Nick Rabenau, the slick-talking head of the Type-A Training Group, once posed as an expert firearms training expert to media outlets. He touted his company’s instructor credentials, and denigrated others. In fact, here’s what was on his site:
Type A Training Group instructors are experienced operators from the prestigious United States Army Special Forces, Navy SEALS, Marine Special Operations (Force Recon), and Local, State, and Federal Law Enforcement SWAT Team members.
More recently though, Rabenau’s doing an even better impersonation of common criminal.
He and his attorney are negotiating a plea agreement to a dozen felony chargesof forgery and three charges of theft relating to fraudulently issuing concealed carry training documents to would-be concealed carry license applicants.
State, firearm instructor near plea deal
Nick Rabenau’s booking photo.
GALESBURG (Register-Mail June 24, 2015) — A Galesburg man accused of illegally instructing concealed carry firearm classes without proper certification is nearing a plea agreement in Knox County Circuit Court.
Nicholas J. Rabenau, 36, appeared Wednesday morning in court alongside Roni VanAusdall, a private attorney out of East Peoria.
Rabenau faces 12 felony counts of forgery — six of which placed him as the perpetrator and six alleging either Rabenau or someone he was legally responsible for committed the act — and three counts of theft. A grand jury indictment was filed in November 2013.
What happened?
…According to court documents, Rabenau knowingly made Illinois State Police Concealed Carry Firearm Training Certificates for at least three people despite not being certified as an instructor. Additionally, Rabenau collected $250 payments from a number of people in exchange for the fraudulent certificates.
In an Oct. 27, 2013, article in The McDonough County Voice, Rabenau said he had run more than 200 people through his training program in a three-week period following the Sept. 30 release date of ISP approved curricula for concealed carry training.
The training program was launched alongside several others in west-central Illinois in anticipation of Jan. 5, 2014, when concealed carry applications could officially be submitted in Illinois.
In the article, Rabenau further cautioned people when choosing an instructor, suggesting those interested do their research.
“We’ve ran just over 200 people through in the past three weeks,” said Nick Rabenau, director of Type-A Training Group, which has begun instruction in the region. “The type of people that are coming through are people that want concealed carry … they’ve experienced it before and they want it here.”
…Rabenau stresses that the qualifications necessary to receive instructor approval aren’t strict enough and suggests people research their instructors.
“Be careful on who you pick as a training provider,” Rabenau said. “They opened it up to NRA instructors, which could be you, a school teacher, or a farmer … at the end of a two day course you’re an instructor.”
Yep. Even you, a school teacher or a farmer could be an instructor.
Fair disclosure. (See, I put it in bold.) I teach with GSL Defense Training, a company that’s been around for almost twenty years providing training in Illinois (and more recently Iowa as well) for those interested in gun safety and the defensive use of firearms for self-defense. We’ve grown over those years and today have almost twenty instructors teaching on our team (and some great non-instructor staff members). Among our instructors are a teacher and a farmer. Both are outstanding, unlike Nick Rabenau who wasn’t even approved by the Illinois State Police to teach toilet bowl cleaning, much less CCW coursework.
Rabenau’s Type-A Training Group website (since abandoned) touts Rabenau’s credentials as a former Greet Beret. Talk about creative marketing. It doesn’t matter, really, as Rabenau wasn’t allowed to “teach” at CCW courses since he wasn’t an “approved” instructor. Why wasn’t he approved? Rumor had it that his FOID card was in limbo following one or more arrests for domestic battery.
