Freedom Files | Episode 7 | Tom Theophanopoulos |

[Music] Good night. [Music] All right, thanks for tuning in everybody and welcome to Freedom Files episode seven. Seven already. That's right, man. Already getting seven going down. Nice. All right. Today, uh, we have guest starring Tom Theophanopoulos of Oakdale MMA. We're so happy for him to be with us. I want to give a congratulations and a shout out to a young new Marine, Mr. Graham Bidd. Told you I was going to mention your name, bud, and I am. So, uh, I know you're going down to SOI when you get back and next time you're on leave, you stop off in this shot and you see me. Congrats. Congrats to you for successfully completing uh, Marine Corps boot camp and, uh, starting off your career as a young Marine. Okay.

I also want to give a shout out to John Orut and the Bruins for providing this awesome beer. This is called Best Buds Pale Ale. Cheers everybody. Happy birthday America. Happy birthday America. Hope everybody was good. All right. We always start off the shows when I show a little gun. So, um I had an opportunity and Mike Radford's last uh CCW class. We had a student there that uh bought one of these firearms and I got to shoot it and it was really cool. Um they came on the California list maybe a couple three months back. This is the new ShadowM uh Shadow system. This is the DR920P. Um pretty crazy cool thing. It's like a Glock knockoff. It comes with everything under the sun as far as your uh internal trigger system, your fluted barrel, um your porting. It's got your uh cutout so you can put your red dot on it. It shot real well. Your flared mag well, so it's easier to change uh mags. Um I was impressed with it. It was a really fun firearm to shoot. They're really nice. They really are. Yeah. You know what, too? I was comparing them earlier. They're They were probably going to flip out when I say this, but they're comparable. They look and feel like the Tan Tactical Glocks. Yeah, they do. That's right. Cuz Yeah, Mark brought in his taran. We're That's right. They really do. That's so And they're I don't know how much a Tan costs, but uh three Ford land. Yeah, these ones are a lot less than that. I won't go over the price over them because I know we're not supposed to. So, but anyway, um yeah, they're great. Um the Shadow Systems make a good gun and they are now on the California roster. So, um I also want to talk about uh today's the July 5th. I hope everybody had a good Fourth of July. Um I want to talk about the new ammunition background check, five bucks. So, um came in the shop this week and right off the get started it explaining it to people. People kind of shrug their shoulders and they're doing it. But let me give you an example. I have an example receipt. So you're going to come get some rando ammo. $10 for the box, let's say. All right. You have your excise tax of 11% of $110. Your stupid California new $5. Okay. You're looking at $1610. I'm sorry. Uh 1610. And then you have to include the 8.375 on that $10 for your local sales tax. Yo, out the door. That $10 turns into $16.99 grand total. Jeez. Isn't that crazy, man? I mean, you want to talk about a greedy state, man. You know, um, what's next, right? Sad. So, it is. But anyway, I wanted to talk about that. It's here. It's in action. I don't like it.

Let me get into Tom. Tom, I've known you for a while now. You're a pillar in this community. We're happy to have you. I'm so glad that you're doing this show with us. Yes. Tell us about yourself. Well, I'm um I'm a martial artist. Uh I'm also an upholsterer by trade. I don't do much upholstery anymore because I I I teach martial arts full-time now. I have three uh full-time academies. One one in Sonora, Sonora MMA, Oakdale MMA. And then about a year and a half, almost two years now, I started uh Oakdale Boxing Club. One of my one of my passions for a long time. And it was like one of those things I really felt I needed to do, you know, before I got too old to do it. And um we're already knocking out some some champions. Matter of fact, this uh is it this Thursday? No, the 17th up at the Chicken Ranch, we've got Pedro Warz, who's undefeated. He'll be he'll be fighting uh to to keep that undefeated. Reign going up at the chicken ranch. So if anybody wants to go there for the boxing. So how is So I I've been to the new chicken ranch on the casino floor and their restaurants once. I have not been to their sporting arena and I remember the last time I went was probably 12 years ago for one year. The bingo small. It was a small play. It was a fun time there. It was really good time. It's been longer for me. Yeah. Um how is the new um cage in the ring? It's bigger. Um a lot more room. Classy classy room, you know, classy classy building. Uh we just got through doing a show in partnership with 209 Beatdown and we had about maybe 13 fights. I want to say MMA fights and yeah, they they went off really well. A couple of championship fights, but yeah, the new new venue is like night and day compared to the old one. I got to go check it out. Beautiful casino. Tom, tell uh what's the address for the Deljem? It's uh 140 North Second Avenue. You guys got to check it out. It's nice.

