Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 2 with Trevor Thompson

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

Full Auto Friday is a "rapid-fire" format of Q and A submitted by listeners.  6-8 topics from all walks of life with a 5-minute cap on all answers.  Round 2 is in the breach... Q1: Podcast equipment options and solutions Q2: Differences and similarities while serving during an administration change. Q3: War and whether or not those you fight are as committed. Q4: Is SEAL Team Six the most elite SEAL Team in the world. Q5: Thoughts on daily imposed self-suffering. Q6: Recommendations for civilians seeking weapons training.  Enjoy!

Okay, got to red smoke. Smoke, west of the smoke. Okay, copy. West of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. I'm all winning, baby. You ready to do this? I am.

Okay, so last Friday was the inaugural edition of Full Auto Friday. The format, somewhere between six to eight topics, but no more than five minutes. Oh, God. It's a bitch. Dude, it's a bitch. I actually have struggled. I think I went over by a few seconds. Do you need time these?

I'm going to time it. I'm actually going to time it except for the first one because one of the things that I wanted to do starting these episodes was answer some of the common questions that I get. So I answered the audio, full out of Friday. Number one, first question was, where does the audio come from the podcast? I kind of answered that at depth. And I actually put up the YouTube video. The second one I get the most often is what podcasting equipment do you use? So I'm going to answer that and chime in because you've been on and around the podcast seam. if I forget anything. So it's pretty homogenous, like what gets used. It is. And I'll go, I'll start at the basic level, the absolute basic that I've seen, which is right here. A phone. Yep. Literally a phone with an app.

Now, and I think there are podcasting apps where you could actually upload that audio, but here's what I'll say. If you use a phone, you're going to get audio that sounds like it's on a phone. So if you want to go that route, I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. That's probably the lowest barrier to entry. but understand you're going to get limited. The next step up from that, I would say, is probably also right in front of me. You have a laptop, and if you're using a Mac, which you should be because you're an adult, and it's

2020, it's going to come with garage band, which is more than enough to record directly into, and I would recommend an external microphone. And there's two types, really, that I, well, I guess there would be three. There's the internal audio that you could just talk into the speakers, but that's going to sound like that. There are USB microphones, which I actually don't have any experience with, but from my understanding is the quality is a little bit less. And then there are the XLR, these little three pins, and they are going to require an external power source. So if you are going to go from an XLR microphone into your computer, what you're going to need is one of these.

And this is just an audio interface. This one happens to be a focus right. And I was messing around with this a few years ago, actually. And it allows you to plug in. and then this, there's a cable in the back that goes into your computer and then you're recording that way. Unless you're using one of the rotos. Well, and that was, I was going to go to that next. So this would be just a laptop, just a microphone and a set of headphones.

You could do this. Then there are things like zooms, which is actually what I started with. And all of this, I would say, is scalable and you can progress as much as you want to. So a zoom is going to allow for four. I think I use the H-6 model will allow for four inputs, XLR inputs, which this is. one I think is limited to just one. So above this, I was using the Zoom for a long time and then I took a step up and went to the road.

I think this is the Roadcaster Pro. It's specifically designed for podcasting. And I'll put an image up on the YouTube, but it's for XLR inputs. This will do a lot of the compression and all the things that I, if I'm full disclosure, don't understand. Big dummy buttons. Big dummy buttons, but it has like you can get a visual feedback and see like your mic is, I can push your mic a little bit.

higher than mine or I could edit that in the software after on which I'll talk about the software in a minute. So there are things like this and if you wanted to go beyond four microphones to six or eight whatever it might be, you're going to have to look at some options that are beyond my knowledge and understanding. Yeah, like Mark has one of those in a studio where it's like a 10, 10 house or something. I don't know, something ridiculous. And he'll probably never get to 10 microphones, but at least he has the option. Yeah. So if you get the road or something like that and it has for inputs, I think you might be limited. So that's the recording software.

That's the recording, I would say, hardware. You're going to need a microphone, obviously. I started with boom mics, and when I get the studio up and running, I will have boom mics again. My issue with the boom mics that I found is people are talking with their hands, and I had it on a little short stand, and I can't count the number of times that it got knocked over. Yeah, like Mark's studio has like a over the shoulder, like it's on an arm, an adjustable arm.

