How a Navy Veteran Went From Garage to Idaho’s Best Gun Shop

Yeah.

“And so working going on time was definitely it is a whole new environment.”

It's a different, it's a different place to be to to see these guys legitimately face to face.

Yeah. You know, a lot of times, you don't want to have the conversations, but they're still, they're still conversing with you and telling you about all the horrific things they're doing all your brothers and sisters overseas. So it's definitely a different environment to experience that. Daniel Corsini is a discipline, mission driven in strategic military veteran and the founder of Quick Response Firearms. Leveraging his extensive background, he helps individuals and families master firearms safety and responsible ownership.

Building a foundation of community safety, unshakable confidence and proactive defense. I went through a period of time. I was a single dad, he was my kid working full time. I was a correction officer during that same time and trying to balance, you know, starting up this little home-based shop. It was definitely not something I planned to initially, but it was something I just felt so strongly pushed towards like, man, I got to do this.

We've had a lot of people tell us like, you know, man, this has been needed. You need to this here. We've needed to see these kind of guns and have this kind of knowledge and experience in here. And so we've really grown into that and turn it into something where it's, you know, it's more about teaching people how to be protectors at their homes and teach them the right gear for the job. [ Music ]

The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. [ Music ] Hi, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jay Slangen and we're down during the World Cup in the sunny studios of Miami Beach.

And we've got a special guest here for Operation CEO. I just talked to him and Lao has it been an incredible journey.

He's got some stories to share. I'm excited about this one.

“So yeah, introduce yourself. Where's the name where you from and tell us about your business?”

When I'm Daniel Corsini, I'm the owner of Quick Response Firearms at a Twin Falls Idaho. And I've started my business about five years ago as a retail front, ran it a while before that as a home-based business. And outside of that, I've got to, you know, experience outwork and in law enforcement and military and momentary everything between there. Yeah, so home-based firearms business, I get the idea that comes in my head is opening up the trunk and you've got a bunch of guns.

I don't like that, but I'm sure it's not like that, right? I was exactly it. No, no, no, no, it's not. No, it's definitely, I've had customers in the past when I was doing that.

And they were like, as a little weird chunk, the house to buy a gun. I'm like, yeah, I know it.

If for sure would be, it definitely sounds weird. There's a lot of people out there though. I mean, I think there's thousands and thousands across the United States that are home-based dealers. And you know, it's more just taking a hobby and turning it into a little bit of a business while you're doing that. And so, you know, we took a, originally actually, I actually started just like my dining room table and a computer.

And then I got a few guns. I moved it out to my garage on a desk. And then from there, it turned into a portion of a room where I split it half and half. I had like half of a workout room, half of a little mini gun shop. And then expanded into the full room and then just get going.

Yeah. So it's definitely different. So you had half of a workout room and half of a gun shop. So what is it? I'm trying to think of, it's the gun show.

“Yeah, you know, working out and creating the gun show and having guns here and guns there, right?”

There you go, yeah. So I'm not a gun guy, right? But I do have some friends that are gun guys. And then I go back home to Connecticut and they're just like, oh, dude, look at this one, right? And it's like, they got some, you know, big, big gun with an American flag handle or whatever.

Like that, you know. But yeah, my only experience with guns is that I think I had like rifle merit badge. When I was a Boy Scout, back then I was like 15 at Summer Camp, you know? But other than that, I've really had no, no use for it, right? But it seems like you kind of got into it to, you know, in my head, I was like,

So what do you guys serve? You serve hunters, right? And you had a really nice reason of why you kind of started the gun shop, right? Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so in Idaho, it would be kind of expected to have a hunting gun shop. You know, that's a big thing in Idaho is hunting.

There's guys that go out there all the time and you know, hunting is pretty abundant. So that's a big portion, but we just felt really led to start something out that was more surrounded around protection. And so because of that, we do a lot of home to fence weapons and a lot of more of like your tactical stuff for law enforcement departments and things of that sort.

