Category: Safety

Simple demographic calculations point out that this would not end the way they might want.
Maybe what works is “Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin‘”

‘Kill Everything White in Sight,’ Speaker Tells Crowd at Tulsa Massacre Rally

The New Black Panthers and 14 other gun clubs marched through Tulsa on Saturday to remember the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, May 31-June 1, 1921, in what they called a  “Second Amendment March for Reparations.“

Hundreds of people from the pro-2nd amendment gun groups, heavily armed, marched through Tulsa chanting, “black power”, “black lives matter” and “who’s streets, our streets” as they made their way to the Greenwood section of Tulsa, the predominantly black neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” in 1921.

“The struggle for Reparations must be escalated,” a news release from the event organizers read. “We must fight on every front to achieve redress and Reparations for the atrocities committed upon Tulsa Massacre descendants; and we must intensify the fight to achieve Reparations for all 40-million Blacks still grossly affected by racism, inequality, wealth disparity, police brutality and the like. Tulsa will mark a new beginning in the upgraded fight for Reparations for Black people.”

Kyle Hooten, formerly of the Trump administration tweeted,

“When normal gun rights groups march with rifles they don’t chant “our streets.” This isn’t comparable to a gun rights rally, this is a show of force from a racial supremacist organization that the media is totally ignoring.”

Hooten also tweeted a video of a man clearly calling for a violence against white people for “6,000 years of killing us.”

No google search was able to find the statistics mentioned by the race-baiter. Actually, as per the FBI, even though white people outnumber black people 5-1, black people out murder white people at a rate greater than 2-1.

The “Tulsa Race Massacre” started May 31, 1921 when a black man, 19-year-old Dick Rowland, was arrested on suspicion of raping a white elevator operator, Sarah Page, 17. A white mob showed up at the courthouse and demanded Rowland be turned over to the crowd and lynched. Black supporters showed up to defend Rowland. Both mobs had guns and a riot broke out when a black man shot a white man. The next day roughly 1,500 white people burned 35 square blocks of the predominantly black neighborhood known as “Greenwood.”

Though some people believe as many as 300 black people were killed, a 2001 study stated 36 were killed, 26 of whom were black and 10 of whom were white. Rowland was released and not charged. He left Tulsa and never returned.

Spiritual Suicide or Righteous Self Determination ~ Carry Guns

When the “mainstream media” refer to “mass shootings,” we never get to know what kind of gun(s) was used. They know, but they won’t tell us, unless of course, it’s an M4, Kalashnikov, et al, one of the ones they want confined to use by their political bedfellows, but banned from ownership by us “ordinary citizens.”

In any event, here is a paragraph or two you’ll never hear, nor read:

“Not one of the murdered/injured, bystanders, nor witnesses at this massacre were armed and thereby able to effectively stop this attack. Both company policy and state law prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons by these aforementioned persons. The sad, but predictable, the result of these manufactured ‘gun-free zones’ is, as always, pitiable carnage.

How did that ‘run, hide, fight (without weapons)’ advice work this time?

About as well as it always does?

And of course, where were our vaunted ‘security personnel?’ Hiding, like everyone else?”

Why are these words never, ever spoken at “mass shooting” scenes?

Meanwhile, boot-licking “woke” CEOs, who are just dying to climb in bed with every Democrat politician they can suck up to, and decry our Second Amendment as they dutifully mouth assorted other classic Communist propaganda.

Americans are buying up the entire retail supply of firearms and ammunition, and then some, but most are leaving those firearms at home, deeply fearful of violating a leftist “malum prohibitum,” issued by hand-wringing, woke CEOs (timidly peering-out from between their cadre of heavily-armed bodyguards), and also mandated by sleazy, hypocritical Democrat-heavy state legislatures, and city councils.

Neither wants American citizens doing anything to take care of themselves. They want only victims, lots of victims. They want all Americans to think of themselves only as pathetic victims.

Indeed, they want you to consider perpetual victimhood to be your sacred civic duty.

They love victims, but only as long as they stay victims.

When you don’t want to be a victim, indeed refuse to be a victim, they hate your guts.

Listen to them!

