Two-tiered “justice” system. https://t.co/sCavKJznxl
— Toshiro Grendel (@ToshiroGrendel) March 12, 2024
Category: Goobermint
‘The Purge’ Comes to Pittsburgh
“The Purge” is coming to Pittsburgh between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., and if that works out well enough for the city’s criminal class, maybe they’ll expand those hours.
For those not in the know, “The Purge” is a series of dystopian thrillers — the first was decent, but the four sequels proved increasingly unnecessary — set in a near-future United States where, for one night each year, all crime is legal. Whatever it is you want to do, from shoplifting to killing your mother-in-law, it’s all good.
Maybe the changes being made to the Pittsburgh Police Department’s rules and hours aren’t quite that extreme. But from my vantage point, it looks like city officials saw how organized crime rings had taken shoplifting to entirely new levels in under-policed cities like San Francisco and said, “Hold my donut!”
Under the new rules that went into effect at the end of February and were just given nationwide attention by End Wokeness on Twitter/X, there will be no Pittsburgh police at the city’s six police stations between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. More ominously, police will no longer respond to calls “that aren’t considered in-progress emergencies,” according to WPXI-11 News. “That means calls like criminal mischief, theft, harassment, and most burglary alarms will all be handled by an ‘enhanced’ telephone reporting unit.”
Just not, you know, by an actual police officer. I don’t care how “enhanced” a telephone reporting unit might be, it’s still just a fancy answering service.
Police Chief Larry Scirotto explained, “We don’t have very many crimes of violence in those periods of time.” Maybe not. But announcing a four-hour window with minimal policing certainly incentivizes criminals to work the overnight shift that police won’t.
“To tell people that you’re not going be protected at certain hours of the day, that doesn’t make any sense to me when I heard it. I don’t know what the rationale of that is, and I think that’s something the chief has to explain,” District Attorney Stephen Zappala told WPXI.
“We are nimble and fluid enough that when one of those emergencies occurs that we respond with rapid deployment with the right amount of personnel to keep the community safe and officers safe,” Scirotto claimed.
While police say they will respond to ongoing emergencies without any cops on call late during late night hours, they also request that you schedule your emergencies during regular business hours from 7 a.m. through 3 a.m.
I’m kidding about the scheduling request. Everything else is true.
On the other hand, it isn’t like anyone has ever depended on the police to respond instantly to an ongoing break-in or violent crime. “When seconds count, the police are minutes away” is an old adage for good reason. What should be only seconds away is whatever weapon you keep (and train with) for home defense.
So maybe the best that can happen is that the worst won’t quite happen. Still, I miss the days when “The Purge” didn’t feel quite so much like non-fiction.
COOKING THE BOOKS: 11 Out Of Last 13 Jobs Reports Have Been Revised Downward.
11 out of the last 13 jobs reports have been revised down from the original headline-generating numbers.
The regime is cooking the books. pic.twitter.com/et1hbGRTkT
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 8, 2024
¡Grupos de Autodefensas Comunitaria Para Mi y Tu!
And when the Police won’t, or can’t do their job……
Armed citizen patrols start in Hartford amid violence concerns.
A new controversial armed citizen patrol has launched in Hartford.
Organizers say the people will be legally carrying as they walk around parts of the city where violence has taken a toll.
Though some – including the city’s mayor – are raising concerns about the effort.
In Hartford’s North End on Saturday, a group of people looked to patrol and clean up Garden Street.
“It was important to come out here because we believe that we have to keep the community safe, keep the community clean. And we’re doing this by being out here for a few hours, clean up the community, pick up the trash,” said Marcus Long, of Hartford.
“We are legally armed and we are patrolling,” said Cornell Lewis, the founder of the Self-Defense Brigade. “The people on Garden Street came to us and asked us for help.”
While there did not appear to be open carry – which is banned in Connecticut – organizers previously told us those armed would be licensed and have concealed weapons.
They were part of Minister Cornell Lewis’ Self-Defense Brigade.
“We are not vigilantes. We are a group of people that are disciplined and trained. We go to the shooting range,” said Lewis.
The effort faces opposition including from an anti-violence group and the Hartford mayor.
