HS 389 FBF - "Lessons from Unarmed America" with Mark Walters

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It'S my pleasure to welcome Mark Walters to the show. He's a nationally syndicated host of Armed American Radio and author of Lessons from Unarmed America. And we're here to talk about a very topical subject. You can probably tell what it is. It is the topic of our liberties, Second Amendment, gun control, etc. Etc. Mark, welcome. How are you?

I'm doing wonderful, Jason. Thanks for having me back. It's always a pleasure to talk with you.

Well, thanks for joining us. And you're coming to us from the greater Atlanta area today.

That is correct.

Tell us a little bit about what you're up to nowadays.

Well, you know, we're just finishing up. You mentioned my upcoming book Lessons from Unarmed America. That book will be available, I believe, if the publisher, if I heard the publisher correctly, will be available on the Kindle in a couple of weeks about the second week of July. It goes to the printer and should be out by the end of the month or the first week or two of August. And what I do in that book is I discuss, I tell the stories, if you will, true crime stories of people who found themselves in violent confrontational situations and found themselves unarmed, needed a gun the most and didn't have one. But I also tell a couple stories in there that being unarmed, Jason, doesn't always mean being without a tool. Being unarmed can also mean being without the knowledge required necessary to get out of a particular situation. So not necessarily violence. I'll leave potential readers with that. They can pick the book and Lessons from Unarmed America then. My individual stories are followed by professional trainer and worldwide recognized international self defense expert Rob Pincus who comes in and analyzes the story from a professional standpoint behind me and gives his take on the shoulda, coulda, woulda's of what happened, what the individuals did wrong, what they may have done right to put themselves in a better situation. And this is the actual follow up book for the original Lessons from Armed America, which is out now.

You know, Mark, it is just mind boggling to me that the media only covers things like Trayvon Martin. They only cover questionable uses of guns and negative uses they never ever, ever cover. And when I say that, it's of course a figure of speech almost never. I mean like a minuscule amount of the time any positive result of a citizen using a gun legally to protect themselves, their property or their family. And I just, I think I know why. I think we all do. But I'd love to take on that.

Well, sure, that's, I'm glad you brought that up. The boy am I glad you brought that up. And I'll tell you why. I used a firearm to defend my life about 10 years ago, 11 years ago now being 2013, never had to fire a shot, but I drew my lawfully carried firearm at a traffic intersection, when I was at an intersection, when I was stopped in traffic on my way to work in Tampa, Florida back in November of 2002 on two individuals who were attempting to carjack a car that was stopped off of my left front bumper, getting ready to turn left when they turned, they couldn't get in that vehicle. And one of the individuals turned his attention toward me. I drew my firearm, stopped that action against me. Both punks took off, went the other way. And as a result of that, this is a debate that I'm willing to have with anybody, anyplace, anytime about my right to carry a firearm. But I became one of the statistics that University of Florida researcher Gary Kleck puts at over two and a half million times per year that a firearm is used by a law abiding citizen to stop a violent attack. And in over 95% of those cases, his research showed that a shot was never fired. Now what I want to do is point to the left, comes after that statistic and says that's crazy. So what do they do? The Clinton Justice Department commissions its own study through the Bureau of Justice Statistics. They found back in the early 90s, about 180,000 of those individual cases that they found were reported that was theirs. So they think theirs is a better number this year. Just this past month, less than three weeks ago, the 2011 study, or I should say 2013 study, which goes through 1993 through 2011 Bureau of Justice Statistics report is out and by its own finding, commissioned by Eric holder's Justice Department.