And so it's definitely different than what you would expect coming from Idaho. But it's definitely been, it's been a good niche to fill. It's been one that we've had a lot of people tell us like, you know, I go, man, this has been needed. We needed this here. We've needed to see these kind of guns and have this kind of knowledge and experience in here.

And so we've really grown into that and turn it into something where it's, you know, it's more about teaching people how to be protectors at their homes and teach them the right gear for the job. Yeah. And what does it take to, to need to, for a summit to buy a gun in Idaho?

So Idaho is definitely one of the most, like, second amendment friendly states out there, meaning there's not a whole lot of restrictions.

And so you still have to pass a background check, you still have a whole paper trail to fill out.

“But that's really where, where they draw the line. And so in the anywhere in the United States, you have to fill out this form.”

It's called a 4473. And what it is is it's going to go over, you know, who, who you are, where you live. You know, you need to burst in all these other basic questions. It's going to ask you all these questions, make sure you're not like a fell under somebody who couldn't, you know, shouldn't own a gun. Yeah. And then once you fill all that out, you also have to complete a background check.

And so to buy a gun, Idaho, that's really how that takes place is you're going to fill out that whole thing. That form gets stored with us for life. And so we have to hold on on it forever. It doesn't get turned in, so that's what really makes Idaho a difference compared to some other restrictive states. As we don't, in Idaho, there's no, like, registration of farms being, being created, which federally is illegal, which is a, so it's a good thing.

We don't want to have to turn in the whole registration of things. And so Idaho, you don't have to worry about that.

However, there is a list of farms kept so that way if there ever use an accrimer, the dealer can pull it up and show that. But it does take that as a requirement. It takes an actual law enforcement investigation in order for something to come up that way. So it's like the marijuana rules of guns.

“It's like federally, it's illegal to do the gun inventory, right?”

But statewide, actually, some states, you have, they put a register. Correct. That's illegal federally. Correct. Yeah. So yeah. So federally, it's illegal to have that registration. You know, in states like Idaho, for example, it's written into our own state constitution that it's also illegal.

Yeah. And there are other states, you know, like I mentioned, I came from California, originally. That's one of those states where it's completely opposite where they make an entire registration through the state there. Yeah. Now for protection, right? And kind of families or, or, you know, whoever comes into your shop looking for protection.

Do they need to go through your course in order to get the gun or they can just get the gun after doing the background checks? So they can just get the gun after getting the background check. And so we are firm believers of, you know, of being well trained and understanding the safety aspects of firearms. So because of that, we take a huge emphasis on that. So like when we when we realize that some we use unfamiliar, we use that as an opportunity to show them all the courses that we do provide and the private instructions they can sign up for.

But even if they were just not doing any of that or let's just say, you know, a big thing we get as well as somebody that's on a really, really tight budget. So they're trying to find the most budget friendly and gun they can find.

“And they're dumping all the money they have into one firearm in a box handle, right?”

So they may not have what it takes to sign up for a class. We still offer a lot of education just right at the gun encounter. You know, so we'll show people how to strip their gun apart. We'll show them in the safety aspects of it, how to handle it, how to treat it. Yeah, and then we'll we'll kind of explain all the safety features so they can at least leave their confidence enough to not do something.

That's going to create a hazard for themselves or someone else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and for protection is is there and I'm telling you these as a complete non gun. Yeah, I'm asking that's where my position's coming from. I'm just like, but it's it's also interesting for me, right? Because yeah, I'm interested in worlds that I have known nothing about, right?

So yeah, is there like a limit for protection of like someone comes in and they're like looking for some massive gun for protection or that is that kind of draw questions for you. No, there is no limit on something like that. You know, again, that ghost state by state, right? So every state has their own regulations in there. So well, you know, like with Idaho, you know, if you're going to carry a farm for protection, there is a permit you can get,

but it's not needed because we're what's called a constitutional state words. It's just led by the Constitution, so you can carry. Yeah, so that being said, you know, obviously we do argue diligence there of making sure, you know, somebody comes in there and they're like, oh, yeah, I'm going to buy this, you know, bear it 50 cal for home protection gun.

