Why You're Your Own First Responder | Dianna Muller

Dianna Muller has spent her life around firearms, but her path from police officer to professional shooter to one of the most influential voices in the Second Amendment movement was anything but planned.

In this episode, Dianna shares how a childhood introduction to firearms led to a 22-year law enforcement career, a passion for competitive shooting, and ultimately the founding of Women for Gun Rights. Along the way, she explains why self-reliance matters, what most Americans misunderstand about personal safety, and why she believes every citizen is ultimately responsible for their own protection. 

Terry and Dianna discuss:

• What law enforcement taught her about violence, crime, and human nature
• Why situational awareness is still your greatest defensive tool
• How competitive shooting helped shape her approach to firearms training
• Why 3-Gun remains one of the most exciting and accessible shooting sports
• The mission behind Women for Gun Rights and its growing national movement
• How firearm owners can become effective advocates for the Second Amendment
• The realities of sponsorships in competitive shooting and how athletes create value for the companies they represent
• Why professionalism, relationships, and personal character matter as much as performance on the range 

Whether you're interested in competition, personal defense, advocacy, or simply understanding the firearms community better, this conversation offers a candid look at the people working to protect both the culture and the rights surrounding America's shooting sports.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I use my experience um in law enforcement to try to educate the people who don't have those experiences. I can speak to violence. I can speak to firearms experience. And I can tell you that A, you are your own first responder. There is nobody coming to protect you. And what really freaks out the public is when I tell them that the police have no duty to protect you. So a nobody getting in trouble if something happens to you and they're right there. There is no duty to protect um civilians. And I think that that's I think that that's one of the best, not if it's a best kept secret, but if the public understood how the how much they are on their own, not to mention that police are minutes away when seconds count, like they would understand how important the Second Amendment is.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Diana, thanks for joining me. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me, Terry. So how old were you when you first started shooting?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Gee whiz. Uh these are the hard questions, huh? I was very young. Uh my dad was actually in law enforcement as well. And uh so we had guns around our house all the time, and it was very uh very straightforward from the beginning of you know, these are guns, this is how you do it, you don't do this. Um, but pulling the trigger, I would say 10. I'm guessing. I I first hunted, I started hunting and actually thinking about being accurate around 14 or 15 years old. And uh so, you know, there's a good between 10 and 14, I had somewhat of uh uh experience with firearms, but let's say, you know, by 14 I was proficient.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Do you remember what you were shooting?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yes, it was uh actually I hunted with a Thompson contender, a breakover uh 357 maxama. But I also yeah, we were in my dad started me on revolvers, so um uh like an old 38 special type revolver is what I practiced on, and then I remember having like a 44 revolver that I practiced on, and then when I actually hunted, uh he gave me that contender and boom, and I felt terrible because I you know I killed a dub. The first thing that came along, the first the first season I went with him, I didn't see anything. It's probably because I've got ADHD. I'm like eating candy, I'm making all sorts of no noise. Terrible hunter. Didn't get any of the memos there, like, hey, be quiet. So I didn't see anything. So the next season when I went and I the first thing that came by, I'm like, boom, there you go, there's dinner, and then here comes little Bambi, you know, and I killed mom, and I was like, I killed mom! I killed Bambi's mom. So hunting wasn't for me. I love to eat meat, and I love that my husband Ken um loves to hunt and he loves to provide. Uh, and I love the tastiness of the little deer and the little bambies. I just don't like to kill things and skin things and cut things open. I could never work in an ER.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, it was actually kind of entertaining. The first time I took my kids hunting, I resigned myself to the fact that silence was not going to be something we did. Nope. It was purely for the fun of hanging out with them and taking them up into the mountains because I took them hunting in Wyoming and it was amazing scenery. I'm sure your dad has very or had very fond memories of taking you hunting.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, he told me, why didn't you shoot Bambi too? He didn't get a deer. But then that's what, you know, that experience is what turned us on to the competitive shooting. Like, you know, dad still was interested in firearms, and um, and then he took us, he took me to uh Michael J. Plaxco, was my first class ever about competitive shooting, and he was on the Smith and Wesson team, and this is back in, you know, the 80s, mid-80s. So, yeah, then I got introduced to the shooting sports, and uh that really kind of um I dabbled in it. I still was a horse person. We grew up on uh with horses and showing horses and barrel racing and doing all the things horsey. Uh so the shooting was definitely just a side gig, and then um eventually it came around to my primary gig. Much later down the road.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So if you were uh law enforcement for 22 years, what jobs did you do while you were in so I had a great career.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

