http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=BIGGUNSHOW-02-27-01&cat=AN

Radio talk show fires away at gun critics
By DEBRA MCKINNEY
Anchorage Daily News
February 27, 2001

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Former Marines Niels Green and Justin Giles are so passionate about the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms that they’ve launched a radio talk show in Alaska that’s getting a lot of attention.

They call it “The Great Big Gun Show.” This is a place for ripping into those who favor gun control, those liberal judges and Democrats – “Demon Rats” as Giles calls them – as well as those “Volkswagen-bus-driving, dope-smoking, Birkenstock-wearing cowards.” This is the place to dose up on political incorrectness and sardonic one-liners like “Blaming guns for what happened at Columbine is like blaming spoons for Rosie O’Donnell being fat.”

There’s no soft-pedaling of sentiments here. Sometimes the points these talk-show hosts make are punctuated with eloquent sound effects, like ricocheting bullets and the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire.

Judging from the calls they get, they’re preaching to the choir. After five months on the air, they have yet to get a call from one of those “testoserone-impaired ninnies who suffer from pistol envy.”

“They’re either afraid to deal with us or there aren’t that many of them” is what Green figures.

The hour-long show, which the Great Big Gun guys characterize as “Thomas Jefferson meets Waynes World,” airs twice on Sundays on KENI 650 AM and KBYR 700 AM. Giles is the verbal hit man, while Green is the you-got-that-right guy.

Their interaction goes something like this:

Giles: “Messing with the Bill of Rights is tantamount to changing the Ten Commandments.”

Green: “You want to change the Ten Commandments? Ha. Same thing.”

“I’m kind of the right-wing extremist,” Giles said. “He’s the calming effect. We play good cop, bad cop.”

“They’re very good,” said KBYR station manager Bob King. “I think they’re good enough, with a little bit of polish, give ‘em a year or so, they could go up on the (satellite). They’re well-prepared; they’re not just coming in here winging it. And they’ve got passion.”

It’s the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution these talk-show hosts are passionately safeguarding here. The way they see it, the language is so clear there really should be nothing to argue about.

“The Second Amendment reads precisely and exactly like this,” Giles said. ” ‘A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.’ “

Not everyone likes the idea of a population armed for combat. Brian Morton, a spokesman for Handgun Control Inc., a national organization founded by a shooting victim 25 years ago, doesn’t see anything in the Second Amendment that would prevent “sensible gun laws” to reduce gun violence in this country.

Other firearms issues get air time, too. Guests have enlightened listeners on such topics as the justified and unjustified use of deadly force, firearms safety and how to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Guests have included lawyers, safety instructors, firearms manufacturers, collectors and “the Ruger poster girl,” an Arizona woman who’s a licensed hunting guide and specializes in mountain lions and packs a .357.

A frequent contributor is Aaron Zelman, executive director of the Washington, D.C-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Green, 27, is an Anchorage-born former Marine with a degree in biology that he doesn’t plan to use because he decided to sell guns instead. He’s owner of Gun Runners, a gun shop and home of the Combat Cafe, where espresso drinks sport names like the Saturday Night Special and customers sip them beneath a canopy of camouflage netting while admiring the curios, like a fake hand grenade and an African virility god.

Giles, 29, born in Utah, is a licensed gun manufacturer and president of Sentinel Firearms, which is producing a short- to medium-range, heavy firepower, tactical weapon that uses .50 BMG cartridges, the largest caliber U.S. citizens are allowed to have. “My interest in guns is kind of different than most guys,” he said. “Since I was 12 or 13, I’ve been really interested in physics and mechanics. I used to sit and do bullet trajectory graphs (as a kid). I like a big boom as much as the next guy, but the physics and the thinking and innovation behind it are more intriguing.”

Giles is a combat veteran of Desert Storm and a “FReeper,” a contributor to FreeRepublic.com, a conservative Web site, where he also picks up a lot of material for his show. He’s an emergency medical technician and is married with two daughters.