Firearms Radio Network (All Shows)
State of The Second 121 – Your Content Sucks, Here’s Why (ft. Ben Stacy)
27 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Gun Owners of America State of the Second Podcast. I'm Kaylee.
And I'm John. And today we're joined by Ben Stacey from Forge Relations. Ben, welcome back to the podcast. And thank you for having us. Thank you for being here. So instead of our normal rapid fire segments, I think we know Ben well enough at this point. I mean... Do you like pineapple on your pizza, Ben? I do. See? I do. Enough said. Enough said. All right.
Let's get into it.
Let's get into this. So, Ben, new year coming up. We're coming up on 2026. We're looking at the outlook of different things. We've got the $0 tax stamp. We have all this stuff. What should we look at from a consumer standpoint from firearms marketing as things start going on further?
Yeah.
Yeah, 2026 is going to be interesting because we have the slowdown, right? Every company is struggling to a certain degree. And I think a lot of people are looking at how do we reach the next group? Like the core gun owners, the ones that are in this every day watching all of our favorite YouTubers, They're already accounted for. We're already talking to them. We're reaching them.
So how do we reach the young mother who's concerned about her safety or the kid fresh out of college that is interested in overlanding or sports? How do we get them to get interested in guns? I think that's the main question that we're asking right now. And there's a ton of different answers which we can dive into.
Yeah, I mean, we've... Gone are the days of specific marketing tactics. We've seen there's certain marketing tactics we do, but we really need to get into that next generation of firearms owners that, like you said, the young mothers and things like that. How do we tap into those potential new clienteles? I mean, we talked about it before.
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Chapter 2: What are the key challenges facing gun companies in 2026?
Actually, GOA as a whole does a phenomenal job of reaching the emerging markets. Let's see, how can I put this nicely? There are other organizations that are still trying to talk to the gun owner that is literally dying off, unfortunately. I think on the marketing side, there's a lot of companies, too, that are going through that same thing, where they are not adjusting to where the customer is.
And that's kind of step number one, is you have to go where the customer is. I mean, they're watching TikTok videos. They're on YouTube. They are people that own guns, but they're not gun people.
Well, and that gets into a great topic that I like to talk about a lot is from the three of us in this room, we are what would be called gun people. We own more than one gun. is somebody who has a pistol for home or self-defense or concealed carry, a rifle for either hunting or home defense, or a shotgun for the same reason. It's one to three guns. It's the average gun owner.
I think that demographic is a growing demographic, and that's something that, as a whole, the industry needs to start looking into.
Yeah, and I would say it's even those that are considering or don't even realize that they should carry it, right? Like, let's boil it down to a young mother, right? Like, I have a toddler, so this one's close to home, where she's thinking about growing the family. When I'm at work, how can she protect herself? We're lucky because she's very aware of what we do in the world we live in.
So she's had a lot of special access to these things. But what other mothers are doing is they're going to where they consume content, which is right now, TikTok. TikTok is huge. That's when we try to really hammer home for companies. Forgetting all the policy and political side of all that, the fact... is that this next generation of consumers is on that platform.
I can guarantee you a lot of the people listening are absorbing TikTok content because they have nailed the algorithm. They feed you exactly what you want to see, and they'll keep feeding it to you to end up in some very weird rabbit holes, which I know we've all been there. But it starts out with... it's a weird one because I'm speaking to the women here.
This is not my world, but like outfit of the day videos, OOTD, you know, you see all those young women doing, here's what I'm wearing. And now there's this entire new kind of market showing up where they're doing those videos, but now they're concealed carrying. How can I conceal carry in a dress? Or this is the XYZ bag that I'm using to be able to carry. Or, you know,
Even forget firearms for a second, just like self-awareness when you're putting your kid in your car seat, how to block your door from easy access with your stroller or with your carts when you're putting your kid in the car. It's a lot of those things where they're beginning to have a mindset shift. It's not so much that they are...
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Chapter 3: How can firearm marketers effectively reach young families?
Yeah. I think a lot of it boils down to personal responsibility meeting practical application. Yeah. You know, speaking to the female side of things, yeah. Where we are at in 2026 as far as welcoming women is significantly better than even when I started in the Second Amendment community. We have not arrived in any way, shape, form or fashion.