Mayor Arunan Arulampalam wrote in part:
“Our community has seen so much pain and trauma, and what we need is for those who love this city to do the hard work of healing that pain.”
The mayor added that the city did not need people being trained to walk the streets with guns and trying to take the law into their own hands.
Earlier, there was a talk about gun rights including how to get a permit, safe storage and carry and personal use.
The founder of the brigade says they plan to do the patrols a few times a week. “We’ll be patrolling at night. So it’s not just a one-time thing. It’s going to be on a consistent basis,” said Lewis.
Organizers argue the patrols are needed and they have plans to expand them to other parts of the city.
Joe Biden Slammed for Evacuating ‘Four Embassies’ During Presidency.
Representative Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, slammed President Joe Biden on Sunday for evacuating “four embassies” since he took office.
Miller specifically referred to the U.S. embassy evacuation in Sudan that happened on Saturday when the Biden administration decided to suspend operations at its embassy amid the ongoing fight between rival Sudanese leaders on the ground.
Sudan has been controlled by generals since both military factions participated in a joint effort to oust President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019.
“Joe Biden has had to evacuate FOUR embassies in less than 3 years. The media said Biden & Blinken were ‘experts’ and ‘the adults are back in charge.’ The world has been on FIRE since their disaster in Afghanistan. Pray for our country & the 16,000 Americans Biden left in Sudan,” Miller wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
In addition to Sudan, the United States has also suspended embassy operations in Afghanistan after withdrawing its troops in August 2021 and in Ukraine when Russia invaded the Eastern European country last February. However, the embassy in Ukraine reopened last May. The U.S. has also suspended operations in Belarus—whose President Alexander Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin—due to “security and safety issues stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack.”
Meanwhile, Undersecretary of State for Management John Bass said on Saturday that temporarily shutting down the embassy in Sudan was “the only really feasible option for us in this case,” according to CNN.
Why Will Daniel Penny Still Stand Trial When Hochul Has to Send in Natl Guard?
Daniel Penny’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, said it was past time to address New York City’s crime problem on its subways after Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to NYC subways this week.
“It’s about time,” Kenniff said on “Fox & Friends” Friday. “I just wish it didn’t take this long for there to be a realization, a recognition among our elected leaders that there’s a crisis that’s going on in the subways of New York City.”
Kenniff’s client, U.S. Marine veteran Daniel Penny, is facing charges in the chokehold death of a homeless, mentally ill man, Jordan Neely, who was yelling violent threats at riders on a New York City subway last year. Penny said he did not intend to kill Neely but was trying to protect women and children who were “terrified” of Neely.
“I don’t know if ‘too little too late’ is the right expression but, ‘better late than never,’ perhaps,” he continued.
That drug cocktail they fed him for the State of the Union speech done wore off.
Quip O’ The Day: “Earpiece must have buzzed”
Biden makes the blunder of answering whether and why Hamas would want a ceasefire.
He then notices his terrible blunder in saying the truth, and goes off on a tangent. pic.twitter.com/ypqX7H8D6o
— David Shor (@DYShor) March 10, 2024
U.S. Prepares to Take a Long Walk Off Biden’s Short Gaza Pier.
“Embrace the suck” became the NCO’s unofficial motto during the Iraq War and Operation Enduring Freedom as a reminder to enlisted men and women that just because a job was unpleasant, didn’t mean they didn’t have to do it. As our men and women speed towards the Eastern Mediterranean on Presidentish Joe Biden’s hamfisted mission to provide aid and comfort to Hamas, they’ll have to learn to “embrace the stupid.”
How it is stupid? Let us count the ways…
The first and most obvious is that any food or other aid will not go to any starving Arab residents of Gaza. It will go to Hamas. That is how siege warfare has always worked and will always work. If the White House doesn’t know this ancient truth, the Pentagon surely does. Nevertheless, this country will deliver supplies to terrorists.
I can’t think about that too long without wanting to pour myself a coffee mug full of bourbon, so let’s move on to the next bit of stupid we must embrace.
U.S. Central Command announced that, on Saturday, “U.S. Army Vessel (USAV) General Frank S. Besson (LSV-1) from the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, XVIII Airborne Corps, departed Joint Base Langley-Eustis en route to the Eastern Mediterranean less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the U.S. would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea. Besson, a logistics support vessel, is carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies.”
