Freedom Files Episode 6

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] And all right, guys. Welcome to Freedom Files episode six. I'm running out of my Spanish words, so I'm just gonna say six. Yeah, I was going to say I can't say. All right, there you go. Episode six.

Okay, today we're going to talk about a lot of things. We're going to go over um the new background fee increase that's starting July 1st. Yes, that's right, guys. If you didn't think state of California was greedy enough, they're going to be taking five times as much as they take. So, it's going to go from $1 to $5. We'll talk about that in a minute. They always surprise you. Spirit of the law, letter of the law. But first, I'm going to introduce our awesome guest. All right. Law enforcement Sergeant Phil Harris. All right. Was born and raised in this area. Okay. He was a high school athlete, combat arms marine, a family man, a seasoned law enforcement official, and a range shooting instructor. Welcome, Phil. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. And uh glad to be here. And once again, we're drinking Last Call beer. So Oh, yeah. Cheers, everybody.

All right, let me get right off the Oh, well, first let me show a gun. So, just like always, beginning of the episode, I show a cool gun. These are new from Colt. If everybody follows Colt, you know that Colt was just uh purchased um by another firearms organization. Yeah. CZ Arms. Yep. So, Colt's still making awesome firearms. Okay. And this one is called the Grizzly. And this one, let's see if this is the Grizzly. No, this is the Kodiak. Okay. So, they come out with two different variants right now. They're both on the California roster, so you can come on in and get them. The Kodiak is in 44 Magnum. The Grizzly is in 357. These are single double-action revolvers. Uh the Grizzly is in 357. Basically, it's a Python and an anaconda that's all decked out. So, they've got this cool smooth round cylinder. They've got a buttery like worked action to them. And they're ported as well. So, this is a great gun. This is available. Yeah, they're pretty smooth. Yeah, they are smooth. This is available at Fred's Firearms.

All right, let's talk about this ammunition background fee. Okay, just when you thought that your state was easing up on the aggression to the Second Amendment, think again. So, yes, California is planning to increase the cost of ammunition eligibility checks from $1 to $5 per authorization. To give you guys an idea of this, in 2019, California implemented a background check for ammunition as well, not just firearms. That ammunition check, if you're already a firearm owner, is $1. So, you come into a firearm store, you want to buy some ammunition, they have to run a background check on you. It's $1. After they approve you, which should be that day, it should be instant. Then you can walk out with that with a dollar extra. So, not only do they have the 11% excise tax on that ammunition, but now July 1st, they're taking the $1 and cranking it up 500% to $5. The proceeds increase the ammunition purchase fee in California is being driven by the California Department of Justice, which I wish would be abolished, but it's not. Uh they have proposed to raise the fee for background checks on ammunition from $1 to $5 per transaction. The DOJ the DOJ uh argues that the current $1 fee is insufficient to cover the cost of operating the ammunition authorization program. I have a good solution for that. Just get rid of that whole program. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What say you guys? It seems like that would work. Seems like that would work. It seems like it would work. Good. All right. So, keep in mind that's coming. Okay. Um, I can't stand it, but I stay in California. Got a lot of family here, got a lot of assets, property, everything else. Uh, so this is my state. I'm going to hope that something changes in '26 and keep my fingers crossed. But even with all this stuff, this state is a great place to be. Um, the funds for this is going to go to the gun violent prevention program. This is probably going to be a program that's a lot like our homeless program. Works real well where they just keep dumping money into it and uh they just mean dumping money into something besides that. Yeah, of course. It's a funnel thing. Yeah, it's funny how we can all get in trouble, you know, for evading taxes or um embezzling, but uh if you're a government official, they keep getting richer. You get to do it. Yeah. Um, it's supposed to reduce gun violence. Okay. The proponents argue that the tax will help reduce gun violence by funding programs that address the root cause of gun violence and improving school safety. You know, as a major crimes unit sergeant, what do you think about that? Um, you know, I I think the the termin I'm I'm so skeptical of of things uh like that because there's no true accountability, at least from the, you know, the the documents you have and the information that's available, it's so broad and vague. Like, what does that really mean? What is what do where are these funds really going to go? um if if you know on the on the uh side of you know thinking everything's going to go the way you hope it oh yeah that'd be great but unfortunately the way that politicians and and the way people you know like to talk smooth and everything I it just it makes everybody so skeptical so it's okay yeah sounds great but we'll we'll see what actually happens so the attorney general's office or Bont's office who's the head of the DOJ has said that the tax revenue can also also be used by law enforcement to seize firearms from individuals who are prohibited from owning them. Okay. Um I want to get into that too because when the DOJ comes into town, they usually have to utilize um the base of the law enforcement that has experience with well, I'm just going to say it, you know, like actual bad guys, you know what I mean? So um your interaction with DOJ agents, I know that they mean the best and I know that do good things and they make the community safer. I just don't feel that by having the people that are following the rules and regulations getting punished. Um, and that's what I think this is. You know, you're increasing your fees by 500%. You're punishing these people that are willing to follow these regulations. That's not okay. You know, you you give certain discounts and rebates to people um except for in this field and it's just it's a continuous let's pick on them, pick on them, pick on them, you know, um it's the only commodity that is protected by an amendment of the Constitution. So, that's where I see an issue with this. Well, it's a tool to kind of like squeeze the