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Should You Own A Gun?
Tyson Kilbey • 2020-11-10
Dylan Carnahan:Welcome back to the Simple Questions Podcast. I'm your host, Dylan Carnahan. That little bit of music you heard right there is from the band Faster Than Hell. That was their song, Nothing To Lose. They're no longer together, but that guitar that you heard in there is by guitarist Mike Rooney. Outside of the fact that Mike is a very talented guitarist, he also is a guitar teacher. Mike honed his craft at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. So if you or anyone you know is interested in taking some guitar lessons from a very talented guitarist and an awesome human being, then I highly recommend Mike. Contact me via email at dylancarnahan at simplequestionspodcast.com or DM me on any of my social media, and I'll get you hooked up with Mike. Now to move on to the episode, Should You Own A Gun? Now this is primarily centered around self-defense or personal defense, not should you own a gun, say for hunting or any other kind of recreational activity. Some of the topics that are gonna be discussed are the rationale behind why you should own a firearm for personal defense, how you would go about finding the right firearm for you, alternatives if you didn't wanna own a firearm, how to train with a firearm, and lastly, some of the things you need to keep in mind when acquiring a firearm in 2020. Now, with all that said, a lot of this is obviously geared towards people that are perspective gun owners, but there is additional information in there that is relevant to anyone that even currently owns a firearm or anyone that just wants to focus on increasing their awareness and personal defense knowledge. And I couldn't have found a better guest to talk about this topic in particular. Our guest today has spent over 20 years in law enforcement and is currently a lieutenant within the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. In addition to that, he is also a Gracie Jiu-jitsu certified instructor. So he teaches Gracie Jiu-jitsu. In addition, he wraps this kind of all together in his own company, Top Firearms Instruction, where he teaches civilians about firearms and jiu-jitsu. He also has written two books, Personal Defense Mastery and Fundamental Handgun Mastery. So sit back and enjoy the great conversation I had with Tyson Kilbey. Firstly, I'd like to thank you for doing this podcast, and most importantly, seeing me in person.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I've been on another podcast before, and to be honest, I think I only did one in person. Actually, the first one I ever did was in person, and it was actually his second podcast that he ever did, and it was like the sound was off, everything was off. We had a blast, don't get me wrong, but there was a huge learning curve for him, and for me on that one.
Dylan Carnahan:You're making me worried. This is the second one.
Tyson Kilbey:It's already to me with the sound quality and the setup and just being in person, and to me, it's already better.
Dylan Carnahan:Okay, well, that's good to hear. So let's just jump right into it. So kind of give me, you've worn a lot of hats, right? You're a lieutenant in the Sheriff's Department, firearms instructor, shooting student instructor and an author, so can you, let's start with firearms. So can you kind of give us a 3,000 foot view, if you will, of your experiences with firearms and your journey to become a lieutenant in the Sheriff's Department?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, so you said I wear a lot of hats, and to a lot of people, that does seem like it's true, but the cool thing is everything is like interconnected.
Dylan Carnahan:You know what I mean?
Tyson Kilbey:It's like the stuff I write about is the firearms and the martial arts. I grew up in a world of martial arts, and then like you said, I'm a police officer, which obviously not all of it, but a part of it is the firearms training. So in terms of firearms, yes, I am a firearms instructor. I own a company called Top Firearms Instruction, where I've been teaching civilians, at this point, thousands of civilians since about the year 2012 in concealed carry classes, basic handgun classes, kids' handgun safety classes, and stuff like that for the last, I guess this is the start of our ninth year, or somewhere around nine years of teaching. And I learned that through the Sheriff's Office, where I've worked many roles, patrol, detention, supervisor, SWAT team, shooting competition, or competitive shooting team. But as a full-time department trainer and a firearms instructor, is really where I kind of grew my love for firearms and teaching. So yeah, I just like to kind of circle it back to everything I've said, is it seems like I wear a lot of hats and I do a lot of different things. And I like to think I do, but they're all interconnected.
Dylan Carnahan:So speaking of circles, if there's a Venn diagram, Tyson Kilbey is right in the middle to overlap between all these kind of personal defense kind of topics. Because it's pretty obvious to a certain degree, they do overlap, but especially like you're saying, an author of what? Personal defense books. What was the goal, I guess, behind Top Fire making that? Because I mean, entrepreneurial a little bit. What was the need you saw?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I know. I like that question. And the reason I like that question is that the goal has kind of shifted over time. But I'll kind of tell you how it came up is about the nine, ten year mark of being in the sheriff's office, I moved to our training division, where we taught defensive tactics, ground fighting, firearms and different stuff to keep officers safe. And about two years into it, I would say, I thought to myself, wow, these skills and these techniques that we teach officers have a lot of value and carry over to people, to civilians in public life. You know what I mean? Yes. Police officers need to learn to shoot accurately and safely. They need to learn to defend themselves. But the regular guy with the family or the woman or the kid who's being bullied, do they not need to learn those skills as well? So I saw, I was like, wow, not all of it applies, but there's so much carry over. Why don't I try teaching these things to civilians? So it wasn't about the entrepreneurial part at first. It wasn't really about any of that other than these are such fun skills to teach, they're valuable skills, and why stop at just law enforcement? So that's kind of what made me make this switch.
Dylan Carnahan:It's kind of overriding the need not just within law enforcement, but the public at large.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, exactly. I mean, to me, there was a lot of people that could find value in the skills that I was teaching. I didn't think it should be separated just to law enforcement officers.
Dylan Carnahan:So can you kind of talk about the process? So you obviously saw an even greater need also to kind of publish some of the things that you, your experiences with your books.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, the book, and I've talked about this before when people have asked me and it's one of those things. My first book, Fundamental Handgun Mastery, came out in 2018, but I had been writing it essentially for the previous few years. And I don't even know if initially me writing it, the idea was to put it into book form. What would happen was I was so busy. You know, I would work my job at the Sheriff's office and then I would teach jiu-jitsu, I'd have private lessons, I would teach firearms, and I would have these conversations with people, and I'd be so amped up because it's such a physically active day. So I would get home at night and to wind down, I would just hop on the computer and I'd write some of the discussions I'd have with students or some of the concepts I have. That coupled with, I would do these private lessons with people and they'd say, wow, that was fun, I learned a lot, but that was so much information, I want to be able to review it. And I thought, well, I started doing little synopsises, two-page synopsises and giving it to students. I thought, this seems to be repetitive, I keep doing this sort of thing. So it all just started coming together over a couple of year process of taking notes on classes and giving students information and just winding down at night. And it got to the point where I was like, huh, this would be great in book format because I really kind of started to put it together in what a typical lesson of mine would look at in terms of, we talk about safety, we talk about the fundamentals, we talk about gear and stuff like that. I was like, it just makes so much sense to make that book as a supplement to firearms training.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, that makes sense. So you saw that need from your own students to kind of have more material on that that they could digest themselves outside of just the lessons.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, and I thought it was important. And a lot of my students have told me this, is to write the book in an extremely user-friendly way to where it was, I've had so many of students, especially that have trained with me one-on-one, say, man, when I read that book again, I could literally hear you saying these things to me. I remember back to our lesson, because I certainly didn't try to make that book to where I used a lot of advanced technical terms or make it to where you couldn't just read it and think, okay, that's a basic concept that makes sense. So like I said, I'm not even sure. In fact, I can tell you this. When I started writing initially, it wasn't, I'm gonna write a book. It was, man, I've got all this information, let me put it together into a book after I started writing it.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, and that's, you talk about kind of not locking information away behind terminology. I know in reading the books myself is pretty concise, a lot of layman's terms, especially someone that's not very familiar with firearms or self-defense as a whole. It was pretty accessible to kind of understand what you're trying to do.
