I don't know enough so I don't vote.

All right, sorry, I am listening to a workman whistle as he walks up the hill as he's carrying a ladder. So anyway, I was distracted, but hi everybody! Do you know what today is? Today in Connecticut, we are voting for our local election. What does that mean? Well, in your town or your city. Here in Connecticut, every 2 years we have an election. Now, some of the people who volunteer volunteer for a 2-year term. Some are 5-year terms. And I think that's it is what we have in our town. Now, here's the thing. Each town is slightly different. Some people have 4-year terms. And so it can be depending on your town's charter. All the things are different. Now, why am I telling you all this? Because I used to not know any of it. I used to be that person who said, I don't vote because I don't know anything. I thought there was one election every 4 years, and when that election would happen, I wouldn't vote in that either because I did not know enough. I didn't know who the candidates were. I didn't really have an affiliation with any party, and I figured, eh, they're doing a good enough job. The politicians are there to do the best for us, for the most amount of people, because we live in a democratic country. So obviously they're going to do the best for everybody. So what has happened? What has changed in my life that I do vote? Not only do I vote, but I'm here, right back there. That's the Republican tent and the Democrat tent. Right by the entranceway to the voting polls. And I'm here all day long. I used to not even know who the candidates were who were running for the presidential election. For example, Ross Perot was one of the first presidents that I voted for. I couldn't tell you what election or what year, but I'm like, ooh, let's see what happens if we put a businessman into the White House. Little did I know I had to wait for Trump for that one. So, um, yeah, and I do miss gas that's less than $4, uh, as far as the businessman part of things, but not trying to go there either. But here's the thing, didn't know candidates in a presidential election, didn't vote because I figured the people who were voting knew more than I did, and so they were making a better choice for me. And I didn't really get that deep into it. I just didn't do it because it was too, too much work. Why do I care? Who cares who's president? Who cares who's this, that, whatever? And then I became a gun owner. And I'm gonna tell you right now, being a gun owner made me a much better American. And let me explain how that worked. Basically, I knew nothing. I did nothing to take part in our government, governmental process, and I let other people take care of it because, hey, we live in America, everything is good here, we never have to worry about anything because it's America, right? We are blessed beyond belief, which is true. However, there's this quote, I think it's something along the lines of, for evil to succeed, good men just need do nothing. And when we don't vote, you and I are choosing to do nothing. So becoming a gun owner, what happened? Well, I started learning. I started traveling from state to state, realizing there's different laws everywhere you go. I found out that a 10-round mag ban has nothing to do with actually preventing violence. A 10-round mag ban is actually a gun ban. And until I got into guns and I started doing competition and traveling, I didn't know any of this. So I found my one issue, and my one issue became the Second Amendment. But really it didn't. It had nothing to do with Second Amendment. It had to do with the fact that if we're gonna do something, I wanted to have an impact. If I want— uh, sorry, I just looked down and Alex sent me a banana, um, or a StreamYard banana sent me Alex. I don't know, I'm very confused. Anyway, um, sorry. StreamYard banana. But, um, yeah, if you're not on the YouTube, just go to the YouTube side. So anyway, so a 10-round mag ban is a gun ban, and it had zero impact on violence. And how do I know this? Because I did this. And I'm glad I'm making you laugh, dude, or lady. I know we were just talking about how Alex is a guy name or a girl name. So yes, so, uh, just so people all don't think that, um, what? No, I wanted to— but you're— oh, there it is. There's— now you all can see what I'm looking at, which is StreamYard Banana-Alex with an actual banana. So anyway, uh, how do I undo that? Okay, sorry, I'm not good on my phone. All right, so 10-year-old MedBed does nothing to stop violence. How do I know? Because I did the research. I looked up the FBI stats, and there are no statistics that are perfect. I totally get that. However, the FBI stats on crime are the best that we have as far as it is a central place, uh, where police departments put in all of their crime stats on a voluntary basis. So yes, it's not consistent always, but it's a really good data point because they do have a lot of, uh, police departments that, uh, report to them. So when we look at the FBI crime stats on places like Massachusetts, New York, and California that had a 10-round mag ban for over a decade, there was zero change in their violent crime. So did the ban do anything for violence? No, it did not. Um, when you actually look at the facts around mass shootings and that sort of thing, the, the mag— the size of the mag has nothing to do with anything, but people get emotional about it. So I look at what causes violence, and that was 2010 is when I learned that. So I was 40 at the time. And then people are like, oh, do you vote? I'm like, no, not really. And then I started meeting our legislative body here in Connecticut. And I realized that you and I are the subject matter experts on the things that you and I care about. So for me, it was guns because that became my livelihood and it became my hobby. And with guns, people always talk about violence. And I'm like, Uh, violence is not, um, guns. There are over 400 million guns in America. There are roughly 10,000 deaths, murders, in America per year. So a very, very tiny amount. If guns were the problem, there'd be 4 million deaths. Guns are not the problem. So here's the deal. My goal being in politics has been that I want to change the conversation. And how do I change the conversation? One, I show up and I testify at the state level, at the federal level, whenever I can. Two, I try to change the conversation. I don't want to talk about Second Amendment rights because nobody cares about Second Amendment rights. I want my passion to understand, because it took me a long time to understand why the Second Amendment was important. But we all agree that we want to prevent violence. So how can you do that? Well, you have to go to the ballot box. You have to vote on a single issue. Now, your issue may not be violence prevention, and it may have nothing to do with guns, but pick one. Because so many people get all tied up in knots over the politics stuff because they have like 10 different things that they want to be just perfect, and they're looking for the best candidate and all of that. I'm like, nope, never gonna happen. Pick one thing you care about and then come out and vote. So remember the beginning of this, for those of you who have been here this entire time? I used to not vote because I knew nothing about the people who I was voting for. Now my life is switched and it's the other way around, and it is that not only do I know all of the people personally who I am voting for in our town election today, but they actually all know me too. And this is how our political system really does work. You have to take the time to actually know and make yourself known for whatever your issue is. It doesn't have to be guns, it doesn't have to be anti-violence, it can be environment, it can be energy, it can be anything else you want. But understand, if you know them, they know you, and they know where you're going to vote because you're going to tell them. Either they're doing what you want and you're going to vote for them and keep them in office, or they're not doing what you want and you're going to make sure you find all of your friends to make sure they vote against them. So that is why I'm coming on. We still have— it is almost noon now, right? Yep, 12:04. So there's still 7 hours and 56 minutes for you to get to your town hall and vote. And out of all of that time, if you don't know anyone in your off in your town that's, you know, running, look them up. You got time, just do a quick cheat sheet, see who signs up for what, who's rerunning, who— how do you like how things are in your town or your city, and just pick one thing you care about. So anyway, with that, I hope you all get out and vote. I'll talk to y'all later. Bye.