Matter of Facts: Trek is Passing the Torch

[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 Ravelet, Andrew, Nick are on the other side of the mic, and here's your show.

[00:00:30] Welcome back to the Matter of Facts Podcast. I have sworn to my co-host and my guest I will keep the admin work as short and sweet as possible because we have a lot to talk about.

[00:00:40] So I think the record so far was five minutes. Let's see if we can do this in two minutes. Thanks to the patrons. Y'all support the anarchy here, and I definitely appreciate that because if y'all stop paying the bills, then I have to do this out of my own pocket, which means I get wooden spooned to death by the wife and I don't like any of that. So thank you very much.

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[00:01:22] My wife and I started a nonprofit. We're going to start doing preparedness related events in our local community down here in southeast Louisiana, because for years it's been kind of gnawing at me that we do this on the Internet and not everybody's on the Internet, as strange as that sounds.

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[00:01:45] A couple hundred friends scattered around the country. I need a couple hundred friends right here in this area.

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[00:01:58] So that's all the administrative work. I see two minutes and 30 seconds, which is probably a world record for doing admin work.

[00:02:06] I just need to take a breath and turn the show over to my two co-hosts, Nick and Andrew, and our guest, Trek, who it's been a couple of months since we talked to you last.

[00:02:16] And you haven't let grass grow on your feet. You've been busy.

[00:02:19] I was terrified. It's been so long when I saw that we're going live. I got real nervous all this time.

[00:02:23] So we'll see if we'll calm down. We'll be all right.

[00:02:26] Yeah, no, it's been a busy couple of weeks since we last talked for sure.

[00:02:31] Nice. So what have you been up to?

[00:02:35] Well, a big thing right now is closing out the handover of MDFI to my team Thundercat, which has been a long time coming after 15 years.

[00:02:43] And so we made the public announcement and we're working on all the behind the scenes to get that transition taken care of.

[00:02:50] And then I'm unemployed for a very short amount of time.

[00:02:53] And then one January I start the new gig.

[00:02:56] And on top of that, the revolver optics conversion from Shield Arms is finally coming to market.

[00:03:00] I'm very excited.

[00:03:01] So I got a lot of stuff happening right in the next 30 days or so, which is pretty awesome.

[00:03:06] Very cool, man. Very cool.

[00:03:07] Now, were those that your Thundercat team, were those the guys that were that were teaching with you when I took your foundation shotgun class?

[00:03:16] Well, if so, that was probably was that blue water class?

[00:03:21] That was Mount Pleasant.

[00:03:21] So that was Mount Pleasant.

[00:03:25] What was that?

[00:03:27] If that was the 6th October.

[00:03:29] Yeah.

[00:03:30] Class.

[00:03:31] Hotter than hell.

[00:03:32] Yeah.

[00:03:33] All the guys kind of showed up.

[00:03:34] That was my last class.

[00:03:35] We didn't announce it.

[00:03:36] Oh, OK.

[00:03:36] My last live fire class.

[00:03:38] I made that one.

[00:03:39] Yeah, it was.

[00:03:40] It was pretty cool the entire time.

[00:03:42] I'm just like, nobody shoot each other.

[00:03:44] Nobody shoot each other.

[00:03:45] We actually, I mean, 15 years when you've had a relatively stellar safety record aside from one guy that shot himself in 2016 in Waxhawcet, Texas, and another guy that shot himself not in my class in an adjoining bay in 15 years and 20,000 plus students.

[00:04:02] Yeah, we couldn't have asked for a better group.

[00:04:04] That entire group on 6th October was awesome.

[00:04:06] And, of course, we were dealing with, you know, 70 and 72 caliber scattergats, which I was just happy the class went as good as it could have.

[00:04:16] So what you're saying is you desperately didn't want to have to reset the so many days since last accident back to zero on your last day.

[00:04:24] Well, I just posted a picture of me shooting from many years ago, and one of my cadre was like, oh, look, you didn't used to have white hair.

[00:04:30] And it's like, I've seen some things, man.

[00:04:32] I've seen some things.

[00:04:34] So, yeah, so I'm ready.

[00:04:36] I'm ready to leave the live fire days behind me and focus on other things.

[00:04:42] But it was a great run.

[00:04:42] It was an absolutely awesome run.

[00:04:44] So I'm very excited about handing the reins over to them, watching them take the next 15 years and then see who carries the MDFI torch then.

[00:04:53] And I think that's the biggest takeaway of kind of what my brain has been going through is we've done a really good job of it was the brand, not the person.

[00:05:03] And behind the brand.

[00:05:04] And so when the announcement was made, I had my letter of stepping down.

[00:05:08] Tim Nelson had the letter of the guys taking the reins.

[00:05:11] And the feedback.

[00:05:12] I mean, my phone was blown up.

[00:05:13] Lots of people saying, thank you for the 15 years.

[00:05:16] I learned a lot, became a better person, a more responsible armed citizen.

[00:05:19] At the same time, the kudos to the guys that are taking the torch was epic.

[00:05:24] And so that's really all I wanted from this was their hard work be recognized.

[00:05:29] And I think that everybody has done that and they're going to just seamlessly jump into my shoes and then run the treads off them, which I'm really looking forward to.

[00:05:39] Yeah.

[00:05:40] Yeah.

[00:05:40] I mean, if the quality of their instruction and the classes they run is anywhere even close to yours, they blow out of the water any other class I've taken.

[00:05:49] Well, I appreciate that.

[00:05:50] And for the longest time, my concern, this is well before they came on board, was one day.

[00:05:56] And I've said it numerous times.

[00:05:58] It's not a secret.

[00:05:59] Pat Rogers, God rest the man.

[00:06:01] But I always told everybody that I met, I did not want to do what Pat did.

[00:06:05] And it's not a dig on Pat in any way.

[00:06:07] But he was 70 and full kit down in Alliance, Ohio.

[00:06:11] He was doing what he loved.

[00:06:12] But that is not what I wanted.

[00:06:14] I wanted to build up a cadre of guys that could take it over.

[00:06:17] And if I stayed with MDFI, I could become more of a strategic level, you know, doing curriculum development, whatever it might be.

[00:06:25] For me, and that's the most important thing, and I kind of made it my letter of stepping down.

[00:06:31] No one should have any doubt that if I'm handing the reins to anybody else, that they will surpass my expectations about what MDFI needs to be.

[00:06:40] And they've proven it to me.

[00:06:42] Now they get to start in the hours that they're at.

[00:06:45] And I'm going to stop with my 16,000 plus hours of instruction under my belt.

[00:06:50] And they're going to surpass me one day.

[00:06:51] And I look forward to seeing the lessons that they learn and the stuff that they pass on to their next crew, which is going to be awesome.

[00:06:57] Well, and if I may say, like, I think the simple fact that you are able and willing to like, I don't want to use the word step down or step aside, but really like pass that responsibility off to your cadre.

[00:07:10] I mean, it says a lot for them.

[00:07:12] It says a lot for yourself because a lot of people, and it's not always like ego or anything.

[00:07:17] It's not always trusting their subordinates or their teammates.

[00:07:20] A lot of times people just have trouble letting go.

[00:07:23] Like once you've gotten that, like you can't do what you've done for as long as you have without getting emotionally invested in to some degree.

[00:07:31] It's not possible, I don't think.

[00:07:33] So to get that emotionally invested in it and then recognize that, like for the good of you, for the good of the brand, for the good of the instructors and for the good of the students, like I have to pass this torch.

[00:07:45] And to be able to let that, let go of that.

[00:07:48] I think that's, that displays a lot of maturity, man.

[00:07:51] Well, it was actually very easy for me.

[00:07:53] I have been part of the firearms training industry for 15 years now, and I have always kept one foot just across the line to stay in.

[00:08:02] But I've done everything I can to keep the rest of me out of it because it's kind of like Camelot.

[00:08:06] It's a very silly place.

[00:08:07] Nine versus 45 arguments.

[00:08:09] You know, everybody thinks that the way that they reload a gun is better than everybody else's.

[00:08:13] And so that's easy because I'm getting ready to go to a job where I get to be a spook again.

[00:08:18] And I don't have to have a, you know, might come on here and talk about personal defense, use of force, which I always love.

[00:08:25] And I will still be carrying that torch for MDFI teaching the beyond a door when a gun's not an option and human element classes, which are very use of force, which is what I absolutely love and love building people up to be thinkers and not just shooters.

[00:08:39] But it was very easy because I'm, I'm, I don't need, I'm very proud of what MDFI is.

[00:08:45] I'm proud of what I did, but I'm very proud of what they have earned.

[00:08:49] And it's, it's been very obvious for the past couple of years.

[00:08:52] I would say even since they joined the team, they're far better shooters than me.

[00:08:55] I'm a far better instructor than they are.

[00:08:58] And the reason being is because I've got more time, like I said, 16,000 plus hours.

[00:09:03] So what it's been the past couple of years is I'm teaching them how to be a better instructor.

[00:09:09] They've been teaching me how to be a better shooter.

[00:09:11] And it's just been a great back and forth.

[00:09:14] And what I love, you know, I've talked to some of the guys and they're like, man, Trek, you know, overruled us on this one thing.

[00:09:18] And it, and all of a sudden we were sitting around watching the class go and they're like, son of a bitch.

[00:09:23] Trek was right.

[00:09:23] The flow worked a lot better.

[00:09:24] It's like, guys, I've made the mistakes.

[00:09:27] You just don't see.

[00:09:28] And hopefully I'm trying to prevent you from, from stepping in those pitfalls that I've done.

[00:09:33] It was even funny.

[00:09:34] I think you may have noticed the last rep of the qualifier with Relay to it Foundation shotgun.

[00:09:41] I realized that if I flip flop part three and pipe part four, the students will run dry at the very end of it, which then saves a step in time management.

[00:09:51] And Brandon looks over at me after I do this ad lib real quick and goes, you wait to 15 years to do that one.

[00:09:57] Like the last thing is the curriculum.

[00:09:59] And it's like, here you go.

[00:10:01] It's yours now.

[00:10:01] Take it or leave it.

[00:10:03] So I love it.

[00:10:04] I'm very excited about it.

[00:10:06] This, the guys got me this display box.

[00:10:08] It's got all the alumni cards.

[00:10:10] We started them in 2015.

[00:10:12] I've got Tom McNaughton's 1911 in there.

[00:10:14] And then the signed alumni cards where I actually got to take MDFI classes because I had instructors that could run the class.

[00:10:21] And I still remember vividly the first day I got to sleep in when an MDFI class was happening.

[00:10:27] And I didn't wake up in a panic because I knew the guys were doing everything exactly as I, I would expect.

[00:10:34] And they weren't doing it because I expected.

[00:10:36] They're doing it because that's the way they want to run their training.

[00:10:39] So I'm very excited for the future.

[00:10:41] Yeah.

[00:10:41] I mean, I mean, coming from somebody who I have taken, I've taken classes under you and now Tim, Brandon, Derek, Grant, you know, Rome.

[00:10:53] And, and so I, it's, it's interesting.

[00:10:59] Cause yeah, I like, it's funny.

[00:11:00] Cause you talk about how you're a better instructor.

[00:11:02] They're better shooters.

[00:11:03] It's interesting.

[00:11:04] Like taking a class from you.

[00:11:05] Cause I don't remember what classes there were, but it was one I took with you.

[00:11:08] It was like a week or two later.

[00:11:10] I took one and it was under Tim and the things that he's adopted like from you.

[00:11:15] But it's really funny.

[00:11:17] Cause he still has his own style of, of teaching, which is really cool to see.

[00:11:21] And Tim's a great teacher.

