Thumb Every Day Tactical, also known as Thumb EDT, is a Veteran-Owned Small Business founded in 2017 by partners Dirk & Barbara Foster, and incorporated as an LLC in 2019. Along with it’s sister company, Essential Emergency Response Training, Thumb EDT is part of the Foster Self Reliance family of companies, focused on bring training and skills to individuals, allowing them to be prepared to fend for themselves when the need arises.

About – The Partners

If you would like to know more about Thumb Every Day Tactical Partners Dirk & Barbara Foster, click here

Thumb Every Day Tactical Company Mission

We believe that everyone has the right to feel safe and it’s our passion to help ensure everyone feels that they can protect themselves, and those around them (should they choose to). To that end, we have made it our mission to provide a full spectrum of training at Thumb Every Day Tactical, including gun, knife, and impact weapon (pen, keychain, flashlight) self-defense, situational awareness, marksmanship skills training, defensive shooting skills training, and a variety of home defense courses, not to mention tailored courses for Real Estate Professionals, Cosmetologists and House of Worship Security Teams. We even offer Range Safety Officer training for Sportsman’s Clubs and Range Personnel.

Why we use Every Day in our name instead of Everyday

We’ve actually had people tell us that we misspelled our name and that “Everyday” is the modern acceptable conjunction of the words “Every” and “Day”, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. When choosing our name, we wanted to be specific and ensure that the meaning was relevant to our mission. “Everyday” is an adjective that means “ordinary” or “commonplace” when written as one word, while “Every Day” is an adverb phrase that means “daily” or “each day” when written as two words. Since we believe that a tactical mindset must be employed fresh and vigorously on a daily basis and should never become casual or ordinary, least a person lose their edge, we chose to use “Every Day” in our name. Everyone should live aware, but they must also be ready to act, by employing that tactical mindset on an ongoing basis. This is where our mantra of “Live Aware – Live Tactical – Every Day” comes from.

Thumb Every Day Tactical Perspective

Let’s start with the obvious, why we provide personal defense training and encourage people to wake up to the world around them and learn to live aware. The answer is that we truly do believe that everyone has the right to feel safe and should have the ability protect themselves if they wish to. Surprisingly, that point of view has gotten us accused of fear mongering and capitalizing on those fears for profit, even by some in Law Enforcement who feel it’s their job and only their job to protect people. Here’s the reality however, there were about 708,000 full-time Law Enforcement Officers throughout the U.S. in 2022, and Michigan only had 18,500 in 2023. Current information on gangs, depending on the source, estimates that there are between 20,000 and 30,000 active gangs in the U.S. with between 750,000 and 1.4 million active members. Michigan has approximately 80 active criminal gangs operating throughout the state, and while an actual number of gang members in Michigan is illusive, you can be sure that it’s enough to give State-wide Law Enforcement plenty of work. And we’re just talking about criminal gang members, not everyone else who is out there committing crimes or looking to take advantage of an individual’s lack of situational awareness; or domestic abusers, sexual predators, pedophiles, or even the average person who reaches their tipping point and commits violence. Consequently, Law Enforcement numbers aren’t high enough to deter all criminal activity and they’re forced to spend a large portion of their time investigating crimes after the fact. So if Law Enforcement can’t reliably prevent all victimization why wouldn’t we help you prepare to defend yourself and potentially deter someone from committing a crime against you. It’s really just a logical extension of the “Give a man a fish” principle. Come to someone’s aid, you’ve defended them for the day, teach someone to come to their own aid, you’ve defended them for life.

Helping people get to a point that they can confidentially defend themselves and others is different depending on the individual. Every individual lives in a different state of readiness. Some are out and about without a care in the world or a clue to how dangerous it’s become, some are hiding in their homes afraid of the unknown or the known, and yet others are in various stages of awareness and preparedness in between. A lot can go into preparing yourself to be a person who feels safe to freely move about life, confidently able to protect yourself and those you hold dear. Whatever stage of readiness you’re in, we are here to help without reservation or judgement, excited that you are taking steps toward self reliance.

We believe that the best way to keep up a daily tactical mindset and live aware is to keep informed, to remind yourself what’s out there and keep from becoming complacent. Everyone should look globally for cues about how our nation is perceived internationally. This will help you understand who to be on guard for beyond common thugs and criminals. We should also think Nationally, realizing that legislation and policies that restrict your ability to protect yourself spread once they take hold in any jurisdiction, as do crime trends that go unchecked. You should act regionally, within your state, county, and municipality to ensure that your voice is heard and your vote is counted, because it’s up to each of us to ensure that our rights remain intact. The surest way to allow evil to triumph is for good men and women to sit idly by. We must also all focus locally, strengthening our communities and those around us. The old Neighborhood Watch principle enacted throughout suburban America in the 70’s and 80’s was about identifying commonality in communities where the norm was to keep to ones self, in an effort to build a community network that would help take care of itself. But the strongest communities have deeper ties than just the material. Not only should you have a good idea of what’s going on in your municipality and those around you but you should get involved if you’re able. If you can volunteer in your community, do so; if you can’t volunteer, support those who do. If you have an abundance, share with those in need. if you see someone in need, lend a hand. These actions build lasting community ties and a sense of duty to those around you. We believe that this approach to life will feed a better sense of awareness and foster a tactical perspective on a daily basis.

Of course, not everyone is capable of doing everything, but we’re here to help you do what you can within your limitations; and even grow out of them if possible, or push further past them than you ever thought possible, if willing and capable. We’ve all see the big muscle bound inked up operator types that some schools promote as the ideal, but not everyone is there or will ever get there physically. That shouldn’t mean personal defense training isn’t available to you though. Everyone deserves to feel safe and that they are capable of providing that safety for themselves and their loved ones if they wish. I won’t argue with anyone about the role physical fitness plays, in enhancing a person’s ability to commit violence, but not everyone needs to be ready for war just to protect themselves. They just need to be more of a challenge than their would-be attacker is willing to take on; because let’s face it – most criminals aren’t looking for career challenges.

We have worked with individuals from the hearing impaired, sight impaired, and mobility impaired communities, ensuring that they could feel as much able to defend themselves as anyone else. If you have an issue that you think is holding you back from feeling safe because you believe it prevents you from training, contact us to see if we can’t help work out a training solution for you, because everyone, and we mean everyone, has the right to feel safe.

Our Mantra & Putting It All Together

Look Globally, Think Nationally, Act Regionally, and Focus Locally… Live Aware – Live Tactically – Every Day! Sometimes shortened to just: Live Aware – Live Tactically – Every Day!

You may have heard us say it or even seen it in one of our e-mails but as mentioned above, we believe that if you Look Globally, Think Nationally, Act Regionally, and Focus Locally… It fosters your ability to Live Aware – Live Tactical – Every Day!