Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Matt Boggs

Matt Boggs shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Matt, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
The firearm industry in general is very much misunderstood by people. Guns are portrayed as scary killing machines, and there are a lot of people who allow their fear and misconceptions to form their opinions. Things like gun control legislation and “common sense gun laws” are prime examples of misconceptions shaping peoples perspectives and it’s extremely disheartening as a responsible gun owner to be pigeonholed or criminalized based on fears.

Nobody who owns a firearm should own a firearm with the intent of using it to intimidate, escalate, and commit a crime. Unfortunately, there are people who have a gun with that as their intent, and the greatest deterrent isn’t the fear of having someone call the police, the greatest deterrent is thinking that the intended victim could be armed.

When talking about firearms, most people use them as a defensive mechanism, and restricting someones ability to defend themselves is short sighted, and irresponsible. Limiting the firearms a person can own, limiting the capacity, making someone wait for an extended period of time… those are all restrictions that hinder a law abiding citizens 2nd Amendment right, and we should stand and speak louder for our Rights, not allow them to be stripped or altered, especially from a misunderstanding of the importance of that right.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Matt. I am the owner of Arizona’s Friendliest Gun Store, Alpha Dog Firearms.

It is our mission to educate and arm 100 million law abiding US citizens so that you can defend yourself, your family, and your country.

Alpha Dog Firearms is helping to change peoples perspective of firearms by breaking the mold that most people have when it comes to gun stores and gun owners.

The name Alpha Dog Firearms wasn’t inspired by a attitude to be the “alpha male”, it was actually named after an observation of my dog at the time, who was very old, and our younger dogs were doing something she didn’t like so she growled at them and they both stopped. I said out loud how amazing it was that Sadie was still the alpha dog, and I decided that I would call the store Alpha Dog Firearms and when Sadie passed, I used the foot impression of her mold as my logo.

I really try to tie Alpha Dog Firearms into the things that people value most. We all value our families, our safety, and being part of a welcoming community. We make sure that we treat everyone with respect, we educate customers, and we strive to dispel a lot of the misconceptions people may have about guns and gun owners.

Going into 2026 and beyond, we’re working on expansion, and providing more education and services to help everyone from the person who is intimidated with the thought of owning a firearm, to the person who owns more firearms that we do.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I don’t think there’s one thing that really did that. I think that with age comes wisdom, as long as you learn from past mistakes, failures, and successes.

Every relationship, every job, every missed opportunity, every successful achievement, and even seeing how others are affected by their decisions helped shape and continue to help shape me and how I see the world.

I see the world for what it is, both the bad and the beauty. I just hope that at the end of the day, I left the world in a better place rather than make it worse.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would tell my younger self that I’m smart and ambitious.

When I was growing up a lot of my teachers did not feel like I would amount to much, and that was very obvious in high school. I definitely allowed that to shape my personality as a young adult, so I always felt inadequate with just about everything, from relationships to job choices, to my college major, financial status, body shape, hobbies… you name it and I always felt like I wasn’t good enough, or whatever I was doing was being done wrong.

I think it took me until almost my 30’s when I “found my voice” and to this day some of those inadequacies pop up in my head, but when I was a younger adult, I never felt like I was doing anything good enough and I never felt like I measured up to other people my age. I always felt like I was behind. I put a lot of weight in the words that I heard from high school, that I’d never be anything, that I wasn’t smart, that I wouldn’t be a success.

I would absolutely go back and tell my 17 year old self that I need to follow my gut, that I should allow myself to be bold, and I would 100% tell my 17 year old self to buy as much Bitcoin and Google stock as I possibly could, and bet on the Giants to beat the Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
I actually used to believe that guns were bad. I thought that guns were used only to perpetrate crimes. I thought that the world was a harmonious place and that the people who carried guns were the ones breaking that harmony.

I really didn’t understand how evil people can be. I was very naive thinking that violence was a random act, and I didn’t think that people could do some of the things that people have done.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When have you had to bet the company?
When I first opened the store.

I didn’t care for my job at the time. I was working for Hertz and I wanted to do more impactful work in a managerial role, but because I was really good at what I did they didn’t want to promote me. They saw my sales success as a financial plus and once they said I was better suited for my role because of the money I made them, I decided I wanted to be in charge of everything.

I didn’t have the money but I owned my house so I sold my house and used the money from the sale to start Alpha Dog Firearms.

That first year I had to learn a lot about the industry and I had to make money immediately or I would have been jobless and homeless, so it worked out but I was working 7 days a week for 12 hours for over a year straight.

Now I make my decisions based on what can be afforded, I won’t bet the company today because it’s not just me. I have 10 employees, and I wouldn’t bet their financial security to take a risk like that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alphadogfirearms.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alphadogaz/
• Twitter: https://x.com/alphadogfirearm
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alphadogfirearmstv
• Other: https://truthsocial.com/@alphadogfirearms
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