It's Night's Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBSY Causton's new radio.
Thank you, Dann Watkins. I appreciate a little promo every now and then. I am here tonight for the rest of the show up until midnight. I'll be here Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'll be here Friday on the last night side of the week, and my own show is on Saturday ten to midnight. If somebody were to invent a weapon, a gun that would not be lethal, would you want to own that gun?
Knowing that.
At times a reason does come across your life where you would have to use a gun. It's very rare. Most of us have never had to hold and be prepared to shoot a gun. But there are those where that circumstance presents itself. Well, somebody has invented a non lethal gun. True story. I sat next to him on the flight back from Vegas last May and we got to talking. We told each other about each other, and I loved his story. I took his business card, contacted
him and interviewed him in June. Coincidentally, it was a Dan Ray Nightside, and now he's back for his second appearance on BZ. Brian Gamps Welcome back to WBZ.
Thanks Morgan, it's great to chat with you again again.
Yes, tell people about your gun or guns. I'm sure there are a bit a variety of them. Tell people, yes, this invention.
Well, I've been a gun owner my entire adult life, as I explained to you, but I had an experience maybe ten years ago. It caused me to really question whether owning a gun was really enough, was it really the right thing. And it happened when I got involved in a road rage incident. I was driving admittedly fast in a fancy sports car and some guy you know, really took offense to it, got right on my behind.
I sped up, he sped up. I slowed down, He slowed down, and I got scared, and I pulled off to the side of the road, thinking that he'd go around me, but he didn't. He pulled it right behind me and he got out of the car. Now, as a gun owner, I had my nine millimeter glock in the glove box, and I'm thinking to myself, do I get out with the gun or do I not get
out with the gun. And I decided to get out without my gun because I felt like nothing good could come from getting out carrying my gun, and it was actually a big mistake. And this guy, he bumb brushed me. He was bigger, younger, faster, stronger, meaner, and he really went off on me. And it was at that moment that I realized that unless I was willing to kill him, the gun really was of no value to me. And even to this day, I would never have taken a
life over a road rage incident. But it was at that time that we decided that I decided that we wanted to do something where we could give gun owners like myself an alternative where we could stop at assailants. We could this arm disabled deter without the risk of taking a life or without causing permanent injury. And that was really the genesis of the burner and spell burner for me, So Burna is b y r na and my name is b r y a N, So it's
just an anagram of my name. But we we came up with with burner because the effect when you get hit with one of these pellets is an intense burning sensation. They're filled with olioreesin, capsaicin, pepper and tear gas, and your skin feels like it's on fire. Your eyes closed sort of involuntarily. We refer to as temporary blindness. You're in respiratory distress. Most people will drop whatever they're holding,
fall to the ground. So because it was you know, it burned you, we wanted to call it a burner. But of course when you google burner, this forty t three million results. So he came up with a more clever way of saying berner.
All right, and who buys a burner? Who are the people? I know you must do your research. Who are the people who set out to buy a burner? And I'm going to ask the question the approximate price?
Go? Okay, So we're going to be announcing this month that we're we will have sold our five hundred thousandth burn up so half a million burners in the last five years. So we are clearly addressing an unmet need in the market. You know, years ago, when we were developing this, I would go to gun shows with the prototype and I would say, you know, I don't know how quick i'd be to pull the trigger, and if I make a mistake, you know, is that a fatal
mistake for me? And I would see other gun owners nodding their head so it was clear to us that gun owners part of our audience. And right now, depending on the month, we're anywhere between sixty five and seventy percent of our audience our gun owners. And they're gun owners that are looking for a less you know, lethal
way of defending themselves. But you know, thirty to thirty five percent are non gun owners for whatever reason, you know, whether they're philosophically opposed, or they've got small kids at home, or or their wife tells them there she's going to divorce them, they buy a gun, but they still want some way to protect themselves. So, you know, we we think that probably over time we'll start to see more
and more non gun owners adopted BURNA. But at this point it's you know, it's skews a little bit older our target audiences, you know, say between forty five and sixty five. It skews a little bit more male. It's about sixty forty male female, and it skews more towards gun owners. And as I said, it's sixty five seventy percent gun owners, thirty thirty five percent non gun owners. Sort of the demographic makeup in terms of ethnicity, it's you know, almost exactly what America looks like.
