Riding Shotgun With Charlie

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #078 LaKasha Robbins Massachusetts Women Gun Owners Gun Owners Action League The DC Project   It was sometime in 2018 when I met LaKasha. She was modeling for the Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) Concealed Carry Fashion Show. I was the emcee. We were running into each other at 2A events put on by GOAL, The DC Project (DCP), and even trap shooting locally. Finally after about a year and a half of telling her she should be on the show, while we were sighting in some ARs recently, she agreed!  She’s been interviewed by Tom Gresham & Cam Edwards, this ought to be like shooting a .22!   LaKasha Robbins is a relatively new shooter and gun owner.  She’s had a license for several years, but things really started moving when she and some other female 2A activists in Massachusetts, started Mass Women Gun Owners (MWGO). She’s got some computer experience and organization skills, so she volunteered to help get materials and information out.  She and the others started the group just to exch

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #077 Dawn Hillyer Hiding Hilda   Dawn and I were both models at the concealed carry fashion show at Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in Chicago, 2018. I was modeling a holster undershirt.  I’m sure she was modeling one of her own products made by her company, Hiding Hilda. I told her that I wanted to do a show in every state and secretly she wanted to be my Indiana passenger. We made it happen in Fort Wayne, Indiana last month.    Dawn Hillyer, like many people, didn’t grow up around firearms or shooting. She got involved with firearms a year after a dating relationship ended and she was stalked for 6 years by her ex-boyfriend. There were death threats not just to her, but her family and friends, too. It kept escalating and escalating. The ex-boyfriend was very computer savvy and sent fake emails to himself making it look like she was going after him. She changed her phone number and email yet he still found and stalked her.     She had a bad feeling one evening and took her chi

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #076 Lauren Nelson This what one of the things I love about the 2A community is how easily we connect with others.  I met Patrick Collins in Phoenix.  He was able to connect me to Lauren Nelson when I asked about finding someone in Vermont to be on the show.    I met Lauren and we headed to her local gun shop in Wells River, VT, called Gateway Sports. They have a nice little shop that was recently redone inside.  While we were there, the store was busy with people looking to trade in some handguns, buying new handguns for some women, and even a few people with their young kids. Lauren shares a story about trading in a pink BB gun to buy her first gun at Gateway,too.    Lauren grew up south of Boston in a non-gun household.  She became interested in getting a handgun after she was married.  Her husband is mostly into long guns. Since they live in Vermont, they have their own range on their farm. They mostly shoot outdoors and usually in fair weather.   We get into how Vermont is a

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #075 Brooke Cheney A Great Start Shooting School The DC Project   I met Brooke Cheney at The DC Project dinner in Washington last summer.  Then we ran into each other again in Massachusetts at the Gun Owners Action League Concealed Carry Fashion show back in March. Of course, we kept in touch and with the current times, I needed to stay local for a show.  We did use some Leadslingers Hand Sanitizer, thanks for LeadslingersWhiskey.com, and headed out for a drive.    Brooke grew up and learned a little about firearms when she was a young girl. Her dad would load up a firearm and have her shoot them.  When she was dating her to-be-husband, they would go shooting, and he would load the firearm and have her shoot it. It wasn’t until after she had children, that she really needed to learn about firearms since they were going to be in the house.    Like many of us, after we take a safety course, we learn that we have more to learn. She learned that the course to get her license was just t

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #074 Mike Hughes & Britt Lentz Next Level Training   I met Mike & Britt at SHOT Show 2020 thanks to  Klint Macro & Matt Mallory from Meet The Pressers. They said they’re great guys from Next Level Training  and they needed to get in the stagecoach.  You may have seen Mike Hughes from History Channel’s Top Shot Season 3.    Before Next Level Training and SIRT pistols, Mike was a football player and a patent attorney who enjoyed competitive shooting. He spent a lot of time training and running his business, but having a family took over, and competitive shooting took a backseat.    The SIRT (Shot Indicating Resetting Trigger) pistol was Mike’s idea.  It took a lot of work, effort, and research to make the pistols and assembly them, which is all done in Washington state. They’ve got a number of types of pistols, like a GLCOK 17/22, S&W M&P, SIG P320, and a bolt for the AR 15 platform.    We did cover a little about the differences in intellectual property and funct

