Lately my enthusiasm for buying new guns has shifted.  With everything that has been going on in the world today, (terrorism, weather disasters etc) I'm starting to put more of an emphasis on survival in the event of a SHTF or other type of disaster.   With that said, I've shifted my "buying new toys" fund to getting my disaster preparations up to snuff.  I've created BOBs for me and my family along with stocking up on ammo, MREs, water purification, cold weather clothing, and first aid kits etc.  

One of the things I've noticed is that in the actual event of a disaster or SHTF scenario I'll have the equipment and supplies needed but not necessarily the knowledge to support me and mine.  Even in normal times, I'm not really sure how I would handle someone coming at me with a knife to mug me where I couldn't get to my gun in time.  While I would hope that I'd be able to fend for myself, I really don't know.  This leads me to why I started this post.  

I'd like to start taking some classes on defensive tactics, survival, close quarter defense etc.  I've looked online for places in the North East, but most seemed to be geared towards Law Enforcement personnel and I haven't found any that go into Survival during a SHTF scenario or something similar.    Can anyone suggest what would be good classes to take to cover what I'm looking for?   Also, does anyone know of a place in the North East that does this type of training?   I'm not against traveling for a weekend to take a class, but closer to home would be better.  

I appreciate any help with this.   Thanks  

Survival

Go to "class"?

OK...you want to know how to survive if the SHTF?  You want to learn survival tactics under extreme conditions?

Join the Army and become a Ranger.

Join the Navy and become a SEAL.

Join the Marines and join Force Recon.

Join the Air Force and join the Para Rescuers.

Check out  WWW. FIREINSTITUTE.ORG

They are located in Pittsburgh Pa. so a little travel would be required but they offer quite a few classes to get you where you want to be with a firearm.

Burl1

you gear is useless if you dont know how to use it with confidence...

Quoted: you gear is useless if you dont know how to use it with confidence...

And you can say that but offer no guidance?? What's the point of posting anything than?

Rockrivr1- start out by looking for Red Cross classes for like CPR etc.
As for "survival school" meet up with the NE crew from the survival forum for a campout, lots of guys that know thier shit and are willing to teach you stuff.

For firearms training, well I'm not sure whats close to you, but there are a lot of options out there. A bunch of us here in Wisconsin got together and did the Defensive Edge Cabine 1&2 class like two weeks ago or so. Great class, learned a shitload of stuff and the price was easy enough on the ol' wallet which was great.

Also get out an go camping(bug out) for the weekend sometime go do some camping and see what gear works and what doesn't.

Hope some of this helps.

A survival situation is simply the dialing down technology.  If you want to survive you must dial the technology back up to a sustaining level.  

You don’t know it now but at this moment you are in a survival situation.  I bet you live in a nice warm and cozy house with electricity, water, sewer, natural gas, heating oil.  

Loose one of them and your survival situation has gotten more serious.  How do you replace it or learn to live without it?  Can you live without it?  How do you improve your situation?  Do you need to waste energy tying to improve the situation?  Survival is simply taking the time to think about your actions and not making bad enough mistakes to get yourself killed.  

Think for yourself.  What do I have to do?  How can I do it with the tools I have on hand?  Why should I do it?  if you can’t satisfy a real need you may not want to expend the energy.  .  

Pick up some books.  Two I like are SAS survival manual and Tom Brown’s field guide to wilderness Survival.  Mountaineering (freedom of the hills) is also good for snowy weather.  Study them.  Practice the techniques in them.  

You don’t need to got to school.
 

There are several assets that you need 'schooling' for, in your theoretical example.

The first would be some relatively basic combat.  Frontsight and other schools will help you gain a basic shooting competency.  

I'd also suggest a school like Sigarms Academy, that will teach you not only pistol skills, but you can also learn other things like weapon retention.

There are many places where you can learn at least the basic forms of hand to hand combat.  Too numerous to mention.  Pick a style and practice it a lot.  (good exercise as well)

For wilderness survival, I would suggest experience.  Take that gear you've packed up, and go on increasingly longer trips.  Figuure out which gear you use, and which just sits in your pack weighing it down, and most importantly,  what you're missing.

For urban survival, you'll have to investigate that yourself.  Urban areas vary so widely, it isn't easy to give advice if you don't live there.  Just make sure you have a way of obtaining all of the basic necesseties of life, for however long you picture your theoretical SHTF event lasting.

I'm also a fan of CPR and Wilderness EMT certifications.  

