State of the Second

This week on State of the Second, John sits down with Bersa’s Rafael Del Valle to discuss American-made firearms, double-stack 1911s, and the debate over $300 pistols. They break down price, quality, and customer support, and whether you’re paying for performance or the name. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday c...

John sits down with Kurt from the GEAR team to break down the GEAR Summit: a weekend of guided trail runs, firearms training, hands-on vendors, and camping in the canyon country outside Amarillo, Texas. Bring a fully built rig or a bone-stock truck. Bring years of trigger time or none at all. There are green trails through advanced runs, beginner classes through low-light and night vision, recover...

The suppressor win wasn't the finish line. It was the first domino. This week, Braden Langley joins John to talk about what the suppressor lawsuit really opened up, why gun owners need to learn how to win after decades of playing defense, and why the 2A movement grows by building bridges instead of gatekeeping new gun owners. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting thi...

Why do suppressors cost so much, and what does August’s ruling actually change for the people who make them? John sits down with Danny of Shadow Silencers to talk about building suppressors under a patchwork of state laws, why California and New York-style restrictions keep spreading, and what the latest court decision means on the manufacturing side. ----------------------- Special thanks to our...

Hi-Point's Dave is back on State of the Second, and this time we get into why the $0 tax stamp put Hi-Point in the suppressor business. John and Dave go through everything Hi-Point has launched since his last visit: the AR line in gold, silver, leopard, M81 and Desert Storm, plus the Hush Point 22, Hush 45 and the 3D-printed 30 cal cans. Then John runs down a decade of caliber requests and Dave an...

This week John sits down with Trey of EAA to discuss the part of the gun business nobody explains: why a $25 magazine adds $70 to the price tag, why a $100 optic cut costs you $300, and what tariffs are doing to entry-level handguns. Plus, From the Soap Box: YouTube's new firearms policy, and why a cosmetics brand can sponsor a creator when a gun company can't. ----------------------- Special than...

Kailey and John sit down with Tim Hoffman of Hoffman Tactical, the 3D-printed firearms pioneer behind the Super Safety. Tim explains how open-source design beats the ATF's raid-and-harass playbook (his "weapon of mass distribution"), why most gun-industry "innovation" is just another muzzle device, and where real innovation is actually happening, belt-feds, recoil-operated designs, and decentraliz...

This week, Constitutional attorney Mark Smith of Four Boxes Diner joins John on what actually started the Revolutionary War, the 1792 law that still decides which firearms are protected, and why "dangerous and unusual" can't describe something tens of millions of Americans already own. Plus what body camera footage did for gun rights that no argument could. ----------------------- Special thanks t...

This week, Matt of AS Designs joins Kailey and John on the legal ground his whole business sits on: what "common use" actually means when the threshold moves depending on how scary a product is, how a settlement between one company and the DOJ ended up writing the definition everyone else has to live under, and why patents restrict new designs more than any regulation does. -----------------------...

This week Stephen Bozich of Bare Arms joins John and Kailey to argue that the Gun Control Act of 1968 never restricted firearms. It restricted commerce in firearms. Nearly everything regulated downstream of it hangs on somebody being "engaged in the business.” As well as, generational misinformation in firearms education, and why you shouldn't expect a government funded school to teach you the lim...

This week, Lady Liberty Australia joins John and Kailey to explain what life actually looks like without a Second Amendment: a 12-month wait to buy a single pistol, mandatory registration, police who can search your gun safe without a warrant, and a home invasion she was legally barred from stopping with the firearm locked in her own house. She fled to Texas as a political exile. Now she's warning...

This week, John and Kailey sit down with Vince from Kore Essentials for one of the more honest conversations we've had on this show about the state of the firearms industry; what it gets wrong about new shooters, what it gets wrong about women, and why the people loudest online about wanting innovation are the same ones killing it. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporti...

This week Cody Bennion of Jaguar Silencers joins Kailey and John to talk 3D-printed cans in Inconel and titanium, why nobody in this industry measures decibels the same way, and why he has suppressors on his desk with 15,000 rounds through them that still don't need cleaning. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday c...

