Matter of Facts: Gun Control is Dying

[00:00:06] Welcome back to the Matter of Facts Podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at MWFPodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host, Phil Raveli, Andrew, Nick are on the other side of the mic and here's your show.

[00:00:30] So welcome back to Matter of Facts Podcast. Andrew is not with us. Last I heard he was kidnapped by Ukrainians and has been forcibly conscripted. So, I mean, we could take up a collection to try to like buy his way back to freedom or we could spend it on booze and magazines. So that's an open discussion. R.N. Hot Toddy and magazines. Coffee is expensive. Hallelujah.

[00:00:57] So we have a lot to discuss and I'm going to plow through the administrative work as fast as humanly possible so we don't run out of time in the back end. So patrons, y'all are all sociopaths, but thank you for supporting the show. Merch is available down in the show description if you want to buy a fun cheeky shirt or a koozie or something to support the show. Cypress Survivalist is still on track to try to have our first event March 8th in Southeast Louisiana if you're interested.

[00:01:25] Those links are also down in the show description. Facebook and Instagram pages are your best way to keep in touch with us and figure out what exactly it is we're planning on doing.

[00:01:35] While I hope and pray that that event doesn't turn into just either four nerds talking to each other about prepping stuff or into something much less wholesome.

[00:01:47] Depends on my level of inebriation that day. I'm going to be on my best behavior, though, because my wife is going to force me to be on good behavior.

[00:01:54] And no, Raggle, he wasn't arrested in South Korea.

[00:01:57] That we know of.

[00:01:58] Sounds like a...

[00:01:59] That we're aware of. I mean...

[00:02:02] I don't know. Best I'm aware, all the Koreans are going to Ukraine, not the other way around.

[00:02:05] North Koreans.

[00:02:07] Yeah. True. True.

[00:02:09] Speaking of which, since y'all got me derailed, did y'all hear that apparently they had to take away the North Koreans' internet access after they were embedded with the Russians for a week?

[00:02:20] Who could have seen this coming?

[00:02:24] Yeah, but a bunch of young, socially repressed, apparently horny Koreans discovered the miracle that is internet pornography and just went ballistic.

[00:02:37] I have not heard that. That's phenomenal.

[00:02:40] Dude.

[00:02:41] It's amazing.

[00:02:41] Like, you can't even make jokes about some of this.

[00:02:44] Look, you cannot make jokes about reality anymore because reality is crazier than the jokes are.

[00:02:50] I'm convinced the large Hay-Drawing Collider threw us into a South Park series, man.

[00:02:54] It's ridiculous.

[00:02:55] It's ridiculous.

[00:02:56] So, there was a time, and we were talking, I think we were talking about this on the last show, about how Babylon Bee was a thing, and then they had to create not the bee so that you could distinguish satire from reality.

[00:03:08] And, like, there was a point at which we had satire and real life, and they were on a grab, and they were, you know, satire in real life.

[00:03:15] And at some point along the way, they inverted.

[00:03:18] They did.

[00:03:19] Real life is now funnier than satire.

[00:03:21] Yeah, but there was a brief moment in time where I was like, I can't distinguish satire from reality anymore.

[00:03:28] Like, I see it.

[00:03:29] I know it's satire.

[00:03:31] I want to believe in my heart it's satire.

[00:03:33] But the real world is getting so freaking cuckoo bananas so fast, I'm questioning if it really is satire.

[00:03:39] And now we've just completely inverted.

[00:03:41] I don't know how we wound up on this timeline, but we might as well, you know, fire off a glass of whiskey and enjoy it at this point.

[00:03:50] Because there's no going back.

[00:03:53] Anyway, so first little bit of mini topic before we get to the main one, which is going to be really fun, by the way, because anytime tyrants don't get their way, it gives me a warm feeling inside.

[00:04:06] But first, I have to say that peer pressure is brutal.

[00:04:10] And after literal years of, I would call it bullying, other friends of ours and patrons refer to it as peer pressure.

[00:04:19] But I felt bullied.

[00:04:21] Look, it's tough love, Phil.

[00:04:22] You can't call yourself a prepper and not own a 12 gauge.

[00:04:25] See what I mean?

[00:04:27] See what I mean?

[00:04:28] I mean, he's defending this.

[00:04:30] And you're my co-host.

[00:04:31] You're supposed to be on my side.

[00:04:32] No, I am going to defend this.

[00:04:34] Because name me one job that a 12 gauge can't do that a firearm does.

[00:04:39] Brain surgery.

[00:04:41] Firearms do brain surgery just fine as long as you don't need the patient to survive.

[00:04:45] And a 12 gauge excels at that.

[00:04:55] So my point was, I finally caved and plunked down the money for a Breda A300 like Nick has.

[00:05:04] Love it.

[00:05:06] Yeah, I mean, honestly, I kind of read that.

[00:05:09] I looked at the landscape that is like what I consider to be like home defense, quote unquote, combat shotguns right now.

[00:05:19] And, you know, I am known for being kind of the basic bitch of the preparedness world because I don't very often color outside the lines.

[00:05:27] And I like to go where other people have gone because there's usually a good indication that that way works.

[00:05:33] Breda's been making shotguns for a freaking long time and they don't make crappy ones.

[00:05:38] No.

[00:05:39] And the A300 before they made the patrol model already seemed like a pretty good shotgun.

[00:05:47] And everybody I've talked to that has an A300 patrol has been very, very happy and satisfied with them.

[00:05:53] So I plunked down the money and got one.

[00:05:56] And now I'm doing what I've done with radios and night vision and pretty much everything else where it's like, okay, for the next four weeks, I'm going to obsessively learn everything about this subject.

[00:06:10] Why?

[00:06:11] Why?

[00:06:11] Because I'm a nerd.

[00:06:12] Hey, learning about shotguns is fun, man.

[00:06:15] I was never a big shotgun guy until I took that class with track up at MDFI.

[00:06:20] It's it is probably now my second favorite weapons platform.

[00:06:24] I think that's the thing with those.

[00:06:26] Like, I still don't consider myself to be a shotgun guy.

[00:06:31] Like, there's there's nothing about a shotgun that like calls to me in a lot of the same way.

[00:06:38] There's nothing about handguns or rifles or anything else.

[00:06:40] They're all tools in the toolbox.

[00:06:42] They all do things.

[00:06:42] And I like those things to get done a certain way.

[00:06:44] So I indulge in them.

[00:06:46] But what what has kept me out of shotguns for the longest time, I think, honestly, was a lot of like lack of familiarity.

[00:06:55] If I look back on if I'm being really honest with myself, like I've I've been playing around with like handguns and rifles since I was very young.

[00:07:03] Obviously, you know, a lot of M16A2s while I was enlisted and so on and so forth.

[00:07:08] No raggle fraggle.

[00:07:09] I didn't have a shotgun until a couple of weeks ago.

[00:07:12] So that's been a fairly recent addition.

[00:07:14] Andrew and Nick have both or Andrew had a 1301 tactical.

[00:07:18] Nick had an A300 patrol.

[00:07:21] I'm just late to the party like usual.

[00:07:24] Amen.

[00:07:24] But like I said, you're here.

[00:07:27] Chainsaw.

[00:07:28] First the chainsaw and now this.

[00:07:30] Hey, look.

[00:07:32] Gaming works.

[00:07:32] Proof here, guys.

[00:07:34] All all I'm going to say is there's a whole bunch of y'all in the comments talking a bunch of smack that have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to comms.

[00:07:42] You want to start comparing rate?

[00:07:43] You want to start comparing radio collections and capabilities?

[00:07:46] Saddle on up to the bar.

[00:07:48] Let's see what you got.

[00:07:50] Yeah.

[00:07:52] I don't have my ham antenna set up yet.

[00:07:55] I mean, I've got probably a thousand dollars worth in that that man pack, the battery set up, the mass, the antenna and all that.

[00:08:02] And I've literally talked 35 miles away with that pack.

[00:08:07] Dope.

[00:08:08] On battery power in my backyard.

[00:08:10] That's good, man.

[00:08:12] Yeah.

[00:08:13] So, yes.

[00:08:13] I'm a little late.

[00:08:14] CB works fine.

[00:08:16] It does.

[00:08:17] It does.

[00:08:17] You can't crap on CB.

[00:08:19] It is functional.

[00:08:20] It is simple.

[00:08:21] It is available.

[00:08:23] And it is widespread.

[00:08:26] The trouble with CB is always going to be it's limited channels and it's limited range unless you have a repeater.

[00:08:34] Yep.

[00:08:34] And that's where GMRS really starts to get legs because before we get too, too far off topic, a couple of weeks ago, our local, the Ozone Amateur Radio Club, which is local to me, they took their ham UHF repeater and reprogrammed it to GMRS frequencies.

[00:08:52] So, if you are on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, anywhere from Mississippi all the way as far west as Hammond, Louisiana, if you're within 40 miles of Lacombe, Louisiana, which includes a sizable chunk of the New Orleans metro area, you can probably get onto this thing.

[00:09:13] If that applies to anybody, by the way, because I don't think I have a lot of audience that's local to me.

[00:09:19] But, like, if you have a GMRS radio and you're within 40 miles of Lacombe, Louisiana, reach out to me and I'll get you stood up on that repeater.

[00:09:26] But, like, it's 660 feet off the ground is the antenna height and it's, I was talking to it from the Mishu Semifacility in New Orleans East today.

[00:09:38] And I was talking to a guy in Ponchatoula, which is almost to Hammond.

[00:09:43] Fantastic.

[00:09:44] Oh, dude, that repeater's been a game changer.

[00:09:47] But anyway, so yeah, I bought a shotgun.

[00:09:50] I bought an A300.

[00:09:51] I've been about 90% happy with it out of the box.

[00:09:55] Or then, like, you know, a few mandatory things like a sling and a light and so on and so forth.

[00:10:01] Yes, you could put a chainsaw on a shotgun, but I'm pretty sure the ATF would have a fit about it for some reason.

[00:10:08] Nope.

[00:10:09] As far as I'm aware, even in Illinois, you can mount a chainsaw on your shotgun or rifle and it's not as difficult.

[00:10:14] I know it is.

[00:10:16] You can mount a shotgun on another weapon.

[00:10:18] Correct.

[00:10:19] Yeah, you can't mount a shotgun on your rifle.

[00:10:21] You can't mount a shotgun on your shotgun.

[00:10:23] I know.

[00:10:23] People want to so bad.

[00:10:26] Yeah.

[00:10:26] Raggle Fraggle, if you have a question, drop it in the chat.

[00:10:30] We reserve right to ignore it.

[00:10:32] Nope.

[00:10:34] Partially to needle you and partially because I just have no idea where you're going.

[00:10:38] Right.