Um I also want to talk to you Tom a little bit too about uh application to you know you you you have been a thinker you know the MMA, martial arts, uh boxing, any of these kind of sports where you're putting your mind, your body at work and you've got an opponent. Um you also have a lot of philosophy in that type of trade. Well, when we teach our CCW classes, we kind of teach the same thing, you know, to avoid the problems even though you're going to be somebody that's got the upper hand and the advantage that you're carrying around over someone else. The idea is to not get into trouble at all. So, how do you apply um the mindset and the discipline of MMA towards a CCW carrier? I think I think they're one and the same. I think they're very paralleled in that the same thinking process of not being involved in a particular situation has to be has to be practiced with both, right? Um, you know, my CCW I I I I always make sure that's I never carry it where I'm not supposed to be carrying it where a lot of people don't maybe they don't care, I don't know, but I'm always into preventive measures. Right. Right. That little uh, you know, voice in the back of your head, don't go down that alley. I'm I'm very big proponent of that. I'm checking all my doors. I I I find myself to be to be always prepared no matter what. And and I and I think it's paralleled with with the uh the CCW and and the martial arts, you know, in general. Um well, they complement each other. They complement each other. Very good. Very good. And I and I think each has to have the same type of discipline in that uh you have to have a uh a mindset of of just not being put in that kind of a situation if you avoid it. Right. I mean, I've got I've got I know people that have that have claimed that they were in a 100 fights, let's say. Okay. So, what does that tell me? That tells me that these people are not very responsible in terms of their uh you know, getting into arguments and not being able to back out out of arguments. Maybe their ego is too big. You know what I mean? Those are not the kind of people that need to be uh having a CCW, if that makes sense. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. I I I agree with you 100%. Yeah. That's definitely something that's not meant to take advantage over people and to um push weight around, if you will, or uh make your authority aggressive over people. It's something to just give you that protection in case there are those people out there that have that poor attitude. And the ultimate goal is to avoid that kind of thing, right?

What do you think is the advantages um discipline in MMA um learning young as opposed to the adult uh that's you know trying to just get into it? I don't I don't particularly feel that there needs to be an age, right? Anytime you start in the martial arts, you're going to get benefit whether you're a kid or whether you're an adult. Um Jim knows because his son goes to my classes. I start every class with questions to the kids. Is your roommate? Is your room clean? Is your bed made? Uh if you got in trouble with your parents, five push-ups, you know, this sort of thing, right? If you talk back to your parents and so those are the real benefits of the martial arts, you know, instilling discipline, right? I've been training martial arts 50 years and if I don't ever get into a fight, that's good for me. But the discipline that I got out of the martial arts are the things and the values that I hold dear, right? The discipline making my bed because now I'm accountable to the kids that I can't stand in front of them and say hey did you make your bed when where I didn't do it you know so for me those are the kinds of values that uh that I find valuable and the confidence knowing that I can handle myself for the most part and so I don't have to get into a fight with people or an argument or any of those things you know I feel confident in my ability not only handle the situation physically but handle it verbally, you know, be able to talk myself out of that situation. Those are the benefits of the martial arts in my opinion. And I feel like um as time kind of progresses in my life as I get older and the years go by, I look at children and I'm sure that all generations do this, right? So like for instance, you know, you have that saying that your parents used to told, you know, oh, you used to have to walk three miles and say that school, you don't know what you're doing, you know, this and that. Their parents probably told them like and so on. So yeah, and so on and so on and so on, like I didn't have seen a horse to school. Yeah. All that stuff, right? So I'm sure that has something to do with it, you know? But it does seem like we would be better off today in general if everybody had a little taste of MMA, if they had some type of training, some type of discipline, some type of um uh mindset, you know, to where we respected one another a little bit more and we also respected ourselves and we respected our bodies, right? That's what I feel. I feel like today would be it would be better off. I think you, you know, we we're we're constantly in the country talking about weight issues and food and how it's the industry's fault and everything else. I'm not trying to take away any kind of fault from someone if the industry is pushing stuff and but it's always blaming, not accepting, but it really is, man, because I think you know that that discipline that's that's learned from um MMA or um you know, a little bit of physical pain that gives you that kind of edge for the future because you get that little exercise and that pain, you know, that makes you stronger. That's the kind of thing what gives you that mindset of, oh, hey, maybe I need to look inward because I can control this kind of thing.

