Two gun bills head to governor’s desk: one to prevent tracking of suspicious purchases, one to protect armed school staff from liability

Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have passed two bills dealing with guns this week. On Tuesday, the Iowa Senate gave final approval to a bill to prevent credit card companies from taking steps that would make it easier for law enforcement agencies to identify purchases of firearms and ammunition. A day earlier, the House voted 62-36 in favor of a bill creating legal immunity for teachers or other school staff designated to carry guns on school property and requiring the state’s 11 largest school districts to employ armed security in their high schools.

Both bills passed the House and Senate on a series of largely party-line votes. Gov. Kim Reynolds is expected to sign both into law.

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VA halts taking away gun rights from veterans who require help managing their benefits — but only for 6 months

WASHINGTON — A new ban that has stopped the Department of Veterans Affairs from taking away the gun rights of veterans who are found to be incapable of managing their own financial affairs will expire in six months, VA officials said.

The VA in March ended its weekly practice of submitting the names of veterans appointed fiduciaries to handle their VA disability benefits to the FBI’s national background check database. The database contains information on people prohibited from buying or receiving firearms. Inclusion in the database legally disqualifies veterans from owning, possessing or buying firearms from licensed dealers.

The VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration, which disperses monthly benefit payments to veterans, has been required by federal law upon the VA’s appointment of a fiduciary to manage a veteran’s benefits to submit the veteran’s name to the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System, or NICS, as ineligible to own or possess firearms, according to the agency.

The new temporary provision does not overturn current law but essentially blocks VA from adding the names of veterans appointed fiduciaries to “the FBI-prohibited persons database in the NICS system,” said Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for the Gunowners of America, a nonprofit lobbying organization with two million members. Terrence Hayes, the VA press secretary, said the provision restricts VA from “using appropriated funds” to make reports to the NICS system without a court order or ruling.

The provision had bipartisan support, including from Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., who for several years sought to overturn the practice by the Veterans Benefits Administration to notify the NICS system of veterans appointed fiduciaries. Tester said he knew of veterans who refused to apply for or collect VA benefits because they were worried about losing their gun rights. He said the law has punished people who receive VA benefits but need help managing their money.

The new legislation does not amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which authorizes the VA to report the names of “incompetent beneficiaries” to the FBI database that gun dealers check before selling firearms. Passage of the Brady Act in 1993 led to the establishment of the national background check system for firearm licensees.

Since 1998, the VA has reported veterans appointed fiduciaries to the NICS database. But the new policy, while temporary, means only those veterans declared by a court or magistrate as mentally incompetent and an imminent danger to themselves or others will be reported to the NICS system and legally lose their right to buy, possess or own a firearm. Navy veteran Abraham Conrique, an 82-year-old, part-time cab driver in Maryland, said he understands there are situations when a veteran should not have access to a gun, given his own personal history of service-related mental health problems. “I never had a court hearing over my mental health. But I’m smart enough to know that I shouldn’t have firearms with my level of PTSD. Some veterans need those restrictions,” said Conrique, who referred to his own diagnoses in 2020 for post-traumatic stress disorder. But only a judge should have the power to make that decision, said Conrique, a petty officer second class during the Vietnam War, with deployments in Vietnam and Japan.

The policy was adopted as an amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, signed into law last month. But it has an expiration date of Sept. 30, which is the end of fiscal 2024, said Kathleen McCarthy, communications director for the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “I will note that we are working on a permanent solution to this issue,” she said. “Anything that’s included in an appropriations bill is only authorized for that fiscal year, so next year the policy would need to be included in the appropriations bill for the following fiscal year and so on.”

The temporary provision is also limited in scope. It does not restore gun rights to veterans appointed fiduciaries prior to March 2024. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and American Legion have expressed support for legislation to end permanently the VA practice of submitting the names of veterans to the FBI’s database.

Patrick Murray, the VFW’s national legislative director, said at a hearing last month of the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs committees that a VA administrator “should not be the person who removes the constitutional right to gun ownership. That is for a judge or magistrate to decide.”