[00:10:38] But I also reserve the right to mock Phil over his opinions.

[00:10:43] I mean, everybody has that right.

[00:10:46] This is not a dictatorship.

[00:10:47] This is a strict democracy.

[00:10:49] Y'all decide whether I get mocked or not.

[00:10:51] There you go.

[00:10:52] But yeah, I'll be honest.

[00:10:54] Like, I haven't found a lot about the shotgun not to like so far.

[00:10:56] I would love to take it out to the range this Saturday and give it its maiden send-off.

[00:11:01] But that's going to be contingent upon weather because last I checked, there's like a 70% chance of rain all the way through Sunday night.

[00:11:09] Nice.

[00:11:09] So far, it's been raining on and off for the last two days.

[00:11:14] Which means that entire outdoor range is a big old hippie mud puddle at this time.

[00:11:20] It's going to be bad.

[00:11:23] The last time it rained for a couple of days and I went out anyway, I literally had mud up to my ankles.

[00:11:29] Oh, man.

[00:11:30] That's a perfect stress test.

[00:11:33] Yeah.

[00:11:35] It's really annoying, too, because, I mean, it's outdoors, but it's a covered range.

[00:11:39] It's really, it's a really nice setup, but there's nothing but mud from the firing line to where you set up your targets.

[00:11:47] Hey, man, you got an outdoor public range near you.

[00:11:50] I got to drive like an hour to get to one.

[00:11:53] Yeah.

[00:11:55] Less than optimal.

[00:11:56] Yeah, it is.

[00:11:57] So, let's get the topic 12 minutes in.

[00:12:00] I said it was going to be fast and we never do anything fast.

[00:12:03] Is gun control dying?

[00:12:06] I would argue yes, and it's fun to watch.

[00:12:09] And it's dying in an accelerating fashion, which is phenomenal.

[00:12:15] Yeah.

[00:12:16] So, I mean, this might seem like an odd thing to say or an odd position to take at this point.

[00:12:22] Because, like, you know, Nick, in some particular state, I can't remember which, their governor, fat, lazy bastard that he is, decided that scary black rifles are no longer, are now pursuing an on grata.

[00:12:36] And that's getting kicked around in the courts and there's other various things going on around the country.

[00:12:40] So, like, there might be a lot of people out there that say gun control is alive and well.

[00:12:45] But I would argue it's been on a downward trajectory for about the last 20 years.

[00:12:50] Like, I can distinctly remember, like, growing up, you know, like, we had, like, a 22 and a 9 mil and a couple little things here and there.

[00:13:00] But, like, I cannot remember anyone having AR-15s.

[00:13:05] That was a really rare thing.

[00:13:07] I cannot remember.

[00:13:08] I cannot remember being young and there being a lot of people that own a lot of firearms.

[00:13:15] I don't remember the gun culture being this focused around training and around training for home defense and training for self-defense.

[00:13:25] I can't remember the landscape I'm looking at in 2024.

[00:13:29] I don't remember this 25 years ago.

[00:13:32] You know, there's been a shift.

[00:13:33] In preparation for this topic here, I called up a retired co-worker of mine.

[00:13:39] He has been a cowboy action pistol shooter for a number of years.

[00:13:43] The guy is in his, I want to say, mid-70s now.

[00:13:47] And he's been big in the, big, big in the firearms community for the last, I would say, 55, maybe even 60 years.

[00:13:55] He grew up hunting and fishing.

[00:13:57] I asked him, I said, what was firearms training like?

[00:14:00] What was it like when you were 34, when you was my age?

[00:14:04] And he said, it almost didn't exist.

[00:14:09] You had basic safety classes and then you had stuff like cowboy action.

[00:14:14] You had a little bit of IDPA and IPSC starting to come around.

[00:14:18] But now, just about everybody I know that's into firearms in any way at all or into self-defense, self-reliance in any way at all, they're all taking classes.

[00:14:28] They're all getting certified in various things.

[00:14:30] They're all training on multiple weapons systems or multiple weapons platforms, pistols, rifles, shotguns, long-range rifles.

[00:14:37] It's not the old school six guns anymore that are doing all the competitions.

[00:14:43] I don't know, Phil, if your dad was big into the shooting industry when he was our age, did you ever talk to him about it?

[00:14:54] So, I know when my dad was – I'm putting myself back heck in like – because my dad was 30 when I was born.

[00:15:04] So, at 10, I mean, I can remember like whenever we would go – we never went to the range, put it that way.

[00:15:13] And that was not a family thing.

[00:15:16] About the best we ever did was when we went to my great-grandmother's place, which she lives in rural Louisiana.

[00:15:20] We lived in southeast Texas in a small town at the time.

[00:15:26] But like we'd break out the BB guns, the pellet guns.

[00:15:29] And, you know, sometimes my dad would get out to have the .22 and we would do some plinking and shooting.

[00:15:33] Like I had a lot of lessons as far as safe gun handling and basic marksmanship from my dad.

[00:15:41] But this idea of like we're going to go out to the range on a regular basis and train so that we know how to defend ourselves, that really wasn't a thing.

[00:15:49] At least not from what I recall.

[00:15:52] Like my firearms tutelage didn't really shift into high gear until basic training.

[00:15:58] And at that point, for obvious reasons, I had to drink from a fire hose.

[00:16:03] Absolutely.

[00:16:03] Absolutely.

[00:16:05] But I guess, I mean, that's an excellent point is like, you know, when you think about the training industry,

[00:16:11] my greatest gripe down here in south Louisiana has been the fact that there's not the ready access to more advanced firearms training courses

[00:16:23] like I see up in your area or in Andrew's area.

[00:16:27] There's not as much of that down here.

[00:16:28] There's a couple of small training outfits that mostly deal with military and law enforcement.

[00:16:34] They will trade civilians.

[00:16:35] But I think the problem I suffer from down here is the fact that the average person, most of them, I'm assuming I'm suspecting are like shooting on family land or they're shooting on public land.

[00:16:51] And a lot of that firearms training is very informal.

[00:16:54] Yeah.

[00:16:55] Basic safety training, basic marksmanship, maybe basic fundamentals of form.

[00:16:59] Yeah.

[00:17:01] Yeah.

[00:17:01] said, because there's not as much demand for that training, there's not as many classes

[00:17:05] available, which I find frustrating.

[00:17:07] But the truth of the matter is, it's like, I can think, I mean, in my head, I can think

[00:17:12] of a half dozen guys right off the top of my head.

[00:17:15] I know in this local area, most of which are LE or prior military, that are all armed

[00:17:21] to the teeth, trained regularly, stockpiles of ammo in their house, and they make no bones

[00:17:27] about it.

[00:17:28] But it is because if somebody threatens their family, they're going to end them.

[00:17:33] But it's such a different culture around firearms than what I remember, where the focus used

[00:17:41] to be, oh, I have a gun.

[00:17:42] I like to go target shooting on the weekends.

[00:17:45] It was pure recreation.

[00:17:47] And now I see it being viewed more as, no, no, no, this thing is here to protect my family.

[00:17:52] This thing is here to protect my community.

[00:17:54] Even in the last 10 years, that's shifted.

[00:17:57] Because I really didn't get into firearms really big until, you know, geez, I was 21, 22.

[00:18:06] Once I finally got, you know, got the money to get into firearms and start learning a little

[00:18:14] bit.

[00:18:14] And man, I don't know.

[00:18:15] Do you remember the forums back, you know, about 10 years, 15 years ago, Phil?

[00:18:19] Everybody, it was all, oh, you know, put this on your gun.

[00:18:23] Put this on your gun.

[00:18:24] Put that on your gun.

[00:18:25] You got this type of gun, that type of gun.

[00:18:27] And now I see more and more people are focusing on not what you have on your gun, but what you

[00:18:32] have done with it, what you're doing with it consistently.

[00:18:37] And see, I can remember a time when I was much earlier in this firearms and this preparedness

[00:18:42] journey where I used to get weird looks from people when I would tell them, hey, like,

[00:18:47] what are the first three things you buy when you buy a firearm?

[00:18:51] And my answer was always a holster or a sling, depending on whether it's a handgun or a long

[00:18:57] hung gun, mags and ammo.

[00:19:00] First three things.

[00:19:02] Yep.

[00:19:02] Not, not, not sights, not stocks, not cool stuff.

[00:19:06] None of that.

[00:19:06] Like you need a holster because if you don't, you can't use the firearm effectively.

[00:19:11] You need a sling or you can't use the firearm effectively.

[00:19:13] You need ammo.

[00:19:13] You need mags.

[00:19:14] And why do you need extra mags?

[00:19:16] Because they freaking break and they wear out.

[00:19:18] Why do you need extra ammo?

[00:19:19] Self-explanatory reasons.

[00:19:21] And I can remember a time when I used to get weird looks from people at that moment.

[00:19:25] Like, why do you need a sling if you're just going to go to the range?

[00:19:28] And I'm like, who said this was just for going to the range to punch paper.

[00:19:34] But now when you say that you get nods.

[00:19:37] Like, it's, it's been a little weird because in some, in some respects, like I can remember

[00:19:45] being castrated by members of the gun community years ago because some of the things I were

[00:19:51] saying were a little bit off color.

[00:19:53] Things to the effect of, you know, eat my, eat my, eat my ass if you think you need a

[00:19:59] tag stamp to own things.

[00:20:01] And so, you know, other things that were controversial at the time.

[00:20:03] Three men don't ask has become the go-to tagline online.

[00:20:07] But that's my point.

[00:20:09] That you, that you, that statement once would get you excommunicated from the gun community

[00:20:14] because the tagline was we're law abiding gun owners.

[00:20:18] And my supposition continued to be if the law is wrong, why are we following it?

[00:20:23] Take the lesson from the potheads, man.

[00:20:26] Non-compliance.

[00:20:27] I, like I used to go, I used to really put people on the spot and I'm like, okay,

[00:20:33] your analogy is it's law.

[00:20:35] So we should follow it.

[00:20:37] So go back 150 years and explain to me how we have a duty to, to follow the laws that,

[00:20:42] you know, that, um, codified slavery.

[00:20:47] Yeah.

[00:20:47] No one, no one today in 2024 will argue that that's a law that should have been followed.

[00:20:52] Everyone will admit that was a bad idea.

[00:20:54] Thank Christ.

[00:20:55] We freaking, you know, overturned it.

[00:20:57] And it's, it's not a thing in this country anymore.

[00:20:59] And if the law was wrong, then it can be wrong now.

[00:21:02] Yep.

[00:21:03] So because it's law is not a good enough reason you gotta, you gotta do better than that.

[00:21:08] You gotta work a little harder.

