A Kandid Chat on Gun Ownership, Safety and Gun Violence w/ Corey ”Safetyman” Jones

Gun Ownership & Safety w/ Corey "Safetyman" Jones

Kandidly Kristin: Hey, hey, hey, podcast Nation. It's your girl, Kandidly, Kristin, and this is the Kandid Shop. Today I am super duper excited to be sitting down for a Kandid chat about gun ownership, gun violence, gun safety, and just guns in general with founder and CEO of Safety Man Consulting, LLC Mr. Corey Jones. Welcome, welcome, welcome, Corey to the Kandid Shop

Corey Jones: Hey, welcome. Thanks for having me, Kristin. I really appreciate it.

Kandidly Kristin: No problem. I actually, I live in New Jersey, so my morning, TV show is Good Day Philadelphia, and I saw you on a segment and I said, oh, I have got to have him on my show. And so I, um, from that time to this, I've reached out and connected with you and here you are and I'm really, This is an important topic to me. Number one, because I live in close proximity to Philadelphia where the incidences of gun violence and carjackings and just crime in general seems to be on the rise. Active shooter situation, seem to be on the rise, crimes committed with a firearm in general, and more people legally buying and owning guns. I really wanted to have this important discussion with you, so thank you.

Corey Jones: Well, I appreciate it, and that is probably 50% of what my business consists of now is training private citizens as well as law enforcement and security officers, but focusing really on private citizens, giving them the knowledge, the education, and the know how to be able to legally, tactically, and morally use a firearm in self defense of themselves and family, or others.

Kandidly Kristin: Nice. So I guess my first question is, and from, so my listeners know who you are, tell me the why and the what of Safety Man Consulting, how it came to be, why you thought it was important to have, uh, an organization or business like this.

Corey Jones: Uh, that's one of my favorite questions, Kristin. I really appreciate that. I was a police officer for 27 years, and during that, I was fortunate and blessed enough to be able to go to a lot of schools and a lot of training. I was able to interact with a lot of the big federal three letter agencies, some of the uh, big state agencies like lapd, N Y P D, esu, New Jersey State Police, swat, a bunch of those agencies, and I took the best from what they were able to offer and use that to train the local agencies in New Jersey and in specifically Burlington County.

Then when I. In 2018, I transitioned to training local businesses, schools, houses of worship and active shooter and crisis management response. And then as you're probably where in 2020 when the pandemic started, mm-hmm. , and then we had that civil unrest. Alot of citizens were scared and were buying firearms for protection, but they realized they had no training. So fortunately a lot of them sought me out..

Kandidly Kristin: Nice. Nice. So I've got a couple stats here really quickly. According to the 2021 National Firearm Survey, 32% of Americans say they personally own a firearm, and that equates to more than 81.4 million Americans who own a gun or guns. Do you think that that is a good or bad thing?

Corey Jones: I think if I were a criminal , and I knew I was going to an area where a high percentage of the population had concealed carry, I may think twice about committing a violent crime against somebody in that vicinity. I would be more likely to go to a place where I know concealed carry was illegal or unapproved. And those would be easier victims, easier targets.

Kandidly Kristin: So you mentioned concealed carry. That's always been a question of mine.. Now I know that there are, and I'm doing air quotes, open carry states, municipalities, as opposed to concealed carry is one or the other better? I don't know that I wanna live in a town where people are walking around with guns on their hips, but I also don't know if I wanna be where, I don't know where guns are, but people have them. So, in your opinion, which is better in terms of the general population and how people feel just walking down the street.

Corey Jones: My opinion, that's gonna be kind of skewed. Cause I was born, raised and worked in New Jersey where until July, until the Supreme Court Brewing decision came out. There was never concealed carry in New Jersey or open carry. Guns were only allowed to be owned by private citizens in their own homes.

Kandidly Kristin: OK

Corey Jones: So whenever we dealt with a citizen with a gun, they were typically under arrest.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay

Corey Jones: So we're not used to seeing those types of things on people, as far as your specific question, open carry, concealed carry. They both have their pluses and minuses.

Kandidly Kristin: Mm-hmm.

