About

Born in West Virginia, Bill grew-up a lover of the outdoors.

He spent all his childhood hiking, hunting, fishing, and skiing.  He was raised by a career military father (who achieved one of the highest ranks that an enlisted man could achieve) and a mother who worked as a Registered Nurse and devoted most of her life to the Catholic Church.  Bill was raised by two very inspiring parents who taught him the values of integrity, discipline, and hard work.  Bill’s father fostered his son’s desire to hunt by spending time with him, teaching him how to safely handle a firearm and by teaching him how to shoot an air rifle at age 7.  Under his father’s tutelage, Bill quickly graduated up to using a .22 rifle and .410 gauge shotgun before age 10 and was hunting big game with a .30-30 lever action rifle and grouse hunting with a 12 gauge shotgun by the time he was in junior high school.  He has spent most of his life using firearms in a state where they are a strong part of the culture.  West Virginia is one of the few constitutional carry states in the United States that understand and support the 2ND amendment and allow the residents to carry firearms freely.

Bill Botkin

Founder, Owner, & Chief Instructor

There are a lot of current and former police and military members that offer firearms and self-defense training. 

Even though they have had some firearms training in their specific job role, the level of training overall still falls short of making the top 5%.  FBI statistics reveal that the accuracy of law enforcement offers falls below 35% in shooting accuracy and most military members have limited firearms training (unless they have graduated into the Special Ops community) and only a scarce few have had instructor training.  Only by taking extensive and diverse training from some of the best instructors in the world and dedicating oneself to becoming a student of the gun can one achieve the top percent. 

When you ask most instructors or shooters why they carry a gun, you typically get the answer of “to protect myself and others”, but when you ask them what training they have taken to ensure they are properly trained and qualified to teach others and what other steps they have taken to protect themselves and others (such as being certified in first aid and keeping a first aid kit in their car) you get a look of astonishment from them.  The truth is that many instructors offer their time and services for reasons more to the effect of self-fulfillment than to help others.  Some do so for little to no money in order to lure students into taking their classes while they tout their expertise by stating they are a certified NRA Basic Pistol Instructor.  Even though Bill has obtained a high level of training, he does not claim to be a prophet and acknowledges that he can learn as much from his students as they can from him and he receives more fulfillment and joy from teaching women and young adults who are timid about firearms, how to safely handle and operate them and how to develop better situational awareness to protect themselves out in public than trying to teach advanced tactics.  For those wanting to dress-up to be a mall ninja and to become trained on how to repel out of a flaming helicopter or kick-down a door and secure hostages and get screamed at like they are in boot camp, there are plenty of former military and law enforcement instructors out there offering those services.

Bill decided to create a company that not only offers some advanced fundamentals of protecting oneself in a civilian environment with a firearm, but examines and addresses the entire concept of safety and personal protection (not just one component of it).

• Firearm safety for women, children, young adults, and men.
• Operating various firearms in a safe and proficient manner.
• Developing better situational awareness and conflict avoidance.
• Tools and methods for using non-deadly force.
• Selection and use of gear and clothing that promote the use of self defense tools that can be implemented in your everyday lifestyle and work environment.
• Child safety and deterring exposure to opportunities of sexual abuse (most of which is by someone they know and trust).
• First aid, CPR, & AED training.
• Mental health and spirituality.
• Physical fitness.

These are just a few topics that we intend to address and offer training.

We offer these training opportunities through a collaborative effort of experts that each brings their own strengths to each course.  We also like to use unconventional methods of teaching.  These methods are inspired by two idols in American society that relate to Bill’s engineering background and his passion for learning and training:  Albert Einstein and Bruce Lee.

Albert Einstein is a world-famous theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity. He has a famous quote that we feel is imperative to our beliefs:   “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”  This concept is unique and interesting in that it does not fit into the typical school concept, rather it makes the teacher a guide for the students to collaborate in learning in lieu of someone standing up in front of the room and telling them the information.

Bruce Lee is a world-famous martial artist whose mastery of martial arts led him to become an actor in many movies.  He also has a famous quote that we feel is imperative to our beliefs:  “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”  This concept (coming from one of the greatest masters of his craft of all-time) addresses the imperativeness to master the basics before going onto the advanced techniques.  So many times we witness instructors trying to teach advanced techniques to their students for the thrill, while they watch the students fail because they have not yet helped them to master the basics.

Bill’s creation of Peacemaker, LLC has filled a void in the firearms and self-defense training industry and created an environment for the citizens of the Charlotte, North Carolina region to receive world class learning opportunities without the huge cost and sacrifice of time to travel the United States to gather all this information from all the foremost leading experts.