[00:21:09] Like convince me that this law is just, and the fact that you'd put somebody in jail in

[00:21:14] federal prison for five to 10 years for owning a thing and not hurting anybody with it just

[00:21:19] strikes me as stupid.

[00:21:21] Agreed.

[00:21:22] But I can say that now.

[00:21:24] And everybody's like, yeah, Phil, what's your problem?

[00:21:27] Whereas 20 years ago, they'd be like, Phil, what's your problem?

[00:21:31] You know what I'm saying?

[00:21:32] It's the whole landscape has changed in a positive way.

[00:21:35] Well, yeah, absolutely.

[00:21:37] And, you know, I, I think, uh, I think that it's only going to continue accelerating in our favor.

[00:21:43] You know, you, you, you talk about 20 years ago.

[00:21:47] Well, here's about, here's 30 years ago.

[00:21:50] I don't know if anybody in the audience is not familiar with PA Lutie.

[00:21:53] Philip A. Lutie.

[00:21:55] Guy from the UK who published a book called Expedient Homemade Firearms, which you can Google.

[00:22:02] And it is publicly available today.

[00:22:04] It is a free PDF.

[00:22:06] Yeah, teaches you how to build a submachine gun in your house with hardware store components and hand tools.

[00:22:12] But I am forced to issue a public service announcement before we continue.

[00:22:15] If you were not already on a government watch list, you probably would have fired the VP before you Google that.

[00:22:20] Just, just, just.

[00:22:21] Oh, no, no, no.

[00:22:22] The Supreme Court had, or the courts have ruled that plans for firearms do not constitute, do not constitute a violation of any firearms laws.

[00:22:33] Yeah, unfortunately, um.

[00:22:35] They put you on whatever list they want, but having the plans does not make you criminal.

[00:22:40] Matt Hoover is in prison right now.

[00:22:42] He is, and he should not be.

[00:22:44] Yeah.

[00:22:44] So I guess, I guess what I'm saying is, slightly tongue-in-cheek, turn on the VPN before you Google that.

[00:22:49] But if you feel like Googling it or getting added to one more federal watch list, you can find the PDF online.

[00:22:55] It's crazy.

[00:22:56] Oh, and look, you're the, you're the machinist.

[00:23:00] I'm not.

[00:23:01] Oh, yeah.

[00:23:01] It's a freaking cool book to, when you realize, because like, Ludi's genius was not that he designed a 9mm squirt gun.

[00:23:10] It's basically a sten.

[00:23:11] That's all it is.

[00:23:12] It's basically a sten.

[00:23:13] But my point is, designing a sten wasn't hard when they first did it.

[00:23:17] It's pretty simple.

[00:23:18] His genius is that he designed it so that it does not require a single firearms part.

[00:23:26] Like, you can literally get everything to make this thing, including, including rifling the barrel.

[00:23:32] You can go get all this stuff at Ace Hardware.

[00:23:34] It is, it is like AK-47, simplicity and manufacture, turned up to 11.

[00:23:42] It's, it is beautiful.

[00:23:44] Yep.

[00:23:46] I hope it was worth it, because he went to prison twice for doing it, but still.

[00:23:50] He did.

[00:23:51] Unfortunately, in the UK, you do not have the freedom of speech.

[00:23:54] So, congrats.

[00:23:56] We rebelled.

[00:23:57] They lost freedom of speech.

[00:24:00] Well, you know, here's the thing.

[00:24:02] When I was a kid, a lot of us knew that you could go down to the hardware store and get some black pipe, some black gas pipe, and you can make a slam fire shotgun.

[00:24:13] It's really not that difficult.

[00:24:15] If anybody's even thinking about doing it, just wear safety equipment, because sometimes that goes wrong.

[00:24:21] Pro tip, that same thing I said about turning on your VPN before you Google stuff.

[00:24:26] There are several very old Army field manuals from the 1960s, if I recall, that tell you how to make homemade explosives and firearms.

[00:24:36] As Raggle Fraggle said, purely for academic purposes.

[00:24:40] Right.

[00:24:40] And the funny part is, is that those were written by the Department of Defense, and apparently they were never classified or they've been declassified.

[00:24:54] They can't be classified because they're a military field manual.

[00:24:57] It's nothing about tactics, techniques, and procedures.

[00:25:01] Even though there's plenty of that that is also unclassified.

[00:25:06] Right.

[00:25:07] But the thing of it is, is when they were created, the thought process in the government was, is no, your tax dollars paid for this.

[00:25:16] You get to have it.

[00:25:18] There's nothing revolutionary in this.

[00:25:22] This is all stuff that is common knowledge to any military on the planet.

[00:25:26] So they didn't classify it, which is fantastic.

[00:25:29] You know, PA Luddy around the same time period as the original assault weapons ban.

[00:25:40] Which expired in 2004, if I remember right, Phil.

[00:25:46] 1994 to 2004.

[00:25:48] Yes.

[00:25:49] It had a 10 year sunset period.

[00:25:52] Yeah.

[00:25:52] 10 year sunset period.

[00:25:53] So.

[00:25:55] One thing.

[00:25:56] I was wrong.

[00:25:57] It's not, it's not a field manual.

[00:25:59] It is a technical manual that I cannot confirm or deny that I may have on my phone for reading purposes.

[00:26:05] Makes great bathroom.

[00:26:07] Yeah.

[00:26:07] Makes great use of bathroom time.

[00:26:09] But it's TM 31-210.

[00:26:12] Improvised munitions handbook.

[00:26:14] That's the one.

[00:26:16] Thank me later.

[00:26:16] Yeah.

[00:26:18] But it.

[00:26:19] Excellent information.

[00:26:21] Exercise.

[00:26:21] Do caution.

[00:26:22] Playing with explosives can end explosively.

[00:26:25] Who would have thought?

[00:26:28] So it's interesting to me, Phil.

[00:26:30] Now, you know, I was, I was 14 when this assault weapons ban went away.

[00:26:36] So I didn't really grow up as an adult with an assault weapons ban around.

[00:26:41] But I very distinctly remember around 25th, 2005, 2006, 2007 ish.

[00:26:50] You start to see the sprinklings of in, in ads, in gun shops, in hunting stores.

[00:26:57] You started to see the ARs trickling in.

[00:27:00] Do you remember that?

[00:27:02] Yeah.

[00:27:03] Cause like the, the, the assault weapons ban sunsetted while I was in Iraq.

[00:27:07] So I was, I turned 22 while I was overseas.

[00:27:13] So I technically, I mean, it wasn't until after sunset, I was even legally old enough to purchase a long gun.

[00:27:24] But yeah, I mean, I can remember that.

[00:27:27] That was when ARs really started permeating the, the consciousness of the gun community.

[00:27:34] Because like for so long they had been, it was like mini four teams and, uh, and one grand stuff like that, that you'd see everywhere.

[00:27:46] Yeah.

[00:27:47] And as soon as they burst onto the scene, I mean, that was, that was it.

[00:27:53] I can remember, and I'm kicking myself that I don't remember more about this, but I can remember during Katrina, if that tells you anything.

[00:28:03] So we're talking about like August, August to the end of 2005.

[00:28:08] Um, when we had to deploy for hurricane Katrina, funny story, all of our weapons were locked up in the vault when our facility flooded.

[00:28:16] So we were running around by any chance.

[00:28:19] Huh?

[00:28:20] Was the, it was on the second story, thankfully.

[00:28:23] But the point remains is that like they couldn't get the, because the, the, our facility was outside levy protection.

[00:28:31] Oh no.

[00:28:32] Nobody could get there until like eight to nine weeks after Katrina hit.

[00:28:35] So we were running around New Orleans with personal weapons.

[00:28:38] I had a frigging Kimber 1911, which was the only firearm I owned at the time, like on my hip in a blade tech holster.

[00:28:48] Cause that's the only firearm I had.

[00:28:50] We drove from Baton Rouge down to New Orleans.

[00:28:53] My buddy had a frigging Glock 19 with a 30, hurry something around magazine sitting up on the dashboard.

[00:28:58] I had his 12 gauge pump between my legs.

[00:29:01] Do we look like the redneck militia?

[00:29:04] Thank Christ.

[00:29:06] We all had our military.

[00:29:07] Thank God.

[00:29:08] We all had our military IDs.

[00:29:09] Most of us were in uniform.

[00:29:11] I was actually wearing mechanics coveralls because I evacuated without my uniforms.

[00:29:14] When I came back, I mean, we, they literally threw me a set of coveralls and said that bird needs work.

[00:29:19] Get to work.

[00:29:20] And I just jumped.

[00:29:21] So yeah, we were a little ragtag at the time, but that's a story for another time.

[00:29:26] Right.

[00:29:26] But anyway, point is we were carrying personally owned weapons and I can distinctly remember one of my sergeants.

[00:29:32] He had one of these tiny little AR pistols.

[00:29:36] Like this is way, way, way pre pistol brace.

[00:29:41] So it's literally just like one of those little bitty, like six inch barrel AR pistols that took 30 round magazines.

[00:29:49] He had one of those.

[00:29:50] And I was shocked because I, the only, the only ARs I'd ever seen were M16s.

[00:29:55] And he's got this tiny little thing.

[00:29:59] Any flash bang in a can right there.

[00:30:01] Oh, dude.

[00:30:02] If, if the, if you, even if you miss the poor bastard would be deaf, dumb and blind for the rest of his life from the, from the blast from that thing.

[00:30:11] Absolutely.

[00:30:11] You know, full, full, full house, five, five, six out of a six inch barrel.

[00:30:16] Oh, y'all let me know how that feels.

[00:30:18] I don't want to try it.

[00:30:19] Well, I mean, it's sucked bad enough out of a 10 and a half inch barrel.

[00:30:22] I can't even imagine less than that.

[00:30:26] Not good.

[00:30:27] Not good.

[00:30:28] I mean, not even talking performance wise, but you know, here's something that you guys are going to notice after this.

[00:30:34] The dates start to rack up and accelerate, you know, PA Luddy 98 assault weapon ban expires 94.

[00:30:43] I think it was 90 or 2004, 2004.

[00:30:48] I think it was 2005, 2006, 80% receivers started becoming a thing that people were making at home.

[00:30:56] So there we got a two year change.

[00:31:00] So, you know, it, I'm a machinist.

[00:31:03] If, if, if I want to make a firearms receiver, I just make one.

[00:31:06] I don't go out and buy an 80% kit.

[00:31:09] I just buy a block of aluminum off of McMaster car, go to work and go to town.

[00:31:14] It, you would be a dangerous friend to have.

[00:31:16] You live close to me.

[00:31:18] Yeah, we all are.

[00:31:19] I mean, the, the buddy I was talking about earlier, he, uh, he's got a, his whole gunsmithing workshop in his garage.

