This week, we're talking with a New York Times reporter about his latest story that examines guntuber Brandon Herrera's run for Congress.

Charles Homans has been at The Times since 2014. Unlike his co-author Thomas Gibbons-Neff, who was on our podcast last year, Homans doesn't focus on gun stories. Nor does he cover all 435 congressional races in each cycle.

So, he explained why Herrera's campaign in the 23rd Texas district deserves national attention. Homans said he thinks what Herrera, aka The AK Guy, is doing is emblematic of a new phase of American gun culture. He agreed that guntubers have built an audience, then a business, and are now seeking to translate all of that into political power.

We discussed some parallels between Herrera's campaign and the Illinois primary campaign of Kat Abughazaleh, a prominent left-wing online activist. Both Herrera and Abughazaleh performed better than you might expect given their lack of political experience, but didn't blow their opponents out of the water as the online enthusiasm for them might suggest. Homans said the internet isn't real life, but it's also not not real life.

Then we talked about some of the controversies Herrera's long history making online content has generated, and how that's a potential drawback in a congressional campaign. Homans also responded to some of the criticism his piece on Herrera has drawn from people like Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms. He acknowledged the skepticism that many gun-rights advocates have toward The Times, but said he works to be honest and straightforward in his reporting.

Special Guest: Charles Homans.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I talk about a new settlement agreement this week that saw New York agree to stop requiring gun carry permit applicants to disclose all of their social media accounts to the state. We also provide an update on Canada's attempt to confiscate hundreds of thousands of recently banned firearms, an effort that to this point has seen a lot of government spending with little to show for it.

Stories covered:
-https://thereload.com/new-york-agrees-to-stop-requiring-social-media-disclosures-for-gun-permits/
-https://thereload.com/canadian-mandatory-buyback-nets-few-turn-ins-despite-spending-tens-of-thousands-per-firearm/
-https://thereload.com/analysis-people-transporting-guns-have-long-enjoyed-broad-protection-under-the-law/
-https://www.courthousenews.com/eighth-circuit-presses-challenge-to-minnesota-gun-permit-law/
-https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/us/politics/brandon-hererra-guns-youtube.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TVA.zoAS.4JAqMFpS9nIL&smid=url-share
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/californias-unconstitutional-kids-gun-ad-law-is-fully-blocked

This week, we're taking a look back at some of the predictions we made about what might happen in the ammo market last year and comparing that against how things actually turned out.

To help us with the deep dive, Nathaniel Boos from Black Basin Outdoors is back on the show. His company keeps charts tracking the last five years of pricing data for dozens of ammunition calibers. They also deal directly with wholesalers and suppliers.

Last May, Boos predicted ammo prices would increase, cheaper foreign brands would disappear from US shelves, American brands would grab market share, and some specialty rounds would go away due to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. He said that's exactly what happened over the past year or so.

He said the Supreme Court's ruling against the tariffs has had little to no noticeable impact since the risk of new tariffs is leaving the business atmosphere in flux. Additionally, Boos said the war in Iran is beginning to pull supply away from the civilian market. He said demand has started to tick up over the last few months as well for a variety of reasons.

Boos said those factors have all culminated in dwindling supplies and rising prices. He said it's likely things will continue to get worse over the next several months. He said it's even possible the market could be headed toward pandemic-level disruptions.

Special Guest: Nathaniel Boos.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I discuss the new "assault firearm" and ammunition magazine ban passed by the Virginia legislature this week. We also cover the Los Angeles County Superior Court's admission that it failed to report roughly 147,000 felony convictions to the state background check system.

Links:
https://thereload.com/virginia-legislature-passes-ar-15-ammo-mag-sales-ban/
https://thereload.com/los-angeles-court-didnt-report-felony-convictions-to-background-check-system-for-years/
https://thereload.com/beretta-fires-back-after-ruger-accuses-italian-gunmaker-of-hostile-takeover-attempt/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2026/03/10/trump-felons-gun-rights-mel-gibson/89069619007/
https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/03/california-gun-control-laws-newsom-firearm/

This week, we're taking a deep dive into the Supreme Court's latest Second Amendment case.

The Court spent nearly two hours debating the merits of US v. Hemani. They were trying to figure out whether the modern ban on drug users, even just those who smoke weed, is relevantly similar to Founding Era laws related to "habitual drunkards." The back-and-forth seemed to create some interesting splits among the justices and scrambled the Court's usual ideological coalitions.

To analyze the fallout from oral arguments, we have the Independence Institute's David Kopel back on the show. He has been one of the most influential Second Amendment scholars over the past 30 years, being cited in cases from the Supreme Court on down the federal judiciary. He filed a brief with the National Rifle Association arguing that the justices should side with Hemani in his challenge to the ban.

