Firearms Radio Network (All Shows)
State of The Second 117 – Why The Basics Matter Most, Even After 30 Years of Shooting (ft. Gabby Franco)
14 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What mindset builds skill and community in shooting?
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Welcome to Gunners of America State of the Second Podcast. I'm Kaylee.
And I'm John. And today we're joined by Kristen from Laser Ammo. How are you today?
Hey, I'm doing great. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Well, thank you for being on. We're going to start off with our first segment, which is rapid fire questions. We're going to ask you five questions. You kind of answer them as quickly as you want. So what is the best training tip you've ever heard?
Practice. I mean, that's pretty straightforward. Practice safely, of course.
What was the first class you ever took when it came to firearms training?
Actually, it was in San Diego by the San Diego Police Department. When I was 18, I took a basic firearm safety class because I wanted to be a cop and I was in California. So I figured what better to take a class from professionals.
Yeah.
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Chapter 2: What practical training tips does Gabby Franco share?
So influential content. There's just so much out there. I guess, I mean, you guys are great. I get stuff in my email all the time from you guys. I, because I do laser ammo social, I see a lot of content outside of my personal channel. USCCA puts a lot of content out, which I think it's great. just, you know, then I see a lot of influencers because I deal with influencers.
So I don't really have one. I just, and I think that that's a good thing. I think it's kind of like financial planning. You don't put all your eggs in one basket and everybody's got different opinions, especially news worthy things are biased, potentially biased information. So I think it's good to kind of see a different points of view so that you can just make your own decisions on things.
Okay, and the last question is, what is the most overlooked skill for a shooter to practice?
Overlooked, I think too many people don't practice and too many people get complacent in their safety, I think.
Well, that wraps up our rapid fire questions. No. Let's go ahead and dive into this. Who are you? How did you get in the industry? What is laser ammo? All that stuff.
So again, my name is Kristen. I wanted, as I said, I wanted to be a cop when I was younger. So I learned how to shoot and I just naturally found that I was good at it, you know, basic. So I kind of stuck with basic target shooting and moved to Virginia, military kid, moved down to Texas and joined a ladies group.
Somebody had mentioned something about competition and because I was really good target shooting, it kind of gets boring. And so I It's like, oh, let me check out this competition thing. So in doing competition, I met a couple, Pat and Mary Grace McMahon, because she was in competition and he worked for Laser Ammo. So I became a sponsor shooter of Laser Ammo. My day business is marketing.
And so then kind of blended in with the marketing side of things while I'm shooting competition. That's how I got my... Now do all the marketing with Laser Ammo. And because I'm in competition... And, you know, women just find the people that have this experience of the things that they want to learn how to do and became the, hey, you know how to do this. So I need you to help me.
And so I started my firearms training business.
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Chapter 3: How does competition differ from public perception?
Now you got to drive an hour to that range or maybe it's an outdoor range and the weather's bad. Or maybe you have littles at home and you got to wait for them to go to bed. Well, then either get a babysitter or you go by yourself or whatever. So this kind of cuts out a lot of the barriers for, like you just said, for those busy people that just may not have a lot of extra time.
And then there's no rule that says you have to practice 60 minutes a day. It's like putting your hands on it. Maybe five or 10 minutes a day is something I tell ladies when I train them. when I'm trying to fix scars, like you have the teacup grip or something, it's like, you know, you can practice five minutes a day, just picking it up, getting a good grip and putting it down.
You don't have to go from picking it up, pulling the trigger, you know, like all the whole rotation, just picking apart a piece that you're struggling with and maybe pick it up 20 times or, you know, or pulling the trigger 20 times to get, you know, to train your brain about pulling it, you know, in a steady pace versus, you know, jerking that trigger.
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So check them out at Primary Arms and you won't be disappointed. I know that you've mentioned it several times about the women that you train. Dive into that a little bit more. And what makes you want to be in the women's advocacy space? And why have you chosen to educate women? And what are the barriers to entry that you think stop a lot of women from owning firearms?
have you guys ever been to shot show? I call it, I call it beer, beard and sausage fest because seriously, like there is, I mean, even a shooting match, I shoot competition, USPSA and IDPA. And there's definitely, we're looking at less than 10% of the population in competition or women or at shot show or women. So it's, you know, it's definitely a smaller demographic. And I,
I think women get intimidated. We learn differently. And so when there's a lot of men instructors or you go to a gun range and then saw men, you know, I don't know how many times I've taken a gal to the range to do our session. And, you know, doc starts telling me how to, how to do the, his, his, you know, weaver stance. And I'm just like, you know, buddy, can you just let me do my session?
We paid for to be here. Can you just let me go? Let me, you know, let me train her and stop, you know, and then they sit there and they watch. And it's just like, once you take a picture and step aside, you know, let us do our thing. You know, even when I started in competition, it would be like, well, little lady, and you're just like, what, what are you gonna, what are you gonna tell me about?
And I'm actually a good shooter. So it's like, can you just back off? Let me shoot one time and maybe offer your suggestions because you might find that I should be the one offering you suggestions. So I think that's the barrier is women get intimidated. One, because we want to know more about the thing, the gun, how all the things work. Whereas men, you just pick up a gun and just like,
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Chapter 4: What makes laser ammo products significant for training?
Just like if I were to, I haven't, I can't think of an idea right off the hand, but maybe if I was to try to teach you something about a car that, you know, it's just, we're women or men are completely different. We are innately good at certain things. And, uh, Educating people on how to do things with a firearm is not it for women.
So we need you guys to be, like you said, supportive and not necessarily just put a gun and load the magazine. Because I've had a lot of ladies, too, that are like, I'm like, have you loaded a firearm, you know, your magazine before? And it's like, no, my husband always does it. I'm like, all right, well, stop that. You need to learn how to do it the hard way, which is manually.
And then with the reloader, I'll show you how to do the reloader. And so it's just, you know, all the things I talk about what the parts are called. So you don't go to the gun store and it's like, so that I want the thing that looks like that thing. And it's like, now you can use the words, use your words, the right terminology, um, You know, I joke about the clip thing.
I'm like, this is a clip in my hair. This is a magazine, you know, so, so they, and the old guys may still call it clips, but you get a, I just want you to at least know the right terminology that is used in the present day.
I must be a cruel husband because I made my wife load all her own mags.
Good. I'm glad you did.
That was the first thing I taught her. Yeah. I was like, you need to learn how to load it and how to rack it and go through the functions properly. That was the first thing I taught her because I was like, I can't. I'm not going to be there. You're going to need this basic knowledge.
Yeah. I'm also a big proponent of. at least at least 50 of the time because i will definitely let my husband do this sometimes um but i think it's important to clean your own gun and that's a job that traditionally he has taken on but but it's it's important yeah you're supposed to clean those
Every once in a while. Just throw a boar snake through it, spit on it a little bit. You're all good.
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