Heartland Journal Podcast
Heartland Journal Podcast EP232 Wally Wentz Gators Custom Guns & More 7 25 24
Joining Vincent is Wally Wentz owner of Gators Custom Guns in Kelso, Washington to discuss running a gun shop in Washington State along with battle against Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson who is currently running for governor of Washington. Vince and Wally will discuss legislation regarding gun rights and restrictions in Washington State and a whole lot more. Find him at www.gatorscustomguns.com If you like what you hear make sure to subscribe to the show and share it with your friends. You can find us at http://heartlandjournal.com
- Duration:
- 1h 3m
- Broadcast on:
- 25 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
>> Welcome to the Heartland Journal Podcast with your host, Vincent Cavillari. >> Good evening, everyone. Pleasure to have you again today. This is the Heartland Journal Podcast, and I'm your host, Mill Creek City Councilman, Vincent Cavillari. And as always, it's my pleasure to be here, and it's my pleasure to have you. So thanks for tuning in. We ask that you check us out at heartlandjournal.com. Please like us, subscribe, do what you can. Subscriptions are picking up, so we'll thank for for that. And we promise to keep doing our thing for you. You can also catch our editorials and our op-eds and other podcasts that we've had on recently on that channel as well, there's a lot of good information on there. I think you'll enjoy it. If you notice my new attire this evening, it's the hat I have on my head. It's Antonio Rodriguez of the Latinos United for Conservative America. We had him on two weeks ago, and he sent me this hat. I told him if he sent it, I would wear it, and I'm keeping my word, and it's actually kind of cool. It says, "Luca supports the felon," meaning President Trump. And so do I. Anyway, tonight's guest, Wally Wentz, the owner and CEO of Gator's Guns, will be joining us. And we are, of course, excited to have him. And we'll bring him on in a few moments, and he's one of the gun owners that are being targeted, so it should be a great conversation tonight. And remember here at Heartland Journal that our mission is very simple to always endeavor to make this a place where dialogue and debate will thrive and survive, and the truth will always have a home, and that's my eternal, our eternal pledge to you. So anyway, here we go. Friends with a man like Joe Biden in the White House, the Constitution has always been viewed as simply an obstacle to leap over. The last three years, what we've seen is record-setting executive orders, proclamations, and executive memoranda, and these are intended to bypass the legislative process and implement policy without the consent of the people. And these same folks now have their sights firmly set on the Second Amendment. In a recent speech, Joe Biden called on Congress to "enact common-sense gun law reforms." He followed that up by saying, "This administration will not wait for the next mass shooting to heed the call to act." It should be clear to everyone that what he intends to do is bypass America's founding doctrine in favor of a radical, unconstitutional viewpoint, and bypass Congress. And now that he's a lame-duck president, I do indeed suspect the worst, and so should you. Friends the Second Amendment reads as follows, "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." And that text has been interpreted and reinterpreted and litigated over and over again over the years. As a matter of fact, in June of 2008, the court issued its first decision since 1939 reaffirming the Second Amendment and the individual rights therein. District of Columbia, V. Heller, was a death blow to the anti-gun lobby because it clarified and codified every component of a citizen's legal right of gun ownership. And they've been plotting ever since for the last 15 years to undermine it. But the language is straightforward and Supreme Court rulings have been consistent validating the rights of the individual. But the progressives and the Soros-backed anti-gun movement are now seeking to ban all manufacturing of rifles, magazines, accessories, components, and other firearms made here in the USA. They look to eliminate online sales and third-party selling, wiping out generations of private American businesses and entrepreneurs, including tonight's guest, with the single stroke of a progressive pen. And friends, it's not stopping there because law fair is now part of the playbook as well. In New York, activist attorney general Latisha James has forced the NRA from the state. Other allegations are that the NRA is engaged in criminal accounting irregularities. That's now familiar. Simply another elected official using her office to bully and intimidate and subsequently bankrupt others that disagree with her. But you will be happy to know that since then, the NRA has moved to a more friendly place to do business like the state of Texas. In Washington state, the attorney general in gubernatorial candidate Bob Ferguson and the current governor, Jay Enzley, they also have their sites set on business owners and retailers targeting them for prosecution and persecution. And these are just a couple of examples. So I want to take a moment and just really, as we talk about this tonight, but we're going to reflect on how fortunate we are that then President Donald Trump followed through with his promise to appoint constitutionalist Supreme Court justices to the court. I think that's what that has the libs in overdrive at this point, the fear of a potential another conservative or fair minded justice on the bench. But for justice, friends, their role is clear to interpret the constitution, but not pick and choose which parts it disagrees with. So I'm going to leave it on that and ask you to stick around. We have a great guest coming up. It's going to be a great show and hopefully your second