If they weren’t deceitful………..
The "Gun Violence Archive" deceptively counts single fatality incidents, double fatality incidents, and biker bar shootouts with no fatalities, as mass shootings. https://t.co/JPKZsuLnHb
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 11, 2020
Gun-control activists need to stop demonizing John Lott
The recent reaction of Griffin Dix to the appointment of John Lott as an adviser to the DOJ Office of Justice Program reflects the continued inability of the gun-control advocacy community to address the fundamental issues that prevent us from making an effective response to the problem of gun violence.
Lott’s book “More Guns, Less Crime” has become a flashpoint for arguments on both sides of the gun debate. On the one hand, the book is celebrated by the pro-gun lobby as a justification for ‘stand your ground’ laws and other legal rationales for armed self-defense. On the other hand, the book is condemned by gun-control activists as error-filled propaganda that promotes the false idea that guns are an effective response to fears about personal safety and threats of crime. As a long-time member of the Brady Campaign, Griffin Dix obviously belongs to the latter group. Continue reading “”
Confirmed: left leaning gun grabbers suffer from mental illness
“Believe the science” they always say. Ok.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341609819_Mental_Illness_and_the_Left
It has been claimed that left-wingers or liberals (US sense) tend to more often suffer from mental illness than right-wingers or conservatives. This potential link was investigated using the General Social Survey cumulative cross-sectional dataset (1972-2018). A search of the available variables resulted in 5 items measuring one’s own mental illness (e.g., ”Do you have any emotional or mental disability?”). All of these items were weakly associated with left-wing political ideology as measured by self-report, with especially high rates seen for the “extremely liberal” group. These results mostly held up in regressions that adjusted for age, sex, and race. For the variable with the most data (n = 11,338), the difference in the mental illness measure between “extremely liberal” and “extremely conservative” was 0.39 d. Temporal analysis showed that the relationship between mental illness, happiness, and political ideology has existed in the GSS data since the 1970s and still existed in the 2010s. Within-study meta-analysis of all the results found that extreme liberals had a 150% increased rate of mental illness compared to moderates. The finding of increased mental illness among left-wingers is congruent with numerous findings based on related constructs, such as positive relationships between conservatism, religiousness and health in general.
Ohio: No Duty to Retreat Legislation Heads to the Senate Floor
On Wednesday, the Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee passed important No Duty to Retreat Legislation, Senate Bill 383. This self-defense measure now heads to the Senate for floor action.
Senate Bill 383 strengthens Ohio’s self-defense laws by stating that individuals have no duty to retreat from a place that they are lawfully present before using force in defense of themselves or others. Previously the law only applied to residences and vehicles, however SB 383 expands that to allow for law-abiding gun owners to be able to defend themselves without being required to retreat from any place they are allowed to be.
Personal Defense During the Holidays
Here we are, once again, entering the Holiday Season—the most stressful time of the year for most folks—in a year like no other year any of us has ever experienced or expected. What that means for folks like us is that we’ve got to really increase our awareness and keep personal defense in the forefront of our minds at all times.
We know that robberies and home invasions increase during these last days of the year. But you also have to realize that ordinarily good folks are getting awfully stressed out. They’ll be letting their anger and frustrations get the best of them. They’ll do stupid things. And they will do things that place other’s lives in danger.
We can begin by recognizing that we, too, can become overly frustrated and angered. Talking with the family about finding ways to avoid stress is a really good place to start. Often, just supporting each other is a good way to keep that stress level within bounds. And we can also make a concerted effort to remain polite and courteous to everyone, strangers included. When a person loses his temper, he has also weakened his defense level.
The holidays are also a good time to review the personal defense plan, especially the need for being aware of what is going on around us. We also need to make sure that we are communicating regularly with other family members and that we know each other’s location at all times. When another family member is especially stressed or not feeling well, we need to be there to pick up the slack, carry some of their load for them.
