Detachment from reality is most often described as a symptom of suffering. But what if we looked at it as the desired effect of some malicious action? What if, instead of the individual as a victim of their circumstances, they could be better described as a casualty of some form of warfare? Examples of our detachment are illustrated in our fantasie…

With tensions high and a sense of meaning low in the West, we're witnessing a revival of Faith in various sub cultures and communities. Gypsy Walters returns to talk about his first 'zine: "The Gospel of St. Rattlecan" sharing his testimony. In this episode we address the hazy way Spiritual Warfare is marketed, the difference between being doing an…

Have you ever heard someone say "you don't need to train for that" and think that something is wrong, but not sure what? The subject of what you should prepare for, whether its training or otherwise, comes with plenty of baggage. Decades (squared) of experience on self defense training, CQB training, and marksmanship available are available at this…

Have you ever heard men complain about Rites of Passage missing from our contemporary world? What if you learned they existed, just men weren't expected to go through them any more? Kohlton Anderson of Black Canyon Systems introduces us to the world of the rodeo, and how it shares with the gun culture in more ways than one. Follow Black Canyon Syst…

No bureaucracy is immune from becoming polluted with false metrics and nebulous buzzwords. Just as it falls on the leadership to define what victory looks like, so they bear the responsibility of clearly defining the qualities they are in search of. Chris Sizelove, a Veteran of the U.S. Army Ranger Regiment, argues that it's time to redefine lethal…

Don't let the haters fool you, if we step back and look at the overall state of firearms ownership, we're seeing suppressors become so common and available that they are starting to specialize. Enter the JK Armament CCX Suppressor, or can if you prefer. So small and light that it can be used on a pistol without a booster, and still puts in the work…

A Common Thread Across Multiple Disparate Topics. What does the CIA have to do with the crisis in Appalachia? The history of the CIA includes many stories of individuals succeeding where a bureaucracy failed. From WWII through Korea and Vietnam, the boogeyman of secretive government organizations sure has plenty of publicly available failures. So, …

The phrase "I got mine" manifests in various ways. It might be a team leader who quits at building his team after he's attained some achievement or completed some deployment. It might be a man abdicating from his community. It might be a concerned citizen who's only care extends to the end of his driveway while he complains about how the community …

What is property without privacy? The double-speak of politicians continues to ramp up as we approach another election. At the same time, California passes a new form of safe-storage law that, at best, invades on the privacy of its serfs. I'm sorry, did I say that correctly? There is something worse than Gun Control and we're seeing it arise in the…

The Law Tactical Folder might just be one of the best pieces of gear when it comes to quality of life for the Citizen. The Law Tactical ARIC goes a step further, expanding the capabilities of the platform. But how well does it work? And, perhaps more importantly, who is it for? The Law Tactical ARIC or AR Integrated Carrier greatly reduces the weig…

We talk about the Gun Culture like it has solid lines to determine who is in and who is out, but that's not exactly how it works. If we stand back far enough, we've seen groups come and go like trends, yet we still come back for more. Amidst all the gear, training, and skill development, it's the people that are the messy part. So how do we go forw…

In the last 10 years we've seen a great expanse when it comes to self defense training. As much as the internet has re-invented the snake oil salesmen in a digital age, we've also seen more and more examples of good instructors across the greater Gun Culture. Many of those teachers are veterans, who, in their own way, have their own baggage to deal…

This morning many were greeted with news that what looks like a cyber attack caused thousands of devices to explode. While it sounds like it's out of a cyberpunk novel, this attack helps us understand how technology can be used to build a pattern of life on not just individuals, but an organization or country. This episode has been sponsored by Obs…

Body armor in the form of a plate carrier has been around for longer than many of us have been alive. In that time, quite a bit has changed, not only in how it is worn, but how individuals set up their "kit." In this episode, follow along as a bit of history, lessons learned, and common practices come together in what to look for when setting up a …

Life in America often times feels like something is wrong, that something is going on, but we just can't see it. From this feeling people draw conspiracy theories to try to make sense of it, to give it some meaning. In this episode, "Reaper" joins the show to talk about what an insurgency looks like, and what we could expect going forward. We are a…

Disaster! Apocalypse! Do this now and you'll be prepared! This headline and rhetoric is all to common, from marketing strategies, the news, and marketing the news to an eager audience. We know the news is poisoning us, but how, and perhaps more importantly, why? A three chapter dig into the shift in what it meant to believe between the Medieval age…