Woke Soros-Funded Oakland DA Pamela Price Will Face Recall Vote After Nearly 80,000 Signed Petition to Oust Her Over Soaring Crime in Dem-Led City

Progressive Oakland District Attorney Pamela Price is set to face a recall after just 15 months, with a mass movement to get rid of her getting enough signatures over the soaring crime rate in the area.

Alameda County DA Price has been under pressure over the soaring levels of crime in the Bay Area city, with a recall effort she has claimed is ‘financed by billionaires’ and based in ‘hatred and racism’ gaining momentum.

Price herself has taken over $1 million from three political action committees funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, according to the Washington Times. Continue reading “”

No Cars For The Working Class

The electric streets of La La Land are full of Teslas, Rivians, Mercedes EQS’ and even pricier offerings from the rare earth mines of China. Here a Tesla Cybertruck, looking like a ramp some sportier vehicle will jump, passes Bentleys, canary yellow Lamborghinis and ice blue McLarens.

In the posher parts of California, from Beverly Hills to the Bay Area, the green revolution has come. The ubiquitous EVs charging in the driveways of seven figure mansions are shadowed by solar panels on the roof and sit side by side with signs declaring, “Hate has no home here.”

Neither does affordability.

The vast majority of electric cars, approaching 1 million, can be found in California. Compare that to the paltry 5,000 EVs in Arkansas or even the under 50,000 in a sizable wealthy blue state like Massachusetts. The entire industry of sleek shiny cars that run on batteries only exists because California taxed other car buyers to subsidize Tesla and its emerging counterparts.

California’s heavy subsidies and mild weather, its wealthy cities and conspicuously virtue signaling elites, made EVs possible, and made it impossible for them to evolve outside its warm leftist ecosystem. The vast majority of Californians (like most Americans) can’t afford, can’t use and won’t drive electric cars, but like so much else, the Newsom elites don’t tend to notice.

Electric car owners in California live in “communities with mostly white and Asian, college-educated and high-income residents” who are mostly “concentrated in Silicon Valley cities and affluent coastal areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties.” That’s why most electric cars are luxury SUVs marketed to very exclusive groups in very exclusive areas.

Outside of these enclaves, there isn’t much of an EV industry and there never will be one. Electric cars are not an emerging product, but a niche one as subsidized toys for the rich.

That’s a problem because the Biden administration, like a lot of Democrat states, is moving to ban cars by 2035. It’s one thing for California’s elites to once again disregard over 90% of the state on the assumption that a one-party system and aggressive ballot harvesting can overcome most obstacles, but the car bans have also extended to Maryland (46,060 EVs with 0.91%), Massachusetts (49,440 EVs and 0.91%), Connecticut (22,030 EVs and 0.75%), Oregon (46,980 EVs and 1.24%) and New York (84,670 EVs and 0.75%) among other blue states.

How do you get from those numbers to total adoption in a little over a decade? You don’t.

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It does make you wonder if the demoncraps aren’t actually invested in gun manufacturers. I mean, they are a duplicitous lot.

Americans Stock Up on Firearms in Response to Biden’s Pushes for Gun Control

American citizens are stocking up on firearms as Democrat President Joe Biden ramps up pressure to strip them of their Second Amendment rights, according to a new report.

A bombshell study from a pro-gun group found that so-called “high-capacity magazines,” often defined by liberals as magazines with more than 10 rounds, are extremely common despite the efforts of Biden to demonize them.

In fact, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) discovered that Americans collectively own 700 million magazines with a greater capacity than 10 rounds, a new report shows.

Biden’s extreme anti-gun rhetoric, especially his comments about the futility of an American militia against a standing army, have not helped calm the nerves of millions of Americans who see gun ownership as the last defense against tyranny.

But Biden has a tall task indeed if he wants to get Americans to forfeit their firearms.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) found that 46 percent of detachable magazines owned by Americans are rifle magazines with a capacity of over 30 rounds.

The findings are a stinging rebuke of Biden’s alarmist gun rhetoric, which often paints “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines as dangerous and unusual “weapons of war.”

