The Army told Paul Benfield he was colorblind. That left him two job options: mortician, or truck driver.

So he enlisted as a human resources clerk instead. On purpose. Because the human resources clerk is the person who files the transfer paperwork.

Retired US Army Major Paul Benfield served 21 years, from a broke peacetime Army in 1997 to the Pentagon in 2018. He enlisted, went to war, came back, commissioned as an officer, and did it all again. He was in a hangar in Hungary on September 11th, 2001, five days after his first daughter was born. He took an RPG to his truck in Fallujah. He raided the wrong house in Baghdad. And he is one of the few people who can tell you honestly what changed across the entire Global War on Terror, because he saw it from the bottom and from the top.

Michael Schwartz has known him since high school. They were next door neighbors. Michael tried to talk him out of enlisting, and says so on the record.

This is not a special operations highlight reel. It is a career, start to finish, told by a friend. Chapters: 0:00 Cold open 2:28 Why this interview, 25 years after 9/11 5:33 Meet retired US Army Major Paul Benfield 6:36 The peacetime Army: saying "bang bang" because there was no money for blanks 11:03 He went to Airborne School before he ever joined the Army 13:33 Colorblind: your choices are mortician or truck driver 16:11 The loophole: enlist as the clerk who files the paperwork 16:56 Korea, the 82nd, and the plan backfiring 18:20 The phone call from JSOC, February 2001 19:58 What JSOC was actually doing before 9/11 26:51 September 11th: a hangar in Hungary and a colonel who thought it was a drill 31:16 Tracking casualties, and six hours total in Afghanistan 35:41 "Done by Christmas," and the whack-a-mole that followed 38:02 Afghan small arms: AKs, PKMs, and a British Enfield 42:47 Becoming an officer, and curing his own colorblindness 48:15 What "human resources" means at a tier one unit 52:23 M16 to M4: the rail system that changed everything 55:22 Ranger, Green Beret, Delta: who is who 1:00:29 Why nobody can tell you how Delta picks 1:04:30 Hollywood and the broken veteran myth 1:09:22 Ranger School, and the vendetta that backfired 1:15:50 Sadr City during the surge 1:20:52 The RPG that hit his truck and did not go off 1:29:45 "We shot him on purpose. He was just the wrong guy." 1:38:19 Two definitions of corruption 1:41:15 Kabul falling 1:44:07 1997 to 2018: what actually changed 1:45:38 Twenty one years, four kids, and a marriage that survived it 1:49:33 "I told him it was the stupidest idea. I was wrong." 1:51:29 Is the war on terror even over?

If you served, if you have a kid thinking about enlisting, or if you have only ever seen this war through a movie, this one is worth your time.

New episodes premiere every Sunday at 5 PM PT. More at gunownersradio.com

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Executive Order 9066 put roughly 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent behind barbed wire with the machine gun posts pointed inward. No charges, no trial. Many of the men in those camps volunteered for the US Army anyway, and the unit they formed became the most decorated in American military history for its size and length of service.

Chris Cheng spent six years researching them. He joins us to talk about his new novel, The Purple Heart Battalion, why "internment" is the wrong word, and why the president who signed that order still gets a pass. Also this week: where your election money should really go, how ammunition actually works, Maryland's attempt at its own SB2, and Stump My Nephew.

Chapters: 0:00 Cold open and intro 1:20 Welcome: who we are and what's on the show 2:36 A congressional candidate picks the wrong fight on a Maui beach 12:48 Upcoming classes: Tactical Comms, How Good Are You, Apache 18:36 Chris Cheng: The Purple Heart Battalion 45:39 California elections: the governor's race and where your money should go 1:02:39 We're Going Ballistic: how ammunition actually works 1:37:30 Maryland's own SB2 and Montgomery County's 100-yard carry ban 1:51:47 Stump My Nephew: the British Empire's WWII sidearm

CHRIS CHENG The Purple Heart Battalion: https://amzn.to/3RFnRJn Website: https://topshotchris.com Instagram, X, YouTube, Facebook: @topshotchris