Returning to the Culture Cast, Paigeosity addresses the steps to getting past social cynicism. Although Gun Culture has its nuances, it serves as a setting in which we discuss the false prerequisites we put in place before building our community. When we get burned by people we trusted, do we spend the remainder of our days alone? Or do we learn th…

War never changes, yet war fighting never remains the same. The tactics and strategies of the last war have been analyzed in pursuit of countermeasures. Instead, we are approaching the forever war with the individual as the target. Like the word "tactical," these two words often get used without understanding what they mean. The Insurgent and the S…

The subject of Stolen Valor often travels through Gun Culture, and rarely reaches general politics. Recent events have drawn attention to one Vice President who was accused of Stolen Valor. So when we consider what it means to steal valor, we are able to see how the double lie or the double fallacy should not be effective. Tim Walz has been selecte…

Across Social Media, and at least western culture this can be observed: the more skilled a person is at the use of force, the less likely they are going to participate in casual violence. Jack Donovan joins the show to talk about masculine philosophy, boasting in various cultures, and where Violence is Golden. Whether it's people who write checks t…

When is one morally obligated to resist one's government? With all the talk of tyranny and noncompliance, we sit down with Baret Fawbush to discuss about some of the theological considerations about resisting evil when it comes from positions of political power. Bump Stocks and Brace Rulings Find out the difference between a criminal and an outlaw.…

All that we know is that we can't keep going on like this. What we don't know is when to make a change, or how. In his work the Secular Age, Charles Taylor talks about the cross pressures of the era. James K. A. Smith distills this large and technical book into a short, relevant page turner titled "The Secular Age." While the term secular has meant…

What do we have here. Two American-made, gas-piston driven firearms, each with a different take. The Brownells BRN-180 may not come in a complete package, but it does offer a light weight option when it comes to piston carbines. At the same time the PSA JAKL arrives complete with an intelligent design beyond that of its operating system. Both have …

With the release of their latest P-365 Raider, Flux Defense teamed up with REDACTED to put on our first public land clean up in Utah. Before we departed for the range, however, we took time to sit down and have a conversation on the nuances of bringing product to market in the firearms industry and gun culture. Alex Aubrey retells some of the histo…

Can one solve a skill issue with better gear? A Stepping stone to maturity in Gun Culture, this topic may come across as both eye rolling and attention gathering. On the one hand, a better ruck sack will not get you up the mountain. On the other hand, it sure helps. Parachutes, plates, and powder all come into play as we consider how and when we lo…

People don't believe in conspiracy theories because they find them rationally compelling. Rather, these ideas hijack an individual's need for a sense of purpose and belonging. They prey on our desire for the world to be thus regular and make sense. However, the consequences of a conspiracy theory tend to be more personal than what the media would l…

Should Women serve in combat roles in the military? The recent attempt on President Trump's life brings up the old debate about women in the military and women in combat roles. Framing tends to drive this conversation, and we continually get bogged down in redundant questions. Can women do the job? Are women capable of the achieving the standards? …

From Private Military Contractors to Mall Cops, the field of security is full of misconceptions, egos, and opportunities to find yourself hung out to dry for other's safety. But when we look behind the curtain into what goes in to threat prevention, we see a much deeper picture. Rob Rawson of Rozin Security joins the show to teach us about the idea…

The recent debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden covered a series of topics both relevant and otherwise to the American People. Among them included abortion, the economy, and illegal migration. What didn't come up, was Gun Control. And the silence spoke volumes as this divisive topic wouldn't have helped either candidate appear reasonable or kn…

If owning and becoming proficient with a firearm continues the Second Amendment, owning and becoming proficient with radios may just be securing the First. Jake Knight of Gridbase.net reports on his first off-grid radio course and presents an argument that radios and their extension: mesh networks, strengthen our independence through the ability to…

You do not have control over the circumstances that surround you. However, you may have a moral obligation to how you live through them. Which are you? Born too late to explore the world, or born too early to explore the stars? Which are you? One who sees your generation as the one who squandered their potential, or the generation that has to pay f…

The Secular Age can be marked as one where mechanism of belief commonly assumed considers religion one option amongst many. We may find a sense of freedom in not being bound politically or nationally to a Religion, but the cost reduces the legitimacy of a belief to authenticity and thus, merely a fashion statement. What you believe about right and …

Many of us grew up in a world where to join the military meant to serve our country. Baked into that ideological pie was a hierarchy where, the more special your operations, the more value you might have, at least on social media. Cameron Fath tells about how he joined the Ranger Regiment, what it was like to enter and then leave that arena, and wh…