237,500 cases that the bureau that the Justice Department in their Justice Statistics report just out last month found that a law abiding citizen used a firearm to defend themselves. Now if you divide that, that's the period that they used between 2005 and 2011. If you divide that out by 1825 days in that five year period, you come out with approximately 130 defensive uses of a firearm, what we refer to as dgus, defensive gun uses every single day in this country as compared to their own statistics from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report and the Bureau of Justice Statist report just out, 32 murders committed in this country by guns every day. Yet again, proof positive even on the left side of the equation, that a firearm in the hands of a good law abiding citizen is used far more often in this country to defend life, limit property than it is to take a human life. And let's not consider the other factors in those 32 murders. These are not just kids who are being shot in drive bys. These are gang bangers, drug dealers, murderers, homicides, thieves, robbers, carjackers. So let's put this all in perspective. Guns are good, guns are righteous, and guns save lives in this country far more times every single day than they ever used to do harm. And that's by the Bureau of Justice Statistics own numbers. Jason.

Well, and you know what? You didn't even mention, and I hope some people are thinking of it. But your carjacking example, the carjacking attempt that you thwarted without firing a shot, without hurting anybody, in fact went unreported. Well, yeah, not just the question of reporting it or not, but. But the fact that that happened, I bet is a huge deterrent to those scumbag criminal punks who tried to carjack you. They will think twice about doing that again or committing any sort of crime.

I would like to think so, and I'm glad you brought that up. Something that I was just discussing on Armed American radio on the national show last week's program, and I'd like a good opportunity to mention this. Now, there's a case making national news this week. In fact, last Sunday, just days ago, that at 5:30 in the morning individuals were waiting at a shoe store called Wish in downtown Atlanta, not two miles from where I broadcast the national program at 5:30 in the morning for the release of the new LeBron James sneaker. At about 180 bucks a pop, these people get these sneakers and can resell these things on ebay and such for about 500 to 600 plus. So I like capitalism. That's a good thing. And if these people want to spend their hard earned money on that particular product and make a buck off of it, more power to them for doing that. That's what makes this country go. It's supply and demand. And in this particular case, we had an opportunistic scumbag armed with a firearm who decided to show up and strip these good hard working people who wanted to spend this Money on these LeBron James sneakers of their cash. At which point a law abiding citizen in line who was sitting in a chair waiting for the store to open, drew his lawfully concealed carry gun. I don't know what kind of firearm it was. It was semi automatic. From what I saw from the film clip that was caught on video, lawful Georgia weapons carry license permit holder fired at the punk and killed him. The guy took two steps, turned around and fell down, face down on the pavement, dead. Here's my take on that. I hope the last thing he saw was the muzzle flash and I hope that the last thing he heard was the pop. And I hope he felt the pavement when he fell. Because when you attempt and you make a decision to attempt to steal someone else's hard earned money or their life, you instantly give up your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This man got what he deserved and it was done and taken care of by a law abiding lawful carry Permit such a clear cut case of self defense. Jason, after the police cleaned up the scene, he waited in line and got his sneakers at noon.

Yeah.

You didn't even get out of line.

That's amazing. I mean, I don't want to sound like a radical vigilante here, but you got to just note that, you know, in that case, that look at all the money the taxpayers saved too. And look at how it might not have been just a robbery. It might have been where there was a scuffle and an innocent person would have been killed. Who knows what the guy was, his true intentions were after. After he started to go and accost people for money. You just never know what it would have turned into. Turned into.

So, you know, and the fact of the matter is, I hate to preface it with the vigilante, you know, nobody wants. It's not. This is not vigilante justice. This is the right to lawful self defense. Everybody interviewed, even in the streets of Chicago. My God. We can get to Chicago in a minute. What's happening in Rahm Emanuel's bastion of gun control is a bloodbath. That city's more dangerous than Baghdad. This is an American city. It's insane. But the fact of the matter is that it's not vigilantism. Defend your life.

Vigilantism is more like after the fact, like revenge. Usually. And certainly we don't want mobs of people going to extract their revenge. But in the moment, people have to have a way to defend themselves. You know what's amazing to me that I've just. There are so many things that come out of the left that just make no logical sense at all.

Where do you want to begin?