Tyson Kilbey:Well, thank you. And that honestly has been some of my favorite feedback from people. And don't get me wrong, I've had advanced skilled shooters say, hey, what a great review, or I'm gonna give this to someone, or maybe I picked up concepts from it. But my favorite feedback has been from people who were like, I was really nervous about learning firearms. I thought the book would be over my head, but I read this. And literally as chapter and chapter went on, I was like, I understand. I feel like I'm learning. I understand this. What's the catch? Why is this in such a usable, easy form? And that to me is one of the best compliments, because I've grown to feel like as you get skilled in something or as a teacher, if you can break something down that maybe seems intimidating or complex and put it in a format that someone who's considered a novice understands it and feels like, hey, I'm part of this conversation. I get it. I think you've done your job. I could sit here and give a lot of technical terms about ammunition. I could give a lot of competition terms or I could breeze through certain parts of shooting and try to act like or show how much I know. But really, what good does that do other than inflating ego? It doesn't help the student so much. So that's a huge compliment for me whenever I hear. It just makes me kind of pumped up and amped up when someone's like, man, I could understand it and learn it. I love teaching beginners. I love teaching beginners because, I'm sorry, I'm joining on and on. I'm just getting excited about it. When I teach beginners and I see them catch on to a basic concept or Jiu-Jitsu or firearms or personal self-defense and they're like, I can just see they're excited about it. It reminds me of when I first learned. So I always get to relive. Being a beginner because I've been doing martial arts since I was five years old. I've been doing Jiu-Jitsu for 11 years, firearms for 20 years now at the sheriff's office, 20 plus years. So it's really cool to go back to when I was first learning it, kind of like the magic of the new experience.
Dylan Carnahan:You talk about, you bring up Jiu-Jitsu. So just to kind of dive into that a little bit. I'll be completely honest. So for the uninitiated like myself, when I hear the term Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, what does that mean?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, no, and I'm glad you're on it. And the truth is that's how most people outside of the martial arts world are. They're exactly like that because they'll hear Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, Karate, Ninjitsu, whatever it is, and they'll be like, okay, they'll get an image in their mind, but not that many people really know the distinction or delineation of it. And I'll say that that's a little bit changing with the popularity of UFC because you've heard of the UFC, right?
Dylan Carnahan:Of course.
Tyson Kilbey:Pretty much everybody has. Billion dollar industry. So with the popularity of the UFC, people are starting to become more familiar with it.
Dylan Carnahan:More and more cognizant. When you say Conor McGregor, right?
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, people understand that. It's a recognizable name. And so, yeah, it's very true. But where I was going with that in terms of jiu-jitsu or Gracie jiu-jitsu specifically, which is the art that I've been training for the last 11 years. And the reason I brought up UFC is because actually, in 1993, the UFC was half started by Orion Gracie, another guy, and the winner of the UFC was Royce Gracie. He was actually the winner of UFC 1, 2, and 4 in 80 spots since then. He comes from a family of fighters, the Gracies from Brazil. And it was, I watched the first UFC live. I'm dating myself, people know how old I am, but in 1993, a 16-year-old, I'm watching the UFC. And it was really cool because I watched it with, my stepdad owned a karate school and I was having a blast training there, and helping teach too, even at 16 years old. And we got together and we all watched the first UFC live. And it was a cool premise because what it was was, that was a day and time where it was like, everybody would argue, what's the best martial art? What's the most practical martial art? So the premise was awesome because they put it together as like, let's get a Taekwondo guy. Let's get a boxer. Let's get a sumo wrestler. Let's get this Gracie Jiu-Jitsu guy. Let's put them all in, art for art and see what happens, see who comes out ahead. And everybody had their theories and stuff like that. And here's this guy, Royce Gracie, who is, he's not super small, but he certainly wasn't the biggest guy in the competition. About 178 pounds, six foot one, not an intimidating guy. And here I am 16 year old and I'm watching and I'm like, oh, he beat the boxer. Okay, he beat this guy. He wins, he's a champion. I'm like, wow, this is really cool. This is really neat. That was my first kind of experience in what Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was. And at the time you could rent VHS tapes to watch the old Gracie's in action in the school. We'd get together and we'd do some stuff and kind of mess with it and stuff like that. But it really wasn't till several years later in the Sheriff's office when I started becoming a defensive tactics instructor. And I thought about what the premise of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu really is. And the premise is it is maybe not the only, but certainly one of the best martial arts that doesn't necessarily rely on speed, power, athleticism for you to be effective. I mean, what's beautiful about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a smaller person can use technique, timing, and leverage to overcome. And so, it really attracted me.
Dylan Carnahan:I have also, just from the stance of, there's not much striking from what I know.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, especially initially. And the thing, that's a good conversation. I won't dig too deep into it, but you're right, there isn't much striking in it. But as you get deeper into the game, there are strikes in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. The big premise is you don't necessarily want to trade strikes. In other words, you don't want to be in a position where, hey, I'm punching you, you're punching me. Kind of the classic vision of what most people have been trained to what a fight is. You know what I mean? It's like, put up your nukes, we're trading punches. And that kind of advantage to the bigger, stronger, more athletic opponent. And not only that, anybody can catch somebody with a strike. So Gracie Jiu-Jitsu really manages the distance, minimizing the chance of you getting hit, and then you kind of bring the fight into your own world, what you're comfortable with.
