Category: Safety

No matter what SloJoe babbles on about ‘his’ 1994 gun ban, the facts are:

“A large amount of research has been done on the federal assault weapons ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004. It has consistently found no statistically significant impact on mass public shootings or any other type of crime.”

The Data files for the data used below is available here.

A large amount of research has been done on the federal assault weapons ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004.  It has consistently found no statistically significant impact on mass public shootings or any other type of crime.

This holds true even for research funded by the Clinton administration. Criminology professors Chris Koper and Jeff Roth concluded in a 1997 report for the National Institute of Justice, “The evidence is not strong enough for us to conclude that there was any meaningful effect (i.e., that the effect was different from zero).”  Messrs. Koper and Roth suggested that it might be possible to find a benefit after the ban had been in effect for more years. In 2004, they published a follow-up NIJ study with fellow criminologist Dan Woods. They found: “We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence.”

Dr. John Lott and others have done similar research on both state and federal assault weapons bans.  They’ve found no evidence that any such ban reduced the frequency or deadliness of mass public shootings or had a beneficial impact on any other crime rate.  The third edition of “More Guns, Less Crime” (University of Chicago Press, 2010) examined the impact of federal and state assault weapon bans both before, during, and after the federal ban was in effect.

Even a 2014 survey by the left-leaning ProPublica concluded that despite some claims by Democratic politicians, there was no compelling evidence that the federal assault weapons ban had any impact on any type of crime.

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Most Mass Shooters, Including Those With Mental Illness, Obtained Their Firearms After Passing A Background Check. Expanding Background Checks Won’t Stop Them.

There are realities about gun control and the mentally ill that gun control advocates ignore.

The first reality is that the best that any gun control law can do is force buyers into the black market.  While this is a worthy goal, if laws against gun trafficking are not enforced, prohibited persons — including the severely mentally ill — will still be able to purchase firearms.

The second reality is that gun laws do not exist in isolation.  They are dependent upon the enforcement of other laws and the proper functioning of our legal and mental health systems.  This post will focus upon the issue of mental health treatment and how it impacts the background check system.

As this is written we are just learning some details about the King Soopers shooting in Boulder Colorado.  That said, I could have predicted the news before it was reported: The alleged mass murderer had a long history of mental illness (possibly undiagnosed) and had multiple contacts with police.  I will predict now that we will soon learn that this man passed a background check.  This is easy to predict because we have seen it happen over and over again.  Expanding background checks to private sales will not help when the severely mentally ill can pass them!

How can this possibly happen?  Well, as a former paramedic with 10 years EMS experience I know the answer: The mental health system – not gun laws – failed.  This happens at two levels:

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Florida Alert! Poll of Florida Sheriffs by Sheriff Wayne Ivey on Florida’s Church Carry Bill

SB-498 Church Carry by Sen. Joe Gruters and HB-259 Church Carry by Rep. Jayer Williamson & Rep. Cord Byrd have collectively been heard in five different Legislative Committee hearings in the Florida Senate and Florida House.

In every hearing, these bills have been met with a barrage of anti-church-carry questions and debate by Democrat members of these committees.

Why Democrats don’t want religious institutions to be able to make their own decisions about their private property and about protecting their own houses of worship and worshipers, is a question that defies a logical answer.

In one committee hearing, a prominent Democrat wanted to know what the sheriffs in the sponsor’s district thought about the bill.  The sponsor had not asked his local sheriffs but said that he would find out.

In the meantime, Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County decided to find out how all sheriffs viewed the bill and conducted a poll. The results are very profound.

On Monday 3/15/21 I received the following email from Sheriff Ivey:

Mon, Mar 15, 2021 7:15 pm

Dear Marion,

With the outcome of the Church Carry bill, SB-498 and HB-259 moving through the Florida Legislature, I took it upon myself to individually talk to and poll 64 of our Florida Sheriffs on how they feel about this important piece of legislation, designed to protect our citizens and houses of worship.  While there are actually 67 Sheriffs in Florida I was unable to reach 3 of them after leaving messages in an effort to speak to them on the matter.

Not surprisingly, of the 64 Florida Sheriffs that I personally spoke with, 62 of them overwhelmingly SUPPORT the bill and 2 Sheriffs had not had a chance to review the bill, so were undecided in their support or opposition.

