UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz joined Byrna Technologies at Shot Show 2022. While there, he signed autographs for fans and spoke with Director of Law Enforcement Josh Schirard.
You spent a career in martial arts, mixed martial arts and in self-defense. So how do you feel that the Byrna fits into that whole self-defense ecosystem?
Well, you know, I think it really just comes down to being as non-lethal as possible, you know, as a fighter, I don't run out of the punches on the face or choke them long enough to kill a person, I don't want to want to do that. And I think you know, just for the average person that carries a gun, they don't want to kill someone, and they shouldn't have to. But if you're able to, kind of disable them right off the bat with the Byrna, where you're just causing damage, and not severe damage with normal lethal damage, this goes all the way to what a gun would use us for but not cause damage.
Do you feel even with even with gun owners, people that carry guns every day, there's still a place for them to carry Byrna?
100 percent. When you have a Byrna, you're able to use a round that is non-lethal.
So now, you obviously made a career, made your living and made your life around training, that's what you do. A lot of people just unfortunately don't have the time, they don't have the money, they don't have the ability to train nearly as much as you do. So with something like the Byrna, do, they need to put in that much time in order for it to be put in that much training time in order for it to be effective?
I mean, I'm training six days a week, eight hours a day, I mean, you're doing maybe three hours a week at the most. You’ve got to learn how to have your safety, learn how to pull the weapon and you’ve got to learn how to shoot the weapon.
Who do you feel could best benefit from this?
A lot. When I was introduced to this and I watched television, a lot of time, there's a show called 60 Days In and they have more people come in and they're kind of undercover and they want to come in and see where the drugs are coming from and see where things are happening. And I watched one of the officers’ spray one of the people who got arrested in the face with pepper spray, and I was like they have no reaction. Well, if it was a Byrna they got hit with a couple shots and like holy shit, this hurts and now it burns too, or even better if they're in their cell and they don't want to come out, shoot the wall and obviously they're gonna come out. And there's a situation for officers like this in California, you're not going to be able to pull a handgun on somebody. They want to do that because they're gonna lose their job because of it with this they're able to cause damage by doing a non-lethal round. Someone does want to come out of a car you're hitting with a kinetic bullet, breaking the window now you're firing gas round into it or pepper spray round into it and they're coming out of card like, "okay, okay." Now this is a non-lethal round that is being shot to really subdue the assailant that they’re looking for.
So you really kind of covered a real diverse application of how this can be true it can be used by …
Exactly I think once again an officer can do his job better long term with a Byrna than with a real weapon, because once again, they're just trying to have law and order in this country and it's really important they're able to use Byrna to make this happen.
Tito, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for the interview and be a part of the part of our Byrna Nation family.