amendment questions will be answered tonight. So stay tuned. We will be right back. Hello. My name is Andreas Guillardt. I'm a political activist and I'm representing the African American studies in a Benedictine Esuela project and I'm here in the Heartland Journal podcast. Welcome back to the Heartland Journal podcast. So glad you stuck around and I think you're going to be excited that you stuck around as well. We've kind of stayed with this constitutionalist theme in our shows the last probably two or three months and we're going to stick with that tonight dealing mostly with the second amendment. We'll get into other subjects, but I want to introduce tonight's guest. He is what I call a true American hero, whether he knows it or not or believes it or not. It takes a lot of moxie to stare down the barrel of a massive government agency drunk on its own power and no pun intended there and just simply tell them no, I won't be bullied. But that's exactly what he's done for himself, his family, his community and really for all of you. Tonight's guest was born in 1964. One specific note is he and his family and I love this bullet. He shared with me earlier is that his family has been serving in our nation's military at some degree since 1777. That is, my math is off, but I'll say about 270 years of honorable service. Thanks for that. He himself served in the 82nd Airborne Division serving under then President Ronald Reagan as did I, thankfully. He is the owner and CEO of Gators guns in beautiful Kelso Washington, where he currently resides. He's an America first patriot and an avid constitutionalist friends, Heartland Journal podcast members. Welcome to the Heartland Journal podcast. Wally Wentz. How are you, sir? Doing fine. Thanks for having me on. Excellent. Excellent. How are things going in Kelso? Well, a lot less miserably hot than last week, weather wise, the traffic at this door has been good. We're getting a lot of inquiries on what's up with the case and I'm overwhelmed on a weekly basis on how much my customer base actually cares about this. I'm still, we're almost into a year of this litigation and I'm still got new faces coming and thanking me for picking my neck out there on the envelope for somebody to whack with an ax and it's unbelievable. And that really is the definition of patriotism, wouldn't you agree? Absolutely. There's not an April 19th that goes by that I'll ask a young man or a young couple in the store if they know what happened on that day. And I tell the story of the bridge in those men that left a house on the 19th of April, not knowing if they see their wife at supper time or not, but they went anyway. Amen to that. So a lot's happened since you and I first spoke. When we booked the show, it was pretty much par for the course. Biden was running for president. The members of his party were trying to undercut him and but more importantly we had an assassination attempt on president Trump and we're going to get into that a little bit later. But I did want to talk about you first. I think having an expert, firearms expert on the show is imperative to understanding some of the nuances of July 13th. Tell the audience the nature of who you are in your business. I am the head gunsmith, the owner, I'm the leader of a four man organization. We're small staff wise, but we've been unbelievably successful for the last 13 years. I spent 25 years in the gun show business while I was enduring another career choice. I exited that other career in the building trades and construction superintendent doing gun shows on the weekends to raise my family and fuel my life. Part of my five year exit plan was this brick and mortar business. When I started in a 940 square foot commercial building and I guess somebody was walking with me because the timing was exceptional. We had events in our country and in the world that made the populace here very, very extremely ready for a constitutional based family run family owned gun business and it blew up. So you are a licensed, you are licensed to sell firearms and ammunition in Washington State, correct? I am an O seven SOT manufacturer and licensed to sell buy and sell retail firearms, firearm accessories, ammunition, yes. How long has Gator's gun in business? I think he just eluded that it's been open. You said your five year plan. How long have you been there with 13 years? 13 years. Okay. All right. Business. It's 13 years old. And you, of course, pay your taxes to the state and to the federal government, like every other entrepreneur, correct? Exceedingly, yes, sir. Business is fairly, fairly viable, good. I think as you eluded to when you introduced yourself, correct? Yeah, it's up until the 1240, so called us all weapons legislation and the 5078. The magazine bans, you know, I was doing very well and I've taken about a 40% hit just since those two bills became law in the state of Washington, I, you know, out of, I'm still covering costs and I'm still maintaining a staff of four and I haven't had to lay anybody off or say anybody home, but we're really, really working to make costs now where we were actually affluent and able to expand the business. I was able to put a fourth guy on. I'm 60. I don't want to be a gunsmith until I'm 90. I want to go play with my guns, but, but, you know, I hired an apprentice and he's doing really well and it's just a big chunk out of my business. Just the magazines and the semi auto rifles is, it's killing me. Let's get into that 1240, the magazine ban, House Bill 1240, the Washington state legislature passed a law and the governor signed it last year. Actually, it's 5078 on the mags, 50, so 40 on the rifle 1240 on the rifle, 5078, correct. So 5078, you've been charged with crimes against the state of Washington by the Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Can we go into that a little bit? A little bit. I don't want to knock the legs off from under my legal counsel, but I've been accused of violating some Commerce Protection Act rules. I haven't been charged with a crime. Basically, in layman's terms, I'm being bullied into settling and I think somebody up north got it a taste for bullying, for a settlement, so he could put it on the scoreboard. Well, he didn't count on the hillbilly effect and he sent undercover agents from his office and I personally may have allegedly. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold there. I don't want this to be used as evidence or anything like that, so you are allegedly- I was very careful with my word. Yeah, you are allegedly accused of selling high capacity magazines. Let's go ahead and go with that. That's exactly where I was going. First of all, prior to '50, '78, was that a crime in Washington state? No, it was an exercising of constitutional rights by the citizenry to purchase and for me, a small business owner to sell standard capacity magazines in any shape or form. And so, do the bad guys have a problem finding high capacity magazines? Well, they are funny to bring that up because bad guys, for some reason, it's forgotten that they don't really pay attention to any laws. They never went to bed when they were told when they were eight and when they are 18, they don't have a problem with stealing a rival or stealing from a house, from a home, from somebody who is busy out paying their taxes, and then go commit other crimes. So, if the goal of these laws is to slow crime down, why is the honest tax-paying law abiding citizens the ones being punished for the acts of the small percentage of the populace? How much of your business is firearm accessories? Can we go into that or no? Yes, sure, written in generic terms, for sure. See, I look at this a little bit differently because I'm analyzing on a daily basis how I'm doing with that 35 to 42 percent that they've just bit out of my volume. So, none of the laws have changed on ammo and we're pretty big into ammo. Between the firearms I can sell according to the new laws and the ammo, it was carrying me at a, you know, at a 55 to 65 percent total volume compared to what I was doing pre-1240 and pre-5788. How? The infinite wisdom of the wizards and the warlords up north that cost me half of my living. And so, that was my next question. To get down to brass tax, it's cost you roughly 50 percent of your business, 50 percent of your income, right? Yeah, I did a pretty microscopic look at it a year ago. And it came out pinned out to like 42 percent, so however you want to get the brass tax. That is a lot. I'm sorry for that too. It's currently in the courts, correct? Yes, sir. And recently, as recently as April, you received a favorable ruling. Can you tell us about that? I can tell you all about that because I'm awful damn proud of our superior court judge here in Kalitz County, Gary Basher. He ruled on the evidence given to him by the state and by my legal representation, silent majority foundation, Pete Serrano and Austin Hatcher did a splendid job of presentation. They shot the same rhetoric from California and the east coast full of holes, blew it away. And it didn't go unnoticed by Judge Basher. He knew he was conscious of the fact that we filled a courtroom and there wasn't nobody from the state there except the legal counsel, and we filled that courtroom three or four times and filled out into the foyer at the Kalitz County Superior Court House. People around here care about this. They don't like being trampled and Judge Basher told everyone in the courtroom, I believe that was in the April session, that he wanted to assure everyone in the room that he was aware that people wanted resolution on this. They wanted a ruling and he said, "I'm not going to give a ruling today." And he continued on and explained in a very helpful way to calm the people that he was going to take the time it took to cross the T's and dot the I's because he did not want this to be foiled by a procedural. So he gave himself two weeks and he used most of that maybe a couple days longer and he came out with the ruling and he ruled for the Constitution in its entirety. He didn't add any words, he didn't take any words away. He ruled it, the law was unconstitutional. And he could probably hear the fears at his house from the door. And so, and to be clear, Judge Basher didn't just rule on the Constitution, which would have been enough. He ruled on the recent 2009 case, which I believe is out of Washington, D.C. in the 2015 case out of New York, correct? That is correct. The new, whatever you want to call it, its nine sealed and delivered, a constitutional call by the Supreme Court, yes, and used that equation. Basically, basically ending the debate of the, a weapon is only reserved for a militia, correct? Correct. Did that end the matter? Did not end the matter because for some magical reason or happening that the state had, you know, they already had something in the breach up in Olympia, it only took them 88 minutes to get a stay, which was overwhelming for sure. Well, that's why they try to file cases solely or defend cases or have them transferred to Thurston County as they want that, they want that kind of cheering squad as opposed to a firing squad. So let's go here. So is Wally, do you believe the Second Amendment, not just in Washington, but is under assault in general? Absolutely. And it's entirety. There are people in this country that reap the benefits of being an American citizen that would like to abolish it for, in my opinion, unfounded reasons, unjustified in every syllable of the meaning. And in that, that same breath of the Second Amendment, is it fair to say that that gun stores, gun owners, manufacturers, you are also under vicious assault as well, correct? Now, you know, maybe even more so, the thing is, if they get the legislation to stand that they put in just a state of Washington that overwhelmingly makes a good percentage