[00:11:23] All of them, all of them are great instructors.

[00:11:25] But the company is in, I think it's in great hands with Derek, Brandon, and Tim.

[00:11:31] Those guys are a solid group of guys.

[00:11:33] They know what they're doing.

[00:11:35] They know, they know the firearm industry and they know, you know, if they need to do something different or kind of change course, I think they'll, they'll see that writing on the wall and they'll be able to adjust and adapt.

[00:11:46] Which is, I think is needed in today's society and the gun industry.

[00:11:50] It changes so much.

[00:11:52] I mean, Trek, you and I were just talking about that with, with red dots and the pistols out there nowadays.

[00:11:57] It's like with some of these companies that are coming or with all the companies that are out there right now.

[00:12:02] Cause I mean, you throw a stone and you can hit a ton of companies that do milling for slide milling.

[00:12:08] And it's like, well, how are they going to adapt?

[00:12:11] Because now the industry is caught on.

[00:12:13] So you're seeing, I mean, it's, unless it's, I mean, usually 1911s, but they're even starting to get more popular as far as becoming optic ready.

[00:12:21] But you have the Smith and Weston, you have Ruger, you have all of these companies.

[00:12:27] You have SIG.

[00:12:28] They're, they're coming optics ready.

[00:12:31] Whether, yeah, some of them have a crappy ass footprint that apparently now you got to buy an adapter plate and stuff like that, which is shit.

[00:12:37] But, but that's besides the point.

[00:12:40] I mean, the thing is those, they are becoming optics ready.

[00:12:42] So now I don't have to send my 700 or 600, 500, whatever you spend on a pistol.

[00:12:47] I don't have to send it off and get milled, spend another couple of hundred dollars to $300 or more on getting something milled.

[00:12:54] It's like, all right, that saves me money.

[00:12:57] I'm going to do it now.

[00:12:58] Okay.

[00:12:59] It's like, how are they going to adapt?

[00:13:00] And I think MDFI, as the firearms industry goes through changes and everything, I really feel like the, the, the new guys are definitely going to be able to adjust on the fly as needed.

[00:13:16] So 100%.

[00:13:18] Bill Blowers, a guy that I respect, tap rack tactical, very intense, awesome dude.

[00:13:24] If you get a chance, I think we're got, we've got him.

[00:13:26] I'm switching hats as an owner of Black Creek Range in Mount Pleasant.

[00:13:29] We actually have him coming with Mark Smith next fall for a three-day night vision package that we had down in Lake Lake.

[00:13:36] Another one?

[00:13:36] What's that?

[00:13:38] Oh yeah.

[00:13:39] Yep.

[00:13:40] So we took a, we took a year off.

[00:13:42] That's a tough class to fill just because it's very niche.

[00:13:44] I mean, you got to have guys that have night vision and, and this and that.

[00:13:48] Well, they're coming back, but Bill Blowers has made public that, you know, when he steps down full time, and I can't remember if Bill still does anything law enforcement,

[00:13:58] but he basically said at a certain point in time, he's going to acknowledge that he has an expiration date, not as a guy that's a good instructor, but tactics are going to change.

[00:14:08] And so the shield work that he does, the law enforcement training that he does, uh, heck laser blasters come out tomorrow.

[00:14:14] And all of us dudes have been shooting projectiles that have been dealing with stoppage clearance, things like that.

[00:14:19] There's going to be some new Thundercats that know a lot more about these laser blasters.

[00:14:22] And so, you know, I was an iron sight in the military, iron sights, my God, I didn't get a red dot on my M4 until my last couple of years actually carrying one.

[00:14:33] And then I went in to become an instructor.

[00:14:35] And so I missed out time with that.

[00:14:36] I was a diehard iron sight shooter.

[00:14:38] I enjoyed shooting iron sights, even in a red dot world, because I wanted to show people you don't need them.

[00:14:44] You can certainly be very proficient.

[00:14:45] In fact, I think they require a lot more proficiency.

[00:14:48] The new guys, especially they came into the fold with red dots.

[00:14:52] I am, of course, now a diehard red dot guy.

[00:14:54] I think I'm very proficient with it.

[00:14:56] But the new guys, of course, these Mike Thundercats, far more proficient.

[00:15:00] They created the class, the dot life endorsed by modern samurai project.

[00:15:04] They are mentees of Scott.

[00:15:06] I mean, I have to acknowledge the fact that, um, there is an expiration date.

[00:15:11] I can keep this going.

[00:15:12] And there are guys out there that I know that are, they're going to keep doing it.

[00:15:15] The only downside, and I say this with all respect to them is start grooming your replacements.

[00:15:22] And I'll say this with absolute respect with EAG Tactical, which was Pat Rogers.

[00:15:27] EAG, to the best of my knowledge, is still out there.

[00:15:30] You don't hear about it anymore.

[00:15:32] And the reason being, EAG was Pat.

[00:15:34] And no disrespect to whoever took over the company.

[00:15:37] And I, frankly, I don't know who that was.

[00:15:39] So there are great programs out there.

[00:15:41] Hopefully those guys are starting to think about, hey, maybe I should hand it over.

[00:15:46] Maybe they have plans to, to once it's over and the brand will disappear.

[00:15:50] And there's every day there's new training companies, good and bad.

[00:15:53] We just saw the video of that dipshit shooting behind the woman on the firing line that was going viral.

[00:15:59] That's what had been sent to me about 50 times and made my blood pressure go up.

[00:16:02] But good or bad, there's new companies coming on board.

[00:16:05] Some will have good stuff.

[00:16:06] Some will have bad stuff.

[00:16:07] But yeah, it's, we all have an expiration date.

[00:16:11] And I think this transition is great for the brand MDFI.

[00:16:15] And I'm looking forward to knocking the rust off and going back to how I left the military and what I started doing, which is professional investigation, which I really enjoyed.

[00:16:24] And frankly, I thought I was very good at.

[00:16:26] And so I'm looking forward to stepping into a new position, standing up an investigation division and getting back into protective work.

[00:16:33] And so that'll, that'll be nice.

[00:16:34] And I'm going to get to learn from some guys that are less experienced than me, but especially in the age of chat GPT, my God, the amount of work that I'm going to be able to do.

[00:16:45] I've already been toying around with it.

[00:16:47] That used to take me forever compiling information.

[00:16:50] I'm really looking forward to seeing what I can do with the new technology and then bringing the smarts that I had from how we used to do it analog to the new digital age.

[00:16:59] And I'm going to be leaning on a lot of people when I first start off until I get my feet underneath me.

[00:17:03] But that's just the name of the name of the game.

[00:17:05] Guys with no gray in their beard, take over for guys with gray in their beard.

[00:17:09] And hopefully we built them up and it'd be guys that'll be longstanding men with gray beards eventually.

[00:17:14] So there you go.

[00:17:15] Um, yeah, that's good, Andrew.

[00:17:19] That's, that's a problem that we, we see in, I think every industry, you know, you guys know I'm in manufacturing.

[00:17:26] Um, are the, the founder of our company passed away a few years ago.

[00:17:33] Fortunately, he took the time like track to train up his replacement beforehand and started to retire in stages and pass that, that on.

[00:17:42] You know, it's, it's really a shame.

[00:17:45] You do see that in, in a lot of places, a lot of small manufacturing companies, one man, two man shops where you've got the guy with all the knowledge and you've got his handy guys helper guy.

[00:17:55] That's doing largely labor.

[00:17:57] If you don't take the time to trade, train those people up.

[00:18:00] Then once you're done or God forbid, get hit by a bus, everything stops.

[00:18:06] That guy's job stops.

[00:18:08] Your customers have got to look for a new shop.

[00:18:10] It's, it's really, uh, it's something that I think more people need to be comfortable with and accept that they need to train their replacements in everything.

[00:18:20] It was a, it was a, something that to me and it, it, I was air force.

[00:18:24] My, some of my guys are army Marines.

[00:18:27] That's something that's really hammered you in the military is that you're always training the, your subordinates to take over your job.

[00:18:32] Yeah.

[00:18:32] Uh, in the civilian sector, that's difficult because what happens a lot of times is the subordinate is more competent than the, uh, supervisor and takes the job.

[00:18:43] And so a lot of supervisors that don't put in their own time, their apparatus about training the replacements because they don't want to be replaced in the military.

[00:18:50] You only get rank, you're testing and, and time.

[00:18:53] So it's kind of a, uh, you know, if I fall in combat, you got to be able to pick up what I'm doing and lead people.

[00:18:59] So that was, that's a very easy thing, but I, I'll take a lesson from, I love movies and whatnot for making things relevant.

[00:19:05] I've been watching a show on Apple called silo.

[00:19:07] Very interesting, uh, kind of get hooked on it, but every person in this limited space has a shadow.

[00:19:13] And they're always training their shadow because there's a limited amount of people and there's very important jobs.

[00:19:18] And so they always have somebody that is right there as a shadow.

[00:19:21] And I think that's, it's just a good thing in life to, in any profession to have that.

[00:19:25] And, uh, if we go even more, uh, socioeconomic, the stuff that's happening with, we're talking about, there's not enough people in the world.

[00:19:32] The demographics are shifting and we've got very skilled laborers.

[00:19:36] They're getting ready to retire if they're not already.

[00:19:38] And there's a lot of people that they don't have the skills.

[00:19:42] I mean, my God, these kids don't know how to change a tire on their car.

[00:19:45] Um, so yeah, it's, it's the same reason why right now, if you are tradesmen, you can set the price and you can set the time because there is competition, but there's not enough competition for the amount of demand.

[00:19:56] And so that's what we're seeing right now is skilled laborers.

[00:20:00] There's not enough of them.

[00:20:01] So yeah, it's, it's just a good life lesson to keep training people.

[00:20:05] The average age for a person in my career is 59 and climbing.

[00:20:10] Wow.

[00:20:11] Yeah.

[00:20:12] Which tells you that I'm going to be in a good place in all five years.

[00:20:17] So 15 years of training.

[00:20:20] What are two things that you've taken away?

[00:20:26] Oh man, that's, that's putting me on the spot.

[00:20:28] Um, a lot of people from all different walks of life want nothing more than life living in the pursuit of happiness.

[00:20:38] And very few of them will train to protect it.

[00:20:43] Uh, that's a big one.

[00:20:44] And I, I've seen, I mean, we, we've had, we train on average a thousand students a year record year pre COVID was 1500 students.

[00:20:52] And that's, that's 80 plus classes.

[00:20:55] I mean, and even with the two teams we've been, I'm the, I was the full-time guy, uh, Tim and Brandon, those guys are full-time.

[00:21:02] They have full-time gigs.

[00:21:03] They were working themselves.

[00:21:04] Uh, and we had to be very careful.

[00:21:06] We could fill more classes, but we have to balance the, we can't burn people out.

[00:21:11] It got to 15 years.

[00:21:13] Uh, there was times that we had demand and I would say to my beautiful, better half, I got to take a break.

[00:21:18] I got to, I got to not be on the firing line.

[00:21:21] It's ridiculously hot, ridiculously humid.

[00:21:23] Uh, and I'm just, I need a little bit of downtime and we were running about 70, 80 classes.

[00:21:28] Um, but that's people that came to us.

[00:21:30] Um, you would hear the stories, um, of all the bad things that happened to people.

[00:21:35] And a lot of times people were there because they either heard the story and they didn't want to be a victim or something bad happened to them.

[00:21:41] And then they said, never again, I'm not going to just get lucky.

[00:21:43] Um, so what I hope from MDFI and any other company out there that's doing good things is keep training because there's lots of people that need it.

[00:21:52] We need to get a lot more people involved.