Corey Jones: I go back to my initial example, if you're a criminal walking down the street, picking a female to do a violent crime to, and you see she has a 45 strapped to her hip, are you gonna make a different choice of a victim?

Kandidly Kristin: Absolutely.

Corey Jones: That's, that would be crazy. It'd be insane. You'd be a terrible criminal picking on somebody who has a gun on his or her hip, so that has the pluses or minuses, the concealed carry. You won't be targeted. By somebody who's an active shooter or a criminal looking to take out the people who may be able to protect the innocence because they see that gun in your hip and you won't make people nervous because again, we are in New Jersey and safety is one thing, but the feeling of the perception of your personal safety is, to me, equally important. So if people feel and perceive that they are safe because there's not anything out flagging their concern, that's a good thing.

Kandidly Kristin: Got it. Got it. So whenever I, uh, am sitting down for a chat with somebody in my preliminary research of them, if they have a website, I kind of go and poke around. And I was perusing your website, which I like a lot. And, and there was, there was a statement on there. It says, “If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.” So expand on how that statement intersects with what you do.

Corey Jones: Oh, my favorite example of that is, would you put your seatbelt on before, during, or after your motor vehicle crash? Hmm? You would put it on before your motor vehicle crashed, so that means you are staying ready. You are ready. You don't have to get ready. We all know it's impossible in the middle of a crash to try and reach up. Put that seat. Seatbelt on, and then say you had to go and activate your airbag manually so it would come out when the crash actually happened. Right? Those would be ridiculous. And we would never stand for that as American citizens. Right?  So I take that same concept mindset and transfer that to making. My client's ready, whether it be active shooter, crisis management, carrying a firearm, home defense, fire protection plans, anything you want that is your concerns, goals, or objectives. I develop a plan specific to you or your team to make sure that you are ready for that and, and that's why, because I want you to be able to focus your brain power on the actual emergency, not trying to come up with some plan that you've never trained for, thought about, or considered..

Kandidly Kristin: Got it. Got it. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about gun ownership, gun safety, and really specifically law enforcement interaction while you're carrying a legally owned firearm.

Corey Jones: Yes, so law enforcement in New Jersey is going through a learning curve right now. Uh, I was just reached out to, by a few different law enforcement agencies asking me what I'm teaching my private citizen clients, should they be contacted by law enforcement in the course of their duties because either they see a weapon, somebody reports that they have a weapon, or they actually had to brandish or use that weapon in a self-defense situation. Okay. And my, my one word is comply. I've been teaching comply to inner city youth when they're dealing with police. I've been teaching comply for my private citizens when they deal with police and I'm teaching comply with my concealed carry applicants when they deal with police, comply, even if the officer is making, uh, a poor choice or is unaware of the law, saying that you can have this weapon in this place and do these things with it.

Kandidly Kristin: Mm-hmm.

Corey Jones: You comply, fight it in court and you'll likely come out on top and you might even get a civil payout for that.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay. Okay. And gun safety as it pertains to gun ownership, what should that look like? What if I'm, I've gotten my permit. I've taken classes. I  purchased a gun. I have it. What, what, what should private citizens be doing in terms of responsible gun ownership and gun safety.?

Corey Jones: One thing is reading if you have children. Read the level of maturity of the children in your household. Who or who, uh, periodically visit your household. Do we want them to know it's there and remove the mystery, or do we wanna hide it? Lock it up and keep it away? Which is gonna be safer for an accidental usage, but it may hinder your ability to get it in the event of an actual emergency, a home invasion or something like that.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay.

Corey Jones: Education is key. Locking the gun up is key. You can't buy a gun in New Jersey. That doesn't come with at least a lock on it. That makes it impossible without a key to chamber a round or fire it. Okay? So every gun comes with that shotgun, rifle. Handgun. They all come with that. Beyond that, I recommend my clients get a specific handgun safe, put it next to their nightstand. You can actually bolt it to your nightstand so somebody can't steal it.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay.

Corey Jones: It has R F I D fingerprint, just like your iPhone, or it has a three, four, five digit code where you can access that weapon. Okay. It also has the ability to determine if someone's just randomly trying codes of trying to pry it. It beeps, it shuts itself down. It makes it loud noise. So it's really preventative from prying hands who aren't supposed to have access to that weapon to get to it. So I have to balance safety and accessibility in an emergency.

