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Michael Sodini | Walk The Talk America
This week, Wilk sits down with Michael Sodini, a third-generation firearms professional and founder of Walk The Talk America (WTTA) — an innovative nonprofit uniting the mental health community and the firearms industry to save lives and strengthen understanding.
Their conversation dives deep into how stigma, fear, and misunderstanding have prevented honest discussion about mental health among gun owners — and how WTTA is changing that through education, compassion, and practical solutions.
→ How Walk The Talk America began with a single conversation about shared responsibility.
→ Why two-thirds of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides — and what we can do about it.
→ The role of trust and community in encouraging gun owners to seek help.
→ The “Cause of Pause” campaign — a life-saving idea to create time and space in moments of crisis.
→ How gun manufacturers are now including free mental-health screenings in product boxes.
→ Building common ground between gun-rights advocates and mental-health professionals.
→ Empowering youth and instructors to carry forward a culture of safety, responsibility, and empathy.
Every day in America, more than 70 people die by suicide using a firearm — a “Mandalay Bay” tragedy, every single day. Walk The Talk America believes we can do better by talking openly, listening with humility, and providing support without fear or judgment.
This episode challenges assumptions, honors the rights of responsible gun owners, and invites everyone — left, right, or center — to join a mission that saves lives through understanding.
🌐 Website: www.WTTA.org
📘 Facebook: facebook.com/walkthetalkUS
🐦 X / Twitter: @WalkTheTalkUS
💼 LinkedIn: Walk The Talk America
📸 Instagram: @walkthetalkus
🎥 YouTube: YouTube Channel
Michael Sodini is known as “the most un-gun gun guy” — a third-generation firearms industry leader who left behind business as usual to start a movement of compassion and responsibility. Through Walk The Talk America, Michael is proving that mental health and gun ownership aren’t opposing causes — they’re connected responsibilities.
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💬 Share this episode with someone who believes in both freedom and responsibility.
🤝 Learn more about Walk The Talk America and find free resources for gun owners, clinicians, and instructors.
Because better conversations — and better understanding — save lives.
The world is a better place if we are better people. That begins with each of us as individuals. Be kind to one another. Be grateful for all you’ve got. Make every day the day that you want it to be!
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[00:00:00:00] Wilk Wilkinson: What if the gun industry led the charge on the mental health conversation? My guest this week, Michael Sydney, a third generation firearms professional and founder of Walk the Talk America, believes the bridge between mental health and responsible gun ownership could save thousands of lives every year. This conversation might just change the way you see the debate. Welcome back, my friends, for the Derate the Hate podcast. I'm your host, Wilk Wilkinson, your blue collar sage calming outrage and helping to navigate a world divided by fog and those who would spread that fear, outrage and grievance. The D Rate the Hate podcast is proudly produced in collaboration with Braver Angels, America's largest grassroots cross. Partizan organization working towards civic renewal. This podcast amplifies the mission that we share to foster a more respectful and united America where civic friendship thrives even when we disagree. Each week, through the power of story, conversation, and connection with incredible guests, we work to build bridges instead of barriers, not to change minds on the issues, but to change how we see one another when we differ. Because friends, it really is about bettering the world one attitude at a time. We did not create the hate, but together we can Derate the Hate. So be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Share it with a friend and visit Braver angels.org to learn how you can get involved in the movement to bridge the partizan divide. Friends, I am so incredibly grateful that you have joined me for another powerful Derate the Hate episode. So let's get to it. This week, I'm joined by Michael Sydney, founder of Walk the Talk America, a nonprofit that's changing how we think about firearms and mental health. Michael is a third generation firearms industry professional, once known as the most UN gun gun guy who saw something missing in the conversation. Honesty about the human side of gun ownership. In 2018, Michael launched Walk the Talk America to reduce the negative outcomes by firearms by connecting the gun community with the mental health world. In this episode, Michael and I dig into why mental health needs to be part of responsible gun ownership, how stigma keeps people silent, and what practical programs like Cause a Pause are doing to prevent suicide. Without infringing on Second Amendment right. We'll also talk about how the firearms industry is beginning to take ownership of the problem. How both sides of the debate can find common ground, and how youth and education can change the culture for the next generation. This is a powerful bridge building conversation about saving lives, protecting rights, and leading with compassion. The kind of work Walk the Talk America is all about. Let's get to it with my friend Michael Sodini. Here we go. Michael Sodini, it's good to see you, brother. Welcome to the Direct the Hate podcast.
