Kailey and John welcome Chris Toomer, co-founder of Rost Martin, to discuss the inception and vision behind their new firearms company. The conversation begins with a personal backstory, revealing how Chris and his wife Stephanie were inspired by their family legacies in the firearms industry. Drawing from their previous experiences at Springfield Armory, they recognized a gap in the market for quality firearms at an affordable price. The duo emphasizes their commitment to the Second Amendment and their aim to provide accessible, feature-rich firearms for both seasoned gun owners and first-time buyers. Chris elaborates on the challenges of launching a firearms company, particularly the regulatory hurdles and the extensive development process required to bring a new pistol to market. He shares insights into the design philosophy behind their introductory pistol, focusing on ergonomics and reliability while keeping manufacturing in the U.S. The duo’s passion for advocacy shines through as they discuss their involvement in community events and their desire to educate new gun owners, especially women, about responsible firearm use and ownership. The episode encapsulates the entrepreneurial spirit of Chris and Stephanie as they navigate the competitive landscape of the firearms industry while staying true to their core values of quality, affordability, and advocacy.

Learn more about Rost Martin: https://www.rostmartin.com

Takeaways:

• Chris Toomer and his wife started Rost Martin to offer high-quality firearms at budget-friendly prices.
• The company aims to support the Second Amendment and provide firearms that are accessible to new gun owners.
• Their first pistol design focuses on essential features without requiring costly aftermarket upgrades.
• Ross Martin emphasizes community involvement, participating in events to advocate for responsible gun ownership.
• Chris and Stephanie's backgrounds in the firearms industry helped them navigate the complexities of starting a new company.
• The duo plans to expand their product line based on customer feedback and market demand.

Welcome to gun owners of America, state of the second podcast.

I'm Kayleigh.

And I'm John.

And today we're joined by Chris Toomer from Ross Martin.

Chris, how are you today?

Doing great.

Thank you for having me.

Well, thank you for being on.

So, Chris, let's start with Ross Martin.

As a company, you guys are brand new to the industry.

Kind of give the backstory of how you guys kind of became.

Ross Martin yeah.

Thanks.

So my wife Stephanie and I started the company.

And so we were both working in the industry at the time, and we were kind of trying to figure out what can we do to help further the second amendment.

We both have such a reverence for all the companies that have gotten us to this point.

Smith, Springfield, Glock, SIG really have paved the way for us, the countless other companies and advocacy groups that have allowed us to be where we are today.

And so right around that time, we were just kind of thinking, hey, do we start a company?

Do we get more involved in advocacy?

And so we sat down and kind of thought, can we?

Let's maybe start a company.

And so, obviously, with starting a firearms company, it comes with quite a bit of red tape and framework that needs to be kind of put together.

So it took us about three to four years to kind of get everything put together.

So, yeah, we launched our first introductory pistol at shot.

It's been a great first six months so far.

Yeah, you guys have kind of exploded out of the gate with a really a budget minded firearm with all the features that it's filled with.

It's a feature rich pistol with everything that anybody would want in it at a price that's arguably one of the best on the market currently.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

I think that was really the framework, and what we wanted to develop was not everyone has $1,000, $700 that they can spend on a pistol.

And so we looked at it as in a sea of very competitive striker polymer pistols and especially black polymer pistols.

How do we stand out?

And so created a gun that's feature rich, produced here, right here in the US, here in Dallas, Texas, at a price point of MSRP of 459.

And so with that, we thought, hey, let's give the customer a lot of the things that they ask for and that they look to kind of upgrade when they get to the pistol out of the box.

And so, with that being said, there's been a lot of great feedback.

We've endurance tested this pistol.

It's extremely accurate, cold, hammer forged barrel.

So the accuracy, the reliability of it, we'll put that gun up against anyone in the market.

So having the gun positioned where it is, we feel like we can be really successful in kind of creating a foothold in the market.

Yeah.

And you guys have an interesting backstory.

Just the two of you, if you can dive into the two of you and where you've been in the industry and what.

What you guys have done.

Yeah, absolutely.