Kandidly Kristin: Got it. And how important is spending time learning how to use the weapon?

Corey Jones: If I gave you a violin, could you pay play Chopin for me?

Kandidly Kristin: Nope.

Corey Jones: So if I gave you a gun, you would not really effectively be able to load chamber, aim, fire accurately, give the appropriate verbal commands, scan your area, handle any malfunctions, reload if you need to, and then interact with citizens, law enforcement officers, your loved ones or anything after that situation, because your stress level's gonna be high.

Kandidly Kristin: Right!

Corey Jones: So training is paramount. I've been training police officers and SWAT teams for 20 years. I train with Navy Seals, some of the best war fighters in the The best, the best, takes some out, the best war fighters in the world and the amount of rounds that they put down, range and train, and they've been imparting on me. Taken my level from 27 years of law enforcement, they've taken my level even higher. So continual training makes it better.

Kandidly Kristin: Got it, got it, got it. Okay. Um, you mentioned verbal commands. Can you explain that to me in my listeners what that means?

Corey Jones: Yes. So the attorney General, who is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the state of New Jersey, has developed a use of force policy and that use of force policy is the law of the state of New Jersey.

Kandidly Kristin: It's for private citizens?

Corey Jones: No, this is for everybody who uses force. It's for law enforcement, private citizens, security guards. Anybody who's using force in the state of New Jersey must abide by this use of force policy. Okay. It's on the Attorney General's website. So when I teach my clients. I teach from the PowerPoint that the Attorney General created.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay.

Corey Jones: In, in that it says that when feasible you must give a warning to the person that you are about to use force. So stop their aggressive actions. Now it says when feasible, right? There may be a situation where, let's just say somebody has somebody that you care about at gunpoint, and if you alert them that you're about to use deadly force, they may go ahead and execute that person. So in that aspect, you'd be able to articulate and explain clearly to a jury, a judge, or a grand jury, that it was not feasible for me to alert that person and warn them that I was about to end their, uh, ability to use deadly force. So the verbal commands I teach are very basic. Stop, get outta my house. I have a gun. . And I want you to echo that and give it loud, repetitive verbal commands for several reasons. Number one, I want the bad guy or bad guys to hear it. I wanna give them the ability to retreat, to stop their aggressive actions. I don't want to take a life if I don't have to.

Kandidly Kristin: Right.

Corey Jones: Number two, if somebody else in the house is on the phone with nine one one. We know that 9 1 1 is recording everything, so they're gonna hear that in the background. So that's gonna help protect you legally. I want you yelling so loud that your neighbors at two o'clock in the morning, hear you screaming. Stop. Get outta my house. I have a gun, I will shoot you. So that's evidence to help you in a court of law. And then, If you can say to yourself, and you can look at yourself in the mirror and your family can look at you and say, daddy gave every opportunity for this bad guy to stop his aggressive actions, and he forced daddy to have to use deadly force to protect us from his aggressive actions.

Kandidly Kristin: it. Got it. Thank you for that. That that was something I didn't know. And I'm sure a lot of people that hear this do not know. So earlier I mentioned the rise in the incidences of, uh, gun violence crimes committed against citizens with guns, carjackings, and all that active shooters. Do you, in your personal opinion, believe that private citizen gun ownership is the solution to curing the gun violence issues we're experiencing? And the follow up to that is if that, if personal gun ownership is not the solution, what is.

Corey Jones: That's a multi-pronged approach. That's kinda like going to the hospital with the disease. They're gonna do a lot of things, gonna do a lot of testing. They're gonna give you some drugs, they're gonna give you some therapy.

They're gonna do a lot of things for you. I think, uh, bad guys knowing that more people. Private citizens, potential victims, have guns, will make them think twice. Make them look at that victim, look at that victim's attitude mentality, the way they carry themselves, the way they're expressing situational awareness. All that training that I give my clients, that may make them a harder victims, so it could reduce the fact that they're gonna be targeted. Number two, if bad guys are being encountered, are being, counter assaulted with people with firearms either pointing at 'em or using them, that's gonna be one less criminal that's gonna be out there committing a crime because either he's gonna be injured dead or he's gonna go to prison because he had to go to hospital to get checked out for his, his gunshot wound.