And even then you run into, unless you've done a bunch of podcasts, you're probably going to knock it or you're going to step away from it. And you have to draw it with you. People have a major issue with not talking into the microphone if you haven't done it a lot. So for the studio, I got four arms that actually, instead of going like the normal making like an a frame, they come from the bottom. So you can maintain. I love having eye contact with people across the table. So that's what I went with. And you hear Joe say it all the time. Hey, pull that microphone closer to your face. All that time. You have to keep it a fist away. but again, we're getting slightly off topic. So you need a microphone.

And just go on to Google. Start with maybe a USB if you're worried about the cost and then you could go all the way up to some very high-end stuff. So you'll have the mic. You don't need headsets if you don't want to. I like this integration. I get asked about these headsets often, so I grabbed an extra pair.

They are a Seinheiser, HMD, 280-13. And I'm sure if you put that into, you'll find it. Google, you will find it, but that is what I use for a headset, and then you're going to have to find a hosting platform. Or let me take a step back before that. You can record directly to your computer, like I said, to garage band. When I first started, I was using a software called Pro Tools, which was I was using 0.01% of what it was capable of. And I got it off the recommendation from the guy's Infinity Ward of all places. I was walking around in their studio, and they had this awesome sound studio. for voiceover and they were doing it like yeah i get pro tools it was expensive and it was working

great i didn't know how to use any of the features and then when mac upgraded to catalina their operating system it broke the interface with pro tools so it stopped working and i just started using now adobe audition and i'm messing around with recording directly onto the laptop and also onto the road so i have a backup um yeah we were just talking about that yeah you never want to just lose something oh it sucks and i've had conversations where you thought you hit the record button or i've had We did, I've done that in the past. Like I've seen it happen where at the end of it, somebody's like, hey, can we record the first five minutes again? And it's never the same.

No. If anybody's wondering if you ever try to redo a conversation or something funny happens, it sucks. Especially if you're being funny. So those are, there's a countless options for it comes to editing the audio. And then the last thing I'll talk about is you need somewhere to host it. I use Lipsin, but there are things like SoundCloud. And I'm sure there's a variety of platforms. That's where you take your audio file, push it up to the internet, you upload the file,

and then your RSS fee gets scraped by everything else. So it's going to show up in Apple Podcasts and Spotify and Stitcher and all of that good stuff. I don't know which one is good or bad. I had been using Libson. I started with SoundCloud, and I switched to Libson because I liked the breakdown of the statistics better. They were more robust and I could go more granular than I could on SoundCloud. That's the only reason that I switched over. And that's really all you need.

So the barriers to entry are as high as you want them to be. You should be able to get a podcast kit started in under $1,000. Dude, it's the same as photography like we talked about, you know, a few months ago. Yeah. Same, same. And, you know, people will ask me, should I start a podcast? I have no idea. I don't know if people should start a podcast.

Why not? I would recommend that they do. And my biggest advice to somebody, if you are going to start a podcast, is be yourself. please just don't try to be a character because I think people can see through that and also you'll be exhausted by playing that character that gets sussed out so fast and then you know who knows you might even turn into that character

you might not like that person this is true all right so fortunately we didn't time that because I think we went with touch you're talking about yeah we're yeah we're to eight minutes it's fine but now we're going to dive in so here we go the real full auto Friday and there's two of us

you have to be concise oh god okay this one applies to both of us so this comes from Joey and it looks like that's either a UK flag or an Australian flag. It's so small, I can't tell. Red, white and blue. It's wrong. It's actually got red and white and blue. It's just not this country. So it says, you served during a war period that lasted two different political administrations. So did you notice a difference when the new administration took over? And if so, what key

differences, experiences, or procedures were most notable? How much change can a new administration have over the military machine that had been at war already for eight years and begin. I'll let you start. Oh, yeah. Actually, I was there right during the election process for Trump when people thought that Hillary was going to get elected. Okay. You were still in? Oh, yeah.

Okay. So you came in under Obama. Okay, I came in under Bush. Yep. So actually, I take that back. I came in under Clinton. So you did three. I did three. And the shortest answer I can give to this question is, is I noticed no difference whatsoever at an operational level.

