State of the Second

This week, John and Kailey sit down with Jim of Steyr Arms to get into the AUG's rise to one of the most-fielded rifles in the world, the surprising Steyr link to the Mercedes G-Wagon, the new AREX pistol collaboration, and the engineering behind the Safe Bolt System, including the over-pressure test that lets a shooter walk away from a completely blocked barrel. Jim also breaks down the legendary Steyr Scout, the only rifle that meets every one of Jeff Cooper's original requirements, and why he's taken more game with it than his other 62 hunting rifles combined.___________Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary, August 1–2 in Des Moines, IA. Tickets at gunowners.org/goals.-----------------------Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season!Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today.Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website!Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, John and Nate from Nine Line Apparel are back for round two, and it goes everywhere: the new Gun Owners of America x Nine Line collab, why Gen Z is rediscovering patriotism, and the right way to welcome a first-time shooter to the range. Plus the live AR that sat on YouTube for 24 hours and did nothing.Grab the GOA x Nine Line gear__________Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary, August 1–2 in Des Moines, IA. Tickets at gunowners.org/goals.-----------------------Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season!Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today.Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website!Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, John and Kailey sit down with Drew and Jeremy from One Horse to talk about building a 100% American-made AR that any gun owner can afford, and to drop a major announcement you won't want to miss.From 13 years at Anderson to launching their own brand in eight months, they break down what the "poverty pony" label gets wrong, how a quality American-made rifle lands at around $600, and why they refuse to chase the race to the bottom.___________Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary, August 1–2 in Des Moines, IA. Tickets at gunowners.org/goals.-----------------------Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season!Ammo Squared -The smarter way to stockpile ammo, one round at a time. Start your ammo savings todayPatriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website!Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

Alex from Caliber Row joins hosts Kaylee and John to talk about what she calls one of the coolest jobs in the firearms industry: photographing and filming brands. Alex runs Caliber Row, where she specializes in photography, videography, and brand marketing for firearms companies. Her path started in Chicago, where she grew up on the Southside and shot in the fashion industry with agencies like Wilhelmina, Factor, and Ford. She applied on a whim to a job at apparel company GrunStyle, got hired despite limited firearms experience, ran its photography department, and stayed with the company for six years, moving with it from Chicago to Texas and later to Arizona. Much of the conversation is about women coming into a male-dominated industry. Alex says women are entering the space more than ever, and most of them are genuinely excited, educated, and skilled shooters. She also pushes back on a mindset she sees in some women who want to dominate or exclude men, arguing the industry should be a respected, equal space and that men built it. Kaylee, who is five feet tall and wears a child-size large glove, talks about how few options existed for someone her size when she bought her first gun, and how the influx of new gun owners has driven innovation and better ergonomics, pointing to firearms like the EAA tip-up and the Smith and Wesson EZ that work for people with limited mobility. Both hosts and Alex agree the community is growing stronger, not weaker, and that the Second Amendment community is made of many different subgroups that should row in the same direction. Alex describes the impact photography has in reaching people who are gun curious or hesitant, using her own story of moving from anti-gun Chicago to pro-gun Texas, where people showed her the ropes. She talks about acting as a fly on the wall on shoots, keeping the focus on the brand and the people rather than herself, and about how shoots bring veterans and groups together. She shares her favorite and wildest shoots, including photographing skydivers in a circle from the air and being on a C-130 and a Sherman tank, and she walks through her growing collection from the Glock 43X to a SIG P320 Spectre Comp Blackout, an MP5, and a POF Rogue she shoots in accurate AR matches. The episode closes with a spicy segment on flying with firearms, where John and Kaylee hammer the lack of standard TSA rules airport to airport, a TSA website policy change that conflicts with the law requiring the owner to be present, theft of gear in transit, and the need for federal protections when a flight gets rerouted into an anti-gun state. Questions this episode answers What is Caliber Row and what does Alex do in the firearms industry? Caliber Row is Alex's company, where she specializes in photography, videography, and brand marketing for firearms companies. She tells brands' stories visually, capturing the brand and its people rather than putting herself in the frame.</p

Tim and Michelle from Patch Ops join Kaylee and John on State of the Second to tell the story of how a single patch grew into a business. It started in 2018, when the couple wanted to send their kids to private school and Tim calculated they needed to make $50 more a day to afford it. Tim, a Marine, had been introduced to patches by an Army friend, and there was nothing on the market for Marines at the time. He made an 0331 MOS patch because he wanted one for himself, sent it to his fellow Marines, and the demand kept climbing. About three months after they launched, the Marine Corps put Velcro on its gear, and the market for Marine Corps patches opened up fast. Patch Ops turns eight years old in a couple months and has grown every year, starting from a $3,000 nest egg. The conversation moves into how the company operates and why staying close to the community matters. Tim says he is part of his own customer base, so if a design makes him laugh, he trusts that others will feel the same. The team works fast on pop culture moments, posting a Let's Go Brandon design within two hours of the moment. They test ideas as stickers and shirts first, and the ones that get a response become patches. Michelle, who came from the corporate world and left it during COVID to run day-to-day operations, explains the value of having both trickle sellers and fast sellers so the business stays afloat between hits. Tim describes their model as profit by volume rather than chasing one big order, and says he won't sacrifice his values for profit. Much of the episode is a broader talk about activism, media, and standing up for the Second Amendment. Tim argues that likes don't equal rights and pushes influencers to influence their own communities first. Kaylee points to GOA's tools, including emailing your congressman in about 30 seconds and a voting scorecard that helps people check a representative's actual record. Both sides warn about bills written to play on emotion, with firearms regulations hidden inside unrelated legislation, and about a media environment that rewards outrage over reason. They also push back on cancel culture and the loss of humor, and on judging people on their own side by how they look. Patch Ops closes by sharing new NFC-chip patches they filed a patent for, their custom and retail focus, and the piece of candy that comes in every order. Questions this episode answers How did Patch Ops get started, and what was the original goal behind it? Patch Ops began in 2018 when Tim and Michelle wanted to send their kids to private school and calculated they needed to make about $50 more a day to afford it. Tim, a Marine, made an 0331 MOS patch he wanted for himself, sent it to fellow Marines, and demand kept climbing from there. Why was there a gap in the market for Marine Corps patches when the company launched? When Patch Ops started, there was nothing on the market made for Marines. About three

Tony Simon, founder of the 2A Diversity Shoot, joins John and Kaylee to trace how he went from a gun kid on a Virginia farm to one of the most active Second Amendment advocates in New Jersey. He grew up on a farm in Virginia, shot on his high school air rifle team, and joined the Marine Corps. After getting out he moved to New Jersey, where the state's firearms ID card requirements stalled his gun ownership. A 2012 class with an NRA certified instructor friend rekindled it. He became an NRA certified instructor in rifle, pistol, and shotgun, and when Sandy Hook hit and New Jersey's legislature put forward 76 bills to impede gun rights, he got into advocacy. As the only black guy testifying out of 200 people, he realized the movement needed more people who looked like him to speak up. That realization became the 2A Diversity Shoot. In 2015 he partnered with Anthony Colandro of the Gun for Hire range to bring in people who don't fit the assumed gun owner profile, teach them firearms law, and connect them with Second Amendment advocates. The first event drew four people out of the 27 who said they would come, plus a New Jersey State Police firearms officer who showed up posing as a regular attendee. Colandro pushed him to keep running it until the room filled, then overfilled past fire code. Today Tony runs diversity shoots every two weeks at four different ranges across New Jersey, ran one in Pennsylvania for three years, and did a shoot in Omaha with the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association, and the events now sell out. Each event mixes pizza, raffle prizes, jokes, and a lot of shooting, with the goal of normalizing firearms ownership for people of every background. The conversation turns to a blunt message about complacency. Tony, originally from Virginia, describes watching his home state go from a place that would march on the Capitol to one that rolled over because people stopped participating and stopped voting in local and primary elections. He argues that local elections matter more than the presidential race, that gun owners say all the right things but perform none of the actions, and that even people worried about being put on a list can still fund others' work, vote, and be responsible gun owners. The From the Soapbox segment gets spicy, including Tony's take questioning how 'don't tread on me' squares with backing the thin blue line, and a running High Point versus Staccato bit. Kaylee closes with her own take that gun owners are getting elections wrong by accepting apathy, noting GOA's website lets you act in about 33 seconds and that five minutes a week could be transformative. Questions this episode answers How did Tony Simon get into firearms and Second Amendment advocacy? Tony Simon grew up on a Virginia farm, shot on his high school air rifle team, and served in the Marine Corps before moving to New Jersey. A 2012 class with an NRA certified instructor friend rekindled his interest, and a

John McClane of Rock Island Armory joins hosts Kaylee and John to talk about how a budget-friendly firearms company from the Philippines built a recoil system he believes other manufacturers will copy once the patent runs out. John shares his path into the industry, from a closet gun owner who hid his first rifle under the bed for a year and a half, to a C-class USPSA shooter, to multiple Grand Master cards on Team Armscore. A chance EMT call between Vegas and Pahrump introduced him to the owner's family at Armscore and Rock Island, which led to a developmental shooting program, a sponsorship, and eventually his role as national training manager. The conversation centers on the company's product philosophy and its newest guns. John explains the late CEO Martin Tuason's stance on keeping firearms reliable and affordable, and why Rock Island refuses to raise prices just to look more expensive. He walks through the patented RVS recoil system in the 5.0, a pistol that took seven years to develop and that he says shoots like it has a compensator with a standard slide and barrel. He also covers the new Pack Out folding firearm in 14-inch and 18-inch barrel versions, the RIA USA factory in Cedar City, and the .22 TCM round and its 9R redesign that now fits Glock and CZ magazines. The TCM line is held back only by SAAMI spec, which the company is working to finalize. The episode closes with the From the Soapbox segment on a knowledge gap among post-COVID first-time gun owners. John argues the information is out there and the real problem is whether people seek it and whether the person behind the gun counter has the patience to help. He makes the case that one bad interaction can turn a new shooter off for good, and that the community gets stronger when experienced owners remember what it felt like to know nothing. He also explains Arms Corps U, his YouTube broadcast built to answer customer questions and drive demand for Rock Island products by name through distributors. Questions this episode answers How did John McClane go from a self-described closet gun owner to a sponsored Team Armscore competitor? He hid his first rifle under his bed for a year and a half, then shot USPSA as a C-class competitor. A chance EMT call near Pahrump connected him to the Armscore and Rock Island owner's family, leading to a developmental program, a sponsorship, and his role as national training manager. What is the RVS recoil system in the 5.0, and why does John think it could become an industry standard? The RVS is a patented recoil system in Rock Island Armory's 5.0 pistol, which took seven years to develop and, McClane says, shoots like it has a compensator while using a standard slide and barrel. He believes that once the patent runs out, other manufacturers will copy the system and make it the new standard. Why does Rock Island Armory keep its prices low instead of raising them to seem more premium?</

Roy Harrell joins State of the Second to talk about taking over his late brother Paul Harrell's firearms YouTube channel and keeping its practical, no-hype approach alive. Roy has been a cop for 37 years, started his law enforcement career in 1988 carrying a revolver, and has done hunter safety and firearms instructing, the same work his and Paul's father did. When Paul got sick, the brothers talked about the future of the channel and Paul asked Roy to take it over. They spent the next nine months before Paul passed working on videos together, with Paul giving pointers along the way. Roy is candid that being in front of the camera is intimidating, that it is not a one-take job, and that he doesn't write out full scripts the way Paul could, so the crew now films shorter monologues to keep takes manageable. Roy lays out how he picks video ideas. He checks whether Paul already covered a topic, then puts his own spin on it, and he pulls heavily from viewer comments and emails. The channel aims at the common man rather than the latest black guns, new Staccatos, or every AR platform. That means older firearms, ammo comparisons, and lower-recoil calibers like the .32, .22, and .25 that older shooters and people with arthritic hands keep asking about. Roy walks through a recent video on transitioning from a long gun to a handgun for someone who isn't in full battle-belt defense mode, and he shares his interest in historic law enforcement events like the Newhall shootout and old 1960s and 70s police training films. He brings a long firsthand view of the field, from the switch from revolvers to Glocks to carrying an M16A1 in Marine Corps boot camp. The soapbox segment turns to Oregon. Roy explains that 114, which would ban magazines over 10 rounds and require a permit and a class to buy a firearm, is sitting with the Oregon Supreme Court, and that the legislature is already writing new laws to keep the fight going. He wants to see the data behind the claim that a 10-round limit saves lives, points out there is no exception for someone with his age and experience to skip the class, and warns the rules would flood sheriff's offices and could put small gun stores out of business during a long pause in sales. He ties the shift to the greater Portland metro area outvoting the rest of the state and points listeners to groups like the Oregon Firearms Coalition. Roy closes on review integrity. Paul never took sponsors, and Roy is entering that world carefully, giving honest reviews even when a product fails. You can find the channel on Instagram and Facebook under Harrell Brothers in Arms, still listed under Paul as a nod to him. Questions this episode answers How did Roy Harrell end up taking over Paul Harrell's firearms YouTube channel? When his brother Paul got sick, the two discussed the channel's future and Paul asked Roy to take it over. They worked on videos together for the nine months before Paul passed, with Paul