Kandidly Kristin: Right?

Corey Jones: But the, the, the true crime is, I think is the breakdown of the American family. where we have these, these young men out there in these, in these, uh, cities that don't have, uh, positive male role models. So they're getting them role models of the instant fix, the instant gratification, the, the guy on the corner that has the money, the girls, the cars, the, the cash, the, the gold jewelry and, and the, the respect of everybody in the community. And they think that that's the way to get it, and they would get initiated into that culture. A lot of times they have to go out and commit a violent or a, uh, you know, a type of a crime. Okay. So I think it's gonna be a multi-pronged approach to try and end this epidemic. Pandemic of, of gun violence.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly that it is not one single solution, but uh, layered approach to stem in this tide of violence. Give me your thoughts on assault weapons, the, the guns that we're seeing in these active shooter situations and legal ownership of those.

Corey Jones: Uh, I would equate that to another analogy that I often use. Uh, we have drunk drivers that drive cars and, and kill and injure people for no fault of the victim, right? If we were to take every car from every citizen because a few people did something bad with a car because they were drunk and they made a poor choice, that would be ridiculous, ineffective, and unacceptable.

Kandidly Kristin: Mm-hmm.

Corey Jones: So I, I think that the same policy. Of restricting somebody like me or somebody like my clients who are law abiding citizens. They've had background investigations, they've had mental health checks, they've gone through my course. Uh, there's multiple vetting processes. A superior court judge has to eventually sign off on their ability to get a gun in the state of New Jersey. So I agree with universal realistic common sense background, investigations, and gun ownership qualifications where you have to take a course and prove that you have the mental and physical capacity to use any type of firearm.

Kandidly Kristin: Okay.

Corey Jones: I agree that a shotgun or an AR 15, which people call an assault assault weapon, AR actually doesn't stand for assault. AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle is a company that originally made it, but a lot of people think it stands for a assault rifle. Every pistol every gun is an, is made to assault somebody, so just because it looks scary, it's really good for home defense. You have, you can put up to 30 rounds in it to give you the ability to, to, to, and it's more accurate. It fires at a faster rate. You can put lights and stuff on it. It just makes it a much more effective, uh, caliber. The rounds that you can buy for it have less of a chance of over penetrating the bad guy or your interior walls and creating, uh, injury or property damage to your neighbors. So assault rifles are good for that.

Kandidly Kristin: Oh, didn't know that. So I'm learning. So all kinds of stuff. Mm-hmm. . All right. So let's talk a little bit about active shooter scenarios. Mm-hmm. , what can someone like me or someone listening to this show do? If we're ever in a situation like Buffalo, Uvelde, or any active shooter scenario, what can we do? Should we be doing?

Corey Jones: The first thing you wanna do is like we're doing right now. We're thinking about it. We're talking about it. You wanna make a plan, almost make it a game. Okay? Okay. You and your family, you and your friends go out someplace. Take the first 45 seconds when you get there. It's gonna be annoying at first, but somebody has to be the leader.

Somebody has to tell everybody in the car to put the seatbelts on. Somebody has to tell everybody to do something that not everybody wants to do. So somebody has to be the leader and said, all right, we're gonna do the 3 threes. We're gonna find three places we can exit if there's an emergency, an active shooter, a fire, uh, act of terrorism, a bomb, something happens.

We're gonna find three places that we can hide and secure ourselves so we can be safe, and we're gonna find three improvised weapons if it's our job to go and attack. Disable, disarm or distract this active shooter.

Like just happened in Colorado at the nightclub. two patrons who were unarmed went up and did those three Ds that I've been teaching my houses of worship that I've vetted and trained with Navy Seals and army rangers to make the best thing we can do to give unarmed citizens in the worst situation, the best thing that we can give them, I can't give them AR fifteens in the middle of an, an active shooter. Right. So the best thing I can do is give them these three Ds, distract this active shooter, throw heavy things at his face, get him off his mission.

Kandidly Kristin: Mm-hmm.

