Speaker 1: That is the dolly that i've been in love with
Speaker 1: uh because she always struck me as real country and
Speaker 1: uh and uh and so that was a wonderful story
Speaker 1: i was happy to write it and i was just
Speaker 1: happy to learn it to be honest with you i'm
Speaker 1: ryan gresham and this this is gun talk nation.
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Speaker 2: the world of guns, and I mean everything in the
Speaker 2: world of guns. We got A.W.R. Hawkins from Breitbart News.
Speaker 2: Welcome in, man.
Speaker 1: Hey, good to be with you, buddy.
Speaker 2: You've been working overtime, I think. I mean, you got
Speaker 2: a lot of stories popping out. First off, the fun
Speaker 2: one is obviously Dolly Parton passed.
Speaker 3: She's in the news.
Speaker 2: Kind of just unbelievably how beloved she is across, you know,
Speaker 2: all countries and cultures and everything. But there's a tie-in
Speaker 2: for guns with Dolly, right?
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, it's that story she tells. Late 60s, early 70s,
Speaker 1: going to New York City. it's funny when she tells
Speaker 1: it or when she told it, but you know, uh,
Speaker 1: we embedded the video there in the Breitbart article. She
Speaker 1: told was, I think she was talking to Conan O'Brien
Speaker 1: and told him, uh, that some guy approached her and
Speaker 1: her friend and thought maybe they were, uh, prostitutes or
Speaker 1: uh yeah that's probably the best way to say it
Speaker 1: and uh then apparently he got super interested and was
Speaker 1: pulling on her a little bit get the image he
Speaker 1: might have been pulling on her clothes a little bit
Speaker 1: trying to touch her and uh she jerked a pistol
Speaker 1: on him from her purse and told him that if
Speaker 1: he touched her again she was going to shoot him
Speaker 1: and uh It's pretty remarkable. Conan's blown away, and I
Speaker 1: don't know his political views, but I could tell he
Speaker 1: wasn't ready for that story. He was kind of blown
Speaker 1: away that she had a pistol in her purse, but
Speaker 1: I was going, yeah, that's awesome. That is the Dolly
Speaker 1: that I've been in love with because she always struck
Speaker 1: me as real country. That was a wonderful story. I
Speaker 1: was happy to write it, and I was just happy
Speaker 1: to learn it, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting because, and gosh, I mean, if this
Speaker 2: was New York in the 70s, it was pretty rough.
Speaker 2: But you can, like, take the girl out of the country,
Speaker 2: but you can't take the country out of the girl.
Speaker 2: And she says that, yeah, if you touch me again,
Speaker 2: I'm going to shoot you, which is pretty clear. And
Speaker 2: she said she's never gone anywhere without her 38 cents,
Speaker 2: which I love that.
Speaker 3: Oh, I love that, too.
Speaker 1: And I saw yesterday, and I can't remember where, but some...
Speaker 1: Either a distributor or big chain yesterday said they were
Speaker 1: going to give away the Smith & Wesson model that
Speaker 1: she carried. Not her gun, but the same model as
Speaker 1: a used gun, of course. They were going to raffle
Speaker 1: it off or do something to give it away. And
Speaker 1: that's pretty interesting. But I love it because, and I
Speaker 1: know you know it, Ron, but you remember about 10,
Speaker 1: 12 years ago, we started seeing this slide, maybe 15,
Speaker 1: where one of the biggest demographics for concealed carry emerging
Speaker 1: was women. And I would say, you probably checked me
Speaker 1: on this. I think it was 15, maybe. It was
Speaker 1: during the Obama years. And you start seeing this extreme
Speaker 1: growth in women getting sealed carry. And it was important.
Speaker 1: Women needed to know. Guns are not just a man's thing.
Speaker 1: They are our thing. The central point of owning a
Speaker 1: gun is protecting life and property, regardless of whether you're
Speaker 1: a male or female.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And that's another reason I love this story of Dolly.