The left is. They say they're all about equal rights and equality. Well, what could be more of an equality tool than a gun? If you think about it? The poor little old lady walking out of her house to go get her medication at one in the morning from CVS or Rite Aid or Walgreens because she ran out and has to have it that night. Versus the huge thug who's six foot four and weighs two or three times her weight and maybe is with a bunch of his thug friends. The gun makes them equal. It levels the playing field.

It is the great equalizer. That's what Samuel Colt, you know, there's no question about that. And any clear thinking individual knows that. But you hit on something very important when you talk about the argument from the left. And let's get the kidding aside and get very serious about this because this is destroying America as you and I know it as we grew up. And our parents and grandparents and those who came before us would not recognize this country today. The fact of the matter here is that this is an emotional, this is liberalism. Progressive is an emotional argument. It's very easy to be a liberal, it's easy to feel a certain way, but it's very difficult to think about the consequences of one's actions and the ramifications of what one is doing. It requires intelligence and it requires a thought process, a thorough thought process to come to a conclusion. It hits on and defines our ability as human beings to use logic that separate us from other animals. And the fact of the matter is, when all you do is react on emotion, you come up with these ridiculous laws that kill people. You come up with gun free zones. Let's discuss gun free zones for a minute. Chicago is a gun free zone. Boy, I'll tell you, when they factor in Chicago's murder rate from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013, you're going to see that Bureau of Justice statistics report go through the roof because of one city, a city that is gun free. The fact of the matter is criminals don't follow the law. If it were that simple, we could put a sign up on definition.

They don't follow the law. I mean, absolutely. It's so simple to figure this stuff out. They're criminals. That is the definition of being a criminal, someone who breaks the law. So what makes anybody on the left think that a criminal cares about gun laws or any other law for that matter?

Well, if it were that simple, we could end and eliminate. Why stop at gun control? Let's put a big sign up at the end at the. On an interstate highway in the entrance to every city in America that says no crime allowed. Let's just end all crime with a sign. Let's make every place a crime free zone. They look at you cockeyed like a chihuahua. They don't understand the logic behind it. And you know, we could get into the argument that liberalism is a mental disorder. Some psychologists have found that to be the case. I'll leave that to greater minds than mine.

Well, you know, I have a friend and I'm really beginning to agree with him who thinks that there are real physiological and structural differences in the brain structure of a liberal versus a conservative. Because you just can't debate these things. Because some people just, you can present every rational piece of logic and they just still will not see it. And you know, I have liberal friends. I'm sure you do. And there are some things on the left that I really do agree with, but the gun control is not one of them.

No, this is common sense. This is common sense as a human being. If you've studied anything in college about psychology, you understand Maslow's hierarchy of need. Every human being is trying to get to the top of the pyramid. And that's the point we refer to as self actualization, or as Maslow referred to as self actualization. We never actually get there, but we spend our time and our entire lives striving for that self actualization to be everything that we can be. Yet nobody really truly makes it to the top. No matter how high you get, you can still go a little bit higher on the left side of that argument to try to expose common sense to this. And it is mind boggling. And I simply cannot wrap my head around what makes them tick. And I don't bother trying. I can say this. You cannot argue with stupid and you cannot argue with dishonesty. And if you're arguing with a liberal who is both, in many cases that's the case, you'd best just walk away from the argument. You cannot have that argument. Save yourself the time and effort.

Yeah, that seems to be the case.

And that's the same on the right too. Let's make that a fair statement. That's the same on the right. It works both ways. You cannot argue with stupid and you cannot argue with a liar, period. And if that person is both on, regardless of their stuff, you know, there.

