Louis Awerbuck

Typically, I reserve Friday posts for my hobby, which is baking bread.  I'm brooming that this week because this is the last month Louis Awerbuck's column will be running in SWAT Magazine.  Louis died on June 24, 2014.

His friend Robbie Barrkman wrote a moving tribute to him that you can read here.

If you've never heard of him, it wouldn't be a surprise, and Louis himself wouldn't have cared one way or the other.  He didn't seek the spotlight.  To call him a firearms and tactics instructor would be technically correct, but they're labels, and labels are necessarily limiting.  For the straight biography, visit his website.

I worked with Louis (pronounced "Louie") on two instructional video projects in the early 2000's: Only Hits Count, a combat shooting video, and Safe at Home, a home defense video.  The leather-jacketed villain holding the hammer on the cover of Safe at Home is me (with hair).

Simply put, Louis was a man of respect.  A brilliant tactician with real world experience that he never boasted about: it just informed what he taught and how he taught it.  Self-effacing almost to a fault, and had an incredibly dry, clever sense of humor.  His delivery was deadpan in a way you've never heard before.  Sere.  Arid.  I can't claim him as a friend, but I really quite liked and admired him.  During my time in publishing, I'd worked with many, many combat shooting experts.  Some good, some great, some mediocre.

Louis was in a class by himself.  I wish I'd known him better.  It would have made me better.

Requiescat in pace, Louis.