Corey Jones: Disarm this active shooter, which they did. They removed the weapons from him. And then they disabled him until law enforcement got there. And kept him on the ground and assaulted him and punched him in the face and hit him in the face with his own gun and kept him from killing more people. So preplan, get your 3 threes, three exits, three places to hide, three improvised weapons.

And then think about, are you the type of person, do you have it within you to go and move forward, run to danger and attack this person to protect your friends, family, team members, work mates, and so forth? Or are you gonna run and hide? Either one is okay, but you have to make that decision.

Kandidly Kristin: Right. So this, you need to treat, unfortunately, uh, planning for an active shooter scenario. Similar to fire drills at home.

Corey Jones: Exactly. If, if you don't plan it, you can't make it up as you're going along, what's the first thing they tell you on an airplane? , right? They give you all the safety instructions on an airplane, but how many airplane crashes have you and I been in zero, zero airplane travel is very safe, but they still take the time to tell you where the exits are.

They physically come and ask you, you're in an exit row. I need a verbal yes. Can you help with this exit? Right? Your seat cushion. Don't put your uh, vest inflated until you get out of the plane. Take your shoes off, do this, do that. Mm-hmm. , they give you that. They make you think of that every time in the event there's an emergency.

Kandidly Kristin: Yes, they do.

Corey Jones: And then when the emergency happens, if you look at the video from, uh, captain Sullenberger when he had to land his plane in the Hudson River mm-hmm. , they did a fantastic job Yes. Of getting everybody off of that plane with no deaths and very minor injuries because they trained, they planned, they had it ready, heads down, heads down, stay down, brace, brace, brace.

And they said it over and over and over again, and then worked and got everybody off that plane because they had a plan and they thought,

Kandidly Kristin: Yep. I agree. Cause I, I work for a, uh, a Jewish organization and they're always, and I manage a apartment building mm-hmm. , so I'm always wondering or concerned with, and they're seniors on top of all of that.

They're all seniors over 62. So I'm considering doing, Some kind of active shooter training at the building. Not sure, you know, these are all very, they're seniors, so, but I think it's important that they're aware that, you know, Jewish places of worship and, uh, are often targets for this kind of thing. We have never been in, knock on wood, I hope that we never are, but I don't want them to be caught unaware.. So,

Corey Jones: yeah, so we can definitely talk offline about that because like I said, that is what I started my business for was, was training people in active shooters. So we can definitely talk offline about that. I can give you numerous options of, of how we can, when we can accomplish, uh, anything from education to training and anything in between.

Kandidly Kristin: Awesome. Awesome. I would definitely like to do that. So tell me what is on the horizon for Corey and Safety Man Consulting. You got any books, events? What's going on? What's in your pipeline for you and the company?

Corey Jones: It's funny you say book. I would, I would love, I would love to write a book, but I type with two fingers, so I would never, I would never, if I could pay somebody to talk to them and they write the book for me, that might be, My goal is to kind of do what I'm doing now, is to be invited to speak to, to give my knowledge, experience, and training and insight to people to keep them safe. My real goal is to be a keynote speaker, is to have people invite me into a stadium, come in, speak for an hour or two, encourage them, give them some techniques, some, some insights, some motivation that they can, if they choose to train and prepare. To protect themselves and then to continue doing what I'm doing.

 I work for a bunch of different companies from Bola wrap, which is a non-lethal remote restraint pre-escalation device that law enforcement uses where we can take somebody into custody with creating zero injury. We have hundreds of, of uses in the field with. Police departments all around the world with the zero injuries related to the actual Bolawrap, and I'm a master instructor for them.

I've been wrapped by this device over a hundred times zero injuries. I work for verbal judo, so I teach law enforcement officers and private companies how to deescalate people, so hopefully we can reduce force, reduce liability, and improve. You know, I work for resiliency, so I try to teach, uh, resiliency to anybody who's on the front line from law enforcement, first responders, nurses, doctors, teachers, people, uh, flight attendants, people who are experiencing a lot of either physical or uh, emotional trauma to try to prepare them to deal with it and then, uh, give them techniques to cope with it after it happens.

Kandidly Kristin: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I'd come to a keynote that you were doing. I sure would.. So I want right now for you to give me your last thoughts and best tips and advice for anyone who's listening who may already own a gun, is seeking to own a gun. I think because my, my son is like, mom, you are, you are there by yourself and you need to get a gun.

