On this episode of Firebrand Live, we have a special guest on the show, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA), who has been targeted by the Deep State for his opposition to gun control measures. We also have a report from CNN's Whitney Wilde on the latest Homeland Security bulletin from January 6th, 2021, and an interview with Chris Smith of Gulf Coast Guns.
00:00:57.000We are in 1721 in the Longworth House office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
00:01:03.000And I will leave this report and go right to the floor of the House of Representatives voting against the procedural mechanism that allows Democrats to bring their gun control bills to the floor.
00:01:14.000And then I will be debating against those gun control bills measures that have the federal government literally regulating your gun locker that raise the age to purchase certain firearms that sort of create this ghost gun regulatory structure that makes no sense.
00:01:32.000And later on in Firebrand, I have an explosive interview with Chris Smith of Gulf Coast guns.
00:01:40.000And what you're really going to see there is an attack on the arguments we see from the left about red flag laws that people can just walk into a gun shop and buy a gun in five minutes with no review over how dangerous they may be.
00:01:57.000And I think we're also going to have a real discussion about the ways that big tech and big media influence how we think about guns, what we see, the commercial activity, the viewpoint discrimination.
00:02:10.000We're going to get into all of it with Chris Smith of Gulf Coast guns in just a moment.
00:02:15.000But first, it's very important you understand that the national security apparatus puts out a series of terrorism bulletins.
00:02:25.000And traditionally, those gave us information about the entities abroad that might want to radicalize people in our country, might want to do harm to our country.
00:02:36.000But as you'll see in this report from CNN's Whitney Wilde, who's their national security correspondent, it's starting to take a turn.
00:02:44.000And I want you to wonder, as you're watching this, how long until Joe Biden and the people in his government think that you are a domestic extremist?
00:02:56.000One part of the bulletin reads, threat actors have recently mobilized to violence due to factors such as personal grievances, reactions to current events, and adherence to violent extremist ideologies, including racially or ethnically motivated or anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism.
00:03:13.800This is the sixth time since January 6, 2021, that DHS has issued this terrorism bulletin that makes very clear that the terrorism threat comes from within the United States.
00:03:26.800A year and a half ago, before that event ever happened, these advisories focused on terrorism that originated from foreign groups or people beyond the U.S. who were seeking to use foreign influence to inspire radicalism here in the United States.
00:03:41.800And again, it's just this stark warning that right now, we are in this heightened threat environment that really hasn't changed that much since January 6, 2021.
00:03:59.400And everything they do to keep people locked up who shouldn't be locked up, to use these exquisite anti-terrorism authorities against our people, it's all to maintain this construct of fear.
00:04:13.760People ask me all the time why there are still folks locked up in the D.C. jail over the January 6 attack who might be facing minor charges.
00:04:21.020And the answer is they have to make you believe that some coup could just emerge and erupt at any moment.
00:04:28.680And that's what justifies their tracking of the MAGA political movement, their targeting of people like Peter Navarro, who, I mean, are you sleeping any better because an economist was hauled off in shackles?
00:04:41.960Just totally, totally unacceptable abuses of government power.
00:04:47.920But what you just saw there, I think, gives you the signal that they're going to try to label any group that poses a threat to the prevailing thinking of the regime as somehow an extremist group, a terrorist group.
00:05:03.980We are now in a true zenith of whistleblowers in some of these various agencies who do not like the fact that they're becoming too political.
00:05:15.280There are a lot of good people who sign up to serve in our federal government who don't want the law enforcement, national security, intelligence community to just be an apparatus, an enforcement wing of the political left.
00:05:29.660They want those entities not to be deconstructed or demolished, but to be used for their true purpose.
00:05:36.220And it is typical that we will get occasional whistleblowers in the Congress who will bring information forward to us, but we right now are seeing so many of them.
00:05:46.380I covered on firebrand earlier the whistleblower who gave us the information that allowed us to subsequently confirm that the FBI is operating a secret workspace inside the law firm of the Democratic Party.
00:06:00.940And we're still figuring out what political dirt moved through those channels and ended up being an attack on the presidency, on Donald Trump, and on the tens of millions of Americans who voted for him multiple times.
00:06:14.000But now we have whistleblowers who are alleging even more serious uses of politics as a potential purge.
00:06:23.580Take a listen to Jim Jordan breaking the news on Laura Ingraham's program on Fox News last evening.
00:06:30.960Now, this specific FBI employee I mentioned, what can you tell us more about him or her?
