Firearms Nation Podcast

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation podcast.  We have such a special treat.  How many of you have had issues with Facebook when it came to one of the ads you were running?  Or maybe your page, group or even your profile was banned for violating the firearms policy?  Wouldn’t it be nice to talk to someone on the inside of Facebook to know what is the correct practice when it comes to posting firearms content? Well, funny you should ask since my guest today was that guy.  Chuck Rossi was the director of release engineering at facebook and also worked on fixing the firearms policies.  After 11 years at Facebook, chuck retired and I was able to get him on the podcast. Chuck is one of us.  He enjoys shooting since a young age and helped shed light on the good of firearms when the media only focused on the bad.  Lots of value here today. Links mentioned in the podcast: Facebook Ad Policy with Age Facebook police on weapons Check out the 2018 Shooter's Summit

The 2018 Shooter’s Summit is underway and last week I gave you two short interview teasers to get you interested.  Well today, I’m upping my game.  Here is a full interview from the Summit with World Champion, Elias Frangoulis. Elias came from a soccer background and a devotion not only to practice but to God.  Elias quickly rose up to the level of Grandmaster in USPSA and went on to win the World Championship this past year in the Classic Division. The 2018 Shooter’s Summit brings 18 of the top level Grandmaster shooters to share their backgrounds and tactics to help you make GM.  The Summit started on Nov. 25th and will run until Dec. 1st..which is almost here.  So how can you still see the Summit? Purchase the All Access Pass for only $19.95 and you get 18 hours of interviews, a podcast version of the Summit and special drills to download that each speaker brought to the Summit.  Don’t wait and ACT NOW.  The price will go up to $24.95 come Dec. 2nd. Go to: www.shooterssummit.com/order And get your pass tod

This episode is a teaser for the 2018 Shooter's Summit.  For the past two years I've created a Shooter's Summit where I interview a group of firearms instructors to discuss various topics.  This year I decided to go very specific in the topic and we are talking about Making Grandmaster.   In USPSA, there are over 30,000 competitors and the top 5% are in the Grandmaster classification.  A lot of people want to make it to that level, but for whatever reason, find it difficult and think that it's an impossible task.   This year's Summit proves that anyone can make GM and through the interviews I get actionable ideas that sets competitors down the path. The Shooter's Summit is a free to watch from Nov. 25h through Dec. 1st.  In order to watch the Summit you must register first at www.shooterssummit.com and you'll get the email with instructions on how to watch it online. For today's podcast I'm sharing clips from two of the Summit interviews.  Casey Reed and Bob Vogel.  Casey is a GM in Production and has not bee

We are about less than two weeks away from the launch of the 2018 Shooter’s Summit.  I can’t wait to bring it to you as the content is amazing.  This year’s focus in on competition and the title of the Summit is Making Grandmaster!  By the time this podcast episode launches or shortly there after, you’ll be able to sign up for the Summit.  Even if you signed up year’s previously you’ll still need to sign up again.  Go to shooterssumit.com to get yourself registered as the Summit runs from Nov. 25th through Dec. 1st. I thought about this week’s episode and went to last year’s Summit where I talked with John Lovell.  John is a former Army Ranger and currently has a successful YouTube channel and company called Warrior Poet Society.  He teaches rifle, shotgun and pistol as well as all manner of every day carry.  With all the active shooter situations of late, I’m re-releasing this session with John since we get into dealing with active shooters as well as home defense.  I really think you’ll like this interview

My guest this week is Riley Bowman from ConcealedCarry.com and the Concealed Carry Podcast.  If you are looking for information on how to carry legally across the nation or what gear is best for concealed carry, Riley’s website is by far one of the best out there. Riley recently completed a study on Active Shooter events and how many were stopped by a armed citizens.  You will be surprised when you hear the number.  This is often not talked about by national media and when you look at the facts..well they don’t lie. Active shooter events or mass shootings are tragic and raise the political temperature.  I’m sure you have had discussions on solutions and what the right course of action should be.  I suggest you listen to Riley talk about this study and read it from the link in the show notes.  An educated opinion is a good opinion.  Active Shooter Study Please SUBSCRIBE and leave a REVIEW ..Join the Nation!