Speaker 1: She was just like, hey, I'm a country girl from
Speaker 1: the mountains and I'm going to protect my life.
Speaker 3: Well, at some point, you're right.
Speaker 2: At some point when we had that big boom in
Speaker 2: gun purchasing happening, it was 30 to 40 percent of
Speaker 2: the new guns being purchased were being purchased by first
Speaker 2: time gun buyers. And a large percentage of those were women.
Speaker 2: It was the same thing with concealed carry permits.
Speaker 3: You know, a large percentage, 30 or 40 percent.
Speaker 2: Were women, and I've noticed that, it's been a little
Speaker 2: while since I've been in a concealed carry class, but
Speaker 2: it was a pretty, I would say it was probably
Speaker 2: 30 or 40% the last couple times I was in
Speaker 2: concealed carry classes, so you're absolutely right, and if you
Speaker 2: think about it, I know that the gun world skews
Speaker 2: male and all that stuff, but when we're talking about
Speaker 2: guns for protecting.
Speaker 3: Yourself, there are categories of.
Speaker 2: Audience that you are you are, you know, someone who
Speaker 2: probably should be carrying a gun because as Dom Gresham says,
Speaker 2: women are, there's a particular category of violence and crime
Speaker 2: that is fairly women specific and it's particularly horrendous.
Speaker 3: So, you know, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: You know, you want your daughters and your wives and
Speaker 2: your moms to be trained up and caring to protect themselves.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. You know, I'm like you, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't like talking about those particular crimes. But they exist.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing with a man I always think about.
Speaker 1: And this is just how I think. I always think
Speaker 1: about a man's protecting his life and his liberty. And
Speaker 1: a woman is doing the same thing. But there's a
Speaker 1: third category for me with a woman. She is also
Speaker 1: protecting her dignity. And there's nothing that does that like
Speaker 1: a firearm. If you have a firearm, you're trained with it.
Speaker 1: You practice with it. You take care of that firearm.
Speaker 1: Make sure you have good ammo in it. a woman
Speaker 1: could travel through this world quite safely if she has that.
Speaker 1: And I'm all for it. And I love stories like
Speaker 1: Dolly's where you see a woman use a gun to
Speaker 1: protect her dignity. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And when someone, and not just women, but certainly, you know,
Speaker 2: I've heard it from like my wife, who's been through
Speaker 2: several classes and is very proficient. There is a level
Speaker 2: of comfort there of knowing how to use it, knowing
Speaker 2: how to operate it and saying, I know how to
Speaker 2: handle this.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: You know, now it's all of a sudden, it's not like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to have this gun or I'm nervous. Like, no, actually,
Speaker 2: I'm not nervous.
Speaker 1: You know? No. It's great. No, I'm not. I'm actually
Speaker 1: nervous without it. Right. And I see that with my
Speaker 1: own wife. She keeps a particular handgun that's very reliable,
Speaker 1: made by Springfield Armory, in the compartment there in her
Speaker 1: door where it's no problem for her to reach it
Speaker 1: at any time. She knows how to use it, and
Speaker 1: she uses it pretty well, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: So I like that, and I especially like it when
Speaker 1: my daughters are with her, and I don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about them. They're all out and about, and they
Speaker 1: can protect themselves. And even my youngest daughter, holy cow,
Speaker 1: she can do it. And so I love knowing that
Speaker 1: they have a firearm they can use in case they
Speaker 1: need it. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: AWR, you've been covering a bunch of other stuff. There's
Speaker 2: been a lot of stuff in the news. I mean,
Speaker 2: you've got a new Rasmussen poll of gun control support
Speaker 2: falling among likely U.S. voters, which is probably the opposite
Speaker 2: of what some people think is going on.
Speaker 3: But, I mean, talk about that. Why do you think
Speaker 3: that's going on?