So my wife is from the daughter of Dennis Reese, Springfield Armory CEO and owner.

And so she had worked for Springfield for nine years, and then I myself, was a Marine Corps infantry officer.

And then I transitioned and actually worked for Springfield after the Marines and after business school.

And so kind of around the time we started thinking about this company, we'd both been working at Springfield.

And just kind of having that ability and being able to be in the industry kind of see how things worked really kind of helped us formulate our ideas, because there are a ton of things that do come up that you're not really expecting when you're trying to start a company, especially in this industry.

We all know how much things that have to be kind of signed off through with government and ATF and some of those agencies.

So having kind of a sport group and kind of people that we can ask questions to really helped us kind of go.

And so it was nice, though, because we have no affiliation with Springfield.

We got the blessing, and we're completely separate entity.

But it's nice to just kind of have a group of people that are happy for you and kind of have your back, too.

And what made the.

I know that you've told me in the past, but what is Ross Martin?

Where does that come from?

Because, you guys, your last name is tumorous.

Her last name is Timber.

Where does Ross Martin come from?

Yeah.

So rost is my wife Stephanie's grandfather's middle name.

And so he was really instrumental in kind of guiding the family to the firearms industry and kind of starting in what you can say is now modern day Springfield Armory.

And then Martin is my great grandmother's maiden name.

And so she was.

She had a big hand in raising my mom.

And then subsequently, she lived with us for a little while my mom and my dad when I was growing up.

So she was definitely someone that was inspirational in my life.

She lived to be 103 years old.

Definitely a beacon of force to be reckoned with.

So we thought the name sounded good.

And it looks really nice on a firearm as well.

So it kind of came out.

It's really funny.

When we were first coming to market, we would say Ross Martin.

And people be like, no, I've heard of that company before.

You're like, I don't think so.

I don't know, maybe you have, but maybe it's just kind of synonymous with Aston Martin and some of the other companies.

But that's awesome.

So you guys choose to go and start your business in Texas, obviously a fairly pro gun state that is getting better when it comes to passing constitutional carry and actually being proactive in the restoration of rights.

What was the decision making behind choosing what state you would start your company in?

Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head.

I mean, the fact of it was obviously during COVID and we were kind of figuring out what made sense because everyone was moving around and kind of, oh, I want to go be in land or whatnot.

And we, as our second Amendment supporters, we've always wanted to make sure that we have the ability to exercise our rights with work that's taken us to different locations where it hasn't been so free.

So we knew that in order to be a company that's preaching and kind of talking about the preservation of the Second Amendment, we needed to be in a state like that.

And so we had a few that we were thinking of.

But Texas was the obvious option.

My wife had gone to SMU, and then we had lived in Dallas for a few years already.

So it was a no brainer.

And, like, you know, just the history of Texas around firearms just made a lot of sense.

And oddly enough, I mean, obviously, we have some neighbors to the north with shadow, but being the only gun manufacturer here, actually in Dallas, we weren't expecting that.

So when we're at shows and people come up and they see our slide, it says Dallas, Texas.

They say, I want to buy it just because it has Dallas.

And then that's.

It's really cool to have just a little bit of history in the city and this great state.

That's awesome.

And, you know, a lot of people that kind of dream of owning their own firearms manufacturing and starting their own company and bringing something to the industry, I think a lot of the inhibiting factors lie within.

You know, are there qualified people to work in the state.

You know, are the laws going to help or hurt you when it comes to having a product to get to market in the first place?

And so I really commend you guys on not only starting a great company, but having those values at the beginning.

And so you're not having to play catch up when the political wins change.

Texas has a huge tradition in the second amendment, and thankfully, under recent leadership, it continues to get stronger in the fights for the Second Amendment.

I know we file lawsuits regularly with your Ag compax and out there working to not only fight for the second amendment, but hopefully restore some of what the bureaucrats are trying to take away from everyday citizens.

Yeah, no, I think that's so true.

And for us, I mean, becoming a company that's based in Dallas and here in Texas is hopefully that's just the start.