Kopel said he was a bit surprised at how oral arguments seemed to go for Hemani. He had expected greater pushback from more of the justices, especially the liberal bloc. He said the majority of the Court appeared skeptical of the law's constitutionality.

However, he said it is always possible that a justice doesn't vote the way their questions might imply. It's possible the liberals side with the government or Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who were most skeptical of Hemani, end up going the other way. Still, he concluded that whatever the Court does in the case, it'll likely have a major impact just on the basis of how fresh Second Amendment jurisprudence is at this moment.

Special Guest: David Kopel.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I discuss a new ruling from the DC Court of Appeals determining that the District's ten round magazine limit violates the Second Amendment, at least as applied to a particular criminal defendant. We also cover new NSSF background check data showing a surge in gun sales in Virginia while the state weighs strict new gun control bills, plus we recap the week's Supreme Court oral arguments in US v. Hemani.

Links:
https://thereload.com/dcs-highest-court-strikes-down-ammo-magazine-ban/
https://thereload.com/virginia-gun-sales-surge-as-democrats-move-dozens-of-new-restrictions/
https://thereload.com/supreme-court-skeptical-of-marijuana-user-gun-ban-in-oral-arguments/
https://thereload.com/analysis-the-path-for-the-government-to-win-scotus-weed-and-guns-case-member-exclusive/
https://thereload.com/analysis-have-gun-rights-advocates-found-a-way-around-the-machinegun-sales-ban-member-exclusive/
https://wvmetronews.com/2026/03/03/machine-gun-legislation-gets-jammed-up-in-west-virginia-senate/
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/05/tony-gonzales-drops-out-republican-primary-texas-23rd-district-congress/

This week, we're doing something a bit different.

Instead of one guest, we have three. They are all members of a new initiative trying to break the decades-old logjam around gun policy. The participants from Bridging the Divide join the show to discuss how their detailed policy proposals differ from the ones our debate has centered around for years.

Dr. Michael Siegel of Tufts University, Rob Pincus of the Second Amendment Organization, and Jonathan Lowy of Global Action on Gun Violence join the show to explain their role in the project. Dr. Siegel provides an overview of the effort, while Pincus and Lowy explain the input they provided and the compromises they reached.

Pincus noted the effort isn't part of a pre-existing gun group and isn't a traditional organization at all. Instead, Siegel said it's a working group that was put together to try to update gun policy with the goal of reducing violent crime while filling the gaps in current policy. He said a big part of achieving that goal involved getting input from gun owners and gun-rights activists in addition to academics and gun-control advocates.

The working group, which went public on Thursday, produced a comprehensive policy plan complete with model legislation. They propose new variations for background checks, extreme risk protection orders, community violence intervention, suicide prevention, firearm prohibitions, dealer regulations, gun storage, and gun injury prevention. All of them have been updated to address some long-running complaints about their effectiveness or their potential to infringe on people's gun rights.

Pincus and Lowy, unlikely bedfellows given that one owns a gun company and the other has made a career of suing them, said they were proud of the work the group has done and felt their input was actually incorporated into the proposals. They both explained what they thought was the best idea in the plan and why they felt it was important for them to be involved.

Siegel admitted the policy proposals are likely to face plenty of criticism, even with the effort to try and address many of the long-standing critiques associated with each of them. He said it would likely be an uphill battle to get the proposals turned into law. But he noted the group included lawmakers as part of the working group, and he said he is confident in their plan to get other legislators on board.

Special Guests: Jonathan Lowy, Michael Siegel, and Rob Pincus.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I recap President Trump's latest State of Union address, which was conspicuously light on any discussion of his administration's gun policy approach. We discuss how to interpret that omission. We also cover documents in the Epstein Files that show the convicted sex criminal's pursuit of gun rights restoration numerous times up until his second arrest.

Stories:
https://thereload.com/trump-snubs-gun-rights-in-longest-state-of-the-union-speech-on-record/
https://thereload.com/jeffrey-epstein-continually-tried-to-get-gun-rights-back-after-first-sex-crime-conviction/
https://thereload.com/scotus-refuses-nra-free-speech-case-return-lets-qualified-immunity-ruling-stand/
https://www.ammoland.com/2026/02/ccrkba-demands-bloomberg-come-clean-about-epstein-relationship/
http://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2026/02/23/nssf-asks-scotus-to-overturn-new-york-public-nuisance-law-targeting-gun-industry-n1231654
https://www.wboy.com/news/west-virginia/west-virginia-politics/west-virginia-could-sell-its-residents-machine-guns-under-new-bill/