Okay, and.
Five years ago, so there there has there have been four or five Christmases and Harnicus, let me just say holidays in December where the cross section of Americans who could buy this have purchased this. What does your demographic look like for December holidays twenty twenty four.
Well, we're in the middle of our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale right now, started on Monday. And because we're a consumer product, we are somewhat seasonal. Q four is our best quarter. We are actually a November fiscal filer.
So in other words, our year end ends this Saturday, and we will be announcing and I'm not telling any secrets here because I already publicly announced this as we are a public company, but we'll be running at north of one hundred million dollar annual run rate for this last quarter, and that's up from about an eighty five million dollar run rate in Q three. So we are seeing, you know, stronger sales during the Christmas holiday, and again it is you know, it's the same demographic that we
see all year all year long. There has been more and more normalization of the product as as more people become used to it. You know, We're we have a retail store in Las Vegas, which is where you and I were when we met. But we're opening up a retail store right up in Salem, New Hampshire. We're opening
one in Nashville, Tennessee. We're opening a retail store in Fort Wayne and Pasadena in Scottsdale, so that we can, you know, frankly, so that we can both you know, meet our audience, meet our customers where they live, and also get better demographic information.
And one question that I have to take a break, actually two questions. How can people order one? And what safeguards do you have that a person ordering one is legally old enough to own it?
Okay, So first, there is no prohibition for anybody to own the Burno. So even if you're less than eighteen in Massachusetts, you can still own the burner. It is state by state that said, we require you to over eighteen years of age to buy the burner, just like a regular gun, because this is not a toy, and although it is non lethal, it is still very very much a weapon.
Right all right, let me take my break, and I'm going to give the phone numbers and when I had you on in June. We got a handful of phone numbers. I expect that's a possibility tonight. Here are Night seven six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, eight eight, eight, nine two, nine, ten thirty. If you want to call in and speak to Brian Gans, he's here and I've got news specifically for you. And it's a promise I made to you thirty five thousand feet in the air
between Las Vegas and Boston. You might not remember, but I don't forget promises. Time and temperature nine sixteen forty one degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray Live. I'm the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Brian Gans is here and he and his company have created a non lethal gun. You hear the word gun and you think of the eventuality of somebody being killed by those little pellets that come out of the nozzle. They've come up with a way of making that pellet a bullet non lethal. You want to give a call? Excuse me? You want to give a call? Is one open line six seven, five, four, ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine ten thirty. And before we go any further,
Brian I made a promise to you. We got talking about TV and media and a favorite TV shows. Do you remember that conversation.
I do, but I'm sure I don't remember it as well as you do. Morgan.
Well, you mentioned to me your favorite TV character.
And I and that of course had to be Maxwell Smart. Correct.
Now I can't get him, But on the thirtieth of December, I've got Barbara feldon for you. Oh my god, you mentioned her specifically, She's going to be on that evening at eleven. I tried to get her for tonight so she could come on after you, but the scheduling just didn't work out.
Well, that's very exciting. I have to admit that somewhere in my chain of my ATM code is ninety nine because that was always my favorite.
All right, tell you what. Let's take phone calls. Millis is the community, Alex is the caller.
Alex good evening, Hey, how you doing, Hi, Brian? Happy Thanksgiving?
Hey, Morgan?
Thanks to you.
Good. At one point I was a gun owner, and uh, my lovely wife decided that, uh, you know, we shouldn't have one in the house. And I listened to her, and I I was wondering, what okay, First off, do you do you think that this gun was this non lethal gun? How was it tested? In other words, Uh, you know trials and everything. I mean, if there is such a thing, and how effective it would be. And also do you have any retail stores you know in Massachusetts?
Uh? First off, as I mentioned earlier, we've sold about five hundred thousand units. Uh, and there's uh, there's about three thousand real world cases of this being used. It's been used by law enforcement, it's been used by consumers to stop karjackings, muggings, you home invasions, and throughout all of this, not a single life has been lost or taken. In fact, I was just down in Argentina two weeks ago.
