The Tools of Liberty: Reuben Booker on Gear, Training, and Real-World Preparedness

keywords

GearSwitcher, preparedness, firearms, mindset, personal freedom, customer support, marketplace, training, self-reliance, gun rights

 summary

In this episode of the Liberty and Gun Rights podcast, host James Moffitt speaks with Reuben Booker, the founder of GearSwitcher, a platform designed to revolutionize the firearms marketplace. They discuss the importance of mindset over gear in preparedness, common mistakes people make when choosing firearms, and the significance of customer support in building trust. Reuben shares insights on how GearSwitcher addresses gaps in the firearms industry, emphasizing the need for reliability and community engagement. The conversation concludes with a call to action for listeners to explore GearSwitcher and embrace personal responsibility in their preparedness journey.

 takeaways

GearSwitcher aims to change the way Americans think about preparedness.

Self-reliance is becoming essential in today's world.

Mindset is more important than the gear itself.

Many people make the mistake of keeping up with the Joneses.

Reliability should be the primary factor when choosing firearms.

Criticism can be constructive and is essential for growth.

Customer support is crucial for building trust in a marketplace.

GearSwitcher offers a free platform for listing firearms and gear.

Understanding the market is vital for FFLs to succeed.

Liberty is a responsibility that requires training and intention.

 sound bites

"Mindset cannot be replaced."

"You don't need a $2,000 AR-15."

"Start with reliability."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to GearSwitcher and Preparedness

04:39 The Gap in the Firearms Marketplace

07:01 Mindset Over Gear: The Importance of Fundamentals

08:41 Common Mistakes in Choosing Firearms

14:01 Separating Marketing Hype from Reality

19:20 Customer Support and Building Trust

24:35 Understanding GearSwitcher’s Offerings

31:01 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Call to Action for episodes 

Transcript

James Moffitt (A): Hello and welcome to Liberty and Gun Rights podcast. My name is James Moffitt and I'll be your host. So if you think gear is just gear, you're missing the whole point. Today I'm talking with Reuben Booker, the mind behind gearswitcher.com. And this guy's changing the way everyday Americans think about preparedness, training, and personal freedom. We're breaking down the tools that actually matter, the mindset behind the responsible gun ownership.

James Moffitt (A): and why self-reliance is becoming non-negotiable in today's world. If you care about liberty, protection, and the gear that keeps you ready, this is the episode you don't want to skip. Let's get into it. Reuben, thank you for being here.

Reuben Booker (B): Thank you for having me.

James Moffitt (A): Yeah. Do me a favor and introduce yourself to the listening audience.

Reuben Booker (B): Okay, my name is Ruben Booker. built GearSwitcher starting last year about this time with my brother. It really was born out of having bought multiple things over the internet, whether it be on the various platforms, TaxSwap, GunBroker. There's a litany of them, gear accessories for sale, and kind of walking away being frustrated with the overall experience. So my brother and I...

Reuben Booker (B): We built something completely peer to peer that kind of addressed some of the concerns that we saw on the kind of the areas that we saw lacking in the ability for customers to, or I say customers, but individuals to sell their guns and equipment peer to peer without having an outdated experience, I would say.

James Moffitt (A): trying to look it up on another web browser. it gear swtchr.com?

Reuben Booker (B): Yes, G-E-A-R-S-W-I-T-C-H-R dot com.

James Moffitt (A): I'm missing the eye.

James Moffitt (A): wanted to I want to show it to the people are gonna watch the YouTube video and so let me show the listening audience window gear switcher share

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, sure. I appreciate it.

James Moffitt (A): There we go. List, connect, sell. No final value fees, no silly credits, just clean listings. Join users who are tired of tax swap and gun broker. I can't tell you how many guns I've bought off of gun broker. And they're over the years, you know, last 20 or 30 years and their interface was like something from the 1970s.

Reuben Booker (B): Yep, that's it.

Reuben Booker (B): Hahaha

Reuben Booker (B): I'm glad you said it so it doesn't sound like I'm being, you know, some punchy upstart trying to take on the 800 pound gorilla. But it's an auction house, right? And they have paved a way. They have brought a lot of features to a lot of FFLs doing business. But for the reasons that you kind of outlined, it's a little behind the times. They have massive volume and me and my brother respect that. I have bought things off of...