Dylan Carnahan:Your terms.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, you bring it on your terms. Now, later on, as you get more advanced, you realize that if you want to use strikes, you can. But you know what's cool about that is, especially me being a law enforcement officer, is the more I grow to understand the dynamics of defensive tactic situations, or let's just call them what they are, fights, strikes aren't always ideal for law enforcement because when I strike, I can't necessarily control the injury to me, and even worse, I can't necessarily control how much injury happens to the other person. Whereas jiu jitsu, it's so, you can really tailor the response, you can really kind of dictate how much force or power you use to control someone, which of course in law enforcement, if you think about it in this day and age, is so valuable. You can really kind of temper your response to what the situation dictates. So it's very good.
Dylan Carnahan:We're gonna dig into some more kind of concepts that you kind of brought up.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, no problem.
Dylan Carnahan:Let's kind of transition to, so you've talked about that you've trained numerous amount of people in firearms, both in law enforcement and just civilians. Civilians in particular that come to you for training, what does the typical personal defense firearm owner look like?
Tyson Kilbey:I don't have a typical, I have a wide range. I mean, I have people who, especially this year, first time gun owner, it's like, hey, I don't know anything about firearms. I'm now interested in it. I know nothing and I want to learn. So I guess if there's a typical, I would say that's the most common this year.
Dylan Carnahan:As a beginner.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, as a very beginner. But I mean, I've had people write in the gamut, you know, it's like, hey, I just started competing. I'd like to get my scores better or, you know, hey, I've grown up with handgun, I'm sorry, I've grown up with shotguns and rifles, but I'm not too familiar with the handgun side of firearms. And now that I want to carry, or maybe use a handgun for home defense, I want to learn that realm of it. A lot of ladies, you know, crossover between teaching the women in power that I teach and that is a lot of them have been like, oh, I'd like to learn firearms as well. So I've had, I've really run the gamut. I have to believe it or not, I've had a lot of law enforcement officers, whether retired or just still working, but they want to polish their skills. So I've had many law enforcement officers that I've trained outside of work as well. So it's really run the gamut, but like I said, I'd re-emphasize that probably over the last year or so, I've had more first time, new to guns, completely come to me for training, which like I talked about earlier, I love the people that are new to it. Because I get to start them straight, like an open slate.
Dylan Carnahan:You know what I mean? So those people, those open slates, those new gun owners, when they come to you, what are some of the kind of reasons they give for wanting to own a firearm, or in particular, use it for self-defense purposes?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, a lot of them have said, hey, the state of the world, I feel uncomfortable with the state of the world. I've never really thought about it, but now I want to defend myself. Some people have come to me because, you know, maybe they have children or something like that. Like, you know, I've got a family now, and if I am gonna own a gun, I want to know firearm safety at the highest level. So I've had a myriad of reasons, but the biggest one has basically been personal safety in kind of a tumultuous world.
Dylan Carnahan:Is there ever, I know you kind of talked about kind of mindsets for why you should own a firearm in one of your books, and is there some mindsets that are, that's not a good rationale to get a gun?
Tyson Kilbey:There are, I'll put it this way, there are some people that, yes, to answer your question, yes, there are some people that do not have the correct mindset to own a gun. Now I would say, I would submit that it certainly is everybody's right, and if they meet the legal qualification, it's definitely everybody's legal right. But obviously with that right comes a lot of responsibilities, and I would certainly say there's a lot of people that have not met those responsibilities. So to break the question down simply, are there some people that shouldn't own a gun? Yes, the answer is an emphatic yes. Now that being said, I obviously support people's right, the people that want to do it properly, that want to train and take that responsibility seriously. Obviously I support that as much as I could.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, so you kind of brought this up earlier, and this is the epitome of clean slates. So someone comes to you, like you said, that has children, they want to be cognizant of them and firearms and everything. So you teach children's classes. And I know to some people, that might seem crazy, and others, that's a necessity I completely agree with. So kind of walk us through that.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, okay, love to. What's funny is in 2015, I had not taught firearms safety to kids, not on any large level by any means, maybe on an individual level of a parent had asked or something, but not until 2015 that I really start doing the kids classes. And it was just one weekend of a concealed carry class that I talked to one of my co-instructors and great training partner, a good friend of mine, Dave. I said, hey, this weekend, why don't we do a kids handgun safety class in conjunction with the concealed carry class? And he's like, yeah, whatever, he went with anything. So we did it. And what was cool was one of my good friends now, Rebecca Schmoy, she at the time was, well, she's still a million moms against gun control representative. And I think she was Kansas NRA as well. She came and she witnessed the class and she did a blog on it. Well, anyway, I just had a blast. I had been teaching jujitsu and self-defense to kids. And how I like to teach kids basically is to have 90% fun, 10% instruction, especially with a younger age group, because I want them to enjoy the experience and learn from it. So we did that, and the parents were pleased. The kids had a blast, and she wrote a wonderful blog. And kind of a long story short, I know I talked about this, and if you remember, I even briefly talked about this in the book, how this went through. But that class kind of took off into a large, basically part of my classes has been that. And a lot of people, firearms instructors from all over have come to me and done versions of that kid's safety class, a kid's firearm safety class. So that's how it started.
Dylan Carnahan:Can you kind of attest to kind of what the curriculum is?
Tyson Kilbey:Exactly, and I'm glad you asked that because I was wondering if I was droning on too long because I wanted to go there. So I'm glad that we were on the same wavelength right now. So here's the thing, and because this is something that a lot of people have questions about. Parents have questions, and like you said, isn't this crazy? They say, I get this a lot, well, when do you teach kids about guns and what do you teach them? That's a very interesting question. And here's what I would submit. You teach kids about guns as early as you can, but, and I'm talking three years old, and stay with me here because some people think that's insane. At three years old, you do not teach them sight alignment, sight picture, or anything like that. At three years old, you teach them what a gun is. You tell them that, hey, in the future, when you're able to control it, I will teach you the mechanics of the gun. But more importantly, you give them a unquestionable order of operation if they ever see a gun in an unsecured area where a parent isn't around or an instructor. And the reason, and obviously I go by a lot of entities, stop, don't touch, leave the area, tell an adult. But you don't want to, a lot of people have this philosophy of, well, just, I don't want them to know anything about guns. We're gonna keep guns around. But there's a problem with that. There's a couple problems with that. Number one, America has 350 million plus guns. There are guns everywhere in America. And number two, aside from just the amount of guns, kids are extremely curious. Of the, there's a certain amount of kids that die in firearms accidents every year, CDC statistics. And of the kids that are killed, many of them, a percentage, sometimes 30, 40%, I believe, are three years old and under. Now that's obviously not their fault. That's the fault of the gun owner. But if you can give kids an order of operation that they know, hey, it's a gun, stop, don't touch, leave the area, tell an adult, and you ingrain that in them, so much to where they know it, they teach it back to others, you can develop positive habits better than, oh, the curiosity of what is this, what's a gun? So that's why I think it's so important, even if you don't ever own a gun, even if you have no intention of teaching them about guns, to give them a strategy of what to do if they see a gun in a park, in a playground, at a friend's house or something like that.