Anna Taylor joins State of the Second to tell the story behind Dean Adams, the concealed carry company she built after a frustrating start with her own first gun. In 2013 she was a stay at home mom with four young kids in a shady part of Kansas City called Grandview, and her husband at the time traveled often. The conversations around Sandy Hook and the fear of losing rights pushed her to get her concealed carry permit. The gun store handed her the "shrink it and pink it" girl gun, she got home, and she could not find education or a way to carry that was comfortable, safe, and actually worked. She locked the gun up. Then she cut out a computer mousepad, sewed it to her postpartum wrap corset, and the gun disappeared under her T-shirt. That was the first prototype. Many designs later she launched her first concealed carry corset and kept going with education and instructor training. From that corset the line grew into thigh holsters built like shapewear, a bra holster, and concealed carry leggings. Anna walks John through the design priorities that separate a real holster from cloth: trigger protection, retention that does not slow your draw, consistent positioning that conceals on a woman's "squishy" spots, and a natural draw stroke that does not flag anyone with the muzzle. She also covers training as a mom, including running drills one handed while moving a child out of the way and covering a baby's ears on the draw. Her EDC is the P365, and she names her company after her grandfather, who taught her guns should be respected and not feared. The conversation gets personal and practical. Anna wrote a book, Intuitive by Design: A Woman's Guide to Fear and Self Defense, centered on mindset as the first line of defense. She shares her own history of abuse and the night a false alarm finally broke fear's hold on her. The hosts cover the media narrative around domestic abuse survivors and firearms, the "gun bunny" debate in the industry, her strategy of marketing to women through the men who buy for them, and detailed situational awareness habits for parents at the store and in the parking lot. She closes by teasing new products, including a first collection of smart holsters that integrate with a cell phone as part of a safety plan. Questions this episode answers How did Anna Taylor go from a frustrated new gun owner to founding a concealed carry company? In 2013, as a stay at home mom of four in Kansas City, Anna Taylor got her concealed carry permit but found no comfortable, safe way to carry the gun she was sold. With passion and a sense of duty rather than formal qualifications, she built a holster prototype and went on to launch Dean Adams. What was the very first holster prototype she made, and how did it work? She cut out a computer mousepad and sewed it to her postpartum wrap corset, which made the gun disappear under her T-shirt. After many design iterations, that first prototype beca

Joe Farewell joins John and Kaylee for a conversation about what high-level firearms training actually delivers, and why the answer is rarely what new students expect. Joe is a former law enforcement officer and SWAT sniper team leader who spent seven years in policing in Florida before leaving toward the end of 2018 to teach full time. He's also a competitive shooter who represented Team USA at the IPSC Rifle World Shoot, taking silver in 2019 and gold in 2024. He walks through how competition shooting is structured, from local matches up to nationals and the World Shoot, which he calls the Olympics of practical shooting, and what it takes to travel overseas with guns and ammo through the paperwork each country requires. A through-line of the episode is Joe's training philosophy. He measures everything against three goals: the desired level of accuracy, speed, and consistency. He argues shooting is shooting whether the purpose is competition, self defense, or military use, so the fundamentals stay the same even as the application changes. He built the Dry Fire Mastery programs in 2020 during COVID after learning to improve on roughly 50 to 100 rounds a week by doing millions of dry fire repetitions for free. He explains why isolating a skill in dry fire and fixing it raises performance, and why understanding the why behind a drill matters more than burning a thousand rounds a day on flashy work. Joe is direct about the biggest misconception students bring to advanced classes: they expect to walk away a far better shooter after two days. He compares it to taking a gym class for two days in a row and expecting to be ripped. The real value of a class is the homework and the understanding of what to train and why. The conversation moves to his move from Florida to California, the gun culture and growing matches he's found there, the new laws affecting California gun owners, and his view that growing the competition community can shift the state's politics. He closes on gear: he runs Atlas pistols and Cobalt rifles, but shows up to teach law enforcement with a stock gun so the work, not the equipment, makes the point. Questions this episode answers What does high-level firearms training actually give you, and what can't it give you in two days? Joe Farewell says the real value of an advanced class is the homework and the understanding of what to train and why, not an overnight skill jump. Expecting to walk away a far better shooter after two days is like taking a gym class twice and expecting to be ripped. How is competitive shooting structured, from local matches up to the IPSC World Shoot? It runs from local matches up through nationals to the IPSC Rifle World Shoot, which Joe Farewell calls the Olympics of practical shooting. He represented Team USA there, taking silver in 2019 and gold in 2024. What's involved in traveling overseas with your firearms and ammunition for a match?</h4

Dianna Muller joins State of the Second to explain the strategy behind the teal shirts and the slogan that defines her work: educate, not legislate. A retired Tulsa police officer turned professional competitive shooter, she walks host John through how she went from ignoring politics for most of her adult life to founding the DC Project and Women for Gun Rights. The turning point came when she stood in front of a congressman and asked whether professional shooters should be doing something to educate the people in that building. After Virginia fell in 2019, she realized the real fight was in the states, and she asked the women who had been coming to Washington to go home and meet their own legislators as gun owners. Much of the conversation is about why the other side keeps gaining ground. Muller argues that groups like Moms Demand Action are intentional, organized, and funded, citing a roughly 60 million dollar annual budget on their side against a David and Goliath gap on hers. She points to the Biden administration's Office of Gun Violence Prevention as government money that helped states write red flag laws and universal background checks, and she describes asking the White House for a Second Amendment counsel so the movement's organizations can strategize and row in the same direction. Her answer to the funding gap is participation: become a 40 or 50 dollar member of every Second Amendment organization, take one new person to the polls, and show up for the midterms. The episode closes on practical advice and a personal mission. Muller pushes listeners to be intentional, to study the arguments so they can actually answer why someone needs an AR-15 or why universal background checks are a bad idea, and to keep talking to people and media outlets even after being burned. She makes the case that women can carry the gun-rights message in a way legacy voices cannot, wants firearms and hunter safety education back in schools, and frames competition's pseudo stress as the real training that translates to carrying. She also shares the big announcement: Women for Gun Rights is moving to a paid membership model and launching a 501(c)(3) called Women for Gun Safety to reclaim the word safety, because in her words guns make you safer. Questions this episode answers What does the teal shirt 'educate, not legislate' strategy actually mean, and where did it come from? It is the message on the signature teal shirts worn by Dianna Muller's DC Project women, who meet legislators as gun owners to educate them rather than push new laws. The idea grew from Muller asking whether professional shooters should be educating the people inside government buildings. How did a retired police officer and competitive shooter end up founding the DC Project and Women for Gun Rights? Dianna Muller spent 22 years with the Tulsa Police Department before retiring to shoot professionally, and she ignored politics until she

On this episode of State of the Second, host John sits down with Ryan from Atrius Development Group, the company behind the FRS (force reset selector). Ryan grew up around guns. His dad was ex-LAPD, he and his co-founder Malcolm served in the military, and he got into the industry around 19 or 20 at a startup near where he grew up, where he started by packing boxes and went on to help launch almost 700 accessories. He describes the accessory market as a place where you can be "an ally to everybody and enemy to nobody," and he frames Atrius as an extension of a manufacturer's product development team that fills gaps so brands can focus on building reliable weapon systems. Ryan walks through how the accessory market has driven real cultural shifts. SB Tactical's brace gave birth to the AR15 pistol, suppressor brands weren't even allowed at SHOT Show in the early 2000s, and he believes the force reset category is the next shift. He explains that the FRS is a drop-in, reverse-compatible semi-automatic solution that follows the letter of the law, and that Atrius wants it to reach common use across the biggest addressable market. He and Malcolm expected to get targeted but thought it would take two years. Instead it happened in about six months. He credits the community, the dealer network, and shouts out Tim Hoffman and Hoffman Tactical for carrying them through. He also points to the product's business impact. Dealers have called to say his product is selling so well they don't have to lay off their teams, and he calls it one of the few categories not feeling the "Trump slump." The conversation moves into advocacy and the meaning of the Second Amendment. Ryan argues weapons are an apolitical issue because everyone should have the right to firearms, and he says the system is weaponized against gun culture through debanking, fintech companies that won't support firearms businesses, and marketing agencies that won't work with gun brands. He frames the Second Amendment plainly. It's about overthrowing a tyrannical government, not just hunting or self-defense, and reminds listeners it's "the Bill of Rights, not the Bill of Needs." He talks about normalizing gear and capability instead of gatekeeping it, having fun in the commercial space, and the new diversity of gun owners, including legal immigrants discovering the right to defend themselves. Looking at 2026, Ryan wants the FRS in the mainstream, an FRS ecosystem, and inline SKU support so a dealer's shelf has weapon systems with an FRS already installed. He closes by pointing people to Atrius on Instagram, and the show wraps with details on GOALS 2026, GOA's 50th anniversary celebration in Des Moines, Iowa, August 1st and 2nd. Questions this episode answers What is the FRS (force reset selector) from Atrius Development Group and how does it work? The FRS is Atrius Development Group's drop-in, reverse-compatible semi-automatic solution that Ryan says follows the

The Forge Relations team returns to State of the Second for a post-Gundies wrap-up, and this year's show was different in one major way: it went live. Ben and Will explain that Ben had pushed a live stream for years before they finally pulled it off, and the deciding factor was finding the right home for it. YouTube was a non-starter because the platform told them a stream would be cut if a guest said something against its guidelines, and with the level of investment involved, a mid-show cutoff was a risk they couldn't take. Rumble stepped in, set up the account, and gave them internal team support. The result, by their own account, was the best year yet, with just under a thousand confirmed attendees in the room, around 200,000 watching the stream, and a noticeably more senior crowd of owners and C-suite leaders at the Venetian Theater during SHOT. Much of the conversation is about why a marketing agency keeps taking on an event this size. Ben and Will are blunt that the Gundies is separate from Forge and isn't a money-maker. They put roughly 3,500 man hours into it this year on top of running the agency, and every year they have the same internal debate about whether it's worth the headache. They keep going because they believe in the industry and the community, and because the event grows everyone together. A creator who misses top five still gets new eyes from people who'd never seen them, since voters have to look at every name in a category. The hosts back this up from backstage: even Hickok, with 10 million subscribers, was genuinely excited to win, and John says he's watched sub counts climb after the Gundies post. Ben and Will also address this year's drama head on, saying voting has always been organic, that more followers means more votes is a volume game and not rigging, and that they said their piece and won't turn the drama machine on. The episode closes with two forward-looking pieces. First, the Gundies is becoming a standalone brand and will no longer go dark after the show. It's launching its first-ever trivia night at GOA's GOALS event, a 2A-themed game with real prizes from sponsors including title sponsor PSA, and the hosts say they'll also work with Rumble on it. GOALS runs August 1st and 2nd in Des Moines, Iowa, marking GOA's 50th anniversary, and Forge is providing Saturday night's entertainment. Second, in the Soapbox segment, Ben and Will talk about getting new gun owners off the fence and into the community. Their answers center on content: let mainstream outlets show the industry without a political spin, represent the new customer who often doesn't look like the standard gun owner, and for aspiring creators, be authentic, stay consistent, and don't wait for perfect before posting. Questions this episode answers Why did The Gundies finally go live this year, and why on Rumble instead of YouTube? Ben had pushed for a live stream for years, and the show finally went live once the

Professional competitive shooter Jalise Williams joins hosts Kaylee and John for a conversation about a career built on discipline, family, and a deep love of firearms history. A Team USA representative, Jalise is a 12-time world champion with 43 national titles and more than 200 major wins, and she became the first woman in the United States to qualify for the USA Overall Team (long called the Men's Team) at the Handgun World Shoot. She traces it all back to St. George, Utah, where she grew up hunting with her father from the time she was in diapers. After her mother took a local ladies' night clinic and suggested she learn handguns, Jalise and her sister fell in love with the sport and entered the competitive circuit. Twelve years later, she is at the top of it. She walks through what making the Overall Team actually takes: a two-year qualification across your best three of four national championships, with only the top four competitors selected. After one of the best matches of her life she slipped into the fourth spot, then went to the world championship and came home with two gold medals. Jalise shoots for Colt, where she has been on the team for seven years after a stint with Springfield Armory and a breakout single-stack season on two Colt Gold Cups. A history lover, she is proud to represent a brand so embedded in American history, and she now helps test Colt products before release. She also opens up her training: when she is home, three hours a day on the range, dry fire, a CO2 kit for simulated recoil, daily gym work, and a fundamentals block of about 100 rounds on one-inch dots at 5, 7, and 10 yards that she has run for a decade. The back half turns to community and history. Jalise encourages women entering the sport to use social media to connect with other women shooters and to lean on resources like online classes and groups such as A Girl & A Gun and The Well Armed Woman, with Steel Challenge as a beginner-friendly first discipline. She shares her family's hunting tradition, including a South Africa hunt tied to last year's world championship and a bucket list that runs from moose to dove hunting in Argentina. Her love of history shows in her favorites, from the Single Action Army to black powder guns, and in a top-five list that includes the 1911, the 2011, and the AR-15. On the Soapbox, she gets candid about the mental side of competition, the habit of getting in her own head, and why staying willing to fail and learn is the only way to keep climbing. Questions this episode answers How did Jalise Williams get into competitive shooting? She grew up hunting with her father in St. George, Utah from a very young age. After her mother got a concealed carry permit and took a local ladies' night clinic, she suggested Jalise learn handguns too, and Jalise and her sister fell in love with the sport and entered the competitive circuit twelve years ago. What does qualifying for the USA Over