I’m back with another competitive shooter and now National Champion.  Max Leograndis only started shooting four years ago, almost to the day this podcast is being recorded.  In four years he developed his own method of practice, not taking classes, not seeking out a coach, but rather closely watching himself and figuring out what to do to get better.  How to be more efficient.  And now Max took first in PCC at the National Championships that just wrapped up in Florida.  PCC or Pistol Caliber Carbine is shooting a rifle in a pistol match.  How much fun is that! Max has won numerous titles this year including the 2018 Lucas Oil PCC World Championship, a match that last year he was disqualified from.  Max shares that story in the podcast as well as how he used video games to help him get a faster trigger finger and develop mental management.  Max is now an instructor at the highly regarded Tactical Performance Center and talks about how he came so far in such a short amount of time. Links mentioned in the podcas

My guest today is a senior editor at The Federalist and is also a nationally syndicated columnist.  His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and the Washington Post.  He has appeared on Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC and other talk shows or podcasts.  And finally, my guest has written three books including the one we are talking about today. David Harsanyi’s latest book is “First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History with the Gun” and was released earlier this month.  If there was a book that represented the cause and feeling of my show and channel, Firearms Nation, “First Freedom” comes very close.  It’s a book I found to be a good read and took value in all the historical facts. I have a good idea on the origins of several iconic firearms but I was impressed at the lessons included in the book that superimposed how those firearms came to be.  America has a history wrapped in firearms and a right of self-defense. Links mentioned in the podcast: David's Website The Federalist

Normally on my deconstructing gunfight series I talk to guests who were involved in a shooting were both sides shot back.  For today’s episode I my guest was shot multiple times responding to a disturbance call which really was a violent home invasion.  Officer James Kuzak served for 18 years up to the that fateful day where he found himself saving the lives of the woman and children inside but ended up paralyzed after being shot. James was rescued and survived the shooting and trial, but then had to get on with the rest of his life.  A life no longer as a law enforcement officer.  James told me that the one thing he never thought about on the job was being shot and ending up a different person.  Many of us in law enforcement or the military will think about surviving a gunfight but most think about walking away from the injuries.  James did not walk ever again and now speaks at academies and is a brand ambassador for Glock.  I was put in touch with James after a friend saw him shooting a USPSA match wearing

Welcome back to the firearms nation podcast.  The build up to this year’s massive 9 Days of Nationals for the USPSA is about to start in little more than a week.  I’ve interviewed some of the top contenders for this year’s championship to help give you a better idea what perfomance on demand with a handgun entails.  This week I give you one more interview with another top champion.  JJ Racaza was born in the Philippines and started shooting at a young age.  JJ went to the range with his father who was also a competitive shooter who ended up sacrificing his hobby to help his son grow in the sport and see him become a world champion. JJ became somewhat of a media celebrity for being a third place performer on the successful TV series “Top Shot” and showed the world how fast someone can shoot.  JJ always was a fast shooter and brought his natural speed and physicality to the sport.  With this background he took the world championship speed shoot or steel challenge three times and broke multiple speed shooting re

Last year I had Hwansik Kim on the podcast and was amazed to hear his story (that was Ep. 31)  Hwansik came from Korea and was a self described geek who was chubby and uncoordinated.  He was introduced to competitive shooting and took his ability to study and research to excel in USPSA in a very short time.  Now Hwansik is a very strong contender to win at this year’s National Championship which begins later this month.  In one year Hwansik shared with me that he completely changed his shooting style.  Plus, he just launched a joint project with World Champ Ben Stoeger called PSTG or Practical Shooting Training Group.  It’s a web based training membership site which we talk about in the podcast.  With Nationals coming up, I wanted to get some of the best competitors on the show to get everyone training for the event pumped up.  Not to mention the nuggets of information they provide any type of shooter. Fair warning:  This episode gets deep into the mechanics of top performance from Hwansik.  Seriously if you

