About us
 Ours is the South Carolina Concealed Weapons Permit (CWP) and NRA Basic Pistol class that reporter Corey Hutchins took in the Columbia, SC, area and wrote about appreciatively in "Point Blank" for Columbia's Free Times (June 24-30, 2009):
"Joe Katz told us that he hoped we never had to fire a gun in self-defense. He said we should never try and be a hero. But if the day ever came when our world broke apart, when there was some brutal force trying to take our lives or the lives of those around us — when our hands shook and our hearts raced — then we would remember Joe's voice and exactly what he told us to do.
"If that day ever comes I will hear that voice."
 On June 21, 2010, the NRA Womens Programs named Janet Katz "one of our most outstanding trainers." Janet is the focus of "Meet the women of the NRA: Janet Katz" on the NRA Blog for July 8, 2010.
Janet especially enjoys teaching women, people with no experience, and anyone who is afraid or apprehensive about firearms. She's good at it. At the 2007 "Women in the Outdoors" event of the Wild Turkey Federation, for which she was asked to provide shotgun instruction, Janet taught women who had never before even held a shotgun and were frightened by guns. After just a short time in Janet's calming presence and as a result of her evident skills those women grew confident and enjoyed the experience. It's who Janet is, what she does, and how she does it.
 We've been distinguished from other instructors for many years. Janet Katz was featured in Women and Guns magazine (July/August 2005), the national magazine for the Womens Firearms Network published by the Second Amendment Foundation, for her notable participation in a high-level advanced handgun workshop with Chuck Taylor, Massad Ayoob, Frank Cornwall, and other well-known experts. Janet has national respect from people who know. She earned that respect and she continues to earn it.
 In fact industry professionals seek our opinion and value it. In 2012 Janet evaluated a number of chest rigs for AK-47 magazines to find those most suitable for women. Her top choice is featured on the Beez Combat Systems blog. Janet's choice: the BCS Low Profile AK-47 chest rig. It is a minimalist rig designed for men that allows women to carry three AK-47 magazines comfortably and usefully. The design, the minimalism, and the nature of its adjustments combine to help women make effective use of Kalashnikov pattern rifles for defense.
Of course Janet also knows AR pattern rifles their
application for defensive purposes by civilians. We work at uncommon levels of professionalism and detail.
We have decades of experience teaching people
how to protect themselves and their families
 We're not newcomers and
we have much more than book learning behind us. In fact we've been around a long time, helping people protect themselves, and continuing to gain valuable experience every year. Shown here is the Certificate of Recognition awarded by the Secretary of Defense to Joseph Katz for his service to the United States during the Cold War.
We're serious about what we do and we work hard to
do it right. We raised our own children safely around guns of many kinds, so we can teach home firearm safety from real experience. It's not theoretical to us. We've proven that we know what we're doing.
 Paladin Services LLC was founded in 1992 by Dr. Joseph Katz and Janet Katz as a limited liability company based in Columbia, South Carolina, but with national scope to help people learn how to protect themselves and their families. In fact this web site—the web site you're now reading—has been online since June 2, 1997, and we keep it current. We've been doing this work for a long time.
We stay current while avoiding fads, fashions, and fantasies.
 We don't want anything bad to happen to you and we'll teach you to avoid or escape potentially deadly confrontations. But if you can't avoid or evade or escape a real world nightmare you'll want the echoes of our voice to guide you to prevail. We know that what we teach you now could be the only help available when help is what you desparately need to save your life or your family. We teach you as well as we know how. And we do know how.
We're SLED-Certified CWP Instructors
and NRA-Certified Instructors in every major area
Both Janet Katz and Joseph Katz are SLED-Certified South Carolina CWP Instructors. And both are NRA-Certified Instructors in every major discipline, including:
- NRA-Certified Pistol Instructors
- NRA-Certified Shotgun Instructors
- NRA-Certified Rifle Instructors
- NRA-Certified Refuse To Be A Victim Instructors
- NRA-Certified Personal Protection In The Home Instructors
- NRA-Certified Personal Protection Outside The Home Instructors (Basic and Advanced)
- NRA-Certified Home Firearm Safety Instructors
Other members of our teaching team are certified in one or more of those disciplines.