The poll without question sends a clear and profound message that our Florida Sheriffs support the private property rights of religious institutions and the self-defense rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey,

Brevard County

 

Atlanta Shootings, Too Close To Home, Gun Owners … Stay Dangerous

Mark Wallace:
The killings in “Atlanta” didn’t start in Atlanta but began on the dividing line between two relatively small towns in southern Cherokee County, GA, Acworth, and Woodstock. I know the area well.

How?

I live 5 minutes from that intersection. I shopped in the Woodstock Market, The Woodstock Antique and Consignment Shops, and the Woodstock Furniture Outlet, within eyesight of the Asian Spa where the killings occurred, as late as last weekend as I searched for unique items for the newly constructed AAR Studios. I passed the spa and another one nearby on the other side of the auto repair shop that separates them. You get the idea, but it gets worse.

Turns out the murderer purchased his handgun, after passing a background check, at one of two local gun shops less than a mile (as the crow flies) from the AAR Ranch and Studios. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve bought, sold, and traded firearms from them since the day they opened. I know the owner well and they’re great folks. Straight up, real, law-abiding Americans who did nothing wrong. (more proof background checks do not stop crime and never will)

The point I’m trying to make here, and it won’t take long, is what I’ve been saying on-air for years. Evil exists.

It’s real and it’s here and it walks among us. In this case, it may very well have delivered my family a pizza, shopped at the same grocery store, or for that matter, my son may have bagged his groceries while at work. He may have stood behind me in line at a convenience store, restaurant, pharmacy. He attended the same high school my niece and nephew graduated from and it is likely in this area we have passed each other and never knew it.

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Nothing in any of the current proposed legislation – even the ‘Covid Hate Act, whatever that is supposed to cover – would have done anything to stop this. The demoncraps know that, but ………..

What Gun Control Proposal Would Have Prevented Georgia Shootings?

Never let a good crisis go to waste. That’s the Washington, D.C. mantra, it seems, especially among the left. They’ll latch onto anything and everything that happens as a way to advance an agenda, no matter how much reality interferes with their efforts.

Take the shooting in Atlanta. Let’s face it, it’s awful. Any time someone takes human life so indiscriminately, it’s just awful. There really aren’t enough words in the English language to describe just how terrible that is.

But almost as terrible is the fascination among some people to try and twist events. That’s what’s happening in the wake of Atlanta.

The U.S. House member whose district includes the first massage parlor targeted by a gunman Tuesday night said he was grateful the suspect was quickly apprehended and praying for those affected.

“My staff members and I are horrified by the violent shootings that took place at businesses in Woodstock and Atlanta this afternoon,” U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, wrote on Twitter late Tuesday. Our prayers are with the families of the victims this evening, and for healing for those injured.”

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams represents the Atlanta neighborhood where two spas were attacked. She said the shooter must be held accountable but the wider issue of violence against Asian American people and Pacific Islanders, which has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, must also be addressed.

She noted that the House Judiciary Committee already had a hearing scheduled for Thursday to discuss this issue. And Williams supports a bill two Asian American lawmakers filed last week that would direct the Department of Justice to assign a point person to review COVID-19-related hate crimes. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act would also provide additional support for state and local law enforcement agencies in responding to hate crimes.

“Those are immediate steps that we can take in Congress beyond thoughts and prayers,” she said.

…

President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were also among those who released statements condemning the violence that appeared to have roots in misogyny. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the news of the shootings gripped her attention and she hoped that her colleagues and people at home are watching, too.

“We still know that this risk of gun violence is out there in a big way,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “And that’s what you saw, sadly, in Atlanta.”

Klobuchar said she was happy Georgia voters recently elected Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who she said are poised to support gun control measures.

About those gun control measures…  I’d be interested to know which of the plethora of gun control bills currently in Congress would have stopped this atrocity. He used a handgun, so no assault weapon ban. The killer purchased the gun legally, which means that even if he didn’t buy it at a gun store, he could have, so universal background checks would have done jack squat. There’s been no mention of “red flags” before his attack, so no red flag law would have stopped it.

So what which bill would have?

None. None would have. There’s no evidence that even a waiting period would have done a damn thing except delay him.

But for Democrats, it’s never really about addressing the incident, it’s about advancing an agenda and using the bodies of slain individuals as the soapbox from which they pontificate from. They don’t give a damn about the lives lost. They care about taking your guns. That’s it.

And they’re not going to let a good crisis go to waste.

