Mental Health Matters - Life goes according to plan...

I think it's gonna—

did it ask you if it's recording? Do you have to say yes? I don't know.

Okay.

All right. Hey everybody, welcome to Mental Health Matters. It is Saturday night, 9:00 PM Eastern, somewhere in the world. Maybe it's in Connecticut. I don't know. But thank you for joining us. I have with me tonight Charlie Cook from Riding Shotgun with Charlie. We have Charlie. Hello.

Thank you so much for having me on, Brooke.

Oh, my pleasure. All right. So tonight we are going to talk a little bit about the Second Amendment community. We're going to talk about mental health matters and different organizations that Charlie and I are familiar with. So we give you more resources because, you know, more resources are good resources, right, Charlie?

Absolutely.

All right. So let's see. 2 out of every 3 gun deaths that we hear about are suicides. And that is why we are here. Because if we actually talk about mental health, not only can we save lives, not just the people who take their lives by gun, but also all of the other ways that it happens. Because the more we talk about it, the more comfortable people get. The more comfortable people get, the more likely they are to get help. And that is one of our biggest challenges in life is people don't want to ask for help probably ever. And then when they do, it's super hard to find any help. So for those of you who have yet to meet Charlie, he was on once before. We had talked about your gratitude list, I think, the first time.

Yes, I think we did talk about the grateful list.

We did. Oh, the grateful list, not the grateful list.

It's, it's okay. Potatoes, potatoes.

Okay. Well, you know, tomato, tomato.

It's good. Let's go. Let's call the whole thing off.

But luckily the screens are too small. You can't watch dancing yet. All right. So, um, Charlie and I are, we were just discussing before we got on, uh, we are somewhat plugged in to the Second Amendment community. Now I am slightly plugged in. Charlie kind of is the Second Amendment community. He gets mentioned at fancy places like the NRA boardrooms and stuff like that.

So he's sometimes, sometimes they, sometimes they say things that aren't negative.

Oh, well, there's that. He goes on stages and stuff. I'm not quite as important as him, but I love busting his chops for it. So it's always fun. So Charlie actually had me on, I want to say episode 36, but I really don't know, of Riding Shotgun with Charlie. Now, Charlie, just so everybody gets caught up if they are not familiar with you, how long have you had your YouTube channel Riding Shotgun with Charlie?

Oh boy, I have been, uh, doing the YouTube channel for Uh, almost 9 years.

9 years. Yeah, running out of fingers. I don't know. 2016.

2016 is when I had the idea for Riding Shotgun with Charlie. And I would, I would watch Carpool Karaoke and I would see James Corden having a great time with rock stars, and I wanted to have a great time with rock stars in the gun community. So I thought I would do a show interviewing people in the car and using the phrase Riding Shotgun because everybody knows riding shotgun. So I thought that would be easy and easy to remember and easy for people to understand. And I will, I will tell you this. Yes, there are friends of ours who I've had on the show who still call it Driving with Charlie, Ride Along with Charlie, Drive By with Charlie.

Not a drive-by. No, we don't want to be drive—

Riding shotgun's a term that's been around since the, you know, 1850s, 1860s. I thought they would know this.

Well, I mean, and if they watch your shows, or so you changed your intro lately, right?

Oh, thank you for noticing. Yes.

So if you go back to one of the more original ones back in the beginning, before you got 100 episodes, where the one I'm in, he defines what Riding the Shotgun with Charlie is.

Yes, I did. I had somebody message me and say the intro stuff is too long, get rid of it. I went to one of these places that does animations and it was one of these, it's one of the good reasons when our phone listens to us, but I was looking at some logo animator thing and the deal was you could buy 2 and get a 3rd one for free. I'm like, oh, that's a pretty good deal. I woke up the next morning and it said, buy, buy 2 and get 4 for free. So I'm like, now I get to pick from 6 of them. So I get little, little video snippets that are, I don't know, 8 to 12 seconds long, and it all ends up with my logo at the end. So yes, you, you are the only one that noticed this, Brooke.

No, that can't be true. All right, we have brought up Riding Shotgun with Charlie, and if you're extra special nice, sometimes Charlie will actually send you a sticker or something because he does have swag here and there.

