Category: Safety

I respect your second amendment.    
[leaves out the ‘but’ like they always do]

I also respect understanding ways our society works. We need to reform background checks, we need better ID scanning systems to ensure the guns don’t go into the wrong hands.

I’ll protect the American people at all cost, that starts with-
Preventing mass shootings, you don’t need an AK-47 to hunt, defend yourself or your home. You could simply defend yourself with a simple firearm.

I as your president of the United States of America, have no rights to interfere with your private life but I will protect Americans.

Respecting the Second Amendment should stand without further contradicted commentary.

Our society possesses a level of violence, and neither existing nor new gun laws will lead us to a utopian state where laws alone rectify criminal or violent actions.

Background checks have demonstrated limited effectiveness, given the rise in gun-related crimes since their introduction. Numerous mass shooters acquired firearms by providing false information on their 4473 forms (background check applications) and passing due to insufficient government scrutiny of buyers’ backgrounds.

Additionally, some potential mass shooters who harbor intentions of carrying out mass violence might lack a criminal record or documented mental health issues to identify during background checks.

Everyday criminals affiliated with gangs have no concerns about passing a background check to acquire firearms, which they then use for activities such as targeting rival gangs or engaging in various criminal acts.

Criminals frequently steal firearms or obtain them through straw purchases. The access to firearms for individuals should be a straightforward and uncomplicated procedure, without unnecessary restrictions on where they can carry those arms.

Imposing gun restrictions inadvertently empowers criminals while penalizing law-abiding citizens.

Dealing With The Panic
Familiarity with a firearm breeds competency rather than contempt, says Sheriff Jim.

In one of the rare interviews that he gave, Texas Ranger Frank Hamer said, “The one superlative thing you want to achieve is to hit your mark… Really, it is very simple. Just keep cool and take time to aim straight, and that’s all there is to it.”

In line with that, to paraphrase, Col. Jeff Cooper said that, when dealing with a violent attack is unavoidable, we should purge our minds of everything except target acquisition… front sight… press.

For us mere mortals, the real enemy is a combination of panic plus lack of ability. And, while both are serious problems, they can be overcome. We should never be surprised that something like a criminal attack is happening to us. We deal with these things by honing our skills. Continually working to improve our skills builds self-confidence and properly placed self-confidence has won many a fight.

Just about everyone has seen those targets that some folks post on social media. You know the ones, shot at 5 or 7 yards, and the pattern looks like it was shot with a shotgun instead of a handgun. Not to hurt anyone’s feelings, but a really good place to start is the basic handgun marksmanship class from the NRA. You know, just be able to stand on your hind legs and hit a target dead center, not once in a while, but most of the time. The ability to draw quickly and shoot fast has to be built upon a foundation such as this.

In my case, I began roaming the local creek with my Red Ryder BB gun and later my Winchester .22 rifle. Targets of opportunity were everywhere, and I hustled whatever paying jobs I could find to keep stocked up on ammo. In high school I joined the ROTC, not because I was enamored with the military, but because they had a smallbore rifle range in the basement and taught marksmanship. My first police job was with a department that encouraged marksmanship among the officers, and you can bet that I learned a lot there. Even today, I try to take at least one defensive shooting class per year. That commitment to continuing education definitely increased my self-confidence and helped me to deal with some serious issues over the years.

Nothing builds self-confidence like getting a good gun, buying lots of ammunition, and shooting on a regular basis. Take a basic marksmanship class if you’ve never had one or if it’s been a while since the last one. Learn to point a handgun and hit a target dead center at various ranges, not just up close. Once you can do that on a regular basis, you are ready to learn to fight with the handgun and avoid the panic that might defeat you.

Orthodox Jewish camp in Schoharie County sues to keep its guns in place
Administrators at TheZone summer camp have concealed-carry permits and are requesting an injunction to a new state law

GILBOA — New York’s gun rights activists are a diverse lot, ranging from rural hunters and Second Amendment supporters to Black pastors in urban churches who say they want to protect their flocks from armed white supremacists.

Now, the operators of an Orthodox Jewish summer camp have joined the gun rights debate, with a lawsuit seeking an injunction that, despite a contested state law, would let them continue to be armed for self-defense.

Eliyohu Mintz, CEO of TheZone summer camp, and camp Administrator Eric Schwartz cited numerous anti-Semitic threats as a reason they should be allowed to continue to carry concealed weapons despite a recent tightening of state gun control laws.

“New York State’s fabrication of ‘gun free’ zones through the enactment of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act in 2022 calculatedly leaves our most vulnerable people — children — defenseless and at the mercy of violent and predatory evildoers,” reads a legal action seeking an injunction against the new rule.