And this is also not the time to let your pistol practice wane. Yep, I know that ammunition is difficult to come by but that just means that you need to increase the time you spend in dry practice. Practicing the basics—draw stroke, flash sight picture, trigger press—can also still be honed during dry practice. And you might want to do it while wearing that heavy coat and winter gloves that you’ll be wearing when you go out.
Getting serious about our personal defense and having a solid personal defense plan does not have to hamper our enjoyment of the holidays. Once these principles become ingrained in our everyday lives, we can enjoy ourselves and still be careful. You say you haven’t gotten around to developing a personal defense plan and discussing it with your family? Well, now is an awfully good time to start it.
You can’t avoid being a target, but you can decide if you are going to be an easy target or a hard target.
So find ways to keep the stress within due bounds. Make it a point to put a smile on your face at the same time that your head is on a swivel. Focus on your family and the other stuff that really matters and you’ll likely get through these trying times successfully.
First-time gun buyers projected to top 8M: Smith & Wesson
Women are making up 40% of new buyers
Background checks, a metric for gun sales, are hitting an all-time high in 2020, and nearly half of the purchases being made this year are by first-time firearm owners, firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson said Thursday.
Stocks in this Article
SWBI
SMITH & WESSON BRANDS
$15.91
+0.78 (+5.16%)
To date, nearly 8 million Americans have already decided to “exercise their Second Amendment rights for the first time,” chief executive Mark Smith told analysts in an earnings call.
For their findings, the company cited data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which estimated that 40% of the tens of thousands of firearm purchases in 2020 are coming from first-time owners.
Smith noted that these new purchases are further “broadening and diversifying” its consumer base and are an indicator of the long-term vitality of the industry as a whole.
Smith said NSSF data indicated that “women are making up 40% of new buyers and overall firearm purchases by African Americans are outpacing all other demographics with 58% growth in the first half of the year alone through June.” Continue reading “”
Well, it appears to me that all those ‘new guns’ in the hands of all those ‘new gun owners’ hasn’t resulted in much, if any, increase in the ooltra-ooltra violence some people believe guns – in and of themselves – cause.
The impact of Pierce County’s pandemic-related gun sales may surprise you
The bulk ammunition shelves at Columbia Gun Rack in downtown Kennewick, Wash. are mostly barren from a continued surge in purchases during the coronavirus pandemic.
Not all businesses have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the nation gun stores are doing brisk business, and here in Pierce County, firearm sales have more than doubled in 2020.
Inventory is flying off the shelves, according to Damien Wongwai, owner and operator of Bull’s Eye Indoor Range in Puyallup. He told a member of the Editorial Board that first-time buyers, fueled by pandemic fears, make up a large percentage of his sales.
It’s important to remember that behind every gun purchase is a real person, with a real family, and due to the fallout of COVID-19 restrictions, they’re potentially going through a life altering experience. Gun safety measures have never been more important.
Pierce County recorded 20,181 firearms transfer applications (FTAs.) in 2019. To date, that number is well-past 44,000, and according to South Sound 911, those FTAs don’t reflect the total number of new firearms in circulation. There can be multiple weapons transferred under one application.
But do guns, guns and more guns also mean an increase in gun-related injuries and deaths? Call it the great unintended experiment of 2020, because we’re about to find out.
A study conducted this year by the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center concluded that “During the coronavirus pandemic, an acute increase in firearm access is associated with an increase in firearm violence.”
But that’s not the calculus playing out in Pierce County, not yet, anyway. Continue reading “”
SKYROCKETING MURDERS IN MAJOR CITIES UNDERSCORE GUN CONTROL DISASTER
BELLEVUE, WA – Skyrocketing murder rates in several major American cities with strict gun laws offer hard evidence that gun control isn’t just a failed policy, it’s a disaster, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
More than 700 people have been murdered in Chicago so far this year. Baltimore’s total is above 335, and Philadelphia has logged more than 450 slayings. Even relatively benign Seattle has nearly doubled the number of homicides it reported for all of 2019, a fact not lost on CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. So far this year, the Jet City has seen 55 murders, while 2019 produced 28 slayings.