UPCOMING Tactical Communications and Signals Intelligence with John Baldwin, Saturday August 15, Oceanside. $200, or $180 for Pew Pew Crew members. https://gunownersradio.com How Good Are You with Dave Reed, Wednesday September 23, private range in Alpine. 15 seats, $250, $50 off for Pew Pew Crew. No CCW required. https://gunownersradio.com A Girl and A Gun handgun safety and fundamentals with Dakota, August 20: https://dakotaadelphia.com Apache, September 4 to 6. Thursday evening lecture on raising kids in a world that has guns at P2K Sports in El Cajon, plus two range days. AMMCON, September 25, Dallas: https://amm-con.org Get involved with San Diego County Gun Owners: https://sdcgo.org/volunteer

If you carry, vote, reload, or argue about ammunition on the internet, this one is for you.

New episodes every Sunday at 5 PM Pacific. Subscribe so you do not find out last. https://gunownersradio.com

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A gun shop in Fallbrook got an email offering them money to give away lockboxes to active duty military. Their first reaction was the same one you are having right now: this smells like a Moms Demand Action front. So Jason Martin and his crew did the sensible thing. They dug into it before saying yes.

What they found is a suicide prevention program called Pause to Protect, run through the University of Colorado and funded by the Department of War. A Marine walks in, shows an active duty ID, and walks out with a lockbox. No application, no paperwork, no personal information collected, nothing that looks like a registry. Jason sat on a panel of shop owners from around the country who all came in skeptical and came out of it the same way he did. Michael takes the whole thing apart on air, piece by piece, and lands where a lot of you will land: a free safe for a Marine is just a good deal. The part almost nobody talks about is in there too. Service members living in the barracks still have nowhere legal to keep a firearm, because no base in Navy Region Southwest has actually built a plan around the order allowing troops to carry on base.

The rest of the show is stacked. Hawaii answered the Wolford decision by handing out free "no guns" signs to businesses, so the crew walks through what one of those signs actually does and does not do to you legally, in Hawaii and in California. AR-15s are back on Virginia shelves after the injunction. Michael has the update on Renna, the roster case he is a named plaintiff in, including the newly added AB 1127 Glock claim and the motion for summary judgment, plus why the Miller case still matters even after the Supreme Court takes up two assault weapons bans. Sam gets stumped (sort of) by a machine gun that only fires one round per trigger pull. Michael makes the case that protests do not work and lays out what does: elections, lawsuits, and culture. And Alisha closes with the story out of Cerritos, where a concealed carry holder stopped a man with a knife in the middle of a Sunday lunch rush in Los Angeles County.

Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome, and who is at the desk this week 1:58 - What is on: Alisha's gun cleaning class (July 29) and Tactical Comms with John Baldwin (Aug 15, Oceanside) 5:10 - Corrections: the slung shot is a real weapon, and a fair point about what a CCW actually costs 14:06 - Dinner with Alan Beck after the Wolford win 17:00 - Hawaii's answer to Wolford: free "no guns" signs, and what that sign actually means legally 28:06 - Jason Martin of Fallbrook Guns and Ammo joins the show 44:40 - Pause to Protect: free safes for active duty, and who is really funding it 55:57 - Virginia: AR-15s are back on the shelves after the injunction 1:00:05 - Stump My Nephew: Old Dominion, the Supreme Court feathers, and a machine gun that fires one round per trigger pull 1:16:53 - Legal update: Renna, the AB 1127 Glock ban, summary judgment, and why Miller still matters 1:37:38 - Protests do not work. Elections, lawsuits, and culture do. 1:57:26 - The Curtin Call: a CCW holder stops a knife attacker at a Cerritos restaurant

(Chapters are approximate and shift once the intro or cold-open is added in post.)

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People keep saying the same thing about the Charlie Kirk shooting: there is no way a 30-06 rifle round leaves no exit wound, so something does not add up. Michael and Dakota take that claim apart with something most of the internet skipped over, the actual ammunition. It was a common Remington soft-point hunting round, designed to expand and stop inside the target instead of punching straight through. And there is a piece of history almost nobody remembers: Martin Luther King Jr. was killed the same way, a single 30-06, no exit wound. This is the calm, informed breakdown you can send to the person in your feed who is sure they have it figured out.

