Stephen Gutowski 0:01 The NRA cancels its annual meeting, Biden bans Russian bullets. With AAPI gathers that more on this episode of the weekly reload podcast. I gave him poison, just for fun. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the weekly reload podcast. I'm your host, Stephen Gutowski, I'm also the founder of the reload.com. If you want to get this podcast a day early, you can head on over to the preload.com and buy a membership. Grab up a membership for yourself, you'll get this 24 hours before everyone else. And you'll get access to a bunch of exclusive content, including a lot of my special analysis. And you will also get a extra weekly newsletter featuring my analysis that goes out every Sunday in addition to our Of course free newsletter that anyone can sign up for, without paying a dime over@realtor.com which goes out every Friday morning to give you the latest updates on the gun news in America. Speaking of which we will do that here now on the podcast. Big news this week is that the NRA canceled its annual meeting. The meeting was set to go off just a week after it got canceled. So last minute cancellation their big deal for the organization because traditionally, the annual meeting is their largest fundraising event of the year, where they typically have upwards of 80,000 nra members descend onto a city to explore the exhibits of major gun companies go to country and rock music concerts, watch speeches from politicians that support the NRA, including in recent years, the president united states but also many senators and governors as well, and also give their feedback to NRA leadership in person, which we saw become fairly spectacular the last NRA Annual Meeting back in 2019, where people were upset about the allegations of misappropriation of funds by NRA executives for their own personal use, including CEO wayne lapierre, and others at the top levels of the NRA. But this year, none of that will be happening because of the rising number of COVID cases in Texas where the event was planned to be held in Houston. And reportedly, a number of gun companies had dropped out of attending the event over the concerns for their staff and the safety of the their staff especially given the lack of hospital beds available in Texas and staff. To man those beds, the state has had to call in medical professionals from other areas of the country to try and help deal with the surgeon COVID cases they've seen there recently as other states and other parts of the country. But apparently that was enough of a risk that these companies did not want to attend this indoor meeting. banally confirmed to me after a report from the daily beast that it is was would not be sorry, would not be attending the event due to the risk of COVID. There is has also been speculation that the forementioned controversy surrounding CEO wayne lapierre and the ongoing legal battle with the state of New York where the Attorney General is seeking to dissolve the organization to shut it down. That that also played a role in some of the decision making by these major gun companies to leave I think that perhaps there was a lower barred due to that unfolding situation for some of these companies to say no to the NRA and and eventually enough of them pulled out of the event that didn't really make sense anymore for the NRA to hold it. And of course, they said in a public statement that they wanted to avoid the risk of having a COVID outbreak among staff of of the NRA and of any of the exhibitors. So that event has been cancelled. I actually wrote a piece in addition to our news report on what this means for the NRA going forward. It's a members only piece. So again, if you buy a membership, if you go get yourself a membership. You will have access to that piece where I talked a little bit about why this matters so much financially for the audience. And why that lower bar for gun companies to buck whatever the NRA wants them to do matters as well. So you should head over and check that out. We had other big news this week coming out of the Biden administration, where they impose new sanctions on the Russian government in the form of an ammo ban. That's right, there will no longer be approvals for new permits to import Russian ammunition. Now, this does not have necessarily an immediate effect of cutting off all supply of Russian ammunition today, because ongoing permits or permits that have already been approved, will continue to operate. But those permits generally only extend up to two years, and any new permits or current applications will not be granted. Which means that over the next two years or so, all supply of Russian ammunition into the United States will be completely choked off. The administration claims that they did this to respond to the poisoning attack of one of Putin's political opponents that occurred about a year ago. And that these sanctions are part of the response to that event, as well as his jailing once he returned to Russia after he survived the poisoning attempt. And the bad administration says that this ammo ban importation ban which also would extend to all Russian made firearms, though most of those were already banned for importation due to similar sanctions against Russia. Then the administration says that that is what the focus of these sanctions is to try and hurt the Russian government. However, this will also certainly have a major impact on supply of ammunition in the United States where there's already an ongoing shortage that has affected every caliber of ammunition. But obviously, this ban will affect calibers typically associated with Russian made firearms like you know, ak 47, or ak 74 are macros and, and a lot of other firearms, which are really quite popular United States, but also these Russian manufacturers do make a lot of common NATO rounds or rounds that are more popular within