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you look at the fall, the
Speaker 1: fall was between October 2024 and now. So basically, you're
Speaker 1: looking at from Trump's election till now, from Trump's election
Speaker 1: for a second term till now. And I believe if
Speaker 1: you look at how DOJ has handled itself, how law
Speaker 1: enforcement has been allowed to work, how the Trump administration
Speaker 1: overall has basically, in my opinion, looked at as the
Speaker 1: Second Amendment as a solution rather than a problem. Then
Speaker 1: I think there are people who are going, wait, wait. wait,
Speaker 1: if we'll just let police do their job, wait, if
Speaker 1: I just carry a gun for self-defense, wait, if we
Speaker 1: don't demonize gun owners, if we enforce the law, if
Speaker 1: we give strict penalty for gun crime, so on and
Speaker 1: so forth, I believe this all has hit critical mass
Speaker 1: in the minds of many people. And they go, wait,
Speaker 1: gun control is not the solution. The solution is to
Speaker 1: treat criminals like criminals. and to leave law-abiding citizens alone.
Speaker 1: If I had to tell you my opinion, that's it.
Speaker 1: That's what I think has happened. It's great news. It's
Speaker 1: still not moving as fast as I wish. I want
Speaker 1: the drop to be bigger. I want even fewer people
Speaker 1: to support more gun control, but at least it's moving
Speaker 1: in the right direction, and so I'm happy about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that you hit it right on the head.
Speaker 2: I mean, is there common sense— a lot of this
Speaker 2: stuff doesn't pass the sniff test. You know, they're going,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, you're telling me one thing, but that's
Speaker 2: not the reality I'm seeing in the world. And that's,
Speaker 2: that's not what's going on in, in my town and
Speaker 2: my County. Like, you know, just call the police and
Speaker 2: then just say, just call the police to most people.
Speaker 3: And they're going to go there. What are the, how
Speaker 3: are they going to react?
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: They're going to like, you mean while the guy is
Speaker 2: like in my house, just call the police.
Speaker 3: Like, dude, it's going to take them.
Speaker 2: Eight minutes, 18 minutes, 28 minutes, who knows how long?
Speaker 1: Right. No, you're exactly right. I remember once, just for
Speaker 1: an example, and this is probably extreme, but I was
Speaker 1: camping in Arizona and we had to call a enforcement
Speaker 1: over an individual who kept coming in camp and things
Speaker 1: he was doing. And he had a firearm with him
Speaker 1: and that's all right. But when I talked to the
Speaker 1: sheriff's department, they told me it would take them one
Speaker 1: hour and a half to get there. And they asked me,
Speaker 1: are you okay between now and then? I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be okay. Yeah. But, but I just,
Speaker 1: and I didn't say anything in a threatening way to
Speaker 1: that individual, but I did tell him, I said, but
Speaker 1: you know, I'm prepared to do what I have to
Speaker 1: do to keep my family safe. So you all need
Speaker 1: to get here as quick as you can. Cause if
Speaker 1: he rolls back through here, you know, I might do
Speaker 1: what I have to do, but it's just to your point.
Speaker 1: And I'm all pro law enforcement. I know you are Ron,
Speaker 1: but it's just reality. You call the police, even if
Speaker 1: you live in an urban setting, what if it's three
Speaker 1: or four minutes? That's an extremely quick response time. But
Speaker 1: three or four minutes is an eternity if the guy
Speaker 1: in your kitchen with you is either armed with a
Speaker 1: knife or a gun and you have nothing. That's an eternity.
Speaker 1: And so you've got to be ready in that moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the fact of the matter is when
Speaker 2: you're the victim, you are the first responder on this thing.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, I mean, it makes sense.
Speaker 2: The CDC has been concealing some data about guns, and
Speaker 2: it just got released because some changes were made, and
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about that.
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Speaker 3: All right, we're back.
Speaker 2: So after, before the break, I said, all right, the CDC,
Speaker 2: there's stuff going on at AWR.
Speaker 3: You've been covering it.
Speaker 2: There were some, there was some data that was being concealed, suppressed, whatever.
