Category: Safety

Number Of First-Time Gun Owners Since 2020 Now Equals Population Of Florida

There has been a drastic surge in the number of Americans becoming first-time gun owners over the past four years according to a press release.

The National Sports Shooting Foundation (NSSF) pointed to data showing a major trend in gun ownership. The number of people who became first-time gun owners since 2020 has reportedly grown to over 22.3 million people, which is equal to the population of Florida.

The impetus behind the rapid increase in first-time gun ownership is attributed to numerous factors, including COVID-era lockdown measures, soft-on-crime prosecutors and skyrocketing violent crime rates, according to the NSSF.

The report highlights Chris Cheng, a competitive shooting champion who testified before Congress about the rise in gun ownership.

“The past year-and-a-half or so with COVID-19 has been a pressure cooker … When you couple that with calls to defund the police and taking law enforcement officers off the street … it makes citizens like me less safe,” Cheng said during his testimony, according to the report. “If I can’t have law enforcement there, then it is a rational conclusion that individual citizens like myself would opt to utilize my Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm and use that firearm in lawful and legal self-defense.”

More than 52% of American voters indicated that they or someone in their home owns a firearm, according to an NBC News national poll released in November 2023. Researchers also found that 48% of firearm owners were concerned that the government would not take enough action to restrict access to firearms while 47% worried that the state would go too far in regulating guns.

See for Yourself if Guns Cause Murder

Gun prohibitionists say that gun-control works. They say gun-control laws reduce the number of guns possessed by law-abiding gun owners. They say that is good because guns cause crime. In particular, they say that guns cause extremely violent crimes like murder. I don’t know if that is true, but I do know that we can find out. Countries have different cultures and different rules about owning guns. That leads to different rates of gun ownership. Different countries also have different murder rates. Put them together and we can see if guns cause crime.

The data isn’t as good as we’d like it to be. The last comprehensive international data on gun ownership was from the Small Arms Survey of 2017. People can update their estimates based on trends. That isn’t the same as real survey data taken in the last few years. The other data on murder is from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Study on Homicide. About half the countries are missing when we look at the data on murder rates. Japan and France are glaring examples. I asked a demographer/sociologist about that missing data. She said that many countries do a poor job of sorting out murder, suicide, and defensive homicide. In a perfect study, we’d have worldwide survey data taken in the same year. We don’t have that. It turns out that those small errors don’t matter in the slightest.

Let’s look at the original claims by gun prohibitionists. They said that guns cause crime. More guns cause more crime and fewer guns cause less crime. A simplified version of that data would look like this. Here is what the murder rate would look like when we plot it against the rate of gun-ownership.

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That isn’t what we see when we look at real data. To be fair, we wouldn’t expect real data to look like that. Many factors influence the murder rate. The most obvious is that we’ve been killing each other long before guns were invented. There is a baseline rate of murder even if there were no guns to be found. Sociologists have looked at rates of crime to find that income, upward income mobility, marriage rate, age of family formation, and rule of law are a few of the most significant factors. We find that other factors dominate the effect of gun ownership when we look at the 70 countries for which we have data.

Here is the plot of the gun ownership rate versus the murder rate. (Guns per 100 people versus the number of murders per 100k people)

We get a slight negative correlation with gun ownership in fact. That is probably an income effect. You need to be relatively affluent to own lots of guns. That wealth comes with high rates of employment and the rule of law. That doesn’t look significant to me.

Say what you will, the gun-ownership effect on murder isn’t there. We also see countries with very low rates of gun-ownership and frighteningly high murder rates. Violent crime has many causes. More importantly, we see countries with high rates of gun ownership and low murder rates. Those examples show that firearms ownership is not a significant cause of murder. The obvious question is what that means.

I’m a retired engineer rather than a PhD criminologist. I spent an hour putting the data together. If I figured out that guns ownership has an insignificant effect on the murder rate then so did the researchers paid for by anti-gun billionaires. This data means that they knew. It means they lied to please the people who paid them.

Hack through enough datasets and you can find the effect you want. Shame on them. Also, shame on us for giving them any attention and not checking for ourselves.