Mintz and Schwartz, who both have concealed-carry gun licenses, have gone to Federal Northern District Court seeking permission to keep carrying their guns at the summer camp.

In their injunction request, they name Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery; Sheriff Ronald Stevens and Steven Nigrelli, the acting State Police superintendent, as defendants.

Oorah Gun Case by rkarlin on Scribd

Gov. Lee sets parameters for special session on the Second Amendment, public safety

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Gov. Bill Lee’s office released the topics of legislation for a special session that would take on public safety in tandem with Second Amendment rights.

The document lists 18 different topics from mental health resources to juvenile justice reform.

This special session on Aug. 21 follows The Covenant School shooting back in March that claimed lives — including three children.

Critics had hoped the session would focus on guns and what they call sensible gun reform. The governor, however, intends to focus on the state’s broken mental health and juvenile justice systems.

Near the end of the regular session, Gov. Bill Lee proposed a bill that would have allowed extreme risk orders of protection or so-called red flag laws. The bill would have made it easier for a judge to take away someone’s guns if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others. But the Republican supermajority killed the bill.

Here are the parameters of the special session this August:

  • mental health resources providers, commitments or services;
  • school safety plans or policies;
  • offenses of committing mass violence or threatening to commit acts of mass violence;
  • reports from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation regarding human trafficking;
  • identification of individuals arrested for felonies;
  • law enforcement’s access to information about individuals who are subject to mental health commitment;
  • information about victims of violent offenses;
  • stalking offenses;
  • measures encouraging the safe storage of firearms, which do include the creation of penalties for failing to safely store firearms;
  • temporary mental health orders of protections, which must be initiated by law enforcement, must require a due process hearing, must require the respondent to undergo an assessment for suicidal or homicidal ideation, must require that an order of protection be reevaluated at least 180 days and must not permit ex parte orders;
  • the transfer of juvenile defendants age 16 and older to courts with criminal jurisdiction, which must include appeal rights for the juveniles and the prosecuting authorities;
  • limiting the circumstances in which juvenile records may be expunged;
  • blended sentencing for juveniles;
  • offenses related to inducing or coercing a minor to commit an offense;
  • the structure of operations of state and local courts
  • making appropriations sufficient to provide funding for any legislation

Uvalde shooter’s cousin arrested for alleged threats ‘to do the same thing’

The cousin of Uvalde mass shooter Salvador Ramos has been arrested after allegedly threatening to follow in his footsteps.

Nathan Cruz, 17, faces a felony charge of making a terroristic threat to the public and a misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat to a family member.

According to KSAT, police in San Antonio, Texas arrived on scene Monday after receiving a tip from a member of Cruz’s family. The caller, later identified as his mother, stated that Cruz had told his sister he wanted to “do the same thing” as Ramos. She added that he “threatened to shoot her in the head and stated he would ‘shoot the school’.” Cruz, whose family home is situated across the street from an elementary school, allegedly highlighted the fact that classes would be “starting soon.”

Cruz’s mother also disclosed that she had heard him speaking on the phone with a man earlier Monday morning, and claimed that during the conversation, he “attempted to acquire an AR-15 through an illegal private sale.”

As CNN reports, Cruz’s mother was “especially concerned” because he was “currently on probation [and] was intoxicated at the time.”

Following his arrest, Cruz was transported to Bexar County Jail, where his bond was set at $160,000. He “denied making any threats.”

It has been more than a year since Ramos shot his grandmother in the face before carrying out the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that took the lives of 19 children and two adults. First responders were criticized for their lack of action, which allowed Ramos to enter the school, barricade himself in a classroom, and kill mercilessly. He was ultimately shot dead by a law enforcement officer, but only after perpetrating the attack.

In the months since, members of Ramos’ have spoken out, offering their apologies and questioning what they could have done to prevent the incident. Ramos’ father even went so far as to say, “He should’ve just killed me … instead of doing something like that to someone.”

Study Shows Gun Laws Don’t Matter, Race Does

33 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago. Urban gangland violence like that is what real “mass shootings” look like and finally a Journal of the American Medical Association paper addressed the problem by shifting the blame to something it calls “structural racism”.

The JAMA paper, which was quickly picked up by CNN as “Structural Racism may Contribute to Mass Shootings” and by Bloomberg as “Mass Shootings Disproportionately Victimize Black Americans”, acknowledged what conservatives have been saying about gun violence.

“There was no discernible association noted in this study between gun laws and MSEs [mass shootings] with other studies showing similar findings,” it noted.

The issue wasn’t gun laws, it was race. “The study found that in areas with higher black populations, mass shootings are likelier to occur compared to communities with higher white populations,” CNN reported. “The findings disrupt the nation’s image of mass shootings, which has been shaped by tragedies like the Las Vegas festival shooting and Sandy Hook in which most of the victims were not black,” Bloomberg added.