“The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) wins national and international shooting competitions, supports Army marketing engagements, and advances small arms lethality to demonstrate Army marksmanship capability, connect America to its Army and enhance marksmanship effectiveness in combat. USAMU is part of the U.S. Army Marketing Engagement Brigade and Army Marketing and Research Group” This is a quote from the AMU’s webpage.  In all of the shooting sports we have competitors who are from the AMU that either currently dominate or who graduated and are now shooting for factory teams.  What is a factory team?  SIG, Glock, Remington and so on.  And the names include some of the people I’ve had on the podcast like Shane Coley and KC Eusebio.  Today, my guest is also from the AMU, Jacob Hetherington.  Jacob was known as a top junior shooter not that long ago.  It’s pretty amazing how a kid made grandmaster at 15 years old and caught the eye of the AMU where he is serving and promoted to sergeant not that long ago.

This week I bring out a session from the 2017 Shooter’s Summit that I recorded with Bob Vogel.  Bob is a world champion, national champion and has won 90 plus matches since he started competing.  Bob was also a police officer, SWAT team member and firearms instructor.  In fact, since he retired from law enforcement, he still makes a living teaching people to become better shooters. Along the way he’s also made several videos on pistol shooting and competition.  Interesting enough, Bob was one of the only people to ever beat the world’s best shooter (and podcast guest #79) Eric Grauffel in a shooting competition (I was there!)  In today’s podcast, Bob goes over the fundamentals of pistol shooting, how important grip and grip strength is, why a timer is so important to training and finally, why going fast is the best strategy. Links mentioned in the podcast: Vogel Dynamics Panteao Prod. "World Class Pistol Skills" DVD Panteao Prod. "Stage Tactics of Practical Shooting" DVD Please SUBSCRIBE! Join the Nation...

95% of all winning comes from the same 5% of the competitors.  What makes them different than the rest of us?  Their mental game is better than the others.  Anyone can practice a sport or hobby and develop skill at that sport, but the ones with a better mental system will always win in the end.  How does a person get a better mental game?  My guest today started out as the guy least likely to get to the Olympics as a small kid in 6th grade.  Fast forward to the 1976 Olympics where my guest, Lanny Bassham took the gold medal in small bore rifle shooting.  But it wasn’t an easy road.  Lanny had previously gone to the ’72 Olympics and choked in the gold medal match where he walked away confused and with a silver medal.  In the next four years he would develop his trademarked mental management system that in the past 40 years has lead many students to world championships and other victories. How do we learn about this system?  Lanny goes over the highlights from the system and his book he wrote, “With Winning in

What if you found out that all the years you’ve put in your shooting, that you were doing it all wrong…Well that’s how I felt after speaking with World Champion Eric Grauffel.  I had the opportunity to speak with Eric on last year’s Shooter’s Summit.  The Shooter’s Summit is an event I founded back in 2016 where I speak with competitive or tactical shooters on specific topics.  Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to find out the date of this year’s Summit. Eric is probably one of the best shooter’s in the world.  I only remember one time in history where someone actually beat him in competition.  We talk about that episode during my interview with Eric.  I would easily say Eric falls in line with the Michael Jordans, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzkys, Usain Bolts types of exceptional athletes.  People refer to them as machines but it’s really us coming to terms about someone who is blessed with both talent and skill.  Eric and discuss the basics of shooting and I learn that he does pretty much everything different

One of the distinct pleasures myself and a lot of other people enjoy is smoking a cigar while out on the range.  I see it a lot at shooting competitions.  I’ve also seen it after tactical classes.  There is something about the concept of enjoying the cigar with friends that can’t be smoked in a hurry.  I really don’t know where cigars and shooting came together, but it is something that my guest today knows a lot about.  Kaizad Hansotia grew up in India with a love of watches and firearms.  He ended up buying a dying cigar company for under $200 and made it into one of the top cigar brands in the world.  Gurkha Cigars is named after the legendary fighters from Nepal who fought for the British in numerous wars.  Their spirit is what drives Kaizad to constantly make top rated blends that sometime sell for thousands of dollars. Along the way he made connections to the SEAL Teams and made a special cigar for them to travel with overseas. In fact his passion for firearms paired Gurkha and Grey Ghost Precision (a c