“Seattle is a textbook example of horribly failed policies,” Gottlieb said. “The city council just slashed the police department’s budget following months of civil unrest, vandalism, property destruction and rising crime. Five years ago, the city adopted a gun and ammunition tax to finance a so-called ‘gun violence reduction’ program that drove business out of the city and obviously hasn’t prevented any violent crime. The city adopted a ‘safe storage’ mandate for gun owners. It has also obviously failed, and is currently being challenged in court by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association.
“Ironically,” he noted, “the city is headquarters to a billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group that has bankrolled two extremist gun control initiatives. The rising body count is proof positive their anti-gun-rights crusade has been an unmitigated failure.”
CCRKBA checked Seattle homicide data back more than a decade. Over the 12-year period from 2008 to 2019, the city averaged just over 24 slayings annually.
“It’s time for the gun control lobby to admit its schemes have all failed, and for the city, and the state, to change course dramatically,” Gottlieb said. “Laws that penalize honest citizens while being ignored by criminals don’t accomplish anything and they should be scrapped.
“Seattle anti-gunners like to boast about how progressive they are,” he observed. “If doubling the number of murders is their idea of progress, maybe we should all go back to living in log cabins.”
CCRKBA Director of Operations Julianne Versnel said there may be a “silver lining” to Seattle’s foolish response of cutting police funding and pushing stricter gun control.
“People living in adjoining communities will see criminals going into Seattle to commit crimes,” she said, “and leave suburbs alone.”
2020’s Safest Cities in America
Half Of America’s Safest Cities Are In Constitutional Carry States
A fundamental adage of the gun control movement is that more gun laws equals less gun crime. The only problem with that belief is that it’s patently untrue. The website WalletHub recently compared more than 180 cities across the country to determine which cities are the safest for residents and visitors, and it turns out that fully half of the ten safest cities are in states that have very strong Second Amendment protections, including Constitutional or permitless carry.
The website didn’t only look at violent crime rates when determining which cities are the safest, but that was a big part of the criteria along with the number of reported COVID cases, law enforcement per capita, and some 40 other factors in three specific areas of concern; Home and Community Safety, Natural Disaster Risk, and Financial Safety. Once those risk factors were tabulated, the site ranked all 180 cities, and with one notable exception, the vast majority of the safest cities are in states that do a decent job in recognizing our right to keep and bear arms.
Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Arizona are all Constitutional carry states, while the gun laws in Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina are all fairly robust in terms of Second Amendment protections. Columbia, Maryland is the one city in the Top Ten Safest Cities that’s located in a state with restrictive gun control laws, and those laws don’t seem to be doing much to keep residents in Maryland’s largest city safe. Baltimore, Maryland is way down towards the bottom of WalletHub’s list of safest cities, coming in 155th out 182 metropolitan areas.
If gun control alone were enough to reduce violent crime, then cities like San Bernardino (ranked 180th out of 182), Los Angeles, (172), Oakland (165), and Washington, D.C. (160) would be among the safest places in the country instead of coming in towards the bottom of the rankings. In fact, it’s worth noting that California has the “best” gun control laws in the country according to groups like Giffords and Brady, but it’s also home to some of the most dangerous cities in the United States.
California’s ten day waiting periods, bans on so-called assault weapons and high capacity magazines, prohibitions on online and out-of-state sales of ammunition, background checks on in-person ammo sales, microstamping requirements, and the other onerous restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms may make gun control activists happy, but they don’t do much to keep people safe.
Conversely, some of the safest cities in the country don’t have any California-style gun laws in place. That should be enough evidence to put to rest forever the absurd assertion that more gun laws equals less crime, but you and I both know that the gun control movement is going to keep repeating the lie that we can ban our way to safety. It’s going to be up to Second Amendment activists to keep making the case that not only are these gun control laws unconstitutional, but they’re ineffective as well; promising security at the expense of our rights, but instead making us both less safe and less free.
Plans to disarm Portland State campus police on hold after too many quit.
