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I. For immature audiences only. If you're one
of the many people who like to attach a clown
horn to their home defense shotgun, you've come
to the right place. Welcome back to the Now We
Consume podcast. I'm your host, Pip. Joining
me as always is my co -host, Gibbs. Hello! And
tonight, we will be talking about one of the
more controversial things that we've discussed
on the show, American gun culture. Why do we
here in America love our pew -pews so much? Life
has many clowns fed boy and I am one of them.
Honka honka. Yeah, I've had the opinion for a
long time that if you're somewhere that you're
not supposed to be, the sound of a pump shotgun
or getting racked is probably the second most
terrifying noise you could hear. Second only
to that of a chainsaw starting up. Yeah, well,
that's just ingrained because of horror movies
and stuff like that. Like a chainsaw, that is
pretty terrifying, but very few things beat the
racking of a nice 12 -gauge shotgun. Oh, yes.
It is the universal signal of, I mean, business.
And I am in the cleanup business. Let me tell
you. Oh, yeah. Knowing that you're not where
you should be if you're in that line of work
and hearing that shotgun getting racked. You
know that you're probably done for the day. Yeah,
you know, your day has one of two exits. And
you're not going to enjoy either one of them.
This is no longer a consensual matter. No, no.
But no, we wanted to discuss, I guess, it is
from very much an American perspective. We are
aware of that. But the existence of American
gun culture and why really is kind of the big
thing. Why does it exist? What are kind of our
thoughts on it? The reasons for it? some general
advice some general discussion things like that
we're leaving it kind of open because there's
a lot for us to discuss but you also didn't want
to talk about the reasons for and against but
also really comparing to other countries i looked
up some data and some statistics and there's
some stuff we to full disclosure we're both avid
guys in the second amendment community i'm not
gonna lie and say either one of us isn't because
we both are um right yeah We might have a little
bit of a bias towards it, but I think we're both
mature enough to also understand the complications
and issues that comes with any sort of right
or liberty and things like that. That's where
it comes in. Here's a thought that I've held
for many years. If you could snap your fingers
like Thanos snap and just get rid of all the
firearms on the face of the earth, it wouldn't
really change a whole lot. In the way that people
still kill each other and do general harm to
each other because people kind of suck. It's
far more of a culture thing than a weapon thing.
Yeah. There's the age old phrase, you know, guns
don't kill people, people do. And it's really
accurate only because. The methodology is all
that's evolved through the years. The premise
and the outcome has remained the same. All the
way through history, the evolution of weaponry
has increased in technological advancement. But
the want to do harm has remained the same. I
mean, from the invention of the bow and arrow
way back in the day when we decided, I want to
stab that guy, but he's way the fuck over there.
All the way to I need that. That cow in my freezer.
I mean, OK, we don't hunt cows. I just animal
popped in my head. I'm kind of hungry, too. So
a steak sounds really great right now. Yes. Burger,
cheeseburger. Did you ever see that of that dude
at it? Which one? Would the guy say that? Oh,
God, what is his name? The big fat guy that's
in Dune. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're
outside singing that. Oh, I laugh every time.
Every time. Oh, yes. But one reason that I feel
like most Europeans especially look so down on
American gun culture. is because they've had
the convenience of having a country, well, a
set of countries that have existed for the majority
of occupied human civilization. America, and
I'm just going to read from the notes I wrote
earlier, America came to depend on the firearm
for westward expansion. Europe, by and large,
has been settled for the majority of human civilization.
While the needs have changed over time, The history
still remains, and for those who have a more
detached sense from the history of their own
freedom, it's difficult for many to see the need
for having access to firearms like we do here
in America. One needs only to look around and
then ask themselves, how would the American citizenry
have been really treated over the last six years
if we weren't as well -armed as we are? And you'll
have your answer. In some countries, rights and
freedoms have been eroded away to the point that
kitchen utensils are now feared by the government
in the hands of its people. Imagine if those
same people became armed at an American level
overnight. I mean, rivers would run brown. More
brown than they do now. Unless it's India, in
which case they're all brown. The rivers. It's
a multi -level joke. Take it for what it is.
I get it. One thing that all firearms owners
and advocates have to keep in mind, and yes,
I'm going to quote Spider -Man on this one, is
that with great power comes great responsibility.
We have to accept that if we're going to continue
to push for the rights of ownership of firearms,
we are going to have to deal with the fact that
bad shit will happen. We need to find ways to
mitigate it. prevent it by any means necessary
i feel like people who advocate for gun control
their heart is in the right place but their methodologies
are piss poor plain and simple do you have any
quick thoughts on that one so i think america
and europe looks at it in two fundamental different
ways because really our country He's really kind
of founded on individual rights and freedom,
the idea that you are responsible for yourself,
your family, and it's not from the collective
group. It's not their responsibility, whereas
in Europe, you are right, there is no wilderness.
There is nothing to be explored. Everything is
kind of found. There's always someone around
the corner. There's always a village. There's
always a protected space. There's always someone
you can go to for backup or for help. There is
some sort of level of bureaucracy or government
or official or military. There's someone there.
So in the case of most of Europe, you're not
actually alone. You might be responsible for
yourself, but really, it's kind of it's more
of a collective mentality of everybody's there
to help everybody, which is great for them. And
that's cool. I'm glad you do that in your country.
But we were founded specifically on the idea
of kind of the the individual rights, liberties
and freedoms from more like views from John Locke,
for example, and a few others of our of our kind
of founding ideas coming from very much the.
French and English classic liberalism is basically
what that's called. Those ideas of being... It's
not from the government. I see your face over
there. It's not from the government, but it's
more from people that were great minds and thinkers
back then, from France and England, coming up
with the idea of individual liberties and freedoms,
not from the government, but as per the individual.
So in America, why the reason that we have firearms
is not only due to our, really, geography, but
also... Because it was from the Founding Fathers
saying, hey, it's up to you. At the end of the
day, no one's coming to save you. At the end
of the day, no one's always going to be there.
There's so much unexplored wilderness, so much
area that it's your responsibility at the end
of the day, which is great. But that does mean,
and I agree with you 100%, that there are some
negatives, some issues when you have to have
people be responsible for it. There are some
rare cases where those people can't handle that
responsibility or some people don't understand
And so it's I understand why some Europeans might
not get it because to them They don't have these
kind of issues a bear isn't gonna come out of
the woods and hurt them or a Crocodile like a
floor is just gonna come over there trying to
eat your dog But like in America we have those
issues, but also in Europe and from by and large.
They've really Kind of hunted a lot of things
out of extinction They've had people there for
so long have so many things documented that There
really isn't much of a threat There's nothing
hunting humans out there. Where is it America
like not for nothing mountain lions are scary
as hell Are you yeah, there are places in America,
you know, even though I live near an area that's
like pretty well populated We still have mountain
lions. We still have bears We still have things
that will kill you and they will not give two
shits about it And I'm not saying that's the
only reason, but it is a very good reason to
have that option. Yeah. Firearms are definitely
tools. Um, no different than a hammer and use
appropriately or inappropriately can kill. Um,
just like anything. Yes. Yeah. I mean, keeping
firearms for personal protection, protection
of the home and property. Not something that
the vast majority of Europe has to deal with.
Another thing, people in Europe often fail to
realize how absolutely massive this country is.
You know, they talk about taking a train and
going from Germany to Lithuania to Italy in the
same day. We can barely get from. One time zone
to the next in the same day. By most average
means of transportation. Not to mention most
of our, you know, mass transit systems are shit.
Give you an idea of the size difference and what
I want to make people understand. Europe is about
3 .93 million square miles, whereas the U .S.
is 3 .8. However, Europe has almost double the
population. Sorry, over double the population.
I'm sorry. We're at, like, what, 340 million?
And Europe's around 750 million? So, I mean,
you're talking barely more space over double
the population. A .K .A. less than half the square
footage to go around. Just a little bit of context
to put in there, because it doesn't look like
it on maps when you're looking it up. Oh, is
it really that much different? No, it is. So.
I didn't think it was. Sorry about the background
noise there for a second. I had to adjust some.
All good. Is it gone now? Not so much. Man, one
second. All right. But aside from, yeah, aside
from self -defense, people like to hunt. We like
to shoot for sport. We have the collector's side.
sheer fact that it's just a part of our culture.
It's been ingrained in our entire constitution
as a part of our history. I don't know how big
the hunting aspect is over in Europe. I know
they do have some areas for it. Some countries,
I would assume, have more availability than others.
I know the countries are still big. Spain, Germany,
France, those are three of the bigger ones that
come to mind. I know they have hunting in some
of those areas. Sports shooting. I'm not familiar
with the sports circuits over in Europe, but
I know our one European friend on Discord, he's
talked about some of the things that he gets
into. It depends on the country, though, because
some countries are really restrictive, some aren't.
I think the thing that's unique with America
is the carrying part of it. like there's a lot
of countries in europe where you can own stuff
granted it's highly regulated it's that you're
really only allowed to have it like going to
and from a range or to and from a sporting event
whereas you can't really carry it daily for self
-defense right that's the big we have we have
the unique ability to be our own um police force
here in america um and again that comes with
a very high level of personal responsibility
um The nice thing is the vast majority of people
who decide to carry are very well trained. They
are more level headed, generally speaking. And
I'll touch on that here in a second. Just remind
me of constitutional carry. They are the ones
who you want on your side in a really bad situation.