Faced with an immovable statistical object and the unstoppable force of equity, the JAMA paper blames the whole thing on structural racism. The study correlates urban areas and neighborhoods with high concentrations of single-parent households” to mass shootings. It then demonstrates that “structural racism” must be at fault because of “the percentage of the population that is black.” Black people in the study are interchangeable with racism.

Such is the state of woke medical science which tries to fix racism with more racism. The study never comes up with any plausible explanation of how structural racism causes people to shoot each other. At one point it claims that “racial residential segregation practices are predictive of various types of shootings” in a country where segregation had been abolished since 1964.

The study’s definition of segregation is so senseless that it lists majority black cities like Detroit, a 77% black city, as being 73% segregated, and Baltimore, a 62% black city, as being 64% segregated. A city with a strong black majority and black leaders is racially segregated and its people are suffering from “structural racism”. That’s why there are so many mass shootings.

But if segregation is the issue then why does Atlanta, which had actual segregation, have only 18 mass shootings, while Chicago has 141? Southern cities show up as less segregated and less violent in the paper’s data. A history of segregation is clearly not the issue. This isn’t about the past, whether it’s the historical revisionism of the 1619 Project, or any other.

If segregation were the issue, crime would have been far higher during segregation than after it.

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Armed Staff Versus School Resource Officers- The Quality of Quantity to Defend Our Students

You must be present to win. That trite phrase might apply to the local bake sale. It certainly applies to protecting our students at school. It is too easy for school boards and school principals to say they did something when they certainly did not do enough. We can agree that protecting our students is inherently a difficult problem. We are trying to stop evil narcissists who want to become celebrities by killing our kids. Formulaic answers don’t work for long because these murderers learn and adapt. The actions that protected our children yesterday might not work tomorrow. There are better solutions today and we need to recognize them.

The threat is changing over time. Greg Ellifritz did an excellent job looking at armed attacks at schools after the Covid lockdown. Only 20-percent of the attacks are now in the classroom. That means we need to do more than lock the classroom doors. Half of the armed attacks on our schools occurred before or after school when students were out of the classroom and on school grounds or on their way to school. That number is increasing, and that means that a single School Resource Officer at school for a few hours a week isn’t enough. Murderers might be adapting to the security measures that schools have already put in place like locked doors, metal detectors, and revised policies when someone pulls a fire alarm or triggers a smoke detector. We have to adapt as well.

We are changing every day. Schools are embedded in our society. Every problem we have in our culture eventually comes to school. We’ve heard calls to defund the police. Some urban administrators removed police officer on campus since they neither wanted to report nor wanted to file a complaint against the students committing crimes at school. As you’d imagine, more innocent students are victimized by violent crime when crime is tolerated at school. The social justice movements that removed School Resource Officers left students vulnerable to both common criminals and to celebrity-seeking murderers who search for easy victims.

Administrators prefer visible solutions. It is hard for school administrators to get public credit for solutions that the public can’t see. The parents seldom notice the reinforced glass in the windows and doors. In contrast, the parents can’t miss seeing the uniformed police officer standing in the parking lot when children are dropped off.

Unfortunately, public visibility works both for us and it works against us as we try to protect our children. A visible deterrent like an SRO helps stop low-level threats. The drug dealers move across the street and out of the school parking lot. The visible School Resource Officer is equally easy for a murderer to locate. The attacker can wait until the SRO either drives his police car away from campus, or the murderer can shoot the SRO first. We’ve seen both happen when schools were attacked.

Any single defender has a fatal flaw. There is an obvious reason that one adult can’t supervise an entire campus. They can’t be everywhere at the same time. The School Resource Officer can’t be up on the ball field when they are down in the parking lot. They can’t be behind the gymnasium if they are in the central courtyard. A midsized school might have half-a-dozen hallways and an equal number of separate buildings. That means a single defender is probably minutes away from an attack. That delay leads to more dead children.

The solution is obvious, if invisible. The researchers who study school security told us what to do over a decade ago. Murderers stop killing our kids when they face an armed defender. The defender’s response time predicts the body count. The SRO can’t be on the bus before school and on the bus after school, but the bus driver can. The SRO isn’t at the choir practice before school, but the choir director is there. After school, the SRO can’t be at the ball field and in the music room at the same time, but the coaches and band director are certainly there.

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Study proves there is NO CORRELATION between gun control laws and mass shootings

A new study by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder has found that there is no correlation between the strength of gun control laws and the number of mass shootings that occur in each state.

