Firearms education
and training for women.
Safer today than yesterday.
A private, three-day experience for women who want to feel calm and capable around a firearm. We start with the basics and move at your pace. Everything provided, nothing assumed. No pressure. No judgment. No experience needed.
You do not have to arrive
already knowing.
Most women who come to me have never touched a firearm, or touched one once and never again. They arrive with questions they have been quietly carrying for years, and a worry that asking them will make them look foolish. It will not. Those are exactly the questions I want.
We begin seated, with conversation. We talk about what a firearm is and how it works, about the laws that govern it, about storage and children and the honest realities of ownership. Nothing is rushed, and nothing happens before you are ready for it.
EMPRESS classes are for women only. Husbands, boyfriends and significant others are not permitted at training. Not out of exclusion, but because a student learns best when no one she loves is watching, correcting, or waiting for her to get it right. What is left is a calm, stress-free room that belongs entirely to her.
No question here is a beginner's question, and no one is behind. We are not trying to turn you into a special forces soldier. We are here to educate you, to give you peace of mind and the confidence that comes with knowing exactly what you are holding and why. What you take home is not marksmanship. It is understanding, and the ease that follows it.
Maddie Morrell
Three things you can count on.
Calm & Private
One-on-one or with the women you choose. No crowds, no noise, no rush. Only the pace that suits you.
Judgment-Free
Every question is a fair question. Nothing here assumes you have done this before, or that you ever wanted to.
Education First
Understanding before technique. You leave knowing how a firearm works, and why safety is a habit, not a rule.
Three days, and every detail handled.
EMPRESS is held in a private, comfortable setting where you’re meant to feel looked after from the moment you arrive. This isn’t a range you show up to and figure out on your own. It’s an experience designed around you.
Each day is catered by a local chef, with meals prepared fresh and served between sessions, so the only thing you focus on is learning at your own pace. Thoughtful touches throughout the three days keep it calm, unhurried, and genuinely enjoyable.
You’re not a number in a class. You’re a guest, and you’ll be taken care of like one.
No husbands.
No boyfriends.
No exceptions.
Husbands, boyfriends and significant others are not permitted at training. It is said gently, and it is not negotiable, because it is the single thing that changes a student's experience most.
When someone she loves is in the room, she performs. She hurries. She swallows the question she actually wanted to ask, and she measures herself against whatever he already knows. Without him, all of that quietly falls away, and what is left is a stress-free room where she can be a beginner for as long as she needs to be.
Every woman here is learning alongside other women, at her own pace, with no one watching over her shoulder and no one waiting for her to get it right. He is welcome to be proud of her afterward.
Her space. Her pace. Her confidence.
What you will learn.
Three days, arranged as a gentle arc. Each one begins where the last left off, and nothing is asked of you before you are ready for it.
Awareness and understanding
We begin seated, with conversation. Firearm awareness and safety, the parts of a gun and how each one works, and the language that has always been used around you but never explained to you.
Handling and live shooting
Safe, confident handling: loading, unloading, carrying, setting down. Then live shooting, at your pace, with a range of firearms so you can feel the difference for yourself.
Carry and living with it
The different ways to carry and what each asks of you, and how and where to store a firearm safely at home. You leave knowing what to do on the ordinary days, not only at the range.
Composure, not intensity
Carry, considered
Arrive with nothing.
Leave with confidence.
There is no list to shop from before you come, and nothing to borrow from anyone. Every woman who joins the course receives what she needs for the three days, included in the price she was quoted.
A range of firearms to try, so she can find what feels right in her own hand. All ammunition. Noise-cancelling ear protection and protective shooting glasses fitted for her. A classroom manual to follow along through each session, and to take home. All instruction and materials. Nothing else is expected.
A range of firearms to try
All ammunition
Noise-cancelling ear protection
Protective shooting glasses
Your own classroom manual, yours to keep
All instruction and materials
Included in every price
Find the one that fits.
Then make it yours.
Over three days, you’ll handle and shoot a range of firearms until one simply feels right in your hand. When it does, there’s no guesswork about what comes next.
EMPRESS has a relationship with Highpoint Outfitters in Thornville. Walk in, and Bruce, the owner, already knows your name and knows you’re there for the EMPRESS package. No pressure, no sales floor to navigate, no starting from scratch. Just the exact firearm you already know you love, and a familiar face to help you take it home.