Guns-in-schools bill passes [Idaho] House on 52-18 vote…

The Idaho House backed Rep. Chad Christensen’s guns-in-schools bill on a 52-18 vote this morning, sending it to senators for consideration. The bill, HB 122, allows school employees who have enhanced concealed-carry permits to carry concealed guns at school, whether or not the local school board approves. “I know in the past this has been an issue about local control,” Christensen, R-Iona, told the House. “This is a 2nd Amendment issue, and for me, the 2nd Amendment doesn’t stop at the door of a school.”

He noted that the Idaho Sheriffs Association, state chiefs of police, and schools all oppose the bill, but said one sheriff from Caribou County, which is in his district, “fully supports” it. “This is a bill about school safety and our children,” Christensen said. “The firearm is a tool, simple as that, and the fear of this tool is, I don’t get it, it’s just a tool, to help our children, to save lives.”

This bill also would forbid schools from posting “Gun-Free School Zone” signs. House Education Chair Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, asked Christensen if the bill would allow the general public to carry guns at schools; Christensen said no. So Clow questioned including that provision. “To me, that’s a sign that we’re telling the public, ‘Don’t bring your guns in to the school,’” he said.

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Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson signs “Stand Your Ground Bill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KAIT & AP) – Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has signed into law a measure that eases the state’s restrictions on the use of deadly force in self-defense.

The Republican governor signed the measure Wednesday that removes the duty to retreat before deadly force can be used, despite past concerns he’s raised about changing the state’s self-defense law.

A similar measure stalled in the Legislature two years ago, but the bill this year moved more easily after groups such as the state’s sheriffs’ and prosecutors’ associations that previously opposed it said they’re neutral to the latest version.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Bob Ballinger (R-Ozark) and Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R-Knoxville) received overwhelming support in the legislature by a 72-23 margin in the House and 27-7 in the Senate.

Just me, but I remember ‘Concealed Means Concealed‘, I figured out what was meant.

Criminals Know Rideshare Drivers Are Disarmed And They Are Targeting Them

It appears as if the word has gotten out in the criminal underworld; if you’re looking for an easy target to rob, rape, or carjack, finding a victim is as easy as pulling out your phone.

We’ve been covering the rise in carjackings and other violent crimes committed against Uber and Lyft drivers for some time now, including the story of Cynthia Norman, a Cleveland woman and driver for Lyft who was cut loose by the company because she dared to defend herself against a pair of attackers with her legally owned and lawfully carried firearm.

Both Uber and Lyft have policies that require drivers be unarmed, and most of the folks contracting to drive for the companies abide by those restrictions (though clearly not all of them do).

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Requiring Training Before Owning A Gun is a Threat To The Second Amendment

A question I get a lot is do I believe everyone should be required by law to get some form of firearm training before they can own a gun?

I deeply believe that anyone who owns a gun or plans to buy a gun should to some degree get some training on how to use and operate the gun not only safely but more effectively.

But the question still remains, do I agree with government mandated training before owning a gun? Absolutely NOT and here is why.

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Noop. Even after they learn this, they don’t get to lecture anyone.

14 Things Everyone Should Understand About Guns
Guns aren’t that complicated. Learn a little bit about them before lecturing other people about gun safety.

Guns can be dangerous in the wrong hands. But so are articles about guns written by people who don’t understand anything about them.

There’s sadly no excuse to be ignorant about firearms. They’ve been around for hundreds of years. They’re owned and operated safely by tens of millions of Americans each year. Our Constitution guarantees our individual right to possess guns so that we might be able to defend ourselves from those who would violently take away our freedom. Many gun controllers, however — some of whom have bylines for major media organizations — don’t actually know the first thing about firearms.

Here’s a good example of the kind of self-inflicted injury that can result from weaponizing an ill-informed opinion about guns and gun-related paraphernalia, courtesy of Ryan J. Reilly of Huffington Post:

Unfortunately, Reilly is hardly alone in his complete ignorance of how guns work. Our nation is facing an epidemic of gun-related misreporting. As a public service to those who have opinions about guns but don’t really want to spend much time learning anything about them, I’ve compiled a simple list of 14 basic things everyone should understand before writing or talking about guns.

1) Don’t Lecture Anyone On Gun Safety Until You Understand The Basic Rules

These are rules literally every person should understand, because you never know when you might be in a situation that requires you to handle a firearm. To seasoned gun owners, these basic gun safety rules are gospel. If faithfully followed, they will prevent the likelihood of you ever shooting someone who did not pose an immediate and mortal threat to an innocent person.

