Episode Details

Season two of State of the Second opens with Palmetto State Armory's Cameron, the company's Director of Branding and Product Management, who started at PSA nine years ago as a compliance manager in manufacturing and worked his way up through corporate compliance, quality control, and running the manufacturing floor as plant manager. PSA is the season's sponsor, and the conversation moves past the gifts and roundup donations into the real question: how does a company people once wrote off as a budget brand keep winning new markets? Cameron's answer is transparency and speed. PSA now lets customers vote on prototype guns shown at SHOT Show, posts product updates once or twice a month, and tells people the truth when a project stalls, including shelving the STG44 because the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze.

The heart of the episode is how PSA controls its own destiny. The company makes about 95 percent of its guns internally, from the raw forgings all the way to the complete gun, including its own impact-extruded buffer tubes and an in-house anodizing line. Cameron explains why COVID made that vertical integration matter: PSA was building 3,500 uppers a day and they would all be gone the next morning, and you can't move that volume if your parts are stuck at an outside anodizer. The senior management team meets every morning at 9 to review every single repair that came in the day before, and Cameron reads every YouTube comment about PSA before bed and checks Reddit first thing each morning to feed real customer feedback back into product decisions.

The back half turns to politics from the Soapbox. With Trump reelected and a Republican House and Senate, Cameron and John argue the industry has a narrow window, really one year before reelection season, to push for real change on the Hughes Amendment and the NFA, suppressors, SBRs, and national reciprocity, with a call out to the Hearing Protection and SHUSH acts. Both push a high-tide-raises-all-boats message: drop the ego and the digs, do co-branded work, and bring new people into the firearms world instead of gatekeeping. Cameron frames PSA's website as its most powerful asset because it sells everyone's products, not only its own, and closes with a teaser about a six-foot glass case ordered for next SHOT Show built to hold a single gun.

Questions this episode answers

How did Cameron Tapler work his way up at Palmetto State Armory over nine years?

Cameron started at PSA about nine years ago as a compliance manager in manufacturing, then moved through corporate compliance over the company's FFLs, two years in quality control, and running the manufacturing floor as plant manager before being promoted into branding and product management.

Why is Palmetto State Armory so open and transparent about its products and timelines?

Cameron says PSA wants to be an open book because it owes customers the truth, so it posts product updates once or twice a month and tells people honestly when a project stalls rather than going quiet.

How does PSA let customers vote on which prototype guns get made?

PSA shows prototype guns at SHOT Show and lets customers vote on which ones it should actually build, feeding that demand directly into its product decisions.

Why did PSA shelve the STG44 project?

Cameron explains PSA shelved the STG44 because the juice wasn't worth the squeeze, and he points to it as an example of setting real expectations and telling customers the truth when a project doesn't pan out.

What does it mean that PSA makes about 95 percent of its guns in house?

PSA produces roughly 95 percent of its guns internally, from raw forgings all the way to the complete firearm, including its own impact-extruded buffer tubes and an in-house anodizing line. That vertical integration lets the company control its own destiny.

How did COVID change the way PSA approached manufacturing a