Speaker 1: My first exposure to you know, I guess my only
exposure related to guns and gun control was just the media.
Right ninety seven I met my would be wife online
and she was living in Camden, New Jersey at the time,
which was the murder capital of the United States. And
one night we're on the phone talking and I hear
gunshots very clearly through the receiver, and then she doesn't
answer when I said her name.
Speaker 2: I'm Ryan Gresham and this this is gun Talk Nation.
Gun Talk Nation is brought to you by Ruger Arcan Firearms,
Range Ready, cold Shooting, Sports, life and Silence are Central. Hey,
welcome into gun Talk Nation today. Gun Talk Nation, We've
got a guy that actually knows something about guns and
gun rights. You know, we bring on experts to help me.
You know, I'm just a talking monkey here. But we
got Cam Edwards. You guys probably know him and you
love him because Cam, you've been at this a hot minute.
You've been talking about guns and gun rights for a
couple decades, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not as long as Tom Gresham, but get it
up there. This is my twenty second year. Cam and
Company started on Terra News in two thousand and four.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I've been at it for quite a while.
Speaker 2: And before that, you were just like a pro radio guy, right, I.
Speaker 3: Mean I was a paid radio guy. I don't know
how much of a pro I was.
Speaker 2: But makes you professional, that's the trick. If you're getting
true on it, you know, now it's official you're professional.
Speaker 3: Well, then there you go. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I started out in radio in nineteen ninety seven and
did all kinds of radio in Oklahoma City for the
first seven years. I was doing morning drive on the
talk station when I got approached to do Camon Company
and kind of thought to myself, do I want to
be like the local guy because I grew up in
Oklahoma City and that was my hometown. You know, Do
I want to kind of stay there and try to
be the local legend, or do I want to roll
the dice? And you know, see what happens if I
break out of my comfort zone. And I'm glad I did,
because I don't think there's anybody that was at the
radio station when I worked there in two thousand and
four that is still there today because just.
Speaker 3: The nature of the business.
Speaker 1: But you know, here I am twenty two years later,
not with the NA News, but still doing Cam and
Company and still, you know, very much covering a topic
that is near and dear to my heart and I
think is incredibly important to who we are as a country.
Speaker 2: You've been covered for so long. And going back to
the radio thing. Yes, radio industry is make you place
to be. You've been in it. I've been in it
even before gun talk. I was. I was doing like
local radio stuff in Baton Rouge for a little bit there.
But yeah, it's barely anyone works at radio stations anymore.
You know, people listen to this and may not realize it,
but like the radio stations you hear, they're you know,
they're being run. They're running like ten or twenty radio
stations from one like office in you know, Houston or
Atlanta or whatever. So yeah, it's it's it's a different
world now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: You you live in Virginia, you are, you are ground
zero for a lot of the craziness that's been going
on lately. Help people around the country understand, because I
know a lot of people have jobs and have other
things going on they haven't paid attention. Help them understand
basically how bad it is and what's going on.
Speaker 1: The fight there, sure so I mean, I think you
really have to go back to like twenty nineteen. That
was the first time in thirty years that Democrats gained
complete control of the state government. So they had majorities
in the General Assembly, which is our state legislature. They
had the Governor's office, lived in the Governor's office, Attorney
General's office, and then Governor Ralph Northam right after election day,
said we're going for a gun ban. And it wasn't
just a ban on the purchase, in the sale the
transfer of the manufacturer. It was it was going to
be a ban on possession too.
Speaker 2: So they didn't hide it the no oh no, not
at all.
Speaker 1: I mean they were talking about this in November of
twenty nineteen, going into the twenty twenty legislative session right
after election day, and what you saw in Virginia was
this explosion of a segment and sanctuary movement where in
you know, all of these small rural counties and even
into you know, the Richmond suburbs, you had hundreds of people,
You had thousands of people in some case is showing
up for these county supervisors meetings where normally you might
have six or eight people in attendance.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean, I mean it just nobody's there. I
remember the first one I went to.
Speaker 1: I drove about forty five minutes away to a place
called Amelia Courthouse.
Speaker 3: This is the county seat of Amelia County, and it
was an evening meeting. And I'm pulling in.
Speaker 1: I'm driving into town and I get maybe like a
quarter mile away from the courthouse where the meetings are held.