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #073  John Costa The Gunrunner LLC   When I called John Costa, owner of The Gunrunner LLC,  was on the phone with Glenn Beck. I read this story the day before about his gun store. I left my number and a couple hours later, we set up the time for an interview the next day.    During the breakout of COVID-19, many businesses and stores in Massachusetts were ordered to close. MA Governor Charlie Baker made a (vague) list of essential businesses.  President Trump eventually said that gun stores were essential businesses and should remain open. On March 31, Governor Baker included firearms retailers in the essential businesses.  Within hours, Governor Baker retracted firearms retailers on the list. Then Attorney General Maura Healey tweeted that gun stores were NOT essential and that gun owners were a danger to police officers, first responders, and domestic violence victims. The gun stores in Massachusetts would also not be on the list of businesses that could receive financial help fr

RSWC #072Mike OxDry Fire Training Cards Thanks to the Meet The Presser gents, Klint & Matt, for the use of their Vegas rental car! Attending a SHOT Show 2020 gathering is where I met Mike Ox.  He’s an instructor, author, and creator of the Dry Fire Training Cards. The Dry Fire Training Cards would be GREAT to have while the country is working through the virus of March 2020. “Ox” has been shooting since he was a young man.  After years of playing sports he got a number of concussions. When he was ‘no holds barred’ fighting in college, he learned to work with Olympic coaches on mental imagery and visualization and control his adrenaline response. Taking this training and combining it with firearm training, he ended up making a dry firing program for himself and it worked very quickly.  It became the Tactical Firearms Training Secrets book. He found out he was suffering with vertigo almost every night for 3 ½ years and learned about neurology and how to not have vertigo and keep doing IDPA Nationals. With s

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #071 Daniel Easterday Sued Deerfield, IL with IRSA & SAF   I was headed to Chicago for some family events. I had one morning to squeeze in a possible RSWC interview.  I messaged Rhonda Ezell and asked if she knew anyone who would be around that morning. She set me up with Daniel Easterday. She always comes thru!  Check out the Facebook LIVE video we did on the Riding Shotgun With Charlie Facebook page from Jan 26, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/RidingShotgunWithCharlie/videos/2425804361080948/   Daniel Easterday had a gunsmith as an uncle and started shooting as a kid. When he was older, he started to get into training. He learned that people aren’t as good they think they are with a firearm and he wanted to learn more.    After the Supreme Court decided that since Illinois was the last and only state to NOT allow it’s law abiding, background check passing citizens to be able to carry a concealed firearm outside their homes, they needed to change that. However, the anti-gun cr

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #070 Brian Harris Live Free Or Die Guys   In August 2015, Brian took a course from me to get his Utah & MA permits.  A month later, he was arguing with a woman he was dating. He took his clothes and headed out. After a verbal argument, she called the police. His girlfriend didn’t even know that he had a gun in his trunk.    They called Brian and asked him to come downstairs. Four police officers greeted him at the door with guns drawn waiting for him. They searched his vehicle and he said he had a firearm and a permit. It was unloaded, locked and secured. There was a temporary restraining order and the police confiscated the firearm. A year later when the restraining order was supposed to be dropped, the district attorney extended it. And pressed charges. He had to spend $13,000 to hire an attorney to fight his case for 2 years.    He was really being “red flagged” before “red flags” existed.   It seems like the district attorney was the one pushing to get Brian jailed. The DA

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #069 Klint Macro & Matthew Mallory Meet The Pressers    One of my passengers said I needed to get Klint in the car. After some messaging, we decided that I’d be on Meet The Pressers and they would be on RSWC.  Since we were all heading to SHOT Show 2020, this is where we filmed this show. The Meet The Pressers gents were kind enough to let me use their rental car for the show!   Klint Macro is a recording engineer as well as a firearm instructor. When Klint was recording musicians in LA, he was friends with an armorer which led to helping others in using a firearm.  That led to becoming a firearm instructor. After some NRA instructor training, Klint discovered that he was going to be able to teach as a civilian since he thought only military and police were the only people who could be instructors.    He shares a story about a woman who told him that after he taught her to use a firearm safely, she would never be victimized again. That had a profound effect on him and his instr

