Ex-Ranger: “I fear God more than I fear man”

Here are excerpts of a Feb. 11 interview with Samuel Doolin. He was arrested on Dec. 9 in Polk County, Florida, and charged with firearms violations and other crimes.
I interviewed Mr. Doolin as part of a documentary journalism project that I am doing.
Excerpts of interview:
“I’m a Florida farm boy. I grew up in the cattle fields and orange groves of Florida. I grew up a Christian all my life, raised on the scriptures, believe it’s the highest authority in all areas of life and living. I went into the Army and Ranger Regiment was kicked out over the COVID mandates and just recently was arrested for some Second Amendment charges and stuff.”
“If I’m guilty, I’ll be found guilty. If I’m innocent, I have nothing to fear.”
“I had a state trooper pulled me over and I had my fiancée with me in the truck. It’s an old ‘80s truck. And so he came up and he opened the door. And without really asking, he just opened the door, not having anything to do with anything. And so after a little bit of conversation, just trying to reason with the man, it ended up he kept going back and forth to his car and he finally he called back up and said that I was planning to use my weapons against law enforcement. And so that led to it being escalated and me getting snatched out of my vehicle and my girl and charged with everything under the sun. Really, the charges have nothing to do with what the stop was about. That was just really them trying to cover their mistake. Really, the sheriff’s department wasn’t really a part of it, even though they broke in the vehicle. It was really that one state trooper with no accountability that caused a lot of the issue.”
“It wasn’t that we started yelling at each other. That wasn’t it. It was any time we tried to talk for 2 seconds, the man was impatient and he was busy trying to get what he wanted, single focused. And when he couldn’t have that, he was going to find a way to get it. So walked around, tried to find my VIN number when I told him I wasn’t helping him with that and just go look up the law and we would continue. I’d give him everything he wanted. Just show me a reason for pulling me over. He went back to his car, came back, and he just kept escalating. And then I tried to bring it back down, but there was no bringing it back down after it reached a certain point once the call was made.”
“I’m seeing this as a power-tripping cop from my perspective. In the car, we went from just talking to he’s telling me, ‘Get out!’ Well, he’s not told me I’m under arrest. So I’m like, ‘No, sir, this is my only protection between me and you as this door.’ And so I’m like, and I could see it bothered him. So I’m like, I can see it’s going nowhere good.”
“… He went back and he called his backup and he told him that I had a firearm to use against law enforcement, which wasn’t a thing. Then the officer showed up, called over the microphone and whatnot. So during that, they simply said, ‘Put your hands where we could see them. If you can roll down your windows, do so.’ My windows don’t roll down. I had the flaps. We stick our hands out the windows and we’re complying. But we’re not going to get out of the car until we’re told we’re under arrest. It’s kind of like the (Covid) shot. If you go take the shot and it’s not the mandatory one, there’s no suing. If you willfully give up your rights when no one’s forced you, per se, or told you you’re under arrest, well, you yielded your rights. They didn’t steal your rights. So that’s the way I was coming at it. And then when I finally saw the guy roll up with a gun and a shield, at that point, I’ve seen too many situations and it was you never know how you’re going to act until you’re in it.”
“I was just reacting at that point. So but at the far front of my mind, I remember watching a bunch of videos and stuff. It can be your fault, his fault, nobody’s fault and you die. That doesn’t do you any good. So if you move and the guy across the car doesn’t understand what’s going on, he yells, ‘Gun! Got a gun!’ You’re dead regardless of you’re right or wrong. So I’m not moving until I’m told I’m under arrest and and whatnot. So from there, it just kind of everything just kind of evolves. Breaking the window, getting tased. I haven’t moved the entire time. I don’t keep telling them. No, I just keep telling them, ‘Hey, talk to me,’ because my family knows a lot of sheriff’s department. Not that we’re buddy buddy, but we know most of them just from working at the gun shops and stuff. So we have a good relationship with officers. And so I figured State trooper, not so good, sheriff’s department – I’m like, these are reasonable people. Well, they weren’t they weren’t communicating. I’m like, ‘Hey, just talk to me.’ I figure I could explain it and we could go back to a zero no matter what happened, take it back down. It never just went down, though.”
