Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 114

Episode Date: July 15, 2022

Rapid Fire Q and A to finish off the week: 1. As a teacher, how do I teach our youth about the history of our country, specifically issues like the treatment of Native Americans and slavery without them feeling disgraced and unwilling to engage in our political process 2. What is the best round and pistol for CCW, in your experience 3. Why in the hell would you get married more than once 4. What episodes have I enjoyed creating the most, which ones were the most difficult or frustrating Enjoy

Well, damn, we are back. Well, I'm back. Probably doesn't feel like it's been long for anybody listening or watching this because I've been posting episodes. But I was on the road for nearly two weeks and had to record a bunch of stuff before I left. So first time back in the studio in a while. It's Friday. You know what that means is going to be Q&A. If you listen to the podcast, you know who the podcast is brought to you by, Black Rifle Coffee.

If you want coffee that doesn't suck, you know where to go to find it. It's black rifle coffee.com. And if you're looking for anything, even in the podcast, you know, the peripheral coffee space, whether it be mugs to drink your coffee in, a chemex to make your coffee through, instant, you know the deal, t-shirts, hats, all the metaphorical ways that you could fly the flag. That's where you go, blackwifle coffee.com. And you'll also be supporting an awesome brand and awesome people that are behind the brand and good friends of mine. So that is that. Shall we get into this? I think we should. Let's do this. Full Out of Friday, number 140.

Here we go. I'm looking at danger close now. Konichua, everybody, on this fine Friday. Here we are. Four questions for today. I'm going to do my best to earn my place. If you're watching this, you can see me wearing the new shirt that I just had made, which is my, you know what?

It's absolutely my favorite shirt that I've made so far. Super simple, not easy to do. Yeah, we can talk about that later because one of the questions ties into it just a little bit. So here we go. Four questions number one. I am a retired senior chief, Massford Arms, going into teaching as a second career. For those of you not familiar with the military ranks, a senior chief is an E8 in the United States Navy. E9 being the highest you can go. There is no E10 in the Navy or any other military branch, and sometimes E9s forget about that. But that's a topic for a different question. I plan on teaching history at the high school level in the public

school system in California. With the current political climate around education, do you have any advice on how to actually represent history to students in a truthful manner that will inspire them to make our country a better place to live, not burn it to the ground? There are things that I'm going to teach, especially concerning slavery and what happened with Native Americans, that I want to relay in an honest manner with empathy and tact, but I don't want to leave students feeling disgraced about their country and turned off from engaging in the process. What would you want to see out of a history teacher for your kids? Asking as a fellow father.

I love this question. And it's, I'd say, relatively unique along the spectrum of questions that I have received, which is why I picked it. And for whatever reason, I'm not a history expert, by the way. but for whatever reason I do hear people talking about whether or not I was whether or not the correct term yeah I guess whether or not or how we should teach the history of this country should we round the edges on certain things should we be blunt and upfront about certain things and where I land on all of this and where I think I land on just about every issue is that it is that it. If you're going to, looking at this from the perspective of being a father and to go to what you were asking at the end of, from a fellow father, what would I look to you from a history teacher? The history of this country, we have some black marks, some black stains for sure, and things that we absolutely should not have done that looked at through the rearview mirror are idiotic and inexcusable, in my opinion. even before slavery, which is one of the issues that you brought up and treatment of Native Americans, let's look at women's right to vote.

In the rearview mirror, why in the fuck were women not just given the right to vote when men were given the right to vote, right? The answer to that probably has something to do with the times or the context or society at that point in time. But in the rearview mirror, we look like a bunch of idiots. Now, we can obviously go farther back. I would say that slavery and treatment of the Native Americans are by far two of the darkest marks of our country. But I don't know necessarily when you talk about slavery as an example. Through the context and optic of the modern era, for me as a person, I can't get my head to a place. where I could even figure out how slavery would have been something that people would have been okay with. Oh, I just own these other human beings and they do my bidding.

