Mental Health Month - Suicide Prevention Saturday!

Hi everyone, it is Sew Something into Saturday and I'm cold. I know it's May, May the 4th be with you, I should say that too, but I am a popsicle today because I've been out on the range and it was hot and sweaty and now I need to go take a shower so that I'm not so cold. But anyway, for today you get to see the Tundra Brooke instead. It is actually a wearable blanket kind of thing. I don't know if it's like like an actual Snuggie or not, but, uh, I was— I did go out to dinner like this. No, I didn't go out to dinner like this. But anyway, Suicide Prevention Saturday, May the 4th be with you, and this is National Suicide Awareness— no, sorry, mental health awareness. So, um, fun stuff as far as there is a challenge for— I know, aren't I so adorable? I'm just so fluffy, but I'm warm. This is the thing, because it's just— I am. Yeah, DJ was asking if I was like Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I'm like, well, I think I gotta go down a little bit more like this so I can be more Obi-Wan Kenobi. But my important part is I am warm and snuggy. So, and sometimes all it takes for a little mental health awareness is just snuggle up with something or someone, because there is something very calming about having a blanket wrapped all around you. And it is definitely one of those things as a mom, what are we taught to do? We're taught to swaddle our children. And what is swaddling? We take a giant thing or giant relative to them, wrap it around them as tight as possible so that they feel like they've got a hug, whether you're hugging them or not. So if you're not having a good day, by all means, go get snuggly. Go grab a nice soft squishy blanket, wrap it around yourself, and see if that makes you feel a little bit better. Because, you know, mental health has so many ways you can deal with it. All right, Suicide Prevention Saturday. Why are we here? Because 2 of every 3 gun deaths you hear about are suicides. And if we really want to save lives, we need to stop talking about things that look like this and start talking about mental health awareness. So as I started to say, um, we have a Walk the Talk America today. Do we have Walk the Talk America today? No, we do not. What we have is a fundraiser that is going on for Walk the Talk America. And I'm going to play you guys this little clip from Chris Chang, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to be able to play it from the beginning. So bear with me if you'd be so kind. All right, let's see if this is going to work.

Services to gun owners.

I don't know how to make it start from the beginning, so here's what we're going to do. I'm actually going to mute it. I'm going to let it finish playing and go back to the beginning, and then I'll turn it back on for you guys. Or at least that is the idea. I'm going to read what this says. So to kick off mental— to kick off May's Mental Health Awareness Month, he's excited to announce the $100,000 fundraising challenge for a nonprofit called Walk the Talk America. He's— he'll be donating $5,000 of his own money to match donations of $500 or less. So Walk the Talk America is trying to raise $100,000. Um, and I think y'all are just gonna have to listen to it forward and backwards because I do not know how to get to the beginning of this. So give me a sec and we will try this again. Oh, well, you know, it would also be helpful if I turn the volume back on. Hold, please. Oh, I don't want my mouse to do that. There we go. Okay, we'll try again.

Fundraiser, and I'll be giving updates throughout the week.

All right, that was the end.

Good morning, everybody. So today is May 1st, which is the start of Mental Health Awareness Month. And I'm really excited to kick off the month by announcing a $100,000 challenge to raise money for Walk the Talk America, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose work I've been following for many, many years. They provide mental health screening for gun owners as well as continuing education credits for frontline mental health practitioners to increase their knowledge of guns and gun owners to make sure that these mental health practitioners can properly and effectively provide mental health services to gun owners while also making sure that our Second Amendment rights stay intact. So for the next week, I will be sponsoring or basically matching donations of $500 or less to Walk the Talk America, and I'm putting up $5,000 of my own money to match those donations. I'm going to be encouraging the firearms industry to also participate and get us to that $100,000 goal. And if you want to donate, it's wtt.org/fundraiser. And hope you can help us get to that $100,000 goal, wtt.org/fundraiser. And I'll be giving updates throughout the week.

