Hey everybody. Welcome to Active Self-Protection Extra, doing something today that I haven't done in quite a long time, which is to go live and we are broadcasting live here at Active Self-Protection Extra. As you can see, I look a little different than normal today. I got the hair pulled back into a ponytail because I just finished my workout today. I just finished lifting, so I'm in the muscle shirt, sorry, hit the gym this morning with my wife. And I was thinking about while I was lifting today, a little bit of how we can change the culture of our nation and how we change the tone of our interactions with each other in our discussions on the right to keep and bear arms and in particular how we can impact the right to keep and bear arms right now, you and me. Now I get it.
We voted right? So there was a huge election. It was pretty historic. Okay? I want to be very clear that active self protection only has one political position. So ask has a single political position that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. That's it. Of course, me as a person, I have fully orbed political positions just like you do, but as a company, we keep it to the right of the people. To keep in bear arms shall not be infringed, and that is a civil right for all people. And so of course it was a polarizing election. The last maybe, gosh, man, I really think since probably 2008 the elections have gotten more and more and more polarized, and I've been around long enough. This was, let's see, I voted in my first presidential election in 1992, so this is 22 years of voting or more than that.
Gosh, 30 God, 32 years. I'm getting old that I've been voting in presidential elections and what can we do moving forward is a thing. So a lot of people are like, well, okay, we did our thing. Now there's a change in Congress and a change in the Oval Office and maybe over the next few years we'll see if any of the Supreme Court justices retire. Maybe Clarence Thomas will, maybe Sam Alito will, and okay, there'll be some changes to that maybe. But more than that, what can you and I do right now, you and I, I mean you and I right now, not what can our elected leaders do, not can we do slacktivism and right petitions, but what can you and I do right now for the right to keep and bear arms? And I have some suggestions for you. Number one, it's been a very polarizing election and I have friends on both sides, so I'll tip my hand to you again. The act of self protection has one political position. Okay? One position only. Yeah, Murphy said he's in the house from Virginia. Tell me where you're from. Tell me where you're watching this. I would love to hear where our ask extra viewers are chiming in from.
And again, as past one political position, I have a bunch. I'm kind of personally like a wackadoodle libertarian, like lowercase l libertarian, like live and let live like you do. I do me, you stay out of my business. If you don't agree with me, I stay out of yours. If I don't agree with you, that's kind where I am there, Michael, out of Chandler, Arizona. Shoot, man, we're in the same hood. I mean, I'm in Phoenix here in Chandler, but what does that mean then, right? So I have friends on both sides. I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum. I have friends. We're all in on the Trump train. I have friends who voted Harris. I have friends who were excited on both sides. I have a lot of friends who were disgusted with all the choices available to us. And so, okay, we've had a few days to process now.
So President Trump was declared the winner on Wednesday and alright, fine, we've had Thursday, Friday, Saturday, now Sunday we're in 96 hours, at least 72 hours since we had that. So the shock is worn off for some people who are frustrated, some people we're just gobsmacked and are scared to death of what is to come in their world. Particularly friends of mine in the L-G-B-T-Q world are very scared and my friends on the right tend to go, well, why are you scared? You're fine. This is not as big a deal as you want. And I think personally, a couple things. Number one, I have no illusions by the way that the majority of the audience of both active self protection and active self protection extra are probably right-leaning politically okay? Because as a general rule, it's political, right-leaning that is pro right to keep and bear arms.
That's the one political position of ask. So that's who will align most closely. But I believe that the right to keep and bear arms is a civil right and it's for all people. And I try not to force team other issues on that. So what I'm doing and what I'd encourage you to do is talking with your friends who are on the other side who are scared and a couple of things. Number one, just listen. Okay? You don't have to argue with somebody why they're wrong, even if you believe they're wrong. Even if you think, Hey, this is, I disagree with you. I have a game that we'll play and I'm going to clean it up just a little bit. And we abbreviate that game. C-Y-S-T-F-U, we call it winning rounds of can you shut the up? And I have plenty of time with my friends who disagree with me politically that they'll start talking about stuff and I'll just ask myself, can I win this round of STFU and if I can, and for most, I probably should, then okay, that's interesting.
Tell me why you feel that way. Tell me what is up with that. Thanks for sharing your opinion. I really appreciate you explaining that to me. Or I might ask more leading questions. What about this particular thing? What do you think about that? And in light of that, and what do you think those are? And I think the first thing that that does is that actually part of bolstering the right to keep and bear arms because you're probably the friend in their world who is, I don't like the phrase, but I do like the idea of you are pro right to keep and bear arms. You recognize that self-defense is a fundamental right and the right of the people to defend themselves against tyrannical government is a fundamental right and the right of an individual to protect themselves against criminal violence is a fundamental right.