When it comes to the concept of constitutional
carry, I will play devil's advocate because as
a former firearms instructor, I have always been
an advocate of training. If you're going to make
the conscious decision to carry a firearm, you
need to have the training and skills necessary
to use it effectively and to be aware of the
consequences of not just you using it effectively,
but using it ineffectively or misusing it. Because
when you've got that firearm with you, so many
things all of a sudden become different situations.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's one of those things
where you are only as good as your training.
If you have not trained for something, that means
you're going to be handling it like it's the
first time. There are some things in life you
can't really train for, don't get me wrong. But
in terms of handling a firearm as a daily protection,
that is something that you should seek out in
search and get that training for because at the
end of the day not only in terms of a moral argument
are you responsible but legally you are responsible
there's two different avenues here for the discussion
the one is morally absolutely you should be proficient
with your firearm if you're not proficient with
it there's no point in you carrying it really
at that point because you could be more of a
liability than anything number two legally you
have to understand in this country If you make
even the smallest mistake, straight to jail.
No discussion, straight to jail. Do not pass
go, do not collect $200. No, you will owe thousands.
And states purposely go out of their way to come
after you. And many states have shown, and you
can see it in the proceedings, you can see it
in these court cases, where even if you are legally
within your right to defend yourself, there are
some states that will still throw the book at
you. they will still come after you. So you not
only have to be professional with your firearm,
but you have to understand the laws in your state.
And especially if you're traveling from state
to state. I think a lot of Europeans don't understand
that America, sure, it might be legal to carry
depending on your situation. But we are 50 little
countries within a big country. And those laws
are not universal right now. Hopefully that changes.
But those laws are not universal. And they're
highly situational. And in many cases... What
is legal in some state is not legal in another,
especially with things like castle doctrine,
especially with having a duty to either run away
or to deescalate or to disengage. It entirely
depends on your state. In many of those situations,
many of those laws, I vehemently disagree with.
But it's unfortunate to where you could do everything
right by the laws of, let's just say, Texas.
But if you happen to live in New Jersey, you
go to jail. Yeah, I have a big problem with a
law that says if someone breaks into your house,
you have to try to get out of your own house.
Yep, there's New Jersey. I'm sorry, what? New
Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Hawaii. I
wanted to say New York as well. I think Illinois.
Probably Illinois too. You have a duty to retreat,
where the idea is that if somebody breaks into
your house, you have the legal obligation to
first... Make an effort and try to retreat out
of the home and then if they pursue you Then
you can engage The problem is that you're assuming
the intent on the intruder at that point and
you have to play this weird legal game in some
states of You have to make sure you can either
and I can't say this without I I can't imply
this But you either have to assume what the person
that's trying to get into your home is doing
Or you have to make it so they can't not assume
and it's very unfortunate that our laws have
basically made it so you have to effectively
handle the situation part of the conversation
yeah i'm trying to say it without violating any
rules here but that's one of the problems i have
is when they regulate it so much that i am forced
to in the state that i live in deal with things
in the worst way possible and that is that scenario
it's ridiculous but so fun fact if you're involved
in a situation where you have to discharge a
firearm, even in self -defense. And even if you
know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are
in the clear, you're still going to probably
spend at least a night in jail. That's just the
shitty fact of it. And it's more so just because
the police were trying to do their job and they
have to sort through the facts. They have to
sort through the situation. I get. So that was
one thing that I taught in my classes was. If
you're involved in this situation, here's what
you need to be prepared for. And having firearm
insurance, having the carry insurance, some of
the different services that are out there, you
know, they vary. For the most part, they'll cover
the vast majority of issues, but there's still
going to be just that initial mental anguish
because God forbid you're in that situation,
you will have just taken a life. That in and
of itself is something that a lot of people cannot
handle. Whether it was a good shoot or not, there
are a lot of good people out there who know that
what they're doing is and was right that are
going to struggle every day having known what
they did. And I don't want to put that on anybody
else, but that's why we do it. That's why we
carry it. That's why we have. These tools to
protect our family because they are the ones
who cannot protect themselves. Exactly. At the
end of the day, a firearm is the great equalizer.
It's the tool that allows a 120 pound woman to
be able to fight off a 250 pound attacker. Yeah.
Again, if she's trained to use it properly. And
that's it. That's that is the biggest caveat.
Is. That's always been one of the biggest things
I've always told other people. If you're going
to care and get to that, for the love of God,
get some training with somebody that is qualified,
that has years of experience, that knows what
they're talking about, and somebody that's reputable.
Because also, I've seen these guys too. If you
go to these people on YouTube, I don't want to
name drop who they are, but I'm sure you've seen
them where they give you these BS, you know,
self -defense situations or BS things they do
with a firearm, thinking they're Neo from the
Matrix or some sort of crap. Like, no, no, no,
no. Or people that have never been in that situation
trying to tell other people how to handle it.
No way. Find the people that will train in real
life situations. Find the people that you have
to sign the consent forms to train with. Yes.
They're the ones who will put you into the situations
that will really stress you out. They're the
ones that will engage you. They're the ones who
will test you. And they're hard to find. Yeah.
Because there's not a lot of them out there anymore
because. Quite frankly, they get me too. No,
not only even though they signed up for the course.
This is what you're here for. No, it's not just
me too as well, but also for legal reasons. Yeah,
just various legal reasons for liability. Unfortunately,
we've created a system and this is large part
due to our politicians where we have the right
to carry, but it seems like we don't have the
right to train. There's this really weird thing
where getting meaningful, reliable. information
and training that also coincides with local state
and then federal guidelines is something that
it's damn near impossible unless you're like
the secret service or something crazy some sort
of specialized group some high -end security
group as a civilian it's very difficult to get
i'm not saying you can't but it is difficult
so just be aware understand i want europeans
to understand that the vast majority of americans
that carry are people like us that try our best
to be responsible, that try our best to train,
that hope to God we never have to use it. It's
the one thing that we have at the ready every
single day that we hope to hell we never have
to actually use. No. It's like having a parachute
when you're flying a plane. You sure as hell
want it if you need it, but you definitely don't
want to have to reach for it. Oh, no, no, no.
Because if that's the case, your day has gone
from good to shit very badly. My pants are suddenly
brown. Let's start the day that way. No. The
only thing I can give to people for training
advice, and this has been a recent thing for
me, they make for a lot of handguns, they make
like one -to -one metal replicas in airsoft.
Yes. And I found my M17, there is a metal, like
it all steel, everything feels the same way,
but it's an airsoft replica. now i'm teaching
my girlfriend how to like do stuff and how to
do in situations that i even do with things with
it that like i wouldn't feel comfortable using
with a properly loaded real one doing trainings
around the house but now i can use that and it's
that one to one it's almost the same weight obviously
it's a couple ounces off but there are training
tools to where even if you can't get access some
of these other trainings at least there are facsimiles
and replicas that will get you close that will
get you to where you can practice these basic
things Even those laser systems that replace
the cartridges, they will get you with that first
shot placement because a lot of that's just muscle
memory. Oh, yeah. And they're good. The technology
for that has come a long way over the years.
That's a big thing to look for, that there's
like nine or ten different systems like that
with various names that you can have as training
tools around the house. Yeah. And that's something
as well, if you're going to carry at least, Try
to develop a regular schedule to handle the firearms,
train them, disassemble, reassemble, do some
maintenance, that kind of stuff. Because I hate
to say it, no matter how much training you have,
if you walk away from it for years, you're going
to be rusty. Don't trust. It's like I always
bring it from like, for example, I'm a musician
by trade. And if I walk away from my guitar for
a few months, holy hell, I'm like, Jesus Christ,
how am I suddenly playing in Japanese? I don't
understand it. This has suddenly changed to a
different thing, and I don't get it. It takes
me a little while to pick it back up. Same thing
even with firearms. Sure, I can handle my stuff
and do what I got to do, but there's no way I'll
be as proficient if I just take that 15, 20 minutes
a week, handle the firearms, go through my training,
go through my process and procedure. And there's
tons of good guides on YouTube about things to
do on a weekly basis for any of your firearms.
Because if you're one of those people that hasn't
used it in a while and you have to use a self
-defense situation, you're like, where the fuck
is my safety? Yeah, that's a great way to get
shot. That's great. Yeah, that's one reason why
for all the important things, you can get the
ones that just either don't have safeties or
they're built into the triggers. Or the grip
safety, get a 1911 where it's just nice and simple.
Yeah, so. Although I'll give Canik some credit.
I love that trigger safety on that thing. Oh,
I love Canik. Canik, please sponsor us. I'm a
Canik fan. The Canik line. I'll tell you right
now. Yes. I tell you what, I have probably been
responsible for more sales from Canik than anybody
else I know. I'm probably going to buy a second
one. Yeah. Getting a hold of their stuff, man.
It's glorious. Like, they make quality stuff.