Kailey and John welcome back Rachel from Night Fision, the team behind Night Fision night sights, Glow Rhino, Cammenga compasses, and now Zaffiri Precision. Rachel breaks down why a sights company bought a slide maker, the push to own "everything north of the frame," what platforms are getting support next (Glock Gen 6, Ruger RXM, the P365), and why "do it right, not fast" beats rushing product ou...

This week, Kailey and John sit down with Scott Volquartsen of Volquartsen Firearms, the Iowa family company building rimfire's finest since 1974. Scott makes the case that the humble .22 is the best on-ramp to the Second Amendment, explains how suppressors reshaped rimfire, argues the .22 Magnum is criminally underrated, and calls out the "high speed, low drag" marketing that's costing the industr...

This week John and Kailey sit down with Carlie Bodiford to talk about going from college TikToks to 700K+ followers, using humor to reach people who've never touched a gun, and why the future of the Second Amendment comes down to one conversation at a time. Stick around for a spicy From the Soapbox. ___________ Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary, August 1–2 in Des Moines, IA. Tickets at gun...

This week, Kailey sits down with Joey from Attorneys for Freedom, the law firm behind the Attorneys on Retainer program, to walk through what actually happens after a self-defense event, and the mistakes that turn a lawful shooting into a courtroom nightmare. AOR is at GOALS 2026. Come by Booth 2712 on Saturday, August 1 at 11 AM. Use promo code STATE OF THE SECOND for $50 off an individual plan o...

This week, John and Kailey sit down with Jim of Steyr Arms to get into the AUG's rise to one of the most-fielded rifles in the world, the surprising Steyr link to the Mercedes G-Wagon, the new AREX pistol collaboration, and the engineering behind the Safe Bolt System, including the over-pressure test that lets a shooter walk away from a completely blocked barrel. Jim also breaks down the legendary...

This week, John and Nate from Nine Line Apparel are back for round two, and it goes everywhere: the new Gun Owners of America x Nine Line collab, why Gen Z is rediscovering patriotism, and the right way to welcome a first-time shooter to the range. Plus the live AR that sat on YouTube for 24 hours and did nothing. Grab the GOA x Nine Line gear __________ Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary,...

This week, John and Kailey sit down with Drew and Jeremy from One Horse to talk about building a 100% American-made AR that any gun owner can afford, and to drop a major announcement you won't want to miss. From 13 years at Anderson to launching their own brand in eight months, they break down what the "poverty pony" label gets wrong, how a quality American-made rifle lands at around $600, and why...

Alex from Caliber Row joins hosts Kaylee and John to talk about what she calls one of the coolest jobs in the firearms industry: photographing and filming brands. Alex runs Caliber Row, where she specializes in photography, videography, and brand marketing for firearms companies. Her path started in Chicago, where she grew up on the Southside and shot in the fashion industry with agencies like Wil...

Tim and Michelle from Patch Ops join Kaylee and John on State of the Second to tell the story of how a single patch grew into a business. It started in 2018, when the couple wanted to send their kids to private school and Tim calculated they needed to make $50 more a day to afford it. Tim, a Marine, had been introduced to patches by an Army friend, and there was nothing on the market for Marines a...

Tony Simon, founder of the 2A Diversity Shoot, joins John and Kaylee to trace how he went from a gun kid on a Virginia farm to one of the most active Second Amendment advocates in New Jersey. He grew up on a farm in Virginia, shot on his high school air rifle team, and joined the Marine Corps. After getting out he moved to New Jersey, where the state's firearms ID card requirements stalled hi...

John McClane of Rock Island Armory joins hosts Kaylee and John to talk about how a budget-friendly firearms company from the Philippines built a recoil system he believes other manufacturers will copy once the patent runs out. John shares his path into the industry, from a closet gun owner who hid his first rifle under the bed for a year and a half, to a C-class USPSA shooter, to multiple Grand Ma...

Roy Harrell joins State of the Second to talk about taking over his late brother Paul Harrell's firearms YouTube channel and keeping its practical, no-hype approach alive. Roy has been a cop for 37 years, started his law enforcement career in 1988 carrying a revolver, and has done hunter safety and firearms instructing, the same work his and Paul's father did. When Paul got sick, the bro...