[00:21:54] Current events have definitely made it blatantly clear that, uh, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

[00:21:59] Uh, that's, those are scary words.

[00:22:01] I've always joked that when you have a CPL, the government says you're good.

[00:22:05] That should be the telltale sign that you're not trained enough because the government at the second time that is there to protect against says that you're good to go.

[00:22:12] And then people go, I got my CPL.

[00:22:13] I'm good.

[00:22:14] And the government's like, yeah, yeah, you're good.

[00:22:16] Stay right there.

[00:22:17] Um, so that's one too.

[00:22:20] Um, boy, that, that is a tough one.

[00:22:26] Um, I would say, and this is a tough thing to say is every, and I'm going to, I'm going to preface this because you know, things get taken out of context and clips.

[00:22:35] Uh, if I am killed tomorrow with a firearm, I'm killed tomorrow by a guy that has a CPL, a class three license, and he decides to murder me.

[00:22:45] Nobody better try to take the guns from any of my neighbors because of what happened to me.

[00:22:49] I will die on a hill of brass casings to protect any Americans, right.

[00:22:54] To keep and bear arms as protected on the second amendment.

[00:22:56] So there's my preface.

[00:22:58] Um, a lot of Americans, every American, every human, but I'm just going to stick to America because I'm an American.

[00:23:04] Every American has the right to own as many guns.

[00:23:07] They want of any kind that they want of any caliber.

[00:23:10] They want a lot of Americans.

[00:23:12] Shouldn't.

[00:23:12] That's fair.

[00:23:13] Not saying, not saying they can't.

[00:23:14] I will fight and die.

[00:23:15] You can.

[00:23:16] I want my neighbors to have as many guns as they want.

[00:23:19] All I'm saying is, as their neighbor, you shouldn't.

[00:23:23] There are a lot of people out there and it's not, I'm not talking about students.

[00:23:26] I've seen the people that there, there, there's a few people.

[00:23:29] There's a reason why I have a Garrett's rule and I'm not going to go anymore.

[00:23:32] That's the last name of the worst student I've ever had.

[00:23:35] Um, which was to me an embarrassment as a, as a man and a father and a protector.

[00:23:41] There are very few students that I've ever had that I'm like, you, you should not own a gun.

[00:23:46] You have no business, no emotional control, whatever it is.

[00:23:49] Um, but I'm just saying those stories, the stuff that we see, the video of that guy that

[00:23:53] literally loads his gun behind the back of his, I'm guessing beautiful better off.

[00:23:59] Uh, and if he had just cooked that run off with a blown her brains out and then he proceeds

[00:24:02] to fire like limp wristed behind her head.

[00:24:06] Um, the, the thing that got me about that as I was watching it, of course that stuff ticks

[00:24:11] me off.

[00:24:11] There are a lot of people that are saying that's stupid that they have done that stuff.

[00:24:17] It hasn't been broadcast on the internet.

[00:24:19] Um, but that, that's a big thing is that my goal with MDFI was to always put MDFI out

[00:24:25] of business by having everybody trained to a level of training that they would be competent

[00:24:29] and confident with a gun.

[00:24:30] And I've prefaced that statement always saying we have a lot of work to do.

[00:24:34] And so, um, there are people out there.

[00:24:37] Everybody wants their life, learning pursuit of happiness.

[00:24:39] Very few people actually train.

[00:24:41] They'll hope that somebody else comes for them.

[00:24:43] And I'm very proud of the people that did, but there are a lot of people out there that

[00:24:47] shouldn't, and I'm not saying they can't, and I would, I would never vote to take away

[00:24:51] the right.

[00:24:51] And I certainly would not allow the government to regulate that they can't have a gun.

[00:24:55] I'm just saying as your peer, as your neighbor, as a fellow American, you shouldn't, you have

[00:25:00] no business touching a gun.

[00:25:01] You're a liability.

[00:25:03] Um, I, Andrew, I think I've talked to you ad nauseum about their days that whether it's

[00:25:07] a video that's going around the internet or something I saw at the range.

[00:25:11] Um, the, the currently we are dealing with Black Creek range, which is going from

[00:25:16] the classic old conservation club to a new entity, a commercial business that is going to have

[00:25:22] the control standards of an MDFI class.

[00:25:25] 75% of my, well, it is, uh, your club, if you can keep it right, Benjamin Franklin.

[00:25:32] So, um, 75% of my encounters with the membership, the current membership have been me yelling at

[00:25:38] somebody for being stupid with a gun or being stupid in, in a, in a unsafe manner on a shooting

[00:25:45] range.

[00:25:46] And that's a problem.

[00:25:47] And that, that is a, maybe because I am in the trenches, maybe it's because I've, I've

[00:25:51] lived it for 15 years.

[00:25:52] So those are, I guess my two big takeaways.

[00:25:54] And now don't take those as frowns.

[00:25:56] Those to me would be a lesson of, well, here's a guy that's seen a couple of things like state

[00:26:01] farm, know a few things.

[00:26:02] Cause we've seen a few things be better work to be better.

[00:26:06] And for what we do, I'm guessing the four of us sitting here would say, well, I'm, I'm not

[00:26:10] that guy.

[00:26:10] I'm not the guy that violates the four rules of responsible firearms handling around other

[00:26:14] people.

[00:26:14] We have to take on the responsibility of saying you cannot come to the range with me.

[00:26:19] And they're like, why?

[00:26:19] But I got a gun.

[00:26:20] It's like, I don't want to die in the range.

[00:26:22] We've tried to tell you what's acceptable and it's unacceptable.

[00:26:25] And you still keep doing dumb things.

[00:26:27] I'm not saying you can't go to the range.

[00:26:29] You're not going to the range with us.

[00:26:30] And through ostracizing unacceptable behavior, maybe we can make those people come into the

[00:26:35] fold.

[00:26:36] And if we keep educating people and keep educating people eventually through that, that process,

[00:26:41] we will become the majority and they will become the minority.

[00:26:45] And I think right now is that we are the minority as responsible gun owners, lots of

[00:26:51] gun owners out there.

[00:26:52] Responsible arms is a, uh, something to hang your hat on because that does take a lot of

[00:26:58] work and you should be very proud of it.

[00:27:00] Um, uh, my, my father-in-law, I built him a 300 blackout rifle for deer hunting, went

[00:27:06] over the four rules.

[00:27:07] Um, I've had to have a couple of talks with him about his gun handling and it's very tough

[00:27:12] as the, as the son-in-law, but he got the same instructor version when he started to

[00:27:16] do something unsafe with the gun.

[00:27:18] And he always commented, he goes, I don't understand it because when you handle a gun,

[00:27:22] it's like, you're a robot.

[00:27:23] It's like when I have a gun in my hand, there is nothing else in my world because you are

[00:27:29] here and my wife is here and the cats are here and my car's out there and there's neighbors

[00:27:33] over there.

[00:27:34] So when I'm handling this gun and I know there's a human, I can mess up in a blink of an eye,

[00:27:39] you could be gone.

[00:27:40] She could be gone.

[00:27:41] I could be gone.

[00:27:42] Uh, and there's no taking it back.

[00:27:44] So yeah, I mean, you put me on the spot.

[00:27:46] I don't want those to sound bad, but those are the two kinds of things that came to the

[00:27:51] front of my mind and we can, we can change that.

[00:27:53] And I hope that I know the guys will continue the gospel and there's lots of other good instructors

[00:27:57] out there and there's lots of responsibly armed citizens, people that I am proud to call

[00:28:01] friends and alumni of MDFI and other schools that will not tolerate that.

[00:28:05] And we'll keep on, um, uh, bringing the good gospel to people.

[00:28:10] But I think you'd all agree with me.

[00:28:11] The last thing we need is another story of the person with the gun that hadn't done anything

[00:28:17] wrong, does something incredibly stupid.

[00:28:19] And then everybody looks and goes, Hey, all you guys, that's you.

[00:28:23] Those are your people.

[00:28:23] And say, no, no, no, they're not.

[00:28:25] But they don't take the time to understand there's a big difference between those types

[00:28:28] of people.

[00:28:29] Yeah.

[00:28:29] The potential downsides are just too high.

[00:28:33] I think it's also important for like, cause I saw a comment in here.

[00:28:37] Joe Olivera said that, uh, the gunner that says they are perfect, that they have never

[00:28:40] violated one of the four safety rules as a liar.

[00:28:43] And I do think it is important, like for us as individuals to be accountable to ourselves

[00:28:49] to admit that, like, we are not all Michael Schumacher behind the wheel.

[00:28:52] Some of us are Helen Keller with a driver's license.

[00:28:55] Like, you know, we can get better, but we have to first admit that we've screwed the

[00:28:59] pooch and show of hands as anyone here never had an ND.

[00:29:08] So I've cooked a round off into the berm unintentionally once before, but it went into

[00:29:13] the berm.

[00:29:13] It didn't hurt anybody because I didn't buy.

[00:29:15] I only violated one of the firearm safety rules at a time.

[00:29:18] I think that's important to notice that normally when someone Darwin's themselves, it's because

[00:29:22] they violated two or more of them at the same time.

[00:29:25] But I do think it's important.

[00:29:27] Like you said, Trek, like we first of all, like for ourselves, we have to have a little

[00:29:30] bit of humility and say, I'm capable of screwing up.

[00:29:33] I'm a human being.

[00:29:34] I mean, like your father-in-law said you look robotic, but it's because of years and years

[00:29:38] and years of like training yourself to do it a specific way so that you don't have an

[00:29:43] accident.

[00:29:43] Yeah.

[00:29:44] And it's, it's, to be honest, when he, when he says I look robotic, that's the most dangerous

[00:29:48] thing.

[00:29:49] If I was robotic, robotic would mean that I'm doing things without thought.

[00:29:52] Um, yeah, I have, uh, I've had nightmares and fit for 15 years and I will continue to

[00:29:58] have nightmares.

[00:29:59] Um, I've had nightmares about muzzling a student with a firearm.

[00:30:02] I think that's very healthy.

[00:30:03] I tell all my students that never done it.

[00:30:05] I've seen instructors in the safety briefing, do it, uh, turn my blood cold because you can't

[00:30:12] take it back.

[00:30:12] And I've used that as a big teaching point.

[00:30:15] Um, but yeah, you know, I've, I've had, um, I've never cooked off around what I was

[00:30:20] supposed to thank God I have never to, to the best of my knowledge, never muzzled a

[00:30:24] person with a gun that didn't deserve it.

[00:30:26] I appointed a gun at human beings before.

[00:30:28] Um, but I, I, I can think back to, uh, rule number one, rule number one, treat a gun like

[00:30:35] it's loaded, which I did.

[00:30:37] Uh, and luckily had safeguards in place because I was a human.

[00:30:40] And that is, you know, we talk about press checks are free and always check the condition.

[00:30:44] Even if you, you think, you know, and I had picked up a gun that to the best of my

[00:30:48] brain's knowledge was unloaded.

[00:30:49] I was handling it like it was loaded.

[00:30:52] But I did a quick press check.

[00:30:54] And when I saw a brass in there, there was a couple of choice words to myself about, Hey,

[00:30:59] thank God you've ingrained this process into your head because it could have been a millisecond.

[00:31:04] It could have been, Hey, just press out and do that, that dry rep.

[00:31:08] Thank God it didn't happen.

[00:31:09] I mean, so yeah, we are human and we are protecting ourselves from, from the moment that we will

[00:31:15] never be able to plan for, uh, the gentlemen that, uh, my team, uh, and I see team as in

[00:31:21] cadre and students.

[00:31:22] We had to, uh, do some medical on and poor here on.

[00:31:26] Oh, I want to say it was 2020.