of brick and mortar firearms businesses, unsoluble, unable to continue business, their, their legislating that way. And the people don't understand that if I lose, they lose, they're not going to, there's going to come a time when they don't have anywhere else to go. And it's not, that's where we're headed now. I totally agree. And it's not just brick and mortar, right? It's online sales. It's gun shows, right? It's all of that is threatened at this point, correct? Yes, anything Second Amendment oriented or in parallel with, some of the biggest myths that are being portrayed out there is that there's this big gun show loophole. It hasn't been, I believe it's like 594, there hasn't been a mechanism for legal firearm transfer without a background check since then. But they want to make it sound like a gun show is like fucking Baghdad, you can walk out and buy an AK-47 from a farm boy in old human race Jews. It's bullshit. Well, that's how it's framed by the progressives, right? Right. So, so let me ask you, of what we've heard here, can you buy an AR-15 in Washington state today? No. See, I think, I think many listeners aren't aware of that. They believe that guns are still legal and you just have to go through it back. So that's what's at stake and do you think by banning an AR-15 or what their definition of assault rifle is, they believe it ends gun violence? What are your thoughts? Human being who believes that is obviously never been shot at. The most that go back to Bruin and Miller that you brought up earlier, the Supreme Court of the United States of America is already decided that the common use test is one of the biggest deciding factors on whether a weapons platform design model, whatever you want to call it, is protected or not. Well, the most popular rifle in the United States of America is the AR-15. How can in one breath that be dictated by Bruin and/or Miller and discounted by the state or federal legislature? Again, it doesn't make sense. It's bad math. Can you tell us what a ghost gun is, their definition? Well, my youngest son's girlfriend made me a picture. And picture this, if you will, and then we'll get to the direct answer. Okay. I get asked that a lot. What is a ghost gun, so darling, daughter to be possibly, it's a rocking here with a ghost in it and it's got an AR-15 in his hand and it says right across the top. A ghost gun, question mark. A ghost gun is a term made up by someone with an agenda that wants to drive a point in a pointless statement. A ghost gun is supposedly something that can't be traced. But it's already legal for an individual, for an American citizen of the United States of America, to produce for his own use, not for retail, not for commercial endeavors. But it's legit and legal for you to produce something for you to use yourself. Now, there's already books and books and books of laws governing retail sales, licensed manufacturer for retail sales. Those laws already exist on the books, but they're trying, for whatever reason, they want to squash legal freedoms that we enjoy by these buzzwords, for lack of a better way of saying it. Isn't that why in these two house bills, or especially the one that's attached to gun parts and components, isn't that why they attack that piece because they could facilitate and create a ghost gun in their terms, right? Isn't that the creation of the boogeyman? So let's go after the parts that make the boogeyman. Isn't that why, really, the nexus of the house bill? But if I'm correct in my recollection, there was a big boon in the last 20 years of folks being able to assemble their own firearm for their own use with legally purchased, finished receivers, serialized parts. And I guess some of them on the other side of this are disgruntled that they can't control how many weapons a person might have, whether they're a law-abiding system or a criminal. I'm not sure what their agenda is, but they think that because a person, not a receiver from a licensed dealer like me on paper did a background check, that they shouldn't be able to do that. And my question is, why? You mentioned receivers, and I want to get into the weeds a little bit because most folks who aren't law enforcement or gun enthusiasts have no idea what we're talking about, and they're going to listen to the podcast later. Can you explain what you mean by receivers and what the process is? Well, there is no process in Washington anymore. I can't sell lower receivers legally. I can't sell them at all. But explain what a receiver is. Yeah. Okay. That's the component of the weapon that contains the serial number in different frames and receivers are a serialized part. In the language of ATF, there's the serialized part without a serialized part, a weapon with a defaced serial number or lack of a serial number is contraband by the language of the law. Now, what they forgot or did counted was the laws that adequately allow a legal law-abiding citizen with their gun rights in this country who produce for themselves and their own consumption and own use, they don't even have to legally put a number on it, as long as it's not for a resale, and it's going to be retained by them. Now, these little caveats, you know, people, they keep getting pleased by interpretations of the law, misinterpretations of the Constitution, and they couldn't keep up, in my opinion. So how are we going to turn this faucet down and they come up with this legislation? So in keeping with the lower receiver, I want to stay with the parts. Do other parts of, like, let's take an AR because that's the topic of discussion. Do other parts of the actual weapon contain serial numbers? Negative. Okay. So it's the lower receiver, basically, that one piece that they're saying is the, that's the ghost gun, correct, but that's their definition? Yeah, a culmination of parts with a numbered, homemade, whatever receiver is not traceable because there was no background