The United States has more than 10 times the number of mass shootings than any other developed country in the world. In the study, the researchers looked at 4,011 mass shootings – defined as four or more gun deaths in the same short period, not including the shooter – between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2022. (Related: RFK Jr.: Seizing lawful firearms will not STOP mass shootings.)

Illinois, with its restrictive gun laws and comparatively low gun ownership of 22 percent, had 414 mass shootings and a per capita rate of 3.6 mass shootings per million people.

Washington, D.C., despite not being a state, was included in the study and the researchers were shocked to find that the district had the highest rate of mass shootings per capita at 10.4 shootings for every one million people. This is despite the fact that the country’s capital has some of the strongest gun control laws in the nation.

For states, Louisiana had the highest rate of mass shootings per capita at 4.3 shootings per million people – less than half the per capita rate in Washington, D.C. despite the lax gun laws and 52 percent gun ownership.

Hawaii and North Dakota had zero mass shootings from 2014 to 2022. They are followed by New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming, which all had one each, Idaho with two and Maine with three.

Environmental and sociocultural factors more likely to lead to mass shootings

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Why Aren’t Female Victims of Domestic Violence Told the Best Way to Protect Themselves?

On Monday, July 17th, Lance Logan brutally murdered 64-year-old Carolyn Williams in her Hartford, Connecticut, home while she was on the telephone with a 9-1-1 operator. He also beat her 30-year-old son.

“He hit me again . . . . Stop it, stop, it, he has a weapon,” she told the 9-1-1 operator immediately before being murdered. Logan had prior convictions for domestic violence and a number of other felonies. Among his previous convictions was a 2016 domestic assault for which he faced a 5-year suspended sentence and 3-years probation, so he served no prison time.

Logan now faces charges of murder, assault in the second degree, and violation of a protective order. It was illegal for him to own guns, but he still obtained two firearms – a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol.

The case clearly illustrates the limits of protective orders when someone is intent on murdering the victim. If the murderer is willing to risk a life sentence for murder, an additional five years in prison and a $5,000 fine won’t deter him.

It is an important problem. Reportedly, 76% of women murdered by someone who had been an intimate partner were stalked.

Violence prevention advocates recommend a long list of safety precautions. These changes require women to uproot their lives.

Among the advice: women should change jobs, travel routes, the time of day they leave home or work, move in with a friend or family, change the locks on their home, or do their shopping and other chores with friends or relatives.

A few recommend that women practice martial arts such as judo, jiu-jitsu, karate, or boxing.

But the most obvious answer is missing from these lists: women should get a concealed handgun permit and a firearm.

As a victim of domestic violence who has suffered some broken teeth, fractured bones, and other permanent physical injuries, I am acutely aware of how important it is to protect victims.

Men are typically much stronger than women, particularly in upper body strength. Unfortunately, real life isn’t like the movies, where one woman can knock out and overpower several well-trained men. Even well-trained women often struggle to defend themselves against much larger and stronger men. Men also tend to be faster runners.

A firearm represents a much bigger change in a woman’s ability to defend herself. Men can readily hurt women without a gun, and if a woman is already in physical contact with the attacker so that he can take away their gun, they are already in trouble.

The peer-reviewed research shows that murder rates decline when people carry concealed handguns, whether men or women. But a woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about 3 to 4 times more than a man doing the same.

And this message is getting across to women. Between 2012 and 2022, in states that provide data by sex, concealed handgun permits increased 115% more quickly among women than among men. The percentage of women who say that gun ownership protects people from crime has also been growing faster. But while they are growing at a faster rate, women still only make up about 30 percent of permit holders.

Many states could make it much easier for stalked women to defend themselves. Even after taking the required training and applying for a permit, it can often take two to three months for a permit to be issued.

But even one month may be much too long for a threatened woman. Even women who have proven to a court that they face serious threats must wait to get a permit. One solution would be to allow women with court orders of protection to carry a concealed handgun while waiting for a permit to be issued.

Many single women with children may also find it difficult to pay fees for a permit, plus additional fees for fingerprinting and training. While there are now 27 Constitutional Carry states that don’t require people pay fees or waiting periods to be able to carry a gun, other states such as California can run $250 to $250 for five years, Illinois $150, and New York City $566.70. Training can easily add hundreds more.

Police are very important, but they almost always arrive after the crime occurs. Protective orders can help. But if we are going to be serious about protecting women like Carolyn Williams, we must let them protect themselves.

“Why do you need AR-15s?”

Home invaders pretended to be Gwinnett police, tossed grenades into homes, police say

After a series of home invasions involving suspects impersonating police officers, Gwinnett County police arrested one of potentially several suspects connected to the crime spree.

Three families were victimized by multiple masked men armed with guns and body armor during home invasions in Lilburn and Norcross from June 9 to June 12, according to police. In the first case, the suspects threw a practice grenade through a window to enter the home and ransack the house.

