Shownotes
Isaac Botkin of T. Rex Arms joins Gun Owners of America hosts Kaylee and John to talk about why a holster company spends so much of its time on Second Amendment advocacy. The company is owned by four brothers plus a brother-in-law and operates out of Centerville, Tennessee, about an hour west of Nashville. Eleven years in, T. Rex Arms sells holsters as its flagship product but has grown into nylon goods, plate carriers, chest rigs, weapon lights, magazines, red dots, optics, thermal and night vision, and medical gear. Isaac describes the business as a curated full-service operation rather than the Amazon of the tactical space, and he frames the brand name as a joke: they specialize in small arms.
Much of the conversation centers on mission over sales. Isaac explains that T. Rex spent the last few weeks pushing to legalize suppressors even though the company does not sell them, and he describes a holster as a starting point that helps move people from buying a gun and putting it in a closet to actually carrying and accepting the responsibilities that come with it. He calls T. Rex a second amendment and sixth commandment company, ties carrying to the duty to stop a murderer, and lays out their goal of building a broad, decentralized citizen defense industry rather than becoming a single giant source. He encourages new advocates to meet people where they are: you do not need 10,000 hours of range time to teach the four rules of gun safety and take someone to the range.
The back half gets into politics and innovation. Isaac names Thomas Massie as his ideal pro-gun candidate, an engineer who understands automation and economics, and points to Senator Bill Haggerty's focus on manufacturing and reindustrializing the country. His biggest pet peeve with politicians is cowardice on issues voters actually want them to touch, like the 90-year-old short-barreled weapon ban. He argues that artificial limits, from the NFA tax stamp to rules blocking domestic rare earth magnets and lithium battery production, stifle the innovation firearms have historically driven, citing Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts. He warns that the idea that government can declare a shape of matter illegal poisons the freedom to think and build well beyond firearms. He closes by pointing listeners to the T. Rex Arms YouTube channel and their podcast, T Rex Talk.
Questions this episode answers
What is T. Rex Arms and what does the company actually sell?
T. Rex Arms is a family-owned tactical company in Centerville, Tennessee, owned by four brothers plus a brother-in-law and eleven years in business. Holsters are its flagship, but it has grown into plate carriers, chest rigs, weapon lights, magazines, optics, thermal and night vision, and medical gear.
Why does a holster company spend so much time on Second Amendment advocacy?
Isaac Botkin frames advocacy as the mission behind the products, putting cause over sales. He sees a holster as a starting point that moves people from buying a gun and leaving it in a closet to actually carrying it and accepting the responsibilities that come with it.
What does Isaac Botkin mean by calling T. Rex a second amendment and sixth commandment company?
Botkin ties the right to carry to a moral duty to stop a murderer, pairing Second Amendment freedom with the sixth commandment against killing. For T. Rex, carrying a firearm is about accepting the responsibility to protect innocent life, not just exercising a right.
How can someone new to firearms become an advocate without years of training?
Botkin says you do not need 10,000 hours of range time to make a difference. Meet people where they are: you can teach the four rules of gun safety and take someone to the range, helping grow a broad, decentralized citizen defense industry rather than relying on a few experts.
Why did T. Rex push to legalize suppressors when they do not sell them?
T. Rex spent recent weeks pushing to legalize suppressors despite not selling them, because the company puts the mission ahead of its own sales. The goal is a broad citizen defense industry where many companies advance gun rights, not a single giant source.
What does Isaac see as the biggest artificial limits holding back firearms innovation?
Botkin points to limits like the National Firearms Act tax stamp, the roughly 90-year-old short-barreled weapon ban, and rules blocking domestic rare earth magnet and lithium battery production, arguing they stifle the innovation firearms have historically driven.
Who does Isaac Botkin name as his ideal pro-gun candidate, and why?
Botkin names Thomas Massie as his ideal pro-gun candidate, an engineer who understands automation and economics. He also points to Senator Bill Haggerty's focus on manufacturing and reindustrializing the country.
Why is the company named T. Rex Arms?
The name is a joke. With its short arms, the T. rex specializes in small arms, which is exactly what the company makes.
Chapters
- 00:00 — Welcome and introducing Isaac Botkin
- 00:45 — Rapid Fire questions
- 03:00 — What T. Rex Arms is and what it sells
- 04:49 — Working in a family-owned business
- 06:26 — Why T. Rex advocates on state-level gun policy
- 11:09 — From gun owner to concealed carrier
- 13:57 — Advice for new firearms advocates
- 15:45 — The ideal pro-gun candidate and Thomas Massie
- 18:09 — Suppressors and putting mission first
- 20:04 — Building a broad citizen defense industry
- 21:55 — Why holsters and what makes the design different
- 24:39 — The story behind the T. Rex Arms name
- 25:31 — Soapbox: cowardice and artificial limits on innovation
- 31:23 — History, ideas have consequences, and closing
About the guest
Isaac Botkin is from T. Rex Arms, a holster and tactical gear company based in Centerville, Tennessee, about an hour west of Nashville. The company is owned by four brothers plus a brother-in-law and is 11 years in business. His father was a video producer in the 80s and 90s and taught the brothers both video production and political and firearm activism, and Isaac worked on Gun Owners of America videos his dad made when he was about 10 or 11 years old. His youngest brother Noah runs their web development company, and he references brothers David and Lucas in the episode. Isaac is slated to appear on a firearms innovation and technology panel at GOALS.