American made firearms, like nine millimeter or two to three or 556. So that supply will also dwindle. And it's likely that while the ban again, won't completely shut off importations for a year or two. In the meantime, there will probably be a run on Russian made ammunition, which is very popular in the United States and has been distributed. At most every gun store in the country. Even Walmart sells Russian made ammunition in the fall of form of total ammo, or two ammo. Forgive my pronunciation there. But, again, I've discussed why this will have an immediate impact in more depth over at the reload in a members piece. So you can see, as I keep pointing out here that the membership is really is quite valuable, you get a quite a lot for signing up today. And this is the only add on the show, as you guys know, by this point, so hopefully it's not too overbearing. But regardless, today we have an interview with members of the Asian American Pacific Islander gudnason organization, which features a number of really wonderful initiatives that they've undertaken recently, some really interesting things going on. They're one of the first Asian American focused gun groups in the country. And we talk about what it's like, what it's been like for them over the last couple months that they've been in existence and what their goals are, what their plans are, how they're going to carry them out. So I will send it over to myself here in the well, I filmed this in the past, so we're going back in time, I guess technically, but listen and enjoy, please. All right. We are here with members from AAPI go to talk a little bit about some of the activities that they've been engaged in recently. It's a this is a relatively new Asian American Pacific Islander gun group, based out in California and I'm here today with a few A few of the members of leadership and can you guys just introduce yourselves one by one? Maybe? Scott, you start? Scott Kane 10:09 Yeah, absolutely. And I would say we're kind of the more of the Caucasian Asian ti group today. We had a couple of folks that couldn't make it. But I am Scott. I'm the co founder of the group, and really looking forward to chatting with everybody about all the exciting things we have going on. Stephen Gutowski 10:25 And your name is Scott Cain. Right? You're the exactly, yep. One of the co founders. And you also host the podcast as well. Right. You're one of the CO hosts. Scott Kane 10:35 Yeah, we jointly host the podcast there. So yeah, I'm kind of like the emcee. And they're the rappers. Stephen Gutowski 10:42 And Bobby, what about you? What's your what's? What's your role? Bobby Yang 10:46 Yeah, yeah, I initially joined Scott, to help out before the split. But then afterwards, I kept on helping out with sky and where I'm on the podcasts as well. help out with events and, Stephen Gutowski 11:00 and stuff like that. And you're there. And you're Bobby Yang. Exactly. Yep. Yes. And so you've been there since the beginning of the beginning. Yeah, the group and yeah, obviously, there was. There are other members that split off into a separate group, we're not going to get too much into that. into that today. I just wanted to focus on what you guys have been doing. And maybe down the line, I can have the other group on and talk about some of the stuff that they're doing. But, but I wanted to focus on what you guys are up to now. Because you've had some interesting events. Raphael? What if what's, what's your role at the group? What have you been working on them with? Raphael Platte 11:39 So I also co host the podcast, there are four of us, who are regulars, I also do a bit of brand management and help shape our message. Stephen Gutowski 11:49 Wonderful. And so you guys are all based in California, right? No, no, Scott Kane 11:58 Bobby and I are. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, some democratic people as well, who's on the east coast. And then he who must not be named, who does not like to share his name on the air? Who is also on the east coast. But so actually, yeah, three out of five, our east coast, but primarily here. Yeah. Stephen Gutowski 12:19 So you've expanded a bit from the very early days, obviously, now you have more of a nationwide footprint, at least as far as the podcast goes right in the website. Scott Kane 12:32 Yeah, yeah, exactly. In fact, I mean, we we just hosted a really exciting event here in California on July 31. But we're already kind of in the midst of planning an East Coast event. Oh, really? Well, before we get to that, why don't we talk a little bit about that that event that this was a range day that you guys hosted with with a number of Asian American gun owners? What was the what was the goal of that event? What seems like more than just a simple range, Damon, it's sort of ended up morphing into kind of like Lollapalooza, for guns and first time gun owners. So we've got a bunch of people brought him out to the desert, shot a lot of steel targets under supervision of NRA certified instructors, such as the great Brian Wang into monarch defense. Um, and it just really turned into a kind of like a, you know, just a good event for first time shooters in particular, where they're able to kind of try out a good variety of firearms decide, you know, which type was right for them. We had a few ladies trying ar 15, for the first time ever it was, it was great. And, and the dog agrees. Stephen Gutowski 13:38 And, and Bobby, were you at that event, as well? Yep. Yeah, I was at the event. What was what was your takeaway from the event was the biggest thing that you you saw going on there? Bobby Yang 13:52 Yeah, I think for me, one of like, the biggest things was just seeing the community out there. Like, I been in tech, most of my friends are tech people, and most of them don't own guns or talk about them or have anything to do with them. So kind of just seeing the, like different people. Like most of them were Asian that came out, but it seemed like different people from the community to coming out. And seeing that was the most, most Stephen Gutowski 14:25 interesting part for me, huh? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it certainly sounds like you guys are taking sort of a, I don't know, Rainbow coalition approach to this to the way this group works. You know, that's sort of focusing on trying to help Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders get into gun ownership, but, but not obviously limiting the membership or the people involved to, you know, a particular ethnic group or race or whatever. It seems like much more of a concerted effort. Is that like how you view it? Scott Kane 15:02 Yeah, I mean, I would say so I mean, if you think of other groups that are out there, they're more like the NRA more old school, kind of an older demographic. And we're kind of more like FPC. So we're scrappy, younger, hungrier and kind of really doing things without any support from the big gun establishment, so to speak, you know, not that we wouldn't welcome, you know, some help here or there, you know, some partnerships. But for the most part, we're built this from the ground up, and are handling everything ourselves from the social media to event planning and everything like that. And it's really the community's our strength, because we couldn't do it without the folks out there that are, you know, listening to the podcast and participating in the events. They're really what makes this whole thing possible. Stephen Gutowski 15:44 Certainly, and Raphael, what, what would you say your main main motivation is to get involved with the group or? Unknown Speaker 15:51 Yeah, so Scott actually reached out to me a while before, you know, things solidified, I had expressed some views online that he he liked. And we were talking about gun ownership from not necessarily traditional right wing perspective. And a few months later, he reached out to me, we'd been talking about doing a podcast and was like, hey, it's on you want to do this. And so I didn't know what I was getting into went in. And I was like, Oh, this is awesome. more minorities with guns, and been diehard ever since. Stephen Gutowski 16:19 Certainly. Wonderful. And now, one of the things that you guys have undertaken, on the more political side of things, is this drive to have Asian Americans apply for concealed carry licenses in California, where obviously, the process is very restrictive. And you're you have to have a good reason, you know, according to government officials there in order to be issued a permit, and obviously, in certain parts of California and certain localities that they effectively don't issue permits to anyone. Can you talk a little bit more about that? I think about a you. were part of you actually applied as part of this. Is that? Yep. Is that right? Yeah. You tell me a little bit more about why, why you guys decided to do that. And why you personally, you know, got involved with that part of what what the organization is doing? Bobby Yang 17:17 Sure. Yeah. For me personally, um, I, I decided to submit my application. Because I feel like, like, just the time that we're living in now is there's there's definitely some civil unrest, to say the least. And just looking at crime stats, and not specifically where I live, but just around the bay, whether if it's in the city, or if it's in the East Bay, that like the crime has been rising pretty drastically. So like that, that was a pretty big motivating factor to to apply for my my concealed carry permit. And that, along with just I think that it should, I think that it should be given out more freely than it is now in the county I live in specifically in Santa Clara. That was another reason for me applying as well as this, because I, the the county is very restrictive, on who should give these permits out to. And I think, like personal protection is more than enough for for good cause. Stephen Gutowski 18:33 Yeah, and you mentioned rising crime, obviously, there's been a increase in specifically hate crimes committed against Asian Americans, including in the Bay Area, you know, in San Francisco. Is that part of the motivation here, for this effort to have, you know, a number of Asian Americans apply for these kinds of permits, even though it's probably unlikely there'll be approved, Bobby Yang 19:02 kept from me it definitely was. And I think so Scott had an experience of this I personally haven't. But, thankfully, but it's something that I'm definitely aware of. So like, even if it's not directed towards me, like if I'm out and I'm like, with friends or just out and about, and I just want to be able to protect like my community both like like here locally, and also kind of like, like the larger community of the bay and also like to my like, Asian brothers and sisters as well, more specifically since like, they are very rubber underrepresented. When it comes to politics in general. I Stephen Gutowski 19:52 feel like sure. Yeah, sure. Certainly. And Scott, as Bobby alluded to, there, you Your your family has experienced this sort of hate motivated, you know, actions in the past year and a half. And in fact, wasn't that one of the motivating factors for you to become a gun owner? Because you're relatively new to owning guns at this point. Right? Can you talk a bit about both of those things? Scott Kane 20:24 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, well, I mean, basically, it's kind of covered in one of the first articles on the reload there. But to kind of recap that, you know, my wife and I, she's Chinese, my daughter's 50%. Chinese, we're just walking down the street in San Jose one day, and this creepy group of dudes pulled out of a pepper pickup truck, and just, you