As the founder and director of the Aquila Training Academy in 1994, Chris Evans, has been personally involved with firearms for the last 50 years as a collector of military and law-enforcement firearms, student of civilian and police tactical training, and as a shooter. He represented Eastern Province in national events between the years of 1983-1985 as a target pistol sports shooter and qualified as a South African Pistol Association (SAPA) Range Officer (RO) in 1982.
As a founder member since 1985, he has served the members of the South African Gun Owners Association (SAGA) as Regional Chairman since the formation of the Eastern Cape region in 1989, as national news editor, and in the office of National Chairman (President) for three and an half years, resigning from the organization in 2001.
As a student of global firearm legislation, he was instrumental in pioneering South African representation at the International Conferences on Firearm Legislation with other pro firearm bodies such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the USA, Sporting Shooters Associations of Australia (SSAA) and New Zealand (SSANZ), the National Firearms Association (NFA) in Canada, the BDMF in Germany, etc., and personally represented this country at these meetings in 1993 and 1995. He represented South Africa at the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA) in Nurenburg, Germany in 2000.
He was a full member of the American Society for Law Enforcement Training (ASLET) (no 010557) and a member of the Police Marksman Association (PMA) that was based in Montgomery, Alabama in the United States of America from 1982 till it disbanded. He has been a member of the International Police Association (IPA) since 1985 and had the opportunity to spend a short time with the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) of the Queensland Police in Brisbane, Australia. He was also a Charter Member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) (no 1134-C) which was formed in the United States in 2001. He is affiliated to and has been certificated by the International Training Academy (ITA) based in Krugersdorp, Gauteng. He has served on committees such as the Provincial Crime Combating Committee (PCCC), Business Partnership Against Crime (BPAC) and Business Against Crime (BAC), forums based in the Port Elizabeth, now the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipal metropole which implemented ways in which organized business and industry and the police could co-operate to work to reduce the level of violent crime and criminal activity.
He has been fully trained in the use of small arms, handguns, sub-machine guns, shotguns and rifles by both the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the South African Police Service (SAPS), and for nearly three decades served the community as a reservist police officer.
He is a certified instructor in basic, intermediate and advanced levels in handgun, shotgun, rifle, tactical handgun, tactical shotgun, tactical carbine and tactical rifle, including assault rifle. As a training counselor, he is qualified to train instructors in all of the aforementioned disciplines and is certified by the International Training Academy (ITA), S/C/V number TC026, and the University of South Africa (UNISA), registration number 00/TC/004. He is also an instructor in the tactical application of OC products and has developed the Aquila TOCAT (Tactical Oleoresin Capsicum Aerosol Training) course for learners and instructors. He is a registered assessor and moderator on the Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP) Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA), endorsement numbers 1210 and 2417415Q, the Safety and Security (SAS) SETA, registration number RAS0122,and the South African Professional Firearm Trainers Council (SAPFTC), in line with the SAQA process. In 2005, he competently completed a Verifier's Course and has received his registration in this regard. He has been allocated registration numbers by the SASSETA and SAPFTC, assessor registration number: 19A05300411, moderator registration number: 19M15930506 and verifier registration number: 19V25850602 ).
Study
As there has been very little ongoing local study in the defensive use of firearms by women, he has over the past several decades researched much of the available subject material from countries like the USA, Canada and the UK, and attempted to provide this group of firearm users with practical and workable solutions to their specific needs. Two of the ladies that have done an extensive amount of work in training women in the USA are Gila May-Hayes, author of The Woman, The Plan, The Gun, and Paxton Quigley author of Armed & Female and Not an Easy Target. The Aquila Training Academy has benefited from these years of research and now offers specialised courses for this special interest group.
Besides his ongoing relationship with law-enforcement trainers and training associations around the world, the writings of several combat masters and specialists such as Jeff Cooper of the American Pistol Institute (Paulden, Arizona, USA), John Shaw of Mid South Institute of Self Defense (USA), Mike Dalton & Mickey Fowler of International Shootists Inc. (ISI) (Los Angeles, California, USA), Ken Hackathorne, John Pride of the Los Angeles Police Dept (LAPD) (California, USA), Bill Clede, James D Mason, William Fairbairn, Bill Jordan, Chuck Taylor, Paul B Wesson, Jerry Ahern and others have been studied to stay abreast of developments in combat shooting.
Police tactical instructors and institutions such as Colin Greenwood (UK), Massad Ayoob of Lethal Force Institute (LFI) (Concord, New Hampshire, USA), Ray Chapman of Chapman Academy (Columbia, Missouri, USA), John S Farnam of Defense Training Inc. (DTI) (USA), John G Peters of Defensive Tactics Institute Inc. (USA), James W Lindell of Kansas City Police Dept (KCPD) (Missouri, USA), Mark V Lonsdale (Director of STTU, USA), Gabriel Suarez (California, USA), Charles Remsberg & Dennis Anderson of Calibre Press, Inc. and Street Survival Seminars (Northbrook, Illinois, USA) and Ron Barber of In the Line of Duty Inc. (St Louis, Missouri, USA) have played a great part in the development of current Academy training.
Personal mobile number for emergency use only +27723454282
Updated 01 January 2023