[00:31:28] Uh, I was teaching a USUG.

[00:31:29] It's not the gun class and had an individual in a bay adjacent to us.

[00:31:32] He had no med kit, no cell phone, no medical training.

[00:31:35] I had a stoppage with his nine millimeter handgun.

[00:31:37] And when he was clearing it, he had his finger on his trigger and his support hand over the

[00:31:40] gun.

[00:31:41] And it got into battery and it went off and it blew a big hole right through his support

[00:31:45] hand.

[00:31:45] Um, he did not wake up that day saying, I'm going to go shoot a hole in my hand.

[00:31:52] I have alumni.

[00:31:53] I, I, I won't of course name names to protect, uh, uh, well, mistake many years ago, but I

[00:31:58] had a, uh, student that showed up to his first class at MDFI and during the opening briefing,

[00:32:04] just looking at him and listening to him, I noticed a really weird scar on their arm.

[00:32:10] And later on, I kind of knew what it was.

[00:32:12] And later on, he confided that when he was a brand new gun owner, he bought a 1911 who

[00:32:17] was sitting in his living room with his new big screen TV.

[00:32:21] And he was doing something with the 1911 and all of a sudden his ears went, and there were

[00:32:26] sparks out of the TV and there was a big hole and he looked down and there was a 45 caliber

[00:32:32] hole here and out right here and somehow did not obliterate his bones.

[00:32:38] And he wrapped a towel around it and he laid down on his front step after calling

[00:32:42] 911.

[00:32:43] And luckily he, he got medical care and, um, he carries that.

[00:32:47] Okay.

[00:32:47] And we know what happens to people, but many years of training later became a far better,

[00:32:52] more competent, uh, gun handler.

[00:32:54] And I guarantee you, I guarantee you, uh, I, I, I took a ricochet.

[00:33:01] I took a ricochet in a lion's shoot house many years ago, a round bounced off a railroad tie,

[00:33:06] uh, caught me in my elbow, peeled my bone or skin back to the bone, uh, shuttered my body

[00:33:11] for a couple seconds.

[00:33:13] And then I was with a pretty sore arm for a few weeks afterwards.

[00:33:17] That's as close as I've been to being shot.

[00:33:18] It wasn't my fault.

[00:33:19] That guy that put a round into himself, he's probably even more controlled now with the gun

[00:33:24] because he shot himself and he knows what it feels like.

[00:33:27] And I think Clint Smith did a thing, uh, one of his safety briefings where he pulls out a pocket knife and

[00:33:32] starts to walk towards people.

[00:33:34] And they, you know, of course they back away and he goes, what, why are you doing that?

[00:33:37] And they're like, cause I've cut myself before.

[00:33:39] And he's exactly, he goes, you fear this.

[00:33:41] Cause you know, but most people have never put a round in.

[00:33:44] They get really lackadaisical about gun handling.

[00:33:46] And so I thought that was a very interesting take on it.

[00:33:49] But yeah, uh, we are human the moment.

[00:33:52] And if I was in a class and I had someone say that they were infallible, I would get off the range immediately.

[00:33:59] Uh, I tell my instructors, uh, all it takes is for you to mess up once.

[00:34:05] And I, I really look at that over 15 years of any pride that I have in me is I've never put a student's life in jeopardy.

[00:34:12] Uh, and believe me, if I'm handling a gun in the class, it may not look like it, but I am very, very cognitively thinking about what I'm doing with that gun because it takes a millisecond.

[00:34:22] I sweep a student with that gun.

[00:34:23] If I ND that gun, if I sweep myself during a demo, they're going to look at me and say, Hey, hypocrite, you're telling me not to do it.

[00:34:32] You did it.

[00:34:32] You clearly don't care.

[00:34:33] And then I would, I would, I would leave the range and, and we've seen it.

[00:34:36] I've got two photos that I save, uh, excuse me, three.

[00:34:39] Now I have three photos that are saved on my phone and they are very world renowned instructors doing very stupid things with guns.

[00:34:47] And they're not there to show people.

[00:34:48] I kept them on my phone that if I ever needed a reality check that I could go, don't be this person because their, their status, they might've had their white knights that were defending them.

[00:35:00] And of course they're black knights that were saying, I'd never take a class with you.

[00:35:03] Well, I don't want any black knights because my gun handling is brought into question and the safety in my classes.

[00:35:09] So yeah, we, um, there's a big difference between someone messing up and it has, I've got great friends that have been removed from MDFI classes that I would absolutely go take like VCQB.

[00:35:20] I would get in a, I would get in a gunfight, not against them.

[00:35:22] I would be with them.

[00:35:25] Yup.

[00:35:25] Cause they're better shooters than that.

[00:35:27] I want them back.

[00:35:27] I mean, just the fact that they were kicked out for a safety violation in one of my classes does not mean that they don't deserve to have a gun.

[00:35:35] Make no mistake about it.

[00:35:36] You've messed up.

[00:35:37] You learned from it.

[00:35:38] And those people, when they come back, man, they are the epitome of lessons learned.

[00:35:43] It's the people that willfully, whether I'm willfully ignorant or I willfully know that I'm being irresponsible, the gun that keep doing it.

[00:35:52] No matter people point out, but like, Hey man, I'm not trying to be a, uh, a prick, but you just swept me.

[00:35:57] You swept them.

[00:35:58] It's unacceptable.

[00:35:59] Stop doing it.

[00:36:00] And they keep doing it.

[00:36:01] Those are the problem.

[00:36:03] Those are the problem.

[00:36:03] They think they're God.

[00:36:04] They think something, nothing bad is ever going to happen.

[00:36:06] That's what really bothers me the most about that video.

[00:36:09] That dude doesn't understand that in my brain and your brain, everybody else's brain.

[00:36:12] We saw that, that young lady said, let's do this or her body.

[00:36:20] And that's the word.

[00:36:21] When people send me videos like that, sometimes I do see that the body slumps to the ground.

[00:36:26] And I, uh, I just watched the video of a law, a law enforcement instructor, law enforcement instructor that was teaching, uh, less than lethal techniques, collapsible baton, pressure point control tactics.

[00:36:37] So they had taken all the Leo's real guns.

[00:36:40] They put them away.

[00:36:41] They gave him red guns.

[00:36:42] That way there were no lethal weapons in the, and all day long, they had a red gun.

[00:36:47] The class was over.

[00:36:48] They were all still in this indoor space.

[00:36:50] All the real guns had come back out.

[00:36:51] This instructor draws his gun.

[00:36:53] Him all officer.

[00:36:55] He says he thought it was a red gun.

[00:36:56] Pulled the trigger and shot her right in the heart.

[00:36:57] She dies on camera.

[00:37:00] And it ain't an instant death.

[00:37:02] Blood spurting out of her.

[00:37:03] And he is freaking out.

[00:37:05] And all I can do every time.

[00:37:07] I think it's one of the healthiest things to do is I go, what if that was me?

[00:37:11] Fix yourself.

[00:37:12] Don't ever put yourself in that situation.

[00:37:14] Andrew, I think you've been in our non-lethal training area.

[00:37:17] We do that stuff that happens.

[00:37:20] We take it very seriously about bringing any type of real weapon into an NLTA environment.

[00:37:26] And the reason we are such sticklers is because companies with green berets just happened three

[00:37:32] years ago.

[00:37:33] Shoot a student in the neck, a 22-year veteran of law enforcement who's now a quadriplegic,

[00:37:38] father of two, husband.

[00:37:40] 22 years.

[00:37:42] Didn't get shot by a bad guy.

[00:37:44] Got shot in a training class to be a more responsibly armed officer.

[00:37:48] And so, yeah, I mean, I don't know who made that.

[00:37:51] Joe, the comment you made, no.

[00:37:54] People are going to mess up.

[00:37:56] But there's a big difference between someone that messes up and learns from it and says,

[00:38:00] I'm going to be better the next second that I touch a gun.

[00:38:03] I'm talking about those people that you see.

[00:38:06] I saw a wedding party at Specter Lake before I bought it.

[00:38:08] And they're sitting there with 44 magnets talking, loading.

[00:38:11] Just loading the guns, 1911s, right in each other's chest.

[00:38:14] And they think it's okay.

[00:38:15] And they're like, oh, we're a bunch of law enforcement.

[00:38:17] I don't want you responding to me.

[00:38:19] That's how we all die.

[00:38:20] So, yeah, those are two.

[00:38:22] And that's that gun owner in response to be armed citizen.

[00:38:24] Responsibly armed citizen ain't God.

[00:38:26] They're going to mess up, learn from it.

[00:38:28] And I'm glad Joe said that.

[00:38:30] That's a very important thing to differentiate.

[00:38:33] You know, I'll admit, I had your cadre call me out on the line.

[00:38:37] I'm new to shotguns.

[00:38:39] I was not manipulating the safety when I should have been.

[00:38:43] You are not alone in that, my friend.

[00:38:46] You're not alone.

[00:38:47] They called me out.

[00:38:48] And you know what?

[00:38:49] They did not have to call me out a second time.

[00:38:51] Because I made it very important to myself that regardless of the drill, regardless of what else we were doing, I was doing the safety manipulation properly.

[00:39:02] And by the end of the day, it wasn't even a thought in my head.

[00:39:05] The safety would click before I realized I was moving to click the safety off.

[00:39:10] Because it was pointed out to me.

[00:39:12] Yeah.

[00:39:13] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:39:15] Yeah, and I expect them to continue that torch.

[00:39:18] And I love that.

[00:39:19] I love hearing that.

[00:39:21] I got called out for it.

[00:39:22] Didn't realize I was doing it.

[00:39:23] Now it's very, very conscious in my efforts.

[00:39:26] Versus one of my first years of teaching back well before the alumni cards, I almost lost a foot to a shotgun.

[00:39:36] Birdshot in the end of the ground on the firing line.

[00:39:40] Gun got heavy.

[00:39:42] They weren't using workspace.

[00:39:43] Started to catch it as it came down.

[00:39:45] Safety was off.

[00:39:46] Finger wet on the trigger.

[00:39:47] Single action weapon.

[00:39:50] Even closer to that was another instructor.

[00:39:52] So we were two of us were right there.

[00:39:54] It happens that fast.

[00:39:55] And so hopefully, hopefully that gentleman.

[00:39:59] And I know he turned ghost white when it happened and he was removed from class.

[00:40:02] Hopefully that dude, when he handles a shotgun to this day, is like, nope, never again.

[00:40:07] Never, ever again.

[00:40:10] Yeah, it's interesting.

[00:40:12] The stuff for 15 years.

[00:40:14] I mean, you talk to anybody in any field and it's, hey, what have you seen in 15 years?

[00:40:18] I couldn't imagine in 15 years, everything that you've witnessed, seen, you know, on the line.

[00:40:28] But congratulations on, I guess you can call it the retirement from Live Fire.

[00:40:35] Looking forward to, I know their classes go live.

[00:40:39] So MDFI classes go live January 1st.

[00:40:42] Go to trainmdfi.com and sign up for the classes.

[00:40:46] The downside of you retiring, though, Trek, is I believe their classes get cut because the, because, I mean, the three lead instructors or, you know, or the lead instructors, rather, because of their main jobs they still have.

[00:41:01] They're not, there's not as many classes this year, correct?

[00:41:06] Yeah, I think they've reduced it.

[00:41:07] It kind of makes sense.

[00:41:08] It's down to about 30-ish classes, which makes sense.

[00:41:13] Normal average, 80 on the schedule, five or so maybe don't get filled.

[00:41:19] So, yeah, they're doing pretty much a pretty hefty lifting for one team for their first year.