Yes, but trying to keep up.

All right, so yes, I know. Well, I know some people live by stickers and patches and all of that.

I, I don't get it, but okay.

So hold on, hold on.

Right there's— I love it. I, I look for it every time.

There's, there's my Riding Shotgun with Charlie sticker.

Every time I watch the show, Brooke, I look to make sure it's still there.

Well, I've been sitting down too long today, so today I have to stand, so that's why you're not seeing that. But all right, so back to mental health matters.

Yes.

Our goal tonight is to talk to you about some of the NSSF— I need— sorry, those things, resources for people to go with. Now, mental health. I gave Charlie choices and I said, do you want to talk about what you think of mental health or do you want to talk about resources? And we decided we talk about resources. However, I'm still gonna make him say what he said earlier. So great.

Now this is on YouTube. It's gonna be on YouTube forever.

It's gonna be on YouTube forever. But no, no, just the thing of what your therapist friend said about we all have mental health.

Yeah. So, so I was talking with one of my, one of my friends and I, you know, I was, I was on a podcast for a while and we would always talk about it and not always, but it would when something came up, uh, somebody would say, well, you gotta do— everyone's got mental health. Every— you know, they're having mental health issues or having a mental health breakdown. And I'm like, I don't know when they're having a mental health breakdown. Like, that's not my field. Um, so I was talking with a friend of mine who is a therapist and, and runs a facility and whatnot, and she says everybody has mental health, some people have mental health issues. And I'm like, oh, that, that is pretty good because To me, the phrase on the spectrum is one of these things that really, I think it takes away from having, I don't know what the right word is and I don't want to sound like a knucklehead, but having issues and problems. Like if you're uneducable, okay, or if you're whatever it is, right? Like we all used to use the R word for things, But if somebody is retarded, that means they just can't learn, or maybe they're uneducable. But we now use the phrase on the spectrum, and I'm on the spectrum, and you're on the spectrum, and everyone watching this is on the spectrum. It's either we have nothing or we have everything. So when I hear people say, oh, they have mental health, they have mental health, like they need mental health, they have mental health issues, I'm like, well, what does this mean? And I don't really know much about it. So sometimes when it comes up, I kind of step back because there's I do think there's things that people can do, whether you seek out professional help, or if it's just call up a friend, you know, it's that sort of stuff. And we all need this. It shouldn't— yeah, we all need this. And it shouldn't be, you know, having some sort of mental health issue, or breakdown or whatever shouldn't prevent us in my mind, it shouldn't prevent us forever from being able to possess a firearm or to fill in the blank.

Like, and I was just going with the just general idea that all of us have issues, period, end of story, regardless of what you call it.

Yeah.

Um, and this is why, like, here in Connecticut on our forms when we're buying a gun, you've got like, they just want to make sure you haven't been there in the last 12 months. They don't care if it's not that same. But, um, being aware that everyone has mental health issues, because when I was suicidal, when I was in group therapy, one of the best things about it was the fact that I wasn't alone. And when I started this back in 2018, the reason that I started it is because there were family members who were having a very hard time, which then in turn turned a hard time into the people that were around them and that sort of stuff. And I wanted to at least reach out and tell people, I'm like, everybody's got issues, every family has a challenge somewhere. Now, Some of us get through our challenges, some of us don't get through our challenges. And but if you notice something is wrong, whether it's with you or with somebody else, it's just like, okay, now what? Because the other challenge of us not talking about any of it is that we don't know what to do or where to go. And that's why I've also had different trainings that I've done, either through EMT or, gosh, there's another one that I got certificates and everything. And it was talk to them, persuade them, bring them to an ER kind of thing if you need to. And it's just like QPR training and question, persuade, and then I forget what the R is. Run them over? No, that's probably not it.

Rescue them? I don't know.

Maybe.

I don't know.

See, now I got to look it up because I'm like, all right, what is QPR training? And I know that there is somebody out in the chat right now going, oh, Brooke, it's this, because some of my, my, my audience here, yeah, they're the smartest people.

Let's face it, Brooke, we all know this.

