Category: Safety

BLUF:
I want to clear up a possible misunderstanding. I’m convinced that gun control leaves us at risk. I know you might feel differently and I beg you to hear me out. I think gun control laws put our children in danger, but that isn’t because I’m different than you are; it is because I’ve seen things you might not have seen. I’ve looked into the eyes of the police officer who ran toward the sound of gunfire to save kids. That officer arrived too late. I’ve listened to a victim who was shot by a mass murderer and survived. They both begged us to keep the kids safe until the police arrived. That is exactly what the investigators said after the attack in Parkland, Florida.

It is time we listened.. before it is too late.

‘I looked at the video, and we could have stopped him if someone inside the school had a gun.’

The Lessons We Didn’t Learn from Mass Murder

February 14th is the third anniversary of the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkwood, Florida. If you’re like me, it is uncomfortable to stir that painful memory. I’ve studied that attack because it would be worse to see it repeated simply because we didn’t learn a difficult lesson. You might not remember, but the attack at Columbine High School was almost 22 years ago. The attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School more than 8 years ago. That is plenty of time for us to act so our children are protected. I have an uncomfortable prediction about the next mass murder. The next attack will be at a place that politicians told us was safe because law-abiding people like us were disarmed. It is time we looked harder.

Continue reading “”

These Are the Gun Safety Initiatives the Firearm Industry Has Championed Over the Last 20 Years

The term “gun safety” to most firearm owners usually translates to gun control and curtailing the Second Amendment. To the firearm industry, gun safety means actual gun safety that works within the confines of Americans’ Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms. It means education that teaches first time gun owners how to properly handle and store firearms. And it includes resources for parents to talk to their children about what to do if he or she comes across a firearm.

That’s where the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and Project ChildSafe come in.

For the last 20 years, Project ChildSafe, with the support from firearm manufacturers, has partnered with more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies to provide free gun safety kits to gun owners. Through Project ChildSafe, more than 40 million gun safety kits, which include cable locks for firearms, have been handed out to Americans in all 50 states and the five U.S. territories.

“The firearms industry is very, very interested and committed to keeping guns out of the wrong hands. We only want lawful gun owners to have guns. We don’t want guns in wrong hands. We don’t want kids to have guns if they’re not old enough or not supervised,” NSSF President Joe Bartozzi told Townhall. “The goal is to keep families safe while protecting Americans’ Second Amendment rights.”

On top of the 40 million gun safety kits, the firearm industry has given out more than 100 million cable locks. It has become standard operating procedure for the locks to be included when a new firearm is purchased.

The cable locks are a reminder for American gun owners: you don’t have to have a large gun safe to make sure your firearms are appropriately stored and out of the hands of children and prohibited possessors. In fact, the organization has created an infographic specifically for first-time gun owners that helps them figure out the locking mechanism that is best for them and their family.

But NSSF and Project ChildSafe are doing more than just handing out cable locks to those who need them. They’re also forging vital relationships and having difficult conversations.

“We have a parents’ guide for youth and mental health that we’ve developed with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention,” Bartozzi explained. “We thought with a lot of kids being homeschooled, more kids at home, whether parents are home with them or not, there’s more of an opportunity for kids to come across an unsafe firearm. Our whole guide is to look at mental health children and to protect them.”

Specifically, the guide gives parents a guide of what warning signs to look out for and what actions to take if they suspect their child is at risk of committing suicide. It’s part of a bigger goal the AMSP has for reducing the annual suicide rate by 20 percent by 2025, known as Project 25.

The NSSF has also partnered with the Veteran’s Administration to reduce the number of veterans suicides.

Part of that is curtailing how doctors address the issue of firearms and suicides and removing the stigma of coming forward to seek help. Many gun owners are veterans who have a fear of getting help. They’re afraid of being deemed “mentally defective,” meaning they lose their Second Amendment rights for good. But that’s where NSSF comes in.

“A lot of veterans are gun owners and NSSF can talk about gun safety in a way that’s not off putting,” Bartozzi explained. “We’re teaching people how to talk guns in a respectful way, to find common ground and mutual respect.”

“There has to be a level of trust between the clinician and the patient,” he explained. “Doctors can’t automatically default to ‘Get rid of guns, don’t handle guns.’ It’s going to cause patients to shut down and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”

Bartozzi pointed out that the firearms industry receives very little credit for working to prevent suicide. In fact, it was the firearms industry who advocated for the mental health check aspect of a background check, to keep guns out of the hands of those who could potentially be a threat to themselves or others. Instead of focusing on pushing gun control initiatives, Bartozzi said the industry is focused on “better background checks” that are more thorough and comprehensive. That’s part of a broader NSSF initiative, both at the federal and state level.