You know, everybody I went to the Tulsa Police Department. Uh, they require a four-year degree. You get out, you have a six-month FTO training program, you ride with three different FTOs uh and three different sections of town, then you come back to your original one, then you get cut loose on your own. Uh, you have to spend three years in the field before you can do any kind of specialty division. But from there, I went to Footbeat, which was uh not really footbeat, it was more like a street crimes. Uh we handled all of the um housing complexes, and that was our specialty. Like we just uh went after all the bad things that happen in uh complexes and other pockets of town. And then I went to street crimes, and then I went to gangs was my favorite because gangs you can really you can really get to know people. Like Tulsa wasn't that big. Tulsa is a town of 350,000, maybe. But in the area of town that I was in, you know, the gang, it was a very it was a small, smaller sect of town. Uh, it felt like another town. And so you really got to know the gangs that were in your area, and then you could say, like, you know, Pookie got shot and killed on one night, and then you'd know that he was on this team, and then you'd start looking at who's active on the other team and who's gonna try to go get revenge for Pookie, and you use your informants, and you really it's it's like watching a soap opera, uh, because you know all the players and all the players keep coming back and they introduce new characters, and uh yeah, and you really felt like you were doing something, you know, because you're chasing people that are trying to kill people, so or sling dope and and do all the bad things. So that was I loved gangs and street crimes because that's what we chase the same people.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

So you feel like the gang unit was the one that taught you the most about human nature?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Oh no, human nature's just on the street. Like you you're a field troop, you get to see everything of people. Like you get calls for service, um, and i i you know, between picking up a chicken, you know, I got a chicken in my yard. I remember chasing a chicken around one time, to cows, to like uh, you know, to to homicides. So you get to see the range of the human experience um in the best and the worst cases, mostly in the worst on this call of the police department.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I bet. So what do you think you learned from that experience that whether it's crime or violence or potentially both, that most Americans just don't understand?

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Well, that's a great question because I kind of use my experience um in law enforcement to try to educate the people who don't have those experiences. Like when I advocate for the Second Amendment with women for gun rights, um, you know, I can speak to violence, I can speak to firearms experience, and I can tell you that A, you are your own first responder, there is nobody coming to protect you. And what really freaks out the public is that they recognize, well, when I tell them that the police have no duty to protect you. So a nobody getting in trouble if something happens to you and they're right there. There, there is no duty to protect um civilians. So that's why, like Parkland, when we we get so frustrated when we see something happen, like the Parkland school shooting and how the police officers just stood outside uh while these kids are bleeding out, while they're getting shot, when they could have saved lives and stopped the shooter, those people are not gonna get in trouble. Now they have to go to bed at night with themselves uh and and face that reality that they've created. But as far as somebody holding them accountable for not acting, that doesn't happen. And I think that that's I think that that's one of the best, not if it's a best kept secret, but if the public understood how the how much they are on their own, not to mention that police are minutes away when seconds count, like they would understand how important the Second Amendment is. Uh if and when it ever happens to them. It's just like saving a starfish, though. You know, and uh a critical incident only happens to very few people. And uh unfortunately it is happening more and more these days, but um, you're your own first responder, is what I I think I can preach from a position of authority uh because of the 22 years in law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I just had a guest on here, Dakota, who said she had a friend who had someone broke into his house. He was on his way to the shower, he heard broke breaking glass, got his gun, went to investigate, ended up having to shoot the invader because the guy who broke into his house was armed. What he didn't know at the time was he was calling 911, he said somebody's in my house, and literally as he as he had hung up and and and then had to engage with this guy is a knock at the door. So he's like, wow, the police got here really quick. Well, it turns out the SWAT team was already there. They were at the house next door trying to catch the guy that broke into his house. They just held outside. So he ended up having to deal with the intruder because they didn't make entry in time. And who knows? I know that there's a lot of uh, you know, there's a lot of variables with uh a SWAT team making entry to a house, and they were not at that point, at least going into his home, they were trying to make entry into the next one. But the fact that they were on site when the 911 call came in and still didn't make entry, and this guy ended up having to deal with it himself, I think I mean it surprised me, it probably shouldn't, but I think it was surprised many people to know that they could be literally, as was the case here, on your doorstep and you're still on your own.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Absolutely. That's a great, great story, and I'll be glad to take that. And uh when we go to Washington, DC, and when we're trying to, you know, really we're trying Women for Gun Rights. I know we haven't really dove into that, but women for gun rights is uh we have a unique ability to speak to people that legacy organizations cannot. You know, NRA is doing a great job, um, GOA is doing a great job, Second Amendment Foundation, all these legacy organizations have been around for a long time, are very well respected and need to be doing what they're doing, but they can't do what we do. They can't talk to uh those voters that are in the middle of the road or left leaning, but women for gun rights can. We can talk about how we want to be safe and how uh, you know, an armed female is less likely to be killed or um engaged because she can defend herself. So these are all great stories um and just awareness for the for Americans to understand that they are their own first responder.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah, I've always been a big advocate of leveling the playing field. I used to teach martial arts and self-defense, and I would have women come in to learn how to fight. And I'd love that they would they wanted to learn those skills, and I taught a kind of a variation of Muay Thai with a lot of elbows and a lot of really hard-hitting stuff that was reality-based, not necessarily in a martial arts way in a traditional sense. Like I wanted them to drop the bad guy, but I would also always advocate for them like well, on top of awareness and actually, you know, having their head screwed on and looking around, was get a firearm and then get training because that's the ultimate leveler for you in terms of defending yourself and being r able to be responsible for your own safety. And it was always interesting, sort of broaching the topic with people because invariably there would be some reluctance, not always, but sometimes with, well, I don't know. I've never really thought, I don't know if I'd want to own a gun. And I said, You're only one crime away, and you know, whether how you respond ultimately and whether you live or die could be contingent on whether you have that particular tool in your hands at the time you need it. And I was I was very happy that I was often able to sort of push them, coach them to go get a gun, get training, be ready.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah, that reminds me of uh we did some training with some influencers down at a facility called WAFT, where our families train in uh Orlando, Florida. And we host a uh training there, and it's a Women for Gun Rights event, uh, but we invited Misha Tate. Do you know the name Misha Tate from the MMA world? She is a uh world champion fighter. And uh we were doing scenarios and things like that. And a couple of guys basically end up picking her up and taking her away. And she told us a story afterwards when we were debriefing. She's like, you know, this really kind of opened my eyes. Like, I thought I could always take care of myself because of my extensive training and I'm in shape, and you know, we've been fighting, I've been fighting my whole life. And uh, and then she was like, I get it. I get the I I get how a firearm might be necessary.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