While that all sounds very impressive on TwitterX, CENTCOM left out one tiny detail: it will take the Besson about 60 days to arrive in the Eastern Med and begin assembling the pier.
That’s two months, for those keeping score at home, and by that time I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel were finishing up operations at Rafah in the south of Gaza.
Also, if you’re a member of Israeli’s war cabinet, you’re looking at likely sites for Biden’s stupid pier, and seriously considering ordering the IDF to take and hold them in the next few weeks. The Gaza coast is only 20 miles long, and the IDF already controls nearly half of it. Taking troops away from the main fighting in the cities to protect the coast will prolong the war — but Biden’s stupid pier will do that anyway.
“What happens if the IDF controls the entire coast by the time we get there?” doesn’t seem to be a question anyone at the White House bothered to ask, even as vital as it is.
Then there are all the practical things that can go wrong with three different armed groups with different goals and methods, all operating in close proximity. The best we can hope is the worst predictions don’t come true.
So maybe Biden’s Operation WTF (or whatever they’re calling it) promises to be a ginormous clusterfark from top to bottom, but hey, at least the White House will have protected its left flank against accusations of supporting Israeli genocide, right?
Wrong.
The White House will quickly learn that there’s no appeasing the cultural Marxists who hate the Jews and call Israel a colonial-settler state.
On second thought, I take that last part back. The White House already knows there’s no appeasing the party’s hardcore lefties. But they’re making an obscenely stupid attempt, regardless, because they lack the imagination and guts to do something intelligent.
And so when faced with doing nothing or doing the stupid thing, these people will pick the stupid thing every time.
Welcome Back Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time was first implemented in the U.S. with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources.
“War Time”, full time DST was implemented again during World War II.
After the war, local jurisdictions were free to choose if and when to observe DST until the Uniform Time Act which standardized DST in 1966.
Permanent DST was enacted for the winter of 1974, but there were complaints of children going to school in the dark and working people commuting and starting their work day in pitch darkness during the winter, and it was repealed a year later.
The goobermint isn’t letting all these foreigners in for the good of the nation
Most Americans do not know that the US census currently counts, for purposes of voting power, all people in a district, regardless of citizenship!
Senate Democrats just voted unanimously to defeat an amendment that would have stopped counting illegals for congressional seat… https://t.co/5gXt4Z1wzP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2024
Congratulations, we are now a 3rd world country with troops at the train stations. https://t.co/vzNCHhZ3jb
— Tactical Wisdom (@DolioJ) March 7, 2024
Americans Not Buying Gun Control. Instead, They’re Buying Guns.
President Joe Biden is still pushing gun control onto the American people. He’s absolutely convinced the public wants restrictions on our right to keep and bear arms. At least, he’s convinced of that when he can remember what a gun actually is.
Regardless, the president has been pushing it since he started campaigning in 2019, so it’s no surprise that it’s been a point of consistency.
What is surprising is that despite all the studies and polls that try to tell us that the public wants restrictions, they truth is that they’re buying guns like crazy.
The nation’s gun-buying binge remained robust last month amid the Biden administration’s latest plans to cut sales and intimidate customers.
The FBI said it conducted 2,336,390 checks through its National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry trade group, said that included an estimated 1,343,478 specifically for gun sales.
February was the 55th consecutive month that gun sales approved by the FBI exceeded 1 million. NSSF said the number was likely higher since the FBI count does not include all other legal pathways to obtaining a firearm.
The NSSF’s Mark Oliva said this was likely a reaction to Biden’s efforts to tighten gun control, which isn’t overly surprising.
During the Obama administration, the president was the gun salesman of the year for eight straight years. Biden has been no different.
I’ve long maintained that a lot of people want guns but because these aren’t inexpensive items nor higher ticket goods the whole family will enjoy day in, day out, firearm purchases get put on the back burner. Folks figure there’s always time to get them.
But when someone like Biden comes along and starts to rattle the saber about restricting things, “there’s always time” becomes “I’d better do something while I can.”