In a statement, NSSF Senior Vice President & General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane said:

“The data establishes that law-abiding gun owners overwhelmingly choose magazines that have the capacity to hold more than ten rounds for lawful purposes including self-defense, target shooting, and hunting.”

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Legendary ST. LOUIS CARDINALS MLB manager Whitey Herzog dead at 92

Herzog helped the Cardinals to a World Series in 1982

Baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog, who won a World Series as manager with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982, has died, the team announced Tuesday. He was 92.

Herzog played eight years in the majors before heading into the dugout. He was a manager for the Texas Rangers and California Angels for part of the 1973 and 1974 seasons, respectively, before finding some success with the Kansas City Royals and later the Cardinals.

 

Whitey Herzog in 1989

Manager Whitey Herzog, #24 of the St. Louis Cardinals, looks on from the dugout prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game circa 1989. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

“The entire Cardinals family is heartbroken to learn of the passing of Hall of Famer and World Series champion manager Whitey Herzog at the age of 92,” the Cardinals said in a statement posted to X.

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The Battle For National Park Carry Isn’t Over.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed a law that ended the National Park Service’s ban on guns in parks, monuments, historic parks and every other kind of NPS property. Obama, of course, didn’t want to do it, but because Republicans managed to get national park carry inserted into a “must-pass” bill, Obama was left with little choice but to sign on the line.

This was, of course, a big victory for gun rights. Even if you aren’t visiting a national park, it’s entirely possible to drive through one on the way to somewhere else. For visitors, being able to protect themselves from everything from smugglers and ransom gangs in border parks to drug grow operations elsewhere meant a lot more peace of mind for the family.

Sadly, visitors still face a bit of a minefield. While you can lawfully carry in a national park according to the laws of the state the park is in, “federal facilities” within the parks are still off limits. This basically means any building in which NPS personnel work, so the visitor center, many bathrooms and showers, and even some hotels are off limits. Worse, the National Park Service has stretched the reasonable definition of “building” to include natural structures like the caves at Carlsbad Caverns.

Even worse, the NPS is still going to go after you if you have any reason to use the firearm. According to the NPS website:

Unless authorized, the use or discharge of a firearm within a park area is prohibited. 36 CFR 2.4(b) and 13.30(c). In parks where hunting is specifically mandated or authorized by federal statute, firearms may be used to hunt in accordance with NPS regulations and state laws. 36 CFR 2.2.

Visitors should not consider firearms as protection from wildlife.

So, expect the NPS to jerk you around in court and try to take your freedom away if you need to shoot at animals, whether on two or four legs.

Blatantly Unconstitutional

The good news is that after the 2022 NYSRPA v Bruen decision, the days of these remaining unconstitutional laws and policies are numbered. There’s really no widespread historic example of gun bans on public property from the time of constitutional ratification until the 14th Amendment was adopted. So, there’s no real way to say that visitor centers and caves are a place where guns can be banned. There may be some way to justify banning carry in the actual offices of the Park Service but bans on publicly accessible areas really can’t be justified.

As for the use of firearms in self-defense, parks are likely going to need to defer to state laws on use of force. Things like the reasonable person standard, necessity, and whether one instigated an attack need to come into play instead of a blanket policy that bans all firing of guns, no matter how compelling one’s need for that may be.

But, to make these things happen, the NPS will need to be taken to court. That, of course, is going to require money. So, on top of asking gun rights organizations to take this on, we must also chip in a few bucks to cover the costs. Personally, I’d recommend sending FPC a few bucks, and not only because I’m working with them on another case. But, if you have another organization you think might take it on, be sure to pitch in there, too!

Resident fires shots after waking to ‘unknown suspect’ in Henderson home

A resident fired shots at an “unknown suspect” after they were awoken to the person inside their home on Saturday night, according to the Henderson Police Department.

Henderson police said officers responded to the 10 block of Hassayampa Trail in the Anthem Country Club area at about 9:24 p.m. Saturday in reference to a burglary in progress incident.