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Arkansas lawmakers give final OK to ‘Stand Your Ground’ bill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers have sent Gov. Asa Hutchinson legislation that loosens the state’s restrictions on using lethal force in self-defense.

The House on Wednesday voted 72 to 23 for the bill, which removes the state’s duty to retreat before using deadly force.

The Senate approved the measure last month. A similar bill stalled in the Legislature two years ago, but the measure this year has moved more easily after groups that opposed it said they were neutral to the latest version.

The governor has not said whether he supports the legislation.

Gun Ownership It’s Not Insurrection, It’s Patriotism, Try Telling That to Gun Banners

The Democrats fake narratives of their political reality changed daily, as they needed.

After years of carefully crafted, and bought political and judicial positions, the Democratic Party created, from the get-go, bizarre lies about Donald J. Trump which have been proven false, we are now we’re expected to believe that former President Trump committed insurrection against our country while making a speech which only referenced PEACE and PATRIOTISM.

The Democrats forced a Second Trump Impeachment, even though he was OUT OF OFFICE, as the left does not want another Trump term. But that fiasco yielded a NOT GUILTY, and rightly so.

What is it that the Democrats want? They want power! They need to keep their own criminal acts covered up. Many of these crimes may rise to the level of sedition, which could merit jail time.

Former President Trump must be proven guilty of something, anything, and prevented from ever running again for high office because he might just win.

Democrats Are Terrified Of The Possible Outcome.

Now that Joe Biden is the Resident of the White House, the Socialist Democrats must mitigate the strength and resolve of Trump’s core constituents. So to this end, the Democrats employ many historical methods, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the NAZI agenda, to ‘evilize*’ us Trump supporters.

* Yes, we made up the word ‘evilize.’ We use it as ‘To be made evil’.

That my friends, is us, America’s conservatives and civilian gun owners. Not only must Americans accept that Trump is an insurrectionist, but they must also believe gun owners are insurrectionists, too.

Until U.S. gun owners are neutralized, the left cannot take total power. We must now be transformed from racists into violent, dangerous revolutionaries; Media and Big Tech have the dominating power to make that real in the eyes of ignorant Americans.

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“As I watched the video I definitely don’t want to blame the victim here, but it’s important that we have a perception of the elements in our immediate environment and make sure that we are aware of surroundings, alert to potential threats as well as being ready and able to react to actualized threats,”—Kofi Kenyatta
(In other words; If you’re going to open carry, a lack of situational awareness can come up and kick you right in the head.)

Suspect who stole gun from man open carrying at Detroit gas station arrested for unrelated crime

DETROIT (FOX 2) – Caught on camera – a bold thief steals a gun from a man open-carrying at a gas station. The crime happened in January, but Detroit police has just released the video of the incident hoping to get the gun and the perpetrator – off the streets.

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Home Defense Firearms: A Newly Relevant Blast from the Past.

Well, it’s started. The new administration (hack. spit) is calling for yet more “gun control”, leading the charge for an “assault weapon” ban, magazine size limits, universal background checks (which requires a complete gun registry to be enforceable), and so on.

Today I’m bringing forward a post addressing that so-called “assault weapon” issue. The definition of “assault weapon” is slippery. It mimics the term “assault rifle” but doesn’t meet the definition of one (an assault rifle is a rifle of intermediate power with “select fire”, meaning that it has a full-auto or “burst” capability–that is one trigger operation fires the rifle multiple times). Generally, “assault weapon is a semi-automatic (fires once for each trigger operation) rifle or carbine (overall length being the main difference there, or intermediate power (not the uber-high-power that the media would have you believe), and some various ergonomic and cosmetic features. It is this definition that I address in the post below.

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Data show gun control doesn’t reduce US violent crime
By James Meagher

Certain that yet another round of gun control laws are needed to reduce violent crime in the U.S., activists have forgotten two fundamental issues.  The first is that people who murder, rape, rob, or assault pay little attention to our laws.  Perpetrators of violent crime will not be stopped by anything but an opposing force.  The second issue is that gun control laws have never been shown to be effective.  Gun control advocates are adamant that the pages and pages of anti-2nd Amendment legislation are effective and the country needs more.  No proof is needed; they just know it.  The reality is that impartial data show that these activists are completely wrong.