[00:03:43:02] Michael Sodini: Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here today.
[00:03:46:01] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. And, ever since our last, conversation that we had a little while back, learning about your your walk, the talk America, organization and and the, I guess the the bridging of of mental health, responsible gun ownership. There's there's been a lot going on. But there is always a lot going on in this particular conversation. Mike. And and, I'm real honored to have you here with me today because. Because knowing what I know about your organization, walk the talk, America, I just it's it's one of these one of these things that that the importance of it can't be overstated. So, so thank you again, for being here with me today. Let's let's start a conversation with, just briefly telling the listeners, what is walk the talk, America. And then, Mike, why did why did you think that this was an important thing to get started? Well, there's a back in 2018. Right. So so let's, let's, let's go ahead and let's go ahead and start there. Tell, tell the listeners what is walk the talk, America. And what prompted you to get this thing going?
[00:04:57:07] Michael Sodini: Okay. Well, to start off, I'm the third generation, firearms industry professional. I got my I got my job through nepotism. That's how I ended up in the firearms industry. I didn't grow up a to a firearms. When I say to a Second Amendment firearms, person at. All. Right. I grew up in two. Two of the worst places to grow up around firearms if you're into firearms. Newark, new Jersey, the Jersey shore and San Francisco, California. People didn't really own guns where I lived. Unless you were a cop, a neighborhood pharmacist, a wannabe gangster or gangster. Right. Like those are the people that had guns. But we just, we weren't exposed to, in go hunting growing up. But my family owned a large firearms importer, so, it became part of my life, after I graduated college and kind of going to work for the family business, one of the things that I had noticed, throughout the years in the firearms industry is that we didn't lean into the negative outcomes of firearms, because those are the things that we've used against us. Right. So say suicide is a huge part of when people think of gun death or gun violence. That suicide number is two thirds of that. of the total. And, to me, like, we didn't talk about suicide. It just wasn't something we talked about. I always mean to joke like it was like, the movie twister. It's like an EF5. Like, it would happen all the time in our industry, especially because. So many, vets and first responders gravitate towards firearms. So you just every year you'd see one less person. It's like, oh, where's Dave? Oh, Dave's no longer with us, but we're not talking about it. So, I saw this kind of need, but didn't really know how to tackle the issue. 2018, I formed Walk the Talk America based off. And I'm going to get to walk the talk America is. But based off a chance meeting with a complete stranger who was asking about what happened during a mass shooting, I said, everybody blames the firearms industry, we blame the mental health community, and nothing ever gets solved. And she was like, hey, how do you work with the mental health community? Things you can agree upon to, to, to solve some of this stuff. And I was like, we don't. Right. So I had this light bulb moment. I created walk Talk America. I wanted basically in the beginning to throw money at the mental health community. I kind of wanted the big Pharma my way out of, a lot of the, the, the negative outcomes of firearms because I thought the mental health community might have the answers. We just got to help fund them, and they're going to take our money. So it was the easy way out. Learned the hard way that, there was no quick answer. There's like like everything. There's no easy one size fits all solution to all the negative outcomes of firearms. So, created this organization, which in a nutshell, basically looks to, have a solution that everyone can agree upon, whether you're pro-gun or anti-gun or gun neutral. That reduces all negative outcomes of firearms. So, when you look at the big picture, you have inner city violence. We have a program for that. You have suicide. We have a program for that. You have negligence. We have programs and campaigns for that. We just basically look for creative ways to spread messages and educate people on both sides. We do not care what side of the aisle you're on. We're apolitical, if you just are into saving lives and keeping, gun owners mentally healthy. Then Walk the Talk America's a place for you. And, basically look for innovative ways to get gun owners help without fear of consequence or rights restriction. That's it. That's us in a nutshell.
[00:08:38:17] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. And and I think it's hugely important to, I mean, there's a number of, of different things in there, Mike, that I want to, I want to key on because it is hugely important. Number one, this conversation, again, is, is hugely important because a lot of times people just aren't having the conversation. They pretend to know what the other side, if we're talking about sides, thinks and acts and what their motives are for doing what they do. But the vast majority of the time they just don't, Like, a lot of divides. people believe that. They know the motives or the mindsets or whatever. The people on the other side, they don't. Having the conversation in the right way, I think is hugely important. One of the things that you talked about was, was, the negative aspect, of gun ownership or, or the like, the taboo parts that, that, that people in the gun industry would not talk about, because it would be used against them. Dive a little bit more into that for me, Mike, because, I think when we start thinking about conversations and actually getting the conversations to happen, that's an important aspect of this, because if people are afraid to talk and then I want to kind of transition that into another part where, people when we start talking about the mental health aspects of it and the mental health, things when it comes to gun ownership. And I know this is something that you guys work on. I walk the talk, America, when people are too afraid to come forward and either say what they believe or confront the demons that they have, it's it's a it's a it's a problem all the way around. So kind of take, take that and go with it a little bit because, I think the thing from the gun ownership or the gun industry part, it is a problem. And then the mental health aspect and people being unwilling to, to confront their, their own demons is a huge problem. So, so let's let's go there. with the next part of this.