Key quotes
"My brother David has a saying like a holster is like a business card for freedom." — Isaac Botkin
"Our goal is to build a citizen defense industry that is broad. And our goal is to see a number of companies kind of do what we're doing." — Isaac Botkin
"We take our products very seriously. We take our customers very seriously. We don't take ourselves that seriously." — Isaac Botkin
"If you don't have 10,000 hours of range time, don't worry about that." — Isaac Botkin
"We spent a lot of time over the last few weeks talking about suppressors, getting people to legalize suppressors. We still don't sell suppressors." — Isaac Botkin
"It's like a lot of voters want you to touch it. Sir, please do not be afraid of something we don't even know what you're afraid of." — Isaac Botkin
"Small arms are our specialty." — Isaac Botkin
Transcripts
Welcome to Gun Owners of America State of the second podcast.
Speaker A:I'm Kaylee.
Speaker B:And I'm John.
Speaker B:And today we're joined by Isaac Botkins from T. Rex Arms.
Speaker B:Isaac, how are you today?
Speaker C:I'm doing great.
Speaker C:I want to thank you very much for having me on.
Speaker C:And I don't get interviewed very much in podcasts, so I'm going to be taking notes on tips on how to interview people because I'm looking forward to this.
Speaker A:I don't know that I would get your notebook out quite yet.
Speaker A:We're still fairly new into this ourselves.
Speaker A:This is just season two of the.
Speaker C:Podcast, so I'm sure there's appreciated folks you've had on before.
Speaker C:I've seen more clips than full episodes, but it's a great podcast.
Speaker B:Well, thank you for that.
Speaker B:Let's go ahead into our first segment, which is Rapid Fire Questions.
Speaker B:We're going to ask you five questions.
Speaker B:Go ahead and send us your answer.
Speaker B:So let's start off with is, where do you consume most of your content?
Speaker B:Is it Instagram?
Speaker B:YouTube?
Speaker B:TikTok?
Speaker B:All the above?
Speaker C:It is YouTube, but I often listen to it.
Speaker C:No video.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:What is one thing that firearm enthusiasts are overlooking in your opinion?
Speaker C:History.
Speaker C:A lot of them are not overlooking at it, but by and large I feel like that's one of the bigger missing pieces.
Speaker B:If there's one gun that you don't own but you probably will buy one day, what would it be.
Speaker C:So hard to narrow it down?
Speaker C:The next gun is probably going to be a Winchester 94 replica.
Speaker B:I just got two of those.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:Well, I guess it's not really what.
Speaker A:But who do you feel like is the most impactful content creator currently in the space?
Speaker C:I've been thinking about that, and this is really difficult to determine because I actually think that a lot of the very big guys who get a huge amount of eyeballs are moved around by a lot of the smaller content creators.
Speaker C:And so it's probably the last person that we would think of, but.
Speaker C:But I don't know who that is.
Speaker C:And then there's guys who are writing books that are read by guys who are making YouTube videos.
Speaker C:And that guy who wrote the book that nobody is reading is changing the way that we talk about some of these things.
Speaker C:So my theory is that it's somebody that we don't know.
Speaker B:And then the last question is, who do you think influenced you the most into creating content and doing your own thing?
Speaker C:My dad for sure.
Speaker B:Both.
Speaker C:Both in mission stuff, but also because he was a video producer back in the 80s and 90s, a lot of the technical nuts and bolts, practical stuff too.
Speaker C:So yeah, this is kind of no contest.
Speaker B:Well, that wraps up our rapid fire segment.
Speaker B:Let's get into the meat and potatoes of this.
Speaker B:Tell us about.
Speaker B:For the audience who may not know who you are, tell us about who you are, what you do.
Speaker B:What is TRX Arms all about?
Speaker C:Very good.
Speaker C:So kind of segueing from my dad.
Speaker C:T Rex Arms is a T. Rex.
Speaker C:It is a T Rex themed holster company.
Speaker C:Well, it's actually not as dinosaur themed as we might like, but it is owned by basically four brothers.
Speaker C:One, one brother in law.
Speaker C:But, but there's, there's four of us.
Speaker C:And not only did our dad teach us a lot about video stuff, but political activism and firearm stuff were things that we grew up with.
