I honestly don't remember the details. This may not be true, this was a couple years ago and I wasn't really interested when they were talking about it. But the post made by spacemanspiff is what I remember them saying. It was an addional facility for the people who were already members of Frontsight Nevada. No one said that Alaska residents weren't eligble for membership, I am sure there are residents of Alaska that are members.
Becoming a member is touched upon on their website here:
http://www.frontsight.com/memberships.asp
This is one of their memberships. They have something like a half dozen. The one on the link above is about middle of the road. Frontsight Alaska is a fee in addition to the price for that membership. When this idea was first proposed I think the fee for Frontsight Alaska was around two grand over and above the cost of your membership for Frontsight Nevada: I am sure it has gone up many fold since then.
Something that I find interesting. You mentioned that they don't advertise in ANY gunshops. As far as I know, they don't advertise at all. The only advertisement I have ever seen for them was a billboard right near their Nevada facility. Never the less, they claim to have more students annually than all other firearms training schools in the US combined. I have very little doubt this is true. I have taken five classes there over a period of several years and every time I was there, there were several hundred students taking a class at that time (not all the same class I was: this number of people was everyone taking any class at the facility when I was there. ). When I was at Gunsite (four times) they might have had 30 students there. When I took the basic pistol class at Frontsight, there was easily over 50 persons in my class with an instructor for every 4-5 students I might add before someone starts on that subject.
They have used two avenues to recruit students: word of mouth and free Uzi classes.
"look at their testimonial page. the comments sound very canned"
I don't think so. When I read through those a few years ago, I was surprised to find that I actually knew a couple of those people just from living in this area. For example, one of the women who's testimonial appears on that page rode along with me when she was taking her EMT class. At the time, I hadn't been to Frontsight but I remember that I was reading a gun magazine and she struck up a conversation with me about guns. She mentioned that she had a CCW and carried a full sized 1911. She also mentioned that she had been to Frontsight and spoke very highly of it. By the way, even though this was about three years ago, I remember her because she was very good looking and had blond hair down to her waist.
Based on those few people who were quoted that I actually know, I doubt that any of it was canned.
After you finish a class there, you fill out an evaluation form: I am sure that is where those testimonials come from.
I know that after I took my basic handgun class there, I praised them up and down.
Edit: I went and actually read that page again. As someone who has actually taken multiple classes there, I can't say I disagree with anything said. If someone I cared about wanted to take a basic handgun class, Frontsight would be my first recomendation. That is my honest opinion of how impressed I was with that class. The rifle class was so-so, but that handgun class is terrific. Out of those testimonials I have actually met six of those people. Three of them were people I took classes with there. Two of them were guys that I used to work with when we all worked for a private ambulance company in Las Vegas: they are both now local area firefighters as am I. The last person is the girl I already mentioned above.