State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John sit down with Colton, founder and CEO of Reap Weaponry, a central Minnesota company built around a bullpup conversion kit for the AR platform. The idea came out of coyote hunting in the Midwest, where Colton and his crew got tired of lugging around 18-inch guns and suppressors and wanted to shorten everything up. He didn't like the bullpup options on the market, found that nobody was making a conversion system, and went down the patent process to build one. Reap's kit is legally a grip that bolts onto a mil-spec AR lower, so it isn't serialized and works with parts builders already own. It supports buffered and bufferless uppers, a shortened buffer system built in partnership with Deadfoot Arms, bolt receivers, and a wide caliber list, with an AR10 frame releasing next month. Colton walks through what it took to go from an idea to a business. He failed roughly 30 times on prototypes before it worked, ran a lot of drop and mud tests, and engineered a self-lubricating, self-clearing bushing so the system never needs oil. Some test kits have 18,000 rounds through them with a three-pound trigger pull and have never been opened or cleaned. He stresses doing the patent search right, paying for a strong provisional patent, and the surprise that many engineers, lawyers, and even website companies will not touch the firearms industry at all. He launched at SHOT Show out of a small booth in the basement, sold out a 50-unit preorder in two weeks, and had competitors copy the concept within three months. The conversation moves into marketing, education, and the influencer game. Colton bet on smaller YouTubers, sending about 30 of his first hundred units to creators starting out, because they were hungry, made multiple videos, and leaned into education more than entertainment. He chose a prove-it mentality over claiming the product is good himself. The demographic surprised him: older hunters and shooters using the lighter, one-handed-capable bullpup for accessibility after shoulder or hip replacements. The episode closes on the soapbox segment about running a gun company in Minnesota, the state-level pressure, and the value of staying level headed and supporting groups like Minnesota Gun Rights. Questions this episode answers What is a bullpup conversion kit and how does Reap Weaponry's version work with an existing AR? Reap Weaponry's kit converts a standard AR into a bullpup, shortening the overall package while keeping the gun functioning as an AR15. It bolts onto a mil-spec AR lower and works with parts builders already own, supporting buffered and bufferless uppers across a wide caliber list. Why does the kit work with any mil-spec AR lower without being a serialized firearm? The kit is legally a grip that bolts onto a mil-spec AR lower, so it is not serialized. That lets it work with the lowers and parts builders already own rather than requiring a new f

In this episode of State of the Second, hosts Kaylee and John sit down with Jennifer, the director of sales and marketing at Urban Chic. The brand makes stylish everyday carry accessories with integrated Level 3A ballistic protection, built with DuPont Kevlar and patented technology. Founded in 2018, the company set out to bring personal protection into a genuine leather bag that looks like an everyday purse, rather than the tactical, pink-camo gear that dominated the market for women. Jennifer explains that the protective insert adds only 17 ounces to the bag, so it stays discreet instead of feeling like a bulletproof vest. The conversation centers on what makes the product different. The patent is in how the bag deploys on the body. A loose Kevlar insert held up to yourself carries a high risk of the bullet ricocheting, so the insert is measured to fit a specific bag and deploys with a neck strap and waist strap that absorb the blow. Level 3A protection covers standard handgun rounds up to .44 Magnum and is also stab proof. After launch, the team realized the real audience was people who want to carry and protect themselves at the same time. They went to SHOT Show two years in a row to confirm it, partnered with Rounded for a universal holster insert that fits inside a zipper pouch, and shifted their marketing toward the firearms community. Jennifer and the hosts dig into who buys the bags and why. The biggest demographic is men buying for the women in their life, plus parents sending kids off to college where campus carry and even pepper spray may not be allowed. The team is exploring more options for men, travel, and undercover law enforcement, and gets frequent requests for children's backpacks they have not yet pursued. Kaylee and John tie it all back to personal responsibility, the on-ramp into the self defense journey, and the rise of off body carry, agreeing on one rule throughout: options are good as long as you practice with them. Questions this episode answers What is Level 3A ballistic protection and what rounds does it stop? Level 3A protection covers standard handgun rounds up to .44 Magnum, and it is also rated stab proof. Urban Chic builds this rating into its bags using DuPont Kevlar and patented technology. What makes Urban Chic's bag different from a plain Kevlar insert you hold up to yourself? A loose Kevlar insert held up to yourself carries a high risk of the bullet ricocheting. Urban Chic's patent is in how the insert is measured to fit a specific bag and deploys with a neck strap and waist strap that absorb the blow. How much weight does the ballistic insert add to the bag? The protective insert adds only 17 ounces to the bag, so it stays discreet and reads like an everyday purse rather than feeling like a bulletproof vest. Can you carry a firearm in the bag, and how does the holster option work? Yes. Urban Chic partnered with Rounde

Johnny Q built a large following before he ever touched a gun. On this episode of State of the Second, hosts Kaylee and John talk with the firearms content creator about a path that ran from wedding photography and marketing, to viral spin-art paintings on TikTok, to documenting his time as a police officer, and finally to full-time gun content. He hit a million YouTube subscribers in his first year, added another million the next, and brought that audience with him every time the content shifted. The throughline is approachability. His signature good question reply started on TikTok as a way to handle the flood of questions he could not all answer, and it became the welcoming tone that set his channel apart in a space he describes as in your face and full of guys telling you there is only one way to do things. Johnny explains who he actually makes content for: the roughly 30-year-old with a family who does not know much about guns but wants to protect the people he loves. He came to believe everybody should own a gun to protect themselves and their family, and his time as a cop is what drove it home. His audience skews 28 to 35, older and more capable than people assume, and he watches them progress from how do you hold a gun to questions about holding zero and competition shooting. He talks candidly about the haters, the SWAT and Navy SEAL viewers who called his department to complain, and the constant accusation of being a shill, which he argues is a double standard unique to the gun industry. He runs the channel like a business, takes no affiliate cuts on his discount codes, and says he calls out a product on camera when something is wrong. The back half digs into harder ground. Johnny breaks down Minnesota self-defense and carry law, including his own traffic stop where he learned the hard way that the state requires you to inform an officer you are carrying. He covers YouTube tightening restrictions, why he stays on the platform anyway for the reach, and why he doubts it will ever return to its open early days. He closes on the call from the Gundies to stop the infighting, with a direct message to the creators and commenters pouring out hate: reflect, fix yourself, and stop adding fuel to the fire of people who already say guns kill people. Questions this episode answers How did Johnny Q go from wedding videography and viral spin-art paintings to firearms content? Johnny Q started in wedding photography, videography, and marketing, then went viral during COVID posting spin-art paintings on TikTok. He carried that audience through every shift in his content until he moved to making firearms content full time. Why did he become a police officer, and how did that shape his gun content? Johnny became a police officer and documented his time on the job, and that experience convinced him everybody should own a gun to protect themselves and their family. It became the core why behind his fi

Cakes Concealed Carry started as a personal problem, not a business plan. Its founder got her CCW license in California, where the instructors told her repeatedly that off-body carry was not acceptable. She bought the gear they recommended, spent hundreds of dollars on holsters and a stiff CCW belt, and found none of it fit her lifestyle or body type. She kept asking one question: what would make her actually choose to carry every single day? Off-body was the answer. She tried tactical bags that announced she had a gun, then tried rigging her own purses and realized how unsafe that was. Finally her husband offered to design one bag for her as a gift, at the cost of a prototype. That single bag became a brand that sold roughly 6,000 bags in its first year and won Emerging Brand of the Year at the Gundies. The design goal was specific. She wanted a purse that looked feminine, fit her outfit, stayed discreet, and could still meet the technical bar the instructors used to dismiss off-body carry: sub 1.5-second shots on target. The Cakes system grew from there, including a waist chain she first added because it was cute and then found gave the bag three points of stability for a one-handed draw while moving. The conversation also covers how feminine carry has become its own category, with Project Gunway and other brands now entering the space. Her position on competition is plain. Cakes has one goal, arm every woman, so if a customer carries with someone else's bag, that still counts. The back half is about California and the new gun owner. She walks through what it took to buy a gun and earn a permit in her county: the FSC firearm safety test her husband failed, a 30-day wait, proof of citizenship and matching utility bills, three references the sheriff calls to vouch for you, an in-person psychological exam at the sheriff's office, multiple fingerprint sessions, and a roughly $1,000 out-the-door cost. That experience moved her and her husband from liberal to libertarian. She argues the barriers slow down the law-abiding while criminals skip all of it, and she pushes the gun community to welcome new owners instead of overwhelming them with trigger-weight talk and politics. Cakes is on Instagram at cakes.concealed and is building a YouTube channel for carry education. Questions this episode answers Why did off-body carry, often dismissed in CCW classes, become the right answer for one new gun owner? After getting her CCW license in California, the Cakes Concealed Carry founder found the holsters and stiff belt her instructors recommended did not fit her body or lifestyle. Off-body carry was the only setup that made her willing to carry every single day. How did Cakes Concealed Carry go from a single prototype bag to roughly 6,000 bags sold in its first year? Her husband designed one concealed carry bag for her as a gift, at the cost of a prototype, after she found tactical bags too obvious and

Clint Smith, the founder of Thunder Ranch and a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran with two infantry tours in Vietnam and a long law enforcement career, joins State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee for an episode built around one blunt idea: a pistol is a tool of convenience, and a rifle is what ends a fight. Smith walks through how his thinking changed across more than 50 years, from the near-zero pistol instruction he got in the Marine Corps to his early run-ins with PPC, the Practical Pistol Course he says was anything but practical. He explains why the rifle came back into law enforcement after the April 1986 Miami FBI shooting, and why most gunfights happen at the width or length of a car, not at 50 yards. The heart of the conversation is competency and personal responsibility. Smith argues that owning a gun does not make a person competent, and that practice and mindset matter more than the specific handgun in your holster. He reframes the military's shoot, move, and communicate as communicate first, then move to cover, then shoot only if you have to, because every bullet fired has a lawyer attached to it and a jury that decides whether you acted responsibly. He covers backing up to create distance, the legal value of a defensive posture on camera, where to aim, and why a fight is fought to win rather than to a draw. He also recommends a short-barreled rifle with a suppressor and a white light for home defense, and corrects the common belief that rifle rounds pass through more interior walls than pistol rounds. Smith gets personal on the mental side: rehearsing scenarios, training to shoot with either hand, staying vigilant even when a larger partner is present, and the reality that carrying a gun is comforting rather than comfortable. He closes on safety, calling most negligent discharges incompetence rather than accidents, and on history, naming his top firearms and arguing that public education should be grounded more in history. The episode includes sponsor reads for Ammo Squared, Right to Bear, and Patriot Mobile, and ends with a reminder to register for GOALS, GOA's 50th anniversary convention, August 1st and 2nd in Des Moines, Iowa. Questions this episode answers What did Clint Smith change his mind about in training over 50 years? Smith says his thinking shifted from the near-zero pistol instruction he got in the Marine Corps and his early experience with PPC, the Practical Pistol Course, toward the view that most gunfights happen close in, at the width or length of a car rather than at 50 yards. Why does Clint Smith call a pistol a tool of convenience and the rifle the tool that ends a fight? He treats the handgun as something you carry because it is easy to have on you, not because it is the most effective option. To actually end a fight, Smith says you use a rifle, which is why the long gun returned to law enforcement after the April 1986 Miami FBI shooting. What

Stellar Arms co-owner Scott Melton joins Kaylee and John for the season three premiere of Gun Owners of America's State of the Second, recorded in the show's new studio. Stellar Arms is a smaller precision rifle manufacturer out of Lincoln, Nebraska, with roots in aerospace. Its founder, Ty, came from the aerospace world and started doing custom firearms work about 15 years ago, and the company's sister operation, originally called MASP Enterprises, still produces aerospace parts for companies like SpaceX and NASA. That aerospace background drives how Stellar builds firearms: tight tolerances, most parts made in-house, quality control on outsourced parts, and a willingness to scrap components that don't meet spec. Scott's argument is that a loose-tolerance AR will still function, but it won't hold accuracy, which is why every Stellar rifle ships with a lifetime warranty and a card signed by the armorer who checked, assembled, and test-fired it. A big stretch of the episode is about firearms as art. Stellar has stepped outside traditional marketing, including building the Maximus rifle in a collaboration with Andre Alofsky and delivering one to Dana White. Scott talks about the company's diamond-engraved Executive model, cut on a CNC machine with the upper, lower, and handguard attached so the lines transfer perfectly, and about working with engraver T Tariq of T's Gun Vault. He plans to release certain parts in a raw form this year so customers can Cerakote, paint, and customize their own builds. The conversation ties this to a cultural shift: more recognizable names are comfortable being public about firearms, and the group sees custom and limited-run guns as a lower barrier to entry that brings new people into the Second Amendment community. The back half moves into legacy and the why behind gun ownership. Scott frames Stellar's mission around building rifles you can pass down, the same way his great-grandfather's and grandfather's guns were passed to him. Kaylee connects that to defending the Second Amendment across generations, arguing the right has to be nurtured through experiences like range days, classes, and building an AR together, not just inherited by owning a safe full of guns. The Soapbox segment digs into attacks on firearm safety and hunter education in schools, the loss of community after COVID, the value of the trades, and how social media has pulled people away from real connection. Scott also makes the case that an armed citizenry has been a deterrent to foreign attack on the American mainland. The episode closes with Stellar's contact info, a thank-you to Palmetto State Armory for sponsoring guest gifts, and a push for GOALS, GOA's 50th anniversary event in Des Moines, Iowa, August 1st and 2nd. Questions this episode answers What is Stellar Arms, and how does its aerospace background shape how it builds rifles? Stellar Arms is a smaller precision rifle manufacturer in Lincoln, Nebrask