00:06:40.060Decorated Iraqi war veteran being run out of the FBI.
00:06:44.940His allegiance to the country is being questioned because he had the gall to say something that offended the FBI leadership about the January 6th investigation.
00:06:55.600The other one is also having the same thing happen to them simply because on an anonymous questionnaire, they said something that the leadership disagreed with them about January 6th.
00:07:05.300And I would point out, Laura, that we now have had six agents come forward as whistleblowers, two on the school board's narrative, school on the school board's issue, and four now regarding January 6th.
00:07:19.580But we've had literally a half a dozen FBI agents come to our committee.
00:07:23.060Effective congressional oversight requires that when people see corrupt, politically motivated activity that's not proper in our agencies, that they report that activity.
00:07:37.260And Jim Jordan and I, we take incredibly seriously the trust that's been placed in us by those who have already come forward.
00:07:46.560And if there are others, we will be here to receive your story, to evaluate it, and to certainly see that we ask the tough questions that are necessary so that we do not fall into a tyranny in this country.
00:07:59.180There is really important protection against that tyranny, and it's our Second Amendment.
00:08:04.980You know, a lot of people misconstrue the Second Amendment, and in Northwest Florida, we fundamentally understand what it is about.
00:08:11.820One of our most successful gun shop owners is Chris Smith, who owns Gulf Coast Guns, and we spoke with him earlier about some of the challenges that customers are facing, gun owners, and even gun shop owners.
00:08:25.860The controversy that brought Chris to our office originally dealt with advertising.
00:08:31.920He had submitted a couple of television ads to be run on a local news station, and they rejected these ads.
00:08:38.080Take a look at one of them right here.
00:08:39.240Are you tired of going into FUD stores and asking some disgruntled associate for permission just to look at their firearms?
00:09:22.420Biden just called gun dealers merchants of death.
00:09:25.280Well, if you believe the dumbest president in U.S. history, that makes me the biggest MOD in the Florida panhandle.
00:09:30.520Hi, I'm Chris Smith, owner of Gulf Coast Gun.
00:09:33.760And if you believe it's up to ourselves to ensure the safety of our families and that the Second Amendment is there to protect us against tyranny, you should come check us out.
00:09:41.040With the largest selection of firearms and ammo in the panhandle, we believe it's not only our right to own guns, but also our duty as Americans.
00:10:46.420And if you have an issue in this community, these people will get behind you.
00:10:51.040You know, we have a lot of volunteers that do a lot of community service around here.
00:10:56.280And I can't stress how much this community in this area will get behind local business owners, local people, and just anyone in the community.
00:11:07.960I bet you got a lot of current and former military, probably a lot of current and former law enforcement too, right?
00:11:35.120We love our law enforcement officers as well, and this is one of the best communities I've ever been in.
00:11:41.960And, you know, I think there's a lot of folks who might be familiar with Northwest Florida who don't understand that for a lot of military and law enforcement,
00:11:49.980getting some firearms and going out for some hunting, sports shooting, that's a great way to blow off steam.
00:11:57.080Do you ever hear stories about how, you know, your customers are able to have a firearms experience that helps their mental health,
00:12:04.580that helps them recreate and just do the things that we enjoy as Americans?
00:16:45.160It is a far-left anti-gun lobbyist group.
00:16:49.420And the fact that they were using their guidelines for their publications is absurd.
00:16:56.500I mean, I asked them as well, why not just use the NRA or Gun Owners of America's guidelines?
00:17:05.300Because it's the same scenario, but it's a completely opposite end of the spectrum.
00:17:10.540Well, and whether it's big tech, you know, farming out the ability to give shadow banning authorities to far left-wing groups or even a local TV station.
00:17:22.840And, you know, the local TV station doesn't own the airwaves.
00:17:27.080The public, the American people own the airwaves.
00:17:30.340They simply have the right to transmit content on those airwaves in exchange for them providing the public service of being a network that people are able to access.
00:17:41.020And so, how do you feel that, you know, the airwaves that are owned by the public are now controlled by the Brady lobby and they get to filter what the public sees as far as advertising?
00:17:52.240Oh, I'm very upset about it, of course.
00:17:54.020You know, if you watch any of Gulf Coast Gun's Facebook spots or anything that we've done in the local community, we're very vocal about the Second Amendment.
00:18:06.780We're very vocal about the First Amendment as well.