Speaker C:But T Rex Arms primarily sells holsters.
Speaker C:We make design.
Speaker C:We have a small manufacturing shop in Middle Tennessee, but we've expanded that to where we're designing nylon goods, plate carriers, chest rigs, things like that.
Speaker C:And then we also have a number of retail offerings inside of our warehouse.
Speaker C:I guess retail is the wrong word because we're a website, but weapon lights, magazines, red dots, optics, we go all the way up to thermal and night vision stuff and then all the way down to refills for your medical pouches and things like that.
Speaker C:So we're trying to be a pretty full service operation.
Speaker C:We're 11 years in.
Speaker C:We have a ways to go to carry one of everything.
Speaker C:But we're not trying to be the Amazon of the tactical space.
Speaker C:We have a pretty curated list of things.
Speaker C:We would just like to have a wide selection of those curated items inside of that space.
Speaker C:But ultimately holsters are still the flagship product.
Speaker C:They take up a lot of our time and our energy because letting people carry, helping people carry comfortably as often as possible, as many places as possible, being ready is one of our biggest goals.
Speaker B:Now working with.
Speaker B:You mentioned that this is a family owned business.
Speaker B:What is it like working with your family?
Speaker B:And is there hurdles or anything that you have to go over being a family owned business?
Speaker C:Oh, I can.
Speaker C:As you know, family business is always easy and there's never any hurdles, there's never any friction.
Speaker C:No, it's a mixed bag.
Speaker C:It's a mixed bag for a number of reasons.
Speaker C:It's a mixed bag because it's a lot of folks.
Speaker C:It's a lot of different folks.
Speaker C:So my youngest brother Noah runs our web development company.
Speaker C:A bunch of people in our family and a bunch of people in our local community.
Speaker C:We're in Centerville, Tennessee, which is about an hour west of Nashville.
Speaker C:It's a very small county.
Speaker C:Well, it's a giant county with very few people in it and then a very small town.
Speaker C:So there are family dynamics at play inside the owner's group.
Speaker C:It's also just family dynamics and small community dynamics in the company.
Speaker C:And those are.
Speaker C:Yeah, there's hurdles, there's friction.
Speaker C:But my opinion is that the good outweighs the bad.
Speaker C:There's benefit to the relationships, even though relationships always come with messiness.
Speaker C:So that's my.
Speaker C:I hope that's an answer the way that you asked it.
Speaker C:There's no definitive answer, but that's my theory.
Speaker C:Pros outweigh the cons.
Speaker C:There's some.
Speaker C:I forget who it is now, the saying, like do not go into business with family, but don't even think about going into business with someone who's not family.
Speaker C:So I resonate with that comment.
Speaker C:That feels pretty wise.
Speaker A:So I want to go back to something that you said about the holsters and making it so that people carry as often as possible as many places as possible.
Speaker A:And that really is core to your all's mission.
Speaker A:And I've seen you guys on the ground in Tennessee.
Speaker A:I'm a Tennessee and myself.
Speaker A:Every lobby day you guys are there on the ground working against red Flag laws and gun free zones and, and trying to help the our state become freer.
Speaker A:Take me on a journey on why you guys decided as a company you're going to be so bold and so forward in helping advocate for the Second Amendment on a state level.
Speaker C:Well, some of the story actually starts with Larry Pratt.
Speaker C:Larry Pratt is, I don't know if he's the founder, but as far back as I can remember into Gun Owners of America history, he was running Gun Owners of America.
Speaker C:And when I was like 10 or 11 years old, I worked on some Gun Owners of America videos that my dad was making for goa.
Speaker C:So in one sense, this, this goes back a long way, family wise.
Speaker C:But as we founded T Rex, we saw a lot of different opportunities to be more than just a manufacturing company and to see holsters as more than just a widget that we could make a holster.
Speaker C:My brother David has a saying like a holster is like a business card for freedom.
Speaker C:There's a lot of people, gun ownership is great, firearms are very important.
Speaker C: to and this happened a lot in: Speaker C:See an issue be like, oh, I should probably buy a gun, put it in a closet, never think about it again.
Speaker C:It doesn't actually have an impact on the way that you think about your rights or your responsibilities.
Speaker C:But carrying a gun is kind of different.
Speaker C:For starters, it's uncomfortable and it's unpleasant and it forces you to accept the reality of what it is that you are actually doing when you have this thing with you and consider what the ramifications of having it with you might be in certain scenarios.
Speaker C:So a holster in a lot of ways, if somebody is ready to actually take the step of picking the gun up off of the nightstand or wherever and taking it with them out into the world where there will be potentially have the opportunity to defend others in addition to themselves, that forces you to think about rights and responsibilities in a very big way.
