Why I Started the Warrior Poet Society

I started the Warrior Poet Society because I looked at the gun industry and found no place for myself, and I thought it odd because all I do for work is teach people gunfighting. I’m a full-time tactics instructor, former Army Ranger, and war vet, and how IS IT that I do not fit into the gun industry?

This is what I see of the ‘gun industry’, I typically encounter this superficial male egotism – a war-mongering bravado that promulgates the idea that gunfighters/protectors are these cold-hearted, thoughtless killing machines. We don’t think, or feel, or love, we just shoot, workout, and walk around wielding guns and cool-guy gear.

How many of you have seen expressions like ‘I don’t believe in anything, I’m just here for the violence’ – I hate this ideology and other statements like it. Now many who wear little pithy patches like this don’t really believe in it (or else you would be a sociopath or soulless mercenary), and they wear it like a joke, and in good fun, I could smirk at the joke.

But the problem is there a bunch of kids enamored with guns playing violent video games 23 hours a day who are actually taking you seriously. The next generation of warriors are building in their minds a picture of what a defender looks like, and do not realize that the ‘cold-hearted killer’ is riddled with such weakness. (…keep reading below)

In reality, the most elite soldiers in the world are deep thinking, deep feeling men, who have much to lose, and they fight because they believe in something bigger than themselves.

The cold-hearted killer is usually full of crap, a sociopath, or a mercenary and they are destined to fade away because they are riddled with, BESET, with the weakness of a hollow soul. This farce, I believe, will be devastating when the younger generation learning about war from social media and video games, grow up with the ability to kill and no framework to know why and when. It will be the death of all of us.

My hope, is that others will join me in a movement that shows a more honest picture of what a soldier, or cop, or any defender of the innocent really is. My hope is that other warrior poets will step forward and join a thought revolution.

There are protectors of deep thought and deep conviction who work tirelessly to become ferocious protectors. They are calm thinking philosophers and a raging hurricanes of aggression. They are lovers and they are fighters. They are warrior poets. -John Lovell, founder