Well, the thing the thing is you're going to get benefit regardless of what you do. You can go uh walk, you know, 45 minutes a day, two hours a day. You can you can go to the gym, you can do different sports, right? But the benefit of MMA over those sports is not just the physical uh attributes and the and the strength and conditioning, right? But the ability to defend yourself handto hand. Yes. Does that make sense? Yes. That's the that's that's the benefit I Right. Well, you get you get the physical, you get the mental. Sure. And you get the ability to defend yourself hand to hand like you said and and that knowledge that you can do it, you know, and then making the choice to avoid that problem even though, you know, you could probably embarrass the subject that's cackling at you or whatever, you know, that's that's uh that's big, you know, that's huge and that's something that gives you that respect for yourself, which in turn allows you to respect others. Yeah. And then when you asked earlier the benefits of young opposed to old, I I don't think there is a benefit any which way. I think regardless of how old you are, you just come in with your limitations. Even if you're, let's say, 70 with bad knees, you don't have to do MMA in terms of like, you know, uh kickboxing, right? You could just do boxing. If you can't kick, just just punch on the ground. Also, I'm finding out that it's the great equalizer, right? I could do more on the ground in my old age too than than uh you know now that I have my injuries and my knees are kind of bad. I have three herniated discs in my back so I can go on all my injuries and I find that I fight better on the ground that I do maybe standing up. I don't have the pivot. I don't have the mobility anymore like I used to. And you know majority of fights that make it make it Yeah. 90% of fights end up on the ground. Right. They say 90% of fights end up on the ground but 100% start standing. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Get him to the ground quick. You got to meet up soon. Tell him.

