Oleg Volk is a household name in the gun community. If you are not familiar with him, you need to do more reading online and perhaps a little less video streaming. Oleg immigrated from Soviet Russia in his late teens. The experience of living under a failed authoritarian state helped shape him into the powerhouse of an individual rights activist he has been for decades.

A professional photographer and creative director for 30 years, Oleg Volk has been a firehose of free images for gun rights activists. Oleg was creating pro-gun memes before the term had even been coined. I first communicated with him in the mid 2000s when I was running ICarry.org. I had seen his work all over and wanted to use his images in print promotional material – specifically the tens of thousands of business cards promoting our gun giveaway we handed out thanks to an army of volunteers. While I knew his work was used for gun rights for free, I still wanted to reach out and make sure it was OK to print his photos onto our cards. Oleg was more than happy to have his work used for this, and generously gave us his blessing for free use.

In addition to the millions of images he has shot in his life, Oleg Volk is an avid collector and shooter at his own range at home. His attention to detail has not only lent itself in his photography, but also to his shooting, writing, and firearms design. Over the years he has written articles for over a dozen publications including Firearms News, SWAT Magazine, Concealed Carry, Dillon Blue Press, and American Firearms Journal and Ammoman among numerous others. Oleg has designed complete firearms, parts and accessories.

For Oleg Volk I would put firearms on the level of obsession. You would be hard-pressed to find more of a gun nut than him. Perhaps it is the simplicity of firearms that has such an appeal to this ethnic Jew from Russia who has seen and experienced violence against the unarmed. I certainly can’t say the same about his other photographic passions: cats and women.

I regard Oleg as an unsung hero of gun rights, a giving heart laser-focused on would-be innocent victims becoming surprise ticket-punchers. I’ve known and seen a lot of people with impressive titles, board seats, and other appellatives, acknowledgements, and fame who have done but a small fraction of what Oleg has done for the self-defense movement and its sacred truth that all humans are entitled merely by their birth to effectively protect themselves with weapons.

Weapons-related businesses would do well to hire Oleg Volk not only for his skilled work with their creatives and his powerful online following, but for the work he has done and surely will continue to rescue weapons-related businesses from the ever-present oligarchs who prefer subjects to Citizens.

Check out Oleg’s main website: https://olegvolk.net

Check out Oleg’s blog at https://blog.olegvolk.net/

Check out Oleg’s gallery at: https://olegvolk.net/gallery