Yeah, same. We weren't seeing anything different coming top down or across the board in our units. It was purely background noise, people's emotional feelings about stuff, which is fine because you're a citizen also. Yeah, I didn't notice any difference in procedures. I think there might be, and this might come from media, like entertainment media where they think that and I'm sure there is a red line on the president's desk but like it somehow comes directly down well that goes to Batman not well it goes to somebody I'm sure there's a line that he can call but what I'll say is it doesn't come down to the actual operator level it's going to come to levels in that wedding cake much higher and it might trickle its way down but as far as procedures I did not see a change in procedure due to shift in the commander chief what I can say is

I saw changes and procedures, specifically limitations or things we were not able to do based off of things that would happen overseas. For example, civilian casualties. Oh, yeah. We got turned off once. Yeah. Well, we got turned off for all nighttime operations when I got there in 2010. One of the first pieces of information that got slid across was no nighttime rates. And as you know, we have a lot of things on our shit that require batteries.

And they give us an incredible advantage at nighttime. Yep. And we were basically told we can do that. and why there was a huge civcast, which stands for a civilian casualty, people dying who you don't want them to die. You're there to actually help them, to protect them, to help them establish and build. And it's horrendous when there's that type of loss of life. And it changes policy and procedures at the micro level there. And I experienced that in actually both theaters.

So the procedures, that was the only shift. I did not notice a difference. experiences or any key differences, nothing. I didn't notice a, so I went, what was it? So Clinton was a Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Republican, Democrat. I'm sorry, Democrat, Republican Democrat. I saw no drastic reduction in budget. And it's still a bureaucracy, right? So like, whatever the president's personal feelings or intentions are, it's going to take years for that to come into play. Like, there was things that Bush put into play at the end of his presidency that were still coming down the pipe during Obama's first four years.

Yeah. I bet you the biggest difference that the president could make would be shifting the nation or specifically the armed forces from a peacetime footing to a wartime footing. I mean, whether or not, I'm not even interested in having the argument as to whether Bush drove the post-9-11 wars or we were drawn into them based off what happened on 9-11. That's a topic for more than five minutes to discuss. A few more. but, you know, his, you know, him taking those actions, how we ended up in those theaters,

I would say he was more at the wheel of that for sure. So the peacetime to wartime shift, but yeah, I never noticed anything that was crazy different. I never received any guidance that I think came directly from the president. It would all come from probably the JCS, which is the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Even both of us working in units that had things going on where it was very, very, very specific. You're still not getting it straight from the president. and you're still getting it from at the top, you know, what, sec-de-f, sec-and-a-half maybe? And you have to assume they're interfacing, but it was never direct.

It was never direct. I have heard of people, though, that did VTCs with the president because he wanted to congratulate them or whatever it may be. He wanted to convey a message directly, but that was not the delivery of guidance. Yeah. That, you know, I would not wear pants on that one. I would, like, sit a little bit in the back. Pull a quarantine Zoom meeting. Yeah, yeah, party up here.

And halfway through it, I'd have to go. get something. I would have to do it. Right. Like if you're given the opportunity to VTC with the president, excuse me, sir, don't wear pants. Ever. And then get up, and no boxers or anything either. Then get up and go get a beverage like halfway through. But personal preference. That's me. See, we're doing this. That was 430. It's more time than you think, but also less time than you think. When you get rolling, it's less time. Yeah. Okay. I picked this one because we both know Mike Glover, and I love talking with him. So the question is, in the podcast with Mike Glover, you spoke about how you enjoyed war because you were fighting people who were equally committed to their cause as you.

In the same podcast, you mentioned the story of the 14-year-old who was going to protect his father and try to kill your teammate. I was wondering whether you felt the same way about the 14-year-old as you did about all the other people you fought against. Do you see the kid as equally committed to his cause as you, or was it something different? So I'll kick this one off. I don't think that that, I don't know what that kid would have done if he would have actually achieved line of sight on my buddy who was on the roof. I'd have to, I'd have to hypothesize. But if I was 14 in that environment and I saw my dad, I assumed that he was getting attacked, I probably would have taken action. But I was never going to allow him to achieve that line of sight because I didn't realize he was 14 at the time.

And this to me is... A good question because it highlights what I think war is and war is very gray. It's not black and white. A lot of the decisions that you make, a good one, black and white decision, you turn around and you have a quarter of a second to decide what to do when you see the silhouette of somebody with a gun trying to go to a high ground position where you know that somebody that you care very deeply about is engaged hands-on with somebody else. That is a black and white choice.