Speaker C:It helps move people culturally beyond just, you know, having the Joe Biden approved double barreled shotgun, for example, and actually think about what it means to go beyond this.
Speaker C:And so one of the T. Rex mottos, we have a few different mottos, but we call ourselves a second amendment and sixth commandment company.
Speaker C:So we, we see firearms as potential life saving devices.
Speaker C:So we sell a lot of life saving equipment.
Speaker C:We sell medical gear, tourniquets, things like that, and we sell pouches.
Speaker C:So you carry life saving gear with you.
Speaker C:And a holster is no different.
Speaker C:It is a piece of technology.
Speaker C:I mean, it's very basic technology, it's just plastic.
Speaker C:But it is a piece of gear that lets you carry a life saving device with you so that if necessary, you have it with you so that you can perform some of the responsibilities that come with the right of the second amendment, but also some of the responsibilities that come with that sixth commandment, Thou shalt not murder is very clear.
Speaker C:But there's, there's implications to that where murder is something that it is our duty to try to stop if there is a murderer.
Speaker C:And so that's why it is illegal in this country.
Speaker C:We recognize that lethal force can be used to stop lethal force.
Speaker C:So if that is how we handle our products, there's also all sorts of other ramifications about educating our, our customers, our audience.
Speaker C:But, but then, yeah, being in Tennessee, these are, these are our values.
Speaker C:These are things that we want to live out in more ways than just giving people a product here or a product there, giving people some education, trying to set a good example of being good stewards of opportunities.
Speaker C:And so, yeah, that's, that's why we are continuing to be involved in politics and do lobbying however we can, wherever we can.
Speaker C:I think that more companies should have a wider, broader approach to the Things that they do or the things that they touch on.
Speaker C:But I also say it is hard to be spread thin sometimes.
Speaker C:It's also tricky to know how to prioritize all the different hats that we would like to wear sometimes.
Speaker B:Well said.
Speaker B:Let me ask you this.
Speaker B: We brought up: Speaker B:We brought up the influx of gun owners.
Speaker B:There's this big step of becoming a gun owner and then concealing, carrying.
Speaker B:It's a lot of mental.
Speaker B:And thinking it through, you know, what advice or where do you see that T Rex arms can help people in that process?
Speaker B:Going from gun ownership to concealed carrier through, you know, through that process.
Speaker B:What can, can you advise people to do and how to make that decision?
Speaker C:That's a great question.
Speaker C:We've actually been talking about this a little bit internally because the.
Speaker C:I would say in some ways this is something T Rex is not very good at.
Speaker C:On the one hand, I think we have fantastic holsters.
Speaker C:I think we have some of the most comfortable holsters, some of the most concealable holsters, some of the best ways to carry.
Speaker C:But a lot of our educational content recently has focused on kind of higher end stuff.
Speaker C:Like we've been explaining how to use thermal devices for different things, how to shoot using a night vision device passively or with an aiming laser, which aiming lasers are available.
Speaker C:So our education has been a little more focused at kind of the higher, more advanced stuff.
Speaker C:But this is something that we would like to figure out how to get back to more.
Speaker C:We certainly have talked about the, the ideology, some of the, some of the responsibilities that come with carrying, but the basics of how to carry and how to get comfortable and things like that, those are, those are things that we, we probably need to get back to.
Speaker C:My brother Lucas has a video called how to Shoot a pistol in 10 minutes.
Speaker C:And it's, it's 10 minutes worth of drills that you can do and dry fire that you can do and things that you can do to get comfortable or if you're already somewhat comfortable, get much more consistent results as you train.
Speaker C:So we have some things like that, but in many ways that is a, that's kind of a weak spot for us.
Speaker C:It's one of those things where as you grow as a company, you can kind of forget some of the stuff that you were doing in the first few years.
Speaker C:The good news is that there has been a massive amount of, I would say growth within the Internet gun community and the number of trainers that are out there has skyrocketed.
Speaker C:And I feel like there's a much better baseline for every level of comfort or every level of familiarity, every level of gun owner has access to better training now than a while back.
Speaker C:And it's a little bit easier to find on the Internet.
Speaker C:And the trainers are a lot more easy to.
Speaker C:You can look at their social media and have a much better idea of where they are, where they are training, what their personalities and flavor is.
Speaker C:So I think now is a great time for people at any level.
Speaker B:If somebody was getting in, if you were to give somebody an advice, who is getting.
Speaker B:And we talk with Goa on the on ramp to firearms ownership and advocacy.
Speaker B:You know, if you could give somebody advice on not only getting into being a firearms owner, but also into getting into becoming an advocate, what advice would.
Speaker C:You give them to be an advocate for this?
Speaker C:Advocate for the lifestyle, the firearm owner lifestyle?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:I think, I think the best thing to do is, first of all, you need to be ready to meet people where they are at.
