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The Protectors® Podcast
Welcome to The Protectors® Podcast, where the valor meets the storyteller. Hosted by Jason Piccolo, a seasoned veteran and retired special agent, this series is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the courage and tales of those who pledge to protect us. Beyond the front-line stories of bravery and dedication, this podcast goes a step further, weaving in the perspectives of those who bolster and narrate the protector's journey—featuring a remarkable lineup including New York Times Best Sellers and acclaimed Hollywood actors.
The Protectors® Podcast offers a diverse array of voices, from those who wear the uniform to the authors and entertainers who amplify their stories. It's a unique blend that highlights not only the raw realities faced by our protectors but also how their sacrifices inspire the narratives we cherish in literature and film. Each episode is a testament to the interconnected worlds of service and support, bringing listeners an unmatched depth of insight.
Dr. Jason Piccolo is a retired federal agent, former U.S. Army Infantry Captain (Iraq 2006), and author.
Past Guests Include:- Sean Patrick Flanery - Andrews & Wilson- Mark Greaney- Stephen Hunter- Remi Adeleke - Florent Groberg - Clint Emerson - Travis Mills
The Protectors® Podcast
#494 | Virginia Barone | Shooting Sports & Upcoming 2-Gun Match Supporting The Protectors Foundation
Virginia Barone, IDPA match director & co-founder of Trailblazer Firearms Instruction, joined the show to discuss the upcoming two-gun event aimed at bolstering the Protectors Foundation, a vital nonprofit committed to providing essential training and equipment to underfunded police departments. This episode shines a spotlight on Virginia's dedication to creating a welcoming environment for both novice and seasoned shooters, emphasizing the inclusive nature of the shooting community and its commitment to public safety.
Make sure to check out Jason on IG @drjasonpiccolo
Hey, welcome to the Protectors Podcast. I have Virginia Barone on today and we're going to talk about a very special event A two-gun, a two-gun, not just any two-gun, a two-gun to support the Protectors Foundation. And, thanks to Virginia, this thing is up and running. We're ready to go. So, virginia, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, Jason.
Speaker 1:No, I'm glad to have you. You know, the thing is we met doing IDPA, we did International.
Speaker 2:Defense Epistle Association at the NRA. Yeah, and I keep forgetting that you weren't one of my intro students, because I met you at the same time as Romy, who was one of my intro students.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've been doing it for a while. One thing I really do like is when you put the matches on. You're not only putting the matches on, but you're kind of teaching people that the way it goes. That's one thing I love about these idpas at the nra is it's it's almost like not an intro. I mean you could, you could run it as hard as you want, but if it's your first time to idpa, you're welcomed. But then you're also telling people and showing them how to do things. You're not yelling at them and you're making everybody, whether they're a first time shooter or whether they've been there like a million times you're making them feel welcome. So I appreciate that, virginia.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I don't hear that ever, so I appreciate you saying that and I appreciate you coming out. It's always a joy having you out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. And one thing I like about those, they're short. You know, I can go run four or five stages and I'm out in an hour. You know, sometimes when you go to the bigger matches you're like do-do-do and you're there for like five, six hours. The sun's beating down, but I dig it. But the other thing you do is you have trailblazer firearms instruction. I do. Yes, you're teaching people how to get into the shooting sports. Everybody's welcome to enter the shooting sports. But you're doing that kind of as your side hustle. So how did you get into that?
Speaker 2:So it's actually become more of my main hustle than my side hustle now. But after becoming a match director for IDPA I really wanted to help more people and, seeing a lot of beginners getting into IDPA at the NRA, I wanted to figure out a way to help people get into the competition world without just throwing themselves into their first match. Cause that's what I did, as I just went to my, I like I read the rule book by myself and went to my first match by myself and it was super intimidating. So these classes just give everybody an opportunity to shoot with like-minded peers, people that haven't shot in any sort of competition or even in competition style before. So they're around, it's less nerve-wracking. They're around other people that haven't done this before and we give them the opportunity to shoot not only international defensive pistol association but we also do uspsa style, so that's united states practical shooting association.
Speaker 2:And I have a wonderful partner, derrick. His last name is a little bit tricky for me to pronounce but it's derrick einsig and he is our section coordinator for uspsa and he's one of the top shooters in the area. He's excellent, he fills in all the gaps for me and he's just a wonderful instructor. He's very encouraging and he really helps with stage planning.
Speaker 1:You know, one thing I like about our shooting community here and I've noticed this as I travel around the country to do shooting competitions it's very you don't have to be a former anything to get into shooting sports. As a matter of fact, I'd say it seems like almost three quarters of the people that I'm shooting with on these matches don't have a former anything behind their title. They're not for, they're not a veteran, they're not LEOs, law enforcement, they don't have anything. They just love shooting. And it's not like you know, it's not the tactical, practical, like you know who are, like you know, the vet, bro types, it's really just everyday people. It's crazy the diversity that's in there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we get people from all walks of life. I've had kids come out, because we do allow juniors to an extent. Um, we have women come out, which is wonderful people that have really barely ever shot before, and we do have the veterans and the military and the law enforcement as well. So we have people, just all types of people, coming out, and it's great yeah, it's badass.
