Jordan from Gideon Optics joins John on State of the Second to talk about why innovation in the optics and firearms space is harder than the crowd thinks. Jordan started in the industry about 11 years ago selling parts at gun shows and online, with JSD Supply as his original business and brand, then moved into optics after the laws around privately made firearm parts started to change. He wanted a less politically charged product line, weighed a knife company against an optics company, and landed on optics with help from Mike Branson, who does the reticle design and the technical work. The Omega is the top seller, a large circular competition-style red dot priced in the low two hundreds so newer shooters can try a pistol optic without spending $700.

The conversation digs into the reality of building optics. There is no standard footprint across the industry, the small red-dot envelope means heavy overlap in styling, and Jordan says the real innovation right now is making products better, faster, and cheaper than five years ago. He describes an in-house quality process where every unit gets checked coming in and going out, backed by a lifetime warranty. The spicy topic is the gap between what customers say they want and what they actually buy. Jordan and John trade examples, from oddball calibers and a 10mm part to the Taurus Curve, the folding Glock, the Hudson, and the Liberty pen gun, to make the point that the market punishes risk even while everyone demands cool new products. Companies have to put their R&D dollars where the money actually is.

The middle of the episode turns to policy. Jordan was involved in the Vanderstock case over the ATF's frame-and-receiver rule and attended the Supreme Court oral arguments on October 8, 2024, with a ruling he expected around May or June 2025. He and John walk through the ripple effect: a broadly written rule that starts with 80% frames can reach forgings, the modular grip module on a SIG P320 or P365, and eventually every manufacturer. The recurring theme is that gun owners who think it doesn't affect them learn too late that it does. They push the grassroots message hard, contacting representatives at the local, state, and federal levels, and argue that gun rights are not a single-party issue. They close on the firearms community itself, which looks large but is small and tight-knit, and on the idea that the people behind the brands and the cameras are just regular people worth approaching.

Jordan started about 11 years ago selling parts at gun shows and online under JSD Supply, then moved into optics after the laws on privately made firearm parts began to change. He wanted a less politically charged line and chose optics over a knife company, with Mike Branson doing the reticle and technical work.

The Omega is a large circular competition-style red dot priced in the low two hundreds. It is the top seller because that price lets newer shooters try a pistol optic without spending around $700.

There is no standard footprint across the optics industry. The small red-dot envelope also means heavy overlap in styling from one product to the next.

Jordan says the real innovation today is making products better, faster, and cheaper than they were five years ago, rather than reinventing the form. Companies have to put their R&D dollars where the money actually is.

Gideon runs an in-house quality process where every unit is checked coming in and going out. That process is backed by a lifetime warranty.

The Vanderstock case challenged the ATF's frame-and-receiver rule, and Jordan was involved and attended the Supreme Court oral arguments on October 8, 2024. He expected a ruling around May or June 2025.

Jordan argues a rule written broadly enough to start with 80% frames can reach forgings and the modular grip module on a SIG P320 or P365, eventually touching every manufacturer. The recurring theme is that gun owners who assume it doesn't affect them learn too late that it does.

There is a gap between what customers say they want and what they actually buy, so risky products like the Taurus Curve, the folding Glock, the Hudson, or the Liberty pen gun often fall flat. The market punishes risk, which forces companies to spend their R&D dollars where the money actually is.

Jordan is with Gideon Optics and a few other brands. He started in the firearms industry about 11 years ago, selling parts at gun shows and online, and his original business and brand was JSD Supply. He carries a SIG P365 with a Patmos Arms slide, which he names as one of their brands, and his company runs a couple of series of gun shows around the country. Gideon Optics has been out to retail for about two years, and he says he will turn 40 in a couple of weeks. He was involved in the Vanderstock case over the ATF's frame-and-receiver rule and attended the Supreme Court oral arguments on October 8, 2024. [Last name heard as 'Vinro' in the auto-generated transcript; spelling unverified — VERIFY]

Season two of State of the Second opens with Palmetto State Armory's Cameron, the company's Director of Branding and Product Management, who started at PSA nine years ago as a compliance manager in manufacturing and worked his way up through corporate compliance, quality control, and running the manufacturing floor as plant manager. PSA is the season's sponsor, and the conversation moves past the gifts and roundup donations into the real question: how does a company people once wrote off as a budget brand keep winning new markets? Cameron's answer is transparency and speed. PSA now lets customers vote on prototype guns shown at SHOT Show, posts product updates once or twice a month, and tells people the truth when a project stalls, including shelving the STG44 because the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze.