Ben Stacy of Forge Relations returns to State of the Second to talk about how firearms brands need to market as 2026 arrives. Hosts John Fahrner and Kaylee open with the core problem: the dedicated, everyday gun owners are already reached, so the real question is how to get the next group interested. Ben names them plainly, the young mother worried about her safety and the recent college grad into overlanding or sports, and argues the first move is going where the customer already is. That means TikTok and YouTube, the platforms new owners actually use, even when those platforms are hostile to the industry. Kaylee adds the women's-side view: empowerment has shifted from a buzzword to a daily reality, with moms seeking concealed carry options, stop the bleed training, and firearm safety classes for their kids. A theme runs through the whole conversation: people buy from people, not from companies. Ben pushes brands to be their own best content creator, find creators inside their community, tell the backstory, and show behind the curtain. He uses Palmetto State Armory as the example, both when products sell out and when a project gets canceled and Cameron gets on camera to explain why, the kind of transparency that earns trust. He and Kaylee argue that loyalty follows when values align, and that in the firearms space, where the product ties to a constitutional right, brands should draw a line in the sand rather than stay in the middle. John presses on the value proposition: new buyers care less about metal coatings and round counts and more about whether a product works, fits a budget, and can protect their family. The group also breaks down a real shift, that new owners want one multifaceted tool rather than a separate gun for each job. The closing Soapbox segment is the bluntest stretch. Ben's spicy take: get over yourself, go where the people are, work within the platforms' limits, and stop complaining that you cannot run ads. John shares hard experience building a TikTok page to 120,000, getting deplatformed, and rebuilding it twice, with a clip that hit a million views and produced sales. Both land on the same place: marketing is experimenting and being comfortable with failure, building a community over time, and staying consistent instead of giving up on a platform after a slow start. Ben's parting line ties it together: the more you try to sell your product, the less of it you will sell. Be genuine, stand for something, and connect with people. Forge Relations has been in the gun and defense space since 2013, online at forgerelations.com. Questions this episode answers Who are the new gun owners brands should be trying to reach in 2026? Ben Stacy points to the customers beyond the dedicated everyday gun owner, like the young mother worried about her safety and the recent college grad into overlanding or sports. The dedicated crowd is already reached, so growth comes from getting these next groups in

Adelina May joins State of the Second to talk about how women actually carry a firearm day to day, and why most of the conventional advice misses the people it claims to serve. She runs Girls Just Want to Have Guns, a company with women instructors and women attendees that teaches women across the country to go from anxious around a gun to confident enough to carry every day. Her path started young. She grew up with guns in the home, started training around age 12 when her dad pulled her into his church security team's range sessions, moved into competitive shooting, and has been a grandmaster for the last six years. Working at a manufacturer during Covid showed her how many people buy a gun and assume they can use it, and a conversation with her own mom, who couldn't unload the gun kept by the bed without being shown, convinced her most women in America had never actually been taught. Adelina's core argument is about meeting women where they already are. She builds her classes as events, not lectures, with branded pink gear, gift bags, raffles, and a group photo, so first-timers show up excited instead of intimidated. On gear, her first recommendation is always a good holster in hard plastic or Kydex with a clip that won't pull out when you draw, like an Ulti clip or DCC clip. On training, she focuses on conceptual understanding, real-life scenarios through her monthly gun club, and dry-firing from the actual position and outfit you carry in. She is direct about the parts of the industry that hold women back: gun-store staff who steer women to a gun because it's pink or small instead of what performs, product launches that only picture tactical models, and instructors who tear new shooters down or ban long nails from class. The hosts and Adelina dig into mindset and instruction, including why spouses often make poor teachers, how a single negative comment can take many positive ones to undo, and when an instructor should stop correcting and just let a student shoot. The conversation closes on the soapbox segment, where Adelina names what the industry still misses: relatability. She argues that if every model in the marketing is jacked, tactical, or a dark femme fatale, the average woman concludes the gun world isn't for her. Her fix is to show real people in real clothing doing real things, then train women to perform in what they actually wear, cute dress and heels included. Questions this episode answers What is the first accessory a new concealed carrier should invest in, and why? Adelina Mae's first recommendation is always a good holster in hard plastic or Kydex, paired with a clip that won't pull out when you draw, like an Ulti clip or DCC clip. A holster that stays put on the draw is the foundation everything else builds on. How does Girls Just Want to Have Guns make a firearms class feel like an event instead of an intimidating lecture? She builds her classes as events rather than

State of the Second welcomes back Dan and Danielle Morton, the husband-and-wife owners of Ammo Squared, for a wide-ranging conversation about ammunition as a stored asset and what real preparedness looks like. The Mortons started Ammo Squared in 2015 out of their garage and describe the company as building an ammunition safety net for America. Their model flips the usual transaction: you buy a generic need, like 9 millimeter practice, store it with the company, and have it shipped whenever you want. Since their last appearance the business has grown fast, from about 40,000 members to 147,000, and they just opened a second facility in Texas after celebrating a 10-year anniversary in Boise. Most of the episode digs into how a storage-first ammo company actually operates. Dan walks through the caliber-of-the-month approach, the lesson learned from once offering more than 500 calibers and getting stuck on ones they could not restock, and why widespread adoption has to exist before a caliber makes business sense. They talk through how shortages work on their side, where an auto buy keeps running and customers wait in line for allocation, and why major NATO calibers get prioritized by manufacturers during a crunch. Kaylee adds the consumer view, including how the platform simplifies choices for first-time gun owners by labeling rounds by purpose instead of brand, and the dopamine hit of watching an account grow in the background. The hosts and guests also riff on April Fools' products that accidentally revealed real demand, and Dan previews a next-generation platform that would let members speak or type what they want and use AI to build an ammo plan. The back half turns serious. Dan frames ammo as a store of value, comparing it to gold and silver and noting some customers have sold stored inventory back when they needed cash. In the From the Soapbox segment, the conversation moves to personal sovereignty, public education, and Second Amendment education, including GOA's reminder that rights are constitutionally protected rather than government granted. Ammo Squared's stated long-term vision is to store one billion rounds over the next ten years across 10 to 20 warehouses, positioning itself as America's ammunition reserve so future shortages lose their sting. Questions this episode answers What is Ammo Squared's business model, and how is it different from buying ammo through normal e-commerce or a gun store? Ammo Squared is a storage-first ammunition service: members buy a generic need like 9 millimeter practice, store it with the company, and have it shipped whenever they want. That flips the usual transaction, letting people build a stockpile in the background instead of buying and taking delivery all at once. How much has Ammo Squared grown since the founders' last appearance on the show? The company grew from about 40,000 members to 147,000 members. It also opened a second facility in Texa

State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John sit down with John "Chappie" Chapman, founder of the Task Force 70 Foundation. Chapman has been a law enforcement officer since 1992 and has spent most of that career as a SWAT operator and a trainer. He started his first civilian training company around 1998 after noticing there was not much actual force application training going on beyond the square range. Task Force 70 began about three years ago and went public roughly four months before this recording. Its mission is to train the small-town cops who get little or no training, the officers who make up the 70% of American law enforcement working for agencies that serve fewer than 10,000 people, often 12 officers or less. The foundation takes no government money, partners with GOA and Hillsdale College, and runs on private donations. The conversation gets into why the gap exists. Chapman walks through the three levels of police training and explains that the large departments have gotten better at training over the last 20 years while the bottom 70% rely on second- or third-hand material with no full-time training guy. He draws a hard line between qualification and training: qualification is a standardized test that a person can safely manipulate a firearm and accurately hit a target, while real police shootings turn on decision making, prudence, legal understanding, and contextual processing. Shooting, he says, is only maybe 10% of gunfighting. The foundation teaches five topics, and the first is constitutional judgment, because officers are taught case law and amendments rather than the Constitution itself, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, and the original meaning behind the Second Amendment's "well regulated." The episode also speaks directly to armed citizens. Chapman's advice for a traffic stop is plain: be polite, keep your hands where the officer can see them, and comply. The roadside is not the place to argue an unreasonable order; that fight belongs at the Article 3 level, in front of a judge. He tells CCW holders that having a permit is not training and urges them to seek contextual instruction, a force-on-force class, or a ride-along. He closes on trust between communities and their police, the idea that authority is responsibility rather than power, and a call for support at tf70.org/donate, where $20 a month funds training and enters donors in a monthly Bravo Company rifle giveaway. Questions this episode answers What is the Task Force 70 Foundation and why was it created? It is a privately funded nonprofit founded by John "Chappie" Chapman to train small-town police officers who get little or no training. It targets the 70% of American law enforcement working for agencies that serve fewer than 10,000 people, often with 12 officers or less. Why do most small-town police officers receive so little training? Large departments have improved their training over the last 20 yea

Gabby Franco joins State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John for a conversation that starts with a simple message for anyone who's been shooting for years: the basics still win. Before drilling speed, she says, work precision and transitions, because most shooters rush past the fundamentals. Franco brings 30-plus years behind a gun to the table. She started as an Olympic shooter at age 11 in Venezuela, worked six years as a gun shop sales rep after moving to the United States, and competed on Top Shot in seasons four and five. That range of experience shapes how she talks about the sport, the industry, and the people in it. Much of the episode draws on her firsthand view of Venezuela before and after socialism. She describes a country that once had stocked grocery stores and a thriving shooting culture, with the state even providing pistols and ammunition to junior athletes, and how that unraveled after Hugo Chavez came to power. Her warning to gun owners in restrictive states like California and New York is not to leave but to stay and fight, and to understand that culture shifts slowly when a generation grows up without ever learning what the Second Amendment is. She also pushes gun owners to change how they talk to people who disagree. Listen first, invite them to the range later, and let the experience do the convincing. The back half digs into identity and the industry. Franco breaks down why she rejects the idea of a monolithic gun culture, sharing stories about a range encounter in Texas and her own family, including a mother who supported her shooting career despite firing a gun maybe once in her life. She explains why the Hispanic firearms market is growing, crediting social media and good content for chipping away at an old stigma. The episode closes from the soapbox, where Franco and the hosts make the case that supporting the Second Amendment means doing something, taking a friend shooting, backing organizations doing the work, and asking big companies in the industry to stand up openly rather than stay quiet. Questions this episode answers Why do experienced shooters still need to focus on the fundamentals instead of speed? Gabby Franco says most shooters rush past precision and transitions in a hurry to shoot fast. After 30-plus years behind a gun, her message is that the basics still win, so work the fundamentals before drilling speed. What was Venezuela's gun culture like before socialism, and how did it change under Hugo Chavez? Franco describes a Venezuela that once had stocked grocery stores and a thriving shooting culture, where the state even provided pistols and ammunition to junior athletes. That unraveled after Hugo Chavez came to power, which shapes her warning about how quickly a free culture can be lost. What advice does Gabby Franco give gun owners living in restrictive states like California and New York? Her advice is not to leave but to stay a

Kristen from Laser Ammo joins hosts Kaylee and John on Gun Owners of America's State of the Second to make the case for dry fire training that people will actually do. She runs marketing and social media for Laser Ammo, shoots USPSA and IDPA competition, and trains women through her own firearms business. Her core message is simple: too many people don't practice, and too many get complacent about safety. Laser Ammo is a dry fire training company that has been around since 2009, started in Israel for defensive shooters, and holds about 13 patents. The conversation walks through how the products work. There's a drop-in laser where you rack the slide and pull the trigger, plus a partnership with Dry Fire Mag for what Laser Ammo calls the Surestrike mag, which auto-resets so you can pull the trigger without racking. The lineup also includes reactive targets with a built-in timer, recoil-enabled Airsoft guns fitted with a laser barrel, a flash bolt that replaces an AR's bolt carrier group, and the Smokeless Range home simulator. The simulator runs on a standard Windows computer with no apps needed, takes a quality projector pointed at a flat wall or screen, and ships with 10 core drills you can run solo or head-to-head, plus 13 different add-ons. Add-ons include a competition match builder you can share and the Video Scenario Trainer with branching scenarios and a hundred built-in situations. Kristen frames the value as cutting the barriers that stop busy people from practicing, like a range an hour away, bad weather, or kids at home, and points out that five or ten minutes a day fixing one flaw beats no practice at all. The back half gets into who Kristen trains and why. She works in the women's advocacy space because women learn differently and often get talked over at the range, and she pushes them to load their own magazines, clean their own guns, and use the right terminology. John backs her up with a warning for husbands not to train their own spouses. The episode also covers practicing the full draw, including racking the slide and dropping the safety, since those are the first things to fail under pressure. On the Soapbox segment, Kristen argues that gun owners need to get involved locally and politically, vote, do their research, and have hard conversations, while Kaylee ties it to going on offense for the Second Amendment, constitutional carry, and GOA's lawsuit against the NFA. You can find Laser Ammo at laserammo.com and Kristen personally at wtfkristen.com (Women Training Firearms). Questions this episode answers What is Laser Ammo and how long has the company been around? Laser Ammo is a dry fire training company founded in 2009, started in Israel for defensive shooters. It holds roughly 13 patents and builds laser-based tools that let people practice trigger work at home. How does dry fire training with a laser work, and do you need a phone or app? A drop-in laser fires when you