You know what would have been more helpful? Not letting crime get so out of control that you have to deploy the military to keep order in Manhattan on an ordinary Wednesday.
New York Gov Hochul calls in National Guard, state police to help curb crime in NYC subways
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is sending in the state National Guard to New York City to help police curb a surge in crime in the city’s subways.
Announcing a five-point plan on Wednesday, the Democratic governor said she was deploying 750 members of the National Guard to the subways to assist the New York Police Department with bag searches at entrances to busy train stations.
“For people who are thinking about bringing a gun or knife on the subway, at least this creates a deterrent effect. They might be thinking, ‘You know what, it just may just not be worth it because I listened to the mayor and I listened to the governor and they have a lot more people who are going to be checking my bags,'” Hochul said at a news conference in New York City.
The governor’s plan also includes better coordination with district attorneys to help prevent repeat offenders and an additional $20 million for expanding subway outreach programs.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans on Tuesday to have more police patrolling the subways as the city attempts to curb a near 20% increase in crime levels during the first two months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to NYPD data cited by the New York Post.
On Sunday, a 64-year-old postal worker was kicked onto the tracks at Penn Station in Manhattan, while a 20-year-old woman fought off a man who punched her in the face and tried to rape her in Queens. Last week, a subway conductor was slashed in the neck when he stuck his head out of the cabin window during a stop at a station in Brooklyn.
Biden Goes To Court, Demanding Warrantless Surveillance Powers
An attempt to bypass congress.
A request by the Biden administration to the courts for the renewal of contentious warrantless surveillance powers, has stoked controversy.
These surveillance powers, demanded by American intelligence agencies, are on the verge of expiration. Critics argue that this move either reflects business as usual, or reflects a sidestepping of spying reforms.
According to US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the decision of the US Department of Justice to pursue an extension of the FISA Section 702 for a year without congressional consideration manifests a disregard for reforms aimed at safeguarding American rights.
Expressing his criticism, Wyden offers an alternative legislation which he and other lawmakers proposed that seeks to maintain Section 702 surveillance albeit under strict regulations constraining unwarranted spying on Americans. Wyden is particularly irked by the White House’s direction to prosecutors to seek renewal of the FISA powers in court before his proposed alternative legislation could be wholly considered by Congress.
Senator Wyden did not mince words in expressing his dissatisfaction with the approach of the Biden administration and the Justice department. “It is utterly ridiculous that the Biden Administration and the Justice Department would rather risk the long-term future of an important surveillance authority than support a single meaningful reform to protect Americans’ rights,” he said.
The contentious issue revolves around Section 702, an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows US intelligence agencies to spy on foreigners considered a threat to national security. Despite the fact that this surveillance is meant for overseas intelligence targets, the incidental warrantless surveillance of US residents has prompted concerns among privacy advocates.
The FBI’s past missteps of using Section 702 to snoop on various individuals ranging from US elected officials to campaign donors adds credence to these concerns. Section 702 is scheduled to lapse by April 19 unless Congress moves to renew it. This has led to a push among several lawmakers to alter the rules and add guards against potential future abuse. To keep it running, Congress had granted a four-month extension last year.
There are currently four legislative proposals in the works to renew Section 702. Two of these initiatives, namely the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act and the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023, entail a warrant requirement prior to investigations.
The White House has resisted attempts to reform Section 702.
Either SecDef Austin, didn’t know, or didn’t care that HAMAS runs the Gaza Health Ministry.
Pentagon Walks Back Austin’s Gaza Casualty Figures
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Thursday that more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, but the Pentagon later clarified that estimate, saying the figure came from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, not U.S. intelligence.
During a congressional hearing, Austin was asked how many Palestinian women and children had been killed by Israel and Austin replied: “It is over 25,000.”
A few hours later, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokesperson, said that Austin was citing an estimate from the Gaza health ministry and was referring to total Palestinians killed, not just women and children.
“We cannot independently verify these Gaza casualty figures,” Singh said in a statement.
In late January, Palestinian health officials said the death toll from Israeli strikes had passed 25,000. That number, according to the Gaza health ministry, is now over 30,000 Palestinians.