The heart of the episode is how PSA controls its own destiny. The company makes about 95 percent of its guns internally, from the raw forgings all the way to the complete gun, including its own impact-extruded buffer tubes and an in-house anodizing line. Cameron explains why COVID made that vertical integration matter: PSA was building 3,500 uppers a day and they would all be gone the next morning, and you can't move that volume if your parts are stuck at an outside anodizer. The senior management team meets every morning at 9 to review every single repair that came in the day before, and Cameron reads every YouTube comment about PSA before bed and checks Reddit first thing each morning to feed real customer feedback back into product decisions.

The back half turns to politics from the Soapbox. With Trump reelected and a Republican House and Senate, Cameron and John argue the industry has a narrow window, really one year before reelection season, to push for real change on the Hughes Amendment and the NFA, suppressors, SBRs, and national reciprocity, with a call out to the Hearing Protection and SHUSH acts. Both push a high-tide-raises-all-boats message: drop the ego and the digs, do co-branded work, and bring new people into the firearms world instead of gatekeeping. Cameron frames PSA's website as its most powerful asset because it sells everyone's products, not only its own, and closes with a teaser about a six-foot glass case ordered for next SHOT Show built to hold a single gun.

Cameron started at PSA about nine years ago as a compliance manager in manufacturing, then moved through corporate compliance over the company's FFLs, two years in quality control, and running the manufacturing floor as plant manager before being promoted into branding and product management.

Cameron says PSA wants to be an open book because it owes customers the truth, so it posts product updates once or twice a month and tells people honestly when a project stalls rather than going quiet.

PSA shows prototype guns at SHOT Show and lets customers vote on which ones it should actually build, feeding that demand directly into its product decisions.

Cameron explains PSA shelved the STG44 because the juice wasn't worth the squeeze, and he points to it as an example of setting real expectations and telling customers the truth when a project doesn't pan out.

PSA produces roughly 95 percent of its guns internally, from raw forgings all the way to the complete firearm, including its own impact-extruded buffer tubes and an in-house anodizing line. That vertical integration lets the company control its own destiny.

During COVID PSA was building about 3,500 uppers a day that sold out overnight, and Cameron says you can't move that volume if your parts are stuck at an outside anodizer, which is why owning the process end to end mattered.

PSA's senior management meets every morning at 9 to go through every single repair that came in the day before, and Cameron also reads YouTube comments and checks Reddit to feed real customer feedback back into product decisions.

With Trump reelected and a Republican House and Senate, Cameron and John argue the industry has a narrow window, really about a year before reelection season, to push for real change on issues like the Hughes Amendment and the National Firearms Act.

Cameron is the Director of Branding and Product Management at Palmetto State Armory, where he is over the company's product lines, product requirements, and business cases, as well as its branding, content, and social media. He has been with Palmetto State Armory for going on nine years, starting as a compliance manager in manufacturing, then handling corporate compliance over the company's FFLs, working in quality control for two years, running the manufacturing floor as plant manager, and being promoted to brand manager. He is originally from outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and moved to South Carolina in 2010. His handle is Cameron Tapler on all platforms.

John Crump of AmmoLand joins State of the Second to talk about the time the ATF tried to silence him. Crump writes about laws, court cases, and government leaks, reporting on anyone who wants to infringe on the right to bear arms. He breaks down the auto keycard case, where the ATF prosecuted two people over a card with an outline of a lightning link on it. The dimensions were not even correct, the agency couldn't get the device to convert anything to a machine gun, and almost no one in the mainstream media was covering it. After Crump reported on the case, the ATF filed a motion for a gag order to stop him from reporting further. He says he wouldn't have known about it, but his lawyer Steven Stambolia found it in the case documents. GOA stepped in to defend him, Stambolia flew to the Middle District of Florida, and the ATF withdrew the motion once he started his argument.

Crump explains how he works a story. AmmoLand would rather be right than first, so he verifies a leak through three independent contacts and won't publish until he can confirm it 100 percent, a process that can take weeks. He says about 80 to 90 percent of what he researches turns out to be nothing. He has written over a thousand articles, keeps his contacts memorized in his head rather than on a computer, and is currently a year into one story that still isn't ready. He also walks through the Freedom of Information Act, encouraging listeners to file a FOIA just to learn the process, and explains how to write a request specific enough to get real documents without being buried in paperwork.

The back half turns to censorship and platform suppression. Drawing on his former job at Meta, Crump describes a Silicon Valley that leans so far left it doesn't realize it, with capitalism as its real lifeblood. He argues the pressure on YouTube and Google comes largely from Democrats in Congress, and that platforms censor to protect Section 230 protections and avoid being broken up as a monopoly. His answer to shadow banning and down boosting is organic reach: share the articles and videos directly so the audience becomes the conduit. He's skeptical YouTube will ease up but sees Rumble as a real alternative because it's an open platform, not firearm centric like Full30 or GunStreamer. He closes on apathy as the 2A community's biggest weakness, pointing to roughly 10 million unregistered gun owners who, if they registered, would be the most powerful voting bloc in the country.