“Self-pity is spiritual suicide.” ~ Anthon St Maarten

Dumb, Disarmed and Diseased
Dumb, Disarmed and Diseased

Have you noticed how the elite is bent on creating the perfect serf? From ensuring we are unarmed to pushing pot – yeah, America needs more of a drug that makes people lazier and less interesting – to hyping the pandemic, everything the ruling caste has been doing lately seems focused on turning us into drones. And far too many people are just letting it happen.

And now the US government will be pimping BLM to foreigners. Great. How could that go wrong? Our nonpartisan government is now fully partisan – weren’t norms important just a few months ago?

Building The Perfect Serf

With a hat-tip to Aaron, whose tweet alerted me to the painfully dumb meme of the commie gov of Pennsylvania, the campaign to change Americans from proud, industrious citizens into submissive, dependent subjects is going full-throttle. The governor, recently rebuked by the citizens who voted away his dictatorial flu powers in a welcome bit of push-back, decried the fact people can buy guns from each other without his permission but can’t have dope without a medical ID card – I guess requiring ID for getting high is as onerous as it is for voting. So, in his optimal universe, people can’t get arms to protect themselves unless he thinks it’s okay and grants them a dispensation to do so, but it should be open season at the dope dispensary. And, of course, they have to be masked while doing it, at least until they wrap their lips around the bong.

Being able to defend yourself: Bad.

Being stoned on a couch watching Scooby-Doo: Good.

Being masked all the time: Better.

Guns allow people to break the monopoly on force held by the government, creating a limit to what the government can do. No wonder liberals hate that. This right gives people the impression that the consent of the governed matters. Bunch of wicked “insurrectionists” they are, daring to think they should possess some sort of ultimate veto power over their betters!

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Bill That Would Make it a Felony for Texas Protesters to Obstruct Emergency Vehicles Heads to the Governor’s Desk

The Texas Senate voted 25-5 to pass a bill that would raise criminal penalties and require jail time for people who knowingly obstruct emergency vehicles from passing through a roadway or who block a hospital entrance. It now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

The bill is in response to last year’s nationwide protests against police brutality, which were sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Massive protests erupted in major cities across the country, including in Texas, where demonstrators were arrested for allegedly damaging property or blocking roadways.

House Bill 9, which now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott, would make it a state jail felony for people who knowingly obstruct an emergency vehicle that has its lights flashing and sirens turned on. People could also face felony charges for obstructing the entrance of a licensed hospital. The Texas House passed the bill, 90-55, a few weeks ago.

 

Self Defense Essentials and the Combat Triad
When it comes to personal protection your mindset is more important than the gun and ammo you carry

Imagine you’re new to firearms and want to be armed for self-defense. You’re probably wondering which gun to buy, what type of holster you need, and what kind of ammunition would be best. Some will argue the gun is the most important element because it must work every time. Others will insist the holster matters most because if you’re uncomfortable carrying, you won’t carry. And then there are those who maintain that ammunition is paramount because ultimately, it’s the bullet that does all the work. Without question, all these items are important and can contribute to your survival, but what is most important?

The Combat Triad

Former Marine Jeff Cooper founded what is now known as Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona, in 1976. It is the oldest and largest civilian firearms training school in the world. In an effort to codify the basics of using a firearm to survive a lethal confrontation, Cooper established what he called the Combat Triad. This triangle of guidance consists of mindset, gun handling, and marksmanship. Though the three sides of the triangle are considered equilateral, the base or foundation of the Triad is mindset, for without the combat mindset, your skills and abilities with weaponry and tactics are of little value.

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Laser Eye Protection: Protecting Your Eyes from the Emerging Domestic Laser Threat.

As if cops in the U.S. don’t have enough to worry about, 2020 came along and added laser beams to the mix. We’ve seen protesters in Portland wielding handheld lasers against police officers during nightly street clashes. The social unrest surrounding George Floyd’s death has led to more than 130 consecutive days of violent protests in Portland, with other high-intensity, shorter duration demonstrations popping off in cities around the country.

Lasers will only become more popular among street protestors, so it’s worth a few minutes to learn how they work and how to protect yourself from them.

BOUND TO HAPPEN HERE

While lasers are a new threat to American LEOs, the first notable use of handheld lasers in civil unrest was overseas in 2013. Demonstrators packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square calling for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to step down. The crowd focused their cat toys on an Egyptian military helicopter flying over the demonstration, menacing the protestors. Images of the laser-painted helo transmitted from the scene were eye-catching, and the media coverage helped focus the world’s attention on Egyptian politics.