That's a rote decision. Yeah. And that's what it was for me because we trained. And from day one, right, they trained you to look at the hands because it's an easy way to determine the intent of the individual. And I saw silhouette, AK, going to high ground and made the decision. Yeah. Where are they going?

What do they have on them? That kid had nothing to do with why I was there. I don't regret killing that young man. I don't regret being the person that had to make that choice because I wouldn't want anybody else to have to make that choice. And I would rather carry the weight of that. And it goes to Or is Super Grey. That kid wasn't there trying to do anything other than protect his dad.

Super gray. So I don't even put that 14-year-old in the same bucket of the people, the foreign fighters, who will literally circle the globe looking for Americans to fight because they want to increase their experience. They want to increase their personal dossier of knowledge so then they can go take it back and teach other people to then fight Americans. I don't like those individuals, but like Mike and I were both talking about, for somebody to stand. there with you, kit it up with a line in the sand and go toe to toe with you, how can you not respect that? Yeah.

But that's not this child. No. You know, and that's exactly what that was. It was a child. But then for us, like we can't, you can't sit there and think about what they could possibly be thinking, that person. Well, you can, but not in the moment. No, because let me tell you, I've had plenty of time to think about it.

Sure shit. Yeah. I think about that kid almost every single day. And not, and I, and I, not in a necessarily a negative way, but it was something that happened in my life and I see that kid and my own kids. Well, and you think about it on the other side too. It's like, I mean, I ran into two guys that I ended up grabbing and capturing instead of, like I decided not to pull a trigger, right?

And could have. They had weapons and didn't. And it's like, was that the right thing for me to do to then pull them and then I don't know if they got released. Like once we hand them over, like, we're, more than likely. Exactly. But then now I'm like, is somebody else fighting that person? You know, you sit there and you think about the afterwards.

Like, was that the right thing to do? Should I done this? Should I done that? Look, we were trained to make choices. Yep. With limited information, incomplete information at best in a very time compressed environment. And a good choice right now is better than the best choice too late. I would agree with that.

And it's hard to describe, like you're saying, you have the rest of your life now to question yourself. Forever. Like, I'm always going to think about that shit. And I don't know how to describe. I don't know. Maybe people encounter situations like that in their life. I would imagine it's difficult, though, to replicate. Literally life and death.

And you just have so little time to make that decision. I mean. Yeah. No, and it's usually on you. Right. Like, I'm not sitting there like, what do you think? Oh, there's no, no, no. It's everything going on between my ears.

Yeah. So a long way of saying, you know, the last part of this question, do you see the kid is equally committed to his cause as you or was it something different? He's probably equally as committed to protecting his family. Yeah. But he got caught up in a situation that he was probably beyond his understanding. He had incomplete information as well and he made a decision based off of that. Yep.

And it played out the way that it did. And that's war. It's a broadsword. It's not a scalpel. Yeah. That was 4.30. I totally did. Oh, yeah.

This is my favorite one. Damn it. Seal Team 6. Okay. I had to pick this one because I could ask about this all the time. The show the team of the book. Take your pick. Fuck.

Take your pick. I read somewhere that Seal Team 6 is the elite SEAL team in the world. Is that true? How do you get selected for it or is it just another name? And I actually picked this one because I knew you were going to be here and I know you augmented so we can both speak about it a little bit. A little bit. So here's the deal. My experience at this command and I try to say this every time that I talk about this topic. I spent the minimum amount of time possible there. And there was some circumstances around me getting hurt when I left. Slightly out of your hands.

Yeah, but I could have stayed longer and that's a, it's a subject for another day. but I spent the minimum amount of time there to complete my four-year rotation. There are people that have been there for decades and have done, I didn't do shit when I was there is the point that I'm getting to is I didn't do anything. And I hope that I hope at best what I did was my job to the level that my peers didn't think of me as a piece of shit. That's exactly how I went at augmenting. Yeah.

So I can answer this question because I was there for a short period of time. And I just want to emphasize that. And the command changed drastically and was capable. of doing things that we weren't doing when I was there after I left. So take everything I'd say with the Great Assault. Is it the most elite SEAL team in the world? I don't know. You'd have to define that.

You take, so actually I'll go backwards, the selection. You get selected for it after a certain amount of experience in a conventional seal team, conventional being so calm, the development group being J-Soc. At the time I dropped a package to like screen. Yep. It was you had to have done two deployments. and you were on your second platoon. Which is average.