You're the representative of that in your world, and if you come across to them as a good, sane, sober, moral, prudent person, then that makes a big difference. That makes a huge difference in their world because they probably don't know a whole lot of that. Here's an aside, by the way. If you watch the main channel at all, you recognize I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm a Jesus guy. I follow the way of the king and do my best in that. And I know a lot of people that they have really bad examples in their world of those who follow Christ. And so I try to be a beacon of hope and light in their world that, Hey, wait a minute, this is, I think a healthy way to follow the king, not an unhealthy way. And I hear from people all the time like John, man, I really appreciate how you follow Jesus because I don't know a whole lot of Christians that are people I want to be around. And I go, wow, well, thank you for trusting me with that and tell me why you feel that way. Tell me the experience you've had rather than, well, I'm the way it's supposed to be done. I do my best, but I don't know that I can say that.
But at any rate, to provide a great example for them of somebody who is in that world who also loves them unreservedly, same thing with the right to keep and bear arms. If you can win around of can you shut the heck up and then tell me why you feel that way. Tell me why that's important to you. Tell me what's going on in your world. Wow, that makes a lot of sense to me. Or even if it doesn't make sense, well, thank you so much for sharing that. I really appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing that with me. That makes you a safe place and it also makes you a good, sane, sober, moral, prudent person in their world. Number two, if they are scared for their safety, and I've met a bunch of people, I have a big outreach in the L-G-B-T-Q community in helping people and in helping those folks to protect themselves, I have inroads in several of the more liberal strains of right to keep and bear arms.
And I've been getting requests, man, I need somebody who will teach trans people conceal, carry in Phoenix. Yeah, I'm your guy. I'll teach anybody why? Because I don't care what your political persuasion is in almost anything. Nobody has the right to harm you for your political views. And if you are for putting your political opponents in box cars, well then that's radically un-American and radically not our way of life. And nobody has the right to harm you for what you believe, and nobody has the right to harm you for anything other than you infringing and being a deadly to them or a physical threat to them. So I'll be on your side on that. So my encouragement to you is then be that person in their life when they say, man, I'm scared and I am really worried that I'm not going to be able to live, or somebody's going to try to beat me up for who I am in my world.
And I go, well, hey, you have the right to self-defense if you need some help in protecting yourself. And that might not be gun training. I've passed out more palm OC sprays than I can shake a stick at you guys to people who are like, man, I'm worried about my walk to work because I'm flamboyantly gay or I'm a woman, or I'm the token liberal in my world. And I go, okay, well, you have the right to protect yourself. Would having something like a good OC spray on you help you? It's pretty innocuous and you can carry it in your pocket, put it in your hand if you're in a spot where you think things are, let me show you how to use it. And a lot of people really appreciate that. And it helps them not only to feel safe, but to be safe and to say, you have the right to protect yourself too.
And you and I totally agree on that issue. Nobody has the right to harm you and I want to help you with that. Yeah. So I've had somebody say that I'm looking great and it does help show off my weight loss. I think the beard coming off too definitely shows off the weight loss. You can see my cheekbones again. So the right to self-defense is a basic human and helping them with that says, I care. And it says I'm a good saint, sober, moral prudent person. And it also respects their humanity. I also think pushing back on some of the extreme fringe and the vitriol of the extreme fringe is I think part of that too, and being with others in that kind of, I think the vast majority of us, like 90% of us are not the 5% on each fringe. And those of us who are in that 90% need to recognize that the 5% on the fringe ain't on our team.
They've kind of wrapped around the back and found each other on the backside, and they're not the kind of people we want to be like. And so pushing back away from that fringe and away from that fringe and towards our friends in the middle is a good thing. And so the way that I think we bolster the right to keep and bear arms right now is being the good, sane, sober, moral, prudent person is helping those in our world who are scared of the outcome of the election. Because again, they're almost all left, left-leaning folks who are generally speaking fine people too, just disagree with some of the ways that I see things politically. And now we can reach out to them as the good, sane, sober, moral prudent person and help them and to go, Hey, I'm interested in your safety too. Do you feel safe in your world?
And if they go, yeah, yeah, no, I feel perfectly safe in my world. Good, fantastic. Thumbs up, well done. Let me know if I can help you. If they go, no, I'm scared. I'm scared every day. What can I do to help you with that? I can't make the laws different, but I can help empower you to be a self protector. And that means maybe I teach you how to pay attention in your world. That means I can teach you some verbal deescalation skills. That means I can point you in the direction of good tools. Maybe you don't want to own a gun, but I can point you to a great pepper spray and we recommend Palm oc. It is fantastic stuff. And the owner is a fantastic guy. It is the industry standard by a million miles. I love it. I have one in my pocket. Anytime I leave the house, I've got a large one that stays next to the door.