00:18:10.980And the fact that they're censoring anything, and like you said, they don't own the airwaves.
00:18:16.600The fact that they're censoring any of us, especially when it has something to do with the Constitution, is, I mean, it's ridiculous and we're just not going to stand for it.
00:18:38.320I mean, you guys elected me to this job after I was a lawyer, you know,
00:18:42.240and I spent a good amount of time in law school studying how you're able to discriminate against different perspectives under the First Amendment.
00:18:51.200And you're not if someone is engaged in, like, viewpoint, you know, sharing.
00:18:56.760And it's just crazy to me that they would hold this view.
00:19:01.540Have you ever experienced anything like this before where someone wouldn't take your advertisement?
00:20:26.760You know, they're doing it a little at a time.
00:20:29.740They're taking an inch here and an inch there, and it's emboldening them every step of the way.
00:20:36.700They're getting braver and braver, and they're not even trying to hide it anymore.
00:20:40.740They're just straight up coming after us, and they're trying to hit us in our wallets.
00:20:45.040And that's why I took this action with Channel 3.
00:20:49.800I don't know if you saw our Facebook post, but we're asking people not to watch Channel 3 if they want to pull us from there.
00:20:58.660They're trying to hit us in our wallet, so let's hit them right back where it hurts.
00:21:02.740You know, Chris, here in Washington, there's a lot of talk of red flag laws.
00:21:07.800And since I've got you here and since I know this could affect some of your customers, I want to ask you about it.
00:21:13.220The argument we get from the left is, well, you know, when we identify someone who's problematic,
00:21:19.640we need to be able to go into a courtroom without that person present and get a judgment that allows us to go take that person's firearms away.
00:21:28.960Just as someone who's familiar with firearms, familiar with the people that are buying firearms in your store,
00:21:34.320would you want me to vote for more red flag laws in our country as your congressman?
00:21:39.240Absolutely not. Anybody can be red flagged.
00:21:44.500I had a customer not too long ago that's become a good friend of mine who got into a family argument.
00:21:53.940Nothing happened, no violence or anything.
00:21:56.700But one of her family members said that she was crazy and had firearms in the house.
00:22:02.840They came and confiscated her firearms in her house, and now she's having to petition to get them back.
00:22:11.600I think this is going to be a part of, like, every contentious divorce now.
00:22:15.840I think that, like, when people are getting divorced, this is just going to be a thing that's used to create leverage for custody or alimony or whatever.
00:22:23.720And our rights shouldn't be subjected to that.
00:22:27.620In addition to the Facebook post that you made that we're going to share with our audience here,
00:22:33.240what's your strategy now for dealing with this coordinated effort from big tech and big media to silence the existence of your law-abiding business?
00:22:44.560So, you know, we're looking at every avenue.
00:22:47.000There's other social media platforms out there that we are trying to get a following on as well.
00:23:43.260They're wanting to be reached by text message.
00:23:45.200They're wanting to be reached through email.
00:23:48.800You know, we're just getting out there any possible way we can just to keep our name relevant because they are making it as hard as humanly possible on us to advertise.
00:24:00.140My prediction is that this spasm into more gun control in Washington, D.C. is actually going to create a whole lot of customer interest in Northwest Florida for your business.
00:24:13.360Because I think people are going to see this and they're going to say, wait a second, are certain firearms going to just be banned capriciously?
00:24:20.620And that's what they're talking about, just banning the AR-15.
00:24:23.620You know, without really a whole lot of thought behind it or really an understanding of how people use AR-15s.
00:24:56.260If it looks scary, then they want to ban it.
00:24:59.680But there's no real substance to what they're trying to do.
00:25:04.060So yesterday in the House Rules Committee, one of our Republican colleagues asked Jerry Nadler, the Democrat chairman of the Judiciary Committee, pushing a lot of these gun control bills,
00:25:37.260There's a certain arrogance that comes from a lot of these politicians from New York or California or Chicago,
00:25:45.580who don't really know anything about firearms and safe storage and appropriate care and appropriate training for firearms.
00:25:53.200But they think that they have a right to limit use, limit advertising, limit transfers, purchases all throughout our country,
00:26:02.360where, you know, where really I think people appreciate the opportunity that America is special in giving the people the ability to exercise those rights.
00:26:14.240I am personally going to contact the president of Sinclair Media to talk about this matter.
00:26:20.300I am personally going to send correspondence to the FCC.