They're inexpensive, too. Right. I have buddies
that spent double the amount of money on Smith
at Weston, and they were like, God damn it, you
have a better trigger. Mm -hmm. Dude, those triggers
are so crisp. Some of the best in the game, you
got to spend double or triple the money to get
close. Yeah. And their match -level offering
is like $500 out of the box, and it is match
-ready, good to go. And it's solid. I've actually
handled some of their higher end stuff, like
the $800 ones. Uh -huh. Jesus Christ. They're
so good. The amount of times, do you guys have
an idea? The amount of times I have contemplated
just selling off five or six of my pistols just
to be like, I'm just going to go volcanic. Just
like, I'll just have a nice one. I'll have a
subcompact. I have my compact. I have my full
size. Like, I'm sorry. It's good to know that
you still have some because I lost all mine in
a boating accident. There are jokes that I cannot
make on stream because of the state. I know.
I know. But no, if we go all the way back to
when the Constitution was written, the writing
of the Second Amendment should have included
a lot more than what it has. The Federalist Papers,
in particular, paper number 29, was one of the
bigger supporting documents that had the information
that really dictates and details a lot of the
information on the Second Amendment. There was
a lot of concern about government power at the
time, and they saw what could have become and
the overreach government could have with respect
to everything. eventually has come to pass. The
well -regulated militia debate has been going
on for about 200 years at this point. When it
was written, well -regulated simply meant organized,
disciplined, and supplied. Precisely. The new
interpretations literally mean, well, there should
be regulations and laws against it. And I don't
know when that interpretation changed. The way
people are looking at it originally, it was militia
meant of organized and supplied by the people,
not a government regulated thing. Whereas now
people are thinking militia means, oh, it's government
regulated, oriented, run, supplied. And that's
wrong. The language of the time was of the people,
by the people, for the people. When it comes
to a militia. the idea was that the militia would
always be stronger than any federal military
force so the idea was no matter who came to be
empowered no matter who came in charge it would
be the people that overall ruled how do you know
this because in the constitution the idea is
for the people to have the deciding vote and
the ability to overthrow all threats, foreign
and domestic, including any sort of government
they do not like. Not just the ability, the duty
as well. Yeah, absolutely. That is the obligation.
That's part of that responsibility of being a
gun owner of fortress. That's supposed to be,
hey, if you have a tyrannical government, it's
up to you guys. You have the legal right and
authority, something that people kind of forget
nowadays. Our founding fathers kind of saw where
all this stuff was going, you know, hundreds
of years ago. And unfortunately, we're there.
Man, listen, if AI goes the way it's going and
it develops time travel, I want to go back, like
get in the phone booth, go back and get a couple
of those guys and bring them up here and let
them see what the world became and just talk
to them and be like, what do y 'all think? Maybe
you need some rewrites there. So what we need
to tell them is explain the Constitution to people
like they're five years old. just redo the whole
thing what you just do the constitution which
is great love it do the bill of rights and say
imagine if people were beaten with the stupid
stick mercilessly just for hours and hours a
day get them to understand it yeah then you're
good then you're on the right track and the thing
is i i don't blame people nowadays because this
is like my little side rant if you're in part
of modern academia you might not understand that
words definitionally change over time there's
something called connotation and denotation so
the idea is most language is always written in
connotation or the ideas that what are the words
meaning to us at the time what other emotions
or definitions are listed whereas denotation
means definitionally now what's supposed to happen
Is whenever you're reading any sort of historical
document, you have to take both into perspective.
And most of all, the founding fathers were well
or decently well educated. So they chose their
words very carefully. They spent months, if not
years, crafting that constitution. Every single
word was. Well thought out. Debated over. Exactly.
And deliberated on. So what you need to understand
is have to take into consideration the connotation,
meaning. The words with the meaning of the time
and the denotation, which is the words as of
how they're defined throughout history and to
today. And compare and contrast that. But people
like to look at that document and say, oh, well,
this word means this now. It's like, well, yes,
but it hasn't always meant that. Language is
constantly evolving. You have to take it at the
time of what was written to help understand the
context. Now. They used words with the assumption
back then, because remember, back then it was
only landowners were voting, only those people
that were wealthy and that were actually invested
in the country were voting. So they had assumed
that that was always going to be the case, and
that the idea is that those people that were
wealthy enough or invested enough or educated
enough would be the ones voting, therefore they
would understand what these words meant. And
I'm not saying that was a good or a bad thing,
but that was the general assumption for when
the country was founded. Well, I think they always
assumed educated people would always stay educated
and intelligence would increase throughout the
years. They never could have imagined a dumbing
down of society like we've seen in the past 40
or 50 years. Oh, absolutely. Odd enough, we just
touched on that. Well, they never thought people
would be so removed from what the, I guess the
crisis of the human condition is or the brutality
of the human condition. where the reality of
the world is something that's very violent, very
brutal, and very disgusting. And we, thankfully,
in the Western society, are so far removed from
it that we don't have to deal with that kind
of stuff. Whereas the Founding Fathers saw exactly
what happened. I mean, to give you an idea of
the kind of stuff they went through on a daily
basis, most of all those people would have to
slaughter their own meat, slaughter their own
animals. How many of us, I've had to do this
once, and I'll be honest with you, as much of
a man's man as I am, as much of a manly dude
I am, I don't ever want to have to do this again,
having to take a chicken and snap its neck. And
they have to pluck all the feathers and do all
that. Jesus Christ, that's horrifying. And these
people, from the day they were like seven, were
like, oh, hey, you know, I need chicken. You
know, it's just, it's one of those things. Anyways,
I don't even want to know in chat. So it is one
of those things where. nowadays, we just go to
the store and just chicken shows up, beef shows
up, milk shows up. We're not involved with the
process how to deal with these things. I don't
think our founding fathers ever would have thought
in a bajillion years that you could just go to
this thing called a grocery store and have milk
that's refrigerated. Right. That must be an amazing
concept. So let alone... All the advancements,
but also the. I guess the lack of common sense,
I guess people are so far removed from it. That
people don't understand this basic language.
Yeah. The sheer lack of and loss of intelligence
throughout the centuries. I think it would impress
them. You know, I think they would be so dumbfounded
by. They view us the way we view idiocracy. Probably,
yeah. We are their idiocracy. Yes. 100%. Because
what's crazy to think about back then is back
then they all built their own houses. Oh, yeah.
They'd just be like, yeah, I like this land.
I will just go and build a house over the next
few months. And mind you, most people our age
are like, what the fuck is the right side of
a hammer? And I hate to say that. What bathroom
do I use? I'm not even going there. I'm not.
I'm not even going there. I'm not touching that
with a 39 and a half foot. No, but it's, and
it's not, I feel bad because it's not the kid's
fault. Now it is. It is. Their kids are taught
what they're taught and they don't have any access
for many years to learn on their own. And that's
the problem. It's really society. And how this
relates to firearms is pretty simple. The reason
why so many people that are younger just simply
don't know about firearms because they were never
exposed. They look at it as something they see
in the movies. It's something bad. The police
misuse them. People misuse them. It always has
a bad aura or a bad connotation around it. So
no wonder why a lot of the younger people are
like, oh, guns are bad. Where back in the day,
and I'm so jealous. Back in like the 50s, 60s,
even 70s, people used to just bring their hunting
rifles with them to school. They'd be like 15
or 16, like, oh, I'm going hunting with my dad
later. So I just have my rifle loaded up into
the truck and no one would care. Yeah, I'm old
enough that at my school, being a more rural
school, we, I can remember having shotguns in
the rack of the truck because people either went
hunting before or were going hunting after school.
And it was not an issue. People where I live,
it would be like, I wish I remember the name
of the movie, but their head would not explode.
It would implode, create a dying star, and then
explode. They would not be able to fathom the
idea of, you brought a gun within 500 feet of
a school? What are you insane? People don't understand
how quickly everything has changed. Not to mention
that, In the 40s, 50s, 60s, and I think even
into the 70s, a lot of schools had shooting competitions,
shooting clubs, teams. They had classes. Classes.
Yeah. I think that's something that should be
brought back. I'll be honest. 100%. I really
feel like what they should do is train with the
local police department, with some retired guys
from the police department, and they get to train
with them. They get to go to the range with the
kids, teach them how to use a firearm, stuff
like that. it would make life a lot easier because
now we do the police department get to know the
kids in the high school and you know the elementary
school high school middle school whatever but
they have to see exactly how they can handle
this kind of stuff how they can learn it and
it's not like you have to give a kid a 50 cal
like you know just 22s and stuff like that and
small stuff right and crazy you know just they
understand like the basics because one of my
biggest worries in this world is somebody getting
their hands on it in an emergency situation,
having no idea and hurting themselves or someone
else. And that's been the biggest thing why like
everyone in my family I've taught that wanted
to, that's willing to learn. I even have other
members of my family that originally were anti
firearm being like, Oh, can I at least learn
how to use it? It's no, as you've said many times,
it's no different than a tool. It's no different
than a hammer, no different than a nail gun.