know, yelled a bunch of racial stuff like, you know, ftu kung fu go back to China. And that just felt like super, super disempowering to me and, you know, you're reading stories about people getting followed home into their garages in Oakland, and assaulted as they're taking groceries out of their car, or, you know, getting mugged in parking lots or just, you know, attacked for simply being Asian. So it really got me thinking like, well, what if I wasn't there, like, what they've been more aggressive and gone after my wife, and kid, God forbid. So that's kind of like what got me interested in, you know, purchasing my first firearm. And coincidentally, the day that I got my first firearm was the day that everything shut down due to shelter in place orders in Santa Clara County. So I ended up having to wait like around 60, like 40, or 45, to 50 days, to actually get my first firearm due to, you know, shops being shut down, and all the restrictions within California. There's also, a lot of people don't realize this, but like a 30 day limit on the amount of handguns you can buy in the state. So because of that, you know, I ended up having to pay the fees twice, do the exam twice, and all that because, you know, the store that I ended up purchasing from ended up going bankrupt. So that's really what kind of started you know, that planting the seed. Um, but fast forward to about, you know, a year later, April when that horrific shooting in Atlanta happened. And, I mean, I just felt like that was clearly racially motivated. There's a lot of gaslighting going on. And so I'm pre dating API go actually started this CCW Bay Area group on Google, which was also on Reddit. And that's kind of like how I ended up meeting. Some of the original co founders, they reached out to me and said, Hey, I really like what you're doing. Why don't we start collaborating on some stuff. And so that's kind of how the whole genesis of API got started was, as a result of that original push for CCW applications that within the Bay Area. And I would say like, you know, the point of that exercise, I mean, we did have about 80 people sign up and commit to apply for CCW. But we're really clear upfront that chances of success are pretty much minimal. The real point is to show political impact. And honestly, like we had an application date deadline of may 31. And no one in the group that I've talked to you heard anything from the sheriff of Santa Clara County about that? I mean, it's expected but also, I mean, I guess we have to have a palette of iPads like Apple security chief in order to, you know, get through to them. Stephen Gutowski 23:12 Right, because there's been a lot of corruption. Specifically in that county, when it comes to issuing gun related permits with people there have been bribes and people have been prosecuted over it. In case anyone who doesn't understand the reference you're making there, but yeah, certainly the the whole system, I guess, is what you're sort of pointing, pointing out the flaws in of the this may issue style law, where it's up to essentially at the discretion of, you know, your local sheriff, as to whether or not you you can get your permit, even if you are, even if you otherwise pass all the requirements, or have a specific concern, like, you know, a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. Unknown Speaker 24:02 Not only that, it's a perfect avenue for racism, when you put, you know, illegal right in the hands of one person. That person essentially has unlimited potential for abuse of power. Stephen Gutowski 24:14 And obviously, we've seen that play out not just in California, but also in New York, whose laws now, you know, at the Supreme Court, which actually there'll be a hearing the arguments on that start on November third. So we'll be interesting to see how that plays out and how that might affect what you guys are trying to do in California. If may issue laws are found to be unconstitutional, you could see sort of the swift change in law on the front of concealed carry permits there. But roughly, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about sort of the the tech I guess angle of this, of what you guys are doing seems like there's a lot of people who are, you know, working in tech or are, you know, involved in tech tech pursuits? Right? That's also another sort of common interest in this group, from what you guys have talked about thus far is that does that carry through for you as well? Unknown Speaker 25:26 Yeah, I'm also a software engineer. I think part of that is the number of us who live in the Bay Area, just in terms of our occupational demographics. But I think, on another level, I think we're all drawn together by our, we're not your stereotypical gun owners, I was raised a redneck, I kind of hopped from lower middle class to upper middle class, and you know, I live and get it for life. My parents did a lot of us, you know, come from different backgrounds. But we're all kind of your average yuppies. And I think that appealing to the kind of person who actually needs defense more than say, your average redneck these days, is a really appealing message that I think, just from the event and my experience, there is a really good inroad for a lot of people, they can see that I'm not, I'm not wearing a red hat, I'm not wearing a T shirt with any offensive slogans on it. But I'm eager to teach people how to defend themselves. And that's, I think, something that a lot of people have never seen before. And it speaks really well. Stephen Gutowski 26:35 Right. And that's another thing that I think, perhaps sets AAPI gal apart from from other gun groups that exist out there is is the way that you talk about gun ownership. And and perhaps just your, your politics in general, may be a bit different than we don't talk about politics. We talk about policy, Unknown Speaker 27:02 