Later, in 2019, sophisticated protesters in Hong Kong used cheap, handheld lasers to fry the CCDs in surveillance equipment used by the state to collect evidence against agitators during anti-Chinese government protests.

Taking it a third step, South American protestors watching the Hong Kong protests realized shining $30 novelty lasers directly at riot control officers were effective tools to distract, disorient, and possibly injure them during street protests.

This brings us to America in 2020, where all three of these tactics melded into the threat facing law enforcement officers working protest details in Portland, Seattle, and other areas of unrest around the country.

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ND: Burgum designates North Dakota as a ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary State,’ signs bills protecting gun rights

Gov. Doug Burgum on April 26, signed a proclamation designating North Dakota as a “Second Amendment Sanctuary State,” reinforcing the state’s support for the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Burgum signed the proclamation during a ceremonial signing with legislators for several bills approved this session to protect the rights of North Dakotans to possess and carry firearms.

“Both the U.S. Constitution and North Dakota Constitution recognize our citizens’ inalienable right to keep and bear arms, and designating North Dakota as a Second Amendment Sanctuary State sends a strong message to Congress and the White House that we will firmly resist any attempts to infringe on those rights,” Burgum said. “We are deeply grateful to all of the legislators who sponsored and supported these bills and worked to strengthen North Dakota’s commitment to the Second Amendment.”

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11 days after Kamala Harris says that ‘Only the government should have assault weapons’, an Army trainee hijacks an elementary school bus full of children…….

The 23-year-old suspect was taken into custody.

A Fort Jackson trainee is in custody after allegedly hijacking a South Carolina elementary school bus with 18 children on board while carrying a rifle, authorities said.

The Forest Lake Elementary students and the bus driver are safe, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

The 23-year-old trainee’s weapon did not have ammunition, Fort Jackson Commander Brig. Gen. Milford H. Beagle Jr. said at a news conference, adding that the children and driver could not have known that.

Lott called this “one of the scariest calls that we could get in law enforcement.”

The incident began around 7 a.m. Thursday when the suspect allegedly hopped a barbed wire fence and fled Fort Jackson, according to Lott and Beagle.

The children had boarded the bus when the armed suspect, Jovan Collazo, got on and allegedly “told the bus driver he didn’t want to hurt him, but he wanted him to drive him to the next town,” Lott said.

The sheriff’s office released surveillance video from inside the school bus showing the suspect pointing a rifle at the bus driver and telling him to drive.

The bus driver started driving and Collazo brought the children to the front of the bus, Lott said.

“The kids started asking lots of questions to the suspect if he was going to hurt them or the bus driver,” Lott said.

“The suspect got a little frustrated,” Lott said, and the driver pulled over.

After six minutes on board with Collazo, the children and the bus driver got off safely, Lott said.

The suspect then drove the bus for a few miles before abandoning it, leaving the rifle inside, Lott said.

Collazo was spotted by deputies and civilians and was arrested without incident, Lott said. He faces charges including kidnapping, Lott said.

Beagle described the trainee, believed to be in his third week at Fort Jackson, as a quiet 23-year-old from New Jersey. He said it appeared the trainee was trying to get home.

“There is nothing that leads us to believe in his counseling, in his screening records coming in, that this had anything to do with harming others, harming himself or anything that links to any type of nefarious activity,” Beagle said. “We do experience several soldiers that over the course of initial stages have that desire, that anxiety, and due to separation from their families, to get home. We think that was truly his intent and nothing beyond that.”

Richland County School Board Chairman James Manning said, “I’ve been on the board now for over 10 years and I have never received a call that scared me as much as the call that I received this morning — that a bus had been hijacked with our students and staff.”

The students were taken to school “where they received support from school employees and counselors and were reunited with their parents/guardians,” the school district said.

Superintendent Baron Davis said in a statement, “Once we were certain all students were accounted for and physically safe, we immediately began deploying social and emotional counseling resources to the school so that our students could begin the process of healing as they are dealing with a traumatic event. We will continue to provide counseling services for the students and their families, our bus driver and employees as long as necessary.”

Lott praised the bus driver who he said “kept his cool” and “kept the situation calm.”

