Second Amendment Heroes Unite: Stephen Willeford, Sutherland Springs, and the Hard Truth About Readiness
- Rick Hogg
- 7 hours ago
- 7 min read
Heavy Topic - Church Mass Shooting
Some episodes are fun. Some episodes are technical. Some episodes are about gear, training blocks, and getting 1% better every day.
And then there are episodes like this one.
On this On The Range Podcast episode, Mark Kelley and I sat down with Stephen Willeford, known to most of America as the “Barefoot Defender” from Sutherland Springs, and we talked about Second Amendment advocacy, gun rights legislation, self-defense, and what that day in Texas still teaches the country.
Podbean even labels it the right way: “Some may find this content disturbing.” That’s not clickbait. That’s respect for the weight of what happened and the families still carrying it.
If you’re looking for a comfortable conversation, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for a necessary one, this is exactly that.
The Guest, Stephen Willeford, The Barefoot Defender
Stephen Willeford isn’t a “talking head.” He’s not a career pundit. He’s a man who lived through something most people only process through headlines, and he’s spent years trying to turn tragedy into a warning label for the rest of us.
Today, he’s also tied into the fight for gun rights as a Grassroots and Industry Liaison with Gun Owners of America, and GOA has publicly brought him on as part of their national spokesman team.
That matters, because this episode isn’t just about one day. It’s about what happens after one day like that, how laws get debated, how narratives get weaponized, how communities heal or fracture, and how individual citizens decide whether they’ll stay passive or become capable.
The Day - November 5th, 2017 Sutherland Springs, TX
On November 5, 2017, a former Air Force member, Devin Kelley, attacked the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The Department of Defense Inspector General summary states he killed 26 people and wounded 22.
Stephen Willeford intervened and engaged the attacker outside the church, and then, along with another citizen, Johnnie Langendorff, pursued the fleeing shooter until the incident ended.
That’s the part the media loves to compress into a slogan: “good guy with a gun.” But a slogan doesn’t carry the reality of stress, chaos, and consequences. A slogan doesn’t show you what it does to a man’s sleep. A slogan doesn’t show you the funerals, the scars, the “what if I had moved faster” questions that never leave.
This episode is Stephen speaking from inside that reality, not the internet version of it.
The Mission
We didn’t bring Stephen on to relive trauma for entertainment.
We brought him on because the conversation around self-defense and the Second Amendment is constantly being hijacked by people who’ve never trained, never carried, never had to make decisions under pressure, and never had to live with the aftermath.
This episode hits four lanes hard:
Second Amendment advocacy
Gun rights legislation and the political fight around it
Self-defense and preparedness as a personal responsibility
Leadership lessons, what to do when fear and friction show up at your front door
And I’ll add a fifth lane because it’s War HOGG: mindset. If your mindset is weak, your plan is weak. If your plan is weak, your family pays.
The Truth About Response Time
I’m not anti-police. Mark isn’t anti-police. We train law enforcement, we work around law enforcement, and we respect the profession.
But here’s the truth that makes people uncomfortable: you are your own first responder.
In Sutherland Springs, the shooting unfolded fast. In any violent event, the clock moves at a speed most people aren’t mentally prepared for. That’s not “fear tactic.” That’s reality. And it’s the reason we teach everyday citizens to take responsibility for preparedness instead of outsourcing their survival to luck.
Stephen’s story forces that truth into the open.
When you hear him talk about what happened, you don’t walk away thinking, “That could never happen here.” You walk away thinking, “What would I do if it did?”
The Other Truth: Systems Fail
This is where the conversation gets bigger than one man and one rifle.
The Department of Defense Inspector General report states that Kelley had a disqualifying conviction during his Air Force service, but the Air Force failed to submit required records to the FBI for the background check system. In plain English: the system didn’t do what it was supposed to do, and that failure mattered.
Why bring that up?
Because after every tragedy, we get the same pattern:
People demand new laws.The same agencies that failed existing processes promise new competence.Then the public forgets until the next tragedy, when we repeat the cycle.
Accountability matters. Enforcing what’s already on the books matters. And learning the right lessons matters, especially when politicians try to harvest pain to push narratives.