Speaker 3: The streets are full, like there's I had.
Speaker 1: To turn around so I could go park my car,
and then I start walking towards the courthouse and there
are easily five hundred people outside of the courthouse because
you can't get inside the courthouse to sit down. Philip
Van Cleef from the Virginia Citizen Defensive League was there.
It was just I got I got chills, you.
Speaker 3: Know, covering this. I'd never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: And you know, this just continued throughout November December of
twenty nineteen. January twenty twenty sixth, the Virginia Citizen officially
holds its annual Lobby Day rally in downtown Richmond, and
Democrats had made the capital a a gun free zone
so you couldn't carry onto the Capitol grounds. Still they
were about I would say four to five thousand people
who you know, forsake their segment of rights. They wanted
to be there on the Capitol grounds. But then beyond
that perimeter there were And I was up at the
top of the hill. I was a speaker that day,
so I was able to look down on the crowd.
Speaker 3: I'd say easily thirty to forty maybe fifty thousand people
in downtown Richmond.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable and I'd never seen anything like it. And as
a result of this massive outcry, Democrats could not get
their gun ban through.
Speaker 3: They were able.
Speaker 1: To pass about five or six lesser gun control laws,
including NEO, a.
Speaker 3: Red flag law. They passed quote unuote universal.
Speaker 1: Background checks, but they could not get their gun ban
in place.
Speaker 2: So cam you're saying, when citizens show up it makes
a difference.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing how that happens, right. And then in
twenty twenty one, Republicans took back control of the Governor's
office the Attorney General's office, and so Democrats weren't in
a position to pass any new gun control legislation, or rather,
they passed a bunch, but they were.
Speaker 3: All vetoed by Governor Glenn Younkin right then last November.
Speaker 1: Through a I think a confluence of events including, you know,
just political headwinds at the national level, I think a
pretty weak slate of candidates for governor lieutenant governor. On
the Republican side, Democrats not only recaptured state government, they
got basically the super majority in the House of Delegates,
so they they felt like they had, you know, the
backing of the people of Virginia to go all in
on gun control. Even though these folks weren't running campaign
commercial was talking about We're going to ban a soul weapons.
They you know, they were they were running campaign persons
on affordability and you know, these real sort of kitchen
table values. And then as soon as they get to
Richmond again, the gun bands start, you know that, the
bills start coming uh and ultimately, in one session five months,
they passed over twenty pieces of gun related legislation. I
think about a dozen major gun control bills. We've talked
a lot about the ban on the sole weapons of
large capacity magazines, but they also passed a bill that
bans the purchase of firearms by adults under the age
of twenty one. There are new storage requirements for firearms
in your vehicle and for firearms in your home.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: They established I think it's called the Virginia Gun Violence
Research Center, which is basically going to be, you know,
a jobs program for anti gun activists, like we saw
at the White House.
Speaker 3: Under Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: Passed a bill that is going to make it easier
to you know, sue gun makers, sellers, distributors, holding them
responsible for the act of criminals.
Speaker 3: We went from a state with pretty.
Speaker 1: Good gun laws to becoming East California pretty much overnight.
And it is you know, I think again you talk
about people turning out and showing up. That didn't happen
to some degree in the twenty twenty five elections.
Speaker 2: Wow, why did it happen in twenty nineteen and then
it didn't happen in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, so a I think it didn't happen
in twenty nineteen either, Right, that's when Democrats took over
twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: One, twenty one.
Speaker 1: Again, I think that there was a I think he
had some good candidates on the Republican side. Glenn Youngkin
was not you know, here's not a fire breather. He's
not a guy that is going to get you know,
I think a lot of attention from conservative media. But
in Virginia, you can't just appeal to conservatives to win, right,
I mean, we are at best a purple state.
Speaker 3: You've got to be able to appeal to moderates.
Speaker 1: And Democrats had also really overreached, not only on the
gun issue, but there was a lot of a lot
of concern about what school boards were doing in terms
of you know, DEI issues, transitions, things that weren't related
to Second Amendment issues, but you had a lot of
parental concern and that drove turnout I think for Republicans.
And this time around again I think, you know, again,
when you've got Republicans in the White House, it makes
it easier for Democrats to win other elections.