Dylan Carnahan:So kind of ingratiating them with a level of awareness. Because they're going to be exposed to this in their environment.
Tyson Kilbey:They're going to be exposed to it, teach them about it, nip it in the bud right from the beginning, so that they understand it's something to respect, and they have an order of operation, and they train it consistently. That's another key part of it. Some people think, oh, well, I'll give them a gun safety class one time when they're five years old, and now we'll never talk about the topic again. And I totally disagree with that. I think all skills, all knowledge to an extent is perishable. I'd like to teach them consistently so that this is something that becomes ingrained in them. So that's what I would say for everybody, whether you're a pro firearms or not firearms. Now, when it comes to actually teaching them about firearms, I truly recommend doing that. And here's for a couple of reasons. Number one is humans are curious, kids are curious times a million. So if you say, well, we don't do, we don't, I don't want you to deal with guns, then I use this analogy all the time with parents. They're like, okay, listen, think about your kid. If you put a Mountain Dew middle of the table and you say, all right, young man or young lady, don't ever drink from this magical drink of mystery.
Dylan Carnahan:What? And then you leave. What do you think they're going to do?
Tyson Kilbey:Of course, the curiosity. But if you do this, and I've used this analogy before, and I think it worked, is listen, this is a pop, this is a soda, it's not the best for you, it does taste sweet. I'll tell you what, I'll make you a deal. Of course, you can have some if you do your chores, eat your vegetables and this sort of thing. And there's much more of a respect that's learned and the curiosity isn't near as much. That's not an exact analogy, but it does drive home the point of most kids, there's always exceptions, but most kids can be trusted and understand the respect level of, let me learn about it, let me satisfy my curiosity. And generally speaking, they will get it right. So then I say, if that's the case, and you want them to learn it the right way, who do you want to teach them? And the answer is always gonna be a qualified instructor or obviously a parent who is very familiar with that.
Dylan Carnahan:You want that level of credibility, especially when talking about such potentially dangerous.
Tyson Kilbey:Satisfy their curiosity and teach them the right way. And at that point, there's different guns of different calibers. Children as young as seven, eight, nine years old can handle a very low recoil gun. Think of like a 22LR long rifle or something like that. Learn the fundamentals of marksmanship. Learn firearm safety. That's the first thing. And be able to operate it and then have a very healthy respect and foundation for firearms. And I think if that was, the more widespread that is, the safer and better off we all are.
Dylan Carnahan:The collective. And so you've kind of brought up, kind of going into it. So I was going to bring up that you advise just anyone, anyone to kind of generate this level of awareness and understanding of firearms, regardless, say, if they were a gun owner.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, for sure. A lot of people ask me that, especially one of our pinnacle classes, the concealed carry class. And I get that question a lot. They're like, hey, I don't even own a gun. I'm not even sure if I want to own a gun. Is this class good for me? And my answer is yes. Because you're going to come into that class, you don't have to have a gun. You know, you don't have to carry, you don't have to get your license after that. But you're going to come into that class and you're going to learn firearm safety. You're going to learn about some of the tools and gear. You're going to learn the fundamentals and you're going to learn about the law. So right there, even if you never carry, you've just spent some valuable time learning some things that could be very valuable to you.
Dylan Carnahan:So, say someone comes in and they don't want to own a firearm, but they get this level of awareness, understanding firearms and what to do with them. If need be. What about... This is kind of go to your jujitsu route, maybe. But what about some alternatives? I mean, I had read in your book, you talked about maybe mental rehearsal of kind of scenarios that could take place. That doesn't require a firearm or offhand defense ways and stuff like that.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, here's... I think what it makes me think about what you're talking about is some people have this misconception that it's all or nothing in terms of firearms and safety, and nothing could be further from the truth. I think that it's certainly a big part of safety, personal safety, but if all you did was own a gun and think, okay, I got my safety covered, but you're completely out of physical shape, you don't have a healthy diet, you drive recklessly, you take the drive and you do all this stuff. You haven't prepared for self-defense on any of those other levels, then you're only looking at a small piece of the equation when not, and I think I've talked about this, I know I brought up in the book, it's if the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem becomes a nail. And every self-defense problem out there is not a nail. So yes, it's very multifaceted. So that's that concept. The first part of your statement or kind of question there, which I totally agree with, was you talked about mental rehearsal.
Dylan Carnahan:Huge deal. I know in baseball, for instance, mental rehearsal, oh my goodness, envisioning success, envisioning as a pitcher, I'm throwing a strike and visualizing.
Tyson Kilbey:It's so funny because I love baseball myself too. I didn't take it near as far as you did, but I love baseball and I love team sports concepts, and I relate it to police work and self-defense all the time. And the reason I do that is because I think athletes, especially that perform at high level, the collegiate level and above, I think athletes have really been doing it right in terms of preparation, training, and mental visualization. I was actually teaching a class just yesterday with about 18 to 20 new officers, and I was talking about the value of mental rehearsal and mental preparation. And I was even showing them a chart from some things that I've studied from some of the entities in law enforcement, such as like the Four Science Institute, that talked about the value of mental rehearsal, even if you can't physically practice. And I even showed them some charts and statistics that showed the skill level and skill comprehension of someone who physically practiced, someone who only mentally visualized, and someone who didn't practice at all. And there was a definitive gap between people who didn't practice and people who mentally practice. Meaning that if you just mentally practice, you will develop skills. I don't know if it's the mental...
Dylan Carnahan:That you wouldn't have otherwise.
Tyson Kilbey:That you wouldn't have otherwise, which to me is brilliant. So if you now think about it like this, if you physically practice and mentally practice, you're really putting yourself ahead of the game. And I know myself in shooting competitions, jujitsu competitions, and even in just not just competitions, but prepping for classroom, visualization, mental rehearsal has been a huge benefit for me. There's just no question about it.
Dylan Carnahan:So can you kind of talk about what kind of things you could mentally rehearse, say, if you didn't have a firearm?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, let's say you work in a certain location and you were preparing for the potential active shooter threat or maybe a disturbance or something like that in your workplace that is a place that you're at quite a bit. Some things you would mentally rehearse is, okay, things have gone bad, there's a serious emergency situation here. I don't have a gun, but let's say I needed to stop an attacker. Okay, what improvised weapons do I have in my office? Can I use this chair? Can I use these books? What do I have in terms of improvised weapons? What do I have in terms of hiding places if I needed to hide? I mean, these guys are in here with AK-47s or whatever it is, and I need to be out of there quick. Where are the secure hiding spots? Where are my escape routes? And just visualize those sorts of things. I mean, that's a little small piece of it, but those are things you can visualize so that you practice that. You gain that experience. And then under the stress of an emergency situation, you at least have something to pull back to.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I think it's great. You fail to your highest level of preparation.
