Brian Bowen

Brian “Doc” Bowen

Founder & Chief Instructor, Firearms Safety First, LLC

Brian “Doc” Bowen is a 17-year U.S. Navy veteran, former Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Hospital Corpsman, educator, mentor, and Founder & Chief Instructor of Firearms Safety First, LLC, serving students throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.

As a USCCA Certified Firearms Instructor and Range Safety Officer, Maryland Qualified Handgun Instructor (QHIC), and Delaware Certified CCDW Instructor, Doc works with students ranging from first-time firearm owners to experienced shooters, military veterans, professionals, families, women, seniors, and young adults.

Doc’s teaching philosophy goes beyond learning how to operate or shoot a firearm. He believes responsible personal protection begins with judgment, situational awareness, conflict avoidance, emotional control, legal awareness, and understanding when—and when not—to use force.

“I don’t teach people what to think. I teach them how to think before they decide.”

Students are encouraged to develop What-If Thinking: recognizing changes in their environment, considering available options, and making sound decisions before circumstances force them into reaction.

Doc’s instruction combines technical firearms proficiency with practical decision-making and real-world application. His training includes concealed carry and permit certification, firearms safety and responsible ownership, defensive pistol, holster draw, personal and home defense, situational awareness, conflict avoidance, and legal use-of-force education.

A significant part of Doc’s work also involves mentoring and developing firearms instructors. He works with newer instructors on classroom delivery, student engagement, safety, range management, diagnosing student performance, instructional judgment, and developing the confidence to teach rather than simply present curriculum.

Doc is also the developer of RIRR — Recognize • Interrupt • Reset • Recover, a performance-recovery framework used to help students and instructors recognize when stress, frustration, overload, or performance degradation begins affecting judgment or execution, interrupt the decline, reset, and return to effective performance.

His approach emphasizes that firearms ownership and concealed carry are more than technical skills—they are lifestyle choices that require responsibility, accountability, continued training, and sound judgment both on and off the range.

Whether working with a first-time firearm owner, an experienced student, or a developing instructor, Doc’s objective isn’t simply course completion or qualification. It is helping people become safer, more capable, more confident, and more thoughtful decision-makers who understand the responsibility that comes with owning and carrying a firearm.

Better Decisions Today Create Safer Communities Tomorrow.