So when did you start training? Uh I started formal martial art called Kajuku KBO at 1975. But that Hawaiian one that's the Hawaiian art of Kajuko, right? Um before that I I wrestled. I was 11 years old. Um a lot a lot of my interest in wrestling was because my cousins wrestled and also it was my heritage. You know the Greeks had wrestling in the Olympics 2500 years ago. They had boxing in the Olympics and they also had MMA, a form of MMA called penration which meant all powers, right? So this is this is my my u uh desire to continue in the MMA because of how I grew up, you know, listening to my dad tell stories, listening to watching my cousins wrestle, you know. So I wrestled from 11 till about 15. And uh I actually made it to the Junior Olympics and freestyle competition, but I was unable to compete because I suffered a horrific uh injury that resulted in the middle plate on the top of my head. And so then I couldn't stand the pressure of wrestling anymore. That's when I walked into the local uh karate dojo with James Wararez. I started training Kaiju Kimbo. And I've been doing that for about 50 years now. And then in uh 88, I was a second degree black belt Kaiju Kimbo. I moved out here. You look great, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I like I'm doing something wrong. Um in 1988 when I moved out to Oakdale, I had no intentions of opening up a school. I just wanted to become a perpetual student. So I started studying boxing, kickboxing, and judo about that time. And uh then when I did started teaching um I always had an art that I would teach and I always had an art that I was training in for my benefit to learn if that makes sense. Right. Uh lately I've been doing what's called Sarata Escrea. So I I'll teach my four or five or six hours during the day and then at the end of class classes um a gentleman by the name of Edward Garcia who is a master in Sarata Screma. He'll come out from from Stockton and we'll do an hour and a half of stick fighting for for for my my benefit, you know, because again I feel that I I need to be a perpetual student. This is what's going to keep me interested in the martial arts. Part of my discipline, if you will. All I'm doing is the same thing day in and day out, people get bored. Yeah. But if you're learning different things and new things, changing it up. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So, you hold you hold belts in Kaiju Kimbo. Yeah. Judo. Judo. Uh Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Correct. And then uh what is it? The Dutch kick. Dutch style. Yeah. Yeah. In Dutch style kickboxing. I have a first degree black belt. Uh traveling to Europe and learning the Dutch style. I also train in Muay Thai, too, but there's no ranking system in Muay Thai. uh from my teacher Melor Chavez in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I would travel there and train with him. Um I hold a third degree uh black belt in judo under Sensei Christine Lincoln Penik. And when I tell you these names of my teachers, I want you to understand that these people are like legendary, okay, in the martial arts industry. I always sought out the best that I could. Okay. Um Tom, you know why you do so well at this, bro? Because you love it so much. It loves you back. Yeah. Yeah. That's why. Very good. You give respect to it. Gives you the respect back. Absolutely. And then uh a fourth degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Grandmaster Flavio bearing. Okay. Um he'll be out here, matter of fact, next month. Yes, you did. He'll be out here again in August to stay with us a couple of weeks. Living legend and then uh I hold a ninth degree red belt uh in Kaiju Kimbo under under James. Grandmaster, right? That's a grandmaster title. Correct. Wow. Yeah. Always being is there. So as a red belt, is there a higher rank than the So that's it. Red is like black to whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And knowing that was my final rank in Kajukbo when my when the association wanted to award me my red belt years ago, I actually denied it for two years straight. Every year they would confront me, hey, we need to get you your uh I'm not ready. I'm not ready. The responsibility was was just too big for me. So I declined it for two years. And then finally the third year my teacher called me and said, "Look, we really need to progress you. You know, we need you to accept this. Stop being an idiot." Yeah. So, I accepted it finally. Wow. And well, I love it, man. You've got a great story, bro. And uh Thank you. You're You're great for the community, too. Oakdale loves you and uh the all the other places that you've influenced, man. You're a positive individual. We're we're happy to have you in our lives. I I don't take it lightly. We we're right now we're teaching third and fourth generation. You know, I've got kids there that that was fathers and then grandfathers trained with me back in the back in the 90s. Yeah. That's so cool, man. That's so awesome.

Now, you um there was a story I was told to ask about uh you being robbed on a beach back in the day. Yeah, it was a stupid decision. I went with my girlfriend at the time uh to Half Moon Bay on a on a very stormy windy night uh winter night and uh two guys came across the beach and they and they kind of jumped on us with guns and they at gunpoint they they robbed us and uh you know ever since then I knew and at the time I was taking the martial arts I was actually studying Kaiju Kimbo right but it was that moment I felt so helpless that I knew, you know, this is going to be my life for the rest of my life, you know, martial arts. It kind of cemented my my desire to continue to to continue to. So even though it was a bad experience, it ended up being a good experience matter because Yeah. you made uh you made that lemonade out of Yeah. And any any stoic philosophy will tell you that too, you know, any the the bad experience is the experience, you know. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

