Category: Self Defense

An America Without Gun Rights Would Look Like Mexico, Not Australia

Every mass shooting inevitably leads those on the left to call for a ban on “assault weapons,” and this time is no different. Thus begins the barrage of calls for “sensible gun laws” on social media, from network pundits, and via Vice President Kamala Harris herself, using Australia or New Zealand as the models. These unarmed countries, they tell us, prove you can strip citizens of their ability to own firearms and live in a nonviolent utopia. Is that the likely outcome of such a ban in America?

Thought experiment, leaving aside the issue of a right enshrined in the Constitution: If Americans allow their firearms to be outlawed and then confiscated, would we in fact, become like Australia or New Zealand?

If we gave up AR-15s and then a mass shooting took place where a semi-automatic handgun was used, opponents of gun rights would take those too — the same with a shooter with a hunting rifle, then a shooter with a shotgun, and on and on. We know where this leads. It can’t end with “military style” firearms. A confiscation of AR-15s would eventually lead to a complete ban on almost every gun. How long would that take? Five years, 10 years? It wouldn’t take very long once the ball is rolling and mass shooters move to handguns and shotguns, which would quickly be banned as the public’s demand for “safety” would be too much for politicians to stand against.

Cut to a Republican senator being interviewed on CNN the day after a mass shooting where a 9mm handgun was used: Senator, just a few months ago you voted to ban AR-15s because scores of children were killed in a school shooting. Today, with more dead children, you won’t support the banning of semi-automatic handguns? How can you tell those parents why the shooter was able to legally obtain a Glock 19 that, like the AR-15s that you voted to ban, allowed the shooter to fire many rounds and reload in a matter of seconds? What’s the difference, senator? Do those dead children think it was better to be shot by a handgun rather than a long gun? Senator?

That lawmaker would crumble, and so would others. What would we be left with? A technical right to keep and bear arms that practically renders that right meaningless.

How do we know this? We know this because we have seen this before in Mexico.

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FLPD investigating home invasion; 1 suspect shot, 1 still at large

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Fort Lauderdale Police are investigating following reports that multiple suspects forcibly entered a home and physically assaulted a man inside.

According to authorities, the incident occurred just before 12:30 p.m. at the Progreso Point Apartments, located at 619 North Andrews Avenue.

Police said once the unknown suspects entered the home, in an act of self-defense, the victim managed to retrieve a firearm and shoot one of the intruders.

Before the police could arrive at the scene, the suspects fled the area in an unknown vehicle. The victim sustained serious injuries during the attack and was transported to Broward Health Medical Center.

Shortly after, the injured suspect, along with another suspect, arrived at BHMC for medical treatment, with the latter driving the vehicle.

FLPD officers on-site took both suspects into custody. The injured suspect is currently receiving treatment for serious injuries.

However, one suspect remains at large, and police are actively working to locate and apprehend them.

Police said the incident was isolated and not related to an active shooter situation at any point.

One Dead After Pre-Teens Allegedly Attempted To Carjack Off-Duty Cop Waiting For Shift In DC

A 12-year-old child was arrested and charged in connection with an attempted carjacking that led to the death of a 13-year-old boy.

The incident took place around 10 p.m. last Saturday in the 600 block of D Street, NW, according to the news release by Metropolitan Police in Washington, D.C. The young perpetrators, aged 12 and 13, came face to face with an off-duty federal security officer, per Fox News. As the unsuspecting security officer awaited the start of his shift from his vehicle, the pair approached him with alleged ill intentions.

 

The duo demanded that he exit his car. The situation escalated immediately, as one of the assailants placed his hand within his front waistband pocket, simulating the presence of a firearm. Fearing for his safety, the security officer decided to step out of his vehicle.

The officer then drew his weapon to defend himself. The shots that followed wounded the 13-year-old Vernard Toney, Jr. was critically injured. The teen was rushed to a nearby hospital, but despite all efforts, he died, the outlet further added.

The other suspect fled from the scene. However, law enforcement officers caught him with the help of security cameras. Surveillance footage was released by the police department, which played a pivotal part in tracking down the 12-year-old suspect. The alleged pre-teen carjacker was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday.