All right, so I hit the wrong thing. I don't know why this went there. So if you guys want to see that for yourself, you are welcome to go to this. And then for those of you who are new, if you have not yet heard about Walk the Talk America, uh, when he was talking about, uh, mental health awareness and resources, firearms instructors and mental health, um, national healthcare provider directory, this is something they're working on so that when people look for mental health that you can find people who are actually, uh, 2A friendly. So DJ dropped in the Walk the Talk America fundraiser. And if you just go ahead and throw fundraiser on here, right? If I spelled that right, we'll go somewhere. If I spelled it wrong, you're not going to work. Oh, ta-da, ta-da, ta-da. So, um, Walk the Talk America's 100,000 fundraiser by Chris Chang. You can go here, custom amount. I did see some custom amounts where it was $4.99 because Chris, if you listen to the video, said he was going to match up to donations of $500 and under. So feel free to do $9.99, $2.50, $4.99. Whatever, uh, it— whatever floats your boat. So click on Donate Now. You've got Stripe credit card, Stripe checkout, personal info. You can leave your first name or no, you can do it anonymously, and you know, all the regular stuff. So anyway, and yes, I agree, I do look a little bit like Where, where was it? Walter somewhere, I think, put in a nook of the north. Oh yes, there we go. Special hello to Hostess. Good to see you too, Viejo. I don't know if you got in when I was in the beginning, but I just am really cold today. But that's right, when I'm done with you guys, I will go get warm because we have a sauna and we have a hot tub and I have a husband. So all of these things will get me warm. All right, mental health awareness. What else is going on for this month? Well, I'm confident there are lots of things above and beyond for the Walk the Talk America thing. However, the Chris Chang fundraiser is just for the first 7 days. So we are halfway through because it's actually till May 8th. So the fundraiser ends on May 8th. So we're on May 4th because May the 4th be with you. So yes, I can look like, what is it, an Ewok, right? Ewoks had these. Oh no, wait. It was the Sand People. Sand People. If I— if this was brown—

Jawas! Come on, on May the 4th, you got to get it right. You're like an ancient— you're like, you're an aging Jawa or something like that. I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Sand People had the big sticks and, you know, so yeah. Okay, sorry.

Good imitation too. That's good. Thank you.

Um, all right, so, uh, DJ, I apologize, I've been going blah blah blah blah blah. By all means, will you please do your thing where you welcome everybody in?

Absolutely. Last in the room was our friend Viejo, and yeah, Nanook of the North. I love that because I haven't heard Nanook in quite a while. Hillbilly Up is out there. Let's see, scrolling up takes me a second to see Mike White is out there as well. Mark Thomas too. Hey Mark, how's it going? Chasing Ghost is out there. Chris Brancato is out there. Mike and Pam Bellinger out there. G23, and I think I got us all, but if I didn't, I'm sorry. Let me know and I'll shout you out at the end of the show. That's your roll call.

All right, thank you very much. Oops, wait, I about removed myself. All right, so because the fundraisers are fun to watch, 'cause that's why they're fun, Not just fundraiser. So Mark Thomas says that right here next to Hershey, they literally have Kiss streetlights. All right, so I know I showed DJ this, but I can't remember if I showed everybody else this, but they have these patriotic kisses now. So I got myself a bag of patriotic kisses, and this is what my students got to have for snacks today. I just think they're adorable, and so I had to buy them. Um, so yeah, I think I look a little bit like a Kiss, Hershey's Kiss as well. Um, I didn't know if they'd look as good as they do on the package, but I think they did a pretty good job. So yes, chocolate patriots, uh, mental health awareness. What else can we do? Definitely go over to walkthetalkamerica.com/fundraiser and donate and take Chris Chang's money from him. So whether it's $10, your $10 becomes $20. $5, your $5 becomes $10. Yeah, $20, your $20 becomes $40. I can almost do math, it's so exciting. Um, so anywho, all right, mental health awareness. Tara, I just want to let you know that I was all excited because I was going to say that part of May being mental health awareness, if you all look at the description down below, it talks about how there are other things that May is. Well, I got all excited for guitar because I thought it was Bike Month and it is Bike Month, but they're talking about pedal bike month, not motorcycle bike month. So that was a little bit sad. Now on the other side of things for DJ, um, I would say that the May is also in, I think it was Europe. Um, Smile, was it? Yeah, hold on. I got, see, now I think it was Europe thing. So what does it say? There's one that says smile, and I think it's in National Smile Month in the United Kingdom. And I thought of DJ when I saw that because, uh, you know, DJ always says, if you don't see a smile, make one, right? Something along that way. Um, so what do you think, DJ? Should you be the poster child for Smile Month?

