Senate President Responds To Criticism Of Bill Killed ‘In The Dark’

Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, responded Friday to criticism from the chamber floor about the lack of action on legislation loosely referred to as “the machine gun bill.”

Senate Bill 1071 would have created the state’s Office of Public Defense, to require the West Virginia State Police to sell machine guns to qualified citizens of the state. There was no fiscal note attached to the bill and it stipulated that the state police would have to take on this responsibility with no additional staff. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but never made it to the chamber floor.

Sen. Laura Chapman, R-Ohio, was openly angered.

“It was killed without transparency and without consensus,” Chapman said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “The decision was made in the dark, despite the fact that this bill had overwhelming support by this body. This is exactly why the public doesn’t trust politicians.” 

Smith said in a statement Friday that he alone decided not to take the bill up and said he did so without reservation. He called it a “poorly drafted piece of legislation” that was unlikely to pass the House of Delegates and would face numerous legal challenges if it did.

“With an issue as critical as the protection of our Second Amendment rights, we must ensure the legislation we pass will survive legal challenge. This would not have,” Smith said.

“My record with the NRA (National Rifle Association) and WVCDL (West Virginia Citizens Defense League) is unquestioned, and West Virginians unquestionably trust the judgment of these groups on Second Amendment issues. And, further, I trust them,” he added.

He said the behavior of an out-of-state group behind the bill had been disappointing but welcomed the Gun Owners of America to consider legislation next year – preferably earlier in the session.

Muslim Brotherhood Needs to Be the Next Target After Iran’s Mullahs

  • The Muslim Brotherhood is no less dangerous than the Iranian regime. While banned as a terrorist organization in some Arab countries, it maintains a presence in the Middle East and operates through networks and affiliates in Western countries through various organizations, think tanks and charities that promote its Islamist ideology.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood cannot be eliminated through military action. Fighting this movement involves a multifaceted, long-term approach combining legal designations, financial restrictions, and ideological counter-messaging. Key strategies include designating affiliates as terrorist organizations, dismantling financial networks, and limiting their influence in education and religious institutions.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s regime share a deadly hatred of the West, advocate the destruction of Israel, and seek to undermine Arab and Islamic states that are moderate or pro-Western. Both have supported Hamas (the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) and aim to unify the Muslim world (ummah) under a shared political-religious vision.
  • [Leading Muslim Brotherhood member Sayyid] Qutb saw Islam as a liberation movement requiring active struggle — including violence — to overthrow regimes that obstruct God’s law…. and he advocated violent, offensive jihad.
  • “Osama bin Laden also clearly identified with Qutb’s Islamist ideology. As mentioned earlier, while a student at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden was tutored by Qutb’s brother, Muhammad… Militarily, the al-Qa’ida leadership has adopted Qutb’s understanding of jihad and embraced his overall objective… By appropriating Qutb’s interpretation of the justification for jihad, al-Qa’ida has been able to rationalise war against the United States.”
  • The US government recently designated certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood (specifically in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon) as foreign terrorist organizations, following US President Donald J. Trump’s November 2025 executive order to begin that process. Trump’s order and the subsequent designation were good steps in the right direction, but they are hopelessly insufficient. The entire organization should be banned. There is no reason why the Trump administration should not follow the actions of Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and officially designate the entire Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. It is meaningless to get rid of the Iranian regime while allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to continue serving as an inspiration to Islamist terrorists.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood’s reaction to the US-Israeli attack on the Iranian regime includes an appeal to Muslims to rise against the US and Israel. This call should be treated by the US and the rest of the West as a declaration of war by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood seriously needs to be the next target after the mullahs of Iran.

 

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Suspected burglar was shot by Provo resident

PROVO — A Colorado man who police say entered a random house uninvited was shot by one of the residents and later arrested on Thursday.

Lance Andre Hunter, 41, of Aurora, Colorado, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of burglary, criminal mischief, two counts of theft, vehicle burglary and assault.

Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home in the South Fork Neighborhood of Provo Canyon about 8 p.m. Thursday after Hunter allegedly entered the home uninvited. The home sits on a large piece of property that includes a hangar and a helicopter, according to the sheriff’s office. Hunter is believed to have burglarized the hangar before going to the house.