[00:10:37:12] Michael Sodini: Sure. So when I look at, like, the firearms industry and, saying we wouldn't, we wouldn't want to confront these things because I felt there was an element of if we acknowledge the problem, then we're also acknowledging we're at fault, whether that's true or not. Right? I feel like subconsciously we did that as an industry, but I think that stemmed from not having any solutions from our side. Does that make sense?
[00:11:05:09] Wilk Wilkinson: It does make sense. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:07:07] Michael Sodini: Yeah. So it's like if we're going to say, oh it's a mental health thing, it's not our problem. Right? I that's that's not an answer. That's really good enough for a lot of people that are, say anti-gun or gun neutral or gun ignorant. Right. But I think you're seeing a cultural shift within the industry now where people are are more confident to engage in these conversations because they can say, well, look, I'm Ruger and look as Ruger as a gun manufacturer. This is what we're doing to combat suicide to help Inner-City youth. Now, that's a that's a game changer, because now you're not just pointing out problems as a society. I mean, and I ran my own business for years in the family business. I didn't I didn't want employees to come with me with just a problem. I needed them to come with a solution to. I didn't care if it was a silly solution. It just, that's one way you could drive me crazy is to point out a problem I have eyes and I can read, so I know there are problems. But, come with me with, hey, I think this is what we should do. And I feel like that's kind of now where we've kind of shifted. And I'm really proud of the firearms industry for how far they've come. We have a long way to go. The work is never going to stop. But, on that level, I think that's why you saw, what we saw for many years from the firearms industry and all of this kind of made us look sort of like a villain. We didn't care. It's not that we didn't care. We just got so caught up in the fight. I think, and both sides are guilty of this, that you start being problem stuck instead of solution based,
[00:12:41:11] Wilk Wilkinson: Problem stuck instead of solution based. No. That's absolutely that's a that's an incredible way to put it. And as somebody that's come from the, business world myself, I can totally relate to the whole, don't come to me with just pointing out problems all the time. Come to me with solutions. So, so the fact that you did start coming to the table with solutions as opposed to to just, hands up. I'm, I'm staying away from this. It's not it's not my problem. I'm not going to deal with it. is hugely important. So. So then let's let's transition that along that same way of thinking there's a part. So that's the, that's the, the gun industry portion of it. But now the individual gun owner who has problems of their own demons of their own, that they are, that they are fighting, like you said in the first part of this conversation. And it's, it's something that that is not talked about enough is the vast majority of gun deaths that happen in this country, have to do with suicide. And when we start talking about the mental health aspects of it and, people who live with mental health, issues, they're battling mental health problems of some kind or another. But they still want to own their guns. They still want to be part of that freedom. They still want to. They still want to hunt. They still want to support shoot. They still want to do these things. But now they are faced with, the chance that if I confront my mental health issues, my, my, my problem, my demons, somebody is going to take my guns away. So they just keep that bottled in. Kind of like the gun owners. Industry was just saying, no, we're not going to talk about this. Now, the people with the mental illness don't want to have their guns are saying, no, I'm not going to talk about this. It's something that's just not going to happen. Talk about the the detriments that come along with that way of thinking. Michael.
