Tennessee Weapons Instructor Eases Up, Sort Of
James Yeager, the furious tactical weapons trainer who yesterday threatened to âstart killing peopleâ if gun control advances, today put up a second video in which he said he had âprobably allowed my mouth to overrun my logicâ â but then immediately added that he did not retract any of his statements.
Yeager, who is CEO of Tactical Response and Tactical Response Gear Inc., said in his second video that he had been âoverwhelmedâ with sympathetic responses from alumni of his training programs and others. But he wasnât too nice to them, either.
âPeople are saying stuff like, âWell, it needed to be said but you shouldnât have said it.â Well, look around. Who else is going to say it? Who else is going to say it?â Yeager demanded in another enraged rant. âAnd all you f------ fair-weather Second Amendment people that are telling me Iâm doing a f------ disservice by saying that Iâm not going to stand for the tyranny, f--- you. Our country wasnât founded by a bunch of fair-weather p------. Either youâre in or youâre out, and if youâre out, donât call yourself a f------ Second Amendment advocate.â
He then softened up, ever so slightly. âNow, uh, I donât condone anybody committing any kind of felonies, up to and including aggravated assaults and murders. Unless itâs necessary. Right now, itâs not necessary.â
Then he boasted again about the response heâd gotten. âYou have no idea how quickly I accidentally assembled an army. I assure you, quite a formidable army.â
Yeager is a former police chief of Big Sandy, Tenn., and also was a deputy sheriff in the Benton County, Tenn., Sheriffâs Office. He says he has provided training and weapons to law enforcement and the military for years, since leaving police work and going into the private sector with his Camden, Tenn.-based businesses in 2002.
Yeager ended his latest rant by essentially repeating what heâd first said yesterday, although without the line about killing people. âI donât really know what to say to do next,â he said. âI have a wait-and-see attitude about the whole thing. But I stand fast with my message. I have drawn my line in the sand. Not one more inch.â