[00:41:26] And they are, some classes the guys are real veterans at.

[00:41:31] Some classes they're not, they haven't taught many.

[00:41:35] So they're going to be balancing the classes that they are very well versed in and then building their own versions of classes that they're not.

[00:41:44] And I'll give you a great example.

[00:41:45] You suck, it's not the gun.

[00:41:47] They've got one on the books.

[00:41:49] I'm not teaching it.

[00:41:50] In 15 years, I am the only person.

[00:41:52] I am the only person that tells the story of the two wolves.

[00:41:55] I don't know what they're going to do.

[00:41:56] And I don't expect them to try to teach it the way that I do.

[00:41:59] They know the material.

[00:42:01] They know the material.

[00:42:03] So they're going to make their own.

[00:42:04] And I'm very excited to see it.

[00:42:05] So, yeah, 30 classes.

[00:42:07] And I guess my advice would be they are the same quality MDFI classes, less of them.

[00:42:12] I wouldn't wait.

[00:42:14] What we generally find is the alumni, they kind of get it.

[00:42:17] The moment the season goes live, the alumni start to sign up really fast to get their spots.

[00:42:22] We get a lot of emails every year in the years past where it's three days before class.

[00:42:28] And people are like, oh, I want to take the class.

[00:42:30] It's sold out.

[00:42:30] It's like, yeah, it's sold out like a month ago.

[00:42:32] So there's one.

[00:42:33] Two months from now, you might want to jump on.

[00:42:35] And they go on the wait list.

[00:42:37] And if they're lucky, there's a cancellation.

[00:42:38] But a lot of times, we'll have wait lists of 10 people.

[00:42:41] Maybe one or two will get in.

[00:42:43] And that's if someone cancels.

[00:42:45] So, yeah, I think they're taking on a very good undertaking.

[00:42:50] It will grow right before the end of the live fire season.

[00:42:54] We did a back-to-back train the trainer where Roman and Grant got to actually take the under tutelage of Brandon, Tim, and myself.

[00:43:05] We evaluated them teaching a class of 12 veteran alumni in both Foundation Handgun, Foundation Carbine.

[00:43:12] They learned a lot.

[00:43:13] There were things they did really well.

[00:43:15] They know there's things that they need to work on.

[00:43:17] It was in a very controlled environment.

[00:43:19] They will be the new lead instructors.

[00:43:22] They just need a little bit more time.

[00:43:24] So eventually, MDFI is going to have two teams again.

[00:43:26] And it'll be back up to the numbers that is normal for MDFI.

[00:43:31] But, yeah, the first year, it's not a training wheel year.

[00:43:34] It's just, hey, let's figure out.

[00:43:37] In fact, it's kind of funny.

[00:43:38] My wife and I, they're probably going to learn a lot more about what goes on on the back end of the system, like the registration system, the emails.

[00:43:48] So welcome to the party, pal.

[00:43:50] Well, that's going to be the answer to them.

[00:43:52] So they've got a lot.

[00:43:54] It's amazing when one student transfers.

[00:43:56] People wonder, like, why can I only transfer a class once?

[00:44:00] Well, when you find out what has to go into the man hours, not hours, but there's a lot of work that has to go into moving the credits around and this and that.

[00:44:08] The guys are going to be learning all that.

[00:44:10] In fact, Allison's going to be spending a day with them going into the back end of the system so they can learn how to build classes and all the website stuff, which that's not my game.

[00:44:21] I am the guy that's on the fire.

[00:44:24] Currently, if someone emails MBFI, does it go to Allison or does it go to who does it go to?

[00:44:32] Up until the next couple of days, you'll get Allison.

[00:44:35] After that, you're going to get Tim Brannon or Derek or whoever it is they appoint.

[00:44:38] You'll notice when the signature changes.

[00:44:41] But yeah, they'll be taking over the full operation of the company.

[00:44:45] That's awesome.

[00:44:46] No, man.

[00:44:46] It's well-deserved.

[00:44:48] It's well-earned.

[00:44:49] Thanks.

[00:44:50] I did see I got two comments just real quick.

[00:44:52] So Joe asked, do we immediately remove a student?

[00:44:55] If you put someone's life in jeopardy, you're done at that moment.

[00:44:59] And we make it very clear.

[00:45:00] Our briefing, we have the most in-depth safety briefing of any school in the world.

[00:45:05] And I only say that as a fun competition because if any other school wants to try to compete against our opening control briefing,

[00:45:13] it's just going to make the world safer.

[00:45:14] In fact, I am giving out the outline of our opening briefing to anyone that wants it.

[00:45:20] And I'm very proud of that.

[00:45:22] Over 20 law enforcement officers, instructors contact me and say, hey, can I get a copy of your opening briefing?

[00:45:28] Absolutely.

[00:45:29] All I ask is give us credit.

[00:45:31] We've developed it over time.

[00:45:33] And so if anybody out there that's listening, you don't have to be a Leo.

[00:45:36] You want it.

[00:45:37] You want to go to the range with your friends.

[00:45:38] And you want to read or paraphrase our briefing.

[00:45:42] That would be great.

[00:45:42] So, yeah, if you put someone's life in jeopardy and it's made very clear what's acceptable and unacceptable, you're done.

[00:45:48] If you put your own life in jeopardy, muzzling your foot, muzzling your sport in, we'll come on over and we'll be like, hey, man.

[00:45:56] Hey, girl.

[00:45:58] We like you, but you should love you more than we love you.

[00:46:01] So stop doing that.

[00:46:03] The only time someone gets removed is if it ain't sinking in and we don't want to have to put a tourniquet on someone.

[00:46:08] It generally gets to the point where we'll walk up and we'll be like, and at the third time, like they get multiple warnings.

[00:46:16] But if it's someone that doesn't deserve it, you're done.

[00:46:20] If you do it to somebody else, if you muzzle somebody, if you fire, if you ND in the class, you've lost control of the gun.

[00:46:27] And we had a first rule number four removal in my 15 years, and that was last year.

[00:46:33] We were teaching a foundation shotgun class, and there were puffs of dirt up at the top of the berm.

[00:46:38] The berm was 20 feet tall.

[00:46:40] And we said, what's going on?

[00:46:42] The guy's like, oh, my red dot's not working on my shotgun.

[00:46:46] Like, well, we just went over inspection inventory.

[00:46:48] And we asked you to let us know if anything wasn't working.

[00:46:51] And you're doing un-aimed fire now.

[00:46:52] So you're literally, we're giving you the gun command.

[00:46:55] And instead of being an adult saying, I can't safely aim my gun, you are just bringing your gun up and shooting.

[00:47:00] And you're almost sending rounds over the berm.

[00:47:02] That was a first.

[00:47:04] That is a gigantic berm.

[00:47:08] How far away is this gigantic berm?

[00:47:10] Phil, it's not.

[00:47:10] That's a 45-degree angle to shoot over that berm.

[00:47:13] Yeah, well, this was not at Mount Pleasant, but it was still a pretty big berm.

[00:47:19] But yeah, so that's the answer to this question.

[00:47:22] And the guy that comments, certainly press checks, he said press checks aren't free.

[00:47:27] INI is very important.

[00:47:29] Chambering and rechambering rounds.

[00:47:31] When I was in USAPI, 31st Security Forces Squadron, Aviano Air Base Italy,

[00:47:39] if we lost a round, a single round, it was the end of our life.

[00:47:44] And so every now and then when we would bring a magazine back in on a security patrol,

[00:47:49] they would make it, it's called blocking ammunition.

[00:47:51] And we ran a four to one ball to tracer ratio.

[00:47:53] So they'd have this wooden block.

[00:47:55] There'd be four holes in a red line with a hole.

[00:47:57] And we'd have to take one.

[00:47:58] They would just pick a random mag and we'd have to block.

[00:48:01] And they want to see that all of our rounds were there.

[00:48:03] You put the tracer, we're supposed to go.

[00:48:05] If there was a round missing, Article 15, it was ridiculous.

[00:48:09] Well, they were so anal retentive about round count that I actually have photos on 35mm film.

[00:48:15] That's how old I am.

[00:48:17] I brought up that rounds were being pressed back in.

[00:48:20] The 9mm rounds were being pressed back in because they had been loaded and unloaded.

[00:48:23] So many times the brass casings had been stripped.

[00:48:26] There was chunks missing out of them.

[00:48:28] I took photos of 9mm rounds that had that problem pushed back.

[00:48:31] I had 5.56 rounds that were dented and deformed through 40mm high explosive dual purpose rounds with giant dents in the warhead.

[00:48:40] And I brought this film footage to my leadership and they said, well, you don't know what it's like to have to do accountability.

[00:48:45] These rounds are going to stay until we do a full ammo change out of the entire squadron.

[00:48:49] Instead of just saying, here's the bad round, here's a good round.

[00:48:53] They wouldn't do it because that's the government.

[00:48:56] That's the stuff that all the shake are, especially veterans.

[00:49:00] So, if you're doing an eye and eye right, if you're thinking through, you shouldn't have a problem.

[00:49:05] Yes, look over your ammo just like you look over your mag, look over your gun.

[00:49:08] I see where he's saying, yeah, if you've chambered and loaded and unloaded rounds, especially AR-15 rounds, free-floating firing pin.

[00:49:17] That firing pin, if you notice, every time you take a round of the chamber, there's that little tiny indentation there on the primer.

[00:49:24] Rounds are cheap.

[00:49:25] I know it's expensive, but they're cheap when it's compared to your life.

[00:49:28] So, yes, I just wanted to address it.

[00:49:31] I and I are stuff, inspect and inventory your stuff.

[00:49:33] And when in doubt, don't.

[00:49:35] Change it out.

[00:49:36] I don't have to worry about my leadership saying, you can't change it out.

[00:49:40] I just go to my ammo box and go, okay, I'm taking this new round and I'm tossing this one either in the trash or I would immediately take it out and shoot it at the range.

[00:49:48] So, there you go.

[00:49:49] Just wanted to, I saw those two comments.

[00:49:51] I thought that was good to bring up.

[00:49:53] Yeah, I replied back to him because I did want, I wanted to in like a very short sentence draw a distinction between what you were saying, which was a press check.

[00:50:02] And what I think he was referring to, which was literally like unchambering, rechambering around because nerdy beat nerdy BS.

[00:50:10] Nobody cares about unless you're just a gun guy and you already know this.

[00:50:13] If the tip of the bullet hits a feed ramp, then yes, over time, you're going to set the bullet back.

[00:50:18] But if you have to pull your slide, your charging held, your whatever back that bar to check for brass, you need glasses.

[00:50:26] You only need to pull it back literally just enough to be able to see the brass.

[00:50:31] And as long as the tip of that bullet is still in the chamber, there's nothing for it to hit going forward because that's how guns work.

[00:50:37] Should be an issue.

[00:50:38] That said, you know, you wake up, if your posture is, you know, bump in the night, chamber around with your AR, shotgun, whatever.

[00:50:45] If you keep doing that, you clear it out.

[00:50:47] Yeah, just check your stuff.

[00:50:48] And that's, I have not seen in my 15 years, press checks being the cause of pushback.

[00:50:55] I have seen lots of Leo ammo have setback issues from constantly loading and unloading.

[00:51:02] You see it a lot with daily carry ammo too with guys that unload their gun to put it in the safe every night.

[00:51:09] I've actually got a little.

[00:51:10] Take a Sharpie on your top round, the round that you chamber and after a while just get rid of it.

[00:51:16] Yeah, put that in the, if it's, if it looks safe, put it in the range file.

[00:51:19] If it looks unsafe, just get rid of it.

[00:51:22] Yeah.