All right. Question, persuade, and refer is what the QPR training was. Yes. And since I'm talking about it, I'm going to go ahead and share that screen so everybody gets to see it. So you can see that this, this is a real thing. I'm not just making it up. So question persuade refer is just simple things because one of the things that has also happened to me since I've been doing this since 2018 is that when someone commits suicide, I get a phone call and they're like, hey, what can you do for us? And I'm just like, I don't know. So, but the QPR training you can do online, in person. And you can become an instructor and all that fun stuff. So there is one. We will get to more. Uh-oh, I just made you big. So I'm back. All right. So QPR, question, persuade, and refer. And it was a full day of training when I did it in person. But yeah, so there's one referral and reference and see there's lots of Rs. That's why QPR could be lots of things. So your grateful list, right? That's a form of gratitude.

So yes, to me, it's a form of self-care. And it was the same friend of mine 11 years ago, 12 years ago. We both went through getting divorced and separation, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. And so she was doing the grateful list and I thought it was completely ridiculous. But she's like, you know, she's like, you should try it. I'm like, so I tried it. 3 things that happened in the previous 24 hours that I'm grateful for.

Okay.

And they— I will say that they put me in— they put— it put me in a better place mentally to accept, accept the good things and accept the bad things. And even on bad days, there are good things that happen. And honestly, the thing that I always point out to people is opening a new jar of peanut butter. There is a— there— it is an incredible joy to open up a brand new jar of peanut butter and stick the knife in for the first time and scoop out the peanut butter because it's a whole new, brand new jar of peanut butter that's fresh and it's all right there.

And there's a— and everything.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's great. So, um, it helped me realize that the, the little things that the little things that affected my life ended up being the bigger things and the important things. And it was really, honestly, it was a great thing. And it was, you know, people get excited about when they end up on the grateful list for things, which is always refreshing to see.

I will be on his grateful list.

You know, there's that. You will. Absolutely.

Not that I was counting, but it'll be the 3rd time, I think.

So, um, it's, it's, to me, it was a good way to keep things in perspective and say, you know what, things might not be going great for me, but, um, I can still appreciate, uh, the little thing. And I hate some of the little things. It's, it's—

no, no, well, the word that you just said was perspective, because you said, you know, even when I'm having a bad day, I can still find these good things. Is that it is about perspective because no one actually has a bad day. You have some bad things that could happen in a day, but your entire day is not bad. And you're proving that with your grateful list every day.

Yeah. And it's, you know, I jokingly tell people about weather when you have bad weather. Some people like the bad weather, you know?

Yeah. So I say around here lately, it's like Ew. I'm like, no, no, no. If I light the fire and get a nice little cozy blanket and have a good—

the best weather ever. I, I, I tell people we have a weather every day. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you don't.

Yes. And, and we're here.

Yeah. So the—

yeah.

And, and tomorrow, tomorrow's going to be different.

Um, so, so we can wait 5 minutes anyway.

If you don't like the weather, wait a minute, right? So anyway, the gratefulness for me and what ended up happening is I started to appreciate all of the little things about, you know, having seat warmers in my car or going to work and, you know, traffic being light or having a not horrible day at work. And it really started to change my perspective. And then I started to notice I was actually working on working on my speaking skills and Toastmasters and whatnot, and that got a little better for me. And then it got to the point where it started to spill over into all the writing shotgun stuff and teaching gun classes. And it was— it really— it's been a huge, a huge positive impact just writing 3 things down every day. And it's the small things. And sometimes I just put, you know, I'm grateful for keeping on keeping on. You know, those are the days you call and check in on Charlie.

Right?

Shoot me a text. Hey man, what's going on?

Everything intact? Uh, all body parts are still here, right?

Yeah. And, and I, uh, the same friend of mine sent me something, I don't know, video, TikTok, whatever, where it's, uh, it was something that said that, um, 8 minutes is all it takes to talk to someone else to, to make your day better, to let stuff out. So we haven't done this, but, you know, I I thought about Messenger and saying, hey, you got 8 minutes? Because that's all I need.

