Episodios

  • RSWC #228 Jay Grazio

    RSWC #228 Jay Grazio
    Apr 22 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #228 Jay Grazio Executive Editor, Shooting Illustrated I was down in Fairfax, VA, filming shows with the NRA staff. One of the folks who I had lunch with was Jay Grazio. He’s originally from Massachusetts, a funny guy, and we hit it off well. So we filmed a show! One of the perks of his position is that he gets to train. When we did the show, he’d recently visited Gunstie in Arizona. It also sounds like the NRA has the employees do training together, which he says he did with one of the other staff members. As a Bay Stater, it’s hard to be a gun person, with all the limitations (infringements) and laws (more infringements) that we have. As much as he loved growing up in small town New England, it wasn’t good as a gun activist and writer. When he took the position at Shooting Illustrated, he made the move to free America in Virginia. At a young age, the shooting bug hit him. His father was a Mass State Police police officer and his grandfather was a town police officer. Firearms were always around and safety was emphasised by the elders. Guns were tools to the family. His grandfather would tell him stories of when he was young and owned a diner. During the Depression, often people would settle up with bills and exchange meals for firearms. This makes the history of firearms a big interest for Jay. One prized possession is his grandfather’s Colt revolver that he carried, which was made in the 1930’s. Another is a 1911 from 1917, which still fires without any issues, just like it did over 100 years ago. Always one to look for a good gun story, Jay would help friends in need by offering to buy guns from friends and when they could pay him back, he’d give the gun back. But there was one Colt Python that he wasn’t able to come up with the money for and it got away from him. He also had to pass on a fully, lawfully transferable M16 that was only $10,000 back then. He has a degree in biology and a master’s degree in biochemistry, so of course he became an editor. In the early days, Jay was involved in lots of blogging on various websites and topics. He used to argue over politics online, like many of us still do. Then a friend had him write as the resident “gun guy”. He started his own blog about firearms by reviewing LaserLyte products, which he saw in an American Rifleman magazine. That led to more and more reviews and products. Things just kept rolling from there. Since then he’s written for Shooting Illustrated, Recoil, and Western Shooting Journal. When there was an opening at Shooting Illustrated, he was encouraged to apply. He took the chance and it worked out. Getting a degree and masters with a biology and sciences background, he understood writing, working on thesis, and meeting deadlines. Having some experience in sales marketing and websites came in handy, too. All transferable skills as he admits. At a previous job, Jay shares what's really a typical story for a gun owner in “occupied territory.” One colleague, who was an avid hunter, kept a knife in his truck in case there was an incident. This person wasn’t a fan of ARs. He thanked Jay on his last day at the job for not causing an incident when he left. This is a display that not all gun owners are created equally. It was OK for the man to have a “military grade sniper rifle”, but not acceptable, to him, for someone else to own an AR. Hypocrisy has no bounds. Jay was a great guy to spend time with! He’s a great story teller. His position gives him exposure to all sorts of training, gear, and personalities in the gun community. This was a fun interview and I hope y’all enjoy it. You can check out Shooting Illustrated from or the link below, or NRA’s website, and read all of Jay’s articles and the work he does. Favorite quotes: “Massachusetts is the birthplace, and graveyard, of liberty.” “It’s a way of connecting with the past in a manner that you can use it the way it was intended.” “Massachusetts doesn’t make it easy to be a Second Amendment advocate.” ”Guns are not good, guns are not evil. Guns are chunks of metal.” Shooting Illustrated https://www.shootingillustrated.com/ National Rifle Association https://home.nra.org/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: iTunes/Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/riding-shotgun-with-charlie/id1275691565
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    46 m
  • RSWC #227 Jonathan Goldstein