[00:31:26] He, uh, he refurbs black powder firearms for fun.

[00:31:31] He's a, he's an expensive friend to have.

[00:31:33] I tell you what.

[00:31:34] But, uh, but the 80, so the 80% revolution, and I, and I am going to call it a revolution because essentially what it did is it gave the common man with a drill press or a router or a little mill in his garage, the ability to make an AR 15 with no government involvement.

[00:31:51] No 40, 73, no FFL transfer, nothing.

[00:31:56] Which, and what happened?

[00:31:58] Well, the government got very upset.

[00:32:00] Yeah.

[00:32:01] But nothing bad happened.

[00:32:04] Uh, best I recall, I cannot remember a single 80% lower being used in crimes.

[00:32:11] Now they have the meat since they have.

[00:32:14] Oh yeah.

[00:32:14] I was going to say, I know the media, there were a couple of the plastic ones recently used in Chicago in a shooting, but at Chicago, everything gets shot up in Chicago.

[00:32:23] Yeah.

[00:32:24] I know that the media tries to conflate this to say like ghost guns get used in crimes all the time, but they're also talking about stolen firearms that have had the serial numbers ground off them, which is a little bit of a different thing than a gun nerd in a garage, you know, with a drill press.

[00:32:43] Most criminals get their guns through theft and buying stolen guns.

[00:32:47] They don't manufacture their own.

[00:32:48] They don't set up a lathe in their basement like me and manufacture their own parts for things.

[00:32:53] They just don't.

[00:32:55] Why would they?

[00:32:56] It's more freaking effort when you can just buy one from a meth head.

[00:33:00] Exactly.

[00:33:01] And you know, from there, from the 80% revolution, we got the plastic AR receivers.

[00:33:06] We got the 80% Glocks.

[00:33:09] And the 80% lowers, by the way, got a lot better as time went on.

[00:33:13] Because I can, I can remember when 80% lowers like matter of fact, let's flip that.

[00:33:18] I can remember when 80% lowers like first came out, they were almost regarded kind of as toys because, you know, like they were shit.

[00:33:27] Well, they, they were, let's, let's, let's be kind.

[00:33:30] Let's say they were, they were suboptimal.

[00:33:32] They were less than professional.

[00:33:33] The materials were poorly made.

[00:33:35] The materials were not great.

[00:33:38] Well, the material, no, the materials were the same.

[00:33:40] The plastic ones?

[00:33:42] Yes.

[00:33:43] The materials are the same as they are now.

[00:33:45] The difference is the jigs.

[00:33:48] The jigs have gotten so much better.

[00:33:51] And the, and the information for people out there largely brought to them by people like me that have machining experience be like, hey, change this to get a better result has improved the performance of the 80% lowers massively.

[00:34:09] I also think the culture pushed a lot of some of that.

[00:34:12] And the reason I say that is because let's just talk like human psychology for a moment.

[00:34:18] If something is regarded as a toy, if it doesn't work perfectly, you write it off.

[00:34:24] It's a toy.

[00:34:26] If something is supposed to be a serious implement, you expect it to work right.

[00:34:30] Yes.

[00:34:31] So I think that when 80% lowers first came out and people said, well, it's just a fun little thing to dink around with, you know, you got to shave on a little bit, file a little bit here.

[00:34:39] And, you know, you, you, you got to like try to mill out the center of it 14 times, get it to work right.

[00:34:45] And you got to hold your tongue just right to get it to run.

[00:34:47] Right.

[00:34:48] But it was a thing that people were just goofing around with.

[00:34:51] Yep.

[00:34:51] It wasn't until kind of the community really made that put, it turns into the chicken or the egg to me.

[00:34:58] Did the community push the technology forward to, until it got serious enough that people took it seriously?

[00:35:04] Or did people kind of say, if it's going to be treated seriously, it's got to work better.

[00:35:08] And that pushed the community to get better.

[00:35:10] I don't know.

[00:35:11] I just know that you're right.

[00:35:12] There has kind of been this progression of 80% lowers and not just ARs, but like everything, everything, everything, 80% lowers as a blanket, as, as flat stampings, AK flat stampings.

[00:35:27] Yes.

[00:35:28] Uzi flat stampings.

[00:35:29] They're all coming out now.

[00:35:31] Yeah.

[00:35:32] Glock, 80% lowers, other kinds of pistol, 80% lowers.

[00:35:35] I mean, it's everything pushed forward because the idea, the idea that I can make this and the government can pound sand was very appealing to a lot of people.

[00:35:45] But again, like we, we, to this day kind of lament fights.

[00:35:51] Yeah.

[00:35:53] And that's because they're the ones that will sit there and say, well, if you have nothing to fear, we, we, you know, if you have nothing to hide, what do you have to fear?

[00:35:59] And all these other stupid platitudes that make me want to slap the crap out of that entire group of people.

[00:36:04] Two world wars.

[00:36:07] Yes.

[00:36:08] Look, I love as much as the next guy, but.

[00:36:11] Speaking of which, we like shooting recently posted on their Instagram that if the 1911 was so great, why'd you lose Vietnam with it?

[00:36:20] And hold up, hold up.

[00:36:23] I had to get into the comments and I'm like, guys, hear me out.

[00:36:26] Doesn't this apply to the M16 to M16 to.

[00:36:29] Fuck.

[00:36:31] Yeah.

[00:36:31] A bunch of people were like, oh, friendly fire.

[00:36:34] Friendly fire.

[00:36:38] I mean, look, that's shot here in a bunch.

[00:36:40] I got to needle them whenever I get a chance.

[00:36:42] Oh, absolutely.

[00:36:43] They're good guys.

[00:36:44] You got to give it to them a little bit.

[00:36:45] Well, he gives it to me plenty.

[00:36:47] Oh, yeah.

[00:36:48] Absolutely.

[00:36:50] Speaking of the government pounding sand, the next banner.

[00:36:55] Now, I do have to admit, I doubt I will ever get the opportunity to have Cody Wilson on this show.

[00:37:02] He's a busy guy.

[00:37:04] He's a busy guy.

[00:37:05] He's got a lot going on.

[00:37:06] This is a smaller podcast.

[00:37:08] Mm-hmm.

[00:37:09] But I just have to say that I would have to seriously like hammer down half a glass of whiskey, not the fangirl like a motherfucker.

[00:37:16] If I had him on this show.

[00:37:17] Like this dude is why I have a 3D printer.

[00:37:20] This.

[00:37:21] I don't have a 3D printer yet.

[00:37:23] And I mean, reading his book, by the way, is so freaking worth it for anybody that hasn't.

[00:37:32] It's to get that window into his mind and why he does the things he does is so incredibly interesting.

[00:37:41] I think this is perfectly indicative of the shifting culture.

[00:37:46] Okay.

[00:37:47] And this is a natural outgrowth of the 80% receivers.

[00:37:51] Now, I.

[00:37:52] This is the next logical step.

[00:37:54] The next logical step is, well, why don't you just make the whole thing at home yourself and save having to buy anything?

[00:38:01] All right, guys.

[00:38:02] You all know.

[00:38:04] I've got 3D printers.

[00:38:06] I've messed around with 3D printed magazines.

[00:38:08] I've messed around with a little bit of 3D printed frames, 3D printed guns, stuff like that.

[00:38:12] They're fun, but they work.

[00:38:15] And that's the thing that Cody Wilson and our next banner proved.

[00:38:23] What the world was waiting for, what the 3D printing community was waiting for, was a simple design that functioned safely as a proof of concept.

[00:38:34] Planes didn't take off until Wilbur and Orville Wright showed that it could be done.

[00:38:40] Everybody said it would never be done.

[00:38:41] Could never be done until two bicycle mechanics decided, screw it.

[00:38:46] Let's do it.

[00:38:46] Why not?

[00:38:47] Send it.

[00:38:48] Cody Wilson.

[00:38:50] Same thing.

[00:38:52] But the biggest difference is here.

[00:38:55] This pushed it out to people that have no artisanal training.

[00:39:01] You don't need any manufacturing skill.

[00:39:05] You don't need any apprenticeship as a machinist to figure this stuff out.

[00:39:09] You can do it with a file, a handheld drill, and an Ender-3.

[00:39:15] And that is why I think gun control died on May 6, 2013.

[00:39:21] And they are piloting a corpse.

[00:39:24] Yeah.

[00:39:25] I mean, I think the thing that's really fun to point out at this moment is like, I've watched a lot of interviews with Cody Wilson.

[00:39:33] I've never once heard him describe himself as a gun rights advocate.

[00:39:37] No.

[00:39:38] I feel like, and I could be totally misunderstanding him, misrepresenting him, but I feel like, especially having read his book, gun rights to him is almost beside the point.

[00:39:50] It is.

[00:39:52] The point is to decentralize authority and decentralize power.

[00:39:57] That is like, if you look at all the things he's into, you look at the Liberator pistol, you look at defense distributed, you look at the ghost gunner, you look at the fact that he's a crypto anarchist.

[00:40:11] You look at all these different things and it all revolves around, it's all in orbit around this idea that-

[00:40:18] Get the government out of your business.

[00:40:19] Yes.

[00:40:19] I want to take, I want to take away the government's power because by taking it away from the government, the people get to have it back.

[00:40:26] So the most simple thing you can do, and for anybody that doesn't believe me, we did this in World War II, by the way.

[00:40:34] The Liberator pistol is so named because it's named after a program in which we made a whole crap load of really cheap single shot 45 ACP pistols with the intention of airdroping them all over France.

[00:40:46] Because there is no greater FU to tyrant Nazis than to distribute a whole crap ton of little bitty handguns to all of your victims.

[00:40:56] So now you're welcome to put on your uniform-

[00:40:58] You know what the best part is of those little pistols?

[00:41:00] You get a free Mauser at the other end.

[00:41:02] Yeah, we'll see, but that's the part of those pistols.

[00:41:05] I'm going to airdrop all these things into occupied France.

[00:41:08] You're welcome to walk around on the street with, you know, your freaking, your, your, your squirt gun and your grenades and your cute little uniform while some French speaking knucklehead sneaks up behind you, pops you in the back and takes all your stuff.

[00:41:22] Like the whole point of the Liberator pistol.

[00:41:25] And I would argue probably Cody's point of may of this project.

[00:41:29] It wasn't that this was the greatest gun on earth.

[00:41:32] Oh God, no, it was, it was a bare minimum functional design.

[00:41:37] Yes.

[00:41:37] But is the idea that by releasing it out into the wild, it puts firearms into hands of people who otherwise could not get them.

[00:41:45] And that tips the balance of power.

[00:41:48] Cody, Cody Wilson said in his book, and I believe it, but he said, he, he talks later in the book about how, you know, like, um, the government tried to shut him down for ITAR violations.