The ATF prosecuted two people over a card printed with an outline of a lightning link. The dimensions were wrong, the agency could not get the card to convert anything into a machine gun, and almost no mainstream outlet was covering it.

After Crump reported on the auto keycard case, the ATF filed a motion for a gag order to stop him from reporting further. Gun Owners of America stepped in to defend him, and the agency withdrew the motion once his attorney began arguing it in court.

Crump's lawyer Steven Stambolia found the gag-order motion buried in the case documents, and Gun Owners of America backed the defense. Stambolia flew to the Middle District of Florida, and the ATF withdrew the motion once he started his argument.

AmmoLand would rather be right than first, so Crump confirms a leak through three independent contacts and won't publish until he is 100 percent sure, a process that can take weeks. He says 80 to 90 percent of what he researches turns out to be nothing.

Crump encourages filing a Freedom of Information Act request just to learn the process, and explains how to write a request specific enough to return real documents instead of an unmanageable flood of paperwork.

Drawing on his time at Meta, Crump argues much of the pressure on YouTube and Google comes from Democrats in Congress, and that platforms censor to protect their Section 230 protections and avoid being broken up as a monopoly.

Crump is skeptical YouTube will ease up but sees Rumble as a real alternative because it is an open platform, not firearm-centric like Full30 or GunStreamer. His fix for shadow banning is organic reach, sharing articles and videos directly so the audience becomes the conduit.

Crump says apathy is the Second Amendment community's biggest weakness. He points to roughly 10 million unregistered gun owners who, if they registered to vote, would be the most powerful voting bloc in the country.

John Crump is a writer for AmmoLand who covers laws, court cases, and government leaks, reporting on anyone who wants to infringe on the right to bear arms. He is a credentialed journalist and a member of several journalism outfits, and has written over a thousand articles. He has been cited in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He previously worked for Meta (formerly Facebook). He lives right outside D.C. He also runs a personal YouTube channel, John Crump New, and hosts a podcast, John Crump Live, recorded Monday through Thursday at 5pm Eastern.

State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee sit down with Trey, a precious metals expert with more than 30 years in the business who has run three of the largest retail precious metals companies in the country. The conversation connects two things that look unrelated at first: guns and gold. Trey's argument is that both come down to protecting your freedom. Just as the Second Amendment guards your physical security, precious metals guard your financial independence from a system he believes is moving toward centralized digital currency, social credit scores, and a government that has grown too big.

Trey walks through why gold sits close to 2,700 dollars an ounce, an all-time high, and points out that the surge is being driven by central banks rather than everyday investors, because the United States has weaponized the dollar. He frames gold as the only asset that is not at the same time someone else's liability. He shares his personal top-six preparedness list, where precious metals come last, after getting right with God, fire, water, food, and guns and ammo. The point is that metals are for barter once the basics are covered, not a first move.

Most of the episode is practical. Trey explains how to spot pre-1965 90 percent silver coins by the silver rim against modern clad change, how premiums work across mints, and why a silver American Eagle carries a higher premium than a generic round because the government tests and verifies it. He covers smaller denominations for bartering, including one-gram gold pieces sold in a gold seed wheel, and silver shot from the refineries. He also gets into history, from Roosevelt making gold ownership illegal in 1933 to Nixon taking the country off the standard in the 1970s, and warns that overprinting led to overspending. His closing advice is to know your purpose before you buy, research the company before the coin, and stay with a dealer whose values match yours, because in this space it comes down to relationship.

Gold is trading close to 2,700 dollars an ounce because central banks, not everyday investors, are buying heavily after the United States weaponized the dollar. Trey calls it the only asset that is not at the same time someone else's liability.

Metals come last on Trey's top-six list, after getting right with God, fire, water, food, and guns and ammo. They are meant for barter once the basics are covered, so they protect you rather than make you wealthy.

Trey says to look for pre-1965 coins, which carry a solid silver rim, and compare that edge against the layered look of modern clad change. The silver rim is the quickest visual tell.

A silver American Eagle carries a higher premium because the government tests and verifies it, while a generic round does not have that backing. You pay extra for the assurance that the coin is what it claims to be.

Premiums vary by mint and by size, and smaller denominations like one-gram gold pieces or silver shot cost proportionally more than a large bar. Trey points to small pieces, including a gold seed wheel and refinery silver shot, as practical units for bartering.

Roosevelt made private gold ownership illegal in 1933, and Nixon ended the dollar's tie to gold in the 1970s. Trey argues that cutting that link let the government overprint money, which fed overspending.