It's like, as a person, I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? That is one of the most idiotic concepts that I've ever heard of. But it's not unique to the United States. I'd actually be surprised if you could find in the history of human species a country that was not in some way, shape, or form. built or touched through slavery, whether their economy relied upon it for a certain degree, whether it was part of their formation as a country or a nation as well. And that is not to excuse it in any way, shape, or form. Because in my opinion, slavery is completely and utterly inexcusable. But I think the issue of slavery speaks far more to the human species than it

does to the United States of America. Human beings are, some are the worst things that I have ever encountered on earth, far more dangerous than any animal in the wild. And then some human beings are like this fucking beacon of light that is so full of inspiration and motivation that it changes who I am as a person because I want to be better because of the example that they said. So there's a spectrum, of course. But by not telling the truth about what we have done as human beings to other human beings throughout our evolution from, and again, this is not to get into a debate whether or not it's, you know, a religious debate

versus evolution. I feel like it's pretty safe to say we have been on the planet for a long time. And we have evolved in the period of time that we have been on the planet. good example would be the in this country the abolishment of slavery, you know, women being granted the right to vote, which like I said the beginning is to me just this asinine concept that it was not granted to begin with looking in the rear view mirror, but I digress. By not talking about those things as human beings, by not being honest about those things as human beings, I don't think there is any way to avoid making those mistakes in the future. And maybe not those exact mistakes, but if we're not honest about the potential horrendous

nature of human beings to other human beings, I think it lends us towards potentially going to a place where those behaviors, maybe not those specific behaviors, but those type of things can repeat themselves. I would never want young people to feel disgraced about their country and turned off from engaging in the process. But I don't know if anything would disgrace them more or turn them off more than being lied to about what actually happened. I think discussing this, and obviously age-appropriate terms and an appropriate vernacular, using things like empathy intact like you talked about, but not shying away from the absolute truth about what happened, could probably engage them even more in the process. Because if you understand how

fucked up it was. You can be motivated to make sure that it never happens again. And to me, what would turn me off, like I said, about this country and would make me feel disgraced about this country and would turn me off from this process if I was lied about it from those who were in a position of authority and empowerment and influence, which a teacher absolutely is, and then found out later on that the truth wasn't told. That would erode my faith in this system. So much more than being told up front. This is where we are now, but this is where we came from, and these were the missteps that we made along the way. I think the only way to deal with any of these issues is through complete, total, and utter transparency and honesty. If we don't do that,

I think we risk even more disgracing people and turning them off from the process. There are plenty of places where people can go in the modern era. You can grab a phone and you can surf to whatever informational source that you want. And it's an interesting exercise. Find a belief that you have that you hold dear and just spend some time on Google looking for the opposite side of the equation that you are on. Whether you think the earth is round, go look at the flat earthers. Whether you think that aliens are real or they're not, depending on which side of the argument

that you fall into, then do some Googling and figure out what the other side of it says. And you'll realize that there is a bunch of information out there. You can basically find whatever you want to. But it's through a device, which I find is oftentimes far less influential, especially at a young age than the teacher that can develop a relationship and have these difficult conversations. Basin and honesty, that's what I would want as a fellow father. I would want a teacher who doesn't shy away from the shadows that will turn on a flashlight and actually illuminate the areas that don't have as much light.

So we can find out what's hiding in there and maybe figure out where the motivation came from and learn lessons from when we were a less evolved species. Like I said, I can't even fucking imagine the headspace of somebody thinking that ownership of another human being is. justifiable. I don't even know if that's the right word or reasonable, but I don't ever want it to happen again. And I think the best way that we can do that and prevent things like the treatment of Native Americans in this country is to be forward-facing with them, open and honest, at least in that interaction that you have with the kids, that you will be influential in their lives. I look back at my high school career. I still remember a few teachers. One of them was a total cuck, and the other two that I can think of were awesome influences on my life.

And I would have difficult conversations about difficult topics and they would challenge me. And I found I find and I found that I was a better person because of that. They made me a better version of myself because they challenged me on my beliefs. And the conversations that we had and the lessons that we did with those teachers, they were based in truth and they were based in honesty. You have that ability when you have that fleeting time with those students. So do not shy away from that. And the best of luck to you.

I mean, I can't imagine my own children are difficult enough as they are, as I'm sure. Most other people who have kids would agree. I can't imagine wanting to teach other people's kids. At least I guess at the end of the day, you could return them to their parents, which is probably why being a grandparent is better than being a parent in many degrees. But kind of getting off track. Best of luck to you. Thanks for your service in the military. let me know how it goes.

