Advocating for Firearms Liberties Your Role in the Fight to Preserve Second Amendment Rights

Hi, welcome to the Arm Guardian podcast, season 2, episode 5. Today, crystal and I will be discussing with you. Get in the Know. We're going to talk to you about the second amendment organizations that will help keep you updated on laws and things that are affecting you locally, in your state and nationally. With the upcoming election cycle, we wanted to focus on this episode in a series to bring like some of the organizations out there that are fighting for your second amendment rights and how you can follow them and support them. So sit back, stay tuned and enjoy today's podcast. Hi, welcome to the Arm Guardian podcast. I'm your host, brian, here with Crystal, and today we're going to discuss how you can get involved with knowing the laws and legislation that's coming up through your legislators your local representatives, your city council, in case a city council or state is pushing through some, some law that they are interested in pursuing, and how you can kind of get involved. Stay in the know of everything, and we're going to break this into a few episodes. So down the road. So stay tuned. Working on lining up some guests to come in and speak about that, but without any further ado. How are you doing today, crystal?

I'm doing wonderful, brian. I woke up today in a great mood, so I'll go get started.

That's good. I, like I was telling you in the pre-show, I overslept and thought I was going to miss it, and carried up and got ready, got my coffee and here I am. I'll speak a little bit about this. Before the day and I thought, with the political season that we're coming in, with this being a major political season, that this would be something that would be a good topic to push out there for people, because a lot of people don't research the laws, they don't stay in the know. And then, whenever something gets passed well, why did this pass? No, I never heard anything about this whenever it is published and everything, and they get through a process of informing people and having windows for people to actually respond and voice their command. I figured that this would be something to kind of give the gun owners, people and pro-self-defense people an avenue to realize what's out there and how they can stay in that know, to be informed, be involved and to voice their opinion on whatever their thoughts are on a particular upcoming bill, a verbiage or whatever in a law or something. So, yeah, so what do you do? How do you stay informed and know what's coming down the road or things like that? How do you? What do you do to stay in the know?

I like to do a lot of research on the candidates that we have coming in that can make fewer decisions on the second event. So I do a lot of research on the individuals and I tell people to do the same thing, because oftentimes local and they'll just look at somebody and they can't answer the right candidate for the job and they really don't know a whole lot about it. Or somebody may have guessed it that they need to vote for this particular person. They do nothing about it and, as we can see, that caused a lot of problems for us.

It's a part of the second one, right? Right, yeah, I do the same thing. I do a lot of vetting. If it's as far as a national, like the Senate Congress, the president, I go through and I look at what their past record is, where they stood in certain topics for your representatives, what their voting history has been. Research that because they can tell you one thing yeah, I'm pro gun. But then it comes down to it and you can see their history and they've voted against pro gun and they do whatever they say to get their cells back into the office again or no, to further their agenda. So, yeah, I'm big on that. And then I stay on top of organizations. There's a few organizations where you can they stay on top and they send out emails and stuff and post on their website. Upcoming laws are things that know they may have issues with. That aren't pro. Second amendment and no, those would be something like the NRA's legislative alert. You got the USCCA has a program that I'll post all these. And we got owners of America. Those are the major organizations and they're in their national and they focus on everything. And here in Georgia there is an organization called Georgia Gun Owners Association and they. They talk about national things but they are focused on Georgia and no being, that's where I live at. You know I want to know what's going on but in each state has their own, their own organization that looks out for these gun laws and stuff, and a lot of the national companies, national organizations, have links to whatever's in there in different states. You can stay on top of that and then you can go to congressgov and you can actually sign up for alerts for your bills that your congressman, your representative on the national level are sponsoring, co-sponsoring and things like that. And you know you get alerted whenever you know that happens. and that's one way of also staying on top of you know your local representative that's assigned to you through you know the college that, hey, this is the person that I can get that I go to to discuss, you know, this bill or this legislation that's coming down, and then just being involved in your local media, staying watching the new if you don't get the newspaper their their online version. I'm not a big fan of the televised news, but I kind of watched, you know, some of the feeds that come out from some of the national organizations, and just then it peaks my interest or it doesn't peak my interest, and then it's something that I'm not concerned with, and then that allows me to again start researching.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I've, I've actually signed up for already. Of the memberships, most of them are actually small annual memberships and I don't mind paying the fees and everything just because, no, they've got a. They're not making a profit since they're an organization, but they've got things to Take care of, like websites, you know, paying the people to travel to go to Congress and Washington to talk about these to their representatives and stuff. So I don't Paying the membership fees and everything. Some people know they have a problem with it, but no, anything that I can do to kind of help further or to be involved in my getting my voice out there is, I think, is a plus.

Another thing, too, is emailing your representatives in your area. Yeah, you can look up emails, write them. Whether or not they respond just up to each individual. Some other are responsible.