Speaker C:So at T. Rex, we often meet people who own a huge amount of equipment.
Speaker C:They have hundreds or thousands of hours of training under their belt, and we're talking about maybe some esoteric stuff or what's coming down the pike of different, different scenarios or battlefields or, you know, these kinds of things.
Speaker C:But there are a lot of people who just need some pretty, pretty basic instruction.
Speaker C:And so the first thing I would say is if you don't have 10,000 hours of range time, don't worry about that.
Speaker C:If, if you are comfortable explaining the principles of self defense, if you are comfortable explaining the four rules of gun safety, if you are comfortable taking somebody to the range, you have a massive opportunity to help somebody else who's starting at the bottom.
Speaker C:And, and then as they rise to your level or beyond, then, then you can learn together or find trainers or do other things.
Speaker C:So if you know four basic laws of firearm safety, as I think Jeff Cooper kind of codified those, and if you're comfortable going to the range and shooting with, with another person with you, you have everything that you need to be a firearm owner, firearm carry advocate.
Speaker C:For somebody who is starting at ground zero, you can do that.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:So I do want to kind of go from the state level to the federal level.
Speaker A:Obviously we are, whether we like it or not, already in midterm mode.
Speaker A:When it comes to, when it comes to fundraising and all of the things that go on in the political world of candidate selections and primary runs.
Speaker A:What would you, what would your ideal pro gun candidate be from a manufacturing side?
Speaker C:Well, I would imagine somebody like Thomas Massie.
Speaker C:Thomas Massie is good on guns.
Speaker C:He's also an engineer.
Speaker C:He understands some automation, robotics stuff.
Speaker C:He understands some economic stuff.
Speaker C:Those are things that I think are great for a candidate who understands these things.
Speaker C:Now, oftentimes you get a mixed bag.
Speaker C:Not everybody is as passionate about those three things as Thomas Massie is.
Speaker C:So here in Tennessee, we have a number of local reps that have different backgrounds in business and manufacturing.
Speaker C:Bill Haggerty is our senator.
Speaker C:And while he's a Pro2A guy, but he's not deep into the nitty gritty firearms.
Speaker C:But he is somebody who thinks a lot about the bigger picture of manufacturing and re industrializing the company and stuff like the country and stuff like that.
Speaker C:So it's a good question because there's a lot of different levels and layers to this.
Speaker C:But personally, I really like Thomas Massie.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:I think that's exactly the kind of guy that we would like to see more of.
Speaker C:Somebody who's very principled, someone who has been very, very diligent about his own businesses and mastering something in the area of engineering, has mastered something, but also has these other very high level general capabilities and interests.
Speaker C:And so he can act in our interests.
Speaker B:Well, so as a company in the 2A space, what is the importance to you to go out and advocate and bring in more people to advocate and help with the grassroots?
Speaker B:What is that, what does that mean to you guys?
Speaker C:Well, sometimes, sometimes we get a little bit ahead of our skis.
Speaker C:Like technically we would probably, probably should pay a little bit more attention to the business sometimes.
Speaker C:But we spend a lot of time educating people about suppressors over the last few years and we don't sell suppressors.
Speaker C:And we spent a lot of time over the last few weeks talking about suppressors, getting people to legalize suppressors.
Speaker C:We still don't sell suppressors.
Speaker C:And I was thinking like, actually the upside or the upshot of suppressors getting removed from the NFA is people who were thinking about buying holsters next month will use that money to buy suppressors instead, which we don't sell.
Speaker C:So our tendency is to be really focused on what our customers need in general, not so much what we have to sell them.
Speaker C:And I'm really happy that that is our primary focus.
Speaker C:But I did think about this the other day, like, hang on a second, what is this actually going to look like for the next few months?
Speaker C:Suppressors are going to be out of stock for a long time.
Speaker C:And how do I get one?
Speaker A:But I think that's awesome that you guys are willing and Able to put mission first as far as 2A advocacy goes.
Speaker A:And know that the community is still going to be there to support, you know, to buy the, the holsters and the medical stuff that you all sell and all of the product line.
Speaker A:Even though they might come to you for advice on a product, like you said, with suppressors that you guys don't even sell, which I think is really cool because I don't know of any other company that really operates in that space where you guys are almost primarily education when it comes to the customer interfacing.
Speaker A:And then you're supplying their needs in other areas that might not be how they found you in the first place.
Speaker C:And our hope is that we're building something more than our company.
Speaker C:I love that you said mission first.
Speaker C:That's another one of our many mottos.
Speaker C:Because one of the things that we would like to see is small decentralized government.
Speaker C:And we like to see small, decentralized businesses too.
Speaker C:So it's kind of on brand for us to say, hey, our goal is not to just build T Rex at any cost.
Speaker C:We would love to.