Trey covers how to sell in the closing stretch of the episode, tied to his advice to stay with a dealer whose values match yours. In this space he says it comes down to relationship, since the same trusted dealer who sold to you helps you convert back.

Trey's rule is to know your purpose before you buy, research the company before the coin, and stay with a dealer whose values match yours. He runs a concierge service that connects buyers to vetted wholesalers and retailers rather than a single firm.

Trey is a precious metals expert with more than 30 years in the space. He has run three of the largest retail precious metals companies in the nation, has worked on the wholesale side, and has done a startup in the industry. He comes from three generations of union pipe fitters. He tore up his ankle in Mogadishu before leaving the medical field [VERIFY]. He lives on a small four-acre farm in southeast Texas and is a patriot member of Gun Owners of America. He is not affiliated with a single company and offers a concierge service, staying connected to the top wholesalers and retailers in the country to match buyers with the right firm.

In State of the Second 1x68, hosts John and Kaylee sit down with 2A content creator Katie Stone, who runs Stone Second and focuses almost entirely on short-form video. The episode opens loose and personal, with a rapid-fire round covering Katie's bucket-list gun (a tank), her zombie-apocalypse loadout, and a long, funny detour into pizza and chili. From there Katie tells the story of how she fell into the firearms industry by accident. Her sister found a bookkeeping job at Classic Firearms while Katie was working an infant room in a daycare making about $800 a month. She took a customer service role, got pulled into product videos by Ben at Classic, later became his personal assistant, and eventually decided she had maxed out and needed to grow somewhere else.

That move led her to Braden and Langley Outdoors Academy, where she built a shorts channel under the Second Press umbrella, which also runs a newsletter and merch. Katie makes the case that short-form content is how you reach a generation with a shrinking attention span, and that a 30 to 60 second video can pull a curious viewer toward longer content from creators like Braden and Tim Harmson. The hosts and Katie then climb on the soapbox to call out what they see as a political and media class that does not understand guns, citing claims about AR-15s, a vice president saying she owns a Glock, and a politician who could not load his own shotgun.

The back half lands on a serious through-line under the jokes. Katie and the hosts argue that culture is upstream of politics, that memes only work if people understand why they are funny, and that the firearms community needs a wide, diverse range of content because you never know what reaches a gun-curious person. They close on civic engagement: pay attention to local races and school boards, do not go apathetic after an election, and treat advocacy as a small personal sacrifice. Katie shares that she takes a personal day to attend every GOA Lobby Day in Tennessee so no one can say she was paid to be there. GOA notes it has scored politicians and published a voter guide since it was founded in 1976.

She fell into it by accident. While working an infant room at a daycare for about $800 a month, she took a customer service role at Classic Firearms, got pulled into product videos, and later became personal assistant to the company's top buyer and general manager.

She argues short-form is how you reach a generation with a shrinking attention span. A 30 to 60 second video makes Second Amendment politics shorter and spicier, catching a curious viewer's attention and pulling them toward longer content.

Second Press is the umbrella Katie works under alongside Braden of Langley Outdoors Academy, where she built a short-form video channel. It also runs a newsletter and merch.

Katie says yes. A quick 30 to 60 second video can hook a gun-curious viewer whose attention span is short and lead them toward longer content from creators like Braden and Tim Harmson.

They point to a class that does not understand firearms, citing inaccurate claims about AR-15s, a vice president saying she owns a Glock, and a politician who could not load his own shotgun.

They argue culture is upstream of politics and that local people and races matter, so gun owners should stay engaged with county races and school boards and not go apathetic after an election.

Gun Owners of America (GOA) has scored politicians and published a voter guide since it was founded in 1976. Katie also takes a personal day to attend every GOA Lobby Day in Tennessee so no one can claim she was paid to be there.

Katie runs Stone Second, a mostly Second Amendment politics channel built around short-form video, and works almost daily with Braden of Langley Outdoors Academy under the Second Press umbrella.

Katie Stone runs Stone Second, a mostly 2A politics channel where she mainly does short-form video. She got into the firearms industry by accident through a job at Classic Firearms, where she worked customer service, appeared in product videos, and later became personal assistant to Ben, the company's top buyer and general manager. Before that she worked in the infant room of a daycare. She now works almost every day with Braden of Langley Outdoors Academy under the Second Press umbrella, which includes a newsletter and merch. She attends every GOA Lobby Day in Tennessee.

Cheryl Todd joins hosts Kaylee and John on Gun Owners of America's State of the Second to make the case that gun-free college campuses leave students unprotected for no good reason. Todd wears many hats. She co-hosts Gun Freedom Radio with her husband, serves as Arizona State Director for Women for Gun Rights, is vice president of the AZCDL and president of the AZCDL Foundation, and sits on the board of the Second Amendment Institute. Campus carry is personal for her. It was the subject of her senior thesis, and she argues that mass murders happen overwhelmingly in gun-free zones because predators look for the path of least resistance. She and the hosts point to real momentum, including campus carry taking effect in West Virginia and more than half the country now having some form of constitutional or permitless carry.