    RSWC #227 Jonathan Goldstein
    Mar 18 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #227 Jonathan Goldstein NRA BOD, NRA 2.0 Candidate This is a small first, but a first nonetheless. Jonathan Goldstein flew up from Philadelphia to Boston just to film a show with me! Yes, I’m beyond honored! He’s also working that hard to get elected for the NRA Board of Directors. And in his home state of Pennsylvania for their gun owners. It’s always fun to meet someone new and widen my circle of friends. I picked up Jonathan at the airport and we drove for a bit to get to know each other. We kick things off quickly and jump in deep, talking about Bruen, open carry v concealed, and why some laws aren’t conducive to logic. He’s got a great line, borrowed from Chris Conte from the NRA ILA, about “New Jersey being the North Korea of gun ownership.” I knew things were going to be fun after that. Jonathan didn’t really grow up as a gun guy. He owned IT businesses and sold them before going to law school. Besides that, he was a newlywed and applied for law school, and was on the ballot for the state legislature. After not liking the big law firm, he got together with some other friends and started outsourcing legal work to India. But as he says everyone “hates outsourcing, but they hate lawyers more.” Back in 1994, the gun laws were being redone in the Pa. There were lots of folks against it and he wanted to see what they were against. Each of the towns and cities were supposed to have the same laws. But they decided they were going to have different classes of cities, and thus, Philly was in its own class. Therefore, having its own laws that the rest of the state didn’t have. He started thinking about why the politicians were so set against lawful gun ownership. That piqued his interest and that’s when he became a gun owner. He got a permit, bought a snub revolver, got into shotguns and bird hunting and found a new passion. Around the time Heller was going on in 2008, he was getting more involved in getting cases and getting noticed by the NRA. This is where he became friends with Chris Conte at NRA ILA. In 2011, he was awarded the Defender of Justice by NRA ILA. He also helped raise money for the NRA. On the radar of the NRA, he ends up on a couple committees, one for the legal affairs and one for the non-traditional gun owner, those of racial and sexual minorities. With enough trust, he was placed on the nominating committee. That’s when he started seeing that things were not necessarily going so well. That’s when he started seeing that some BOD members weren’t there for wholesome reasons. He saw that they weren’t all rowing in the same direction. Some of the folks haven’t seen that the old tactics aren’t working, haven’t been, and don’t want to change. We got into it a bit more of course. He’s very passionate about the NRA and what is going on and what needs to be changed. I really enjoyed the conversation with Jonathan and I look forward to seeing him in Atlanta in April. This wraps up the five interviews I’ve done with the NRA 2.0 Candidates running on the reform ticket. I’ve had another five or so on the show over the years. I’m voting for all 28 of the “Reformers”. I enjoyed the conversations with them all. As with the NRA staff that I’ve had on the show, I can see the passion for the NRA and our rights that they have and they’re fighting for. These 28 candidates know that the NRA didn’t earn the respect of the members, their funds, and their support. I do have faith in them and what they plan on doing to resurrect the NRA from what has been going on. I have confidence in them and I’m looking forward to the progress for gun owners across the country. While it is too late to become a life member and be able to vote, it’s not too late to vote for those who haven’t yet. Ballots were sent out in the February magazines and have to be received by April 6, 2025. Favorite quotes: “The goal is to frustrate the gun owner.” “The modality that works best today is concealed carry. Not open carry.” “The fact that I carry a gun keeps you safer. You’re welcome.” “What do these politicians intend to do to me that my ownership of firearms is a threat to them.” “NRA is back on the map. We’re clean. We’re well run. We deserve to get out seat at the table back.” Elect A New NRA Website https://electanewnra.com/ Goldstein Law Partners https://goldsteinlp.com/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: iTunes/Apple podcasts https://...