James Moffitt (A): right

Reuben Booker (B): gun broker myself, they've done a good job. However, from my perspective, they kind of eat at the FFL's profit margin quite a bit. And I don't think that's necessarily right. These are not, not every FFL is a brick and mortar store. Some guys are just operating out of their, you know, garage. It's a little hustle that they do as a side hustle. And, you know, taking five to 8 % on your profit margin.

James Moffitt (A): right

Reuben Booker (B): for every transaction, know, that and getting, you know, you get a platform in return and it's an auction house. So I think there's a better way. And so for gear switcher, we don't charge anything. We charge $0 for FFLs and individual users to list and sell their gear. We take no profit. We are not an escrow. Gunbroker is involved in the payment process. And as of this year, they will be involved in kind of controlling how the

Reuben Booker (B): the transfers go, they will be very much part of that with their new company or a sister third party company. And of course, it's going to cost some money. So, you know, it's really cutting into the FFL's bottom line. And I don't I don't really think that's the best way we can do business. It's 2026. We can we can do better. And I hope that gear switcher can attract those FFLs that are looking for to maintain their profit. I mean, they went out, they got the

Reuben Booker (B): the FFL from the ATF, they've done the paperwork, they're running a business for whatever reasons they have, and we should support that as fellow Americans.

James Moffitt (A): Right. So you've already kind of covered what's the story behind gear switcher and why you started it. What gap did you see in the firearms and preparedness space that made you say, I need to build this.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): From my own experience, would say probably the most is that we live in the single greatest moment of technology.

Reuben Booker (B): The notion that you have to go through some gatekeeper as far as getting prepared and learning about preparedness has pretty much been eroded. And part of that erosion, I think, needed to spill over into the marketplace. And that's kind of why I wanted to build it. Like, we don't have to just rely on these...

Reuben Booker (B): monolithic organizations such as gear or gun broker arms list and some of the others there's a better way to do it and that's what kind of drove me to build it you

James Moffitt (A): Alright, so I know you got the website. there going to be an app that people can use on their smartphones like Android and Apple iPhones?

Reuben Booker (B): So the beauty of GearSwitcher is it can be installed on your phone right now as an app. We don't want to go through Android Play Store or the Apple App Store, because their approval process is long, slow, like a lot of big tech, I'm sure you're aware of, is not very friendly to the 2A community. But you can install and save the GearSwitcher webpage as an app. And we have a blog article.

Reuben Booker (B): in our blog that it kind of explains and how walks you through the process if you open it up.

James Moffitt (A): Okay.

James Moffitt (A): That makes sense. I think most people that have smartphones that are technology savvy, social media savvy, they're going to know how to do that, I would imagine.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): And if they don't, we've got the resources there to help you out and figure it out. And what's kind cool about doing it that way is you don't need another app on your phone. It integrates, just like any other app, so you will get notifications right there on the screen, just like as if you would actually install an app without having to install an app from the Play Store or the Apple App Store.

James Moffitt (A): So, switching to gear, training, and mindset, you always emphasize mindset over gear. What does that mean in real world terms?

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): So I was in the military, my brother was in law enforcement. He worked for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. I served in the 82nd Airborne.

Reuben Booker (B): The mindset cannot be replaced. Whatever you're going to go back to is your training, know, what they call it basic training for a reason, because those are the fundamentals. We have to be a master of the fundamentals and the rest of the training becomes an improvisation or something like jazz. So going back to the fundamentals, it really tied into what we built. You know, the fundamentals of a marketplace is that two parties come together privately, make a sale, and then they part privately.

Reuben Booker (B): and they can leave reviews. We have that built into the website, but that's kind of been my touchstone is that mindset is built around the being excellent at the fundamentals of whatever you're doing. And that obviously is very true with firearms training, with preparedness training. You can't expect to be, you know, repelling from a helicopter in the mountains if you don't know how to tie any knots. It's just not going to happen very well for you.

James Moffitt (A): Right. See what branch were you in?