Joseph Katz is certified for Youth Protection Training
by the Boy Scouts of America.
 Both Joseph Katz and Janet Katz were chosen to be among the very first NRA-Certifed Advanced Pistol Instructors. We are proud to be members of that small group of trainers selected to teach advanced defensive pistol techniques and applications to people who are serious about defending their lives. As members of that very select group we are recognized for practicing the highest standards each and every time we handle a firearm or conduct a course.
We're the people who select, teach, and certify
Instructors and Range Safety Officers
We're honored that the NRA appointed both Joseph
Katz and Janet
Katz to be Training Counselors at the  same time. "Training Counselor" is the rank for the relatively small number of highly-trained and trusted people in the United States who are authorized to select, instruct, and certify other instructors in the knowledge, skills, and attitude needed to teach certified firearms classes.
So when you take classes from Paladin Services LLC you are working directly with people appointed to teach other teachers and certify other instructors. As they have done throughout most of their lives, we're always on the alert to develop good, reliable, certified instructors. It's among the responsibilities we take most seriously.
We also teach the Range Safety Officer training class for the safety personnel who supervise well-managed shooting ranges throughout the U.S., and we're the people who recommend their certification.
In fact both Joseph Katz and Janet Katz are NRA-Certified Chief Range Safety Officers. (Chief Range Safety Officers are those people who possess the knowledge, skills, and attitude essential to organizing, conducting, and supervising safe shooting activities and range operations. As we explain to our classes, safety is always our foremost concern.)
We're nationally recognized professionals
Teaching is not a sideline or hobby for us nor a passing interest or just a job or a way to supplement our income. We're not moonlighting. We're well-trained, certified, and experienced professionals. We're  teachers. Helping people learn has been our profession throughout both our lives. Joe and Janet together have decades of fulltime professional experience as educators at many levels and in many contexts.
Our proven skills include teaching, research, lecturing, communications, writing, designing, publishing, and creating instructional materials in all major media to help people learn things, do things, and understand what they're doing. We enjoy helping people learn at every level and age, and we have focused our lives on it. We have won national awards and honors as instructors and teachers.
We'll teach you how to protect yourself
and your family in your home and outside
We're serious about what we do. We can do what we teach and we're highly trained for it. Our chosen focus is on personal protection and self-defense for ordinary people. We don't play games or teach them.
Although we do teach law enforcement and military personnel, our point-of-view is on their lives and roles as civilians, not as warriors. Both Joe and Janet Katz are trained extensively in the defensive use of firearms by civilians. Both have completed many advanced tactical handgun and long gun courses from widely-recognized, highly-respected experts. Other team members have appropriate experience.
We continue to learn so we can teach you better
 We are committed to lifelong learning. Both of us have trained in the legal, ethical, and moral aspects of the Judicious Use of Deadly Force with Massad Ayoob, the renowned expert and expert witness in the field. We also are Stressfire-trained by Ayoob and the Lethal Force Institute in both pistol and shotgun. And we are invitees to LFI workshops and reunions. Our instruction in the legal aspects of self-defense is informed by advanced training from nationally known experts. We were among the first Instructor Members of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network. We sponsor our students for membership in the Network. Neither of us is a lawyer nor pretends to be one, so we will not give legal advice or counsel.
Janet and Joe are trained extensively in the defensive use of handguns and shotguns by Ayoob, Louis Awerbuck (Yavapai Firearms Academy) and Randy Cain (Cumberland Tactics). We have trained with Chuck Taylor (American Small Arms Academy) and Frank Cornwall (Defense Associates): when we teach the speed rock technique invented by Chuck Taylor and adopted by the NRA for its Personal Protection courses, we teach it as we learned it from Taylor himself.
We—both Joseph Katz and Janet Katz—are aware of the legal aspects: we have studied the law of self defense in South Carolina and North Carolina with Andrew Branca, who wrote the book.
With our understanding that not all confrontations
require potentially lethal force we can distinguish among situations and address them appropriately: both of us—Joseph Katz and
Janet Katz—also are certified Safariland/Defense
Technology OC ("pepper spray") instructors.
We actively support and assist law enforcement
 Joseph Katz and Janet Katz and Paladin Services LLC are Sustaining Members of the South Carolina Police Chiefs Association. We've been members of SCPCA since 2006.