Speaker C:I think I speak for everybody when I say we would love to have many little T Rex companies out there, as opposed to T Rex becoming the giant single firearm source.
Speaker C:Our goal is to build a citizen defense industry that is broad.
Speaker C:And our goal is to see a number of companies kind of do what we're doing.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So hopefully we're setting a good example.
Speaker C:And we're not, you know, as I said, getting too focused on some of these other things because being.
Speaker C:Being so focused on certain aspects of the mission that we cannot support customers, customers anymore.
Speaker C:That's not the goal.
Speaker C:We want to make sure that we're also here for them when they have questions and as they order product too.
Speaker C:So it is, it is a little bit of a balance.
Speaker C:But building that larger citizen defense industry, a larger decentralized manufacturing capability, more people interested, more people doing the advocacy is.
Speaker C:Is the goal.
Speaker B:And I've been trying to think about this for the whole episode.
Speaker B:You guys started your company, you got into holsters.
Speaker B:If you're not a gun owner who has concealed carry, you don't have a box full holster sitting somewhere.
Speaker B:Then I don't know if you're a gun owner or not.
Speaker B:Why holsters?
Speaker B:And again, a lot of people, when they hear holsters, they, they look.
Speaker B:So it's a secondary thought normally, and hence why we have a whole box of them.
Speaker B:So why did you get in the holsters?
Speaker B:What makes your design so much different?
Speaker B:Than everybody else's.
Speaker C:So holsters, as my brother David said, it is a great starting point for people.
Speaker C:It is kind of a business card for some of these ideas.
Speaker C:It gets the ball rolling.
Speaker C:So there's a couple reasons holsters.
Speaker C:One is, and I think that this is just providentially we had some Kydex and we had some space and at the time all four of the owners were on the volunteer fire department and Lucas was doing some shooting and making some mag carriers.
Speaker C:And it, that's just where the ball started rolling.
Speaker C:But at the same time there's tremendous value I think in some of the stuff that we have done with holsters to really focus on not just the gun is attached to you, but the gun is securely attached to you.
Speaker C:The gun is very accessible, it's comfortable enough that you're not carrying occasionally, but you actually can carry all the time.
Speaker C:And that the holster supports a very functional fighting handgun.
Speaker C: at we were doing back in like: Speaker C:Now obviously this trend was going to happen by itself, but we wanted to push this trend as much as possible, make it so that we didn't do this right away.
Speaker C:It took us a while to get this figured out, but we wanted to make sure that a holster that supports a weapon mounted light is the same cost as a holster that doesn't.
Speaker C:There's no premium for this because we want to make this the norm, we want to push this.
Speaker C:And then the same thing with some of the other holsters we did.
Speaker C:Our most iconic holster design is the sidecar.
Speaker C:And it lets you carry a weapon with a light, with a red dot and a spare magazine together so that you have a reload, you have a way to do malfunctions.
Speaker C:And we prioritized really functional capable, basically duty level type handguns just kind of to raise the bar, raise the expectation that you can have a fighting handgun with you and it can be fully equipped with modern accessories and you can have spare magazines so that you are, you are truly equipped for stuff.
Speaker C:And it's, it's, that's, that's kind of where the ball started and where we wanted to push things now since then I believe that we've also had a pretty significant influence in the manufacturing space as well as we.
Speaker C:We switched from hand squashed foam pressed holsters that are cut on a band saw and drilled by hand to stuff that is vacuum formed and machine made.
Speaker C:Another trend that was going to happen, but I'm Glad that we got to be there to be that, to be a part of that.
Speaker B:And then the last question I have before we go to the next segment is you brought up dinosaur themed, you brought up T Rex.
Speaker B:I wanted, we should probably touch on that a little bit on why, why is it called T Rex Arms?
Speaker C:The, the name T Rex arms is a joke.
Speaker C:It is.
Speaker C:We, we specialize in small arms.
Speaker C:That's, that's the joke.
Speaker C:But it's also just kind of funny because technically we don't sell arms.
Speaker C:We don't, we don't sell any firearms.
Speaker C:We, we just sell the accessories.
Speaker C:And it just, I just think it's kind of funny.
Speaker C:Like you picture the most rugged, big, powerful, masculine predator that you would name a gun company after.
Speaker C:But it's the T Rex arms.
Speaker C:They're very small.
Speaker C:Small arms are our specialty.
Speaker B:That is amazing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So we take our products very seriously.
Speaker C:We take our customers very seriously.
Speaker C:We don't take ourselves that seriously.
Speaker A:Well, that's awesome.
Speaker A:So it time has come for my favorite segment of the show which is from the Soapbox where we get on the spicier side of things and get more of the hot takes.
Speaker A:So I have to ask if there is one pet peeve that you have from politicians when it comes to the second amendment, what would that be?
Speaker C:I would say cowardice.