We would like to, as we mature as a company, get more involved in some of that advocacy because we think it's so important, because the way we say it is, we want our kids to have the same rights under the Second Amendment that we have.

And so what we don't want to see is an erosion of that.

And so we need to do our part as gun owners, as company owners, and people that aren't supporters of the Second Amendment to ensure that we're doing our part, whether that's working with you guys or just getting out and getting to more ranges and getting people trained, whatever it might be, I think that becomes incumbent upon us as a company to make sure that we're doing our part as well.

And that advocacy that you guys do, it doesn't just have to be showing up to your state capitol.

You guys were at the national women's range day that we did in Texas, and that's always an exciting event for us anytime we do women's range days is because so many of the women who attend are first time gun owners or they're first time shooters where they haven't even purchased a gun yet, and they're eager for the opportunity to learn and to get trained.

And it was great to see that at that event.

But you guys were busy the whole weekend.

Yeah.

No, I mean, it was a really cool event.

Obviously, it being our first event with you guys, and then just kind of early on in the process for us in general.

First of all, thank you for inviting us and having us there.

It was really great.

I mean, I didn't really know exactly what to expect going in, and so being able to kind of be on the line and helping assist in probably 30%, 20% of women's first time ever shooting a firearm.

And having it be our firearm was a really cool experience.

Honestly, at the end of it, about a couple hours in, it didn't even feel like I was there necessarily behalf of the company.

It was just, hey, this is a Goa event.

I shoot.

I taught a lot of people how to shoot, and it's nice to just see that look on their face, either whether it's their first time shooting or they don't know how to get more into shooting.

They've somehow been gifted a gun and they want to shoot it.

I think that was just one of those events.

I hope you guys, there'll be more of those and coming down the pipeline and we can participate, because I thought from start to finish, that was a great event.

And I mean, even.

Not even the shooting line, but also kind of just the different kind of other events that happened and just also the social aspect of it as well.

There was definitely a lot of people that were there just to kind of network and talk to people and just kind of feel out the second amendment.

And I think that's a huge part of it.

Right.

Having a place where people feel comfortable talking about it.

How do they educate themselves?

Where do they go for training?

I think that's huge.

And so thanks again for you guys for putting that on, because that's a really great event.

Thank you for saying that.

It is the greatest example of, if you build it, they will come.

And so our range days used to be very small, like 20 people, and then they've kept getting bigger and bigger, and then now we've decided to do regional ones.

And then we have the.

The big.

The big one once a year as well.

And the whole reason is people are community driven.

Like, we can try to pretend all that we want, that, you know, everyone is an introvert and no one likes spending time with one another, but that's just not human nature.

And especially when it comes to finding friends that enjoy shooting, finding people who might not fit your eight, your atypical friends, but you're interested in firearms and you want to defend yourself.

You know, it's.

It's crazy to me because I would never have been that person that doesn't know anyone and shows up to an event completely novice, and just do it.

She does it.

Yeah, but there are women that do.

And I love seeing those kind of events because I think it takes the advocacy from a ethereal place and really allows it to be tangible and for us to see instant benefits, where someone joins the Second Amendment community, falls in love with their Second Amendment right, and can't wait to go bring the next person to the range.

And that's the kind of chain reaction that I think will completely revolutionize what the quote, unquote traditional gun owner looks like.

Yeah, no, I totally agree with you, because, I mean, just think about it for a practical sake of someone that might live in Dallas, they didn't grow up with firearms, but they've now gotten to Texas, they've heard about it, and then they might work in a corporate environment that's not necessarily Second Amendment friendly.

And so they don't necessarily want to go talk to their coworker about going to the range or whatnot.

And that's, at the end of the day, people you interact with the most.

So having that outlet of someone that you might be able to go ask questions with, do classes with, and then it kind of just turns into something bigger, too.

Right?

You become a shooter, you become an advocate for it, and then you start doing maybe IDPA competition, shooting, and things along those lines, then that turns into, like, as you said, a huge change in your action.

That's only a net benefit for our industry.

No, I can't agree more.

You were on the range all of Saturday.

Yeah.