Speaker 3: So we had that. I think that was a headwind.
But you know, right, I got to tell you, man.
Speaker 1: It was really weird win some Earl Sears, who was
the gubernatorial candidate last year in Virginia. She was our
lieutenant governor and when she ran for lieutenant governor, she
leaned in to Second Amendment issues. I mean she ran
commercials where she's holding an AR fifteen.
Speaker 3: This time around.
Speaker 1: It was Abigail Spenberger, her Democrat opponent, who was running
the footage of her uh of winsom Earl's years holding
an AR fifteen, and she was attacking her for it,
and winsom Earl series didn't have much to say about it.
She wasn't really you know, she wasn't bad on segment issues.
She just wasn't talking much.
Speaker 3: About segment issues, and that I think hurt her.
Speaker 1: I think she was a pretty weak candidate, not just
on two AA issues. She simply kind of didn't show
up for a lot of events. I mean, there were
just you know, some other deeper problems with her campaign,
but she didn't give gun.
Speaker 3: Owners a reason to go and vote for her.
Speaker 1: She didn't talk about the dangers to come if Abigail
Spamberger got elected, if Democrats took over the state legislature,
right that they just there were not a lot of
Republican candidates, at least at the top of the ticket,
who were talking about two A issues, and I think
that was to their detriment.
Speaker 2: Cam do you think that is that a case of
because and I'm a little bit ignorant on you know,
the Virginia gubernatorial candidates. But was this a case of like, Okay,
I'm a Republican. I got to look at the Republican
part and maybe not being like, yeah, I'm not anti gun,
but I'm not really like an active gun enthusiasts. But
my campaign manager wants me to do this video or
this photo op with a gun, but then you can't
really back it up when someone attacks you on it.
Speaker 1: You know, it could have been that, but I mean
I really got the sense when Win some Earl Series
is running for lieutenant governor that the Second Amendment was
important to her and it maybe that this last go
round her campaign managers were telling her, hey, played down
this issue. You know, we don't want you to talk
about it.
Speaker 3: That was the case. I think it was a mistake.
You know, again, in.
Speaker 1: Virginia politics, Republicans have to appeal to moderates. But there's
a way to do that, right, I mean, Win some
Earl Series could have talked about if you want your
right to carry, and there are plenty of Democrats and
independence who have their concealed carry license. You know, here's
what the Democrats are proposing. They want to go after
commonly owned firearms. They want to go after commonly owned magazines.
You know, again, there's a way to approach this issue
that frankly, I think it's insulting to assume that moderate
voters won't get this or moderate voters don't care about it.
You don't have to be in favor of abolishing the
ATF and getting rid of every gun along the books
to be concerned about your secondment rights. And so I
think that they really left this issue on the table.
Speaker 2: Well, Kim just laid it out. He laid it out
how it happened and how it can happen other places.
And that's what we're going to talk about when we
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we got listeners all over the place who are listening
to this, and some maybe going well, yeah, California is bad,
and Connecticut's bad, and Virginia is a mess, and why
should I care I live in Texas or Florida, or
Kansas or North Dakota. I mean, help them care cam
because I know that it actually matters of what's happening
there in Virginia.
Speaker 1: Sure, you know, so, I think there are a couple
of ways of looking at this. First of all, there
are a lot of states that are you know, a
lot closer than you might think, right. I mean, Pennsylvania
you've got basically one chamber of the legislature controlled by Republicans.
North Carolina you've got a Democrat governor. You've got a
Republican legislature. There's one seat in Minnesota. That's the difference
between a gun band getting through and a gun ban
not getting through.
Speaker 3: You know. So elections matter.
Speaker 1: And even if it's not a matter of Texas going
from you know, bright red to deep blue and one
election cycle, when you start to see erosion of support,
that that can build up over.
Speaker 3: You know, two or four years, and so you've got
to do what you can to stop that in his tracks.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, even if you live in a state safe
state now doesn't mean that it's going to be a
safe state ten years from now.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And again, a lot of states are really on that
razor's edge in terms of one election can flip things,
and all of a sudden you do have the anti
gunners in complete control of state government. And why that
matters is because they're not moderate on this issue. You know,
there was there was no concern among Democrats in Virginia
this year about well, what if this doesn't play well
with the voters, right, maybe we should hold back, Maybe
we should you know, scale these things down. Maybe we
should offer you know, gun owners a bone to and
say that we're you know, we look, look, we don't
hate the Second Amendment.