Reuben Booker (B): I was in the army,

James Moffitt (A): Okay, well thank you for your service. My dad was a drill instructor in the army for 26 years. He went to Korea and Vietnam. think some other place, some other conflict.

Reuben Booker (B): as

Reuben Booker (B): Wow.

Reuben Booker (B): Bye.

Reuben Booker (B): There's not been a shortage of them for the past 50 years.

James Moffitt (A): No, no there haven't. What are the biggest mistakes people make when choosing gear or firearms? In your opinion.

Reuben Booker (B): biggest mistakes.

Reuben Booker (B): Keeping up with the Joneses. I think that is probably the biggest mistake. And the Joneses, whether it be social media, YouTube, the Joneses literally next door, they have some awesome equipment and some awesome gear and the photos look great. you see the videos of them out on the range using and training it. But.

Reuben Booker (B): that will not make up for the thing that we just talked about, the mindset and being great at the fundamentals. And I think that's where a lot of people make the mistake. Do you need a $2,000 AR-15? No, you do not. The $600, $500 Palmetto State AR-15 will probably do just as good at your skill level when you're just getting started. When you get proficient, mm-hmm.

James Moffitt (A): Right. That's, and that's the key. It's, it for, it's a great price point at your skill level, you know, and it, and let's, let's say this, not everybody's a, an operator, right? If anybody's on the internet saying they're an operator, they're lying because most, I, and I don't even know any of them, but I've heard that most operators, right? they're not on the internet and they're not talking about it. You know, they're busy.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): Yes.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm. Doing their job.

James Moffitt (A): They're busy making money and protecting high quality or high dollar targets or high dollar assets rather. You don't want them to be a target. You're keeping them from being a target. so if you're going to Palmetto state armory to buy your, your handguns and your ammo and your long guns and your leather products and all of that, you're, you're, you're probably not a quote unquote operator. You're just a.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): You're just getting started.

James Moffitt (A): regular everyday citizen and now don't get me wrong we have a lot of second amendment folks out there that are veterans that have served in the armed forces have weapons training they have you know all kinds of different training in the armed forces and their their moa or whatever they call it what is it they're they're

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm. MOS. MOS.

James Moffitt (A): What does that stand for?

Reuben Booker (B): Military occupational specialty and if you had asked me that any other day, I would never remember that

James Moffitt (A): No, that's fine. I knew what I wanted to talk about. just didn't, I had the M and the O. I just didn't have the S down, but everybody, everybody that's in the armed forces has an MOS and they, get trained. And as I understand it, recruiters promise you the world. Right. And, once you get into one of the branches, all of a sudden your own, your, your own kitchen duty or cleaning latrines or,

Reuben Booker (B): You had it.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): You got it. You got it. Yeah, absolutely.

James Moffitt (A): or doing stuff that you didn't sign up for, but you got to start at the bottom, right? You got to start at the bottom. Got to work your way up in the ranks. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of energy, a lot of passion for the United States of America. You have to be loyal. All of those things, everything that makes a veteran a veteran, right?

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, absolutely. I can't count the number of highly specialized infantrymen I saw cutting the grass on Fort Bragg.

James Moffitt (A): Yeah. It, you know, it takes, it takes a village. Somebody's got to cut the grass. Right. And you're not, you're not going to see a lieutenant colonel cutting the grass. Right. No general. No, that's right. And so he gets to do that. The private, right.

Reuben Booker (B): Someone's gotta cut the grass.

Reuben Booker (B): No, but he's gonna expect the grass to be cut. Him and Sarge are major. Yep, absolutely.

James Moffitt (A): So I just want to give a shout out to all the veterans out there. Your service is appreciated. I know a lot of veterans, especially in the Vietnam era, that came home and they were shunned, ridiculed, embarrassed. It was just a sad thing. And I don't think that in the last 20 years that our veterans have experienced anything like that. Thank goodness.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, absolutely.

James Moffitt (A): But anyway, I really appreciate the sacrifice that our veterans have made and are still making.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you. On behalf of all the veterans, I'll say thank you on that one.

James Moffitt (A): Absolutely. Um, what are the biggest mistakes? You already answered that one. Keeping up with the Joneses. So you're saying we don't need a, we don't need to see a SIG P 227 or two to nine, uh, double stack 45 or, or, or the latest and greatest $3,000, uh, uh, long gun, right?