Stephanie was standing at the booth, which had the line of women going into the range.

So what, you guys had two separate experiences.

What did you guys take away from that?

Because she was talking to everybody before they got in.

You were talking to everybody who got in.

So what was that like?

Yeah, I mean, I think, obviously, we were just a few months into the market, and so I would say probably 20% of people who had heard about us.

And so there's only so much talking you can do about a firearm until you actually shoot it.

Right.

So Stephanie would walk through the benefits and then also just taking into mind that there's different varying levels of shooters in there.

So they might not care about a slide cut or top slide serrations.

They might not just not have that education yet, being then able to then put that in practical application just a few minutes later and have them put their hands on the gun and feel our trigger, I think, was a really good kind of point from start to finish for them.

So I think that overall, people really enjoyed shooting our gun.

I think that the feedback from it was, you know, it feels great in our hand.

The ergonomics of it are fantastic.

And, you know, I think people found it as a gun that they could see themselves purchasing, and we actually had people go straight to the counter because our gun was being sold at TGE Texas gun experience right there and buy a few right there on the spot.

So.

Well, it wasn't necessarily our intention to just say, hey, go buy our gun.

I think it was just kind of a reaction of being able to shoot our gun on the range.

And there were a few.

There were more than a few women that circled back to shoot several magazines through the gun.

So they were like, is it over?

Yeah, sure.

Go on.

No, not from at all.

No.

That's awesome.

So what is your experience been like?

You.

You've done a few events now.

What's your experience been like, where people walk up to you and they find out that you and Stephanie, who are the owners of the company, are actually standing there at the booth or at the event talking to people, where most of the time, the owner's kind of, like, hidden away somewhere in the office or something?

Yeah.

No, I think really that's what Steph and I have really tried to focus on is, even when it comes to customer service, if you see there's reviews people talk about, they're like, yeah, I had a question about something, and literally, the owner of the company called me.

And so I think that's kind of how it starts, right?

I mean, and how we want our company to operate is that, like, we are concealed carry people.

We love shooting.

We're just the owners of the company.

We want to provide great products, and we want your experience to be as beneficial as possible.

So the worst thing that happens to people is they call or email something, and they're like, well, I never heard anything back or whatever this echo chamber or whatever it might be.

Um, I think that translates to the events, too, is when we're standing at a booth and we're talking to people is, I don't introduce myself as the owner.

I just talk to them and talk about the gun, and then I sit, and then they ask me, like, oh, do you work for the company?

Like, yeah, I actually own the company.

And they're like, oh, my goodness.

Like, that's amazing.

And so I think just kind of seeing that reaction is really cool and just, you know, some people might have a negative reaction sometimes, but then listening to that direct feedback also is good to hear, too, because I'd rather hear it unfiltered from someone that is giving me feedback rather than some filtered or diluted thing.

So I think I want to attend and be in the booth of as many events as possible.

Schedule, depending.

We do have two young kids at home, but we kind of split duties, and we'll just try and make it and make sure that we're there in person, because I think that's where you get the most benefit, especially as a young company.

And that's not to say that as we grow, we're not going to be there because I want to continue to be there because, you know, selfishly, it's also fun to go to these events and see kind of what everyone else is doing and talking about and just kind of.

Just kind of talk to people.

So, yeah, now, we talked about this before the show.

The media describes gun owners as old white men.

Clearly, you're not an old white man.

Stephanie's a female.

What's it like being a minority owner of a company as well as having a female owner of a company?

What's been the reception from people when they find out?

Yeah, the thing that is so great about, I think, with our community, too, is, like, people just want a gun that functions well and that they like and that they can go to the range and shoot, and they know that's going to function.

And so I think people are sometimes maybe taken aback just because it's a little different and it hasn't been very well represented in this industry.

But I overall, I mean, it's a huge positive reaction to it.

Everyone's like, oh, that's super cool.

And, like, I think it just also speaks to where industry is going.

I mean, we saw it in Covid.

Like, we have so many more shooters coming into this industry, and, like, I think it's great that, you know, we can be a company that represents something that was a little different, but at the end of the day, we're all striving towards the exact same thing.

