What are your Instructor Qualifications?
All AFT instructors have either: NRA or USCCA Instructor certifications in the disciplines they teach, have police or military experience, or have gone through a comprehensive instructor training course designed by us.
How long have you been in business?
Atlanta Firearms Training was started in 2009 by two airline instructor pilots who were upper level IDPA competitors. The company is currently owned by Chuck Marable, a former student and certified NRA/USCCA instructor in multiple disciplines. We have, as of January 2026, trained over 3,500 students.
Where are you located?
Our primary classroom is located in Stone Mountain, GA. We frequently conduct shooting at Bullseye Gun Range in Lawrenceville, South River Gun Club in Covington, and Freedom Shooting Center in Midtown Atlanta. Occasionally, we may set up private or group sessions at a range closer the customer.
What is the format of a typical class?
All classes include classroom instruction and practical gun handling without live ammo. Most classes will have a live fire shooting component as well. Depending on the course, these sessions may be held on the same day or multiple days. For example, our comprehensive classes usually have up to a full 8 hour classroom day followed by 3-4 hours of live fire instruction on a second day. Textbooks are always provided (electronically in some cases) .
Advanced courses or one day courses which concentrate on just shooting skills presume that the student possesses all relevant knowledge and basic precursor skills and do not include a classroom day or textbook.
What is your Training Philosophy?
Our core values are to convey at least a basic level of proficiency in every class we offer. The original owners, being formally trained airline instructor pilots, bristled at the courses they took coming up in shooting. Many of these courses we took are as much entertainment as they are training – lots of exercises but with a minimum round count per exercise.
Adult learning principles teach us that proficiency requires practice and repetition. Sports kinesiology teaches us that to master a skill can take up to 10,000 hours. We understand that you won’t have that much time to spend with us. We have designed sufficient round count into each skill to provide for a minimum level of muscle memory which we hope will follow the student home. Subsequently you may notice we teach fewer skills per class than some other training providers – proficiency is the reason. We design our basic level courses with a minimum 3 hours of classroom work and 1 hour practical shooting to provide a fundamental education of the discipline being taught. Our comprehensive classes are longer, with as much as 8 hours of classroom work and 3 hours of shooting practice.
What are your Business Hours?
We are a part time business and all instructors have full time jobs in other fields. We offer classes primarily on weekends and occasionally private instruction during the week. We can be best contacted by email. We will respond usually within 24 hours of your query.
On our available days we generally answer the phone between 9:00am and 6:00pm as we can. Otherwise phone calls will be returned as we become available. We appreciate your patience in this.
What payment methods do you accept?
We accept payments through Square, which means we accept major credit/debit cards. We do not use any other payment method (not under any circumstances).
Refunds & Cancellations
What is your Refund Policy?
It takes a tremendous amount of planning and coordination to get the resources in place to conduct a safe and effective firearms training class. Please be sure that you can commit to taking your scheduled class. Our classes require full payment at the time of booking. ABSOLUTELY NO REFUNDS or credits will be issued for cancellations or no-shows, regardless of when the cancellation is made.
Rescheduling Policy:
If notification is received at least 14 days prior to the scheduled course date, you can reschedule for the same course at a later date, sub