person that's do I want to buy one or not because of all this BS. So, it's trying to make people say, "Yeah, you know what? It's not worth it." That's what it it that's the goal. Yeah. And it and that's also happened in the CCW realm as well with SB2 CCW. Basically telling people like, "Hey, we're going to increase the cost. We're going to increase the time and you can't carry it in um two-thirds of the places that you could carry it before." I mean, if the state could, they would ban it outright. I don't know, dude. I don't know if they would or not. Here's why. Here's why. Because people keep paying it. People continue. Well, right. They keep paying, but that's what we keep saying. But also, they keep coming up with these new laws and making it harder and harder. It's been very aggressive lately. It has. I mean, if they wanted that money, they would make it easier. I mean, that's what I mean, makes sense to me. I mean, um, here's an argument for it. The critics include gun rights advocates argue that fee increases placed substantial financial burden on law-abiding gun owners who are already subject to other taxes and regulations. Um, it impacts the Second Amendment rights. I just kind of went over that. Some argue that the tax uh infringes on Second Amendment rights. I think the same thing. I think it does. Uh, and that the increased costs make it more difficult for citizens to exercise their right to own firearms uh for self-defense or recreation. And then uh the potential uh for unintended or I'm sorry um unintended consequences is uh there is concern that the increase may lead to unintended consequences such as increased illegal gun sales or black market activity. In other words, it's basically saying and this will occur, you know, like hey, way back in the day it wasn't illegal for, you know, Bob to sell Jim uh his neighbor's ammunition or whatever. Um, that all became recently in law in the last decade that became like, "Oh, you can't do that anymore. You have to go into a gun store and do it." Well, not many people do that. I think I brought up the uh before the point if you've ever sold a vehicle to someone, a used vehicle, and then you go into the DMV, the first thing that person asks you uh that's purchasing the vehicle off you is like, "Hey man, I know I'm giving you 10 G's right now, but can you just put that it's like 6 or 800 bucks, you um they go into the DMV so they don't have to pay that additional taxes which at one point in the past we all thought was unconstitutional because double taxation. So a lot of people do that. Well, guess what ladies and gents, you're all a felony if you do that. If if you practice that knowingly, you the the act or or or should I say the chance of you actually having consequences on that action are slim to none. So everybody's still doing it. So, this as far as ammunition taxation and ammunition uh rights to have to come in and bring all these documentations and do this background check and pay five times as much is probably going to cause that person to purchase it from their neighbor that goes to Nevada and comes back with a truckload of ammo. Yeah. And the the likelihood of them getting caught is next to none. Well, fine. But that does hurt the gun store industry. It hurts retail. And it hurts um at the end of the day it kind of hurts the community as well because I disagree with the excise taxation but we do have a local sales tax which is pretty manageable and that goes back into the state and the cities and by the way it doesn't go a lot back into the cities that you're in. Did you know that we only get like 10% of the sales tax in town when you buy something in Oakill? Really gets the majority of getting the majority of it because they're greedy nasty bums. That's why. So, anyway, you know where I stand on that. Um, all right. Tell us how you really feel. Yeah. I mean, a few more drinks. We'll take a shot or two and we'll get into it.

Um, okay. Let's talk about spirit of the law. Letter of the law. Um, we talk in our CCW classes about spirit of the law versus letter of the law being you get pulled over for whatever reason and uh or you have an encounter with law enforcement for whatever the reason is. I mean, it's not going to be a major crime reason, but like a minor crime reason like, oh, I'm speeding a little bit too fast or I didn't, you know, come to a complete stop at a stop sign or, you know, I'm out in public and um I have an encounter with law enforcement, whatever it is. Okay? And there's nobody that's harmed involved. So there doesn't have to be the letter of the law based because there's no actual victim. The victim would be the actual government or the state or the county and the law enforcement, you know, you're getting along great with them and they say, "I'll tell you what, man." Or, "I'll tell you what, ma'am. Um, you've been really respectful to me. Um, I really appreciate your uh compliance and um just next time, you know, try and slow it down or make sure you stop at a stop sign or be aware of your surroundings or whatever." And there's the spirit of the law. Okay. The letter of the law is a little different. Whereas, you know, hey, you violated this uh infraction or this crime. I'm going to write you a ticket or I this is how it's going to be. That's the letter of the law versus the spirit. Yeah. So in CCW uh carrying um their spirit of the law letter to the law as well, especially when it comes to all these laws that are pushed down your throat like the SB2 where you know don't carry it on your person if you're driving here and put it in a long container if you're doing this and don't be in this area. Um let me ask you as a law enforcement official that deals with major and minor crimes in our community. Tell me about your experiences with CCW carriers and tell me um how you would want them to present that they are a CCW carrier to you or would you? Yeah. So, so definitely um well, let let me back up a little bit just so so everybody knows my uh kind of my history and I I I've worked uh several different assignments. I've been in law enforcement for going up on 13 years now. I know, right? Uh I've worked patrol. I've worked uh narcotics, I've worked gangs, and now I am uh major crimes. So, violent crimes basically is is a better way to put it. So, kidnapping, robbery, homicide, those type of things. So, I have a decent amount of experience in in several different areas. Um, but uh what I would prefer in a situation like like you were describing like a traffic stop, right? That's most people's uh I'd say that's the most common interaction with law enforcement, right? Is going to be like a traffic stop. First of all, just so everybody out there knows, and