We might, you know, I might be a minority and stuff's a woman, but at the end of the day, all we want to do is create a great gun, great price, and just, you know, do what we can to continue to preserve our Second Amendment rights, because that's really all that matters.

I mean, black, white, whatever your creed, race, or anything, it doesn't matter.

At the end of the day, it just means that I want to provide a product that you can shoot and not have people infringe upon that right.

What I love most is that people are recognizing that the Second Amendment community is not a monolith, and the companies within the Second Amendment industry are not a monolith.

And the importance of that is when you see the narratives and you see the attacks that are so pointed at gun owners, they love nothing more than to reduce us and say, well, you're old white men or you're this or you're that.

And it doesn't matter what, quote unquote, you are.

What matters is that this is a constitutionally protected right.

And what matters is that you have the right to protect and defend yourself, and that you have the ability to not only buy the firearm of your choice, but to train and train well with it.

And this whole concept that the left loves to put on gun owners is that we are the portrayers of some sort of cultural war that's anti american, when the only thing that is anti american is the dismantling of our constitutionally protected rights.

And so I love that you guys handle everything with so much poise and grace, because you all are probably the most pointed attack against what the left is trying to do when it comes to the second amendment.

And what I love more than anything is that you guys recognize the agility that it takes to be an advocate, and you want to be a better advocate for your children and for your grandchildren.

And that's what it's going to take to see the restoration of the Second Amendment.

You know, everyone wants to talk about the defense of the Second Amendment, and I can talk about it all day long, but the reality is, is we've lost a significant amount of ground because people have allowed legislatures and bureaucracies to dismantle the 27 words penned by our founders.

And so I think it's important that when we recognize these, the wordsmithing of the left and when we recognize the attacks on the second amendment, that we realize that this isn't a new line of attack.

It is something that they've been doing for generations, and it's up to us to stand up and stop it.

Yeah, I mean, it's a slow etch.

Right.

You know, let's do this.

And then it doesn't make much noise, and then we'll pass this, and then it doesn't make much noise.

Excuse me, but, you know, when you add that up over 10, 20, 30 years, and then that's when you start to see.

Wait a second.

I didn't know that.

I wasn't paying attention to that.

And so we need to be cognizant of this, is that it's an ongoing fight.

We need to make sure that we're doing what we can.

We're voting, and it's a lot of local things, too.

So, I mean, I think we need to ensure that we're, as you said, we're a different representation of what it looks like.

And so that's really important for us.

And, John, you alluded to the fact of being at these different shows.

That's important for us.

Right.

Like, us being there because we look a little different than the normal owners of the business.

That's important to us because it gives, I think people see that, like, okay, like, we've got more advocacy, advocacy, excuse me, advocates for this than we might think that are continuing to do this fight.

So, I mean, we're, you know, we're into, you know, do what we can.

And I think that, as you said, Kaylee, just, it's not a preservation, it's an expansion.

So we need to always keep that in mind that that's really the end goal here, is that the Second amendment is, it doesn't really care what you look like.

You're an american citizen, and that's your right.

Well said.

So walk me through kind of those early kitchen tabletop when you guys are designing where you're going to fill a need within the second Amendment community.

We've talked about the fact that you guys have a ton of features in your firearms, but when you guys were designing, what were the things that you were like?

These are what's left off at the table sometimes.

These are the things that we're going to make the biggest impact and really be known for.

Right.

So we actually, we have a partnership with Arex, so they're a slovenian based company.

And so Arcgun is a.

We re engineered that Delta II to be an american made gun that we produce here.

And so kind of just backing it up a little bit more, we saw that gun, and we're like, man, this is a great gun.

It runs well.

We need to add these features.

And so we walked through the trigger, we walked through the slide, we walked through some of the internals, and we're like, let's tweak this and let's kind of look at.

I mean, I ordered so many and shot so many guns during this time period because I just wanted to know, like, what myself thought of each gun, and then I would give it to someone else and get their feedback, too, like, hey, what do you think's missing on this?