So two deployments in it at a conventional rotation cycle is going to be around 48 months of experience. So you're looking at about four years. There is an interview process. There is a physical process. You go in front of a psychiatrist or psychologist. I always mix up the role of both of those. I think psychiatrists is drugs. Whichever, he was there just asking me about my feelings and thoughts and whether or not I've ever broken the law.

And you take a written psych test. and then you go to a selection. And the way I describe this is selection for the seal teams is very physical in nature. Buds is designed to largely remove the people who physically and mentally don't have the ability to become a seal or thrive in that environment. But selection is now you're being tested on your ability

to operate as a seal. You're shooting prowess, jumping, underwater, room clearance, fill in the blank. It's a ton of stuff. We just talked about stuff between your ears. Correct, which is still being done at a conventional team as well. And I don't use the word conventional pejoratively.

It is not, I don't consider it a step down. What I would say is that development group has a narrower set of objectives. So they're able to train on on fewer things to a much higher degree, which sharpens the blade in those areas to a degree that conventional teams cannot because they're tasked with more. Which is why, like, augmenting it felt so natural. The asks that were made of me to perform as that lowest part of the totem pole. coming from SDV where we have a very similar type of hyper focus. You can talk about narrow. Yeah.

Yeah. Our focus is very, very, very narrow. And we get very good at it with a lot of workload per guy. And so it felt very similar. Like I understood the dynamic that was going on when I showed up. Oh, that's why they're like this. And you have to remember everybody in the seal community, regardless of the command, if you're, if you are a seal and you are in the seal community, we all have the same point of origin.

Yeah. And so there's that pin in the ground of you started there. You started there. We could have a conversation about buds at any time in our life. And within two seconds, you're going to know exactly the evolution that we're talking about. Yeah. So you're drawing from a quantity of known individuals.

So I would say they are better than conventional teams in some areas. Yeah. But they're still comprised of people from those communities. And they can get incredibly good and probably the best in the world. At those things. At those things. I bet there, you know what? There are some things that the conventional teams are better suited for because they have more experience and they have more time to train outside of that very narrow skill set.

And I'll add to this one because I get asked this often too. What do you think of guys who don't want to go to development group? Does that mean that they aren't as good? And my answer to that would be no, not at all. It means they made a career choice and they decided that that was not in the cards for them, or for a reason they didn't want to go. And so they did. I have a number of friends of mine that intentionally made the show.

I pulled my package. I was like, look, I think I'm too young. At that point, I put one in. They're like, yeah, this looks good. We're going to send it off. And I said, actually pull it back. I don't want to take a spot because I think I'm too young. And it ended up then I went to the jump team and then I left.

So I ended up just making a conscious choice where that wasn't going to be part of my life. And you and I wouldn't have reconnected. But unlikely if you hadn't gone to the jump team because that is where we ended up, you know, as I said, reconnecting. Four minutes and 50 seconds. We're basically nailing this. You are watching a timer. I am. Like a fucking hawk.

All right. So he can read. This one. Oh, this is perfect for you because you're this guy. Oh, God. I was curious as to your thoughts on the idea of self-imposed daily suffering. In parentheses, strongly relative term there. As an example, waking up Jocko early, taking cold showers over hot ones, fasting, etc.

In your opinion, is this kind of stuff character building or for the most part just impractical and silly? Thanks for all you done and continue to do. Joe, begin. Both. They are both silly. That's such a bullshit. Dig it. Okay.

I am about to dig it. Let me dig it, damn it. They're both impractical and silly and character. and character building, right? It depends on which one of those you choose. Okay, waking up at fucking 4.30 every day is ridiculous. Well, not if you go to bed at 7. Yeah, not if you go to bed before your kids do.

Yeah. Look, some of it is... How would you personally function if you did the 0.430 thing? I wouldn't. How much sleep do you need? Eight hours, at least. And I think it's important that people recognize that. Just because Jocko can do it.

And don't get me wrong. Love Jocko. Not everybody can get up that early. However, if you look at that and you're motivated to maybe be more disciplined in your morning routine, then that's an awesome thing. Good on you. Yeah. I think a lot of it is just like horribly impractical and incredibly silly. And you have to understand the reason.