[00:14:39:13] Michael Sodini: Well, yeah. So we're we're in September. It's suicide prevention month. Right. But I always tell people, every day is suicide prevention day for me at Walk to Talk America. Right. Because I think what people don't, don't realize is that, gun violence is lumped in under one big number. Obviously, I said earlier, two thirds. But, you think about Mandalay Bay, which is right down the street from where I'm coming from. I'm in Vegas. We lost 59 people the night of October 1st shooting. We lose 74 to 76 people a day to suicide by firearm. So it's a huge number. That's a day. So we have a Mandalay Bay more than a Mandalay Bay shooting every day. If you take everybody that takes their life with a firearm, combine them. A couple things happen culturally for the Second Amendment community. One is there was a lot of rhetoric. And I'm not here to to say it wasn't correct or it was, incorrect. There's nuance there, but there was this whole mental health. Behavioral health. They're all gun grabbers. They all want to grab your guns. We're the only ones who love you. Everybody else is trying to take your guns. Right. And there's some organizations that played heavy into that belief system that in turn, I think worked against us because, and some of that was true. Some of it is true to this day. Right. Like people don't want to lose their gun rights. They value the ability to protect their community and family. In many cases, people fair use. Use shooting as therapy. Right. There's lead therapy. Yeah. So it's like I'm going to go to you and you're going to take away the thing that is making me, calm. It's calming my anxiety going to the range, the shooting. Right. Or I make a career out of of being able to own a firearm. If I show any signs of weakness, that career could be gone. Well, whether you're a first responder, active duty military, a vet, right? Like somebody that came up having their firearms almost like your arm. An extension of your body. Right? Sure, sure. So, I think it's a huge problem. And, it's a kind of a segue into, like, laws against firearms ownership that are restrictive. Sometimes these laws become barriers to entry for people to get help. So if I'm at like stage one or stage two of my mental health crisis and I'm afraid to go talk to somebody because there might be a red flag law or an ERPO in in my state that I'm really not familiar with how it works and who can flag me? Maybe I say, I'm not talking to anybody about this. I'm going to white knuckle it and bottle up. What happens when you do that? You go stage three, then you go stage four. And that's something horrific happens. Something tragic happens, or you, you end up in divorce, like your life just spirals. So I think it's just something that needs to be recognized that, people think, okay, like we make gun legislation, more prevalent, could also work against an, person who who says, like, I'm not going to go get help, then I'm not going to I'm not going to share my feelings with somebody. I'm not going to tell someone I have these thoughts. I'm not going to seek treatment. I'm not going to take medication is if I'm on medication and they can take my guns. And whether or not it's true, the perception is a reality. Right? So, we we got a battle against misinformation. We have people that contact Walk the Talk America all the time. And they say, I'm in this state, there's a red flag law. There's this. And I love that people feel comfortable contacting us to find that information out. But how many people don't contact us? Probably a lot, right? Yeah, that worries me more than anything.
[00:18:27:01] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, it's it's, thank God for those that that do reach out and, it's the same thing with, with people who have the courage to, to reach out to the, the suicide hotlines and whatever instead of actually taking that final step, thank God for those that do call in. But but like you said, upwards of 74 people per day. Don't pick up that phone. Don't make that phone call. They don't take that that step to to say, look, I've got a problem. I'm, I'm suicidal. and they just actually go through with it and, and, I, I've shared a little bit about, my past with you and, and knowing, having had a few very close friends of mine, commit suicide. it's just a horrific thing to go through, for people. And, I would say that everybody who seriously thinks about, if they're seriously thinking about, this, gun violence situation, they also have to they have to start, thinking a little bit clearer on on the mental health aspect of this and how we can work through this thing. Talk to me a little bit, Michael, about the, the Cause a Pause, thing that that walk, the talk, America promotes because it's great if people, make that phone call. Call the 988 suicide hotline, things like that. Not everybody does, unfortunately, but but you guys have come up with something, that I think is incredible. Until I found out about your organization. Didn't know what? Cause a pause was, but, it's it's something that it's a unique and and it seems like it would be very effective.