I'm going to be like, dude, that's going to shoot through like six houses and keep going. I don't know. You know, so, you know, we do our part of leading them to the right choice.

And I've never, we, we sell thousands and thousands of thousands of thousands of guns.

I've never once seen somebody do that. You know, so it's really like people aren't. I think, you know, like some people almost get this aspect of, you know, like these, you know, crazy old cowboys from America kind of thing. It's not like the stuff you see on TV.

You know, people in people in general are responsible.

And nobody wants a bad situation like that to happen. You know, on, on Israel, we're all seldom that somebody will come in and present an actual problem. In which case, you know, we have the right as dealers should be like, I don't know, selling you again. Yeah, you know, and in that, that does happen, but it's incredibly rare. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's, it's always like, you know, the, the few bad apples or stories that are kind of like,

on the fringe that are the ones that, you know, kind of boil up to the top of the media. And they're, they use that as, as the example. Right.

“It's like these, these like, yeah, the fake new scare tactics, right?”

But actually every, every gun owner or friend that's in the guns that that talks about it, they're like the most knowledgeable people on it. And then you know, it's like, all right, I completely trust you guys with it, right? So it's, it's, it's not for me, but it's in our culture. And I feel like people are super responsible.

And it's not kind of like how they portray it a lot of times in the media. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, I think if you look at statistics, there's more guns in America than there are people. You know, like, there are, there's, you know, I'm definitely a contributing member to that number. You know, I've got far more than one for myself.

And so, you know, there's plenty of, there's plenty of plenty of guns out there.

And the reality is, if it wasn't epidemic, we'd know it.

You know, it would be, it would be abundantly clear. And when you're looking at, you know, like you said, these, you know, small, we don't bad apples here and there, you have that in every environment. It doesn't matter if it's guns, it doesn't matter if it's anything else. You know, there's, there's always going to be people that are willing to do evil things with anything they have in their hands. And so we need to really come up with a better solution, which should be, you know, train people up.

You know, people should be trained in safety because we want to minimize, you know, the number of people that are accidentally pulling a trigger and popping around or the floor or their foot or something else.

“Or just our values in general, you know, it's like you'll see, like, you know, I don't know if you're watching any of the World Cup, right?”

But the Japanese, like at the end of the match, before the match, they're kind of like handing out trash bags, right? And then at the end of the match, like the fans are like helping to clean up the stadium, right? And then the Japanese players, like they leave the dressing room, like totally clean, right? And just like, you know, having good values again, right? Because it's not about the, you know, anything, like you said, it can be used as a weapon, right? Right?

And it's just about the values that we have, right? That we can teach. Absolutely. That's really good. But let's go back.

So rewind it. You're on Operation CEO, right? Tell us about your time in the Navy. Because you have some interesting stories of where you were deployed and all that. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, so I joined the Navy and my biggest goal, you know, stemming from, you know, being a kid who grew up around 9/11 and all, my goal was to fight. Like, I wanted to fight for my country. I wanted to keep the fight. My mentality back then was, hey, you know, if they're fighting me overseas, maybe they won't think about fighting me inside my own country. And so that was my mentality.

Join the Navy is not always the right spot for some of the mentality, because it is, you know, being in a combat of role in the Navy is pretty rare.

But I did work my way into that. I worked my way into the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command, which is going to include basically anybody who fights like boots on ground in the Navy, which is, you know, most guys are going to be on ships or, you know, we have tons of planes up in the air and all that. So there'd be boots on ground is a little bit of a different environment. You know, I started that out in Guantanbo Bay, working in the prisons out there. And then I moved into an Expeditionary Squadron after that, and it's been my time in the Middle East.

Yeah, but you were putting Guantanbo Bay as your first assignment, and you were like 18. Right? Yeah. I was 18.

“So how long after boot camp did you have before they stationed you out in Guantanbo?”

So my initial time in I bounced around a couple different jobs like for our initial trains. And so because of that, it was, I was in for almost a year before I went to Guantanbo. I would say most people probably hit their first command station within six months or so. So I was a bit longer because of bouncing around a bit. Yeah, but by the time of, you know, about to turn my teen years old is when I was sent out to Guantanbo.

