, I started teaching based on the techniques and skills that I had acquired in the NRA-instructor program. 

In 2006, I took classes with Suarez International, which initiated a huge leap forward in techniques and teaching methods.   The classes go way beyond the normal 'square range' and provide students with an unparalleled feedback of how the things they learned work when have an attacker charging at them.  I wanted to offer this training to my students and took the opportunity to join Suarez International as Staff Instructor in Spring of 2007.

I would like to thank my wife Tanya for her ongoing support,  TJ Johnston, Bill & Cheryl Murphy, Gordon Hamilton and Gabe Suarez for their excellent training, which has enabled me to provide high quality training to my students.