It's good to learn how to use because even if
you don't want to own it, I bet you at some point
in your life, it's going to affect you. And especially
it gives you a better perspective on how to interact
with officers. This is the other thing I kind
of wanted to bring up. Sure. Part of that training
that we're talking about, when you're looking
at it from a civilian perspective, it becomes
very different when you look at it from a law
enforcement perspective. If you watch the videos
on some of the trains that they do, especially
the ones where they have a firearm at the ready,
it's like, when do you shoot or when do you react?
That was something years ago that fundamentally
changed where I look at it. Because for a little
while when I was a kid, I got a little pissed
off. Oh, they should just train better. Oh, they
should just know better. And I was pretty arrogant
about it. I'll be honest with you. I was a bit
naive. But when I saw that split second decision,
you have to make. and be 100 committed you can't
question it yeah your your job is on the line
your life is on the line someone else's life
is on the line that is something that's very
difficult that even with a lot of training no
matter where you live in the world that is such
a difficult call and there are a lot of simulators
i'm sorry i i want to get this out there there
are a lot of simulators out there that you can
go to as a civilian and go through the police
level engagement training They are done with
actual police as the actors, and they recreate
actual scenarios that they have been put into.
It's all pre -recorded and everything, and it's
laser pistols, but the scenarios that you're
put into, these are real scenarios that real
police were involved in. You get to see what
they get to see and go through. In those split
second decisions. And it's, it's something that's
very difficult. And I feel like a lot of people
that, that really complain about police. Cause
don't worry. I have my issues in terms of American
police and training. I feel like they're not
trained well enough in a lot of aspects. And
I know you're in the same boat. However, man,
with a lot of that stuff, it's just so split
second. That people try. We get to armchair dissect
a lot of their decisions. Yeah. For days, weeks
and months after they happen. And it's not fair
to them because literally they see it from one
angle for one second and have to make that call
right there. And that's the thing is they're
charged with protecting not only themselves,
but everyone around them. And it's not always
an easy call. One of the best I'd recommend is
Donut Operator on YouTube. He's probably one
of my favorite LEO breakdown guys. He breaks
it down for the good and the bad. you know for
both law enforcement and civilians and everything
else he calls it out like the way he sees it
and i feel like there's a lot of people that
are anti -firearm that don't understand they
don't take the time to watch these kind of informational
videos to really get a grasp on how difficult
it is and there's no there's no easy solution
other than training other than taking a lot of
time to understand it and to be fair i will say
this i feel like a lot of police officers are
kind of overworked in this country they work
long hours expected long shifts. If you have
a job where you are the pinnacle of making split
-second decisions that have a lot of mental fatigue
and that require very difficult calculations,
we're not putting ourselves in a good situation
by having these officers work 10, 12, 14, 18
hours. That's just stupid. But that's a problem
with the unions and law enforcement itself. That's
a whole different discussion that I know we're
going to have an episode on. But getting back
to firearms. For the anti -fireman people, just
have a little bit of empathy. That's all I can
ask. And just watch some stuff and get some information.
Take some training. Even if you never touch a
firearm in your life, taking a couple of those
courses, just so you understand, might save your
life in a situation. Because vice versa, now
you're going to understand what maybe an officer
is looking for. Because, for example, if you're
at a police stop or you're getting pulled over
or something like that, you might not know you're
acting suspiciously. where you're reaching around
for something maybe you're wearing a sweatshirt
you're reaching around for somewhere else and
they you they might be coming over you might
be oh yeah i gotta grab my hidey and you reach
for something and they wonder why you got shot
it's like well unfortunately you're behaving
unknowingly in a way that's very suspicious that
looks like somebody that would have an illegal
firearm so real quick uh several years ago uh
i went through a good portion of the police academy
I didn't know that. Yeah, I had to get out because
of physical issues. Absolutely shredded my calves.
I was not at the weight I needed to be at when
I started the training, but I was going to age
out of the academy before I got it to it. So
they boosted me through my training well before
I was ready for it. I was trying to lose the
weight, but it wasn't coming off fast enough,
and long story. But I had gotten to the point
in the training where I got to see some videos,
and one of the videos I got to see, was what
an officer sees during a traffic stop. And if
you're somebody who gets really nervous and then
you're like, oh, I got to grab my ID. I got to
grab my insurance. All the cop can see is you
rooting around looking for stuff. They're automatically
going to go from a one to an eight real fucking
quick because, oh, this guy's moving stuff around.
Is he trying to hide something? Is he looking
for something? Is he trying to get something
that he can conceal and use against me? Like
Gibbs is saying, go through some of these basic
information courses. See the world through somebody
else's eyes for two minutes. Just get that different
perspective. It's 100 % worth an eye -opening.
Because most of the people I know that really
have an argument against firearm ownership have
never gone through those. And once people see
how quickly... that happens and that really changes
their perspective like wow i get it i really
do but something else to consider too and i i
did want to move i just want to make a quick
note for this point was in terms of politics
firearm ownership this could be it's a whole
episode i know but in terms of politics the only
thing that really gets me was firearm ownership
was never a big deal until the 80s or 90s I just
want to point that out for everybody that thinks
firearm ownership, Second Amendment stuff, is
a left or right issue. No, it's really a case
of people that want your individual freedoms
or liberties and people that don't, fundamentally.
There are people, and I will point this out,
there's people on both sides that are hypocrites
on this stuff. There are people on both sides
that say they're pro -Second Amendment rights
and they're against it. Dan Crenshaw, cough,
cough. And there are people on the Democratic
side that years ago... We're pro -Second Amendment
that are now against, or even sometimes flip
-flop and vice versa. So don't fall into the
trap of assuming that all Republicans are pro
-Second Amendment and all Democrats are against
it. Yes, the parties as a whole are kind of in
that area, but they've both done some stuff that
really have hurt the Second Amendment and have
been anti -farm, unfortunately, just due to political
pressure. So just keep that in mind for political
discussions, you know, just because at the end
of the day, they're just saying shit to get reelected.
I hate to say it, but... That's all more or less.
Wait till they're not up for reelection and you'll
find out who they really are. Yeah, no shit.
Jesus. So like you brought up the, the politics
of it all. A lot of that relies on statistics.
We were able to find the stats for 2023. 58%.
Of all gun -related deaths in 2023 were self
-inflicted. That was about 27 ,300. So that's
a lot. But they will use those numbers to say
that that's gun violence. They won't tell you
that that was self -harm. I was actually looking
back through this up until the mid -2000s. And
every single year, the vast majority is self
-inflicted. It's self -offering. It's always
over half. And what angers me about that is,
number one, this is something that I know all
of us kind of firemoners kind of do. Like, for
example, when a buddy of mine, he lost a family
member of his, and he was feeling really depressed.
And I even spoke to him and was like, hey, if
you need me to come over and help you out or
if you need some stuff, I know some people that...
You know have told me like hey, I'm going through
a tough time I might need some mental help or
something like that or made something Can you
just hang on to mine for a few days or a week
or something like that? I know for any of us
in the firearm community That's like a 100 %
like I would absolutely do that for anyone that
I'm close with 100 % because we all no matter
how that's kind of all those things no matter
how tough you think you are Sometimes the shit
hits the fan Every once in a while, you just
need a helping hand for something like that.
And it really sucks that suicides are so linked
with that. But there's nothing you can do other
than just be there to support people and try
your best to make people aware of that and understand
that it is a serious issue. But that's why you
have to kind of have that community of people
around you to support you. Yeah. So in that 27
,300 stat, of those, 463 were accidental. So
that would be people mishandling, people showing
off like, oh, look at my dad's gun. And they,
you know, kids trying to look cool. You know
what my favorite video I ever saw was? The dumbest
thing imaginable. There was a guy hunting with
his kid. He wants to go underneath a fence. He
goes underneath the fence first, grabs the barrel
of it, and pulls it towards him. The trigger
gets caught on a branch, shoots himself. Wow.
It's stuff like that. There are many people that
are just stupid. Or like there was an officer
that was around where I was at that he was cleaning
his firearm. He did not clear it. And so when
he went to clean it, he ended up shooting out.
I think he shot himself in the arm somewhere.
And he ended up getting hospitalized and stuff
like that, and they let him go from the force.
But it's like, guys, it's simple stuff. It's
always simple stuff. But to go back on those
numbers, though, what that means is really they're
adding in those numbers in with homicides to
then boost up and try to say firearm ownership
is even worse than it is. Yeah, because if you
add in homicides with the self -inflicted. That's
like 96%. So, yeah, 96 % of all deaths last year
were all gun -related deaths were, you know,
bad. Well, that sounds like a horrible stat.
Well, they're not telling you that 58 % of those
were self -inflicted. So, yeah. And it's crazy
to think. that only 604 were due to law enforcement
involvement. Out of a country of like 340, 350
million people, only 604 are involved with police.
That's actually an incredible statistic per capita.
Yeah, you're more likely to win the lottery on
the same day you got struck by lightning twice
than you are to get shot by a cop. And especially,
not for nothing, if you comply with lawful orders
and understand how to speak with officers, things
like that. Now, on that, let me just side segue.
If you have any want or worry about the police
officers in your town, for God's sake, record.
Record, live stream, whatever. Just... Hold the
police accountable if you have to. Do not be
afraid to record because they are public servants.
