Shownotes
Jeremy Dedmon of XTech Tactical joins hosts John and Kaylee for a conversation that starts personal and ends political. Jeremy didn't grow up around guns. His family came from public service, and his late grandfather, a former police chief and city manager, believed civilians didn't need modern firearms. Jeremy entered the industry almost by accident, taking over an injection-molding account for Ergo Grips that the customer had just fired, then turning that relationship around. The late Steve Hines, who owned Ergo, introduced him to the industry. The moment Jeremy's own beliefs shifted was becoming a father to a 15-month-old daughter, when protecting her stopped being theoretical. Kaylee and John tie that to a broader demographic shift toward more women and first-time owners, arguing the Second Amendment is a personal and individual right, not only a political one.
The heart of the episode is Jeremy's argument that magazine capacity bans are unconstitutional, and that the firearms industry shares blame for where things stand. He says companies that only sell neutered, non-convertible magazines to restricted states are broadening the reach of bad laws and signaling to lawmakers that the industry won't fight. He extends the same critique to companies that stop shipping legal products to states like California and New York, calling it a posture that wins nothing and invites copycat bans, including a high-capacity magazine ban recently supported by Arizona's attorney general. Kaylee adds a parallel to college campuses and the slow acceptance of tyranny, and both hosts dig into how anti-gun messaging weaponizes terms like 'assault weapon' and 'high capacity' that trace back to the 1994 assault weapons ban.
Jeremy then walks through XTech's response: the Freedom Series, a rebrand of the company's AK-47 magazine line (formerly the 'Comm-euphornia Special') plus a growing Glock magazine lineup. The magazines ship as 10-round mags to 49 states, with conversion kits and extensions that let owners legally adapt capacity if laws change or they relocate, and every feature is upgraded over factory. XTech donates $1.79 and one cent per magazine sold off its website, referencing the year the Second Amendment was ratified, to groups including GOA and select state-level organizations. Jeremy closes by revisiting the Firearms Innovation and Technology panel at GOALS, where he argued consumers see a lack of innovation even though plenty of people are innovating, because distribution, advertising restrictions, regulatory burden, and a reactive 'me too' industry keep new ideas from reaching shelves. Kaylee ties it back to personal responsibility and grassroots action to clear the red tape that limits smaller companies.
Questions this episode answers
How did Jeremy Dedmon get into the firearms industry without growing up around guns?
He came up entrepreneurial and worked in commercial real estate before taking an injection-molding role that put him in charge of Ergo Grips' account, which a customer had just fired. He turned that relationship around, and Ergo's owner, the late Steve Hines, introduced him to the industry.
What changed Jeremy's personal views on gun ownership and the Second Amendment?
Becoming a father to a 15-month-old daughter shifted his thinking, because protecting her stopped being theoretical. His family came from public service, and his late grandfather, a former police chief and city manager, had believed civilians did not need modern firearms.
Why does Jeremy argue magazine capacity bans are unconstitutional?
He believes any restriction on magazine capacity is unconstitutional at its core, treating the Second Amendment as a personal, individual right rather than only a political issue. He sees capacity limits as part of a slow erosion of that right.
How does Jeremy say the firearms industry itself has made restrictive laws worse?
He faults companies that sell only non-convertible magazines to restricted states, arguing this broadens bad laws and signals the industry will not fight. He says pulling legal products from states like California and New York wins nothing and invites copycat bans.
What is XTech Tactical's Freedom Series and how do the convertible magazines work?
The Freedom Series is a rebrand of XTech's AK-47 magazine line plus a growing Glock lineup, shipping as 10-round magazines to 49 states. Conversion kits and extensions let owners legally adapt capacity if laws change or they relocate, with every feature upgraded over factory.
How much does XTech donate per magazine, and which groups does it support?
XTech donates $1.79 and one cent per magazine sold on its website, a figure that references the year the Second Amendment was ratified. The money goes to groups including Gun Owners of America and select state-level organizations.
Why do the hosts and guest say the Second Amendment is an individual right rather than only a political issue?
They frame the Second Amendment as a personal right tied to protecting your family, not a partisan talking point. They argue it is not granted by government but protected by it, and connect that to a broader shift toward more women and first-time owners.
Is the firearms industry actually innovating, and what holds new products back?
At the Firearms Innovation and Technology panel at the Gun Owners Action Leadership Summit (GOALS), Jeremy argued plenty of people are innovating but consumers do not see it. Distribution gatekeeping, advertising restrictions, regulatory burden, and a reactive 'me too' industry keep new ideas off shelves.
Chapters
- 00:00 — Intro and meeting Jeremy Dedmon of XTech Tactical
- 00:31 — How XTech formed and the Ergo Grips account
- 02:05 — Growing up without guns and a police-chief grandfather
- 05:01 — Family reactions and agreeing to disagree
- 10:00 — Becoming a father and the moment his views shifted
- 11:07 — The Second Amendment as a personal, individual right
- 14:35 — Freedom as the ability to say no
- 21:05 — Rapid fire: EDC, home defense, zombie apocalypse
- 23:03 — From the Soapbox: magazine capacity bans
- 30:34 — Manipulative language and the 1994 assault weapons ban
- 40:32 — The Freedom Series and convertible magazines
- 45:17 — Donating to GOA and the no-compromise lens
- 48:20 — Is the industry actually innovating?
- 57:47 — Where to find XTech and closing
About the guest
Jeremy Dedmon is the founder of XTech Tactical, a firearms accessory manufacturer based in Arizona that is best known for its AK-47 magazines. He says he came up entrepreneurial, hustling since age 11, and worked in commercial real estate and development before taking an injection-molding role that put him in charge of the Ergo Grips account and brought him into the firearms industry. He did not grow up around guns; his family came from public service and his late grandfather was a police chief and city manager. XTech has three employees, makes about 90% of its products in the US (most of that in Arizona), and Jeremy helped originate the concept behind GOA's partners program with John Crump.
Key quotes
"I personally define the word freedom as the ability to say no." — Jeremy Dedmon
"for me, at its core, any restrictions on magazine capacity I believe are unconstitutional." — Jeremy Dedmon
"And I also fault our industry as much as I fault the liberal lawmakers as to why we are where we are today." — Jeremy Dedmon
"You're not doing anything for the second amendment in the Constitution by not shipping to states with restrictions." — Jeremy Dedmon
"The only thing that they don't want you to know is that it's an individual right." — Kaylee
"You accept the tyranny that you become comfortable with." — Kaylee
"this is fundamentally not a right gifted or granted by government. It is protected by the government or it's supposed to be at least if you read the Constitution." — Kaylee
"you're not just buying a magazine, you're buying a tool that empowers you to, you know, protect your family both today and tomorrow." — Jeremy Dedmon
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 Jeremy Dedman from XTAC Tactical.
Speaker B:Jeremy, how the heck are you today?
Speaker C:I'm doing awesome, man.
Speaker C:So grateful to be on with you guys.
Speaker B:Well, thank you for joining us at the butt crack of dawn.