[00:20:10:08] Michael Sodini: Yeah. I don't I appreciate that. So one of the biggest issues I think the gun community has always had is, is, the feeling of people talking to them with that finger wagging. Right. Like, like even historically if you backed, any kind of mental health organization or suicide prevention organization that was doing great things, a lot of them tend to have sort of anti-gun beliefs, that go against the philosophy of like the Second Amendment. that back red flag laws or anything like that. So what we love to do at Walk Talk America is, is create campaigns and things that make gun owners, because we have the trust of the gun community and obviously, I've I've armed hundreds of thousands of Americans, over the years. Right. And and if you look at my board of directors, everybody on there is a who's who in the gun industry. So most gun, people can look at that and say, okay, people like Colion Noir or, Mike Sodini are not going to do anything to jeopardize my gun rights because all it takes is one bad story and it's a wrap. But we love to put forward these campaigns to get gun owners to think about things. So cause a pause is, something that we came up with because we, we've we believe in time and space during a crisis is essential. We don't like mandating things we don't like, forcing people to remove their firearm. So we want to make those things all optional and available at your local gun shops and things like that, safe storage where you can go put your firearms in a place and know that they're going to be looked after, and you can go get them back as soon as your crisis is over. Crisis is all crisis is temporary. It could take out hours, days, months right. Okay. Yep. Yeah yeah yeah. So so let's say you're not feeling well. And if you look at my safe my gun safe, I put pictures of my daughters on the safe. I'm, I'm not in crisis, but let's say if I ever go there and I go to that safe, I think about the only two faces on the planet that could stop me if I was in that type of crisis. Their pictures are there. Yeah. And it's just little things like that, and that's like. Cause a pause is something that, if you put a picture of someone or something that means something to you, it might give you that pause in that moment of crisis to say, wait a second. There's something worth staying around for. Like I can't. Right. So that that's the concept, the consequence. But what I love about that is it doesn't matter who I say that to if I say that because I do a lot of speaking events. Right. If I, if I'm in a crowd that's, that's mostly anti-gun or gun neutral. They love it. Right? I get we get a lot of mental health clinicians behavior like, oh, I can I can recommend that to my clients who own guns or my patients. Right. Like who own guns. And then when I'm in the gun side of things, like when I'm talking to a super pro today, like they're like, oh, that's pretty cool. I never even thought to do something like that. Right? But it's just one of those things where you just throw out an idea and it doesn't matter who you are, you can get behind it, And we like to say like, hey, if it's if it's not a person, maybe it's a thing, maybe it's a memory, maybe it's that metal you one, something like that. Is your badge something, just something that will create that time and space?
[00:23:26:21] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. Some. Yeah, time and space. I like that a lot because, and just just the phrasing of it cause a pause. what? What can we do to to to just to just stop the momentum of that crisis situation that a person is in long enough that, long enough to, to just keep them from taking that next step. And I think that's awesome, Mike. So let's let's then talk a little bit about, you've talked about gun neutral and, and, anti-gun and, and and then the pro two a community, of which I'm a, a big part and, and one of the things that I continuously see and anybody who's ever paid any attention to, whether it be Second Amendment gun culture, the NRA, the politicians, on either side of the aisle, that, that, that just seemed to exacerbate issues more than they actually, provide solutions. going back to the solutions thing you and I were talking about earlier, we see every time there is a, an ugly situation every time. Okay. So let's say it's a mass shooting, like happened in Minnesota recently. There's there's been, several in, in recent history. It's it's it's it's one of the ugliest things that we as a society have to deal with. But what happens every time it happens is everybody goes to their corner, starts screaming at the people in the other corner, and, and nothing ends up getting done. All right. Some, some, colleagues of mine at Braver Angels, in recent weeks wrote a, wrote an op ed that that came out in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. And they made some, they made some good points, about, the ideas that that, that never, the solutions that, that are never come to. Right. The, the points of common, agreement that we should, as a society, be able to come to people who, the, the phraseology is where, where I think we get hung up on, on things a lot Mike, and, people talk about, well, common sense, common sense, gun laws or, or, things like that. And the reality is, is, is what seems common sense to you and I, it's not going to seem like common sense to, to somebody in the anti-gun, the anti NRA, the anti second amendment and vice versa. Right. So talk a little bit about that divide and with the work that you've been doing for several years Mike. with Walk the Talk America and being somebody who did come from the gun industry where do you see that. We could find some points of agreement like what could we do if people would just pull their emotions back? Or instead of waiting for that next horrific event to happen, to even try to start the conversation, because then everybody's ears slam shut when the talking does start, what are some points of agreement we could have? When's the right time to have that conversation? What are the things that you were seeing from from you and your colleagues in not only the gun industry but the mental health industry? How do we make things? How do we actually move the needle in this conversation?