right? Politicians aren't our problem, the policies that they promote our we don't mention politicians in connection with their policies, we try to keep it try to keep party names out of it. This is about what policies are best for people. It doesn't mean it does matter who you vote for, but we're not here to tell you who to vote for. We're here to tell you what these laws can mean for your life. Stephen Gutowski 27:24 Sure, certainly, but but I mean, I think it's this your approach is distinct from a number of other gun groups that that tend to lean much more on the conservative side of the spectrum, politically, not to say that, you know, you guys don't, won't, won't work with or allow conservative minded people into your group or anything like that. But But it seems to be one of the things that is a differentiator, perhaps, for what you guys are doing. Is that do you got? I mean, do you feel that's accurate? Or am I being too broad? Scott Kane 28:03 Well, I mean, I think it's some we're kind of a mixed coalition. So like, for example, I mean, I'm record is having voted for Biden, which, you know, I may be presenting that over the last 72 hours, given what's going on Afghanistan, kind of a, I don't know if this is a family friendly podcast, but a bleep show. So it's kind of kind of hard not to reconsider some of those things. Plus, you know, things like the Georgia runoffs who expected that was going to flip the other side and, you know, ending the filibuster. So you know, I mean, people grow, they kind of evolved, and these guys have taught me a lot, especially on, you know, some of my views on, you know, like, universal background checks, versus, you know, criminal background checks, a lot of people don't realize there is a distinction, one of them requires a registry of gun owners. And you know, you don't want that falling into the wrong hands. Whereas most people don't realize that when the anti gun establishment says something like that, they're completely ignoring the fact that every state has their own background system through NICs and criminal background checks are taking place on pretty much every sale. So that's been an eye opener for me up in particular, and, you know, kind of owe it to these guys for sort of opening my horizons a little bit. You know, like I said, I'm sort of like, part of my role as the host on the podcast is like, I'm there to listen, and just kind of feel questions, and most of the content is coming from these guys. And we're debating and having good healthy discussions about it. And it's been, you know, a fun ride so far. Sure. Unknown Speaker 29:30 I think it's worth mentioning that we have different personal politics, I don't think Yeah, you can apply one filter to all of us. I definitely have different politics than Scott and Bobby, for sure. But we try to stay to the core issue, which is the universal right to keep and bear arms, which is the one thing we all definitely agree on. Stephen Gutowski 29:52 Yeah, that makes sense. So how do you foresee the future of this group going like what What are your goals? Long term? What What do you want to accomplish with AAPI? Go? You know, obviously, in the short term, I imagine you're, you're gonna have more events and stuff, but I want to I want to get the long term vision for where you guys want this group to end up, what do you want it to be? And what do you hope to accomplish with it? Scott Kane 30:24 Well, I mean, it's still kind of a work in progress. But I mean, like, at least my vision long term, and you know, everyone else has their own opinions on it and their thoughts and how we want it to go. But, um, ideally, I'd love to see us as like the antithesis to Moms Demand Action, or new town, you know, they're very active politically and appealing to politicians lobbying, that sort of thing. And I just don't really see many groups on the right, doing that save for a lawsuit. You know, like bombs, man action has phone banks every week, where they're calling up politicians and saying, hey, vote no, on this gun legislation, or vote yes, on this anti gun legislation. So finding a way to kind of like tap into that grassroots political potential and harnessing it for the greater good and the Second Amendment. That's ultimately where I like to see things that go, and providing, you know, good solid education for, for folks that join the group too. Stephen Gutowski 31:22 And what about you guys, Raphael? and Bobby, what do you what do you think Unknown Speaker 31:27 are our core tenants are education, outreach and advocacy. And I think that's what we're going to continue to do. So we want to educate people, we want to reach out to people who don't know, they don't know they want to get in yet. And we want to advocate for, for the Second Amendment, and generally self defense rights, we don't care if it's a gun, or if it's a taser, taser illegal, where I live. And that's just as indefensible as an open carry ban or a concealed carry ban. So I think, long term, we're, we want to expand all three of those who want to reach out to more people who want to advocate more loudly. And yeah, that's bigger and better. Sure, Stephen Gutowski 32:10 sure. What about you, Bobby? Scott Kane 32:11 That was Mrs. Kane, by the way there. So you know, she just dropped into say, hi. Wonderful. Bobby Yang 32:18 Yeah. For me, I think one of Of course, I agree with our core tenets. But I personally want to be able to just have more Asian Americans express their voice and their thoughts. Because I was raised very traditionally, Chinese and I was taught to keep my head down and just do your work, do your job and your you'll like, like excel in life, and you'll meet your goals, which I totally believe working hard will get you to where you want to be. But just with politics, and the way that the country is going, I feel like there's going to be some