There you go. Well, and so funny you should say make someone's day better because ready, I'm going to do the Blair Witch thing again over here and I can't zoom on my computer, but right there is Hillbilly's sticker that says make someone's day better. And that is the show coming up at the top of the hour right after this. So he talks about making somebody's day better all the time. And he's got stickers that say it too. And it doesn't take that much. And oh, so ready? Fun, fun, sad thing maybe. So Monday I spent half the day at the ER with my mom. And so while we were there, uh, the doc's like, yeah, she might be staying the night. So I'm like, all right, let's go get snacks. So I left my mom at the ER, went out and got snacks, but before leaving I asked the nurse, I'm like, you want anything? She's like, no. And then as she walked away down the hall, I heard ice cream. And so I'm like, what flavor? She's like, chocolate. I'm like, okay. And then the x-ray tech who had already taken care of my mom, like, what do you want? He's like, hot fudge sundae. Okay. So I left. I went and got snacks. I came back with ice cream for the nurse and the x-ray tech. And they were like, oh my gosh, are you kidding? This is so amazing. And I'm like, it didn't take me any time. I wanted ice cream too. So there's that, right?

I was going for ice cream anyway.

It's like, it's little stuff. Um, and this is the make someone's day better. And by focusing on what we're grateful for, we get to make our own day a little bit better and we don't have to wait for somebody else to do it for us. So, and now you know what that makes me think of? Joy. And where do you think I'm gonna go with joy? Hmm, Charlie, what's the next resource we should give people?

Uh, I'm gonna say Sarah Joy, right? For Hold My Guns.

Yes.

Um, Hold My Guns is great. Hold— yeah, Hold My Guns. These, these people are awesome. I love Sarah Joy Albrecht. Um, what they do is they've partnered with a number of gun stores around the country so that when people, it's, it's not just for people having a mental health crisis, but when people need some sort of a timeout from their firearms, they can take their gun to these certain gun stores, and these gun stores will hold on to their guns for a designated amount of time. And when those people want to get them back, they go back and pick them up.

There you go. So, Yeah, and one of the things, like Charlie said, it's not just about mental health. Like, one of the things we talked about was like red flag laws and, or a bad divorce or something along those lines. If there's things that you just need to get rid of your guns, then that is kind of the, the idea behind Hold My Guns. Oh, sorry, I'm like, I'm like, I know there's more to the, the website here somewhere. So it is just holdmyguns.org, um, and you can click on find a location and put in your, um, zip code or click on your, your place and region. There you go. And more things. So I don't know where all these are, Northeast storage locations, but that is— and, um, we've met Sarah when— I don't know how long I've known Sarah Joy. But it's been a few minutes and then some.

Um, I, I really, um, hold my guns really hits, uh, hits me in the spot because, um, because when, when I was going through my divorce and things were really not going well for me, uh, I took all my guns to one of my friends and I said, hey man, um, would you hang on to these for a little bit? Like, I'm gonna keep the guns locked up. The guns are, you know, they got padlocks on them with key— or sorry, keyed locks. I'm gonna hang on to the keys, you hang on to the guns, and Yeah, I'll come back and get them later.

Right?

And, um, I may have done that 3 times when I was going through my divorce.

And just so people know who like are not gun people, here's our challenge and why there has to be something like Hold My Guns is that in some states what Charlie did is actually illegal. It's an illegal transfer if you don't actually sell them. So it's not like having a car, which is what I thought having a gun would be like. It's— there's so much paperwork behind it, but it depends. It's different state by state. And that's the challenge is actually Sarah Joy has explained to me and why it's hard because even a 501(c)(3) like Hold My Guns has challenges because of all the legal challenges that we have around firearm ownership. But red flag laws and stuff like that, it's like, yes, if you can get rid of your guns so you don't need them, it's nice to have a safe place for them to go to.

Yeah. I mean, look, the people I took them to were lawful gun owners that had a license and whatnot. The new law that we have in Massachusetts says if you—

You have so many.

This is one of the— they're all dumb. Let's face it. The new thing. But the new law says if you let someone borrow a gun for more than 6 days, that's a transfer and you have to do paperwork on it. Let the state know that you transferred a gun from somebody, from one person to another person. So yeah, it's ridiculous, completely ridiculous.

And this is where like Hold My Guns has a hard time growing sometimes because of all the crazy laws that we have, right? So, but it's still a resource depending on where you are because we do have viewers here from all across the country.