In all 50 states, you have the right to record
police officers, especially during a traffic
stop. Yeah. The best advice I've always had with
that is absolutely record, but you don't have
to be a dick about it. 100%. Be nice about it.
Kill them with kindness. Yes. Maybe this is just
my experience. But in the couple of times I've
ever been pulled over, I've never had a ticket
issue. I've never had a problem. It's always
been set it off to record. Say, yes, sir. How
are you doing? Yeah, no problem. Hey, I totally
understand. I appreciate it. Thank you. If you
start off on the positive, I'm not saying it'll
work every time, but boy, does it work in your
favor, especially how many people are causing
problems. And they're like, hey, how are you
doing? What's going on? What can I help you with?
The couple of times I've been pulled over, the
officers have been like, oh. yeah, you just,
yeah, don't worry. I just need your license and
registration. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. No
problem. They're like, oh yeah, you forgot to,
you know, do an inspection in your car. You forgot
to renew the registration. It's like, oh crap,
I'm an idiot. I'll handle that. And everything's
cool. And I tell them, oh yeah, I have a firearm
in the car. Here's my license to carry. Here's
this and that. And they're like, oh, okay, cool.
As long as you follow whatever your state requires
with that and just do it like a nice manner.
But you being a dick to them, even if they're
being an asshole, never works out in your favor.
Never. So you must have gotten pulled over by
local cops here in my glorious state. If you
get stopped by the state highway patrol, you
are getting a ticket. It does not matter. There
are very, very few instances in which you will
not get a ticket, but if the state is pull you
over, you are getting a ticket. That is, that
is just a matter of, of what it is. I never,
this is something else I want to do on the police
episode, but I feel like the tickets only hurt
poor people. And that's why they shouldn't be.
Oh, 100%. It should actually have to be. If the
punishment for breaking the law is only a fine,
then the crime or the law is only there to hurt
the poor. That's why it should be community service
hours. You want to see streets cleaned up and
want to see roads rebuilt and want to see everything
done? If you break the law, you got to do community
service hours. You got to clean up stuff. That
would actually solve problems because guess what?
Inconvenience is people. No matter how rich or
poor you are, we all got the same amount of time.
You know? Yeah. But that's a rant for another
time. But, no. I guess I've gotten lucky with
that, but also, not for nothing, I drive like
a grandma, so I never really get pulled over.
Yeah, that'll do it, too. Yeah. But, anyways,
with what we were going with that one, what I
wanted to make people aware of is, in comparison
to the U .S., London alone, in England, had 50
,000 serious knife crimes recorded in one year.
They are recorded at 17 .89 offenses per 10 ,000
people or per capita. That is way, way, way more
than America. America is at 13 .7 per 100 ,000
people, and that's including the self -harm.
If you cut that in half, you're talking about
13 .7, per 200 000 whereas london is at 17 .89
almost 18 out of every 10 000. that is insane
and one of the things and that's knives knives
but that's what i'm getting at is it's a violence
problem and really at the end of the way it's
a culture problem why london wasn't this way
20 years ago i will let people make of that as
what they want because that will be a separate
episode on the problems of immigration and everything
else but It is an issue to where anywhere that
you have issues to where you're merging two very
different cultures, every single time without
fail, you have violence problems. Every time.
Every single documented time in human history.
People are more than welcome to try to show me
something different, but I know I'm undefeated
in this category. I know that for a fact. So,
it's just one of those things where people need
to understand that, sure, America can seem on
the outside like we have an issue, but between,
as you very much pointed out, the size of the
country, the population, and if you look at it
per capita or per 10 ,000 people, there are many
countries that are vastly more violent than America.
In fact, most of Europe, as long as you're not
in the most rural of parts, They are equivalent
or more violent. And what's crazy in America,
if you take out self -harm with firearms, every
single year it's been downtrending since like
the early 2000s or late 90s. Yeah, one of those.
Also, fun fact, if you take out the top 10 cities
that also have the strictest gun control laws,
then the stats drop tremendously. It's crazy.
Which is a very odd correlation. The people that
sit here and champion the laws fail to take into
consideration. The people who are going to break
the laws don't give a fuck about the laws to
begin with. So the laws only hurt the people
who will follow them in the first place, like
you and I. A law is not going to make somebody
stop what they're doing. in the middle of committing
a crime and say, oh, this is against the law.
I should probably stop this. No. No. I don't
think ever once in human history has that ever
happened. There was a famous quote by, it wasn't
Nancy Pelosi. I wish I remember her name. But
there was a senator in America that said this
in the early 2000s of, oh, you know. When they
realize it's illegal to carry a carry a firearm
here, they will simply put it down and understand
that it's against the law. And it's like, no,
that's not how any of this works. The only reason
Giffords was a Giffords. No, it was. She wasn't
Gabby. No, she's she's out of. She's out of it
now. I wish I remembered her name. I'll remember
probably later on. She's another. She's not a
person that I find it amazing anybody voted for
her because of the IQ of a fucking walnut. I
just, I don't know how. I don't understand. I'll
remember her name at some point. But when somebody
decides to break the law, they've made that decision.
When somebody decides to carry a firearm illegally,
commit a crime with it, do all these other things,
the consequences of their actions have already
kind of gone out the window. So by you making
it illegal doesn't change anything. Put it this
way. It's illegal to drink and drive and people
do it a lot every day and people joke about it
all the time. Yep. It's on one of those things
where you can make it a law. It doesn't mean
people will follow it. And inversely, the only
laws that matter are the ones that are equally
enforced. So take those into consideration. You
will see that. Wow. There are many laws in this
country that aren't really laws because they're
never enforced. And there are some that are over
enforced. Go figure that one out. Yeah. So if
you want to kind of touch tips on the law aspect
for just a second, if you really want to try
and enforce gun laws and make it scary, then
you have to really get harsh on the penalties.
And I'm talking like judge dread level enforcement
and penalties to go along with it. So if you
commit a crime with a firearm, not necessarily,
you know, you don't hurt anybody. Use it in the
commission. Currently in Ohio, it's like three,
five, seven years mandatory sentencing or something
like that. Make it 25 and make it like solitary
confinement. See, while I don't disagree with
you, I feel like there's a better solution. Excuse
me. Did you know? Hold on. I'm not done on my
rant. If you actually hurt somebody with a firearm,
then it's going to be hard labor. 25 years. And
if you kill somebody, I'm sorry, but I'm pro
-death penalty. So if you kill somebody, you
get to be killed back. 30, 60, 90 days, sure.
Let the legal appeals process go through. But
if there's evidence, especially like good, solid
video evidence, Which loops us back into the
AI issues we've been talking about. That's going
to be a whole big issue. I know. But if there's
verifiable DNA video witness corroboration, yeah,
you're toast. Well, I'm glad you touched on the
work thing because I've always had the thought
that it is kind of bullshit that we as taxpayers
have to pay for the prison system anyway. So
my thought would be, I think the greater deterrent
would be. Imagine if you had to work off the
entirety of what you owe to the state and to
the victims and everybody else while in prison.
So that way you are a net zero cost. That is
at least what my understanding would be. To be
the idea of, hey, if you caused this much damage
and you did this, hey, if you don't want to use
a firearm illegally in a crime, Then just don't
do this. But if you do want to use that, great.
Now you're going to be working for 10 years,
repairing our roads, repairing our infrastructure,
doing all these things that you don't want to
do, at least to pay back your debt to society.
I really think we should be using the prison
system to bring some good out of it, to better
everybody else, because we have to deal with
this person. Not for nothing. If we're going
to be paying into this person staying in prison,
It's one thing to have a punishment, which I
agree with, but also I think rehabilitation should
come with it, and somebody should be allowed
a chance as long as it's a nonviolent crime.
Yes. If they hurt somebody. The prison system
in and of itself needs a really thick overhaul.
Oh, yeah. That one I kind of want to link with
the police in prison one, and we have a whole
bit. I'll jot that down. Yeah, that's something.
I feel like that's an episode we should do. I've
already been kind of looking into it, but. It's
one of those cases to where I agree with you.
Stiffer penalties all around. And by the way,
running list. I know you can't see that running
list. I trust you. It's analog. One of the problems
we have in America, and this is for people in
Europe to understand, is in many major cities,
people will be arrested for a crime. Oh, bless
you. People be arrested for a crime and then
they'll just be let right back out. There are
many judges that will say, oh, yeah, this person
happens to be a minority. oh, they live a hard
life. Their life sucks. We shouldn't put them
in jail. And they'll let them back out. And then
a lot of officers get very disenfranchised and
very disinclined to be able to arrest these people.
Because what's the point? There was a famous
case in New York with a guy that got arrested
30 or 40 times that kept robbing people, assaulting
people, and the judge just kept letting him go.