“His main concern was the safety of those kids and he did his job,” Lott said.

RUGER-57™ SAFETY BULLETIN

Ruger has discovered that a small number of Ruger-57 pistols may have right safety levers that do not meet our specifications and may be prone to cracking. Although only a very small number of pistols appear to be affected, Ruger is committed to safety and is asking owners of Ruger-57 pistols to perform a routine function check of the safety lever to ensure its proper operation. If the function check confirms that the safety lever is operating properly, no further action is required. If you find that your pistol’s safety lever is not functioning properly, please sign up for this retrofit. View Safety Bulletin PDF

RUGER-57 PISTOLS WITH A SERIAL NUMBER OF 642-26275 AND ABOVE ARE NOT AFFECTED BY THIS SAFETY BULLETIN.

Products Subject to This Safety Bulletin

Potentially affected pistols include any Ruger-57 pistol with a serial number of 642-26274 or lower (including all Ruger-57 pistols with a “641” prefix). If your Ruger-57 pistol is within this range (641-00000 to 642-26274), you should follow the inspection procedure outlined below to determine whether your pistol requires a retrofit. Ruger-57 pistols with a serial number of 642-26275 and above are not affected by this Safety Bulletin.

Description of the Issue

In some rare instances, the internal “leg” of the right safety lever may crack or break, rendering the manual safety ineffective. If present, this condition may cause the manual safety to appear to be functioning properly when it is not. Although Ruger already instructs owners of Ruger-57 pistols to perform a function check before each use, we are requesting that all owners of potentially affected pistols perform this safety inspection immediately.

How to Inspect Your Pistol

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, BE SURE YOUR PISTOL IS UNLOADED AND THERE IS NO LIVE AMMUNITION IN YOUR WORKSPACE.

  • With the pistol pointed in a safe direction, remove the magazine and place the manual safety in the “fire” position.
  • Retract the slide and lock it to the rear using the slide stop.
  • Visually and physically inspect the chamber to ensure there is no ammunition present.
  • Retract the slide slightly and release to allow the slide to close on an empty chamber.
  • Engage the manual safety (see Figure 1) by pushing up on the safety lever. Ensure it moves up fully and “clicks” into place.
  • With the pistol pointed in a safe direction, pull the trigger firmly, but do not force it beyond the point where you meet resistance. The trigger should be blocked and the hammer should not fall (see Figure 2A).

NOTE: If your pistol PASSES the function check (trigger is blocked and hammer does not fall) NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUIRED.

If your pistol FAILS the function check (with the manual safety engaged, you are able to pull the trigger and the hammer falls – Figure 2B), PLEASE DO NOT USE YOUR PISTOL. SIGN UP FOR THE RETROFIT OR CALL US AT 336-949-5200.

Ruger reminds consumers that periodic inspection and function checks of any firearm is important to ensuring its safe operation. It is important to frequently perform regular function checks as described in your instruction manual, and to clean and inspect your firearm after each range session. Proper maintenance increases the longevity of your firearm and will allow early detection of worn or broken parts.

Ruger also reminds consumers to always treat every firearm as though it is loaded and always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Never rely upon any safety or mechanical device to justify unsafe or careless firearm handling.

How to Sign Up for the Retrofit

STEP 1: Perform the function check. If your pistol PASSES the function check, no further action is required.

STEP 2: If your pistol FAILS the function check (you are able to pull the trigger and release the hammer with the manual safety engaged), please do not use your pistol. Sign up for the retrofit below or by phone at 336-949-5200.

STEP 3: Our Customer Service team will issue you an RMA and send you a pre-paid shipping label to return your pistol for service.

STEP 4: We will perform all required safety updates and will make every effort to return your pistol within one week of when we receive it.

Sign Up For Retrofit

I figure shooting lots of holes as fast as possible in a bad guy qualifies.

Why Doing the Unexpected Aids in Self Defense

One of our patrolmen, on night shift, was checking the business houses in his district when he spotted a burglar inside an auto parts store at about the same time that the burglar spotted him. The immediate problem was to somehow cover the front door and the back door until backup could arrive. So our enterprising police officer simply turned on his red lights & siren and drove around and around the building just as fast as he could.

Later, when the burglar was asked why he didn’t make a run for it before reinforcements arrived, he said, “Are you kidding? That maniac might have run over me!”