And so for us, it was kind of like a, you can't put everything into a gun.

Like, especially if you want to offer it at a price point that kind of remains competitive.

But what is it that we could stick out?

And having even just the addition of our top slide serrations, that's something that you might see more so like an aftermarket product and just kind of thinking through the things that you hear on YouTube videos and things along those lines of, hey, I was shooting cold weather and I had a problem with getting my glove hand into it, accessing the trigger.

So just extending the trigger guard and making it proportional to gunna even just the ergonomics of just how it sits so you can get a nice high grip on it.

And so I think that was really kind of some of the things we looked at is just breaking it down from someone thats shooting a gun for the first time.

And then we had really high level shooters kind of giving our feedback on things, too.

So it was a very iterative process of, this is what we think this is what were going to add, oh, you went a little bit too much on this.

Maybe scale that down, because at the end of the day, we have people come to our booth and love your gun.

I wish you could do this.

I wish you could do that.

We would love to have every single customer have every single one of their needs met, but it's a little hard.

But I will say one of the things we want to make sure we're cognizant of as well is just making sure that when we're hearing feedback, that's not just falling on deaf ears.

If we hear enough of it, like, oh, you might want to change this, you might want to do this.

That's something that we're thinking about doing, putting into our next iterations.

And I will say that for a fact.

You'll see that on some of our next products, we're pretty nimble in our ability to kind of shift on the fly.

And so you'll see in our next iteration some of these things that you guys have talked to us about on this first rm one c offering.

Yeah, I know that at shot show, when I came over and we talked, and then at the women's event, I came over and I was like, okay, there's a if I was to tweak anything, like, these are the things I would tweak a little bit.

And you said, be open, be very critical of it, because that's what we always are advancing.

And I brought up a few talking points, and you're just like, yep.

You're not the first one to say that.

Hey, yeah, we're looking at this for the second one.

So it's cool that you're listening to customer feedback on your next iterations of this firearm.

And as you guys grow, there's going to be more iterations.

It's not just a one iteration and done.

So I apologize for that.

I also want to get into, you guys started a new firearms company.

What were some of the biggest hurdles you had to get over while doing that, starting that company and getting it off the ground?

That's four years.

That's a lot of work and time and effort to go into that.

Yeah.

I mean, just, first of all, started with just kind of the engineering and process of development of firearm that takes several years to even bring to market.

So right there, you're looking at, okay, you got this, but now let's give yourself at least 24 months on a low end of just bringing that out.

So that's kind of one of those things.

And then also, just as I mentioned earlier, not getting in your own way of like, well, let's just add this.

Let's have this.

At some point, you got to say, all right, we're going to market.

So we definitely had a little bit of that, of wanting to kind of fine tune every last thing and get it exactly where and what we have now, I think, is exactly what we wanted.

But you can kind of, as I said, get in your own way there.

But I think also some of the hurdles that we ran into is just kind of making sure that our space also is correct.

And what I mean is, like, our actual physical space, you know, you have to have a warehouse, you have to have place for manufacturing.

You have to have a team.

And so, you know, getting the different permits and oks from different governments and government officials and things like that, whether it's local or whatever it is, was a larger hurdle than I thought it was going to be.

And then, you know, you have to kind of, as you're coming to market time, uh, the idea of when you're going to kind of scale up your, uh, your team as well.

So that was, that was something that kind of, we kind of, we brought people on, but we're like, hey, we have this much that we're doing now.

And, like, you don't want to have too many people on before doing any, like, not doing stuff.

So that was kind of one of the bigger hurdles and then also just kind of finding your identity, trying to figure out something that's, you know, at the end of the day, we didn't say we're like, creating a completely different firing mechanism that's never been seen in the industry before or anything along those lines.

It's we took a platform.

We think we made it better.

We offered it at a really competitive price to make it here in the US.

And so how do we kind of steer that messaging?

What are we giving to the customer that they don't have?

And so that takes some time, too.

So it's a multitude of things, and you certainly don't want to rush it when you're first coming to market because you really only have one chance to launch.