We also assist the South Carolina Law Enforcement Assistance Program (an agency of the state's major law enforcement agencies: SLED; South Carolina Department of Public Safety; South Carolina Department of Natural Resources; and South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services).
Our concerns are ethical and moral too. Janet Katz is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Chaplaincy for Law Enforcement and has continued her service throughout the years.
We're active in the major Second Amendment associations
 On the national level Joseph and Janet Katz—both of us—are Benefactor Life Members of the National Rifle Association (NRA), enthusiastically support it, and actively assist its training, education, and recruitment. Both of us are Life Members of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and members of its Defenders Club. SAF has a noteworthy track record in supporting legal actions, or amicus briefs, in cases affecting the right to keep and bear arms. It maintains an attorney referral service with a network of attorneys who specialize in firearms cases.
On the state and local levels we're members of GrassRoots South Carolina, Gun Owners of South Carolina, and the Mid-Carolina Rifle Club. We're happy to sponsor our students for membership in those organizations.
At the very least we hope you'll join us in standing up for your right to protect your life and the lives of the people you love. Edmund Burke (1729-1797), the English statesman who supported the American Revolution, said it well: "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one . . . ."
It is incredibly foolish to believe that our children are best protected when their parents are forbidden the means with which to defend them. Never allow yourself to be persuaded that life is somehow better or safer when society is regulated by laws created to control criminals or the mentally ill. Want more. Want better. Want life.
Self defense—the ability to defend yourself against bad people who want to kill you or cause great bodily harm—is not a privilege to be granted or denied by governments or politicians or the media or the ignorant or the fearful or any combination of other people. Self-defense is the natural right of all human beings. It is valued most by civilized people who cherish human life. It was Burke who said it another way too: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Here's our bottom line . . .
 We believe in—and firmly support—the fundamental right of people to defend their own lives and protect their families.
Despite shrill denials and loud protests from those whose self-interest lies elsewhere, the Supreme Court of the United States in its District of Columbia v. Heller decision of 2008 and in its McDonald v. Chicago decision of 2010 reaffirmed what is obvious to any rational person with respectable motives: self-defense is an individual right—a natural, inherent, and fundamental right of all humanity.
The founders of the United States of America recognized that natural right of ordinary people when they published a Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
But that inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a sham when people are denied the means to defend their lives or their freedom or their aspirations.
Ordinary people have the inalienable right, affirmed by the Constitution of the United States, to own and use firearms to protect themselves and their children if necessary. The Constitution does not create that right: it guarantees that our government will never attempt to restrict or deny the right.
Nor is that right reserved to the politically powerful or well-connected. People have the right to live regardless of factors such as race, religion, national origin, age, sex, or political affiliation.
We think it's unwise for anyone to deny or reject or refuse the means of saving their own lives and we don't understand why some people insist upon being helpless and incapable of defending themselves and their families. Of course we most certainly do understand why agressive people want to deny others the right to defend themselves and why they think they can tell the rest of us what we "need" or don't "need." There is no lack of tyrants throughout history and never an absence of mean little people and bullies.
But we cherish human life. We believe that you have a right to control your own life on Earth and that nobody has a right to dominate you. That's why we teach. We know that someday your life might depend on what you learn with our help.
So what's your bottom line?
 No matter what anyone says, you won't have time to figure out what to do for the first time during a deadly force confrontation. You certainly won't "rise to the occasion." Nobody rises to an occasion when they must react to an unprovoked life threatening attack for the first time, except maybe in the movies, and often not even then. In any case you don't live in a movie. You need to be taught what you need to do in real life.
That's where we enter the picture. We don't teach you to be a mall ninja or fantasy warrior. We teach real people real things for the real world. We take you as you are and train you to do your best. Avoid potentially life-threatening confrontations; evade and escape those you could not avoid; prevail when a deadly force confrontation is inescapable.
Paladin Services LLC and its senior instructors Janet Katz and Joseph Katz, are nationally recognized, we know what we're doing, we're proven teachers of adults, we have the years and the mileage and the experience that comes only with life's treadmarks, and we're on your side. We're in it for life.
Email us now. Please include your local telephone number so we can answer your questions and determine your needs.
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