Like, why are you doing it? Like, are you doing it to build a better version of yourself? That's an important question. Or not. Like, people need to answer for themselves. So for me, like, I fast. And I've been doing intermittent fasting. You know, that was air quotes there.

for years on and off. Lately I've been doing the like 16 to 20-ish hour all fast. I just feel good. It's not impractical for me because I've got used to it. Yeah. So I can function that way. But I also don't take it to the silly level. Like I'm not going to just not eat if I have a super hard multiple day effort going on.

Like I'm not an idiot. I remember when you were messing around with a carnivore diet and you were, you know, you were traveling and hunting. It's like, listen, I'm going to eat. I have to eat. I have to eat food or I'm just going to fall apart. And that's where it becomes like you have to have. That would be self-defeating if you let it get that far.

Yeah, you have to have something going on between your ears like where it goes from character building to stubbornness. And in everything that you do, you're going to habituate, right? So if you're going to habituate being an idiot, you're going to end up an idiot. Whether or not you're doing something that is essentially smart, like fasting or working out every day. You have an injury and you're working out every day. Back train up.

Fix yourself. That's not character building. That's being stupid. Rest is actually very important. Most people are not overtrained. They're under recovered. Almost everybody is under recovered. Yeah.

Almost everybody. And that doesn't mean you sit on the couch for a week and you have Doritos and donuts and you wash it down with a letted Coke. That's not recovery. It's not recovery. I mean, I guess do that if you want to. I'm just not advocating it. But there is, it's okay to take rest. Yeah, 100%.

That doesn't mean you're not disciplined. You know what? Actually, okay, frame it like this. If you struggle with this, be disciplined in your rest as well. Yeah. You're disciplined in your other activities, right? You're doing your daily suffering, which I'll go off on a tangent on that for a second. I think it's important for people to be conscious of how they talk to themselves.

If you prep yourself for suffering, I think, and I think you precondition yourself it to a small degree, whether or not you're going to be successful or you're going to give up early, even just changes, you know, the thoughts on self-imposed daily. How about just say discipline or a daily challenge? Figure out a term, it switches it to something positive and talk to yourself positively instead of negatively. Yeah. And like I've, so I've done a tiny bit of personal like physical coaching for people. And I tell them it's a lifestyle adjustment.

That's what you're doing. You're making a habit of a lifestyle adjustment. You're not making a discipline change. You're not making a suffering thing. You're not having to work out every day. You're changing your lifestyle. And that's a positive way to look at the rest of your life. You're adjusting how the rest of your life will be in a good way.

Yeah, I think that's a better approach. And I think that will help people when they start to struggle as opposed to just completely giving up. Yeah, because instead of it being like, this is about that bike race that I have going on in December. This is about how I want to feel in 25 years when I get out of bed. whoever that person is, I'm helping that guy. Do you stretch a lot? I warm up a lot and then I do a little bit of stretching on the back end. I refuse to both warm up and stretch.

You're like a cheetah. No, I'm not. I just, I don't like doing it either. And I know that there's negative physical, probably psychological and mental consequences to it. And I still, I can't do it. I hate warming up is my least favorite thing ever. See, I just treat it as part of the workout. That's why.

It's not like a separate thing for me. It's part of the whole process. I'll usually do like a warm-up roll on the mat, but it's always with the same guy. Like a combat rule? Just rolling. Yeah, no, no, I guess it. And it's like, like, hey, you want to go easy to start?

And they're like, uh-huh. I'm like, okay, we're about to go to crazy. You definitely warm by the end of it. 4-50, perfect. Last question. This is a good one because you have worked in this realm on the civilian side. The topic of gun safety and adequate training is a topic that has been brought up already. And knowing your general feelings on the subject, do you have training

recommendations? So I'm going to lean to you for civilians as far as what qualifies as good training or particular people or companies to train with. That being said, have you considered doing a video podcast that demonstrates some basic weapon handling and manipulation or even teaching class? My answer to that tail end is no. I figured. I was like, he's going to say no to that one. It's not that I'm against it. I think that you'd be. I think you're doing somebody. a disservice by doing that. Well, and there's a sea of those videos already out there. From reputable people.