So the people that picked her up, she we're talking literally here or as part of a training exercise to prove a point she was picked up and taken, like clear that up.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

No, it was in the middle of a scenario when a couple of guys just uh swooped in and picked her up and took her out of the room.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah. And were there plenty of people to watch that happen and see how easily it occurred?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah, yeah, we got it on tape.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Perfect. Yeah, because most people don't they don't think that way. I mean, it's not just um it's not just women either, because I taught a lot of guys that thought, okay, I've had a few sessions under my belt, I can kick some ass now. So one of the things I would often do is to spar with them, you know, periodically, once a quarter or, you know, every few weeks or something, just to show them where they really were so that they didn't get that sense that I can handle all comers. I'm like, no, you can't, you can't, and especially if you're not aware enough to see it coming in time to do anything about it. But the same thing for women, it's okay, you have these skills, and you know, sort of in a hierarchy, if you find yourself unarmed and un unable to get a defensive tool in your hands, yes, having those schools is certainly better than not having them, but sometimes it can be sort of a disadvantage to think the skills I have will carry me through. And you think about somebody of her caliber who trained literally probably the majority of her life, just picked up and carried away.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Yeah. And she uh anybody anybody can be outnumbered, anybody can be out muscled, like there is always a a bigger person or a bigger threat out there than whoever you are. You know, I don't care if you're Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. There's always uh there's always a reason for you to um be aware and uh be humble enough to understand that you're not the king of the jungle.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah. Yeah, it's always interesting because I've run into a variety of people at a variety of different sort of levels, all the way up to tier one operators. And they are invariably the most humble and the most accepting of the fact it could be them, and that you know, somebody else who set a good ambush position has surprise and violence of action on their side, it could be them. So they never tend to walk around like the big guy on campus thinking, you know, I got all comers if need be. But it's it's hard sometimes to get people to sort of reset and go, yeah, you have some skills, but unless you you know you have the advantage of seeing it coming early enough to respond that may be for absolutely naught. Well, and situational awareness and uh avoiding conflict is always the best uh option, but you know, sometimes the world doesn't deal you those cards, so yeah, no, it's invariably it's an unfair advantage, and they have the advantage of choosing the when, the where, and the how. So I'd like to touch on you ended up with uh competing for in three gun. So tell me about that journey. Because obviously you started out with revolvers with your dad, and then you sort of morphed into tell me the journey up to three gun, because there'll be people who listen to this that have never even heard of three gun.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Okay. Well, three gun is kind of like the uh uh the extreme sport of the shooting sports. Um so we use rifles, pistols, and shotguns, sometimes all at the same time. Uh we'll have a rifle slung on our back, we'll start with a shotgun. Everything is always different. There's no set course of fire. That's why I like it. I like the uh diversity of it. But my my path there was uh, you know, we started with revolvers, we started competing, um, you know, like with the um 1911. Um, and then somewhere along the way before I got to college, or maybe when I was in college, I got introduced to a shotgun match. So I had some shotgun experience, had a rifle class, then I go to law enforcement, and you know, I have those experiences throughout my law enforcement career. And in about 20, so I carried a rifle, carried a shotgun, carried a pistol. So when I found three gun in 2009, there were only about five major matches in the country. Uh Rocky Mountain 3 Gun is in Raton, New Mexico in April, in August, which is always a great place to be at 7,000 feet in August. But uh, and it's still going on. But a lot of the superstition is in uh the Phoenix area, and those are about the only two matches that are still going on um that were original. But now it's exploded, man. I mean, we don't even have to go to the East Coast or the West Coast anymore. We can stay in the midsection. We do make it to this the South Carolina every once in a while. Um, but yeah, the the three-gun sport over the past 10-15 years has definitely uh exploded and it's so much fun. It's a little gear intensive. You know, if this is if the three-gun sport is the first introduction to the shooting sports, it's a little overwhelming because you're managing three platforms as opposed to just one. Um, but I can always encourage people to say bring what you run, you know, bring what you own, take the the hunting guns out of the safe and uh just get experience with them. Um you know, how if we could engage maybe three percent of the hunters uh into the shooting sports, that would be huge, you know, and they would get they would get to have the fun with their shotgun. Uh they would shoot more ammo. It would just be good for our of our industry and our community. Uh, but that's kind of my road to uh three gun. And um I I love it. I still it's kind of refreshing to go to a pistol match. Or last year I went to Czech Republic to shoot the uh PCC world, the pistol caliber carbine is what PCC stands for. So it looks like it's an AR platform, but it a nine millimeter, so much fun. And it was a one-gun, you know, uh the world shoot. Uh it was, it's just, it was a great trip. The Czech Republic wasn't anything like I expected. I was expecting more third world, and it's a very much uh very, very nice place, and I enjoyed the food and they drive on the right side of the road and all that good stuff, uh, you know, the important things. And then with then with um then with all of the translation things that it's a lot easier to travel. So um I really enjoyed the trip to Czech Republic. The um Daniel Defense PCC took me to a silver medal, and our team, uh ladies' team, got a silver medal as well. So got beat by the South Africans.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Really?