In another incident, a ranch woman was fixing breakfast long before daylight when a home invader kicked in the kitchen door and made his entry. The woman just grabbed a big old coffee pot off the top of the stove and threw it in his face, hot coffee and all. The crook left so fast that he may have set the record for the all-time shortest home invasion.

The thing to remember is that crooks tend to visualize what is going to happen much like we have encouraged armed citizens to do. The only trouble is that the crook’s visualization tends to take the form of fantasy. They see themselves as super tough and they see you, the citizen, as standing there with your mouth open and your hands up.

We can often turn the tables on the criminal by doing the unexpected. Instead of freezing, we jump right in their face. We throw something at them. We shove furniture in their way. We run at them instead of away from them. In short we do anything that will throw them off balance and give us time to get our defensive firearm into action.

The real key is to not only do the unexpected, but to do it quickly. And don’t hesitate. It is a good idea to keep in mind that the crook has started the ball rolling, and it is OK for you to get as aggressive as you need to.  “Cloud up and rain on him” is an old saying that seems particularly fitting. Just like the bobcat that jumped on the porcupine…he needs to realize that he has taken on more of a task than he ever expected. Think outside the box and turn his day into the worst one he’s ever had.

Be aware of your surroundings and all of the defensive tools that may be at hand. True personal defense comes from between the ears, not from the gun on the hip. Do the unexpected and wreck his day!

Mr Heller would like to comment about the Supreme Court ruling that mandatory storage laws are unconstitutional.

Oregon Passes Insane Mandatory Storage Law

Mandatory storage is an idea that looks good on paper but isn’t in practice. It requires people to lock up their guns when “not in use,” which is kind of an issue. You see, their definition of “in use” and mine are often quite different. A firearm sitting in the nightstand may be in use by someone who is concerned about a home invasion, for example, but the law doesn’t see it that way.

Luckily, these laws aren’t overly common. A handful of places have them, unfortunately, but most don’t.

However, one more joins the unfortunate list.

Years of halting efforts by gun-control advocates paid off Wednesday, as the Oregon Legislature gave final approval to a bill to require gun owners to securely store their weapons when not in use, or face potential consequences.

The “safe-storage” bill — a key policy aim for groups like Moms Demand Action and State of Safety since 2018 — passed the state Senate on a vote of 17-7 after a brief debate. It passed the House of Representatives last week on a similarly fraught vote.

If signed by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, Oregon will join 11 other states with laws requiring locking devices on stored firearms. Oregon’s bill also opens up gun owners to civil litigation if their unsecured weapon is used to inflict injury.

But the bill does far more, too. Democrats last month combined the safe-storage proposal with a bill that will ban guns in the state Capitol and large airport terminals, and allow public school districts, community colleges and universities to pass their own rules outlawing guns on their grounds.

So yes, there’s mandatory storage for Oregon now, and some additional stupid stuff.

In truth, the banning of guns in the state Capitol isn’t surprising. This was a knee-jerk reaction to armed protests last year and we had to kind of know this was coming. That doesn’t excuse it, mind you, but it’s not exactly a shock that it happened.

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Learn to Think like Someone who Chose to be Unarmed

People in the gun culture often express amazement about people who want them disarmed. They ascribe the desire to hostility and malice. It may be true for a minority of those who actively wish for a disarmed population.  A significant number, likely a majority, have made a voluntary decision to be unarmed.

It is important to know your opponent and to understand their motives.

Three years ago, this correspondent wrote an essay on how to understand people who want a disarmed population. It was popular, but did not appear on AmmoLand.

I have updated the essay for current conditions.

There is an easy way to understand people who wish you to be unarmed.

It takes a little discipline. You may have  a little mental discomfort. It is not particularly difficult.  For the ability to understand the other, assume you have deliberately chosen to be unarmed.

Choosing to be armed is more difficult. It requires action. It requires training. It requires an investment in money and time. You think about unpleasant realities and plan for unpleasant possibilities. You devote time and money to be armed. A higher level of responsibility is required.

Once you internalize the decision to be unarmed, arguments on the other side become understandable. The voluntarily unarmed people we are attempting to understand are those who have moved from the decision to be unarmed, to the policy statement “guns are bad”.