Are some radicals on the right that don't make any sense to me either. Okay? So to be balanced, I'll definitely point that out. But I want to ask you. Let's parse this up a little bit if we could, Mark, because when we get into the issue of gun control, it is a slippery slope in taking away liberties. But. But then you ask yourself, well, what about background checks? What about these various interim things? You hear people say, why does anybody need an AR15? You know, why do they need an assault weapon? And the funny thing I find about that, by the way, is that you can do the same thing with a lot of other weapons that just don't look like assault weapons. It's kind of like the cosmetics of the gun is what they're more concerned about. They're not automatic unless they're made to be automatic.

Well, this goes to a deeper root cause and this argument can be answered very simply. We don't need anything. We don't need Hollywood liberal. Well, you know, Justin Bieber does not need a Lamborghini. Justin Bieber chooses to drive a Lamborghini because Justin Bieber can afford a Lamborghini. Okay, I don't need an AR15. I have several AR15s because I want an AR15. It's lawful for me to own if that gun is less potent than the Winchester Model 943030 lever action that I have in the same safe that that resides with. What this gets down to is liberals, elitists, let's get to where we're going here. Elitists don't like certain things, therefore they don't think you should have them either. And in this particular case, they like to point when it comes to guns and gun control to the AR15 because they don't understand guns. They don't know guns. They think the gun looks scary, therefore they don't like it. Therefore you shouldn't have it because they don't like it. This is an elitist's argument. From their standpoint, it's very easy to debunk that argument with simple facts. The only thing they don't like about an AR15 is cosmetic appearance.

But to be fair, the bolt action gun that you mentioned may be more lethal, but it doesn't have the capacity of an AR15 where you can have a 30 round clip. So let's talk about that a little bit. Like when they try to control clips and say you can only have a ten round or an eight round. I think in some places there's only seven or eight rounds now allowed. And someplace I believe California, I believe is still 10. But why does anybody, you know, and I'm just taking their side, and I want to ask you, you know, I'm not an expert on this, why does anybody need 30 round clips?

That's, that's, that's just a number chosen because that's what the AR15 Standard magazine holds. If an AR15 Standard magazine was 60 rounds, they would say, why don't, why don't we pare it down to 30? It's a number, that's all it is. And anybody who's familiar with shooting, I always love, I'll use the same analogy as I answer the question when you hear so and so had an arsenal in his house and over a thousand rounds of ammunition. I'm talking to you now, looking at a bookshelf in my office, which is locked away from my kids. My office is locked with a push button lock and so forth. And there's thousands of rounds of ammunition in here because I have different calibers of firearms and many rounds for each one. Anybody who's familiar with shooting knows that you buy a box of ammo in boxes of 50 or 100 because it's very easy when you go shooting to knock out 3, 4, 500 rounds as you are target shooting, practicing or what have you. If you're competition shooting, you'll go through 2000 rounds easy in the course of a two day event. If you're taking professional firearms training, you'll go through 1500 rounds. I took a Rob Pincus combat focused shooting course in November. 1500 rounds in less than 48 hours because it's training. Ammunition is sold in blocks because people don't shoot five rounds and go home. It's a fun activity. You should try it.

Sometimes I listen, I have, I've gone shooting. I think it's fun.

It's a tremendous. I've never taken anybody shooting who said to me later, I never want to do that again. Oh my God. Usually it's, God, I don't want to. Are we out of ammo? Can we get more? When can I come back and do that? Because it's fun. But to get back to that question, it's just an arbitrary number because that's what the standard capacity magazine holds today. It's not a high capacity magazine, it's a standard capacity magazine. Let's use New York. New York dropped a magazine capacity limit years ago to 10 rounds. To 10 rounds. But that wasn't good enough. Now it's seven. After Newtown, now it's seven. Soon it will be five. The agenda is to strip you of your right to keep and bear arms. I refer to that as generational confiscation. Demonize guns to young people today so they don't want to buy them tomorrow. Give you the right under Feinstein's rules to own the guns that she says is okay to grandfather in, but when you die, you can't pass them on. This is their way to confiscate guns generationally. And that's exactly what the ultimate agenda is. And let's go to the bigger question, because all of this pinpoints to the bigger question. And that is when you hear Mark Barton, the father of one of those young boys murdered, brutally, horrifically murdered in Newtown, stand in the Rose Garden with the President the day the Senate rejected the gun control agenda just a couple months back, and you hear that man say, we know and we understand that this bill wasn't an answer to everything. It wouldn't have saved my son. Ladies and gentlemen, Then you have to be intellectually honest and ask yourself what the hell it's designed to do that.