Uh, I think somebody else has a much better grill than mine, and all the posters and whatever else would require some form of photography. So unless I go with the icon you see on the screen, which might run into copyright problems, I am not the smile. I am not the smile of that event.

No, I just mean like that you encourage people to smile and therefore you create smiles. And if you don't see one, make one. That's why. Not that you'd actually be the poster child, just the embodiment of the idea of smiling. That was more my thing.

Embodiment of something. I'll have to think on that. At least maybe the voice. I'll take that to begin with. I'll think about the embodiment.

All right. So all of the other things that are up here for— oh, see, you clicked it. I clicked it. Now you click it again. All right. So we've got May's Mental Health Month. We also have National Military Appreciation Month and the smile thing we just talked about, but possibly my favorite, Zombie Awareness Month. So who here doesn't love a good Zombie Awareness Month? Now here's the thing, I read this and I'm like, are we serious? But this just shows that we can legit get anything that we want. So Zombie Awareness Month is a campaign to bring awareness about zombies and the possibility of future zombie apocalypse. The campaign was introduced, predominantly funded by the Zombie Research Society. An organization dedicated to historic, cultural, and scientific study of the living dead that was founded in 2007. So it's just a little over a decade old. And according to them, the main objective of Zombie Awareness Month is to educate people about causes, prevention, and preparation for a supposed future zombie pandemic. So what does this have to do with mental health awareness? If you don't find that amusing, you need to go find something else that is amusing, because that stuff's funny right there. I guess people think— take it seriously. But if you actually read more on it, if you click on the Wikipedia thing, it really is talking more about what we see as apocalyptic in our world, and that zombies are just a— I don't know if personification is the right word, but just sort of like a way that we look at things that could go really, really bad in our lives. But I just thought it was funny. Oh, all right. Well, apparently we have a member amongst us, so I'm glad to hear that you're part of the Zombie Awareness Society. Although it does say Zombie Research Society, so I'm not sure if that's the same group that you're part of, Chris, but thanks for playing. So anyway, here's the thing. What's the best thing we can do? My kid had his birthday this week and he's got a friend over today and my— it's one of his best friends and my daughter, my son, and this other kid are playing in our yard. You know what I keep hearing? I keep hearing hysterical laughter, although some of the laughter is a little bit like screaming. For a moment I thought maybe part of his body was being torn off, but in general it was very funny and Here's the thing, mental health, there's nothing better for us than to laugh, to enjoy ourselves. I tend to be too serious all of the time, so this is why I should be a fluffy bunny today, um, so that I'm not as serious, because it's hard to be a fluffy bunny and be overly serious. So anyway, for Mental Health Month, I have a bunch of different things planned for you guys. Definitely please check out the Walk the Talk America fundraiser. $5, $10, $100, whatever works. Just know that you have 4 days left, but do it now because now is a great time to do stuff. Next week, I forgot what I might be doing, but I have it written down. DJ doesn't— hasn't seen it yet. Oh yes, maybe he has. And what else is going on? DJ, help me out, man. I am.