Tyson Kilbey:No doubt about it. You're not going to come up with your brilliant essays and your brilliant new thoughts under stress, and that's been documented. We're starting to understand it more and more why. Because essentially, that prefrontal cortex of your brain, that part of your brain that thinks of those brilliant things is no longer the most important part. Our buddy the amygdala, that part of the brain that takes over, and now it's that emergency mode of what you can do to a level of unconscious confidence, and you're not going to rise to your highest level of education that people talk about all the time, and I kind of appreciate a quote.
Dylan Carnahan:So to kind of pivot a little bit, you talked about improvisation of weapons. What, I know you can't give a specific recommendation because you don't know each individual listener, but what are kind of some things that someone could use for personal defense if they didn't want to have a firearm?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, okay, I think the most important thing is the mental aspect that we're talking about. Mental awareness, mental visualization, positioning yourself in an advantage to really see things in your environment and get away from situations. Other tools that people can use, obviously, you know, people have taser-type weapons, stun guns and stuff like that. There are, I think we talked about before, pepper spray and stuff like that. Those are all viable self-defense tools. They all can work. And what I tell people is, and in personal defense mastery, I kind of just briefly lay over the positives and negatives. What I tell people is if that's more your style or something you're more comfortable with, the biggest recommendation I would make is deploy it often in terms of know where it's at, keep it in the same spot, practice with it, know its pluses and minuses. If you have a cloud of pepper spray, what are the secondary exposure? Could it come back and get me and that sort of thing? So any tool, here's the thing, I think any tool could work. Some are obviously in certain situations are better than others, but if that's what you have at the time, any tool could work.
Dylan Carnahan:That's an asset. You bring up a good point about deploying often. So I think not only does that give you comfortability and experience, but it's kind of proof of concept. You don't want to have the bear spray or pepper spray, right? And then you need it, and you try to deploy it, and it's past its expiration date. Yeah, of course. Or something like that.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah. Checking your tool. Yeah, that's an auxiliary benefit of deploying it often, is it won't expire and stuff like that. Plus, and in fact, I was teaching this just the other day, and athletes obviously are very good at understanding this, is every skill that you develop is to some extent perishable. So, if all you did was play one game of baseball and never practice, and then three weeks later you have another game, you're not going to be as good if you practice continually up into the point and rest. And three weeks is a long span, but you start talking about not having shot a gun for a couple months, your skill level is going to go down. There is certain perishability of that skill.
Dylan Carnahan:That time decay, right?
Tyson Kilbey:Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's huge.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I can attest to that in baseball. You have been pitched for a while, and then you get in the game, and you're like, I haven't pitched in a while. So I know you briefly in the past kind of talked about kind of calibers. What are kind of some just general types of firearms that you might find for home defense or personal defense purposes?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, I mean, obviously that's a broad discussion, but to put it down simply, I'll just talk about kind of what I do. I'm a Glock guy. Not that Glocks are the best weapons in the world. They're not. I have, you know, hundreds of thousand rounds behind a Glock, so I definitely have the practice behind them. I like handguns because they're versatile. I can carry it concealed. I can use it as a home defense weapon. It's not large or overbearing. Not that rifles and shotguns don't have home defense aspects. They certainly do. But I do. I carry a Glock, and I like the nine millimeter caliber. And basically that's a type of caliber. It's not extremely large, but it's not overly small either. So it's a very controllable round. In terms of ballistic tests, it has the stopping power that you would need if a threat came at you. Law enforcement is kind of gravitating towards that. It's a cost-efficient round. It's a controllable round, and it's an effective round. So if you've read at least all or part of my books, you know that I really like to break them down to simplicity and basically ask simple questions. Can I use this? Yes. Okay, good. You know, is it effective? Yes. Okay, good. So I just ask simple questions, and if they start to fit, if I start to get yeses to my questions, then I start to think that I've found my gun.
Dylan Carnahan:So kind of, yeah, that you bring up kind of familiarity, like you yourself have had so many rounds behind your weapon of choice, you know, having that degree of confidence and experience with a particular weapon, that might be your weapon then.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, exactly. I think people, and this is so funny, I think people try to overcomplicate things or maybe overpurchase skill sets, you know. It's like, okay, I don't know how to shoot. I really don't have any training, but I got some extra cash, however it is. So I built this, I got this brand new optic, and I got this new trigger job, and I got this $3,000 gun, and that's cool, but they've never really even shot it or felt it in their hand, or they only shoot once or twice a year. So you can't, I had one of my mentors and instructors a long time ago tell me, you really can't buy good shooting, you know? You gotta put in the training and practice. And it's the same, I would imagine it's the same thing. You could buy the best glove and the best bat in the world, but if you're not out there training, doing your reps, running, getting your swings in, and studying and really analyzing the game, that good equipment is just gonna look good.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it's not gonna go back to what you previously mentioned. It's not gonna compensate for those perishable skills.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, 100%.
Dylan Carnahan:That's not how it works, unfortunately. It would be cool if it did, but it doesn't. Exactly. So this is very broad, but we'll kind of go into this, just for the uninitiated, because a lot of the stuff I wasn't fully aware of. So if one were to go get a gun, can you kind of walk through the process of that, as far as the legality?
Tyson Kilbey:You're talking about, especially for, oh, legality? Yeah, I can talk briefly about that. And in terms of just someone who's new to the game. You know, definitely starting off with conversation of somebody that is a gun owner, a firearms instructor, a knowledgeable owner, and kind of getting some basic ideas is not a bad thing. If you go to local ranges, which I know we've talked before and said you have, they are generally, I'll say this generally, pretty good about letting you go through a safety class and saying, okay, if you're a new gun owner, you can try a few different variations of this type of caliber gun. So it's definitely a decision that takes time. It's not something that I would immediately get on the internet, look at reviews and say, yep, I got to get this new latest and greatest gun. Now, I will say though that if you get on the internet and you do look at people's reviews of guns, that is part of the equation because I will say that although there's a lot of crazy, terrible information on the internet, the reviews of guns are fairly fair. I mean, that's their perspective. And if you look up, say you Google the top five concealed carry guns, and you'll probably see something like the Glock 43, Smith & Wesson, M&P Shield, Brennan Nano, stuff like that. And then you get those in your eye, and you get those types of guns, and then you start looking up reviews of those, you can get some pretty general information. Nothing beats actually going to a firing range or to a gun shop and putting the gun into your hand and feeling it, looking at the sights and making a decision based off that. But doing your research, the information is out there. It's definitely out there.