check on the serialized part. Yep. Clear? Yes. Yes. Yes. Do you think it's possible for you to get a fair shake in Washington State or does everything lead to the higher courts? Well, I got some encouraging news from Pete in Austin, and that news was on the appeal of this day that we just went through middle of this month and after the 11th, the full en bonk group of state Supreme Court justices, there was a dissenter. It wasn't what we expected as a full-on slaughter of no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, there was a dissenter, and I'm not going to mention the name. That's public record, I'm sure. That gives me the courage to be hopeful that maybe they're feeling a little bit of the squeeze, and that's by design because sooner or later, these rat bastards in Olympia who think that they can just swing a cat any way they want and no consequences that's going to end. One way or another, that's going to end. And when it does, those people have to decide whether they want to be the last one clinging to the liberal socialist ways that they've become accustomed to the norm. How dangerous is the current weaponization of government in Washington State? Locally, I don't have a problem standing next to a deputy or a PD patrolman. I've had occurrences in my life here in Calas County where I got home. I live in kind of a rough neighborhood here in Kelso for a while for about a decade. You know, there was some drug problems in the neighborhood, and I remember one incident coming home and getting out of my car with my AR-15, and there was a Kelso police department officer covering his partner making contact to my next door neighbor, which was a non-drug house. And I got out of the car, he recognized my car, he nodded, and I said, "You need a hand officer?" He said, "Nope, we got it." And that was it. Nobody freaked out. You know, I have that kind of relationship. These guys off duty, they come to buy ammo, they come to buy magazines, they come to buy holsters. There's another chunk of my business that's been devastated right there. They come to simply exercise their rights under the Constitution as individuals for tools of their trade, legal trade. And I want to stay with AR-surbit. Now you live in Kelso. Many of the listeners don't know where that is. Where exactly is Kelso? It is about 45 minutes north of Portland, where the southwest corner back, a section of red in the state. One of the progressive left's claims is that, and I want to stay, again, I mean, he's keeping using AR-15, AR-15s are simply weapons of war that they're not used for hunting. Is that true? It's flat out why, you know how many coyotes and gophers and prairie dogs I've killed with an AR-15, legally, legitimately, and thanked heavily by ranchers in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana. I don't know. You don't have to answer for that someday, but I've done my share. It's one of the most popular sporting rifles that has a dual purpose, a multi-use facet to it that hasn't been, you know, been beat out by any other platform. There's a reason that promen carry them in their cars. They used to carry 12 gauges. They carry AR-15s now. All three of the local departments. There's not a cruiser on patrol that doesn't have an AR-15 in it. I don't know if you know this, but my day job is a sheriff's deputy, so you're absolutely correct in that piece of it. So Wally, with all of this pressure on you, your business, your family, is it worth it? My granddaughter can come to the counter of this business when she's of age and by her first gun, because we made it through this, and then it's all worth it. It's all worth it. During the wife and I, we've got 12 grandkids now. I want to see them all after sizing their rights before I check out. So most people in your shoes would have given up by now. Why not you? Because I held my hand up that day a long time ago in 1984. He confused and wandering 20-year-old, and I hadn't put a uniform on yet, and I just, I left a welding hood on a fab table in downtown Tacoma, Washington, and went to the recruiter and never went back. I came home two days later, and I asked my folks if I could leave my truck in the barn. He said, "Well, where are you going?" I said, "Well, I just join the army." And I was going to school to be a diesel mechanic, and they said, "Well, you're going to be a mechanic?" And the army, I said, "No, I'm going to be a paratrooper." I'm going to hunt bad guys down and send them to the promised land, and my mother cried for three days, and my father cussed for three days. And that oath I took that day, and I used to be able to tell you that that '03's name that swore us all in in the room that day, and like, "My cat, I've lost it." But he was a captain, and I took that oath, and it hit me pretty hard, and somebody put an anvil in my pocket that has never gone away. I don't intend to let it slip away. I think your story, first of all, mine is very similar. Me and a young man that was screwing up in every sense of the word and found the military to be his savior and guide him through those early years. So with AR-15, so we're going to deviate a little bit. I want to talk about the events in Pennsylvania. Would you mind discussing that a little bit? Not a bit. It's become well known that a, it's a matter of fact, we all saw it on TV that a supposedly a 20-year-old was able to outsmart, I want to say, a 37-38 person secret service detail and numerous local law enforcement and hop on top of a roof and fire eight rounds from an AR. What are you thoughts on that? I just hope it don't take us 67 years this time to find out the rest of the story. So, and again, AR-15, we're staying with that, so he used an AR, and by all accounts, I believe it was exactly 138 yards from his position. Can you discuss how difficult a shot or, un-difficult a shot that is with an AR and a scope? I never got the real dope on the optic. Was it a magnified optic or a dot-type reflex sight? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It was an eotec or something. They haven't even, I listened to some of Christopher Ray's testimony today, and he was, I don't want to say evasive. He was an FBI director, I'll just say that, and he didn't give specifics, but I think your guess is still as good as mine, but in either case, isn't it true that we both went through basic training? We may have even went through the same place. We both went through AIT, and we both did our military service. Is it true that any soldier or cadet in basic training can effectively make that shot? The best out of a hundred and some man company was able to hit that e-type silhouette enough times 40 out of 40 if he was perfect, but that doesn't mean he made a headshot 40 times. It means that he had a 30-30 inch tall by 18 inch wide silhouette that sensed vibrations. We both know how the cadet range works. To make for that individual who's been, what's the word I'm looking for, described as someone who was a poor shot with a carbine length AR-15 with some kind of sight on it. To make a headshot of 130 would be phenomenal. That is expert and beyond. Most soldiers, most trained soldiers wouldn't take that shot. The best of the best become designated marksmen and snipers. Those are the caliber of people. The person who killed the shooter was the expert, not the shooter. That's a good point. In firing the now terminated Secret Service Director, her comments were that a sloped roof is why we didn't have it manned. What are your thoughts on that, on the sloped roof? The slope of the roof that sniper used to eradicate the shooter was more of a pit roof than the one the shooter was on. I have a background in construction. I can tell you the pit is the roof if you want, but it's needless to say it was obvious enough that it's another director, bullshit, dodge the answer. Do you think it's, and I'm going to break this down for you, do you think it's at all plausible that a 20-year-old, first of all, I need to know if the weapon was on the roof or he had it under his jacket. Was it collapsible, was it not? But either way, he was identified earlier and deemed, I think they called him a person of interest, but you and I know that we deem them threats at the time. There's just different severity. How is it possible that a 20-year-old kid wearing camouflage clothing and perhaps being seen with a rangefinder earlier that he just kind of sashayed through the crowd a couple of times, got lost for 25 minutes and then made it to the air conditioner between the buildings, climbed up on the roof and while, and he had a ladder, and an entire rangefinder in BDU pens. And with about 30 spectators yelling, "He's got a gun, he's got a gun." Within that six minutes, he still gets off eight shots and one headshot. What's the, what's the, if you were in Vegas in a betting man, what did it, what would you bet? I would have lost a page deck. All right, so, what theories do you have on the matter if you want to share those? I have no factual backing for what I'm about to say. I fear in my guts tell me that what I have been concerned about happening is evolving in front of our very eyes, that the resurgence of the 45th president that has been beaten, crumbled, sued, accused, acquitted, accused, on and on and on, I have feared the time when someone on the other side did not want our relinquished power and I think we're living it. And if we have truly devolved into the isthmus of Central America and just take them out back, then we haven't seen shit yet. So I just, I just published my latest column called centimeters from civil war and your words now, you speak for a lot of people and most folks are apprehensive about making those comments and as a, as someone in law enforcement, I normally wait for the, the investigatory piece to play itself out. But I have to, I have to, if I, if I'm to do that, I'm to look at everything that's happened prior to some of the things you mentioned, the prosecution of the man, the attempted bankrupting of the man, the, the accused of treason of the man and on and on and on. They've done everything and he's still there. Is this probably our most dangerous time in our lifetime that we're living in America? The next five months will be the most telling five months of my adult life. And I've been dead, I've lived through a number of things that I shouldn't have. And I've asked myself since I was 24 year old Bucktharden, why am I still here? I'm 60 years old, there's, there's a reason I'm still here. The reason I have been given this bully pulpit at a retail gun store in Mayberry. I don't have the answers. I have the faith and the trust in something bigger than me and something a lot more important than just a brick and mortar gun store or just a 20 year old hand holding his hand up and scoring allegiance to defend the Constitution of the United States. So I'm going with it. That is that might be one of the most honorable statements I've ever heard and to be honest, I, you know, we're doing this podcast here. Wow. We write a column. I sit on the board of silent majority. I work in law enforcement. I'm in politics. I'm a counselor. I do all those things for the same exact reason to give and to serve, to commit to the oath that I've given same as you. So I'm privileged to finally talk to you now. So let me ask this, how does this end Wally and your, what's your prediction? As far as the case goes or the next five months, let's talk about the next five months and then we'll worry about the case. All right. The next five months, I see an escalation of desperation on one side and I see a perseverance regardless of the outcome on the other side of the coin. I wouldn't venture a guess at what depths somebody in desperation will go to. I've seen them on the wrong side of a weapon before and it's pretty amazing how devoted an individual can be to what