Please evaluate the data on your own if you think that I’m wrong. Here are the datasets I used. How hard did you need to torture the data to show that guns cause crime?

Sources-

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-ownership-by-country
(2022)
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/murder-rate-by-country
(2024)

Narrative: Anti-gunners seek safety; pro-gunners care only about rights. Wrong!

Far too often when a media outlet reports on “gun violence,” the undertone in the article favors the viewpoint of gun grabbers, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

It’s the same basic premise in most news stories: A shooting somewhere prompts anti-gun legislators to pass “commonsense gun control,” but pro-gun lawmakers are simply not interested in passing “gun safety” reform because, well, rights are more important than safety.

The authors often even cite the misleading statistics promulgated by Everytown for Gun Safety or Brady United — both staunch gun-grabbing organizations.

Such was the case again with a story about House Bill 433, the ban on so-called “mass casualty weapons” that, if passed, would result in making nearly all semi-automatic handguns and rifles illegal in Ohio. Fortunately, that bill likely will go nowhere. Another recent example was a story on passing “safe storage” laws.

Speaking of legislation: BFA testifies in favor of SB 32, Sen. Shaffer’s bill to provide civil immunity

What’s getting in the way? According to the typical narrative, it’s extremism. What they’re saying, of course, is that we gun-rights advocates are installing too many pro-gun extremist Ohio legislators who put rights above safety and cater to the evil gun lobby.

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to reemphasize from earlier this year………..

Attack and Defense
Thoughts on a 10/7 style attack on America

So I just finished Kurt Schlichter’s new novel, The Attack.  It’s a fictionalized account of an October 7 style attack that takes place on a large scale in the United States.  It’s also a warning.

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In essence, Iranian terror experts use America’s open southern border to slip in thousands of Islamist fanatics, sleeper cells who are primed to attack specified targets on command.  The terrorists don’t know their targets until the last minute, when they get guns, ammunition, and directions.  They also don’t know that they’re part of a massive effort.  This means that if they turn, or are caught, as a few do or are, they can’t give anything away.  They have minimal training, basically how to lay low, and to shoot guns and throw grenades.  They’re also equipped with web-linked cameras to stream their attacks, and the atrocities – rape, torture, etc. – that they perpetrate on their victims.  Also meth to pump them up for the attacks.

When the day comes, they attack public places, schools, the Atlanta Zoo, and so on.   The next day, with the overstretched police trying to protect public places and ordering people to shelter in their homes, they go after suburban neighborhoods, again placing torture, rape, and dismemberment videos online.  On the third day, the remaining terrorists attack infrastructure targets – substation transformers, oil refineries, etc.

The result is a six-figure civilian casualty list, massive economic disruption, and political turmoil.  The terrorists’ goal of cowing the United States into isolationism fails, however, in dramatic fashion.   The entire novel is written as an oral history from numerous viewpoints, including the terrorists and their leftist American sympathizers.

It’s a gripping story, and an unfortunately plausible cautionary tale.  How likely is it to happen?

Probably the biggest impediment to something like this happening in America is the aftermath of the 10/7 attacks on Israel.  Atrocities didn’t cow the Israelis, but angered them. Other nations, even many of those that the Palestinians of Hamas generally looked to for support, turned against them.  Hamas leaders are being targeted and killed, Hamas backers know they aren’t safe, and the Israelis simply continue to grind away, four months after the attacks happened.

And everyone knows that the consequences of an attack on the United States would likely be worse.

Or maybe not.  Our current president is senile and inept, our vice president is just inept – though neither Kamala nor Biden is named in the book, Schlichter’s version of Harris’s response to the attacks is picture perfect, an incomprehensible word salad that causes Americans to lose faith in her entirely.  The President and VP wind up being replaced by the unnamed Speaker of the House, who brings the hammer down.  (I was at a luncheon Friday with Speaker Mike Johnson and didn’t get to speak to him – we had to leave early – but I was going to tell him that his role in the line of succession is probably more important for the remainder of this year than it usually would be.  I did notice that there was a lot more security than I had seen at similar events in the past).

Okay, I said it was a cautionary tale, but once cautioned, what should we do?