It’s the easy, unhurried next step, the same calm experience you had in class, carried right through to the moment it becomes yours.
The right firearm is the one
that fits her.
Most women are handed a firearm someone else picked for them: a husband, a brother, a salesman with an opinion. It is rarely the one that suits her hand, and she is rarely told she is allowed to disagree.
Across the three days you will handle and shoot a range of firearms, and learn what actually fits your hand, your comfort and your life. There is nothing to buy here, and no one selling. Only the quiet clarity of having tried them yourself.
The Three-Day Course.
One complete program for women starting at the very beginning, taught over three days. No prior experience is needed, and none is assumed. Choose how privately you would like to learn it. The course itself is the same, and every price is fully inclusive.
Nothing to buy, nothing to bring.
Founding cohorts now enrolling at a special introductory rate · limited seats
The Course
Three days · small group of no more than four women
The complete beginner's program, taught over three unhurried days in the company of a few other women. From the first conversation to live shooting, nothing is assumed and nothing is rushed.
Fully inclusive: firearms, ammunition, ear and eye protection, instruction and materials.
The Private Course
Three days · one-on-one or privately arranged
The same three days, taught only to you, or to the small circle of women you choose. The pace, the questions and the range time belong entirely to your group.
Fully inclusive. Nothing to buy, nothing to bring.
The Founder Experience
Bespoke · privately hosted by the founder
A private program shaped around you from beginning to end: curriculum, setting and time without a clock. Limited each season.
Fully inclusive, with everything provided and arranged in advance.
There is more,
when you want it.
For women who finish the three days and find they would like to keep going, there are advanced courses. We can add other firearms, rifles and shotguns among them, and we can teach in your own home, where the questions are usually the most practical: where it lives, who else is in the house, what happens on an ordinary evening.
None of it is about becoming a soldier. It is simply more understanding, at the pace you choose, for the life you actually live.
The first course comes first. Every advanced program requires it. There are no exceptions, and no reason to rush.
Maddie Morrell
Founder & Ambassador
I grew up around firearms in a house where they were treated with enormous respect, and I still remember being nervous the first time one was placed in my hands. That memory is the reason EMPRESS exists.
I’m not going to pretend I’m the most experienced person in the room. I’m the one who makes sure you feel calm in it. For the expertise, I surrounded myself with the instructors I trust most: my father, a former Marine and a police officer with 27 years of experience, and a team with real military and law-enforcement backgrounds, every one of them chosen because they’re patient and never make you feel behind. You get their knowledge, taught the way I always wished someone had taught me: slowly, warmly, and with room for every question.
Some women come for confidence at home. Some because a friend suggested it. Some are simply curious. All of them are welcome, and none of them leave feeling the way they arrived.
Sessions are held privately, women only, in small groups. There is no audience here, and nothing to prove to anyone.
Taught to me by
Wade Morrell.
My father has lived in this world his entire adult life: a United States Marine, a current law enforcement officer with more than two decades in policing, and a security professional who has spent a career teaching people to be careful, and to be certain. He has instructed thousands of military, law enforcement, and security professionals around the world, and just as importantly, families and women learning firearm safety for the first time. Everything in the EMPRESS curriculum traces back to the standard he set: patient, precise, and entirely without ego.
- United States Marine
- Law enforcement officer, more than two decades in policing
- Firearms safety and shooting instruction for families and women
- Has trained and advised thousands of military, law enforcement, and security professionals worldwide
- Security expert: protection, tactical instruction, and mission-critical operations
- Founder and CEO of Priority 1 Canine, featured on Shark Tank, Nat Geo Wild, and RECOIL Magazine
“I spent years avoiding the subject entirely. One morning with Maddie and I understood more than I thought I ever would, and I never once felt out of place.”
Katherine R., New Albany
Everything you might be wondering.
Yes, completely. Most women who come to us have never touched a firearm, or touched one once and never again. The three-day course is built for the very beginning. No prior experience is needed, and none is assumed.
When you are ready,
we will begin.
Three days, everything provided, and a room of women learning at their own pace. No one here is training you to be a soldier, only to be educated, at ease, and confident. Write to us with a little about yourself and what you would like to understand. Every course is arranged personally, and advanced courses follow once the first one is behind you.
Women only. Husbands, boyfriends and significant others are not permitted at training. This is her room, and her pace.
Held privately in the Central Ohio area