In late 2009, ONE on ONE Firearms founder and President, Joe Truesdale retired from the corporate world where he’d managed multiple facilities and hundreds of people. Joe’s previous career had kept him away from his family for too long, and was looking for a change. It would have to be something he loved, and his new career would have to let him enjoy family life.

When Joe moved back to California full-time, he applied for a CA CCW, and asked around for instructor recommendations.  After listened to the consensus, he signed up with a popular instructor at the time.  When Joe and his wife and attended the class, they were shocked at the inability of the instructor to communicate, teach, or perform.  He was nothing more than a “blowhard in camo with a drop leg holster” … clearly in it just for the money.  He conducted an 8-hour and 16-hour class simultaneously, finishing in about 6 hours…  When asked him about his business, the instructor said “It’s a license to print money.”  Clearly, one can’t begrudge someone a successful business, but this instructor’s motivation was not the student’s education.

Joe had started shooting competitively, mostly IDPA in 2005.  It rekindled his childhood shooting passion, and the awards started to stack up.  The light bulb had been switched on!  Joe decided to take his ability to communicate, honed from decades in leadership positions in the US Army and two of the largest transportation companies in the world, and match it with his passion for shooting.  The journey began…

Joe realized quickly that instructor ratings from the NRA would be important to offer professional firearms instruction. After successful NRA certification, and reviewing the NRA curriculum, Joe felt there had to be more. First, the NRA does not teach how to be a GOOD instructor, and secondly, there were so many other training opportunities out there when comes to shooting well and teaching efficiently.

Joe started traveling around the county training with the most recognized schools and instructors.  He also went to work as an instructor at a firearms academy in Nevada well known for its marketing…  Joe found the material dated, but the consistency of the presentation top notch.  In a short period, he’d put hundreds and hundreds of students in front of him, honing his skills as a firearms instructor.

ONE on ONE Firearms was officially launched in 2010. As Joe built the business plan, he knew that “personal, one-on-one attention to each student would be critical”. He offered private “golf pro” lessons, in addition to reasonably-sized, lower-cost group classes.  Instead of allowing classes to bulge at the seams, class sizes were capped. He then began a search for partners, not employees.  Joe would bring in talent to help build ONE on ONE Firearms LLC into the most respected and highest rated firearm training organization in Northern California.  Since then, Joe’s expressed his pride in bringing on business partners Sean Young (2014),  Fred Mowrey (2016), and Ryan Harrigan (2018).