This is a momentous episode! First, I didn’t think, or know, that there would ever be 250 episodes of RSWC. I started the show with an idea, a couple of GoPros, and no knowledge of video editing. Second, that I’d ever get John Correia on the show! I got to have Neil (#116) and Stephanie (#112) Weidner on the show back in 2021. They both work at Active Self Protection. We’ve had an ongoing joke that I had them on, but didn’t want to have John. This year at SHOT, we made it happen.
John grew up in the San Francisco area. He’s a 49ers fan and “gold and red ‘til he’s cold and dead.” There wasn’t much shooting or hunting going on, living with his mom and her parents for a while. His dad owned firearms, but it was mostly for duck hunting and not something John did with him. Around 13, he did some recreational shooting and occasional hunting with his paternal grandfather on his biological father’s side. However, this man was a prohibited possessor despite owning some firearms.
At 19 years old, John joined “Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club” and was a nuclear reactor operator. And he also got married. Boot camp provided almost zero shooting, other than a converted AR into a .22. During candidate school, he was rear-ended by a drunk driver, which messed up his back, and two years later, he was out of the Navy. After the injury, he was the first person to use the vocational rehabilitation education for a religious education. He cranked out 96 credit hours in 3 years, as that’s what the program paid for. Helping people is what he wanted to do and has done in several ways.
From 2003 until 2018, he was a pastor at a small church of about 150 people. Making ends meet, raising a family, and earning a Master’s degree kept him very busy. While in seminary, he also worked as a retail manager at a video game store. When the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out, there was a lot of talk about people mugging managers to get the consoles. Arizona was a shall-issue state at the time. To be able to protect himself, he got the wrong gun, the wrong ammo, and the wrong holster, and started carrying.
His son was doing martial arts as an activity and wanted dad to join him, but John kept pushing it off until the end of grad school. Having had a gun in the house for a few years, he realized that having a gun was a ‘non-zero risk’ for the family. As we all know, training is expensive. So he pursued becoming a firearm instructor to be able to have some tax write-offs.
For a while, he was living a dual life as a pastor and a firearm instructor. There was some crossover content on his socials, so he started a page just for gun activities. One evening, he brought a video of a self-defense scenario to work out how to combat it in martial arts. That is how the Active Self Protection YouTube channel sprouted.
There’s much more to his origin story. It all blends in together with martial arts, wanting to teach, and building a community. I love hearing stories about how people start taking action and making things happen. John and his ASP team create content to publish every day. It’s not always easy being a creator, working around being an expert witness, and all the other activities. He’s had to hire new people, then more people to keep things going, so that he can focus on what he’s good at. ASP has a YouTube channel. A second YouTube channel. Their own app. And a conference.
Getting together with John at SHOT this year was great. I’m glad he was able to make the time. It’s been nearly five years of talking about doing a show and finally making it happen. It’s great that it’s a big guest for the 250th episode.
Favorite quotes:
- “I didn’t grow up in the church. I didn’t grow up as a Christian… Jesus picked me up and shook me real hard.”
- “If I’m going to have a gun in the house, it represents a non-zero risk to my family.”
- “I could be the John Madden of on-camera violence.”
- “The beauty of being self-employed is you can pick any you want to work your 70 hours a week.”“Religion can be a highly dangerous thing. And yet, I don’t want government to license to can practice religion.”
About Riding Shotgun With Charlie
Riding Shotgun With Charlie isn’t about firearms. It is about having an intimate conversation with 2 people talking. You’re the fly on the rearview mirror. Many of the passengers are involved in the firearm community.
This is a more intimate conversation than a phone, radio, or Skype interview. You get to see the passengers. And you’ll see where the road and the conversation take you!
www.ridingshotgunwithcharlie.com.