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

But I just had I just talked to somebody else. Who went to the Ipsy shooting competition, the Worlds, in South Africa, and he said it was amazing, which isn't a location I've ever really considered for shooting.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah, well, yeah. I thought about going to that, but uh there were some open slots. I don't think people were really excited about going to South Africa with all the unrest. And you know, I've heard I've heard they say when you get off the plane, they tell you to load your gun, and you're like, I'm gonna pass. And the ladies uh from South Africa, they really, you know, they they kind of filled us in on how dangerous it is and um, you know, how uh their families and are being persecuted and um it's tough.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

What's the concealed carry laws like over there? Because I know nothing about it.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Uh well, I don't know that there's concealed carry. I think that uh it might be a little bit more wild west and uh it might be just everybody because literally when I my husband my husband went over there hunting, he was like they were like, you need to load your gun as soon as you get there. So I don't know. I haven't investigated there how how easy it is to carry and actually defend yourself because God forbid you would have to do something in a foreign country like that. I that would stress me out.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah, no, me too. That's why I was somewhat surprised when he said that's where the Ipsic competition was being held, because my impression of South Africa is it's kind of uh it's a little uh little jumpy over there.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah. Well, you know, it's popping off all over the world these days. So that's another reason that uh I'm very grateful for the U.S. and our Constitution and the Second Amendment. So I just I just need other Americans to understand that. And that's where I think Women for Gun Rights has the um, you know, why we're so important is that we can influence our friends, our families, and our neighbors and our legislators. Um, like the other side, the the gun control lobby has been using the female voice to call for more gun control for twelve, fifteen years now and being very effective at it.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Which is unfortunately the opposite of what we need.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Correct. Yeah. They're being used as pawns for an agenda. I would love to there's a our Arch Nemesis is really a group called Moms Demand Action. It's a Bloom Bloomberg funded $60 million annual budget-ish. And uh, you know, I feel like if I had the if I had an audience with all of their membership, that I could take a big section of it just right off the bat. Because literally these people have never heard anything differently. You know, the firearms industry is squelched, they don't get to be, you know, we are trying to normalize firearms again, uh, because they aren't the ones that are doing any anything anything wrong. It's the people. So yeah, that's uh Women for Gun Rights is definitely uh an underdog. Um, like I said, it's a $60 million machine. They are very intentional. Uh they are playing on people's emotions. They uh they just flat out, they either lie or they misrepresent statistics, uh, intentionally or not. They're just uh, you know, they keep saying that guns are the number one killer of kids. And what do you think people respond to? Well, then let's get rid of the guns. And there that nobody understands that nobody takes a deeper look and says, Why how is that possible? Well, it's possible because they include 18 and 19-year-old gangbangers that are killing each other, um, that are adults by any other measure, and they exclude infant mortality. So, you know, you you you run your own poll and you get your the answers that you want. So uh that's that's unfortunate. But couple that with the censorship that goes on from our side, you know, whether it be on social media, mainstream media, it's it's even more difficult for us to counter those messages. So that's why, you know, I think Women for Gun Rights is really important that we can take that message back to the people that can hear from us uh to say that you're safer with firearm.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