Let's uh shift gears for a minute. I know Jimmy, you've got some 1911 tips to talk about, man. And one of those is proper oiling of a 1911. Yeah, I've seen all different kinds or some people that will lather a 1911. I mean, not going to hurt it, but it turns out spitting on you all the time. Some people go way overboard on the oil. And then there are some that actually hardly use oil and then they want to know why their 1911 isn't working good anymore after a while because they had it bone dry. Well, remember it is metal on metal. Metal on metal needs some lubrication otherwise certain metals like stainless start galling. Uh other it it just the the depending also on the tolerances will make it worse. So there's a few areas and before I jump into where to oil or the best places to oil, there's certain kinds of oils that you want to stick with. You want to stay away from greases. Uh especially I think you and I talked about that the other day. Um I guess we can say it like well we were talking about today too man. I mean, yeah, today popped up really where uh we get a lot of, you know, look Frog Lube was really popular for a long time and I'm not well, I guess I'll say a few bad things about it uh because I kind of get into that but I think the well, it depends on how it's applied and it depends on what it's applied to. But you know, there's more to that than just applying like placing it on the metal on metal parts and then moving on your way. You know, there's like you Frog Lube wants you to strip it down properly which means you have to use acetone format to get everything off and all the oils out to heat the metal to separate the metal components which means more disassembly than just a field strip. Um heat it to like 160 degrees, then apply the Frog Lube. And that's you can't do that out in the field. And it's just not for for your standard shooter, the guy that's going out there and beating up his guns and having a good time. Um it's just not going to do that kind of stuff. Well, we both found out that usually Frog Lube causes more malfunctions. The gel does. I don't know about the viscous oil. I haven't tried that stuff yet. Know that's really heavy. But the gel, the stuff that came in like the uh the paste little wax paste can uh Oh, the wax unless you were using it on something large and beefy like an AR10. It it pretty much caused a lot of malfunctions. So, yeah. So, stay away from stuff like that. Like again, greases. Don't do WD40. WD40 is good if you're going to wipe it off immediately and then replace it with something else. Yeah, you want to do something that's uh viscous, something that does not gelify over time, something that can be mixed with water and will uh run rather than dry. Um, so he's got some stuff the WD40 if you use it and then you put it away, not use it for a little bit, there's people where they couldn't even move their slide or rack, you know, the the bolt. It it turns into like a hard kind of gunk. It Yeah, it gets gunk. It locks it up. There's almost like a sap. Yeah. There's time where I think I've showed you where I've had to someone brought in my gun's not working at all and I've had to use like one of those scrapers, metal scrapers or a knife to kind of carve it out. Yeah, it it it gets bad. So, uh there's a few that I like, you know, just depends. I like the FP10. I like uh Slip 2000. Uh the Breakthrough CLP, which is really good at Got that. Another really good one. Uh, and what surprised me a lot of people hasn't they really haven't heard about it. Every time I say, "Hey, try this." We were like, "Why didn't we talk about it on like episode one?" Yeah. Yeah. We talked about it. So, a good one is Balistol. I never knew about it. I found out about it probably like 12 or 13 years ago. And um, somebody enlightened me to that and I've been using it ever since. And I do a lot of um, partial restoration on older firearms. You know, your World War II and prior. Um, which are made with really good wood grain, a lot of good walnut and teaks. Uh, that's the kind of stuff that if you use synthetics or other types of lubrications, uh, will stain if you're going to if you get it on the on the wood, whereas the ballist does not stain. So, I like that a lot about it. It stays good for a long time. You can you can mix it with water. Uh the guys in the black powder world call it like moose milk and all that because they do like a 50/50 where they mix it with water and it helps to prevent the You can do use it for machining and stuff like that. Oh yeah. You It's a cutting fluid. It's an agent. It's good stuff. Um now with my 1911 builds, I actually make my own and I send it with uh the, you know, the builds come with a kit and I send it with a build. It's a few different things that make this. It works. Like I went through a lot of different kinds of oils and and and certain chemicals to find out what works best and what I liked and what I make it makes it where it it just it doesn't seize up. We even tried it where I put it in cold like you know the freezer trying it and then after a while and it still racks still works perfectly. Um, and then I also have one that's uh when I do my 1911 builds, they're they're really tight tolerances. So, I'll send them with a little bit of break-in oil that I make for it, too.

Now, we'll talk about what I you can use different kinds like some people get like a Q-tip. Some they'll get a Q-tip and and rub it on like you know certain areas that they're going to oil. I like to use the needle type applicator. So some of the areas you want to do it light coat. You want to put it on your frame rails and the raceways in the frame. Light coats. Sometimes I'll put a little bit here. Yeah. Then you also want to do it in the corresponding on the slides. So the slide rails and raceways. Do you wipe it off after? No, I just put a little bit. Just like a little bit of oil. This sometimes like if you get on the top I'll use my finger. Okay. To wipe it down. Yeah. So, you just want like a a light kind of coat. A very light coat. Uh the other one is you want to put it on some on the hood, some on the upper lugs, the lower lug where the ramp is right here. A little bit on the link. And then what I also like to do is I'll put a dab a little bit of I'll go like this actually. Put a little bit on my finger, rub it around, and I'll rub it towards the muzzle of the barrel where the bushing contacts it.