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Lone Wolf Attacks: The Most Likely Form of Terror

The open Southern Border is of utmost concern to anyone who is wise enough to realize that such a situation is unsustainable for the survival of a nation.  Not only does the influx of unmitigated and unregulated ILLEGAL migration strain national resources, but it has also introduced a host of security threats. Hidden among the constant stream of border crossers is human trafficking and narcotics importation.  Perhaps most worrisome of all is the fact that, for the past several years, bad actors in league with foreign entities who intend to commit terror attacks against the United States can literally just walk in.  This situation has resulted in even federal agencies admitting that the threat of terror cells is very real.

Still, whether or not terror cells activate at some point, which is a real possibility, a consistent threat that has always been with us certainly remains so, and that is the lone wolf terrorist. Lone wolf essentially means that an individual acts of their own accord to commit a mass-casualty or terror event.  The individual may well swear allegiance to a terrorist group or cause, but they are not directly supported by the group.  In terms of Jihadi-type terrorism, some lone wolves have been “radicalized” by fringe religious leaders or groups, but more often than not, the individual simply goes looking for a degenerate cause to latch onto in order to self-justify the terrible violence they wish to commit.  The truth is, all such mass attacks, whether workplace or school shootings, in supposed retaliation for bullying or oppression or attacks, steeped in extremist ideology, are committed by people of a similar mentality, no matter the particulars.  

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Americans Bought 15 Million Guns Last Year

With all the constant unrest throughout America and the ongoing movement to defund and prosecute police who do their jobs, it’s no surprise that Americans purchased over 15 million firearms last year.

The reason seems to be clear: people across the country are realizing that they need to start becoming responsible for their own safety. A Rasmussen poll showed that some 67% of Americans thought self-defense was driving gun sales.

Kyle Harrison with Top Gun Range says, “It just doesn’t make sense to put your trust in someone else to protect you.” He says even with the police doing the best they can, they are understaffed and can’t be everywhere at once.

Harrison says people find out they need to protect themselves at different points in their life, and it could be triggered by a negative event or a positive life development such as having children or getting married, which brings the realization on that they want to protect their family.

Larry Correia

Guys, if there is one single lesson you can take from all of these arguments about mass killers it is this. What stops mass killers is a violent response. Period.

That response can either be immediate, from somebody who is already present, or it can come later from somebody who has to travel to the scene. But the longer it takes for that violent response, the longer the killer has to work unimpeded, the higher the body count.

That’s it. That’s the equation.

When these quislings and cowards try to claim the moral high ground by keeping good people disarmed, do not give them a ******* inch. We tried their way. It ends in more bodies. **** them. No more. Fight or get out of the way.

Tennessee governor plans to sign bill that would let teachers carry guns in schools
Lee alluded to the pushback from Democrats, saying, “There are folks across the state who disagree on the way forward.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Thursday that he planned to sign a bill state legislators sent to his desk this week that would allow school staff members to carry concealed handguns on school grounds.

“What’s important to me is that we give districts tools and the option to use a tool that will keep their children safe in their schools,” Lee said at a news conference Thursday after he shared his plans to sign the legislation.

Under state law, Lee, a Republican, has the option to sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature.

The Republican-controlled state House passed the measure Tuesday largely along party lines roughly a year after a shooter opened fire and killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville. The state Senate, which is also controlled by the GOP, passed the measure this month.

Lee on Thursday highlighted the legislation’s requirements that faculty and staff members wishing to carry concealed handguns on school grounds complete a minimum of 40 hours of approved training specific to school policing every year. They also must obtain written authorization from law enforcement, he noted.

“There are folks across the state who disagree on the way forward,” Lee said Thursday, adding that he thought the legislation would allow school districts the opportunity to decide “at the local level what is best for the schools and the children in that district.”

But the measure drew criticism from Democrats like state Rep. Bo Mitchell, who referred to the Covenant shooting in remarks on the House floor.

“This is what we’re going to do. This is our reaction to teachers and children being murdered in a school. Our reaction is to throw more guns at it. What’s wrong with us?” Mitchell said.