If you do teach these lessons in the upcoming school year, please reach out to me and let me know, one, the tack that you took with it, and two, the response from your class. I'm very interested to hear from you again in the future. Question number two, CCW, concealed weapons. Best round and gun in your experience. Man, personal opinion here. There is no best round,

and there is no best gun. I've said this many times on the podcast when people ask me about guns. What I usually tell them before even getting into caliber is go to a gun store and try a bunch of guns. Pick up a bunch of guns and find something that fits well in your hand because if it's not ergonomic and it doesn't fit well in your hand, you are going to be less likely to train with it. You're going to be less comfortable carrying it in a CCW or concealed weapons situation. So find something that fits really well. It should be no shock to people, smaller people.

and women generally have smaller hands. My hand is much bigger than my 19-year-old son's hands and my fiancé's hand, so I am comfortable with handling a larger firearm. But there's something out there for everybody. And once you find that, then you can go into whatever round or caliber you think would suit you best. For all around or general self-defense, there is, of course, a debate. Should I shoot 45? Should I shoot a 40?

Should I shoot 357 magnum? Should I shoot 9mm? My answer to that is, yes. Do whichever one of those you feel the most comfortable with. And what I'll add to that is comfort is going to come through training, currency, and competency. So whatever round you choose, make sure you buy enough rounds so you can consistently practice. And when it comes to a CCW or concealed carry type of practice, I highly recommend that you are practicing in whatever configuration you will be concealed carrying in. So if you're an appendix carry person, you need to find a range that's going to allow you to draw, fire, and re-holster from your appendix carry.

Not all ranges will do that and be very clear with range masters and owners of the range when you go in there about what it is that you would like to do. maybe you live in a place like I do right now where it's shorts and t-shirt weather in the summertime for me board shorts in an appendix carry it's not the it's not the bait it's not the best um have I made it work sure but an option that I have messed around with is a fanny pack speaking of fanny packs both black rifle infield craft survival actually make I think it's an identical pack actually that's just branded differently but I have one I gave one to my business partner I've given one to a friend it's just another good option but if you've never practiced unzipping a fanny pack and you get into a situation where you need to readily access your tool and you unzip the wrong pocket and instead your wallet and cell phone fall out and when you needed it to be your pistol and that's probably not the best right so generally we don't rise to the occasion we fall to the level of our training so make sure you're training in an environment and in a configuration that is going to fit how you're actually going to carry your

concealed weapon. Now, there is a lot of debate about caliber. You know, is nine millimeter enough to stop somebody. Maybe I need to use 357. Maybe somebody's out there is like, you know what, I don't want to worry about that. So I'm going to go with a desert eagle. 50 cal, right? Because fuck it. Even if I hit him in the shoulder, it's probably going to stop him. And although that's likely true, I would love to see a concealed carry setup for a desert eagle. For me, accuracy is far more important than the actual caliber of the round. Accuracy is final. That's actually even final over speed a lot of the times.

If you can take a well-aimed shot once, I'm not saying you're not going to take any damage, but that's better than five poorly aimed shots that don't hit their intended impact zone. So if you can be accurate, you could defend yourself with a 22. And I'm not saying that you should do that, But I'm saying that's how important accuracy is.

As the rounds get bigger, recoil is going to become an issue. Anybody who has ever actually fired a Desert Eagle will let you know that it doesn't feel the same as firing a 9-mill. So keep that in your mind and in your consideration. And think about how actually loud that is going to be without ear pro, which is likely where you're going to find yourself in a real world self-defense situation. So for me and only me. So this is in my opinion, not in my experience. I favor 9mm. For a few reasons.

One, it's incredibly easy to source. Yes, there was an ammo shortage, but that was across almost every caliber of rounds. But I could travel to any state in the lower 48 and probably go into any gun store or sporting goods store. And they're going to have some semblance of 9mm. They'll probably have 45 and 40 and 357 as well, but maybe not. I have found that the 9mm round is more accessible in the places that I have traveled than those other rounds. And again, that's not to say anything negative about those rounds, but my preference is that 9mm round because it's easy to source. It's easy for me to manage the recoil.