Gaza health authorities said more than 100 Palestinians had been shot dead by Israeli forces as they waited for an aid delivery on Thursday, but Israel challenged the death toll and said many of the victims had been run over by aid trucks.
Austin, during the hearing, also added that about 21,000 precision guided munitions had been provided to Israel since the start of its war in Gaza.
They are using the word "newcomer" because it's always been their plan from the beginning to give them citizenship.
— Jim Anderson (@JimAnde19834086) March 3, 2024
California Violated the Second Amendment by Disarming People Based on Nullified Convictions
A federal judge ruled that three men who committed nonviolent felonies decades ago are entitled to buy, own, and possess guns.
The state of California employed Kendall Jones as a correctional officer for 29 years and as a firearms and use-of-force trainer for 19 years. But in 2018, when Jones sought to renew the certificate of eligibility required for firearms instructors, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) informed him that he was not allowed to possess guns under state law because of a 1980 Texas conviction for credit card abuse. Jones committed that third-degree felony in Houston when he was 19, and his conviction was set aside after he completed a probation sentence.
According to the DOJ, that did not matter: Because of his youthful offense, which Jones said involved a credit card he had obtained from someone who falsely claimed he was authorized to use it, the longtime peace officer was permanently barred from owning or possessing firearms in California. That application of California law violated the Second Amendment, a federal judge ruled this week in Linton v. Bonta, which also involves two other similarly situated plaintiffs.
“Plaintiffs were convicted of non-violent felonies decades ago when they were in the earliest years of adulthood,” U.S. District Judge James Donato, a Barack Obama appointee, notes in an order granting them summary judgment. “Each conviction was set aside or dismissed by the jurisdiction in which the offense occurred, and the record indicates that all three plaintiffs have been law-abiding citizens in every respect other than the youthful misconduct. Even so, California has acted to permanently deny plaintiffs the right to possess or own firearms solely on the basis of the original convictions.” After considering the state’s cursory defense of those determinations, Donato thought it was clear that California had “violated the Second Amendment rights of the individual plaintiffs.”
Like most jurisdictions, California prohibits people with felony records from buying, owning, receiving, or possessing firearms. That ban encompasses offenses that did not involve weapons or violence, and it applies regardless of how long ago the crime was committed. Federal law imposes a similar disqualification, which applies to people convicted of crimes punishable by more than a year of incarceration (or more than two years for state offenses classified as misdemeanors). But the federal law makes an exception for “any conviction which has been expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored.”
California’s policy is different. “The DOJ will permit a person with an out-of-state conviction to acquire or possess a firearm in California only if the conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor, or the person obtained a presidential or governor’s pardon that expressly restores their right to possess firearms,” Donato explains. The requirements for California convictions are similar.
In Jones’ case, the same state that suddenly decided he was not allowed to possess guns employed him as the primary armory officer at the state prison in Solano, where he specialized in “firearms, chemical agents, batons and use of deadly force training,” for nearly two decades. Despite all that experience, the sudden denial of his gun rights put an end to his work as a law enforcement firearms and use-of-force instructor in California. The other two plaintiffs told similar stories of losing their Second Amendment rights based not only on nonviolent offenses that happened long ago but also on convictions that were judicially nullified.
According to the 2018 complaint that Chad Linton filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, he was pulled over by state police in 1987, when he was serving in the U.S. Navy at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington. The complaint concedes that Linton was “traveling at a high rate of speed” on his motorcycle while “intoxicated” and that he initially “accelerated,” thinking “he might be able to outrun” the cops before he “reconsidered that idea, pulled over to the side of the highway, and voluntarily allowed the state trooper to catch up to him.”
Linton was charged with driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, and attempting to evade a police vehicle, a Class C felony. He pleaded guilty to both charges and received a seven-day sentence, time he had already served. In 1988, he “received a certificate of discharge, showing that he successfully completed his probation.” It “included a statement that ‘the defendant’s civil rights lost by operation of law upon conviction [are] HEREBY RESTORED.'”