The conversation moves into how the community grows. Todd talks about normalizing gun ownership, her "polka dots are my camo" approach, and meeting new and curious owners where they are. The group digs into practical barriers that turn people away, from the lack of good concealed carry clothing options for women and curvy or petite bodies, to gun-counter staff who sell the wrong tool for the buyer's actual application. They also share why they stopped pairing firearms with liquor in photos and why naming your exact carry gun online can work against you, drawing on a friend who was wrongly accused and a court's habit of digging through everything you have ever posted.

Todd then turns to advocacy and apathy. She recommends three books, walks listeners through how easy testifying is in Arizona's Request to Speak system, and contrasts education-not-legislation messaging with the emotional talking points of the other side. She closes by promoting the rally GOA is taking over in 2025 as the Arizona Freedom Festival, set for March 1st, and points people to Gun Freedom Radio, AZCDL, Women for Gun Rights, and the Faster Saves Lives school safety program.

Todd argues students are arbitrarily disarmed on campus for no good reason, leaving them unable to protect themselves. She points out that mass murders happen overwhelmingly in gun-free zones because predators look for the path of least resistance.

Todd points to real momentum, including campus carry taking effect in West Virginia. More than half the country now has some form of constitutional or permitless carry.

Todd warns that naming your exact carry gun online can work against you, citing a friend who was wrongly accused and a court's habit of digging through everything you have ever posted. Keeping it private avoids handing that ammunition to anyone.

Todd points to the lack of good concealed carry clothing options for women and for curvy or petite bodies, plus gun-counter staff who sell the wrong tool for the buyer's actual application. These practical barriers turn curious new owners away.

It is Todd's approach to normalizing gun ownership by meeting new and curious owners where they are rather than fitting a tactical stereotype. The phrase signals that a gun owner can look like anyone.

Todd walks listeners through how easy testifying is in Arizona's Request to Speak system and mentors women in the state to do it at the capitol. She frames civic participation as far more accessible than people assume.

Todd contrasts the community's "education not legislation" messaging with the emotional talking points of the other side, and urges people to show up and testify. Her slogan is that education, not legislation, is the key to safety.

It is a rally that Gun Owners of America is taking over in 2025 as the Arizona Freedom Festival, set for March 1st. Todd promotes it alongside her work with Gun Freedom Radio, the AZCDL, and Women for Gun Rights.

Cheryl Todd is a wife, mom, and grandma who co-hosts the podcast Gun Freedom Radio with her husband. She and her husband ran a firearms retail store, AZ Firearms, for about 20 years. She is the Arizona State Director for Women for Gun Rights, vice president of the AZCDL, and president of the AZCDL Foundation, the education and safety arm of that work. She also serves on the board of the Second Amendment Institute. Campus carry was the subject of her senior thesis. She mentors women in Arizona to testify at the state capitol and helps lead the AZCDL Foundation's Faster Saves Lives emergency preparedness program for schools.

Jeremy Dedmon of XTech Tactical joins hosts John and Kaylee for a conversation that starts personal and ends political. Jeremy didn't grow up around guns. His family came from public service, and his late grandfather, a former police chief and city manager, believed civilians didn't need modern firearms. Jeremy entered the industry almost by accident, taking over an injection-molding account for Ergo Grips that the customer had just fired, then turning that relationship around. The late Steve Hines, who owned Ergo, introduced him to the industry. The moment Jeremy's own beliefs shifted was becoming a father to a 15-month-old daughter, when protecting her stopped being theoretical. Kaylee and John tie that to a broader demographic shift toward more women and first-time owners, arguing the Second Amendment is a personal and individual right, not only a political one.

The heart of the episode is Jeremy's argument that magazine capacity bans are unconstitutional, and that the firearms industry shares blame for where things stand. He says companies that only sell neutered, non-convertible magazines to restricted states are broadening the reach of bad laws and signaling to lawmakers that the industry won't fight. He extends the same critique to companies that stop shipping legal products to states like California and New York, calling it a posture that wins nothing and invites copycat bans, including a high-capacity magazine ban recently supported by Arizona's attorney general. Kaylee adds a parallel to college campuses and the slow acceptance of tyranny, and both hosts dig into how anti-gun messaging weaponizes terms like 'assault weapon' and 'high capacity' that trace back to the 1994 assault weapons ban.

