Founder & Instructor
Adam Long
Meet Adam Long
After 24 years with the Baltimore City Police Department and another 6.5 years with the Mount Airy Police Department, I started LongArm Defense with one simple belief. Everyone deserves access to professional firearms training, and the best gun training happens in a setting where you can actually focus. I bring private shooting lessons, tactical training, and personal defense instruction directly to students across Central Maryland.
I spent 24 years with the Baltimore City Police Department, working the kinds of situations most people only see on the news. Foot patrol, tactical response, community policing, real confrontations that had to be resolved on the spot. Those years taught me what actual preparedness looks like, and it is not what most gun safety classes or group firearms courses teach. Real skills come from hands on practice, honest feedback, and training that matches real world conditions.
After Baltimore City, I spent 6.5 more years with the Mount Airy Police Department. Small town policing is a very different job, and that is exactly the point. Rural and suburban situations ask different questions than a dense urban beat. Having answered both set of questions on the job shapes how I teach a civilian to think about their own environment, whether that is a Baltimore row house or a single family home in Carroll County.
Before my police career, I served in the Army National Guard. That combination of military discipline and more than 30 years of Maryland law enforcement across two departments gives me a perspective that is hard to find in the private training world. I have carried a firearm professionally for my entire adult life, and I understand both the responsibility and the confidence that proper gun training provides.
I started LongArm Defense because I saw a gap in Central Maryland. Most firearms training happens in unfamiliar ranges with large groups and impersonal instruction. Beginners feel intimidated. Experienced shooters do not get the individual attention they need to improve. I knew there was a better way. Mobile training, one student at a time, at a location that actually works for the student.
“Everything I teach comes from doing, not from reading.”
Adam Long, LongArm Defense
How Adam's Training Differs from a Range Class
Every Session Is 1 on 1
You are never sharing my attention with other students. The session moves at the pace you set and focuses on what you actually need to work on. That is how professional training should work.
The Classroom Comes to You
I come to you. No driving to a crowded range, no unfamiliar environment. You pick the location that fits your goals. For home defense students, training in the rooms you actually want to protect makes the lessons immediately applicable. That is something no group class can offer.
Judgment Free, Always
I treat every student with patience and respect, from someone who has never touched a firearm to someone who has been at the range for decades. My gun safety classes meet you where you actually are. Ask what you want to ask. Start wherever makes sense for you.
Experience Over Theory
Everything I teach comes from doing, not from reading. More than 30 years across two police departments, plus an Army National Guard background, gives you instincts that no textbook or online gun class can replicate. I bring those instincts to every private training session.
From Baltimore City to Mount Airy
Adam served in the Army National Guard before starting a Maryland police career that ran more than 30 years across two very different departments. He spent 24 years with the Baltimore City Police Department, working community policing, tactical response, and real street confrontations under real pressure. He then served 6.5 years with the Mount Airy Police Department, adding the pace and scale of small town law enforcement to an urban career.
Two departments. Two very different communities. Every minute of your private training session is informed by that range of experience. When Adam teaches you how to assess a threat, secure your home, or handle a firearm safely, he is drawing on thousands of hours of lived police work across the Baltimore metro and Central Maryland.
The ADAMS Framework
Adam built this five step progression from more than 30 years of police work across two departments. Every step is taught in order, and most real situations end long before the last one is ever needed.
Awareness
Step 1 of 5
Read the environment before it reads you. Spot the person who does not belong, the exits, the behaviors that feel off. Most incidents end here because you never actually enter them.
Deescalate
Step 2 of 5
Defuse verbally before anything escalates. Listen, acknowledge, offer options, keep calm body language, and create space. Talking it down is almost always the better outcome.
Address
Step 3 of 5
Make your presence and your armed status clearly known. A visible, controlled, armed presence ends more confrontations than a fired round ever will.
Movement
Step 4 of 5
Move into a defensive position. Cover, angle, shooting stance, distance from the threat. A static target is an easier target, and most homes and public spaces give you options if you train for them.
Sights
Step 5 of 5
Proper firearm sight alignment and sight picture. This is the last step and only happens if every step before it has failed. Train it so that if the moment comes, the mechanics are already automatic.
Adam's Background and Credentials
Ready to Start Private Firearms Training in Central Maryland?
Book a session and see what career law enforcement experience looks like in private instruction. Professional gun training, delivered to you.