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Reuben Booker (B): You can probably get... Exactly. You probably will be safe with a Glock or some Glock-shaped object that goes bang every time you press the trigger.

James Moffitt (A): There's a difference between need and want.

James Moffitt (A): Glock is a solid firearm. Glock has been around a long time and you can throw that thing in a mud puddle, run it over with your truck and pick it up and still shoot with it. You know, those things are built to take a punishment.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah.

Reuben Booker (B): The thing is, if I had to make a recommendation as to any of those looking for their first firearm, start with reliability. Because if it doesn't work reliably, you're going to have a real big problem when the time comes if you ever should need it. And that's what Glock has built its reputation on. And I hope I can do the same with gear switchers, build a reputation on being reliable to both users and FFLs.

James Moffitt (A): There's a lot of gun stores. PSA is one of them, but you can go to these local gun stores and you can actually rent a firearm for five, 10, $15 for an hour, use their ammo and go shoot it. See if, see if you can manage it. See if, if the grip is right, see if you're strong enough in your forearm and your, wrist and grip, you know, whether you're a male shooter, female shooter, if you're an elderly shooter, you know, when you're in your twenties and thirties and maybe forties.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah.

James Moffitt (A): You can pretty much pick up anything and shoot it unless you're disabled or you have some sort of physical ailment, right? That would keep you from doing that. But, but I always tell people to, you know, go to, go to your, go to your local gun range or gun store, rent, rent several, rent a 22, run a 38, run a nine millimeter, run a 45, a 40, a 10, whatever, and find out what you're comfortable with. And that's, you know, you, you, you don't want your husband or your boyfriend.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, absolutely.

James Moffitt (A): buying you a firearm for Christmas and go, okay, well here's your first gun. Go shoot it.

Reuben Booker (B): I'm gonna be honest, a couple Christmases ago, I did buy my wife a guy.

James Moffitt (A): Can she shoot it well?

Reuben Booker (B): She was in the military as well, so she got some training as well. So she knows how to shoot it. Now getting her out to the range to shoot is another story, you know, another topic for another time.

James Moffitt (A): Well, your situation was kind of an exception to the rule in that she has military training. You know, it's not the first gun she's ever picked up. Right. And so you kind of had an idea as to what was a good purchase for her. And even if it wasn't, even if she went out to the range and shot it and went, I'm not really that happy with it. I want to get something else, something that suits me. Right. That's, that's the nice thing about being able to go to the gun store with your receipt and go, this is not

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

James Moffitt (A): gonna work for me. need to get something a little more manageable or whatever. And a lot of it depends on how are gonna carry. You're gonna open carry, you're gonna conceal carry. Female shooters have more things to consider with regards to their wardrobe and how they dress and the bags they carry or not carry and all sorts of things that us guys don't really have to worry about. So that's something else that they have to take into consideration.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): For sure, for sure.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

James Moffitt (A): How do you help people separate marketing hype from what actually works?

Reuben Booker (B): I would say marketing hype is probably my least part favorite part of what we've built. It has been the hardest part and I really have to give thanks to you James because you were the first podcast I've ever been on number one and the first podcast I emailed to see if I could even appear on one as an opportunity to kind of market gear switcher. How do you put to answer your question? How do you discern between what is hype and what is real?

Reuben Booker (B): is I want to say in the army we called it the give a darn factor but it's probably a little like that's the watered down version but yeah lots of stronger language in the four letter category but that is kind of what my brother and I built it on is like we care about this thing you know we understand the frustrations from

James Moffitt (A): Right. They use stronger language probably.

Reuben Booker (B): not only FFL perspective because we did spend time interviewing and talking to FFLs that are very, very well run, we'll put here in Fort Myers and just the overall experience of the online purchase. And so I care about the sale and transfer of firearms.

Reuben Booker (B): quite passionately and I think it should be seamless. I think it should be free and as far as the opportunity to list and sell items. And I think that's what kind of should stand out when you're looking at a company. Do they care about it? Do they care about it enough to recognize that like, hey, this thing is broken and we need to fix it or this.

