This week I was honored to spend some time with a Second Amendment community legend Larry Vickers. As you might expect I spoke to him about Armed Equality and, of course, asked for his expert opinion on the topic of reform within the greater Second Amendment community at large.
I have to say I was quite thankful for his answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqQsnK390nw
Special thank you to San Diego County Gun Owners and Gunfighter Tactical for hosting this social and an extra special thank you to Larry for everything he has done and continues to do for our nation.
If you’re unaware, Larry Vickers of Vickers Tactical is a retired US Army 1st SFOD-Delta combat veteran with years of experience in the firearms industry as a combat marksmanship instructor and industry consultant.
In recent years he has hosted several tactical firearms related TV shows. Currently Larry presents videos on the Vickers Tactical Youtube channel of which Bravo Company is the presenting sponsor.
Vickers’ special operations background is one of the most unique in the industry today. He has been directly or indirectly involved in the some of the most significant special operations missions of the last quarter century. During Operation Just Cause he participated in Operation Acid Gambit – the rescue of Kurt Muse from Modelo Prison in Panama City, Panama.
As a tactics and marksmanship instructor on active duty he helped train special operations personnel that later captured Saddam Hussein and eliminated his sons Uday and Qusay.
In addition, he was directly involved in the design and development of the HK416 for Tier One SOF use, which was used by Naval Special Warfare personnel to kill Osama Bin Laden.
Larry Vickers has developed various small arms accessories, with the most notable being his signature sling manufactured by Blue Force Gear, GLOCK accessories by Tangodown, and 1911-specific products by Wilson Combat.
He is also author of the Vickers Guide series of firearm books.
Larry Vickers travels the country conducting combat marksmanship classes for law abiding civilians, law enforcement and military.
Piper Smith is the founder & executive director of Armed Equality.
Armed Equality National Discussion Group
Armed Equality SoCal Training Group
Just got back from my LGS and the only expansion I saw in the 2A community was their collective waistline.
Time to start looking like what we stand for.
I agree. In Montana most of these guys are not even fit to lay in the prone at the range.
Some of Vicker’s stuff seems way over priced, but I admire the man’s adovacy. Too man OFWGs got you down? Take a hot chick to the range.
Did that last month.
After a half dozen misses with my savage .22 mag rifle, she did not miss a single called target.
I was truly impressed!
She, who was “scared” of guns, is now bragging on how good of a shot she is.
I’m still scratching my head. Was it her focus, or my teaching abilities,
She was/is an amazing student. Can’t wait to take her to a 1,000 yard range.
Yesterday had the pleasure of teaching my daughter in law. The results were similar.
i taught my partner a few years back soon after we got together. started her with dry fire drills till she was not moving as she squeezed the trigger. @50 yards with the .22LR she shoots 0.5″ groups all day. she has not missed once
I kinda’ lost my Larry love after he posted a “why I’m fat” video. Taran Butler is surrounded by hot chicks and he’s definitely on the portly side😄😎😏
Butler caters to Ho-wood.
they gotta look the part.
Watch the YT video though, he has lost ALL the extra weight.
Hmmm. Could it be… beer? I’m guessing it’s beer combined with years of wear and tear making it difficult to work out like you used to. My left shoulder is shot, keeping me out of the pool and I was shocked by how fast I got fat. Oh well, it comes off just as fast when you buckle down.
I had rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder. Haven’t been to the j
Gym since the end of July and lost 10 lbs.🤪
Next time, could you give us a short teaser of the video’s content?
Lucky you Piper!
Mr. Vickers is one of the few instructors out there that I admire.
This is why I advise the potg to include Latinos instead of discriminating. It won’t be long until that voting base becomes an even stronger force and the dems pretend to care about them so they’re naturally leaning that way. Latinos are more conservative than you may realize but none of that matters if the right fails to play their cards right. I can easily see the 1st woman president being a latina and she’ll probably beat the right with a stick even worse than Obama did.
“This is why I advise the potg to include Latinos instead of discriminating”
That’s a ridiculous load of BS you’ve got there lil proud.
Do you think everyone should ‘rep’ their little demographic? The thing about us is that by and large we don’t care what you look like or where you’re from. Do you cherish your rights? Do you act respectfully and responsibly? Do you respect the rights of others? Carry on.
If you don’t, well then why don’t you pound sand, cupcake. Or, just stand by while the grown-ups have a conversation.
He’s right on the money.
Having said this, does it make sense to have NRA spokespeople like Dana Loesch, who tends to stray WAY off target? Is gun ownership just for white Christians who also buy into an entire extra set of beliefs (about immigrants, “War on Christmas” sillines, Fox News inspired hokum, etc)?
Indeed, drives me crazy, it’s so counterproductive…
The NRA seems to like to double down on servicing the most radical fringe of their base. It’s an odd tactic.
not an odd tactic if the goal is to drive republican votes by emphasizing divisions and making democrats the enemy
Yes an odd goal if you care about expanding gun rights; narrowing your base makes that right more risky, but radicalized both sides around it.