Linton, who was born and raised in California, returned there in 1988 after he was discharged from the Navy. He successfully purchased several firearms after passing background checks. But when he tried to buy a handgun in 2015, the DOJ told him he was disqualified because of the 1987 felony conviction. In response, he asked the Superior Court of Washington to vacate that conviction, which it did in April 2016. The order “set aside” the conviction and released Linton “from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense.” But when he tried to buy a rifle in November 2016, he was rejected.
The same thing happened in March 2018, when Linton tried to buy a revolver for home protection. The following month, Donato notes, “DOJ agents came to Linton’s home and seized several firearms from him that he had legally acquired and owned for years, including an ‘antique, family-heirloom shotgun.'”
Although Linton moved to Nevada in 2020, partly because of these experiences, he still owns a cabin in California. He said he felt “unsafe and unprotected” there “without at least the option of having appropriate firearms available or at hand if needed.” He added that he “would like to be able to possess or handle firearms or ammunition for recreational purposes, such as target shooting,” while visiting friends and relatives in California.
Paul McKinley Stewart’s disqualifying offense dates back even further than Jones’ and Linton’s. In 1976, when he was 18 and living in Arizona, he “stole some tools from an unlocked truck in a commercial yard.” He was found guilty of first-degree burglary, a felony, and served three years of probation, after which he was told that his conviction had been dismissed.
Stewart moved to California in 1988 and tried to buy firearms in 2014 or 2015 (the record is unclear on the exact date). The DOJ “advised him that he was ‘disqualified’ from purchasing or possessing firearms ‘due to the presence of a prior felony conviction.'” Like Linton, Stewart went back to the court of conviction. In August 2016, Donato notes, the Arizona Superior Court “ordered ‘that the civil rights lost at the time of sentencing are now restored,’ ‘set aside [the] judgment of guilt,’ ordered the ‘dismissal of the Information/Indictment,’ and expressly held that the restored rights ‘shall include the right to possess weapons.'” The DOJ nevertheless blocked a gun purchase that Stewart attempted in February 2018, citing the 1976 conviction that officially no longer existed.
Defending these denials in federal court, the state argued that the plaintiffs were not part of “the people” whose “right to keep and bear arms” is guaranteed by the Second Amendment because they were not “law-abiding, responsible citizens.” In California’s view, Donato writes, “a single felony conviction permanently disqualifies an individual from being a ‘law-abiding, responsible citizen’ within the ambit of the Second Amendment.” He sees “two flaws” that “vitiate this contention.”
First, Donato says, “undisputed facts” establish that all three plaintiffs are “fairly described as law-abiding citizens.” Judging from the fact that “California entrusted Jones with the authority of a sworn peace officer, and with the special role of training other officers in the use of force,” that was the state’s view of him until 2018, when he was peremptorily excluded from “the people.” And as with Jones, there is no indication that the other two plaintiffs have been anything other than “law-abiding” since their youthful offenses. “Linton is a veteran of the United States Navy with a clean criminal record for the past 37 years,” Donato notes. “Stewart has had a clean criminal record for the past 48 years.”
Second, Donato says, California failed to identify any “case law supporting its position.” In the landmark Second Amendment case District of Columbia v. Heller, he notes, the Supreme Court “determined that ‘the people,’ as used throughout the Constitution, ‘unambiguously refers to all members of the political community, not an unspecified subset.'” That holding, he says, creates a “strong presumption” that California failed to rebut.
Donato notes that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit rejected California’s argument in no uncertain terms last year, when it restored the Second Amendment rights of Bryan Range, a Pennsylvania man who had been convicted of misdemeanor food stamp fraud. “Heller and its progeny lead us to conclude that Bryan Range remains among ‘the people’ despite his 1995 false statement conviction,” the 3rd Circuit said. “The Supreme Court’s references to ‘law-abiding, responsible citizens’ do not mean that every American who gets a traffic ticket is no longer among ‘the people’ protected by the Second Amendment.”
Since Jones, Linton, and Stewart are part of “the people,” California had the burden of showing that disarming them was “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation”—the test that the Supreme Court established in the 2022 case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. “California did not come close to meeting its burden,” Donato writes. It did little more than assert that Americans have Second Amendment rights only if they are “virtuous,” a criterion that is highly contested and in any case would seem to be satisfied by the plaintiffs’ long histories as productive and law-abiding citizens.
