Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed GlockStore creator Lenny Magill in studio to talk about its unique training techniques and the upcoming Tennessee Star battle between Leahy and Crom Carmichael on May 20th.
Leahy: In studio Crom Carmichael and our friend from California, but now a strong Tennessean, a great entrepreneur, Mr. Lenny McGill. Lenny, I admire your career so much because, you’re just such a great sales guy, such a great entrepreneur. You had some experience in radio yourself, right?
Magill: I sure did. Started in 1983 on the radio.
Leahy: You were 10 years old then. (Laughter)
Magill: I was one of the young guys, that’s for sure.
Leahy: So you’re giving Crom and I a bit of a challenge here. Tell us about that.
Magill: We have a Tennessee Star custom gun that we built. We not only sell guns, but we also manufacture pieces and parts right here in Nashville. We employ about 100 people. We’ve got 14 CNC machines. We are manufacturing parts and selling them all around the country, but we also do custom gun services and we made a Tennessee Star Glock 17 a couple of years ago.
Leahy: It’s really a fine piece.
Magill: It’s beautiful.
Leahy: It’s really quite beautiful. It’s got your logo on it and we laser engrave the logo and we put our pyramid trigger in there and all of our tuns and guide rods and all the things that help make the Glock really shoot even better. And this gun is kind of like the perpetual trophy whereas every year you guys are going to compete for it. And whoever wins will be able to take that home.
Leahy: The Tennessee Star Glock 17 is the Stanley Cup of the Tennessee Star Report. There we go. And regrettably, Crom Carmichael is in possession of our Tennessee Star Glock 17 Stanley Cup.
Magill: Like Crom said, he looks good, but he actually can shoot. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: I’ve talked about this before. I’m gun wary. I’ve been gun wary and it’s really interesting because we talk about the difference between intellect and thought and action. Intellectually, I’m totally for the Second Amendment but there’s this something in our family history and background that I’ve been very wary about the possibility of things going wrong. And that’s why it’s been harder for me to develop my skill. That’s my excuse. That’s my excuse for Crom being better than me.
Magill: I think the main thing is, there’s always a safety concern and we always want to be aware of the fact that it’s a tool that you know, is dangerous and it can be dangerous. However, if you lock them up safely and you follow safety rules it’s just like a drill or a saw. It’s a tool.
Once you become comfortable with it, that’s when you really need to be even more aware of safety, because, mistakes happen when people become commonplace or just comfortable in a sense.
We do sell little mini safes that you can buy but we also encourage everybody to have a really big, safe to lock their guns into and keep them safe. The bottom line is once you learn how to shoot, and once you understand it, it’s not as daunting or intimidating as you think.
Leahy: You’re helping me out because now I’ve got a program. I start next week training specifically because I want that Tennessee Star Glock 17 back.
Carmichael: I wanted to let you start your training a week ahead of mine, just to give you a head start. (Leahy laughs)
Magill: Crom, I know you play golf and we just talked about that a little bit off air. Shooting is much easier than playing golf. You can pick it up a lot easier. It’s not a skill that’s tremendously difficult.
And once you get over the bang and the recoil and all that stuff, which isn’t really that tremendous, it’s easy. I’ve seen women who’ve never shot before within really three or four weeks, are tigers. They were just amazing. It’s an easy skill to do and I think you are going to come up this year and beat Crom. (Carmichael laughs)
Leahy: Crom, Lenny has confidence that through the training I get from the great guys at the GlockStore, I’m gonna be able to beat you in this competition on May 20th.
Carmichael: And you might, you know what? The last thing I want to do is become overconfident.
Leahy: There you go. But now I can’t disappoint Lenny. (Magill laughs) It’s not like you’re going into this training, and it’s all on the trainer. I’ve got to move up my game.
Magill: We have these individual private training rooms and that’s the key. You can get in there, and you can really maximize that one-hour session. You don’t have anybody else asking silly questions. It’s really about you and getting you comfortable and getting you to the point where you understand the mechanics and how do they operate a gun in a safe manner. Taking your skills to the next level and allowing you to see that, wow, I can really shoot fast and be accurate. Because, again, it’s not that hard.
Carmichael: Will our contest include both speed and accuracy?
Magill: Absolutely. We’re going to have multiple guns or multiple targets.
Carmichael: Last time, it was just accuracy.
Magill: We’re gonna take it to the next level where we’ll have multiple targets to shoot. And your score is based upon how fast you shoot, but how accurate you are as well.
Carmichael: A combination of the two. That’ll be good.
Leahy: The open house is on May 20th.
Magill: Yes.
Leahy: So this big event, it’s going to take five or six weeks. We’re going to prepare for it. Are people gonna be watching this thing?
Magill: We hope so. We we’ve had 500 people there in the last event. So between three and 500 and 600 people will show up. (Leahy laughs) But we’ll see if some people show and put a little pressure on you. That’s good for you.
Leahy: A little pressure.
Magill: You’re on the radio every day. You’re used to pressure.
Leahy: There is different kinds of pressure. So let’s talk about pressure. Talking is easy, right? And so that’s not really pressure, but being able to learn how to use a gun and to fire it and to use it safely and to fire it accurately in a timely manner. To me, that’s a bit of pressure, right?
Magill: You can handle it.
Leahy: You think so?
Magill: I believe you’re gonna do really well and I think anybody who’s listening, who wants to learn how to shoot this is a perfect opportunity. Our private rooms really make a big difference. II’ve been to a lot of classes. When you go to a group of 12 or 15 people, you really don’t learn a lot.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Lenny Magill” and Background Photo “GlockStore Building” by GlockStore.