Jeremy then walks through XTech's response: the Freedom Series, a rebrand of the company's AK-47 magazine line (formerly the 'Comm-euphornia Special') plus a growing Glock magazine lineup. The magazines ship as 10-round mags to 49 states, with conversion kits and extensions that let owners legally adapt capacity if laws change or they relocate, and every feature is upgraded over factory. XTech donates $1.79 and one cent per magazine sold off its website, referencing the year the Second Amendment was ratified, to groups including GOA and select state-level organizations. Jeremy closes by revisiting the Firearms Innovation and Technology panel at GOALS, where he argued consumers see a lack of innovation even though plenty of people are innovating, because distribution, advertising restrictions, regulatory burden, and a reactive 'me too' industry keep new ideas from reaching shelves. Kaylee ties it back to personal responsibility and grassroots action to clear the red tape that limits smaller companies.

He came up entrepreneurial and worked in commercial real estate before taking an injection-molding role that put him in charge of Ergo Grips' account, which a customer had just fired. He turned that relationship around, and Ergo's owner, the late Steve Hines, introduced him to the industry.

Becoming a father to a 15-month-old daughter shifted his thinking, because protecting her stopped being theoretical. His family came from public service, and his late grandfather, a former police chief and city manager, had believed civilians did not need modern firearms.

He believes any restriction on magazine capacity is unconstitutional at its core, treating the Second Amendment as a personal, individual right rather than only a political issue. He sees capacity limits as part of a slow erosion of that right.

He faults companies that sell only non-convertible magazines to restricted states, arguing this broadens bad laws and signals the industry will not fight. He says pulling legal products from states like California and New York wins nothing and invites copycat bans.

The Freedom Series is a rebrand of XTech's AK-47 magazine line plus a growing Glock lineup, shipping as 10-round magazines to 49 states. Conversion kits and extensions let owners legally adapt capacity if laws change or they relocate, with every feature upgraded over factory.

XTech donates $1.79 and one cent per magazine sold on its website, a figure that references the year the Second Amendment was ratified. The money goes to groups including Gun Owners of America and select state-level organizations.

They frame the Second Amendment as a personal right tied to protecting your family, not a partisan talking point. They argue it is not granted by government but protected by it, and connect that to a broader shift toward more women and first-time owners.

At the Firearms Innovation and Technology panel at the Gun Owners Action Leadership Summit (GOALS), Jeremy argued plenty of people are innovating but consumers do not see it. Distribution gatekeeping, advertising restrictions, regulatory burden, and a reactive 'me too' industry keep new ideas off shelves.

Jeremy Dedmon is the founder of XTech Tactical, a firearms accessory manufacturer based in Arizona that is best known for its AK-47 magazines. He says he came up entrepreneurial, hustling since age 11, and worked in commercial real estate and development before taking an injection-molding role that put him in charge of the Ergo Grips account and brought him into the firearms industry. He did not grow up around guns; his family came from public service and his late grandfather was a police chief and city manager. XTech has three employees, makes about 90% of its products in the US (most of that in Arizona), and Jeremy helped originate the concept behind GOA's partners program with John Crump.

John welcomes Jeremiah, the founder and inventor behind Slide Fire and the bump stock, for a different kind of State of the Second episode recorded from John's home studio. Jeremiah lays out his origin story: a retired Air Force veteran who grew up as a dirt farmer in West Texas, he created Slide Fire Solutions in 2010 with a goal of selling 500 units in the first year. He put a couple of videos on YouTube, sold the first 500 in four days, and the company was born. Over the next several years he brought 39 different products to market across 11 platforms and grew into a large company, all while holding ATF letters confirming his products were within the law.

Then came October 1, 2017, the Las Vegas shooting, which put a spotlight on his company. Jeremiah argues the response was unfair because his product does not shoot bullets and would not stop a mass shooting. He describes the ban that took effect in March 2019, the government destroying roughly 80,000 to 85,000 units of his inventory, being sued by over a thousand people, and being told he had no legal recourse. He recounts the years in limbo, nearly losing his tooling when it sat dormant in a warehouse, and the trip to fly up to Pennsylvania and drive it down to Texas to recover it. The Fifth Circuit's split with other circuit courts gave him a real shot, the Supreme Court took the case, and a 6-3 ruling found the government overreached and that a bump stock is not a machine gun.

With the ban overturned, Slide Fire is rebuilding. Three products are back online, with the AK, Ruger 10/22, AR, and Glock models in the works. Jeremiah has filed a 97-page lawsuit, framing it less as a fight about bump stocks and more about compensation for property the government took and destroyed, a constitutional right he compares to eminent domain. His statute of limitations runs out in March, so timing was close. John and Jeremiah talk through the broader pattern of ATF overreach, the 'war on plastic' that followed with pistol braces and FRT triggers, the VA fiduciary rule that once affected Jeremiah himself, and a culture they say has traded facts for feelings. He closes asking people to know their rights, support the company, and buy a bump stock, and floats leading a congressional investigation into Vegas.