Speaker 1:The one thing I really want to talk about today is we have an event coming up on June 29th and it's a two-gun, and so I want you to fill in the crowd. I want everybody to know where it's coming from. But first of all, let me tell everybody what the Protectors Foundation is. So it's really an idea I came up with, probably in early 2023. As I traveled around doing podcasts, I ran into a lot of local police departments, a lot of departments where people are making $13, $14, $15, $20 an hour. $20 an hour is a lot, so they're out there. The only training they get is qualification, maybe once a year, and qualification, not training. They don't have equipment just like tourniquets. They don't have anything like that. They don't have training equipment. And I said you know what? Let me start a nonprofit. Let me get with a group of people and start a nonprofit and let's get equipment and training as much as we can out to these departments. Let's get equipment and training as much as we can out to these departments. We've been partnering and one thing, my, my biggest thing, is I don't ask for money from people Like everyday people. I don't like that because the people I'm trying to support don't have the money to put towards a nonprofit. So I've been asking companies and businesses and everybody else in that realm to provide funding so I can go and buy tourniquets or I could get training or I could do this, I could do that. It's because really, at this point it's a one man show until we start building it, and that's one thing about this competition is it's going to add more visibility. It's going to be able to build this, to scale it up a little bit higher. So what I really would love to see is I'd love to see us build this into like an annual thing. Maybe this spreads off to something else, maybe this, you know, a biannual thing. Maybe this spreads off to something else, maybe this, you know, a biannual thing. We're doing shooting competitions all the time, but the protectors to me are those that are out there on the front lines. They're, you know it's going to start off with the law enforcement community right now and eventually move into the first responder community and emergency responder community. But that's kind of where we're at right now, and this event is to raise money but also to raise awareness that there are small departments out there.
Speaker 1:When you get off these main highways. You have zero equipment. Think about it this way You're making 13 bucks an hour. A real tourniquet, not like an Amazon Chinese something tourniquet is roughly around $30. I get them for about $20. But let's say that's two hours of your time just for a tourniquet. You know what? Most cops use their tourniquets for Other people. So they have to replace a tourniquet maybe once or twice a year. So that's just one simple thing. And then firearms training. And we're not even talking tactical training here, we're just talking basic out of the academy, post academy, later on in your career training. They don't have it. So let's do this competition, let's raise awareness and let's do that. So, renu, tell me about what we're doing petition.
Speaker 2:Let's raise awareness and let's do that. So, renu, tell me about what we're doing. I'm so excited. So this is going to be held at Crucible Shooting Club in Fredericksburg. They are a DoD contracted facility and they really they have memberships, but for the general, most of the time they're not open to the public, and they have been so warm and welcoming to me to allow me to be a match director there for two gun for the past um, probably about a year and a half now, and I've been running.
Speaker 2:I started off doing mid-atlantic there and we're now doing pcsl, which if you know anything about the shooting world, then you know that a lot of the shooting community is transferring or kind of migrating over to PCSL, which is Practical Competition Shooting League. So we're doing PCSL 2GUN and we're going to have 10 stages, which is awesome and I am so excited to build. We have a shoot house and we're going to do lunch and then we're going to do a separate night shoot, which is going to be a mini night shoot because we have a hard stop at 10 pm because of noise ordinance, but from 830 to 10, we'll have a little bit of a night shoot as well, and so this is a great opportunity for military, law enforcement, civilians, everyone, to come out and just have a great time shooting with friends. We're going to have a Texas star. We're going to have swingers, we're going to have all sorts of steel long distance, short distance, whatever you want. Basically in a match, we're going to have it.
Speaker 1:So we're going to have fun. Fun is the word.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're going to be safe. Yeah, but we're going to have fun. We're going to have. I'm debating on what I want to do with the dummies, because we might try to get a dummy. I've done that once before, it's been a while and we might do a drag dummy. All sorts of cool stuff.
Speaker 1:You know, one thing is cool is we're we're starting to get sponsors now. Now we're three weeks away from the gate, so we're asking everybody out there, if you're listening to this, if you could sponsor a meal. You could sponsor anything. You want to provide equipment or anything, or if you just want to donate to the cause, just give us a heads up. We're going to have links to everything the Protectors Podcast easy to get a hold of me on there. But right now we have some serious sponsors and we're going to get more, so why don't you tell us about who's sponsoring right now?