Yeah.

One of the things that really excites me about your all's price point is it is perfect for that first time gun owner who doesn't have the budget to go and get all.

Everything aftermarket to make it exactly what they want, but they want something reliable that has a lot of the bells and whistles and out of the box is something that they could be proud of.

You know, nothing kind of hurts my soul more than going to a class with, like, a first time gun owner.

And they've just spent all of this money on a firearm.

And the instructors kind of going through the life applications of owning their firearm and what they want to use it for, and you see the blood drain out of their face because they purchase something that doesn't actually fit their goal or their desired outcome.

And so I love that your price point, in my opinion, is on the budget friendly end.

That makes it where you can feel very confident as a gun owner.

Basically, just get a holster and you're ready to go with some ammo.

You don't have to go and say, okay, well, I've got several hundred dollars invested in this, and I got to go do another three to $400 to get all of this.

And the next thing you know, you're looking at your bank account, and half of a paycheck or a whole paycheck is gone, and you're like, well, I can't actually afford to exercise my right, at least not maybe to the level that I wanted.

And so, especially in this economy, I think that what you guys have done at the price point that you've done it on shouldn't be understated, because it really is for a lot of first time gun owners or people who are looking to upgrade.

Just about perfect.

Yeah, no, thank you for saying that.

I mean, that's really what we wanted to also create as a.

Something that, you know, the aftermarket, as you.

As you alluded to, is something that, you know, I got to go do this.

I got to put this trigger, and I got to put this on, and so I got to get it milled or whatever it might be.

And so I think that's what we wanted to create is a gun that if you take it straight out of the box and run it, you can run it forever.

You don't need to do upgrades to it.

You don't need to kind of take it to your local gunsmith to have them work magic on it.

You have an ability to run a pistol from start to finish that really can run at a high caliber.

And so, yeah, I think the price is very attractive, and I think that's actually like the thing that we were like, oh, and we're going to offer it.

We were really concerned about the reliability, the accuracy, excuse me, of the pistol.

Then it's like, oh, and now also it's at this price.

So I think kind of hitting a trifecta of all those, of those items, I think was really kind of crucial in our, in our development of coming to market.

When you guys came to market, you came out with a compact firearm.

A lot of people are leaning towards that micro compact or micro mid size, whatever you want to call it.

Firearm.

What made you guys go to the compact versus coming out with like a micro or in that area?

Yeah, no, I think, yeah, the, the idea there was that, let's start in the middle, because obviously compact, you can still conceal, carry it very easily.

Let's get this out in the market.

And then when you start to get to subcompact or micro compact, the adjustments from there, we have to be completely precise.

It allowed us to get some feedback on what people are thinking of the compact and then put that into our planning of when we want to come out with our subcompact or whether it might be a micro compact, whatever it might be.

Excuse me.

So I think it was a strategic play of like, let's get into the concealed carry market.

Let's look at what things we can add to a potential subcompact offering, and then there'll be a time when it makes sense to launch that.

But I do think we're going to have some things coming to the market that people are going to be really happy about soon enough.

We're just trying to let the.

Because for us, it seems like we've been in the market forever, but, you know, a lot of people, a lot of this market's just hearing about us for the first time, so.

But, yeah, I think getting to that, the smaller variation is certainly something that we're looking to move into as well.

Where can everyone find you on social media, on the interwebs?

All of that great stuff.

Yeah.

You can check out our website, rossmartin.com, or you can go to rossmartininc on Instagram.

And I think it's just Ross Martin on Facebook.

We're on Twitter as well.

So Ross Martin there.

Ross Martin Inc.

Was the one for Instagram that we needed to kind of work around.

So someone somehow had that handle already.

But, yeah, it's, and we'll have, we've got more things coming this summer.

We've got a couple good announcements coming to you guys.

So what we're trying to do is just keep giving the customers what they want and keep listening to feedback.

So we definitely appreciate all the support.

Hope you enjoyed this week's episode.

Feel free to, like, share and subscribe and leave a five star review on all podcasting platforms.

We'll see you next week.