Speaker 3: Um, and, and now it's out. Let's, I mean, tell
Speaker 3: people what happened.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: This data disappeared. Uh, it's data on self-defense gun uses.
Speaker 1: It disappeared, uh, after CDC took a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: from gun controllers and, uh, And if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: the gist of it was that gun controllers were saying
Speaker 1: this news basically undercuts what we're trying to accomplish. And
Speaker 1: so this data was pulled from a CDC website. And
Speaker 1: you could find it on the website up till then
Speaker 1: under the firearm injury website under CDC. And now it's back.
Speaker 1: And what it shows, and when you see what it shows,
Speaker 1: you go, oh, well, no wonder they wanted to get
Speaker 1: rid of it. What it shows is upwards of 2.5
Speaker 1: million defensive gun uses a year. Now, that's pretty impressive. And,
Speaker 1: you know, those numbers, I've always looked at Gary Kleck's numbers,
Speaker 1: the criminologist from Florida State, and I believe his minimal
Speaker 1: for a year, minimal is 770,000. And so now we
Speaker 1: have a range. If I use him for the low end, 770,000,
Speaker 1: I use CDC for the high end, 2.5 million. We
Speaker 1: have a range of justifiable defensive handgun, or I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say handgun because it could be long gun, but defensive
Speaker 1: gun uses that literally eclipses this is why they hate it,
Speaker 1: literally eclipses the criminal use of firearms. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think if you do what the gun control groups do
Speaker 1: and you add firearm homicides and suicides together, roughly you're
Speaker 1: at 38,000 to 40,000 a year in the U.S. That's
Speaker 1: an approximation. Sixty-six percent of that figure is suicide. So
Speaker 1: the homicide number is probably about 15,000. approximately, let's say
Speaker 1: 14 to 17,000 to make people happy. So you take
Speaker 1: 14 to 17,000 firearm homicides. Now contrast that with 2.5
Speaker 1: million defensive gun uses a year. If I'm a gun controller,
Speaker 1: I sure don't want that news out there, but it's
Speaker 1: out there and it's wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The, the gun control groups worked with the Biden administration
Speaker 2: to and CDC to say, you know, we'd rather not,
Speaker 2: you know, put those numbers out there. If you guys
Speaker 2: wouldn't mind just, you know, like sort of turning the
Speaker 2: volume down on that and don't tell anybody. And then
Speaker 2: of course, now we've got a new administration and they said, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 2: we have these stats. Let's put them out there.
Speaker 3: This is, this is the stats are the stats. Don't
Speaker 3: be mad at the stats.
Speaker 2: And, you know, in the defensive gun use, it doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily mean someone drawing and shooting and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: It could simply mean, you know, like you said, your
Speaker 2: wife with a gun in the car and a guy
Speaker 2: comes up to carjacker and she picks it up and says,
Speaker 2: get away from me.
Speaker 3: And the guy runs off.
Speaker 2: That's a defensive gun use that prevented her from being carjacked,
Speaker 2: from kidnapped, from robbed, from, you know, something worse, right?
Speaker 2: And this is stuff that's, it is stopping crime every
Speaker 2: single day. People, legal carrying people are stopping crime.
Speaker 1: Right, right. I mean, this is anecdotal, but to your point,
Speaker 1: you know, my wife was in Santa Fe, New Mexico once,
Speaker 1: I remember, on a girl's trip, and a guy came
Speaker 1: up and grabbed the handle of her door at a stoplight,
Speaker 1: wanted to open it, and she just raised the pistol
Speaker 1: and tacked it against the glass. And he looked at
Speaker 1: it and turned and I tailed it. That is to
Speaker 1: your point. That is a self-defense gun use. That is
Speaker 1: a defensive gun use. Excuse me. And she didn't have
Speaker 1: to pull the trigger. We're all happy. She didn't have
Speaker 1: to pull the trigger, but having the gun accomplished the job.
Speaker 1: And that's how it goes.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And I mean, and that's, that would be the goal, right?