From there the show opens up. A federal appeals court struck down key parts of New Jersey's assault weapons ban and magazine limit while the crew was recording, so they covered it live. Jon Fleischman, a four-decade veteran of California politics, joins to explain how the gun vote actually moves a politician and what makes an advocate valuable instead of taken for granted. Then a big win for young adults in Florida, and a full Q&A on the Wolford decision, SB2 sensitive places, the two assault-weapon cases the Supreme Court just agreed to hear, and how to get your concealed carry permit without falling for the "50-state CCW" scam.

If you care about the Second Amendment, honest ballistics, California gun laws, and self-defense without the fear and outrage, this one is for you.

Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome, and a co-host intro from Dakota 1:20 - What is on: Alisha's gun-cleaning class (July 29) and John Baldwin's Tactical Comms class (Aug 15, Oceanside) 5:09 - The Charlie Kirk myth: why "no exit wound" is not proof of a conspiracy, and the Martin Luther King parallel 13:53 - A 10-time felon gets 10 years: why gun laws trip up the law-abiding, not criminals 18:41 - Red flag laws and due process: where Dakota draws the line 26:02 - Breaking: the Third Circuit strikes down New Jersey's assault weapons and magazine ban 39:28 - Jon Fleischman: the gun vote, the litmus test, and how to actually move a politician 1:14:30 - Florida win: 18-to-20-year-olds get the right to carry (State v. Eubanks) 1:26:35 - Q&A: Wolford and the "vampire rule," SB2 sensitive places, the two Supreme Court assault-weapon cases, and how to get your CCW 2:03:21 - Dakota's closing story: a grandmother stops her own carjacking

Chapters are approximate and shift once the intro or cold-open is added in post.)

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Did you know Eleanor Roosevelt carried her own revolver, and once faced down Klan death threats without Secret Service protection, telling them she would drive her own car and carry her own gun? Massad Ayoob joins Gun Owners Radio in San Diego with a history most people never learned: nearly every American president, and more than a few first ladies, was a gun owner. From Lincoln shooting Spencer rifles on the White House grounds to Eisenhower carrying a .38 in New York City, the stories keep coming.

He is also optimistic about the fight ahead. After Wolford, he does not see how the courts can keep justifying assault weapons and magazine bans much longer. Then Mike and Dakota read California's new 140-page anti-gun roadmap so you do not have to, Michael breaks down the Maine Senate race and what it tells you about party loyalty, Dwight Settle shares the Beyond the Teams charity paddle and the Seal One dealer program, the crew answers a viewer question on FSC cards, and Dakota digs into the book Emily Gets Her Gun. Sam closes it out with Stump My Nephew.

Chapters: 0:00 — Welcome + announcements: remembering Laura Smith (memorial July 18, Skyline Church) and the July 29 gun-cleaning class 8:33 — Maine Senate: the candidate the machine backed anyway, and why you stay loyal to principles, not a party 14:46 — Massad Ayoob: the presidents and first ladies who carried, plus Wolford and why the assault weapons ban is on borrowed time 42:06 — California's 140-page anti-gun roadmap: what Sacramento is planning for the next five years 1:10:11 — Dwight Settle: the Beyond the Teams charity paddle and the Seal One dealer pilot program 1:48:21 — Viewer question: California FSC cards, the proposed 4-hour class, and whether to renew now 2:00:40 — Emily Gets Her Gun: a reporter's fight to legally buy a gun, and the vets punished for transporting theirs 2:14:10 — Stump My Nephew: the Browning Automatic Rifle

Timestamps are from the raw recording. Shift them by however much intro or cold-open is added in post.

If you care about the Second Amendment, California gun laws, self-defense, training, and honest conversations without the fear and outrage, this one is for you.