And what is the answer to that?

Eventually confiscate your firearms. That's the ultimate goal of the gun hater.

This is what troubles me about the background check idea. The background check includes a list so you know where the gun owners live. And that's the problem with it. Like, I'm not totally opposed to some sort of background check, but I'm opposed to the government having a list.

Well, the government. Here's the thing. The government already has it, right?

They do. Yeah.

We all know now that when Obama says, nobody wants a list of gun owners, tell that to the nsa. They don't want your phone calls, do they?

Yeah.

Do you trust government? Do you trust what comes out of his mouth? Now, knowing what you know about the irs, the nsa, and it's a lot deeper. And not. Listen up. I'll quote retired Navy SEAL Larry Yatch on my show two weeks ago. He said, I've worked covert, and when a leak comes out, I can guarantee you that what you're hearing is only the tip of the iceberg. I don't care what the topic is. So what he was referring to was what you heard from the NSA is the tip of the iceberg. What you heard about the IRS was only the tip of the iceberg. It goes far, far deeper. The fact is, when you hear Obama say, we don't want a list, yes, they do want a list of gun owners. That's their ultimate goal. That was written into Schumer's bill. A list of gun owners.

I don't deny.

Those. Universal background checks, equal registration. That's their ultimate goal.

Right. But you listen to the left. You listen to Piers Morgan, who I think has lost his mind to some extent. His. His obsession with this is just. It's beyond ridiculous, frankly.

But that's a ratings ploy, I believe.

Yeah, It. It has to be, because no logical person could actually think like him as well. You know, no rational person is what I want to think. But you listen to him. And, and, and I mean, you know, okay, so confiscation in a generation or so, you know, and in 25 years, maybe they can really confiscate most of the guns so only the criminals will have them. But, I mean, this is America. We have due process. It's in the Constitution, those types of things.

We have a fourth amendment against illegal searches and seizures. We have a right to privacy in this country. That's being stepped on every day. And if people think that it can't happen to me, it will happen to you. Let me point to Boston and the incredible search for two men responsible for the bombing during the Boston Marathon.

Boston looked like a police state, and the people welcomed didn't look like it was. Yeah, it was like a military war zone. And it was for two people. And by the way, the guy was caught by a civilian. Okay. Also we should mention that. And so was Christopher Dorner, that rogue cop in la, a civilian? And that just bodes even more reason the civilian should have the option to be armed.

Don't think a police force has the ability to come and confiscate your weapons. These people went door to door, threw families out of their homes and went through them without any due process. So we saw this happen in Boston. What astonished me about Boston. And see, this is a fascinating. And when you take a look at this, it's truly fascinating. Let's analyze what happened in Boston and let's confirm. Would that have happened in Georgia or Tennessee or South Carolina or North Carolina, Florida or Alabama? Would residents have reacted differently? There's a different set of policies. Probably.

You know, I mean, in Boston they could get away with it because you've got a liberal place.

You have a liberal place that's been dumbed down for many, many, many years. You have a liberal mentality that puts up with a certain level of gun control, that gives up certain freedoms to feel safe. And what did Ben Franklin say? Those who would give up a little.

Liberty for a little liberty for security will have neither, serve neither.