Speaker B:Your time is early morning for you.
Speaker B:Go ahead and let's get your backstory.
Speaker B:What is XTEC Tactical?
Speaker B:Who are you?
Speaker B:What is your industry experience?
Speaker B:Just kind of tell us all about Jeremy Dedmon, man.
Speaker C:Yeah, so XTech Tactical was more or less formed by chance is one way to word it.
Speaker C:My backstory is always been entrepreneurial, hustling something since I was 11 years old.
Speaker C:So it was just kind of always fun for me to go out and do something differently.
Speaker C:Rest of my family is all public service.
Speaker C:So kind of was that odd man out in the house still at Thanksgiving?
Speaker C:You know, it's a interesting story there, but yeah, I went from doing commercial real estate and development and kind of through a series of events took a role with one of my clients who was doing injection molding.
Speaker C:And they gave me one customer to start.
Speaker C:My role was kind of to grow the business.
Speaker C:And that customer was Ergo Grips out of Moriarty, New Mexico.
Speaker C:They didn't tell me that Ergo had just fired, fired them when they handed me the account.
Speaker C:So that was kind of my fun start in the industry and always been someone who likes to find a way to make something happen.
Speaker C:And so once I learned Ergo had terminated their relationship the second after I like prior to me even calling them, you know, flew out to the NRA show, figured out what that was and you know, long story short there, I think we had 30 something active projects with them within six months and so went from being the guys who were fired to their, their main guy.
Speaker C:And Steve Hines who owned Ergo, he recently passed this year.
Speaker C:I just learned from his grandson.
Speaker C:But you know, Steve basically introduced me to everyone.
Speaker C:And so you know, my personal around firearm side is I didn't grow up around guns.
Speaker C:Scotch shot skeet a couple times growing up.
Speaker C:But my grandfather who was one of my role models, he was a police chief and, and kind of his lens that I learned later in life was that you know, civilians shouldn't, didn't have a need to own, you know, modern weapon systems and handguns and just never really had a reason to, to think otherwise.
Speaker C:You know, didn't grow up wealthy, but I grew up in a middle class neighborhood.
Speaker C:And so it really kind of took me being exposed to, you know, to the, the industry from a.
Speaker C:Making plastic parts for them to understand the culture and get to know folks.
Speaker C:And you know, it's kind of a fun story I don't hide from, is that, you know, XTech wasn't formed as a result of, of.
Speaker C:Of maybe an avid firearms user.
Speaker C:I really got to form my own in my own core beliefs and just respected a lot of of the humans that I got introduced to early.
Speaker C:I think, you know, this industry is full of a lot of different types of people, but some are phenomenal and some aren't right.
Speaker C:But I was just very privileged that my first introduction, I think looking back, as I just told Steve's grandson last weekend, may have be the greatest human that was ever in this industry.
Speaker C:And Steve and you know, he's just such a terrific human.
Speaker C:And so I went from that kind of like, you know, you have to wear camo and, and you have to drive a diesel.
Speaker C:Which by the way, I am a redneck at heart.
Speaker C:I've always been a fisherman, but you know, to be a, to be a gun guy and you know, kind of was able to understand that and quickly learned that, you know, the gun culture is more about that innate desire.
Speaker C:And I've always been a protective person.
Speaker C:I have some, you know, younger siblings, we did foster care growing up.
Speaker C:And so, you know, always been someone who really felt that that core drive and that core pull that, that, you know, it's our duty to protect others that need to be protected or, you know, are vulnerable.
Speaker C:And so that's really, you know, what I learned quickly about the second amendment is that right to, you know, defend yourself and those you love.
Speaker C:And so, you know, kind of that, that introduction kind of brought me into where I sit today, which is, you know, let's, let's get.
Speaker C:Build products that not only meet a need, but also are the best tools that you can count on, not just for yourself, but to be able to pass down generationally to your, you know, leave a legacy.
Speaker C:Part of that legacy mindset is, is us creating products that let that diligent consumer make intelligent purchases that, that better prepares that, that family, not just on their generation, but the next generation behind them.
Speaker A:I think that your story is very powerful, especially as, you know, for a lot of people this becomes an anxious time of year.
Speaker A:You're going to have Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner with some people who might not philosophically agree with you.
Speaker A:You said that your family comes from that public service side and you're kind of the Odd man out.
Speaker A:So if you don't mind, kind of expand on, you know, how did it.
Speaker A:What was the reaction, like, within your family and, you know, have they come around to supporting you and.
Speaker A:And what you do for a living, or are they still kind of on the fence about the.
Speaker A:The crazy life that you chose?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, they all think I'm insane from, like a business standpoint.
Speaker C:I mean, I've always not been scared of risk.
Speaker C:I've always done things quickly.
Speaker C:You know, sometimes, you know, I don't believe in terminology like pay your dues or, or, you know, go introduce yourself to an establishment and say, hey, I'm here to play.
Speaker C:I just show up and do things.
Speaker C:And that's kind of been a knack that I've done.
Speaker C:And, you know, I. I always try and be respectful of others, but at the same time, I don't just believe in.
Speaker C:In bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy.
Speaker C:So on my family side, my grandfather's now passed, but, you know, my siblings, parents, all that, they're all, you know, supportive of the Second Amendment at this point, and they were never really staunchly against it.
Speaker C:But my grandfather, you know, him.
Speaker C:And I kind of, you know, agreed to disagree at the end.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And so it was one of those where, you know, he's a.
Speaker C:He loved debating, very intelligent person, was a city manager, sat on some community bank boards later in life.
Speaker C:But, you know, it was interesting.
Speaker C:It was one of my more.
Speaker C:He was the first person I ever just decided, I love this man, and I'm just, you know, gonna.
Speaker C:Gonna show up and not here to win a fight.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:With this debate as he got older and really just want to be able to walk away with that positive, you know, memories of him.
Speaker C:But, you know, it was difficult, right?
Speaker C:And to hear that someone that was kind of your childhood idol and such a patriarchal figure and, you know, a natural leader.
Speaker C:I think a lot of my leadership skills I fault him on as the genetic element of leadership.
Speaker C:And to know that he wasn't in alignment or supportive of what I was, you know, of launching a firearms company and, you know, specifically, we're all about increasing standard capacity, right?
Speaker C:It's the terminology I would use that.
Speaker C:That wasn't, you know, that wasn't ideal.
Speaker C:That was a bummer.
Speaker C:You know, it still is to this day.
Speaker C:And I, And I still, you know, always loved the man.
Speaker C:And it was just, you know, he, he.
Speaker C:And rightfully he had his.
Speaker C:He had his opinions, right?
Speaker C:And as I think each of us would agree, John and I have had Some conversations on this.
Speaker C:You know, in many cases, I'd rather talk to someone that disagrees with me, that has some foundation in that opinion than someone who just nods at me and in agreement.
Speaker C:And his lens was right or wrong.