00:26:23.940There may be some violation of federal law for them just outsourcing their control over advertising review to a private entity, a lobbyist entity.
00:27:38.120It has nothing to do with keeping a gun in your home for self-defense.
00:27:45.180It was put there by our founding fathers to make sure that our government did not become tyrannical.
00:27:51.580What you just said is a clearer crystallization of the Second Amendment than I think almost any member of the Democratic Party here in Washington, D.C. could offer.
00:28:03.500I have the smartest constituents in all of America.
00:28:07.000And the left goes crazy when I say this, like we want to hurt people, which we absolutely don't.
00:28:11.860The Second Amendment is not about self-defense.
00:28:13.820The Second Amendment is not about hunting.
00:28:15.760The Second Amendment is about curating a balance in our country where the people reserve the ability to resist tyranny
00:28:25.020and that they maintain the means to do so.
00:28:27.300And if people don't like that, then they need to have a clear conversation about repealing the Second Amendment.
00:28:33.500If they want to repeal the Second Amendment, there's a process that they can go about and we can have that debate and discussion.
00:28:39.440And I, of course, will be against repealing the Second Amendment.
00:28:42.100But when they want to like recast the Second Amendment as this like moving target or this thing that like is an inkblot test that everyone can stare at and see their own thing,
00:28:51.800it just totally misunderstands the point.
00:28:53.980But the Second Amendment does require access to firearms.
00:28:57.840It does require people knowing where they can go and vindicate their rights by utilizing those rights.
00:29:03.860And I'm glad that in Northwest Florida we have places like Gulf Coast Gun.
00:29:08.420We've got people like Chris Smith who are meeting that need and are following the law and who are, I would say, helping on the mental health front.
00:29:16.860You know, people are always talking about mental health up here.
00:29:19.200And I'm glad you referenced the fact that getting outdoors, doing some shooting, you know, enjoying a gun safely, properly,
00:29:28.360that can actually help people live better lives and relax and deal with PTSD.
00:29:33.160And so I'm very grateful to you for what you do.
00:29:35.860And I appreciate the homework you've given me today to go to work fighting for you, Chris.
00:30:30.760As I committed in my discussion with Chris,
00:30:33.220I spoke with the senior leadership at Sinclair,
00:30:35.580which is the parent company that owns WEAR Channel 3 that did not run these particular ads that I showed you earlier in the program based on their adherence to the Brady standards.
00:30:45.940And here is the feedback that I got back from Sinclair.
00:31:16.920that paradigm is pretty anti-American from my standpoint.
00:31:20.740They also agreed that the Brady organization should not participate in any way in the review of the content that they allow through their advertising platforms.
00:31:32.220I believe that that policy is going to change now at Sinclair Media,
00:31:36.180and I believe that Chris Smith at Gulf Coast Guns being involved,
00:32:13.780more of a leftist organization now than probably they were decades ago.
00:32:18.860And so it's good to see Sinclair make that realization.
00:32:22.560And it's my hope that with Sinclair realizing that the Brady organization shouldn't be involved in the decision making,
00:32:29.720taking another look at kind of the theme and tone and context of these ads that we'll see them on TV or a version very similar to them in northwest Florida.
00:32:40.540But I am grateful to Sinclair for seeing that this was a sort of a flaw in their regulation on content and that that flaw is going to change.
00:32:50.060You know, keep in mind, Sinclair, like they get called alt-right about every other day because they typically don't filter as much as some of the other organizations that own local news.
00:33:01.060I mean, in my experience with Sinclair, a lot of times they give you the microphone and what you say is what you say.
00:33:07.280And that's the news that they want to report.
00:33:08.920And that's a healthy thing for our democracy to not have entities like MSNBC and CNN or ABC or CBS News that want to act like they're neutral and unbiased.
00:33:22.280But, in fact, it's quite the opposite.
00:33:24.880They are but the communications wing of the political left in many cases.
00:33:31.880And so I'm hopeful that we're able to get this resolved and it sounds like there's a policy change coming.
00:33:36.160Thank you guys so much for tuning in to Firebrand.
00:33:38.740I'm going to get down to the floor, vote against this gun control, debate against this gun control, and hopefully show a brighter path ahead for America.
00:33:50.160And, you know, red flag law is one of the things we're going to be talking about soon in the Congress and I think persistently over the next few weeks.
00:33:55.720So if you've got good arguments on the red flag issue, why don't you leave that in the comments section either on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever your viewing or listening platform is of choice.