Dylan Carnahan:So yeah, to kind of continue, say you have this firearm that maybe you've tried or you've deduced which one you're going to purchase. Can you kind of talk about kind of the background check and kind of the need for an FFL?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:And kind of how that works?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, the FFL, the transfers and stuff like that goes more. But that's more if you are not a resident of the state that you're perching the gun in. For example, if you're a Kansas resident and you're perching something in Missouri, then you're going to have to have that FFL transfer. In Kansas, if you're buying in state, then you don't need to go through that process. They'll run what's called a mixed check. They're going to make sure that you're not a, you know, a felon that's owning a firearm, that you don't have a domestic violence conviction, that you're federally not disqualified from owning a firearm. You'll have to have, you know, your ID, your driver's license, with your current address on it, all that sort of thing. They'll run that check, and you can purchase your firearm in state or from an individual firearms owner. So that's kind of the basics of it. You know, you'll get a bill of sale probably from an individual, and you can just kind of go from there. So it's not as, I don't know, intimidating, I guess, or as difficult of a process as some people think. But yeah, if you're talking about FFLs and those transfers, that is really more dealing with buying guns from a state that you're not a resident of.
Dylan Carnahan:And is that, that's kind of, okay, I got you. Shoot. Drone blank. Give me a second here.
Tyson Kilbey:No, no worries at all. I think we covered a lot of stuff. But it's like I said before, a lot of it is kind of interwoven into each other. You know what I mean? Self defense and the firearms and the new gun owner and the concept. So, which is cool to me. I think it's good that a lot of these concepts kind of overlap, you know?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. And it can kind of lend itself to kind of generating more experience in kind of all areas because they are so interwoven and connected.
Tyson Kilbey:I tell people that all the time too, is people have, when they've trained with me with firearms and jiu jitsu and what have you, they're like, man, you teach firearms very similar to how you teach self-defense or jiu jitsu, or you teach the same concept in the women's self-defense class as you do in the kids' bully proof, as you do in teaching police officers. And the answer is true. I mean, there's obviously a difference in the way you teach a kids' class to the way you teach cops, you know? You're not going to play Simon Says in the cops' class, you know? But the thing is, it's all jiu jitsu, it's all self-defense, it's all mindset, it's all firearm safety and the fundamentals of marksmanship. It's just kind of honing that craft to get them excited about it. That's where I think I've had a lot of success as a teacher and even just personal growth in these areas is I always have so much fun while I'm doing it, you know what I mean? I find a way to make it fun and I try to connect others to it. And really, just by having fun, people kind of get interested. They're like, man, if Tyson's so excited about this, you know, what's the deal? Maybe I want to try it out as well.
Dylan Carnahan:There's something to be said, you got to love the process.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes.
Dylan Carnahan:Because it mostly is the process, not the outcome.
Tyson Kilbey:That is one of the best descriptions right there of jiu-jitsu. And the reason I say that is because jiu-jitsu is a very unique art in a lot of ways. But one way is that time from beginner to black belt is 10, 12, 15 years. One of the longest martial arts.
Dylan Carnahan:A lot of delay gratification.
Tyson Kilbey:I'm telling you, a lot of humility, a lot of ups and downs. And the journey and the process is the most beautiful part. There's some martial arts where you can get a black belt in two or three years. And if that's what you're going for, great. But the process of jiu-jitsu is so awesome. And if you don't love it, you simply won't make it.
Dylan Carnahan:So to kind of pivot back, so what are kind of requirements for a concealing carry and what does a concealing carry mean?
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, that's a very good question. Conceal and carry. Well, there's conceal carry and there's open carry. Conceal carry means the weapon is completely concealed. You're not printing. And what I mean by printing is you don't have the outline of a gun through the clothes that someone can see. Oh, they're obviously carry. Whereas open carry is the gun is out there and visible. Now, when it comes to concealed carry, there is no national kind of law that applies to all the states in terms of concealed carry. There are some states that you they issue a license to conceal carry. There are some states that you cannot conceal carry. There are some states that you can open carry in certain areas and you can't in other areas. There are some states that you can conceal carry without a license. You can also conceal carry with a license. You can conceal carry if you're an out-of-state resident. It's really difficult to navigate through all the various laws state by state. We live in the state of Kansas where it's really generally one of what's considered the most gun-friendly states in the entire country. Our next door neighbor, Missouri, is up there as well. Kansas is actually one of the most friendly and I say friendly in terms of rights for gun owners. We're an open carry state and we're a constitutional carry state and we are a state that issues concealed carry license. And so you can carry open, you can have the gun out. It's constitutional carry, which essentially for people to understand that basically means you can carry a gun concealed in many places without a concealed carry permit. So people think, oh, well, if that's the case, then you don't need a concealed carry permit. But the truth is, that's not exactly true and without digging too deep in the weeds of it, if you get a concealed carry license, you have additional abilities to carry, additional privileges that you don't have otherwise. You have reciprocity with many other states because many states respect the Kansas concealed carry license. Well, if you just carry in Kansas under constitutional carry, well, they can't reciprocate your license if you don't have one. On top of, there's some stuff with the Federal Gun Safe School Zone Act in terms of carrying within the thousand feet of a school. There's an expedition of purchasing guns. We talked about the process of buying guns. Well, it becomes expedited with the concealed carry license. So there's certainly, and the fact that you're taking eight hours of training and learning the law, which is critical, because it would be very dangerous for many people to just, oh, it's constitutional carry. Let me just start carrying my gun. So it's kind of a deep conversation in terms of you could really go down a lot of different directions with it. But that concealed carry in terms of licenses, constitutional carry, open carry, the biggest takeaways are each state is different. And it's certainly valuable to take the concealed carry class if it's available to really get more information on the laws. I think a lot of people nowadays, not even for learning how to shoot a firearm, take the class just to be familiar with their state's laws.
Dylan Carnahan:Really?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:So to get that license, at least in Kansas, if you want to, what are some of the things that you have to do?
Tyson Kilbey:Okay, so you have to take the class. To get the license, you take the class that I teach at Top Firearms Instruction and others teach, and successful completion of that class earns you the Kansas approved concealed carry certificate. When you get that, you get on the Kansas Attorney General's website, you download the application for concealed carry, you fill that out, complete it, you get the certificate that you earned, and then it's all done through the Sheriff's Office of the counties that you live in. So if you live in Johnson County, you do the application process through the Johnson County Sheriff's Office. You call them up, make an appointment, bring in your paperwork, they do your fingerprints picture, send it all to Topeka, where the state does the final check, sends you back your approval, and then the final, final step is you go to a full service DMV with your approval paperwork, and that's when you get a picture just like a driver's license. And then so it's your concealed carry license is on a license that looks almost identical to your driver's license, however, it's your concealed carry license instead. And so the, usually when I explain that process, the next question from people is, well, how long does that take? Well, in terms of scheduling an appointment with the Sheriff's Office, you know, that could take, especially with them being kind of busy, it could take a month or so to get the appointment scheduled. And then by statute, Kansas Attorney General has about 90 days to get you back your approval letter. I understand that it's much quicker than that, but they do have 90 days. So it could be theoretically a few month process to actually get that actual license after you take the class.