Fix NICS, which was passed back in 2018, is one of the most comprehensive pieces of legislation that will fill the holes in the background check system. All federal agencies are now mandated to report all criminal convictions to the attorney general on a semi-annual basis. States and Indian tribes are responsible for making sure their criminal convictions are accurate and up-to-date. The first semi-annual report that was dropped as a result of Fix NICS resulted in six million convictions being reported to the system, meaning fewer individuals could fall through the cracks. That fix is because the gun industry pushed for it.

To learn more about Project ChildSafe or to donate to the cause, please visit https://projectchildsafe.org/.

Why Gun Control Is A Class Issue

By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters

Believe it or not, gun control is just as much a class issue as it is an issue of the abridgement of freedoms for misguided reasons.

Naturally, those who advocate for increasingly tighter restrictions on firearms ownership insist that it’s in the name of savings lives when anyone who actually knows anything can tell right away they just want fewer people buying guns, period.

What isn’t always appreciated about the role of firearms in human history is that they democratized the use of force.

Most people have heard that old saw about “God made all men, but Sam Colt made ’em equal.” While it’s not strictly speaking completely true, it’s not entirely an exaggeration either.

Historically, the weapons of the common man (certainly in a military context, but outside of one as well) were the bow, the spear and improvised cutting or bludgeoning instruments.

The sword was the weapon of aristocracy. You can learn to use a spear in a rudimentary (but effective) fashion pretty quickly, but the sword takes time to learn and large standing armies of professional soldiers get expensive in a hurry in any century.

Sure, a pike or a spear is deadly, but imagine a peasant with a pike trying to fight a nobleman or knight who had years of time and training with a sword while said peasant was toiling in the fields.

In other words, the elites of society had an edge (so to speak) for much of human history. They were the ones who could afford to take the time to become proficient with a weapon that requires great proficiency to use well.

The gun changed the equation.

A rifle in the hands of a peasant is as deadly as in the hands of the bluest of blue bloods. They may be less effective with one than a professional soldier who trains all the time, but represent more of a threat proportionally to a modern soldier than a pike-wielding peasant did to a knight.

Look at the history of modern warfare. How many wars have professional armies failed to win against peasant insurgencies? Granted, guerilla peasant armies tend to lose far more in numbers, but they typically have more numbers to lose in such conflicts.

Seven of the Ten are in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The other three are in Kansas City Kansas, Kansas City Missouri and Portland Oregon.
And can you guess what the common denominator of all 10 is?
Can you say: “Demoncrap Administration“?
I thought you could.

Crime In America: Study Reveals The 10 Most Unsafe Neighborhoods.

While data shows that crime is actually down in the U.S. in recent years, many Americans believe that the country is becoming more violent than ever—and high-profile incidents like mobs rioting at the U.S. Capitol and the Department of Homeland Security issuing a threat bulletin to warn of ongoing potential for domestic violence only underscore those fears. So the timing of a new study from the risk assessment app Augurisk Now, revealing the country’s 10 most dangerous neighborhoods, couldn’t be better.

Augurisk Now—which launched last month—helps people track the likelihood of crime and national disasters, making it a useful tool for everyone from travelers to concerned citizens to potential homebuyers. The way it works: Whenever you enter a dangerous block in the U.S., the free app uses proprietary risk-scoring algorithms to alert of potential dangers, warning users that they have entered a predicted or observed high crime area. Similarly, the app can predict risks when it comes to floods, earthquakes, wildfires and storms.

“Many years ago, while I was searching for a new property that would be safe from floods or earthquakes, I was surprised no service provided such essential information in an intuitive form,” says founder Mohamed Mezian. “That’s where the idea for Augurisk emerged—our main mission is to help people and businesses better prepare for the future.”

Continue reading “”

No duty to retreat and supposed racial disparities

The US Commission on Civil Rights contends they exist, but Commissioner Gail Heriot takes that apart.

“This report should not have been published in this form. When the results of an empirical study don’t come out the way Commission members hoped and expected that they would, the right thing to do is usually to publish those results anyway. Why hide useful information?

Instead, the Commission sat on the report for years. Then it decided to discard the draft written by our staff and publish instead a transcript of the witness testimony received at our briefing that took place on October 17, 2014 in Orlando, Florida (along with Commissioner Statements like this one). In that way, the staff’s empirical findings could be buried forever.
. . . . . .
Yes, it is true that a disproportionate number of those killed in Florida in cases in which, correctly or incorrectly, the “Stand Your Ground” law has been invoked were African American. But it is also true that a similarly disproportionate number of those for whom that law has been invoked were African American.