Once inside the home, Hunter was confronted by the homeowner’s adult son. Hunter began yelling at the people in the home, prompting two women to run into an upstairs bedroom and lock the door, a police booking affidavit states.

After Hunter pushed past the son, he went upstairs and “was attempting to kick in the door to the room they had locked themselves in.” That’s when the son reengaged Hunter, this time armed with a gun, according to the affidavit.

Detectives were told that “the son fired multiple shots at the suspect before the male fled, leaving behind a firearm he had taken from the residents. The suspect was then seen fleeing to a helicopter hangar near the residence,” the affidavit says.

Despite being shot once, police say Hunter stole a vehicle at the hangar that had the keys still inside and tried to leave the area, but was stopped by responding deputies.

“The suspect would not comply with deputies’ commands and had to be wrestled to the ground and handcuffed. The suspect was taken to Utah Valley (Hospital) and treated for his gunshot wound before he was transported and booked into Utah County Jail,” according to the affidavit.

A spokesman with the sheriff’s office says the investigation into Hunter’s activities was still ongoing Friday. Investigators believe another vehicle found in the area was used by Hunter to arrive at the home. Why Hunter chose that home and whether he is responsible for additional burglaries remained under investigation.

The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life liberty and property to free speech a free press freedom of worship and assembly and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote, they depend on the outcome of no elections.
― Robert H. Jackson, associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

California’s Anti-Gun AG Wants to Dictate Law to Rest of Nation

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is a piece of work. We thought Kamala Harris was bad in that role, but the truth is that Harris was always going to be held back by her inability to form actual sentences.

Bonta, though, can. Unfortunately, he uses those actual sentences to repeatedly attack the rights of law-abiding Americans.

His latest target, though, isn’t someone within his own state. He’s going after people who engage in perfectly legal activity elsewhere, all because some Californians break the law.

A lawsuit filed by Calif. Att. Gen. Rob Bonta and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is targeting the Gatalog Foundation Inc. and CTRLPEW LLC.

California claims that Gatalog and CTRLPEW are providing prohibited persons with plans to make “ghost guns” (3D printed firearms without serial numbers).

Matthew Larosiere, who is an attorney in Florida and is loosely connected to hobby gunsmiths via Gatalog, is one of the people California is suing. He explains in this video interview that what they call “Gatalog” is just hobbyists who found each other on the internet. They are not selling guns. They are talking about and toying with concepts for guns digitally.

“If California can regulate access to the instructions,” said Larosiere. “Not just by California, but with this lawsuit, [then] what they’re saying is they want to regulate the entire internet worldwide. That would mean that you’d be cut off at the heels from making a gun at home. And I think most of us can agree that if you have a right to keep and bear something, it necessarily subsumes the right to acquire it.”

When asked about Gatalog, Larosiere explained that it is not a group “like the NRA. There’s no member that has a card; there’s no board of directors; there’s no nothing. It’s kind of just a group of hobbyists associating around an idea. And the idea is home gunsmithing.”

In other words, Bonta wants to shut down access to this information, not just for people in California, but throughout the nation. If we can’t share the information freely, then it might as well not exist from a lawful perspective.

But it should be remembered that files are just computer code, and computer code has long been ruled as a form of speech.

As I wrote about on Wednesday, we don’t stifle access to The Anarchist Cookbook or P.A. Luty’s book on making your own submachine gun with things you can get from Home Depot. Those books contain information every bit as deadly as what one might find in 3D printing files, if not more so, and yet, as books, you cannot lawfully ban them.

Bonta is taking it a step further, though, by attacking everyone who he can who shares this information via the internet.

He’s trying to use his authority as the attorney general of California to dictate to the rest of the nation what it can and cannot do with regard to 3D printing guns.

As it is, California has a long history of trying to dictate to the country what it should and shouldn’t do. They create standards that industries are obliged to follow, even if the rest of us want nothing to do with them, and we’ve accepted it because the companies are the ones making the decision to use those standards throughout the nation.

We don’t want it, but it’s easier for them.

This is different. This is them attacking our rights because they don’t want the American people to be able to do something they’ve already forbidden the small percentage of the population living there from doing.

If ever there were an example of statehood being a mistake…

All presidents but Jefferson have argued that their first job was to keep us safe. All presidents but Jefferson were wrong. If you read the Constitution, you will see that the President’s first job – as Jefferson understood well – is to keep us free.
-Judge Andrew Napolitano

EPIC FURY: Trump’s Play to Starve the Dragon?