Dylan Carnahan:So if you're new, right, and you've done all this research, you acquired this firearm, then it comes to your area right here, right? This is a softball. You better knock it out. So how should you train? Just kind of broadly, you know, range frequency.
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, yeah, no, great. Everybody's going to be a little bit different, but here's the overriding concept. We've talked a lot already. We've talked about perishable skills. We talked about safety and stuff like that. The biggest... First of all, you should train a lot. But I like this concept, and I didn't make it up, and you probably heard it, but I like the concept of train a little a lot, okay? What I mean by that is train frequently, and it doesn't... What I mean by that is you don't have to go to the range two or three times a week and shoot 500 rounds. But, you know, a couple... Let's say for the average person, a couple times a month at a range, that would be great. A hundred rounds here and there just so that you're not... I know ammo is expensive and stuff like that, but mental visualization also a few times a week. And here's the golden thing about training in firearms. You can train at home, get better with all the fundamentals of marksmanship, and develop your skills without even firing a shot. And that's through the process of dry firing. And I teach that to my students. I write about it in my books. But essentially, you clear your weapon, make sure there's no ammo, make sure you're a hundred percent sure of that, find a safe direction, and you can practice your draws, you can practice your stance, you can practice reloads, you can essentially practice every fundamental of marksmanship right there in your home, develop those reflexes, polish those skills, and then when you go to the range, you're going to be that much better. And I know your listeners can't see us right now, but yes, if you guys are thinking about it, I am actually doing the draw here. But yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Just a step further than that visualization, and you talk about familiarity with your own firearm, that's just a whole other level without actually shooting.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes. And I also, on top of that, I have an airsoft setup in my apartment, so not only do I do dry fire, I kind of mix in a few minutes of dry fire, maybe a couple of times a day, especially if I'm getting ready for competition or maybe before a morning run or a workout, I'll do some draws. But I also, all the time, if I'm bored, I'll just sit in my front room and I'll shoot my airsoft gun.
Dylan Carnahan:So to the novice, what are some things you would look for in a firearms class? What are some things that an initiator should look for? Because that can be a really daunting task, right?
Tyson Kilbey:Yeah, for sure. Well, you want to look at the cost. You want to compare the cost, because if it's outrageous or it's extremely cheap, the same thing you would look at any product, you may wonder why. You certainly, if you're able to see the biographies of the instructors, that's obviously a huge deal, because if you see maybe just one certification or two, or it doesn't say they've been teaching for a while, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're an unqualified or poor instructor, but there is that possibility. But if you see quite a few certifications that seem to be pretty varied, and it seems they've been doing it for a long time, well, you're starting to think that maybe there's something there. Certainly, if they have reviews, obviously they're going to put their best reviews, but if you see consistent reviews, then that's an indicator. If you get the chance to go into the range and see maybe videos or something like that of the instructor teaching, that's great. In terms of the class, what I would say, especially for someone new, is do you get the sense that safety is the number one priority? If you get that sense from the class just from the setup and just from the handling the gun around the gate, then at the very least, I think you're in the right place. If you go to a class and it seems that it's in a location where safety isn't the highest concern, get out of there quick, you know what I mean? Because you're not going to learn anything past that. So, instructor qualifications, reviews, the safety aspect, you start to build those, and that's all common. Nothing I'm saying is mind-shattering, but common sense, and then go in with an open mind, and if you like it, then continue to train with them, take other classes, and if you don't like it, then, hey, maybe you know why, and you didn't lose that much. You did it once, and then you did it in another class.
Dylan Carnahan:I liked one of the things you talked about in your book. You talked about keeping a training log. And I know as a weightlifter and baseball player...
Tyson Kilbey:Just in the time I've known you, I can see you're very meticulous with taking notes and stuff like that.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it's very imperative to kind of... You're your own best competitor.
Tyson Kilbey:Keeping a training log, not only does it motivate you, keep you honest, let you look back at what you're doing. There's a lot of benefit and value. And you're right. In terms of competing with yourself, maybe there's days that you're like, I didn't do this, or you look back. Or maybe you're trying to beat the previous month's record or whatever it is. Training logs in terms of my round counts and what skills I practice have helped me through the years in terms of training and preparing for competitions, stuff like that.
Dylan Carnahan:So it currently is November 7th at 3:43 PM. And that becomes important. I had seen, according to Reuters, that the FBI's National Institute Criminal Background Check System shows a 41% increase in activity during the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. With 28.8 million background checks through the end of September, this year has already surpassed 2019's all-time high of 28.4. So obviously, that's a lot.
Tyson Kilbey:It's a lot.
Dylan Carnahan:But when you hear that statistic, what do you think is the result? Why do you think that's happening?
Tyson Kilbey:Well, so here's the funny thing. And I don't know, funny is the right word. But 2020 has been a year unlike most people, most adults even alive right now have experienced in a long time. So statistical data from 2020 is skewed in so many categories. Because who, all of us now, if we were to look back to a year from now self of ours and had conversations in November of 2019, we could not have predicted this crazy year. And the funny thing is 2020 is not done yet. We still have the rest of November and December. So not to make light of it, but statistical data from 2020 has been outrageous. And if we think about all the things that have happened this year, it's mind blowing. But going into those stats, yes. What it's saying is that people are, for a multitude of reasons possibly, very, very much looking into firearms in terms of an option for their own personal safety. And I think we can understand that when you think about the situation of how maybe polarized, how divided the country might be, how many political issues from issues of racism to issues of police tactics and all those things that are happening right now and disagreements on that and the tensions of that, there's a lot of uncertainty. So I mean, I don't think anyone's surprised. Like when you say those numbers, while they're overwhelming and they're unbelievable, I don't think many people would be surprised by those numbers. So people like me who teach firearms and teach self-defense, I think I can help. I mean, obviously there's a lot of us out there. I think I can help people who genuinely do want to learn, and I'll be here doing it.
Dylan Carnahan:And as a result of that influx in gun owners, that's kind of created somewhat of a shortage for ammunition currently.
Tyson Kilbey:Somewhat is a very, very friendly word you gave there.
Dylan Carnahan:So if you were to talk to kind of the new gun owner who's looking to get a gun in the midst of these increased numbers, what are some of the obstacles they might face and how might they overcome them?