So at some point, it's like, it also has to do
with the legal system we have here. The problem
is we are a country, you know, that elects clowns
that's run by lawyers and there's there's unfortunately
there's no real just simple way to fix it so
you know you're kind of stuck with this system
where the judges can decide based on any sort
of subjective idea whether somebody gets prosecuted
or not and that's the inherent yeah i kind of
have a problem with the judges having the amount
of power that they do like i get that they need
it in some areas but there are some I just don't
think they should have all the say. That's why
I think we would need to change the appeals process
for a lot of that. And I really feel like judges
should be able to lose their license to practice
law if they have more than two or three overrulings
on something like that. Well, let's just say
if a judge makes a ruling and it goes up and
then it gets overruled and appealed after by
the second or third one. They're like, all right,
let's go and review everything and see why you're
coming to these decisions. And the minute they're
saying, oh, yeah, you're biased because you're
not prosecuting people because of the color of
their skin or because of the background or orientation
or whatever. You shouldn't be a judge. I'm sorry.
And unfortunately, it's one of those things where
there's a certain political party that's very
much entrenched and drained in. cities and then
so their ideologies gets pushed so therefore
certain people get special treatment so aka many
major cities are okay with racism because it
pushes their agenda and it sucks and it's ridiculous
should not be the case but i've said it once
i'll say it again people suck yeah but you know
if if that's something we could change that that
would definitely help Because you've seen, you
know, videos, stuff like that in California with
Los Angeles and San Francisco and New York, all
these places where there's people that commit
many heinous crimes and they're just let go.
Even when it comes to firearms, you know, armed
robberies and stuff like that, even murders.
Or the other problem is, too, they get so overloaded
that by the time they schedule to have the case
done, it might be six months or a year down the
road. Just saying. It's a crazy system that if
we could kind of clean it up, it would help it
out a lot. But to reinforce the original point
for this, not for nothing Europe, but don't go
throwing stones in a glass house if we're talking
about America having violence problems. When
y 'all have friggin' no -go zones because of
the immigrants that you brought over there, where
you can't even allow police or women to walk
through. You know, be careful. That's all I'm
saying. Oh, and don't even get me started on
the whole issue of there are whole countries
that have sections that are cordoned off for
the religious -only police. Did you know in England
it's gotten so bad that they're actually arresting
people for saying that they were praying inside
their heads near a mosque? Because, and I quote,
if a Christian's praying near a mosque, that
is very anti -Muslim of them. Man, I could have
sworn there was a book about that or something.
Something about the 80s, maybe? You know, I...
Nah, nah, nah. This is such a new thing. No one
could have ever thought about this before. I
mean, I just... No, nothing like 1984, maybe.
No, no, no. No, that's probably like a... Like
a music album or something like that. That's
not a... Gotta be. That's not a book. No way.
No. But on a more serious note, read dystopian
novels. You will find that we are in the dystopia.
We are there. That is where we live in. 1984,
Fahrenheit 451. Absolutely. Those, Animal Farm,
and a few other ones that definitely... Definitely...
Soylent Green. Oh, Jesus. We're getting there,
unfortunately. I don't like it, but we're getting
there. We gotta find the chart. Because we're
close. I don't want to find the chart. That's
the problem. Well, the stats were all I had in
the notes. That was the last part that I had,
so. Okay, yeah. I mean, thankfully we've kind
of covered, I believe, everything that we wanted
to talk about with that one for the most part.
I mean, at least I would say in my perspective.
to kind of sum up a lot of this it is nice to
have the ability and the right to carry when
i feel like i need to and at the end of the day
it is up to my judgment and i will be honest
there's many days where i don't carry if i'm
just hanging out my local area where i know things
are super safe and nothing happens there's many
times where i don't carry but there are many
days where i'm like you know what i'm going somewhere
that might be a little sketch i will happily
you know keep that in the glove box keep that
on me and you know just in case but it's not
like i think a lot of a lot of europeans assume
that we're this caricature of americans that
have you know uh i can't use this quote uh because
it's not appropriate but it's like we're holding
two rifles shooting up in the air just being
willy -nilly you know like like what's his name
that the old character cartoon character yeah
yeah like Sam. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's not,
that's not most of us. That's not even like,
that's barely any of us. Or, or, or the, the
picture of the American breakfast with the pile
of bacon and, and the pistol sitting next to
your, your plate and all that stuff, or, or using
the pistols to eat your breakfast. No, no. My,
my pistol does not have a spoon attachment underneath
where the bat with a mag light is. It's just
not now, but. It's one of those things where
it's easy to make fun of American culture because
it's so prevalent The reality of it is most firearm
owners, but people got to realize they carry
concealed. You'll never know Yeah, that's part
of the deterrent and part of why we have concealed
carry is the idea that you will never know who
around you can handle business and who can't
and Are you willing to take that risk? To start
some shit and I will tell you in Texas that answer
is always fuck. No I will tell you right now.
Texas is the land to fuck around and find out.
No, don't do it. It's a no. That should be their
new state motto. Honestly, if Texas wasn't overrun
with a bunch of wimpy judges that don't allow
them to actually enforce the law, absolutely.
But unfortunately, they're not allowed to enforce
the law lately. Yeah. And I would agree with
those side jet. It's the South. Yeah, absolutely.
In general, yeah. And it should be, rightfully
so. Because, again, what's the point of having
a law if you don't enforce it? Then it's not
a law. You know? So, I mean, that's just my two
cents on that. Ooh, actually, a little thing
if you want to talk about with firearm stuff,
because I was very curious in your opinion. What's
your opinion on the whole assault weapons, assault
rifles? It's a made -up term. Attaboy. There
you go. There are fully automatic firearms like
the military use. There are semi -automatic like
most civilians have. There's no such thing as
a... Fully semi -automatic clip -loaded revolver.
What would we say, 30 round clips and... Yeah,
a 30 round clip mag, I think. Some of the politicians
that really try to spice up what they're talking
about don't know enough about what they're talking
about to actually get the point across. They
use all the words sandwiched together to make
the most... Incomprehensible nonsense imaginable.
It's hilarious to listen to. One of my favorite
videos I saw, did you watch under the Obama administration
when they asked the director of the ETF to disassemble
a firearm and you had no idea how to do it? Oh,
God, yes. I was screaming at the TV that day.
So one of the things I wanted to bring up to
the Europeans and to other non -Americans is
that in America, we are in... incredibly inflated
system of bureaucracy where the etf or the the
division of the alcohol tobacco and firearms
atf is really what is supposed to be the law
enforcement branch when it comes to firearms
not legislate laws which we're going to talk
about in a second but they're supposed to enforce
them now You would think. You would think that'd
be a kick -ass agency to work for, too. You would
think you'd be. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms. The agency of, I'm going to have
a great fucking weekend every goddamn week. But
no, you would think you'd hire people that are
knowledgeable in firearms to head up the ATF.
You'd think you'd be busting drug rings and gangs
and all these other things. No. How do I know
this? because the director of the ATF, on more
than one occasion with more than one different
director, had no idea how to handle one of the
most ubiquitous of common firearms in American
history. And not just one, but also several rifles
and pistols and even shotguns. So, part of one
of my problems we have in this government, and
really in America, is you might say, oh wow,
American laws are weird. And my response is,
yeah, the people enforcing them don't know shit.
That that's like that's like imagine if there
was an office about let's just say makeup and
They put me in charge of enforcing that I will
tell you right now. I don't know shit about makeup
I I couldn't enforce fuck all But why would you
put somebody that knows fuck all about firearms
There's the head of the ATF that makes no sense
unless he's doing a lot of drugs Maybe sure might
know, you know alcohol or something like that.
I might know drugs with the DEA but you know
if maybe he smokes a lot of tobacco i don't know
maybe he's one for three but doesn't really seem
to help if he doesn't know anything about firearms
but to be enforcing firearm law the second part
of the problem is the atf is allowed somehow
to interpret the law in whatever way they want
and then enforce it and then make their own laws
yes they make their own laws by saying oh yeah
this is the law that you pass but we actually
want to interpret like this and this is how we
will enforce it so there are things you can do
in your firearms that per the letter of the law
are legal but the atf will put you in jail there
are things you can do per letter of the law that
are not illegal but the atf will say that's close
enough and put you in jail but there are also
things where you can suggest that might sort
of maybe almost could be possibly illegal and
the atf will say you're in jail for 50 years
go yourself There was a guy, there's a guy that's
in jail right now for making a 80 % to scale
auto sear out of plastic that was on a credit
card as a joke. I don't know if you know about
this case. I do not. Okay. This is one of the
scams that happened last year, and it's fucking
ridiculous. For those people at home that don't
know what an auto sear is, it's... To sum it
up very, very easily, it is a way to make a firearm
function in a way that's not supposed to. In
a more of a fully automatic way. Turns from one
pull of the trigger, from one bullet to one pull
of the trigger in many. Essentially, to put it
really, really simple. I know I'm butchering
it, but keeping it simple. That is illegal to
have the ability to transform that function if
that firearm's not registered to do so. And if
you're not also registered to own or have or
operate that. Well, side note, it's also inherently
dangerous because the firearms are designed for
that. Exactly. The tolerances are very different
for firearms that are designed for actual fully
automatic fire. Well, as a joke, this guy made
a, basically a credit card and he made an auto
sear. That's like a punch out diagram where you
could like push out, but it's at 80 % of the
scale. So it will never work. It was part of
the joke. Make fun of the ETF. They said he had
the intent to make illegal firearm, I guess you
could call firearm products, something like that,
firearm adapters or whatever. Accessory. Accessory,
that's the word. And he's in jail. He was a YouTuber.