And there's also a sea from non-reputable people. And that leaves it up to the viewer to try to discern who is legitimate and who is not. And I would rather not play in that ecosystem, even though I know it exists. I'm not talking negatively about that ecosystem. I just personally, I do not want to dedicate the time, energy, and effort of which it would take a lot to do exactly what that person is describing. And the other issue I see with that is if I show you how to pull a trigger physically in person, oh, there's a huge difference. There's a huge difference to you watching me show you how to pull a trigger on video and being

able to fast forward, go slow. That's just not how the process works, right? Somebody who has instructed and is an instructor does it in a fashion that is easy to absorb, right? They do it in a way that's It's like that for a reason. And you can change it to each individual person on the line. Which I've done. You can modify it. And you have to do that. You'll have to pick a different vernacular.

You might have to take a different physical approach to showing them. And none of that is available. Some people need me to take the weapon from them and show them. Some people need to watch me do it two or three times. Some people need me to just talk to them. Some people need to watch me do it, then talk to them. And I don't know how you do that on YouTube. You don't.

Yeah. It's basically like, this is my style. You either function well, receiving information, the way I'm delivering it or your fucksville. Precisely. You know, and, and that's a shame for the end user more than it is the instructor. The instructor already knows the information. The end person, that person that's absorbing it or are you out there that's wanting to learn

new gun safety things, that's going to be a problem for you. You know, you're only putting yourself in a whole. So what do you think about, what should people look for when they're searching for organizations that are training. Because you have taught. I have. And we've talked about right before we actually started doing this, you're considering or likely going to start teaching again.

So some broad recommendations for people who are out there trying to navigate the sea of shooting schools. So broad recommendations, they take a lot of flack, but the NRA does certify a lot of instructors and they are safe. Right. So we're talking about new gun owners, people that are learning gun safety.

So at the very basic, basic, basic level, there's a start. at least have somebody that has a certification, if that's all that they have, right? And then you know that that person should probably be safe. In theory. In theory.

So following forward from that, you have everything from there to the top of the spectrum, which is groups like John and Houston Shaw, right? Yep. That ran mid-south. You're going to be learning top-level stuff there. You're going to pay for it. Yeah.

There are instructors. And you should expect to. Like Mike, Glover, right? at Fieldcraft, and he runs open courses. Like the public can sign up for those. And there are a lot of those courses run by, the enormous amount of combat-tested soft veterans out there that are smartly putting out information for the good of the public,

not just their own bottom dollar. If somebody doesn't have access to one of those schools, though, maybe due to geography, what would you, I mean, I don't want to turn people away if they can't find those people because I would point them towards the same thing. What else you think they could look for? I mean, because, you know, Shaw's Mid-South civilian, of course, you know, and it's amazing. Let's start the same, like, you're brand new, you don't have access.

The Google machine is amazing, right? So do the tiniest bit of research, see how people do things. And then there are an enormous amount of hunters and sportsmen all over the U.S. and all over the world, most likely, depending on the country, but there are a lot of people that have been handling weapons for a long time. And you can learn very basic manipulation with a little bit of background research done by yourself. Just watch after you've gone and talked to them and handle the weapon. Because for some people, it's just understanding which end is the sharp end.

Now, I know that sounds stupid, but it's a reality. Yeah. I mean, obviously you're aware of my tactical asshole page. Ooh, yeah. I mean, it's amazing the things that people will do with guns. It's incredible. And you can really see the amount of training or experience somebody has with a weapon by how they handle the weapon around other people.

You have 10 seconds. Oh, my God. I'm done. Okay, I think those actually were very good suggestions. And I'll just end this with, get as much training as you can. And if you don't like the instructor that you first go to or something doesn't ring true, don't let that be the end of your journey. Go out and seek something or an instructor that has a personality

that jibes better with you because not everybody receives the same type of information exactly the same way. Be safe, don't be cool. Oh man, I can't reinforce that enough. That was our six questions and I'll let you close it out. Full Out of Friday round two.

You see what I did there? It's a round. Two rounds full out of though. That's like a quarter of a second. Yeah. Thanks for having me here. That was fun. I mean, the weapon safety thing is for me, I spoke about this with Evan recently.

That's a big deal. There's a lot of brand new gun owners in the U.S. specifically. Find instruction. Please find instruction on weapons handling, weapons care, and how to lock it up and how to safely have one in your house. That's a big deal. It is the things you just mentioned at the end there are huge. It's not a paperweight, right? It is not a toy.

It is not just a tool. It is a dangerous tool when used improperly. Agree. And that is a good ending. See you next Friday. Yeah. Done.