Portland State University announced in August its plan to disarm campus police officers by replacing their firearms with tasers, but those plans have been put on a temporary hold.
The plan to disarm officers was announced earlier in 2020 after rallies and protesters at PSU called for justice for Jason Washington, who was killed by officers in 2018. Campus Reform reported on the efforts of PSU students and staff to disarm officers in 2019.
Campus Police Chief Willie Halliburton stated that in order for unarmed officers to be safe, the school would need two officers for every shift, which hasn’t been possible due to the retirement or resignation of several officers.
In a video message addressing the issue, Halliburton stated, “I am fully committed to transforming this police agency into a unit that will achieve these goals. We’ll do this without carrying weapons while on patrol.” Continue reading “”
‘Safety’ Tips from Gun Prohibitionists Have Hidden Agenda
“Gun sales are way up, in Pennsylvania and across the country. And many are first-time owners,” The Philadelphia Inquirer notes in a “Philly Tips” column. “Here’s what you need to know about gun safety.”
Gun owners can be forgiven if that assertion causes their antennae to go up. The mainstream press, what I call the DSM (Duranty/Streicher Media), has not exactly been supportive of the right to keep and bear arms. Plus, we have seen too often how the term “commonsense gun safety laws” is contorted by gun-grabbers (with little actual knowledge of firearms and shooting) to mean more infringements that won’t do a thing to stop evil people from doing evil things and stupid/lazy people from doing stupid/lazy things.
Scott Charles is the first “authority” we meet, presented as “a gun violence educator and trauma outreach coordinator for Temple University Hospital.”
He says he’s a gun owner, but if he has any specialized training/credentialing that give him notable credibility as a gun safety expert, whoever wrote up his Temple Safety Net profile failed to list them. Instead, we find he has been “an at-risk youth specialist for the State Department of Education [and] assisted in the development of a statewide rite of passage program for young African American males.” He went on to get some degrees that have nothing to do with firearms and has been featured on network television, PBS, and a “documentary” about urban criminals using guns. He’s received some community awards, one of them being from CeaseFire PA, a group that used to admit it was about “gun control.”
So what are Charles’ “gun safety” qualifications? If you didn’t give him time to look it up on the internet, would he know who Jeff Cooper was and be able to explain his rules? Would he be able to tell you what to do about safety issues shooters may encounter at the range like misfires or hangfires? Could he even tell you what those are? Maybe he could. Maybe we just need to see a relevant CV. Maybe.
“As a gun owner and someone who sees the consequences of gun injury, this is something we should take seriously,” Charles pontificates. “We have a lot of novice, first-time gun owners taking that gun home where there are children, and the data we have says that firearm is most likely to be used to harm somebody in the home.”
So we see him adopting the gun-grabber talking point that guns in the home are more dangerous than not having them in the home. But he nonetheless says he has them in his home. Agenda much? Then you go to his Twitter page and his political predispositions make it all clear. Continue reading “”
Smith & Wesson announced this week that it has identified two M&P Shield EZ pistols on which the hammers manufactured by the supplier were cracked. In those firearms the hammer failed to fully engage the sear, which caused the round to fire, cycling the slide and potentially resulting in multiple discharges without depressing the trigger. In all cases, the firearm will NOT fire unless the grip safety is depressed.
This condition has been found only in two hammers, and Smith & Wesson’s investigation suggests the pair of incidents are very isolated. Any unintended discharge of a firearm, however, has the potential to cause injury. Therefore, Smith & Wesson has established this Safety Recall as a precautionary measure to ensure that all M&P Shield EZ Pistols in service meet it design specifications, as any unintended discharge of a firearm has the potential to cause injury. This notice applies only to M&P Shield EZ pistols (including Performance Center models) manufactured between March 1, 2020, and Oct. 31, 2020, and only to a small percentage of that population. It does NOT apply to all Shield pistols.