But I think as we see more people really looking at their surroundings, looking at the the temperature of politics and as especially as.
you know a mom with young kids knowing that i will do anything by any means necessary to protect my kids um you look at things differently yeah um and and it's a good thing and it's a good mental exercise um it can get a little dark if you always you know stay in that you know, thought pattern of, oh, you know, what's going to happen next.
You know, I'm not saying that you should run every scenario ever to ever exist in your, your, your brain. But I think there, there are a lot of moms out there that, you know, want to get classes and can still carry, see the different types of ways to can still carry. They want to get the stop the bleed training. They want their kids to have access to firearm safety classes.
And I think there's a major shift happening where we are now to a point where empowerment is not just a buzzword or something that people say. It is a reality that is happening day to day with thousands, if not millions of women across the country who don't want to be
victim they want to be a victor and and that's a that's a fundamental shift that I think we're starting to see and I hope that momentum continues
And it starts with mindset, right? Like that's, I think that's probably the biggest change that we've seen recently is that we're beginning to think about this because of the, the situations that we're finding ourselves in just as a, as a society. Unfortunately, you have to be thinking about, uh, your surroundings, which is what you should always be doing. Right. But, uh,
because of recent events that has been put front and center to, to all of us on what they, what they should be doing. And it, I would say it probably doesn't start with guns, right? Like firearms are still just a tool. It's just a piece of the puzzle. You mentioned like stop the bleed, like you're 10 times more likely.
I don't know the real statistic, but you're significantly more likely to come across a car accident where you need to learn how to pack someone's wound or put a tourniquet on them or something like that. Right. So, we're seeing that across the board as a community is, is, uh, people are looking for that information and it's not even left or right.
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Chapter 4: What strategies can gun companies use to connect with new gun owners?
How from a firearms company's perspective or just as a community perspective, how do we get that kind of content out there to bring in these people so they can absorb this content?
Yeah.
Yeah, there's a bunch of things that go through my brain. The first one is the way the algorithms across all the platforms work now, and we're not going to go into that rabbit hole too much, but it's less about how many followers you have. A person with zero followers could have a video spike and do a million views, right?
And then that opens up an entire little world for them and opportunity on that front. But that's where businesses should be looking at is being your own best content creator, identifying people that are part of your core community that have the potential to explode and create really good content and then work with those ones that do and kind of go down that side of things.
That's what I would call the kind of the creator marketplace and what the rest of the entire world does with everything else, influencers. And then on the other side, the companies really need to be their voice. That's what we're encouraging, is they know their product best, they know their messaging best.
The whole buy this on discount, or buy this because it's made of this material, or buy this because it's the best thing ever, all that's gone out the door. That is still what the vast majority of our industry does. But you're not buying from a company, you're buying from a person, or at least that's what consumers want. right? They want, they want to buy from another person.
They want to know the story. They want to make a connection with that company. So we're all, we're talking to companies, encouraging them to, to tell that backstory, show, show behind the curtain, show the good and the bad, you know, and help the consumer understand that, uh, they're people too.
And you're going to, you're going to see an immediate, uh, you know, an immediate response that I can give a, uh, I think I can give this answer. You know, Palmetto State Armory is a great example of this because When they have things go very well, you see their guns sell out nearly immediately.
And then when things are taking longer or a project gets canceled, Cameron still gets on camera and talks about it. He's saying, hey, this is why this didn't work out. Unfortunately, we have to shut the project down. And you're talking about comments. You scroll through those comments, you're like, holy crap, we've never seen a company be transparent like this before.
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Chapter 5: How important is transparency in firearm marketing?
Yeah. And it can be on the negative side to that is if the company doesn't get on that train, then it can kill them. They're not going to be able to survive, especially in our industry this year and for the next couple of years at the very least.
If you're not doing something to differentiate yourself and you're still just trying to make a stand on that your product's the best for X, Y, Z reason, it's not going to get you as far as it used to. And the consumer is... smart. The consumer really is. They do their research. I'm going to use the young mother example again.