[00:42:00] And the government tried all these things to get him to take defense distributed down, take the plans of Liberator down.

[00:42:05] And he flat out said, he said, I'm playing checkers and they're playing chess.

[00:42:09] I won the minute that file went out because you can never get it off the internet ever again.

[00:42:16] It will be in a torn file.

[00:42:18] It'll be on somebody's hard drive.

[00:42:20] It'll be on a USB.

[00:42:21] There is no way to get rid of it.

[00:42:23] Once it's out.

[00:42:24] I already won.

[00:42:26] Yep.

[00:42:27] And even if they managed to take the file down, he proved the idea worked.

[00:42:33] Now you just need someone bored with six beers, refiguring it out.

[00:42:39] Yeah.

[00:42:40] Yeah.

[00:42:40] Well, I mean, case in point, when this all happened, I downloaded a copy of that file.

[00:42:47] I don't own a 3d printer.

[00:42:48] Still don't.

[00:42:50] Don't have access to one.

[00:42:51] I got the file though.

[00:42:52] You know why?

[00:42:53] Because as long as I've got a copy of that file, it can never be gotten rid of.

[00:42:56] And it was almost more.

[00:42:59] I think that is kind of the point with this sub top, this heading.

[00:43:03] And the next one is that, you know, somebody has said on numerous occasions, like the only

[00:43:09] way to destroy the ability of people to make their own farms is to destroy the knowledge

[00:43:13] of how they operate.

[00:43:14] And that is impossible.

[00:43:16] It does.

[00:43:18] Because like somewhere on somebody's hard drive, some little political dissident is going

[00:43:22] to have plans for how an AR-15 works.

[00:43:25] Or they're going to have schematics for how, like you don't even have to have detailed drawings

[00:43:29] where you have size references.

[00:43:31] If you just understand how firearms work and that's not that hard.

[00:43:35] Or a full working model of an MG42.

[00:43:39] Well, but that's my point is that you don't even need that.

[00:43:41] You don't.

[00:43:42] That's the best part.

[00:43:42] You don't know how they work.

[00:43:44] You can figure it out.

[00:43:46] Oh, absolutely.

[00:43:46] All you need is the will at that point.

[00:43:48] And that is why I think gun control is on this downward trajectory because you can't get

[00:43:54] rid of the knowledge of how to make these things.

[00:43:56] And more and more, as we've shown and will continue to show, more and more, the people,

[00:44:03] the culture has shifted and said, no, you don't get to tell me I can't have that thing.

[00:44:08] Some people have gone to prison over that summation.

[00:44:12] And some people continue to go to prison over that summation and continue to say, no, you

[00:44:17] don't get to tell me that.

[00:44:19] And they people went to prison over opposing slavery.

[00:44:24] I mean, every one of the founding fathers would have been hung as a traitor if the Civil

[00:44:29] War hadn't gone.

[00:44:30] If the Revolutionary War hadn't gone the way it did.

[00:44:32] Sometimes you just have to kind of take a stand and say, this is right.

[00:44:34] We're not doing this.

[00:44:36] Exactly.

[00:44:37] So you get to take this one because I hadn't heard of Deterrence Dispensed until you started

[00:44:44] telling me about this group.

[00:44:46] And then I started putting the pieces together.

[00:44:48] Deterrence Dispensed is an outgrowth of defense distributed in Cody Wilson's project with the

[00:44:54] Liberator.

[00:44:55] Essentially, what this is was a bunch of people got together over the Internet, specifically

[00:45:00] organized on Reddit to begin with.

[00:45:02] And then it moved to Keybase.

[00:45:03] And now it's moved to another place.

[00:45:05] Then from there, it moved to another place.

[00:45:07] You can find them at this deterrents dispense dot com or the get a log dot com spelled like

[00:45:13] it sounds.

[00:45:15] Essentially, what they've done is they've worked together to open source design 3D printable

[00:45:22] or mostly 3D printable or 3D printable frames and receivers and magazines for as many guns

[00:45:29] as possible to spread that knowledge to as many people as possible.

[00:45:33] One of their prime examples is the FGC 9 version 1 and 2.

[00:45:39] The version 2 is a little bit more reliable.

[00:45:40] I was just about to ask you about that one.

[00:45:41] It's fantastic.

[00:45:43] I know for a fact that it does work and it works very well.

[00:45:48] If anybody's heard of the YouTuber and Reddit personality Ivan the Troll, he's one of the

[00:45:53] people that works with them and helps develop their designs.

[00:45:57] They've made 3D printable foul receivers, 3D printable AK receivers, fully 3D printable

[00:46:02] pistols, rifles, shotguns.

[00:46:04] Wait a second.

[00:46:05] Are these the guys they did the Plasticoff?

[00:46:07] The Plasticovy.

[00:46:08] Yes.

[00:46:08] Oh my God.

[00:46:09] Also, also the Mendez Extendez magazine mocking the guy from California.

[00:46:19] They also did the dick butt Glock.

[00:46:23] So it's got a dick butt on the pistol grip.

[00:46:26] Yeah.

[00:46:27] It's an internet joke from a long time ago.

[00:46:30] Essentially what these guys have done is they've taken that idea of, well, if we put

[00:46:34] it out on the internet, the government can't ever take it away to the next logical conclusion

[00:46:39] of let's develop fully 3D printable firearms so that we can do whatever we want, whenever

[00:46:45] we want, however we want.

[00:46:47] You know, it's Cody published the Liberator in 2013.

[00:46:54] In 2019, they started developing this project to make 3D printable guns available to the

[00:47:01] public at large at scale.

[00:47:04] And today there's hundreds of designs.

[00:47:09] Magazines for nearly every firearm are available on there or in development on there.

[00:47:15] I mean, heck, if I think right now, if I felt like it, I could run off, I think it's a dozen

[00:47:20] 30 round AR-15 mags on my 3D printer at once.

[00:47:25] It would take days.

[00:47:26] It would take many days.

[00:47:28] But, you know, prior to the Illinois assault weapons ban, I made a few.

[00:47:32] I tested them.

[00:47:32] They worked.

[00:47:35] So, yeah.

[00:47:37] And the beauty of all this is that like, you know, all the arguments I've heard to detract

[00:47:43] from 3D printable firearms and firearms accessories that like the time requirement, the cost, the

[00:47:49] yada, yada, yada doesn't add up.

[00:47:51] You're better off just buying the thing.

[00:47:52] And I'm like, but that's not the point.

[00:47:54] The point is the government can't say no.

[00:47:56] The point is I could crack one of these things out in my living room with no credit card,

[00:48:03] no cash, no trace, no friggin' information exchange with 100% anonymity and nobody gets

[00:48:12] to know about it, which is the way it should be.

[00:48:14] It's like this whole thing about 3D printable firearms is this funny intersection of privacy

[00:48:21] advocates and gun nuts.

[00:48:23] And at some point they did.

[00:48:25] And free speech advocates.

[00:48:26] Yes.

[00:48:27] And free speech advocates.

[00:48:29] But I guess that's kind of my point is like, I feel like a lot of these people, they didn't

[00:48:32] even get into gun rights because like they like guns.

[00:48:36] They got into gun rights because it's like, okay, I want to have the right to free speech

[00:48:39] for obvious reasons.

[00:48:40] I shouldn't have to explain.

[00:48:42] Being able to say after government, it's pretty fun and pretty cool.

[00:48:45] And most of the rest of the world doesn't get to do that without consequences.

[00:48:48] Fantastic.

[00:48:49] Do recommend.

[00:48:50] But we do.

[00:48:51] And it's really cool.

[00:48:52] I mean, I used to tell people all the time, like, you know, the cool part about being in

[00:48:55] the National Guard is I get to tell them, I get to say my boss is a moron every day,

[00:49:00] all the time, as long as I don't do it in uniform and I can get away with it.

[00:49:04] It's the coolest thing.

[00:49:06] North Korea, if you say Kim Jong-un is a moron, you, you get an extra hole in your neck.

[00:49:11] It's bad.

[00:49:12] And your entire family goes to a camp.

[00:49:13] Yeah.

[00:49:14] You know, you do that in Russia.

[00:49:15] You, you get disappeared by the GRU.

[00:49:18] Fell down some stairs.

[00:49:19] Yeah.

[00:49:20] But here in the U.S., like you could literally, as long as you're not in uniform, as long as

[00:49:24] you, you know, as long as like you follow a few pretty reasonable rules, you could say

[00:49:29] my boss is an a-hole.

[00:49:31] Pound squits free.

[00:49:32] It's pretty cool.

[00:49:33] But anyway, you know, but it's like all these guys realize like the right to free speech

[00:49:38] is pretty cool.

[00:49:38] The right to privacy is pretty cool.

[00:49:40] But we don't have the things we need to defend these things.

[00:49:43] There's no point.

[00:49:45] And then all of a sudden, all these guys got together in a little Roman orgy and just

[00:49:51] all banded together.

[00:49:53] Yeah.

[00:49:53] Yeah.

[00:49:54] Which is, I think, is kind of the interesting thing.

[00:49:57] And it's in the next bullet point.

[00:50:01] Send the next bullet point, man.

[00:50:03] The rise of gun culture and the PewTubers.

[00:50:06] I have seen the gun culture turn from this weird, aggravating little collection of FUDs

[00:50:14] that used to go punch paper at the range and shoot skeet on the weekends.

[00:50:18] And they've been completely infiltrated and overtaken by every autistic variety of like

[00:50:27] prepper, militia guy, self-defense guy.

[00:50:32] I mean, left, right, center.

[00:50:34] It doesn't matter.

[00:50:35] Everyone jumped into this community and said, all you guys with your 1911s and your and you

[00:50:42] know, your, your, your whatever.

[00:50:43] Y'all go stand over there.

[00:50:44] This is our community now.

[00:50:46] And the tent got really big, really fast, which is the best thing possible.

[00:51:19] Well, yeah.

[00:51:22] In that moment where they ran to the nearest gun store and plunked down their money to

[00:51:26] buy a gun, they learned three things for the rest of their life.

[00:51:30] They learned that buying a gun without a background check is bull crap.

[00:51:35] They learn about every onerous, stupid restriction and law we've known about for years.

[00:51:42] And they learned about the hard way.

[00:51:43] Anybody that had a waiting period, I'm going to tell you that if you're expecting to have

[00:51:48] a wild ride in your town and you go to a gun store to buy a gun and they tell you, oh,

[00:51:52] yeah, you can have it in 30 days.

[00:51:53] You're going to have a freaking thermonuclear meltdown at that moment when you finally realized

[00:51:57] the gun nuts were telling you the truth all this time and your government was lying to

[00:52:00] you.

[00:52:01] And the third thing they learned was the incredible.