“Whatever they were looking for,” the victim, who asked to remain anonymous, told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson. “I hope they find prison time for their trouble.”

The victim shared a video of a man with a mask, a shotgun and body armor at his doorstep in Lilburn off Burns Road on June 9 just after 3:30 a.m. He said the man identified himself as police but threw the inert grenade through the window when the victim didn’t answer the door. From there, police say the suspect, working with others, stole electronics when they couldn’t find any money or drugs.

“They actually sprayed mace around the perimeter of the door and underneath it to try and get me out or prevent me from coming out,” said the victim.

On Tuesday, Gwinnett police arrested Jeron Hernandez-Massa, 23, and charged him with 10 felonies, including three counts of home invasion. However, investigators say he didn’t act alone.

At a home in Norcross, a pregnant mother and her family were held at gunpoint by Hernandez-Massa and as many as four other suspects claiming to be D.E.A. agents, according to police. There were 8-year-old, 4-year-old, and 10-year-old boys home at the time and police say Hernandez-Massa and the suspects threaten to harm the children if the family didn’t give them money and drugs.

“My stepdad is a construction worker,” said one of the family members held at gunpoint. “My mom was just a pregnant lady. They left with nothing, and they hurt us.”

The family says they told the robbers they had the wrong house and that there weren’t drugs or money around. It only made them more upset, they say.

“I ran into the garage and that’s when they hit me,” said the victim, adding she was left bruised from being pistol-whipped.

Police haven’t said how many more suspects they may be looking for or how they believe the homes were targeted. Hernandez-Massa remains in jail without bond.

Signs Show Staff is Armed Go Up In Texas School

In Groesbeck, Texas (about a third of the way between Dallas and Houston), the Independent School District (ISD) has had a school guardian program in place for nearly a year. On July 17, 2023, the Groesbeck ISD issued a press release showing they had placed signs announcing the program. The Guardian program is a popular Texas program to enable local schools to have various members of their staff trained and armed, in order to respond to deadly threats in the school before police can arrive on the scene. The program is much more efficient than having School Resource Officers (certified police officers) assigned to the school. One SRO costs about $100,000 per year. A Guardian costs about $1,000 a year. A school district can afford 100 Guardians for the cost of one SRO. The Groesbeck School Superintendent, Anthony Figueroa, has embraced the program. From the Groesbeck Independent School District press release:

Two months ago, I sent my monthly superintendent newsletter informing parents of our Guardian Program and new signage (see picture below). Being installed this week, signs will be posted on our campuses which state, “ATTENTION: GISD STAFF ARE ARMED AND TRAINED TO PROTECT OUR STUDENTS.”12”X12” signs will be attached to all building entrances, and larger 3’X3’ signs will be displayed at all parking/drive way entrances.

Last year the Groesbeck ISD school board watched the devastation of schools across the country, being forced to prepare for the unthinkable –the potential of a school shooting, and considered appropriate policies. The Board updated local policy, authorizing a School Safety “Guardian” Program (TX Govt. Code 411.1901). Its purpose is to provide students and faculties an armed self-defense option prior to the arrival of Law Enforcement in the event of an active shooter or “active killer” on campus.

The Guardians are ISD staff members who have passed strict requirements and training. In order to protect them from becoming targets of an intruder, their names are confidential and are not to be released. I ask that names not be guessed at nor rumors passed in an attempt to protect these individuals.

Although the program has been in place for almost a year, the Board of Trustees approved for the district to make the program more visible. By providing the community this information and by placing signs up across the campuses, we are taking additional steps so that people know we are NOT an “easy target”.

Superintendent of Schools Anthony Figueroa noted the last three school districts in which he was involved were all participants in the Guardian program. This says something about Texas and, perhaps, about Anthony Figueroa.

From the Groesbeckjournal.com:

“I am proud to have been part of a Guardian program in my last three districts and I am proud that GISD had this program when I arrived,” said Figueroa. “My responsibility is to ensure we properly train our Guardians and that we properly communicate this program to our community.”

As of October 2022, about 450 out of 1022 school districts in Texas were involved in the Guardian program. As of this writing, no school district involved in the Guardian program has been the subject of a mass killing in school.

Placing the signs prominently on the doors and entrances to the campuses is a proactive step to stop mass killers from targeting schools. One of the chief drivers of these killers is the desire for fame, achieved by a high body count. Unknown armed protectors make planning to achieve a high body count difficult. Most of the killing in these events occurs in the first few minutes. Seconds of response time means lives. Having armed responders inside the situation as it occurs is the fastest way to stop the killers and save lives.