My wife did all the research into all of the different things that go into what our child eats and what we put them in all of the things, right? Like, and, and I, I just kind of absorb that information from her and it's been, it's been a learning experience, but it's the same, it's the same thing with this, like with, with firearms, it's, uh, and anything within this space, medical, et cetera.
Uh, it's an investment no matter what, right? Most of our stuff is most of the stuff being sold is not cheap. So people want to do their research, uh, And how they're consuming that information has evolved. I mean, we're talking about it, right? All these social platforms and whatnot.
And you want to make sure that the message that you're putting out is one that connects with your target customer. You want to find the consumers that... Or you want the consumers to understand where you're coming from. We tell our clients all the time, you have to find that line in the sand. You don't need to shout it from the rooftops.
Let's just say, obviously, you'd hope firearms manufacturers are pro 2A. You'd hope. But let's just use that as our example, right?
uh you have to find a line in the stand in the sand because if if the customer uh doesn't associate with that they're probably not going to buy anyways and if you if you kind of try to stay in the middle ground and you never talk about it then there's nothing for them to latch on to and be like that is what i believe that is why i support once again like using psa they have been very vocal uh and they as you guys are very well aware put their money where their mouth is in the fight and that's gone a long way
with consumers and you see that with a whole bunch of other companies too on whether it's like family values or obviously the fight for our rights, etc. When a company stands up, people perk up and they're like, oh wow, that's who I want to support because they're actually fighting for what I believe in. I'm one person.
I can give them some money to help support that fight and we can get this across the finish line. And If you're not going to speak up and you're not going to make that known as a company, I think moving into 2026, it will matter. It will matter more.
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Chapter 6: What role does social media play in reaching younger audiences?
You looked up everything. I know when you bought your first gun, it was more for you wanted your own personal protection. It was value-driven. Where do you find... To reach these new audiences and things like that, you've got to find this combination of value-driven but the information that the consumer is looking for.
Because not a lot of people care about, oh, is it a melanite-coated slide with nitrite in barrel and cold hammer for everything. I'm not going to die on that hill today. But... It's not, you could use buzzwords. Those are buzzwords.
When it comes to the new consumer where they're educating themselves, they more want to, in my opinion, they're more looking for a value proposition because money's tight. They're looking for a value proposition. They want to know it works. And they want to get something that they can trust to defend their family with and not to keep piggybacking off of PSA.
But you see companies like PSA coming out with a very value-driven product. You see companies like Taurus come out with a very value-driven product. And if you talk to any content creators out there, Those are the videos that take off most of the time for them because of the value driven product.
Those are the customers that are the new customers who want to get into this and are looking at a value proposition because not everybody has value. $1,500 to spend on a 2011 or whatever you want to call it. Sure. So I mean, Kaylee, what do you think from, from your perspective for, cause I was different.
I was a gun nerd before I bought my first gun from your perspective, you know, was that something that you took into consideration when you bought your first gun was metal and this and that and this?
No. Um, I don't know how many people buy their first gun in quite the position that I was in. I lived in a very, well, for East Tennessee, what would be considered like high crime area right off of the university. There was an incident at the apartment complex that I lived in, took a
good hard look in the mirror, realized I'm a whole five foot nothing, weighed at the time, maybe 110 pounds and was like, I don't like my odds in any of this situation. And so I was broke, a college student, and needed protection. And so I got a clearance gun because it was the only line item that was necessary outside of price was that it could shoot. And if it hit those two boxes, I was out.
We were good. So I don't know how many people are in that position. Hopefully not many. Hopefully if you are in that position, you are able to purchase something. But I do think that there is an emotional response that we have to take into account here that I don't think is talked about often enough. with what are the new gun owners? Because that's really what this episode is about.
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Chapter 7: How can firearm companies adapt their messaging for diverse consumers?
And it's crazy for us, of all people, to miss the fundamentals because we're the ones that are preaching. Always go back to the fundamentals. But why do people feel compelled to purchase a firearm? Why do we believe that we have the right to defend ourselves? Why do we go get training?
Why do we spend money once we get the first gun on a better gun the next time and better optics and a better holster? And we all have the graveyard box of holsters because we've kept upgrading. And it all goes back to the fundamental question of why. And that, to me, is the piece that needs to be addressed. It needs to be revisited and revisited often because...