Jimmy, what's your opinion towards spray lubes? Uh, well, they work. They just get all over the place. Yeah. So that's what I mean because I'm I'm like watching you kind of do detailed, you know, put it right here, put it right here, put it right here. Where what is your opinion on the guy or the gal or whoever's going to clean up their gun that just says, "Yeah, I'll put it everywhere and just spray it and then wipe it off." What do you think? Yeah, I mean you can, but then that gets to the part where it just you're over oiling it. You're causing yourself more work kind of thing. And then you got like a slippery gun, you know? I mean, you can, like I said, but it just gets all over the place. We use it a lot. Will over oiling um hurt the shooter while they're shooting? I mean, is it is it possible for that over oiling to the firearm or the shooter? Depending on what oil, let's say if they just get like the ball, like say if you get thick one, like a really thick one and it's cold and you just have ton. Yeah, I could see that causing an issue because the thicker oil in really cold weather, it it it's too thick to operate when it's cold. So thick stuff is hot like hot weather like the desert, stuff like that. The thick ones work good. The thinner oils will work good for the like cold weather oils. Yeah, car oils. Yeah, basically same thing. And like you and I were talking about it too. There's some people and it works just fine using actual motor oil or transmission fluid for firearms. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I've used I've used motor oil before. I mean I mean you got to think there's an engine combusting. Well, it's indust oil and transmission. It's a whole industry. They they they have like scientists that they pay ton of money to to research what works. I mean, cuz you they have racing teams. Motor oil can sit around too for a long long time without uh gumming up without, you know, becoming because it's it's it's meant for all weather, you know, whether you're going to live in, you know, the winters of Wyoming or the summers of, you know, Southern California or something. So, yeah, motor oil is not bad. I mean, I I would suggest um to use um a proper gun oil, but um motor oil is definitely a better supplement than like WD40 or Oh, yeah. um a grease. Oh yeah. Well, the big one is is uh transmission oil. Yeah, transmission oil is really good. It's got heavy detergent in it. Yeah, it's much better. It is.

