Episode Details

Jordan from Gideon Optics joins John on State of the Second to talk about why innovation in the optics and firearms space is harder than the crowd thinks. Jordan started in the industry about 11 years ago selling parts at gun shows and online, with JSD Supply as his original business and brand, then moved into optics after the laws around privately made firearm parts started to change. He wanted a less politically charged product line, weighed a knife company against an optics company, and landed on optics with help from Mike Branson, who does the reticle design and the technical work. The Omega is the top seller, a large circular competition-style red dot priced in the low two hundreds so newer shooters can try a pistol optic without spending $700.

The conversation digs into the reality of building optics. There is no standard footprint across the industry, the small red-dot envelope means heavy overlap in styling, and Jordan says the real innovation right now is making products better, faster, and cheaper than five years ago. He describes an in-house quality process where every unit gets checked coming in and going out, backed by a lifetime warranty. The spicy topic is the gap between what customers say they want and what they actually buy. Jordan and John trade examples, from oddball calibers and a 10mm part to the Taurus Curve, the folding Glock, the Hudson, and the Liberty pen gun, to make the point that the market punishes risk even while everyone demands cool new products. Companies have to put their R&D dollars where the money actually is.

The middle of the episode turns to policy. Jordan was involved in the Vanderstock case over the ATF's frame-and-receiver rule and attended the Supreme Court oral arguments on October 8, 2024, with a ruling he expected around May or June 2025. He and John walk through the ripple effect: a broadly written rule that starts with 80% frames can reach forgings, the modular grip module on a SIG P320 or P365, and eventually every manufacturer. The recurring theme is that gun owners who think it doesn't affect them learn too late that it does. They push the grassroots message hard, contacting representatives at the local, state, and federal levels, and argue that gun rights are not a single-party issue. They close on the firearms community itself, which looks large but is small and tight-knit, and on the idea that the people behind the brands and the cameras are just regular people worth approaching.

Questions this episode answers

How did Gideon Optics get started, and why did the team move from firearm parts into optics?

Jordan started about 11 years ago selling parts at gun shows and online under JSD Supply, then moved into optics after the laws on privately made firearm parts began to change. He wanted a less politically charged line and chose optics over a knife company, with Mike Branson doing the reticle and technical work.

What is the Omega, and why is it Gideon's top seller?

The Omega is a large circular competition-style red dot priced in the low two hundreds. It is the top seller because that price lets newer shooters try a pistol optic without spending around $700.

Is there a standard footprint across pistol optics, and where is the industry headed on that?

There is no standard footprint across the optics industry. The small red-dot envelope also means heavy overlap in styling from one product to the next.

What does real innovation look like in the optics space right now?

Jordan says the real innovation today is making products better, faster, and cheaper than they were five years ago, rather than reinventing the form. Companies have to put their R&D dollars where the money actually is.

What is Gideon's warranty and quality-control process?

Gideon runs an in-house quality process where every unit is checked coming in and going out. That process is backed by a lifetime warranty.