pretty immediate action that's needed from like the Asian American community. I mean, I see it locally. Not with gun rights, but with other things more specifically in education, and the area mat, where Asian Americans are stepping up and like voicing their opinions and fighting back. So I I personally would love to see that more. And for me, I hope that my role in this will, will help like other Asian Americans also see that, yes, they have a voice. Yes. They can voice their voice. Yeah. Stephen Gutowski 33:45 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's certainly been a lot of reporting on on this idea in media of Asian Americans sort of speaking up more in in the political realm. Because of traditions that you've you just spoke about, you know, that hasn't that hasn't been as much of a at the forefront in that community till until now. And it's interesting that you said, so you view what, you know. Do you think that's something that this view that speaking out on gun rights is something that perhaps more Asian Americans will come to, to do now after the last year and a half? Bobby Yang 34:29 Yeah, I'm hoping that that will happen. Just because I believe the Second Amendment basically helps protect all protect all of our other rights. So I think this is a very, very crucial write that we can't give up on. We can't just be in the background of I believe that we like really need to actively fight and make sure our rights is not being infringed on and I hope that Lots of other Asian Americans can rally behind this and in integrating as well, this because the Second Amendment is, is probably one of the more or maybe even the most controversial, right. So it's like, maybe not the best place for someone who's just starting to voice their opinions about politics to start from. But I think that, I hope that eventually we'll get to a point where we're more each Americans can kind of not view gun ownership as something like negative peace, I feel like that. That's pretty big in the agent community, but to see it for what it really is, and why the founding fathers like actually put that as the Second Amendment versus just seeing, like, all guns equal, more violence. Stephen Gutowski 35:57 Yeah, sure, sure. Now, obviously, people out there, there's going to be people who say, you know, why, why create a group specifically for Asian Americans or appeals to Asian Americans? Why not work within other groups like the National Rifle Association, or someone like that, and go through their, you know, whatever outreach programs they have? What, what do you guys think, sets you apart as a group and makes you, you know, makes your existence necessary makes it like valuable for for something like API go to be out there? Scott Kane 36:36 Yeah, well, I mean, I mean, obviously, I've just thought cambio have to the reasons that are near and dear to me of why we need a group like this. Um, I just don't want my wife and my daughter to feel like they're unsafe walking down the street or going some ghetto doing activities, simple shopping. Um, you know, people in the Midwest might not realize it, given the fact that Asian populations are, you know, lower, but in California, huge population, New York, East Coast, etc. And this is where the epicenter of like, all the hate crimes are happening. I mean, just follow at beyond limb TV on Twitter, she's an ABC News reporter. And there's like a case after case after case of Asians just being attacked for absolutely no reason, um, particularly in large cities over here. So I mean, I think the reason the roof is exists is because of that. I mean, Asians are the most targeted group. And, you know, I mean, obviously, I'm not Asian, but I've kind of got a vested interest, as you just saw, with my family, and I just want to do everything I can to, you know, make sure that they don't have to grow up in a world where they're seeing crap like this on the news on a daily basis, let alone being in fear of experiencing it themselves. I mean, you know, it's like, my in laws don't even want to visit at this point. It's just really sad. Stephen Gutowski 37:55 And you guys feel like the community was underserved before now. Alright, right. No. Bobby Yang 38:24 Yeah. And and I think like, like, these, like nice groups, whether it makes science or Naga or like, more like specific groups, I think they're very helpful. Because I think this is like wildly generous, but like, normally, like people have a race kind of like, bond with each other easier. Like, just speaking personally, like whatever I like would start school, I would always like gravitate normally towards the other Asian kids in school, the same with at work now. So it's like, like gun ownership been already such a controversial topic already such a stigmatized topic and in the Asian community, I think it's hard for, for some people to like, step out and be like, Oh, I'm gonna go to this in our meeting, or Oh, I'm gonna go to this other meeting where like, I'm the only Asian person there I think I mean, these groups are definitely very useful. But I think that like once once you like, know what your opinions are on a certain topic and once like you like know you believe in you, like firmly believe, I think there's definitely like areas where like, we can integrate and help, like, just in a broader sense, rather than a more specific sense towards Stephen Gutowski 39:49 there's kind of an advantage to a shared experience, I guess, is what you're getting out there. Bobby Yang 39:55 Yeah, because like, like before, I didn't really I didn't really understand either. Because like coming from Tech, there is this huge, like movement to get more like female engineers. And then there are like these like female specific meetups. And I would think, oh, why don't you just join, like another meetup and then add, I didn't really understand until