“California otherwise presented nothing in the way of historical evidence in support of the conduct challenged here,” Donato says. “It did not identify even one ‘representative analogue’ that could be said to come close to speaking to firearms regulations for individuals in circumstances akin to plaintiffs’. That will not do under Bruen.”
Donato rejected “California’s suggestion that it might have tried harder if the Court had asked.” Under Bruen, “the government bears the burden of proving the element of a national historical tradition,” he writes. “California had every opportunity to present any historical evidence it believed would carry its burden. It chose not to do so.”
Donato was dismayed by the state’s attitude. “The Court is not a helicopter parent,” he writes. “It is manifestly not the Court’s job to poke and prod litigants to live up to their burdens of proof.”
The policy that Jones, Linton, and Stewart challenged seems inconsistent with California’s criminal justice reforms, such as marijuana legalization and the reclassification of many felonies as misdemeanors. It is also inconsistent with the way California treats voting rights, which are automatically restored upon sentence completion. Gun rights in California, by contrast, are easy to lose and hard to recover, even when they have been restored by courts in other states. That disparity seems to reflect the California political establishment’s reflexive hostility to the Second Amendment.
“This case exposes the hypocrisy of California’s treatment of those convicted of non-violent crimes,” says Cody J. Wisniewski, an attorney with the Firearms Policy Coalition, one of several gun rights groups that joined the lawsuit. “While California claims to be tolerant of those that have made mistakes in the past, that tolerance ends when it comes to those individuals [who want] to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. Now, the state has no choice but to recognize the rights of peaceable people.”
Gun Owners Of America (GOA) shared their concerns Thursday with Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn after he announced his intention to run for Senate Republican Leader, just one day after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would be stepping down as leader in November.
In an exclusive phone call with the Daily Caller, Aidan Johnston, the Director of Federal Affairs for GOA, said Cornyn is not a Conservative pro-gun leader, mentioning pieces of legislation that Cornyn has supported in the past, which Johnston described as gun control.
“The United States Senate deserves a conservative pro-gun leader, and John Cornyn is not that person, it seems. I’ll say every time a gun issue comes up: He’s right there with a compromise. And that’s not leadership. That’s just capitulation to gun control. Americans deserve someone who will refuse to compromise with their God-given Second Amendment rights. And unfortunately, John Cornyn is, always, always, always cutting deals with our Second Amendment,” Johnston told the Caller.
“I mean, as far back as, 2007-2008 John Cornyn was not standing up to object to gun control when the Veterans Disarmament Act passed, otherwise known as the NICs Improvement Amendment Act. But then you’ve got the Fix NICs Act, the followed successor to that 2008 bill,” Johnston continued. “The Fix NICs Act, which passed in 2017-2018. And that bill was supposed to only pass coupled with concealed carry reciprocity, but it was squishy Republicans in Congress that let the two bills be separated, and they passed the gun control and not concealed carry.”
He then slammed Cornyn over the Safer Communities Act, which he cosponsored with Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. The compromise package was negotiated between Cornyn and Murphy in the Summer of 2022 and created an “enhanced background check” for adults under 21. The bill also expanded the definition of who is a gun dealer and thereby required to conduct a background check. Under that new system, one single gun sale in a calendar year could lead to people having to get licensed as a dealer and having to conduct background checks.
“But I do think that the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which John Cornyn is the co-author with Senator Murphy, it was an omnibus gun control, this is the biggest gun control that has passed Congress in decades. Like we’re talking funding for Red flag gun confiscation laws, which, by the way, have been used in a scandal to bribe pro-gun states without red flag laws into enacting them.
We’re talking about a de facto wait period for 18- to 20-year-old adults before they can purchase a firearm and it opened the door, which we warned him [Cornyn] about, to backdoor universal background checks. And now the ATF is initiating a rule to institute background checks without a new law,” he added.
“Well, we warned Congress, we warned, John Cornyn, about all these consequences of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act that said he supported that bill anyway and now gun owners are living under the consequences of that. This is not the time to take someone who compromised with our Second Amendment and put them in charge of the Republican Party, whose platform claims to defend the Second Amendment.”