“So the issue of the weapons came up. When the guy first opened my door. So they’re not hidden. They’re not they’re not concealed. I get up every morning and I put them in my car because you never know what a day may bring. And so they’re open the plain sight. But for his sake, he couldn’t have seen them because my girl sitting in the way, it’s in between us. So until he opened that door, he had no clue that there was weapons, which I don’t know if that’s a police tactic now or what, but it’s unconstitutional. So we open up the door and as I’m talking to him about, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ That’s when I saw him look down, you know, kind of like that. And then he looks back up, never mentions him. He just looks. And then we continue the conversation. He doesn’t act fearfully, just looks. And I notice he sees them, which isn’t a big deal. It’s just something I recognized. Then he walked around. He’s not running around. He’s not worried. He’s not paying attention to us. So he wasn’t afraid of the weapons when he came back. He was trying to use the weapons as an excuse. He’s like, ‘You have weapons car, right? I need you to get out.’ Because he knew he made the mistake of finding out about the weapons through illegal means. So he was trying to use that as his safety to get me out of the vehicle without without cause using a faulty Supreme Court case, which is also not law. But that was the thing. The weapons came into play later after they ripped me out of the vehicle because the guy said I threatened to use them against law enforcement and they’re trying to tack on charges.”
“So I’m not a sovereign citizen in in that definition, you know, sovereign being, you know, being basically the ruling class, having no one over you, that’s that’s every citizen. That’s period. If people don’t agree with that, they don’t understand the Constitution. I’m not a sovereign citizen.”
“I believe the Constitution. I believe God’s word. I believe in obeying even even things that aren’t quite constitutional for the cause of Christ in some senses. But I do believe that there’s stuff that’s not lawful in this country and people might not agree, but that that’s the way I look at it. That’s just the way I look at it.”
“So the Second Amendment says… basically a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms should not be infringed. So even if you say that, well-regulated means just in good order. We’ve perverted that to mean like regulations. We don’t have a free country.”
“If you put me in prison, I’m going to turn it upside down for Jesus. So if I’m outside the prison, I’m going to turn it upside down for Jesus. My life is the Lord’s.”
“I’ve been through so many things. It’s that military dark humor that you laugh or you cry. So crying is not going to help me. So you laugh at things.
“Like some people are worried about the fear of when you lose something. I’m not wearing all that weight until I’m in it. So I’m like, I know that could mean spending my life in prison. I don’t want to do that, but I don’t carry that weight on me all the time. I’m just like, ‘Well, I’m going to be worried what will happen if I don’t please God in this.’ That’s what I’m more worried about. You know, I fear God more than I fear man. And so I’ve got nothing to lose. God can have me in prison. He can have me out. That judge is not the authority.”
“Even if it’s a wicked judge, I can trust that God loves me and that if He loves me, that even if the judge has his way, God’s really having his way. If I’m looking at it the right perspective, God can move me out. He can move me in. But I know my God loves me and wherever he puts me, he’s not going to take something without giving me something better back.”
“If you send me the jail, yeah, that might to some people look bad, but God will take care of my family. My only duty in this life is to obey God.”
“Stand on your convictions. Try to make sure those convictions are based on the word of God, but stand for your convictions because they’re important. Even if you don’t think so, God says ‘obey his word.’
“Stand for your convictions for God and man, those two things. Stop worrying about what will happen to you. God will take care of you. Be humble concerning yourself and bold concerning God and others. If you do that, I don’t believe you have to stand for causes. Just stand for what you believe. Evil people do it. They’re pushing their will because they believe, for lack of a better word, what they’re doing. We’re not the minority, we are the majority. The problem is good men are doing nothing. If you simply stood for what you believe, what you believe firmly, regardless of the consequences for God and man, then then this country would turn itself around. So focus on the Gospel. Make sure your heart’s right toward God’s. Get into His Word. Have that relationship. Don’t be in the Scriptures and just focus so much on them that you you missed the whole point – the forest for the trees. Have the relationship with Christ and he’ll take care of the rest.”