You are, you are Miss Worldwide. No, no, no, you're right, Miss Worldwide.

Well, to be fair, DJ is generally going to be here and he actually puts down down all of the, um, he even puts down the international. So, uh, nationally in America, 988 is the new suicide prevention hotline. In most, uh, states you get 211, but he always goes off and he gives you Canada and Europe and Mexico. So he thinks I'm worldwide, but you are worldwide, Brooke. Quite that crazy. All right. Um, more resources. Um, Where you want to go next?

What do I, I like the Walk the Talk America website too because it has, uh, it's got a ton of resources. Walk the Talk America has a great podcast. Um, they're out on all the socials. They're doing all the, the short-form videos and stuff too on, on, I think on the talk and on, on Instagram.

All right, so let's see. Podcast articles. Guns and Mental Health Podcast. What does it say? Uh, yeah, so it's Guns and Mental Health. Oh, I'm on that one too. Are you on there?

Nice.

Okay.

No, they don't, they don't like me that much.

No. Well, no, no, no.

I'm like, well, it's, um, yeah, I, I've had both, um, uh, Jake, Mike, and, and Jake on. I've had them, I've had them on separately.

Yeah.

Uh, but the shows I do with Matt Mallory, I think we had both of them on together once too.

So, gotcha.

I, what I, uh, if you go up onto the top right-hand side of the screen there, it has the free screenings. Yes. And it is that— that is, it's free and anonymous, which is, um, very important. But you can take a little mental health test to see if there's some, you know, to see if you're needing a little, uh, a little help or a little boost or someone to talk to.

And the thing that both Mike and Jake have talked about— Jake, yeah, um, no, that's a different person. Anyway, so sorry, I know too many people. So depression test, ADHD, PTSD, parent test, uh, postpartum, bipolar, eating disorder, youth mental health, anxieties, psychosis and schizophrenia, addiction, and test. Um, yeah. And then in Spanish also. See, but, um, the other part about this is that, uh, I don't know if you've taken the time to go through any of these because I think it was— does Mike have kids? I don't even know.

Mike does. They both have kids. Yeah.

Okay. So one of them, one of the two of them in the interview said that they told their teen to just go take one of these.

Oh, it was Mike.

It was Mike. Okay. Yeah. And she went upstairs and she took the test and she came down like, mom or dad, I'm not depressed. And so sometimes the self-validation of taking one of those tests is great. The other part is it could be not just for you. It could be that you're worried about someone. Maybe you think somebody is bipolar, or maybe you think someone has ADHD. You can go ahead and click on one of these suckers and go ahead and answer the question the way that you see someone. And the beauty is when you are all done and you get to the end, they actually give you resources for whatever it is the test is that you took. Because I have taken, I don't know, I've gone through a couple of these just to see what they were like. But it, it's totally anonymous. But like I said, at the end, you get even more resources.

It's, it's great. These guys are, these guys are doing yeoman's work. It's, it's really amazing, all the stuff that they do. And the great thing about their organization is they talk to people that are not in the gun community. Like, they go to conferences and seminars that are mental health professionals, and they, they go in and, you know, the mental health folks will all say, yeah, if, you know, we, if there's a domestic violence situation, you know, they should remove all the guns from every, you know, from every, from the house. And then, of course, well, you know, the The other groups, the pro-gun groups, are like, maybe that woman needs a gun to protect herself.

Right.

And it's interesting to hear, to hear that they have an impact and make these people, you know, oh yeah, makes the mind smoke a little bit.

You know, it is interesting. Like when we're here talking about like red flag laws and stuff at the Capitol in Hartford is just like they don't think about the unintended consequences. And to me, they are the bridge builders and they're trying to build the bridges between gun owners who don't want to talk about mental health at all. Because when we go to buy a gun, it says, have you ever been institutionalized? And we want to not ever have to check that. Yes. Right. And then on the other side, like Charlie just said, we have the professionals who are supposed to be our mental health therapists and they just want to— they don't know what to do with guns. And that was a thing that I was just looking at where, um, one of the things that they offer are the cultural competency tests and the resources of, um, Gun Friendly Therapist Directory and the competence classes you can take. And then they also have, I'm trying to see if I can find it, but they have like, if you are a therapist watching this, you can actually get your, um, continuing ed credits through a program that Walk the Talk America has put together for them.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah.

