Riding Shotgun With Charlie

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #133 Jerah Hutchins Clearing The Chamber Instructor, Entrepreneur, Cigar Smoker, & Bourbon Drinker   Jerah Hutchins is always on the go.  And she’s doing so many good things to help people.  We’ve been friends on Facebook for awhile and I reached out when I was heading to Dallas for AMMcon.  I knew she lived in the area. Tony Simon (RSWC #041) said she is one of his favorite people.  That’s a great recommendation so I knew I had to ask her to hop in the stagecoach.  Jerah’s grandfather was an immigrant from Sicily who loved the Second Amendment and was adamant about it and ‘about that freedom life’. During her college years, she had a shotgun where she lived, but a stalker changed things and she needed to get a handgun. She felt safe at home, but being out of her apartment which had layers of defense, she needed to have the ability to protect herself. There weren’t a lot of women getting into firearms at the time so things were different and there weren't a lot of items that

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#132Grant GallagherScotShot NRA & USCCA Training Counselor   It’s great to have a product like RSWC.  While visiting a friend in New Jersey, I was wondering who I could have from New Jersey on the show.  He asked “what about Grant Gallagher from ScotShot?” I asked if he was a regular co-host on The Polite Society Podcast. And he was. My friend also said he was an NRA & USCCA Training Counselor and he took training with Grant.  After some messages back and forth, we all had a bite to eat before filming the shows.    Grant was raised in Scotland, like ScotShot would make you believe. His real job is a scientist and he’s been a professor at a college in New Jersey since 2001, just before September 11. His only experience shooting in Scotland was with a friend’s dad, who hunted. Since the massacre at a school in Dunblane, civilian access to handguns were removed. So even the Olympic shooters had to leave the country to train and practice.    In the UK, a handgun is defined by it

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #131 Gun Makers Match 11.20.2021   I got a text message from Rob Pincus (RSWC #063) about the Gun Makers Match at Cape Gun Works in Hyannis, MA, asking if I was going to be making the match. I had to work on the day of the gun making, but I made it to the shooting competition. Sort of. They started at 8 am and I didn’t get to CGW until 11:15 am so I missed everything and everyone. Rob, Toby Leary, CGW owner, Matt Holmes, 2A3D Print, and Bobby Brown, AWCY?, were still hanging around.  So we pulled 2 mounted bears that CGW has in the store and filmed what we called “Between Two BeARs”, a spoof of “Between Two Ferns”.     The weekend consisted of one day of gun making and a morning of shooting competitions. This was the 3rd Gun Makers Match that Rob was leading. There’s going to be a National Match in St. Augustine, FL, in March 2022. And Toby said Cape Gun Works will host an annual event, too.   Day One was building several P80s that were brought by Matt & 2A3DPrint. Bobby came f

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#130Ashley HlebinskyFirearm HistorianThe DC Project   Ashley Hlebinsky is THE coolest firearm historian you’ll ever meet! We were both speakers at AMMcon (hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation) in Dallas recently.  Since she is a  historian and we were in Dallas there is only one place for us to visit: Dealey Plaza.  Of course, you know this is where Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. I LOVE the Kennedy assassination conspiracies! All of them. And while watching any documentary on it, I will buy whatever theory they’re selling. But not Ashley.  She likes the real story!   Ashley wanted to be a doctor like many folks, but she was interested in battlefield medicine which led to firearms and firearm history. Ted Koppel said about her, she wanted to learn to save lives then to things that could take lives. But she’s really into much more about how firearms work, how the evolution of firearms has changed, and its impact on the industry, technology, society, and culture.     One o

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#129 Heidi Bergmann-SchochCompass Defense LLC   This past fall I had a trip to New Jersey to hang out with John Petrolino (RSWC #093).  As we  were talking, I mentioned that this was my first trip in over 2 years without having filmed a show someplace. After some brainstorming of previous New Jersey passengers, we came up with Grant Gallagher (coming soon) and Grant told Heidi Bergmann-Schoch about this and asked if she wanted to be on the show, too. He said she’s a great instructor and she has worked with him for years. After lunch, we filmed the shows then I headed home.    Heidi started her career as a police officer, specifically a K-9 officer.  She started the K-9 officer program in her town and was the K-9 officer in several towns.  After being an officer for 7 years, she contracted Lyme’s disease and had to retire. Wanting to still give to the community, she got into paramedics. Before being a paramedic, she had to train for an EMT position. She was a paramedic for about 10 y