they believe in. You must never forget how much an enemy is devoted to their cause. They believe it just as strongly as we believe in our. You're absolutely right. And so we're both godly men with, I believe it was divine intervention that clipped in ear instead of the back of the head. Do you believe absolutely verbatim? All right. So hey, do you think we'll ever know the answers to these questions? I think the answers are along the path that we're going to travel for the next five months. I really believe that I believe they'll be revealed as is necessary and to speculate beyond the acceptance of being revealed at the right time to the right people is all I can do right now. That's what's fueling me. That's what's getting me up in the morning. That's what's letting me reach out to people that come and this is the oddest part of all this in the last year. The people that come in my store and they're physically upset. They don't know what to do. They're worried about Portland. They're worried about Seattle and I told one customer, name is Bill, I won't go any further and that. He's one of my supposed to do. I said, Bill, what can you reach out and cut? And he reached out and I said, just do a 360. That's all you can influence. You have to believe that you're being righteous in your own right. And don't worry about Portland. Don't worry about Seattle. When it comes here, you'll know what to do. Yep. And it's on and on and customers, they looked at me, I said, I'm not a lawyer. I had to find lawyers because I didn't really know how to react to all of this. I have been less than godly in my life and less than spiritual in my life. In the last 20 years, I've had many indicators of maybe I should pay attention. So that's my job one every day is to pay attention. Well I appreciate all you do. I'm really impressed with your patriotism, your openness about it. I want to say there's a few of us out there, but there's a lot more and I think we're growing in numbers the more that people see what's happening. The last two questions are are you going to get do you believe a fair shake in Washington? I don't know because I shared with you a little glimpse of hope of something to hang on to with one dissenter and I feel really strongly in my guts about the premise of some of these people are good people that have been caught up in an agenda for the last 12 years. Let's leave it at that. They've gone with the flow. It's been prosperous for them on and on and on. They have to some of them are very astute people, very educated people. Nobody wants to be the last rat on that boat when the flag's going under. So this may be some of their those individuals last chance to uphold their oath and I'm going forward on that and if they don't, they can be added to a list of tyrants and we'll go see the folks in black robes out east. Don't care and and and not just on an earthly level, but on a spiritual level as well. You don't want to be that last rat on the shift that's judged to your own democracy. All right, so let me ask you this. Question, have you thought about running for office and becoming a lawmaker? Customer and family friend come in a year ago, the last election cycle, I guess it was. Why don't you run for sheriff and I said, I'd be dead in a week. They don't want me nowhere near that. I'm not a politician. I am people think some folks running for president right now are brash and rash and unfiltered, being seen nothing. I speak from the heart and if I'm wrong, I'll take it on the chin. But I ain't going to be quiet for a feared offending somebody if it's something that I'm really passionate about. That first amendment only exists because of the second amendment. I cherish all the Constitution, not just the parts that are cool. Yeah, and you weren't around for the opening monologue, but I touched on that a little bit that even the courts don't get to pick and choose which pieces of the Constitution it likes or dislikes. They have to simply rule on the existing text. So all right, Wally, that's it for today's show. Thank you so much for being here. How can the folks do better? How can the folks do business with you if they want? Can you give a gator? We're going to have Gator's guns and you on our on our page when we put the show on Rumble. Okay. I'll send it to you. Whatever you do, Gator's custom guns is where you want to steer. Gator's custom guns. If you tell them Gator's guns, they're going to end up in Pennsylvania and I know the guy. Gators live on both coasts. Is that what you're saying? The Kenai Alaska, I walked into his gun shop and I said, there ain't room for two gators. And he said, who are you? I said, I'm Wally Gator from Kelso, Washington. I was up there working on a power plant and he left until he peed that I would walk in in the snow and Kenai, Alaska and tell him that there was room for two alligators and in Kenai, Alaska, he got a kick out of that and being Wally Gator, that just brought me back some memories to of the old cartoon of Wally Gator and Steve, the producers reminiscing over here too. Right. Well, you know, you're the first one that hasn't asked where that came from. My given name is Walter Lee Wentz after my granddad on my dad's side. Wally Gator never came until I was in uniform because a six foot 380 pound country kid, they didn't expect to be sneaky at all. They expect me to trip on everything. They expect me to bump my head on everything and I ended up being a fairly sneaky son of a bitch. So I became Wally Gator, the swinging alligator and the swamp and points beyond and never went away. I love it. I love it. Well, let's do this. We will, we will post while it's going to say Wally Gator's custom guns on the page. And do you have an email or a phone number you want to give, you plug it real quick? Yep. That'd be phone number three, six, zero, three, five, three, five, two, four, four. We're open Tuesday through Saturday, nine to six in