Reuben Booker (B): this path that we're on is not supporting the customer or the end user. We need to change it. If you're interacting with a company that doesn't seem to care about you, outside of firearms, inside of firearms, whatever, and they're not responsive to legitimate criticism, then I would say that you need to look elsewhere and I would encourage you to do so. And if you can't, fine. You can't find...

Reuben Booker (B): what you're looking for, don't be afraid to start. Don't be afraid to do it yourself. That's what America is built on. And so that's what I would encourage people that are trying to discern marketing from hype.

James Moffitt (A): Gotcha. Well, in the age that we, in the AI age that we live in, every company and vendor and creditor that I know hides behind two things. One is auto attendant. What's an auto attendant? Auto attendant is that, that phone that picks up, it's actually a, it's actually a, it's a, a voiceover IP switch, right? That picks up and they configure an auto attendant, which has several,

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

James Moffitt (A): buckets that they put recordings in. Right. And so this auto attendant switches you around. So as for, you know, for sales hit one for, for technical support, hit whatever it is, whatever the options are, you're faced with that. Well, now, now with AI, everybody's jumping on board. And so now they're putting a layer of AI on top of all that. Right. So try to, try to call your electric company at four o'clock in the afternoon and get a human because you've got a problem.

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, preloaded buckets,

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): please no.

James Moffitt (A): that guess what? The auto attendant does not cover the options that you're given on that auto attendant. I would bet 65, 70 % of the time has nothing to do with the issue that you're dealing with. And what do you want? You want a human being to pick up the freaking telephone and help you with your problem. Right? And so, and so now, now not only do we have to deal with the auto attendant, we have to, we're, talking to this robot.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely.

James Moffitt (A): or to this artificial intelligence that's been programmed with LLMs to ask you specific questions, looking for specific answers. And if you don't give it the specific answer it's looking for, guess what? You're gonna be in a round robin with that thing for 20 or 30 minutes. like in the case of Dell, I call Dell for technical support all the time. If I don't give it to the express service code, which is a number that long, it hangs up on you. says,

Reuben Booker (B): You

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

James Moffitt (A): Since you can't provide what I'm asking for, you have a nice day at callback later when you have that information. I can't tell you how it just drives me crazy. so what sets companies apart? Customer support. Right? If people cannot get to a human, and I'm not saying that you have to have a phone bank with 400 people answering

Reuben Booker (B): Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Reuben Booker (B): yes, for sure.

James Moffitt (A): phone calls all day because who can afford that? And you're a startup company and all that, but at some point there needs to be an option to where you can send an email to a specific support at gearswitcher.com or whatever and have a human in a relatively short amount of time respond to that email and go, okay, I see what your problem is. I think I understand what it is and here's our solution.

Reuben Booker (B): Mm-hmm.

Reuben Booker (B): That exists.

James Moffitt (A): And at that point, can point people to frequently ask questions on your website. can, you can send them, can have them download a PDF file with the information that they need or at very, you know, at least have some kind of 1-800 number. If all your automated stuff doesn't fix the problem, have a 1-800 number that somebody can call, you know, during business hours and get a hold of a person, live person, or at least leave a message so that

James Moffitt (A): A real human can call them back.

Reuben Booker (B): Yes, absolutely. And that's something that my brother and I really zeroed in on just in building gear switchers that, you know, go talk to human beings. Don't try to build this in a vacuum. And there's some pushback. Some people don't like to hear that you're building something new. They like the old way. They don't like to hear that you might be stealing a little bit of their, what they've got going on. And that's fine. know, competition in the marketplace is again, what makes us Americans. And it's a blessing, not a curse. But

Reuben Booker (B): You know, one of the paid tiers that we do offer includes Zoom calls. Like if you have an issue, turn the camera on, put the microphone in front of us and we will work through it. We're not, we're not backed by any investor money. You know, it's, it's my Apple credit card that's funding this operation right now. And so we're all in on our customers because they are our greatest resource and they are what make a gear switcher work. So.