Speaker 3: There's none of that. It was let's get away with
as much as we possibly can.
Speaker 1: Well, they left some stuff on the table for next year,
like a five hundred dollars tax on suppressors in eleven
percent excise tax on firearms and ammunition. But they also
didn't want to be pegged with being the party of
raising taxes, right, so they'll leave that for an off
year when they go and raise the cost of exercising
their segment rights. So that's one concern. Even if you
live in a safe state now, it doesn't mean that
it's going to be a safe state always, but but
you know, two, we're not just talking about state elections
in local elections, federal elections.
Speaker 3: Matter as well. And we see this in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: We had the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which you know,
zeroed out the taxes on most NFA items that wouldn't
have happened without Republicans. Republicans found a way to get
that done even without sixty votes in the Senate, because
they were able to attach it to a budget bill.
So you know, listen, I Ryan, I hate politics. I
mean I'm fed up with politics. I have been for
quite some time. The list of political figures or I
generally admire you probably name on one hand, I have
a couple.
Speaker 3: Of fingers left over.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you have to be engaged and you have
to be involved because even if you don't want to
pay any attention to politics, the politicians are paying attention
to you.
Speaker 2: Well, and you don't want to be that guy where
like you're saying, well, I, oh, listen, I got a job.
I can't just go to the Capitol whenever, you know,
I got stuff to do. And then it's like you
turn around and go, wait, what happened they did? What?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: I didn't think that they could actually get that passed
or they couldn't possibly do that. We have the Second Amendment.
You're going apparently, like Cam said, they don't care and
it's like all in on this stuff. They're not trying
to win the hearts and minds and be fair or
be balanced of any sort. Right, it is what I
like or don't like, and we're just going to go
forward with it. I don't give a you know what
about these other people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's absolutely right, And I mean, listen, I
get it. Some people aren't gonna be able to take
time off and go to the US Capitol or even
their state capital. But you can take five minutes to
send an email, right, you can take five minutes to
send a phone call a lot of times. You know,
you can now testify online. So if you can't go
the you know, travel hours to the state capitol, can
you sit in front of your computer and you know,
wait an hour to give your public comment because that
matters too. I mean, listen, I would love to have
seen fifty thousand people show up to the Virginia Capital
for Lobby Day this year.
Speaker 3: It didn't happen.
Speaker 1: We had maybe maybe two thousand people and I think
it was actually probably less than that. So I you know,
even in Virginia we've seen I think this a sense
that you know, well they've got the numbers, there's nothing
we can do about it. And you know, there's always
something you can do about it. Politicians need to be
held to a count, They need to be told why
this is wrong. If you do that in a public setting,
you may not convince the politician, but you might be
convinced maybe be able to convince someone who's listening.
Speaker 2: Well. And that's a good point, Ken because although I'll
on one hand, I'm going to say commenting on things
on social media doesn't move the needle, but but there
are things that go viral right on social media. You
show up to a council hearing, a you know, a
committee hearing or whatever, and there is stuff that can
actually resonate and really get some traction if you actually
show up and do something.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And and you know, the numbers it don't matter
as much as they should, but they still do matter
to some degree. And politicians, you know, are should be
concerned about their their job security as an election you know,
they're just one election cycle away.
Speaker 3: Now again, if you're dealing with, you know.
Speaker 1: Politicians, you've got a safe seat and more and more
that seems to be where we're headed.
Speaker 3: That you know, on both sides of the aisle, you've
got your safe.
Speaker 1: Districts that aren't just aren't as many swing districts at
the federal level and even at the state level as there.
Speaker 3: Used to be. That makes it more difficult for for
our voices too to be heard.
Speaker 1: I mean, we can speak for whether or not anybody's listening, right,
I think it's another story.
Speaker 3: But you know, I look back at what happened in
New Mexico.
Speaker 1: For example, this past session, Governor Michelle Lewin Grisham had
been trying her entire time in office to pass a
semi auto band and that's what it was. The bill
that that she got behind banned gas operated semi automatic center.
Speaker 3: Fire rifles, all of them.