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Happy Independence Day. America just turned 250, and this Fourth of July we're doing the show a little differently: one theme, start to finish. Freedom is never guaranteed, and it doesn't defend itself.

Michael opens with the history most people never learned: how it wasn't the Tea Party or "taxation without representation" that finally lit the Revolution, but British troops marching in to confiscate arms and powder. Then we sit down with two of the most effective activists in the country, both caught up with at the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston: Top Shot champion Chris Cheng on being a gun advocate in the heart of San Francisco, and Dianna Muller of Women for Gun Rights on turning ordinary gun owners into a political force. Alisha Curtin, our own California firearms instructor, shares why the 250th hits home for a wife and mom raising the next generation of free citizens. Dakota and Sam round it out with what the Declaration really asks of us.

Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome + happy Fourth: why this episode is different, and what's on (Young Washington movie night, Massad Ayoob MAG20, Know Your Gun cleaning class) 9:28 - The history they skipped: how confiscating guns and powder, not tea, actually started the Revolution 27:24 - Chris Cheng (Top Shot): activism, the NRA's new welcome, and being a gun advocate in San Francisco's Castro 56:53 - Dakota: 250 years on, rights come from your Creator, not a king 1:13:51 - Dianna Muller (Women for Gun Rights): the NRA ARC Challenge, three-gun, and turning gun owners into activists 1:38:51 - Alisha Curtin: a Fourth-of-July reflection on the 250th, personal responsibility, and passing freedom to the next generation 1:46:24 - Sam (Stump My Nephew): a Fourth-of-July message on the Declaration, the unfinished work, and getting off the couch

The Supreme Court just struck down the "vampire rule," and we sat down with the attorney who beat it. Alan Beck argued Wolford and won, and in a rare appearance on the show he walks us through exactly what it changes for concealed carriers.

This is the conversation you will not get anywhere else: the lawyer who took this case to the Supreme Court, in his own words. Mike and Alan break down what Wolford means for California's SB2, why it makes the fight over sensitive places and signage much easier from here, and the one thing you still have to honor at the door. Then Matt Hauff of West Coast Kinetic Solutions explains why most firearms training is backwards, Alicia digs into a Missouri defensive-gun-use story, and we get into a viral change of heart worth talking about.

Chapters: 0:00 Welcome and what's on: Young Washington movie night, Massad Ayoob Deadly Force for Instructors, Know Your Gun cleaning class 6:06 EXCLUSIVE: Alan Beck, the attorney who won Wolford, on the "vampire rule" ruling, SB2, sensitive places, and business signage 32:30 That NBC straw-purchase PSA: who is it really for? The "29%" stat and the California roster angle 43:59 Matt Hauff (West Coast Kinetic Solutions): why most training is backwards, and the 4 types you actually need 1:15:20 Forrest Gump, "Shabuki Sunshine," and a viral change of heart on political violence 1:34:43 Curtain Call: armed citizens stop a Missouri grocery-store shooter

If you care about the Second Amendment, California gun laws, concealed carry, and honest conversation without the fear and outrage, this one's for you.

🔔 New episodes every Sunday. Subscribe and turn on notifications. 🌐 gunownersradio.com

#GunOwnersRadio #SecondAmendment #ConcealedCarry #CaliforniaGunLaws #2A

Concealed Carry Magazine's executive editor Kevin Michalowski sits down with Michael and Alisha for a straight conversation most gun owners need to hear: marksmanship is the easy part. The hard part — mindset, the law, and what actually happens after you use a firearm — is where most people are undertrained. He also breaks down how everyday people are protecting their houses of worship after the Michigan church attack, and why a "safety team" beats doing nothing.

Then it's a packed news week: California's AB 1948 (your CCW could go from a 2-year to a 3-year permit), a 9-0 Supreme Court win for gun owners, a Pasadena PD dashcam you have to see to believe, and a new Second Amendment Foundation lawsuit over red dots and carry guns.