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    50 m
  • RSWC #226 Jim Wallace

    RSWC #226 Jim Wallace
    Mar 11 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #226 Jim Wallace NRA BOD, NRA 2.0 Candidate GOAL, Executive Director I’ve known Jim Wallace and Gun Owners Action League as long as I’ve been a gun owner. I took a class with GOAL in 2002 before I even owned a gun. I became an instructor though GOAL, volunteered teaching with them, and even sat in their booth at the local outdoor expo. Having Jim on the show was a long time coming. And since he’s an NRA 2.0 candidate, now was the perfect time. Jim was a letter carrier with the postal system when he joined the Georgetown Fish & Game Club. He got involved in the League of Essex County Sportsmen’s Club. After doing some searching around, he found out that the people doing the licensing for hunting and fishing were going to be online and it was going to be most costly. At the time, he wasn’t much of a speaker or activist, he was just looking to see where the money was going and why it was going up. This got the attention of the folks at Gun Owners Action League. They invited him to the office to see what he found, and they figured if he could do this while maintaining a full-time job, they could pay him and he could find out more. Back in the day, Jim spent a lot of time in the Mass State House on Beacon Hill. He was able to spend his days there just talking with the state reps and senators. They often had questions for him about upcoming bills and legislation. He was able to educate and inform them about how this was going to affect hunters, fishers, and shooters. Jim and GOAL have faced so many issues over the years in the anti-gun commonwealth of Massachusetts. We talked about the 1994 AWB and what happened in 2004 when Governor Romney signed what he thought was going to be an improvement to the Mass gun laws, but ended up being a lot of gun control. Sometimes gun owners accept some bad laws to get some better laws that can, and should, be changed later. We cover a lot about the Gun Law Listening Tour of 2023 and how that was a sham hosted by the anti-gun politicians. I covered many of those events on News2A.com. After the tour and before the bill dropped, the main “writer” of the bill was visited by Gabby Giffords. I assumed that she gave the representative a hefty check and the legislation she wanted passed because when addressed about the contents of the bill, the Rep didn’t know what was in the bill. We also got into the NRA stuff, covering how the board has been changing for the positive with new people and new blood. Wallace also brings up that NY AG Letitia James could be the person credited with saving the NRA by going after the association. As with all the episodes with the NRA 2.0 candidates, I want to emphasize that the 28 candidates running as the reformers need to be elected as a whole if we want to see changes to the NRA BOD. The ballots were sent out in the February NRA magazine issues and need to be in by April 6, 2025. The only members who can vote have to be a dues paying member for 5 years in a row or have a life membership. I went up to where Jim lives to record the episode. He lives on the very North Shore of Boston. We got to drive through his hometown area, see some of the scenery of those who live by the ocean, and where he used to hunt, and still lives an active outdoorsmen lifestyle. Favorite quotes: “I just dug because something didn’t look right.” “As a result, I had weekly meetings with his Chief of Staff until he left office.” “They didn’t care about input. They already had the bill written.” “We didn’t turn that bill 180 but we certainly turned it 175 degrees.” “There’s a little bit of education that’s going to have to happen with new people being on the board and how things work. But I think we’re heading in the right direction.” Elect A New NRA Website https://electanewnra.com/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: iTunes/Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/riding-shotgun-with-charlie/id1275691565
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    56 m
  • RSWC #225 Charlie Hiltunen

    RSWC #225 Charlie Hiltunen
    Mar 4 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #225 Charlie Hiltunen III NRA BOD, NRA 2.0 Candidate Here’s another great interview with one of the NRA Board of Director members and NRA 2.0 Reform Candidate, Charlie Hiltunen III. At the Great American Outdoor Show, I got to meet several of the NRA 2.0 Candidates and set up to film some shows with a few of them. He had some commitments on the morning we filmed and asked if I could get him back so he was able to get to the airport. I told him I could do him one better and take him there. Currently, he’s finishing his first term on the board. Hiltunen was born and raised in Indiana. He grew up shooting and hunting as part of the midwest family life. He grew up in a time where high schoolers would bring a .22 rifle to school to hunt on the way home. This was a tradition with his father and he wanted to pass it along to his own children. When his kids were old enough, he was instructing and coaching them in the Scholastic Clay Target Program and Scholastic Action Program. With all the coaching and working with young people, he thinks he got more from it than they did. His career was as an attorney working with government affairs, lobbying, and politics. When the traditions he shared as a son and father were at risk, he got more involved in activism. Part of this journey got him involved with the Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association. The “family bond in the 2A community became even stronger.” As an instructor and coach and president of ISRPA, he was asked if he wanted to be a candidate for the NRA BOD. While on a hiking trip in Michigan, he got the message