Speaker 1: Democrats have a majority in the Roundhouse, that's their state capital.
You've got a Democrat governor who was pushing this. The
bill died at the last it too, I think was
the last or second to last day of the session.
But the bill died, and I think one of the
reasons for that is because at every one of these hearings,
you had a packed house full of gun owners from
all across the state who were willing to wait twelve
thirteen hours to give their testimony about why this law
would hurt them, about why this law was unconstitutional, about.
Speaker 3: Why this law was.
Speaker 1: What was a mistake, not just from a constitutions perspective,
but from a public safety perspective. And New Mexico does
have a violent crime problem, but the way to do
to address that is not by going after people who
aren't committing violent crimes or the guns that they lawfully own. Right,
And I think there were maybe one or two Democrats
in the state legislature that heard these voices maybe thought
to themselves, Man, I'm out of office if I vote
for this. And that's all it took, right, one or
two lawmakers. You didn't have to convince the entire I
are a Democratic caucus. You just had to convince enough
of them that this bill would go down to defeat.
And that's what That's what happened. So, you know, the
Mexico Shooting Sports Association, I think that had a fantastic job.
Gunners across the stadium Mexico did a fantastic job and
to me, that's really evidence that that grassroots activism still
works and does still make a difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great, Cam. And when we come back, let's
talk about some wins, because there actually is, there are
some positive things happening in the world of gun rights,
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rifle from Colt so cam we are having. It's not
all doom and gloom, right, There is progress and actually
some pretty good ones in the works. Just happened and
they're going to happen. So give people a little update
on some of the good news out there in the
world of gun rights.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I mean listen, I mentioned the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act, where now at almost eight months in
to these zero and out of NFA taxes and you know,
the sales of suppressors and short bailed firearms are still
running about one hundred percent higher than there were when
this tax was in place. I mean, there has not
really been a slowdown, So that to me shows that
the demand for these items is there. I think it
was a huge win to zero out those taxes. I
think they follow up now now it is to zero
out the registration requirement and essentially get rid of the
NFA for everything button machine guns, and that's a different
conversation entirely. I don't think, you know, Unfortunately, I don't
think there's a political appetite on Capitol Hill at the
moment to deregulate machine guns.
Speaker 2: My buddy says, it doesn't pass the Normy test. You know. Yeah,
it's like, yeah, they just look at go. You know,
I'm pro gun, but that might be I'm not sure
if I can get on board with.
Speaker 3: It, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is where I think we got
to look to culture and not politics, and we got
to change the culture before we.
Speaker 3: Can change the politics on that issue.
Speaker 1: But you know, the Supreme Court we had a huge
I think the most important week of the Supreme Court
since the Heller decision came down in two thousand and eight.
Basically in the span of you know, maybe a week
and a half, you had the Harmoni decision, in which
the Supreme Court says a federal government cannot deprive every
unlawful drug user from possessing a firearm because that term
encompasses people who are not dangerous to themselves or others.
That's I think going to have a lot of implications
going forward, certainly for those folks with medical marijuana licenses
or who live in states where you know, they can
use marijuana for medical purposes that this is I think
this is a really big win because in some of
those states they've been unable to get a concealed carry
license if they possess a medical marijuana card. We're already
seeing states say all right, we're not going to ask
about that anymore.
Speaker 3: We've actually seen.
Speaker 1: The ATF say that they had the chance to speak
with Rob Rider as the chief counsel, and you know,
they recently revised the forty four to seventy three to
to tell perspective purchasers, Hey, if you're using medical marijuana
courts of state law, you're not an unlawful user. I
think now they're going to drop that question entirely, at
least when it comes to marijuana. That was the impression
that I got that they're going to be more changes coming.
Then we had the Wolford decision where the Supreme Court
struck down Hawaii's rule that band concealed carry on all
private property open to the public by default. That that's huge. Again,
Hawaii was the only state where this law had been
upheld up to that point, so it's not like we're
dealing with a law that's really common. But how the
court got there, I think is hugely important. There was
a lot of talk of fleshing out about the you know,
what what these historical analogies have to look like in
order for them to be useful and upholding a modern
gun law. And just as sam Alito said, the the
how of these laws and the why of these laws
have to be pretty explicit and pretty close to what
this modern law looks like in order for you know,
a modern gun control prohibition to be upheld. And then
a couple of days after that, the Supreme Court announced
that it would be taking up a case two cases
actually dealing with bands on so called the sole weapons
So they'll be doing that in the fall. They'll be
hearing a challenge to Cook County, Illinois ban as well
as the ban imposed by the state of Connecticut. And
moving went a long time for the Supreme Court to
take in a saw weapons case. I'm kind of surprised
that they did not take a case dealing with large
capacity magazines at the same time, because they had a
couple of those to choose from, but they instead just
kept a hold of those cases.
