Speaker 1: All right, it's a real treat. Right now, we're at
Speaker 1: the course of the RI annual meetings in Houston, and
Speaker 1: I'm believable to us. I'm so glad I Todd Blanche
Speaker 1: is here. He is the acting US Attorney General. Now
Speaker 1: that Pam Body is out, you're feeling that slot now,
Speaker 1: I am maybe permanently. We don't know, We do not know, Okay,
Speaker 1: I should say, with Donald Trump in charge, you never know.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's right. That's why we love them, all right,
Speaker 1: So tell everybody a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2: So I'm from Colorado originally, I lived in New York
Speaker 2: for a long time. My family, my wife's family, has
Speaker 2: been in the gun manufacturing business for forty years. The
Speaker 2: manufacturer magazines a check make in Checkmate Industries. So my
Speaker 2: father in law started it in nineteen sixty eight sixty nine.
Speaker 2: And so I've been part of this fight, struggle, everything
Speaker 2: that we've that we've been going through as a nation
Speaker 2: for really for forty years.
Speaker 1: You're part of the gun industry, I am, yes. Okay,
Speaker 1: but now you're in charge of the US Department of Justice.
Speaker 1: I am yes. So how do you put those together?
Speaker 1: I know people are saying, well, why can't you fix
Speaker 1: everything by the end of work today? So, look, it
Speaker 1: takes a while.
Speaker 2: It's a great question. So the important thing for everybody
Speaker 2: to realize is that the way this country works is
Speaker 2: regulations are put in place and it takes time to
Speaker 2: unwind them. And that's a bad fact, but it's true.
Speaker 2: And so what we're doing and what President Trump did
Speaker 2: on January twentieth, he issued in executive order and it
Speaker 2: said very simply, we are going to restore Second Amendment rights. Okay,
Speaker 2: so easy, let's do it. And here we and but
Speaker 2: let me tell you what we have done. At the
Speaker 2: Department of Justice. We hired a law professor who clerk
Speaker 2: for Justice, Clarence Thomas, one of the best Second Amendment
Speaker 2: justices we've ever had. He is really the only Second
Speaker 2: Amendment law professor I think out there. He's a genius.
Speaker 2: We hired him and we said, okay, we want you
Speaker 2: to go and rework every single regulation consistent with this
Speaker 2: President's directive. And and that takes a lot of time.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you, and I'm going to say
Speaker 2: it tonight when when I when I get a chance
Speaker 2: to speak to a lot of other members that we
Speaker 2: are days away from releasing that they have been approved
Speaker 2: by the president on down and what.
Speaker 1: It's going to change releasing what what are you raising?
Speaker 2: All the new changes to the regulations. So so, for
Speaker 2: example of f fl's will, will will scream and kick
Speaker 2: correctly that the regulations that are in place that make
Speaker 2: it impossible do their jobs everything from from you know
Speaker 2: there there's certain signature requirements. Right, you cannot sell a
Speaker 2: firearmy listor in person with the person. Why is that?
Speaker 2: We have all kinds of ways to do things. You
Speaker 2: can get something notarized over the computernically, electronically, you can
Speaker 2: file your taxes electronically. How come I cannot sell a
Speaker 2: gun to you without violating some some regulation that should
Speaker 2: not exist. So so that's one example. Some of the
Speaker 2: other examples that are more meaningful that that we'll keep
Speaker 2: for the next week. But I think that any gun owner,
Speaker 2: anybody who's in the industry, whether you're a manufacturer, whether
Speaker 2: you're a resailer, they're going to be to realize that
Speaker 2: this administration is going to do more to restore rights
Speaker 2: to where they belong than any administration in history.
Speaker 1: I don't have to tell you a lot of people
Speaker 1: on the gun in the gun family, in the gun
Speaker 1: culture have been frustrated. They've thought, you know, why can't
Speaker 1: we move faster? At the same time, having I've been
Speaker 1: in DC, worked in DC, things move so slowly in
Speaker 1: a certain way, you're actually moving at warp speed right now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you want to do it right.
Speaker 2: So what we've done, going back to Reagan administration is
Speaker 2: the gun industry takes two steps forward and then a
Speaker 2: Democrat comes in and takes us eight steps back. And
Speaker 2: then we come in and we go two step forward,
Speaker 2: and then the next administration comes in. So we're not
Speaker 2: gonna do that. We're not gonna take two steps forward.
Speaker 2: We're going to We're gonna go forward a mile. And
Speaker 2: that means doing it right. So that means making sure
Speaker 2: that we're gonna get sued. We're gonna get sued the
Speaker 2: day after we release these rags, right, and we don't care.
Speaker 2: That's what we expect. But what we want to do
Speaker 2: is be in a position to be able to defend
Speaker 2: those lawsuits and win because we're doing it the right way.
Speaker 2: The other thing I'll say is we have been doing
Speaker 2: a lot, so whether it's it's joining lawsuits, when states
Speaker 2: are trying to mess with your Second Amendment rights. You know,
Speaker 2: you had administrations, even Republican administrations, that just stood on
Speaker 2: the sidelines. We are not standing on the Sidelince her,
Speaker 2: Meet Dylan of our civil rights group. She is filing
Speaker 2: lawsuits left and right to defend the Second ammbals. She's awesome.