[00:51:22] And then look, always check your brass, the room around your brass for extractor.

[00:51:29] So yeah, the only, the only reason I push back against what you just said, Trek, is that like me being a reloading nerd and stop me if you reload your own ammo.

[00:51:36] But like the difference between loaded properly at overall length and loaded way too damn deep is literally like several thousands of an inch.

[00:51:46] So like I always tell people, I'm like you, it's almost impossible to visually inspect the ammo.

[00:51:52] By the time you can tell one of those bullets is too short, it's way past way too short.

[00:51:57] Yeah, and that's true.

[00:51:58] So like that's the only, so like that's the only warning I ever give people.

[00:52:02] Like, yeah.

[00:52:03] Like when I've been in this situation years ago where I had, I'd done exactly what y'all were talking about and I got it in my head.

[00:52:10] Like I wonder how much bullet setback I have.

[00:52:12] I literally took all the ammunition to have a magazine, pulled out micrometers and checked every, every round of that magazine.

[00:52:20] And I was terrified to find out how short the shortest way.

[00:52:24] Well, you could be surprised though.

[00:52:26] There's actually a fairly good safety buffer in the Sammy spec.

[00:52:29] If you're loaded within normal specifications, 10 or 15,000 to set back on a pistol round is probably not going to detonate your gun.

[00:52:37] If you guys, you're using just, if it'd probably really, what'd you say?

[00:52:43] Just get a block, load rounds backwards, put rocks in it.

[00:52:46] Right.

[00:52:46] Right.

[00:52:46] It works.

[00:52:48] I got a Grotto 2011.

[00:52:50] It'll explode if I look at it wrong.

[00:52:52] Right.

[00:52:59] Do you have some time to get into some current events or?

[00:53:02] Oh, I can go full in the weeds.

[00:53:04] It's been a while.

[00:53:06] Perfect.

[00:53:07] You see, we got, we got plenty.

[00:53:09] We got at least a half hour.

[00:53:11] So, I mean, yeah, I, I kind of want to switch gears here.

[00:53:16] And I know one of the things that we wanted to talk about was a couple, there's, there's been a couple things going on in the news lately that the mainstream media is throwing out there for distraction purposes just because of everything that's going on.

[00:53:27] But we have a Marine in New York, Daniel Penny, who was acquitted of all charges.

[00:53:36] And I know this because I saw the tweet from Kyle Rittenhouse that says, hey, congratulations on your charge.

[00:53:42] You know, the charges being dropped, which I had to giggle at.

[00:53:45] But, and then also, if anybody's been living under a rock, they're calling it the, I've been seeing some, a couple headlines of the, it's the highest.

[00:53:59] Basically, this person is one of the most popular shooters of all time.

[00:54:03] I guess they forgot that Trump took, you know, was, they sent two guys after Trump and you don't hear about them anymore.

[00:54:11] But, what is his name?

[00:54:14] Luigi something.

[00:54:15] I can't pronounce that name.

[00:54:16] But anyway, he is the guy who killed the United Healthcare, supposedly.

[00:54:23] I was going to say, we're going to edit that out there.

[00:54:25] Yeah, supposedly.

[00:54:27] Right.

[00:54:27] Killed the United Healthcare CEO.

[00:54:30] Allegedly.

[00:54:30] He's the murder suspect.

[00:54:32] But, again, it's one of those things where we laugh at because it was a manhunt for, you know, however many, or was a couple days, it was a manhunt.

[00:54:42] And then he was found at a McDonald's because he was flirting with the girl.

[00:54:47] And he was found with everything on him.

[00:54:49] Same exact, never changed any clothing.

[00:54:52] And, I don't know, it was very odd, kind of.

[00:54:56] So, yeah, I mean, I know we wanted to kind of talk about these two things mainly.

[00:55:02] And just the repercussions that we're seeing.

[00:55:04] And because I'm seeing gun control groups are already pushing that envelope of we need to ban ghost guns.

[00:55:12] We need to ban suppressors.

[00:55:14] It's the death.

[00:55:15] It's so terrible what happened.

[00:55:18] And they're not taking into account of what was actually going on.

[00:55:22] The fact that this guy was getting ready to testify.

[00:55:25] I mean, I've seen a lot of Hitman movies and stuff.

[00:55:29] And this looked like a straight-up hit, if it was ever one.

[00:55:33] It was not a very good one.

[00:55:35] But it looked like a straight-up hit out of a movie.

[00:55:41] Yeah.

[00:55:42] So, the penny trial.

[00:55:44] First of all, Kyle Rittenhouse.

[00:55:46] Mad respect.

[00:55:47] He needs to shut up, though.

[00:55:48] So, we've – well, here's the thing.

[00:55:50] We did the three-part series back then.

[00:55:53] I was very steadfast on the way the verdict was go.

[00:55:56] I'm very proud that I can keep my job doing use of force discussion.

[00:56:00] But aside from that, my views on Kyle are like, man, I wouldn't have gotten involved in that.

[00:56:08] You did.

[00:56:08] I'm glad that you got acquitted.

[00:56:09] You didn't do anything wrong.

[00:56:10] You defended yourself.

[00:56:11] Get off social media, dude.

[00:56:13] Stop.

[00:56:13] Stop.

[00:56:14] That's just me.

[00:56:15] Rock on.

[00:56:16] I don't hate you or anything like that.

[00:56:17] That's my advice.

[00:56:18] Secondly, if the Rittenhouse trial was a doozy, the penny one was a no-brainer.

[00:56:26] It was a no-brainer.

[00:56:27] That was a guy defending a subway car full of people.

[00:56:31] Three guys defending a subway car full of people and one got charged.

[00:56:36] Yeah.

[00:56:36] Well, yeah.

[00:56:36] Extra layer of bullshit on the top is all.

[00:56:39] Oh, 100%.

[00:56:41] The video evidence that, of course, then you've got the – and it's been such a long time since we talked about it.

[00:56:47] And now there's evidence coming to light about the Chauvin case, which at the time, my God, you know, if you're telling me, if the medical examiner is telling me, no, he was on the guy's back for six minutes.

[00:56:59] Well, we got some violations of use of force.

[00:57:02] And it's coming to light that, no, there was a lot more shenanigans going on.

[00:57:06] So that might need to be – I think it needs to be revisited.

[00:57:09] But to get back to the current case, yeah, that was a very political, race-based CHAM trial.

[00:57:17] I'm glad – I looked at Allison the day of the verdict and I said, that dude's going to prison or he's going to go to jail.

[00:57:26] I didn't know what the second trial – I was like, the New Yorkers, as much as I want to put faith in fellow Americans, I just didn't see him.

[00:57:36] I thought the jury was going to kowtow to the mob.

[00:57:39] I'm very glad they didn't.

[00:57:40] I'm very glad he's walking free.

[00:57:42] He has no business being in prison.

[00:57:44] Allison, if he had been found guilty, if you want to talk about why are all these men just not doing anything, well, you would have had your answer.

[00:57:51] And here's the thing.

[00:57:52] Still nobody in New York City is ever going to help another person.

[00:57:56] I wouldn't.

[00:57:56] Not a chance.

[00:57:57] No, God no.

[00:57:59] I'm going to have to start looking at how a place voted before I would ever even contemplate intervening.

[00:58:04] And intervening is a topic that I spend an hour on in our use of force class.

[00:58:09] So, yeah, that was good.

[00:58:11] But now there was another case that happened almost at the same time where the race cards were reversed and there was no charges brought whatsoever.

[00:58:21] And so it shows clearly political bias.

[00:58:24] Now the people are losing their minds.

[00:58:26] The dad that was nowhere for his son for his entire life is now screaming bloody murder.

[00:58:31] And they're going to and they're going to try to go buy some more mansions with donations to their cause.

[00:58:38] But I'm glad.

[00:58:38] That was a very cut and dry case.

[00:58:41] And I'm glad it's over.

[00:58:43] Yeah, the NYC CEO murder is very interesting, especially with the gig that I'm getting ready to kick off.

[00:58:51] I called my future boss starting on the 1st of January and said, hey, how's the phone doing today?

[00:58:58] And he goes, bro.

[00:59:00] He goes, every executive, every executive that never thought they needed a detail, they are now on.

[00:59:07] So business is going to be booming the moment I hit the ground running.

[00:59:11] Yeah, I've got a couple issues from the security point of view.

[00:59:14] If you're valued at that, if you are responsible for that entity and it's 630 in the morning and you're in your thousand, multiple thousand dollar suit bebopping down a street in New York.

[00:59:24] I don't get that one at all.

[00:59:26] But I was amazed.

[00:59:28] The thing I made multiple posts that people, the CBS News and NYPD said it was a B&T well rod.

[00:59:36] See, a station six, also known as the VP9 veterinary pistol.

[00:59:39] And I'm like, so let me get this straight.

[00:59:41] First of all, if you've ever tried to run one of those, he was just chambering around from a normal slide type weapon.

[00:59:48] The B&T like the well rod is you have to do quite a bit more on the reverse part of the gun.

[00:59:53] But let me get this straight.

[00:59:55] I'm going to try to do a hit in a city that has got the best intelligence gathering service rivaling many countries out there.

[01:00:02] Cameras everywhere.

[01:00:03] And I'm going to use a gun that is a class three weapon, very rare by numbers and easily traceable.

[01:00:10] No, I said it was a 3D printed blaster and probably a Timu can.

[01:00:14] And from what we know, it was a 3D printed frame where it looks like a Glock slide and it didn't have a Nielsen device.

[01:00:22] They're saying it was a 3D printed can.

[01:00:24] And can't stop the signal mail, which is why I'm very excited for 3D printing technology.

[01:00:30] Not that they're going to be used in crime, but that's just the way of the future.

[01:00:33] People can make this stuff now.

[01:00:35] And he was clearly just chambering around because it wasn't cycling.

[01:00:38] I had people saying it was subsonic.

[01:00:40] I've got an Omega 9K and my Glock 19.

[01:00:42] It runs subsonic like a dream when it's got the Nielsen device in it.

[01:00:45] So, yeah, the thing that gets me about it, one, wow, what a manhunt.

[01:00:53] They put a lot of resources into finding this guy, but I still don't know who shot Trump in the ear.

[01:00:58] Yeah, about that.

[01:01:00] I don't really know anything.

[01:01:01] I didn't know you could hose off a crime scene roof and you could cremate a body and the house is completely sterilized with no silverware in it.

[01:01:08] Just that's really weird.

[01:01:09] But they sure put, I mean, and of course, the NYPD has got great resources.

[01:01:13] So I'm sure they were looking into it and doing their job professionally.

[01:01:16] But the big thing is either this guy, who knows?

[01:01:21] And the worst part is you could say conspiracies.

[01:01:23] They're able what?

[01:01:23] The past three years, they're all true.

[01:01:26] Like they're conspiracy facts.

[01:01:28] So either this guy is framed, left a backpack full of Monopoly money, who knows?

[01:01:36] Whatever.

[01:01:36] He's framed or he's the dumbest criminal on the planet, knows the full world is looking for him,

[01:01:42] goes to a McDonald's and carries the murder weapon, the fake ID.

[01:01:49] And I think it's whatever else to make a slam dunk case.

[01:01:52] And he's not striking me like somebody that that had the yep, I did it.

[01:01:56] And I want to spread my message to the world.

[01:01:58] He's now screaming at reporters.

[01:02:01] Every time he gets a chance saying something's not right.

[01:02:04] That I don't know.

[01:02:05] Where's his pre-prepared video release that was timed to go out to YouTube or Twitter or Instagram?

[01:02:13] I mean, come on.