Reuben Booker (B): If ever someone who is listening now or listens later and has an issue with gear switcher, they're like, this thing that I'm seeing, it doesn't work the way it should work. We encourage it. Criticism is not always negative. And I think we live in an age where people think that criticism is not beneficial. But no, when you're building something and it's just you and your brother, you need as much feedback as you can get so you can rapidly deploy that because

Reuben Booker (B): You know, one person has a problem, they tell three of their friends, now you got a lot of problems. So we're definitely firm believers on, I want to talk to someone, and I want to talk to someone who speaks English.

James Moffitt (A): Right, exactly. So, GearSwitcher has built and is building a loyal following fast. What do you think resonates most with your audience?

Reuben Booker (B): Depending on the audience, there's the FFL audience and then there's the user audience as well. Some, I think for the FFLs, it's going to be the opportunity to get something that they've never seen before in the paid tiers. And they don't have to be in the paid tiers if they don't want it, but in our paid tiers, we are going to, in the summer of 2026, be able to provide them with business intelligence. Right now, most FFLs are working off of sales data, which is great, but that is a...

Reuben Booker (B): That's a rear view looking right? Like you can see what's selling, but most FFLs do not have the market research to be able to tell you what is going on in their individual zip code. What are people searching for? What are they interested in buying? You know, what do I stock on the shelves when Joe Schmo walks in the store? If he's been looking online for Remington 870s and all I have is Mossberg 500s, well that's a missed opportunity and he should

Reuben Booker (B): The FFL owner should know that prior to Joe Schmo ever walking in the door, but this business intelligence does not exist in the firearms industry, a $20 billion industry with over 73,000 FFLs. And this is well documented actually by Rand in their research that there's no intelligence for the firearms industry around private purchases.

James Moffitt (A): I got you. How do you maintain transparency and trust in a space where people are often skeptical?

Reuben Booker (B): This is tough, Because the community, one bad apple can ruin the entire community. But we built a trust system and so we do not.

Reuben Booker (B): handle any payments. We don't collect any fees. You're not going to go to a Stripe checkout and pay for the gun that you bought from your local FFL or the FFL that's shipping to you. That is totally done between the individual and the FFL. But what we do require is feedback on all transfers and purchases. So if you purchase something and you pay for it, then there will be a

Reuben Booker (B): Feedbacks as much like eBay is used over, you know the decades so that that is how we enforce Transparency and feedback and that information is available and viewable by all users So it's not hidden if you have an account you can check out the feedback that that seller or buyer has prior to you Even making a purchase or a sale

James Moffitt (A): Right. All right. So for the listening audience, do me a favor and very clearly and succinctly tell the listening audience what your gear switcher is offering.

James Moffitt (A): What are you providing for them?

Reuben Booker (B): We are providing a platform for them to list and sale both guns, firearms, accessories, optics for nothing, for free. You can use the platform today, right now. You can create a listing and probably under 30 seconds, depending on how long you make your password and set up an account and start listing, listing, excuse me, anything you want, related to the categories that we have on our website. And so that's what we're providing.

James Moffitt (A): And so these are these are so these could be new firearms or personally owned firearms

Reuben Booker (B): Yes, pre-owned, brand new. We do have some FFLs that have already signed up and they are listing some of their inventory. And one of the things that we're working towards and is part of the pay tier, there's an import function for fast bound cut users. That's a payment.

Reuben Booker (B): system, a POS, they can export their entire inventory and they will be able to import it into Gearswitcher.com and it will all be live on the website just like they currently do I think with GunBroker and maybe ArmsList as well. But as long as they can export it as a CSV, a common separated value sheet or an XLS document, they can upload it onto Gearswitcher and be live ready to go at no cost to them.

Reuben Booker (B): Excuse me, shouldn't say no cost. There is a cost for those import functions.

James Moffitt (A): i got you

James Moffitt (A): Gotcha. All right. So you, so you have a free tier and what does that, what does that give them?

Reuben Booker (B): Yes, sir. The free tier is to all FFLs and users. You can list right now. It's a free

James Moffitt (A): So you can sign up for an account, give them your email address, and you can scroll what's available.

Reuben Booker (B): Yep, and sell, and list and sell.

James Moffitt (A): and you can create a listing. So what's the next tier up that you have to pay for?