And predominantly how do you uh raise money to keep fighting the fight? I mean, $60 million on the opposite side of the room is is a huge amount of money. So how are you competing?

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Well, I'm doing what what I can and and our organization is doing what we can. I'm gonna I'm gonna add a little bit of something. For the past four years, the Biden administration, I'll let your audience know that they put $1.2 billion into the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. So what they would do with that money is they would push it out to the states and basically entice them with this money to create um red flag laws. They would help them write legislation just pushing gun control. So when Trump won and came back into office, I was like screaming at the top of my lungs, going, okay, okay, okay, okay, don't everybody is saying get rid of the office. It's unconstitutional, get rid of the office, which I kind of agree with.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Uh, but they they had the ball and they ran the ball down the field so much. I wanted to get the ball back instead of just taking the ball and going home. And I wanted to score some points going the other direction. And I wanted to rename the office of, you know, firearms education and violence prevention, like shove it back down their throats. Like, we're gonna use your $1.2 billion to create gun education classes and entice the states to, you know, do something that would actually make people safer, uh, actually save kids' lives, and uh not just push an agenda. But of course, between Doge and um everybody kind of knee-jerk reaction that this is unconstitutional, the office went away. I am still petitioning the White House to have a Second Amendment council. Um, so so we can all kind of get in the same boat and uh strategize because that's what you know. I think everybody is doing what they can, but I don't see our community really working together uh to push the ball down the field as best as a team. So uh, and then and I get I get it. Everybody is um everybody's trying to do what they're trying to do, and we're all pretty much going after the same money, uh, and it's limited. We don't have any Bloombergs on our side that um that uh are subsidizing our efforts to control and usurp the constitution. But uh yeah, so we we actually did just launch a paid membership for the first time this year. So I think it was in March. Yes, this is very exciting for Women for Gun Rights. We launched a paid membership. It's $50 a year, $100 a year, or $20, $200 a year. Now with the top two tiers, we were really trying to give a return return on investment. You know, I don't want to give up a bunch of swag. Everybody gets every tier gets a t-shirt, our signature t-shirt that says educate, not legislate. I should have had that on that side. And um, and then but but we're having a monthly raffle. So if you're at the $100 or $200 level, you get one or two tickets per month, which is a $300 value for the $100 and a $600 value. So we're really giving you some value into these raffles that are, you know, this month is a Daniel Defense uh setup that's worth $4,500. So if you are a member of our organization, you're automatically dumped into there uh at least one or two times, depending on your membership status. You can buy more tickets, um, but you're automatically so that's that's really exciting because that's a revenue stream that we've never had before. Because Diana did not want to create another organization. This is all a God thing. This is, you know, we started going to Washington, D.C. I kind of skipped ahead on all that, but uh to where we are now. But now we are a full-fledged organization. Um, we have a membership. And this year, I want to make sure to tell your audience that we have another cool thing going on. When we went to Washington, D.C. for the past 10 years, it was just for our state directors. It was more of a leadership deal. We would have our meetings with our legislators, we talk 2-A policy and things like that. People would always say, I'm gonna come to DC with you. And I was like, Oh, I can't, we can't take any more because you know I have somebody covering your state. And it was one woman from every state. Well, this year, very exciting, drum roll, please. We are opening our fly-in up as a national summit, and we're we have an another hundred seats. So we're gonna have three times the ladies or gentlemen because we're it's open to to anybody. This summit is open to anybody. Um, but we are gonna have three times the people that we've had on on Capitol Hill, and that's pretty exciting. Um, we've added a gala. So you want me to talk about like what the summit looks like? Please do.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Okay, fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