I was a meeting with the vice president of Argentina because we've opened up a factory in there to serve the Argentinian market, and we sold about twenty five thousand units last year into Argentina, including to the Cordova Police force. And they came back to us with some really interesting stats. They've used the burn of fifteen hundred times and they've arrested eleven hundred and six people. There was only one serious injury, and it was somebody that got shot in
the eye. Although they did not lose the eye, they ended up going to the hospital, but it was phenomenally effective. It will stop and assailants. And if you go online, our website is w ww dog Burna dot com. If you go online, there's hundreds of videos showing the real world effects of this. Also, if you go online, you can go to our dealer locator and it will tell you where the nearest dealer is. But as I mentioned earlier in the show, we are opening up a company
owned retail store in Sale in New Hampshire. It'll be open in January. And the beauty of that store is you will be able to go in and shoot the launcher.
You'll be able to demo the product. Because for a gun owner like yourself, there is a real aha moment when you shoot the Burna, you know, like all gun owners, you know, I came to it with a fair amount of skepticism, you know, but as soon as you shoot it, you know, you realize I don't want to be on the receiving end of this, that this is not a toy. This is a very very serious weapon. And I think it's the reason that at our retail stores we have
an eighty percent conversion rate. That means, you know, if ten people go to the range and shoot the launcher, eight of them buy it. And there's also kind of an interesting aha moment for non gun owners. I was just when I was down in Argentina, I was shooting real firearms with the Vice President, and you sort of forget how loud they are, what incredible recoil they have. I mean, it is a really jarring experience shooting a real firearm, and I think for a lot of people
that don't own a gun, it's intimidating. But then they shoot the berna. We are one sixteenth as loud as a real firearm, there is no recoil, and they say, you know what, I can handle this.
Let me ask a real alex on On.
I have a question, if you go to a shooting range, of which there are dozens all over the state of Massachusetts, will you be allowed to use a burner in that environment or not?
Likely not. It's up to the individual range. But the range that I belong to, for example, will not allow these weapons to be used. But the beauty of the burner is you can use it in your backyard. You can use it in your basement. We sell you know, targets that will catch the practice rounds so that it's very easy to practice with. And like anything, you know, you you need to practice. You know, we deal with law enforcement quite a bit and they have a saying.
And the thing is, when you're confronted, you never rise to the occasion. You fall back on your training. So when the adrenaline's pumping, when your heart rates, you know, three hundred beats a minute, you need to make sure it's not the first time that you've used the weapon, you know. So we encourage people to go in their backyard and practice. And honestly, you know, I have three daughters.
They all thought I was a Neehanderthal, you know, for owning a gun, But when I got them at Burna, they really, you know, sort of fell in love with it. And you know, I've got to I was in Barnstable when we are cooking outside, we shoot cans off the dock and and they've become, you know, real fans of it.
Right, Alex, any of the questions.
I was going to say, you don't have to be a marksman. In other words, you know, if you're a gun owner, usually you go to the you know target and you practice to you know, hitting the target. How accurate is this in or does it give you a room for you know er?
Yeah? First off, it's very accurate. I'm more accurate my burner than I am with my glock nineteen. And for one very simple reason, or probably two reasons. One is there's no recoil, so you can you know, you can hold it study. The second is you can see the round. So the round's traveling at around between three hundred and three and fifty feet per second, and you can see it and you can see where it hits, so you
can easily correct. Whereas with a firearm, a gun is shooting at six seven hundred feet per second, it's very hard to see the bullets and make that correction. So you are back more accurate. Now give saying that it is a pistol, and pistols have inherent limitations because they're not a very stable platform. But we say that our launcher is effective to sixty feet. Okay, find Alex.
I'm coming up on news, so I gotta let you go.
Thank you, good Happy Thanksgiving, Happy thanving Thanksgiving to you too.
Thank you for making the call. I have one line open. I've got Phil in Boston and Diane and Belle Rica holding. They're going to have to wait till after the news hit as well. But if you want to dial six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty, it's open available to you. People are trying to sneak in and calling on the contest line. I prefer that you don't do that. I know we used
to have full lines. One of them is inoperable, but you know I can't forbid.