[00:26:43:04] Michael Sodini: Mike well, I think first you got to validate everybody's feelings, right? I always say, like before I speak to a crowd, it doesn't matter who it is. I try to tell them, look, I at the end of this speech or, presentation. I'm not here to make you pro-gun. I'm certainly not here to make you anti-gun. If I made you anti-gun, I completely failed. I just need you to be pro understanding. Right? And I always try to tell people, look, I don't I don't. You may hate guns. You don't really hate guns. You hate death, and you hate people being hurt. And that's fair. That's like, yeah, we can meet on that island all day long, right? Because there's no I've never met a a pro 2A person that wants death and destruction. I'm an anti-gun person who wants death or destruction. It's like we're all working for the same goal. So I always try to validate somebody. And I do this a lot, like, especially, before walk Talk America like I. Because growing up where I grew up, I could I always looked at these conversations and I could, I could respect where one side was coming from. And then I would look at like the pro to a side, right. And I would go like, damn, it's kind of weird that that person said it like that, right? It wasn't very like opening and welcoming, and then I looked at the other side and I'm like, oh, they're just a little ignorant about this situation, right? Like they need to be corrected, but they you also don't want to put them on defense. So you want to give people an easy out. So what I would be at a bar or something and it will always happen, right. Someone would go, oh you work in the firearms industry. And it was like, okay, now I have a I have a chance to like pick someone's brain, right? Like, yeah. And and I would always tell them, listen, we could talk about any of this stuff. It's going to go 1 or 2 ways. I said at the end of this conversation, you're either going to say to me, I need to rethink the way I feel about firearms with the information you've just given me, or you're going to say to me, I just hate guns, and I don't want to see anybody die, and I'm going to give you a hug and buy you a beer. Right. And it's funny because I've never had a bad conversation after giving somebody that out. Make making it okay for them to say, I just hate guns. I wish they'd all go away with my magic wand. It's a cartoon world that they live in, but I understand why they want that world. That's what they're saying to me, is I don't want to see people hurt. So. So that's that. That's the starter, right? But I also believe that the solutions you put forward have to make sense. So like one example that I can give for your listeners and, we started off putting free and anonymous mental health screenings in the boxes of all the guns that I represented, at a to me, it just made sense. They did. The free and anonymous mental health screenings are powered by Mental Health America, who was a partner at the time of what walked Talk America. We still have a great relationship. But, to me, I was like, look, let's get gun owners to see the gun company as a place where they can actually check on their mental health without going and talking to a doctor. All these screenings, there's like 13 of them on there, everything from anxiety to depression to substance abuse. When we first came up with that idea, no one was doing it. And I remember having a meeting with my, my employees and I said, look, we're going to put this card in the box. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if we're going to get pushback from the NRA. I don't know if and Nssf, which is the National Shooting Sports Foundation, is going to get mad. Just because that division was there, right? Like and it was crazy. All we would get was people calling our office saying, I just bought a Bursa, which was like one of our brands that we represented, and we saw that you have this mental health flier in there, and I just want to thank you guys for doing it. So like at that time I was like, time has passed. I haven't gotten in trouble. Maybe I'll I'll ask some other gun companies to do it. I remember walking up to a couple different gun companies that I had relationships with, over the years, and, bringing it to the president and saying, hey, I need you to put this card in the box. And they're like, what is it? I'm like, free and anonymous mental health screenings for our customers because, we need all gunners to be mentally healthy and both of these people, one is Martin Tolson from Arms Corps, and then, Charlie Brown from, High Point. And his daughter Kara. They were like, that's awesome idea. We'll totally do it now. And I remember thinking in my head, wow, it was that easy. All I had to do, all I had to do is ask this, this is great, but. So, when I'm speaking to a crowd that might, be more center left and maybe have kind of like the gun neutral mentality or the gun ignorant or, or maybe anti-gun. And I tell them about us putting this in there. Not one person has ever said that's a bad idea. So see, like there's a solution to.
[00:31:54:19] Wilk Wilkinson: Point of agreement. Yeah. I mean, yeah, these these types of things, Mike, are, are so monumentally important because, again and to back to a point that you made a few minutes ago and I want to highlight it because I think it's a hugely important point, to go along with that is the fact that, you said, I've never met somebody, a pro Second Amendment person who's just all about death and destruction. Right. But when the conversation starts, and people have heard me say it plenty of times, those who represent us for far too often, not the best of us. And unfortunately, they're the ones that get the biggest mouthpieces. And they get up there and they want to start spewing this stuff that keeps us divided and make it sound like there is no point of agreement between somebody who's Pro-Second amendment and somebody who's completely anti-gun or like you say, gun ignorant, that kind of thing. But but the reality is, is there are points of agreement. There are ways that we can work through our differences on these things. Nobody on one side and nobody on the other side. Is is, we're not out for death and destruction. I've been a member of the NRA for as long as I can remember. I, I'm somebody who loves guns for hunting, for shooting, whatever. And I've, I've interacted with those people in that space for a very long time. I don't pretend to believe and that any one of those people is who those who that are, those those out, those out there that are trying to, like, instigate that division. Are there are plenty of points of agreement going back to the article that my, my colleagues from Braver Angels wrote for the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. they talk in there about all these different points of agreement that they were able to come to voluntarily, between these organizations who, who or or groups that, that never thought that they could actually find points of agreement. You and I, Mike, we both know that there's a lot more that we agree on in these situations than what separates us. What separates us, though, is the ugliness that happens before the conversation even gets started. The conversation has to happen. Taking this thing full circle, if we aren't at least confronting this thing and looking at it and talking about it, nothing positive is going to get done. And we're going to continue to see the 74 people die per day. But if we actually confront this thing, look at it, find points of agreement. What can we agree upon? we could go we could go and do a whole nother show on Red flag laws and and the absurdity of trying to get rid of all guns and things like that, and, and these different talking points that are used to to maybe try to make, make a splash in the media, but they aren't going to provide real solutions. Mike round us out, as our as our conversation ends today, talk about a few more of the things that people are going to find, accord, walk the talk. America is an incredible organization. If people want to have this conversation and they should be having this conversation, talk about some more of the things that they can find there, whether it be resources for gun owners, resources for those who don't own guns, but want to know more about gun owners, how we can bridge that gap between mental health and responsible gun ownership.