St. Louis and D.C. Show Gun Control Isn’t About Public Safety

With many prominent government officials exhibiting a flagrant indifference to violent crime, it’s getting harder for anti-gun politicians to pretend that their gun control schemes are anything other than a means to harass law-abiding gun owners. Recent incidents from anti-gun jurisdictions St. Louis and the District of Columbia further illustrate this point.

According to the station, Jones texted her father, “Chicago has strict gun laws as well but that doesn’t deter gun violence.” Jones put more faith in social programs, texting, “It’s about investing in the people.”

These once-private comments are a stark contrast to Jones’ public statements and actions. Jones is a co-chair of billionaire Michael Bloomberg front-group Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). MAIG, along with Moms Demand Action, are part of the Bloomberg gun control conglomerate Everytown for Gun Safety.

The mayor also supported a “federal Red Flag law.” As enacted, red flag laws empower the government to confiscate a law-abiding person’s firearms without due process.

As NRA-ILA has repeatedly pointed out, despite having some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, the District of Columbia has exhibited little interest in prosecuting those who misuse firearms.

A December 2021 study from the federal enclave’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) found that “In Washington, DC, most gun violence is tightly concentrated.” The report went on to explain,

This small number of very high risk individuals are identifiable, their violence is predictable, and therefore it is preventable. Based on the assessment of data and the series of interviews conducted, [National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform] estimates that within a year, there are at least 500 identifiable people who rise to this level of very high risk, and likely no more than 200 at any one given time. These individuals comprise approximately 60-70% of all gun violence in the District.

According to the report, “Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were known to the criminal justice system prior to the incident. Among all victims and suspects, about 46 percent had been previously incarcerated.” Further, “most victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had been arrested about 11 times for about 13 different offenses by the time of the homicide.”

Data in a 2023 D.C. Sentencing Commission report revealed that out of a total of 5,558 MPD arrests for carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL) made between 2018 and 2022, 56.6% (3,146 cases) were “no papered” (“the prosecuting authority… elected not to immediately file charges in Superior Court related to the arrest”) or were closed without a conviction. Only 97 cases (1.74%) ultimately resulted in a prison sentence. The figures on arrests and dispositions for “unlawful possession of a firearm” (UPF) offenses show the odds in favor of lawbreakers were pretty good, too. Out of 2,149 total arrests made for UPF crimes in the same time period, the majority (62.6%, or 1,346 cases) were “no papered” or closed without a conviction. Of the remaining cases that resulted in a conviction and sentencing for UPF, only 14.5% (312 cases) concluded with the offender behind bars.

Sometimes an individual case can illustrate an issue better than a mountain of statistics.

On July 5, a high school social studies teacher visiting the federal enclave from Kentucky was shot to death on Catholic University’s campus during a robbery. At least some of the incident was captured by surveillance cameras. Police announced on July 11 that they had arrested a suspect in the case. Further, police say that they have matched the suspect’s DNA to a ski mask found at the scene of the crime.

Reporting on the suspect’s criminal record, Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate noted, “Public records show [the suspect] has a lengthy criminal history. He was arrested five times since 2019 and was convicted of carrying a pistol without a license, burglary and threats.”

The Washington Post elaborated, reporting,

D.C. police arrested [the suspect] during a traffic stop in 2019 and charged him with having an illegal firearm after finding a .40-caliber Glock loaded with 15 hollow-point bullets tucked under a sweater.

Court records show he pleaded guilty to carrying an unlicensed gun and was sentenced to probation, with a one-year prison term suspended. Those records show he violated the terms of his release and in 2020 was resentenced to six months in jail.

Authorities said that after his release, he continued to violate his release conditions, alleging that he failed to report to the probation office, among other issues. A hearing on those violations is scheduled for July 18.

Washington, D.C.’s FOX affiliate shared more details on a pair of 2022 incidents involving the suspect, reporting,

In May 2022 [the suspect] was charged after getting into a shootout with a neighbor and in August 2022, he was arrested with making threats of bodily harm to a 7-Eleven employee. He was convicted in March 2022 and released.

In the shootout case, investigators say an unregistered Ghost Gun was used. However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. essentially dropped charges against [the suspect] after his attorney argued [the suspect] fired at his neighbor in self-defense. Charges were dropped in June, but a trial date had been set for July 10 — five days after Emerson was killed.

Targeting so-called “ghost guns” was purportedly so important to Mayor Muriel Bowser that in 2020 the District of Columbia enacted “Emergency Ghost Gun Legislation.”

The recent episodes in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. make clear that decisions to push gun control have little to do with public safety. Gun control offers unscrupulous politicians and their supporters a way to deflect from the repercussions of their own woeful mismanagement while often targeting the constituents of their political rivals.

Making it easier for people to possess the means to defend themselves against armed criminals apparently puzzles the overeducated expert.