So and the trips, the trips to DC are always amazing. Um all the ladies, all our state directors go away very energized, and it's just an epic location, epic history. It's just everything's awesome. So this year, our national summit is going to be September the 12th through the 14th. And the 12th is a sun, a Saturday. We're coming in, we're having a gala on Saturday night at the Hilton on Capitol Hill. Our conference is at the Yotel on Capitol Hill, which is right next door. Um, and we're having a conference from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. And then we're having a rally on the Capitol Lawn from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The rally is free. Anybody can come to the rally. Uh help all you Virginians that are really in a pickle right now come and be seen and heard. But another cool thing that's going to happen on Sunday is we're going to take our lunch break at the Union Station. Have you ever been to Union Station in DC? I have not, no. It's the train station, but it's got this massive, massive entry ballroom area that's just very ornate and the acoustics, and then it's got some shops and stuff around it. Well, we're going to do a flash mob. We're going to do a flash mob with one of our girls in the middle singing the national anthem, and then the rest of us kind of coming in in waves as uh reciting the Second Amendment. So I'm pretty stoked about that. I don't know what it's going to look like, but uh I'm pretty excited to try this and try to get it on camera. So that's Sunday, and then Monday, um, the big group of 150 of us will be on Capitol Hill, walking the halls of Congress, um, meeting with legislators in kind of a higher level, lower level, higher level uh as a big group. We're going to uh one of the flexes we're gonna do is half of us are gonna be in the Senate cafeteria and half of us are gonna go to the House cafeteria for lunch. We're scheduling that just so we'll have 75 people in the same shirt and you know, make a little flex. We'll have a group picture in front of the Capitol, and uh that it's just a great experience. Um, and that's at womenforgunrights.org. If anybody wants to look at that, it's on our landing page, the National Summit. Um, and then there's also a tab for the rally. If you can just make the rally, please RSVP to that. Um and then what else? The National Summit. Oh, then our state directors are gonna stay over an extra day on Tuesday and actually go back to the regular scheduled programming, which is meeting with um legislators and their offices on Second Amendment policy.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

So can people individually within their states who are interested in you know becoming members or joining, they can find the chapter leaders or the presidents, whatever for each of the states through the website?

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yes. Well, when you sign up, you're going to be basically dumped into the state that you live, and then that state director will be their point of contact.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Okay. If you're a firearms instructor teaching beginners all the way through full-blown tactical classes, and you'd like your students to get better faster and also add an additional revenue stream to your business, consider becoming a laser ammo dealer. Right lasers, reactive targets, smokeless range simulators, all these bits of kit help your clients and you, of course, get more trigger time without burning through hundreds of dollars worth of ammo. Shoot me an email, Terry at laser ammo.com, and let's get you and your clients dialed in with the best dry fire laser-based training equipment available. And now, back to the episode. Alright, so I have another question as far as 3 gun is concerned, because uh it's one of those areas of competitive shooting that I think is probably underrepresented and it there needs to be more of it. If there are women who are listening who are at this point perhaps just pistol shooters, or maybe they're just rifle shooters, and we were trying to push them to sort of look into uh exploring three gun. Is there a place so central that they could go to to explore getting involved?

SPEAKER_01 35:27

That's what's so hard about three gun is because it's kind of a it's kind of an underground uh sport. We don't have a uh body that governs all of 3 gun. So they're they're called uh outlaw matches because everybody like you have a match that's great, and uh usually the rule sets are very similar, but it could be a little bit different. Um and um practice score is is honestly a maybe a good place, but I don't know if you can search three gun competition. But practice score would probably be a central one because pretty much 99% of match directors are using practice score as a um housing and scoring and uh communications hub. So practice score would probably be where I'm at. And then, you know, Facebook, look for three gun uh pages and stuff like that. USPSA, you mentioned Ipsy, USPSA has a um multigun nationals, they call it multi-gun. Uh it's in Minnesota in July, and it's not full. But I recommend like if people are interested in three gun, like go to a contact your local range and see if they have one, even if it's a local match, but go and help. And this goes for any of the shooting sports. If you want, if you're interested in any of the shooting sports, call your local range, see what they have there, and go help out. Say, hey, can I bring cookies and can I help reset targets, or can I help range RO, range officer? Um, they need people to actually run the timer, which you will not do as a newbie, but you can do the scorebooks and um and help out and get to meet people. And then you can look at their gear, you can you can talk to people. Uh the shooting sports has the most um, oh, just the most genuine people in the world. And I I cannot I cannot think that anybody wouldn't approach a shooter and they wouldn't give them the shirt off their back or give them the information that they needed or let them even borrow something.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Yeah, I found it to be an amazing community. And this is for an immigrant that came in and of course after this mil leaving the military service and handing all my weapons back in, and then basically feeling like, well, I'm no longer an adult, I'm not allowed to have them. Then moving to the States, the very first gun show I went to, because I had a couple of uh Thai boxing students and they're like, Oh, you got to come to a gun show. I was like, sounds great. I was a bit dubious. I remember walking in and seeing the array of firearms and going, This is great. I'm home. I am home. What a smorgasbord of firearms. It was just bloody amazing. But it it's one of those things that you you perhaps isn't talked about enough is the sense of camaraderie and community that surrounds the shooting sports. And I think there is a sense for those outside of it that feels like it is a little bit like the Wild West. And yet I have never seen so many people all on the same page as far as safety and the rules and how you're supposed to interact with firearms, and that of course is all part of that educational element that you mentioned earlier, and getting and sharing that part of firearms ownership, which sometimes gets kind of overlooked, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