Tennessee isn’t the only state to have approved legislation allowing teachers to carry guns. At least 26 states have laws permitting teachers or other school employees to possess guns on school grounds, with some exceptions, according to the Giffords Law Center, a gun violence prevention group.

What’s Old Is New Again, and Militias Are the New Black

Thanks to a successful leftist smear campaign, most Americans now see militia members as being nothing more than drooling, wacko, camo-clad, right-wingers sipping Black Rifle coffee in their backyard pillbox, stupidly unaware the FBI has a drone watching them from above.

Militias date back to the origins of the United States and earlier. They were created for the same reasons we are seeing a resurgence in militias today: to stand up against a government that can’t be trusted.

From MilitaryHistoryNow.com:

Perhaps the strongest cultural tradition to transfer from England to its colonies was the distrust of a standing army that could enforce the crown’s will and circumvent parliament. England’s strength lay in its navy, which was out of sight – and often out of mind – and could not project power inland. The army was not considered a gentleman’s occupation and soldiers were looked upon as mere pawns.
Founding Father James Madison understood the need for militias better than most.
“Because since inception, militias have been tasked with stopping those who hold public office from exceeding their authority or those seeking to enact legislation outside of their operating charter,” Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, which is “a crucial check against incremental encroachment by the state.”
Madison was on a roll:
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprizes of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

The Founding Fathers knew something few seem to realize today: power corrupts horrible people. Thus, they wrote the need for a militia into the 2nd Amendment: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Leftists like to pretend there are differing interpretations of the 2nd Amendment, but it seems incontestable to me. Armed militias are a necessary segment of our freedom. Easy peasy, unless you’re a demented communist.

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I actually know people who are more scared of knives than guns.

Never Underestimate The Danger Of Edged Weapons

A recent video out of Tucson, Ari., shows us the right way to respond to a man threatening you with a sword. But, if you’ve never thought too much about how you’d respond to such a thing, it’s worth taking a few seconds to mentally run through that scenario, because misconceptions about blades and guns are all over the map in society.

But first, let’s look at the video:

Obviously, this guy isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and his connection with reality wasn’t very solid. He decided to do some emotionally intense sword practice in a hotel parking lot, screaming and waving his sword around, probably not unlike the Star Wars Kid. When hotel management told him to stop, he ignored them. So, the sheriff’s department had to come out there to let him know that he couldn’t keep doing that.

When deputies arrived, he refused to put the sword away (which he had sheathed by then). Why? Because he was “trying to achieve greatness with the katana”. Then, of course, he had to ask the rhetorical question of whether katana practice is allowed in the United States. That’s an obvious “yes”, but it’s generally not tolerated in a parking lot. Instead of seeing that maybe he should have gone out to some forest or BLM land, he kept arguing the issue with deputies, telling them he’s “hella responsible”.

He then tried to explain that he’s related to a Greek god, and that if anyone wants to kill him, he’s going to be hard to kill. Then, he drew the sword and advanced on deputies with predictable results.

While the guy’s idiocy is pretty funny, you do have to feel bad for the guy because it ended up costing him his life. But, it doesn’t help you much if you find yourself explaining your empathy for the guy’s mental shortcomings if you’re doing that explaining at the pearly gates (or whatever you think you’d find after getting killed).

The fact is, a sword or even a knife can be more deadly than getting shot by a gun. Worse, it takes 1-2 seconds to draw a pistol from its holster and fire it (the above video is a fancy version of the Tueller Drill), allowing a person with a blade to inflict a fatal injury on you before you can draw. So, the police were right both to back away and increase the distance, draw and fire on him as soon as he advanced on them. There’s just no spare time to “shoot it out of his hand” or “shoot him in the leg” (things idiots think police should do in such situations).

So, if you ever see someone acting crazy with a knife or a sword, don’t get too close. In fact, leave if you’re not being paid to deal with the guy. Such a confrontation can cost you everything. But, if you have to deal with such a person, don’t assume that you’re invincible because you have a gun, because the distance you can shoot from can disappear quick when someone’s running toward you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carnevale indicated his whole family is now armed.