Yeah. But this is not just 19 at Guantanbo, but this was during kind of like peak, gitmo, like being in the conversation, right? And then the people that were put there are kind of like some of the top terrorists in the world at that time, right? Yeah, just like any prison, there's a lot of different levels there. Yeah, you know, so we had different levels working anywhere from, you know, maybe some dude who's name got given up by Intel and got caught or, you know,

guy who attempted to do a suicide bombing didn't fall through all the way up to like masterminds of all these different tragedies that we've been through. And so I worked in the higher level of prisons over there. And so the ones I worked in were the segregated guys that were the truly the bad dudes. You know, I'd say the lower guys we had were like bomb makers and guys who were blown up Americans and the higher level guys were masterminds of some of the biggest events you've heard attacking our country.

I'm sure it's just eye opening, right? It's like in many, many times like in some of these war movies that like go to war and you're like, oh, we don't know the enemy, but like you are like seeing the enemy. Right? Like that is like the enemies, right?

“Yeah, it's definitely a different environment. You know, I think a lot of guys that go to war and they fight, you know, they're not, you know, even if they're exchanging rounds back and forth, they're not seeing the enemy face to face.”

Yeah. And so working going on time was definitely it is a whole new environment. It's a different, it's a different place to be to see these guys legitimately face to face. Yeah. You know, a lot of times you don't want to have the conversations, but they're still, they're still conversing with you and telling you about all the horrific things they're new and all your brothers and sisters overseas.

So it's definitely a different environment to experience that. Yeah. Wow. Crazy. And then you were, where were you after that in Expeditionary? Something. Yeah.

Yeah. So sorry. I wasn't also in the military. No, it's okay. Or the Navy or any of that. So I'm like, the Expeditionary is something.

It sounds really tactical and cool. Yeah. I'm sorry. No, it's confusing. I did it.

So don't worry about that. Yeah. They changed the name for four times since I've been in. So, but when I was in, it was the maritime expeditionary security. And so it's, it's been mobile security and everything else in between.

So it's called, but it's basically it's an Expeditionary environment.

Meaning, you know, lightweight able to go out and on a moment's notice and do different things. There's different types of units in the military. And so there's a salt units right where their whole job is like, hey, here's a target. We need to go assault that and take it down. Yeah.

And then there's more squadrons like what I served in where we're on a protective side. So we get sent out to provide security and protect. Whatever it is we're going to send on. So it could be, you know, a convoy has to move from point A to point B and they need somebody to protect that. They send us out for that.

Or let's say somebody's getting attacked and they need to send us out as a QRF team to protect them. We do that. Or, you know, we do PSD missions, which is a, as a QRF team. That's the name of your, that's wonderful. Yes, wonderful.

All right. So let's let's kind of combine that.

“So QRF, the one that you're just talking about is what?”

So since for quick reaction force. Okay, quick reaction force, and that's kind of like where you got the inspiration for your brand. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it sounds kind of funny, but I tell people, it's like, man, I had, I had the initials before I had the name. Because I was like, hey, man, I work QRF, you know, and I was come from military, which, you know,

and the military haven't three letter acronyms is like a big thing, right? Everybody does that. So it's like, I'd be cool. You know, it's called a QRF. And then, you know, obviously I didn't want to call it quick reaction forces, because I wouldn't make sense.

So quick response firearms was more than from that. All right, yeah, as a mountain bike, I think quick release. Yeah. Yeah. But quick response firearms, right?

Yes. Yeah, that's nice. That goes really well with the home protection and all that, right? Absolutely. Very, very cool.

And you got an amazing brand, right?

As me, as a graphic designer, right? You used to have an agency and all that. I just think that how they did the logo, very, very cool.

“And the shirt that you're wearing, right, great material, great branding, very cool design, right?”

How do you come up with such cool designs coming from the military and a non-creative background? Yes, I surround myself with people that have the abilities that I don't. So I think that's a, you know, I think it's still hard to find. It's still hard to find that designer or the agency that kind of puts together, right, right? You got people from upwork that are just throwing you some, some slap designs, right?