Coffee County homeowner shoots lone intruder, suspect in custody

MANCHESTER, Tenn. (WSMV) – The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a home invasion in the Beechgrove area Monday morning.

The sheriff’s office said the lone intruder was shot by the homeowner during the home invasion, and the suspect is in custody. Initially, the CCSO said it was possible there were other suspects but have since clarified the one suspect is responsible for the home invasion.

The intruder remains at a local hospital. At last check, he was about to go into surgery.

The CCSO warned residents to be cautious Monday morning. The investigation remains ongoing.

Well, if the goobermint would have secured the border…….

‘A Time for Vigilance’: FBI Dir. Christopher Wray Warns of Heightened Threats to the Homeland

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday morning. The hearing was titled “Threats to the Homeland.”

In conjunction with his appearance, Wray submitted a 15-page statement covering the following topics:

  • Key Threats and Challenges
  • National Security
    • Terrorism Threats
    • Cyber
    • Foreign Intelligence Threats
    • National Counterintelligence Task Force
    • Transnational Repression and Other Counterintelligence Threats
  • Criminal Threats
    • Violent Crime
    • Transnational Organized Crime
    • Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking
  • Reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

But it was Wray’s testimony regarding the heightened risk of attacks here in the U.S. that really caught the attention. This exchange between Wray and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) highlights the danger of the times.

WRAY: What has now increased is the greater possibility of one of these foreign terrorist organizations directing an attack in the United States. We haven’t seen evidence that it’s actually happening yet, but what we have seen is — and I listed them off in my opening remarks — one terrorist organization after another calling for attacks.

SCOTT: We should wake up.

WRAY: It is a time to be concerned. We are in a dangerous period.

SCOTT: So, is the FBI able to track all threats and prevent these individuals from conducting an attack on U.S. soil?

WRAY: I couldn’t say that we’re able to detect all individuals. The people that we know about — as Secretary Rumsfeld used to say, ‘the known-known’ — we’re quite good at, together with our partners. But it is the unknown-unknown that I worry about quite a bit.

SCOTT: So, Director Wray, can you say that we do not have either individual foreign terrorists or terror cells affiliated with foreign groups currently operating in the United States?

WRAY: Well, we’re not — we’re not tracking that, but again, I come back to what it is: The gaps in our intelligence are real, and it’s something that we have concerns about.

SCOTT: So, Director Wray, so…what would you say right now to the American public — because, like, in my state, I’ve got a significant Jewish population. They’re scared to go to synagogue, Chabad. They’re scared to send their kids to day schools. So — but it’s not just them. It’s other individuals, like my daughters called me and said: Should they be sending their kids to school? What would you tell Americans right now about the threat today as compared to before?

WRAY: This is not a time for panic, but it is a time for vigilance. We shouldn’t stop conducting our daily lives, going to schools, houses of worship, and so forth. But we should be vigilant. You often hear the expression “If you see something, say something.”  That’s never been more true than now. And that’s probably partly why the American people are reporting more tips and leads to us and we’re pursuing those threats and leads as vigorously and responsibly as we can.

Wray acknowledged the very real threat of terrorist groups like Hamas conducting attacks on U.S. soil.

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California Democrats Disarm Synagogues

Here’s a story I missed from September that takes on an even more sinister cast in retrospect.

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced the filing of a new Second Amendment lawsuit challenging multiple parts of California SB2, which unilaterally declares numerous locations as “sensitive places” where California will now ban the carry of firearms by licensed, law-abiding Californians. The complaint in Carralero v. Bonta can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“SB2 restricts where persons with licenses to carry a concealed weapon may legally exercise their constitutional right to wear, carry, or transport firearms. And it does so in ways that are fundamentally inconsistent with the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen,” argues the complaint. “The Second Amendment does not tolerate these restrictions. This Court should enter judgment enjoining their enforcement and declaring them unconstitutional.”

“With Gov. Newsom’s signing of SB2 today, California continues to exhibit its disdain for the rights of Californians, the U.S. Constitution, and the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision,” said Cody J. Wisniewski, FPC Action Foundation’s General Counsel and Vice President of Legal, and FPC’s counsel. “Unfortunately for California, and contrary to Governor Newsom’s misguided statements, the state does not have the power to unilaterally overrule individual rights and constitutional protections. Fortunately, courts across the nation have already struck down laws just like SB2, and we expect the same result here.”

FPC is joined in this lawsuit by three individuals, Orange County Gun Owners, San Diego County Gun Owners, and California Gun Rights Foundation.

If Democrats actually revered the Supreme Court as much as they claim to, Bruen would have ended their attempts to pass Second Amendment infringing legislation. But the goal of disarming the civilian population is only slightly less sacred a Democratic Party cause than taxpayer-funded abortions. So they soldier on trying to thwart the Constitution.

Here is the relevant text of SB2.

This bill would remove those exemptions, except as specified. The bill would make it a crime to bring an unloaded firearm into, or upon the grounds of, any residence of the Governor, any other constitutional officer, or Member of the Legislature. The bill would also prohibit a licensee from carrying a firearm to specified locations, including, among other places, a building designated for a court proceeding and a place of worship, as defined, with specific exceptions. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Well, it’s not like any particular houses of worship are under particular threats from particular terrorist organizations, now is it?

Just four years ago on the last day of Passover, a man armed with a rifle burst into a synagogue in Poway, near San Diego, fatally shot one woman and injured three other congregants, including the synagogue’s rabbi.

A year before, an even more horrific attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue left 11 dead.

In the aftermath of the attack on Israel, many American Jews are arming themselves. But in California, not only will Jews and worshippers in other faiths be banned from protecting themselves in their houses of worship, but would-be killers will know that potential victims in “sensitive” areas will be unarmed.

Everywhere in the west, the radical left is protesting to support Hamas, despite (or perhaps because) of the latter’s calls to completely destroy the Jews. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom and California Democrats are disarming law-abiding Jewish American citizens in their synagogues.

What are the odds?

The Bloody Failed Experiment of Gun-Free “Death” Zones

After watching senseless killings in Gun Free Zones time and time again, logical-thinking people start to consider the fact that deaths occur in these locations because people can’t defend themselves when under attack. Mainstream media, in coordination with the Democrat party, is highly tuned in to this awareness and works effortlessly to counteract that thought process through an endless stream of propaganda, rhetoric, and gun-blaming.

They know that logical-thinking people are aware of their anti-gun fear campaign. Still, they also know that there is a good portion of Americans who can be easily manipulated into believing the anti-gun lies.

We wonder how, if they know that they are putting good people in danger with their false narrative, Gun Free Zones, and dangerous gun restrictions, they can continue this experiment in unnecessary loss of human life?

The biggest culprit of unnecessary and preventable death is the Gun Free Zone. It is also becoming quite apparent that the Gun Free Zone is a valuable tool for gun restrictions. At a certain point, the gun-grabbers start to look foolish for continuing dangerous policies with no remorse, but the Gun Free Zone brings with it death, and an excuse to blame guns for human violence. This is the main driver for gun-restriction support.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself why it is that left-wing media and politicians will start blaming firearms, with total disregard to the suffering families and loss of life before the victims are even removed from the scene.

There are several reasons for this immoral behavior, including the fact that a good portion of our Country values politics over morality.

This could be a result of the demonization of Judaism and Christian values in our society. It could also be the fact that there is a concerted effort to teach people to devalue human life if it doesn’t benefit them.

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Philly store worker shoots, kills robber stuffing pockets with cash,

A worker in a corner store shot and killed an armed robber late Wednesday night, Philadelphia police said.

The robber had cash stuffed in one of his pockets when police officers arrived to the Happy Day Food Market at South 58th Street and Whitby Avenue in the Kingsessing neighborhood just after 10:30 p.m., Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

The man — believed to be in his late 20s — was found on the floor behind the counter bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and torso, Small said.

Medics pronounced the man dead on the scene minutes later.

The man had entered the store partially masked and holding a gun.

“He pointed it at one of the employees, then went behind the counter and point-of-gun started taking money from the cash register,” Small said.

“That’s when the store employee who was also behind the counter pulled his weapon and fired several shots.”

You could “clearly see that at least one of the 28-year-old’s pockets is stuffed with money,” Small said. Investigators believe that cash and other money seen on the ground was stolen from the cash register by the gunshot victim.

“Preliminary information it appears to be self-defense,” since the robber was armed with a gun, Small said.

Investigators recovered the guns of both the dead robber and store worker, Small said.

The store worker remained on the scene and cooperated with investigators, police said. Others also cooperated with the investigation.

Police looked over interior store surveillance cameras to corroborate witness testimonies, investigators said.

The store had been robbed in the past, Small said.

Georgia Lieutenant Gov Wants To Pay Teachers $10,000 Annually To Carry Guns On Campuses

Georgia Republican Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would annually pay school teachers $10,000 to carry a gun at school in an effort to increase safety on campuses.

“One of the most critical duties we have as public servants is to protect those who are most vulnerable – including all of Georgia’s children,” Jones said in a news release.

Jones said the legislation would use state funding to ensure Georgia’s school systems and teachers have the option to receive proper firearms training and certification. The plan also calls for stricter guidelines for existing school safety plans and to distribute more money to schools that hire school resource officers with police certification, The Associated Press reported.

“We feel like this is the best way to prepare faculty, but also prepare law enforcement and the system however we can,” Jones reportedly said at Austin Road Elementary School in Winder on Wednesday, adding the state should take more “proactive” measures to prevent school shootings.

Republican State Sens Max Burns and Clint Dixon joined the Lt. Gov. in crafting the 2024 legislative priority to increase school safety, contending that protecting children and their classrooms is their first responsibility.

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Livermore gun store owner fatally shoots suspect during attempted robbery

LIVERMORE, Calif. – A Livermore gun shop owner fatally shot a suspect armed with a hammer during an attempted robbery, police said.

The incident happened at East Bay Firearms, located at 4049 First Street, on Sunday around 2:30 p.m, according to the Livermore Police Department.

Alameda store clerk arrested in deadly shooting of alleged thief
The suspect, wearing a mask, gloves, and a hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head, entered the store acting suspiciously, said police.

Witnesses reported that the suspect, armed with a hammer, attempted to take a firearm. In response, the gun store owner fired two rounds, killing the man.

Authorities have identified the suspect as a 28-year-old man from Redwood City, but have not released his name.

The gun store owner is cooperating with the investigation, and police do not consider him a suspect, as it appears he acted in self-defense, officials said.

At the time of the attempted robbery, there were five customers inside the store. None of them was injured.

 

Armed man scares off North Carolina supermarket shooter

A gunman was chased away by an armed bystander after he opened fire outside a supermarket in North Carolina, police said.

Mirza Zukanovic, 35, is accused of shooting at two people Saturday night following a domestic dispute at the Lowes Foods parking lot in Wake Forest Crossing, WRAL News reports.

As Zukanovic fired at the duo, a bystander who has a license to carry a weapon drew his own pistol and fired at the gunman.

Zukanovic then fled, but was impaired while driving and crashed his car just minutes later along nearby Stadium Drive.

Zukanovic was taken into custody without further incident and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, discharging a firearm in the city limits, driving while impaired, no operator’s license, failure to wear a seatbelt and failure to maintain lane control.

No one was injured in the shootout, and no property was reported damaged, Wake Forest police said.

Zukanovic was booked at the Wake County Detention Center and is being held without bail.

A representative for Zukanovic was not immediately available for comment.

Mirza Zukanovic, 35, is accused of shooting at two people at a Lowes Foods parking lot.
Mirza Zukanovic, 35, is accused of shooting at two people at a Lowes Foods parking lot.
Wake Forest Police Department
The shooting at the supermarket was caused by a domestic dispute between Zukanovic and two others.
Although rare, armed bystanders have been credited with taking down dangerous armed criminals in the past.

Last month, a customer at the Zaxby’s restaurant in Alpharetta, Georgia, shot a 57-year-old gunman attempting to rob the establishment.

The local hero, who was not publicly identified, shot the would-be robber in the leg, twice, leading the suspect to flee into the woods, where he was arrested by police.

Concealed Carry Holder Attacked by Pro-Palestinian Protestors Won’t Face Charges For Firing Shot

A rally to support Israel in Skokie, Illinois over the weekend turned chaotic and violent when about 200 pro-Palestinian protestors showed up outside the banquet hall where the rally was taking place.

Though police were on hand to keep the two sides apart, at one point a smaller group of protestors broke away from the crowd, with one of them apparently yanking an Israeli flag off of a motorist’s car. When the man got out of the car to get his flag back, he was quickly surrounded by the mob, and ended up firing a shot into the air to get them to back away.

The man was quickly taken into custody by Lincolnwood police, but was released on Monday after Cook County prosecutors determined the man was acting in self-defense.

The 39-year-old man, who prosecutors declined to name, was released from police custody. In a statement issued Monday, prosecutors said the man, a Firearm Owner Identification Card and Concealed Carry License holder, had “no criminal history.”

“After reviewing the evidence, which includes surveillance video and witness statements, we have determined the individual … acted in self-defense upon being surrounded by a crowd and attacked by some of those individuals,” according to the statement.…

Hatem Abuddayeh, the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said the state’s attorney’s office was “absolutely wrong” in releasing the man, who he said “endangered hundreds.”

He blamed America’s political leaders, specifically President Joe Biden and some elected officials in Illinois who have voiced support for Israel, for stoking the attacks.

“Our leaders are responsible for the attacks,” Abuddayeh said. “The state’s attorney’s office has a responsibility of keeping people safe … These are the things that put us in danger.”

C’mon now. First of all, this wasn’t an attack, at least not on the part of the concealed carry holder. He was defending himself against an attack from an angry mob, and honestly showed remarkable restraint (if not the smartest gun handling) by firing a warning shot into the air rather than taking aim at any of the individuals who were attacking him.

The pro-Palestinian protesters had a First Amendment right to be there, but no one had the right to take his property off his car, and they certainly didn’t have the right to attack him when he tried to get his flag back.

“I don’t think [pro-Palestinian protesters] are gonna be dissuaded from wanting to do more and being public in their support for their people and their demands of our government,” Abuddayeh said. “But it’s a message to our community that the people in charge don’t care that we’re being attacked.”

Alison Pure-Slovin, the Midwest regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which organized the Israeli solidarity event, said prosecutors likely decided not to press charges because the man “didn’t feel safe.”

“He was afraid because he was accosted by other people,” Pure-Slovin said. “The United States of America guarantees free speech. You should not be accosted because of your beliefs.”

Pure-Slotkin is absolutely right, and it’s true for both sides. If the concealed carry holder had been driving by and decided to accost the people protesting the pro-Israel event by threatening them with a gun, he should and would have faced charges. But that’s not what happened here, and it sounds like Abuddayeh is grossly twisting the facts to suit his own cause.

Chicago Woman Fatally Shoots Knife-Wielding Man in Morgan Park

A woman fatally shot a knife-wielding man early Sunday in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.

The shooting happened around 12:45 a.m. when a 41-year-old man who the woman knew approached her with a knife inside her home in the 11500 block of South Vincennes Avenue, Chicago police said.

The woman then pulled out a gun and shot the man four times in his torso, police said.

He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

The woman wasn’t injured and a handgun was recovered at the scene, officials said.

Area detectives were investigating.

Troubled Times Part II: There’s more to being prepared than just guns and ammo.

Last week I talked about safety measures during times of civil unrest. Most recently, the FBI is warning of the possibility for terrorist activity in this country and suggesting that folks shelter in place. As I mentioned, this shelter-in-place idea is not a bad one because the defender nearly always has the advantage.

Too often, in times like these, people focus on their choice and selection of guns and ammunition. While there is nothing wrong with this, I would suggest that it is only one of several considerations for keeping you and your family safe until things can be straightened out.

A decent medical kit would also be an excellent addition to your home defense plan. And, along with that would also go some first aid training. It could be extremely important to know how to stop bleeding, treat certain wounds and deal with the effects of shock. It is a really good idea for the entire family to have this training since you never know who will need the treatment and who will be available to apply it. Right in line with that is to make sure that there is an adequate supply of prescription medicines that the family members might need. Civil unrest is not the time to run out of blood pressure medications for example.

It also might be that you have to wait out a few days with your power cut off. Do you have enough non-perishable foods to get you by? How is your supply of extra batteries? When you think of just getting by for a few days until order can be restored, your list might get longer than you expected.

Mind you, I am not predicting some sort of doomsday event. However, we need to realize that there are people in this world who would like nothing better than for that to happen to us. I don’t think there is a need to start digging a bunker in your back yard or to build a survival camp in some wilderness area. But it is time to consider that you might just have to stay home for a few days while our police and other officials get order restored (or even recovering from a weather event like a hurricane, tornado or snowstorm).

So look beyond your guns and ammo and try to focus on the big picture. Start making that list of necessary items and give some serious thought to all of the ways you will need to protect yourself and your family.

It bears repeating that my first squad leader was a font of practical wisdom, usually doled out in pithy maxims. One I already knew, but liked how he put it was:
“I’ve found that experience is the best teacher, and the best experience is someone else’s as it’s usually less expensive and less painful.”
A word to the wise should be sufficient

What we Should Learn from the Attack on Israel

Terrorists attacked innocent victims in Israel. This is a war of ethnic cleansing. The victims were chosen precisely for their innocence. The murdering terrorists sought out the vulnerable and the harmless. This attack was a show of force, a show of violence, and a show of brutality. It was Hamas and their Iranian enablers saying that they are willing to be barbarians. They wanted other nations to hold them in awe. I don’t think it will work out that way. An Israeli politician said you can’t negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you. Here in the United States, there are things we can learn from both the Israeli civilians and from the Israeli government.

We watched over a thousand of Israelis die at the hands of armed terrorists. Many more were wounded. Women and children were murdered or kidnapped. Those are exactly the results you would expect. The point is not that the attackers were some type of super-warriors. Those are simply the results that any trained combatant would expect when disarmed victims face armed attackers. It didn’t need to unfold that way.

Let me resize the attack so US readers have a sense of proportion. Keeping the percentages the same and with its larger population, this attack would have killed almost 60-thousand US citizens. That is about twenty times the number of people who were killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, or during the attack on September 11th in 2001.

Where Israelis were armed and on alert, they defended themselves very well. Examples include Kibbutz  Nir Am and Kibbutz Mefalsim. There we also saw the sort of results we expected. Attackers need to outnumber defenders by a ratio of over six-to-one in order to advance. The terrorists did not bring that number of attackers to bear so the defenders prevailed.

In the United States of America, I noticed that another million of us went out to buy guns and ammunition in the week after the attack. Most of these were first time gun buyers. Again, ordinary citizens like us came to some far-reaching conclusions. They recognized that the world is not safe. People who look just like them are capable of horrific acts of violence. Law enforcement and other government authorities will only arrive long after the attack is over. Far from being conclusions drawn from worse case estimates, I think those conclusions are simply a sober evaluation of the truth.

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Repost- How Armed Israelis Stopped Terrorists

I may not know a lot, but I know when to ask someone with more experience. I read reports of armed Israeli citizens stopping the Hamas terrorists who attacked their kibbutz. There are important differences between a deliberate terrorist attack and the armed defense that happens every day in the US. I asked Ben Branum for his opinion on these events. Ben is a marine, a civilian contractor for the military, an instructor in church security, and a civilian firearm instructor. We talked for about an hour about the recent attack on the kibbutz Nir Am.

Give us a listen on Ben’s site, Modern Self Protection Podcast or listen to the mp3 from Libsyn.

Here is a second report (an archive version outside the paywall) about an attack at a slightly larger kibbutz, Mefalsim.