List last updated March 8, 2021.

Tactical

Manufacturers, retailers, trainers, and educators who are not aligned with or support the Alt-Right, law enforcement, or a major world power’s military force. Some of these resources might be leftist, anarchist, or progressive, while others might simply be not-right-wing. Our accidental bias in constructing this list is for US-based resources. We have received no compensation from anyone on this list.

Manufacturers & Retailers

Red Star Defense : Manufacturers of ceramic armor plates. Retailers of budget tactical gear including (as of this writing) plate carriers, ballistic helmets, tactical gloves, IFAKs, and radios. A worker-owned cooperative.

Conquest of Thread : Manufacturers of plate carriers (and soon, range bags). Each plate carrier comes with a lifetime warranty. A worker-owned cooperative.

Guerilla Tactical: Manufacturers of kydex holsters for inside and outside waistbands. Retailers of IFAKs (first aid kits for combat). Offers Stop the Bleed courses in the Portland, Oregon area. Sells anti-racist gun culture apparel.

Thousand Pikes: An FFL (licensed firearms dealer) in Reston, Virginia that offers weapons, ammunition, and custom gunsmithing and cerakote. They also offer trainings and personal protection. A worker-owned cooperative.

The People’s Armory : Retailer of firearms accessories in the the Portland, Oregon area, currently for local pickup and delivery only. BIPOC-owned, with an FFL license (to retail firearms) in the works. Currently retails ammunition, scopes, stocks, etc. etc… everything but the gun.

FAFO Defense: Online retailer of firearms accessories such as magazines, scopes etc. as well as medical gear at a good price. A worker-owned cooperative.

Rocket Armory: Producer of limited edition stripped lowers as well as shirts for liberal and leftist gun owners.

Training & Education

Video

Autonomous Alternative: A YouTube trainer who covers tactical gear and gunfighting while wearing an anti-colonial action shirt.

Tacticool Girlfriend : A YouTube trainer who covers a wide range of firearms-related topics. In her own words, “Tacticool Girlfriend is a project dedicated to creating an inviting and healthy space for people to explore their interest and expand accessibility to firearms in general.”

A.R.M.E.D. Combatives: A Black-run video series that covers armed and unarmed self-defense.

The Gun Penguin: Gear reviews and gun commentary from a perspective that is critical of the toxic elements of existing gun culture.

Armed Margins: “Firearm and self defense content for marginalized and vulnerable communities not well represented in larger gun culture.” With Mitch from the podcasts Red Dot District and Red Strings & Maroons. Also offer North Carolina concealed carry classes as well as security consulting.

Yellow Peril Tactical: An anticapitalist, anti-racist Instagram account run by a group of “East Asians educating others about firearms.”

Kalashnikoffing: An instagram gun video person who describes themselves as “姥姥core with a pile of guns.” Also posts on YouTube.

Deviant Ollam: While not exclusively offering tactical content, hacker Deviant Ollam covers a lot of tactical information, including a recent series on laser dry fire training.

Forgotten Weapons : One of the most popular firearms shows, probably of all time, Forgotten Weapons teaches the history of firearms. While I’m making no claims about the politics of the host, the show is not from a right-wing perspective.

InRangeTV: From the makers of Forgotten Weapons, a firearms gear and culture show that is also not right wing.

Queer Armorer: A YouTube channel that offers “videos about making guns and about gun rights from a queer, radical, vaguely socialist perspective.“

Written

The Skills For Revolutionary Survival series by the Indigenous Anarchist Federation: A series of articles covering firearms, trauma medical gear, radio communications, fieldcraft, and more.

A Demonstrator’s Guide series by CrimethInc: in-depth analysis aimed more at street demonstrations, including articles on gas masks and goggles, gunshot wound treatment, police batons, police riot munitions, and helmets.

Riot Medicine: a free book that covers street protest medical work in great depth, by Håkan Geijer.

How the White Overalls Beat the Cops with Tactics of Radical Defense : an article covering how and why protesters in the late 90s, early 2000s wore inner tubes and bore gigantic shields to defeat police tactics.

Audio

Red Dot District: A podcast covering gun culture as well as tattoo culture and other topics from an anarchist perspective. One host, Mitch, also works with Armed Margins (youtube channel, above) and previously hosted the guns-and-history podcast Red Strings & Maroons that is also worth listening to.

 Ballistic Radio: A podcast focusing on self-defense. They describe themselves: “If you’d like to learn more about how to better protect yourself, or how to better teach people to protect themselves, with ZERO emphasis on divisive and unrelated politics, this show is for you.”

The Sunshine Reformer Podcast: “a unique look at the left side of gun ownership, and the politics surrounding it.”

In-Person Training

WAP Firearms Services: A Bay-area organization that offers “safe, inclusive, accessible firearms instruction & smithing w/o the toxic cishet white male BS.”

Autonomous Projects Group: A group of trainers who describe themselves as “a decentralized, anti authoritarian training collective based in the southeast. Our curriculum is based in real world, ‘down-range’ experience, and aims to be up to date, realistic, and centering inclusivity and liberation. We offer individual and group trainings in tactical community defense, firearms manipulation, tactical combat casualty care, and much more.” Reachable by email: autonomousprojects@protonmail.com.

Organizations

 Liberal Gun Club: A membership organization that aims to provide “provide a pro-Second Amendment voice for left-of-center gun owners in the national conversations on firearms.” Offers trainings, forums, and a directory of trainers. Generally thought highly of not just by liberals but by Leftists in gun spaces as well.

Latino Rifle Association: Founded by a chicano libertarian socialist, this membership organization has local chapters throughout the US and is “dedicated to firearm education and advocacy from a Latino cultural perspective.”

Socialist Rifle Assocation: A membership organization registered as a non-profit whose mission is to “uphold the right of the working class to keep and bear arms and maintain the skills necessary for self and community defense.”

Preparedness

The Prepared: possibly the first non-rightwing preparedness blog I ever read. This site hosts years worth of quality research about, well, almost everything preparedness.

Community Ready Corps: a Black grassroots organization that offers information and trainings.

When/If: A newsletter for Leftist prepping.

Disaster prepping for less crazy folk: A document that introduces a non-rightwing, hacker-mindset perspective on prepping.