I mean, you seem to have picked a really great person or was it a person or an agency? So a buddy of mine I served with told me about a guy who did logo designs. So my initial logo, the QRF symbol you see on my hat, that came from them. So just from knowing a guy. Yeah.

And then since then, all the designs like the different shirts we do and they're so like that, that all comes from a local company called five fish press. And they're, you know, good buddies of ours. They're good, you know, fellow Christian believers also. And so it's kind of a good mesh with us.

And then they really have just a phenomenal source of creative ability. And so we relied on them for a lot. You know, we have vehicles wrapped for our shop and we have windows decorated and hats and shirts and t-shirts. And everything you could think of and all of it has kind of stem from their creative abilities of it. Right.

And is that the original logo that you guys had? It is not the original one I created, but it is from the concept I came up with and turned in that I was super proud of at the time. Just, you know, kind of feeds into just how I don't have that ability. Right. That's just kind of like I have my skillset and that's not it.

But when I turn that in, they shot back three designs total. And this was one of them.

And I'm just never thinking like, man, everything like the colors, the black and yellow colors, the logo.

That was all, you know, they're concept on my husband. Yeah, yeah, yeah, obviously, props to you and the original designers man, they did a great job.

It looks cool, professional, simple, right?

I mean, all the things that you wanted that brand, like how they put the silhouette of the gun between the queue and the R,

“it's like, with, with design to boil things down to simplicity, right?”

That's one of the hardest things. You know, so they did a great job, so props to them and answer you, right? Thanks. So now you have entered civilian life. You've made in the leap into your own, your own gun shop and your own company, right?

Out from the garage to brick and mortar, right?

It's actually quite big. It's like 2,000 square feet you're saying. Yeah, and grown. All right. So yeah, tell us about, you know, what were the struggles of opening from,

“from going from your garage to a 2,000 square foot facility and some of these growth plans that you were talking about?”

Yeah, you know, we experienced a lot of strolls along the way. You know, I, I went through a period of time, I was a single dad, raised my kid, working full times,

a correction officer during that same time, and trying to balance, you know, starting up this little home based shop.

Yeah, so there's lots of struggles, you know, raising a family and working full time jobs and government all stuff all throughout there. But really, you know, what it boiled down to from going from home based to open up a store is really just with my, my walk and faith. I mean, that was where, you know, I just really felt, you know, God leading me into taking a hobby and turning it into a business. It was definitely not something I planned to initially, but it was something I just felt so strongly pushed towards like, man, I got to do this.

And, you know, making that leap was scary, you know, leaving behind, you know, full time job insurance benefits, you know, pension, leaving all that behind. Because I had to like, to start to leave that, I couldn't take any of it with me, I didn't have time in. So leaving all that behind was scary step, but in every jump that I've taken, it's really been that it's been like, you know what, like, I'm being called to do this. I'm just going to respond. I'm just going to do it. I'm going to jump in full force and every step of the way it's, it's worked out. It's definitely turned into a good, a good adventure.

That's, that's such a Navy Army military way to say, right? We have we have many, many guests on the show and that entrepreneurial leap, you know, that was, that was like a tactical way to say, right? Yeah, I'm jumping out of, you know, like, you're like, every jump that I've made, you know, I'm going to do this and that, right? And face it right on, right? And I was like, wow, that's amazing. You know, other people are like, yeah, that jump is like, you know, so it's like, so you don't know what you're jumping into and all this stuff, right?

But that's the reason why we have this show, Operation CEO, it's a, it's a great thing. What do you most excited about in terms of your business? Our future. You know, I said every step, we have grown significantly. You know, we started out with a fraction of the inventory. We have today and we've just, we've continued to grow just by rolling profits back in. And, you know, our future goals are a hundred times bigger than we were at now, right? Now, you know, we have, you know, like you mentioned,

2000 square foot shop that our goals are, you know, three to four thousand square foot shop, but then on top of that, also have an indoor gun range and have an members lounge for the guys that have memberships to gun to that range and having indoor classrooms and having like a cafe, all on one facility. So, you know, these future goals that we're working towards right now and, you know, understanding like, you know, we're going to achieve that. We're going to get there and we're going to have this massive, you know, tiny little home base shop going into this huge facility.