He did YouTube and everything. I watched the
whole thing with his wife doing the live streams
and stuff like that and them explaining everything
that happened. Remember when he put them on for
sale? He is in jail for decades. For a joke.
What firearm was he trying to modify? I believe
it was an AR platform. Can they successfully
complete the modification with the product he
had? Why is he in jail? Because it was the intent.
Oh, so like the intent of deleting a server full
of emails? But it's Hillary, so it's different.
Gotcha. it's stuff like that to where imagine
if you made a product to make fun of someone
and they said, Oh, but that product could have
the intent of hurting people. You go to jail.
So on, on that, on that premise there, let me
ask you for many years, they've had the phrase
ghost gun. The files are out there, or if you're
just very, very handy, you can, use 3d software
does that mean does that mean that my 3d printer
should be registered as a firearm because that's
the argument that some people are having oh i
thought yeah i actually remember hearing about
that uh first of all that's dumb uh second of
all you will never stop people from able to being
able to commit crimes and do stuff third of all
just because something no if if you look at the
plethora of street confiscated weapons that are
classified as firearms because they can discharge
a round of ammunition probably once. It's scary
the level of ingenuity some of these people on
the streets have. People forget they were making
firearms long before CNC machines. We've been
making firearms for hundreds of years. There
are entire books. dedicated for you how to how
to legally make firearms in your house this is
not uncommon knowledge this is something we've
been doing for hundreds of years and something
probably going to continue to keep doing the
thing is 99 .99 of all hobbyists want to do that
just because it's fucking cool not because they
want to hurt anybody because guess what no 3d
gun can you print is it going to be any good
at least right now it's not going to be able
to it might be one two shots after at some point
it's going to blow apart it's going to be a fucking
grenade Congratulations. You 3D printed your
own personal Claymore, and you have no consent
over when it goes off. Congratulations. You basically
just win the Darwin Award with a ticking time
bomb. But again, it's the case of because somebody
could commit a crime, doesn't mean you should
go after them. But that's their argument, which
I think is insane. Right. I don't know. Yeah,
3D print yourself a Roomba Claymore. Hell yeah.
Oh, don't tell me. But, you know, it's one of
those things where, like, they got to understand
with 3D printing, eventually there's going to
come a scenario, which is like in Star Trek,
where you can just print something that's going
to be a weapon, no matter what it is. You can
always hijack the system. You can always change
stuff around. You know, the only reason I really
think they would have to regulate that would
be if... you had like steel printers that became
so cheap that gangs could buy them and build
hundreds at a time. It's like, all right, I would
understand having to like be more careful with
it. But at the end of the day, that's not what's
happening. Yeah. So there are a few that are
out there. They're, they're like tabletop models.
They're, they're centering type print printers.
They're, They're low enough cost that if a group
of people had the resources and the knowledge,
they could really do it. Well, then that's also
like the ATF's job to like find the people that
are making them and deal with that on a case
by case. But these are industrial machines that
are used to make auto parts. And, you know, machinist
shop type equipment. Yeah, but you can make a
firearm out of a pipe and like a couple of tools
like not for nothing. I know. That's never going
to change. Even with sophisticated. It's going
to be one of those things until you can literally
3D print out of metal. A firearm that works out
of the box. It's there's nothing you can do.
And even then it becomes a question of how effective
will it be? Yeah. You know, because again. People
don't understand. I mean, if it works once, that's
all it has to work in some scenarios. True. But
you know, no one's going to make money selling
those. I think you'd be surprised. Maybe. I don't
know. I just... Also, think about this. Those
stupid turn -in programs. What do you mean? Turn
in your guns and we'll give you a $100 gift card
or whatever. Oh, the buybacks? Oh, I hate those.
Yes. Okay. Could you, in theory, 3D print a bunch
of bullshit and turn all that in? People have
done that. You don't understand. Oh, that's glorious.
You know what someone did, which was crazy? So
California at one point, I thought it was in
LA. They were doing a gun buyback. Well, somebody
went around. buying a bunch of this was like
20 years ago you know how the cheap revolver
22 revolvers used to be like 50 bucks yes they
bought boxes yes and got 100 bucks each for them
he doubled his money being like fuck you you
want to buy them all back brilliant there we
go so the police lost money and now they have
a bunch of 22 revolvers that's brilliant defund
the police that's a hilarious way to do it i'm
just saying that's kind of funny but i i've never
been for buybacks because then the problem is
Now you have firearms in the hands of officers
where you don't know where they end up Because
not to not trust police but there's also been
many many cases of those firearms disappearing
that's somehow ending in the hands of officers
personally and their personal safes and There's
no way of ensuring they won't end up somewhere
in the government So not for nothing I think
it's insane. Oh, by the way, Oside, so he commented
in the chat, I remember someone that set up a
stand near one of those to buybacks to buy back
the gun at a better price. That was Brandon Herrera.
And he is my fucking idol for some of that shit.
There's a reason why they call him AK Jesus.
So what he did, which is absolutely brilliant,
was told people, hey, if you're going to be just
giving this firearm to the police, I will buy
them from you at a better price. And he got amazing
deals on stuff. Unfortunately, there were a couple
of them that were total pricks that on principle
wouldn't sell it to him. They're like, oh, you
like firearms? I purposely won't sell this to
you. It's like, all right, cool. You are the
least cool person at the table. Wow. You're the
uncle that nobody loves. I'm sorry. I especially
like those people who turn in their firearms
from their home so they can help prevent gun
violence. It's like, were you going to commit
a crime? Then you're not doing anything. you
are keeping it off the streets congratulations
because guess what obama did operation fast and
furious where he gave all these drug cartels
all these firearms that we had confiscated from
civilians and we had bought we talked about yeah
the people don't realize you you're giving more
guns to the government does not mean anything's
gonna be safer because they might just give them
to drug cartels yeah which uh like you were saying
the the the guns that get turned in at buybacks
If they're not logged properly, who's to say
that that's not going to be a drop pistol for
a bad situation for a cop, a dirty cop. It's
been known to happen. So one of the problems
I have, I can't reveal too much information here,
but I knew an officer who was basically responsible
in a town for all the firearms that were collected.
He would then take them. He would, you know,
take all the information off them and go and
basically weapons test them to make sure they
were functioning, make sure they were whatever.
The dude would have 100 plus firearms at his
house at any one time, which is no big deal.
But 70 of those weren't ones that he owned. They'd
be ones from lockup. They'd be from the police
department. And cool that he was testing and
checking them. But my problem is, if you had
a house that's revolving a couple hundred firearms
every few months, it's so easy to let them slip
through the cracks. Especially if that person,
if you know, is getting arrested and they're
gone, they forfeited that property. That property
is no longer theirs. which by the way is kind
of a fucked up thing with our system not for
nothing it's like oh you got arrested for a crime
this was your property even if it wasn't involved
in it well it's it's now ours so so thank you
for that um and it just gets taken and so now
in the ether it could be anywhere we don't know
so just keep that in mind that with a buyback
just because the government's buying it back
doesn't mean the government's going to use it
for something good Remember, they're the government.
They're here to help. Yeah, to help get themselves
more money. They're here to take your taxes.
Yes. But yeah, no, buybacks are stupid. Hey,
taxes and tariffs. We'll have to do an episode
on that. Oh, I'm so excited. I am so aggressively
pro -tariff. It's not even funny. But we've been
waiting for more information. Yeah, I just wish
people would calm the fuck down because my...
My portfolio is crying right now. It's a short
-term pain for a long -term. It's temporary,
and I'm just going to wait for the sales to finish
up so I can buy. Oh, yeah, buy the dip. That's
how you get rich, baby. You know, I don't want
to be rich. I just want to have enough. Like,
I want to pay off my house and then just coast
on what I'm making for a while. Yeah. Well, I
think. Most Americans my age or younger consider
that rich. Because the idea of having a paid
off house, I think for the majority of people
under 30 is like an impossible dream. Yeah. So
way off topic here. I'm hoping that I'm going
to be able to be in a position to where I can
leave my house for my kids because I worry about
the ability of them to be able to buy one. And
that's terrifying because, you know, I've got
an 18 year old that's coming out into the world.
I've got a 13 year old who in, you know, five,
eight, 10 years is going to be staring down that
barrel. And I don't know that he's going to be
able to buy a house at a reasonable situation.
And the sad part is it doesn't matter what job
they go into. I bet you that job will not pay
enough. Unless we have a major crash. Which we're
due for. It has to happen. And what sucks is
I know people that combined make almost a quarter
million. And in my area, they still can't afford
a house. Good lord. I make good money. My girlfriend
makes good money. And I am lucky the fact that
basically I have taken the last 10 years of my
life taking care of my grandparents so I can
have a house. Because even with both of us making
good money, I wouldn't get approved because I
don't... Not happening. No. If I have to put
10 %... There are still places in America you
can buy a house, like in my area. With what you're
making, you could probably still get a house.
With what I'm making, I'd be fine out your way.