And it's what we saw happen in Boston. And this isn't extremism. This isn't. Don't, don't take this for me. Go back and look at the videos, go to YouTube and watch it for yourself. See what happened, watch the news reports as this unfolds, and ask yourself that question, can this happen? Yes, of course it can happen. It absolutely can happen. It has happened. It happened in New York, it's happening in Connecticut, and it's happening in Colorado right now as we speak, as these states pushed a political agenda, put politics over common sense and the rule of law and the will of the people and their constituencies. In Colorado, we now have two recalls going on, and it's looking every day like the individuals who authored the Colorado gun bans are going to go down and probably be recalled as a result of this. And the response was swift. And the same thing is happening in Connecticut right now. And I believe that the Supreme Court did not take the rift between the second and seventh Circuit courts relative to the concealed carry law and the requirements necessary to get a permit between shall issue and may issue for the very reason that this played out during the midst of all of this after Newtown. And I think the Supreme Court fully expects to get another Second Amendment case that can incorporate everything so they don't have to keep hearing these cases. Eventually these state laws are going to work their way up to the Supreme Court. The Second Amendment foundation is already up pursuing these very aggressively.

Yeah, yeah, of course they will. What else should people know about this issue? And actions. They particularly actions. What should people be doing if they're concerned about their loss of liberty? What actions can they take? You know, write your congressman vote. Oh, yeah.

This is the number one question that I get in emails from fans of Armed American Radio. It's the number one question that customer service, that United States Concealed Carry association gets almost every day. And that is, what can I do? And that's probably the most important question we can answer, and here's why. Because the media in this country, anybody who listens to my show or reads my one to the head column in Concealed Carry magazine knows that I am no fan of the mainstream media, that I hold them in utter disdain. I believe that they are a root cause of the problems that we face in this country today because of the strength of their bias and the fact that they're no longer reporting the news, but yet actively participating in it, which turns news into propaganda. And of course, that propaganda is now manifesting itself in a leftist agenda from the mainstream media, as we see today. And that's very, very dangerous. So having said that, what people can do is don't believe the media, don't believe that there's nothing going on about gun control because the media chooses not to talk about it today. Trust me, Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Barack Obama and loudmouth Vice President Biden are very actively pursuing it. Just because the mainstream media is focusing on other topics right now doesn't mean that the powers to be aren't actively working on it. That was a huge, probably his biggest failure as president, legislative failure was the failure of the gun control in the Senate. And he knows it and he will not stop. So what people need to do is don't wait until they hear it on the news. It's too late at that point. Pick the phone up today, call your local representatives, your state representatives and your federal representatives and let them know, hands off my second Amendment. Even if that representative is Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. And the best thing, the best way they can reach them, even more so than a phone call, is X. Do you remember how to hand write a letter? Lick a stamp and put it on an envelope, send it to their offices. Those letters get dropped. A handwritten letter gets dropped right on that person's desk. It is read. And even more important than that is let the media know. Let the media know. When you see anti gun bias anywhere in any editorial, write it. They write the editor or the letter to the editor. They may not publish it, but they've read it and they know they're being watched. And that is more important than you can imagine. In addition to that, the last thing is join your local grassroots groups. In Georgia we have a phenomenal group, georgiacarry.org Virginia has Virginia Citizens Defense League. Illinois has the Illinois State Rifle and Pistol Association. Kansas has the Kansas State Pistol and Rifle association and so forth. Those organizations work for pennies on the dollar and donations. Put your name on their list, get on their mailing list and get active with them. It takes nothing but a phone call and an email. It's that simple.

Good stuff. Give out your websites. You have two of them, I believe.

Yeah. People can head over to. Well, the best way to follow the show and follow me and follow Armed American radio and then the books and so forth. The guest lineup is facebook.com Armed AmericanRadio. You can see us in real time every day. Also visit us@armed americanradio.com real simple. Armedamericanradio.com you can listen to every past show since the first show in April of 2009 when we were a naive little one hour show in Atlanta.

Fantastic. Well, Mark Walters, thank you so much for joining us today.

Jason, thank you. It's always a pleasure my friend. Anytime.

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