Ignatius Piazza and Front Sight

Front Sight Firearms Training Institute

Let me ask you, the reader, if you’ve ever heard of the place called Front Sight. No? Well, imagine with me, if you will, a town that looks like this: 550 acres of gated community in the middle of the Nevada desert. There is no violent crime, there is no such thing as fear of one’s neighbors or even fear of an armed assault as one is walking home one night. Women walk through the streets alone at midnight without worrying for their wellbeing. The most extensive security system in any house can be strapped to the hip of the homeowner. Sound too good to be true? It’s not. It’s Front Sight.

Front Sight is the vision of Dr. Ignatius Piazza, a former chiropractor from Santa Cruz, California. If all goes according to Dr. Piazza’s plans, Front Sight will be not only a great place to live, but also fully equipped with 22 24-hour state-of-the-art shooting ranges, a 5-story assault/SWAT-tactics training tower, 400 yards of underground drainage tunnels which double as search & rescue training grounds, 177 one-acre home lots, a convenience store and a private K-12 school spilling across 550 acres from Clark County into Nye County, a southern swatch of Nevada better known for its mobile-home bordellos.

That’s right: a gun town. And according to its dreamer, Dr. Ignatius Piazza, Front Sight will be the safest place in the nation. According to him, if everyone is armed and responsibly trained, there isn’t a single criminal who would ever think about assaulting a citizen. Most would see the logic of this. A writer for the Times-Democrat, one of the many newspapers which have covered Dr. Piazza found that the town of Pahrump and the outlying towns and counties have given Front Sight their blessings, even training the officers of the county’s sheriff department.