While those passionately supportive of gun control have convinced the gullible that severe restrictions on firearms will eliminate violent crime in the U.S., this is just not true.  As we have been urged to do during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must examine the data, follow the science, and do the math on gun control and violent crime.  To accomplish this, consider the most recent full year of data from the FBI publication “Crime in the US, 2019” and a legal expert’s rating on the relative severity of gun control in each state from the Traveler’s Guide to the Firearm Laws of the Fifty States.  Data from these sources is graphed for each state and presented in Figure 1.  The blue dots indicate the crime rate per 100,000 state residents.  The higher the blue dot is on the graph, the greater the violent crime rate for that state.  Crime rate values are displayed on the right-hand vertical axis.  The relative firearm freedom in each state is indicated with a red bar.  A short red bar indicates that a state has very restrictive firearm laws.  A tall red bar indicates a relatively high acceptance of residents’ 2nd Amendment rights.  The relative firearm freedom rating, from 0 for total prohibition to 100 for total freedom, is displayed on the left-hand vertical axis.

With the states arranged in order of decreasing violent crime rate from left to right, all it takes is a glance at the figure, and it is obvious that there is no discernible relationship between the two data sets.  This means that there is no link between the rate of violent crime in a state and a state’s firearm freedom.  The only valid conclusion is that gun control does not have a predictable outcome regarding violent crime.

Is it any wonder that the volumes of state and federal gun control legislation do not have much impact on our violent crime rates?  Yet year after year, our legislators add more gun control laws to the books, expecting different results each time.

The facts prove conclusively that gun control laws cannot reliably reduce the violent crime rate in our country.  Is there anything that might be effective?  Possibly.  Consider the next figure.  In Figure 2, the FBI data for violent crime are shown again.  The blue dots indicate the crime rate per 100,000 state residents.  The higher the blue dot is on the graph, the greater the violent crime rate for that state.  For the same year, the U.S. Census Bureau’s data for poverty in the states has been added as red triangles.  The higher the red triangle is on the graph, the greater the poverty rate for that state.  Values for the percentage of state residents in poverty are displayed on the left-hand vertical axis.

Just a glance at Figure 2 reveals that there is a recognizable trend for poverty and violent crime.  States with lower poverty rates generally have lower rates of violent crime.  Upon seeing this correlation, it is logical to conclude that anyone genuinely interested in reducing violent crime needs to be fighting poverty.

We can make progress as a nation only when we examine unbiased information and are able to think logically.  Unsupported opinions, willful ignorance of the facts, and emotional objections to the truth are dangerous obstacles to reducing violent crime in our country.  Deliberately promoting the myth that stricter firearm laws will reduce violent crime serves only to steer us away from real solutions.

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Some Texans use 2021 Ford F-150 hybrid pickup trucks to power homes amid winter storm

When Randy Jones of Katy, Texas, bought his new Ford F-150 pickup truck a few weeks ago, he didn’t think he’d be using it to keep the lights on in his house during a historic winter storm that left millions without power.

The 2021 hybrid’s onboard generator “gives you the ability to use your truck like a mobile generator” that can produce up to 7.2 kW of power, according to Ford.

Jones, 66, said in a phone interview with CNBC on Thursday that he bought the truck in part because of that feature, adding that he often loses power due to hurricanes and other storms. When he lost power Sunday night, he decided to get out a few extension cords and put the generator to the test.

“Without it I would have been in the dark and cold like everybody else in the neighborhood,” the retired refinery worker said, adding that he helped neighbors charge their phones and laptops. “Quite a few of the neighbors said, ‘Hey, I’m getting one,’ like, ‘I’m trading my Dodge or GMC,’ because, South Texas, with hurricanes and things like that, we’re always having power outages.”

Jones said he used the truck’s onboard generator to power appliances in his home for three days, until his power was restored Wednesday.

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Last week Seattle PD shot and killed an active shooter, who had already shot two women, killing one of them.

Antifa decided that a protest was in order.
During that protest, this happened, apparently last night.

People are ragging on the Antifa idjit because he was using an umbrella like a pansy.

Forget the umbrella foppery.
Or, rather understand what was really going on.

See the antifag pull out a collapsible baton after the umbrella was taken away from him? The umbrella was being used as a distraction device, a ruse. If the other man could be enticed to ‘engage’, the idjit was going to up the game and use the baton on him. The umbrella was being used to sucker the guy in.