Well, they— I haven't been through the website in a while, so my apologies for this. But one of the things, the new laws that we have in Massachusetts is we have to— when this finally kicks in in a year, we're supposed to do a segment on suicide prevention. And these guys have— yes, they have some firearm instructors, mental health resource videos. Look at— It's almost as if you're a psychic friend.

I try.

Some, some people have a crystal ball. You have a crystal brain.

You did. I, I did click next before, as you were saying, next slide, did I not?

You totally did.

So, so, um, but yeah, so this is definitely something that I'm— I don't know who brought it up to them, but, um, they have been trying to get this into as many instructor courses as possible. And then we have all the, the full video with chapters. So you can play this in your firearms classes, no cost, no charge. You don't have to buy anything, but like everybody— frugal, tactically frugal. I really ask people actually make a donation because none of this stuff is free. The, the board, right? If we go to the board members, all of these fine people, such as Mr. Mike Sudini, um, John, Jose, Dustin, Rob, Coleon, Jake— Jake's the other guy we were talking about, just so you know. Um, they all volunteer their time. None of these people are getting paid for this stuff. So when you go use Walk the Talk America, whether you use, um, Hold My Guns, please donate to all of these things because nothing is really free. Um, but they're— what they do is awesome.

It's, uh, as, as, as an instructor, like, I, I know when this, this all came up, um, I don't want to be, uh, responsible. I don't— you know, I'm not a mental health professional, and I— so I can't sit here and talk about what people need to do.

You're a mental health patient, so that counts.

I do have my experience, right? Um, But I, you know, this is, this is one of the things that, that the instructors get all worked up about is, you know, we're not mental health professionals. We don't know anything about this, but sitting and playing a video and having a discussion afterwards, that's, that's like if it, if I hate saying if it checks the box, but if that's what they need us to do, then, you know, we—

Well, I mean, you and I are both NRA instructors, we're both USCCA instructors, and it's like every time, like any of the law stuff comes up, Forget about it. Our first thing is we're not lawyers. We're not offering legal advice here in Connecticut since July 1st, 2024. We have to teach the law, and I make sure to do the disclaimer of I am not a professional, I am not offering legal advice, and I throw that thing up there that says trust but verify. Because no matter who tells you what's what, it's like, no, not our job. Because like, I don't know what's going to come out of Massachusetts as far as what that training is going to look like after this I wish I would know. Like a spectacular disaster that has gone through there. Um, because like, just for those of you who are not aware, it's like, as instructors, we now have to learn and teach de-escalation techniques and mental health techniques and all of this stuff. Your, your, the classes will be like a week long or something.

It's like, it's the, the classes are gonna be too long and too expensive, which means people aren't gonna take them. Which is their ultimate goal.

But, and people are gonna wanna teach them because, yeah, for the most part, you and I as instructors, we want to keep safety. We, we care about finger off the trigger, safe direction. That's what I, in 8 hours, that's what I'm hoping to teach you. It's like those two things. That's it.

That's it. That's it. Like learn how to be safe.

Yeah.

Everything else, everything else will, will come with time and you can learn later and, and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Well, yeah, I tell all my people, it's like, oh, ready? I'm gonna Blair Witch you guys all again. So over my shoulder is my Annie Oakley poster. And I tell everyone in beginner class, I'm like, here's the deal. We are not here to become Annie Oakley today. You have the rest of your life. Once you learn how to safely handle a firearm to get good at shooting, I don't care what your target looks like if you're waving your gun around the entire range. No, I just don't.

So yeah, that's, that's a problem. Get 'em all on paper. And I, I used to do this. This is kind of funny. I used to teach at a shooting school and people would go out and fire 20 rounds. 10 from revolver, 10 from a semi-auto. And they would come back and then have their 8.5 by 10 paper, and the, you know, holes are all over the place. And like, oh, I really didn't do that good. And then I would hold the paper up to my chest. I say, so which ones are okay to get hit with? And they're like, oh, uh, none of them. Yeah, exactly. You did fine. You got them all on the paper. We can count 20 holes. You're good to go.

