About Donna Lea Hawley

Donna Lea Hawley possesses a rare combination of skills and credentials. She has a law degree and more than 20 years of legal research and practice experience, has authored 15 books, is a highly certified firearms instructor who has trained more than one thousand students, contributes regularly to national magazines, and is a competitive shooter. She found Bloomfield Press while searching for a publisher to do a book on Florida gun laws. It was a perfect match.

Donna Lea has been a firearms enthusiast since the age of nine, when she got her first BB gun as a Christmas present. At the age of 11, encouraged by her parents, she started shooting a .22 rifle. She started competitive shooting in high school where she joined the school smallbore rifle team. Since then she has competed in pistol, smallbore rifle, and is now an IPSC practical-shooting competitor.

Ms. Hawley teaches firearms safety and concealed-weapons classes through Paramount Defense Academy in Florida. She is a graduate of the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor Course, Massad AyoobÍs Lethal Force Institute, and the National Range Officer's Institute. Donna Lea holds six NRA Instructor certifications and is certified by the State of Florida as a Hunter Education Instructor. Her teaching skills have been honed as an instructor in the Dept. of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, and by teaching legal seminars on sports liability and self defense for the past 15 years.

Donna Lea Hawley holds a Master's Degree in Physical Education and uses this background in her shooting instruction. She conducts research in various aspects of shooting skills including reaction time, aspects of vision related to shooting, and the application of kinesiology to shooting positions. She has published more than 200 articles on shooting, training for physical skill development, self defense, unarmed defensive skills, legal issues and other topics.

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