I'm sure you already do, but the hands are are very important to to a law enforcement officer. So, keeping your hands visible, usually just keeping them on the wheel, right? And then just making eye contact with the deputy or officer that's pulling you over and just letting them know when is when appropriate, right? Like I'm sure when they stop you, say, you know, I'm uh Deputy Harris, I stopped you because you ran that stop sign back there. Um, and then that would be an opening for you. Okay, I understand. Just so you know, I have a firearm. And then wherever you have it on your hip, in your center console, in your glove box, wherever you happen to be carrying that firearm at that time, without reaching, without pointing, without gesturing, just notifying them verbally and only verbally that this I have a firearm. And from there, that deputy or officer will make a decision on how they handle that situation. It's going to highly depend on why you were stopped in the first place. You're going to get a very different reaction if you were stopped for a traffic violation. So, speeding or a stop sign or you didn't turn your turn signal on or something like that as opposed to if you just happen to match the description of somebody that just robbed a liquor store, right? Or you're evading. Yeah. You know, you're you're going to get drawn down on no matter what. You're going to get a different reaction. So, it just all depends and just whatever you do, whatever the deputy or officer tells you to do, just do that thing. Whatever it is, if they tell you to step out of the car, step out of the car. If they tell you to put one hand on top of your head, put one hand on top of your head. If they tell you to follow Fred's firearms uh on social media, then you should probably just do that. Do that. But what whatever they happen to say to do, just do. And it, like I said, I I it just depends on I mean, even if they don't tell you that, they probably meant it anyway. Yeah. So, just do it. You should probably like and subscribe. Like, subscribe, leave positive comments. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, like it it's going to depend on the reason you were stopped and what's going on as to what the directions are from that officer or deputy. So, just let them know verbally. Don't point, gesture, reach, you know, don't do one of these. Hey, I got a gun. You know, that would that wouldn't be a good idea. No, that would be bad. Let them know verbally and then just do whatever they happen to say from there and then you'll deal with it. Yeah, very good. Very good. Have you um run into any CCW carriers in your experience? Can you tell us about any of those experiences? I have. So, uh the first experience that comes to mind was probably man, this is probably six, seven years ago, maybe longer. Um I was driving, I was not on a call for service. I was not dispatched anywhere. I was just driving in Modesto actually and came across a traffic collision that had just occurred like probably 10, 15 seconds before I came upon that area. So I was on duty, turn my lights on, immediately pull over, block traffic, and then check on the occupants of the two vehicles that were involved. The first vehicle I came to, uh it was a male, and he uh was kind of out of it a little bit. He got kind of got knocked on the head. I think he was just a little dazed and it was no major injuries, you know, nothing super serious or anything, but uh maybe a light concussion or something like that. But he he told me, good on him. Very impressive for him to have this kind of train of thought and to be thinking about this. But obviously I was in uniform and he immediately the first thing, you know, he says to me, come up to him, hey man, are you okay? And he goes, hey, I have my gun in my in the door. You know the little I don't know what that area is called. Yeah, cubby. He's like, "I have my gun right there." I go, "Okay, man. Thanks. Thank you for letting me know. Are you okay?" "Yeah, I think I'm okay." "All right, cool." I immediately grab the gun. It was loaded. Unload it and I go put it in my patrol car. And the reason I did that specifically is because I could tell he was a little out of it. Right. You never know what someone's mental state Yeah. Exactly. What someone's mental state's going to be. And I don't want, you know, every call I go to, every interaction I have with the public, there's a gun involved because I have a gun on me. If I can take another gun out of the situation when it's an unpredictable situation, like this gentleman who was just in a traffic accident and kind of had his bell run, I'm going to take that gun out. You're just making the environment safe for that moment. Exactly. Trying to make it as safe as possible. He already had some injuries from this traffic accident. Trying to get this gun out of the mix. Okay, the gun's out of the mix. It's in my patrol car, it's away and then we can move on from there. So, that's a situation, you know, where I've come across it. There's also been other situations, call for service. Um, specifically, I remember a vehicle burglary call I had. Someone was parked. Um, I was working in I won't even say the name of the town, but little a town on the west side of our county. Um, there was a vehicle burglary. Uh, responded to that. Somebody got their window broken, some stuff stolen out of there. And when I got there, the citizen told me, "Hey, just so you know, I have a CCW on me." Said, "Okay, cool." And just let him be. I didn't disarm him. I didn't say, "Okay, you need to turn around and, you know, put your hands on top of your head and do all this stuff." That was just the way I handled it personally. This was a victim of a crime. He was a victim of a property crime. There was no need for me to disarm him at that time. But that's dependent upon each officer or deputy that you come across how they are going to react. The situation. Yeah. Situation dictates it always. Have you ever had a call that you had to respond to involving a CCW that had to brandish or had to use their firearm? I have. I have. Uh and and before we go any any further here, just for everybody out there watching, um I'm not a lawyer. I am not offering legal advice in any way, shape or form. These are all my own opinions and experiences. Um, also my opinions and experiences do not represent the department that I work for in any shape or form. So these are only my own opinions. Uh, this is not legal advice. If you want legal advice, seek an attorney and talk to them regard to the department. Nope. Does not reflect. This is on me. Don't don't come at us saying, "Oh, he said to do that." Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Yeah. Okay. So, tell me about the experience then with the with the brandishing or the use. Yeah. So, really to to to go into that um the the way So, I I guess we could start with kind of what somebody would experience, right? What somebody would would go through if you ended up having to use a firearm, whether you're at your house or in a public setting. It it really it won't change too much. Um, but there I'll kind of explain what that's going to look like, right? So, if you end up using your firearm, obviously you can expect a heavy police presence, especially if somebody was actually shot. So, expect lights and sirens, cops to be showing up. Um, you are likely, very likely going to have a gun drawn and pointed at you from a law enforcement officer. You have to think from a law enforcement officer's perspective. We are getting dispatched to a call. You know, one man shot another man. Sometimes that's all we have. Sometimes we have zero circumstance, especially Excuse me. If an outside person is the one that called, oh, you know, I was driving down the street and I saw this guy shoot this other guy. We have no idea if it's a self-defense situation, if this is a targeted shooting, if this was a murder, you know, if this was some lover's quarrel. We have zero context sometimes. All we know is what guy A shot guy B. That's it. That's all we know. Sometimes, so you have to understand, we'll we'll show up likely will be guns in your face. You will be disarmed. You will likely be handcuffed, be placed into the back seat of a patrol vehicle. Um, you can expect, especially if somebody dies, if you if somebody is shot and then somebody dies from being shot, you can expect a plethora of things to be taken as evidence. DNA swabs, your cell phone, the gun itself, uh any surveillance footage. If you happen to be at your house and you have surveillance cameras, like a lot of people do, there is going to be search warrants written to recover that surveillance footage. Uh there will likely be a search warrant written for your home and vehicles and you're going to have detectives searching through your home and your vehicles and your cell phone and your computer and pretty much everything you have to try to figure out exactly what happened. Um so all that is going to happen. They're going to speak to neighbors or any witnesses, anybody that was close in the area. All that is going to be, you know, all all of those avenues are going to be gone down by the responding deputies, officers or detectives. And this is um this is protocol that would take place not just in the home, but would this take place also if someone was a carrier out in public somewhere? Yes, exact none of that would change. Everything would be would be the same. The the the response to somebody being shot. Now, if if the O4 weapon is only brandished and maybe not actually discharged, at least at the agency I work for in the area we are in currently, you're likely not going to have a detective response for a brandishing alone of, you know, let me give you an example real fast and you can kind of play on that. Um, you're in a area where business hours are pretty much closed. Let's say night, maybe we're in a parking lot or on a street somewhere. You're trying to get to your car. Or hooded individual approaches you in an aggressive manner. You tell them to get back. They don't do so. You brandish your CCW. They run off. As a result, you've been told by Fred's Firearms and the other places maybe you've taken your uh training from to always if there's an incident any means. Make a report about it. You make the report. Officer shows up and then what? So yeah, in that instance, that specific instance, you're probably going to get one, maybe two deputies or officers responding to that. You're not going to have a detective response for something like that. Most likely, I can't speak for, you know, every agency out there. And it's most likely going to be a little bit more of a simple investigation, getting statements from you, trying to locate this person that tried to rob you or or do whatever, get some surveillance footage, and it's going to be a lot lower level of an investigation. Yeah. It's a CYA basically. So, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Just trying to figure out exactly what happened, document this, and if we can find this person that attempted to rob you or assault you, whatever the the case may be, then you know, get some surveillance footage, identify this person, and then go over there and seek them out. But yeah, what I was talking about earlier was more of a extreme response, I guess, would be to somebody actually shot or somebody shot and that did eventually, you know, expire or die. Um, that's kind of the the the situation that you'd be experiencing uh for that. Um, a a big topic is interviews as well because you're you know, once you are detained, you know, you are detained by law enforcement, you have shot somebody, it's possibly a crime. You know, detectives are going to want to speak with you. Now again, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not offering any legal advice. The decision to give a voluntary statement is going to be very dependent upon you and exactly what happened. There are pros to giving a statement and there are cons to giving a statement. So, it's it's very it's a very fluid situation and it it really depends on in the last episode um episode 5, we spoke about legal defense and insurance for CCW carriers and we talked about the difference of the two and there's really only in California a legal defense fund that people buy into. For this situation that you're talking about, um what do you think about the legal defense funds? Legal defense fund. I mean, you know, I I I see the opportunity for a benefit that there there possibly could be a benefit, but in reality, if I guess this is this is thinking uh ideologically, right? If you did everything you were supposed to do and you didn't do anything wrong, you would have no use for an attorney, right? But there always are instances of unjust, you know, prosecution of people for maybe they did everything right and you have an overzealous district attorney or or whatever it is. So I I trying to make a statement. Yeah, I see the there is an opportunity there for it to pay off. Me personally, that's not something I would endorse like some sort of legal defense fund. Um, but I mean, who am I? I don't know. Sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah. It's an interesting topic uh that we get asked all the time and I I have not yet endorsed a legal defense fund. Um, you know that I let people go out there and get it themselves. Uh, believe it or not, Mike and I have gotten a couple emails to endorse them for monetary reasons and we've decided not to do so. We've spoken with a lot of experts in the field for insurance and we just kind of leave that up to the um student if they want to do it. Like I said, you know, last episode we had some people on here that were talking that it kind of gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, $20, $30 a month. I mean, it's a piece of mind. It's a piece of mind, you know. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Read your fine print and and uh make sure you understand it before you do it. Um, anything else you want to touch on before I Yeah. Yeah. A couple other things. Um, so the interview or to not get interviewed, right? That that like we kind of touched on that for a second and then we kind of moved on. But I just want to say like if you are in a self-defense type situation, the the choice to interview is a big one if you're going to agree, right? Because you're going to get your Miranda rights and you have you're not being forced to talk. So you can you can answer the interview questions with a detective or not. And part of that, one thing you have to think about is there are some things that only you will know. You know, you as the person that that used the the firearm, there are some things that only you will know. And there those things may not be able to be determined from evidence. Like if you felt fear, detectives might not be able to determine that unless you say, "Yes, I was scared." Right? So those are some things to consider. But you could also there's another option. You can give an interview with your attorney present if your attorney agrees to that. So it it's not a either you do it now or you do it never. You you can always if you want to if you want to give a statement uh to to detectives that's something that you can do at a later date. You know, it's it really is dependent. Look at my notes here real quick. I have a couple other points. Um, now at the end of this investigation, right, and by the end I mean like the end of the day type of thing. Um, there's a couple different options that can happen. You're you're most likely going to be detained, right? You may be worst case scenario, right, would be you are arrested. You are arrested and booked into jail by whatever law enforcement agency is investigating this incident. You can be arrested, but you can also not be charged by the district attorney's office. Okay? So, arrested, DA's office doesn't decide to press charges to actually file charges on you. You will be released. There's also a flip side to that coin, though. You may not be arrested at the time because the law enforcement officials, the detectives investigating this crime, say, "You know what? Yeah, we looked at all this. We're not going to arrest uh him at this time for for shooting this person. And we think it was justified." They write everything up, send it off to the DA's office. The DA's office may have a different opinion. They may say, you know what, we think, you know, Jon Jones over here did commit this crime. Uh, he should not have shot this person. We don't think it was justified and we are going to press charges on him and then you could get a warrant issued for your arrest. Um, with murder, straight up murder, you tried to kill somebody and you wanted to kill them and you did do that. There is no statute of limitations forever. Arrived forever. Remember that. And the responsibility of carrying a firearm. With with manslaughter though, with manslaughter, there is a statute of limitations. There are several different versions of manslaughter. Those statute of limitations go from three years up to six years. So it depends on exactly what happened. We would need a whole another episode to talk about the different versions of manslaughter, but there is anywhere between three and six years of statute of limitations. And what statute of limitations means for anybody out there that that doesn't know is basically let's say the year 2020 something happened. You ended up having to shoot somebody for whatever reason. Statute of limitations is how long after the fact you could still be arrested and tried for that crime. So if it's a three-year statute of limitations and it happened in January 1st of 2020, they would have until January 1st, 2023 to try you for that expires after a certain amount of time. Yes. Exactly. It's kind of like it's a lot. Yeah. It's a lot to soak in. It really is. This is this is the thing where you know people in California they say you know 16 hours is too long. Well, I mean, some of the stuff that Philip's talking about right now we don't go over in CCW. We go over some of the four accounts to keep you out of trouble because it would be like an academy. I mean, it really would. It would be a long time. So it's it's things that you know as a carrier as a as a gun person you know understand this kind of thing if you're towing it. It's a big responsibility. I do want to talk about another responsibility that a lot of people don't think about. We go out to the range on a regular basis. We talk about insurance. Real insurance would be um protecting yourself at all times. U when I a little bit of sports I did when I was younger, you know, um I actually got um 6 months uh TAD service in the Marine Corps Camp Pendleton. I got to get on the boxing team and it was great. And um I had a little bit of experience when I was early in high school doing that kind of stuff. So one of the main rules that I remember the rest of my life is protect yourself at all times. Protect yourself at all times. Okay. Okay, so that's kind of what we're talking about right now. And I want to talk about Top Safety Solutions, protecting yourself at all times. Um, I'm going to let Philip talk about this because he is one of the founders of this company and it's very important and it's not expensive to get into. And um, a lot of people that come out to the range with us, you know, Mike or I will ask them who here has a a med kit and it's the paramedics, it's the firefighters that come out that have it because they understand the importance. The people that have other types of jobs equally as important. However, they're just not emergency response jobs. Most of them don't have that kind of thing. Uh, so why don't you talk a little bit about Top Safety? Yeah. So, uh I'll do a super abbreviated kind of history of TOP. So, uh me and two other guys, I don't know if we mentioned it. I'm part of our our SWAT team for for my department, but me and two other guys who actually aren't part of the SWAT team anymore just cuz they've kind of moved on for things in their lives. One of them doesn't even