[01:02:13] If he was if he was the I want to get caught and spread my message guy, where's his digital manifesto?

[01:02:21] Time to be released after the hit.

[01:02:24] Because that's what you see on a lot of these.

[01:02:26] Where's his live stream recording of the hit?

[01:02:29] You see that on a lot of these.

[01:02:32] Yeah, my biggest takeaway.

[01:02:33] I mean, we're we are either going to know the truth or like the Trump assassination attempt.

[01:02:39] We're not going to know the truth until 55 years later.

[01:02:41] Now, with the new administration coming in, I'm looking forward.

[01:02:45] Here's the deal.

[01:02:47] We gave Trump the House, the Senate and the presidency his first term.

[01:02:55] He is saying that he didn't know there was 10,000 pointees.

[01:02:59] I agree that there was a lot of working against him.

[01:03:02] Nothing really got done in that first term as far as you've got the House, the Senate and the presidency.

[01:03:06] He's now saying we're going to roll.

[01:03:09] OK, it's his football to drop at this point in time.

[01:03:13] So I'm really hopeful that a lot of things that have been hidden from the American public are going to be brought to light.

[01:03:18] But here's the big thing.

[01:03:19] From my point of view, the funniest thing, the entire thing was the amount of people that have been there, done that background.

[01:03:24] They were saying it was a suppressed 22 and it was a station six.

[01:03:29] We don't they're not letting us know the facts.

[01:03:33] And so people put a lot of they put a lot of weight into a grainy video and now it's out there forever.

[01:03:42] Yeah, I'm just really happy it stopped the nine versus 40 versus 45.

[01:03:46] And what gun is on the Internet?

[01:03:50] But yeah, that's it's very interesting.

[01:03:53] It is very interesting in the background of the victim.

[01:03:56] If what they're saying about what he was supposed to be tested, if he was testifying or if he was going to whistleblow or whatever the heck it was, seems very interestingly timed.

[01:04:08] I'm amazed that the shooter for his first attempt was that calm of a cucumber.

[01:04:14] That's very rare to see people that I mean, you can be motivated and dedicated to do it, but most and I can't remember.

[01:04:21] Biological responses are hard to.

[01:04:23] But to.

[01:04:24] Yeah, physiological responses, psychological responses.

[01:04:28] And most most assassins that have been caught on film or have testified, they they run up, they they pull the trigger until the gun doesn't work either because it stops working or they run dry and then they just take off running.

[01:04:40] I mean, there's there's lots of things that strike me of who farted in the church?

[01:04:45] Like we need to get to the bottom of it.

[01:04:48] So the one thing that I won't be doing is when the Pentagon says, don't worry about the drones over New Jersey, I'm going to go, you know what?

[01:04:55] We should really be focused on those drones over New Jersey.

[01:04:58] I'm not going to leave anybody standing at a podium right now telling me, yeah, here's the facts.

[01:05:04] No, it's probably not because you guys have been caught in lie after lie after lie.

[01:05:08] But if the FBI is about to get one heck of a new leadership, I will probably find out the facts if they stick to what they promised they were going to do.

[01:05:19] So, you know, for the next couple of days, just sit back, be skeptical.

[01:05:24] And yeah, those I'm really glad for Penny.

[01:05:27] I hope New York doesn't burn, doesn't strike me.

[01:05:30] I don't think the NYPD is fooling around anymore.

[01:05:32] It's too cold out.

[01:05:33] Yeah.

[01:05:34] So hopefully there's no ramifications.

[01:05:36] I hope he leaves.

[01:05:37] I don't know if he was a resident of NYC or visiting, but I really hope that he now gets out and goes to a place where freedom is actually celebrated versus prosecuted.

[01:05:49] And yeah, we'll see if they put this NYC CEO shooter in prison with Diddy.

[01:05:57] And we'll see what happens if all of a sudden both of them just die of a heart attack.

[01:06:03] They'll probably suicide each other with two bullets.

[01:06:06] Oh yeah.

[01:06:08] A murder, suicide in a locked room.

[01:06:10] Murder, suicide.

[01:06:11] Both will have like two or three shots at the back of the head.

[01:06:15] They'll be fine.

[01:06:17] It'll be fine.

[01:06:18] Secured cameras will fail.

[01:06:19] Yeah.

[01:06:19] We know the drill by now.

[01:06:21] You know, I think that in all reality here, Penny has a hell of a lawsuit opportunity on his hands.

[01:06:27] You know, I don't...

[01:06:29] Malicious prosecution, at the very least.

[01:06:32] Just for the fact that they only prosecuted one of the three.

[01:06:36] I saw today that he apparently has secured a lawyer and they are going to be pursuing that.

[01:06:42] He should.

[01:06:43] Which, frankly, at this point, I kind of feel like, you know, like the four of us, I think, would all agree that malicious prosecution is a thing in certain parts of the country.

[01:06:53] And I kind of feel like it needs to be dealt with in much the same way that like false allegations have to be dealt with.

[01:07:00] My only irritation is always the fact that it's never the prosecutor whose butt winds up on the leash.

[01:07:08] It's the taxpayers.

[01:07:09] But the taxpayers voted for that prosecutor.

[01:07:12] Well, yeah.

[01:07:13] And that is kind of the other side of that coin is like, yeah, y'all get to foot the bill because y'all installed this retard in charge of this process.

[01:07:23] I guess I just kind of feel like, you know, if some kind of way, if we could, in Phil's fantasy, maybe one day we'll make it to where elected officials lose their immunity to prosecution for doing historically stupid things.

[01:07:37] And then they can individually be sued.

[01:07:40] Well, you're immune for prosecution until you actually do something against proper jurisprudence.

[01:07:44] And so the kicker is were things violated?

[01:07:48] And if you look to the case of Kurt Kulik, you know, Kurt, I think, had a hell of a case.

[01:07:54] And I would say there is evidence of violations of proper jurisprudence with the ex parte communication that happened between the judge and the prosecutor and lots of other shenanigans.

[01:08:04] But in Kurt's own words, is it worth it?

[01:08:08] He got his life back.

[01:08:11] He walked free.

[01:08:12] He walked away a free man and proven that what he did was justified.

[01:08:16] Does he want to bank possibly bankrupt himself even more?

[01:08:20] And by the way, thank you, everybody out there listening.

[01:08:22] We did take in, I believe, $25,000 with Operation Skywalker.

[01:08:28] And I was very proud.

[01:08:29] Kurt was at least able to get the mortgage taken care of at the house.

[01:08:33] So their house is theirs.

[01:08:34] Fantastic.

[01:08:35] That's absolutely huge.

[01:08:37] He's never going to be made.

[01:08:38] I mean, he'll feel far, far under from what he had to spend, but get that CPL insurance.

[01:08:46] But yeah, I don't know.

[01:08:47] And he probably has enough high profileness, unlike Kurt did, that there's probably a lot of attorneys that are saying, you don't need to worry about the fees.

[01:08:56] We will take this percentage.

[01:08:58] You don't have to front a bill.

[01:08:59] And if it was me, yes.

[01:09:03] That would be someone needs to pay.

[01:09:06] It's a point of principle at a certain point.

[01:09:08] Yeah.

[01:09:08] And if New York's like, but you're taking our money, it'd be like, well, it is your fault.

[01:09:12] You did put him in there.

[01:09:14] Like, stop voting for these people or voting for people who put these people in one way or the other.

[01:09:20] So, yeah, I would not blame him if he's like, he disappears, leaves the state, goes and gets a job somewhere and we never hear his name again.

[01:09:30] He has earned the right to disappear.

[01:09:34] That I, in another alternate world, I could see myself doing that too.

[01:09:38] So, yeah, it's, I hope, I hope there is some sort of repercussions financially or criminally for what was an absolute travesty.

[01:09:47] Because I hope the people of New York and big cities that are run like that understand that the consequences have already been done.

[01:09:54] When you were on a bus to train a subway in public and someone is doing something like that, now even less people are going to try to help you.

[01:10:04] So, be prepared.

[01:10:06] You better train yourself.

[01:10:07] You better go to a place where you can actually carry a gun, carry a knife, carry pepper spray, get some jujitsu training, whatever it is you need.

[01:10:14] Because no one's coming to save you.

[01:10:16] That's a quote, Matt Graham.

[01:10:18] And that's, yeah, that's the worst part about a good victory is that the people of New York are not safer.

[01:10:24] No.

[01:10:25] And it was a, people are touting the election, not only the electoral victory, but the popular vote.

[01:10:34] That's great.

[01:10:34] But the popular vote was 5 million more.

[01:10:37] There's still 75 million people that think like the people that would put him in prison for saving the lives on that subway train.

[01:10:47] So, get to a place, you know, this kind of goes into, I think I've been on the show numerous times and I've said, you know,

[01:10:54] we got to write letters to our government officials.

[01:10:57] We need to do all this stuff and then get involved in grassroots organizations.

[01:11:01] I've gotten to the point now, especially in Michigan, right now with what's going on, the lame duck legislature is pushing through over 100 bills right now.

[01:11:09] They want to criminalize my spray painted guns that aren't, if they're not black, gray or rainbow colored, I will go to prison for having camouflage.

[01:11:17] They want to make it even more restricted on where I can carry my gun.

[01:11:21] They want, oh, I'm trying to think.

[01:11:24] Oh, they want, they're going after Phoenix ammunition specifically.

[01:11:27] Oh.

[01:11:27] It's clearly tailored that firearms manufacturer, ammunition manufacturer that runs their mouth on social media.

[01:11:35] The attorney general can dub them like a threat and shut them down.

[01:11:40] Oh, of course.

[01:11:41] So what I've basically, I've changed, like I've written this year, I have written some letters to my representatives and all I get, whether Republican or Democrat, is a canned response.

[01:11:51] And then they sign me up for their newsletter where they tell me how much of not doing anything you're doing while trying to make it look good.

[01:11:59] Become a member of FPC.

[01:12:01] Yes.

[01:12:02] For the longest time, and I know some of the guys at FPC and the leadership, I've supported, I did a joint party with them at the Leatherneck Club in SHOT Show a couple years ago.

[01:12:11] I will support them forever.

[01:12:14] At first, I was kind of like, hey, the old F you know, like I totally get it.

[01:12:18] Like I think it, but a marketing, maybe we should, let's get a little bit more people to our, no, no, no.

[01:12:23] I am fully, these people, and RFK Jr.

[01:12:28] Said it very eloquently, you know, this is not the Democrat party of his father and his uncle, where Democrats and Republicans, they wanted the same end result.

[01:12:42] They disagreed on the way to get there.

[01:12:46] And that, and he basically says the Democrat party left me.

[01:12:49] I did not leave the Democrat party.

[01:12:51] This, this current Democrat party, letters ain't going to work.

[01:12:57] No.

[01:12:57] Lawsuits are going to work.

[01:12:58] We have to make them pay.

[01:13:00] We have to shut them down.

[01:13:01] The Firearms Policy Coalition, they are doing more with less than the NRA, which was negotiating, right?

[01:13:09] The FPC is doing more with far less, and they are bringing the pain.

[01:13:14] And so I'm, I'm like, no, absolutely not.

[01:13:17] You guys are getting high on Zoloft and Franzia.

[01:13:20] You're losing your minds in the legislature.

[01:13:22] You know what?

[01:13:22] You pass.

[01:13:23] I'm not going to take the time to write a hundred letters about a hundred different bills, because all you're going to do is send me a Ken response.

[01:13:28] I'm going to take the time and I'm going to just put the money in to FPC, send them an email going, Hey, you guys see what's going on in Michigan?

[01:13:35] And they're going to say, we got this.

[01:13:37] And they will.

[01:13:37] Yep.