Well, you were talking about the awarenesses of other things, and so I thought, you know, being aware of your surroundings is something we talk about as gun owners quite often. Always have that head on a swivel. How about we have that head on a swivel for the people around us who may need some of the information that you get right here every Saturday? Got links out there. You need any more links, let me know. I can drop them. I also thought it'd be nice to take a look at what other communities are celebrating this month besides mental health awareness, which we do here. It is also Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And speaking of Chris Chang and that, and that celebration through the month, there is the Asian Pacific Americans Gun Owners Association, and I'm gonna drop the link to that. In addition, we're talking about research, whether or not that's something's going on with zombies, it's definitely helping with cancer this month. It's National Cancer Research Month. Lou Gehrig Disease Awareness Month. I'm not going to get into everyone that it could certainly be, but when you think about somebody, Lou Gehrig, it's also Lupus Awareness Month. If you're not aware of what those two things are, go ahead and look them up. Just having some awareness increases overall awareness, right? Bike Safety Month, you already hit. Healthy Vision Month is also happening this month, Brooke, and I need to get maybe a new prescription for my glasses because they just don't seem to make the pages as clear as they once were.

Well, you know, fluffy bunnies eat carrots, and carrots are supposed to be good for your eyes, so we can do bunnies and carrots.

And you have candy, so the bunny at the Easter, the May, the April, you know, we're in spring too, so there's all kinds of stuff going on.

There is that. So I like Tara's comment of an overly serious-looking cute fluffy bunny would make a great comedy skit. If I were funny, that would be good, but I'm not very funny. Um, yeah, anyway, all right, so All right, mental health awareness. Please help me help you find things that are entertaining for you. All of us have our favorite comedy skit, whether it's watching something like, I don't know, any comedy that you thought was funny. Animal House is the first one that comes to mind for me. Caddyshack was something I watched as a kid over and over again. Laurel and Hardy and Three Stooges and Abbott Costello. So those are some of the ones. I cannot name a current comedian. Oh wait, no, I can. Oh, it's Fluffy, uh, also known as Julio Iglesias. We've actually seen him live and in person, uh, but I guess on the stage he's called Fluffy. Um, so apparently tonight is the Fluffy episode of, uh, Great Start Shooting School Suicide Prevention. So, uh, who else are there? Who are some of your favorite comedians? Right, uh, we looked up Raw and it was all right. Uh, Dennis Leary. Uh, yeah, G23 is currently my favorite comedian because he thinks we're gonna go on and on and on. Well, uh, what's his name? DJ— not DJ. DJ, who's got the thing after this? American Hillbilly was on here. American Hillbilly might be distressed if we ran and quarked his side of things because he'll be on at the top of the hour in whatever time zone you happen to be in. So GT3 is always asking me to do long, long whatever this is, and I'm like, dude, I can barely get through the 20 minutes we've been on here. I'm like, so I need to go defrost myself apparently. Ah, so comedians. Who are some of your favorite comedians out there? Uh, Dennis Leary apparently is my— one of my son's favorite ones. Fluffy, because we've seen Fluffy. And Julio— who, who voices— oh, Carlin. Oh my gosh, Carlin is awesome.

All-time favorite there. I'm glad that Jason goes to put that out there for sure.

If there's anybody who has not yet seen George Carlin, you need to go look that stuff Oh yes, Mark, it's true. I could actually go on an additional 20 minutes because Hillbilly never starts on time or on his time. He starts whenever enough of y'all are in the side chat going blah, blah, blah. Robin Williams. Absolutely. So Robin Williams is so amazing, right? Because not only is he an amazing comedian, he was a spectacular actor. Uh, and so Mork and Mindy was the first time that I saw Robin Williams. Um, Stephen Wright, do I know— oh yes, Stephen Wright.

I was walking down the street the other day, the prescription on my glasses ran out. Stephen Wright, it's classic, I love it.