Jeremiah, a retired Air Force veteran who grew up as a dirt farmer in West Texas, invented the bump stock and founded Slide Fire Solutions in 2010. He posted a couple of videos on YouTube, sold his first 500 units in four days, and the company was born.

Jeremiah brought 39 different products to market across 11 platforms and grew Slide Fire into a large company, all while holding ATF letters confirming his products were within the law.

After the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas shooting put a spotlight on the company, a ban took effect in March 2019 and the government destroyed roughly 80,000 to 85,000 units of his inventory. Jeremiah was sued by over a thousand people and told he had no legal recourse.

After the Fifth Circuit split with other circuit courts, the Supreme Court took the case and ruled 6-3 that the government overreached and that a bump stock is not a machine gun, overturning the ban.

He has filed a 97-page lawsuit framed less as a fight about bump stocks and more about compensation for property the government took and destroyed, a constitutional right he compares to eminent domain. His statute of limitations runs out in March, so the timing was close.

With the ban overturned, Slide Fire is rebuilding and has three products back online. The AK, Ruger 10/22, AR, and Glock models are in the works.

The VA fiduciary rule, which Jeremiah says once affected him personally, comes up as part of a broader pattern of government overreach he and the host discuss, alongside the so-called war on plastic targeting pistol braces and FRT triggers.

Jeremiah asks people to know their rights, support the company, and buy a bump stock. Slide Fire can be found online at bumpstock.com.

Jeremiah is the founder and inventor of Slide Fire, the company behind the bump stock. A retired Air Force veteran who grew up as a dirt farmer in West Texas, he created Slide Fire Solutions in 2010 and sold his first 500 units in four days after posting videos on YouTube. He brought 39 different products to market across 11 platforms and holds numerous patents on the design. After the government banned bump stocks and destroyed roughly 80,000 to 85,000 of his units, he fought the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 that his product is not a machine gun. He now lives in East Tennessee, where he is rebuilding the company and pursuing a lawsuit for compensation. His personal Instagram handle is Bearded Prophet [VERIFY], and the company also posts as Slide Fire Reboot.

Ben and Will from Forge Relations, the marketing agency behind the Gundies, join State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee to trace how a fun idea built around The Office's Dundees grew into a black-tie award show in a Las Vegas theater. They walk through the arc: year one was meant to be a simple, fun award show, then COVID forced an evolution into a range day, a drive-tank experience, and an Expo before the event came back to Vegas as the polished ceremony viewers saw last year. Ben describes going from a ten-dollar microphone and a jukebox you'd rent for a child's party on a staircase at Nacho Daddy to a professional sound stage at the Venetian theater that holds 2,000 people, with PSA as the title sponsor.

The conversation covers what makes the Gundies work. The goal is something for the community, by the community, bringing a fractured firearms industry together across genres so people can put down their guard and have fun. The group reflects on the four new categories added this year, Podcast of the Year, King of the Hill, Top 2A Writer, and Emerging Brand of the Year, and on the moment Paul Harrell won an award before his passing and the team made a pointed goal to get him his trophy quickly. Ben and Will explain how the event spotlights smaller creators alongside large ones, since voters browsing a category discover names they never knew existed.

The back half turns to marketing and censorship. Ben and Will argue platform restrictions on gun content are real but more flexible on the organic side than most brands assume, and that brands lose reach by ignoring the in-app features the algorithms reward. Ben's core advice: stop obsessing over the content first, learn the platform, use its native features, read your analytics, and stay consistent. Both push on engaging the comment section, building a real brand instead of assuming the product speaks for itself, and protecting a marketing budget instead of cutting it when things slow down. They point to Palmetto State Armory as a current example of transparent, engaged content, and close with Gundy Awards voting details.

Ben and Will of Forge Relations built the Gundies as a fun idea modeled on The Office's Dundees, meant to be a simple award show for the firearms community. The goal was something for the community, by the community, bringing a fractured industry together so people could put down their guard and have fun.

After year one, COVID pushed the event into a range day, a drive-tank experience, and an Expo before it returned to Las Vegas as a polished ceremony. It grew from a ten-dollar mic on a staircase at Nacho Daddy to a sound stage at the Venetian theater seating 2,000, with Palmetto State Armory as title sponsor.

The Gundies added Podcast of the Year, King of the Hill, Top 2A Writer, and Emerging Brand of the Year. The categories help spotlight a wider range of creators and brands across the firearms community.

Paul Harrell won a Gundie before his passing, and Ben and Will made a pointed goal to get him his trophy quickly. Ben described him as the grandfather of the space and of what they do.