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Beijing “told the country’s top oil refiners to suspend exports of diesel and gasoline” as Operation Epic Fury continues disrupting oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. “China’s curbs just six days into a war reflect a scramble across Asia to prioritize domestic needs as the crisis in the Middle East deepens.”

China imports “about 11 million barrels of crude per day,” my Townhall colleague Walter Curt added on X this morning, “with roughly 40-45% of that flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.”

And yes, while China is a net importer of oil and natural gas — and yugely so — the Communist nation exports refined products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and marine bunker fuel, largely to Southeast Asian, South Pacific, and African nations.

But not as of today.

“Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner,” Bloomberg [paywalled link] continued, “called for a temporary suspension of refined product shipments that would begin immediately.”

It isn’t just China, either, according to the same report: “With virtually no oil or fuel making its way out of the Persian Gulf since US and Israeli attacks began at the weekend, refiners from Japan to Indonesia and India have begun cutting back run rates and suspending exports.”

I had a brief item about this earlier today on Instapundit, but the news kept nagging at me because it’s worth a deeper look — and, as it turns out, the petroleum exports angle might be the least interesting part.

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Missouri Amendment Proposal Seeks to Recognize Personhood for the Unborn.

Pro-lifers in the state of Missouri will once again try to pass a constitutional amendment recognizing the personhood of pre-born children in an effort to undo a 2024 measure that codified the erroneous “right” to abortion in state law. Essentially, that measure violates God’s law and everything modern science has taught us about life beginning at the moment of conception. Simply put, it has got to go if Missouri is going to consider itself a “civilized” society.

If this fails, Missouri residents will have the blood of the pre-born shed on the altar of convenience on their hands. In November 2024, those same residents approved an amendment that established a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which applies to “all matters relating to (so-called) reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, (so-called) abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.”

The measure also prevents the state legislature from placing a permanent ban on abortion until “fetal viability,” and after “viability” if the abortion doctor says murdering the child is necessary to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.” If this doesn’t convince you that demonic forces clearly drive the culture of death that permeates our society, I don’t know what will.

Previously, Missouri had a law on the books that imposed a near-total ban on abortion, allowing the ghoulish practice only when it is medically necessary to save the mother’s life or prevent “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” The 2024 measure invalidated that law.

Republican State Sen. Mike Moon reintroduced the proposal and asked voters to consider it during the fall election season. The amendment states that the “term ‘person’ under this constitution includes every human being with a unique DNA code regardless of age, including every in utero human child at every stage of biological development from the moment of conception until birth” and that “nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”

“Some are saying that we are doing our best to save the children, especially the pre-born children, but I ask you this question: ‘how can we make that claim if we haven’t taken all the steps we can possibly take to make that happen?’” Moon said, adding, “Will this committee determine that we’ve already done as much as we can do? Or will you endeavor to do even more?”

While the new amendment will eliminate the current pro-abortion amendment, it would not place a new abortion ban into effect. However, by giving pre-born babies the status of “person,” the amendment could potentially lead courts or lawmakers to treat it that way.

“It could also go further than another proposed amendment that officials have already cleared to appear on the ballot, which would ban abortion except for rape and incest in the first trimester or for ‘medical emergencies’ throughout pregnancy, along with banning taxpayer funding for abortion or youth gender ‘transitions,’” LifeSite News reported.

As it currently stands, twelve states ban all or most abortions. However, the sick and twisted pro-abortion crowd works overtime to preserve access to the barbaric practice, especially through the abortion pill and by allowing people to travel across state lines to obtain one.

Later this year, Virginia voters will also cast ballots on a pro-abortion constitutional amendment, while Nebraska lawmakers still have a potential pro-life amendment pending.

Gun Rights Turncoat John Cornyn Can’t Seal the Deal in the Texas GOP Senate Primary.

In Tuesday’s primary in Texas, Republican voters delivered a stinging slap to long-time incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn.  Despite drowning in establishment cash, wielding decades of name recognition, and boasting endorsements from the old guard, Cornyn couldn’t seal the deal in the three-way race.