[01:13:37] And they've been doing it.

[01:13:38] And there's others, other FPC I call out because I've been a member of theirs for a while.

[01:13:43] I'm sure there's other gun owners of America.

[01:13:45] GOA is fantastic as well.

[01:13:51] Michigan, Michigan open carry.

[01:13:53] I know there's MCRGO and Michigan gun owners, but Michigan open carry historically has brought more good results through lawsuits than any of the other groups that I'm aware of.

[01:14:05] And I'd be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

[01:14:07] So think locally, state organization, get with a federal organization like FPC.

[01:14:13] They jump around the country, suing the pants off of tyrants.

[01:14:15] And that's where we're at because we have realized even more so people have been, their eyes have been open over the past couple of years.

[01:14:24] Why does my gun color matter?

[01:14:26] The bad guy doesn't care about the gun color.

[01:14:28] By the way, if my gun was rainbow, you'd go, well, that's fine.

[01:14:32] But my three color woodland, because I live in the woods and I might want to, you know, disappear with my gun if I ever had to.

[01:14:39] That's a problem.

[01:14:39] You know, I'm a veteran of the United States, military, upstanding citizen, want nothing but life, living the pursuit of happiness for me and my neighbors, regardless of political party.

[01:14:50] You're saying I'm a bad guy.

[01:14:51] Now you're saying I can't carry in the polling.

[01:14:56] You can't have a gun concealed or open in a polling location.

[01:14:59] And it was really funny to see all the polling personnel go, hey, thank you for making me safer.

[01:15:04] It's like, bro, you can't carry a gun in there either, homie.

[01:15:06] So the bad guy that comes walking through the door that doesn't care about that law, and you do because you're worried about getting slapped on the wrist, you're now defenseless.

[01:15:14] So congratulations.

[01:15:17] Yeah, we're in a trying time of becoming far less okay with the classic this step from this.

[01:15:24] No, just go to the FPC.

[01:15:26] Go to the nuclear option.

[01:15:29] Yeah, that's the way that we've got to deal with this because it's getting ridiculous.

[01:15:32] Between Michigan and Illinois, there is no compromise anymore.

[01:15:36] There is no discussion anymore.

[01:15:38] The only answer is, shall not be infringed.

[01:15:42] Yeah, I think it warms my heart so much.

[01:15:48] I was just going to say, it warms my heart so much to see so many people in the gun community finally start saying what I was saying 10 years ago that got me kicked out of light spaces because I was making people uncomfortable by saying F your tax stamp and F all this nonsense and damn the NFA and we should all have rocket launchers and machine guns.

[01:16:04] It's so nice to not be the only crazy one of the room, guys.

[01:16:08] Thank you all so much.

[01:16:08] You want to ban nukes?

[01:16:09] Pass the constitutional amendment.

[01:16:12] Well, yeah, it has come down.

[01:16:16] Like I said, my disagreement was the tagline.

[01:16:20] Well, there are some businesses where you probably can't have an MDFI business card that says, MDFI, fuck you on the other side.

[01:16:27] That's not going to work out too well.

[01:16:30] But then again, MDFI is training people how to be more responsible to be armed citizens.

[01:16:35] I'm trying to get in the people that just don't know.

[01:16:38] They don't know about their rights.

[01:16:39] They don't know about what being responsibly armed is.

[01:16:42] FPC deals with the worst people in our country that took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

[01:16:49] And they go, you know, we're just going to take this little bit out of the Constitution.

[01:16:53] How's that?

[01:16:53] And they're like, fuck, you know, that's the way it has to be.

[01:16:56] It has to be from now on.

[01:16:58] So FPC, good job.

[01:17:00] I'll keep making my membership.

[01:17:01] Yeah, I'm going to reach out to Kyle with Phoenix.

[01:17:08] And I think it's time.

[01:17:10] We haven't had him in a while.

[01:17:11] So I think it's time to get him on and discuss some stuff.

[01:17:15] And I'll have to reach out to, I know I wrote FPC a while ago about trying to get someone to come on.

[01:17:24] But now I got nothing back.

[01:17:25] So it'd be interesting to get someone from FPC on too.

[01:17:28] But, yeah, I think, yeah, I'll reach out to Kyle, try to line him up soon as well.

[01:17:36] But, yeah, they're trying to push as much as they can through.

[01:17:40] It's ridiculous, the rights that they're trying to take away.

[01:17:46] Well, they know full well that, if I'm not mistaken, we may be taking back the legislature.

[01:17:51] But they can try to reverse it, but then it can be vetoed.

[01:17:55] So if you don't have overriding veto power, which I don't believe there's a majority control that can do that, they're going to get stuck in there.

[01:18:01] You know, I was just kidding.

[01:18:02] The alumni group was talking.

[01:18:04] There's a bunch of guys that work at FFLs.

[01:18:07] And this new requirement when you buy a rifle, you have to get a purchase permit or use your CPL.

[01:18:12] And not even the state police, the local municipalities don't understand what's going on.

[01:18:16] The state police have no idea how to deal with it because it makes no sense.

[01:18:20] And, oh, by the way, I can go to Indiana or Ohio with my Michigan driver's license and buy a long gun.

[01:18:27] I get my NICS check, get a long gun.

[01:18:28] I don't have to do some form.

[01:18:30] And, by the way, the loopholes, the legal loopholes that are still in place of Attorney General 3490 saying if I have a Florida, Arizona, et cetera, and a Michigan CPL, I am exempt from firearm registration.

[01:18:41] So you didn't close that.

[01:18:44] That's still part of the way that it works.

[01:18:45] But now you're mandating something that doesn't do any good whatsoever.

[01:18:51] Yeah, we've got that same problem in Illinois right now.

[01:18:53] I talk with my local sheriff every now and then to try and figure out what is going on.

[01:18:59] And the state police, the locals, the sheriffs, they're not entirely sure to this day what is enforceable and what isn't in PICA.

[01:19:08] It's ridiculous.

[01:19:10] I mean, they're still arguing in the legislature exactly what the meaning of some of their sentences were last I heard.

[01:19:17] All I'm going to say, guys, is Louisiana has enough room for all of y'all.

[01:19:22] It has mosquitoes the size of my dog.

[01:19:25] Listen, I just got back to Bon Air with Purshot.

[01:19:27] And Louisiana is like Bon Air humid, so you're not going to get me down there.

[01:19:31] I'm a danker.

[01:19:32] I've out-tied, I've caught fire.

[01:19:34] If it wasn't for the moisture in the air, I would have first in the morning.

[01:19:36] I'm okay with the Hoth weather.

[01:19:40] Great.

[01:19:42] I can put more clothes on.

[01:19:43] They arrest me if I take too many off.

[01:19:46] Yeah, I got back from down off the coast of Venezuela and I was wearing shorts when I got to Detroit and said,

[01:19:52] I'm really happy to be cold.

[01:19:54] Right now up here, I'm not happy to be cold.

[01:19:57] Go from my workshop to the house, it's like 40 yards.

[01:20:00] I'm going to probably freeze at the outer marker before I get there.

[01:20:03] So for you Star Wars nerds, there you go.

[01:20:06] There you go.

[01:20:09] But on the upside.

[01:20:10] Yeah.

[01:20:11] But on the outside, there's no lightsaber or blaster control down here.

[01:20:14] So you have that going for you.

[01:20:16] Fair.

[01:20:20] All right, guys.

[01:20:21] Well, we're going to have to do this again, Trek.

[01:20:22] Especially now that you're no longer...

[01:20:25] Okay.

[01:20:25] Now that you're no longer the face of MDFI, maybe now is the perfect opportunity to rile you up and get you to have like a full-blown ram.

[01:20:32] I'm still working for MDFI as a staff instructor.

[01:20:37] So I don't want to get fired by Tim because he would fire me just to say he fired Trek.

[01:20:41] So I've got to...

[01:20:42] I can't blame him.

[01:20:44] I've got to balance.

[01:20:46] So yeah, I've got to balance a little bit.

[01:20:49] But is there anything you could say that would be in character for you that would get you fired?

[01:20:54] Probably not.

[01:20:55] Other than just...

[01:20:56] I'd get a talking to.

[01:20:58] I'd probably get a talking to.

[01:20:59] A good stern talking to.

[01:21:01] A good stern talking to and maybe a nasty letter.

[01:21:05] That's right.

[01:21:08] I think he would probably enjoy that finger wagging a little too much.

[01:21:11] Actually, he's more of a knife hand kind of guy, but that's all right.

[01:21:14] Okay.

[01:21:15] Marine or Army?

[01:21:16] We're Army.

[01:21:17] No.

[01:21:18] Ah, gotcha.

[01:21:18] No, we've got a Marine on staff.

[01:21:20] If you're knife hands, you've got to get out of the way because they'll take an eyeball out.

[01:21:23] Right.

[01:21:25] Sounds about right.

[01:21:27] All right, guys.

[01:21:28] Well, we've got to punt this one out the door.

[01:21:30] I've seen the live stream numbers go up as high as eight and as low as three.

[01:21:35] So there's a couple of you sociopaths watching, and I appreciate that.

[01:21:40] Correct.

[01:21:40] You're still going to be around with MDFI.

[01:21:42] So I guess you could give your cadre a shout out for where they could find more information about MDFI.

[01:21:48] And I look forward to seeing where your career takes you from here because you've already done a lot.

[01:21:54] And you strike me as one of those people that like you don't know how to retire.

[01:21:58] So I'm going to be watching to see where you go from here.

[01:22:01] Yeah, I appreciate it.

[01:22:02] You can see me and the new ownership of MDFI at trainmdfi.com.

[01:22:07] We've got the 2025 season schedule currently up for viewing.

[01:22:11] It goes live on 1 January for registration.

[01:22:14] Northern Woods Training Facility is sticking around, so we've actually got that schedule currently up at northernwoodstraining.com.

[01:22:21] If you are interested in taking a 70-plus-year-old Smith & Wesson snub-nosed revolver and slapping a modern red dot on it without having to drill or send it off to an FFL, check out shieldarms.com.

[01:22:34] On 20 January, I've been told, at the start of SHOT Show, there will be in stock ready to buy for the 442, the 642, and the 432 snub-nosed models with more models to come.

[01:22:48] And in fact, I think they're going to do like a little poll to see what people want, what should be the next model of revolver that they're going to make it for.

[01:22:55] My money is in for the 451 PD22 Magnum and the 43C22.

[01:23:00] I think those would be great pocket blasters with a red dot on it.

[01:23:04] But, yeah, a lot of irons in the fire.

[01:23:06] And once I'm okay to tell you what company I'm going to be working for, I will let you know what I'll be getting into.

[01:23:12] I'm going to be the new director of special investigations for an executive protection company here in Michigan, starting on the 1st.

[01:23:19] So that's going to be fun.

[01:23:21] You might see me in a suit, which I haven't been for 15 years.

[01:23:26] It's going to be a little scary.

[01:23:27] So we'll see how that goes.

[01:23:29] Classy, I think, is the word you were looking for there.

[01:23:32] I'm negotiating on a tuxedo t-shirt.

[01:23:34] There you go.

[01:23:39] I'm just going to have to go to a really weird place and put a tuxedo on you, Trek.

[01:23:46] All right.

[01:23:47] Matter of fact, it's going out the door.

[01:23:48] Thanks, everybody, for sticking around with us.

[01:23:49] Thank you, Trek, for coming back and entertaining us again.

[01:23:52] I always love to have you on, man, because you're a font of knowledge.

[01:23:55] I appreciate it.

[01:23:57] All right.

[01:23:58] Talk to you all another week.

[01:23:59] Bye, everybody.