The show places smaller creators in the same categories as large ones, so voters browsing a category discover names they never knew existed. That structure gives emerging creators visibility next to the industry's biggest names.

Ben and Will argue platform restrictions on gun content are real but more flexible on the organic side than most brands assume. Many brands lose reach by ignoring the in-app features the algorithms reward rather than by being banned outright.

Ben's advice is to stop obsessing over the content first, learn the platform, use its native features, read your analytics, and stay consistent. He and Will also push brands to engage the comment section, build a real brand, and protect the marketing budget instead of cutting it when things slow down.

The episode closes with the Gundie Awards voting details and sponsorship information. Palmetto State Armory is the current title sponsor of the show.

Ben and Will are from Forge Relations, a firearms-industry marketing agency, and they created the Gundies, a firearms-industry award show. Ben runs the run of show at the live ceremony, and Will has hosted on stage over the years. They say the Gundies has been running around five to six years, starting in a Las Vegas restaurant and growing into a black-tie ceremony at the Venetian theater, with PSA as the current title sponsor. [VERIFY company roles and titles]

State of the Second hosts John and Kaylee sit down with Zach Keane, Digital Content Manager at Rugged Suppressors, to talk through where the suppressor market is headed and what the next four years could hold. Zach explains what Rugged is known for, durable, reliable cans backed by an unconditional lifetime warranty that covers the can even if an owner shoots a hole through it on purpose, and how the brand's sticker, patch, and apparel work pulls Rugged into the pop culture side of the firearms community. He shares his backstory too. He came to the industry in 2016 out of the Marines, where he served a little over five years as a scout sniper, then started at Rugged as the sixth employee doing sandblasting, a job he had to Google before his first day, and worked his way up to running the company's marketing.

The heart of the episode is the Soapbox segment on suppressors, freedom, and the NFA. Zach and the hosts dig into the sudden change in suppressor wait times, which dropped from months or even a year down to days and in some cases hours after eForms came back up and the ATF held a town hall. They argue the old delays look like a deliberate deterrent, since a right delayed is a right denied, and connect the faster approvals to a surge in demand and to suppressors moving from a taboo, Class 3 mystery into common use. The conversation covers why the hearing protection argument matters, why suppressors help hunters with follow-up shots and recoil, and why the Second Amendment case shouldn't rest on a can being less effective than Hollywood makes it look.

From there the discussion widens into the broader fight for gun rights. Zach describes the real-world pressure on gun makers from banks, card processors, and email platforms that can cut off a company for being in the industry, including a Matador Arms story about a bank holding $13,000 in product. The hosts walk through red flag laws as a rebrand of gun confiscation orders that attack both the Second and Fourth Amendments, the VA fiduciary rule GOA says it has been fighting for over a decade, and the way gun control gets buried in must-pass bills like the National Defense Authorization Act. They close on the value of plain language, noting the Second Amendment is 27 words, and on GOA's role getting alerts out so members can act before votes happen.

• ruggedsuppressors.com

Rugged Suppressors is known for durable, reliable cans backed by an unconditional lifetime warranty. The coverage holds even if an owner shoots a hole through the can on purpose, and Rugged will still repair it for free.

Wait times collapsed after the ATF brought eForms back up and held a town hall, with approvals moving from months or a year down to days and in some cases hours. Zach Keane ties the change to surging demand and to suppressors shifting from a Class 3 mystery into common use.

Zach Keane and the hosts argue the long delays look deliberate, since approvals dropped to days once the process was allowed to run faster. Their point: a right delayed is a right denied, so the old waits functioned as a deterrent.

Over long shooting sessions, ear protection by itself is not enough. Running a suppressor together with hearing protection is presented as the real way to protect your ears.

Suppressors help hunters by making follow-up shots easier and by reducing recoil. The episode frames this as one of the practical, everyday reasons cans belong in common use.

No. Zach Keane argues the Second Amendment does not exist to permit firearms only as long as they are not too effective, so the 2A case should not rest on whether a can performs the way Hollywood depicts it.

Gun makers can be cut off by banks, card processors, and email platforms simply for being in the industry. The episode cites a Matador Arms case where a bank held $13,000 in product.

Gun Owners of America (GOA) frames red flag laws as a rebranding of gun confiscation orders that attack both the Second and Fourth Amendments. The hosts argue they strip rights without the protections those amendments are meant to guarantee.

Zach Keane is the Digital Content Manager at Rugged Suppressors and also does freelance photography under the name Keen Exposures. He came to the firearms industry in 2016 after serving a little over five years in the Marines as a scout sniper. He started at Rugged Suppressors as the company's sixth employee doing sandblasting, then helped with sales events, testing, and R&D before working his way up to running the company's marketing, where he now works alongside director of marketing Cali Baldwin.