Yeah, people do have unrealistic expectations of what is acceptable. And it's so funny because like So like the name of my school, right? A Great Start, right? This is your first time here. It's your first time handling guns for so many of my students and they're like, oh, I didn't do well. I'm like, dude, none of us have extra holes. We're doing all right. Right?

So have a good time. You have a smile on your face. Everything's good.

Oh, I love the permagrin. One of the best parts of teaching is that, oh, I did it. Like I knew.

It really is a feeling of accomplishment when, you know, it's put aside all the empowerment and, you know, you've got a powerful device in your hand and whatnot. It's the sense of, hey, I accomplished something. I shot 10 holes, 20 holes in a paper. I had a good time. This was great. How can I do this more?

Yeah, no, it's— oh wait, ready? I'm going to toot my horn a little. So in yesterday, this past weekend's class, one of my students said to me, Brooke, you're the Mr. Miyagi of gun teachers. And I'm like, you better put that in my Google review.

Right. That is fantastic. That is absolutely fantastic.

Wax on, wax off. You have to show it out. Like, up, down, up. There you go.

Oh, that's great.

So yeah, we do love, and so here's the funny thing. Well, funny, haha, sort of funny, weird is that your job satisfaction correlates significantly with the length of your life because more people die on a Monday than any other day of the week because they don't want to go to work. So you have to love what you do on a Monday. And guess what? My work week is Wednesday through Sunday. So Monday's my day off.

Monday's your Friday. Monday's the new Friday for you.

Monday's my day off. Monday I get to sleep in. I go get my nails done, all of those things. So, all right, sir, let's go to our last resource. And I'll chat a little bit about these guys talking about teaching classes and being in class. One of the things— oh, and actually, I have it here, but I'll wait till I get big again. National Shooting Sports Foundation. This is like the Better Business Bureau for us gun people. For those who are not gun people, and National Shooting Sports Foundation, they're all over the place and they provide us with free stuff. And one of the products they give to us is suicide, because they also know that 2 out of every 3 gun deaths are suicide. And the gun people are the most responsible people out there. The anti-gun people are just anti-gun. They're not really doing anything to help people. So I said it out loud. That's my opinion, and that's how that goes. So American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has paired up with NSSF, and they talk about common risk factors, storing firearms securely, One of the, oh, that brochure right there. Look, you can download it for free right here, or you can come to one of my classes and you can get the suicide prevention thing here as well. And this is like for personal stuff. Now, for those of us who are in the gun world, FFL, suicide prevention for retailers and ranges, they have a whole system here about what happens if you have a suicide at a gun range, because unfortunately that sort of thing does occur. And they have a whole program on how to deal with that in your business and that sort of thing. The good news, it doesn't happen that often, but it's still something that ranges have to deal with from time to time. And for more free stuff, there's this whole toolkit, and this is what I have in my, in my room somewhere, and I don't think I can point the camera at it, is that big that dude's face that says, have a brave conversation. And oh, look, it says what Charlie says. I don't know, for those of you looking on really small screens, you can't see it, but it says, we all have mental health, just like we all have physical health. Sometimes life stressors and other health issues can lead someone to feelings of hopelessness and despair. It's not easy to manage that alone. So that is it. As far as the resources for those instructors that are out there, if you are a member of NSSF, you can get this stuff. They will ship it to you for free so that you can give it to your students. You can read it. There's a bunch of information in here. Lots of things. It goes on and on and on. Yeah. So, but it's highlighted. It's really easy to read. And yet there's more resources on the back. Like everything, no one size fits all. No matter who you're dealing with, no matter what business, no matter what topic, there's stuff that we love about these things. And then there's stuff that we may or may not love about American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. But this is where people like Walk the Talk America are kind of bridging those gaps and being like, hey, this does not work the way you think that it does. And it's not all that simple or that easy to just disarm people because you think they're worrisome. Because the reality of it is, the biggest problem I always have with red flag laws is that the purpose of red flag laws is you— I say, oh, I'm suicidal. You say— Charlie makes a phone call, Brooke's suicidal, go get her all the guns. And guess what? I'm still suicidal. I need the help. I don't need my guns taken away because if I'm suicidal, then I need that help. And my guns taken away don't mean anything because I'm a girl and girls generally don't do suicide by gun. Just like that one little fact, right, that you could look up at the CDC. And so this is my biggest challenge. It's like, no, if I am a danger to myself, I need someone to help me. So that's my thing. So Mr. Charlie, What was your favorite part of tonight? Because we have to get going because Hillbilly's going to be up at the top of the hour and we can't dig the full hour leading up to that because they got to go hang out in their green room before their, their show.