It's just awesome. And then it doesn't stop there. You know, I, I tell my kids that, you know, what I'm going to leave behind by the time, you know, hopefully they take over if not I pass it on to, you know, somebody who's willing to have it is, you know, I want to have a minimum of ten of these facilities by the time I'm ready to pass it on. Yeah, wow, you know, and that's a goal I know I'm going to achieve. And so it's just it's in Idaho or nationwide, you know, nationwide, I think I, I'm, I'm starting this in Idaho, but I, I have imagined that the first facility I'll open up will probably be close by, but out of state.

And then we're just keep running, you know, so I mean, my, you know, I want this to be a brand name that everybody knows. I want something, you know, everywhere in the country anybody who knows guns, I want them to know cure of. Yeah, right on real quick, right, me as a non gun owner, right, what wouldn't be the proper steps if I was looking to get a gun for protection. So I'd say, you know, finding the right, the right shop because I'll tell you right now that you're going to, if you walk in there and you don't know what you're talking about, there are a lot of shops out there, unfortunately, that are going to talk down.

And that's, that's kind of a weird, like, I, I don't know, just a weird vibe that gun shops get, you know, and then there are a lot out there like that. So I'd say find a good shop, you know, we made a reputation of being one that is approachable and that wants to educate you.

“That's what you need to find. You need to find a shop like that that's willing to do that. So when you come and us and we provide that service to you.”

But first thing I would tell you is if, you know, if you're not familiar with guns is like, you know, if you're comfortable doing it, let me sign you up for private instruction and I, you know, me or one of my instructors going to take you out.

And that's really where we started out. When I take out new shooters out and to do instruction a lot of times, I'm going to start you off 10, 15 minutes of just talking with you.

“Like, I'm going to explain you how this gun works, the cycle of operation, how you should be standing and now you should be holding this firearm and why that's important.”

And so that's really where we start off is we're going to tell you, explain to you what these items are and why you need to know how to use them. And then from there, we're going to teach you through all the fundamentals. So you leave their confident. Yeah. And that's been the one thing that I've heard from tons of new shooters that we train is they leave, even if it's just a two hour and a private instruction. They leave really confident of knowing that, hey, you know what, I can carry this gun. I can do that with confidence because I know what I'm doing.

Yeah, yeah. Well, right now, man, it's been it's really exciting and just amazing having you on the show and going hearing about your life journey.

“Some of the stories that he goes through in his episode is just like, wow, right?”

So yeah, if you're interested in our new show operations CEO, I highly recommend to tune into his episode. Where could people find you online? Well, our website is qrf guns.com. So qrf is in quick response firearms guns. You can also find us at qrf guns as a tag there for Instagram or Facebook dot com slash quick response firearms.

So if you always find us out there, we're pretty big on our social media and keeping things up to date post and showing you who we are.

And I'm sure our website's a great way to get all of us to.

“Yeah, and are you doing personal social media at all or are you just off funnel through your business?”

You know, it's all all the business. It's all funnel through our quick response firearms, Facebook, our qrf Instagram. Are you getting in front of the camera doing any of the teachings for social media or you're more of a behind the scenes guy? We take a big priority on growing our team as a whole. And so we give everybody an opportunity. So I do a lot of the social media stuff, but you're going to see some of our other guys hopping on their two because we we really try to grow all of our guys and the leaders one way or another.

Right. Well, yeah, I mean, honestly, tune into this show because it's really insightful, not just about, you know, his time in the Navy, but just about his business and how it's growing. It's just so interesting. So especially as a non gun person to hear about it all, you know, but thank you so much for joining us here. And thank you guys for joining us as well. And we hope you stay tuned for the next episode. And thanks a lot guys. Cheers. [Music]