You from doing it.
But I can say Rob takes a dim view and he is my call screener. So on that note, you know what you gotta do. You want to join this conversation, and as you can tell, this is a very serious conversation on Nightside.
I'm about to.
Take my break. Time nine thirty, temperature forty one degrees.
You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
Thank you for choosing Nightside for your evening's entertainment. I'm Morgan. Morgan White Junior. Have been part of bz's landscape. Nineteen ninety six is a good target year and I've been here since then, looking forward to being here for another ten twenty years. I've got Brian Dance, g A and Z joining me, and his company has invented a non lethal gun. The projectile it fires will not kill you, but it will make you slow down. And are you ready to take another call?
Brian, very very happy to take another call.
All right, let's go to Phil in Boston. Phil, Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to night's side, Phil, Phil going once. All right, we'll push the button and eliminate Phil. And let's go to Diane and Belle Rica. Diane, I'm hoping you are there.
Yes, di am, How are you?
I am find How are you.
Diane?
How do you feel about a weapon that will stop a bad guy but won't kill the bad guy?
Well? I have an interesting story. My little brother, when he was thirty years old, was murdered by the police in New York. He suffer some mental illness, and I think this is a wonderful product. My mother fought with the police department in New York for ten years to the change for having She wanted a kick like with for not only or four. I think every police station, sheriff, station, fair crisis censor should have this weapon.
All right, let's give write a chance to respond to that. Ryan.
Yeah, Look, I think that we're benefiting from two countervailing trends in America. So I think that, you know, people are afraid crime is up, perception of crime is up, and they want some way to protect themselves and their families. And in fact, you've seen significant increase in gun ownership. At the same time, I think most Americans are fed up with the epidemic of gun violence. And that's not
just gun violence from civilians, it's also from police. And I think, you know, they're looking for a non lethal way for the police to carry out their mission. You know, I think it's really important to understand that the vast majority of altercations do not require lethal force. As I said before, even though this guy in the road rage incident came after me, there is no way I was going to take his life over a road rage incident unless he had gotten out of the car with his
lethal weapon. So, you know, I do think that there is a really important place for a non lethal product that is effective.
All right, Diane, And do you own a gun?
Dank, No, No, I don't. I've been considering it. But the election went the other way, so I get them safe right now.
Would you purchase a gun.
For yourself, Yes, yes, I have considered it a lot, but I travel a lot for work and a lot of times I wouldn't be able to bring it probably out of state. I would have to get like a commitment for all the states because I.
And Diane that's that's one of the benefits of the burner. So, uh, we we live sort of on the New Hampshire border. We're up in andover Massachusetts. We've got a lot of employees that come from andover that were you know, that are gun owners and couldn't go across state lines with their uh lethal firearm. But the burner is legal in fifty states, so it is interstate travel friendly. And I think that's a really important thing for people that are gun owners.
No I I I absolutely love this idea, and you should really look up with the group. They're called Stolen Lives and it's about it's a group that helps family deal with their loved ones, apports the country that were warmly murdered by law enforcement. And I bet you they would help you a little mouse this everywhere.
Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting because we get so many different you know, groups of people from Biden supporters, Trump supporters that are interested in this product. I think this is really a nonpartisan product.
No, it is absolutely Yeah.
I want to say thank you for the call, and Julia, Thanksgiving with you and your family.
And can I tell you one thing? You want to know why people are calling on the contact line? Because be and lets that be a women's only line.
Oh yes, okay, well I will make that same offer, and right now all of our lines are full.
You have a happy Thanksgiving and I love your product and I can't wait to get it.
Thanks, have a great Thanksgiving.
Tell you too.
All right, see you sold one being on the air.
More.
Let's go to Phil in Boston, who we would have had and he called back to say he fell asleep or whatever. Hello Phil, can you hear me?
No, loud and clear? Phil?