Stop using your M&P Shield EZ pistol until you determine whether it is included in this safety recall, and if so, until it has been inspected and repaired by Smith & Wesson, if necessary. Owners of all M&P9 Shield EZ and M&P380 Shield EZ—including Performance Center models, should visit this special web page and input their pistol’s serial number, or call (888)-871-7114 immediately to determine if the hammer of their M&P Shield EZ Pistol was from a manufacturing lot that was potentially affected. This notice applies only to certain M&P Shield EZ models, and not all M&P Shield pistols.
If your M&P Shield EZ Pistol is included in this recall, as determined by the website link or telephone number above, discontinue its use immediately and follow the instructions on the website link—or call (888) 871-7114—and the company will arrange for the return of your firearm to Smith & Wesson for inspection. After inspection, if the hammer from your firearm is affected, it will be replaced at no cost to you. It is anticipated the entire process will take no longer than 10 business days, and pistols will be returned as quickly and efficiently as possible. All shipping and replacement costs will be covered by Smith & Wesson.
M&P Shield EZ Pistol owners outside the United States can refer to the Smith & Wesson list of Authorized Warranty Centers, where your pistol can be inspected and hammer replaced as necessary.
Metro Mayhem: Murders Soar in Chicago, Los Angeles = More Gun Law Failure
Monday morning it appeared the City of Chicago was close to hitting—if it hadn’t already—700 homicides for the year, with five weeks remaining in 2020, according to data from the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Windy City is not alone in the rise of metropolitan mayhem.
Two thousand miles west, the City of Los Angeles hit a murderous milestone over the weekend, as the Los Angeles Times reported the city has racked up 300 slayings so far this year. It was a figure the city hadn’t logged since 2009, the newspaper said.
A thousand miles north, Seattle is also reporting more murders this year than for any of the past six, according to Seattle Police Department data. So far, as of Monday morning, there have been 41 slayings in the Jet City, up from 28 killings last year, and 32 for all of 2018, and the year is not over. Seattle, for its size and population, traditionally has a remarkably low number of murders, but it is located in a county with the highest number of legally-armed citizens in the state, even though the Seattle Police has used the COVID-19 shutdown to suspend accepting concealed pistol license applications since mid-March.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, last Thursday the number of homicide victims had reached 694. Over the weekend, six more people were reportedly killed and 46 others were wounded in shootings occurring across the city. If those figures are accurate—the newspaper keeps a running tally of murders—the city has hit a threshold.
In Los Angeles, according to Fox News, there were four killings over the weekend that bumped the city above the 300 mark. How many more will be added to the death toll won’t be known until Jan 2. But Fox said the city’s 32 percent increase in shootings “comes as other major cities also grapple with similar rises in crime during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Los Angeles and Seattle offer a dilemma for gun control advocates. Both are the largest cities in their respective states, and they have seen the adoption of stricter gun control laws in recent years that proponents argued would reduce gun-related violence. The exact opposite has been the case. Continue reading “”
Texas already has something similar to this
Tennessee bill would allow use of deadly force for a property crime
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The law in Tennessee is clear: You can use deadly force only in self-defense if you fear for your life or someone else’s, but, what if you could shoot someone who stole from you?
For now — that would be a felony. But a new bill expands the uses of deadly force.
“I think the last year has raised a lot of questions in Tennessee about whether you can use force or deadly force,” said John Harris, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association.
Harris said the thinks the destructive demonstrations and looting at the Davidson County Courthouse and the businesses along Lower Broadway this past May raised some concerns.
Now State Representative Jay Reedy has filed a bill that would allow a person to use deadly force to protect their property.
Harris said with police occupied elsewhere, store owners, for instance, under current law could not use lethal force to stop looting, and people are tired of it. Continue reading “”
Ohio Senate Approves Armed School Staff Legislation
There are already dozens of school districts across the state of Ohio that have armed school staff in place, but a lawsuit filed with the help of Everytown for Gun Safety is putting the legality of thousands of vetted and trained school staff in jeopardy. Parents in the Madison school district argue that under Ohio law, teachers and staff need to have the exact same training as police officers before they can legally carry, and the issue is currently before the state Supreme Court.
