Small Business Spotlight: The Armed Papist
Welcome back to TFB's Small Business Spotlight! Each week, we feature small firearms-related businesses and give them a chance to introduce themselves. This week: The Armed Papist, a Catholic-focused firearms training operation out of Texas.
Want to be featured in our Small Business Spotlight? Fill out the Google Form and we'll consider you for inclusion.
About The Armed Papist
Rick Barrett runs The Armed Papist. He's a USCCA-certified instructor and holds a Texas License to Carry instructor certification. Barrett grew up in Rhode Island and moved to Texas in his late twenties to teach social studies. He spent a decade in education, covering everything from fifth grade to college courses, before earning a Master's in Homeland Security from Penn State.
He didn't fire his first gun until 2008. That got him hooked. He started The Armed Papist in 2021.
What they offer
Barrett teaches:
- Basic pistol for beginners or people who learned bad habits
- USCCA courses (Concealed Carry, Home Defense Fundamentals, Basic Pistol)
- Church security for parishes worried about their congregation's safety
- Texas License to Carry
- Clay shooting
But the training isn't just mechanical. Barrett also teaches presentations on self-defense through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. A lot of his students come in with questions about whether carrying a gun conflicts with their faith. He addresses that directly.
Why this matters
Look, plenty of Catholics don't know what to do with firearms. The Church teaches that life is sacred, so how does that square with owning something designed to take it? It's a real question, and most firearms instructors aren't equipped to answer it.
Barrett draws on Aquinas and the Catechism to argue that armed self-defense can actually be an act of love for your family. Whether you buy that argument or not, at least he's making it, and doing so with actual theological grounding rather than just "the Second Amendment says so."
He wrote a book on this: The Armed Catholic: The Catholic Case for Guns and Self-Defense. He also hosts "The Daily Mag Dump" on Spiritus TV and shows up on Sensus Fidelium's "News from the Pew." If you want a taste of his approach before committing to a class, Crisis Magazine interviewed him about the Catholic case for firearms. You can also follow him on X/Twitter.
Bottom line
Not many trainers are talking to Catholics specifically about self-defense. Barrett is. If you're a Catholic who's been on the fence about firearms because you're not sure how it fits with your faith, or if you just want training from someone who gets the theological baggage, The Armed Papist might be your guy.
- Business: The Armed Papist
- Type: Firearms Training
- Time in business: 1-5 years
- Website: thearmedpapist.com
And remember if you'd like to be featured in our Small Business Spotlight, fill out the Google Form.