And I'm like, I don't know if that's what I wanna do, but then I don't wanna be in a situation. You know, I'm standing here with, you know, toilet paper rolls in my hand and somebody's coming in my house. Um, so just give me, speak directly to my listeners about what's your best advice on gun ownership and if they're looking to do that.

Corey Jones: Uh, I stole this from somebody. His name is Lee Morrison. He's from the uk and he is, uh, just a fantastic, uh, urban defense coach. He trains private citizens, law enforcement, special forces in this, and he gave me these three questions to ask people who are on the fence of whether they wanna take training or, or get devices to protect themselves from a gun to a taser, to a to pepper spray or anything like that.

They. What would you be willing to do to protect your family in the event of emergency? If you didn't have a gun, would you hit somebody in the head with a bat, A giant ashtray? Would you do something to protect your family? And most people say yes. Then I ask, what would you do to protect yourself? Would you hit somebody with an ashtray, a baseball bat, a pipe?

Would you shoot them if they're, if they dropped their gun and now they were getting another one or a knife, and then you were able to pick it up? Mm-hmm. . And most people, when I really press them on it, they say yes, right? And I say, now here's the big question. How would you feel knowing that you failed to protect yourself and now your family is at your funeral?

Looking at your body in a coffin because you chose not to take steps to protect yourself. Who's gonna provide for them? Who's gonna care for them? Nobody can do that better than you.

Kandidly Kristin: Mm-hmm.

Corey Jones: So once I get people in that mindset to realize that they have a lot to lose, if they fail to take the steps to protect themselves and their families, they tend to come across to making that decision.

And then I invite people and I would offer, extend this offer to. to come to the range with me. You can shoot my gun free of charge, no charge, and just to see how you feel about it. Mm-hmm. , see how it affects you. See how you do with it, and then you can make a, a better decision hearing it go off, feeling it in your hands, right? Seeing how accurate you are. Getting a quick lesson on, on the techniques and everything, and then you can make that decision on your own.

Kandidly Kristin: Got it. Okay. I'm gonna take you up on that offer too. So listen, how can my listeners connect with you and Safety Man Consulting?

Corey Jones: A really easy Safetyman.Co. No "M" safetyman.co is my website or at Safetymanco on all social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, everywhere.

YouTube Safetymanco at SafetyManco. You can see all my videos, all my podcasts. Uh, go to my website. You can schedule training right through my website and you can, you can even schedule a free consult. I offer free consultations for people to call. I'm not quite sure what they wanna do. They can do all those things.

So Safetyman.co or at Safetymanco on all social media.

Kandidly Kristin: Awesome. Thank you so much Corey, for, for giving me this portion of your day. I really, really appreciate you sharing your time, your expertise with me and my listeners. Thank you so much.

Corey Jones: Thank you so much. I just want to commend you, I mean, this is a fantastic interview. I love your style. I love the questions that you asked that you, I can tell that you did your homework, that they're really well thought out. So I really appreciate it. And you know, I pray that your career explodes. I pray that my career explodes in a good way and that maybe we can come together again and be co-keynote speakers at an event.

Kandidly Kristin: Yeah. Wouldn't that be awesome? I'm looking forward to that. So listen guys, all of Corey and Safety Man Consulting contact Info is going to be in the show notes with clickable links. So you can click right from the show notes and get popped onto his website his YouTube channel. All of it'll be in the show notes. And please do not forget me. Don't forget to go to www.theKandidshop.com and this one is with an "M" and Kandid with a K. Listen to an episode or three, drop me a review, sign up from my mailing list and like follow, share, and tell your friends about the show please, and thank you.

So Corey Jones. Thank you again. I appreciate your time. I appreciate what you do. I appreciate the information. These show notes are gonna be so full of bullets with all of the little things that you talked about, the three Ds. It's gonna be loaded with info so people can have it and, and look at it visually. And I not have to like stop and go back to hear what you said. It'll all be in the show note. So thank you again for joining me on the show.

Corey Jones: Thank you. Stay safe and as always be ready!.

Kandidly Kristin: All right, guys. Until next time, I want you all to keep it safe, keep it healthy, and keep it Kandid.