Oh? Good? First all, Brian, it's a good idea. But you mentioned that road racing and that was all the time in Boston. Unfortunately, years ago I had a road race. I had a non lethal weapon with me. The gentleman to my right had a baseball bet we exchange whatever I use. The eye to my head it was faulty and I get myself sprayed more than he did. The bottom line is when the police came, they were going to charge me with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Just by luck, I said, just by luck, I was going to go to the ga. The guy said, the guy get a baseball bat. So luckily that's the only thing that's saying you from getting arrested that day. Get my cot told. And I'm not knocking your product, but the point is, have you you mentioned the one thing with the eye thing? Is one of the negative things about having said, Yeah, are you pout to be prepared
to get arrested and told? And tag? I think I made good of the house as a backup, but yeah, I'm sorry.
What I would what I would say say to you, Phil, is that the burner, like anything else, is a weapon. And we get this question all the time because we say to our customers, if you are arrested for the use of a burner in a legitimate case of self defense, we will pay for your defense. And we get people calling us on a pretty regular basis, and we get the police report and it turns out that it was
really not a legitimate case of self defense. Somebody walked on your lawn and the guy threatened them with a burner. It would be the same thing if it were a baseball bat or if it were a hammer. So if you go on our website, you'll see on the FAQs when you can legally use the burner and when you cannot legally use the burner, but you can use it in a legitimate case of self defense without fear of prosecution.
Brian, you go a website, Phil, hold on, Brian, give your website. So thirty eight states and parts of Canada have that information.
Okay, So our website is www dot burna BYRNA dot com.
All right, and Phil, yep over the describe the situation of my man in her household. I don't know about that defense thing, I said, good point, you know you should have that available. Okay, Triple af gets cottault anyway, Thank hold, guys, good lucky, all right.
Thanks, thank you. Ye.
Now, there was a woman on hold who would have been next, but I think she is hung up, So I'm gonna take my break now, giving her a chance and others to call in because top of the hour, Brian ways bye bye six, one, seven, two, five.
Four, ten, thirty eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty.
This is night Side. I am Morgan, and next hour I'm just gonna say her full name, Sonya Nathan broad Street will be here. That middle name should have gotten your ears perked. God of norm Nathan coming up next on Nightside Time and temperature nine forty four forty one degrees.
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
My name is Morgan, Morgan White Junior. I fill in periodically for Dan when he takes some time away from this microphone. But Nightside goes on with or without Dan my guest this hour, and when I say hour, he's got maybe only ten minutes of show to go. Brian Gans is here. He's not he personally, but his company has invented a gun that is not lethal, and I got.
A question.
About what it could shoot and kill. We hear about these coyotes and bear attacks that creep into our news commentary. Would it stop a bear or a coyote or a wild animal charging you?
So? Animals have a very very strong sense of smell. Their olafactory system is six hundred times more sensitive than a human beings. So in fact, it is more effective on animals than it is on human beings. The police have used it quite a bit to send off dogs. We've had customers say that they've shot mountain lions and
wolves and other animals. We cannot advertise it as for use against animals because you have to get approval from the EPA because anything that affects animals is considered a pesticide and it's an expense to have been lengthy process, and we've never bothered getting approval. But there's a lot of testimonials online about people have used it when they're hiking to protect themselves against animals.
Okay, I was just wondering quote unquote the stopping power.
Yeah, it's a good question.
Okay.
And last summer when I had you on, you did a promotion that if somebody used my name, there would be a cheaper cost to ordering this guy online. Did you have any success with that even one person who took advantage of that offer.
Yeah, we had a few people do that. I would offer it again except for the fact that it is currently our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale and everything on the website is fifteen percent off, So this is our deepest sale of the year. We only do this once a year, so the normal discount we would give is ten percent. So if somebody's interested in buying it and they go to the website, this is the time to do it between now and the end of the day on Monday.
And what about a spokesperson. I know Charlton Heston has passed on, but he would be a great person because they'll prime my dead fingers off my rifle before I'll give it up or quote similar to that. Are you considering any well known spokesperson to represent the Burner?
You know what? We actually that is the primary source of new leads for us, so we work very closely with a lot of the conservative talk show hosts. Sean Hannity is one of our endorsers, as is Glenn Beck, Dejongino, Judge Ninepiro. But we're starting to spread out. I'm actually going down to Nashville the second week of December to meet with Dave Ramsey. Dave is either the number one or number two radio talk show host and he focuses on finance, so his audience really trusts him. We think
that he'll be, you know, an ideal spokesperson. And the week before I'm going out to meet with Roseanne Barr in La Will. Roseanne, unbeknownst to us, was a Burna owner and she reached out to us saying that, you know, I love this thing and I would love to be an endorser for you so and I've always liked those at bar so I'm excited to go out and meet with her.