about the offer. When he asked when they needed a bio, they said right away! With his experience as an attorney, lobbyist, and as the president of a state association, it was a great fit! One of his personal goals is to reconnect the NRA with its members, new and old. The messaging from the BOD members I’ve talked to have all been the same. They want to increase members which will bring back some political clout. They want to focus on safety training, education, and competitions. The board is working more with each other to make the improvements they see fit. They all want to make sure the association stays around for another 150 years. But they do know that getting the message out is going to be a challenge. Part of the conversation is about permitless carry and training. When Indiana went to permitless carry, there were more people who wanted to get training. Of course, it's needed for responsible gun owners. The need for those without permits is different from a regular licensing course. When the state requires training for a carry permit, that’s often the only thing people take. But when they don’t need a license, they have more practical needs for shooting and training. We talk about training the women being the largest growing demographic of gun owners. He brought up fellow board member Rick Ector and the event he does in Detroit every year. It is important to get new people to try shooting so that they get that shooting is fun and training and safety are important for everyone. It is important to vote for all 28 of the Reform Candidates. In the past, people have encouraged “bullet voting” to try and get a message to the board. That method raises only a few candidates and pushes the others down. But this slate of candidates is going to work together to make the changes they think are needed. With more of the reformers on the board, there will be less of the “old guard” who had allegiance to the former EVP. Ballots were sent out in the February issues of the NRA magazines. They’re due on April 6, 2025. It was great to get to know Charlie more during this conversation. I’m looking forward to seeing what the reformers will do and hoping the changes they make will be positive changes for the association. Favorite quotes: “There’s so many great people on the board of directors.” “Change is difficult for any organization.” “The NRA is not an organization, it’s an organism.” “If you forget your history, you’re going to lose your future.” Elect A New NRA Website https://electanewnra.com/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: iTunes/Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/riding-shotgun-with-charlie/id1275691565
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    37 m
  • RSWC #224 Philip Gray

    RSWC #224 Philip Gray
    Feb 25 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #224 Philip Gray NRA BOD, NRA 2.0 Candidate It was a busy weekend at the Great American Outdoor Show earlier this month. I was able to film three episodes with NRA Board of Director candidates who are on the reform ticket. This is a slate of 28 people who are up to reforming the way the NRA has been conducting business and some of the shenanigans that have been going on. Everyone I talked to was excited about the future of the NRA. One of the passengers I got to spend some time with was Philip Gray. He’s from Ohio and grew up shooting and hunting like so many Americans. It really was an integral part of his youth and family time. Shooting clays is still a treasured time for Philip and his family, which they do on the family farm with the kids and grandkids. His family got a land grant years ago. The family has been there with a farm since the mid-1800’s for five generations. Philip has a lifetime hunting license. I think he said it was like $2 when he got it at eight years old. And he’s been using it since he was young. He started off shooting small game and trapping. He spent 20 years working electric power as an engineer. He’s been involved with the Friends of the NRA program since 1994. Working as a field representative and climbing the ladder at NRA. Half of the funds raised by FNRA stay in the state where the money is raised. The other half helps the NRA’s many other programs. The program grew until they needed to split Ohio up into two groups. Then he was the director of the east central region. His territory was eight states with nine employees. As a field rep, he goes around to ranges and gun stores telling them the benefits of the NRA. They can lead the way with range insurance, training and safety programs, and the Eddie Eagle program. The field rep has lots of volunteers helping get the word out. Since we all have different strengths, it’s good to have a large group of people with lots of different skills. He was responsible for events in six time zones from Maine to Alaska and Hawaii. During his time working as a field rep for NRA, he did the Wall of Guns. I was able to get the mic from a friend who was making the announcements and I tried to get some sales for Wall of Guns. The good news is the Wall of Guns has a cash option should those of us in occupied territory win and it’s not an “approved firearm.” They also take the winner’s information and send the firearm they won to their favorite and local FFL to make the transfer. Not gun show loopholes here! He retired from NRA just before the 2020 virus that shall not be named. Things were changing politically and he decided it was time to get involved a bit more. He got involved with the local Republican party and joined two Senate campaigns. Recently, they voted him as the chairman of the local Republican Party. Talking with his grandson, the boy asked why he is spending so much time and money working on these things. Philip replied "If we don’t, you might not get anything that we have.” We did talk about bullet voting and