Speaker 3: But this is I mean, this is huge.
Speaker 1: Right if the Supreme Court comes out and says you
cannot ban commonly own firearms based on particular features. You
can't ban so called the sawaupents just because you say
they're scary or because you know, you claim that criminals
like to use them in mass shootings. They're far more
popular among lawful Americans for lawful purposes.
Speaker 3: You know that that takes that takes the the fundamental
premise of the gun control movement off the table.
Speaker 1: Right, they lost the ability to ban handguns in heller
to lose the ability to ban air fifteens and other
you know, commonly owned center fire, some automatic rifles and Vermontes.
At that point, the only thing that they can do
is exist to try to make it more difficult for
you to exercise You're right to keep the bare arms.
They can't ban guns out right, they'll try, but like
the glock bands and things of that nature, right, they'll
try to narrow down the guns that they're trying to ban.
But that would be absolutely huge, and it would be
I think the most important second of decision since Heller
and I feel really good about where the Supreme Court
is going to come down on that issue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the handicappers on this one feel like, you know,
it's very likely we could get a favorable decision on this,
and I guess they'll hear it in the fall, and
then what we usually hear decisions close to summertime next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, given the we'll have to see when
oral argaments are scheduled. You know, this could be Typically
the Court likes to wait until the last days of
its term to release them or controversial decisions. I suspect
this one will be pretty controversial, So this will probably
be another late June, maybe even early July decision if
they go that long. But I don't think it's gonna
be one of the first decisions that they release in
next spring.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: And also this is a reminder to everybody listening. What
Kim's talking about is, Yay, we're having all these wins
in lawsuits. So that costs a lot a lot of money. Guys,
So support your gun rights groups. I don't care if
it's GUA or saf or NRA or just but you
got to get in there and support them and like
pony up the money. That's what we're saying. Like it
takes dollars to make this stuff happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it can take thousands of dollars just
to print a brief for the justices, you know, just
one copy and you got to print nine copies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, and the other aspect of this,
I was talking with one of the folks from a
National Association unwrights, Hannah Hill, not too long ago, and
you know, she said, it is so much better to
stop a bad bill from becoming a bad law than
it is to try to overturn a bad law.
Speaker 3: Rights.
Speaker 1: It's cheaper to do that, but it's also you know,
if you can have these things off of the pass,
then you don't have to worry about fighting these lengthy
and expensive court battle, because it's not just the amount
of money the amount of time. Right, the Duncan versus
Bonna case, the California magazine case. I mean, that's been
around for nine years now.
Speaker 2: I think, well, yeah, you think about it. They pass
some unlawful, dumb criminal law whatever it is. It could
be a Virginia or California whatever, and then you're like, well,
we're gonna sue you, and they're like, okay, but that's
gonna Meanwhile, your rights are being trampled on all that time,
and you know, I mean you could you can even
extrapolate this out to say and guess what. Therefore, people
change their hobbies, Like it's too much for paying the
butt to go do this hobby of shooting or whatever
it is, I'll just do something else. I mean, there's
big consequences here. But I love what you're saying. Cam.
Crush those dumb bills early on in committee hearings or
whatever it is, and just let them go die there
and you won't have to fight these things for decades.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So Cam, we got to talk about You're always
talking about gun rights, which we really appreciate, but we
got to talk about guns a little bit. I mean,
how did you get into guns? And how did you
I mean, and then I want to talk about kind
of like you know, just fun guns, favorite guns, stuff
like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, so, like a lot of people, I
got into guns through self defense. And really it really
was defensive family. It wasn't even defensive self I mean,
I have written about this before. I didn't grow up
in an anti gun family. It was just sort of
gun agnostic.
Speaker 3: You know. My parents split up when I was nine.
