Advertise on podcast: State of the Second

The suppressor win wasn't the finish line. It was the first domino. This week, Braden Langley joins John to talk about what the suppressor lawsuit really opened up, why gun owners need to learn how to win after decades of playing defense, and why the 2A movement grows by building bridges instead of gatekeeping new gun owners. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

Why do suppressors cost so much, and what does August’s ruling actually change for the people who make them? John sits down with Danny of Shadow Silencers to talk about building suppressors under a patchwork of state laws, why California and New York-style restrictions keep spreading, and what the latest court decision means on the manufacturing side. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

Hi-Point's Dave is back on State of the Second, and this time we get into why the $0 tax stamp put Hi-Point in the suppressor business. John and Dave go through everything Hi-Point has launched since his last visit: the AR line in gold, silver, leopard, M81 and Desert Storm, plus the Hush Point 22, Hush 45 and the 3D-printed 30 cal cans. Then John runs down a decade of caliber requests and Dave answers each one: 5.7, 22 TCM, 357 SIG, 30 Carbine, straight-wall, .32, and yes, the Hi-Point AK. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week John sits down with Trey of EAA to discuss the part of the gun business nobody explains: why a $25 magazine adds $70 to the price tag, why a $100 optic cut costs you $300, and what tariffs are doing to entry-level handguns. Plus, From the Soap Box: YouTube's new firearms policy, and why a cosmetics brand can sponsor a creator when a gun company can't. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

Kailey and John sit down with Tim Hoffman of Hoffman Tactical, the 3D-printed firearms pioneer behind the Super Safety. Tim explains how open-source design beats the ATF's raid-and-harass playbook (his "weapon of mass distribution"), why most gun-industry "innovation" is just another muzzle device, and where real innovation is actually happening, belt-feds, recoil-operated designs, and decentralized American manufacturing. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, Constitutional attorney Mark Smith of Four Boxes Diner joins John on what actually started the Revolutionary War, the 1792 law that still decides which firearms are protected, and why "dangerous and unusual" can't describe something tens of millions of Americans already own. Plus what body camera footage did for gun rights that no argument could. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, Matt of AS Designs joins Kailey and John on the legal ground his whole business sits on: what "common use" actually means when the threshold moves depending on how scary a product is, how a settlement between one company and the DOJ ended up writing the definition everyone else has to live under, and why patents restrict new designs more than any regulation does. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week Stephen Bozich of Bare Arms joins John and Kailey to argue that the Gun Control Act of 1968 never restricted firearms. It restricted commerce in firearms. Nearly everything regulated downstream of it hangs on somebody being "engaged in the business.” As well as, generational misinformation in firearms education, and why you shouldn't expect a government funded school to teach you the limits of government. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, Lady Liberty Australia joins John and Kailey to explain what life actually looks like without a Second Amendment: a 12-month wait to buy a single pistol, mandatory registration, police who can search your gun safe without a warrant, and a home invasion she was legally barred from stopping with the firearm locked in her own house. She fled to Texas as a political exile. Now she's warning America about the road Australia went down, and why the ATF's registry should terrify you. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, John and Kailey sit down with Vince from Kore Essentials for one of the more honest conversations we've had on this show about the state of the firearms industry; what it gets wrong about new shooters, what it gets wrong about women, and why the people loudest online about wanting innovation are the same ones killing it. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week Cody Bennion of Jaguar Silencers joins Kailey and John to talk 3D-printed cans in Inconel and titanium, why nobody in this industry measures decibels the same way, and why he has suppressors on his desk with 15,000 rounds through them that still don't need cleaning. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

Kailey and John welcome back Rachel from Night Fision, the team behind Night Fision night sights, Glow Rhino, Cammenga compasses, and now Zaffiri Precision. Rachel breaks down why a sights company bought a slide maker, the push to own "everything north of the frame," what platforms are getting support next (Glock Gen 6, Ruger RXM, the P365), and why "do it right, not fast" beats rushing product out the door. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, Kailey and John sit down with Scott Volquartsen of Volquartsen Firearms, the Iowa family company building rimfire's finest since 1974. Scott makes the case that the humble .22 is the best on-ramp to the Second Amendment, explains how suppressors reshaped rimfire, argues the .22 Magnum is criminally underrated, and calls out the "high speed, low drag" marketing that's costing the industry its next generation of shooters. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week John and Kailey sit down with Carlie Bodiford to talk about going from college TikToks to 700K+ followers, using humor to reach people who've never touched a gun, and why the future of the Second Amendment comes down to one conversation at a time. Stick around for a spicy From the Soapbox. ___________ Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary, August 1–2 in Des Moines, IA. Tickets at gunowners.org/goals. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership

This week, Kailey sits down with Joey from Attorneys for Freedom, the law firm behind the Attorneys on Retainer program, to walk through what actually happens after a self-defense event, and the mistakes that turn a lawful shooting into a courtroom nightmare. AOR is at GOALS 2026. Come by Booth 2712 on Saturday, August 1 at 11 AM. Use promo code STATE OF THE SECOND for $50 off an individual plan or $25 off a family plan at attorneysonretainer.us. ___________ Register for GOALS GOA's 50th Anniversary, August 1–2 in Des Moines, IA. Tickets at gunowners.org/goals. ----------------------- Special thanks to our sponsor for supporting this season! Kershaw Knives - Built for the everyday carry, ready for anything. Get your Kershaw today. Patriot Mobile – Get 1 month free with code “GOA” at checkout on their website! Right To Bear - Use code “GOA” for 15% off Life Membership