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

Officials: “No increase in gun violence since ‘constitutional carry’ law

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office and the Spartanburg City Police said they have seen no uptick in gun violence since the controversial bill dubbed “Constitutional Carry” was signed into law on March 7.

The law directs millions of dollars into free gun safety programs, while making it legal for any adult to openly carry a handgun in public without a permit.

It still remains a rule that only an person 21 years of age or older can purchase a handgun.

Before the law was enacted, adults 21 and older were able to both purchase a handgun and carry it in public.

Last month, Spartanburg-based state Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R) said the law would not normalize gun violence.

“If you’re going to pull out a pistol in public and point it at someone because you are pissed off that they took your parking space, we’re not allowing that,” Kimbrell said.

Spartanburg-based gun store T&K Outdoors said they’ve seen an increase in customers.

“Firearms are a dangerous item. They’re not toys. You must be safe with them,” said Danny Ley, a T&K Salesperson.

A manager at the store said they emphasize gun safety and will never allow a customer to leave a store with a gun they purchased until they’ve educated the customer.

“When the customer leaves here they have a better understanding of how guns work [and] how they need to be safe with it,” said Kyle Marlow, a T&K outdoors manager. “And we are an open book, we don’t believe any question is too dumb.”

Be Alert.

There has been a lot of unofficial chatter, and even a few official statements of concern, over the possibility of terrorist attacks in the U.S. (thank you open borders!). Quite a few of us think it is a given. Something that happened at Church yesterday makes me even more concerned.

A young male came into the Church during the service, wearing dark clothing that had the air of a delivery uniform, with one of those urban draw-string backpacks on. Under one arm he was carrying what looked like a (decent sized) cardboard box with a delivery label on it. He came in and sat down (most were standing at the time) and stayed a while.

My first thought was ‘heck of a time for a delivery’ and the second thought was ‘uh oh.’ I kept a discrete eye on him, and it turns out the friend sitting next to me was keeping an even stronger eye on him. He got up and left, and my friend went to be sure he was leaving and see where he went — which was to the church across the street.

Now, this could be entirely innocent, however… The box was more than large enough to have held a single SMG or multiple regular pistols with spare mags. It could have held one or more explosive devices (may have walked over to be sure nothing left on the floor or secured under a pew despite not seeing any indication he had tried to access the box). My friend’s thought was to be sure he wasn’t going out to arm up before coming back in. Both of us, I think, have a concern he was casing churches in the area.

Could be innocent. Could be recon. Know I’m going to have an eye out and am inclined to see about giving an unofficial heads up to some LE types.

To all of you out there: keep your head on a swivel, have a plan, and be prepared. Things are such I will be amazed if biological material does not impact the rotary impeller and soon. Keep your family and friends close, and your things where you can find them in the dark.

Amid crime surge, vendors in Bogota turn to hired guns

On the streets of a Bogota neighborhood where a businessman was killed for refusing to pay protection money, retired soldiers sporting weapons and camouflage gear keep a watchful eye on every movement.

Similar “self-defense” groups have sprung up all over Colombia’s capital, a city of some eight million people that has experienced a surge in robberies and killings since the beginning of the year.

As fear has risen in step with crime, residents and business owners are taking matters into their own hands in a country with low levels of trust in the authorities.

“We are taking care of security. There are armed people here, but within the law. We are not illegal, we are military pensioners and the traders are paying us,” one of the sentinels told AFP in Bogota’s 7 de Agosto neighborhood, a bustle of autoparts shops.

Wearing ski masks and military-style boots, the men refused to give their names. Some said they were paid by shop owners — several of whom confirmed to AFP they were relying on hired guns to protect their lives and possessions.

Other patrolling guards claimed they work with the “Gaula” — official law enforcement divisions created in the police and military to combat kidnapping and extortion — a still all-too prevalent crime in Colombia as in other countries with a presence of drug gangs.

But Gaula officials told AFP the non-uniformed sentries have nothing to do with them.

“Civilians have no place” in the fight against extortion, insisted Colonel Cristian Caballero, commander of the Military Gaula in Bogota.