Speaker C:His lens at that time was, you know, he was doing patrol in his 20s as a police officer and in a town where, you know, Billy's, you know, drunk at the bar and worst case, you bonk him on the head and that's the end of the story.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:I mean, and that doesn't justify his opinion, but at the same time, you know, and he had some Ellie friends that were involved in, in, in some shootings, you know, during traditional traffic stops.
Speaker C:And you know, as we know, training's come a long way, but it's also, you know, you're not, not everyone's going to agree with you, but I think so much of, of, you know, folks opinions are, are based on a, a trust in a system and a reliance in a system that to me is completely dangerous.
Speaker C:And you know, and at the end of the day, who's going to defend, you know, my wife?
Speaker C:It's that burden falls on me.
Speaker C:Who's going to defend my children?
Speaker C:That burden falls on me.
Speaker C:Who's going to defend me?
Speaker C:That burden falls on my wife.
Speaker C:Empowered woman.
Speaker C:So, you know, that's kind of interesting topics, but, but yeah, I think you just, you know, you be an advocate for what you believe in and you have a reason why and you learn how to articulate that over time.
Speaker B:Can you put at a moment in time while going through this going, this is when my core beliefs started and kind of change that thought process of, hey, this is what I grew up learning now.
Speaker B:This is what I believe.
Speaker B:This is what has molded me into my core beliefs.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And actually so like I learned about my grandfather's belief of like civilians not owning firearms.
Speaker C:After I got into, after I started X Tech, it was just, it was a neutral topic to me, if that makes sense.
Speaker C:It wasn't like I have a stance.
Speaker C:I was a young person, you know, and so there really wasn't a posture on it.
Speaker C:It was just like, you know, I, I didn't grow up around it.
Speaker C:So it just was something that was there.
Speaker C:Where that changed for me was actually.
Speaker C:And with my, with my first marriage, I inherited, I was lucky to inherit a beautiful daughter who at that time was 15 months old.
Speaker C:And that moment where I was dad John was really that moment where it was like.
Speaker C:And I had, you know, Steve's of the world around me at that time with and others was like, man, I, you know, I'm probably fine most times was kind of my lens as a dad, but it's probably fine most times.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:For me to live with myself.
Speaker C:If something happened to this baby girl, that's what shifted for me 100%.
Speaker B:That is powerful, and that is something we hear a lot.
Speaker B:But it is that powerful moment where you become a parent that you, you feel that you're protecting a human life.
Speaker B:And I know Kaylee can speak on it more than I can, but it's.
Speaker B:It's one of those things where it's very, very powerful that you.
Speaker B:You've got this little thing that you got to protect Caitlin.
Speaker B:You got anything to add to that?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:I mean, I think so often, you know, we want to.
Speaker A:To phrase things within the Second amendment as political, but it is a very personal right.
Speaker A:And those moments where you are fully aware that you are in charge of a little tiny human really puts a lot of things into perspective for people.
Speaker A:And I think that's why we're seeing the gun ownership change demographically to more and more females getting involved in the second amendment, because there's a keen sense of awareness when you're by yourself as a female, especially if you're outnumbered with the amount of kids that you have around you, where you're like, I need to be able to protect them and I've got to do it safely, I've got to do it effectively, and then I got to figure out how to get us out of this situation as quickly as possible.
Speaker A:And your.
Speaker A:Your mind changes.
Speaker A:There's definitely a, a change that happens there, but I think it happens for everybody.
Speaker A:And that's why you're seeing the demographics change, because it's not a solely political issue when you're talking about the protection of your family.
Speaker A:Because we don't think in a solely political world, the second amendment is a constitutionally protected right, but it's an individual right.
Speaker A:And I think that is thankfully to the anti gunners downfall is there is that biological and innate sense of I need to be able to protect and defend.
Speaker A:And that happens.
Speaker A:And it's not something that goes away.
Speaker A:You might think of things differently.
Speaker A:Not everyone ends up being a gun owner that becomes a parent, but a lot of people do.
Speaker A:And I think it all kind of comes down to that personal responsibility and the understanding of individual autonomy and the right to protect.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:The other thing is like, we see that this has become also kind of a generational thing where there are Older, like your grandfather, older generation, where it wasn't like you got the town drunk.
Speaker B:And that was the worst guy you kind of had to worry about was that guy.
Speaker B:And as things have progressed and we've seen how things have been going on, you know, a lot more people are deciding.
Speaker B:And we saw this during the COVID spike, that.
Speaker B:Deciding that, you know, I need to be taking this into my own hands, where it was like, yeah, I'm going to call Barney Fife down the road and he's going to come and save us.
Speaker B:You know, that Mayberry thing is not as prevalent as it was maybe in the 60s, 50s, 60s, maybe in the early 70s.
Speaker B:And now we're seeing this, this switch, the switch into a lot more Americans going, yes, we need to take our production into our own hands.
Speaker B:And you're right, it's not a political thing.
Speaker B:It's on both sides of the aisle where more people are going, man, maybe I align with this a lot more than I align with what my party says.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:You know, and I, I personally define the word freedom as the ability to say no.
Speaker C:And, you know, to me, Second Amendment, First Amendment, you know, low taxation or appropriate taxation, those all work towards that ability to say no.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And buying intentional products that work are part of that.
Speaker C:And so to me, that's the, you know, at the core of freedom.
Speaker C:And that's.
Speaker C:That's not what, you know, the establishment, if you will, wants.
Speaker C:That's not what people who have a globalist mindset wants.
Speaker C:You know, so at its core, I think it's, you know, we all want freedom, but I don't think every American or every human on this planet even understands and has paused to formulate what does freedom mean to them?
Speaker C:Like how.
Speaker C:How does.
Speaker C:How is freedom obtained?
Speaker C:You know, and it goes through, you know, and I feel for folks, right?
Speaker C:And we had the.
Speaker C:The greatest social experiment in modern time, you know, during the pandemic with being pushed, you know, the vaccines pushed on folks.
Speaker C:And I empathize with people that were in a position where they couldn't say no.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Part of that's financially speaking, right.
Speaker C:A lot of friends that, you know, are still active military or they work in hospitals daily.
Speaker C:And, and saying no meant something different for them than it did for me.
Speaker C:And, you know, and I empathize with.
Speaker C:With folks in that position.
Speaker C:But yeah, I mean, the more you can do to work up front to be able to let yourself and others you care about say no.
Speaker C:I think that's kind of one of my reasons to wake up in the morning and go after it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:One of the things that I love that you touched on is the intentionality of the products that we buy.
Speaker A:Because so often we have allowed society or culture to be so fast paced that we forget that sometimes the sector that we spend the least on might be the most important sector that we spend our money on.
Speaker A:And there is something that happens when you purchase a firearm or when you upgrade something when it comes to the ability to protect and defend yourself that I don't want people to overlook in the purchasing process.
Speaker A:And that is you are signaling to yourself in many ways that you and your family have value outside of simply existing, that you're worth protecting, that you are worth investing in to make sure that you have the, you know, the trainings that you need to make sure that you have the firearms that you're comfortable with, to make sure that you have the products that you need to be able to secure yourself.