Speaker C:And I'm honestly not sure what they are afraid of because as we've watched gun culture explode on the Internet, as we've watched gun tubers that talk about spicy stuff, they talk about machine guns, they talk about suppressors, they talk about legalizing stuff, they talk about abolishing the atf.
Speaker C:As we see those guys grow in popularity and we see polls and we see election statistics, it bugs me that a lot of politicians and especially a lot of Republicans are just like ooh, this is too scary.
Speaker C:Let's not talk about a 90 year old short barreled weapon ban.
Speaker C:Too scary, Too dangerous.
Speaker C:Like, don't want to touch it.
Speaker C:It's like a lot of voters want you to touch it.
Speaker C:Sir, please do not be afraid of something we don't even know what you're afraid of.
Speaker C:So that's a particular pet peeve for sure.
Speaker B:This is brought to you by Patriot Mobile.
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Speaker B:So you are going to be on our firearms innovation and technology panel at Goals with a lot of great big names.
Speaker B:What is your biggest pet peeve about innovation in the firearms space?
Speaker B:And, and I know you'll say it on stage for everybody else, but I want to get it, get, get your brain thinking a little bit.
Speaker C:Oh, it's so, it's nothing new.
Speaker C:I've said this before in videos.
Speaker C:I'm going to say it again, I'm going to keep talking about it.
Speaker C:The artificial limitations on innovation are crazy and we have a ton of them in this country that are not related to firearms.
Speaker C:Like we have maximum, maximum rare earth minerals in this country but we're not allowed to turn them into magnets.
Speaker C:We have to buy magnets from China.
Speaker C:We have, we just found a ton of lithium but we're not allowed to turn it into batteries.
Speaker C:We got to go to China.
Speaker C:There's all kinds of artificial limitations that bug me.
Speaker C:But on the firearm side I would say that the NFA is huge.
Speaker C:We have very cool new calibers of ammunition and case geometries that lend themselves to short barreled rifles.
Speaker C:But short barreled rifles are just a no fun zone, no play zone, it's too expensive zone.
Speaker C:All kinds of new materials and manufacturing techniques for suppressors.
Speaker C:But there's this, this giant barrier to entry which fortunately thanks to inflation, I usually don't say thanks to inflation, but thanks to inflation that $200 tax stamp is getting cheaper all the time.
Speaker C:But like a very artificial hurdle to get over just to experiment with this really simple, easy, safe place where we should be seeing a lot of innovation.
Speaker C:So the NFA is the perfect example of just like something that could very easily be scrapped and it would open up a whole new area for people to experiment with materials and manufacturing and tons of stuff that we're so good at now.
Speaker C:We have really good 3D printing capability and we have really good like simulate dynamics of different fluid dynamics inside of suppressors.
Speaker C:All kinds of places that we could really experiment and have a ton of fun.
Speaker C:But there are these artificial limits that have been placed on us and so yeah, I guess that's another pet peeve.
Speaker B:I love that you brought up the artificial limits with lithium and things like that.
Speaker B:We in the recently we were talking about tariffs and stuff with our federal affairs team and I brought up the lead smelts and ammunition and that is a big issue because we can't smelt our own lead.
Speaker B:We have to go somewhere else.
Speaker B:So what is your opinion on being dependent on other countries to get the things we need that we can get at home?
Speaker C:So I mentioned before, I'm an advocate of decentralization for a whole bunch of different areas.
Speaker C:If you, I mean, even here at T. Rex, if we have a single bottleneck that's going to potentially slow things down.
Speaker C:But then like if, if the bottleneck is a machine that breaks now, we're really in trouble.
Speaker C:So if we can decentralize our production so we have multiple heat presses, multiple CNC machines, multiple ways to bend holsters, then we're a lot more resilient, we're a lot less fragile.
Speaker C:So there's that aspect to it.
Speaker C:But the other one is, if there were only one holster company in America.
Speaker C:Well, we, you know, let's say it's us.
Speaker C:We're probably not as motivated to come up with cool new ideas and be competitive with things.
Speaker C:So decentralizing so that people can be more competitive in some of these different areas is also huge.
Speaker C:Then being dependent on other countries is.
Speaker C:Now we're inheriting any of their fragilities, you know, any of any of their issues, we're kind of inheriting as well.
Speaker C:So if we could remove some of these limitations.
Speaker C:It's also, it also just feels kind of mean to say, like, you know what?
Speaker C:Lead don't smelt lead in America.
Speaker C:It's too bad for Americans.
Speaker C:Only Guatemalans are allowed to do it.
Speaker C:Like, what are we saying about these other countries?
Speaker C:Like you're allowed to have these terrible, unsafe, horrible things that you just go do it for us.
Speaker C:I don't like that either.
Speaker B:Now I also want to pick your brain.
Speaker B:You said earlier when we were talking in the beginning that one of the things that firearms owners don't pay attention to is history.