All- I heard about my name and company name being thrown around on here so I wanted to reply to the individual who started this. The whole reason that he started this is due to the fact that the Macomb, Illinois newspaper (McDonough Voice) contact me I reference to a concealed carry article that they were writing. Within the interview, they wanted to know what I would look for in an instructor for concealed carry training. To give you a quick rundown, I am a former US Army Special Forces Green Beret. My MOS is an 18C (Engineer) and my specialties are explosives and counter-terrorism. I got out of the military in 2003 and have worked for Department of Defense and Department of State Counter-terrorism programs in About 30 countries to include Iraq and Afghanistan. I have trained over 5000 soldiers/operators in counter-terrorism and tactics. I currently own Strategic Security Services, Inc. (International security consulting firm) and Type A Training Group (Firearms training company) and our company has already trained over 375 personnel in the Illinois Concealed Carry Training Course. My answer to the McDonough Voice is my own personal opinion and it comes from experience, not theory. They asked me if I was a student for concealed carry training, what would I look for in an instructor. I explained to them that for the concealed carry training program, I would look for an instructor that has a wide variety of experience. I would only use an NRA only instructor (means no other experience other than the NRA instructor course), for basic pistol classes. When it comes to learning about concealed carry and staying alive in a gun fight, I would look for someone with military, law enforcement, or security experience. I would also look for someone that has experienced gun fights and has lived thru them. This is proof that the instructor has to have some credibility to himself and is providing experienced based training and not theory based training. When I am a student in a class and I ask a technical question to an instructor, if he does not answer the question with experience or give sound tips or techniques, I will probably end up loosing respect or credibility for the instructor. This is no different than any other student. Lets be honest here, there are a few instructors (the exact individual who started this thread), who sells Frog Lube as a full time job, only hunting experience and he went to the two da NRA Pistol Instructor Course. He was actually in my class and was not too good at providing a classroom presentation or utilizing demonstrators for fundamental demonstrations. He is the exact person that I would shy away from when it comes to a concealed carry training class. I am not a fan of being in a classroom as a student and the instructor having just as much experience as 90 percent of the students. The students are paying a premium price to attend a concealed carry course and they need to be given a level of instruction that is higher than the students experience level in the classroom. I do understand that you will end up getting a few students that have a good back ground or competition shooter however, there are a lot of topics within the concealed carry class that builds a sound concealed carry user with a well rounded decision making process. The course that students attend simply give students a broad over view of subjects that they need to continue to develop for themselves. You are welcome to go onto Cyber Drive Illinois and look up both of my companies to ensure they are legit. I can also provide JPEG photos of instructor certificates, experience records, and corporate documentation for anyone wanting to question my corporation or myself. If you google my name, Nick Rabenau, you will be able to read up on my Special Operations background, Homeland Security Contracts that my company has had, and Law Enforcement Regional SWAT training programs that we have conducted throughout the Mid-West. I understand that some people think that it makes them look good if they get on these Forum sites and slander individuals or companies however, it does make them look very unprofessional. You can hide behind a computer and run someone down however, when you conduct concealed carry classes, the truth will come out on your performance. We are an experience based training provider and we are very professional. If you would like to inquire about our company, you can call us at 309-373-7079 or visit our website at www.typeatraininggroup.com. Thank you. Nick Rabenau
All- One other thing, I noticed that the individual stated that I offered him to sit in a chair as we conduct classes and have him sign off on certificates. I have not talked to him at all about being an instructor for us, using his “certificates”, etc. It’s fine that he is making this stuff up however, as he slanders my name and company and people inquire about it, they end up signing up for our ccw classes because they realize the experience difference between him and us. He also posted a lot of slander on his Facebook page two weeks ago and we have a lawsuit against him for his actions. I hope people think twice about slandering someone for no reason when there is clearly enough work to go around with concealed carry. Competition is good. It keeps companies honest. Thank you.
They still haven’t smacked that silly little smile off of his face, yet !