And as far as guns go, like a specific platform for me, let me be very clear. I am biased in my opinion on this because of the amount of time that I have worked with this particular platform in my hand. but I like SIG pistols. They fit my hand great, and I know there are people out there like, whoa, a Glock fits my hand better than a SIG. And my answer to that is awesome. Go buy yourself a Glock. You asked me for my particular opinion and experience,

and for me, I love the ergonomics of SIG. My daily carry is a SIG 365 XL, and I have a variety of other Sigs as well. Most of them in 9mm. I don't have a gun safe full of pistols, that are of a variety of different calibers because I don't want to have a gunsafe full of a variety of different caliber

cartridges as well. So I, like I said, I like 9 mil for the reasons that I talked about, that's not to say that you couldn't feel exactly the same way about a 40, or 455, 457, you do you, just make sure that when you're doing you, your training, your current, and you're competent.

If you are not those things, I would highly recommend that you not carry concealed because pulling a weapon out when you're not current or competent could actually make the situation drastically worse for you and everybody else around you. So I wish I could tell you that the best round and gun in my experience, I gave you my opinion on what I favor and a way to figure it out for yourself. And I will leave you with that because anybody that tells you that there is an end all, be all. And this is the only thing that works for everybody in every situation.

The technical term for that is known as being full of shit. Moving on. This question comes from somebody who used to be part of the Patreon group that I hosted, and I shut down because it got a little weird and it got a little wild. Maybe there should be a barrier to accessibility. That's a lesson that I learned a little bit on the Patreon group. Vast majority of people in that group were fantastic to include this individual that sends this question. I cut off the first paragraph because it was a little bit more descriptive than it was talking about his family.

So it's going to start a little odd. Second of all, when you aired your podcast where you first said, earn your place, that saying hit me. And I've been using it when I talk to and encourage my son while he's playing baseball. Well, the varsity high school coach heard me saying it and fell in love with it. And I have had some designs for their school baseball team shirts this year to have the saying, earn your place. Then today I see that you did, in fact, actually have shirts made. I wanted to make sure that you were okay with me having shirts made for their team using that saying. I have a feeling that your response will be, I don't give a fuck.

go for it. But I wanted to ask first as it was your saying, and I just think it is the right thing to do. And there's more to this question, but I'm going to stop and answer this first part first. It's not my saying. For anybody who watched the podcast, it was Anthony or Tony, Arsmendi, who was the one who actually said it. And when he said it, it had an amazing impact on me to the point where in my head I was thinking, holy shit. That is one of the simplest and most powerful mottos that I've ever heard. Three easy words. earn your place. Doesn't matter who you are or where you are. If you're a dad, a CEO, a law enforcement officer, I don't even, I don't care what title you want to put on it. Every single day, if you focus your efforts on being the best version of that and earning your

place in society or earning your place in a relationship or earning your place in a family or earning your place in a business, you're going to be a better person for it and the world around you is going to be a better person for it. I suspect Tony didn't come up with that saying on his own, or maybe he did, but I'm sure it's been said before. And that's why I could care less if you or anybody else uses that saying to make a shirt. Because it's not about the shirt per se. It's about people seeing that message and actually having an impact on who they are and how they want to behave. That's all I care about. When I started the podcast, I had, I didn't know shit about podcasting actually when I started it, which was maybe not the best approach to take, but it seemed to

work itself out, okay, but I had no idea that I would one day be making shirts. I didn't know anything about advertising revenue or any of that. I started it with the idea of exploring who I am and what I believe. Now, yes, obviously I sell t-shirts and things associated with the podcast, and almost all of those have been requests or ideas from people who listen to the podcast reaching out to me. Because, right, I will be totally honest with everybody. My weakest point is design. I can't draw. I suck when it comes up with creative ideas. I really leverage and need designers who have those types of ideas. If they can give me like a baseline, I can give some input from there, but I am terrible at coming up with ideas on my own. So I've taken other

ideas from people and done things with them. I can't think of anything better, though, than you hearing that on a podcast and then your son's baseball coach hearing that and it being impactful enough that they want to put it on their jersey. I care so much more about that than selling a fucking t-shirt that I could, I just don't care. So if anybody hears that phrase or wants to do something with it, please understand that I don't own it. Tony doesn't own it. I'm sure somebody could go out there and trademark it. I don't know anything about that, but feel free to do with it what you want. Hopefully, you see it in or hear it and it just makes you want to work harder to be a better person and therefore impacting you and everybody else around you. So do with it what you will.