Lawmakers in the Buckeye State aren’t waiting for the court to decide if the current statutes allow for districts to determine their own training policies for armed school staff. On Wednesday, the state Senate approved legislation that specifically authorizes school staffers to carry without going through hundreds of hours of peace officer training.
State Sen. Bill Coley, a Butler County Republican sponsoring the bill, said the “court went off the reservation” with its ruling. The legislation, he said, would ensure that “school districts in my area of the state can have the same rights that all of your school districts in your areas of the state have.”
Gun-rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, have expressed support for SB 317, arguing local education officials should be allowed to determine the best policies for ensuring their schools are safe. The Madison Local School District put its policy in place after a 14-year-old student opened fire at Madison Junior-Senior High School in 2016, injuring four.Several Democratic senators spoke against the legislation prior to the bill’s passage in the GOP-dominated Senate. They argued that the bill is unwanted by most Ohioans and makes schools less safe.
“No child in Ohio should have to worry about if there is a gun at school, or if the person with the gun has had proper training,” said state Sen. Hearcel Craig, a Columbus Democrat.
First off, no teacher or staff member in Ohio is carrying without first volunteering, being vetted, and then undergoing several days of training, typically through the Ohio FASTER program, which focuses specifically on stopping armed threats at school. Educators not only learn how to respond to an attack with their lawfully-carried firearm, but they learn de-escalation techniques, first aid, and other strategies to deal with an active assailant and the aftermath. Continue reading “”
Stop Blaming Guns For Suicides
Nearly two-thirds of all firearm fatalities each year are the result of someone taking their own life. Anti-gunners routinely leave that part out when they’d slinging numbers around because people don’t view suicides the same way they do homicides or accidents. After all, someone commits suicide by making a conscious decision to take their own life. It’s on them and no one else.
And since two-thirds of those firearm-related fatalities are suicides, it’s no wonder that anti-gunners try to obscure the truth.
Unfortunately for them, it becomes easy to debunk their claims by simply pointing this fact out. That’s why there’s now a push not just to acknowledge this, but to blame guns for those suicides.
According to national health statistics, 24,432 Americans used guns to kill themselves in 2018, up from 19,392 in 2010.
People who kill themselves in this way are usually those with ready access to firearms: gun owners and their family members. Gun owners are not more suicidal than people who don’t own guns, but attempts with guns are more likely to be fatal.
Now, nearly a year after the coronavirus pandemic began, unleashing a tide of economic dislocation and despair, experts are bracing for a rise in suicides. Gun sales have risen steadily since March, and as shutdowns aimed at containing the virus have disrupted lives and led to social isolation, studies have shown an increase in anxiety and suicidal ideation.
“So many people are struggling right now,” said Jennifer Stuber, an associate professor of social work who helped found the University of Washington’s Forefront Suicide Prevention center. “The indicators are that a perfect storm is about to hit.”
She noted that people who purchase guns to protect themselves from civil unrest and a possible rise in crime “may actually be incurring more potential risk in terms of harm that can come to their family.”
OK, let’s break down the facts.
First, that 24,432 suicides with a firearm? That accounts for just a tad over half of all suicides in the country. It sounds to me like people are finding plenty of other ways to kill themselves without firearms.
Oh, but that’s an increase since 2010, right? Sure. But overall suicides are also up during that same period.
Further, while firearms may be the most effective means for someone to take their own life, it’s not the only effective means to do so. There are plenty of other ways to claim your own life and be pretty sure you’re going to be successful. While guns might be more effective, we’re talking about a couple of percentage points of different, which is practically statistical noise.
In other words, guns aren’t the problem.
Suicide isn’t a political issue, it’s a mental health one. Just today I read a good friend lamenting a buddy of his from the Marine Corps who claimed his own life. The issue there wasn’t access to firearms, but that so many who serve have ended up broken mentally and emotionally by what they endured.
Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop trying to make this about guns and recognize that tens of thousands of people are still claiming their own lives with things that aren’t firearms and instead focus on solutions that can help everyone.
