RSWC #112 Stephannie Weidner – Riding Shotgun With Charlie

Riding Shotgun With Charlie
#112
Stephannie Weidner
CEO, Active Self Protection

Stephannie Weidner has been coming up on my Facebook page as “someone you might know” for a long time. I’m friends with her husband, Neil. She and I also have a lot of friends in common. Finally we got the chance to meet at the end of the MAG40 class in Sioux Falls, SD. Neil and I and a number of us met for drinks and decompression after the classes ended. She was also highly recommended by some of the participants in The Mingle head by Shelley Hill, RSWC #089.

Stephannie skims over the home life and how the Weidner’s got into firearms. The backstory is they were new foster parents and took in a child from a large, dysfunctional family. When one of the family members said they were coming to take the child is when Neil & Stephannie decided it was time to learn more about firearms and self defense.

As new gun owners, they turned to the Active Self Protection (ASP) YouTube channel. There’s a lot of great info there! Eventually, John Correia, the channel talent & star, reached out asking for someone who can “mom the heck” out of the comments on ASP’s social media. Stephannie connected with John about this and took on the volunteer gig. She was a better connection than she could have realized. When ASP was looking to officially hire someone, that someone was Stephannie. At one point, she was answering emails as John since she learned so much from watching the channel. Being good at details and well organized with the ‘biz’ part of things, that freed up John to keep being the talent for the channel.

Stephannie tells us about “The Mingle”, which is a women only event held by Shelley Hill of The Complete Combatant. She gets into how the gun industry, early on when women were getting into it, did the “pink it and shrink it” philosophy and found out that wasn’t good. But also how the industry took the woman’s “parts” and made that part of the places to carry.

One of the amazing things about the times we live in is that you can get a whole education on self defense on the ASP channel. Then take that info, process it, and get involved with the people who are out there doing it. Then pass the education and information along as well. Before Stephannie became a firearm instructor, she was working with ASP helping organize and run their programs around the country. She found she has a passion for ‘legal, moral, and ethical self defense’, which she has been doing but wouldn’t have dreamed of doing.

We spend some time talking about the great and powerful responsibility it is if you’re going to carry a firearm. You need to be able to hit your intended target and not an innocent bystander. Getting extra and more extra training is definitely something concealed carriers need to do.

Stephannie also tells us about the upcoming ASP Bullets and Bibles 2021 event on September 21-23 in Manhattan, Kansas. The link is below, which is where you get info and get registered.

I think this about every show, but you’re going to get a lot of info from this episode!

Favorite quotes:

“Something of good quality makes it so much easier to carry concealed and comfortably that you can do it.”

“You have the power of life and death in your hands. You have to make the best decisions.”

“Mistakes cost a lot. Doing the right thing can cost a lot.”

“If something happens to me, I have put my child at risk. He is my highest responsibility.”

Active Self Protection Website

https://activeselfprotection.com/

Active Self Protection YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/activeselfprotection

Active Self Protection Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/activeselfprotection/