Reuben Booker (B): So we're building an intelligence platform that will help tell FFLs, the people in their area, what they're searching for, what they want, what calibers are trending down to their zip code. We call it FFL intelligence. It does, it is.

James Moffitt (A): Okay.

Reuben Booker (B): Part of it is included at the free tier, but you'll get like basic stats, how many people viewed your listings, how many transfer requests you got. So one of the good things even just going on as an FFL and claiming your profile, because we did import all.

Reuben Booker (B): FFLs all 73,000 FFLs. So if you're an FFL listening, you can claim it. You can claim your FFL will verify you have to submit, you know, the actual document will verify it and then you can set up your store. You're not going to get the inte not all the intelligence that we're going to be offering at the free tier, but the next year, the pay tier starts at $49 a month. So the amount of money that you will save by not paying gun broker fees, you can pay for a

Reuben Booker (B): GearSwitcher intelligence and get more out of it. No one is providing this data that we'll be able to provide from the users of GearSwitcher, not even GunBroker.

James Moffitt (A): Okay, so the 73,000 FFLs you're speaking of, is that in Florida only or is that United States wide? That's national. 73,000, that's a lot.

Reuben Booker (B): That's national. That's yeah, national every state. Yeah, it is quite a few. The 5400, 5400 excuse me are active and not all of them are, you know, some come some businesses have multiple FFLs where they are SOTs where they're manufacturing things and not all of them are retail businesses. They can be manufacturers of suppressors or relics and curios. They have to have a license as well.

James Moffitt (A): Alright, so what's the one message you want listeners to walk away with today?

Reuben Booker (B): The one message I want listeners to walk away with.

James Moffitt (A): You've got five minutes for an elevator speech.

Reuben Booker (B): I think my main message would be if you're listening and you buy seller trade firearms or gear you know vests LB ease you know all that's all that stuff that you see on the internet and on the radio go to gear switcher comm

Reuben Booker (B): On March 1st today, March 1st is our official launch date. It's free. It takes 30 seconds. You can list the item immediately and just give it a shot. the worst that could happen is you walk away and be like, Ruben and his brother have no idea what they're doing and I'll never use that website again. That's fine. If you're an FFL owner, go claim your profile. It's already there. We've already built it. You know, we have your address. We have your business, you know,

Reuben Booker (B): name like we're waiting for you to sign up and you can start selling it's not going to be 30 seconds unfortunately it's going to take you a little longer and my last pitch would be you know find us on social media on twitter at gearswitcher.com on instagram gear switcher or just one more gear switcher and we're trying to build a community because that's what that's like the foundation of what gear switcher is it's a community of individuals who are interested in buying and selling gear and firearms without

James Moffitt (A): Sure.

Reuben Booker (B): the hassle of silly credits that don't make any sense or high fees that impede business goals. So that would be my call to action. My ask, my elevator pitch would be go sign up, make an account. And if you don't like it, tell them this. We read every email, every message. We work on it nonstop. We have jobs full time, but this is our baby.

James Moffitt (A): There you go.

Reuben Booker (B): And we want to make it as best as we can and we want to make it better than what's currently available. And I think we can do that, we got to hear that our baby's ugly sometimes. And I'm not afraid to hear that the baby is ugly.

James Moffitt (A): I got you.

James Moffitt (A): Well, Ruben, thank you for being on the show. And to the listening audience, to the listening audience, I want to say thank you for the privilege of your time. That wraps up today's conversation with Ruben Booker from Gearswitcher.com. Ruben reminded us that Liberty isn't just a belief, it's a responsibility. It's the mindset you carry, the training you invest in, and the gear you choose with intention, not impulse. Whether you're new to firearms or deep into preparedness, his message is simple.

Reuben Booker (B): Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me.

James Moffitt (A): Stay informed, stay trained, and stay ready. If this episode gave you something to think about, share it with someone who cares about protecting what matters. And make sure to check out GearSwitcher, that's Gear, S-W-I-T-C-H-R dot com, for tools and insights that actually make a difference. Thanks for listening to the Liberty and Gun Rights Podcast. Stay sharp, stay prepared, and keep standing for freedom. Thank you, Reuben.

Reuben Booker (B): Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, James.