[00:52:05] And this might've been the part that they may not have learned immediately or weren't

[00:52:08] to learn as well as I wish they would, but they learned very quickly about this community.

[00:52:15] They learned that we were, we have been willing to invest not in consequential amounts of money

[00:52:21] and time and effort into learn, into obtaining these arms and obtaining the equipment to use

[00:52:28] them and obtaining the training and practicing our craft.

[00:52:31] If any of them went out to the gun range for the first time or went to their first training

[00:52:35] class, they very quickly realized, dang, these people are really good at this.

[00:52:42] And the other thing that I think a lot of them learned, and this is the biggest takeaway ahead.

[00:52:47] Do you remember the Pulse nightclub shooting?

[00:52:49] Yes.

[00:52:50] And the big explosion in LGBTQ people getting into firearms afterwards to defend themselves.

[00:52:56] A little late, but hallelujah.

[00:52:58] Hey man, welcome to the tent.

[00:53:00] Operation Blazing Sword.

[00:53:01] If any of our LGBTQ friends out there want to learn how to shoot guns, I'm a volunteer to

[00:53:08] teach people how to shoot on there.

[00:53:09] There are literally hundreds of thousands of us out there.

[00:53:14] We don't care who you are, what you are, or what you do, as long as your intention is

[00:53:23] to save yourself and not harm other people that haven't started shit first.

[00:53:29] And that was one thing I noticed at the gun ranges and the gun stores and the gun classes

[00:53:34] around that time is we had a bunch of people that were never into firearms before.

[00:53:38] And this is pre-COVID that were coming in every, every class.

[00:53:43] I mean, Hey, whose first gun class is it?

[00:53:45] A couple of hands go up.

[00:53:46] Everybody.

[00:53:47] Hey, welcome to the class.

[00:53:49] Glad to have you.

[00:53:50] If you have any questions, ask at the gun shop person comes in.

[00:53:56] You can pretty clearly tell they've never been in a gun store before.

[00:53:59] Hey man, how are you doing?

[00:54:01] Can we help you out?

[00:54:02] What are you looking for?

[00:54:03] Even if you don't work there, it's, ah, dude.

[00:54:06] Yeah, that one's pretty great.

[00:54:07] But if you tried this one, have you tried this one?

[00:54:09] Do you like this?

[00:54:10] If you try, you got a holster.

[00:54:11] Do you have a sling?

[00:54:12] You got mags.

[00:54:12] You need ammo.

[00:54:13] No, I've entered a lot of communities with my wide ranging and eclectic hobbies.

[00:54:22] And the only community that I have ever seen where there wasn't a negative backlash to a new person was the shooting community.

[00:54:35] Yeah, they'll give you shit if you bought a cheap gun.

[00:54:38] But if you say, hey, I'm a new shooter or I'm looking to get into shooting, they're all welcome to the party, man.

[00:54:45] What do you want?

[00:54:46] We're going to help set you up.

[00:54:49] You know, I don't remember when I was getting into shooting, encountering people that were gatekeeping or telling me I shouldn't do this.

[00:55:00] I shouldn't enter the hobby because of this, that or the other thing.

[00:55:03] I've never actually seen that happen in the shooting community.

[00:55:06] I've seen people get roasted for buying a high point, but most of the time they were buying a high point because of the joke.

[00:55:13] Well, I am ashamed to admit I've bumped into a small handful of people, but it hasn't been so much gatekeeping away from new people or people that were new to guns.

[00:55:25] It was more elitism.

[00:55:28] Okay.

[00:55:28] Yeah.

[00:55:29] If that makes sense.

[00:55:29] Yeah, you're going to see that.

[00:55:30] You, you do, you do.

[00:55:32] And I will say that I have seen that in many different hobbies.

[00:55:36] I've seen it less in the firearms, in the gun culture than I have in a lot of others, thankfully.

[00:55:41] But you do see this, this personality amongst some that is like, you know, because like I'm in ARs, that guy has an AK or I'm into Daniel defense.

[00:55:51] That guy has a Palmetto State armor.

[00:55:53] It's just, you know, stupid stuff where people look down their nose and say, well, you're not doing this right.

[00:55:58] Cause you're not doing it the way I do.

[00:55:59] I buy, I buy good optics.

[00:56:01] You buy Holocene.

[00:56:02] Stupid stuff like that.

[00:56:03] Now, I will happily admit everyone has had that.

[00:56:08] Everyone's had the experience has been in this community for a while where their buddy has been really, really proud of this gun that they just put together.

[00:56:15] You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

[00:56:17] Yeah, I do.

[00:56:17] And they show it to you and there is something on the gun that makes your poor little brain scream.

[00:56:23] Or no, even if it's not on backwards, it's just such a low quality part.

[00:56:27] You're like, oh, he's going to break this thing in two hours.

[00:56:29] Sure.

[00:56:30] There is, there is, there is a polite way to say, hey dude, there is run it.

[00:56:38] But that is the first thing you want to upgrade.

[00:56:40] And this is why these are not known for being great optics.

[00:56:44] This is not known for great, being a great part.

[00:56:46] You will have problems with this.

[00:56:47] It will break, but it's on and it's running and you have ammo and mags go train.

[00:56:52] Right.

[00:56:52] There's a way to do that.

[00:56:54] That is not you dummy.

[00:56:56] Why did you do this?

[00:56:57] Because they did it because they didn't know or because they're just broke as hell and they're trying to, you know, do work with what they got.

[00:57:05] Yeah, I guess, I guess what I'm leaning towards is more of like when you see, when you see a person come on one of the forums and be like, hey, I've never been to a gun shop before.

[00:57:12] What do I need to do?

[00:57:14] It is fundamentally and almost exclusively a welcoming environment.

[00:57:19] Dude, I took a friend of mine who hadn't hadn't had a handgun in his house for home defense for I don't know how many years he came to me because I was I was his gun nut friend.

[00:57:29] We all have one of those and we don't have one.

[00:57:31] You probably are the are the one.

[00:57:33] And if you are, you probably have a gun nut of your friend.

[00:57:36] Yeah, well, he came to me and I took him shopping for his first.

[00:57:40] Well, I took him shopping for the first handgun he bought at the time.

[00:57:45] Now he's got a small arsenal on his hands and he's slowly piling up ammo.

[00:57:49] He's been training at the range.

[00:57:51] He's dipping his toe into like prepper stuff, like a little bit extra food and water and things like that.

[00:57:56] But I mean, it's been it's been fun to watch from a distance because like I can remember.

[00:58:04] He wasn't, you know, he's prior military, so he's certainly not completely new to guns.

[00:58:09] But I can remember that that that slight discomfort he had when he first started because he hadn't really handled a lot of handguns and certainly hadn't in a lot of years.

[00:58:20] And now I've like I went to the range a few weeks ago and like he is so much smoother, more confident.

[00:58:27] It's just been fun to watch.

[00:58:28] But from my perspective, it was never I mean, yeah, we're friends.

[00:58:33] We're colleagues.

[00:58:33] We worked.

[00:58:34] We worked together at the time.

[00:58:36] But like for me, it's always just like I want everyone in this culture.

[00:58:40] I want everyone to have firearms so they're able to protect themselves and their families.

[00:58:44] I'm a real simple person to figure out when the boot heel hits your door at three o'clock in the morning.

[00:58:50] I don't care if the cops are two minutes away or 20 minutes away.

[00:58:53] You are now the first responder and I want you to be able to protect your family so you don't have to apologize to them as they're getting their next rung in front of you.

[00:59:00] That's really graphic.

[00:59:01] That's going to upset some of y'all.

[00:59:03] I'm sorry.

[00:59:03] I'm not sorry.

[00:59:05] But like I don't want anyone to be in that position where their family is harmed because you did not have the tools and the train to protect them.

[00:59:12] So for that reason, if someone comes to me and says, I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:59:16] I need help.

[00:59:16] I will jump in with both feet.

[00:59:18] I don't care who it is.

[00:59:20] I don't care.

[00:59:20] I don't care.

[00:59:22] I want you to be able to protect yourself.

[00:59:25] Absolutely.

[00:59:26] And if you don't have a crazy gun nut friend, I will probably be able to find you one close to where you are.

[00:59:33] More than likely.

[00:59:34] Yeah.

[00:59:34] I mean, there's tons of organizations out there that do it.

[00:59:38] I mean, Pink Pistols for the ladies.

[00:59:40] They have people everywhere teaching classes that are by women for women.

[00:59:47] Yes.

[00:59:48] Fraggle Fraggle.

[00:59:49] I was the enabler back then.

[00:59:51] And now I have other friends that are enabling me.

[00:59:54] Just you wait.

[00:59:57] Dude, my checking account needs a break.

[01:00:00] Don't they all?

[01:00:02] Like forever.

[01:00:05] But yeah.

[01:00:06] I mean, the thing I really wanted to talk about besides gun culture was the PewTubers, the YouTubers.

[01:00:11] Like there's been such an explosion in the last handful of years.

[01:00:15] Like I can remember when like Iraq veteran 8888.

[01:00:19] Yeah.

[01:00:20] And he was the one that stands out.

[01:00:23] There are a couple of others that.

[01:00:25] Sooch.

[01:00:26] Sooch.

[01:00:28] Pickock 45.

[01:00:29] Pickock 45.

[01:00:31] I'm thinking of one.

[01:00:32] Who's the shotgun gun that passed away recently?

[01:00:35] Paul Harrell.

[01:00:36] Paul Harrell.

[01:00:37] Yes.

[01:00:37] I'm thinking the younger guy with the crazy Russian accent.

[01:00:41] FPS Russia.

[01:00:42] Yeah.

[01:00:43] FPS Russian.

[01:00:44] Yeah.

[01:00:44] He was great.

[01:00:45] So this was these, these different content creators kind of came up in the, in the early

[01:00:53] days of YouTube when you could really, when you could really still build an audience before

[01:00:57] the algorithm really got involved and kind of screwed everything up in my opinion.

[01:01:02] But like I saw the gun community still pushing the ideas of training, pushing the ideas of like

[01:01:12] firearms for a purpose, but also making it fun and making it approachable.

[01:01:17] I saw like guys who were straight up talking about firearms because like, Hey, this is

[01:01:21] on the latest call of duty and this and the other.

[01:01:23] And it's like, they, they took something that you used to have to go to like your funny old

[01:01:30] uncle or grandfather to learn about.

[01:01:32] And they said, here it is.

[01:01:34] And they said, here it is on the internet and you can see these things and see them shot.

[01:01:38] And then they'll, they'll tell you how they work.

[01:01:40] They'll disassemble them in front of you and like tell you how to use them.

[01:01:44] Yeah.

[01:01:45] But they may step-by-step tutorial on how to train in, in your backyard.