how that was effective in the past. But this time we need to support 28 reform candidates and vote for all of them. With these 28 people, there will be a majority of reformers and we will see some changes, but it will take time. The NRA is needed and it needs to be strong to face the anti gun crowd. This group of diverse people can and will make it happen. Some of the candidates are lawyers, some have business backgrounds, and others have political minds. I’m going to have a handful more of the NRA BOD reform candidates over the next month. Please be on the lookout for those upcoming shows. And share them with your friends. Favorite quotes: “I had some concerns at the NRA when I left.” “Working with the right people does pay off down the road.” “I think the turnout, the number of people voting, is going to be a record high.” “You should always be learning the job above you.” “Getting the Board changed to a little different direction. And then getting started getting the members back will be the two most important things we do.” Elect A New NRA Website https://electanewnra.com/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: iTunes/Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/riding-shotgun-with-charlie/id1275691565
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    43 m
  • RSWC Al Hammond, NRA 2.0 Candidate

    RSWC Al Hammond, NRA 2.0 Candidate
    Feb 19 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #223 Al Hammond NRA BOD, NRA 2.0 Candidate I get to travel the country and film RSWC episodes. I take the cameras just about every time I hit the road. Recently, I went down to the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pa. On the eve of the beginning, I went to a Friends of the NRA dinner. There were several of the NRA BOD reform candidates at the dinner. I was able to connect with them and arrange to film shows over the weekend. First I had Al Hammond. He’s one of the newer board members, having only served one three-year term. However, he has worked as NRA staff for 28 years. One of the reasons he ran for the BOD is that he saw things that didn’t sit well for him while he was on staff. He wanted to make some changes and he’s with the 28 who are being billed as the ‘reformers.’ Al was raised in a shooting family in Florida. He’s spent much of his career and life in the agriculture business. Shooting and hunting has always been a part of his life. It’s a cultural thing for him. It’s important to him to be able to pass this on to his children and his grandchildren. Before his career with NRA, he worked for several agriculture companies and was involved in some farm co-ops. He helped conservation groups raise money, and has even testified about conservation. He had a friend who was working for the NRA and they were looking for help with the Friends of the NRA program. Al and others were involved in starting and growing the FNRA program back in 1993. He was the field representative for Florida and that position grew. Over the years, he became the regional director and ultimately, the director of field staff. The main responsibilities for a field representative are raising funds for the NRA and the foundation. Half of the money raised in the state, stays in the state for programs for the youth programs, grants for ranges, training, and the shooting sports. They also end up being a liaison between the NRA HQ and the members in the area. The Florida permit comes up in the conversation. I’m a Utah instructor. I tell him the Utah permit is cheaper than Florida, but he retorts that it’s good for 7 years. Which leads into why we need to have national reciprocity. Let’s hope this can get passed before 2028! It should be possible with 29 states that have Constitutional/permitless carry. It would make things much easier for someone like me who carries on most of my adventures. We talk about how passing this on to future generations is important. He wants to make sure that his grandkids are able to go shooting. I talked about going to the library and getting the Eddie Eagle video on VHS and watching it with my children. It’s important for children to learn firearm safety, not just because you have firearms. But because they could go into the home of a friend who doesn’t keep their guns locked up. There could very easily be an accident if they don’t know the simple Eddie Eagle rules. The whole weekend when I would talk with those on the ballot as reformers, they emphasised that the NRA needs to get back to their roots, which is education, training, and competition. They all talked about gaining back the trust of the members and growing the membership. They want to get past the legal hurdles they’ve gone through with the New York Attorney General and build and expand on the fundamentals of what the NRA was. The number of gun owners vs the number of NRA members is vastly different. Some say there’s 100 million gun owners but only about 4 million NRA members. There can be an NRA member who has family members who align with the same beliefs and even votes like the NRA member. The latter may not be a dues paying member, but they consider themselves as part of the NRA. I’m going to have a handful more of the NRA BOD reform candidates over the next month. Please be on the lookout for those upcoming shows. And share them with your friends. Favorite quotes: “I saw some things that just didn’t sit with me as well as they should have, for the organization.” “We don’t advocate everyone should own a firearm. We advocate they should have the right to choose. And if you choose to own a firearm, we want to make you a responsible firearms owner.” “We were built on education, training, and safety.” “It wasn’t a job for me; it was a lifestyle.” “We believe in what we’re doing.” Elect A New NRA Website https://electanewnra.com/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: iTunes/...
