On a flat slice of Polk County land, everyday civilians are lining up like a small-unit squad, slinging rifles, flipping down night-vision gear and running drills once reserved for special-operations teams. “Not looking for a fight, but I believe that a strongly trained and well-armed populace is the best prevention to war,” one instructor told reporters, as attendees described the training as a way to be ready to protect their families and communities.
The Polk County Range Where Drills Get Real
The classes highlighted in local coverage are held at a Polk County shooting facility run by Bone Valley Industries. According to Gulf Coast News, retired Maj. Gen. Rick "Arby" Mattson is part of the range’s leadership, and Bone Valley’s event calendar lists recurring instructor-led sessions at 2771 Cozart Rd. The company’s site also lays out membership options along with event details for the Mulberry range.
Courses Closer To Combat Than Basic Safety
Barrel & Hatchet, founded and led by Air Force Special Warfare veteran Eric Roscher, markets classes with names like “Full Contender Minuteman,” NVG night-vision training and scoped-carbine modules, which the company presents as advanced material rather than entry-level firearms instruction. Its public schedule lists frequent sessions at the Mulberry range, with course writeups that include movement drills, medical response practice and shooting while wearing body armor. In its own materials, the group casts these offerings as equal parts tactical skill-building and community-building.
Experts Tap The Brakes
Plenty of observers are uneasy with how militarized the “prepared citizen” approach can look. Landon Frim, a philosophy professor who has studied the movement, told Gulf Coast News that the label is broad and “can include a lot of explicitly politically-motivated people.” Frim is listed as an associate professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, where his work looks at how religion, politics and ideology feed into one another.
One Local Outpost In A Bigger National Wave
Across the country, reporters have tied the rise of similar programs to pandemic-era fears and the shock of the war in Ukraine, noting that a new ecosystem of instructors and online influencers has grown large audiences by normalizing high-level civilian tactical training. National coverage from The New York Times details how classes, podcasts and social media channels have helped push the “prepared citizen” idea into the mainstream. That reporting places Polk County’s courses inside a broader cultural turn rather than treating them as a purely local outlier.
Trainers involved in the movement tend to stress community ties, emergency preparedness and what they describe as a spiritual or values-driven element to the work. At the same time, academics and some local leaders warn that combining military-style tactics, modern weaponry and strong ideological messaging can edge toward normalizing a paramilitary mindset among civilians. Both Barrel & Hatchet and Bone Valley Industries post event calendars and course outlines online for anyone thinking about signing up, while local researchers say they are watching closely to see whether the focus stays on emergency skills or drifts toward more overtly political or extremist activity.