[01:01:49] But they made, they made the topic of firearms accessible to the masses.

[01:01:56] So as we've gone through here, we've talked about making the, we've talked about making

[01:02:03] like the ability to create your own firearms more accessible to a point where it's damn near

[01:02:09] dummy proof at this point.

[01:02:10] Just about, we've talked about making the knowledge of firearms, about how they work,

[01:02:16] how to operate them, how to train them more accessible.

[01:02:18] And that has all shifted the gun community in this really positive direction where like

[01:02:25] they are, they as a majority are actively pushing against efforts to tamp down gun rights.

[01:02:32] They are like the gun community itself.

[01:02:34] And this is the, everything has come out of the internet.

[01:02:36] Like dude, in 1994, I was 12.

[01:02:42] So.

[01:02:44] Okay.

[01:02:46] Nick, Nick, Nick likes to make me feel old.

[01:02:48] I try.

[01:02:49] But the point is like in 1994, you and I were young.

[01:02:53] We were.

[01:02:54] But in 1994, there wasn't this like coast to coast nationwide uproar about the assault weapons

[01:03:01] ban.

[01:03:02] It really, I'm sure there were people that were aware of it.

[01:03:04] I'm sure there were, there were groups that were very vocal about it, but compare that

[01:03:09] to the 2013 assault weapons ban.

[01:03:13] That they attempted and failed to get past.

[01:03:17] There was outrage across the entire nation.

[01:03:20] Look at what happened with the assault weapons ban that they passed in Illinois.

[01:03:24] There were protests for weeks or months.

[01:03:26] People were open carrying ARs all over the dag.

[01:03:28] Two to four percent compliance rate.

[01:03:31] Yeah.

[01:03:32] Well, but here's the thing.

[01:03:35] Yeah.

[01:03:36] There is a slight difference.

[01:03:37] You have to admit between peaceful noncompliance and outwardly marching in the streets with

[01:03:43] guns saying, I dare you.

[01:03:47] Like that's a very, I think a warranted, but a very antagonistic action to take.

[01:03:53] And it was taken with impunity.

[01:03:55] Like people did, people had no expectation that, oh yeah, what's the government going to

[01:03:59] do?

[01:03:59] Arrest 10,000 of us?

[01:04:01] We dare you.

[01:04:02] Here's the thing.

[01:04:05] You ever see what happens when you cut off the head of a chicken, Phil?

[01:04:08] It runs around a lot.

[01:04:10] It flops around wildly, gets blood all over the place, makes a horrible mess if you don't

[01:04:14] throw in a pile of hay, right?

[01:04:17] They are losing.

[01:04:19] They know they are losing.

[01:04:22] What the Illinois assault weapons ban was, was Pritzker's, hey, look at me.

[01:04:27] I want to run for president eventually.

[01:04:30] Can he run around the block without having a heart attack?

[01:04:32] No, that's the best part.

[01:04:35] That was a fat joke and I'm not apologizing for it.

[01:04:38] Oh, hell no.

[01:04:39] Look at that guy.

[01:04:40] You'd need like elephant gun levels of penetration for him to even begin to worry about his vital

[01:04:44] organs.

[01:04:45] Not that I condone shooting politicians.

[01:04:47] That's a bad idea.

[01:04:48] That does not win the argument.

[01:04:49] The argument is one to hear with free speech.

[01:04:53] His blood type is high fructose corn syrup.

[01:04:56] Essentially, yes.

[01:04:57] High fructose corn syrup, insider trading, and I'm assuming he will eventually go to jail for

[01:05:03] some matter of corruption.

[01:05:04] Welcome to Illinois.

[01:05:06] Most of our governors do.

[01:05:07] I was about to say, he's a politician in Illinois.

[01:05:10] I mean, I'm pretty sure y'all invented government corruption, but I think Louisiana might have perfected

[01:05:15] it.

[01:05:16] We didn't invent it, but damn sure we perfected it.

[01:05:18] I mean, come on.

[01:05:19] My last governor tried to sell a Senate seat on the phone.

[01:05:24] What is the Senate seat called?

[01:05:26] We've gotten onto that subject.

[01:05:27] You know, I don't know, but he tried to sell Obama's and apparently Obama's was pricey because

[01:05:32] whoever he was talking to ratted his ass out and everybody went to prison.

[01:05:38] But okay.

[01:05:39] That is that is that is the homework for the audience is fine.

[01:05:42] Find out for me how much that Senate seat costs just to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

[01:05:48] I'll take a look after we get off here.

[01:05:50] But here's the thing.

[01:05:52] An animal is always its most dangerous when it's wounded.

[01:05:55] Yep.

[01:05:57] Yep.

[01:05:57] These politicians are ordered and wounded.

[01:05:59] The the DNC has taken gun control off of its main nationwide party platform.

[01:06:06] It's a losing issue.

[01:06:08] It is.

[01:06:09] It's a losing issue.

[01:06:10] You know, uh, armed gays don't get bashed.

[01:06:14] They say that for a reason.

[01:06:16] It's awful hard to beat up a dude when he's got a nine or a 45 in his pocket.

[01:06:21] You know what?

[01:06:22] Uh, 85 year old grandmother sitting in a rocking chairs pretty hard to rob when she's sitting

[01:06:28] there with a double barrel.

[01:06:29] Mm hmm.

[01:06:31] You know, and and I think that the changing landscape of the gun culture has been hugely

[01:06:40] reflected in the organizations that defend gun rights.

[01:06:46] Um, the NRA, we're all tired of them.

[01:06:51] They're not a gun rights organization.

[01:06:53] They haven't been for a very long time.

[01:06:56] The NRA abandoned Illinois functionally.

[01:07:00] FPC, GOA, Illinois Gun Owners Association.

[01:07:02] They're the ones that got concealed carry passed in Illinois, and they're the ones that are

[01:07:05] going to get rid of this assault weapons ban.

[01:07:08] NRA is buying more suits.

[01:07:13] Great.

[01:07:15] I want lawsuits, not suits on the lawyers.

[01:07:20] Yeah.

[01:07:21] And and I don't want to spend too, too much time on this because we're already going a

[01:07:25] little over, but that's fine.

[01:07:26] That's what happens when you have a good topic.

[01:07:30] But I think what stands out to me.

[01:07:33] More than just the work that these organizations are doing, and if I didn't list your favorite

[01:07:39] Second Second Amendment organization, there's a whole hell of a lot of them, and I've only

[01:07:43] got that many characters.

[01:07:44] Oh, toss it in the comments.

[01:07:45] We'll add it to the next list.

[01:07:47] Yeah.

[01:07:47] I mean, there's a lot.

[01:07:49] These are the ones that came most immediately to my mind, which was GOA, FPC, National Association

[01:07:55] for Gun Rights, and the Second Amendment Foundation.

[01:07:57] And there are others.

[01:07:59] Many.

[01:07:59] And that's these are just national.

[01:08:00] We're not even talking about the state level organizations.

[01:08:03] But I think what stands out to me is my perception of the NRA, because again, I, you know, like

[01:08:10] I was unfortunately by the time I was like an engaged gun owner, it was well after Charlton

[01:08:16] Heston from my cold dead hand.

[01:08:18] We were firmly in the Wayne LaPierre error.

[01:08:21] And I said error, not error.

[01:08:23] It was an error.

[01:08:24] That's for damn sure.

[01:08:26] But I saw an organization that they were OK pushing a little bit, but they didn't want

[01:08:32] to get uninvited from the parties.

[01:08:34] They didn't want to be.

[01:08:34] They wanted to.

[01:08:35] They didn't want the New York Times thinking ill of them.

[01:08:39] Yeah.

[01:08:39] This is where the quote unquote law buying gun owners bullcrap really got me fired up

[01:08:43] a couple years ago, because my point of view is I'm like saying that we should

[01:08:48] we should respect and follow a law that you that we all seem to agree is unconstitutional

[01:08:54] is crap, is morally wrong, not just unconstitutional.

[01:08:59] Yes.

[01:09:00] And, you know, George and the boys, all our founding fathers would agree with me that it

[01:09:03] was it's a stupid thing to encourage your fellow man to do.

[01:09:07] But I digress.

[01:09:10] But what I see out of these organizations is that they are unapologetic.

[01:09:15] They're antagonistic.

[01:09:17] They are complete savages.

[01:09:20] The memes are just fire in.

[01:09:22] And look, some people will kind of roll the rise at meme culture.

[01:09:25] I'm going to tell you that memes have probably done more to educate, you know, the millennials

[01:09:29] and Gen Z than any other than any mainstream media source ever has.

[01:09:33] Memes won the 2016 presidential election.

[01:09:36] Don't shit on memes.

[01:09:37] Probably the 2024 presidential election, too.

[01:09:40] To some extent.

[01:09:41] Yeah.

[01:09:41] If you want to be really technical.

[01:09:43] But my point is that all these organizations have based like FPC is notorious for F.

[01:09:49] You know, every time some government, some government official says we need more gun control.

[01:09:53] F.

[01:09:54] You know, like all these organizations are basically saying no.

[01:09:59] But not only no, but blow it out your ear.

[01:10:02] The only acceptable compromise is repeal.

[01:10:05] Yes.

[01:10:06] And that is like these are these are the organizations that finally got it through their thick heads.

[01:10:13] What NRA refused to, which is the other side.

[01:10:17] They're going to hate us one way or the other.

[01:10:21] It's like giving foreign aid to a nation that's sending terrorists to your front doorstep.

[01:10:25] Hey, that is a time honored American pastime, sir.

[01:10:29] Nick, I don't work for the CIA and I'm pretty sure you don't either.

[01:10:33] If I did, I'd have a bigger lathe.

[01:10:35] All I'm saying is those fuckers can hate us for free.

[01:10:39] Yep.

[01:10:40] Well, same thing for all the gun control advocates.

[01:10:43] You can hate us for free.

[01:10:45] You can hate us one way or the other.

[01:10:47] So why are we going to hold back if if if you're like every attempt I've ever seen for the other side to try to engage in, quote unquote, good faith discussions?

[01:10:57] Wasn't there wasn't a lot of good faith and there certainly wasn't a lot of discussing involved.

[01:11:01] No, it was it was given or else or else.

[01:11:05] Yeah.

[01:11:05] What are you going to do?

[01:11:07] But here's the thing.

[01:11:09] That's what the gun country, the gun culture.

[01:11:11] And that's what these organizations have finally said, which has been very encouraging to me is.

[01:11:16] Or what?

[01:11:18] Or what do you're going to throw a hundred million gun owning Americans in jail?

[01:11:24] What was the staff the prisons now?

[01:11:27] What was the compliance rate for bump stocks again?

[01:11:32] Third, third to a half percent.