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #128 Amy Lucas Steel & Stilettos Firearms Training USCCA Instructor   It’s great to have friends in the gun community who know the people I don’t.  Amy Lucas was suggested to me by Patrick Collins (RSWC #091).  Earlier this month, I was in Dallas for AMMcon and Amy was in Fort Worth for the USCCA Expo. She was able to get away for a bit to hop in the Stagecoach. By the way, the “Stagecoach” was provided by Cheryl Todd (RSWC #060) from Gun Freedom Radio! Thanks, girl!   Amy is a retired corrections officer from the metro Detroit area. She started her career before she could carry a firearm.  Then she got into training with firearms, CPR and everything else. She spent 20 years holding down the fort at a maximum security prison. While she was there, she got lots of training in many areas of self defense and personal protection. She also became a SWAT team leader, chasing down escapees and securing the prison when someone snuck in a firearm.    After she retired, she became a priva

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #127 Dave Laird Dynamic Combative Solutions LLC   This summer I was invited to participate in a class sponsored by FASTER Saves Lives (FSL).  Check them out: they’re working to arm students and school staff!  There were several instructor and podcast friends taking the class that were part of the “media people” who were going to talk about and promote what FSL is doing. Dave Laird was also a student in the class.  He is a member of Arizona Citizens Defense League (AZCDL). He’s also an instructor and founder of Dynamic Combative Solutions, LLC. Which is why he outshot everyone in the class!   Dave grew up around firearms and many family members were in the military from before 1776, during the French & Indian War. As a teen he moved back to Pennsylvania and his grandmother taught him a lesson in hunting: he isn’t taking lots of ammo-he got one round. He did martial arts when he was young and knew he’d be heading to the military.  After doing well in MEPS test, he still wanted to

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #126  Jeanelle Westrom Davenport Guns The DC Project   Janelle Westrom is someone who’s name I’ve been hearing for a while.  She’s a friend of other friends, and that’s almost family in the gun community. Family is what the gun community is about. I reached out to Jeanelle and asked if she’d be up for being a passenger. I was heading to Sioux Falls for a class and I was going to be ‘swinging through’ the Davenport area and I could film a show with her.    We met at Davenport Guns and Jeanelle brings me in where she spent the day before shooting Gel Blasters (https://gelblaster.com/) at some friends driving in their cars.  There were a few Gel Blasters in the store and she proceeded to shoot them a bit. I knew this was going to be fun.    Jeanelle’s grandpa was a gunsmith, her dad was a gun guy, and she was born with Hoppe’s in her bloodstream. Her dad took and her sisters to the range because he needed ‘brass rats’ to pick up the brass so he could reload. He spent time in the milit

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#125Kory BrooksNRA & USCCA Instructor 761st Gun Club, President   I love my gig.  I was heading to Michigan for some personal events and saw how close I was to Chicago.  Kory Brooks reached out when he saw that I had Rhonda Ezell (RSWC #037) on the show and said if I ended up in Chicago, he would love to be on the show.  I saw how close I was to Chicago on the Michigan trip and reached out to Kory.  He said he was up for it so we made a plan.  Kory is an instructor, certified by the NRA & the USCCA. He offers several classes to his clients, including several basic courses and self defense courses. He got into instructing after 8 years in the USMC, doing 2 tours in Iraq. After leaving the military, he took some time away from firearms, like many people do when they’re starting their lives and families.  In 2014, he bought his first pistol, and got more into firearms in 2017, working to become a gunsmith and instructor. He specializes in building AR-15 style rifles.      Kory

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#123Julianne Versnel Second Amendment Foundation   I’d been attending and speaking at the Gun Rights Policy Conference for 5 years. But I was at the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival in Pennsylvania and ran into Alan Gottlieb and Julianne Versnel. I got a handshake and a hug.  That’s when I knew that the firearm community is family. I’d met Alan and Julianne several times at GRPC over the years, but I didn’t know they remembered me until that day.    With this past weekend being GRPC weekend, it seems fitting that I line up Julianne’s interview. You can watch Gun Rights Policy Conference 2021, which is all virtual, on the Second Amendment Foundation’s Facebook  page and YouTube channel. There’s several speakers from all over the country and the world, talking about what’s going on in the gun community. And yes, if you’re not a member of SAF you can join at saf.org.     I was excited to have Julianne in the passenger’s seat, well, it was HER car. We spent some time surveying the buildings