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #068 Mark Shean  Instructor & Author   I got a message last summer from an FB friend in New Jersey, John Petrolino, who said he just finished editing a book of gun laws from an instructor in Massachusetts.  He sent me Mark Shean’s info and we had a nice quick conversation. I read Mark’s book before we set up the interview.    Mark started shooting at 7 with his siblings.  He joined the NRA Junior Rifle Team and has his photo in the book they published. But back then they didn’t use eye or ear protection. He’s had ringing ears since then.    He works for a nuclear power plant and the nuclear security officers couldn’t be trained by civilians. He took a week long class on patrol rifle and handgun with plans to be able to train with the police and nuclear security officers, who are considered part of Homeland Security. He also earned several other NRA instructor qualifications.    At 15, Mark’s son wanted to get his firearm identification card (FID), but they couldn’t find instruc

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #067 Michael Sondini Walk The Talk America   You never know what is going to happen or who you’re going to meet at the Gun Rights Policy Conference.  This year, Kerry Slone from We The Female (RSWC #55) approached me and said “You HAVE to have Michael Sodini from WTTA!”  An exchange of info and a few text messages and it’s a done deal.    Michael Sodini had family that worked in the gun industry for 3 generations as an importer.  He says he’s “the most un-gun gun guy” but really enjoyed the people in the industry. After getting a DUI, one of his colleagues thought that he would never be able to work in the firearm industry. Sadly, his friend took his own life thinking there was nothing else for him to do.    Michael eventually founded Walk The Talk America (WTTA).  WTTA focuses on the mental health issues and suicide prevention in the firearm community. It started over a conversation with a woman in New Orleans who asked about what happens when there’s a school shooting.  They agre

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#066 Tomasz Stepien   Tomasz Stepien answered the call when I was looking for passengers at Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix. I was excited to have my first international passenger in the stagecoach. This was quite an education for me and I hope it is for you as well.    Tomasz learned gun safety in school!  Can you believe that?!?! He started shooting .22 LR when he was young, but took some time off for his career.  A few years ago, he made some changes with his career and got back into shooting. In Poland, where he’s from, if you’re going to have a firearm license, you have to use the firearm. So, if you’re getting a gun to hunt, you need to hunt.  If you’re going to have it for sport shooting, you have to sport shoot.    Firearms United, the fastest growing coalition in Europe, has been around and got more involved with fighting back after the Charlie Hebdo and The Baclavan terror attacks. Just like in the United States, after these attacks, the governments make some knee

John Richardson   No Lawyers Only Guns & Money blog Polite Society Podcast    If first met John Richardson & Andrew Gottlieb at Gun Rights Policy Conference 2016 in Tampa.  I was interviewed by John and the cast of hosts of the Polite Society Podcast. This year, while I was prepping the “stagecoach” for some post-GPRC interviews, Andrew was waiting for a ride to the airport.  I offered to take him and be a part of the show.    John’s first gun was a Ruger 10/22 for $50!!  After years of not being very much into firearms, John heard about the so called “assault weapon ban” and decided it was time to get one of those! He got a curio & relics license and then had a number of historic rifles, acquiring a number of Mosin Nagants from around the world.  John started blogging in May 2010. He saw a number of other bloggers at NRAAM and decided that he can write with his liberal arts degree.  So he started his blogging career. He wrote a blog after the McDonald case, Bateman Vs Purdue, which was in North C

RSWC #064 Kevin Dixie No Other Choice Firearms Training Aiming For The Truth Last year at GRPC in Chicago is where I met Kevin Dixie.  He asked right away when I was coming to St Louis to do a show with him. Not yet having to get out to St Louis, he asked me the exact same question in Phoenix when we saw each other at a DC Project event at Pot Of Gold Estate Auctions, owned by Cheryl & Danny Todd (RSWC #060).  We made the time on Saturday morning at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in September.   Kevin talks about this start in firearms is not what you would expect. He and a friend found a gun, figured out how to load it, and fired it. His first thought isn’t what you think it would be. He struggled with depression from 13-30 until he worked his way through the battle with it. After joining the St Louis Police Department, he started stalking the instructors for more information about how a firearm works and gained lots of education. Eventually, he grew by listening and learning then started teaching othe