This is true. My, my favorite part was actually getting some time to hang out with you, Brooke.

I told you I'm making the grateful list tomorrow.

No, this is, this is really good. It's, it's good to talk about these things and get it out in the open and find out You know, we all have mental health issues and sometimes it's calling a friend, sometimes it's going out for a drink and talking. I spend a lot of time driving and I spend a lot of time calling people up and being like, "Hey, I just need to talk. I have some time, I just want to talk and get through my time and get through my day and work out my stuff." I think it's very important to have people in your life that you can call and talk to, and, um, you know, that'll answer the phone and be like, hey, I need 8 minutes. So, you know, I just need someone to talk to.

And to be fair, I think almost every time I call you, I'm usually driving somewhere because that's my phone time.

I know. I would— I, I— when I call people up, I'm like, hey, what's going on? They're like, nothing, what are you doing? I'm like, guess.

Well, for me, it's like Bluetooth works and I'm multitasking because I'm driving along.

There we go.

And, uh, yeah, I will call Charlie for some of most random things ever.

She's not kidding either.

And it's probably Petrolino's fault somehow or another.

It's— I'm sure it is.

Uh, and for those of you who've never met John Petrolino, just go look, Google him, you'll find him.

Uh, yeah, thepenpatriot.com is his website. He's awesome.

Yeah, I, I was like, I got to sleep in Charlie's house. No, wait, I got to sleep in Charlie's bed at Petrolino's.

Yeah, I was supposed to say it sounds even worse. Oh yeah, Petrolina's house. We call it my summer home. Oh my God. Yes. And so I have, you know, I have the guest bedroom, but, um, yeah, you stayed in my guest bedroom.

I was told that I wasn't allowed, but, you know, because no, I did. I stayed anyway. Oh my God. The one time I went to Jersey without guns, because you don't go to Jersey with guns.

So this is totally unrelated. I spent about $625 to get a Jersey permit, and I haven't been to Jersey since I got it.

Of course not. But all right, my friends, thank you so much for joining us on Mental Health Matters. Sorry, the YouTube things, but this is not a live live, so maybe it won't be the same. Um, so yes, 2018 Suicide Prevention Saturday started on Facebook around 2:20. I met a bunch of you folks here, and that's how we got here on YouTube. Uh, DJ will always put in the comments, uh, on the YouTube side, because those of you who are watching on Facebook or LinkedIn YouTube is kind of the place to watch this because you get to see all the comments. But thank you for coming. At the top of the hour, like I said, Hillbilly Up is going to be there. Go check out Riding Shotgun with Charlie. Pen Patriot as well, just simply because he writes for that as well. Yeah. Or something along those lines.

No, I don't write for anything for the Pen Patriot. We're just buddies. He's got it. He's all right.

Hold on. No, no. Who do you write for? I know you have articles as well.

So I, um, uh, people can find Writing Shotgun with Charlie on Ammo Land. They can find it on Gun Streamer. They can find it on Rumble. They can, uh, I write articles for News2A.com, and I write a column called Writing Shotgun with Charlie where I re-interview the people I've interviewed and write up— I write an article about the two interviews and the stuff we talked about. So Gotcha. Um, Ammo Land, News 2A, and, uh, Armed Lifestyle Magazine.

And since I'm leaving in less than 48 hours, I'm probably not going to put all of the links in here, so y'all Google that stuff.

Totally, totally.

So again, thanks everybody for hanging out for us. Um, Charlie, thank you for spending your time with me, and, uh, I'll let you know when this airs because I'm not sure yet because I haven't set all that up stuff. But anyway, thanks again for your time, and I got to find the stop button. Night, everybody.