Now back to your question. Lastly, if you remember, I am divorced three times. All my fault to some degree, but those are different conversations. I have been dating some, but have not really met anyone who has me saying, fuck yes. If you have never read the article of the art, of fuck yes or no by mark mason i strongly suggest it i haven't read it by the way he has two books out one is the subtle art of not giving a fuck which i think is on the table here somewhere it was gifted to me which i also highly recommend but back on topic you have been open that you are getting remarried next month what lessons did you learn moving through i'm sorry what lessons did you learn moving from the first marriage and into the second what will you do differently that you think

will make the second successful. Don't get me wrong. I'm never getting married again, but I have a ton of friends that are going down the path in their mid to late 40. So I think your comments will likely help someone somewhere. What did I learn moving from my first marriage and into the second? What you do differently that you think will make the second successful. Man, deep question. What did I learn? I learned a lot of things. Exiting my first marriage. And going through the actual process of getting divorced. I am sure there are divorce processes that are cut and dry really easy and both parties like slap the table, high five, and maybe they remain friends afterwards without talking about any of the specifics of myself or my ex-wife. I will say

that that is not going to be the case for us. I don't suspect. And I don't think that's either her fault or my own. I think that is just the place where we left things and it may be, it may be a bridge too far. I think the biggest things that I learned were not about somebody else. They were about myself. I recognized where I fell short and how often I fell short and how often I fell short and how I could have done things so much better. And I wish I would have done things so much better because, you know, I'm not, people look at a divorce and I've heard people say this like, oh, it's this other fucking person's fault. You know, I didn't do shit. It's like, I'm not so sure that's actually accurate. I have a heavy hand in the fact that my first

marriage failed. I would never sit here or ever and try to say that it is my ex-wife's fault. What I will say is, and I think that she would agree to this, is that we were not the right people for each other. But we met when we were in our early 20s. And I didn't know who I was in my early 20s. And I'm now nearly in my mid-40s and I'm still figuring myself out along the way. But what I have now is more time in the rearview mirror to take stock of who I am and why I behave the way that I do. And hopefully to develop in that a better, you know, just a deeper understanding of me, my strengths, my weaknesses, what I need to work on, things that didn't work in the past that I don't want to see repeat themselves, and things that did work that I really want to have, be successful in the future. So it's a combination of all of those things.

I learned all of those things and I'm continuing. It's not like the process or journey is over. I think this is going to be lifelong. long. But I can look back and I can identify a variety of friction points or breaking points in my previous marriage. And my number one thing that I want to do moving forward, this ties directly to you, what you do differently that you think will make the second successful, is I want to avoid all of those things. For me, I think one of the most important things that I can do is address things when they happen and not allow anything to fester so resentment can grow. So being

more upfront, being more open, addressing things in the moment. And that will be easier for me to do because my life is substantially different. I am no longer in an occupation that requires extensive periods of time out of town, whether it be for training or deployment. I'm at a place in my life where I can be a lot more physically and mentally present. And so that is going to make a huge difference. And it has made a huge difference just in my life in general. You know, I used to do one thing and I have transitioned out of that to the best of my ability. And I'm trying to become a completely different and better person using the lessons from my past, rolling them forward, trying to be the best version of myself that I can be.

And don't get me wrong. I fall all my fucking face from time to time. I'd love to say that I'd never make a mistake and that I'm perfect and that I never do things that are stuards. or say something that's, you know, trite or just off the cuff or just a smart ass asshole sometimes, but I do. I try to recognize those sinks and I try not to repeat them, but I'm just trying to take the failures from my past of which they are numerous and not repeat them in the future. And the biggest thing between my previous marriage and my thoughts on my marriage moving forward, it's not a matter of what I am going to do differently.