Looking at the Dana Loesh videos made it pretty clear to me what the NRA promotes, and it’s not gun rights
So the Special Forces guys went in a Panamanian prison to rescue a civilian? Hmm maybe he held the mortgage on the White House or something.
Larry’s spot on but I’m not sure many in our community are willing to jettison their prejudices.
As a black gun owner I can tell you Liberals and the Left don’t have clean hands. They are filled with prejudice. Just like everyone else.
,. Walk in a possums fur for a day, I’ve got everybody hatin on me from cat owners, to chicken farmers, road rage motorist and screaming ladies. The buzzards are pissed because Im eating more then my share of the road kill, dogs hate me. Very few kids ask for a pet Possum. Kangaroos get all the marsupial fame and glory ,Seems my only friends are Armadillos
I’m not a liberal (at least in the American political definition of the word) and I don’t disagree with you. A lot of the most racist folks I know here in NYC would consider themselves liberals.
Its much easier to deal with an honest bigot. Than a racist Liberal liar.
The challenge is that while I know gay folks that are very much of the live and let live mind set, they’re the not the ones who grab headlines. The MSM will only show the public the gun grabbing socialist crazies.
It’s much the same with black gun owners.
The news media does a masterful job of dividing up and creating fear.
I know a few homosexuals that actually have guns and support gun rights, but they are nothing like the ones in the gay pride parades.
The best way to ensure they long-term far into the future civil rights of gun owners is to promote and introduce Firearms to children. Not adults.
The 21 year old age restriction for gun ownership in the state of California is not going to expand the gun community. I don’t live in California anymore so I don’t know what’s going on there on the ground.
Is anyone in the state of California working on introducing Firearms history, ownership, responsibility and safety to children in the public school system? The state of California is very interested in making sure children know about “sexual activities”. But they don’t seem to be very interested in teaching children about guns Civil Rights.
In a lot of ways the gun Community is a “private club.” That’s very true. What are people doing about expanding that club into the public school system where it would get the most exposure? Instead of continuing to be a “private club” that just happens to grow a little bit more.
Not every old a gun owner understands what Liberty means. But most people in the gun Community these days do understand what Liberty means. So new gun owners can come into the community but I suspect many of them are going to have a hard time with Liberty.
The Mulford Act is still on the books in California. And Ronald Reagan’s dead. So don’t blame him. Look to the current leadership in the state of California.
Recently the state of Georgia finally got rid of its racist gun control laws. You would really expand the gun community in the state of California if you worked to repeal and actually did repeal the Mulford Act. But that is something I cannot help you with. YOU have to do it on your own in the state of California.
As far as diversity goes in the gun community in the state of California. I know it’s very diverse. And for those that don’t know you’re just not looking. Which tells me your head is in the sand.
The 21 year old age restriction for gun ownership in the state of California is not going to expand the gun community.
That is a feature, not a bug.
Tom Ammiano a proud homosexual white man with no children who prevented other peoples children from learning about their second amendment birthright. The future of 2A rights is in teaching children about their gun civil rights. He was way ahead of this new 21 year old age restriction.
And people keep voting for him. He is a big racist pig supporter of the Mulford Act.
https://calwatchdog.com/2013/01/29/anti-gun-lawmakers-lead-hearing-today/
“Ammiano was instrumental in getting rid of San Francisco’s High School competitive .22 cal rifle teams, and worked to put an end to the junior ROTC program in San Francisco’s High Schools. Ammiano supported the ban on allowing gun owners to carry an unloaded gun in public. “Whether a gun is loaded or not, it’s still an act of intimidation and bullying,” Ammiano said.”
Nothing is being done to encourage interested children to try out the shooting sports. In fact, they are being taught by their liberal teachers (read indoctrinators) that guns are evil and should be banned from existence. The population of gun owners will dwindle down to nothing if the trend is not reversed. My fellow shooters at the range shake our heads at the dumb stuff the rookies do, but we all welcome any newcomer and encourage them to bring some friends.
Oh LOL that’s my gun shop (i.e., the store I go to most frequently). Oh well – well done, Ryan and Lee!
The indoor and outdoor ranges i’ve been to in Southern California show some ethnic diversity. My rough estimates are 50% white, 35% Latino, 10% Asian & Pacific Islander, 3% Black and 2% Middle Eastern. But a lot of these folks are mixed race. I also see children shooting, I brought my nephew (13yrs) and niece (10 yrs) a few weeks ago. I see at least 2 senior citizens every time. Females seem to be the growing demographic on the range I have notice in the past 30 years. CA’s potg needs the support from folks in the political “middle” (moderates?), and I believe we have a lot of them here.
I would believe you.
Females would be your most fruitful audience to convert. Hardcore Liberal groups will usually not budge.
