When you hear “California gun rights,” you probably don’t think “success story.”
But on Gun Owners Radio, host Michael Schwartz sat down with co-hosts Alisha Curtin and Dakota Adelphia to talk about exactly that – a rare Second Amendment win that’s now a decade old.
San Diego County Gun Owners just celebrated its 10-year anniversary, and the way Schwartz tells it, the group has done more than simply survive in a hostile state.
They’ve changed the culture, influenced elections, and proved a lot of skeptics wrong.
A Birthday Party That Wasn’t About One Man
Schwartz starts by describing the recent anniversary party, which drew around 100 people.
He laughs that many folks thought it was his birthday, not the organization’s.
He says he kept getting texts like, “Hey man, happy birthday, I’m coming to your birthday party,” and had to keep correcting people.
“It is not my birthday,” Schwartz emphasizes.
The celebration, he reminds listeners, was for San Diego County Gun Owners hitting 10 years, a milestone he calls “a huge feat.”
Both Alisha Curtin and Dakota Adelphia were there.
Dakota says simply that it was “great” and “awesome,” setting the tone for a night that clearly felt more like a family reunion than a sterile fundraiser.
Curtin adds that what really made the evening special were the stories.
People came up to Schwartz all night, telling him how they found the group, what they’d done with it, and how it fit into their lives.
You can hear in his voice that those conversations hit him harder than the formal speeches.
That’s important.
You can measure an organization in membership numbers and legal wins, but the stories people tell you at a buffet table will tell you if you’re actually changing lives.
From A Small Meeting To A Real Community
To show how far things have come, Alisha Curtin goes back to her first encounter with San Diego County Gun Owners.
She recalls attending her first meeting in 2017 at the original Gunfighter Tactical location.
She remembers the decor. She remembers meeting people.
But most of all, she remembers walking into a room full of gun owners and realizing how rare that kind of gathering really is in California.
Curtin says there was no pressure.
Yes, there were speakers, but mostly it was just people hanging out, talking, and finally having space to be open about guns without feeling like outcasts.
She jokes that there was pizza, and everyone chimes in about loving free food.
It’s a small detail, but it shows how Schwartz and his team built something approachable, not just another political committee.
From the way Curtin and Adelphia talk, those early meetings were less like stiff events and more like a club night for people who’d been told for years to keep quiet.
That kind of community is a big deal in a state where the culture often leans heavily the other way.
Recognition From The County That Once Ignored Them
Schwartz points out that this 10-year party wasn’t just about nostalgia.
It came with official recognition.
He proudly explains that San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson issued a proclamation honoring the group.
On top of that, Escondido Mayor Dane White declared November 6th as “San Diego County Gun Owners Day.”
For a local 2A group in California, that’s not nothing.
That’s local government putting its name on a pro-gun organization in writing.
Schwartz clearly sees this as proof that their strategy works.
He stresses that thanks to San Diego County Gun Owners and all its volunteers, more people own guns in San Diego, more people carry guns, more people train with guns, and more people vote because of guns than ever before.
He goes even further, saying more people are in office because of the organization.
That’s not an internet comment section victory. That’s real-world political influence.
From the way he frames it, they’ve managed to connect the dots between culture and policy. The culture shifted enough that political leaders started paying attention.
And then the political wins fed back into the culture.
Changing Culture One Member At A Time
Schwartz doesn’t pretend this happened by accident.
He credits members and volunteers over and over.
He says they’ve “truly changed public policy” and “changed culture,” and insists one wouldn’t have moved without the other.
Listening to him, it’s clear he sees San Diego County Gun Owners as more than a lobbying group.
It’s a machine that turns ordinary gun owners into activists, voters, trainers, and leaders.
He points to programs like their “shooting socials” and their “Not Me” women’s outreach, and says he wants “more of what we’ve already done” in the next 10 years.
That’s where the numbers come in.
Schwartz says they’re currently at around 4,200 members.
He’s proud of that figure – but also frustrated by it.
With roughly 3.5 million people in San Diego County, he says 4,200 is good, but 42,000 would be reasonable, not crazy.
He’s right.
On pure math, 42,000 politically engaged gun owners in one coastal county would be a serious force.
You can tell he’s not satisfied with just surviving.
He wants a community big enough to really move the needle.
Building The Next Generation Of Members
Looking ahead, Schwartz explains that year 10 is a good time to double down on the member experience.
He admits they tried physical membership cards early on and “that was a nightmare.”
Now, the plan is to build a mobile app where members can show their status, renew, and receive action alerts like “call this official” or “show up here tonight.”
That’s a smart move.
If you want real grassroots power, you need to reach people where they already live — their phones.
Schwartz also says that starting in 2026, new members will receive welcome packets in the mail.
He describes a packet with a welcome letter explaining the organization, a lapel pin, a sticker, and other branded items.
It sounds simple, but Curtin and Adelphia clearly like the idea. Schwartz says it’s “another way to say, ‘Hey, you’re valued,’” and not just another email that gets buried in an inbox.
The theme here is clear: it’s not enough to sign people up.
You have to make them feel like they belong to something real.
In a state where gun owners often feel isolated, that sense of belonging might be the most powerful tool they have.
Taking The Model Beyond San Diego
Co-host Dakota Adelphia asks Schwartz about the bigger vision.
What does the next 10 years look like beyond San Diego?
Schwartz explains that San Diego County Gun Owners is a standalone organization – money raised in San Diego stays there and is used locally.
But, he adds, the same branding and mission have already been replicated elsewhere.
He points to Orange County Gun Owners, an independent group using the same model and goals.
Then he mentions Inland Empire Gun Owners, which serves Riverside and San Bernardino counties as another standalone entity.
His hope, he says, is that these organizations will eventually grow as large and effective as the San Diego original.
As for the rest of California, Schwartz is realistic.
There are 58 counties, but he says it was never the plan to be in all of them. Some are simply too small, with populations that don’t justify a full county-level group.
Still, he believes there are six or seven more strategic locations where this model would work.
He specifically names Los Angeles County as a place that badly needs a strong Second Amendment organization.
He also mentions Northern California and the Bay Area, where he thinks there’s room for more than one group.
But he doesn’t sugarcoat the challenge. Starting a new county organization isn’t just planting a flag and printing a logo.
“It boils down to people and money,” Schwartz says.
Those are the only tools you have in politics. And in a state like California, you need a lot of both.
A Challenge To California Gun Owners
As the segment wraps up, Schwartz turns from storytelling to a gentle challenge.
He thanks everyone who helped San Diego County Gun Owners reach the 10-year mark — members, volunteers, donors, and supporters.
Then he asks them to do just a little more this year than they did last year.
Not a life overhaul.
Just a bit more phone-banking, a few more emails, an extra event, another friend invited to a meeting.
He closes with their familiar slogan: “Together we will win.”
It’s a simple line, but after listening to him, Curtin, and Adelphia walk through a decade’s worth of growth, it doesn’t sound like empty branding.
What started as a small group meeting in a local gun shop has grown into a respected political force with proclamations, city-level recognition, and thousands of members.
In a state that’s often held up as the model for strict gun control, San Diego County Gun Owners has quietly spent 10 years proving that organized, local, unapologetic activism can still move the needle.
If anything, their story suggests that gun owners in blue states aren’t doomed.
They’re just under-organized.
And if Schwartz gets his way over the next decade, California might see a lot more county-level groups following San Diego’s playbook – one meeting, one member, and one story at a time.
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The article San Diego County Gun Owners Defy the Odds With 10 Years of Defending 2A Rights in California first appeared on Survival World.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