But out my way, it's... I spent $1 ,000 last
month heating my house. I spend like $700 plus
a month on taxes. Dude, I got my power bill finally.
I was so relieved. It was only 180. Hey, I had
a $400 power bill for December. I was shitting
a brick. Dude, I don't have electric heat and
mine was 380. And that was what the tenant moved
out. Wow. Because I believe our kilowatt hours
in the winter are like. Something crazy like
32 cents or something like that. 30, 32. They
basically double it over the winter. Because
during the summer it's like 18. So basically
my bill is always like 400 bucks. Oh my God.
Yeah, I know. I pay like 10 .2. Yeah. Year round.
The power company should also send lube with
their bill. That's what I'm learning. You know,
it makes my life easier. Oh. That's why I want
to get the ultra -efficient. My girlfriend and
I were looking. We were at Costco earlier. They
have the ultra -efficient air conditioners. I
might have to get some. You might need to get
more solar panels is what you need. That's the
sad part. Even with the solar panels, it's just...
It's just... It might... And a wind generator.
I'm about to build my own fucking nuclear reactor
the rate we're going. Like, fuck. You can do
it. I mean, the parts are on Amazon. Right. But.
All right. Well, I don't have anything else to.
This is a fun little, fun little chat. You know,
I enjoyed this one. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I guess.
Guns are not bad. People are bad. No, it's. You
know, it's never been the fault of the firearm
for something like that happening. It's just
all in how you handle it and what you do and
just understand. You know, you take away the
gun, we use a knife. You take away the knife,
we use a rock or a stick. I mean, it's how we've
done business for tens of thousands of years.
And consider most every other civilized country
is more violent than us on almost every level.
And how you know that is very simple. If you
look at photos of a country, watch how many single
younger women are walking around in areas. You
notice in America, 99 % of areas women can walk
around just fine. You suddenly go to some of
these other countries, and you won't see any
of them. There's a reason why certain countries
don't leave the house, and it's not always because
of the religion. It's because of, hey, if they
leave, they're going to get hurt. And it sucks,
and it's stupid, and it shouldn't happen, but
not my country. I can't tell them how to live.
Nope. Oh, so Oside, I can explain that. He commented
here somewhere that they are forcing solar people
to give to the power companies electricity for
free, and they're getting charged for it. So
here's how it works in my state, because my state's
run by a bunch of communists. We get paid one
-tenth the rate. I think it's like one -eighth
or one -tenth, something like that. Gross. Now,
Greg, the good news is... For me, it doesn't
matter because I use more energy than I generate.
So for me, they don't have to pay me on that.
So the good news is it basically runs my beater
to where I don't use a lot most of the time,
especially in the summer. But my neighbor has
the problem where when he's not home a lot of
the time and it's literally just his solar panels
running, he might generate $500 worth of electricity.
He'll get 50 bucks on his credit for it. But
then guess what? All the things that are running
in his house still somehow use that up every
time. But yet they can resell that same energy
that you just brought in the system for that
500. So that's bullshit. It's called a monopoly
and communism. That too. Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
It's great. It's great. I can't wait to sell
and leave here. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. I think
it's going to wrap us up for today. Yeah. Yeah.
Any other questions, comments, concerns, thoughts,
last minute things. Any questions from the audience?
Best rifle? Depends. What's the purpose? I'm
fond of the M60, but that's just because I started
rising up off the deck when I was shooting it.
The 25mm machine gun, also very fond of it. I'm
sorry, timeout. As far as like... 25 millimeter
machine gun. Uh -huh, deck mounted. That was...
I believe we call those cannons, sir. That's
big enough to classify as cannons. Yeah, 76 rounds
a minute. It was orgasmic. Best civilian legal...
or civilian available, because I can own just
about anything in my state. I would have to say,
while I'm fond of my Mosin, I've got to go with
the AK. So, eh. It depends on what you're trying
to do. That's the thing. Best rifle, if you're
talking about in America, for most people, it's
going to be a 5 .56 platform. It's just simply
put, you could hunt a lot of things with it.
Self -defense is good. good flight characteristics,
easy to aim, easy recoil. If you're looking at
a semi -automatic rifle to get started in, it's
hard to say no with that. That being said, if
you're looking to go to war with it, absolutely
an AK platform is a great option. You and I are
both Mosin fans, so we both like those. I can
definitely say anything that's 30 -06 if you
want to get something with a little more punch
to the power. You know 30 .6 or 308 Really anything
with a semi -automatic or bolt action that's
gonna handle your mid to upper range for most
anything anything bigger than that I Have a hard
time justifying unless you're doing some crazy
shit Yeah, I mean like you like you like best
overkill a 700 nitro Express Yeah, no shit if
you're trying to kill the Buffalo on the other
side of the house after the fridge Fuck, that's
like carrying a deagle in .50 AE. Like, fucking
Christ. I feel like that's one of those things
where if you can't use it properly, then there's
no point in owning it. Like, as cool as I think
some of them are, like, if you can't hit what
you're looking at, what's the fucking point?
So, I don't know. Oh, what was it? The revolver
that shot the .454 Castle with the 20mm or 30
millimeter under barrel i think it was like a
prob gut or something but my god it was it was
amazing i will say the ars chambered and 50 beowulf
um that is a cartridge that does not get enough
love that would be cool because it's basically
just like a snub down 50 so it's a lot easier
to handle right yeah and it it takes um there's
an AR magazine. I think standard AR double stack
bags, it will run in. But it only holds like
eight rounds. So that's cool if you need a higher
caliber. I always wanted one in .458 SOCOM. You
can swap out the upper. I want to get an AR in
.458 SOCOM. I always thought that'd be fucking
dope. Oh, yeah. Oh, God, what's that? Oh, .300
Blackout is kind of cool. If you want a good
subsonic ammo, if you're running a suppressor,
that kind of deal. But yeah, I mean best rifle
it all depends what you're doing, but Anything
seven six two or five five six you can't go wrong
You know as long as you research what the hell
you need You know, I just make sure it's reliable
not for nothing do the maintenance on it. Make
sure it works a 500 950 JDJ. Yeah, that thing's
insane But that's terrifying. That's That is
the good old non -consensual shoulder remover
That's the chiropractor in a can, we call those.
It just, you know. God. You ever want to have
Arnold Schwarzenegger hit you with the power
of a thousand terminators? That is the fucking
dive 50 JDJ. That's a fat back. That's the one.
I just wrote that. Yeah. Those are nuts. I just,
oh yeah. I love, I love firearms like that. The
weird stuff. I have a couple of the casings from
the 25 that I had to use during the one engagement
that I was involved with. I'll send you some
pictures if you want. They're not small. I think
what else? In terms of carry, in terms of rifle,
I think that kind of covers most of the calibers
that we see in America. There's a lot of calibers
that we don't see in America. in terms of ammunition
that's the other thing if you're ever going to
get a firearm make sure the ammo is readily available
because i had a lever action 35 remington fun
fact that ammo is not available in america that's
a particularly european thing so i still have
some just because but i got rid of the rifle
because couldn't find ammo but make sure you
get ammo for it especially nowadays um In terms
of pistols, again, you got your .380 ACP on the
low end. You got your 9mm. You got your .45.
You got your 10mms and .40s. Don't forget .22.
Oh, you can carry .22. I love .22. You can carry
.22. You know what? I have to watch a video.
Somebody did a video on, is .22 Magnum a good
self -defense round? And I actually don't know
enough about it. It actually is. It's a solid
round. How does it compare against .380? I'll
let you watch the video. Oh, so you saw that
too? I don't want to spoil it for you. Okay.
All right, because that's on my to -do. Yeah.
Like the bullet doesn't have a lot of mass, but
speed kills. Okay, okay. Because I would love
to get a .22 mag to have it. Yeah. But no, .22?
Yeah, .22 mag is good. Oh, yeah. .22LR, that's
the usual .22. Great for pistols, great for rifles.
They're fun. I recommend anybody that's getting
into firearms get a .22LR training pistol or
rifle. Yep. For the love of God. 100%. Do it.
It's worth it. Do the roar. But yeah, I think
that's going to finish us up for tonight. Hit
us up on the socials. Hopefully the TikTok goes
live soon. Sorry, I have been slacking and I
know I keep saying this every week, so. You are
welcome to hit me with a baseball bat. I don't
know. I don't know. I hit you with the flesh
stick. No, I don't swing that way. No, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to know. But
as always, find us on the socials. I think I'm
going to try doing a group on Facebook and see
how that does. You know, that might be worth
it. Oh, on our TikTok, I've kind of decided that
I'm going to start using it kind of more like
primarily on my end. And I've been starting a
lot of TikTok arguments lately in my personal
one. So I might be causing a little TikTok chaos
with ours. Because why not, right? Good deal.
You know. Do it. Do the thing. I'll use this
episode to argue with people from Europe. Oh,
yes. Do it. All right. Well, guys, thanks for
hanging out with us. Hope you enjoyed the thought
bubbles. Thought bubbles. They said I didn't
have a thought behind these eyes. I had exactly
two. We are, in fact, not smooth brains here.
We do have a few wrinkles. But, yeah, thanks
for hanging out, and we'll catch you guys again
next week. Oh, yeah.