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    41 m
  • RSWC #222 Ed Monk

    RSWC #222 Ed Monk
    Feb 11 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #222 Ed Monk Last Resort Firearm Training Ed Monk is a name I’ve heard several times over the years. In October 2024, Matt Mallory and I did a live show with Ed and I was able to talk him into letting me drive him around Boston. Last fall, I had a chance to film a show with him before he was presenting at a conference for law enforcement officers. His area of expertise is analyzing the aftermath of school shootings. As a teacher for over 3 decades, this is a topic that hits home for me. Monk grew up in Arkansas with a family with firearms, mostly for hunting. Around 1999, he connected with Jim Higginbothom who taught Ed that there’s a whole new world with defensive gun fighting and shooting. His training resume is beyond impressive. He’s taken classes at Front Sight, Tactical Defense Institute, and Rangemaster with Tom Givens. He also had training in the Army, where he spent 24 years. He’s been teaching for about 15 years. His brother built a range on the family property. Their range went from 3 pistol bays, to another bay that was covered from the weather. Then his brother became “terminally ill with long range shooting” and added a 480 yard range, too. And they have a 50 yard range that holds 15 people. Just after finishing his time in Iraq, he got a job teaching at a high school, where he taught for 4 years. Going from a profession that only dealt with deadly violence to one that avoids it was a difficult change. During some professional development, he realized that the school was prepared and didn’t know how to prepare for a school shooter. The school’s plan was to gather all the students and put them in one area, thus making it easier for the shooter to hit more targets. With the school's staff not knowing how to prepare and deal with violence, they thought this was an acceptable answer. But Ed knew it wasn’t. That put him on the path to study school shootings and how they’re committed. Ed has done the work and crunched the numbers. He’s realized that it becomes a math problem of sorts. The longer it takes to get someone who is prepared and ready to deal with the shooter, the higher the victim count goes. Locking the doors and hiding under the desks works well every day the shooter doesn’t show up. There are things that can be done. He suggests things like painting the hallways in different colors. Instead of having the art wing, the police can go to the green hallway. Elementary schools can also put barriers up on the playgrounds, ones that can be filled with sand or water. They can even have ballistic tables in the lunchroom. All things that would slow someone down who is committing a heinous crime. When it comes to stopping a shooter, the time it takes to respond matters, and relates to the number of victims. Ed says that schools don’t need everyone to carry but they need some people who are willing to step up and stop the carnage. But that person also needs to be at the school, where the action is taking place. Not several minutes away or even on the other side of the school. We have a treat in this episode. One of my friends, Mark Lindblom, aka The Bay State King of GLOCKS (BSKOG as we call him), calls in with a question for Ed.Mark has been talking to me about Ed and several other trainers. And he turned me on to Ed’s series on the Active Self Protection app. Ed offers classes and seminars all around the country. He can bring his program to your school as well. You can find where he’s teaching and presenting on his Facebook page. If you can get him to come to your district, that would be very beneficial to your community. He also offers training for churches. In August 2025, at his home range, he is hosting Hero’s Conference. You’ll be able to hear from heroes who stopped active shooters. People like Jack Wilson, Greg Stevens, Stephen Willeford, and Pastor David George. Favorite quotes: “Then plopped into a public teaching profession, where we don’t discuss violence at all.” “The locking the doors and hiding under the desks works very, very well the shooter doesn’t show up.” “They like putting stuff in the plans that’s easy to type, that’s easy to drill, that’s not controversial, that doesn’t trigger anybody.” “The longer we let him shoot us, the more of us get shot. Or the sooner we stop him, the fewer of us get shot.” Last Resort Firearms Training https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057584853533 Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray https://lddy.no/1iq1n Or listen on: ...