Either that or you're talking to one of their aides or something that Generally I get that a lot with my Senator, my national Representatives. Whenever I fill out a form on, like the gun on stuff, america, I'll fill out one of their forms and it automatically sends it to them and it's usually Either the automated response or either one of their aides Responding you know, hey, I'd like to know, we'd like to know more information. You know what? And I've had that several times. And that's where you open up your communication with that legislator and Start actually forming. I won't say it might not necessarily be a Bond or anything, but it's a connection to where you know if you are active enough, they will know that. Okay, brian, is a pro-second amendment to you and they'll actually get to know you. As far as he's a firearms instructor, he's I'm a law enforcement ex-military and things like that. So being proactive in that aspect, with the email, it's something that. Or even a telephone call, it's something that Open up the door and no kind of make you one knowledgeable to, to get your voice to them. And then also, if you've got a good representative, they're gonna listen because you're one of their constituents, so they want to be in the office next. So they're gonna try their best to you. But you know, and you may not like what actually comes out at the end, but at least you made your attempt to voice your opinion and fight for what you believed in.

Know where they know, know where you stand right. I want to know what process it is, because I've reached out to them on social media as well. Yeah, and that's how do you feel about this? Sometimes not the answer I want to hear, but then I can like scratch them off my list. Like, this is a person I would never vote for Right? Yeah, we're never going to go that direction, but there's so many ways that you can reach out and do your research, but you just have to take time to do it. Yeah, sometimes people might be involved in it, but these are topics that are extremely important.

Yeah, they are. And now you get. I get. Because I'm more of a timid type person, I will kind of sit back and observe before jumping in and I get to get that some people are reserved, timid, they don't really want to get involved, they want to kind of help in the background instead of being the forefront spokesman or anything. But email is in. Social media is a good avenue to contact them. You're not doing it. If you have the anxiety and stuff like that, that's one way to get your opinion across or your point across. But no, not hatch to actually physically talk to them or physically meet them, and it actually will. I think it helps people to overcome some of those fears, because I've heard some people that have started like that, you know, in just email correspondence, and then they get so comfortable communicating in email. They actually open up and start telephone, go into their representatives, the branch office or whatever, and actually talking to them, and it's something that it can help out. But no, you don't have to be this eloquent speaker, eloquent writer to communicate with them. Be yourself and be transparent in what you're wanting. You know, I tell them that, hey, the first and foremost I'm a firearm structure, father, husband, and this is something that's very important to me. So and I put that out up front just so that they know the tone it's something that I believe that it makes it aware to them that, okay, this is somebody that hopefully they're not going to say, hey, this is somebody that's going to cause me problems or anything. But no, they look at it and say, okay, I want to hear what your, your concerns are, I want to hear how I can help you, your mind or what, to see your point of view, because they may not see your point of view. And no, you just communicating with them is going to put up a little bit of a line of communication and allow that back and forth debate Good debate skills but no, you don't have to be a good debater to do this, and that's what we're trying to get at. No, it's something that you can be involved in to kind of help promote your thoughts, get your thoughts across, instead of being someone that just sits back and whatever happens happens. And I hear a lot of people say that, no, well, my voice isn't going to matter a whole lot. It may not matter now, but continued prodding the bear is going to. They're going to realize that, hey, I got this person or this group of people that are associated with the Second Amendment, hunting whatever the economy or environment that I got this group of people from this field that is very Adam anti against this bill or they're very pro for this bill, and they will come to know you and kind of it kind of does, kind of help them become aware of what, what issues certain people have with with things that maybe they haven't seen or know. And we've heard, know the all through politics, know the. Some politicians get bought out by the special agenda and stuff. Yeah, there's a lot of money funded to them for their campaign. But if you've got a good representative, they're going to understand that. You know, not everybody's going to agree with this action group, their beliefs, or if it's a bill, the co-sponsors of the bill that they're not gonna agree completely with your thoughts. And that's where the communication, whether it's email, social media, verbal or even face-to-face, comes into play with getting your point across. You know, you can also visit their websites A lot of times on their website.

If they're pro-second women, they're proud and they'll have it in their little bio or whatever the information is and it will say they support pro-second women, right? And I'm like, oh yes, we got one we can work with and then we do further research to make sure that they're gonna stand by that. But if I see somebody that says that they want stricter gun laws and it was I'm like, yeah, you gotta like watch those. Yeah, the website. And another is social media watching what they post on social media.

Right, yeah, and that's one of the big things that I like about no, at least for like in Congress and the House, you can see their past voting agendas or their past voting history from bills on the website, so you can actually go to that. Like I said, the congressorg I forget I'll have to put all the notes in the show notes for it, but you can find out their history and eventually some people do evolve. Some people start out being anti-environment, anti-drilling, we'll say, and then over time they may say, no, that's not. No, I can see the pros of drilling. Maybe I don't need to be as opposed to it as I was. They still may be opposed to it, but at least now you've got them thinking to where they're opening up to new ideas, and that's what I look for. I don't look for somebody that agrees 100% with me. I would like to have somebody that does that in the office, but that is rare. We're humans, we're all different. We're all different. We're not all gonna believe the same thing, have the same values, the same morals. So I look for somebody that's willing to be open and accept new ideas.

Exactly well, that's what you want, so maybe it's willing to listen, also see our side of things. Whether or not they agree it's really irrelevant, but at least we get our point across.

