Safe Pace Defense Co. is a locally owned and operated business. I was born and raised in Astoria and have lived most of my life in Clatsop County. I was fortunate to grow up around firearms and started shooting at a very young age. Whether is was shooting with my dad at the police range, with the Boy Scouts at camp, or a local gun club, I had a lot of exposure to firearms thought out my upbringing. As an adult I started taking professionally taught classes but the problem was always funding. Between the cost of tuition, ammo, equipment, time off work, and the fuel to get to the class, it made it very difficult for a someone without a lot of money to afford quality training. It was always a dream of mine to one day have a facility where people could learn safety and skills without going broke in the process. For the previous 13ish years I had been in the construction industry, most recently in operations management and estimation. I was regularly taking different classes as a student but decided to leave my career in 2022 to focus full time on creating this business.

So what about our classes, what makes them different? 

All of our classroom based classes are limited to 20 people (other than special events) to create a more personal learning environment. We want everyone to get as much as possible from the class and be able to ask as many questions as they need to feel like they got the answer they are looking for. 

All of the shooting based classes are taught in our Smokeless Range Shooting Simulator. Before we opened, we looked at building an indoor range, an outdoor range, a traveling range and even some hybrid ideas. The problem with all of them was; the focus would be on managing and maintaining a shooting range, not on teaching safety and skills. By utilizing a simulator, we have around 900 programs and scenarios that can be tailored to the needs of every student. Whether than be tracking drills, defensive carry video simulations, or more animated activities for teaching youth classes, we can offer something to everyone. Whether your interest is in pistols, rifles or shotguns, we have you covered. Plus we can teach it in a safe, non-threatening environment, year round.