Homicides in Brazil at the lowest level in over a decade, report says

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian researchers say the number of violent deaths last year reached the lowest level in more than a decade, puzzling some experts because there has been an explosion of firearms circulating in the country in recent years.

About 47,500 people were slain in Latin America’s largest nation in 2022, said a report Thursday by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, an independent group that tracks crimes. Its statistics are widely used as a benchmark because there are no official statistics on a national level.

While the number of killings in 2022 was down 2.4% from the previous year, it remained roughly even with levels recorded since 2019. The last time Brazil had less violent deaths was in 2011, with 47,215 killings.

The fall in homicides has left many public security experts somewhat puzzled, as it has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of firearms held by Brazilians. Some studies have suggested that more guns circulating among the population lead to more homicides.

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The Second Amendment Is The Great Unifier

We all want to protect what we love.

No matter your age, your background, your ethnicity, or your religious affiliation, there is one thing that we can all agree on: nothing is more important than protecting what you love.

Where we are divided is HOW we protect those things that are most precious to us.

People who ascribe to the anti-gun rhetoric and agenda, and who belong to groups such as Moms Demand Action (MDA), Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, all proclaim that saving lives is at the core of their mission. We all can applaud and agree on that. Life is precious. And each of us can name at least one life we want to protect.

But protecting what we love sometimes requires that good people stand against predators and murderers with the very tools that MDA, Everytown, and Giffords vilify: guns. People who understand that reality dedicate their own time, money, and energy to training themselves and others to be safe and responsible gun owners. This training and education is truly what will protect those you love.

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Surprise, surprise, surprise

South Bend shooting numbers down despite permitless gun law

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Despite a statewide permitless handgun carry law being in effect for more than a year, South Bend officials say that the number of shootings in the city has gone down compared to previous years.

HEA 1296, passed on July 1, 2022, removed the requirement to have a permit to carry a handgun in the state of Indiana. The proposed law had city leaders up in arms before it was passed.

“We had a say, and we said it, but it fell on deaf ears,” said South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski during a 2022 press conference. “The police departments said it, the Sheriff’s Association said it, the state police have said it… Don’t do this, and what did they do? They did it.”

Even with requirements being repealed, all nine counties in our viewing area (Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, LaGrange, LaPorte, Marshall, Pulaski, St. Joseph, and Starke) have seen a small increase in active licenses.

According to data from the Indiana State Police, on January 1, 2022, all nine counties showed a total of 120,956 active licenses. Exactly one year later, the number of licenses increased by 3.2% to 124,869.

“As Indiana was already a ‘shall issue’ license state prior to enacting constitutional carry, I don’t believe the new law had any impact on law-abiding people who wanted to carry a concealed weapon legally,” said Terry Demaegd, a moderator for a local second amendment group.

Mayor James Mueller said that while shootings are down, they could be lower. He also adds that the lack of permit requirements makes it difficult for officers to stop gun violence in the first place.

“Now if [police] see someone carrying a gun in public, unless they have knowledge that that person is not allowed to carry it…that officer cannot go and intervene, does not have probable cause,” Mueller said.

DeMaegd added that education is important for gun owners.

“Groups composed of responsible gun owners have always stressed safety instruction, firearm training, and adherence to the law for both licensed or constitutional carry persons who want to carry a concealed weapon,” DeMaegd said.

Pierre Atlas is a senior lecturer at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI and has extensive experience working on the topic of gun culture in America.

“What the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reported was a doubling of accidental shootings since the implementation of the permitless carry law,” said Atlas. “I think that goes to the point that, and this is my own interpretation, I think permitless carry facilitates irresponsible gun ownership. The carry license that Indiana had that ended last year served as a gatekeeper. You had to pass a criminal background check and give your fingerprints. So people who were prohibited persons automatically were rejected, and then they knew they were rejected.”

Despite the relaxed restrictions, other state and federal restrictions still stand in terms of who can and cannot possess a firearm.

A Modest Proposal for Increased Firearms Fees

We have 23-thousand firearms regulations on the books already. Gun-control lobbyists say this is only a first step and they need even more laws to protect us. While that is a fascinating story, real evidence calls it a lie. That is why I propose a different sort of fee and licensing structure for armed America. To make this more interesting, gun-control lobbyists say it would hardly cost a thing.

Gun-control lobbyists say we need “safe guns”, mandatory firearms training, and mandatory psychological evaluations of gun owners. They say we need more “gun free zones”, and higher taxes on gun and gun owners. Again, those are simply more “first steps” to make us safer and the last gun-control law is nowhere in sight.