Speaker A:And that comes with a level of intentionality.
Speaker A:And, and people sometimes will take it, you know, to mean prepper or, you know, to use a scare tactic for people because they don't want, they don't want people to recognize that they're not a number.
Speaker A:They like the consumerism that wants to paint gun owners as a monolith when we're not a monolith.
Speaker A:And I think the more intentionality that we choose to have as consumers and as, as a citizenry, the better outcome is for the entire United States, for our entire community.
Speaker A:Because you're not going to allow someone to regulate or a bureaucracy to just manufacture a law when that's not their job.
Speaker A:If you're being intentional about why you're purchasing and the training that goes behind it and the evaluation of your family and the worth that you all have, it takes it out of something that they so easily play of.
Speaker A:Oh, well, it's just affecting X amount of GDP or it's just hurting this sector of the economy.
Speaker A:But if we go, no, no, no, this is affecting a constitutional right, a individual right.
Speaker A:It changes the perception and they're not able to, for lack of a better term, pull the wool over your eyes because you are intentional.
Speaker C:Well, and honestly, like with that intentionality, right.
Speaker C:It goes back to that freedom being of the ability to say no, no's a defensive posture.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:No is not an offensive posture.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:If I asked, you know, John for a favor here in Phoenix, help moving this weekend, him saying no is not an aggressive play.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:And so I think that that understanding that, you know, fighting for The First Amendment, fighting for the Second Amendment, fighting for our constitutional rights.
Speaker C:I mean, I think the three of us would absolutely agree that this country wouldn't be here without the Constitution, you know, and we have the, the greatest, you know, history of a government that's productive globally ever.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:In the United States.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I mean, not just for our own country, but for, you know, our influence on the world.
Speaker C:You know, and it's not all, it's not all positive, I get it.
Speaker C:But as far as a free society, I think this is the greatest example we've ever seen in world history.
Speaker C:And I think the idea that we're entitled to that with no involvement to me, is a dangerous posture to have.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I think we are entitled to that.
Speaker C:That's the core of what the United States of America is.
Speaker C:But we have to, you know, be involved in some regard.
Speaker C:And some of that might just be educating your neighbor.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Showing you're, you're not just the diesel driving camo, Copenhagen chewing guy I was, you know, as a fisherman that you're.
Speaker C:And those things aren't all bad, but I'm saying like, you know, none of those things are bad.
Speaker C:But what I'm getting at is that, you know, explaining your core beliefs and why, you know, and not everyone's got to agree with you, but at least it can bring down that, that temperature and connect.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:I mean connecting with people I think is always the best way to, to spread ideals.
Speaker B:Well, we're going to introduce a new segment on the show.
Speaker B:You're going to be our guinea pig.
Speaker B:So this is going to be our rapid fire.
Speaker B:We're going to ask five questions real quickly and you kind of give your input real quick.
Speaker B:So when you, when you're ready.
Speaker B:Here we go.
Speaker C:Let's do it.
Speaker B:Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?
Speaker C:Sometimes.
Speaker B:Sometimes.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Most watched content creator on YouTube.
Speaker C:That's that that would be destructive to.
Speaker C:For me to answer but I'll just answer with 22 Plinkster because he's my boy.
Speaker C:OG.
Speaker C:Love you, Dave.
Speaker B:Do you watch more TikTok or YouTube?
Speaker C:I don't even have tick tock.
Speaker B:Okay, what's your EDC.
Speaker C:Usually a Walther PPS mod 2.
Speaker C:As funny as it is, single stack like a really thin profile and it's a gun.
Speaker C:I have a lot of confidence with.
Speaker B:What is your go to home defense gun?
Speaker C:VP9 then for years.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And then the last one top three guns for the zombie apocalypse.
Speaker C:AK for sure.
Speaker C:And then maybe suppress 300 blackout because making some head pop, you know, head Pops would be fun zombies.
Speaker C:And then probably VP9 just because we got 21 round mags, you know, boxes of them.
Speaker C:So awesome.
Speaker C:Maybe probably a shotgun, but honestly, I don't, I shoot shotguns so little that don't really have the, the confidence to go after it fast.
Speaker B:Well, that was fun.
Speaker B:That was our, our first test on it.
Speaker B:I think it was, I think it went well.
Speaker B:Now we're going to introduce another new segment.
Speaker B:And Kayleigh, this is a segment for you called from the Soapbox.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So from the Soapbox we want to get kind of your, your hot take.
Speaker A:The spice of what you believe is the ridiculousness.
Speaker A:And the topic for this week is going to be magazine capacity bans.
Speaker C:Yeah, I love that topic.
Speaker C:And for, for me, at its core, any restrictions on magazine capacity I believe are unconstitutional.
Speaker C:And I also fault our industry as much as I fault the liberal lawmakers as to why we are where we are today.
Speaker C:This, the firearms industry, many don't see factually as a very large establishment in and of itself.
Speaker C:When I talk about the industry, there's no universal truths in most things in life outside of gravity, right.
Speaker C:So this doesn't lump everyone into a bucket, but it lumps a lot.
Speaker C:And I would argue from a magazine capacity standpoint, it lumps most in it with it.
Speaker C:And you know, I get it as a guy who's a manufacturer, as a guy who, you know, is one of only there's three of us at X Tech, so, you know, that funds investments into products.
Speaker C:It's a lot easier to make your standard capacity over here and your limited capacity over here and have one product you can sell to free areas, one product you can sell for limited areas.
Speaker C:That's easier from a investment standpoint, that's easier from an inventory standpoint.
Speaker C:But whenever we see companies habitually and now we see it more and more and more where it's these, you know, shorter magazine tubes and then with plastic chunks below or the dimples in the side or the Glock mags that are reduced to a single stack.
Speaker C:You know, all those things, to me, what they, what they do is when they only offer those products available to consumers, Americans trapped into or living in states with restrictions is they're actually broadening the effective, the effectiveness of those laws in those unconsciously, unconstitutionally restricted states.
Speaker C:So it's going.
Speaker C:So that's my long winded way of saying if California says you can only sell magazines to civilians of 10 rounds and that's the end of story.
Speaker C:There's no language about ease of adaptability there's no language about permanence within that in California.
Speaker C:You know, for the civilian to go still be live in California and change that magazine, yes, that would be the civilian breaking California law.
Speaker C:But if laws change like we saw or if that civilian relocates, that American relocates to Arizona, to me they should have that ability to adapt.
Speaker C:And the law in California laws allows for that.
Speaker C:And so to me, whenever you take a law that's unconstitutional and then you add more meaning to it, more restrictive covenants to it, you're signaling, and this is the industry I'm calling out right now, you're signaling to the liberals that are trying to take away our rights, take away our ability to defend our loved ones.
Speaker C:And you're saying all you have to do is get to where we are here.
Speaker C:And you're essentially the, the gun industry is not going to fight you.
Speaker C:Like that's enough.