[01:11:34] And that assumes none were 3D printed.

[01:11:37] That's a big assumption.

[01:11:39] That's a very bold assumption.

[01:11:40] It's a chunk of plastic with no moving parts.

[01:11:44] Of course they were 3D printed.

[01:11:46] Dude, I got five belt loops on my pants.

[01:11:48] I'm just saying.

[01:11:50] I know.

[01:11:50] And the really ridiculous thing about the whole bump stock thing is you can do it with a piece of string.

[01:11:54] You can do it with a bit of chain.

[01:11:56] You can do it with a bit of rope.

[01:11:58] Great.

[01:12:00] Whatever.

[01:12:01] If you know how they work, you can't make them illegal.

[01:12:04] It's also easier to make a full auto gun than it is a semi-auto gun.

[01:12:07] I mean, making a semi-auto gun is just making extra work for yourself.

[01:12:10] So you might as well build a machine gun.

[01:12:12] Fuck it, man.

[01:12:13] Dude, that was a discussion you and I were having not too long ago when you were talking about how

[01:12:18] you had heard that the 1301 Tactical's pause on importation

[01:12:24] was supposedly might have something to do with the fact that they could be very easily converted to full auto.

[01:12:28] Yeah, I don't have a good source on that.

[01:12:30] I just heard that from a gun buddy of mine.

[01:12:32] And I'm not hanging that on your head.

[01:12:35] But for the listeners, you remember what my response was?

[01:12:40] I can turn any semi-auto into uncontrolled full auto, but full auto with a freaking file.

[01:12:47] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[01:12:48] It's super easy.

[01:12:49] All you got to do is take the seer out.

[01:12:51] You don't even have to file anything.

[01:12:53] But my point is, if you know how guns work, none of this is really difficult.

[01:12:58] But the last thing to close out with, the reason why I am convinced gun control is dying

[01:13:06] is because of the Bruin test.

[01:13:08] But not for the reason that most people are going to think.

[01:13:11] See, I've said for years, and I will piss somebody off now,

[01:13:17] but I said this about Justice Scalia years ago, the last time during the D.C. Heller case.

[01:13:24] I said everybody else was cheering in the streets about how we won, we won, we won.

[01:13:29] And I was saying he didn't go far enough.

[01:13:30] He did not go far enough.

[01:13:32] He didn't go far enough.

[01:13:33] He left enough leash for the gun control advocates to continue to pull on.

[01:13:37] And we wound up having to go through this exercise in the Bruin test.

[01:13:41] We're going to have another one here soon.

[01:13:43] Because, again, these justices didn't go far enough.

[01:13:47] The Second Amendment is phenomenally, brutally clear.

[01:13:52] All gun laws on the books today are unconstitutional, period, in discussion.

[01:13:58] There is no justification for the NFA.

[01:14:01] There is no justification for a requirement to conceal carry.

[01:14:04] There is no justification for having to fill out a background check and fill out a form.

[01:14:09] There is no justification for any of it.

[01:14:11] The ATF should be a convenience store, period, in discussion.

[01:14:14] You should be able to 3D print machine guns while smoking a joint in your backyard.

[01:14:19] And damn, anybody that has anything to say about it.

[01:14:21] Now, discussion over.

[01:14:23] If you harm someone with those, that is a different story.

[01:14:28] With every right comes a responsibility.

[01:14:34] But this is why I say the Bruin test is evidence that we're winning.

[01:14:38] It is.

[01:14:39] It's not because this saved the Second Amendment.

[01:14:41] I don't think this went far enough.

[01:14:42] Nope.

[01:14:42] Not even close.

[01:14:44] I don't think the Supreme Court will go far enough in my lifetime.

[01:14:48] But what this tells me is that politics is downstream from culture.

[01:14:55] The fact that the Supreme Court went this far to finally assert to the states and lower courts,

[01:15:01] you have to reference the text history and tradition that was in place at the time the Second Amendment was codified,

[01:15:08] which I believe was 1791.

[01:15:10] I don't have it right in front of me.

[01:15:12] So, the fact that they have really taken the entire concept of gun control, wrestled it down, and put their hands around its neck and said,

[01:15:20] No, you have to apply strict scrutiny.

[01:15:22] You have to interpret these laws as they were interpreted at the time.

[01:15:27] The Second Amendment does not mean anything.

[01:15:29] It's not a right for the militia.

[01:15:30] It is a right for people to have and carry arms discussion over.

[01:15:34] The fact that they are willing to do that at this point with the Bruin test, even though the lower courts are screaming bloody murder about it,

[01:15:44] even though the states are still fighting over it.

[01:15:47] But the fact that the Supreme Court went this far tells me we're winning because they felt emboldened to go that far.

[01:15:54] Yeah.

[01:15:54] Because 20 years ago, we would have never gotten Bruin decision.

[01:15:58] Absolutely not.

[01:15:58] 20 years ago, we barely got D.C. Heller, and that was limp-wristed.

[01:16:04] Yeah.

[01:16:04] So, my point of view is that it's not the courts that are going to be our saving grace.

[01:16:10] It's not going to be a 250-year-old piece of paper in a display case at the National Archives.

[01:16:18] It's not going to be Wayne Lopier and all of his lackeys.

[01:16:21] It's not going to be any of these other organizations or any of these other people.

[01:16:24] What's going to be our saving grace is that the people have said no.

[01:16:29] No more.

[01:16:30] We're done.

[01:16:31] We are done playing this game.

[01:16:33] We're done playing nice.

[01:16:34] We are done compromising.

[01:16:35] We want it this way, and that is all there is to it, and we will not comply anymore.

[01:16:40] Discussion over.

[01:16:41] And as a result of that, the courts are bending to pressure.

[01:16:46] Absolutely.

[01:16:46] That's why I think the Bruin test, I don't think, fixed anything.

[01:16:51] No.

[01:16:51] No, I think what the Bruin test is.

[01:16:53] The state of Illinois is ignoring the Bruin test.

[01:16:55] Yes.

[01:16:55] But what the Bruin test is, is it's a bellwether.

[01:16:58] It is a bellwether.

[01:16:59] It shows which way the wind is blowing.

[01:17:01] It is a phenomenal bellwether.

[01:17:02] Look at all the assault weapons bans that have passed in the last few years.

[01:17:05] Colorado.

[01:17:06] There was an additional one in New York.

[01:17:08] There was one in Illinois.

[01:17:09] There was one in Washington, I think.

[01:17:13] Take a look at the compliance rates.

[01:17:16] I'll keep saying it again.

[01:17:18] They've yet to break double digits, even in New York.

[01:17:23] To quote Thomas Jefferson, no free man will ever be debarred the use of arms.

[01:17:31] Yep.

[01:17:32] And the ugly truth of the matter is, is that, you know, all of those, all of those assault

[01:17:37] weapons bans are all heading towards a date with Supreme Court.

[01:17:42] And the best thing is Illinois made the worst mistake it possibly could.

[01:17:48] They went way too far, way too fast all at once.

[01:17:54] They banned semi-auto 22s.

[01:17:56] They banned semi-auto shotguns.

[01:17:58] They banned semi-auto this, that, and the other thing.

[01:18:01] They took every wet dream of California, New York, Washington, Oregon, and every other blue

[01:18:07] state, combined them into one bill and said, here you go.

[01:18:10] Sue us over that.

[01:18:12] But didn't you say yourself that when something is wounded and cornered, that's when it starts

[01:18:19] flailing around the worst?

[01:18:21] I see this for, I see, I would like to think I see this for what it is.

[01:18:25] This is not gun control emboldened.

[01:18:29] This is their Hail Mary into the end zone.

[01:18:32] It is.

[01:18:32] It absolutely is.

[01:18:33] This is the last gasp of that effort, of that want, of that psychotic sociopathic need

[01:18:39] to keep people from being able to protect themselves.

[01:18:42] This is the last moments where that thought that we are going to force the people to do

[01:18:49] what we want is dying in front of us.

[01:18:52] And it's not dying because, and it's not dying because of the NRA, and it's not dying

[01:18:57] because of a president, and it's not dying because of politicians, and it's certainly not

[01:19:02] dying because of the Supreme Court.

[01:19:03] It is dying because people said, piss off.

[01:19:07] Yep.

[01:19:09] And that is where I would love to end this.

[01:19:12] Perfect.

[01:19:12] Perfect.

[01:19:14] So, I'm sure as people read through this and listen to all this, some of y'all out there

[01:19:19] will probably disagree with us, and that's fine.

[01:19:21] I love y'all anyway.

[01:19:23] Y'all can be wrong if we can still be friends.

[01:19:25] But I personally believe that I think gun control is dying.

[01:19:29] And I am so here for it, and I'm going to enjoy watching every stinking minute of it.

[01:19:37] And I just have to say, for those of you out there who think that guns are scary and nobody

[01:19:43] should have them, this and the other, I don't know what it's like.

[01:19:49] I can't get into your headspace because I have these things called shoulders, and they stop my

[01:19:53] head from shooting.

[01:19:54] PTSD from shooting in AR.

[01:19:55] Please don't.

[01:19:56] Please don't.

[01:19:57] Please don't.

[01:19:58] See, I have these things called shoulders, and they stop my head from reaching that far into

[01:20:02] my colon so I can see things from that point of view.

[01:20:04] The best thing I can tell you is, you know, get a whistle and lock your doors and hope.

[01:20:13] And if you're really, really lucky, you might live next door to a gun nut who might take pity

[01:20:18] on you one day and show you the ways of how to protect yourself.

[01:20:21] But in the interim, I'm just going to sit here and happily listen to their screams and their

[01:20:27] cries because I'm getting a little malicious in my old age.

[01:20:32] Cope and seethe.

[01:20:33] We're winning.

[01:20:35] Yep.

[01:20:36] So don't forget something I've said for years and years as we walk this out the door.

[01:20:40] We have passed the time where any one of you has the right or has the time to sit on the

[01:20:48] sidelines.

[01:20:48] If you believe something, advocate for it.

[01:20:51] Be respectful.

[01:20:52] Be professional.

[01:20:54] Be polite.

[01:20:54] But be firm and be informed.

[01:20:57] And we can win this fight as long as every single one of you gets off the sidelines and

[01:21:03] stops waiting for a politician to come and save you.

[01:21:05] And you all start being advocates for yourselves and what you believe in.

[01:21:09] If we all do that, we can't be beaten because it's it's happening now with a very small but

[01:21:15] very vocal minority of the community.

[01:21:17] If all the rest of you get into this fight, we win immediately.

[01:21:23] Matter of fact, this podcast is going out the door.

[01:21:25] Talk to you on another week, guys.

[01:21:26] Bye.

[01:21:26] Night, everybody.