Chapters: 0:00 — Welcome + what's on the show 0:37 — Kristie Bruce-Lane wins big in San Diego's SD-40 — beating $4.5 million in opposition spending 2:58 — Movie Night: SDCGO takes over a theater for "Young Washington" (July 7) 4:03 — Massad Ayoob's Deadly Force Instructor class comes to San Diego (July 11) 6:04 — AB 1948: California moves to extend CCW licenses from 2 years to 3 16:41 — Kevin Michalowski (Concealed Carry Magazine / USCCA): training, mindset & defending houses of worship 49:29 — Cakes Concealed: rethinking off-body carry for women, with founder Tamkin 1:12:44 — Pasadena PD "horseplay": an officer shoots his partner on dashcam 1:24:23 — Supreme Court 9-0: marijuana use alone can't strip your gun rights 1:42:13 — SAF sues Contra Costa County over red dot, light & 1911 carry bans 1:57:01 — Stump My Nephew: Smith & Wesson, Volcanic & the birth of the Henry rifle

(Chapter times are from the raw recording — shift them by however much intro/cold-open gets added in post.)

If you carry, train others, or just want California gun news told straight, this one's for you.

New episodes every Sunday. Subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss one. ▶ https://gunownersradio.com ▶ https://youtube.com/@gunownersradio

#ConcealedCarry #SelfDefense #SecondAmendment #GunOwnersRadio #2A

Yellow flag laws, competition shooting gone off the rails, and a "Stump My Nephew" question that finally landed — Michael and Sam are coming to you from Virginia with a stacked show.

SAF's Bill Sack breaks down what "yellow flag" laws actually are and how they differ from red flag / ERPO laws. Michael Ware of the Iowa Firearms Coalition shares a 15-year grassroots playbook for winning on the Second Amendment. Then trainer Paul Markel (Student of the Gun) joins to defend his article on competition shooting, aftermarket triggers, and why reliability beats speed every time.

⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 — Cold open 2:07 — Welcome + what's on the show (Massad Ayoob class, movie night & more) 10:35 — Yellow Flag Laws, Pt. 1: how they differ from red flag laws (Bill Sack, SAF) 22:50 — Yellow Flag Laws, Pt. 2: 5150, the Baker Act & the due-process fight 36:51 — Iowa's 2A Playbook: relationships, candidate files & preemption (Michael Ware, IFC) 1:09:15 — "Gun Gamer Autism," Pt. 1: is competition actually training? (Paul Markel) 1:22:05 — Training vs. Practice + the Trigger-Swap Trap, Pt. 2 1:33:16 — Reliability Over Speed, Pt. 3: sights, gear & where to draw the line 1:49:25 — Stump My Nephew: the oldest weapon in continuous US military service

🔗 LINKS • Gun Owners Radio — events & sign-ups: https://gunownersradio.com • Second Amendment Foundation: https://www.saf.org • Iowa Firearms Coalition: https://www.iowafc.org • Student of the Gun (Paul Markel): https://studentofthegun.com

📅 UPCOMING EVENTS (sign up at gunownersradio.com) • Massad Ayoob Deadly Force Instructor class — July 11, San Diego (only a handful of seats left) • Movie Night: "Young Washington" — July 7, Regal Edwards Mira Mesa • Tactical Communications & Signals Intelligence class — Oceanside (w/ John Baldwin) • "Top CCW Trends & Best Practices for 2026" — June 18, free talk w/ USCCA's Kevin Michalowski

#2A #SecondAmendment #GunOwnersRadio #YellowFlagLaws #RedFlagLaws #ConcealedCarry #PaulMarkel #StudentOfTheGun #SAF #IowaFirearmsCoalition

California picked its candidates for governor, and if you own a gun, the top of the ticket is hard to look at. But the governor's race isn't where this fight gets won — and the biggest wins on Tuesday happened a lot closer to home.

Mike and Dakota break down the full primary picture, then the episode opens up: a KPBS reporter defends a controversial mosque-attack article, Dakota digs into the data behind "mass shooting" headlines, and the 2A movement plants a flag in New England.

If you care about the Second Amendment, California gun laws, self-defense, and honest conversations without the fear and outrage, this one's for you.