And demonized, you know. Uh they think that we're all trigger happy killers, and I could be nothing further than the truth, you know. We uh everybody that I know, even within between law enforcement and professional shooting, like everybody uh they're great people. And uh we are the responsible ones, and we do know how to stay safe with firearms, and we will call out any kind of infractions that we see. This is uh it's so funny that that there's such a disconnect between reality and uh and who the anti-gunners think we are and who we actually are.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

Agreed, and I think Hollywood, I hate to throw that crap in here, but Hollywood has been responsible for the demonization of firearms. And at the same time, running in parallel to that demonization is the promotion of gun violence in a movie setting, and then they expect applause for both. Like we're gonna sell you a product, the the dramatization of firearms, and then we're gonna demonize anyone that has it and we want to have our cake and eat it too. And it makes me so bloody mad.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

And the music industry too.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

You know that I mean who uh you you we gotta wonder like who is in charge and who's making the the calls? Because you know, I've read that the CIA was in bed with Hollywood and music industry, and you know, looking back at it now and seeing how manipulated everything is and the messaging that we get is so curated and it's it's always going in a direction. So um, yeah, it's very concerning. And that goes back to the censorship that you know they get to do the propagandizing, and we really don't have uh the First Amendment is squelched to the point where we can't really have the same representation with different opinions.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Agreed. So if somebody is a shooter and they're interested in getting sponsored, what should they be doing?

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Well, a lot of people ask that are coming into the sport, they ask, you know, how do you get sponsors? And uh it always comes back to relationships. You know, when I was barrel racing, I remember seeing a gal who did not do well, and she had a trailer that was sponsored by like Rib Crib. And I'm like, how did that happen? And it was because she had a relationship and somebody wanted to support her. So what I would recommend anybody who's coming into the shooting sports and sees the jerseys, the fancy jerseys with all the stuff on it is hey, you know, what do you have on your gun? What do you have that you're already running? How can you be an asset to that company? Uh let's say you have a Daniel Defense rifle. Let's say you throw a night force optic on it, let's say you have a hyperfire trigger. You know, start thinking about creating content and becoming an asset and then knocking on their door, as opposed to going to somebody cold and saying, you know, um, I don't run your stuff yet, um, but you know, I'd like for you to sponsor me. Like, if you want to be sponsored, you have to know that the company's goal is to sell guns. You are an avenue with which to market your their product, and you need to bring something to the table. And I can promise you that as cool as you are and as grandmaster as you are, there's a million people out there that um probably do it better than the best shooter. The best shooter is pretty much focused on um shooting, but it's a rare breed that you get somebody that's focused on social media enough to really gain the audience to create the return on investment for those companies. So bringing it back to the relationships, like my first sponsorship was I didn't have a shotgun, and I ended up in a squad with Tommy Thacker, who was working at FN at the time, and and they saw something in me that he said, Hey, we'll give you uh we'll give you a shotgun. And that was really before social, that was 15 years ago, before social media was huge. So um, but then the next year, you know, they created a they they actually had a team and they asked me to be a part of the team, and then they gave me a bunch of guns and they gave me some money for um for travel expenses and stuff. But I was, you know, getting interviewed, being you know, writing articles, um creating things that uh that valued FN. Um today my husband and I uh we do this full time. So we have a trailer, we have a massive trailer that is a billboard, a moving billboard. So Daniel Defense and Hyperfire and Night Force and all these people on our shirt is on our trailer. So not only are they on our shirt and on our social media, uh, but we give them a value of being on the trailer. Uh so you have to really um recognize that you are you need to bring something to the table. And just like these interviews, like the more people, the more you can get on um podcasts, the more media that you can do, the more value you bring to your partners. So that's did that answer the question?