Kelso, Washington. We have no web page. We don't do online sales. We like to see the demeanor and the look in the eyes of our customers and truly help them. We just count them as another duck. Looking into the whites of their eyes sounds very patriotic. Appreciate that. All right. Well, all right. Well, Wally, thank you so much for joining us today. And let's chat soon. I love the idea, nice seeing your mug and have a great rest of your day. God bless, brother. Take care. Thank you. I got you. Thanks. Recording stopped. Hi, I'm Harriet Reed with Moms for Liberty, Hamilton County, Tennessee. And welcome to the Heartland Journal podcast. Welcome back, welcome back to the show, everyone. Thanks for sticking around. What a great guests. I love these these individuals that that really stand on the front line for all of us. And I think the more you look into Wally Wentz and Gator's custom guns, you see that he's out there fighting the battle for you, for me, for all of us and and standing there taking the punches for all of us for your constitutional liberty. So any support you can give him, uh, bringing in business when you're in Kelso, please do so. I would encourage you to do so. I know I certainly will. Friends never in our history has the United States Supreme Court played a more vital role in protecting America's future than it does today. The current assault on all liberty is existential at this point. The Second Amendment guarantees Americans the fundamental right to keep and bear arms and in all fairness, there can be acceptable limitations. And what I mean, for example, is is the mentally ill convicted felons, but, but it's not up to us to decide it's up for the courts. These cases and individual liberties must be adjudicated first before we start creating laws to, uh, not allow possession on an individual liberties. The Second Amendment itself, the language is very unambiguous. The right to keep and bear arms belongs to the people. And I'm going to dissect that language for just a second, uh, because it lies at the heart of the Democrats argument, the phrase, the right of the people appears several times in other places in the bill of rights, including the first and fourth amendments. And no other point does it refer to anything other than an individual right of private citizens. One of the arguments the left makes is that the language only applies to well-regulated militias and the courts have effectively ruled on that already. But if the drafters of the Second Amendment had meant merely to clarify that the power of maintaining a well-regulated militia belonged to the state government, they certainly knew how better to distinguish between the people and individuals of the government. And you see the constitution pretty much lays that, lays that out everywhere. And I think that's an important distinction to make and the courts have done the same thing. The Supreme Court correctly interpreted this and considered it a guaranteed individual right as opposed to a collective right. In 2008, the case, the district, the Columbia versus Heller, the Supreme Court held that, and this is important to listen, quote, Second Amendment protects individual rights to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia end quote. Now the court intentionally makes that distinction, but why would they do that? They do that because the constitution itself, the body of it mandates that deference should always be given to the individual citizen and individual liberty. That's why our founding fathers wisely and plainly wrote the text that they did. This simply no other way to interpret the Second Amendment. And again, the courts have proved that. As we close out today's show, I came across something and I want to share because the debate over the actual 27 words of the Second Amendment in their meaning is probably going to continue longer than we would like, but I want to leave you with this. A man by the name of Stephen Halbrook, a renowned author, lawyer, professor, guy did it all. Constitutionalists had this to say when concluding a paragraph in his 1986 article entitled, quote, when the framers intended a linguistic analysis of the right to bear arms. He wrote and I quote, the framers of the Second Amendment intended to guarantee an individual right to carry firearms and other common hand carried items. It's simply inconceivable that they would have tolerated the suggestion that a free person has no right to bear arms without the permission of a state authority, much less the federal government or that a person could be in prison for doing so, end quote. That's a pretty powerful statement. He goes on to say, as the founding fathers realize every right has its costs, but the alternatives are even more costly. I just think that is so profound and so succinct and says exactly what the courts have said, really. Because that's it for tonight's show. We hope you enjoyed it. What a great guest. Again, Wally Wentz, Gator's Custom Guns, and also check out Luca, Latino's United for Conservative America, the hat I'm wearing, Antonio, thank you for the gift again. Appreciate you. Thank you, Steve, the producer. Thanks for all the work you do behind the microphone there and let's not forget to thank our Heartland Journal CEO Steve Abramowitz for keeping us on the air, keeping us employed. Lastly, I'll thank you, the Mill Creek View audience, for tuning in. It's no easy trick bringing you the truth in today's America, but I will always endeavor to do so. So until next time, I'm Mill Creek City Councilman Vincent Cavalieri and I wish all of you God's peace. Steve, take us home. Any of you's or opinions represented on the podcast are personal and belong solely to the Creator and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the Creator may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity unless it's quickly stated. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING]