Denominations and their firearms
The Constitution’s Red-Headed Stepchild — The Second Amendment.
Recently, thanks to the invaluable Instapundit, I read an article from Shooting News Weekly (which I have since supplemented with other research and reading), that describes what happened when a 22-year-old off-duty soldier, traveling in a Honda SUV in Washington, DC, was stopped by U.S. Park Police due to an expired license tag. The soldier, Jakob Noonan, is from Oklahoma and was only in DC because he has been mobilized as part of the National Guard safety task force sent to help protect DC and its residents. And his story illustrates all too well the hostility that some of our overseers harbor against those who desire to exercise our Constitutional right to protect ourselves in these somewhat dangerous time
When the police stopped his vehicle, they spotted an empty pistol holster in the SUV and asked Noonan if he had a firearm in the vehicle. The young guardsman confirmed there was a firearm in the vehicle and that it was registered to him in his home state of Oklahoma, which is an open-carry state. But because he did not have a District of Columbia concealed-carry permit, the police decided to arrest and charge him under DC Code § 22-4504 for carrying a firearm without a license.
DC’s penalties for a violation of § 22-4504 are draconian. A conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $12,500 fine (for first-time offenders), and forfeiture of his firearm to DC. The SUV in which the young guardsman was riding is also subject to seizure and forfeiture to the DC government. And a conviction would automatically trigger federal law, 18 U.S. Code § 922(g)(1), which would make it unlawful for him to possess any firearm in any state, even in Oklahoma which issued his carry permit. Such a penalty would not require a separate court proceeding. It becomes automatic upon a conviction by the DC court. And a subsequent prosecution for violating § 922 carries with it fines of up to $250,000 and a fifteen- year prison sentence.
All of that is quite a load of “justice” for a young National Guardsman, who was busted by the Park Police for honestly answering their question that he was in possession of a handgun, as authorized by his home state of record.
Riots in France — a Warning for America.
The riots in France look like the Summer of 2020. The Yellow Vests have now joined the student protests and have created what appears to be an outright revolution.
Here is an ongoing livestream:
They’re masked, they’re emboldened, and no one seems able to stop them. Another livestream:
The footage might as well have been from the city of Minneapolis or Portland in 2020, and there isn’t even a high-profile murder pushing them onto the streets. This is just public unrest, a real uprising and/or revolution.
According to Grok, the Yellow Vests aren’t left or right, but rather anti-elite, wanting more taxes on the wealthy, though not explicitly anti-immigrant.
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.
— Thomas Jefferson
October 18, 2026
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson’s expansion on the Latin axiom:
ACTA NON VERBA (Deeds, not words)
October 17, 2026
The armed bystander credited by law enforcement with stopping a deadly mass shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, has been identified as Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old local carpenter and father of two students at the school.
Giamanco’s identity was confirmed Friday by his brother, Kyle Giamanco, shedding light on the critical civilian intervention that halted 16-year-old gunman John J. Griffin II before responding police units breached the school’s doors.
The Thursday afternoon attack claimed the lives of four victims—three children ages 5, 8, and 11, and a teacher—while leaving two others critically injured. According to family members and law enforcement reports, Giamanco’s decision to pursue the shooter inside prevented a catastrophic situation from claiming further lives.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, works as a carpenter in the Bend community and is the father of two young daughters who attend Silver Rail Elementary.
Contrary to initial rumors circulating online that Giamanco was on campus to pick up his daughters, his brother explained that Giamanco was simply driving home from work for his lunch break just before 1:00 p.m..
As he drove near the school, Giamanco heard gunshots echoing from the street—where Griffin had fired multiple rounds into a passing pickup truck—and saw the armed teenager breaching the perimeter and entering the elementary building.Holding a valid concealed-carry permit, Giamanco armed himself and ran toward the campus without waiting for law enforcement to arrive.
The Classroom Confrontation
According to Kyle Giamanco, his brother tracked the gunman down the hallway into a special education classroom, where Griffin had begun firing:
- Targeting the Room: The fact that the attack unfolded inside a special education setting explains why the victims spanned multiple age groups, as these classrooms often accommodate mixed grade levels.
- Neutralizing the Threat: Giamanco confronted the armed teenager inside the room and fatally shot him, ending the assault within minutes of Griffin forcing entry through locked exterior glass doors.
- Police Arrival: When the first Bend police officers arrived at 1:02 p.m.—three minutes after the initial 911 call from the motorist outside—dispatchers informed responding units that the shooter had already been neutralized by a father inside the facility.
Griffin, who was armed with a pump-action shotgun purchased by his mother around his 16th birthday in August, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Casualties and the Hospitalized
While Giamanco’s actions ended the rampage, the toll on the school community remains devastating:
- Fatalities: Among the deceased children is 5-year-old kindergartener Rhoam Summer, whose family confirmed his passing in a statement on Friday. Two other students, ages 8 and 11, and an adult teacher were also killed.
- Critically Wounded: Two victims remain in critical condition at St. Charles Medical Center: a 54-year-old teacher and a 7-year-old student. Kyle Giamanco noted that his family is close with the family of the injured 7-year-old, a child in a wheelchair who was shot in the face and is currently recovering following emergency surgery.
“He Doesn’t Feel Like a Hero”
Despite praise from state officials, lawmakers, and community members, Giamanco has declined public interviews. His brother told reporters that Kaylub is struggling with the aftermath of what he witnessed.
“He doesn’t feel like a hero,” Kyle Giamanco said of his brother. “He can’t get the children out of his head and feels guilty he didn’t save more people”.
Investigators from the Bend Police Department, Oregon State Police, and the FBI remain on scene at Silver Rail Elementary, conducting ballistics reconstructions and interviewing witnesses to establish the full timeline of the incident. All schools across the Bend-La Pine School District remained closed on Friday as the city held community vigils.
Top tier geopolitical troll
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) October 15, 2026
It’s so nice when they provide such positive identification for future use
Rory Little Recurring Columnist
The Second Amendment and AR-15s: an unexplained betrayal of originalism?
Last month, I provided a short discussion of the upcoming AR-15 rifle ban case, Viramontes v. Cook County, noting that the 2008 pathbreaking Second Amendment decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, ended by adding a “Part III” that identified “an important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms.” For a 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that “the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time (emphasis added).’” Scalia said that this limitation is “fairly supported by … historical tradition” and he provided a lengthy string of citations to demonstrate that proposition.
The Supreme Court has never examined the meaning of the “in common use at the time of the founding” limitation that the Heller majority described and said was supported by history. Instead, as detailed below, federal courts have silently transformed the Second Amendment test to extend it to weapons “in common use today.” Under this transformed test, AR-15 semi-automatic rifles might be protected although its advocates explain that they are a 20th century technological development. Yet if Scalia’s words are given their plain meaning, local governments would seem to have authority to enact bans on such weapons.
Given the consequences of which language applies, I continue to wonder why this is not a centerpiece of the Viramontes debate. (That said, Cook County’s responsive brief on the merits has not yet been filed – it’s due Oct. 21.) Indeed, a week after my column, Professor Jonathan Turley published a short column responding to this point, and calling Scalia’s limitation an “errant qualifier.”
How to Use Cover, Tactics for Self-Defense
Cover is a gift from the heavens if someone tries to kill you with a long-range, portable hole puncher. Cover projects a literal blanket of security that sits between you and certain death. I guarantee anyone reading this owns a gun for self-protection and likely carries the gun for self-defense purposes. If you carry a weapon and intend to defend your life and the life of your family, then you need to know how to use that bulletproof heavenly gift.
“When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.” is once more proven true.
First 30 Seconds: The Active Shooter Problem
by Ed Monk
“Ed Monk is today’s leading expert on thwarting mass murderers. His recommended strategy is by far the most effective, as proven in cases where the defenders did what Monk suggested.” — Massad Ayoob
The basic tenet of Mr Monk’s solution is simple;
“Fighting back quickly gives the best chance of a low victim-count. Fighting back without a gun has often worked. Fighting back with a gun has almost always worked.”
Very bad, but it could have been worse.
Bend, Oregon elementary school shooting: 3 children, 1 teacher killed; teen suspect dead
Three children and one teacher are dead after a shooter forced his way into an elementary school in Oregon on Thursday afternoon and opened fire, authorities said.
The suspected shooter, a 16-year-old, was fatally shot by a community member who saw the teen going into the Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters at a news conference Thursday evening.
The three children who were killed were 5, 8 and 11 years old.
In addition, a 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to the hospital with critical injuries, police said.
Police have not publicly identified the suspected shooter saying only that he is a Bend resident. They have not said whether he attended the school or knew anyone at the school.
How the shooting unfolded
The incident began unfolding shortly before 1 p.m. PT Thursday.
At 12:59 p.m., police received a call from a driver who reported being shot at multiple times by a person with a long gun, the police chief said.
Shortly afterward, the Deschutes County dispatch center began receiving multiple 911 calls that a shooter had entered Silver Rail Elementary School.
Krantz said the initial investigation indicates the shooter “forced” his way inside the school by shooting at locked doors.
At 1:01 p.m., the school was directed to go into lockdown, Krantz said.
A minute later, officers arrived on the scene. An officer reported that the suspected shooter had been shot by a community member who had seen the teen entering the school, pursued him and engaged him, Krantz said.
Bystander ‘heroically intervened,’ governor says
“Love has no age, no limit; and no death.”
—John Galsworthy
October 16, 2026