Riding Shotgun With Charlie

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #127 Dave Laird Dynamic Combative Solutions LLC   This summer I was invited to participate in a class sponsored by FASTER Saves Lives (FSL).  Check them out: they’re working to arm students and school staff!  There were several instructor and podcast friends taking the class that were part of the “media people” who were going to talk about and promote what FSL is doing. Dave Laird was also a student in the class.  He is a member of Arizona Citizens Defense League (AZCDL). He’s also an instructor and founder of Dynamic Combative Solutions, LLC. Which is why he outshot everyone in the class!   Dave grew up around firearms and many family members were in the military from before 1776, during the French & Indian War. As a teen he moved back to Pennsylvania and his grandmother taught him a lesson in hunting: he isn’t taking lots of ammo-he got one round. He did martial arts when he was young and knew he’d be heading to the military.  After doing well in MEPS test, he still wanted to

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #126  Jeanelle Westrom Davenport Guns The DC Project   Janelle Westrom is someone who’s name I’ve been hearing for a while.  She’s a friend of other friends, and that’s almost family in the gun community. Family is what the gun community is about. I reached out to Jeanelle and asked if she’d be up for being a passenger. I was heading to Sioux Falls for a class and I was going to be ‘swinging through’ the Davenport area and I could film a show with her.    We met at Davenport Guns and Jeanelle brings me in where she spent the day before shooting Gel Blasters (https://gelblaster.com/) at some friends driving in their cars.  There were a few Gel Blasters in the store and she proceeded to shoot them a bit. I knew this was going to be fun.    Jeanelle’s grandpa was a gunsmith, her dad was a gun guy, and she was born with Hoppe’s in her bloodstream. Her dad took and her sisters to the range because he needed ‘brass rats’ to pick up the brass so he could reload. He spent time in the milit

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#125Kory BrooksNRA & USCCA Instructor 761st Gun Club, President   I love my gig.  I was heading to Michigan for some personal events and saw how close I was to Chicago.  Kory Brooks reached out when he saw that I had Rhonda Ezell (RSWC #037) on the show and said if I ended up in Chicago, he would love to be on the show.  I saw how close I was to Chicago on the Michigan trip and reached out to Kory.  He said he was up for it so we made a plan.  Kory is an instructor, certified by the NRA & the USCCA. He offers several classes to his clients, including several basic courses and self defense courses. He got into instructing after 8 years in the USMC, doing 2 tours in Iraq. After leaving the military, he took some time away from firearms, like many people do when they’re starting their lives and families.  In 2014, he bought his first pistol, and got more into firearms in 2017, working to become a gunsmith and instructor. He specializes in building AR-15 style rifles.      Kory

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#123Julianne Versnel Second Amendment Foundation   I’d been attending and speaking at the Gun Rights Policy Conference for 5 years. But I was at the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival in Pennsylvania and ran into Alan Gottlieb and Julianne Versnel. I got a handshake and a hug.  That’s when I knew that the firearm community is family. I’d met Alan and Julianne several times at GRPC over the years, but I didn’t know they remembered me until that day.    With this past weekend being GRPC weekend, it seems fitting that I line up Julianne’s interview. You can watch Gun Rights Policy Conference 2021, which is all virtual, on the Second Amendment Foundation’s Facebook  page and YouTube channel. There’s several speakers from all over the country and the world, talking about what’s going on in the gun community. And yes, if you’re not a member of SAF you can join at saf.org.     I was excited to have Julianne in the passenger’s seat, well, it was HER car. We spent some time surveying the buildings

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#123Anna TaylorDene AdamsThe DC Project Sponsor   In 2019, I interviewed Holly Sullivan from CCDL and she was telling me about her Dene Adams corset, which she LOVES.  I made a clip of her talking about it and sent it to Anna Taylor.  And I asked if she would get in the stagecoach.  She said she would be up for it when I made it to Kansas City. And I made it to Kansas City this summer!   We do start the show a little non-traditionally.  She does some shooting FROM the car with a pistol caliber carbine then a 1911/2011 handgun. Something we haven’t done on the show before!   Anna gets into how she got into firearms after Sandy Hook while she was pregnant with her 4th child.  There was a break in in her neighborhood and she realized that, with a (then) husband who traveled for work, she was going to need to be the one to protect the young children. After getting her carry permit in Missouri, she wanted to learn how people carry, but nothing really worked for her.    With some sewing e

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #122 Jon Anderson Get Off My Lawn Podcast Nebraska Firearm Owners Association   Jon Anderson reached out to me a while ago to be a guest on his show. The panel that night included a number of other folks in the 2A community that I knew so I was really looking forward to it. Then he had me on a few more times. He did express an interest in Riding Shotgun should I ever get out to Nebraska. I was finally able to make it out that way and had to have Jon on the show.     Being from Nebraska, Jon has been around firearms all his life. Firearms are just tools that everyone in that section of America has and owns. It’s how they live. But he didn’t get more involved in the activist side of the gun community until he purchased his first handgun.    While attending the Tulsa Arms Show, Jon met some folks from Nebraska Firearm Owners Association (NFOA) and several YouTubers and podcasters.  He knew many of them from being an avid listener and watcher.  He made several new friends, including Tr

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#121Sandra ZettlemoyerBrass & Sass LLCA Girl & A Gun   A few months ago, I went down to one of Tony Simon’s (RSWC #041) Diversity Shoots in Easton, PA, at The Heritage Guild.  I know that he’s had some shadow banning issues and the word about them isn’t getting out. I met some of the folks from the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners (CNJFO) there. One of the instructors was Sandra Zettlemoyer.  After some chatting it up and finding out she’s got her own instructing business in the Lehigh Valley area and chapter of A Girl & A Gun, I asked if she wanted to hop in the stagecoach while we waited for pizza to arrive before the event.  Of course, she did.    Sandra attended an NRA’s Women On Target at the Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays and it changed her life. Her husband pushed her into going and she was all about it and loved it. She loves shotgunning then she found A Girl & A Gun (AGAG) Within 2 years of starting to shoot, she got certified to teach courses and got he