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#123Anna TaylorDene AdamsThe DC Project Sponsor   In 2019, I interviewed Holly Sullivan from CCDL and she was telling me about her Dene Adams corset, which she LOVES.  I made a clip of her talking about it and sent it to Anna Taylor.  And I asked if she would get in the stagecoach.  She said she would be up for it when I made it to Kansas City. And I made it to Kansas City this summer!   We do start the show a little non-traditionally.  She does some shooting FROM the car with a pistol caliber carbine then a 1911/2011 handgun. Something we haven’t done on the show before!   Anna gets into how she got into firearms after Sandy Hook while she was pregnant with her 4th child.  There was a break in in her neighborhood and she realized that, with a (then) husband who traveled for work, she was going to need to be the one to protect the young children. After getting her carry permit in Missouri, she wanted to learn how people carry, but nothing really worked for her.    With some sewing e

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #122 Jon Anderson Get Off My Lawn Podcast Nebraska Firearm Owners Association   Jon Anderson reached out to me a while ago to be a guest on his show. The panel that night included a number of other folks in the 2A community that I knew so I was really looking forward to it. Then he had me on a few more times. He did express an interest in Riding Shotgun should I ever get out to Nebraska. I was finally able to make it out that way and had to have Jon on the show.     Being from Nebraska, Jon has been around firearms all his life. Firearms are just tools that everyone in that section of America has and owns. It’s how they live. But he didn’t get more involved in the activist side of the gun community until he purchased his first handgun.    While attending the Tulsa Arms Show, Jon met some folks from Nebraska Firearm Owners Association (NFOA) and several YouTubers and podcasters.  He knew many of them from being an avid listener and watcher.  He made several new friends, including Tr

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#121Sandra ZettlemoyerBrass & Sass LLCA Girl & A Gun   A few months ago, I went down to one of Tony Simon’s (RSWC #041) Diversity Shoots in Easton, PA, at The Heritage Guild.  I know that he’s had some shadow banning issues and the word about them isn’t getting out. I met some of the folks from the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners (CNJFO) there. One of the instructors was Sandra Zettlemoyer.  After some chatting it up and finding out she’s got her own instructing business in the Lehigh Valley area and chapter of A Girl & A Gun, I asked if she wanted to hop in the stagecoach while we waited for pizza to arrive before the event.  Of course, she did.    Sandra attended an NRA’s Women On Target at the Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays and it changed her life. Her husband pushed her into going and she was all about it and loved it. She loves shotgunning then she found A Girl & A Gun (AGAG) Within 2 years of starting to shoot, she got certified to teach courses and got he

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#120John HickokYouTube Creator, Comedian   I reached out to John Hickok to double check the social media links for RSWC #101 with Hickok45. After he replied, I said I’d like to have John on the show sometime and he said he’d be up for it. I was heading to Nashville for a personal trip. I message John, giving him an idea when I would be done and he said he’d enjoy being on the show. I love my gig!   We all know that John is Hickok45’s son. John grew up with the Hickok range in the backyard. He was shooting at 3 and shooting an Uzi (full auto) at 4.  Yes, it was only a few rounds left in the magazine, but it was STILL full auto!   John is the one behind the scenes for the channel. When YouTube was young, John noticed that there weren’t many gun channels on site. While in college, he watched YouTube and realized that he missed shooting. There were only a few gun channels at the time and the ones that were on the site weren't very exciting. So John suggested that Hickok45 start making s

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#118Brian DealAero Precision  Vice President of Marketing   Special thanks to Derek LeBlanc from Kids S.A.F.E. Foundation for this interview.  He connected me with Brian and let me borrow his truck for the show!   I was able to meet with Brian at the Aero Precision headquarters in Tacoma, WA. We set everything up and headed out to talk about Brian all things Aero Precision. We also talk about the new gun owners the past year and a half has given us.   Brian grew up hunting in eastern Washington, hunting pheasants, deer, and elk, just like many people in Washington and really enjoyed the outdoors growing up. He still hunts with his dad for some family bonding time. He went to college for marketing and graphic designing, wanting to make pretty things and make people see them.      Aero Precision has made some changes to their website so it's easier to find parts that are in stock.    Aero Precision started in the aerospace industry. They’re only 25 years old, making parts for airplane