Speaker 2:Oh, I can't believe how many people have just pulled together to send me. They're sending it to me, but I'm bringing the prizes to the match. So they are 1021 Tactical, which is a wonderful couple outside of Roanoke that makes a lot of tactical gear, so they make rifle slings that are so sturdy that they can like hang off of them. So rifle slings are being sent as well as mag pouches. And then my personal ammo sponsor is Steel Valley Casting. He makes really awesome ammo at a really good price. So he's going to send five gift certificates for bullets and a little bit. It's like a hundred rounds. And then uscca, which I am partnered with for my own company, trailblazer firearm instruction, and they come to my ccw classes. So they're uh, they actually already sent them two range bags. I just have to go pick them up.
Speaker 2:And then you helped me get stroop knives, so they're sending me some knives. And I recently just the other night got Holosun. Holosun is going to send some optics, which is amazing. And then Middletown Firearms. And so Middletown Firearms is a gun shop in Middletown and they have a range called Middletown Training that I just discovered and it's a really cool little range. They have like their whole own little steel range. They have awesome training. The guy there worked with a modern samurai, his name is Jim. Really cool group out there. So they're going to send me a Seymour optic. So now we have two or three optics on the prize table. And then the Black Rifle Coffee Company. They invited me out to be a vendor for memorial day and we talked about this event and they are going to put together a 95 gift basket for us to raffle off as well, because you know we all love coffee.
Speaker 1:First coffee right, absolutely first coffee.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm talking about and while I was at that Memorial Day event I met a group called Honor Bound Fit and they do some pretty tough workouts. So they're going to help me come up with an exercise or two. We're not going to do anything too challenging or too difficult because I'm also little I'm 110 pounds. I can't be doing all the crazy stuff that some of the other guys like RPGI do, but they are going to help me come up with some exercises so we can get the heart pumping and right before we go shoot I love it.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to this. I don't know if I'm going to try to figure out if I'm actually going to be able to shoot or if I'm going to be out there like, just be like, hey, welcome to the protectors uh foundation, and let's like we'll do a little bit of both.
Speaker 2:I'll do a little shoot I'm gonna do a staff shoot there. I'm yeah, I'm planning on doing a staff shoot the day before, so I'll be there all month working on setup and constructing walls and all this stuff, and then the day or the week of, I'll be there at least three days setting up and I'm actually gonna camp there overnight for this you know, that's one thing you brought up.
Speaker 1:A good point is where is it and how do people sign up?
Speaker 2:So it is on practice score.
Speaker 1:There is a and if you're not familiar with practice score, just go to practice scorecom. We'll have a thing and you could figure it out. Well, I'll try to write up a quick little directions when you get there and you could just tell us where what to look for.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so when you get to the range I'll have to write in an email everyone's directions on how to get to where you're going to park and everything, because it's a little bit tricky to explain. But it's going to be at Crucible Shooting Club and you'll just go through the gate and then follow the signs down to where to park. You're going to sign up on practice court and it's not that hard to find because there's only one club named crucible. So if you look up crucible under clubs you should find us and I have the title on practice board.
Speaker 1:It does say benefit match for the protectors yeah, yeah, and fredericksburg, right, yes, okay, virginia for everybody out there, the international listeners fly in, fly in. It's June 29th, let's do this and I'm really excited about it. And what we'll do is we'll do like a little post recap after we do the event. But everybody check out the Protectors Foundation, check out Trailblazer, firearms Instruction and then also check out all the awesome sponsors we have for this and we're going to continue to add to that. And there's definitely going to be more shout outs to sponsors. There's been more opportunities for everybody to get involved and they're at this point. There are going to be a ton of prizes, so I'm thinking like the raffle type and we'll do some like all sorts of different things. It'll be fun.
Speaker 1:The thing about this is going to be fun and you're also going to have the opportunity to win a bunch of cool stuff. Those knives we're getting what an amazing knife company. And it's a shout out to anybody else who wants to donate stuff. Just give us a heads up and we'll make sure it gets on a table and you'll get the recognition for supporting. You will also get because the Protectors Foundation is a dedicated 501c3 nonprofit recognized by the IRS we will provide receipts if you do donate, so you will get a receipt for your cash donations. You'll get receipts for you know, if you donate equipment, if you donate prizes, we will make sure that you get not only the recognition but also the tax deductible forms. Absolutely Well, virginia, I appreciate you and I'm looking forward to this event and we will be talking soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too. How do we find you, you too, where you are on ig and everywhere else I am, I'm on. I'm mostly on instagram. I'm on facebook as well, but I'm more active on instagram. But my website is super simple, it's just trailblazerfirearminstructioncom and everybody's welcome. Thanks, virginia I do also have. Uh, I'm up on practice score. I have my own Trailblazer Firearm Instruction Club on practice score.
Speaker 1:I got to join that now.
Speaker 2:Well, I only have one thing going on on there. I do have a one gun PCSL at the NRA next Tuesday which you should talk yeah.
Speaker 1:I need to do that.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:There we go.
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