The mainstream media plays along. Gun-control politicians say gun owners and gun manufacturers should be taxed to pay for the harm that firearms cause. In short, we’re told that a government employee is the only person who can really keep us safe and everyone else who has a gun is a danger to society. The mainstream media and gun-control lobbyists tell us that self-defense doesn’t happen, or if it happens at all it is vanishingly rare.

Since armed citizens need training in order to safely handle a firearm, I propose that ordinary citizens should be reimbursed by the state when they take a firearms training class. Those classes always talk about firearms safety, and the gun-control groups say we certainly need more of that. Let’s add another $200 dollars reimbursement per year towards bedside gun safes to safely store a firearm.

If firearms instruction and frequent practice make all of us safer, then let’s have the state and federal government reimburse the first $200 dollars spent on ammunition each year. To quote gun-control lobbyists, ‘This is only a first step, and it’s all worth it if it only saves one life.’

The news media and gun-control lobbyists tell us that we don’t need to protect ourselves or the people we love, and we’re simply supposed to call the police and let them take care of crime. Since armed defense “never happens”, I have another low-cost solution to make us even safer.

Since there are so many calls to “defund the police”, then let’s have the city and county pay $200 to each citizen who reports they used a personal firearm in self-defense. Also, let us wave all the state and federal taxes on the next firearm the defender buys. Likewise, both the firearm and the ammunition manufacturer should be paid $200 for each defensive use of a firearm.

Since gun-control advocates say it is the government’s job to keep us safe, then we should ask the state and county to pay for their mistakes when an honest citizen protects the public after the government failed to do its job of public safety.

According to the gun-control lobbyists, the state wouldn’t have to pay anything at all
since armed defense “never happens.”

It is odd that the mainstream media and the gun-control lobby deliberately ignore the 7,600 times a day that we use a firearm in self-defense. Just like the police, honest citizens touch their guns in armed defense far more often than they are forced to press the trigger and fire a shot.

In fact, the number of lives saved by ordinary citizens each year is amazing. The monetary benefits are enormous as honest citizens prevent injuries to innocent victims. The emotional costs are even larger.

There is so much more we can do to make us safer. If licensing and regulation is important, then our gun-control laws should apply to police and politicians too. That can come later, but this is a good first step.😉

Women Are Arming Themselves at an Accelerated Rate

The face of gun ownership is changing. Over the last few decades, more and more women are arming themselves.

As of 2022, women are the fastest-growing group of gun owners in the United States.

In 2005, only 13 percent of gun owners were women. Now, one in five women reported owning a firearm. What’s even more staggering is that most gun purchases during the pandemic were made by women according to a Harvard survey.

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Think Fast: Your reaction to a violent encounter might depend on your ability to out-think your opponent.

A young police patrolman of my acquaintance was checking his buildings while on late-night patrol. One of those businesses was an auto parts store that was in a stand-alone building. As the officer eased up in front of the dark building, he clearly saw someone inside the store. Late at night… no lights on… most probably a burglar. But, the building had a front door and a back door so the officer was in a quandary as to what to do until his backup arrived.

This young officer merely turned on his siren and all of the lights on the squad car and drove in tight, fast circles around the building until backup arrived. At which point two burglars were arrested inside the building without incident. One of them later told investigators that he wasn’t about to come out with that maniac out there trying to play like a race-car driver.

In another case, in another city, a man was accosted by a robber, armed with a large knife, who demanded his wallet. Appearing to be nervous and scared, the gentleman fished for his wallet with his left hand that was shaking so bad that the wallet hit the pavement about three feet from him. The robber’s eyes followed the falling wallet for just an instant and when he looked back at the victim, he was looking down the barrel of a .45 semi-automatic.

This citizen had planned for just such an encounter possibly happening. He purposely carried his wallet where it was accessible to his support hand and practiced the nervous routine. It gave him that split second to turn the tables.

It is a simple fact of human nature that some of us can think faster than others. But we can all work to improve our ability to successfully respond to a surprise encounter with criminals. Part of it is to realistically imagine the things that could happen and work up a variety of realistic responses. You need several ideas because this is definitely not a “one-size-fits-all” kind of deal. For example, a face-to-face encounter might be handled one way while the same situation with the criminal approaching from behind can change the whole thing.

Another excellent way to improve our ability to successfully respond is to take force-on-force classes using the little paint cartridges called Simunitions or other similar marking cartridges. These are much different than an afternoon spent playing with paintball guns and a group of friends. Proper force-on-force classes are carefully scripted. The only thing is that everyone knows the script except you, the victim, sorta like real life in that regard. Equally important is the fact that you, the victim, are debriefed after each scenario. An instructor talks with you about what you did right and what you could have done better.

The idea is to improve your ability to think fast and apply good solutions to the problem. In doing so, you have the best chance of taking control of the situation away from your attacker.