Speaker 2: Look what we just are getting front of the Supreme
Speaker 2: Court a law in Hawaii that basically removes any gun
Speaker 2: owner's right to conceal and carry. If we win that,
Speaker 2: that not only affects Hawaii, it affects California, all all
Speaker 2: the states that passed similar laws.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're gonna win that one.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean all right. So as you look at
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court now we're trying to get through to
Speaker 1: take a few more cases. We'd love for them at
Speaker 1: some point point to take a so called assault weapon
Speaker 1: at least to send me automatic ban if we can
Speaker 1: get that done, because under Heller and Bruin it says
Speaker 1: you cannot ban these guns. Right, But the states keep
Speaker 1: doing that.
Speaker 2: They keep on doing it, and until there's enough lawsuits
Speaker 2: that they lose, they're not going to start AR fifteen.
Speaker 2: Is that that's the best example, that is putting aside
Speaker 2: what it was thirty years ago. That is a sporting rifle.
Speaker 2: That is a rifle that Americans that they have every
Speaker 2: right to own like any other firearm.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be a sporting rifle to
Speaker 1: fall under the Second Amendment. That doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: But there's other rigs that that restrict it because it's
Speaker 2: not labeled as a sporting rival So we got we
Speaker 2: got to fix those rigs as well. And so it's
Speaker 2: it's something that that is going to be a sea change.
Speaker 2: I think as far as DJ is concerned in Second
Speaker 2: Amendment protections, to what extent have you.
Speaker 1: Gotten reluctance resistance within DJ to advance in the Second Amendment?
Speaker 2: None? And I'm going to say what I mean by that.
Speaker 2: You have a president who champions the Second Amendment. His
Speaker 2: sons are better shots than any of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're serious, right people.
Speaker 2: He got the White House Counsel Dave Warranton, who is
Speaker 2: the biggest second proponent you've ever seen. Okay, you have me,
Speaker 2: you have Harmeat Dylon, you have Rob Sakata, our new
Speaker 2: hope hopefully soon to be confirmed atf director. He owns
Speaker 2: more guns than probably most people in this convention center.
Speaker 2: And that's saying a lot. But I'll stand by and
Speaker 2: then you, like I said, you have this. You have
Speaker 2: a general counsel of HF who's a Clarence Thomas Clerk
Speaker 2: who is devoted to Second Amendment. So this, this has
Speaker 2: never happened before. And we are running on all cylinders.
Speaker 2: It took a while because we're you know, we're a
Speaker 2: year in, but you know, it takes a while to
Speaker 2: get started and we're working.
Speaker 1: So all right, You're walking around the four here at
Speaker 1: the NRA, You're seeing all these people, and I know
Speaker 1: you've got security. I had this funny thought. I thought, well,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know a lot of people here
Speaker 1: walking around carrying guns, but it's the friendliest bunch of
Speaker 1: people you'll ever run into. And where you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I was just with my parents. My mom
Speaker 2: just told me for the first time, she has a
Speaker 2: concealed carry permit. Oh you know, that's okay.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Bill, That's right.
Speaker 2: And that's the beauty of That's the what Americans, Americans
Speaker 2: know but sometimes Washington forgets, is that that's what gunnarship
Speaker 2: is about in this country. And that's why it works
Speaker 2: and and that's why. That's what President Trump has said
Speaker 2: for fifteen years. And that's a New Yorker saying that.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's it's it's the way it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: All right, So what your wish list. You're in a
Speaker 1: great position right now. You said, Okay, this is what
Speaker 1: I would love for us to be able to accomplish
Speaker 1: over the next year or two.
Speaker 2: I want to I want change that lasts beyond this administration.
Speaker 2: I don't want to. We're working with ATF every day.
Speaker 2: They are no longer going after FFLs, they are no
Speaker 2: longer there's no longer a zero tolerance policy where if
Speaker 2: you do not cross the tea or dot and I,
Speaker 2: We're gonna shut you down.
Speaker 1: However, that only helps for a couple of years.
Speaker 2: So so what my goal is to is to work
Speaker 2: to put regulations and do and change the Department of
Speaker 2: Justice approach so that no matter what happens in three years,
Speaker 2: it's going to stay longer than.
Speaker 1: It's not just changing policy, because policy can be changed,
Speaker 1: you're actually going to change the regulations and regulations resources.
Speaker 2: So instead of hiring a bunch of guys to go
Speaker 2: civil guys to go look at FFLs. We should be
Speaker 2: hiring specialations to go arrest robbers, right, that's what we
Speaker 2: should be spending our money on. So that then that's
Speaker 2: what we're doing.
Speaker 1: There you go, bod Butch, thank you so much, not
Speaker 1: just for doing the interview, thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Harrie is great doing it anytime.
Speaker 1: Appreciate this very much. Return you to the NRA Annual
Speaker 1: Meetings