Authorities said that the occupant of the residence was awakened to an “unknown suspect” inside the home. Police said the occupant then shot at the suspect, causing the individual to flee the scene.

The suspect was still outstanding as of about 11:52 p.m. Saturday.

Police said the occupant of the home was not injured.

South Carolina Man Planning Suit Against ATF Over Wrongful Arrest

Imagine showing up for work one morning and finding multiple law enforcement agents waiting to put you in handcuffs for a crime you didn’t commit. That’s what happened to Bryan Wilson last December, when a drug task force comprised of officers from West Columbia, South Carolina and the ATF took him into custody in front of his co-workers and employer after accusing him of trafficking guns and drugs.

Wilson protested his innocence to everyone from the cops who arrested him to the judge who formally charged him, but those pleas fell on deaf ears until a federal public defender was assigned to represent him started to dig into his story and realized that Wilson was telling the truth.

It turned out there was one person in the courtroom who believed him — Jenny Smith, his court-appointed federal public defender — and over several hours, she convinced a federal prosecutor to double check the arrest and see if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives didn’t, after all, have the wrong man.

After more investigation that day, the feds realized they had blown it. They made a motion to drop all charges against Wilson. Federal prosecutors apologized. U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs apologized.

Federal Judge Joe Anderson quickly granted a motion to dismiss the charges “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot be brought again.

No one has ever explained how the mixup happened. It apparently was not a case of mistaken identity.

We can add this to the ever-growing list of topics that ATF Director Steve Dettelbach should be grilled on the next time he makes an appearance on Capitol Hill. As the lawsuit details, while Wilson is a gun owner, he’s never dealt drugs or trafficked firearms, despite what police testified during his initial court appearance.

At that hearing, a law officer “falsely told the judge that ATF had been watching Mr. Wilson for 13 months and then listed dates the ATF falsely claimed he sold drugs. The agent also falsely told the judge that the Government had Mr. Wilson on tape committing these crimes,” the lawsuit said.

After the hearing, Wilson continued to tell his lawyer there had been a mistake. The lawyer pressed the issue with federal prosecutors and after several hours, the mistake was acknowledged.

Wilson was freed.

But Wilson has suffered since the events of that day, the lawsuit said.

He has begun having migraines. Rumors have been spread about him among his co-workers. He gets messages on Facebook. Some rumors say he “rolled” on other defendants and worse, the lawsuit said.

“He has stopped going to the gym or doing fight training — his fitness passion. He worries about his teenage daughter learning what happened to him. He also worries for his parents, specifically his mother who continues to feel paranoia and anxiety stemming from the incident and now calls her son while he is at work to check on his well-being,” the lawsuit said.

Wilson hasn’t officially filed suit against the ATF yet, but Christopher Kenney, who’s now serving as Wilson’s attorney, says that’s likely going to come once he’s waited the required six months before he can challenge the agency’s actions under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The ATF should be served with Wilson’s lawsuit at some point in June, and it will probably be July before the DOJ files its response, which might tell us something about how the agency managed to screw up so badly.

Kenney said one of the purposes of the lawsuit is to find out exactly how this happened. Ordinarily, law officials in the federal system take great care in identifying the proper people whose names they bring before a federal grand jury. Prosecutors who work with front line law enforcement officers can ask about the suspects.

“Bryan is misidentified from the very first incident,” Kenney said. “One of the reasons to bring this case is to figure out what happened.”

If Wilson was “misidentified”, as Kenney believes, then who was the ATF surveilling for more than a year? How did Wilson show up on the ATF’s radar when it came time to issue an arrest warrant if he wasn’t the actual subject of the investigation? And what happened to the person the ATF was supposed to arrest if Wilson wasn’t their man? Was the actual suspect ever correctly identified and taken into custody after the snafu with an innocent man?

I’m glad that Wilson isn’t going to let this go with just an apology from the U.S. Attorney’s office, but I’d love to see Congress take an interest in this wrongful arrest as well. Bryan Wilson deserves answers, and with Biden’s DOJ going to bat for the agency the House Oversight Committee needs to Dettelbach to account for the inexplicable failure that happened under his watch.

