Former NAVY SEAL and famous podcaster, Shawn Ryan, saw a need in his Tennessee community and found a way to fill it.
This morning, about an hour west of Nashville, Ryan and members of the Hickman County Sheriff’s Department gathered to celebrate a donation that was made possible thanks to Shawn and SIG SAUER. And it all came together thanks to a little bit of a country music connection… but more on that in a bit.
SIG SAUER’s Charitable Foundation – which describes itself as an organization focusing on firearms safety and training, hunting and conservation initiatives, and promoting shooting sports, all supporting military personnel, law enforcement, first responders, and the shooting community – played a critical role in fitting the Hickman County Sheriff’s Department with much needed state-of-the-art equipment.
Ryan got word that his local department was lagging behind a bit in terms of equipment, and made a call with a connection he has at SIG SAUER. The American-made firearms manufacturer responded swiftly, and partnered with Shawn Ryan to gift the Hickman County Sheriff’s Department with 30 SIG SAUER M400 rifles, SIG SAUER ROMEO 5 electro-optics, SIG SAUER SLX suppressors, and SIG SAUER FOXTROT-MSR compact mounted lights to help serve their community.
While speaking at the presentation, Shawn Ryan detailed how the donation came to be, and voiced just how much respect he has for law enforcement:
“As a veteran, you come home and you don’t live where it all happened. For law enforcement, you guys get off work and go home, and all the incidents and everything that happened, you live it everyday at work and you go home and go out with your families and you live it again and again and again.”
Ryan felt it was the least he could do to help the Hickman County Sheriff’s Department update their equipment, and he’s thankful that SIG SAUER saw it the same way.
As to how the donation was arranged, Ryan says he’s become friends with someone on the force there in Hickman County, Tennessee by the name of Elijah Kelley. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s the son of country music legend Wynonna Judd.
Kelley told Whiskey Riff that he was first able to get connected with Shawn Ryan through his mother, and he and the Navy veteran quickly became friends. It was a conversation they had that sparked Ryan to step in and help Kelley’s department:
“Shawn and I have known each other for a couple of years, and it kind of started from my mom. We met through her, and we hit it off.
We were chatting on the back porch one night and he was asking me some questions about equipment we were running, and I told him we were kind of behind on certain things.
He took it upon himself to reach out (to SIG SAUER) and get this done. We are all at a loss for words. We’re not used to this kind of stuff here. It was a shock, and I still have no words.”
When Ryan told the story, he even described himself as being a little upset to hear that the Hickman County Sheriff’s Department didn’t have the resources they needed, and were working with older, non-ideal firearms.
The host of the popular podcast The Shawn Ryan Show did make sure to credit his friendship with Kelley for getting the ball rolling on this donation:
“This all happened thanks to Elijah Kelley. Me and him have been friends for a couple of years and the other day, he had told me about the equipment that Hickman County law enforcement were running, and how they were subpar and how old they were.
I’ve been in situations in my SEAL career, in my career with the CIA where I didn’t have anything ideal for the job. I know what it’s like to enter a room or be on an operation or in a dangerous situation where you have very low confidence in your equipment.”
And in addition to the 30 new, fully kitted firearms, Ryan and SIG SAUER made sure to donate brand new medical kits to every single person on the department as well.
It was a momentous day for the Hickman County Sheriff’s Department, which expressed its gratitude to SIG SAUER and Shawn Ryan for helping them out with no strings attached. And it’s a day that Ryan was grateful to be a part of himself, as he told us here at Whiskey Riff:
“It just feels amazing. I’ve always loved helping people, so this is nothing new for me. I’ve been doing things for organizations, for friends, for people I don’t even know for a long time. This one is a little different than a lot of the other stuff I’ve done.
It just feels good… especially coming here and seeing how much these guys appreciate it, and knowing it’ll go to help protect the community. It’ll go to good use, and it’ll give them the confidence they need to be able to do their job to the best of their ability. That’s what means the most.”