PTR vice president Bill Gentry joins hosts John and Kaylee in Myrtle Beach to break down the suppressor technology PTR is built around: PIP, or purposefully induced porosity. It is a 3D-printed approach Gentry describes as titanium foam or inconel foam, built as a single monolithic piece from nose to tail. He says it cannot be machined and could only be 3D printed, and that on a nine millimeter the result is a gun where the action is now louder than the shot. He frames the earliest suppressors as steel wool wrapped and banded on a barrel that worked for about five or six shots, then explains current manufacturing pushes that to a 50,000 to 60,000 round capability. Gentry believes the technology has roughly capped for now, with the better part of nine patents inside the can. The conversation covers PTR's roots and range. The company went to Portugal about 22 years ago and bought the data packages, licensing rights, and tooling for the G3 H&K rifle, then brought manufacturing to South Carolina with a lifetime warranty. Gentry walks through PTR's law enforcement push after the Ukraine war limited H&K component shipments out of Germany, including the LE-only Breacher shotgun and its civilian counterpart the Jack, both 12 gauge AOWs. He also shows a new MP5-pattern SBR built with Magpul and Timney, shipping with a Magpul stock, Magpul handguard, ambidextrous Magpul trigger housing, a Timney two and a half pound two-stage trigger, a 50-round drum, and PTR's first cold hammer forged barrel. Policy and culture run through the back half. Gentry expects a giant rush once the zero dollar tax stamp takes effect on January 1st, and recounts an NSSF meeting with the ATF director and deputy director where he heard the agency knew the rush was coming and was preparing for it. He shares his own story, from winning a trap shootout at 13 against the number three ranked shooter in the country, to leading Cobra and K-USA, to a smart gun chapter where he says he told off Eric Holder and shelved the technology rather than see it mandated. His through line: the firearms industry is a pack of wolves that defends its own but tears apart anyone who folds on the Second Amendment. Questions this episode answers What is PIP, or purposefully induced porosity, and why can it only be 3D printed instead of machined? PIP is the suppressor technology PTR is built around, which vice president Bill Gentry describes as a titanium or inconel foam printed as a single monolithic piece from nose to tail. He says it cannot be machined and could only be 3D printed. How quiet is a PTR suppressor, and what does Gentry mean when he says the action is louder than the shot? Gentry says PIP is so effective that on a nine millimeter the gun's own action becomes louder than the shot itself. The suppressor reduces the muzzle report below the mechanical noise of the cycling action. How many rounds can a modern PIP suppressor handle com

Dustin from Derya joins John and Kaylee on State of the Second to explain how a firearms brand can stand up its own name and start making guns in the United States in record time. He came to the gun industry through an accounting background. He is a CPA who worked big four public accounting at PwC after college at the University of Nevada, then joined Arms Corp / Rock Island through his longtime friend Martin Twassen during the company's hyper growth in the 2013 Obama era. He spent close to 12 years there before helping start Derya, which incorporated on March 28, 2024 and was manufacturing guns in the United States within a year. Most of the conversation is a practical look at how Derya runs. Dustin walks through why they chose Jacksonville, Florida for the US factory: it is close to the Savannah port where shipments from Turkey land, Florida is gun friendly and manufacturer friendly, and the labor pool already had manufacturing experience. He explains the company's pricing strategy of starting low to entice buyers, backed by efficient production across over 140 CNC machines in Turkey plus US machines. The DY9 is the flagship and most popular gun, and the team moved 95% of its production from Turkey to the United States. He previews a heavy 2026 lineup: the DY9Z at a $299 MSRP with a 15 round magazine and ten colors, releasing on Black Friday, the TM22 rimfire at $249 on January 1, and a new shotgun at the end of Q1, plus several more projects. Kaylee pushes the discussion toward women buyers, sharing her own struggle to find a concealable carry gun that fits a small hand and her advice that companies wanting to know what colors women want should look at Pinterest wedding palettes. Dustin says women are a big market for Derya and that the brand is leaning into tutorial content and a woman's perspective to make the buying experience less intimidating for first time owners. In the Soapbox segment he gives measured takes on the Glock conversation in the industry and on US manufacturing, arguing tariffs make US investment more attractive but manufacturing here is not easy, and that the United States is the deciding factor for nearly every gun design. He closes by plugging the nonprofit Walk the Talk America, which works to bridge the gap between the firearms and mental health worlds. Questions this episode answers How did Dustin go from a big four accounting career at PwC to the firearms industry? Dustin is a CPA who worked big four public accounting at PwC after attending the University of Nevada. His longtime friend Martin Twassen brought him into the gun industry at Arms Corp / Rock Island, where he stayed close to 12 years before helping start Derya. When did Derya incorporate, and how fast did it start manufacturing guns in the United States? Derya incorporated on March 28, 2024, and was manufacturing guns in the United States within a year of starting. Why did Derya choose Jacks

Yehuda, known online as the Pew Pew Jew, joins hosts Kaylee and John on State of the Second to trace how he went from a spoiled LA kid who thought only police, military, and bad guys could own guns to one of the most recognizable voices for Jewish gun owners. He explains that he got into the industry by accident. After his parents had what he calls a Chernobyl meltdown over learning he owned a Glock 19, he set out to teach his own kids gun safety, went looking on Amazon for a children's book on the subject, and found none existed. So he wrote one. It took five years to get published because no one would touch it, and once it was out he was suddenly being called a gun safety expert on podcasts and radio. Much of the conversation centers on what it means to be a Jewish gun owner. Yehuda pushes back hard on rabbis who say Jews should not own guns, pointing to a 2,500-year warrior heritage and arguing the community has only been anti-gun since 1945. He says post October 7th there was a massive uptick in Jewish firearms owners, but that many stay quiet about it, and his mission is to get them to be loud instead. He also breaks down how draconian Israel's gun laws actually are compared to the US, and reflects on his own move from California to Texas, where a gunsmith removed his bullet button for free and welcomed him to the state. The back half turns lighter. In the From the Soapbox segment, Yehuda gives his spicy take that his favorite gun company is High Point, because they know exactly who they are and are willing to joke about themselves while the rest of the industry takes itself too seriously. He and John trade ideas for joke products, and both land on the same theme that runs through the episode: take someone to the range, pass the experience on to the next person, and have fun with it. Kaylee ties it back to building momentum for the Second Amendment, from fighting the NFA to changing hearts and minds one first-time shooter at a time. Questions this episode answers How did the Pew Pew Jew get into the firearms industry? He got into it by accident as a first-time Glock 19 owner. After his parents melted down over learning he owned a gun, he set out to teach his own kids gun safety, couldn't find a children's book on the subject, and wrote one himself, which led to podcasts and radio calling him a gun safety expert. Why did he write a children's book on gun safety, and how long did it take to publish? He wrote it because he went looking on Amazon for a children's book to teach his own kids gun safety and found that none existed. It took five years to get published because no one would touch it. What does he say to rabbis and others in the Jewish community who are anti-gun? He pushes back hard, pointing to a 2,500-year Jewish warrior heritage and arguing the community has only been anti-gun since 1945. His mission is to get Jewish gun owners who stay quiet to be loud about

John and Kaylee sit down with Zach, the owner of Tactical Advisor, to dig into a question every gun buyer has asked: can you trust a paid gun review? Zach explains why he built his channel around a 30-second breakdown that hands you the verdict up front, so you can leave or stay and hear the reasoning. He works by himself, films out of his closet, and treats research like a discipline. The conversation moves quickly into the realities of being a creator in this space: YouTube's shifting rules, demonetization over words like "thermal," a strike that locked him out for a week, and why he runs on every platform he can instead of betting on one. The heart of the episode is money and honesty. Zach and John agree creators should be paid, because a review can cost thousands in ammo, camera gear, and editing time, and YouTube revenue is pennies. The harder part is the gray area. Zach is blunt that when a check comes in every month, it gets harder to say negative things, so he refuses non-competes and has zero contracts that dictate what he can say. His rule is that brands pay for the work and the viewership, not the opinion. When a product is bad, he tells the company first and asks whether it's a one-off or a real issue, and he has declined to post a positive review on something that simply didn't work even when the company pushed for it. The group also makes a case for fun. Not every gun needs to be the deadliest, fastest option, and platforms like the GOAT 15 and cool novelty guns can pull new people in. Kaylee frames the through-line around the first-time owner who goes to YouTube to learn, and why censoring creators' language hurts that person most. Zach praises Rumble as a free-speech outlet while arguing against building a 2A-only echo chamber, and he recalls GOA's GOALS show as a relaxed, family-friendly event with real time to talk to companies. He closes on transparency and on inviting his own audience to keep him in check with constructive criticism. Questions this episode answers Should gun content creators get paid, and does payment compromise an honest review? Zach and John argue creators should be paid because a single review can cost thousands in ammo, camera gear, and editing time while YouTube revenue is pennies. Payment does not have to compromise honesty, but it creates a gray area that takes discipline to manage. How does a reviewer stay honest when a brand pays them every month? Zach is blunt that a recurring monthly check makes it harder to say negative things, so he sets a firm rule: brands pay for the work and the viewership, not the opinion. When a product is bad he tells the company first and asks whether it is a one-off or a real issue. Why does Zach refuse non-competes and contracts that dictate what he can say? Zach refuses non-competes and keeps zero contracts that require him to say specific things, so no brand can dictate his verdict. He has even de

Rich Angstadt, president and founder of Angstadt Arms, joins State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee to trace how a personal want became a company built on innovation. Angstadt's grandfather got him into firearms young, and his family history runs back to the 1700s and 1800s, when the Angstadts were master gunsmiths crafting Kentucky long rifles and smooth bore muskets. Around 2011, after exiting a previous company, Rich had free time, was shooting IDPA and IPSC competitions, and wanted a 9mm AR built around a Glock pistol magazine while keeping all the AR15 controls. He took the design to SHOT Show in 2015, picked up big distributors and dealers, and helped shape what became the pistol caliber carbine market. The first gun was the UDP-9, a straight blowback AR9 on Glock magazines. The conversation moves through the company's product arc and what drives Angstadt to keep building. Selection by the US Army for its subcompact weapon trials forced a sub-15-inch length requirement that pushed development of a modified cycle system with Deadfoot Arms. Angstadt didn't win that contract (B&T did), but the work gave birth to the MDP, a roller delayed AR9 that runs on Glock magazines, weighs three and a half pounds, and shoots flat and low-recoil like an MP5. Rich explains why the company chases innovation over the industry's me-too habit, and how metal 3D printing (laser sintering titanium, not polymer) gives speed to market. A new design can be printed, heat treated, and test fired in under a week, which lets the team try ideas that a full manufacturing line would never justify. Testing remains the part that can't be rushed, and contracts often dictate the accuracy and reliability standards. The second half turns to suppressors and the NFA. Suppressor sales have surged on faster approval times, dropping from up to 12 months to as little as a day, and the $200 tax stamp goes to zero on January 1, 2026. Rich predicts deeper integration between firearm and suppressor, more integrally suppressed designs, and suppressors becoming a normalized product gun owners buy in multiples. He's bullish the NFA's days are numbered but less certain short barrel rifles will take off the way suppressors have, given how well pistol braces already serve that role. Kaylee details GOA's lawsuit to gut the NFA, explaining that the zero-dollar tax stamp creates the legal grounds to sue because the Supreme Court previously held the NFA could stand only because it was regulated under a tax. The group discusses normalizing gun culture, getting first-time owners into the fold, range rental programs, and starting new shooters on suppressed .22 so they never develop a flinch. Rich closes by pointing listeners to Angstadt Arms and asking them to support their local gun stores. Questions this episode answers How did Angstadt Arms get started, and what was the first gun the company built? Rich Angstadt founded Angstadt Arms around 2011 after exi

Goat Guns build scale model guns you assemble and display, and on this episode of State of the Second, hosts Kaylee and John talk with Anthony from Goat Guns about how a video game idea turned into a fast-growing brand. Anthony explains the origin story: founder Brad Lunt started the company in 2017 after noticing that gamers pay real money for weapon skins in first-person shooters, and figured people would pay for tangible miniature guns too. The company started slow with a couple of basic models like the AR15, then took off when COVID hit and people stuck at home found them while scrolling Facebook. The first big break came from Sig Sauer, who asked Goat Guns to make a miniature MCX Rattler. Now the other big gun companies come to them. Anthony walks through how a model actually gets made. The team starts with the most popular, recognizable guns, gets 3D files from sources or manufacturers, then has engineers shrink the file and rework parts that become weak points at small scale. They 3D print and assemble handmade prototypes, test for weak points, send feedback, and only after the licensee approves do they move to packaging. The process takes about two years on average, sometimes three. He covers product decisions too: which parts ship pre-assembled so the models aren't intimidating to build, how the flashlight accessory went from a non-working prop to a real working light once the engineers solved it, and the limited edition runs numbered 1 to 600 that sell out in days and land on eBay for at least $200. The company is up to about 32 models with six or seven more in the works. The back half turns to community and culture. Anthony says Goat Guns was one of the most popular booths at GOA's GOALS convention, with Navy SEALs, kids, and women all geeking out, and that the GOA crowd had a noticeably friendlier, more engaged feel than other shows. The hosts and Anthony land on the bigger point: the models bridge a gap. They give people who are intimidated by guns a safe, non-firing way to learn the mechanics, they work as a family activity, and teachers have reached out calling them an educational tool. Kaylee ties it to GOA's mission of building an on-ramp from gun-curious to gun owner. Anthony also talks about Facebook ad pushback and how the brand keeps content family-friendly to keep ads running, credits the roughly 7,000-member Goat Guns Addicts fan group for the brand's social reach, and points listeners to goatguns.com plus retailers like Bass Pro and Cabela's. Questions this episode answers How did Goat Guns get started, and what was the original idea behind it? Founder Brad Lunt started Goat Guns in 2017 after noticing that gamers pay real money for weapon skins in first-person shooters and figured people would pay for tangible miniature guns too. The company began slowly with a few basic models like the AR15. What role did COVID play in Goat Guns' growth? The brand took off during