Why do men go off to war? Is it for Glory? Honor? The GI Bill? The war/violence/conflict in Ukraine illustrates how some men go to war, regardless of the big picture. While pundits and politicians opine about how America's influence, military support, and participation in Eastern Europe paints a picture of the next forever war, individuals travel t…

Even during the 2020 Black Lives Matter Summer of Love, news agencies hesitated to report on the destruction taking place in Minnesota. Few poeple outside of Minneapolis know that the rioting continued well into 2021, and few people who live there are willing to admit it. To this day, the city of Minneapolis suffers the consequences of what took pl…

Might Makes Right. No Truth but Power. History is written by the Victor. These phrases often say one thing, but try to communicate another. When we casually say that might makes right, we aren't typically saying that morality comes from greater strength. When it comes to disputes, it often sounds like a shortcut to some form of solution, or a criti…

When it comes to gear, play the long game. When it comes to training, get what you can, when you can get it. When it comes to practice, it's better to start with what you have, than wait for the perfect opportunity. Gear, Training, and Practice are three sore subjects when it comes to gun culture. How is this the case for a community that is center…

The difference between what can be called the Gun Culture, the Industry, and those in support of the Second Amendment isn't a single overlapping circle of a Venn Diagram. Instead, we have disparate groups of Gun Culture, a market space of the Firearm Industry, and the broadest term of 2nd Amendment Supporters. Peter Ildefonsa brings all of this to …

In violence, as in war, two concept stand in tension with one another: proportionality and utility. McMahan identifies one understanding of proportionality as "a constraint on action that causes harm." (Killing in War Pg 19). Utility, on the other hand, often functions as the context for informing one part of strategy, tactics, and techniques. We p…

Self Defense isn't what it used to be. Jiu jitsu has become mainstream. But what if you were to discover that no-gi training wasn't as realistic as you wished? Ruben Alverez traces a tale of growing up in the world of Jiu Jitsu, only to discover it wasn't all that he needed. ECQC or Extreme Close Quarters Concepts takes the idea of a violent encoun…

What if the true LARP is the assumption that we can be credited as being part of the community without participation? When the term LARP (Live Action Role Playing) is used as an epitaph, it accuses the target of living in a fantasy. With analysis, we look at what it is that is considered dishonorable about so-called LARP-ing. What we find out is th…

Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" often finds home on the wall and in the minds of great men. It leads the reader through a series of character traits that make a man, opening with the line "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their …

There's more to being a warfighter than shooting. On the US Army webpage it is stated that the Ranger Battalions encompass the "Big 5 Philosophy" of Marksmanship, Physical Training, Medical Training, Small-Unit Tactics, and Mobility. Breaking down each of these, we look at what they might entail. In order to put to rest the cultural conversation in…

The George Floyd Riots were a strange time. On the ground, the narrative level politics fell to the wayside. Information Warfare was not about which political party was effectively harnessing the energy of the street, but about if their house was going to be looted or burned down in the next few hours. We live in the post information age, were it's…

Which is better? To Bug Out or to Harden Your Position? Which is better? Train in Recce or CQB? Which is better? A DMR or a MK18? Which is better? 9mm or 45acp? These questions represent different decision that go awry when we attempt to answer them at the wrong level of analysis. There is a strange hope that, if it were to come to brass tacks, the…

Sure, we all hate name dropping and clout chasing, especially in Gun Culture, but why? what is it about this kind of activity that we find so distasteful, and should we? It's not good enough to complain about the subject, and although it takes a little time to get into it, in this episode we compare it to writing an academic paper. It's not good en…

Decentralization might sound good on paper, but how does it work in the real world? When we look around, from media to the news to politics to culture in general, it looks like things are falling apart. And the just might be. But what happens when you shift your mindset away from the doom and gloom of how corrupt our politicians really are, and sta…

What makes someone a pseudo-intellectual? If we treat philosophy like a trade, what does it look like when done poorly? In this episode, we review two arguments by public intellectuals who present two different arguments regarding God. Žižek compares God to a video game developer, and Neil deGrasse Tyson brings up the Problem of Evil. Some argument…

While it can be fun to try to analyze Gun Culture at the 20,000 league above view, Kaleb Irving brings the conversation down to earth. We look at what Gun Culture looks like on the ground level, and then rise higher into moral frameworks, and discuss what it might mean for the Church to repent. Gun Culture isn't so much politically aligned to moral…

Don't like a guy? Say he can't shoot. Although this will not put the argument to death, it will bring context to move past the ego game and into a professional approach. Shooting is a skill, and fighting requires a collection of skills. One of the most uncomfortable scenes in A24's Civil War is the firefight between men in Hawaiian shirts and unifo…