RSWC #244 Sam Lichtman

Riding Shotgun With Charlie
#244
Sam “The Gun Man” Lichtman
Stump My Nephew segment, Gun Owners Radio

I’ve been a fan of Gun Owners Radio for some time. I’ve even been on the show as a guest and once I was an in-studio guest. Michael Schwartz (RSWC #153) has become a good friend and mentor. He’s also the host of GOR and he leads San Diego County Gun Owners. He’s been quite an influence on the firearm community in southern California. His nephew is Sam “The Gun Man”. When Michael found out Sam was a gun trivia whiz, he created a segment on the show for Sam. People send in questions and answers to see if they can stump Sam. Often, they can’t.

Sam grew up in Virginia and took a mechanical interest in firearms as a teenager. To him, it's not just a tool, but a masterpiece of machinery. When his mom, Michael's sister, found this out, she had Michael give him a quiz of sorts. Sam passed with flying colors. He was reading about firearms, their history, and how firearms influenced the culture and growth of the United States.

The part that everyone enjoys in the Stump My Nephew segment is hearing Sam work his way to the correct answer. He will talk his way through his thoughts and ideas about what is correct and what isn’t, or why it’s one way and not the other. Often he’s correct. Naturally, if they read your question, you’ll get a GOR/SDCGO swag. But you’ll get more if you stump him!

Currently, he’s a freelance writer and copy editor. He’s doing a lot of writing for Leatherneck Magazine, which is part of the Marine Corps Association. He enjoys combing through old history books and going to museums and doing hands-on research. One of his favorite topics is small arms. When Sam was about 8, Michael took him to the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, VA, which is part of the NRA Headquarters. According to Sam, the never-ending fascination of firearms is that you can go from handgun shooting to trap shooting to long range rifle shooting. He likes studying handguns, then moving to rifles, then to WW2 rifles, then muzzleloaders.

On the Leatherneck website, he’s got a series called “This is My Rifle”, which comes from the Rifle Creed from the Marines. This gives him a chance to cover various aspects of rifles and small arms used by the Marines.

Although Sam wasn’t able to join the Air Force due to medical reasons. He wanted to fly but earned a degree in international affairs. The skills he learned in college have been doing well with his writing career. He learned research, analysis, putting together the full story and writing about it. But he was still able to get his pilot’s license.

For about three years, Sam worked at a gun shop and got more experience with learning about firearms. During that time he was a sales associate then a floor manager. Working in firearms, he was able to deal with a different cross section of the population which are gun owners. His favorite firearm is a Chiappa Rhino chambered in .357.

We did spend some time talking about how to get a carry permit in Virginia.When Bruen was decided in 2022, it really didn’t affect Virginians. It’s certainly much easier to get a permit there than in other states. But this was before the election. Time will tell what gun control is headed their way. The Commonwealth may turn purple or blue in the coming year.

It was really good to meet and have Sam on the show. This was his first year at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Hopefully he’ll keep coming to this, and maybe some other events around the country. Until then, you can catch his segment on Gun Owners Radio, which can be found on YouTube and at the website below.

Favorite quotes:
“Sam really knows a lot about gun trivia. No really.”
“To understand the gun is to understand history.”
“When the Bruen decision went down, no one was paying attention to it in Virginia.”
“If off roster guns are allegedly unsafe, then law enforcement officers shouldn’t be allowed to have them.”
“Life is too short not to buy a gun just because it’s cool.”

San Diego County Gun Owners
https://sandiegocountygunowners.com/

Gun Owners Radio
https://gunownersradio.com/

Gun Owners Radio YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@GunOwnersRadio

Leatherneck Website
https://www.mca-marines.org/magazines/leatherneck/

Second Amendment Foundation
https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun

Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
https://www.ccrkba.org/

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