I can see Roseanne Barr speaking to truth about I own a weapon and I will use it. I can see her doing that. And if I'm going to use one, this is the one I'm going to use because I know it won't kill a person, but it will stop a.
Yeah.
So it's you know, we're trying to get more and more female personalities right now. As I said, we have Judge Janine Dana Lash, who was the spokesperson for the NRA, has a show on Radio America and she's a spokesperson for us as well. But we will be coming out with a third generation Burna that will be about a third smaller than our current pistol. It'll put it in the same category as the microcompact handguns, and we think that that will be a lot more attractive for women.
That'll be out later in the year in twenty twenty five.
And I'm going to guess women obviously would feel more comfortable if they're going to carry a weapon. Putting a weapon in a handbag is much more palatable than other options.
Yeah, exactly, I think they, you know, they're a little intimidated by the you know, the larger size of our current Burner SD weapon, although it is the size of a normal nine millimeter it's the size of Mike Glock nineteen, but the microcompact for gun owners, it's the size of a six hour P three sixty five, which is the most popular handgun in the world. It will be much much easier for them to conceal carry in their purse or frankly, for men to be able to conceal carry in their jacket pocket.
All right, A cawler is just called in. We're almost done, So Joe, you're lucky. I'm gonna squeeze you in to speak with Brian Gahan. Hello, Joe, what do you?
Thank you? Brian, it's a privilege to speak to you and wished me luck. Nora, I have cancer, but that's not the point I called. Just keep me in your prayers, Brian. I am visually impaired. Tell us how the gun works, and I heard it works over sixty feet. Can it work one hundred feet maybe? And does it knock people down? Because I could use something like that if something happens to me. I'm sure other people.
You know we have we have rifles that work at one hundred feet. They are primarily for law enforcement. And I will say to you, honestly, this weapon is a self defense weapon. The idea for us was we wanted to be part of the solution, part of the animling epidemic of a gun violence. Beyond sixty feet, it's really
not self defense. You're starting to become a predator. So you know, we don't really encourage people to be shooting beyond the sixty feet And honestly, I think most encounters happen in the twenty to thirty foot range.
Yes, but what does it do? What does it like? I say, I had it, and I was cause I hear these commercials the guy was like thirty forty feet and he who's knocked down until police came. What happened if someone came at me and tried to attack me, You get this scenario here if you shoot.
Them, we make two different types of ammunition. One is a hard plastic round, the hard military grade polymer, and it's just it hurts like the dickens. It leaves a huge bruise, and it is sufficient to stop all but the most motivated assailings. And honestly, I load my weapons so that the first two rounds out are these hard what we call kinetic rounds. But if for some reason it doesn't stop somebody, I then shoot them with the tear gas and pepper round because that, you know, will
cause their eyes to close involuntarily. They'll be in respiratory distress from twenty to thirty minutes and they will be unable to continue with the attack, no matter how tough they are. If what about.
Drugs as people that are what about people that are on drugs like PBC and all that.
You know, it should not make a difference. I mean, you should still be able to feel the effects of the of the chemical irritants whether you're under.
I asked because police officers have had trouble taken down people that are high on high as I'm asking just to learn I may get one of these if I ever get the money. You don't have to see because I'm a good with my ears. I know where this person is.
I'm almost out of time. Let me say, all.
Right, thank you, Morgan, take care, god By, thank.
God By, and good luck to you.
Should stop them.
It should have the stopping power you need in an emergency situation.
Brian, thank you for moving on.
I hope you and family have a great time tomorrow and Thanksgiving and I will have you back in twenty twenty five.
Morgan, thank you very much. Had a great holiday for you and your family and for all your listeners.
You take care now, bye bye.
All right, everybody, we're going to do news and afternoons. Norm Nathan's daughter Sonya will be joining us. Time and temperature here on night side nine fifty eight forty one degrees