Californians Arming Up for Self-Defense as Illegals Flood into Cities

Californians are arming up for self-defense as the U.S. Border Patrol carries out street drop-offs of illegal immigrants in and around cities like San Diego.

The New York Post reported that “roughly 125,000 migrants have been released onto the streets in the San Diego area since September,” and many area residents are reacting by purchasing firearms and ammunition for themselves and their families.

Cory Gautereaux owns a gun store, Firearms Unlimited California, in northeast San Diego and he has seen business increase as more and more illegals are let loose on the streets.

Gautereaux said, “The problem for people that live around the gun store is the street dropoffs.”

He added, “That’s driven business to us.”

On October 11, 2023, the Daily Mail noted that the Border Patrol “[released] 13,000 migrants onto San Diego streets in a month due to overflowing shelters.”

The Post pointed out that gun shop customer Keith Carnevale echoed Gautereaux’s observations, “My wife and I have had home defense guns for many years. Recently, though, with all the stuff that’s happening south of the border and all the people coming over, my concerns have broadened.”

Carnevale indicated his whole family is now armed.

California has more gun controls than any state in the Union. Those controls include a ten-day waiting period for gun purchases; this means Californians who fear for their lives and go to a gun store to acquire a firearm for self-defense have to wait ten business days before taking possession of the gun.

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.
—CHARLES A. BEARD

Left-Wing Dark Money Behemoth Behind Bail Fund for ‘Free Palestine’ Bridge Blockers
Community Justice Exchange, part of the Soros-funded Tides Center, solicits legal defense donations for arrested protesters

Scores of “Free Palestine” protesters across the United States took to the streets Monday to block major airports, highways, and bridges. Those who are arrested will receive bail money and legal support from a left-wing dark money behemoth funded by George Soros, an online fundraising page shows.

The protests, which took place in dozens of U.S. cities including San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia, were organized by A15 Action, a newly formed group that worked to “coordinate a multi-city economic blockade on April 15 in solidarity with Palestine.” The group’s website directs users to a “bail and legal defense fund” hosted through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s online fundraising juggernaut.

Those who donate to the fund, the ActBlue page says, are sending money to the Community Justice Exchange, which provides “money bail, court fees and fines” and other legal services to “community-based organizations … that contest the current operation and function of the criminal legal and immigration detention systems.” The exchange is a project of the Tides Center, a left-wing dark money network funded by Soros and other liberal billionaires.

The protesters, who organized the global event under the title A15, targeted economic “choke points” with the express purpose of causing as much financial disruption as possible, according to their website.

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A separate eyewitness video, verified by Reuters and taken in the aftermath of the incident, shows the man being pinned to the ground by several others, his face obscured. A voice speaks in Arabic and says: “If they didn’t insult my prophet, I wouldn’t have come here. If he didn’t involve himself in my religion, I would not have come here.”
Authorities disclosed no motive for the attack and have not identified the suspect.

Australia church stabbing: bishop wounded, 15-year-old arrested

SYDNEY, April 15 (Reuters) – At least four people were wounded, including a bishop with a global online following, in a knife attack during a service at a church in a suburb of Sydney on Monday, police and witnesses said, triggering clashes between angry residents and police.
Police said they arrested a 15-year-old male at the scene and were forced to hold him at the church in Wakeley, a suburb about 30 km (18 miles) west of downtown Sydney, for his own safety after a crowd gathered outside and demanded the attacker be brought out.

It was the second major stabbing attack in just three days after six people were killed in a knife attack at a beachside mall in the Bondi area.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church was speaking during an evening service on Monday when a man walked towards him and lunged with a knife, according to video of the event captured from a livestream on the church’s social media page.

Horrified members of the congregation scream as the man stabs the priest several times in the head and chest, the videos show. A separate eyewitness video, verified by Reuters and taken in the aftermath of the incident, shows the man being pinned to the ground by several others, his face obscured. A voice speaks in Arabic and says: “If they didn’t insult my prophet, I wouldn’t have come here. If he didn’t involve himself in my religion, I would not have come here.”