This episode isn’t about arguing online. It’s about recognizing that the world is imperfect, systems are imperfect, and your personal readiness is one of the only things you can truly control.
The Self-Defense Mindset
Here’s where people get it twisted.
Self-defense is not about being eager. It’s not about “playing hero.” It’s not about fantasizing.
Self-defense is about protecting life when evil shows up and leaves you no other option.
Stephen is not a superhero. He’s a citizen who acted. That distinction matters, because it puts the responsibility back where it belongs: on everyday people who decide to be capable.
If you carry a firearm, you’re making a statement, whether you say it out loud or not:
I accept responsibility for my safety.I accept the burden of training.I accept the moral weight of carrying lethal force.I accept the legal and emotional consequences if I ever have to use it.
A lot of folks want the identity of being armed without the discipline of being trained. This episode is a hard rebuke to that kind of cosplay.
The Training Reality
Let’s talk about training without turning this into tactical fan fiction.
You don’t “rise to the occasion.” You default to your level of preparation.
Under stress, fine motor skills degrade. Vision narrows. Time distorts. Decision-making gets heavy. And if you’ve never pressure-tested yourself, through quality instruction, safe repetitions, realistic standards, and honest evaluation, then you’re gambling with your life and the lives of people you claim you want to protect.
That’s why our community preaches training standards, not just confidence.
This episode is a reminder that capability is built long before the moment you need it.
The Rights Fight
Stephen isn’t just telling a story. He’s also fighting for the rights that allow citizens to protect themselves.
Gun Owners of America has positioned him as part of their spokesman team and lists him as a liaison focused on grassroots and industry.
And whether you agree with every political strategy or not, here’s what you can’t deny: advocacy groups exist because rights are not self-sustaining. If you don’t defend them, someone else will erode them, slowly, quietly, and then suddenly.
The episode description calls out the broader landscape, “rising gun control debates” and the need to protect constitutional freedoms.
My take is simple: if you want to keep your rights, you’d better be willing to speak, vote, support, and show up. Silence isn’t neutrality anymore. Silence is surrender.
The Church Question
Places of worship should be sacred spaces. They should not be targets. And yet, history shows us they are.
So what do we do?
We stop pretending “it can’t happen here.”We stop treating security as a dirty word.We start treating preparation as compassion.
That doesn’t mean turning churches into bunkers. It means sober planning: communication, medical readiness, competent volunteers, and coordination with local law enforcement, done responsibly and legally.
The goal is safety. The goal is prevention. And if prevention fails, the goal is preserving life.
Stephen’s story forces this conversation because it happened in a church. And it happened fast.
The Leadership Lesson
Leadership isn’t what you post. Leadership is what you do when the world turns ugly.
Stephen acted. Johnnie Langendorff acted. People called for help. People tried to stop bleeding. People carried trauma that still hasn’t left.
If you want a leadership takeaway from this episode, it’s this:
Be the kind of person who can move under pressure.
That’s not bravado. That’s a lifestyle built on discipline, physical, mental, moral, and practical.
The War HOGG Close
War HOGG Tactical exists to build capable people. Not loud people. Not keyboard warriors. Capable people.
This episode is a reminder that your freedoms are real, your risks are real, and your preparation matters.
If you haven’t listened yet, go hear Stephen in his own words on Second Amendment Heroes Unite: Stephen Willeford of GOA on Firearms Rights, Self-Defense, and Sutherland Springs Insights.
Then do something with it.
Train.
Get medically competent.Know your local laws.
Build community.
Support the fight for your rights.
Be 1% better every day.
Forge your fight, because the world doesn’t care whether you feel ready.
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Rick Hogg is the owner and primary instructor of War HOGG Tactical, Inc., a North Carolina–based training company that travels nationwide delivering firearms and tactical instruction. A 29-year U.S. Army Special Operations combat veteran, SOF K9 handler, and former Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course (SFAUC) instructor, Rick applies decades of operational and instructional experience to a building-block training methodology focused on mastering the fundamentals of marksmanship and producing repeatable performance under stress.
War HOGG Tactical provides combat-proven firearms training, tactical training, and K9 training for law enforcement agencies, military units, and law-abiding citizens. Courses emphasize practical application of the fundamentals of marksmanship, measurable improvement, and skills that hold up when it matters most.
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