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#063 Rob PincusInstructor, Author, Activist   When I started Riding Shotgun, I had no idea what it could turn in to or the journey it would be. I do remember thinking of the names in the firearm industry that I knew of, and Rob Pincus was one of the people I imagined having on the stagecoach. It’s a great honor to have him in the passenger seat.    During the past year or so, I posted some interviews with others and he commented that he wanted to be on the show. When I posted that I was going to be doing shows in Phoenix at GPRC, he messaged me and asked if I had a seat for him.  Of course I do!   We were fresh off GRPC, finishing just an hour before the interview. Rob says we share something similar.  I was Blogger of the Year at GRPC and I don’t have a ‘blog”. And he was NSSF Range of the Year and he didn’t have a range anymore.       Rob shares how he started shooting as a kid, buying his own guns at the age of 10. He gives us some history about Norwich University, the Military U

RSWC #062 Lara Smith National Spokesperson of the Liberal Gun Club I met Lara at GRPC in Chicago in 2018. When I was looking for interviewees this year, she jumped at the chance. Lara Smith grew up anti-gun. She grew up in a well educated, liberal household. But she makes sure that she isn’t labeled as a Democrat. She was nervous and scared about firearms. After being married to a former Marine who often told her she was wrong about the information she was using about firearms, he told her she needed to get educated on firearms. As a lawyer, it's hard to say you’re wrong. She had to break it to her husband about her new hobby. She joined a pro-gun organization, but didn’t quite fit in. So Lara searched for something that is more of her demographic. Googling things like “liberal gun owners”, “women gun owners”, and “unconventional gun owners”, she came across A Girl And A Gun. After talking with, Robyn Sandoval, one of the founders of AGAG and attending their conference, she fit right in! She went out and boug

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #061 Gina Roberts I’ve been running into Gina Roberts for the last few years. I’ve seen her at the Gun Rights Policy Conference, at Heller10, and at the DC Project events. She’s been asking for awhile when is she going to be able to get in the stagecoach for a show. And finally at GPRC in Phoenix, we were able to make it happen. Let’s get this out of the way. Gina is a transgender woman. And she’s now comfortable in her own dresses. She grew up as a man, had a family and raised kids. Seven and a half years ago, she decided that she needs to be herself. She says “I spent most of my life trying to pretend I was somebody I wasn’t” and now she’s her own woman. I think it’s great and I’m proud of and for her and to call her a friend. Gina travels for her work as a consultant for servicing machines she’s designed. She’s always on the go and jet setting across the country, which is one reason why it took some time to set up the interview. I never know where she’s going or when she’s going

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #060 Cheryl & Danny Todd AZ Firearms Gun Freedom Radio Pot of Gold Estate Auctions   This interview is one that I’d been waiting 3 years to conduct.   When I discovered the Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) was going to be in Phoenix, I knew that I’d be getting Cheryl & Danny Todd to hop in the stagecoach! I’ve been following AZ Firearms, Gun Freedom Radio,  and Cheryl & Danny since before I knew them. I met them at GRPC in Tampa in 2016. When Cheryl watched a GunGram, she invited me to be on Gun Freedom Radio. Then at SHOT Show 2017, she took me around to introduce me to everyone.  It was a really cool trip!   At GRPC in Tampa, I got a photo of me and Cheryl on stage with Massad Ayoob speaking behind us.  Just when I went to snap the picture, Alan Gottlieb came up and gave me bunny ears. Since then, everytime Cheryl & I are together, we have to get a selfie with bunny ears.    As you’ll hear, Cheryl & Danny have had a long marriage together. They’ve been toge

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #059 Dianna Muller The DC Project Washington DC #DoingSomething #IWillNotComply   For a few years ago, a good friend said I needed to get Dianna Muller in the stagecoach. Our paths finally cross this past summer in Washington DC.  Dianna Muller is a very busy woman! She’s been a police officer for 22 years in Oklahoma before she felt that God was pulling her in a different and new direction, which is what she’s doing now.    Four years ago, she had the idea to get a woman from every state in America to go to DC to talk to legislators about gun rights from the female perspective. That’s how The DC Project was born.  She thought that she could get a competitive shooter from each state, but she got something better. Regular women with their own stories about how and why they own or carry firearms.    The DC Project members all converge on DC in July to in small teams to meet with various legislators from both sides of the isle. Some are pro gun and some are not. Over the years, the pr