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    57 m
  • RSWC #221 Mark Oliva

    RSWC #221 Mark Oliva
    Jan 28 2025
    Riding Shotgun With Charlie #221 Mark Oliva NSSF, Managing Director of Public Affairs Heading down to Virginia for a few other shows, I was able to connect with Mark Oliva. He’s been on my radar as a potential passenger for sometime. I met him last year at SHOT. You can’t miss him. He wears a big cowboy hat. Many others do, too. But he has an NSSF badge that says “All Access.” We were able to meet at an “undisclosed location” in Northern Virginia. His job at NSSF takes him into DC regularly. We start off with some Range Day benefits, like Mark being able to figure out what he wants on his Christmas list. Then we cover talking about taking new folks shooting and shopping for their first gun. And why it’s important for ranges to have family friendly facilities and not just a five gallon bucket for a portable bathroom. If we want to get more people into the shooting sports, then we need to make it more comfortable and enjoyable for them. If places aren’t welcoming to women, he calls it the “hey, little lady complex.” He and his wife, a former Marine, went to one of those ranges and his wife outshoot everyone else in the class. Mark was born in New England and went into the Marine Corps right out of high school. He spent 25 years serving the country. He’s lived all around the country while serving. And picked up a drawl living in the Carolinas. He got orders to work on Capitol Hill and then he was offered a position at the NSSF. Summing up one career into the other, he says that he went “from one big gun club to another.” With his current position at NSSF as the Managing Director of Public Affairs, he’s on 24/7. He’s got two phones; a personal and a work phone. When the work phone rings, he has to answer it. Any day. Any time. Because he has to be knowledgeable about everything that’s going on, he says he knows “a lot about a lot of things but it’s hard to drill down and become a subject matter expert.” His job in the military was also in public affairs, so this was an easy transition. He enjoyed talking about the Marines and wanted the same thing in his other career. I do love it when people say the 2A events around the country, SHOT, NRA AM, GRPC, are a family reunion. It is exciting to go to these events, but it’s just as important to see and catch up with friends that we’ve made and the relationships we’ve built. Mark says the folks at the NSSF, no matter what they do, love hunting and shooting and keeping the firearm industry going and thriving. Mark talks about how he doesn’t give any credence to the media who want to take our rights away. So he can and does have to be firm with them. With everything that is going on, he can’t walk blindly into conversations with reporters. When he has these discussions, he’s got to have the facts to refute some of the untruths that reporters throw at him. We talk about how big the industry is, but also about how small it is. He runs into people that are with one company, then move to another company doing the same thing. All these folks, the movers and shakers, know each other. It’s a bit like the six degrees of separation. Or as I’ve heard it called, the Olympic rings of the gun community. I ran into Mark at SHOT last week. He was wearing a cowboy hat. Shocking, I know. He’s all over making sure everyone is getting the things they need and taken care of. SHOT week is really the NSSF’s Super Bowl of the shooting and outdoor industry. Everyone is on the go, on their feet, from sunup to way after sundown. And it’s always a great week! Favorite quotes: “You come out to SHOT Show, you can’t buy anything at the show. But man this is a great place to make a Christmas list.” “It was really easy and natural for me to have that kind of job, so why would I not want to do that in my next career?” “When it comes to the facts, you’ve got to have a good solid knowledge of those facts, and a handle on those facts.” “You’ve seen Justice Thomas repeatedly say that the lower courts are denigrating the Second Amendment to a second class right. And he’s frustrated with it.” NSSF Website https://www.nssf.org/ NSSF Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NSSFcomm/ NSSF Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thenssf/ NSSF LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-shooting-sports-foundation NSSF YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/thenssf NSSF X https://x.com/NSSF Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/ Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters. Dennis McCurdy Author, Speaker, Firewalker http://www.find-away.com/ Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/ Buy a Powertac Flashlight, use RSWC as the discount code and save 15% www.powertac.com/RSWC SABRE Red Pepper Spray ...
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