State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John sit down with Sean Patrick Terrio, a tech executive and digital privacy advocate who co-founded mark37.com. The conversation opens with rapid fire questions and turns into a full primer on why the phones, watches, cars, and smart-home devices we carry every day are, in Terrio's words, surveillance tracking devices. He frames the whole problem with a gun analogy gun owners will feel: you would never carry a firearm into a fight if it streamed your location, audio, and video straight to the enemy, yet that is exactly what an iPhone or Android phone does when the companies behind it fund causes opposed to the values of the people using them. Terrio spent his career in Silicon Valley and the data center industry, where he saw how the back end really works, and he walks the hosts through the core ideas: what privacy actually means (granting access only to people you choose), the Fourth Amendment, the addiction that devices are engineered to create, and how cars now report your driving data to manufacturers and insurers. His repeated point is that the question is not whether you can do something on your phone, but whether you should. He argues most people are not tech savvy the way they are gun savvy, and the fix starts with learning the basics rather than reaching for advanced tools like a VPN before understanding them. On the practical side, Terrio explains what mark37.com sells: de-Googled phones and laptops running GrapheneOS, an open-source operating system built on Android. The devices are carrier agnostic, run the apps people rely on through sandboxed Google Play Services, and let users keep their number by moving the SIM and telling Apple or Google to stop routing their calls and texts. He covers pricing (phones from around $400, laptops from the high $500s), the free 15 to 30 minute privacy consultations his team offers, and a roadmap on the site. Listeners get a 5 percent discount at mark37.com/goa, with a percentage of every sale going back to GOA. The episode closes with the reminder about GOALS 2026, GOA's 50th anniversary celebration in Des Moines, Iowa on August 1st and 2nd. Linksmark37.comQuestions this episode answers What does digital privacy actually mean, and why does the Fourth Amendment matter to it? Sean Patrick Terrio defines privacy as granting access to your data only to people you choose, and he ties it to Fourth Amendment protections. His core test is not whether you can do something on a device, but whether you should. Are our phones really listening to and recording us all day? Terrio argues that phones, watches, cars, and smart-home devices function as surveillance tracking devices that monitor users constantly. He spent his career in Silicon Valley and the data center industry, where he saw how the back end of this in

Matt from Magic Prepper joins John and Kaylee to make the case that preparedness starts long before a firearm, and that one of the most valuable tools you can own costs about twenty dollars. Asked for the best prepping tool under $20, Matt names a water filter, pointing to the Sawyer Mini, which he says can filter up to 100,000 gallons and attaches to a smart water bottle, a bladder, or runs on its own. He explains why water sits near the top of the survival list, second only to air, and why having clean water for $20 or less is hard to beat. Matt shares the story behind the channel. After being held at gunpoint and beaten while living in California, he chose to take responsibility for his own defense rather than wait on institutions. He bought his first gun, a pistol-grip-only Mossberg 590, learned the hard way how restrictive California's laws were, and eventually earned a CCW in El Dorado County. A move to North Dakota gave him land, freedom, and the isolation that made being prepared matter even more. He walks through his five-step framework: identify your limitations, plan for the basics of food, water, communications, and first aid, then add self-defense, financial readiness, and finally reinforce and expand what you have. The conversation turns sharp in the Soapbox segment. Matt's hot take is that the firearms industry needs more transparency, especially honest conversations about why a budget product skips certain steps. That sets off a long exchange about new shooters: guns shipping with a single magazine, salespeople who push what's cool over what a buyer actually needs, and the missing on-ramp for first-time owners. John, drawing on his manufacturing and marketing background, and Kaylee, focused on accessibility and education, both argue the responsibility runs across manufacturers, gun stores, and ranges. Matt closes by introducing the Task Force 70 Foundation (tf70.org), a nonprofit working to ground law enforcement training in constitutional principle, and his new product, the MP field tool. Questions this episode answers What is the best prepping tool you can buy for under $20? Matt names a water filter as the best preparedness tool under $20, pointing to the Sawyer Mini. He says it can filter up to 100,000 gallons and attaches to a smart water bottle, a bladder, or runs on its own. Why does Matt rank water filtration so high on the preparedness list? Matt puts water near the top of the survival list, second only to air, because the body needs it more than almost anything else. Having clean water for $20 or less is hard to beat on value. What experience pushed Matt toward self-reliance and starting Magic Prepper? While living in California, Matt was held at gunpoint and beaten, which pushed him to take responsibility for his own defense instead of waiting on institutions. He bought his first gun and started the Magic Prepper channel in 2019 after moving to No

John and Kaylee sit down with Tim, the founder of 2A Bourbon, for a conversation about how a retirement plan turned into a Second Amendment bourbon brand built to give money away. Tim is a lawyer and lifelong serial entrepreneur who has owned a nightclub, a bottled water company, and a digital label company he ran for 16 years. He says he will turn 75 next month, and he explains that the idea came from a single moment on a golf course over Memorial Day weekend of 2022. He sliced a ball on the 18th hole and it landed on the name of his son-in-law's twin brother, a fallen North Carolina soldier killed in Iraq, written in chalk down the fairway as part of a Folds of Honor tribute. From there he decided to build a charity, heard on a podcast that a charity needs a following, and landed on guns and bourbon. Tim walks through the build. He locked the name, the .com, and the trademark in about 15 minutes, then got his label approved by the government in three days when most people told him a Second Amendment label would never get cleared. He took three people to Kentucky to taste bourbons because he wanted real Kentucky bourbon rather than going to the well-known Indiana distillery, and he found a bottler known as the Bourbon Rabbi. The brand pairs gun-company toppers with each run, capped at 20,000 cases to stay collectible, and the current edition carries Smith & Wesson, who licensed their name and logo for free because they did not want to be in the revenue stream. Tim says he has not taken a penny from the company and has raised over a quarter of a million dollars in two years for groups including Folds of Honor, Stop Soldier Suicide, and a ruck walk in Clearwater, Florida. His reasons run personal: a brother who died by suicide at 18 and a son-in-law's family touched by war. The back half moves into advocacy. Tim, a lawyer, argues that Congress is for sale and that enough money could push gun rights out of reach, which is why he supports GOA and the Second Amendment Foundation, the groups he says are in court keeping the rights. The hosts and Tim trade thoughts on D.C. v. Heller, grassroots versus elite funding of gun groups, and Senator Tim Kaine's claim that rights come from government. Tim's soapbox is a plea to get along across the aisle, framed by his mother's line that the Second Amendment is like a bird that needs a right wing and a left wing to fly. The episode closes on voting with your dollar, the GOA 50th anniversary in Iowa, and a half-serious plan to do a GOA barrel pick. Questions this episode answers What is 2A Bourbon and why did Tim start it? 2A Bourbon is a Second Amendment bourbon brand built to give its proceeds away to veteran and gun-rights causes. Tim, a lawyer and serial entrepreneur, started it to turn a retirement plan into a charity, choosing guns and bourbon as the following a charity needs. How did a moment on a golf course lead to the founding of 2A Bourbon? Ove

Gun Owners of America hosts Kailey and John sit down with Nathan Mitchell, owner of Mitchell Defense, for a deep look at what actually makes an AR reliable. Nathan comes from a military background as a Recon corpsman and an oil field background, where he ran a pipe inspection business and learned how corrosive, high friction environments get engineered around with coating technology, spring technology, and manufacturing processes that reduce friction. He brings that same whole-body, problem-first thinking to rifles. His point is direct: a lot of the firearm industry solves problems it invented, while ignoring the real pain points inside the upper receiver, the bolt carrier group, and the springs. The technical core of the episode is friction, springs, and ejection patterns. Nathan explains why a direct impingement system gums up, how a carbon cutter and sand cutter mechanically clear dirt and debris, and why thermal fitting the barrel keeps accuracy stable as the barrel heats up. He breaks down the difference between round wire and flat wire springs: round wire only lasts about 8,000 cycles before it loses its springiness and is weakest exactly when it strips rounds from the magazine, while Mitchell Defense's flat wire buffer system runs far longer, gives more even forward pressure, and cuts felt recoil. He argues mil-spec should not be the baseline, walks through what mil-spec actually means on bolts and accuracy, and shares an independent endurance test that ran 17,554 rounds without cleaning or lube before the first failure, plus a carbon cutter sent to a machine gun range in Vegas that passed over 20,000 rounds in Colt M4s. The back half turns to policy and people. Kailey and John lay out where the NFA stands after the tax dropped to zero, what that could mean for SBRs, SBSs, suppressors, and AOWs, and why machine guns stay regulated under the 1986 Hughes Amendment. Nathan describes the real business pain of a slow industry waiting on January. The conversation closes on two things every gun owner can act on now: support local brick and mortar dealers, who should be subject matter experts who match the right gun to the right person instead of pushing incentive products, and go train with a quality trainer, because training exposes the small details, like a failed gun or a forgotten sight, that no theory prepares you for. Questions this episode answers What actually makes one AR more reliable than another? Reliability comes from reducing friction inside the upper receiver, bolt carrier group, and springs, using coatings, better spring technology, and manufacturing that solves the rifle's real pain points. Nathan Mitchell argues much of the industry instead solves problems it invented while ignoring those failure points. Should mil-spec be treated as the baseline standard for a rifle? Nathan Mitchell says mil-spec should not be the baseline. He walks through what mil-spec actually means f

State of the Second welcomes back Adam from Canik USA, the company's VP of Business Development and Marketing, for his second appearance on the show. Hosts John and Kaylee open with a round of rapid-fire questions before moving into where handgun design is heading. Adam walks through the arc from bulky high-capacity pistols to the micro compact wave that Springfield Armory and Sig's 365 helped start, and then to the more practical, fuller guns the market wants now. He uses the Canik Prime and the MC9 sitting on the table as examples, pointing to features like a compensator, optics-ready slides, night sights, co-witnessing, and an included G-Code holster as proof that companies are now putting real value straight in the box instead of leaving it to the aftermarket. A big thread is Canik's investment in U.S. manufacturing. Adam explains that the Prime is built in a 162,000 square foot West Palm Beach facility with more than 100 employees, a step the company took partly because importation of firearms could be restricted by an executive order. He describes the Turkish and American workers as one team and frames domestic production as protection for the company's mission. The conversation then turns to the GOA Canik MC9 collaboration, the company's California launch, and the 187 billboards Canik put up across the state. The city of Oakland forced the billboards down under a permit rule that singled out guns, and Adam recounts how Gun Owners of California and GOA stepped in to fight it. The episode also becomes a tribute to Sam, the GOA figure who recently passed away, with Adam and the hosts reflecting on his character and his approachable style of debate. They also talk about Rob Young, who took over at Gun Owners of California. From the soapbox segment, Adam delivers a pointed take on the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the danger of clips taken out of context, and the responsibility to do your own research and have real conversations. The hosts and Adam also dig into tariffs and thin firearm margins, the future of surplus and Century Arms imports including the AP5 line, and close with a lighthearted run through everyone's dream guns. Questions this episode answers Where is handgun design heading after the micro compact wave? After the micro compact wave that Springfield Armory and Sig's 365 helped start, Adam sees the market moving toward more practical, fuller-size guns. He argues the consumer, not the manufacturer, should now drive what features a pistol carries. Why is Canik building the Prime in the United States instead of importing it? Canik USA built the Prime in a 162,000 square foot West Palm Beach facility partly because firearm importation could be restricted by an executive order. Adam frames domestic production as protection for the company's mission and a strong U.S. presence. What features come standard on the Canik Prime and MC9? Adam points to a c

Isaac Botkin of T. Rex Arms joins Gun Owners of America hosts Kaylee and John to talk about why a holster company spends so much of its time on Second Amendment advocacy. The company is owned by four brothers plus a brother-in-law and operates out of Centerville, Tennessee, about an hour west of Nashville. Eleven years in, T. Rex Arms sells holsters as its flagship product but has grown into nylon goods, plate carriers, chest rigs, weapon lights, magazines, red dots, optics, thermal and night vision, and medical gear. Isaac describes the business as a curated full-service operation rather than the Amazon of the tactical space, and he frames the brand name as a joke: they specialize in small arms. Much of the conversation centers on mission over sales. Isaac explains that T. Rex spent the last few weeks pushing to legalize suppressors even though the company does not sell them, and he describes a holster as a starting point that helps move people from buying a gun and putting it in a closet to actually carrying and accepting the responsibilities that come with it. He calls T. Rex a second amendment and sixth commandment company, ties carrying to the duty to stop a murderer, and lays out their goal of building a broad, decentralized citizen defense industry rather than becoming a single giant source. He encourages new advocates to meet people where they are: you do not need 10,000 hours of range time to teach the four rules of gun safety and take someone to the range. The back half gets into politics and innovation. Isaac names Thomas Massie as his ideal pro-gun candidate, an engineer who understands automation and economics, and points to Senator Bill Haggerty's focus on manufacturing and reindustrializing the country. His biggest pet peeve with politicians is cowardice on issues voters actually want them to touch, like the 90-year-old short-barreled weapon ban. He argues that artificial limits, from the NFA tax stamp to rules blocking domestic rare earth magnets and lithium battery production, stifle the innovation firearms have historically driven, citing Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts. He warns that the idea that government can declare a shape of matter illegal poisons the freedom to think and build well beyond firearms. He closes by pointing listeners to the T. Rex Arms YouTube channel and their podcast, T Rex Talk. Questions this episode answers What is T. Rex Arms and what does the company actually sell? T. Rex Arms is a family-owned tactical company in Centerville, Tennessee, owned by four brothers plus a brother-in-law and eleven years in business. Holsters are its flagship, but it has grown into plate carriers, chest rigs, weapon lights, magazines, optics, thermal and night vision, and medical gear. Why does a holster company spend so much time on Second Amendment advocacy? Isaac Botkin frames advocacy as the mission behind the products, putting cause over sales. He sees a h