I grew up with my mom.
Speaker 1: I had uncles who were ranchers in Oklahoma and Oregon
and Colorado, and you know, they all owned guns, but
I never got a tant to spend a lot of
time with them, and my mom didn't own a firearm.
Speaker 3: Never really came up growing up. So my first exposure to.
Speaker 1: You know, my I guess my only exposure related to
guns and gun control was just the media. Right ninety seven,
I met my would be wife online and she was
living in Camden, New Jersey at the time, which was
the murder capital of the United States. And one night
we're on the phone talking and I hear gunshots.
Speaker 3: Very clearly through the receiver, and then.
Speaker 1: She doesn't answer when I said her name, and she didn't.
She didn't answer all night long, and so I ended
up having to call her office the next morning. And
I almost fell over when she answered the phone.
Speaker 3: So I was going to tell her coworker like, go
check on a lane.
Speaker 1: You know, I think she was shot, and I, you know,
when I finally could recover the ability to speak, I
was like, what happened?
Speaker 3: I heard gunshots? You wouldn't answer the folks, she's I
fell asleep.
Speaker 1: And I live in Oklahoma at the time, right, And
I said, well, how do you fall asleep hearing gunshots?
Speaker 3: And she said this like this sound of crickets where
you live?
Speaker 1: I mean, like that's how common. It wasn't in Camden.
And so that was kind of my first inkling that, like,
because I said, like, doesn't New Jersey have really good
and that's how I put it, really good gun laws?
And she's just kind of like one of those laps,
you know, like very not really funny, but yeah, and
that was kind of.
Speaker 3: My first exposure to, you know, the whole gun control debate.
Speaker 1: And then after we got married, you know, we were
living in a pretty it wasn't it wasn't as bad
as Camden, but it wasn't the safest neighborhood Oklahoma City.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the greatest house. Uh, And you know, started
thinking about, all right, I'm responsible for for my safety now,
but I'm also responsible for.
Speaker 1: Her safety, my step kid's safety, and what do I
do about that?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: And so my co worker at the radio station, guy
named Mike mccarvel, was a very big second a mimic guy. Actually,
the oklahom Rifle Association named its media award the Mike
mccarvel Award because he kept winning it year after.
Speaker 3: Year after a year.
Speaker 1: And so I was very lucky to have him as
my mentor for helping me kind of get into the
world of gun ownership. And my wife, coming from Camden,
was not a huge fan of the idea of gun ownership.
I will also tell you her brother took his life
with a firearm and and that, you know, definitely colored
her views on gun ownership as well. So it took
some time for her to be comfortable with the idea,
but she ultimately was. And I mean ultimately she went
on to be a She was a better shot than
I am, so she she definitely ended up embracing her
right to keeping bare arms.
Speaker 3: But you know, it was really becoming a husband and
a father.
Speaker 1: That that maybe decide all right, I want to I
want to be a gun or I want to actually
cite my rights.
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense, I think. And it's
interesting because it's like, no, actually I didn't grow up
in it, and there's a lot of people who they
don't grow up in it, and maybe they're and like
you said, like, oh, they have a lot of good
gun laws in New Jersey, right because you go, must
be safe, must be great, except it's not. And then
you know it correct to you to go, hey, I
was I wasn't pro or anti. I was just kind
of like, I don't know, I don't And there's so
many people out there who are that way. It's like
they don't really care about guns. I don't know. I
don't own any. I don't care. I know people hunt
with them, I know there's crimes they just but you know,
that's interesting. So you ended up getting guns and kind
of getting into it beyond just Okay, now I own
a gun. It's in this box in the closet.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And again, I mean you know there was a gradual process.
I think, you know, even when we lived in there
was there's a financial construy. I mean, honestly, when you're
you know, we had five kids ultimately, and so there's
always something to buy that's more important than you than
your next gout, at least to your wife, right, And
I wanted to get along very well with my wife,
so so so my go ownership, my gun purchases were
pretty few and far between, a handgun here and there.