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. About ten years ago I had the pleasure of being invited to a class devoted to pulling the trigger properly.  It was a class on the basics but it wasn’t a basic class.  In fact it was as someone coined it “..a PhD in trigger management”.  This class also put me in touch with a renowned gunsmith and competitor Bruce Gray.  Bruce and I maintained a friendship since that class and I even call him a mentor.  And it was at the USPSA National Championship in 2014 when Bruce reached out to me right after the match with a text “Do you want to shoot for Team SIG?”  He didn’t have to ask twice.  For the next two years I had a blast shooting matches with a great group of guys and gals all running the new P320.  That gun is still my competition gun and I also use it for duty. Bruce has always been know as the go to guy to have your SIG or Sig Sauer pistol worked on to make it shoot even better.  But since the P320 came around, his business took off with parts for it as well as

  Recently there was a video release at a trial in Pennsylvania where two troopers were trying to arrest a suspect and he resisted.  The suspect ended up shooting both of the officers and then fled the scene.  Luckily they survived.  How does this happen?  According to a 2014 study, 83% of officers who are killed in the line of duty die conducting self-initiated activity in or around vehicles.  That is an alarming statistic as I can tell you from personal experience that 83% of our training is not from a vehicle.  So what can a law enforcement officer or civilian do? I include civilians since aggravated assaults and robberies also are around vehicles. My guest is William Petty from Centrifuge Training.  William specializes in teaching close quarter vehicle tactics and his program is a data driven exercise in what works and what doesn’t when in a gunfight around a car. William and I discuss the Pennsylvania shooting with his takeaways on tactics that would have helped the troopers as well as another shooting o

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast.  Do you carry a gun for self defense?  Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were involved in a shooting?  Most people at some point have had these thoughts and usually end when the gun goes off and they win.  But, there is a different battle, a battle just as important that happens right after and that’s the legal battle.  I am a firm believer if you carry a gun, you need to know the law and how to use force when necessary.  My guest today is an expert in self defense law.  Andrew Branca wrote the book “The Law of Self Defense” and has been a guest before on the Firearms Nation Podcast as well as the 2017 Shooter’s Summit.  Recently there was a shooting in Florida in a parking lot that brought Stand Your Ground back on the daily news and internet.  But what really is Stand Your Ground and do we not have a good understanding of it.  I had Andrew join me for a live stream to discuss the difference of Stand Your Ground and self defense.  I bet you have it w

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. I’ve been shooting a gun for over 15 years.  That includes time as a law enforcement officer as well as a competitive shooter.  Plus, there is the training and dry fire practice.  Unfortunately, I’ve developed time and again, a horrible disgusting pain in my elbow that sometimes is unbearable.  And I’m not alone.  Millions of people suffer from tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow or something called shooter’s elbow.  This is tendonitis or more appropriately tendinosis.  My guest today is an expert in healing the walking wounded.  Whether it’s tennis elbow, back pain or neck pain, Chad Reilly has been a physical therapist for over 11 years and he’s also a Master class shooter.  Chad placed 12th in the USPSA National Championship back in 2011 and has developed a treatment that has cured some of the top professional shooters as well as SWAT personnel. Chad’s approach is not only based in logic but through his clinical studies and evidence based research.  He doesn’t regurgit

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. I’ve been fortunate in my competitive shooting career to be a part of a gun manufacturer’s factory team.  From 2014-2016 I was a part of Team Sig or Sig Sauer and from that team I met a variety of folks from the company.  One of them was an instructor from the Sig Academy who had a background in the Federal Air Marshal service.  Hana Bilodeau started as a local police officer then moved on to become an Air Marshal.  Being in that position brought her to the attention of the academy who then hired her full time.  More recently Hana was promoted to Director of Training for all of Sig Sauer. Closer to home, Hana was part of the 2017 Shooter’s Summit.  She is a contributing writer for RECOIL magazine and now has been shooting videos for shows on some big named cable networks.  Hana’s specialty was teaching female shooters and we get into some of the obstacles she had to overcome as a female in a male dominated industry. Links mentioned on the podcast: Sig Academy bio S