Special Operations Wounded Warriors (SOWW) started the way a lot of good things do: a few guys around a campfire with a problem to solve. Joel Pellici, one of the charity's five founders, tells hosts Kaylee and John how a feral hog problem at a hunting club near Fort Bragg turned into a wild pig hunt for wounded special operators, then grew into a charity that has touched lives in the hundreds. The core idea has stayed simple from day one. Get like-minded guys who carry similar traumas out into nature, and trust that if you sit around a campfire long enough, you can fix just about anything. Over the years SOWW built out three main programs. The original immersion in nature through hunting, fishing, sporting clays, and golf came first. After losing the man Joel calls their early poster child to suicide, the founders realized they needed to do more, so they started a canine program in his honor and added the Operator Reset, a week-long treatment for individuals dealing with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and family issues. Joel shares the stories that stick with him, including a wounded warrior who outran everyone on a prosthetic leg and never complained, and a man on roughly 17 medications who slept without them after just three hours in the program. He also walks through how a service dog gave one veteran his purpose and protection back, opening doors as ordinary as taking his kids to Disney World. The conversation turns to policy in the back half. Joel makes a direct argument that the government should be taking responsibility for the people it sends to war, and that nonprofits like his shouldn't have to exist to care for those who sacrificed so much. He explains the real costs behind a single service animal, between 25 and 50 thousand dollars depending on training, and how SOWW keeps 91 to 95 percent of contributions going directly to its purpose because the board takes no money by its own bylaws. He closes with the three best ways to help: donate any amount, help find people who need the program, and volunteer. The episode wraps with a gift for Joel from AAC Ammo and Palmetto State Armory. Questions this episode answers What does SOWW stand for and who does the charity serve? SOWW stands for Special Operations Wounded Warriors. The charity focuses primarily on special operations personnel from all branches of US service, immersing veterans who carry similar traumas in nature and treatment programs. How did Special Operations Wounded Warriors get started? It began when a feral hog problem at a hunting club near Fort Bragg turned into a wild pig hunt for wounded special operators. That hunt grew into a charity, founded by five men around the simple idea that like-minded guys around a campfire can fix just about anything. What are SOWW's three main programs? SOWW runs immersion in nature through hunting, fishing, sporting clays, and golf; a canine service-dog program; and th

Clay from Bullet Vault joins hosts Kaylee and John on Gun Owners of America's State of the Second to walk through the idea behind his company: an alternative currency and payment system built on bullets, recorded on the blockchain. Clay's argument is that an American-made, full metal jacket, consistent grain weight 9mm bullet fits the textbook definition of money. In his words it is a precious metal with functional utility that is more transferable than a bar of gold. Through Bullet Vault, a customer buys a real physical bullet, takes title to it, and the company stores it in secure warehouses that already carry the FFL and SOT requirements from its gun businesses. The owner can transfer it to a friend like a Venmo, ship it to themselves to shoot, trade it into other calibers, or sell it back to the network for liquidity. Clay says the model solves the liquidity problem that has always limited ammo as a store of value. The conversation traces why Clay built it. He and his partners own Lone Wolf and Primary Weapon Systems, and roughly a week after closing on Lone Wolf they lost their credit card processing because their processor was backed by Bank of America, which runs periodic sweeps and drops any business near a guns or ammo SIC code. That experience, which he ties to Operation Choke Point, convinced him the payments chokehold is the real threat to the industry. He built Bullet Vault on the blockchain so it would not depend on the handful of transaction processors that made the squeeze possible, and he built it compliant with know your customer laws from the very first transaction so a future administration could not shut it down as money laundering. Around the product talk, Clay and the hosts dig into policy and culture. Clay is hopeful but cautious about the reconciliation bill zeroing out the $200 suppressor tax stamp, and he is frustrated that Congress will not fully repeal the NFA while Republicans hold the White House and both chambers. Kaylee details GOA's two letters, one from industry manufacturers and one from influencers, pushing to remove suppressors and short barrel rifles from the NFA, plus the push to add the SHORT Act in the Senate. They also discuss Gen Z trending libertarian after COVID, GOA's 2A Defenders college program and its Chambered for Success career segment, and the shared problem of being blocked on social platforms. Clay tells his own story, from Stanford swimmer to Navy service to tech to running for governor of Georgia, and ends by pointing listeners to bulletvault.com. Questions this episode answers What is Bullet Vault and how does buying a bullet through it actually work? Bullet Vault is an alternative currency and payment system built on real physical bullets and recorded on the blockchain. A customer buys an actual bullet and takes title to it, the company stores it in secure FFL- and SOT-licensed warehouses, and the owner can transfer it to a friend like a Venmo, sh

Tre'Von Barber joins State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John to make the case that firearms training is an investment in your life, not an optional extra. Barber walks through his own path: born and raised in Rock Hill, South Carolina, he grew up wrestling and in Boy Scouts, wrestled through college at USC Upstate, and got into guns at 21. After a back injury ended his wrestling, he went straight into competition, found a competition coach on YouTube, and started teaching concealed weapon permit and basic handgun classes about two years into gun ownership before moving up to higher-level marksmanship for competitors and law enforcement. The conversation centers on new gun owners and how to start right. Barber explains where to find local competitions (practiscore.com), how a squad will walk a first-timer through the rules, and why reliability matters more than chasing the cheapest option. His line for cheap-gun shoppers is blunt: how cheap is your life? He pushes education over impulse buys, says there is no such thing as a girl gun, only a gun that fits your hand, and stresses that South Carolina's constitutional carry removes the permit requirement but not the responsibility to know the laws and operate safely. Kaylee ties this to GOA's view of personal responsibility, framing training, ammo, the optic, and the holster as an investment in your own value and safety. Barber covers self-defense insurance through Right to Bear, where he now manages social media, influencers, affiliates, and content. He explains it covers both civil and criminal defense, includes a member portal and attorney access within 24 to 48 hours, and costs about $17 a month. He shares his three most-skipped drills (the five by five, the bill drill, and strong-hand/weak-hand shooting), recommends trainers and facilities like AR Tactics in Charlotte and Buck Doyle in Utah, and lays out his gear gripes as an instructor: no SERPA holsters, no cloth holsters, and always bring a belt. The episode closes on the firearms community itself, the people who lend a battery or a belt when something breaks, and Barber plugging his own business, Barber Training Solutions. Questions this episode answers Where should someone interested in competition shooting actually start, and how do they find local matches? Tre'Von Barber points new shooters to practiscore.com to find local competitions. At a first match, the squad walks the newcomer through the rules, so you can show up and learn the format on the spot. How much should a first-time buyer spend on a reliable handgun, and is a cheap gun worth the savings? Barber says reliability matters more than chasing the cheapest option, and challenges cheap-gun shoppers with the question of how cheap your life is. He frames the gun, ammo, optic, and holster as an investment in your own safety rather than a place to cut corners. What is the biggest mistake new firearm owners make when b

Joe from Desk Pop joins hosts Kaylee and John on Gun Owners of America's State of the Second to talk about how he built a firearms YouTube channel, why he sees gun content shifting from grim duty to genuine fun, and the phone call from the ATF that nearly ended both his channel and his freedom. Joe describes growing up on creators like FPS Russia, working as a gunsmith building custom rifles, and noticing a hole in the space once everything online turned into serious military-vet content. He wanted firearms to feel approachable again, and he wasn't the only one. He frames the cultural change as a younger generation rejecting the idea that you need a service record or a bolt-action rifle to belong, and instead building a welcoming community around training, competition, and the right to own what you want. The heart of the episode is the ATF story. Joe sold two handguns in two months, both at a loss, to help fund his videos. An ATF agent he believes was named Michael called the gun shop where Joe worked, took his personal information, and told Joe he was operating as an FFL without a license by way of making firearms content online. When Joe explained he lost money on the sales, the agent said he didn't believe him, then called back an hour later threatening to send a car to pick him up unless Joe filed for an FFL. Joe and his team got their FFL SOT, an eight-month ordeal that required a member who owned a home, just to keep receiving guns for reviews. The hosts call it an attack on two constitutional rights at once, the Second Amendment and the First. Joe also lays out life in a restrictive state. Washington's rules push him to public land to shoot, Rainier Arms has moved most of its operations to Kansas, Aero Precision nearly left before the governor offered tax exemptions to keep it, and some manufacturers refuse to ship even to a licensed dealer. He points to groups like Discovery Daddies and ASI matches as on-ramps for new shooters, urges companies to fund local range events, and argues the real long game is teaching the next generation before they reach voting age. His closing message: if you live in a free state, don't take it for granted, and vote. Questions this episode answers How did Joe get started making firearms content, and what gap was he trying to fill? Joe came up watching creators like FPS Russia and worked as a gunsmith building custom rifles. He started Desk Pop because online gun content had turned almost entirely into serious military-vet material, and he wanted firearms to feel approachable and fun again. Why has gun culture shifted from a serious, duty-first tone to a more fun and welcoming one? Joe credits a younger generation that rejects the idea you need a service record or a bolt-action rifle to belong. They are building a community around training, competition, and the right to own what you want, which makes guns feel approachable again. What exactly ha

State of the Second welcomes Mark from Vortex Optics, who walks hosts Kaylee and John through a career that started in a Washington State hunting and fishing family and ran through outdoor retail and a copywriting job at Cabela's headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska before he found Vortex. He has been with the company a little over 16 years, started in the days he calls "old Vortex" when a lot of people wore a lot of hats, and now leads the brand's podcast. He opens with rapid fire picks, including the Razor HD LHT 3-15x42 as his favorite product, a gen 3 Glock 19 for home defense, and a firm stance for Mils over MOA when he plans to dial. The heart of the conversation is how to choose an optic and why Vortex stands behind what it sells. Mark explains the VIP warranty, which founders Dan and Margie Hamilton built on a customer-first philosophy: a lifetime, unconditional, no-fault warranty that repairs or replaces a product no matter its condition or how the damage happened. He shares warranty stories, from optics run over by trucks to a spotting scope that broke in half when it fell off a cliff and was duct-taped back together so the hunter could finish the hunt. On product selection, his advice is to start with the application, fit the choice to what you do 80% of the time, and resist the idea that more magnification is always better. He breaks down red dots, LPVOs, and higher-magnification scopes for AR use, and covers first versus second focal plane. The episode also gets into hunting culture and recruitment, with Mark arguing that sharing wild game with people who have never hunted is one of the most powerful ways to bring the next generation in. He points to tools like onX Maps and public land access as ways for lapsed hunters to get back out, and notes that budget rifles and gear have gotten much better. He talks about Vortex's customer engagement, how repeated customer comments led to green dots in the Defender series, and the company's military work, including the David versus Goliath story behind the XM157 fire control. He closes on Vortex's steadfast support for the Second Amendment. The episode is brought to you by Patriot Mobile (code GOA), with this season's guest gift provided by Palmetto State Armory and AAC Ammo, and a plug for GOALS in Knoxville, Tennessee, August 9th and 10th. Questions this episode answers What is the Vortex VIP warranty, and what does it actually cover? The VIP warranty is a lifetime, unconditional, no-fault warranty that repairs or replaces a Vortex product no matter its condition or how the damage happened. Founders Dan and Margie Hamilton built it on a customer-first philosophy, and Mark stresses that unlike warranties that look good on paper, Vortex means it. How should you choose between a hunting optic and a tactical optic for an AR? Start with the application and fit the optic to what you actually do about 80% of the time, rather than assuming more m

State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John sit down with Alyssa Seymour, known online as GunnyGal, and her husband Tanner. Alyssa runs a firearms YouTube channel covering competition, education, and concealed carry, with a side passion for fitness and CrossFit. Tanner is the one behind the camera and works in commercial and automotive content, including rally work and shooting in the firearm space. Together they break down how a firearms hobby crosses over with cars, overlanding, and fitness, and why those connections pull in people who would never call themselves gun people. Most of the conversation is a practical look at building a gun channel and bringing new people into the space. Alyssa explains how she started with short cell phone clips, then pushed toward long form educational videos right after SHOT Show, and how the audience took time to follow. Tanner talks through their scripting process, how they check SEO and competition before committing to a topic, and why long form is a slow build with evergreen payoff. They cover the reality of being a woman in the space, finding a middle ground between the gun bunny and LEO/military lanes, and explaining terms in a way a newcomer can actually understand. Their advice for getting better: be safe first, handle the gun until it feels natural, treat it as a hobby and a sport rather than a tool that sits in a safe, and learn from good instructors like Rick at Ohio Range Day. The Soapbox segment turns to the second amendment movement's weak spots. Alyssa and Tanner argue the community should lead with the fun, hobbyist side rather than politics or fear, and they tie that to international friends, including ones in Poland, who want rights they don't have. Kaylee frames rights as natural rights the Constitution protects rather than grants, and shares a story about an activist who immigrated from Australia after its gun buybacks. The pair close on censorship and YouTube demonetization, describing how nearly every video gets demonetized and appealed, and why gatekeeping firearms education leaves more people uneducated and against gun ownership. Linksevents.goa.org/goalsQuestions this episode answers Who is GunnyGal and how did Alyssa Seymour's firearms YouTube channel start? GunnyGal is firearms content creator Alyssa Seymour, who runs a YouTube channel covering competition, education, and concealed carry. She began with short cell phone clips and shifted toward long form educational videos right after SHOT Show. How do firearms, cars, overlanding, and fitness overlap as a single lifestyle? Alyssa and her husband Tanner frame guns as one part of a broader hobbyist lifestyle that connects to cars, overlanding, and fitness like CrossFit. Those crossover interests pull in people who would never call themselves gun people. What