Then when though, when we moved to rural Virginia at
the end of twenty twelve early twenty thirteen, and we
started raising chickens and started raising hogs and goats, and
started losing livestock to coyotes and to foxes, then it
was okay, well, you know what, honey, Now we need
Now we need a rifle or two, right, and I
want something that I'm critable shooting. I want something that
you're gonna be comfortable shooting. My wife actually really liked
lever guns, like that was her thing, man. And she
would sit in our bathroom which overlooks the backyard, which
is where we kept the chickens, and every now and
then I would just you know, I'd be reading a
book whatever, and I'd hear, you get my gun, and
so I'd run to our bedroom and i'd open up
the gun safe and i'd grab a rifle, and she'd
be there. She'd already have the window down, and she
took out at least two foxes from our bathroom window.
I know she took out a coyote. And we also
had a bit of a groundhog problem. And she would
plink those groundhogs out of the bathroom window. I lost
track of how many other I had to go pick
them up. I had to go deal with them afterwards,
right like I was the retriever. But but yeah, I mean, yeah,
she she know that.
Speaker 3: That was like that was one of her favorite things.
Speaker 1: She was so proud of herself when she could do that.
And uh and and I would always I was always
happy letting her, you know, take the lead on that.
Since she passed away, it's now up to me. And
I can tell you the groundhogs have gotten a little
out of control because I'm not as good a shot
as she was.
Speaker 2: Tom start laying waste to the groundhogs again.
Speaker 1: It really is the other day, actually looked down, I
saw five juvenile groundhogs and I thought to myself, all right,
you know what I've been looking for an excuse to
get us apres sir.
Speaker 3: This is it.
Speaker 1: This is it because I need to be able to
fire multiple rounds without scaring them off.
Speaker 3: So yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2: Well do you have do you have a favorite gun
that you've or or a favorite one that you've shot,
favorite one you own or one you shot.
Speaker 3: You know, I've got a few.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love my nineteen eleven in my sick
nineteen eleven. It is just, you know, to me, that
is maybe the quintessential American handgun. The one I use
the most is my Ruger ten twenty two. And that's
my that's my varmint gun. We've had a real problem
in Pascal of years with raccoons, and I apologize to
anybody who thinks that.
Speaker 3: Raccoon's just furry, cuddly, cute little creatures.
Speaker 1: They've just destroyed so many of my chickens that I
just passed them with extreme prejudice.
Speaker 3: And and and that's the gun that I use for that.
Speaker 1: And then when my father in law passed away, Alane's
dad passed away in twenty twenty two, and I ended
up inheriting his gun collection because none of his family
were comfortable owning guns, and so so.
Speaker 3: I was able to get like an in one grand.
Speaker 1: And this is weird because my father in law and
I didn't talk much about firearms, talked a lot more.
Speaker 3: About like blues and guitars. But I was. I was
amazed like he had.
Speaker 1: And when Grand scrolled up in the attic he lived
in New Jersey, by the way, he had a colt
python that was also tucked up in the attic.
Speaker 3: And you know, some of these guns, they were not.
Speaker 1: Really well cared for. They had been up there for
years and years and years. And so one of my
projects over the past year or so has been to
get his guns back in working order, and you know.
Speaker 3: And that's been fun.
Speaker 1: So those are the I haven't had the opportunity. I mean,
when your wife has cancer for seven years, you're paying
a lot of doctors bills. So the extra income for
firearms was again not really something that was possible. But
over the past few years, like exploring that collection.
Speaker 3: You know, it has really been.
Speaker 1: My primary focus and just you know, getting those at
a condition that one day I can pass them down
to my kids.
Speaker 2: And pro tip for everybody. I don't really care where
you live. The attic is not a great storage location
for guns.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, it's really not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Heat, humidity, it's just a lot of bad things there.
Thanks for being on with us. This has been fun man.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I appreciate the invite. What you guys are
doing ato gun talk is truly something special. I'm so
glad that we've got gun Talk Nation, that we've got
gun Talk Radio, gun Talk TV. You know, and I
know that you guys probably most of your listeners and
viewers are longtime gun owners. But you know, when I
talk to people who are curious about gun ownership, I
always recommend what you guys are doing to them because
I think you're very approachable for newbies as well. So
thank you for doing what you're doing.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: Oh appreciate that. That's that means a lot coming from you.
Cam Edwards. We're going to have you back because you're
just too good man. I love it. You guys, Thanks
for listening, thanks for watching, and we will see you
next time on Gun Talk Nation.