McConnell said he will serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”
Meanwhile, Cornyn spoke with former President Donald Trump on Wednesday and has started calling individual GOP senators for their support.
The Caller contacted Cornyn’s office about GOA’s opposition to him as leader, to which they did not immediately respond.
Yeah, this is going to turn out well
Los Angeles Hires And Arms Foreign Criminals To Police U.S. Citizens
Illegally present foreigners who don’t have the constitutional right to bear arms can arrest and even disarm a U.S. citizen who does.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 DACA order indefinitely delays the deportation of illegal border crossers who enter the United States claiming to be minors. Recipients do not start becoming U.S. citizens unless they apply for a green card. That is why many seek endless DACA renewals that allow them to continue working and living in the States while still foreign citizens and admitted border lawbreakers.
Until recently, California only allowed U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in the process of obtaining citizenship to serve as law enforcement. In 2022, the Democrat legislature passed a law authorizing any of the hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossers, including DACA recipients, who obtain work authorization to join police forces across the state.
While some cities like Sacramento refused to hire illegal border crossers due to concerns about gun law violations, LAPD handed jobs and firearms to nearly a dozen DACA aliens. Capt. Robin Petillo told CalMatters these illegal border crossers will “possess department-issued firearms on and off duty.” The department also plans to give jobs to illegally present foreigners who are currently in police training.
“We’ve tried to carve just what is necessary for DACA, and these individuals be treated on the same basis of which non-DACA recipients are, as to the possession of a department firearm and its use,” Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told ABC 7.
The Second Amendment states it is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” “The people,” according to American court precedent, refers to U.S. citizens only.
The 1968 Gun Control Act, passed by a Democrat trifecta, also prohibits illegally present foreign citizens from possessing firearms and ammunition. The Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled in 2017 that DACA does not exempt illegal border crossers from that gun law.
An exception in the 1968 law, however, allows for illegal border crossers to possess guns “for the use of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof.” That means this federal provision technically provides any local or state government office, even if they don’t have a law like California’s, to arm illegal border crossers.
So in the case of the LAPD, a criminal foreign citizen who doesn’t have the constitutionally secured right to bear arms but was hired by a U.S. police department could arrest and even disarm a U.S. citizen who does have Second Amendment rights.
Under President Joe Biden and Democrats, illegal border crossers aren’t just getting jobs in local police departments, they are being rewarded for breaking U.S. laws with free transportation, shelter, and prepaid debit cards.
. More than 28.1 Million Modern Sporting Rifles in Circulation.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) recently released a “Firearm Production in the United States and the Firearm Import and Export Data” report which indicates that 28,144,000 modern sporting rifles (MSRs) have been put into circulation since 1990. MSR production increased 32 percent from 2020 to 2021 alone.
The figure includes the latest data provided—up to and including 2021—by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (BATFE) Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Reports. “The data continues to show that the modern sporting rifle is the most popular centerfire rifle sold in America today with over 28.1 million in circulation and being used for lawful purposes every day,” said Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President and CEO. In addition, he added, “The continued popularity of handguns demonstrates a strong interest by Americans to protect themselves and their homes, and to participate in the recreational shooting sports.”
In 2021, according to the findings, more than half of the 21,037,810 total firearms made available for the U.S. market were either pistols or revolvers. In all, 12,799,067 were handguns, 4,832,198 were rifles and 3,406,545 were shotguns. The figure includes firearms domestically produced plus those imported (minus exported firearms).
Total domestic firearm production reported in 2021 was 12,521,614—an increase of 28.6 percent over 2020 reported figures. Firearm and ammunition manufacturing accounted for more than 12,400 employees producing over $5.6 billion in goods shipped in 2021. “This report demonstrates the strength and durability of the U.S. firearm manufacturing sector and the U.S. firearm sales markets,” Bartozzi said.
As for more recent figures, BATFE’s interim 2022 estimate showed a total of 11,217,388 domestically produced firearms. Of those 6,148,877 were pistols, 830,800 were revolvers, 3,575,322 were rifles and 662,389 were shotguns. The Bureau’s interim report will be updated once complete figures are compiled.
In all, NSSF estimated the total number of firearms in civilian possession from 1990 to 2021 is 473.2 million.