Um so other areas again the frame rails, raceways, slide rails, raceways. We want over the barrel. You want the hood, the lower lug, the link, and around the end of the muzzle. And what I also like to do is I'll put a dab a little bit of I'll go like this actually. Put a little bit on my finger, rub it around, and I'll rub it towards the muzzle of the barrel where the bushing contacts it. So, yeah. And then again, we talked about uh certain temperatures or certain oils that you want to use depending on where you live. Um again, the uh when you're storing your 1911, it's good to just have a thin layer kind of everywhere. Say if it's going to be stored for quite a while, you're going to put it away. You're a guy that has like, you know, a hundred of them, whatever, and you just buy them and you have so many, you really don't shoot them maybe once, twice a year kind of thing. So, you store it in your safe. It's a good idea to put it, especially if it's like carbon steel. You want to put it just light, thin film all over on the outside and the inside. Very light. All right, man. Well, that's a great tip. Appreciate that. Um, anything else we want to talk about, guys, before we wrap it up? Doing good. Oh, and when did you get started with firearms? Real quick, what what year was that? And I got a story. I don't know if we have time. Do the story, man. I knew I wanted to ask you. Let's get it going. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, I uh the first firearm I ever owned was given to me by a good friend of mine. He was a cop, Dave. He just recently passed away, God rest his soul. And he he gave me a little snubnose uh revolver, right? And uh I was kind of afraid of guns. I really didn't know, you know, I don't even think I'd ever discharged it to be honest with you. I had it loaded in my backpack in my closet for years just for self-defense in case I needed it. Right. But we we know now that it was useless up there. But anyway, so we were doing a this was a uh just after 9/11, we were doing a big show down in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was taking about 15 fighters down there and I brought I took down my backpack, forgot the gun was in there, started packing it up with protein powders and different things that I needed. Right. So, we're going through the Oakland airport. No. Here it goes. Here it goes. And it's loaded. It's loaded. Oh, no. All my fighters were not ahead of me. I was the last one. What year was this? When was 9/11? 2000 2001. So, it had been 2002. Had to have been 2002. Oh, getting out. Yeah, everyone's higher. Yeah, for sure. So, anyway, so I'm I'm I'm standing there uh, you know, while while they're looking at my backpack going back and forth with this computer, you know, thing that uh for about probably 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Finally, the they're looking at each other like, is this a test? Yeah. Thinking what the heck are they what the heck are they looking for? You know, so finally the guy calls over uh Oakland cop comes over. They're looking at it together now, right? And finally the cop pulls my bag out and says, "Sir, is this yours?" "Yes, sir. Come here. Come with me?" So we go over to the table. He says, "You want to tell me what's in here?" No, I didn't. I forgot it was in there. Honest to God, I forgot it was in the side pocket. You know, you want to tell me what's in here? I said, "Sir, I'm not sure what you're looking at." He goes, "Son, I'm going to ask you again. You want to tell me what's in here?" And I'm staring at the bag cuz I want to make the right, you know, answers, right? So I'm looking at the bag and I go, "I think I left my gun in that side pocket, didn't I?" He goes, "Come here." So we went over to the side there. All my students were were were looking over the rail at me, right? And he goes, "Listen, listen." He says, "Turn around. I'm gonna cuff you." And I go I go, "Is it is it possible?" I said, "Listen, I'm a good guy. Is it possible you can take me somewhere else and cuff me? I don't want my students to see me cuffed." And he looked at me and for some reason he trusted me and he goes, "Come with me." Yeah. Yeah. You do not want to arrest me right now. We'll do those. Anyway, went around the corner. He cuffed me, took me to the to the to the cell there at the station, you know, and then they they they did a background check on me, asked my story. I explained him what we were doing, why why the gun was in there, you know, and then he came back after about a half an hour and he says, you know, your story checks out and come to find out there was another cop there at the station that actually was currently training with my first teacher. Right? So, he recognized the names that I gave him and he says, "Here's what we're going to do." Normally, the procedure would be we take you downtown, book you, wait for a judge to uh to to post bail, right? And then we'd have to go through all that. But but since we checked you out, everything's cool, we're going to go ahead and let you go and uh so you can make your flight and then later when you come back, we'll we'll do a court date thing, you know, so on. And then and then stupid me, I said, "Yeah, cuz I'm naive. I didn't know about those things. I said, "Uh, so when can I pick up my gun?" I was unregistered. It was unregistered. He goes, "I'm sorry, but we're going to make a man man plate out of it. Manhole plate out of it. You know, we're going to melt it down." So, I ended up doing when I came back, I pleaded guilty because I didn't have anything to hide. You know, it was just a mistake. And I ended up doing um 6 months probation uh working at a kennel in Pleasanton uh at the community service. Community service, that kind of that was it. Not a big deal. That was a funny story. So, ever since then, uh that was my first experience with guns. And then my second experience, we were doing an MMA show and uh we had asked Fred if you would like to sponsor it and trade for some firearms. And that's when I received my first couple of revolver and and a le I picked up from where you left off. Yeah. And then I started shooting and then I just started really getting into it, you know. Then I'd come here and I'd pick up more guns, you know. It's a culture. It's a fun. Yeah, it's fun. It is. It really is fun. Absolutely. And and I consider it an extension of my martial arts. It is like saying they're intertwined. Well, everything you're learning and uh I mean, look, they're tools, right? These guns are tools. And depending on how we use them, we can misuse them or we can use them properly and everything that you're uh about with that discipline and that mindset and those uh characteristics of martial arts, they're applicable towards it. I love being an America, man. we have this ability uh to to do this and and to have there's no place like it. There really isn't. There really isn't a place like this, man, that I know of. You know, I mean, it it's a it's a huge um benefit. We may be going through a horrible time right now, but uh we'll get through it. Yeah. Well, it's good stuff, too, about these times. Those are the best kind. There really is. Oh, yeah, man. For sure.

All right, guys. Well, that was a great story, man. I think that's a great thing to end it on, man. That's awesome. America. Appreciate everybody uh for tuning in to this and thanks so much, Tom, man. We love you. Thanks for coming out. Thanks for having me. Appreciate you again. Appreciate you guys. Absolutely. All right. Bye, everybody. Heat [Music] up here.