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FBI Figures Show Crime Fell as Americans Stocked Up on Guns in 2023

FBI figures reported by NBC News on March 19, 2024, show that crime fell during 2023, a year in which there were over one million background checks a month for gun purchases.

On July 4, 2023, the Washington Examiner noted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks for gun purchases have been over a million a month for 47 straight months.

On March 19, 2024, Breitbart News spoke with National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Mark Oliva and he said it has now been 55 consecutive months of one million-plus NICS checks.

This means, leading up to 2023 and throughout 2023, Americans were pouring into gun stores to acquire firearms, yet “fourth-quarter numbers” reported by NBC News showed “a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime.”

Former CIA analyst Jeff Asher commented on the lower crime figures, saying, “It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest one-year decline in murder that has ever been recorded.”

There was a similar situation after gun sales surged in 2013. Breitbart News pointed out that private gun sales skyrocketed during 2013 with 21,093,273 background checks, and, according to the FBI, “offenses” in the categories of violent crimes and property crimes decreased during the first six months of 2014.

On a broader scale, Breitbart News observed a 2012 Congressional Research Service study showing gun ownership jumped from 192 million privately owned guns in 1994 to 309 million in 2009. At the same time, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” of 6.6 per 100,000 Americans in 1993 fell to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2000 and as far as 3.2 per 100,000 in 2011.

An Armed Citizen’s Guide on What To Do When Calling 911.

PICTURE THE SCENE: You’re about four minutes into your worst wak­ing nightmare. You had to pull your gun and use it; that’s the bad news. The good news is, you’re still alive. You know that because you can still smell the gun smoke and feel your heart pounding with adrenaline. The would-be offender is dead, or at least isn’t moving. It was him or you, no doubt about that. And because you’re confident you’re justified in your actions, it’s time to fulfill your obliga­tion as a responsible and law-abiding person and notify the police.

But not so fast. You may have pro­tected yourself against a deadly threat, but now it’s time to protect yourself against potential recrimination. Ev­erything will be scrutinized by police, prosecutors and maybe a jury, starting with the call you’re about to make. For you, and almost every other defensive shooter, 911 is the first point of contact with the justice system. What you say matters. Get this one wrong, and your 911 call could play out on broadcast news , turn your community against you and feature prominently for some enterprising prosecutor who might have crowed in the last election that getting guns off the street is a priority, but doesn’t distinguish between crimi­nals and law-abiding gun owners.

You can’t panic. It’s just the rest of your life that could change based on the words you pick…at exactly the time when your nervous system is still try­ing to claw itself back down to normal from almost dying.

Don’t blow it.

HISTORY

The use of a three-digit emergency number got its start in the United Kingdom with the advent of the 999 call system. Under the Johnson Admin­istration, the Federal Communications Commission hatched a plan for the 911 call system with AT&T in the late 1960s. Soon after, states began building their own networks. While only half of resi­dents in the United States had access to 911 by the end of the Reagan Admin­istration, most of the U.S. is served by some form of the system today.

And yes, despite what you may read on the windows of pickup truck cabs or at gun-friendly thrift shops, most people do call 911. (Those stickers can potentially create trouble for you by the way in the event of a defensive shooting, but that’s another story for later.) According to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) there are more than 3,000 911 call centers in the United States, field­ing some 240 million emergency calls each year.

If your scene is safe and the threat is contained, it’s time to make an impor­tant call.

 

911 Fact: When Does the Recording Begin?

Everything you say on the 911 call will be recorded and submitted as evidence. To the surprise of many, though, that recording begins the second you push that last 1. Before the operator even picks up the call, the recording has begun. It’s important to know this because you may be having a private conversation with someone about the event and potentially say something that can be caught in a recording and be used against you in court.

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Az Senate approves extension of “castle doctrine” self-defense law

PHOENIX – A Senate committee approved an expansion of Arizona’s “castle doctrine” self-defense to make it apply not just in someone’s home and yard but on any property they own or control after a fiery debate on Thursday.

The fight between Republicans backing what the sponsor of House Bill 2843 originally framed as a needed protection for farmers and ranchers against Democrats who said it targeted migrants.