Gun Laws Don’t Stop the Killing

A recent report looks to see if laws restricting the right to keep and bear arms might have effects on homicides and suicides not caused by guns. They found no increase or decrease in non-gun homicides associated with changes in gun related homicides, and the data regarding suicides were too sparse to be useful. Their report was based on examining a series of earlier studies.

To the authors’ credit, they noted that some experts describe a substitution effect, that is, a person not killed by a firearm may instead be killed by some other form of violence. They cite several previous studies finding that those not suiciding by shooting are likely to do so by other means, and that homicides not committed by shooting will probably occur by other means.

There are however a number of problems with the publication.  The authors seem to see all homicides as bad, and never mention justifiable homicides. These often involve self-defense, or appropriate actions by police or bystanders to protect the innocent. The researchers seem to assume that any reduction in homicides is desirable, ignoring the injuries, arsons and assaults prevented by the appropriate use of force.

A recent DRGO contributor noted the existence of many dozens of peer-reviewed academic studies conducted by a wide range of authors suggesting that widespread gun ownership deters crime. He pointed as well to a specific instance in which children died needlessly because security officers were unarmed. In this school shooting, in which many children lost their lives, the justifiable homicide of the shooter would have avoided heartbreak for families and  prevented the school career of many teenagers from ending in a mournful trip to a cemetery.

Academics have found evidence that Right-to-Carry laws deter violent crime, including rapes and murders, and also lower burglary rates, while restrictions on concealed carry laws may increase the number of people who are murdered. Having a firearm is especially important for women, who are typically smaller and not as strong as those who attack them—being armed can compensate for this difference. Reports of homeowners using guns to defend against intruders are reported daily. Since intruders are often young men, it’s common that the occupant of a household are less physically powerful, and thus a justifiable homicide by a firearm prevents death or injury at the hands of a criminal.

Continue reading “”

City’s Carjacking Surge Shows No Sign Of Slowing, So Residents Are Buying Guns

HYDE PARK — Carjackings have been on the rise in Chicago for more than a year. After a 135 percent jump in 2020, the trend is continuing with 61 carjackings reported in the first 10 days of 2021.

As city officials and police scramble to address the issue with meetings, City Council hearings and community alerts, some Chicagoans are taking matters into their own hands against the advice of law enforcement: They’re applying for concealed carry permits.

Kelly Milan, a Northwestern graduate student, was carjacked Friday morning in Hyde Park in front of William H. Ray Elementary School.

About 8 a.m., the budding journalist drove her 2014 Jeep Cherokee to the school, 5631 S. Kimbark Ave., to interview students for the Hyde Park Herald.

“I got out of my car and locked my car and was in the middle of the street when I saw a running car in the middle of the street,” Milan said. “Immediately, I thought something bad was going to happen. Then, two guys got out of the car. One guy made eye contact with me and started running towards me. I just started saying ’No, no, no, no, no’ and I winced because he was running towards me and I thought he was going to take me down.

“Then I started saying, ‘Please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me.’ He said, ‘Where are your keys?’ and forcibly went through all my pockets. He grabbed my keys and my phone. The other guy was just leaning by the car, watching it.

“I was begging for my life. It was really, really terrifying. You never think you’re going to be a victim of a carjacking, let alone one outside an elementary school at 8 a.m., but here we are and it’s happening.”

Milan’s story is not unique. Carjackings shot up 135 percent in 2020, with 1,415 reported that year compared to 603 in 2019, according to the Chicago Police Department. So far in 2021, carjackings are on a pace to break last year’s record with 61 happening over the first 10 days of the year, up from 22 during the same period in 2020.

Continue reading “”

Arkansas Senate panel advances ‘Stand Your Ground’ bill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas Senate panel on Wednesday advanced legislation loosening restrictions on the use of deadly force in self defense, two years after failing before the same committee.

By a 5-2 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed the proposal that remove would the state’s duty to retreat in certain circumstances. The measure now heads to the majority-Republican Senate.

A similar proposal failed before the same committee two years ago but was widely expected to win approval Wednesday, with five of the bill’s sponsors holding seats on the eight-person panel.

Montana House Weighs Elimination of Many State-Mandated Gun Free Zones

The Montana House will soon vote on legislation to defend self-defense rights by eliminating state government-mandated gun free zones at Montana university campuses and other schools on public property.

The self-defense legislation, House Bill 102, is sponsored by Rep. Seth Berglee (R-Dist. 58).

HB 102 is presented as an Act “to enhance the safety of people by expanding their legal ability to provide for their own defense by reducing or eliminating government-mandated places were only criminals are armed and where citizens are prevented from exercising their fundamental right to defend themselves and others.”