pretty recently, where I just kind of like, looked over, like what I did, like throughout my career and kind of like my childhood and growing up, and it made a lot, a lot of sense for like, people who are like, share some type of commonality to be in the group, just so that they feel comfortable in that they're able to just voice their opinions in a group that they feel comfortable sharing things with. Stephen Gutowski 40:49 Right, that makes sense. Um, and, and I imagine your group also has an advantage with, like, literally being able to speak the language of some, you know, Asian Americans who, whose first language isn't English. Right? I mean, it's that has that come into play? Is that something that you're, you know, considering? as part of your advantage as a group to help, you know, bring more Asian Americans into the gun owning community? Bobby Yang 41:25 Yeah, I think for me, like, Chinese is my first language. I've been speaking it as much since I moved out from my parents. So it's, it's definitely a skill I need to keep on doing side Oh, forget it. So I don't lose it. But I mean, I definitely think that that's something that we are like thinking about, and that we'll use to our advantage, just because I go to the range pretty often. And in San Jose, and I would say, most of the time, like half the people there I see on the pistol range are speaking Chinese. So like, there's a good amount of like, Chinese speaking gun owners, especially new gun owners. So yeah, I think there's definitely room there. Stephen Gutowski 42:13 That makes a lot of sense. What. So what are in the short term? We talked about the long term a little bit there. But in the short term, what's what's next for API guy? What events do you have coming up? What are some of the initiatives you're looking forward to? You know, getting underway? Scott Kane 42:30 Yeah, I mean, I would say we're trying to play like a bunch more like more micro events. I mean, this event was huge scale took like, two months of planning. But we definitely want to get out there to more local ranges, and just, you know, have informal meetups with folks in the community as well. We're working on one of those right now. So stay tuned. Stephen Gutowski 42:52 Wonderful. And for people who want to get involved, people who want to join, they want to help out whether they're Asian or white, or Hispanic or black or whatever. What's, what's the best way that they can do that? How can they actually attend one of your events? or, or, you know, listen to your podcast, or join the join the group how's what's the best Avenue? Scott Kane 43:17 yet to the best avenue for now is our website, which is at API go.net. And then our podcast is API go cast. So basically, to search for that. So LinkedIn channels, and yeah, it's pretty much all of our social media links are on the website as well. Right in the right and home page. So we're on Instagram, we're on Twitter, we're on Reddit, we have a really good discord community, which we actually kind of use to do a live q&a portion for our podcast every week. So if we can get more people to show up to that session, and we'll be you know, a lot more exciting audio than just, you know, for guys shooting the breeze with occasional guests. But yeah, I'd say that's, those are the main channels, you know, RAF, Bobby anything out there. Unknown Speaker 44:04 There are big things coming up on the podcast, I'd recommend keeping an eye on it. We've been talking to some very interesting people and getting more you know, formal guests. So we're looking forward to sharing more of that with you as as it comes along. Scott Kane 44:17 Yeah, and I also have that like collaborations with those guests are going to be kind of key for growth going forward. So we're you know, talking to various people who are kind of have a similar mindset in the gun influencer community who maybe aren't the cola ignores of the world or you know, other folks who may have heard of but still have pretty good social presence and you know, kind of forming Coalition's with them to drive. The political change that we were discussing earlier is going to be kind of key to our growth strategy. Moving forward. Bobby Yang 44:46 Yeah, and then for me, that this could be more of like on a personal thing than like, API go thing, but I'm, I'm opening a gun shop in San Jose. I'm excited to see kind of like Like how that can work out with API co as well. We I signed the lease in putting in my ffl application and had been talking with sgpt for a couple months now. Where I send a lease recently, but I've been talking with the city people for a couple of months. Stephen Gutowski 45:21 Sure. Well, I imagine there aren't very many Asian American gun store owners at this point. There's Bobby Yang 45:28 not too many of them. There's a handful for sure. Just in general, the bear here doesn't have too many gun stores. I was out in Oakdale this past weekend. And there were there were like, what, for three or four gun stories in this like small town about? So like, like the Bay Area doesn't have nearly enough, in my opinion. Scott Kane 45:52 Yeah. I mean, that's kind of sad, because when you think of some of the regulations that Sam liccardo was trying to put in place at San Jose, that really just drives small mom and pop stores out of business doesn't affect Bass Pro Shops or sportsman's warehouse or Cabela's or big five, but the little guys, you know, like, potentially, Bobby's business, are the ones that suffer most from some of those restrictions. Stephen Gutowski 46:17 Sure, how, how's that process gone? so far? Bobby, it's, Bobby Yang 46:21 it's been not the easiest. Just because, like, around here in the Bay, like different cities have different zoning restrictions. And San Jose was one of the lesser restrictions in terms of zoning. Like, like, Where am I on the peninsula, lots of