Speaker C:And so to me that's something that, that blatantly pisses me off if you can't see, like see and hear my blood pressure going up right now.
Speaker C:But I think this industry needs to be called out.
Speaker C:I think if you buy, if you're in California and you buy a product and it's a magazine that you can't convert, you know, those companies need to be called out.
Speaker C:And so that's my rant.
Speaker C:And yeah, excited to share you guys what we're doing about it.
Speaker C:But there's the soapbox rant for chapter one.
Speaker A:No, but I think it's a super good point for a couple of reasons.
Speaker A:One, we see this on college campuses all the time, right?
Speaker A:You accept the tyranny that you become comfortable with.
Speaker A:There's a reason why the anti gunners can't stand when places like West Virginia now allow campus carry because you're limiting the effects of what kind of tyranny that they can have thousands of students on campus subjected to.
Speaker A:Because you start accepting the level of tyranny you're comfortable with.
Speaker A:There is no difference between that and the, you know, the frog and the boiling water.
Speaker A:If you raise the temperature up slowly, you're just, you're sitting duck.
Speaker A:And so we know that these are the kind of games that the anti gunners play.
Speaker A:They, they're very open about the test beds on where they play those games because you can look at where they have complete control and dominance, whether that's the college campus or, or their radical gun free zones and then look at what happens in those places.
Speaker A:Well, when there's no good guy with a gun, mass murders can happen because there's no stopping mechanism.
Speaker A:And so they don't hide their playbook.
Speaker A:The only thing that they don't want you to know is that it's an individual right.
Speaker A:And that you have the ability to fight back.
Speaker A:You have the ability to call your legislature, you have the ability to show up on the gold lobby days.
Speaker A:You have the ability to take action.
Speaker A:Because the only thing that a politician fears is losing power, period.
Speaker A:And that's why they spend so much money on elections is because of that fear of losing power.
Speaker A:And so when we stand up and say, no, you're public servant, you know, you work for us, you're employed by the American people and we're going to call you out, it offends them.
Speaker A:When individuals take action and you do it in a respectful way.
Speaker A:I'm not saying, you know, you need to go to their town hall and heckle them, but you can say what you mean and say it respectfully and get it on record and as often as you can, keep doing it more and it will have a positive effect.
Speaker B:Well, and we see that magazine bans do not work.
Speaker B:I mean look at Chicago.
Speaker B:All it does is affect the law abiding citizen who has to follow these unconstitutional laws.
Speaker B:I mean criminals will get standard capacity magazines no matter where they are.
Speaker A:Yeah, but let's go back to some word salad here.
Speaker A:Standard capacity magazines.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:The thing I think that from the soapbox segment may never end.
Speaker A:The thing that kills me is the anti gunners are so good at manipulative language.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:Ten years ago we were not talking about standard capacity magazines.
Speaker A:We weren't talking about red flag laws.
Speaker A:We weren't talking about all of these media manipulative word play that doesn't speak to the reality of you should be able to purchase as a law abiding citizen what you want and you shouldn't have to fall into a oh, this is a standard capacity and this is a limited capacity.
Speaker A:And this is this is this.
Speaker A:If you know, if you want to, if you want to.
Speaker B:Listen, I just want Americans to defend their farms with belt feds.
Speaker B:That's standard capacity.
Speaker B:I'm just saying, I mean, listen.
Speaker B:But you're not wrong.
Speaker B:I mean the left is very good at putting definitions on things.
Speaker B:And, and to Jeremy's point, as an industry we're very good at just going, okay, well we have to fall within their definitions or else we're going to be fighting this in different ways.
Speaker B:I mean, Glock 19, for example is standard capacity for Glock 19 is 15 rounds.
Speaker B:Who says the standard capacity for a Glock 19 can't be 33 rounds.
Speaker B:But since we've fallen into that definition, it's really hard to get out of that definition because if we go above 15 rounds, then we're considered a high capacity mag.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker C:You're right.
Speaker C:I mean, they originated in 94 with the assault weapons ban.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And that's always a fun conversation to have with someone who's not in alignment with us.
Speaker C:You know, maybe someone who's neutral about guns, who has the, you know, blanket statements of, well, we don't want people shooting up schools.
Speaker C:And I'm going, no one that's not pure evil wants people shooting up schools.
Speaker C:Like, there's no misalignment there.
Speaker C:And then they go, well, you know, we could just blank.
Speaker C:You know, it's just narrative, like red flag laws.
Speaker C:But like the term assault weapon is really something fun for me to deconstruct to someone who really isn't deeply educated on the topic.
Speaker C:So like, like, no, there is no assault weapons.
Speaker C:Like, well, you know, don't.
Speaker C:Isn't an AK47 an assault weapon?
Speaker C:I go, well, in its original design, yes.
Speaker C:What Americans can buy.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And so, you know, when you talk about standard capacity and, or they term high capacity.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:What is, what is high capacity?
Speaker C:You know, and we're.
Speaker C:A friend recently pointed out there was one of, one of my web guys, past web guys had the term high capacity website.
Speaker C:It's like, you're going to get canceled.
Speaker C:You know, I saw you guys recently did a cancel culture on the gut.
Speaker C:It's like, and, and it's, it's, it's entertaining and like I, if I had seen that before, I, you know, and I would have screenshot it and put it out there and been like, you know, someone got in trouble today.
Speaker C:But you know, just these terms that, to Kaylee's point of, you know, assault weapon, high capacity, like they, they frame and they, they curate these terms that, that really have no meaning, that they give meaning to or inappropriate meaning to.
Speaker C:I mean, the federal government, the atf, which I don't believe is an effective organization that should exist, but they have, you know, Congress defined a, what is an assault weapon, but yet what the, the, the term assault weapon used in culture today because of the media has a totally different definition to it.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:They don't, they're not the same meeting.
Speaker C:And it's like, wait, you're the government that you support?
Speaker C:The organization that we think shouldn't exist has defined it and you're restructuring that Definition to try and you know, build, build fear or mongering.
Speaker C:Mongering some, some agenda with it.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So it's just like when companies cut off shipping to California.
Speaker C:You know, one thing that I think we should collectively do as a, as a.
Speaker C:Those that believe the second amendment is let's make a, let's make a freaking list of every company that will not ship to California that makes products that are legal in California.
Speaker C:Let's make a list of every company that will ship, will not ship product to New York that has products that are legal in the state of New York.
Speaker C:When, when you're not shipping product there, you're winning nothing.
Speaker C:And this is debatable.
Speaker C:I would sit on a panel and talk to people head to head about this.
Speaker C:I understand the other argument, but I firmly disagree with it.
Speaker C:And that's it.
Speaker C:If you, if you as F is X tech today, stop shipping to California.
Speaker C:Our neighbor, we're in Arizona, we're signaling to those in California.
Speaker C:You've done enough.
Speaker C:Now those in our own backyard in Arizona and we have an attorney general, by the way, that recently supported the idea of a high capacity magazine ban in Arizona.