He finished with barely over 40% of the vote, just ahead of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Meanwhile Rep. Wesley Hunt came in a distant third. No outright winner, but the message was clear: Cornyn’s Senate throne, thought to be untouchable, is perilously close to being lost. A May 26 runoff with Paxton now looms as quite possibly his political funeral.

Texas Republican primary results
NBC News

What hurt him most? In addition to his GOPe reputation, his stance on guns has been his Achilles heel. Cornyn’s unforgivable 2022 betrayal of gun owners was top of mind for Texas GOP voters. After Uvalde, he threw in with prominent gun-hater Chris Murphy to co-author the disastrous Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

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Virginia House Passes Amended Version of Senate’s ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

Virginia Democrats continue to advance a number of gun control bills, with the House of Delegates approving an amended version of the Senate’s ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines on Wednesday.

The major change to the legislation is the new definition of “large capacity” magazines, which is now arbitrarily set at 15 rounds instead of 10. The House version of the gun and magazine ban was also modified in a Senate committee on Wednesday, and it looks to me like the two bills are now compatible with each other, which would avoid the need for a conference committee to negotiate on the final language for the bills once they’ve been approved by both chambers.

The Senate’s vote on HB 217 could come as early as today, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger could conceivably sign the bill into law next week. Interestingly, Spanberger has yet to sign any of the gun control bills that have passed out of the General Assembly, including a gun storage mandate and an expansion of the state’s “red flag” law.

With the legislature set to adjourn on March 14, my guess is that Spanberger will wait until the Democrats entire anti-2A package is ready for her to sign, and then she’ll make a big press event complete with representatives from all the major gun control organizations. So what else is likely to pass between now and next Saturday?

Based on the Virginia Citizens Defense League’s legislation tracker, I think we can expect the following infringements to be enacted into law:

– legislation allowing gun makers, distributors, and sellers to be sued for the actions of criminals under a public nuisance standard and for violating a vague “code of conduct” imposed on the industry.

– a ban on the possession and manufacture of unserialized firearms

– a $500 penalty and the towing of any vehicle where a firearm is left visible inside

– an end to Virginia’s universal reciprocity for concealed carry licenses and a much more restrictive standard put in place by the anti-gun Attorney General

– the creation of the Virginia Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention, which will serve as a job placement program for the gun control lobby as well as creating and pushing junk research aimed at promoting gun control efforts.

– turning all state-owned or leased buildings into “gun-free zones”

– a firearm “give back” program allowing people to turn their firearms over to the state police

– a ban on openly carrying most long guns in places open to the public

– creating a new “gun free zone” starting 100 feet outside of any polling place or outside a building where a local electoral board is meeting

– new requirements for mandated concealed carry training courses, including instructor certification by the Department of Criminal Justice Services

Some items, like a proposed “permit-to-purchase,” an 11% excise tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition, and a $500 tax on the sale of suppressors, have been pushed back until 2027, but Democrats haven’t entirely given up on those ideas.

Earlier today I noted the effect that these gun control bills are having on Virginia gun sales, but they’re also having an impact on local politics. On Wednesday the Virginia Citizens Defense League provided an update on the resurgence of the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement in the Commonwealth, and reported there are now 48 localities and sheriffs that have reaffirmed their stances. I’m happy to say that includes my home county. The full list can be found here, and VCDL has also provided links to comments made by some sheriffs, like this from Campbell County Sheriff Whit Clark.

Considering the proposed Virginia Firearms legislation, the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office reaffirms its unwavering support for the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office will not infringe upon the constitutional rights of citizens to legally possess obtained firearms, magazines, ammunition, or related equipment.

It is the heritage of citizens of Campbell County to bear arms for hunting and sport and to have for their protection for the use for self-defense. The residents of Campbell County are responsible gun owners who value safety, liberty and the rule of law.

As your Sheriff, I remain committed to ensuring public safety while steadfastly defending your constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Our office will continue to serve this community with integrity, respect and dedication.

I’d like to see every sheriff in the Commonwealth go on the record as Clark has, and I encourage Virginia gun owners to reach out to their county supervisors and sheriffs and encourage them to take a public stand in support of our Second Amendment rights and against the flagrant attack on those rights by the Democrat majority in Richmond. We aren’t going to be able to defeat many of these infringements at the statehouse, but we can and will fight them in court… and we can also press our local law enforcement to exercise their discretion not to enforce any laws that trample on our civil liberties.