[00:35:29:17] Michael Sodini: Yeah, and before I do that real quick, I just kind of want to put a bow on what you just said. Because I think what you said was, was beautiful. It is so important to have the conversation for anybody that could be listening right now who doesn't like guns or is, fit believes in common sense gun law. But but I, I like I said, I don't believe in feel good legislation. I, I believe in conversation and looking at all the blind spots. Right. I encourage you to always reach out. One of the things that I'm very proud of is my relationship with behavioral health, because a lot of times, suicide prevention organizations or mental health organizations will reach out to Walk Talk America to say, I've been asked to back this bill, right? This, this, this gun legislation. Where are the pitfalls? Like what? What a why, why shouldn't I right. And then I'll, I'll, have a play with the idea gracefully. you don't have to destroy things or say like, oh, those people are just trying to do this. You say this is where it becomes problematic. And many times people say, I never even thought about that. You're right. Like, now I got to think of it right. And that that's what we're we're moving to. I just need you to learn something and then also be confident enough to ask me the same question over and over again, because maybe, maybe you're having trouble understanding the difference between semi-automatic and automatic. Right. that's like the AR issue. We can have a whole show on that, right? Right? Right. Like the misunderstood. The misunderstood are. Yeah, yeah. But but anyways, so I appreciate that. And I, like I said, I just want to put a bow on it, just, just, just for the listeners, understand that, you look at some of the things I walk to talk America does. And I like to put, all the negative outcomes in different buckets because I don't think there's a one size fits all sweeping solution for everything. Right? Yeah, yeah. So, so and and what walk the talk America has become over the years is completely changed. Right. Like I never really saw walk the talk America as like an advocacy group in the beginning. Right. I was just looking for solutions. But, some of the consulting we do, we do a lot of consulting for suicide prevention, giving them ideas. Right. Like letting them take things like cause a pause or, our other campaigns, like train is hard retrieving your your firearm from your safe storage device as you do training with your firearm. Right. Like that's a thing that a lot of gun owners we love to brag about the three day AR course we take we took are we going to take or the handgun course that we took. We'll tell you all day long how well prepared we are and how much we train. But then it then we act like you can't lock your gun up and train to retrieve your gun. Right? Like I think about all the the guns that I have stored around my house. And I have kids and I can't have unauthorized access to my firearms, but they're all locked in either biometric or, push code or things like that. And I practice, I practice getting the guns out. I make sure the batteries on all these things are, are, are charged. what I mean? Or or changed. I take the safety aspect and the. I like to use responsibility over safety because you can you can be safe, but not responsible, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, so it's like things like that. Like we like to educate people. We have, for mental health clinicians or people in behavioral health. We have a cultural competence course that teaches everybody. And like I said, in a non-judgmental way, about firearms culture. So if you're curious, you can go online. Everything at Walk the Talk, America is free. I just want people to understand that we don't sell anything. We the way we make our money is the firearms industry supports us. You have companies like Ruger and ARM's core that that make it possible for me to do this every day and provide all this stuff for free. So there's nothing there. Everything we do, we give away for free. So, we have a cultural competence course. Two parts is completely free. You could be a regular person if you're just curious and take it a lot of good information there. We have a firearms instructor. Course, a lot of firearms instructors in certain states have now been, told by the state, hey, you need to incorporate an hour of mental health and suicide prevention into your curriculum. And a lot of the instructors turn back to the states and said, like, hey, we're firearms instructors. We're not mental health professionals. What do you want? Of course, the states turned around and said, we don't know. We just want you to put something in there. So they're like birds who want to fly south but don't know why. Yeah. So yeah, we we saw a hole there. Like we had to have instructors contact us and say, hey, can we get your cards? We'll give them out at the, to our students. We said, hey, why don't we make an hour long video that broken up in chapters, which you can find on our website, that you could just drop in, in your course and you can basically just let them watch it. And now you've, you've satisfied it. But what I love about it is we have more instructors contact