Speaker 2: Like we're going to, we're going to help, uh, criminals
Speaker 2: make better decisions here.
Speaker 3: Okay. We're going to be a little, you know, help them.
Speaker 3: I'm going to help you help, you know, me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to work together on a better mental
Speaker 1: process here where you come to better decision making. That's
Speaker 1: what we're going to do.
Speaker 2: AWR, what else has been going on? You've been covering
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, there's a lot going on in, you know,
Speaker 1: normal things. Shootings continue in Chicago. I say continue apace.
Speaker 1: They continue to hold the gun control there. They continue
Speaker 1: to blame guns. You know, you've got the mayor there.
Speaker 1: His biggest, latest response is basically to create a quote-unquote, well,
Speaker 1: I won't quote, I'm paraphrasing, a type of gun violence
Speaker 1: task force like you saw in the Biden administration. So
Speaker 1: they keep going down the same path there, and where
Speaker 1: you have people keep dying. And that's how it's just
Speaker 1: going to be until they finally do something different there. But,
Speaker 1: you know, you look throughout the country, I cover... I
Speaker 1: have so many self-defense gun stories I come across almost
Speaker 1: daily that I have to pick and choose which ones
Speaker 1: to cover, which one will stand out and pull the
Speaker 1: reader's interest because there are so many. And I think
Speaker 1: that's very telling. I try to write as many of
Speaker 1: those as I can because that makes a statement on
Speaker 1: its own. The reader reads that and they understand, look,
Speaker 1: People armed in their homes, people armed in their cars,
Speaker 1: people armed at the workplace, they're saving their own lives.
Speaker 1: They're saving their coworkers and their family members' lives. And
Speaker 1: that is an ongoing story. That doesn't change regardless of
Speaker 1: who's president. That is an ongoing facet of American life.
Speaker 1: We just talked about it with the defensive gun uses. And,
Speaker 1: you know, I see that all the time. So that's
Speaker 1: something that doesn't change in America. Good guys with guns
Speaker 1: do good things.
Speaker 2: And it's and it's the main reason why people own
Speaker 2: guns i mean let's let's be honest here like i
Speaker 2: love to go sporting clay shooting i love hunting and
Speaker 2: all that but it's always been the number one reason
Speaker 2: people own guns and it still is the reason people
Speaker 2: buy guns we're talking about first-time gun buyers for the
Speaker 2: most part first-time gun buyers are buying it to protect
Speaker 2: themselves and their families right.
Speaker 1: You're exactly right and uh And again, I love that.
Speaker 1: As we said earlier, I love that a lot of
Speaker 1: those first time gun buyers are women. But I also
Speaker 1: love that a lot of those first time gun buyers
Speaker 1: are minorities. And I love that because I think it's
Speaker 1: so important, Ron, that not only that we understand the
Speaker 1: Second Amendment isn't just for me as a white male.
Speaker 1: And I hate to use racial language, but I'm just
Speaker 1: making a point. It's important for us to understand the
Speaker 1: Second Amendment is also for women. It's also for people
Speaker 1: who aren't the same color as me, other Americans of
Speaker 1: all walks of life, law abiding Americans. The Second Amendment
Speaker 1: is for you. And the broader we can get that
Speaker 1: understanding or the more widely we can disseminate that understanding,
Speaker 1: the more people come to grips with the fact that, wow,
Speaker 1: I can have a gun in my house to keep
Speaker 1: my family safe, regardless of your socioeconomic background, your skin color,
Speaker 1: your gender. You can have a gun in your home
Speaker 1: to protect your family. That's what the founders intended. And
Speaker 1: I want to see that broad-based understanding because the more
Speaker 1: gun owners we have, the harder it's going to be
Speaker 1: for a tyrannical government to ever get the idea they're
Speaker 1: going to sweep through here and take guns away, be
Speaker 1: it by force or by legislative action or even by
Speaker 1: executive fiat. It's going to be harder for them to
Speaker 1: ever consider taking that step if our ownership is so
Speaker 1: broad and among so many classes and so many types
Speaker 1: of people. And that's a pragmatic reason that I love
Speaker 1: seeing that growth. That's well said.
Speaker 2: And for people listening, AWR is not just a good
Speaker 2: looking guy with a smooth Southern accent. He's also a
Speaker 2: PhD in military history. So we're going to tie that in.
Speaker 2: When we come back from this quick break, we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about What you.
Speaker 3: Just said, I'm gonna let you expand on.
Speaker 2: That because there's a lot of history of what you're
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Speaker 3: So AWR, you're a guy that actually knows things. They
Speaker 3: actually gave you a degree. You went through all this school.
Speaker 2: And we always say there is a historical perspective when
Speaker 2: it comes to guns and the Second Amendment and all
Speaker 2: that stuff.
Speaker 3: And I've been, I told you I was reading this.
Speaker 2: Book, going back to America from 1492 to 1793 and,
Speaker 2: and looking at what, how did guns play a role?
Speaker 2: And cause people say, well, that's, that's old stuff. That's
Speaker 2: what does that have to do with today? But it
Speaker 2: does tie in, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. It ties in. And, and I think it's important. Um,
Speaker 1: and thank you for sending me the name of that book,
Speaker 1: by the way, that's on my list. But, uh, I
Speaker 1: think it's important. You understand you, you went from 14, whatever,
Speaker 1: right there to, uh, the founding of the country. And
Speaker 1: it's important, first and foremost, that people understand the right
Speaker 1: to keep and bear arms predates the founding of America.
Speaker 1: And so it's a right that our founders didn't create.
Speaker 1: It's a right that preexisted. And it preexisted in the 1400s.
Speaker 1: It's just a right that is intrinsic to the being
Speaker 1: of the human. And our founders realized that right was there. And,
Speaker 1: you know, through readings of everybody from John Locke to
Speaker 1: William Blackstone to Aristotle to whoever, you know. And so
Speaker 1: they hedged that right in to protect it. They didn't
Speaker 1: create it. They hedged it in to protect it. with
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment, and they understood that the possession of
Speaker 1: guns is a mark of free people. It's a characteristic
Speaker 1: of free people, and that without guns, and more generally speaking,
Speaker 1: if you want to use William's Blackstone language, without arms,
Speaker 1: it's going to be hard to stay free. And that's
Speaker 1: not just an idea for a particular decade or a
Speaker 1: particular year or a particular century. That is an ideal.
Speaker 1: It is metaphysical in this way. It's an ongoing truth
Speaker 1: that if we were not armed at any given time,
Speaker 1: that we are risking the potential of being people who
Speaker 1: are overrun, either by our own government or by government
Speaker 1: outside our country. And that never changes. And that's why
Speaker 1: even right now, it's so great as Americans are that
Speaker 1: we are armed. And, you know, we talked while ago, again,
Speaker 1: I don't like to go into racial stuff and I'm
Speaker 1: not going into racial stuff in the way that the
Speaker 1: left does, but you know, you have to look at
Speaker 1: the experience. People talk about the experience of minorities in America.
Speaker 1: And particularly when they talk about the experience of, uh,
Speaker 1: black Americans, what did that, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: terrible aspects of a black American is the way they
Speaker 1: were denied firearms. And they were denied firearms post-Civil War. Well,
Speaker 1: leading up to the Civil War, enslavement, part of that
Speaker 1: was denying them firearms so they couldn't free themselves. Post-Civil War,
Speaker 1: you look during the Reconstruction era, the first 10 years
Speaker 1: following the Civil War, they're denied access to firearms. And
Speaker 1: that is so that they, although they're free, they can
Speaker 1: still be controlled. And then going from that period as
Speaker 1: you go to the turn of the century and you
Speaker 1: you hit the 20th century, they're denied firearms through Jim
Speaker 1: Crow laws and other things. And these are all being
Speaker 1: implemented by the same Democrat Southerners or Southern Democrats, however
Speaker 1: you'd like to say it, who were the people who
Speaker 1: had the slaves. And so they keep finding these tools
Speaker 1: to control people. Slavery was a great tool. And when
Speaker 1: that was taken away, gun control was a great tool.
Speaker 1: And they could use gun control to keep the black
Speaker 1: American down. And people hate when I say that, but
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. If you study history, that's what you see.
Speaker 1: And that, again, goes to what I said in our
Speaker 1: last segment, Ron. That's why I love, I said I
Speaker 1: have pragmatic reasons, and that's one of those reasons. That's
Speaker 1: why I love when I see gun ownership swell in
Speaker 1: the black American community, when I see black Americans carrying guns,
Speaker 1: every day for self-defense, when I see them buying guns
Speaker 1: to keep them in their homes for self-defense, when I
Speaker 1: see them going, wow, the Second Amendment is for us too.
Speaker 1: That's a great day in America. And hopefully when they
Speaker 1: do that, they have crossed the Rubicon. They've hit a
Speaker 1: point that they're never going to turn back from. And
Speaker 1: they're going to be gun owners for life. And their
Speaker 1: kids are going to grow up and be gun owners
Speaker 1: and hunters for life and be concealed carriers for life.
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of America I want to live in.
Speaker 2: And when they see that truth and that truth becomes
Speaker 2: part of their life and their reality, it's like you
Speaker 2: can't unsee that truth, right?
Speaker 3: And some of those.
Speaker 2: People have been lied to, whether it's the black community
Speaker 2: or the Jewish community or the whatever community, they've been
Speaker 2: lied to about what guns are and who gun people are.
Speaker 2: And then it's like, wait a minute, that wasn't true.
Speaker 2: And now it's like, wait, you're right. This is for everyone.
Speaker 2: And it's great to see just such a variety of people,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: Picking up guns.
Speaker 2: And maybe the first reason is, OK, I want to
Speaker 2: protect myself and my family. But I think we're seeing
Speaker 2: a lot of people kind of discovering the hobby part
Speaker 2: of it, too, which is great.
Speaker 1: I agree with you 100%. And it is a great hobby.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was trying to make a little time today.
Speaker 1: I've got a Dan Wesson 10 millimeter I need to
Speaker 1: shoot because I'm going to take it on a hog hunt.
Speaker 1: And I was trying to make a little time to
Speaker 1: get to the range today. It's not going to happen
Speaker 1: because I've got a day full of writing and some
Speaker 1: other video material I need to make. But as soon
Speaker 1: as I get a chance, I'm going to go out
Speaker 1: and I'm going to shoot that Dan Wesson. And it's because,
Speaker 1: number one, I need to and I need to zero
Speaker 1: it and different things. But it's also just because it's
Speaker 1: just fun. It's fun to go to the range. It's
Speaker 1: just fun to shoot that steel and hear that ping
Speaker 1: and get that. immediate satisfaction. And so I look forward
Speaker 1: to it, but I'm like you, all aspects of gun ownership,
Speaker 1: all aspects. I love to see that spreading in different
Speaker 1: demographics and more Americans realizing this is for me too.
Speaker 1: This is for us too. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Guns are allowed to be fun too, guys.
Speaker 2: I know we get all serious, but you know, go
Speaker 2: out there and, and shoot some steel and bang away
Speaker 2: and all that stuff. The AWR people think that all
Speaker 2: we do is just go shoot guns, right? Sometimes we've
Speaker 2: got to be on email and make content.
Speaker 1: Right. I mean, there's a good chance I've been up
Speaker 1: since 5.30 today typing. I know. And, you know, that's
Speaker 1: just how it is. But, you know, you're talking about clinking.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to, or having fun, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to mention to any of your readers, right now I'm
Speaker 1: shooting a FTW suppressor for. 22s. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you what, you were talking about putting fun back
Speaker 1: into shooting. I've got a little, one of those Smith
Speaker 1: & Wesson M & P 22s. Oh, yeah. So it's
Speaker 1: a 22 on the AR frame with that FTW suppressor
Speaker 1: on it. It's called their OG suppressor. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you what, I cannot buy enough 22 ammo.
Speaker 1: I have so much fun. And it's just like, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, Ryan, but I'm just loving the
Speaker 1: situation we're in right now with the changes in how
Speaker 1: we're getting our suppressors from the removal of the tax,
Speaker 1: from lowering it to zero, from that to what seems
Speaker 1: like we're into a period now where we may change
Speaker 1: how we acquire suppressors, make it easier. It's a new
Speaker 1: day in my mind for the American blinker because nothing
Speaker 1: puts fun back in and shooting soda cans or steel
Speaker 1: targets like having a little rifle with a suppressor on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it just keeps getting better. It keeps getting easier.
Speaker 2: I mean, and I know we're at this new world
Speaker 2: in the last few weeks of like this NFA situation
Speaker 2: and people are kind of trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: to do. The dealers, some of the dealers are like,
Speaker 2: I need to get a little guidance and all that,
Speaker 2: but we're getting there. I mean, we're already eliminated the $ 200.
Speaker 3: We've sped up the process.
Speaker 2: And I mean, it's one of those things that reducing
Speaker 2: the noise, reducing the recoil, it makes it that much
Speaker 2: more fun.
Speaker 3: And it actually kind of ties into what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Like, as far as bringing more people into this, if
Speaker 2: you can reduce the noise and reduce the recoil, guess what?
Speaker 2: More people are going to want to pick up a
Speaker 2: gun and shoot it because there's less hesitation with it.
Speaker 1: Right. You're exactly right. And you know a point, and
Speaker 1: you're already making it, it reduces the noise, but Something
Speaker 1: I've argued at Breitbart that I really wish the pro-gun
Speaker 1: politicians would pick up on more is we don't just
Speaker 1: reduce the noise for our benefit. It's not just hearing protection,
Speaker 1: although it is hearing protection. But it reduces the noise
Speaker 1: in the environment. And I believe that's a point we
Speaker 1: need to stress so that the left takes that away
Speaker 1: from the left. You know, that's one thing the left
Speaker 1: talks about, the noise of the range and blah, blah. Well,
Speaker 1: guess what? We can take that noise away. It's no problem.
Speaker 1: We shoot suppressed, and it's good for our ears, and
Speaker 1: it's good for the environment. And when we hunt, it
Speaker 1: doesn't alter the environment with noise because of the suppression.
Speaker 1: And so, I mean, I see so many selling points
Speaker 1: in that way that I think we need to be
Speaker 1: making that argument that a suppressor is not just good
Speaker 1: for my hearing, but it's good for the ambiance of
Speaker 1: the environment. And I think that's a point that we
Speaker 1: need to make as often as we can.
Speaker 3: It's a peaceful, civil way to shoot guns.
Speaker 1: That's right. It's a peaceful, civil way to use that
Speaker 1: gun to destroy concrete blocks and steel targets and all
Speaker 1: kinds of things.
Speaker 3: AWR, always fun to talk to you.
Speaker 2: I mean, probably if you're listening to this, you probably
Speaker 2: know Breitbart, but if you're living in a hole somewhere,
Speaker 2: go read AWR Hawkins on Breitbart, not only on their website,
Speaker 2: but I mean, their social media is easy to follow
Speaker 2: and you guys are putting... out so much content and
Speaker 2: really kind of keeping people up to date on what's
Speaker 2: happening out there. So if you want to stay informed,
Speaker 2: follow AWA and read, AWR and read his stuff.
Speaker 3: Man, always fun. Always good to see you. And thanks
Speaker 3: for being on with us.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. Good to be with you, Ron.
Speaker 2: AWR, thanks for being on with us. Always a good time.
Speaker 2: You guys, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. And we
Speaker 2: will see you next time on Gun Talk Nation.