Armed people have a power advantage over unarmed people. People do not want others to have a power advantage over them. It makes them uncomfortable. To prevent this, the voluntarily unarmed often want everyone else to be unarmed.

It is why many who are voluntarily unarmed dislike concealed carry, but violently abhor open carry. Open carry presents them with a reality they cannot easily ignore. It destroys their comfortable fantasy.

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Gun Standoff Ensues During Protest Between BLM Activists And Restaurant Patrons Who Just Weren’t Having It

Black Lives Matter activists and patrons brandished guns at each other after a demonstration entered a restaurant’s dining area Saturday evening in Louisville, Kentucky, according to police.

Approximately 50 protesters stopped at La Chasse restaurant and began to harass restaurant patrons, according to a Twitter video. Video footage captured a man pointing his gun at the protestors from the outdoor dining area, the Courier Journal reported.

An unidentified woman was filmed as she physically moved protesters away and shooed them from the restaurant tables. Several protesters took videos on their phones as she repeatedly shouted “keep going” and gestured them to move away from an armed man.

The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) arrived at the restaurant at about 8:35 p.m., five minutes after the protesters arrived, the Courier Journal reported. La Chasse restaurant is about five miles northeast of Churchill Downs, according to TheBlaze.

LMPD said to Daily Caller that they received a call from a restaurant employee about a group of protesters. The employee also told police “that multiple armed protesters entered the … outdoor dining space. During the encounter both patrons and protesters brandished firearms.”

About 20 minutes prior to the confrontation at La Chasse, police officers arrested at least three protesters for refusing to leave the roadway, Courier Journal reported.

BLUF:
Firearms and ammo taxes do nothing but generate revenue and don’t stop crime or violence.

Firearm and Ammunition Taxes

Summary: Taxation has been a standard policy lever used to limit the harms associated with potentially dangerous goods (e.g., cigarettes, alcohol, and soda or sugary beverages). It has rarely been used to manage risks associated with gun violence, however. Although several states and localities have imposed special taxes on firearms and ammunition, these have typically been used to generate revenue, not as a strategy for reducing access to firearms or limiting gun crimes. Given limited variation in state and local firearm and ammunition taxes in recent history, as well as the absence of consistent data on firearm and ammunition prices over time and across geographies, there is little empirical evidence to indicate how taxation would influence firearm-related outcomes, such as violent crime, suicide, self-defense, or sales of firearms.

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The Economist: Constitutional Carry a ‘Troubling Trend’

The Economist labelled the state-level movement toward eliminating concealed carry permit requirements as a “troubling trend.”

The result of this push is permitless carry, or constitutional carry, as it is more often called. States that go this way view the Second Amendment as a sufficient carry permit and do not require law-abiding citizens to get a permit from the state government before exercising their right to bear arms.

Twenty states have currently abolished their concealed permit requirement. Those 20 states are: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. (NOTE: Utah’s constitutional carry law goes into effect May 5, 2021, and Tennessee’s takes effect July 1, 2021.)

Texas lawmakers are on the verge of passing constitutional carry legislation and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has made clear he will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk.

The Economist referred to this move toward constitutional carry as a “troubling trend,” claiming:

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For your contemplation.

The Need for Combative Skills as a Handgunner

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the same outrageous quip: “I would just shoot’em.” Or, equally troubling, “I carry a gun so I don’t need to fight.” This will ruffle some feathers, but if you carry a gun so that you don’t need to know how to fight, the gun is a talisman rather than a tool. The operative word in “gunfight” is fight, not gun. A firearm is only a force multiplier, a tool to more effectively accomplish a given task. In the world of violence and personal protection, relatively few tasks fall into the scope of where the firearm is justifiable in use. The gun should be a tool in the overall defensive toolbox, not the toolbox. Unfortunately, many gun carriers lose sight of this and focus too heavily on the particular tool.

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Root of Mass Shootings Pandemic Is Not Gun Access

Growing up in rural South Carolina on my family’s farm, I developed a love, appreciation, and, most importantly, a respect for firearms.

To this day, I remain a collector of firearms and a supporter of the American right to keep and bear arms as enshrined in the Second Amendment. I was taught that safety is paramount to gun ownership, so I have always encouraged responsible gun ownership and use for all Americans.