Like others have said, training is pretty easy to come by. Your technicial college probably offers an EMT-Basic course. If not, the Red Cross First Responder course isn't bad. Joining a local orinteering group for a while isn't a bad way to learn land nav skills. There are a whole bunch of shooting schools, from Thunder ranch and Blackwater to smaller local places. FEMA offers on line courses in haz mat, radiological emergencies and other stuff. REI and other large outdoor stores often offer workshops on different aspects of camping and such.

For the past several years, I've made it a point to buget vacation time and money for at least one class each year. I just took a 2 day carbine course through Defensive Edge weekend before last (the one Photoman referenced), and found it to be excellent training. The WI crew is just starting to plan get togethers to share and practice skills. maybe you could do something similar via the hometown board.

May want to post this in survival forum and the hometown.  Hook up with some guys close to you for some joint exercises.

Do you have any training, at all, in anything?  

LOL, training of any kind?   Well yeah, if you count working a flight deck in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  I can wire the crap out of an F4 or FA-18 if the need arises.  But it's pretty useless if I'm in the hills trying to survive.  Unfortunately, I'm to old to go back into the military.  If I wasn't I would be back in now helping out as I could.  

Thanks photoman,  I was thinking the same thing when I read the post before yours.  The reason I posted this is so I can start taking some advise and move forward with some training.  I'm not sure why, but recently I've got this feeling like I need to be ready.   Ready for what?  I have no idea, but I think getting decent knowledge in a few survival things is a good idea.  

Thanks everyone for the great advise.  I think I will post this in the survival forum as well to see what they say over there.  

You should get some first aid certification, look at the YMCA or something for some self defense things, watch the move The Edge a few times, and get some confidence, you'll feel better. If you have the time/money/energy to take a survival course, go for it, it seems it would make you feel better, and you'd probably have a lot of fun. An old UDT guy from Vietnam took a group of us camping/canoeing for 6 days out in Michigin(it was a group of Eagle Scouts). It was an amazing expirience, we brought some trail food, fishing poles, a few rifles, etc, and went out and lived in the wilderness for a few days. Never saw another person until we hitched out.

Im not so far from you regionally so here a re a few pointers. First, though are you looking for local b/c theres no $$ to travel? Perhaps some of the better classes arent heald in NE. At any rate...SIG Academy is very good. They allow 'responsibile civilians' top take all (or most of their classes). Theres one on terrorists threats and the like as well as the gun handling/usign type classes. Theyre located in Exeter and have a website off of the SIG site. Then theres LFI in Concord which I think is pretty much weapons only. Manchester Firing Line in Manchester has some classes...mostly of the introductory level on  weapons handling. Im sure there are others in MA but I have no knowledge of them. Depending on where you are in MA you could be in for a really bad ride in the event of a disaster. HTH

Quoted: LOL, training of any kind?   Well yeah, if you count working a flight deck in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  I can wire the crap out of an F4 or FA-18 if the need arises.  But it's pretty useless if I'm in the hills trying to survive.  Unfortunately, I'm to old to go back into the military.  If I wasn't I would be back in now helping out as I could.   Thanks photoman,  I was thinking the same thing when I read the post before yours.  The reason I posted this is so I can start taking some advise and move forward with some training.  I'm not sure why, but recently I've got this feeling like I need to be ready.   Ready for what?  I have no idea, but I think getting decent knowledge in a few survival things is a good idea.   Thanks everyone for the great advise.  I think I will post this in the survival forum as well to see what they say over there.

For what it's worth, I was inquiring about survival/weapons, etc type training.  Just trying to get an idea of your background so as to know where to start with advice.  Already enough posted.  If I can help in anything, ask.

Quoted: Check out  Fire Institute They are located in Pittsburgh Pa. so a little travel would be required but they offer quite a few classes to get you where you want to be with a firearm. Burl1

BIG +1 on this idea.  I've taken several course from Pete & Giles and the firearms training is great, and at a very reasonable price.

Many of us on AR15.com have taken their courses Myself, F4YR, Ops, Bugler, TonyF, SlimeBall, the 'NY Crew', and others.

If you want to learn more about their courses check out their website (which has links to review done on their courses).  Or check out the reviews posted here: Training Reviews at www.MD-AR15.com

Also in NH Massad Ayoob runs his fireamrs courses, and in CT Chuck Taylor runs courses annually in Wallingford.

These are all firearms training - You'd also have to take courses from the Red Cross in CPR & First Aid.  The 'Survival' aspect is depending on what you are defining as 'survial'.  'Wilderness survival' in how to live off the land - or urban/surburban survial - how to prepare and continue living in your area after a major societal incident.

BTW Are you planning to run your whole clan thru these classes? In case of problems everybody needs to be on the same page.