SPEAKER_00 44:04

It did because I I like that because it's multifaceted. Yeah, that and you are correct that most people go into shooting and they want to be sponsored and they just go out cold calling and say, why don't you give me a gun and some ammunition? And I spoke with uh Gabby um this is quite a little while ago, um, and she said, you know, she always gets asked, How do I get sponsored by accused? And you know, her answer is, Well, pay for the first one million rounds of ammunition and get good enough to win competitions. But in conjunction with that, because yes, that's certainly w one of the things you have to do, you have to be well spoken. You have to represent the company in a way that they're gonna go, we can stand behind you, we're gonna put our products in your hand because we know you'll represent it well.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

And you're kind. Like there's a lot of good shooters, there's a lot of good shooters that are hay holes. And uh, you know, as much as I love our shooting community, that that you need to be be aware of uh be aware of your language. Like I was just I just took a 17-year-old from my church to her first match ever. And like literally, people she is a good girl, and I want her to come around as she loves hanging out with us, but like it was a culture shock for her. And I'm like, I keep telling everybody of how great the shooting sports is, and then they don't have the decency, even the my friends and the people in my squad don't have the decency to say, hey, there's a girl here that we don't know. Let's watch our language. Like, none of that happens anymore. So I would encourage, you know, if you're gonna put a shirt on, if you're gonna put a shirt on with somebody else's name on it, that you need to remember that you represent somebody besides yourself. And and then when women or children are around that you don't know, recognize that, hey, these people might not, you know, be in the operator culture. They may not be in the police culture because, you know, the those that's harsh language. Um, but just be aware and have that gentlemanly thing come back, or ladies, you know, it's it's ladies and and men and women that are just dropping F moms left and right. And I'm just like, I felt bad. I'm like, her parents are never gonna let her come with me again. So just be aware that you know, it's not, it's all not all just taking and and that you should give and and that you should do reports, you should do um quarterly, if not monthly, reports of feeding them what you have. Because if these companies give you something, they're busy. Uh, if they have a marketing director, they're busy, they've hired you to make their company look good. So you have to force feed and spoon feed them what you have done. So we do monthly reports, uh, we talk about our events, we talk about our placings, we talk about any kind of speaking gigs, any media uh that we get. You know, you'll be on my next one for June. And um, that's how you bring value to a company uh is you become an asset and and and start and keep bringing them. And it's work. It's uh it's awesome. It's uh it's an awesome job. I get to do it as a full-time job. Um, but yeah, just start with the people that are already on your on your guns or that that you're already using, and uh just you know, you know, our weirdest sponsor is Patriot Mobile, a cell phone service company, a Christian conservative cell phone company. And if you use two a Patriot, you help they support women for gun rights because they are this is kind of cool actually. Um Patriot Mobile has all three towers. So there's only ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Everybody uses those towers. They bought into all three of them. So like Verizon works best at my house. So I call and I'm like, hey, put I'm at home for a week, put me on Verizon. Um I w just went to the Caymans last week. Uh ATT works best when I'm international. So they switch me. It's all it's it's just like why would we not vote with our dollars? Why would we not support companies that are supporting the Second Amendment? And they support Women for Gun Rights. So you can have two two lines on one device. It's it's really cool what they can do. I think it's patriotmobile.com.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Well, we've given your experience, the fact that you have been in law enforcement, you're an instructor, competitive shooter professionally, and a founder for Women for Gun Rights, I think that your voice is unique and it should be one that we are hearing you know time and time again in as many different places as we can help support getting you to. Because the more somebody like you represents the shooting sports in general well, and you obviously do, the the better. Because that sort of brought break potentially brings in an audience that we might not have been able to reach previously.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

So after listening to this episode, is there one thing in particular I'd like people to do after they've finished listening to this?

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, first of all, please visit womenforgunrights.org. Consider coming to our summit, put consider uh becoming a member. Uh that would be that would really put fuel in the tank uh to fund our effort, and we really need that. Uh the firearms industry, you know, when there's a um when there's a Republican or a conservative in office, it seems like um people are less likely to purchase. So our firearms industry is a little depressed right now, uh, except Virginia. I think Virginia is probably catching everybody on a fire, but uh it's a dumpster fire. But um, yeah, so uh just solely relying on the firearms industry is what we've done up until this point with this paid membership. So anybody that can support through that or introduce us to Elon Musk. I mean, if you know a Bloomberg, a billionaire that, you know, wants to save America and wants to save the Second Amendment, I'd be glad to get an introduction to uh Elon Musk or the like. So yeah, that's what they can do after you they listen to this episode.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

He may not be a bad place to start, actually.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

Yeah. He sure did save save the first amendment. Let's see what he can do to save the second amendment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:20

For sure. It's true. All right. Thank you so much for joining me for the recording today. I appreciate it. You've got a unique voice, and I think one that needs to be heard.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Thank you for joining us for today's episode. Don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe. It helps the algorithm push out the content to more people, more listeners, more support for the gun industry and the firearms sports in general. Doing that certainly helps introduce our content to people that might not have considered owning a firearm. For now, thanks for tuning into this episode, and we'll see you in the next one. Cheers.