Selling Confi dence

TRAINING

Selling Confidence

Dark Horse Training wants to train the world in self-defense C hris Sebestyen is passionate about the safety of others.

Through Dark Horse Training 6, By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Photos by Pablo Robles pending if they’re beginning or advanced. Sebestyen offers discounts for first responders, military, law enforcement, nurses, teachers and real estate agents.

“When I say ‘safety,’ I don’t mean your want people to have that comfort. It’s an unhouse or car,” says Sebestyen, an Anthem easy feeling if you don’t know what you’re resident. “It’s more of a confidence you have doing—especially during the pandemic. in your ability to remain safe. I like to teach People who were first-time buyers, they didn’t that part of it. know what they wanted. They just knew they

“Once I’m done training someone with a needed a firearm.” firearm, they have a different look in their Sebestyen will prep buildings for gun owneyes. There’s a confidence and they know they ership, too, to make sure the weapon is out of can defend themselves and their family.” the sight of children, and how to access it if

Dark Horse Training offers classes for every someone did enter the home.” level of self-defense, including pistol, rifle, long-range, designated marksman, shotgun Record holder and suppressed weapons. Sebestyen also ofSebestyen’s father had a number of firearms fer courses on gun basics, such as cleaning, when he was growing up and frequently took assembly and disassembly, and how to build his son shooting. He joined the Boy Scouts at your first automatic rifle. a “very early age” and has the title of youngest

“I mainly work out of my house,” Sebestyen Eagle Scout in California. It was there that he says. “I sell and build firearms and transfer was exposed to firearm safety and archery. firearms. I do a lot of gun transfers, too. My “In the ’90s, I was living in San Diego,” he primary location is at Ben Avery, where my explains. “There was no war going on. I lived classes are on one of their main three ranges between Camp Pendleton Marine Base and that’s private.” San Diego Naval Base. A lot of my friends

His classes range from $120 to $250, dewere higher-end special warfare operators.

“I have rifle-building classes once a month,” he ensures clients are confident about their Sebestyen says. “We’ll shoot it and I’ll give gun-handling abilities. you a discount on the first class. I really just

They took me under their wings because I wasn’t military, and they trained with me. It bumped my skillset up.”

One person with whom he trained was former U.S. Army Ranger and CIA security contractor Kris Paronto, who is known for his heroic actions during the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stephens.

“Kris Paronto is a friend of one of my friends here in town, who is an Army Ranger,” he adds. “It’s a small world when you start to pick those pieces apart. I was fortunate to spend time with those guys and pick their brains.”

Sebestyen’s students are generally between mid-20s to mid-40s—many of them are females.

“The funny part of it is, the females will outshoot the males in my classes,” he says. “The hit percentage is 85% and most guys are 75%, which I find pretty funny. The guys get a little riled, especially when their wives are taking the classes.

“Women just have an inherent calmness about them that guys do not possess. Women possess an inherent calmness with a firearm.”

Gun sales, he says, increased during the pandemic. He normally sells 10 to 15 guns a month.

“During the pandemic, I was selling or transferring over 200 a month,” he says. “When fear is introduced into the public, the fi rst thought is to protect themselves and their families and to protect where they live and the things they gathered, like food and water, for example.

“We, as Americans, have an inherent nature to buy a fi rearm. Th is country was formed fi ghting for freedoms from the British with fi rearms. We’ve learned guns are the best line of defense. Even though Hollywood glamorizes it, I teach in my class all the time to not hide behind your car door when someone’s shooting at you.” Self-defense classes

Dark Horse Training 6 off ers a variety of self-defense training classes, too, such as close-quarters defense, weapons defense with edged and nonedged weapons, pistols and rifl es. Since March, when COVID-19 swept the world, Sebestyen has seen an uptick in people signing up for martial arts classes.

“People are signing up left and right,” he says. “Being able to defend themselves from an attacker is key.”

Sebestyen trains with Omur Cor at Infi nite Brazilian Jiujitsu and Mixed Martial

Arts in Anthem, and with Daniel Madrid at Legion MMA in Deer Valley Business Park in Phoenix.

“I started training jiujitsu three years ago,” Sebestyen says. “I found jiujitsu and MMA enhance your ability to defend yourself. Everybody has that darkness in their brain. Th ey keep that at bay, but I could harness that if the need would arise. Krav maga is another great martial art.”

He works with Florida’s Force IMI, which uses advanced methods and skills derived from the Israeli military and Homeland Security experience.

“I’ve traveled to a lot of places and seen the diff erent walks of life,” Sebestyen says. “We’re so fortunate to live in a country that is truly free, where we don’t have to worry as much about defending ourselves on a daily basis like in South America, the Middle East or Europe. You see that the lack of empathy for regular life isn’t there and people would take your life without thinking twice. It’s scary to me that we would treat another human that way.

“I heard a podcast with Dakota Meyer,

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the youngest Medal of Honor recipient. Th e story he told (about the Middle East) was heart-wrenching. Th ese people have no care for what they do to you, yet they found other fi ghters who lived in the country who were kindhearted and wanted to fi ght against terrorism. How can that dichotomy exist in one country? Th at brutality and evil is unheard of. I want to make sure I’ve trained enough people to defend ourselves.”

In the meantime, gun owners should always refresh their skills to maintain that innate confi dence.

“I want you to leave the class with it,” he says. “If you haven’t gained that, come back to a second class. If someone hadn’t shot a gun in 10 years and had to defend their life, their trigger discipline wouldn’t be good. If people don’t actively train, they are at a disadvantage. I don’t sell fi rearms training. Th at confi dence is what will win in a fi ght.”

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