I’m starting to cross paths with more republicans who are anti-gun, and even meeting more than a few democrats who working on their first AR builds. Must be the geomagnetic reversal I keep hearing about.
The historical diversity they don’t teach you in California gun culture.
http://www.bullseyeforum.net/t6143-gunsmith-bob-chow
“A man of many parts: 1948 Olympic team shooter, Bullseye shooter, first known Chinese-American ham radio operator, and first Chinese-American to attain a Navy rating higher than cook (according to one obit). They don’t make ’em like this anymore…”
Museum examples of Gun Culture diversity. Mr Chow was well known as least in Northern California gun circles.
http://www.coyotepointrpc.org/node/379
“ELKO MUSEUM HOLDS THE LARGEST PUBLIC COLLECTION OF GUNS IN NEVADA. The firearm collection of Bob Chow, a U.S. Olympic shooting competitor and longtime instructor at the Coyote Point Rifle and Pistol Club in San Mateo is part of the extensive permanent collection of the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elk”
High Bridge Arms was his store in SF. The last gun store in the city. Liberals forced it to be closed and turned into a free marijuana store.
There are many reasons why the Second Amendment exists and to attract and change the minds of someone who is “anti-gun” we have to address each person as an individual.
We knw that the attack on semiautomatic arms, particularly the AR 15 is because it is a rifle as described by the SCOTUS in the 1939 MILLER case.
NSSF and SAAMI want to call ARs “modern sporting rifles” in the faint hope that sport and hunting will protect the right of the people to keep and bear arms so that when needed the people can form a militia.
The Boston Tea Party prompted King George to send about 10,000 British soldiers to occupy Boston. The City of Boston’s population increased 40% and the British soldiers were assigned to the homes of each resident.
Not only did the British sleep and eat, the services a soldier needs were provided by the home owners. Laundry, cooking, were demanded.
The people of the Boston area were trapped with one escape. The British had required the people to serve in the King’s Militia to defend against the French and the Indians. So the people formed their own private militia that the King and his Generals did not know about. They called themselves Minutemen.
In 1775 the Minutemen and their spies learned that the British Army was going to take the short march to Concord and Lexington to confiscate the arms, which included muskets, gun powder, swords and even flints, to prevent further resistance to the King’s orders.
The Minutemen met the British Army along the roads to protect the arms the people would need to resist the King. The war was on April 19, 1775.
A year later the people wrote The Declaration of Independence, listing the grievances that caused the rebellion. The reason and need for “Arms” was included as a right and a duty of citizenship as a final resort when politics failed to preserve rights and freedom.
It took until 1787 for the people to get around to creating the United States of America with a new Constitution.
Not everybody was satisfied with the new Constitution, in particular Patrick Henry. Henry said that the protections of the people’s rights was inadequate because the militia was in control of the Congress since the Congress would appoint officers and provide arms for the militia. Henry pointed out that if Congress or the President became tyrannical the check and balance of a militia on tyrants would not work if the right to keep and bear arms was ultimately the governments.
A Bill of Rights was demanded and the Congress set to work writing a Bill of Rights which included most of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence.
Soldiers could not be housed in private homes and the people were in control of the arms that might be needed to prevent a tyrant from destroying the country.
So the Second Amendment says that the people get to keep militarily useful arms, ammunition and such items in order to preserve freedom and the Constitution.
Beginning around 1930 government began restricting the rights of the people to have military type arms.
It sounded good, reduce crime which had increased and become organized providing alcohol and augmented by Ford motor cars.
Beginning in the 1960s Arms that were not “sporting” were attacked.
Are politicians trying to prevent crime or enable a tyrant to fundamentally change America?
Male, female or undecided, parents, business owners and employees. All understand that their life and the lives of their children are at risk. Crime statistics pretty well prove that disarming a class of people or “everybody” does not increase safety and security.
As slaves, black people were disarmed because armed slaves will fight back and become free. The Civil War followed the Dred Scott SCOTUS decision when the racists Chief Justice Taney from Maryland said the it was “for their own good because blacks were not smart enough to take care of themselves and couldn’t be citizens or be trusted with weapons.” Taney of course was a Democrat.
In the big urban centers, Democrat machine politics have disarmed many blacks despite the Civil War and the 13th & 14th Amendments.
Women have been told that guns are dangerous, the best defense against rape is to faint, throw-up or pee their pants. Most gun owning women think shooting rapists before they get raped is better than maybe catching a rapist and putting him behind bars. Of course Hillary thinks it is better for a woman to be raped than somebody shoots Bill.
Guns are fun, very useful and very safe if the possessor has and follows training.
In the cities the gun problem is that only the honest people don’t have guns. Criminals and gangs can intimidate because te government has disarmed their intended victims.
The People think the Constitution protects their Rights.
Government sees the Constitution as an Obstacle to be Overcome.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state ? [well yes, therefore]
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
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