Speaker C:If I stop shipping to California, I'm just signaling to those in my backyard that just do what California did and it's enough to shut us down.
Speaker C:You're not doing anything for the second amendment in the Constitution by not shipping to states with restrictions.
Speaker C:I frame firmly think that that is a, that's a posture that I'm not moving on, but I think this industry needs to do more.
Speaker B:No, you bring up a great point there because a lot of people think when companies say we're not shipping to XYZ restricted state, they sound, it sounds like they're virtue signaling.
Speaker B:Like, no, we're not going to do that because the laws.
Speaker B:Yeah, but you're absolutely right.
Speaker B:They're now winning because the laws are so restrictive that, sorry, freedom people.
Speaker B:And in California or Washington or Oregon or Illinois, sorry, we're not going to ship to you anymore or even Colorado.
Speaker B:And I was talking to Sean Herron and I were on the phone the other day.
Speaker B:Sean's a good friend of both of ours and we both ordered the same gun.
Speaker B:Now Sean, it has his ffl.
Speaker B:We ordered it from the same place, ordered the same gun.
Speaker B:And I go, he goes, yeah, my gun only came with one mag.
Speaker B:I go, what do you mean mine gun came with two.
Speaker B:Well, since he's in Colorado and they were under the, the magazine ban of Colorado, the company took the magazine out of the box.
Speaker B:And just shipped the gun.
Speaker B:And I was like, well, that makes no sense whatsoever because you're legally letting him buy it.
Speaker B:He's an FFL too, but he's legally allowed to buy it, ship it, but now he's got no magazines to go with it.
Speaker B:It makes that it doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker A:Well, the other thing is, is.
Speaker A:I'm going to rephrase that.
Speaker A:The other thing is it is critical for us as people who want to see a restoration in the second amendment to understand that new gun owners are still happening in restricted areas in these places, that it's very hard to get your concealed carry permit in areas where it's difficult because you have to make sure that a gun is on a list.
Speaker A:If you're talking about California to make sure that it's legal to own all of those things, that sound absolutely ludicrous to 90% of the country.
Speaker A:They're realities for people and we need to be evangelizing these people on, yes, it's okay to get a gun.
Speaker A:It's okay to be the first one in your group of friends.
Speaker A:Because we all started from somewhere, whether we grew up in a family that was super pro gun or not.
Speaker A:Everyone had their first time at the range.
Speaker A:Everyone knows how exciting it is to go to the range for the first time.
Speaker A:The chances of them doing that in complete secret and not letting maybe their best friend know, hey, I went to the gun range and it's not as scary as we've been told by the news media.
Speaker A:And it's actually like really empowering.
Speaker A:You should come with me.
Speaker A:And that's how you're going to get more gun owners.
Speaker A:Because you've got to have, especially in places like New York, California, New Jersey, you've got to have new gun ownership.
Speaker A:Because what will happen to the population if we don't have new gun ownership?
Speaker A:Well, the second amendment can end.
Speaker A:And so you have to be thinking about the long game when it comes to what we're telling people, the signals that we're giving.
Speaker A:Is it difficult?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Should it be as difficult as it is for you?
Speaker A:Absolutely not.
Speaker A:But am I behind you 100% that you should absolutely go get a firearm and be empowered and take personal responsibility as a law abiding citizen?
Speaker A:Yes, Because I know that once you do, you're going to, you're going to be the best person to advocate to change things in your own state.
Speaker A:You're going to be the best person to advocate to your close friends and family that live around you.
Speaker A:But if we don't show them the positive side.
Speaker A:If we don't show them that their state is worth fighting for.
Speaker A:If we don't as GOA sue on the high capacity magazine bans in California or New York not allowing.
Speaker A:We just did a case not very long ago about New York not allowing non resident licenses.
Speaker A:All of those things are incredibly important to make sure that you do have generations of the second amendment and that it doesn't die out.
Speaker A:Because this is fundamentally not a right gifted or granted by government.
Speaker A:It is protected by the government or it's supposed to be at least if you read the Constitution.
Speaker A:I know it's 27 words guys.
Speaker A:I understand it could be difficult but well before.
Speaker B:Because we're running time before we get out of the segment.
Speaker B:Jeremy, you've got something cool new coming out that is to combat this.
Speaker B:Let's talk about the Freedom series and what that means for you guys and what it means for Goa.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:So we came out with our AK Mags.
Speaker C:We're in most circles best known for our AK 47 magazines.
Speaker C:And that product line we originally branded as the Comm Euphornia Special.
Speaker C:And that's really fitting for the California crowd.
Speaker C:That's also really fitting for the AK crowd.
Speaker C:And it was kind of a fun play on words.
Speaker C:We did the hammer and sickle on the, on the logo with it and, and that was.
Speaker C:It had its time, you know.
Speaker C:And, and so you know when the Attorney General in Arizona was one of.
Speaker C:It was 10 or 11 at this point, I don't recall.
Speaker C:But Attorney generals that recommended a magazine ban nationwide.
Speaker C:We already had some things in the work for expanding our product line of magazines.
Speaker C:We've always been working towards becoming the gold standard magazines.
Speaker C:You know, if a magazine doesn't work, your whole system fails.
Speaker C:That's, that's one, you know, non negotiable.
Speaker C:That's like not having a good, you know, holder of the.
Speaker C:For a field goal.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:If you can't hold the ball, you can't kick the ball.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So my.
Speaker C:I always had a moral issue with, with companies that make magazines they know don't work.
Speaker C:And so at the court with the Freedom series to me it's a.
Speaker C:The whole premise is so you can see a little bit of the branding there.
Speaker C: magazine line for the: Speaker C:And that announcement comes.
Speaker C:I'll take this apart real quick to show you guys.
Speaker C:So what we do is we Do a, a blocker and a reduced length spring.
Speaker C: And so this is a: Speaker C:And so these ship to 49 states.
Speaker C:The only one we don't ship to is Maryland.
Speaker C:And the reason why is Maryland doesn't restrict its, as you guys probably know, its residents from driving over the border and buying whatever they want.
Speaker C:So I encourage them to go ahead and do that as long as that's still in place.
Speaker C:And then for $4.95 you can take this 10 round magazine and convert it to a 30 round standard capacity magazine.
Speaker C:These conversion kits we don't sell to restricted states, but if someone relocates, they can order it wherever they want and it lets you go back and forth.
Speaker C:So if you have dual residency, live in Washington in the winters and Idaho in the summers, you can literally adapt your magazine as you go.
Speaker C:Where Freedom series really came in for us is our whole line of Glock magazines.
Speaker C:So we are already working on Glock mags.
Speaker C:And then when I saw that what Arizona was doing, it was, it really brought the fight home.
Speaker C:And so now we're doing the same idea for Glock mags.
Speaker C:We got the blocker, reduced length spring.
Speaker C:And then there's three elements at play here when it comes to laws.
Speaker C:So you know, we mark the magazines as a manufacturer as a 10 round mag.
Speaker C:If you take the blocker out, won't function.