State of the Second sits down with Kurt from TCRT Targets, the company behind self-healing rubber targets built for the home range. Kurt walks through how the product came to be. TCRT spent about three years on a proprietary rubber formulation made specifically for ballistics, rather than repurposing rubber from another use. The targets are rated for roughly 400 rounds of 5.56 per square inch, and Kurt has seen targets take 15,000 to 20,000 rounds and keep going. He has shot them with everything from 9mm and .45 up to .308, and recently put 50 BMG through them with a friend named Lucas who is now at Barrett. The rubber is waterproof and UV resistant, and it held up after two years in the Arizona sun without dry rotting, so you can leave a full setup outdoors. The bigger pitch is about how you train. Because the targets are light and the Range Flex stand system is modular, Kurt says you can build a whole course of fire for about the cost of one full-size steel torso target. He paints targets different colors and assigns hit counts, offsets them at different heights and distances, and even makes shooters do math mid-string so they cannot just game a plate rack. Setups tear down fast and roll up to throw in a car, which makes a real home range or a competition-style stage easy for a family or a group of friends. The soapbox turns to Second Amendment advocacy. Kurt agrees that politicians who advocate against the Second Amendment are violating their oath, but his sharper point is about how the gun community communicates. He argues that facts and figures alone do not move people who are scared, and that yelling "shall not be infringed" lands as nothing to someone who disagrees. The win is changing hearts and minds over the long game while GOA works the front lines in Washington. Kaylee ties it to GOA and GOF education work on college campuses and the Two A Adventure Chronicles, plus the on-ramp of taking a gun-curious person to the range for a safe, fun first experience. Kurt closes with the overlap he sees between the overland and firearms communities and a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with a California liberal that stayed respectful because it happened face to face. He offers code GOA15 for 15% off at tcrt.com and points listeners to GOALS in Knoxville. Linksevents.goa.org/goalsQuestions this episode answers What makes TCRT's rubber targets different from other self-healing targets on the market? TCRT spent about three years developing a proprietary rubber formulation made specifically for ballistics, rather than repurposing rubber from another use. The targets are also waterproof and UV resistant. How many rounds can a TCRT target take, and what calibers has Kurt shot through them? The targets are rated for roughly 400 rounds of 5.56 per square inch, and Kurt has seen the

State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee sit down with Jared from Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI) for a conversation about the state of gunsmithing in 2025 and how new people get into the trade. Jared is SDI's chief academic officer. SDI is an online college that teaches gunsmithing and uncrewed technology like drone piloting and fleet administration. The episode opens with a rapid fire segment covering Jared's everyday carry, a strict no-impulse-buy rule he shares with his wife, a 3D-printed articulated chicken for his daughter, and a recent weekend spent finishing one of his own rifles. Most of the episode digs into why gunsmiths are getting harder to find and what that means for the industry. Jared explains that the old path into the trade, picking up mechanical skills through shop class, farm machinery, or working on cars, has thinned out as schools dropped shop and home ec. Many students now arrive wanting to build a gun they saw in a video game, with no base hands-on skills. At the same time, veteran gunsmiths are passing away, and the next generation hasn't fully stepped in. SDI's answer is online education that ships a lab to the student's living room so the hands-on work still happens. Jared and the hosts also walk through the rise of faceless, factory-driven design, the loss of named gunsmith legends like P.O. Ackley and Elmer Keith, and why people are starting to crave bespoke, personal work again. Jared makes the case that gunsmithing teaches transferable skills, woodworking, welding, machining, metal finishing, that lead graduates into many industries, and that the trades broadly are short on people, the same way it's hard to find a plumber right now. He frames education as a baseline plus continuous learning, not a finish line at graduation. On the policy side, he notes SDI operates in roughly 46 states, sometimes blocked by firearms law and sometimes by education law, and praises states like Arkansas for putting firearms education back into public schools. The episode closes with where to find SDI (SDI.edu and social), a guest gift from Palmetto State Armory and AAC Ammo, and a reminder about the GOALS summit in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 9th and 10th. Linksevents.goa.org/goalsQuestions this episode answers What is the Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI) and how does it teach a hands-on trade like gunsmithing online? Sonoran Desert Institute is an online college that teaches gunsmithing along with uncrewed technology like drone piloting and fleet administration. It keeps the trade hands-on by shipping a physical lab to the student so the practical work still happens at home. Why are gunsmiths getting harder to find, and what has happened to the traditional path into the trade? The old on-ramp of building mechanical skills through shop class, farm machinery, or

State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee sit down with Grant from Mantis, a firearms training company that uses technology to help shooters get better. Grant explains the core idea behind the products: assess your trigger press, tell you what you're doing wrong, and tell you how to fix it, all to improve marksmanship and gun handling. Safety comes first and effectiveness second. He walks through the lineup on the table, including the Blackbeard, an X10 that drops into your AR as a bolt carrier group and charging handle so your own rifle becomes the training tool. It resets your trigger, sends a laser downrange, and gives feedback on your trigger press. A dedicated training gun and a 3D-printed pistol prototype with a realistic Legion-style trigger round out the demo. The conversation digs into why dry fire with feedback matters. Grant compares it to the jump from film photography to digital: you can now see what you did wrong and fix the root of the problem instead of compensating for it. He's clear that Mantis does not replace live fire or simunitions, and he encourages people to train with a qualified instructor. The tools save ammo and range time and let shooters work on fundamentals like grip, sight picture, and trigger press before they ever load a round. He covers what's coming next, including augmented reality that scans up to 10,000 square feet of a space and drops in targets, heart-rate monitors, shock pads, and a physical device for round count that would open up mag changes and more dynamic drills. The back half turns personal and political. Grant is originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, and is now an American citizen. He talks about Canada banning AR-style rifles using an event where, he says, no ARs were used and none of the firearms involved were legally obtained. That experience is a big part of why he supports the Second Amendment. He and the hosts discuss the leaderboards and community Mantis builds, float the idea of a GOA group, and talk about how working in the firearms industry can get you treated differently or quietly pushed out of other fields. Grant left the high-end spa business at the peak of his career to chase work he loves, and his advice to anyone weighing a similar leap is simple: it's scary, but it's worth it. The episode wraps with details on finding Mantis at GOALS, booth 900. Linksevents.goa.org/goalsQuestions this episode answers What does Mantis do, and what is its core training philosophy? Mantis is a firearms training company that uses technology to help shooters improve their marksmanship and gun handling. It assesses your trigger press, tells you what you're doing wrong, and shows you how to fix it, with safety first and effectiveness second. How does the Mantis Blackbeard work, and what's the advantage of swapping in your own bolt carrier

Tracy Lee, known online as Tracy Guns, joins John and Kaylee on State of the Second to talk about how she found her way into firearms and what the industry still gets wrong about women. Tracy grew up in Texas until she was 8, then in Sacramento with a liberal mother, and moved to Las Vegas to expand a business sending photographers to nightclubs. She traveled the world with the UFC as a cage-side photographer, built a relationship with a Las Vegas gun store, and started bringing UFC fighters there to shoot. She took her first firearms and CCW class in 2015, got hooked on real training, separated her gun content into the Tracy Guns account, and is now coming up on 10 years in the space. The heart of the episode is Tracy's advice for women getting into the shooting sports. Her two biggest points: don't be intimidated by people who tell you things have to be done a certain way, and don't believe anyone who says your first gun needs to be tiny. At Annie Oakley events and National Women's Range Day she handed women a bigger gun first and then a smaller one, and they consistently shot a Glock 19 or a P320 better than a subcompact like a P365, a 43X, or a Hellcat. A small gun has more recoil and is one of the hardest things a new shooter can start on. Tracy and Kaylee also push the value of women-only range days, finding good mentors, getting real training, and the point that a guy usually can't teach his own wife or girlfriend to shoot. The second half gets into culture and carry. Tracy talks about firearms censorship on social media, the workarounds gun creators used to dodge the algorithm, and how George Floyd and the climate in 2020 and 2021 shifted public tolerance toward firearms and self-protection. She closes with a CVS confrontation that became a lesson in concealed-carry responsibility: as a CCW holder she has to keep her cool, stay aware, and never escalate, because carrying a firearm raises the stakes on every situation. John reinforces that this mindset is what younger carriers need to learn. Tracy points listeners to Tracy Guns across platforms and to the Clapper app, and the show wraps with a plug for GOALS in Knoxville, August 9th and 10th. Linksevents.goa.org/goalsQuestions this episode answers How did Tracy Lee get into firearms and the gun industry? Tracy Lee grew up in Texas and Sacramento, ran a business sending photographers to nightclubs, and traveled the world with the UFC as a cage-side photographer. She built a relationship with a Las Vegas gun store, took her first firearms and CCW class in 2015, got hooked on real training, and is now coming up on 10 years in the space. What advice does Tracy Lee have for women starting in the shooting sports? Tracy says don't be intimidated by people who insist things have to be done a certain way, and don't believe an

Arrowhead Tactical founder Alexander joins State of the Second hosts Kailey and John to tell the story of a brand that started with a real problem he could not solve as a customer. Living in Atlanta and going to the gym at odd hours, he wanted to carry his firearm before, during, and after a workout, but elastic waistbands and drawstrings are not built to hold a gun. The belly bands and free-floating belts he tried did not perform. He saw athletic apparel for concealed carry, built for men, as a blue ocean, and launched in April 2020 with the Carrier Joggers, three colors and a first run of fewer than 500 units. Five years later the brand has expanded into shorts, pants, sweatpants, hoodies, and a women's line it is currently retooling, all built around its twice-patented waistband. Alexander breaks down the engineering and the philosophy behind it. The design takes a retention belt, turns it inside out, ties it to the apparel, and runs it all the way around the body so the load distributes and nothing shifts. He demonstrates the concept in his own content by carrying two Desert Eagles, roughly 11 pounds loaded. He also explains why his hoodies use pass-through pockets so a carrier can pre-stage a draw and speed up a first shot. His through line is that one of a brand's biggest competitors is inaction. If carrying is a hassle, the gun gets left at home, and a gun at home is no good. The conversation widens into hot takes and advocacy. Alexander argues that men carrying in crossbody bags may as well open carry because the look gives them away. Kailey counters that there is still nothing maternity-friendly in the gun space, calling it a million-dollar opening. The episode closes on GOA's mission. With Tennessee's Gold Day happening that day, Kailey makes the case that voting once is not enough. Show up for primaries and midterms, call your representatives, and keep the momentum going. She notes it takes about 30 seconds to send a message to your congressman through GOA's website. Alexander points listeners to arrowheadtacticalapparel.com. Linksevents.goa.org/goalsQuestions this episode answers What problem led Alexander to start Arrowhead Tactical? Training at odd hours in Atlanta, Alexander wanted to carry during workouts, but elastic waistbands and drawstrings could not hold a gun and the belly bands and belts he tried did not perform. He saw concealed-carry athletic apparel for men as an open market and launched Arrowhead Tactical in April 2020. How does Arrowhead's twice-patented waistband hold a firearm without sagging? The design takes a retention belt, turns it inside out, ties it to the apparel, and runs it all the way around the body so the load is distributed and nothing shifts. Alexander demonstrates the concept by carrying two Desert Eagles, roughly 11 pounds load

Otis Technology CEO Bill joins State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John for a deep talk on gun cleaning, the science behind lubricants, and why so much common maintenance advice is wrong. Bill opens with his favorite Otis tool, the Ripcord, which uses Nomex woven over the cable to handle a smoking hot barrel up to 700 degrees, and explains how he runs it through the ejection port between competition stages to stay clean. He walks through the company's story: Otis is celebrating its 40th year, founded in 1985 after Doreen Williams got the muzzle of her rifle stuck in the mud while hunting with her dad and went looking through her grandpa's World War II kit for a way to clean it. From a kitchen table to a garage to four decades of family reinvestment, Otis has supplied the U.S. military almost exclusively for the last 30 years, cleaning everything from small arms up to 155mm, and makes its commercial products on the same machines with the same people. The heart of the episode is the WD-40 warning. Bill explains that WD stands for water displacement, the product was built around the 50s or late 40s to push water out of a mechanical part, and a gun should not have water in it to begin with. Because the viscosity is so low, it migrates everywhere. John backs it up with a story about a Columbus police officer who sprayed his service revolver with WD-40 every day with the ammunition still loaded. When the officer got into a shooting, he pulled the trigger six times and every round failed because the WD-40 had soaked into the ammunition and made the propellant inert. Bill and John also cover real maintenance habits: more lubricant is not better since excess turns to mud and can cause malfunctions, EDC guns should be cleaned every couple of months and more often in humid summer heat to fight rust, and magazine springs should not be compressed for too long so feeding stays reliable. Bill also covers Otis kits for new owners, noting roughly 20 million new shooters have entered the space since 2019, and details three new products launched at SHOT Show: a suppressor cleaning concentrate, a muzzleloading kit, and an air gun cleaning kit. As a firearms instructor in New York, he closes on the post-Bruin legal landscape, the state's 16-hour CCW classroom requirement, and the three topics he considers most important to teach: de-escalation, situational awareness, and suicide prevention, the last tied to about 1,700 lives lost to suicide a year in New York. The episode wraps with Otis returning to GOA's GOALS event in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 9th and 10th. Questions this episode answers Why is WD-40 a bad choice for cleaning or lubricating a gun? WD stands for water displacement, a product built in the late 1940s or 1950s to push water out of mechanical parts, and a gun should not have water in it to begin with. Its viscosity is so low that it migrates everywhere it shouldn't, including into places that cause proble