I can understand the misunderstanding and communication issues between people and the spin that can be put on stories. I agree that Nick Rabenau was not political when he talked about firearms training within various articles and forums. I also feel that there is a whole other side to this story. I attended one of the concealed carry training courses conducted by Nick Rabenau’s company, Type A Training Group. The class was very informative. It was taught by another former green beret that is also a Sheriff. He did a great job teaching both days. I have done a little digging into this and I realized what has transpired. Type A Training Group had 5 or 6 certified instructors working for them. Nick organized training courses with training locations, students, and instructors and he provided all of the administrative support for the training courses. He is currently facing 15 charges (12 felony and 3 misdemeanor) for three (alleged) forged training certificates. The company trained over 500 students in CCW and the year long investigation that people keep talking about resulted in 3 students’ training certificates being under question. All of the charges are tied to the 3 certificates and from what I understand, he was over charged since the administrative girl for Type A Training Group admitted to forging the documents. The three training certificates had a female instructors name on them. This would mean that Nick stood in front of a class and taught it and then gave out certificates that demonstrated that he was a female instructor. I think if you met Nick, you know that he doesn’t look like a female. Lol. As for Nick, he did teach a few NRA Basic Pistol classes and he was legal authorized to because he was a certified NRA pistol instructor. The NRA class also gives you 8 hours credit toward the Illinois Concealed Carry Course and certificate. He was not authorized to teach the 2nd day of the course so CCW certified instructors had to teach this. During the time that the alleged fraudulent course took place, he had a valid FOID card and it was verified with the State Police during this time. I understand that other instructors and competitors want to crush any competition in their area and Nick was doing a really good job of getting students through the program with his instructors. His company also trained 5 counties worth of Judges, some attorneys, and states attorneys for his surrounding counties also. Its easy to point fingers and say he was conducting illegal classes but if you attended one of his courses (any firearms, tactical, or CCW course), you would realize that he was very solid at his knowledge and experience. From what I understand, the state police simply went to various students that attended his course and showed a photo of various instructors and asked if they recognize who taught there course under Type A Training Group. Students were supposed to remember who taught their course when they attended the course 6-9 months prior. Of course they remember Nick being there because he made an appearance to most of his training courses since he owns the company. I feel like the state police just did a sloppy job. The investigation consisted of simply showing photos to students and if they stated that Nick was there, then the State police pulled their CCW permit. Not one investigator sat in on any of the classes, otherwise Nick would have been arrested on the day that he was investigated. Instead the state took a year before the indictment. We need to be looking at how the state police is conducting their investigations in addition to the scrutiny on the individual instructors.
Oh, the irony.
They still haven’t smacked that silly little smile off of his face, yet !
I can understand the misunderstanding and communication issues between people and the spin that can be put on stories. I agree that Nick Rabenau was not political when he talked about firearms training within various articles and forums. I also feel that there is a whole other side to this story. I attended one of the concealed carry training courses conducted by Nick Rabenau’s company, Type A Training Group. The class was very informative. It was taught by another former green beret that is also a Sheriff. He did a great job teaching both days. I have done a little digging into this and I realized what has transpired. Type A Training Group had 5 or 6 certified instructors working for them. Nick organized training courses with training locations, students, and instructors and he provided all of the administrative support for the training courses. He is currently facing 15 charges (12 felony and 3 misdemeanor) for three (alleged) forged training certificates. The company trained over 500 students in CCW and the year long investigation that people keep talking about resulted in 3 students’ training certificates being under question. All of the charges are tied to the 3 certificates and from what I understand, he was over charged since the administrative girl for Type A Training Group admitted to forging the documents. The three training certificates had a female instructors name on them. This would mean that Nick stood in front of a class and taught it and then gave out certificates that demonstrated that he was a female instructor. I think if you met Nick, you know that he doesn’t look like a female. Lol. As for Nick, he did teach a few NRA Basic Pistol classes and he was legal authorized to because he was a certified NRA pistol instructor. The NRA class also gives you 8 hours credit toward the Illinois Concealed Carry Course and certificate. He was not authorized to teach the 2nd day of the course so CCW certified instructors had to teach this. During the time that the alleged fraudulent course took place, he had a valid FOID card and it was verified with the State Police during this time. I understand that other instructors and competitors want to crush any competition in their area and Nick was doing a really good job of getting students through the program with his instructors. His company also trained 5 counties worth of Judges, some attorneys, and states attorneys for his surrounding counties also. Its easy to point fingers and say he was conducting illegal classes but if you attended one of his courses (any firearms, tactical, or CCW course), you would realize that he was very solid at his knowledge and experience. From what I understand, the state police simply went to various students that attended his course and showed a photo of various instructors and asked if they recognize who taught there course under Type A Training Group. Students were supposed to remember who taught their course when they attended the course 6-9 months prior. Of course they remember Nick being there because he made an appearance to most of his training courses since he owns the company. I feel like the state police just did a sloppy job. The investigation consisted of simply showing photos to students and if they stated that Nick was there, then the State police pulled their CCW permit. Not one investigator sat in on any of the classes, otherwise Nick would have been arrested on the day that he was investigated. Instead the state took a year before the indictment. We need to be looking at how the state police is conducting their investigations in addition to the scrutiny on the individual instructors.