Tyson Kilbey:Well, certainly ammunition, like you said. I think that's the number one thing because it is very difficult to get ammunition right now. And if you buy it online, the prices are way above what they would typically be. You can still buy guns. I mean, obviously, you can still try guns out. You can still talk to knowledgeable people. One thing I'll say about a lot of gun owners are is they are willing to share their information. So the information is there, being able to purchase guns. I think the biggest, I guess, hurdle that a lot of them are facing right now is getting good ammo. And so I'll just go back to something I said before is you really don't need to shoot a ton of ammo, especially as a new gun owner, to get the practice you need. You can use dry firing, which I can't say enough good things about dry firing, and mental rehearsal and taking training classes. And then just do maybe 50 to 100 rounds a month, if that's too much, every couple of months, because the ammo shortage will go away. It'll be something. How long? I don't know, but we'll be able to get more ammo at some point, and then you can up the round count. But dry firing, practice, mental rehearsal and stuff like that, that will help kind of mitigate the whole ammo shortage.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, just being able to be conservative yourself, you can still get that experience. So let's kind of move into your Women's Empowered Bootcamp.
Tyson Kilbey:Oh, I'd love to, sure.
Dylan Carnahan:Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, have a blast with that. It's Jiu Jitsu for women. I've talked about this before. Jiu Jitsu is such an amazing art for police officers, for kids who are bullied, and it's certainly a great art for women, for many of the reasons I've talked about many times before. You don't have to be bigger, stronger, more athletic than the person attacking you. So I teach it, Women Empowered. Sundays is the day that we do that quite a bit. I've done seminars on women's self-defense classes for years now, but just recently, we started doing Women Empowered boot camps. And Women Empowered comes from Gracie University. Henner and Hidon Gracie, Eve Torres, and those guys in Torrance, California, which is kind of the head of Gracie, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Gracie University. So it's a program they developed, which was basically Jiu Jitsu taught specifically to women, taught specifically for them. So one of my training partners, Elizabeth, who I've done podcasts before and stuff like that, me and her teach that together. And it's a great dynamic because she's a smaller female, extremely talented detail-oriented, great instructor, and I have my instructing capabilities and just my experience over the years. So we kind of team up with that, and we run these boot camps, and we actually run a weekly class that goes along with that. Because basically we thought, you know, we've done a lot of seminars, and seminars are two-hour women's self-defense classes. And the truth of the matter is, we've talked about perishable skills now for the last however long we've been talking, and one two-hour self-defense class really isn't going to be enough to give you usable self-defense skills. So we did a lot of those, but we thought, man, if they could do that for two hours, but then really kind of ignite that curiosity or that spark to maybe train in a boot camp, which we do for eight-week increments, they would train consistently for eight weeks, and they'd really actually start developing skills that are pretty usable. And then we actually have a progression past that. If they really love that eight-week boot camp, they can train consistently with us and continue to get to a level where they can polish their skills and earn what's called the jujitsu pink belt, the women-empowered pink belt, which takes generally from nine months to over a year of solid training in these skills. So we give them a path to developing skills in an environment that's welcoming, in an environment that really focuses on attacks against women, talks about the mental side of it, and it's a phenomenal program. And I'm just really excited to have that as part of the many, many things I do and teach. And a lot of credit goes to my co-instructor, Elizabeth, because without her, this program would not have kind of taken off in the popularity that it has so far.
Dylan Carnahan:So if someone's interested in this, how are they going to sign up for this with you and Elizabeth?
Tyson Kilbey:Anybody listening to this can connect with me on basically any form of social media. You know, I'm on... Well, I have my website, Top Firearms Instruction, www.topfirearmsinstruction. But I have Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Top Firearms Instruction is on Facebook. So basically between my website and all of my social media, you can always... We post about it pretty frequently. I have information. We set up events and stuff like that. And anybody can contact me through any of those means.
Dylan Carnahan:And the same for Firearms Instruction.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yep.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, I think that kind of concludes everything that I got for you. I appreciate you taking the time to do it. I was really excited to kind of have someone with your level of expertise and experience to talk about this topic in particular. More knowledgeable than the guest I'd hoped to get, so I'm really happy about that. I think we had a fruitful discussion.
Tyson Kilbey:Well, I mean, and what I really think is cool about this since I've started writing and stuff like that and being on podcasts, but we've talked about this, but you being able to bring people in in a local area, I think is really awesome because I might be able to connect with people who might be listening to this on a local level, whereas if you do something that's not, who knows if you'll ever get a chance to meet in person the people that may be listening or connecting with it. I think that's awesome.
Dylan Carnahan:It's a great platform to kind of facilitate discussions on these kind of topics and learn from people that you have access to.
Tyson Kilbey:Yes, that's awesome. On both sides of the scale, you know what I mean? Very cool.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, I hope you enjoyed our interview together. It was a pleasure to talk with Tyson, especially because he was so passionate about what he does in addition to having a lot of knowledge in the area of firearms and jiu jitsu instruction. Tyson and I touched on a lot of different topics in this interview such as teaching kids about firearms, dry firing, mental rehearsal, more into concealing carry and how to go about getting that license, as well as how to go about selecting a firearm and training with that. There's a lot of good information and topics touched on under the umbrella of firearms and personal effects. Much as Tyson talked about at the end, you can contact him on any social media platform that he's present on. He's predominantly Facebook and Instagram, as well as head on over to topfirearmsinstruction.com to kind of get more information on his women's empowerment boot camp and how to receive instruction for jiu-jitsu or firearms from Tyson. I'd also highly recommend going and checking out his books, Personal Defense Mastery and Fundamental Handgun Mastery. I had read both of them and found them incredibly useful, especially for someone that was a novice. With that said, that a book still holds a whole lot of value to even those that are advanced when it comes to personal defense or firearms. Those books are available on Amazon, and I've provided links to a lot of Tyson's information within the show notes below episode two on simplequestionspodcast.com. And while you're there checking out the show notes, you might as well leave any questions that you would like to be answered with a podcast, as well as if you are an artist that would like to be included in the intro for the next episode. I also have begun to create blog posts. These blog posts are centered around topics that either I can't cover in a full episode, don't necessarily pertain to the premise of Simple Questions Podcast, or are reliant upon my personal expertise, not someone else's. So if you shoot on over to the website and go to the blog section, you should see my first post, which is called, What the Hell Are These Blogs? which goes in more depth. If you want to hear someone come up with something to say about next episode when they don't necessarily have a complete plan for next episode, well then listen to me speak right now. I don't really know currently as to who will be the subject of next episode. I have several interviewees lined up, but things have yet to come to fruition. That concludes this episode. I'd like to thank you for listening and ask that you keep asking questions.