It is a matter of me being a different person in a different phase of my life. And I happen to find somebody who is also a different person. And together, it's amazing. And that's the best way that I can describe it. And that is not to say a single negative thing about my ex-wife. We were different people at a different time and it didn't work. And this is a conversation that I have. with my kids because I don't want my divorce to change their perspective on marriage.

Yes, your mom and I's relationship didn't work, but that's because we were not the right people for each other or we allowed ourselves to grow apart until we became the wrong people for each other. And instead of trying to force that square peg into a round hole, which was a small controlled nuclear reaction for detonation for everybody around it, I think we made the correct decision to part ways and hopefully remove that tension and stress. A divorce doesn't mean that marriage is flawed. In my experience from what I have seen, it means that you may have had an error in judgment in the person that you wanted to live your life with or you might have had a moment of being a fucked hard and done something really stupid, you know, very different things, but it can net the

same outcome. So for me, it's more a matter of finding a person that is an amazing fit for me. And all I can hope is that I am an amazing fit for her and she feels exactly the same way. So what I'm doing differently is continually trying to evolve and become the best person that I can be, which is not not to say that it wasn't doing that previously, but I'm just a substantially different person than when I got married the first time. Yeah, and taking those lessons forward and trying to avoid the mistakes that occurred, regardless of whose fault they were in my previous relationship. And hopefully, that answers your question.

Last question for today. If I were to blindly jump into your podcast, what were some of the episodes that you enjoyed making the most? What are some you think are need to listens? What were some that were hard to get through or actually pissed you off? And overall, what do you think about someone who is homeless, right now and 35, but has a passion for art and tattooing, but cannot possibly find a tattoo shop. Having done everything to get into one, I'm feeling I'm losing hope. Thank you for reading this.

I'm going to go backwards on this one. Having a passion for art and tattooing is amazing, but I would try to solve the homelessness issue right now, which obviously is probably going to require a job, stable finances, so you can find a stable home. And maybe that's not going to be art or tattooing to begin with. But I find people are not able to thrive when they are in crisis mode. I've never been homeless. I can't imagine it's amazing, though.

So I am going to describe that as a crisis that needs to be handled before you pursue your passion. I think if you can get into a stable place where you have that stability, it can provide an environment where you can become even more creative. And you have more time for your passion for art and tattooing. but I would put I would put the stability over the pursuit of tattooing to begin with. Even when it comes to job applications, you know, most of the time, if not always, they're going to ask you for a mailing address, you know, or your home address. Are you renting? Are you buying? And, you know, you need to be able to answer those things. I've never been a tattoo artist or applied for a job there, but I'm just talking about in general, my experience when it comes to that stuff. So handle the crisis first and then pursue the passion.

Now, as far as the podcast episodes, enjoyed making the most, top of the list for me are episodes with my dad. The opportunity to sit down and have conversations with my dad has been amazing. And they'll live on forever. And I hope that my kids one day will listen to them. And I know that I will be grateful later in life when I have the ability to listen to them back again, when I no longer have the opportunity to sit and have those conversations with him. must listen ones you know i think the first podcast that i did with mike glover is uh definitely worthwhile you know nick norris stands out in my mind um fuck i mean i'm a couple hundred episodes

deep at this point and a lot of them are me it's just exploring ideas with friends and people that i used to work with i've had some great conversations with evan hafer the founder of black rifle coffee um so i don't know i'm And I think, you know, a must listen or a need to listen. It really depends on who you are and where you are coming from, but maybe I would start you on those. And there is only one that actually sticks out as hard to get through and pissed me off. I don't know if I would if I would use that term, but it was a very frustrating episode

in the moment and then afterwards. And it was with Colonel Grossman. I went into it thinking one thing about the topic with which he speaks and where he was deriving his data points and experience from, and I left there with a totally different understanding. It was challenging and frustrating. Go back and listen to the episode, and I think it speaks for itself. And oftentimes, I think the best thing you can do is just let people talk, because they can lay the foundation for who they are and what they believe better than I ever could, trying to, you know, coax it out of them. So that's where I would start you off. Those are the

ones that I would recommend. And yeah, get stable, then pursue your passion. And that's all I for friday see you guys monday