But in debate at the Judiciary Committee that lasted an hour, Rep. Justin Heap, R-Mesa, the sponsor of the measure, said it had nothing to do with migrants and only makes a minor change to the existing law.

“It just makes it clear to judges in what circumstances you can raise a defense in court,” Heap told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

That, however, is not how Heap sold the measure when it went through the House.

He told colleagues that the law was needed specifically to give ranchers and farmers tools they need to stop large number of migrants from crossing their lands. Those remarks during testimony in an earlier House committee hearing were widely reported in various news media.

During that much more sedate House hearing last month, Heap said the change would simply give legal cover for property owners to threaten to use deadly force to evict a trespasser on vast swaths of the state’s open ranch and farm land. If they actually used deadly force, they’d have to show they were themselves threatened.

Heap tried to walk back those statements on Thursday, saying the change in law he was proposing had nothing to do with immigration. But the damage was done.

“My first question would be why were you surprised that the attention that this has brought is what it is,” Sen. Anna Hernandez, D-Phoenix, asked Heap.

Heap said statements he was quoted as making at that hearing were inaccurately conveyed.

But numerous Democrats read directly from transcripts during Thursday’s hearing. And a review by Capitol Media Services of Heap’s testimony confirmed it.

Republicans, however, slammed the media for crafting an inaccurate narrative. Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said it does not change existing law that only allows someone to shoot in defense of themselves or someone else.

“Yet all the opponents of this bill have blanketed the news media with ‘you can use deadly force in your house and now we’re taking it outside,'” said Kavanagh. “The result will be some people may be killed because of misinformation gun control people against this bill have spread all over the place.”

He said people who believe that could end up being charged with homicide because they thought the reports were accurate.

“Let’s stop the misinformation,” he added.

“This bill does nothing but expand the area of the existing law, which doesn’t allow deadly force purely for trespass,” Kavanagh said. “And decent people who were misled by that lie will end up being prosecuted for criminally negligent homicide or manslaughter because they thought that they could shoot to kill in their house.”

Others, however, said the effects of what Heap is proposing are significant.

Anne Thompson, a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, a group that pushes for strong gun laws, urged the panel not to broaden the state’s self-defense laws.

“Unfortunately, the ramifications of this bill can be dehumanizing and can provoke vigilantism and escalate conflicts to violence,” Thompson said.

Marilyn Rodriguez, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, warned that enacting the measure would be misread by ordinary people – namely the farmers and ranchers Heap initially said he was trying to help.

“Often, it is applied so broadly by individuals and then held up by law enforcement as a means to shoot and kill trespassers who are marching across your farmland at the border,” Rodriguez said.

Arizona has several trespassing laws on the books, including one that already allows a property owner or manager to order someone to leave their land and to ask law enforcement officers to compel them to do so or be arrested.

The change in law that Heap is proposing is in the actual self-defense law. Currently, that law applies only to a residence or a residential yard.

The measure was passed by the committee on a 4-3 vote, with only Republicans in support.

“Every week I’m amazed by the egregious types of bills that we hear in this committee and other committees and as we vote for them in the (majority Republican) makeup of what exists now,” Hernandez said. “The fact that we’re trying to expand legislation that would encourage killing and shooting that would result in death is wild to me.”

Republicans continued to push back, calling the narrative embraced by minority Democrats false.

“I am disturbed by the amount of misinformation and politicking taking place from the left side of the dais today,” said Sen. Justine Wadsack, R-Tucson. “And if you read the bill, you would see that your arguments have nothing to do with the bill. You’ve clearly not read the bill.”

That prompted one last eruption during the hearing, this one from Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe.

“I clearly read the bill, aloud, to the audience, so do not accuse me of not reading the bill,” Epstein said.

“Misinformed, misinformed,” Wadsack shot back.

Heap said during House meetings that he was pushing for the change because of concerns with ambiguities in the current law raised by prosecutors in Yuma and Yavapai counties. But the two county attorneys, Jon Smith in Yuma and Dennis McGrane in Yavapai, told Capitol Media Services they had not asked for the law to be changed.

McGrane said a recent case in his county did involve questions about how the law it applied in specific circumstances. He said, though, someone outside his office raised it with a lawmaker.