Something I don’t tell many people is that when I was seven years old, two of my school friends and their family were shot dead. As you can imagine, it has had a long-lasting impact on me and all those who had the privilege of knowing them.

Fast forward all these years and one of my former guests Jimmy Soni was kind enough to introduce me to Rick Smith, founder of Taser  now Axon - a company which uses technology to replace the use of guns.

When I started my research, I immediately discovered that Rick started the company almost three decades ago, after two of his school friends had also been shot dead.

This interview is unlike any I have done before. Rick opens up about his childhood and how his friends' death spurred him on a life-long crusade to replace guns, and how he took on a huge problem in an extremely hard field at just 23 years old. It’s the tale of an inventor, an entrepreneur and someone desperate to change the world to ensure no more innocent lives are taken.

As I say in the intro of this episode,  please be warned that not all of this conversation is suitable for young ears - we discuss mass shootings and the recent horrific shootings at a school in Uvalde. And we discuss Rick’s book - The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity’s Oldest Problem.

I learned so much from Rick and I know you will too.

Rick on Twitter / Axon website

Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter
 

Mentioned in this episode:

Rick's book - The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity’s Oldest Problem

Robb Elementary School Shooting