Authorities disclosed no motive for the attack and have not identified the suspect.

Two witnesses told Reuters the crowd threw rocks at police. More than 100 police officers were ultimately called in to deal with the unrest, and two were taken to hospital with injuries, police said. Reuters saw two men pepper sprayed.

 

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‘People are going to start taking matters into their own hands,’
..(Nahh *rolls eyes*)

Real estate mogul concerned how Americans will deal with squatters: ‘Something really bad is going to happen.’

Real estate mogul Shawn Meaike is concerned how hard-working, well-intentioned Americans will handle squatting issues as they grow more and more desperate.

“People are going to start taking matters into their own hands. That’s what we do when there is lawlessness,” Meaike told Fox News Digital.

“Something really bad is going to happen,” he said. “Am I saying this right thing to do? No, I’m not.”

Squatting, whereby strangers move into the properties of American homeowners and refuse to leave, has quickly become part of the zeitgeist as a series of news-making stories have shocked the nation.

Squatting, whereby strangers move into the properties of American homeowners and refuse to leave, has quickly become part of the zeitgeist as a series of news-making stories have shocked the nation.

Squatters can gain certain legal rights under specific conditions, such as continuous occupation for a defined period, typically ranging from 5 to 20 years, depending on the state. In some states where laws make it difficult for police to intervene, including New York, homeowners and landlords are left with few options to reclaim their property. Many victims are forced to submit to costly and lengthy civil processes.

“They bought a property. They believe in the American dream. They wanted to get ahead. And the American dream became the American nightmare because somebody took what was theirs and the law was on the criminal’s side. It’s a scary place to be,” Meaike said.

Meaike, who went on to build fruitful business in waste management and life insurance after thriving in real estate, said that he began investing rental properties in his early 20s as a way to add additional income. He eventually accumulated hundreds of properties, launching him into a successful career as a serial entrepreneur who has earned generational wealth. But nowadays, when people have the ability to break into a rental property and law enforcement isn’t able to help, it’s much more difficult to rely on an investment property.

“How many amazing Middle American families decided to pull together $40,000, put it as a down payment on two or three family home, and then somebody who doesn’t have any regard for any other human being breaks in and lives there,” Meaike said. “Now, what’s going to start happening?”

He suspects that victims are already starting to get desperate as police offers in liberal-run states aren’t able to help.

“There’s zero doubt that somebody right now is at their wit’s end. They are now not be able to pay the college tuition for their kid, they’re dipping in their retirement. They’re going broke, and they’re getting emotional,” he said.

Meaike, who hosts the “Close & Conquer” podcast, doesn’t want to hear anyone claiming squatters are protected because of adverse possession, either.

“When I got my real estate license, I remember researching that. I remember studying it. That’s not for you to break into homes,” he said, explaining that adverse possession is typically used to resolve minor disputes between neighbors.

“It wasn’t for me to come down to 214 Main Street, kick the door in, break in, break the window, sit in there and go, ‘Haha, screw you, I live here,’” Meakike said.

“I can’t imagine had I bought my properties back then, and people moved in illegally, what that would have done to me financially. And I think there’s a lot of really good people that are getting hurt, they’re getting screwed,” he continued. “And, we’re supposed to be providing and protecting those that are abiding by the law, not those that are violating the law, and we’re doing quite the opposite nowadays.”

Some states have attempted to quell the chaos. Several high-profile stories involving squatters prompted Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign legislation into law that eliminates squatters’ rights and increases penalties against offenders.

Meakike began his journey in Connecticut and is thankful that he now does business in the Sunshine State.

“It’s only going to get worse because people are emboldened to go ahead and take something that’s not theirs,” he said. “I reside in the state of Florida, our laws are different. You can’t do certain things here. Would I buy a property in any of the states that had all these squatters’ rights? Absolutely not. I’m a businessman.”