Yeah, that's pretty much kind of what I wanted to, I guess, tease off this episode, this series with and I'll probably get with David and me and him they do an episode on something like this as far as piggybacking off of each other, since his work schedule is not always aligned with our meeting times, but we have stuff on now. Well, I've gotta really think of this topic would be interesting and popular, especially, like I said, in this current environment. We're in, with it being a major election cycle, and already got a confirmation while we were talking, for an interview with someone from the Gun owners of America.

Oh, that's gonna be great.

That would be really nice to have, so that will be coming. I won't announce who it is right just yet, but we'll be, having them on, and then I'm looking at having some of them on both national organizations and some state level organizations. I'm looking to try to put them on so one to kind of get their name out there so that people are aware and also hopefully get some information back from them on how they maybe sit there. They know somebody since a year in Florida. I'm in Georgia and I've seen this podcast, the stats, where it's all across the US. We've got people in California that listen to it and I don't know anybody in California. I don't know the organizations out there, but maybe some of these guests that we have come in will be able to hey, if you're in California, this organization is a good group to follow or become a member of, and I think that that's what I'm wanting to do is just try to put out information and give people something to think about and to become more aware, to be more involved, to be knowledgeable, because if we don't speak our mind, if we don't let people know what we believe or what our thoughts are, what's bugging us it? No, we have no one to blame but ourselves, because, no, we're not not vocalizing what we feel. And if we don't do that and the other party or the other side of it, has a large following. Guess who's going to Revolent and what's probably gonna happen if we don't stand up and speak our, our mind, our beliefs, our thoughts. All right, well, uh, like I told you, this probably gonna be a real short one. I just wanted to kind of tease the the thought that I had, and know you kind of jumped on board with it and Because it kind of in lines with another topic that you told emailed me about, that you thought would be a good one, the Internship. I think that you know that may even kind of play in with this series that we're Looking at, so that may have, we may discuss that I may make. Let you take the lead on that interview if you Find up anybody that you want to have on to talk about it or no, you just want to do it with us. No, we'll, I'll let you roll with it, you know. You just let me know who it is and we'll set up a time where we, as many of us, can get together you, me and David and we'll do that and yeah, and if anybody's been, no on social media. You know how easy it is to be censored. No, you just got to say something wrong and either the bots tag you or you know you upset somebody, hurt their feelings, or they don't agree with your thought. Then what do they do?

report and Nobody sees your content and I've watched like the analytics of it just shrink down to nothing. We're and I've asked people to see the post that I did. They said, no, I didn't see it, it's because they block it. Yeah, they were the emails.

Yeah.

They're not getting.

Yeah, that's an issue I've noticed. I actually forget where it was. I I read about it, but where email providers are Fundal, are targeting certain words, just like in social media, like no, if you save the word guns, it's flags you and you may be shadow banned, if not the post removed or something, because that word and it's a I can tell you from experience and I know talking with you, you've had it too. It's a long fight to fight those bands and people do and Got a lot of. Unfortunately, with this time and age, we got a lot of people that sit behind their keyboard and that's where they do. They're fighting yet, which I don't have a problem with, especially if you can't get out. But no, don't just because your feelings got hurt or you don't believe in that, don't report it. Have to debate skills, open up. No, if hey, I Don't, I don't agree with what you said. It, tell me why you you believe that and then open up a discussion. No, my mind, my views, may change a little bit because maybe I didn't see, see something that you thought is important and See your point and I'll take that into consideration. No, it's not gonna, probably not gonna change me to do a complete 180, but no, I will be more aware of an issue, a point or something that someone else believes and can kind of work around it and investigate it. Well, like I said, this was a short one and I appreciate your time this morning. See, our next interview is next month, but I'm still trying to work on some others. This episode, I'll edit it, probably this weekend, because we're supposed to have one drop Monday. I'll probably go ahead and edit this and put it out where it releases, monday being a short one, and then we got our other interviews that we have in the history, that I just got to go and do the final editing on it and we'll have those available for posting. If you haven't checked out our website page, we've got a new website page. It's thearmguardianpodcastcom. We've changed the providers for our website and I really like the outlay of this new website. Check it out Again. If you're new to the podcasting or just found us, research our prior episodes. We're always looking to do more, have more communication with people. Give us a rating, if you don't mind, on your podcast platform that you listen to us on. If you have a suggestion for a topic or a guest, email us at podcast at blueberrytacticalcom and we will see about trying to talk about that topic or trying to get that guest on. Follow us, check out our website If you have any questions. We're also on Facebook, so follow us there. Communicate with us and we will be more than happy to try to have a guest and topics on that are relevant to our listeners. Y'all have a great week and we'll see you next episode.

The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not a substitute for professional self-defense training, legal advice or consultation with relevant authorities. Listeners are encouraged to seek guidance from qualified self-defense instructors and legal professionals to ensure that their actions align with local laws and regulations. The podcast hosts and creators disclaim any liability for personal injury, property damage or legal consequences resulting from the use or misuse of the information presented. Stay informed, stay safe and consult with experts for personalized advice.