With that being said, I have noticed a disturbing trend in our country: an ever-increasing number of shootings and gun-related deaths.

And while the quick response from some, namely the left-wing mainstream media and liberal politicians, is to ban weapons and become more restrictive, it appears to me that we have serious mental health and poverty issues contributing to gun violence. I don’t believe that banning guns will result in any significant decline in shootings attributed to these two categories.

In the United States, since January 2021, we have had 195 mass shootings, with 245 people dying and approximately 731 wounded, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker.

While it’s important to acknowledge that there is not a universally accepted definition of what constitutes a “mass shooting,” these numbers are staggering. They are some of the highest numbers in the industrialized world.

Let’s contrast 2021 with when I was growing up, when mass shootings simply weren’t a problem. I believe that this is the direct result of the era and the family structure: Parents were involved in their children’s lives and children were taught discipline and respect.

By and large, members of my generation were raised in households with two parents, and we were taught how to deescalate and talk things out when problems arose. Today, that no longer seems to be the case.

We have a moral and social failing in our country that has caused an increase in mass shooters, predominantly young men. One has to pause to think about what’s different today from 30 or 40 years ago. It certainly isn’t guns, because it’s harder to get guns today than it was in the past, when you didn’t have to go through nationalized background checks. When I was growing up, you could purchase a firearm with no questions asked, yet we didn’t see so many mass shootings.

America’s young men are struggling with mental health issues or are broken and living in poverty with single mothers struggling to survive. Many of them are clearly crying out for help, and we owe it to them to listen.

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BLUF:
Compared to nearly the entire rest of the world, people in the United States have retained the ability to choose to be legally armed or unarmed. Most people in the USA want to keep the option. Nearly all the rest of the world does not have it.

The Case for More Guns, Learn to Think Like The Sheep Who Chose to Be Unarmed

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- People in the gun culture often express amazement about people who want them disarmed. They ascribe the desire to hostility and malice. It may be true for a minority of those who actively wish for a disarmed population.  A significant number, likely a majority, have made a voluntary decision to be unarmed.

It is important to know your opponent and to understand their motives.

Three years ago, this correspondent wrote an essay on how to understand people who want a disarmed population. It was popular but did not appear on AmmoLand News at that time.

I have updated the essay for current conditions.

There Is An Easy Way To Understand People Who Wish You To Be Unarmed.

It takes a little discipline. You may have a little mental discomfort, but it is not particularly difficult.  For the ability to understand the other side, assume you have deliberately chosen to be unarmed.

Choosing to be armed is more difficult. It requires action. It requires training. It requires an investment in money and time. You think about unpleasant realities and plan for unpleasant possibilities. You devote time and money to be armed. A higher level of responsibility is required.

Once you internalize the decision to be unarmed, arguments on the other side become understandable. The voluntarily unarmed people we are attempting to understand are those who have moved from the decision to be unarmed, to the policy statement “guns are bad”.

Guns are Bad
Guns are Bad

Armed people have a power advantage over unarmed people. People do not want others to have a power advantage over them. It makes them uncomfortable. To prevent this, the voluntarily unarmed often want everyone else to be unarmed.

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WaPo/ABC poll: Enthusiasm drops for gun-control legislation — but why?

Context matters, and so does polling consistency. The Washington Post/ABC News poll taken in 2018 after the Parkland mass shooting demonstrated a peak of enthusiasm for gun-control laws, 57/34. Three years later, that has shifted sixteen points in the gap, 50/43. So what happened?……..

So why has there been such a loss of enthusiasm for gun control? We’d know better if the WaPo/ABC polling units committed to proper interval polling on public opinion, but it’s likely due to the Democratic embrace of ‘abolish/defund the police’ sloganeering and a sharp rise in crime, especially violent crime, over the past year. If we’re abolishing or rolling back police departments, then self-defense becomes even more crucial as crime rises. Democrats are trying to argue two entirely contradictory points at the same time — that only cops should have guns, and that we shouldn’t have cops……….

6 out of 11 states that have gone from No/May Issue to Shall Issue/Permit-Less Carry since 1999 have seen their murder rates DECREASE in the years they allowed concealed carry

Source spreadsheet

The point being that there being no correlation between concealed carry and gun violence, which is significant in that it undercuts most of the rationale behind those people who want gun control.