We're in a very interesting time as a country, but we're also in a very interesting time as a 2A community where we are seeing a new group of people come in, whether that is college students graduating and going out on their own and leaving the nest, so to speak, or whether that is moms or just... or just somebody who feels unsafe in their environment.
So while we're getting these new gun owners, we're also losing a lot of people that would normally be getting into hunting. We're losing the generational hunters. And so if those two things are happening simultaneously, What is the underlying reasons behind those things? What is the motivating factor for the individual? And I think a lot of it comes to
We have as a society wanted to victimize and villainize the traditional gun owners. Oh, they're old white men or oh, they're they're they're those gun crazy people or oh, they are. Oh, they're they're LARPing or whatever the.
the discount phrases to reject an entire group of Americans when in reality, they're husbands, they're fathers, they're mothers, they're daughters, they're brothers and sisters. They're normal, everyday Americans, but we want to treat them like a different class for often political reasons. And so, sorry, I went...
way too long but see i think you discredit your own situation i feel like that is something that is experienced by a lot of people who want to get into concealed carry not just because unsafe environment but they feel that there's something they need to do to take their own self-protection in their own hands and One of those things, I mean, you hit the nail on the head.
You found a gun that worked, that was of cost, and so on. The biggest question that I've seen posed lately from people, because unlike the three of us in this room who have been doing this for a long time, we buy guns for specific purposes. It's we want this gun because we want this gun for home defense, or this gun is because it's for... This, this, and this.
A lot of new gun owners want something that fits a multifaceted purpose. And what I'm seeing in a lot of questions that I've gotten from new gun owners or people looking to become new gun owners is I want the best of both worlds. I want a micro compact that I can use for concealed carry as well as use for home defense. And a lot of times when you pose that question to...
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Chapter 8: What are the emerging trends in consumer behavior within the gun market?
Yeah, we need to be aware of that. Companies need to be more aware of that, of the needs of each of these people are going to differ. So how do I market and message to them rather than just pretending, oh, And probably the worst assumption you can make, and we all do this, is that they're right-winged, they're Christian, they believe all the same things that I believe.
When nowadays, that's really not the case, right? And kind of your point, to your point, we naturally shoot ourselves in the foot. We all love to make fun of LARPing and the old white bearded guy that wears 5'11". We all do that. But that goes on the other side, too. Very rarely are we even considering what about the blue-haired girl? Once again, we all love to make fun of that person.
Maybe I'll just speak for myself since we're on GOA's podcast. But we all have our preconceived opinions. That's just natural. That's human nature. So how can we break out of that? The question I'd be asking from a marketing perspective is how do you break out of that and then how do you turn that into practice? So breaking out of it is, okay, let's get some market data.
Let's actually take a step back, look at what... where sales are going. There's a ton of data out there already. If you're a company, you should be analyzing what's going on, where your sales are coming from, how people are consuming their content, all of those different factors. And then you hone in your messaging to target each one of those.
In the marketing side of things, we call it a persona, but it's really just the customer. If we'll go back to that thing that that mother, right, if you have a young mother, she's watching like cooking channels or baking channels or whatever, you know, women do. I'm sorry, guys. That's a very different approach from the guy that is that is watching TV.
You know, something on NASCAR or whatever else in that side of things or going out and doing bow hunting or whatever it might be, right? We have to look at those audiences completely different. I think we're getting better at it, but historically, as an industry, historically, we've leaned on that messaging of, like you said, it's made of this metal. It has this many rounds. It shoots this way.
The bullet goes this fast. That's all fine and dandy. I think they will get there if they choose to go that far, if the consumer wants to dive that deep into the information. But more... when they're first being introduced to this space, how you present the same information needs to be presented in dozens of different ways.
Well, I think if I could give any advice to any company out there, because I'm going to address the companies at this part. I think as the further away, and a lot of people who are at companies have started at a gun counter at one point. At some point in their career, maybe. The further away you get from the gun counter, the more disconnected you become with the new audience.
And the audience that you're listening to is the ones that are in your comment section. The ones that are in your comment section are the gun people. And they're the loudest. They're the loudest. Yep.
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