Continue reading “”

And people wonder why I’m not going to take this stuff until there’s a lot more research into not just long term effects.

Help wanted translating article about coronavirus vaccines

A 2012 scientific study about mRNA vaccines for coronaviruses seems to suggest problems down the line that nobody is talking about now.

Someone sent me to this article, which seems to say that mRNA vaccines against coronaviruses can actually make you dangerously vulnerable to subsequent coronaviruses by triggering cytokine storms:

An early concern for application of a SARS-CoV vaccine was the experience with other coronavirus infections which induced enhanced disease and immunopathology in animals when challenged with infectious virus [31], a concern reinforced by the report that animals given an alum adjuvanted SARS vaccine and subsequently challenged with SARS-CoV exhibited an immunopathologic lung reaction reminiscent of that described for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and in animal models given RSV vaccine and challenged naturally (infants) or artificially (animals) with RSV [32], [33]. We and others described a similar immunopathologic reaction in mice vaccinated with a SARS-CoV vaccine and subsequently challenged with SARS-CoV [18], [20], [21], [28]. It has been proposed that the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV is the antigen to which the immunopathologic reaction is directed [18], [21]. Thus, concern for proceeding to humans with candidate SARS-CoV vaccines emerged from these various observations.

Continue reading “”

When you have the city leadership, for all intents in bed with the insurrectionists, people will provide for their own self defense and security. Basically Auto Defensas.

Downtown Portland Businesses Invest in Private Security to Combat Crime

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs ‘stand your ground’ bill

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday signed a controversial “stand your ground” bill that would eliminate Ohio’s “duty to retreat” before using force in self-defense.

Senate Bill 175, fast-tracked through the Ohio General Assembly last month by DeWine’s fellow Republicans, will make Ohio the 36th state to no longer require people to retreat before they can justifiably hurt or kill someone in self-defense.

The governor had previously hinted that he would veto SB175, saying he first wanted lawmakers to pass his package of gun reforms that they sat on for more than a year. But in a release sent Monday afternoon, the governor stated that the measure removes an “ambiguity in Ohio’s self-defense law.”

“I have always believed that it is vital that law-abiding citizens have the right to legally protect themselves when confronted with a life-threatening situation,” DeWine said in a statement. The governor added that he signed the bill in a “spirit of cooperation” with the newly seated 134th Ohio General Assembly.

Until now, under Ohio law, people have been justified in using deadly force in self-defense so long as they aren’t the aggressor, believe they are in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm, and are in their home or vehicle. The new law, which takes effect in 90 days, removes the “home or vehicle” requirement, and instead states that the defendant need only be in a place where they lawfully have the right to be.

Proponents of the measure say it gives law-abiding citizens the right to protect themselves. The Buckeye Firearms Association said in a release that DeWine promised them and other gun-rights groups multiple times that he would sign such a bill.

“While this bill changes one technicality in Ohio law, it does not change the near universal and well-established standard for use of lethal force, nor does it give criminals a free pass to commit violent crime,” Buckeye Firearms said in a statement.

“Crimes can happen quickly and without warning. Most victims have a split second to react with the best course of action for their survival,” said John Weber, Ohio state director for the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, in a statement. “By signing SB 175, Gov. DeWine ensures the law favors victims and not criminals.”

Continue reading “”

The good news about guns in America

Once upon a time, as a Democrat who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was such an anti-gun fanatic that I donated to the Brady Campaign. Thankfully, I saw the light after Hurricane Katrina (when seconds counted, the police were days away), and have made up for my past bad judgment by being an NRA member, using my writing abilities to promote the Second Amendment, and helping the bottom line at several local gun stores. That’s why it gladdens my heart to tell you one of the good things about 2020: It was a banner year for gun sales!

When it comes to guns, the anti-gun crowd lacks imagination. To them, guns exist for one purpose: To murder people or, occasionally, to kill people accidentally. If you take away guns, they “reason,” you will take away murder and accidental deaths.

People with a deeper and more nuanced understanding support the Second Amendment because they understand that guns don’t commit murders or cause accidents. They are tools and lack agency. People who want to murder someone will commit murder with or without guns. And people who are careless can always kill someone else with everyday objects (e.g., cars, wine bottles, etc.).

While guns lack agency, they confer empowering agency on the people who hold them. Having a gun allows people to oppose oppressive government, as happened during the American Revolution. Guns give women the ability to fight back against predators bigger and stronger than they are. Guns allow people to defend themselves and their property when the civil government collapses, as happened after Hurricane Katrina. Guns allow ordinary people to make crime too costly for criminals. Guns allow good people to take down the bad guys quickly in what can otherwise become a mass shooting situation. Guns give those far from grocery stores the ability to feed themselves. And as sports enthusiasts know, guns are fun when used safely and appropriately.