Yeah. Um, and for those of you, don't get mad at me, but Bill Cosby, oh my gosh, hysterical. There was a cassette tape This is how old we are, that I used to listen to. And there was this one skit about snakes and Jell-O and a couch and the chicken heart. And if you have any idea what I'm talking about, you'll be laughing right about now. If you do not, look up Bill Cosby and snakes and chicken heart and, well, just look up the chicken heart, 'cause I think that was the name of the skit, but it was absolutely hysterical. I think we actually had it on a record player initially. And then I got it on a tape and it was just so much fun. So, um, yeah, so all of the, uh, whatever those are, people you have over here. Oh, Richard Pryor, that's pretty— yeah, uh, Mitch— how do I say that DJ?

Hedberg.

Hedberg. Okay, um, and, uh, there's so many good ones. And you got to go watch them. And then there's just like good shticks. Like if you watch older Saturday Night Live, that stuff is good. Dan Aykroyd, Blues Brothers, stuff like that.

Chevy Chase doing his pratfalls all the time. You're talking about a shtick. That was, that was an early on shtick for, for SNL. It was great. Loved him.

Yeah. Ooh, John Pinette. Oh my gosh, that dude is hysterical. Um, why don't we have 2A Comics? Because we're not allowed to. Because we can't be funny and gunny all at the same time.

Funny and gunny? Have I ever heard those two things put together like that? That might be— this might be the origin. This is the origin story of 2A Comics and the Gunny Bunny.

The funny gunny folks. There we go. Well, like today, um, in my class, I was telling people, it's like, hey, Gun people are fun people and gun girls are fun girls. And so why not have funny gunny people? So we could do that, but I don't know, because I don't know. All right, Billy Crystal, also another good one. So here it is, Mental Health Month. What are we going to start off with? We're going to start off with funny things like Brooke in a blanket that she can wear. That's at least slightly amusing, I hope, for y'all. And I'm just happy because I'm warm and fuzzy. So funny, funny, funny. That's awesome, Chris. Um, wait, where's my thing? Oh, there it is. Ready? Oops, sorry, I did the same. All right, hands off, go ahead. Sometimes DJ and I click the same time. Um, so yeah, funny gunny bunny. There we go. Um, so yeah, so start this month off bringing yourself up, feeding yourself humor, giving yourself things that will make you smile, laugh, and feel good about. And everything that we can do, such as donate to the Walk to Talk America 100K fundraiser. And I believe on day 1, it looked like Chris had put up a total over on Instagram that said No, I can't find it. Of course, $2,600 raised on day one. I do not know what the fundraiser is now. We're halfway there, but I do say go get that. All right. Funny Gunny Bunny channel sticker idea for the Funny Gunny Bunny. We can totally figure that out. And I am pretty sure I saw— did I see G-Webs here? Did I not see G-Webs? Yes, I did see G-Webs. That's right.

He has joined us today. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I know, because he was the one who asked about the 2A comic thing. So, um, yeah, GT3 is like, yeah, for, for another 30 minutes. Yeah, no. All right, happiness, joy, mirth, laughter, all of these things help us. Now, life is hard. We all have challenges. We have physical challenges, we have mental challenges, we have emotional challenge, we have financial challenges. There are challenges all around us all of the time. Take that big breath. Realize you can choose what you're going to focus on. Focus on the stuff that makes you happy. It's not everything all of the time. However, when you get a chance, make sure you're taking care of you first. Mr. DJ, would you be so kind to take us out by saying good night to all? And I will also start with thank you all for coming and playing with us and giving us ideas for people to go check out.

Right on, be happy to do that. The, uh, the roll call for the end of this evening, uh, Viejo, we got Chasing Ghost out there with some good ideas. Mark Thomas, Gun Websites, 2A Comics has got to happen someday, some way. Hillbilly Up is out there. Mike and Pam Bellinger out there. So is Chris Brancato, Mike White, and G23 making jokes. First in the room, maybe the last one out. Um, until we see each other and everybody else again, be safe, have fun, take care of your crew and yourself, and rock