Sons of Guns

Sons of Guns (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Sons of Guns was a reality television series that aired on the Discovery Channel between 2011 and 2014. The series centered on Red Jacket Firearms LLC, a Louisiana-based business that manufactures and sells custom weapons. Will Hayden is the founder and owner of the shop, while his daughter and business partner Stephanie manages the office.

As on the Discovery Channel series MythBusters, this show practices a degree of self-censorship and safety-consciousness. Each episode begins with a staff member (usually Will) warning viewers not to try anything demonstrated on the show at home. In addition, during scenes of catastrophic failure, the crew will remind the audience not to try anything at home. The program also makes a noted point to avoid showing specific detail of how weapon modifications or fabrications are performed.

The show was canceled after five seasons on August 27, 2014 due to child molestation charges against Will Hayden. Shortly thereafter the show's entire web presence, both on the Discovery Channel's website and on social media, was entirely removed.

Cast

Red Jacket staff

Will Hayden - Founder/Owner (No longer affiliated as of 8/26/14)
Stephanie (Hayden) Ford - Office Manager (Will's daughter)
Kris Ford - Production Manager (Stephanie's husband, Will's son-in-law)
Joe Meaux - COO
Charlie Watson - Forensic Firearms Expert/Marketing Manager
- In addition to their listed roles, all staff members also work as gunsmiths.

Recurring clients and experts

Glenn Harrison - Antiques collector/history enthusiast
Barry Borum - Gun manufacturer (also assists the crew in some builds as an outside contractor)
David P. Michaels - Flamethrower expert
Ira Sellers - Big Bores / Heavy weapons expert
Jim Fuller - Rifle Dynamics
Billy Cho - Rifle Dynamics
Chris Ledford - Alias "The King of Guns"
Natalie Foster - Girl's Guide to Guns

Former staff

Vince Buckles - Former shop manager/head gunsmith who resigned at the end of season 2, and briefly returned as an outside contractor for part of season 3. As of season 4, Vince is still featured on the show as he has opened his own gun shop (Mesa Kinetic Research or MKR) near Red Jacket.
Glenn "Flem" Fleming - Former shop welder who parted ways to open Acadiana Gunworks near Lafayette, LA and his own YouTube channel The Gunners Vault. Flem and his team still appear, but as outside contractors.

Other Appearances

The staff of Red Jacket also made an appearance in the second episode of the second season of American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior, asking Paul Jr. Designs to help them with a dragon-themed machine gun design.
Will Hayden and Rich Wyatt (of American Guns) hosted the Discovery Channel special Top 10 Shootouts in which they discussed and demonstrated firearms used in events of American History. Will Hayden also made an appearance in another Discovery Channel documentary, How We Invented: Guns, which aired following the season 4 finale episode.

Production

Sons of Guns first aired on the Discovery Channel on January 26, 2011 with the pilot episode "Civil War Cannon, Shotgun silencer."? On August 27, 2014, the series was cancelled after Will Hayden was charged with raping a child, his own 11 year-old daughter. "Given the serious and horrific nature of the charges against Will Hayden, we have decided to halt further production of 'Sons of Guns' and cancel the series," a Discovery Channel rep told TMZ.

Series Credits:

Stephen Land (executive producer)
Patrick Leigh-Bell (co-executive producer)
Stephanie Buxbaum (co-executive producer)
Dolores Gavin (executive producer for Discovery Channel)
Zac McFarlane (director/cinematography)
David Vanacore (music)
Eric Johannsen (editor)
Todd Beabout (editor)
Edward Klau (editor)
Mike Le (editor)

Legal trouble

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms settlement

According to TMZ.com, during a routine inspection by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in 2009, Red Jacket could not account for ten registered guns. In a settlement, William Hayden and Stephanie Hayden surrendered their gun-making licenses and were allowed to choose a licensed individual to control Red Jacket. Initially, that person was Vincent Buckles, but Buckles has left the company and now two other individuals control the company.

In a WBRZ article, Attorney Craig Davidson, Jr., said that 10 guns did not go missing from the shop. Instead, one or two guns were stolen during 2001-2008. Davidson claimed the rest of the missing guns were receivers that were thrown away or destroyed when gunsmiths made mistakes. Although Davidson characterized the lost weapons as "simple bookkeeping errors", the ATF requires serial-numbered parts to be tracked. Will and Stephanie Hayden did not keep track, so, according to Davidson, Hayden and the ATF mutually agreed to shut down Red Jacket, Inc. The WBRZ article is silent about Will and Stephanie Hayden surrendering any federal firearms licenses.

Davidson further stated that at that time, Hayden was already in discussions with the Discovery Channel about the show and had plans to start another business, Red Jacket Firearms, L.L.C. Will Hayden is not an officer of Red Jacket Firearms, L.L.C. When Davidson was asked why Hayden was not an officer, Davidson stated the reason was a "confidential business decision".

Dallas Fort Worth airport incident

In September 2011, Jupiter Entertainment, the Sons of Guns production company, made the evening news when its staff member, on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, parked a rental truck, containing automatic weapons and pyrotechnics, outside the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport while waiting for a colleague. Part of Terminal B was closed for several hours while the FBI investigated but found no wrongdoing. An executive of the production company said he regretted the incident and blamed it on "a simple yet colossal error in judgement by a member of our staff."

Will Hayden child rape charges

Will Hayden was arrested on August 26, 2014 on charges of raping his own 11 year old daughter. According to several news sources, the child said she was orally and vaginally raped almost daily, but did not report it because Hayden threatened her physically.