Speaker C:So really we're adding some, some layers where we can effectively as a business make millions of these things and have them, you know, shipped to As I said, 49 states.
Speaker C:Again, for Maryland it's more about common use.
Speaker C:I'm all for common use.
Speaker C:I'm sure that's a term you guys see all the time.
Speaker C:So if you're in Maryland, keep driving to Pennsylvania.
Speaker C:It's my premise, it's the only state with restrictions that doesn't limit that ability to my knowledge of going across the border and bringing them back in.
Speaker C:So these magazines are at or below factory magazine pricing.
Speaker C:So anyone that lives in restricted states and operates Glocks, they know that the single stat, the magazines for Glock 19, Glock 17, etcetera are as I call them, the neutered California Glock mags.
Speaker C:But everywhere that has restrictions, those mags are actually have features inside that reduce it to a single stack so you can never convert it.
Speaker C:And so these allow you to adapt it the magazine from 10 rounds to 15 or 17.
Speaker C:And then we will be coming out with our extensions for Glocks as well in the near future.
Speaker C:So we'll have, you know, magazines up to 37 rounds for Glocks by the end of the year.
Speaker C:And so for us, it's really at its core with Freedom Series 2, with that rebranding from Calm Euphornia special to Freedom series.
Speaker C:I think it also gives a better message to consumers.
Speaker C:It's a message about freedom.
Speaker C:It's a message about not restrictive like Calm Euphornia might, might give that idea of a communist state.
Speaker C:It's about, you know, spreading that freedom.
Speaker C:And so with every magazine sold off our website, we're, we're donating $1.79, $0.01 to reference the year of the ratification of the Second Amendment.
Speaker C:And we'll be donating that to groups like GOA.
Speaker C:So really we're focused on the national level of supporting goa.
Speaker C:And then we're going to be also targeting some, some state level groups and I've already talked with some folks on your team to help select who those state level groups might be.
Speaker C:So that's one of the things I love about goa, is that, hey, support us.
Speaker C:And also, you know, it feels like, you know, going back to conversations I've had with your leadership years ago is it's similar to xtec where we're asking to be held accountable.
Speaker C:And, and one of the things that, that drew me to partnering with GOA and actually being part of the originating of the concept of now your partners program with John Crump years ago and, and I think to my knowledge we were the first, first GOA booth at a sizable event was actually me giving up half my booth at Red October years ago.
Speaker C:And I think some.
Speaker C:Matt's back with you guys now, which is pretty cool to see at goa.
Speaker C:Yeah, but you know, is that really no compromise lens, but also that we want to be held accountable if, if I go out of check and I'm bowing to unconstitutional laws or if I'm sacrificing quality.
Speaker C:Anyone that knows me in this space, I've asked people to call me out.
Speaker C:I've asked people like, you know, influencers that we all know if I ever make a product that's, that's bowing down to, you know, not doing the right motivations or right ideas for our rights or, or dangerous or just crappy quality and inappropriately marketed, I tell them, hey, call me out.
Speaker C:Just like if they're shilling for companies that make garbage, I'm going to call them out.
Speaker C:Just like if GOA becomes a compromise group, I'm not going to be quiet about that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And that's one of the things I respect about, you know, Eric and Chris and Your leadership.
Speaker C:So, you know, for us, we're really excited about it.
Speaker C:You know, we're going to do one and two packs.
Speaker C:There's going to be a great value for consumers in those restricted states.
Speaker C:We've got a great rep group out there.
Speaker C:I just toured the state of California, so if you're a California resident, definitely encourage you to, you know, buy off our website where we can, you know, make those contributions.
Speaker C:But a lot of the dealers we're working with directly also are pledging to make their own contributions as well.
Speaker C:So this is more about a movement as much as about a product.
Speaker C:Every feature of these magazines is upgraded over factory.
Speaker C:We're doing 177 stainless steel springs versus factory music wire.
Speaker C:We're doing Delrin with an additive for the follower.
Speaker C:So way better lubricity on the base plates.
Speaker C:We're doing some scallops on the side and an enhanced material there for strength.
Speaker C:So these are truly magazines that we're doing everything we can, that you can pass these down to that next generation, that next generation, you know, for, for us, it's really about having that.
Speaker C:That making stuff that you can prepare your family and have that legacy mindset where you're not just buying a magazine, you're buying a tool that empowers you to, you know, protect your family both today and tomorrow.
Speaker B:So that is amazing.
Speaker B:So we've got five minutes left and I want to touch on one more subject.
Speaker B:So I know this is going to.
Speaker B:We're going to condense your answer a little bit, but you were on the Firearms Innovation and Technology panel at Goals, which was an amazing panel.
Speaker B:Again, thank you for being on that panel.
Speaker B:I had a fantastic time and seeing that.
Speaker B:But you said something everybody else all was in agreement at the final question was is the firearms industry actually innovating?
Speaker B:And you were the only one who disagreed with that.
Speaker B:And I want you to expand on that a little bit because we had.
Speaker B:The panel was wrapping up.
Speaker B:We had a short amount of time and I know we've got a short amount of time here too, but I want you to expand on that because as somebody who looks at the firearms industry from the outside looking in, as well as being in the industry for a long time, I agree and disagree with you.
Speaker B:But at the same time, like, you're absolutely right because there is.
Speaker B:We ha.
Speaker B:We see innovation, but it's always in like small little parts.
Speaker B:It's never true innovation.
Speaker B:So go ahead.
Speaker B:I'm going to give the floor is yours to expand on your.
Speaker B:Your answer on that?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:And again thanks for letting me be on the panel there.
Speaker C:And it was fun to be on and it was, you know, it wasn't surprising to hear others answers, not to pick on anyone.
Speaker C:But in particular, but as I kind of attacked our industry earlier with my statements about what I think a lot of the establishment answer towards magazine and other laws is either cutting off states or you know, making a building magazines for these restricted states.
Speaker C:So the most extreme law not just in the U.S. but globally, right.
Speaker C:Companies like Glock, they care about the laws in Europe, not just the laws in our, in our states.
Speaker C:So I mean what John's sitting at is I fault the industry for the lack of innovation that consumers state.
Speaker C:And one of John's questions was, is there a lack of innovation?
Speaker C:I think absolutely there's what consumers get to see.
Speaker C:Yes, there absolutely is.
Speaker C:Is there a lack of people innovating and putting their lives on the line financially and investing in ideas?
Speaker C:I don't think so.
Speaker C:As far as like there is a ton of innovation that you'll never see as people listening to this podcast.
Speaker C:And some of those are people that, you know, email guys like myself or other business owners in this space that are kind of known for innovation with, hey, I have this idea.
Speaker C:And you know, because of this space being so much about distribution and the obstacles to get distribution being so significant and the tactics of the establishment a lot of times being that to keep innovation at bay versus to you know, get the procurement from innovation, right.
Speaker C:Our, our distribution model in the gun industry is more of a fulfillment model than it is a brand building model.