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#118Dr. John EdeenDoctors for Responsible Gun Ownership   I’ve been running into Dr. John Edeen since I first went to GRPC in 2016.  He’s always been a speaker.  And he’s been brave enough to model for the concealed carry fashion shows that I’ve emceed as well. He was braver when I asked if we could be roommates for the Florida Carry Speaker event this past March.  Since we were riding to the event together, it was the best time to film a show. Last year at the Florida Carry event, Dr. Edeen spoke about what to tell your doctor when they ask about firearms in the home.  Here’s the link to get the article.  https://drgo.us/position-statements/the-gun-question/     Dr. Edeen came from a family that helped others. His parents worked with the Salvation Army.  His father helped psychiatric patients who were released from the hospital and helped them manage their money, help them get food to eat, and brought in psychiatric help as well. He knew from the 7th grade that he wanted to be a d

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#117Gabby FrancoThe DC ProjectTop Shot, Season 4 & 5Cartel Crew on VH1   Gabby Franco and several other members of The DC Project were going to be speaking at an event in New Jersey. With some simple coercion from a friend, I was talked into going.  All of the women speaking have been on RSWC except Gabby Franco. I sent her a message, explaining who I am and what I do, and who else has done the show, and asked if she would be able to film a show. Of course, she agreed. Gun people are the best people!   Gabby grew up in Venezuela, in a family full of women.  Venezuela was very different at the time when Gabby’s dad went to get a concealed carry license and saw the range had a junior shooting team. Her name, Franco, translates to ‘sniper’ in Spanish, which kind of set the tone for her life. By the time she was a teenager, she was shooting pistols competitively.  At 16 years old, she found herself shooting to be on the Venezuelan Olympic shooting team.     While at a fair in Miami,

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#116Neil WeidnerMarketing Director,  Active Self Protection   Neil Weidner saw me do a presentation at AMMcon (Alternative Multi Media conference) the day before the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix in 2019. He enjoyed the speech and the whole presentation.  A month later, a friend called me to say she was talking to Neil and he asked her how he could get on the stagecoach.  I didn’t believe it.  When I saw Neil at SHOT in January 2020, we talked about the possibility of setting up filming a show somewhere.  When I signed up for the MAG40 class in Sioux Falls in early June of 2020, I reached out to see if he was taking the course.  Boom! We had plans.    Neil and his wife Stephannie (RSWC #112) have four daughters, but they wanted a boy.  So, while living in Iowa, they wanted to become foster parents. They took in a young boy from a family that had some issues. Despite loving their son, the family wouldn’t be able to raise the son. So Stephannie and Neil took the boy in as th

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#114Ben DeWaltOnSight Firearms Training   One of my friends, Mark, asked if I was going to be taking a course called Defense Pistol - Accuracy and Accountability with Ben DeWalt of OnSight Firearms Training. I decided that I was going to do some training for myself this year and said only if Mark was taking the class, too.  He also told me that Ben would be a great person to have in the passenger’s seat.  So I signed up for the class and messaged Ben about being on the show!   Having grown up around firearms and shooting .22 rifles as a kid, he was carrying Guns & Ammo magazine in 3rd grade. About the time he was in 8th grade, he got into martial arts and karate. After high school, he found himself DJ’ing, doing security, and managing night clubs in NYC. That led to being a booking agent and calling clubs to set up tours for bands. Which came in handy years later as a firearm instructor.    Growing tired of the musicians and rockstar attitudes, he decided to make a career shift

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#114Daniel Schmutter, Esq.Hartman & Winnicki   Daniel Schmutter is an attorney in New Jersey. We ran into each other at NJSAFECON back in 2017. And certainly at GRPC over the last few years. I’ve heard Daniel on the Gun For Hire podcast for years and I finally had a chance to have him in the passenger's seat. But I do have to thank John Petrolino (Bearing Arms, Ammoland/ Decoding Firearms) as he made the connection to get Daniel and I together.  We covered many topics, from him getting into the 2A as a lawyer, to bringing a knife into court, and talking about liberty, which came up often. Daniel grew up in the Bronx, NYC, in an anti-gun family.  He didn’t have a chance to go shooting until he was in law school and took a course with the rifle & pistol team with a law school roommate He became a firearm owner in 1993 in New Jersey. In 2002, he wrote an op/ed for the Star Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, against the ‘smart guns’ then was contacted by Scott Bach, who is