the cities here require like a special permit that needs to go through a council and like your, you'll never get through the council. And then like Belmont, there's like one street that has like five buildings. And these are the only five buildings that can have a firearm. business that. So it's like getting over those zoning hoops has been the hardest. And then I think most of us know, like San Jose, have new ordinances for for gun shops, the biggest one being having, like video recording every transaction. So that's something that like is, is, is pretty expensive to do. Because it not only covers new gun shops, but all of the current gun shops need to need to comply. So I don't remember who I was talking to. But they were saying that, like, they were talking to someone at the San Jose Bass Pro Shop. And it was it was like 10s of 1000s of dollars just to cover the parking lot, because that's one of the requirements. So for like a smaller gun shop to like, outfit everything where it's recording all the transactions, and storing everything on site and then being able to, to pull up those records like is it's a it's a pretty big deal. And it is a good amount of initial investment. So it's Yeah, it's it's not a not something that it definitely made it harder. But yeah, like the zoning was the hardest to get past. Stephen Gutowski 48:29 But But you've you've gotten past that you have a lease now and Yep. Do you have a Do you have a name? Bobby Yang 48:36 Yeah, Yeah, I do. I'm calling it enclave Outfitters. So not gonna use like firearms or anything in the name not gonna be like putting the the address on the website or anything trying to keep it as as dl as possible. But yeah, just with all the licenses I need to get for the state of California, it probably won't be operational for another six months. So it's, it's it the the permits have to like, be sequentially done, like one after another versus done parallel. So in order for me to get my San Jose firearms resell permit, I have to first get my federal license, like Federal Firearms license. And then after I get the San Jose one that I can get the state level one, and then get the state level one, I need to like take classes to do X, Y and Z. So it's, there's lots of steps that go into it, but it can't be done in parallel. Yeah, Stephen Gutowski 49:39 yeah. Well, sounds like a long process for sure. We'll have to have you back on at some point to, to talk about one sure through the whole thing. Sure. Yeah. And and also, we'll have to have the rest of you guys back on again to talk about updates with a PI go and the events that you guys have here in The future. But I really appreciate you coming on this week to talk about, you know, everything that's going on with the group you had, you know, that great event that was very successful. Seems like how many people showed up to that? Scott Kane 50:14 Yeah, that 70 people showed up to eight, excluding volunteers. So we had a core group of I think, like about 10 to 20 volunteers that were just there like to help out with training. But the rest were just all mostly new shooters, a couple of more experienced ones that, you know, we're kind of there to test out their gear, but overwhelming majority are first time folks. And we're staying in contact with them all through our email marketing list and blog updates, Twitter posts, and all that. So. Stephen Gutowski 50:43 Yeah. And most, most of them were Asian American, of course. Scott Kane 50:47 Yeah, I would say 75% Asian American, and the ones that weren't were mostly staff. Stephen Gutowski 50:54 And a lot of women too, as well, right. Scott Kane 50:58 Yeah, good, good, good chunk of women, too. I think like we had at least six that I know of that were there throughout the whole day. Stephen Gutowski 51:06 Great, great. Well, I'm looking forward to having you guys on again to talk about future events and cover them over at the reload. So thank you all for once again, for coming on. And we will we will talk to you again real soon. Scott Kane 51:21 Yeah, thank you so much for having us on. It was a great opportunity. Really appreciate it. Thanks. Stephen Gutowski 51:26 Absolutely. All right. And that is it for this episode of the weekly reload podcast. I think we learned a lot. I thought it was the first time we had multiple guests at once. So there's quite an adventure, I think. But I think there were quite a lot of really interesting perspectives offered there from the the guys at AP go. And I think that we will see probably more of them moving forward, I think they're going to be doing a lot of stuff that is worth writing about. So I'll continue to cover what they're doing as well as what a number of other organizations that try to specialize in certain demographics in the gun owning community and try to grow them. I think there's a lot of interesting things happening in that space. So we will continue to follow that for you. And until next time, I'm Stephen Gutowski, your wonderful host please head over to the reload comm get your membership today. It helps support what we're trying to do here at the reload to help support our journalism reload is 100% reader funded is an independent outlet does not make deals with any people that we write about no shady contracts, nothing like that. We are reliant on the readers to fund this site to fund this reporting. And we could not do it without you. So I implore you once again to come over and buy a membership to keep us going and keep us growing and let us do more exciting things moving forward covering the kinds of stories you will not find anywhere else. But for the after that pitch. I will say goodbye to see you again. Next time. I gave him poison just for fun. I had one friend. Now there's none. I made the devil broke so many bones but none of them I was alone. I broke so many bows Transcribed by https://otter.ai