Speaker C:Getting the word out there as a small company is very difficult with all the advertising restrictions and you know, consumers are saying give me innovation, give me innovation.
Speaker C:Yet again without picking on companies by name.
Speaker C:You walk around a Bass pro shop or a sportsman's warehouse or an academy and you compare that to touring shot show.
Speaker C:If you were there the entire week and went to every booth and then you went to one of those stores and again not picking on the stores, but that's what's accessible to them because of the establishment model of the space, you're going to go man at shot.
Speaker C:So I saw, you know, six things that are a better solution to this or I saw, you know, this over here, but it's really, I would, I would chalk up in universal.
Speaker C:I, you know, if I was going to make a universal truth about the industry, I would say, you know, we're very reactive as an industry.
Speaker C:So if someone does something that takes off, then you got 50.
Speaker C:Me too.
Speaker C:Guys you know, that the headspace of the industry is not about coming out that next thing.
Speaker C:It's about making products that are good enough to sell on the premise that their products aren't going to be used.
Speaker C:And that's not always true about everyone.
Speaker C:But that's really why I started X Tech, because I was so frustrated by that.
Speaker C:You know, let's, let's that premise that I'm going to make something as a company and I'm okay with a high fallout rate or I'm okay with a, a noticeable failure rate because no one's going to use my stuff.
Speaker C:And I think that's a disgusting mindset to have when you're talking about making products that you're marketing towards.
Speaker C:It's something that someone can count their life on.
Speaker C:And, you know, and again, it's not universally true, but if I was going to tag the industry as an issue with the industry, I think we need to see a higher standard for products produced across the board.
Speaker C:And I think it'd be really nice to, you know, where Rainier started.
Speaker C:It was cool to hear Ari's story.
Speaker C:I mean, they were really, you know, for a while they had a strong reputation as a company that kind of fostered getting the word out about smaller companies.
Speaker C:So I think that was cool.
Speaker C:But we don't really have that in this space.
Speaker C:You know, we don't have retailers marching around going, what's new and different?
Speaker C:You know, and then.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I, I definitely fault the industry for a lot of things.
Speaker C:I'm not really trying to make friends with a lot of the establishment.
Speaker C:I'm trying to, you know, raise the standard and I welcome competition on that journey.
Speaker B:No, And I, I 100% agree.
Speaker B:I mean, my favorite thing to do is walk around the basement of Shot and you.
Speaker B:There are people in the basement of Shot that you will never, you may never see them again.
Speaker B:Like, they have put in all their time and effort into launching this product.
Speaker B:And some of them, like the Bullpup revolver did not take off.
Speaker B:And others of them, I mean, you know, you know exactly what.
Speaker B:But there's others, like, you're like, that's a cool idea.
Speaker B:And then you go to Shot and you see him at Shot and It's like a 3D printed model and you're like, what?
Speaker B:Wait a minute.
Speaker B:Like, I really wanted to see this.
Speaker B:I wanted to feel it.
Speaker B:And then a year later, they're gone.
Speaker B:I mean, the biggest example of, I guess you could say, innovation that we've seen take off and then crash very quickly.
Speaker B:Would be Hudson.
Speaker B:Hudson took off real quick.
Speaker B:Everybody was super excited about their product and then two years down the line they're gone.
Speaker B:And that's what you know.
Speaker B:And as a consumer we ask for innovation, we ask for innovation but at the same time innovation comes out or the thought of innovation like the Taurus curve that came out and we all made fun of it but in the, in the horse's mind, that's innovation.
Speaker B:They curved a handgun it to fit better when you carry.
Speaker B:And we see this all the time where there's people who are stepping out there but we make fun of them and then they pull back and they are no longer there or they're there but they don't have the, like you said, the establishment or the, the people around them to help or they just, they're there.
Speaker B:It's a cool idea.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or they're there.
Speaker C:The amount of money needed is huge.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then you also have to understand the regulatory burden of companies as well.
Speaker A:And that, that's one of the things that I love when we get to see kind of lightning strike as a gun organization.
Speaker A:And what I mean by that is when you have tens of thousands of GOA members running to the ATF website to put their comments in during a comment period and you have a no compromise alliance letter with companies that are signing on saying no, this is absolutely unconstitutional and you have the influencers all coming together.
Speaker A:It's incredible to watch the impact and the power that that can have.
Speaker A:And I think that we, we got to see that with green tip ammo.
Speaker A:We've gotten to see that with pistol braces.
Speaker A:We've gotten to see that a few, a few times in the recent.
Speaker A:But it's all been reactionary.
Speaker A:What we would, what I would love to see is lightning striking like that on a proactive level where you've got a fired up member base that wants to be able to have, you know, importation laws fixed where the point system goes away so we can get some of those cool things that we see out of Europe.
Speaker A:Come to the United States where you see the industry get behind things like that.
Speaker A:There are so many opportunities for us to get rid of the red tape that limits the innovation of smaller companies.
Speaker A:That not only do you have to have the capital in some cases to innovate, you also have the, have the capital that it takes to get things through the regulatory process before you get to spend the first dollar on marketing.
Speaker A:And so if you, you know, if we want to say that, you know, culture is upstream of politics and politics is upstream of the industry.
Speaker A:The industry is upstream of the end consumer and what is available on the market.
Speaker A:And so in order to fix and in order to innovate at scale, we have to understand part of it is incumbent upon that personal responsibility as a gun rights activist to stand up with the industry and those people who are wanting to do that innovation so that it can actually happen.
Speaker B:Well, and on that note, our hour is up, so I know we'll have to have you back on to do more because this was a fantastic episode.
Speaker B:So again, thank you, Jeremy, for being on with us.
Speaker B:Where can people find you socials, website, all that other stuff?
Speaker C:Yeah, website is xtechtactical.com and all our socials are @xtechtactical.
Speaker C:And we're out of Arizona.
Speaker C:90% Of what we makes made in the US here.
Speaker C:Of that probably 90% of that 90 is made in Arizona.
Speaker C:So we're very prideful on that side.
Speaker C:And you know, we, we pride ourselves on making the best products we can.
Speaker C:But yeah, love being on.
Speaker C:I think, you know, in the future it'd be a fun topic to, you know, get myself and maybe Dave from Matador and some couple guys like that that are, you know, as I tell people, starting a business in this industry for product is.
Speaker C:Is like choosing to hike uphill in the rain in barefoot.
Speaker C:And so it's, it's a very difficult tread.
Speaker C:So I think you've either got to be independently wealthy or clinically insane.
Speaker C:So where guys like Dave and I get along so well as I think we're all the latter, so we just, we don't hear no and we keep going.
Speaker C:So it's a fun journey.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker A:That's a powerful statement right there.
Speaker A:Well, we definitely want to have you on again and really appreciate your time.
Speaker A:This was awesome.
Speaker C:Yeah, thanks, Kayleigh.
Speaker C:Thanks, John.
Speaker C:And look forward to seeing you guys again in person.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Thank you guys for watching and have a great rest of your day.