I've got a bigger mark three unit that goes with me walking and jogging outside. Use that on dogs several times. So that might be it. Or maybe they go, no, John, we really do need a gun in the house and I really do need that. Jesse said, I'm looking good. I appreciate that my friend. I've been working at it 31 medium every day for 16 months, 16 and a half months now, and I'm working on it, getting at it and getting a little bit stronger every day. And if they do need firearms and they want, I mean again, the right to keep and bear arms if that's a good decision for them, let me help you, let you avoid some of the pitfalls and not buy a crappy gun, not waste your money, right? I don't want it to be a magic talisman. I want it to be a useful tool in your world.
And so then we can help them with that. And if you're not willing to do that because they were your political opponent, then friend, I'd encourage you to get over that. I'd encourage you to be bigger than that. I'd encourage you to say, wait a minute, no, we are one nation and we are one people. You are my neighbor and even if you were different than me, I'm here to help you. And again, that builds trust, that builds bridges across the divide. It also recognizes that they're a good person who is worth defending, just like you're a good person who is worth defending and that human beings are inestimable valuable and have value worth and dignity, and therefore I want to help you. I think that builds our community stronger. That doesn't depend on our legislatures, that doesn't depend on our laws, that doesn't depend on the judiciary, that doesn't depend on anything other than us being willing to love people.
So my encouragement to you be that person in the right to keep and bear arms. If you look at my car, it has the AS logo on it. If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, you ever see a silver pickup truck driving down the road? The AS logo on it, it's me. Okay? So I'm not hiding who I am, but I also don't have a bunch of political stuff to alienate people on my truck. I don't have a whole bunch of crazy stuff that demeans other people on there. And I'd encourage you not to do that as well. Alright, I'm going to do something. I'm going to show you guys that I'm an old man. I had a long one here. I'm going to put on my glasses so I can read this. Said recently, reader B for UC two far. Okay? Said, Hey, from Tennessee, Hey, recently looked up our laws in TCA.
We have some work to do in our state when it comes to protecting ourselves and especially our property. Some definitions need modification, maybe they do. I'm not as familiar with Tennessee as I ever have been, and so I'd have to look it up. Believe it or not, in almost all the nation, the definitions of self-defense are there. Look at Neil just gave me a hard time for my glasses. You know what? I am a nerd and I'll just own that. And yes, I am that old now 48 where I need reading glasses. It just is what it is. I need to go get my eyes reshot. I had LASIK in 2006 and it's time, it's almost 19 years since I had it. So it's about time to get that redone. I'm glad you still love me, bro. Anyways, my thing, I don't want this to be a million years long.
I just wanted to come on today because we had a space on the channel. I wanted to come on and tell you we've had enough time past the election now to talk about it rationally. And my big thing for you is to be the good, sane, sober, moral, prudent person in your world. Love people in your world, reach out across the aisle. And if you do, it will actually build the right to keep and bear arms because then those folks may still be Democrats and they may still be left-leaning independents and they may still be green party members and they may even be people of political persuasions we just don't like. But what we're trying to show them is, hey, the right to keep in bear arms is for you too. Which over the next 4, 5, 10, 15 years starts to say, Hey, wait a minute. The right of the people to keep and bear arms isn't a right left divide issue.
We all agree on that. And then that becomes just again, part of the bedrock foundation of our pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And so that's how we build the right to keep and bear arms rather than making it a political issue. And there are more of us than there are of you. No, we all agree on this. And then we can talk about and discuss the other issues and we all do so from a place of politeness. And yeah, Zach said, I've got the man bun. I actually do have a man bun. You can see there. I folded it back under the hair's getting long enough now that it actually is below my shoulders, it's actually kind of down my collar here a little bit. And you know what? Somebody may not like that, but my wife loves it and so that's what matters.
And JD asked if I was getting stronger. Yep, sure am every day. In fact, I'm lifting weights four days a week now and just hit new highs in my leg. Press today and going to hopefully hit my goal by the 1st of January is to be able to deadlift 150% of my body weight and squat a hundred percent of my body weight. I'm going to get there by the first of the year. I should be able to squat my body weight. Maybe Tuesday, I might actually get there. We'll see. But the deadlift is going to take me a little bit longer. I'm getting pretty close. Deadlifted 2 65 yesterday. So that's pretty good. Alright, everybody, take care and be safe. I hope your Sunday is wonderful as always. We are going to root for the San Francisco 49 ERs today because they are Jesus's team. That's why he makes sunsets crimson and gold. Guys know. I'm just joking on that. Anyways, love you guys. Hope the rest of your day is wonderful. Go out there and make the right to keep and bear arms a civil right and love your neighbor. I.
Credit: John Corriea, Active Self Protection Extra