Texas Anti-Gunners File Many Bills
At least 16 gun control bills have already been filed for the upcoming Texas Legislative Session beginning in January, setting the stage for a contentious battle over the gun rights of private citizens.
One of the bills is HB 196, filed by Irving State Representative Terry Meza. Her bill would remove a homeowner’s legal right under the Castle Doctrine to use a firearm in the defense of their homestead against an intruder. Meza believes homeowners are too quick to pull the trigger during a home invasion, and HB 196 would essentially gut that provision from the Castle Doctrine.
“I’m not condoning stealing, it is against the law, “Meza says, “but it’s not an offense that is punishable by death.”
Meza claims she’s already become the target of intense scrutiny online.
“People are already attacking me on Facebook saying I’m against the 2nd Amendment,” she says.
Meza says a homeowner would still be able to defend their life, but using a gun would be illegal, thus placing the homeowner in legal jeopardy.
Critics point to what is often a slow response time from police, and argue that there’s very little time to determine whether a person who has broken into a home is there simply to steal, or to commit acts of violence.
Other gun control bills awaiting the next session include:
The vast majority of those gun control bills are not expected to pass muster when state lawmakers reconvene.
Gun Control Plummeted in Popularity This Year
Gun sales have surged in 2020, fueled by a pandemic, nationwide riots that Democrat leaders showed little interest in stopping, and, even prior to election day, the mere prospect of a Biden/Harris administration that would implement new gun control measures.
Americans have purchased more guns in the first eight months in 2020 than the entirety of 2019, and are on pace to make this year the biggest year for gun sales ever. Firearms seller Vista Outdoor has a backlog of over $1 billion in ammo purchases alone.
These sales don’t reflect existing gun owners hoarding firearms either, as there are over five million new gun owners this year, likely the largest surge in gun ownership in U.S. history.
According to the latest polling from Gallup: Continue reading “”
Biden Wants to Prevent Armed Teachers From Protecting Themselves and Their Students
Preventing teachers from carrying firearms is just one of Joe Biden’s gun control goals. See his other priorities for rolling back Second Amendment rights here.
The idea of arming teachers to prevent school shootings burst into the national conversation after Parkland, when President Trump raised the possibility in listening sessions with grieving parents. Shortly after the 2018 shooting at the Florida high school, he told attendees at the 2018 CPAC that as many as one out of every five teachers should be carrying a gun.
It provoked an uproar. But often lost in the bluster of that moment was the reality that teachers had already been carrying guns in U.S. schools for over 10 years. Trump had just become the policy’s highest-profile advocate yet. The first serious proposals to arm teachers cropped up after the Columbine shooting in 1999, and the first school district to announce such a policy was in Harrod, Texas, in 2008, after Virginia Tech.
The decision to let schools arm teachers is left to state governments. Since the 1990s, 19 states have passed laws and created programs to arm some teachers and other school staff, like principals or superintendents. In 24 states, school boards have the discretion to authorize anyone of their choosing to carry a gun on campus. A 2019 investigation by VICE News found that in the year after Parkland, the number of school districts arming their teachers more than doubled, from around 215 school districts to nearly 500, encompassing hundreds of thousands of students.
President-electJoe Biden has said he strongly opposes arming teachers, but because it’s up to state legislatures—which stayed resoundingly Republican this election, including in armed-teacher states like Florida, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, and Utah—it’s a policy that may be here to stay.
– Jen Kinney in Biden Hates the Idea of Arming Teachers, But It’s Way Too Late to Stop It
Justice Alito: Pandemic Has ‘Resulted in Previously Unimaginable Restrictions on Individual Liberty’
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday said the coronavirus pandemic has “resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty” and warned that religious liberty is “in danger of becoming a second class right.”
Alito’s comments came during his virtual keynote speech to a conference of the conservative Federalist Society, in which the 70-year-old justice warned that the U.S. can’t allow the restrictions on personal liberty to continue after the pandemic has ended, noting that houses of worship have been treated particularly unfairly.