us in states that don't require it, that say I use your your information, which is just awesome, right? So everything is about inspiration. Yeah. You all we're looking to do is, is, is get the all aspects of the firearms industry, whether it's you're a firearms instructor, you're a gun shop, you're a manufacturer or you make accessories, whatever. You could all be part of this conversation and you could all provide resources and solutions. So that's a huge part of what we do. The other thing we do is demystify the counseling process for gun owners. Just like we demystify guns for behavioral health, we like to demystify the counseling process and what can be done to you or what can't be done to you in your state. So we provide all that information. I think that's important because we get the call. Hey, I'm ready to go get help. What are the pitfalls? Well, giving people information, demystify it. They go get help. They realized they didn't lose their guns. They're okay. that's what we want. We want healthy gun owners. And then last I'd say, one program I'm really proud of is our Kids the Kings program. It's a pilot program that we've had in Atlanta for a few years, where we basically introduce firearms to underprivileged, underserved kids who historically have never been introduced to firearms in a healthy manner. Wow, I can't yeah. Something I'm very proud of because I almost feel like, that community is sometimes forgotten by everybody. We like to talk about that community, but no one actually runs towards the community to try to help it. And what we do is we go in, we teach, not only responsible ownership, firearms ownership to these kids. But there's also a financial literacy component. There's a mental health aspect. There's a mentoring aspect. It's kind of counterintuitive for many people because we use a firearm. It's like a martial art. Right? Like. And a lot of people think, like, is putting guns in the hands of children. The correct thing to do? Yes, absolutely. These kids already have access to these firearms and they grew up around these firearms, but no one taught them how to really use it and respect it. All of our kids, like, the NRA show was in Atlanta this year, and that's where the pilot program is. So we had all the kids at the NRA show this year. I had a meeting with every single president of every major gun company, engineers from the gun companies. Some of these kids are brilliant. They have engineering minds, firearms instructors, competition shooters. Right. Like the owner of Glock, we had Mr. Glock sit there and literally look these kids in the eye. So you come work here one day, like, make a career out of this. These kids will go back to their community. They will preach responsible gun ownership. They it's adorable watching these kids the way they handle guns is better than 90% of grown ass adults, right? Right? Right right right right. Yeah. And once again, in their community, they can open the next gun shop. They can be the next firearms instructor. They can help the Second Amendment for everyone so they can help whoever wants to get into it has never felt like they were welcome into that community. They can welcome them in. So that's just another thing that we do. like I said, every negative outcome, we look for a solution where even if you hate guns, you literally can go, I love what they do, though.
[00:43:38:01] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah, yeah. And and I just I want everybody that's that's listening to this conversation to the next time they hear somebody, in the media talking about, oh there's got to be, there's the we've got to have a conversation about, common sense gun, whatever. Remember, the common sense is things like walk the talk America is doing. If you're thinking common sense when it comes to guns, let's talk about Walk the talk America. You got to check out Walk the Talk america.org. whether it be cause of pause, kids to kings, the mental health surveys. This is a bridge that, this is a divide that can be bridged. There's no question about it. Michael Sweeney. It's been a huge pleasure, man. You're doing incredible work. And, I just I can't recommend this organization enough. I'm, I'm a huge fan, and, I appreciate you a lot. Thank you. Mike.
[00:44:33:13] Michael Sodini: Yeah. Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate you
[00:44:35:19] Wilk Wilkinson: Friends, I want to thank you so much for tuning in. And if there's anything in this episode that provided exceptional value to you, please make sure to hit that share button. If you haven't done so already, please be sure to subscribe to get the Derate the Hate podcast sent to your email inbox every week. We really are better together, so please take a moment to visit Braver angels.org and consider joining the movement towards civic renewal and bridging our political divides. This is Wilk wrapping up for the week saying get out there. Be kind to one another. Be grateful for everything you've got. And remember, it's up to you to make every day the day that you want it to be. With that, my friends, I'm going to back on out of here and we will catch you next week. Take care.
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