work for us anymore. He's actually retired now. Uh, but we started a this company, TOP Safety, and TOP is an acronym. T O P. T is for tourniquet, O is for occlusive dressing, and P is for packing. As you can see our little guy here, he's got different uh colors on his uh, you know, outline here. The red area is for tourniquets where you would put a tourniquet if you have an injury. Blue is for the occlusive dressing and the green is for the packing. That's kind of where we got the the term top. And it's this kit here. We tried to make it color coordinated. So red here, arms and legs. And then you got the red here, you know that you need to use a tourniquet. Green is for packing. You can see this the junction wound area. Green is for you can pack a wound. And then O for occlusive dressing right in that area here. And that's where you would use an occlusive dressing. It's three of the most common injuries that somebody would sustain with a gunshot wound. Um, it's an acronym we used on the SWAT team to, you know, quickly remember, you know, if somebody's injured, what do we do? Um, we we realized there was a need for this. We kind of put it into packaging and to make it as simple as possible for people and then we we created this product. Um, our website is topthebleleed.com to oppleed.com. So think of stop the bleed but say top the bleed. Top Safety Solutions. So topthebleleed.com. Take out the s. Yeah, exactly. Take out the s. Um, yeah, this is something we started. We we think it's a great tool. Anybody can use it. We put very simple instructions here on the back so you can kind of open this up. The idea is, you know, you you recognize, okay, the injuries here, you get the correct tool, and then you kind of open this up like a book, lay it flat, and then you can read the directions. Okay, I'm going to do this, and then you you do whatever you need to. There's also uh some tutorials and introduction and educational videos that they do at Top Safety uh which are really good to kind of go over that stuff. You know, if you're um a husband and wife or a group of people that are CCW carriers or just gun enthusiasts, it's always good to understand a tourniquet. Um, it's good to have that on your person while you're on the range. And look, we're going to knock on wood right now because we don't want anything to ever happen. And the policies that are set forth from my agency um have been very successful without having any kind of uh injuries like that. But we have had negligent discharges in the past. Um, and this would have been a great tool. Um, the the guys that I use are all either uh current or former uh law enforcement. So they were able to just pick it up like that. Um, correct a situation and make sure that there was no major injury or death. Thank God. Um, but I recommend this kind of stuff to keep in your car. Even if you're not a gun uh person, you know, um, keep it in the house. Um, you know, honestly, people should have these kind of things, man. I mean, these are the kind of things that, uh, keep the heart, the blood flowing. It does. It saves lives. So, definitely. I know that, uh, the team got big into it after an unfortunate accident that happened during sniper training a long time ago. Yeah. Not mentioning any names, but you know, without that, he wouldn't be here today. 100%. Yeah, 100%. So, this is a great thing. Um, like you said, um, topthebleleed.com and order yours and uh, get it out there because it's uh, for a for a good price, this thing will last you forever. I keep one in my shooting range kit. I keep a couple of them here in the shop. Um, I even keep one in my vehicle uh, when I'm driving around and it's during incidents like that. I mean, it's uh like I people say, when the feces hits the oscillator, you know, your your your mind's racing. Even in law enforcement, we you know, it's when you're in the [ __ ] your mind is racing and stuff like that. It's the term, you know, keep it simple, stupid, and it's it's laid out for you. So, you can, you know, go through that easily. 100%. Yeah. Okay. Try to make it as simple as we could. Yeah. And you guys did a great job. I love it. Absolutely.

Um, let's shift gears. Jimmy, I want you to tell me a little bit about checker ring. Oh, uh, okay. We'll do it on this one. Uh, this right here is a 1911 Springfield frame that, uh, I checkered. Usually I do hand checkering. I've had a checkering fixture for the mill for quite a while. I just haven't used it. Uh, and I used it, was it just the other day for the first time? It's uh called the color checkering fixture and we did this one is 25 lines per inch. It uh it's it's amazing. It feels nice. I held it earlier. Yeah, it it is I like it. It is completely different. I mean it it uh speeds up the process, too. The hand checkering takes about close to 8 hours. That an hour and a half if someone brought you and dropped off because I know you already have um, you know, firearms that you're in the middle of right now that you don't want to have set aside. Yeah. Uh, but if somebody came in and they dropped one off, how long do you think it would take to do a checkering job like that? If you know if they're if their turn was up uh after setup, I would say uh for the job maybe setting the because you got to put the fixture in the mill and set it up. I would say probably about two hours. Two hours. But that would be putting So that would be not necessarily the same day. Two hours. No, no, no, no. That that's when their turn hit up and you know and getting it in in the rope. But yeah. Do you think that something like that that if you're like would you do something like that if it was hey I've got three of these guys that dropped off these firearms and everything else. I know I've got all this other stuff that's going to take a long time. Let me take a half day or maybe a day to get these three firearms done. Do you think that you might be able to turn something over in a couple weeks? Yeah, because that fixture, say if there was three and each one of them wanted, you know, the same 125 lines per inch or whatever, uh, that fixture, which I haven't tried it yet, but it is supposed to be repeatable where I put it, you know, I put it in the fixture and I, uh, going to I do the verticals first. I cut the verticals, take this one out, put the other one on, do the verticals, do the verticals on the other one. Then I flip the fixture up and then cut the radials on it. You know, you know, just keep rotating. Take this one out, put the next one in. It's supposed to be like as soon as you zero that fixture in there, it's supposed to be in place to where all you'd have to do is change the frame and you get the same, you know, precision on it. Now, I noticed that you've got a few tools that are up on the table. Are those tools for checkering? No. No, it's just just a few different tools. We got calipers here. These are There's a lot more tools. Well, back at the my bench, there's Yeah. Oh, I know. Several thousand thousands of dollars in 1911 tools, but these are just a few things that uh you could do at home. You could do a lot of stuff. Not the checkering, but you could do a lot of stuff. What What would you say though, Jimmy, if somebody is wanting to get started as a hobbyist and an enthusiast, like what would be the first tool out of the ones on the table that you would encourage them to get? Calipers, a mic. You don't have to get the digital. I just like the digital. And you know, Bill keeps getting mad at me. Stop with that digital [ __ ]. But I like old school. You want the dial. He likes the digital. I like the digital myself. It just tells me the numbers. I don't have to guess. Yeah. So, these are calipers. They're That's a veneer, correct? Yeah. No, this is the digital, but is this a digital veneer? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, they're the calipers. And I again, I like the digital ones. You want to get a decent ones. There's, you know, you can buy ones for $11. They're they're good. But if you're wanting to do it, you know, if you're just a hobbyist and you're doing your stuff at home, the $11 the cheap ones is fine. But if you're really serious into it, you want to spend the money to get the good ones, the, you know, the correct ones. Has a lot of pretty cool stuff, too, man. Where they've got like some used uh Japanese or American made, which are the more expensive ones. Exactly. And that's the thing. You can use you can buy a eBay used Matoya Japanese one. It's still it's still um certified as well. Yeah, they're really good. Yeah. And they'll be about a quarter the cost of what they normally. You get a good uh, you know, Japanese or American made one, you're going to spend about $180 to $250 on one. Yeah, that was about $200. That one, this one was a little

More about 270. Uh, this is the mic digital midatoya. I love midto. Yeah. Yeah. The full name micro. Yeah. Yeah. And just some files. You you want a hammer? I got this. This is the this soft. That's brand new, huh? Yeah, he just bought. I went through several of them. Yeah, I went through several of them. Uh, they they. Yeah, you you go through them a lot. Uh, you always want uh, I brought this out because I love the Sharpies. You can use dyum or the Sharpies. So that way if you're fitting something, you mark it and you when you put it in, you fit it and it kind of rubs the area off that it's that it's rubbing against. You know where to file. And files. So if you're starting, you want to get some calipers, mic, a hammer, and files. Where would be a good place to get a starter kit like that? Uh, God, I hate going corporate, but uh, Brown L's. Brown L's would be a good one. Uh, Midway, they're they're good, but Midway for some reason takes forever. You order something and I don't care if you put rush next day to be there in a month. I've had mixed experiences with them. Yeah, it Brown L's is they're usually pretty good. They're pretty quick. Uh, they still they're not that actually nowhere is next day. A lot of these tools as well, um, like Sterit, you can get a lot of these tools. The automotive industry uses a lot of these tools as well. Oh, yeah. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So, what else you want to talk about? You had some other subjects, didn't you? Um, so the only the only other thing uh I had I had a kind of little bullet point here that it was really how to safeguard yourself um if you end up having to use your CCW or or a firearm, even if it's at your home, if it's not out in public, you know. um Some things that I don't think does it doesn't get brought up. Now, if you were in a CCW class with me, I know I brought it up cuz it it's something that I think is very important. Um, but, uh, I don't know if this gets brought up in all the classes. So, anybody out there who has attended a CCW class from a different vendor or maybe hasn't been to a CCW class yet and some things you they don't think about. So, um, one thing people have to understand is you can really only use a firearm or or inly any weapon that is possible of you know, bodily harm or death. You can really only use that in defense of another human life. And what does not count and a lot of people think it does count is animals. So if somebody is harming or trying to kill, the most common thing is like a dog, like your own dog. A a dog in California and federal law is only property. A dog, no matter how nice, how expensive, how much you love your dog, will never ever ever ever ever equal a human life. That's an interesting point. Ever. Yeah. Because a lot of us treat our dogs like kids, you know. Um, I mean, we have all the kids home right now, right? But uh, I mean, my wife and I are empty nesters now, so the kids are all grown and we've got grandkids and they're staying over the weekend and they're going to go home and we'll be home alone and we've got our little Phoebe, our little Jack Russell Terrier and she's great. She's like our new little kid. But yeah, you're absolutely right. You know, not a lot of people think about that. Um, we do mention the human life in RCCW, but we don't get into detail about animals because he's absolutely right. You cannot defend your animal um with a CCW firearm legally. You know, you can't smoke a person. No, you're trying to be blunt. If somebody is killing your dog, you cannot kill that person. Now, how about another dog? Yes, to be very blunt to try and stop them. You can. But if somebody is, doesn't matter really what they're doing to your dog, chopping its head off with a samurai sword. If you we can get really detailed. If you shoot that person, you are probably going to jail if if if you do that. So just just be just understand a an animal is considered property. So that that that that is something another dog attacking your dog. Now another dog again, it's property, you know. So, absolutely. So, can you defend your property against property? Sure you can. You can. And here's the deal. If a dog if a dog is attacking you or if a dog is attacking any of your property, absolutely you can. Remember that everybody when you're letting your dog off your leash, if they run over in your neighbor's yard and they do something stupid and your neighbor smokes it or something, your neighbor's going to get away with it. And I know some people probably think, why would someone shoot a person to protect their dog? It's happened. Also, it has happened.

So, the the two most common things uh that I would get or I have gotten as an instructor for a CCW class is dogs. That's a big one. And cars. And what I mean by cars is someone's breaking into your car. If if your car is parked in front of your house and somebody's breaking into your car, has nothing to do with your house. They're not coming into your house. They're not trying to kick your door down. There is nothing in your car unless there is a person in there. Correct. Like a child they're trying to kidnap or something. You shouldn't be leaving your kid unattended. Nothing in your car that is worth as much as a human life. Correct. No matter what. Even if that human life is a tweaker piece of crap that had a bath in a month and is on 10 million. It could be $10 million in cash. Does not matter. A human life is worth more than that. Correct. According to the federal to defend life, do not someone kill people over property, you only defend yourself with human life. You're absolutely right. It is a very very bad thing. Right. So those were two points I wanted to make. The other the couple other things um especially with kind of macho like strong guys like oh yeah, I'm not scared of anything. Nothing scares me. Okay. If nothing scares you, you can never shoot anybody ever. Yeah. Because you have to be in fear for your life or others. You have to be in fear for your life or others. So if you are never scared, you can never use a firearm. So the reason I bring that up, that's a great point, man. That really is part in there. Fear life. Absolutely. Fear for your life is the only way. Yeah. And if you are a big macho guy and you're going to go to people, kick anybody's ass or whatever, well, you don't need a gun then. You already Exactly. You can already overtake people with firearms and kick their butt and everything else. Yeah. Well, because it's the fear for your life or someone else's life. So, and if you're the most badass strong dude, okay, then why do you have a gun? You can never shoot anybody ever if you if you are never scared of anything, right? So, just just be realistic, right? Yeah. So, you're saying I got to give up my gun? Yes, you do. That's a tough one. I know you've been I mean look at those pipes, right? Uh, no, but in reality, right, like yes, everyone's the tough guy. Everybody wants to be strong for their family and everything, but when it comes down to it, if you do end up having to use your firearm in defense of yourself or somebody else, you just need to be honest. If you decide to give that interview to the detectives, you need to be honest. Say, "Yeah, I was scared. I thought that person was going to kill me. Yes. I thought that person was going to kill my wife. It's not the time to act macho. Daughter. Exactly. Why did you shoot that guy running down the hallway in his back? He was going into my daughter's room and I thought he was going to kill my daughter. 100%. So you you need to be honest and say yes, I was scared. Right. So saying, "Oh, nothing scares me" cuz I I've taught tons of CCW classes, hundreds, if not thousands of students, and that's a question I would ask. Are you scared of anything? No, nothing scares me. Okay, might as well leave then if nothing scares you because there's no reason for you to have a gun, right? So, it was just something I would do to kind of put people in the in the right frame of mind.

And the the last point I want to bring up and last thing I want I want to say is create witnesses and give warnings. And what I mean by that is if you have somebody breaking into your house or challenging you to a fight in the middle of the street or on the sidewalk, I want people out there to scream as loud as they can. Stop. I have a gun. Stop. I have a gun. I don't want to shoot you. If you keep coming at me, I will shoot you. I'm scared of you. I I will defend myself. You know, creates witnesses. It creates even if somebody doesn't see what happened, right? Maybe they're around a corner. Maybe they're inside a business. They didn't into that practice. I didn't I had no idea what happened. I didn't see. Well, you know what? I did hear a guy yelling like, "Stop. Stop. I have a gun." Or something like that. But that is a good. I have no idea what happened. I don't know. I just heard some people yelling and I heard something about I have a gun, whatever. Right. It at the moment people think, "Oh, that doesn't mean anything." The the law enforcement officer and the detective in me is like, "No, that's huge." He did warn the guy. Big deal. He told him, "Hey, stop. I have a gun." And he kept coming. Yeah. Right. That's a very big deal for for those of you out there that are carrying a firearm. Um, if you do that, you create witnesses. Yes. You create a defense for yourself, right? Give warning. If the opportunity presents itself, and the opportunity most likely is going to present itself, you are absolutely right. Give warning. Give warning and be as loud as you can. create witnesses because in my experience and I know probably a quarter mile to a half mile radius every business every house doors are going to get knocked on. Hey, did you hear anything? Did you see anything? Do you have surveillance footage? Right. Even if you don't hear it yourself, oh, you know, I don't know. I got cameras in the backyard, though. And maybe the cameras are going to pick up the audio of you yelling, "Hey, stop. I have a gun. I don't want to shoot you. Stop." You know, stop. Those are the things that can exonerate you. Oh, stacking evidence in your corner. Exactly right. 100%. 100%. No, I love it, man. Those are great points. Yeah, that is really good. Um, you guys got anything else? I got a little bit of beer left that I'm going to finish real quick. All right, let's finish up that beer. I think it's a good time to wrap it up. I want to thank everybody for tuning in. Episode six. Stay tuned for episodes seven and eight. All right, guys. Peace. See you guys. Bye, everybody. Thank you. [Music]