Speaker B:Can you dive into that a little bit on what you mean by the history.
Speaker C:A lot of different things, history of how people used to think about firearms or even people used to think about weapons prior to firearms being the de facto weapons.
Speaker C:Just kind of the path that we have been on for so many centuries of Western culture is I think, a very important thing that it would help firearm owners to understand.
Speaker C:But even just in the space of manufacturing that we've just been talking about, to understand that firearms technology has often led a lot of innovation.
Speaker C:Like Eli Whitney inventing interchangeable parts completely changed all manufacturing in the world.
Speaker C:But it was specifically for guns.
Speaker C:Guns are a very high tolerances are required, high pressures are involved.
Speaker C:They're used in high pressure situations.
Speaker C:Like firearms are a Great place to innovate with new stuff.
Speaker C:And historically, lots of innovations of material science and manufacturing technology have come out of firearm technology.
Speaker C:So, you know, just a little bit of historical awareness there just kind of raises the stakes for the benefits of reducing some of these artificial limitations.
Speaker C:Let that be a place where people can make breakthroughs that will trickle out into other parts of manufacturing as well.
Speaker C:It used to be kind of the tip of the spear for making stuff in the world and then in America in a big way.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, I completely agree.
Speaker A:And I also think, you know, when we talk about innovation, just in general, when the firearms industry and we look at the right to repair, the right to build your own firearms, like those are things that predate, you know, the constitutional protections of the second Amendment, that's something that has always been in existence.
Speaker A:Yet you can see the anti gunners going after those things.
Speaker A:And what happens is that stifles innovation.
Speaker A:When we think about the great thinkers like Browning and others that created entire companies and changed the landscape of what firearms looked like, the dependability, those things happen because great thinkers were able to think.
Speaker A:And it really makes me nervous when we think of the right to repair or the right to build your own firearms.
Speaker A:Being taken away is the innovation piece that we could be missing out for centuries to come.
Speaker A:Because you want a select and chosen few to have a right that we've all had for all of human history.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:And these ideas, ideas have consequences, right?
Speaker C:Like, it's very destructive of an idea.
Speaker C:If you say that, well, you're allowed private property and you're allowed freedom of speech and you're allowed to think and to build and to own things.
Speaker C:But at any point we can just declare a type of physical matter that's in a specific shape to be illegal.
Speaker C:And you're not allowed to have it or to make it, or to have the tools to make it or to share the knowledge about it, that idea will spread to other things and it will just kind of poison the freedom to think and the freedom to innovate in ways that are going to leak outside of just, you know, the firearm industry, the shooting, hunting, outdoor industry, that's going to affect the way that people think about other things.
Speaker C:And I understand that there's going to need to be safety regulations and so forth, and there need to be penalties for people who are hurt others because they're experimenting with liquid fuel rockets in their garages, for example.
Speaker C:But that's the better way to handle that than saying like, well, you're allowed to do model rocketry, but only up to a certain level that the politicians are comfortable with.
Speaker C:Or you're allowed to do drone development, but only until we see something bad happen.
Speaker C:Then everybody has to stop.
Speaker C:Well, why are we allowed to do that?
Speaker C:Well, we took guns away, so there's precedent for us to take this away too.
Speaker C:That's kind of how these ideas can spread if you're not careful.
Speaker B:Well, Isaac, we have come up to the time where we have to wrap up, so before we go, first thing I want to say is thank you for being on next.
Speaker B:We have a gift for you from AAC and Palmetto State Armory.
Speaker B:They've sponsored all the gifts for our guests, so you'll be receiving something after the show from AAC and Palmetto State Army.
Speaker B:So thank you for that.
Speaker B:Go ahead and take the opportunity here to shout out any socials, any closing thoughts or anything else you'd like to say.
Speaker C:Oh, certainly.
Speaker C:Well, T Rex Arms is is pretty Googleable, even though Google doesn't seem to like us very much.
Speaker C:We do have a YouTube channel that you can find and if you're listening to this podcast, then we also have a podcast called T Rex Talk.
Speaker C:But I just want to thank you guys for having me on.
Speaker C:You guys are doing fantastic work across the board.
Speaker C:I really appreciate everything that you've done legislatively, particularly even just in the last few weeks.
Speaker C:It's been really fun watching A Little Bit Closer stuff that the GOA team has been doing on the Hill around suppressors and short barrel rifles.
Speaker C:Tremendously grateful for that and just fun, fun to watch and anything we can do to help, we want to help.
Speaker C:So I just encourage people to continue to help you guys with what you are doing.
Speaker C:And if this episode airs before goals, I can't wait to see you there in person.
Speaker C:And if it airs after goals, I'm sure that it's been a blast hanging out.
Speaker B:Well make sure to like share and subscribe.
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