Look at the video again, if you missed it.

In many states, mine in particular, that type of club is defined in law as a deadly weapon in and of itself.
In my state, pulling a billy like that is more than enough of a threat (especially at that close of a distance, and since there was already an assault) that the assaulted party would be justified in pulling out a gun and blowing the goon to kingdom come.

And for that, we don’t see such shenanigans around here

The vid’s a learning exercise to keep your situational awareness spun up.

Changing Tactics and Gear for the New Normal

For as long as I can remember, and I have been in this craft a long time, there has been a saying in the self-defense shooting world pertaining to the average gunfight: “three yards, three shots, three seconds.” While that sounds quite nifty, trying to calculate averages as they pertain to human violence is fraught with peril. For every supposed “average” self-defense use of a gun that fits this supposed criteria you can find another that does not. In the current new normal of the world I propose that banking on this “average” is a fool’s errand.

First, let us acknowledge that the majority of defensive gun uses are accomplished without even firing a shot. Second, when shots are fired, criminals usually become late for a different appointment and flee. Therefore, even a small gun with limited ammunition capacity will get the armed citizen out of a jam most of the time, statistically. However, do we want to count on those statistics? The shift in the nature of violence in the past decade should not be ignored. Will a shot from a small pocket pistol send the average carjacker or mugger fleeing? Most likely. However, is such “average” street crime the only concern facing us in contemporary America? Hardly.

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BLUF:
That leads to some basic questions every “true believer” gun-grabber ought to be asked:

  • Since you demand what you call “safe storage laws” and since a child, in this case, was able to access and use a firearm, regardless of the outcome, why wouldn’t you say the grandmother should be prosecuted?
  • Would you rather see educated children watch their younger siblings get murdered with pitchforks than able to stop maniacs by using a gun?
  • If you were being robbed, assaulted, and shot at by murderous home invaders, who would you rather have come to your defense, the armed 12-year-old in this story, or “grown-up man” David Hogg?

DGU By Minor Raises Questions for Phony ‘Gun Safety’ Prohibitionists

“A North Carolina man died on Saturday after he broke into the home of a 73-year-old woman and was fatally shot by her 12-year-old grandson who was trying to defend her,” the Daily Mail reports.

“Two masked robbers entered the home of Linda Ellis in Goldsboro at around 1am on Saturday, where they demanded money and shot the grandmother in the leg. Ellis’ grandson fired back at the two intruders in self-defense and they fled.”

Good for the boy. He was able to keep his head and act, and fortunately, he had something to act with. And by the home invaders initiating fire, they put to the lie the naïve advice of all who counsel “Just give them what they want.” By shooting the grandmother, they made that more than clear. Only one thing stood in the way of that happening.

20 years ago I wrote about another 12-year-old who saved his grandmother from armed predators who were trying to rob her store and, according to news reports, holding a gun to her head. As I asked at the time:

Do you think the scenario may have played out differently had the wonks at Handgun Control, Inc., been heeded? What do you think the outcome would have been had the grandmother kept her gun unloaded, locked up, and separated from its ammunition, or if she had installed a trigger lock? What about if her firearm was a personalized “smart gun” that no one but herself could fire? And had these “safety methods” resulted in the death of this valiant boy and his grandmother, would HCI have exploited this to call for yet more gun control?

More examples can be found – if one is inclined to look for them. These took me all of a minute to find:

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Texas power outages: How the largest energy-producing state in the US failed in freezing temperatures.

DALLAS — Many Texans are rightfully asking why the largest energy producing state in the country cannot produce enough energy to get through a week of below-freezing temperatures.

So, what happened? Equipment failure turned out to be a big part of the problem.

“Beginning around 11:00 p.m. [Sunday night], multiple generating units began tripping off-line in rapid progression due to the severe cold weather,” said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at ERCOT, the organization that manages the state’s electric grid.

What does that mean? Equipment literally froze in the single digit temperatures and stopped working.

Then, as reserves diminished, ERCOT asked transmission providers to turn off large industrial users that had previously agreed to be shut down. But the situation deteriorated quickly, requiring rotating outages that have lasted hours for many Texans.

Electric generating plants did not properly winterize their equipment, said Dr. David Tuttle in the latest episode of the Y’all-itics political podcast. Tuttle is a research associate with the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

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