Guns work in a society that has more good people than bad. And despite the “if it bleeds it leads” approach that has characterized the American media for more than 100 years, and that has escalated appallingly in the last 20 years, most Americans are good people. They are infinitely more likely to defend each other than to kill each other.

Continue reading “”

And with that increase in sales, also goes an increase in ammo sales.

Americans Bought Approximately 21 Million Guns in 2020, Sales up 73%

At this point in December it is already apparent Americans bought approximately 21 million guns this year, an increase of 73 percent over the number purchased in 2019.

ABC News quotes figures from The Trace to report the estimated 21 million guns sold and claims the buying surge is the result of a “perfect storm” consisting of “the pandemic, economic recession, civil unrest and a divisive presidential election.”

They spoke to a mother of three named Trish Beaudet, who explained she has never owned a gun before but is now buying one for herself and one for her 25-year-old daughter.

Beaudet said, “I’ve never owned a gun. I’ve never wanted a gun. I’ve never had a gun in my home.”

She then pointed to the chaos in the streets and on the news, lamenting:

It really bothers me when I watched things on the news, when you talk about the riots, and the looting, and the violence that’s happening. Pulling a gun is the last thing I ever want to do, but I want to know that if I need to protect myself, my family, my, you know, my children, that I can do that.

Continue reading “”

Gun Groups Take Concealed Carry to the Supreme Court

New York State doesn’t recognize a right to carry a handgun in public. To get a concealed-carry permit, applicants must show they have an unusually strong need for self-defense, not just a normal and healthy desire to keep themselves safe. The state also bans the open carry of handguns entirely. There’s a “circuit split” among the nation’s courts as to whether such strict restrictions are kosher.

The New York State Pistol and Rifle Association and the National Rifle Association are asking the Supreme Court to step in. And now would be a good time for the Court to better enforce the Second Amendment, a project it began with Heller and McDonald more than a decade ago.

I’ll have more to say about this case if the Court takes it, but here are a few things I’m interested in when it comes to gun-carrying and the Second Amendment. Continue reading “”

Ohio Legislature sends ‘Stand your ground’ gun law to Gov. Mike DeWine

COLUMBUS, Ohio (FOX19) – The Ohio House has passed a controversial change to the state’s current “stand your ground” law that eliminates “duty to retreat” before using force in self-defense.

House Republicans added the “stand your ground” language Thursday into a last-minute floor amendment to Senate Bill 175, which grants civil immunity to churches and other nonprofits where shootings occur.

The mostly-party line vote passed 52-31.

Under current law, Ohioans are permitted to use deadly force in self-defense as long as they aren’t the aggressor, believe they are in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm, and are in their home or vehicle.

The amendment also removes the “home or vehicle” requirement. Now, Ohioans only need to be where they are legally allowed.

The change must now be approved by the Senate before going to Gov. Mike DeWine for final approval.

DeWine’s spokesman responded “Under review” when we asked him Friday morning what the governor thought.

Guide to Women’s Self Defense: Best Safety Tips, Weapons, and Tactics

19.3% of women have been stalked at some point in their lifetime, whether it’s been by someone they know or a stranger. This can make women increasingly worried about their surroundings and being able to protect themselves if something occurs.

It’s because of stalking incidents and the increased number of sexual assaults that take place every day that women’s self-defense has become more critical than ever. We’re going to provide you with a complete guide that has safety tips, weapons, and tactics in it that you need to know about.

Think of this as your complete introduction into the need to know women’s self-defense tactics. Let’s start with some women’s self-defense tips that everyone needs to know. Continue reading “”

News Media Fears Ammon Bundy May be Right

They’ve got the White House come January 21st, 2021.  They may pick up the United States Senate after a special election in Georgia.  They still hold the U.S. House of Representatives.  Then why do liberals still appear to be living in fear when it comes to their perceptions of people in fly over country?

One latest example comes out of a Nampa based newspaper.  You can click on a link here.  Political activist Ammon Bundy is recommending people prepare for rough times ahead.  He’s called a conservative activist by the writers of the story.  I’m not sure all of these labels are accurate.  He was more than willing to meet members of Black Lives Matter.  He was vilified by many old allies on the right.  Yet, he explained he wanted to know why they were taking to the streets.  It’s a fair question.  People who believe they’re aggrieved could solve at least some issues by having a dialogue.  Or it’s at least worth a try. Continue reading “”