Category: Safety

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.

  1. Columbia, Maryland
  2. South Burlington, Vermont
  3. Plano, Texas
  4. Nashua, New Hampshire
  5. Lewiston, Maine
  6. Burlington, Vermont
  7. Salem, Oregon
  8. Virginia Beach, Virginia
  9. Raleigh, North Carolina
  10. Gilbert, Arizona

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.

So, the initial questions ought to be: Who are the experts? What are their qualifications? Do they have an observable agenda?

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 “”

M&P SHIELD® EZ® PISTOL IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALL NOTICE FOR PISTOLS MANUFACTURED BETWEEN MARCH 1ST, 2020 AND OCTOBER 31ST, 2020

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.

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:

  • HB 152 and HB 245 would ban the private sale of firearms at gun shows;
  • HB 238 would eliminate the state’s firearm preemption, allowing local governments such as the Austin City Council to pass local gun bans and regulations as they see fit;
  • HB 201 would ban Campus Carry;
  • HB 127 would ban the open carry of long rifles;
  • HB 236 would overhaul the 30.06 and 30.07 signage requirements to make it much easier for a business to ban a legal and licensed gun owner from entering;
  • HB 118 would eliminate family members from being able to transfer firearms among each other, instead requiring a federal license application to process each transaction “at an undetermined fee”;
  • HB 164 and HB 395 relate to Red Flag laws, allowing the removal of a person’s firearm without due process;
  • HB 185 would legally require homeowners to keep all guns locked inside of a safe at all times;
  • HB 231 raises the legal age required to purchase semi-automatic rifles and shotguns;
  • HB 172 and HB 241 would ban the transfer or possession of certain “commonly owned semi-automatic firearms”;
  • HB 178 and HB 234 would ban the sale or possession of any magazine that holds more than ten rounds.

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.

Naturally, that surge in gun sales and ownership has coincided with the popularity of gun control plummeting.

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-elect Joe 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.

Continue reading “”

Gun trade groups say more women are becoming licensed firearms owners

Some call it firearm feminism. According to gun trade groups, more women are buying guns than ever before.

One recent survey indicates self-protection is the main reason, but first-time female gun buyers are also citing fear of civil unrest, election uncertainty and the coronavirus as influencing their decision to buy firearms.

Business owner Angela Geotz says she wants to be legally armed if trouble comes her way.

“I just want to be able to protect myself if I have to, my family,” Geotz said.

Geotz is not alone. Jessica Howard is a first-time gun owner.

“There is a lot of crazy stuff going on and I’m a single mother,” Howard said.

Firearm sales to women are up 40% from 2019, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The trade group surveyed gun retailers. The survey finds personal protection is the primary reason and semi-automatic pistols are the most popular.

First-time gun owner Vickie Hayes bought a semi-automatic pistol after someone broke into her home.

“It kind of scared me a little bit, so I thought a good way to protect myself would be to get a handgun license. So, I did and I purchased a gun,” Hayes said.

The firearms industry noticed the surge beginning in March with the coronavirus outbreak.

Since then, concern over civil unrest is the biggest reason for the surge, that’s according to a poll conducted by national firearms group A Girl & A Gun:

  • 14% Riots/Fear of Mobs and civil unrest.
  • 12% Concerns over 2020 Elections.
  • 8% Lack of Law enforcement resources.
  • 7% Pandemic uncertainty.
  • 7% Fear of targeted violence/discrimination.

Continue reading “”

Militias challenge gun laws in Virginia: “It’s about shooting tyrants in the face”

On a cold winter morning last February, a woman named Samantha assembled her AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the parking area next to Timbrook Public Library in Campbell County, Virginia. Her husband, Chad, had his AR-15 in hand and commented, “I would trust going into a gun fight right next to my wife. I’ve seen her shoot.”

Samantha was one of a handful of women attending the call for volunteers to join a group calling itself the Campbell County Militia. Along with Chad and Samantha (who asked to have their last name withheld), over 200 people were at the event, most of them carrying arms.

Kurt Feigel, a gun rights activist and militia organizer, told the group, “We are here today to send a clear and collective message to any would-be-tyrants that would attempt to disarm us: We will not comply.”

The formation of the Campbell County Militia is part of a larger movement organized by gun rights activists pushing back against gun laws Virginia enacted in 2020. They claim the new regulations, which include a “red flag” law and universal background checks for gun purchases, infringe on their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Virginia lawmakers shelved more controversial proposals that would have banned semi-automatic guns and high capacity magazines. Still, gun rights activists are bracing for a possible future ban.

“We won’t comply. We won’t give up our guns,” said Feigel.

Virginia became a battleground for the gun policy debate after Democrats swept both houses of the state legislature in 2019 on a gun safety platform, consolidating Democratic control of the state government.

Gun policy has long been a divisive issue in the United States. Even as support grows for stricter gun laws, the country remains deeply divided along partisan lines. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found 60% of Americans think gun laws should be more strict, up from 52% two years earlier. But the same survey also found 80% of Republicans think it’s more important to protect gun rights than to control gun ownership, while just 21% of Democrats agree.

In Virginia, gun rights supporters pushed back against the Democratic legislative majority. Over 90 counties and municipalities in the state passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions opposing the enforcement of certain gun laws. And there were calls to form local militias to give their movement some “teeth.”

“If we have the numbers, we can back up the statement — we will not be disarmed,” said Feigel. “[The Second Amendment] is not about hunting. It’s not about self-defense. It’s about shooting tyrants in the face.” Continue reading “”

(Florida governor) DeSantis Pushes To Expand Stand Your Ground Law To Allow Citizens To Defend Against Rioters, Looters

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has reportedly drafted “anti-mob” legislation that would expand the state’s Stand Your Ground law to allow armed citizens defend themselves against violent rioters and looters.

Written after violent rioters caused billions of dollars of damage to America’s cities over the summer, the proposal would expand the list of under Florida’s self-defense law to justify the use of force against rioters who engage in looting or arson that “results in the interruption or impairment of a business operation.”

“The draft legislation put specifics behind DeSantis’ pledge in September to crack down on ‘violent and disorderly assemblies,’” the Tampa Bay Times reported. “Other key elements of DeSantis’ proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in ‘violent or disorderly assemblies,’ make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets.” Continue reading “”

Gun Control and Racism: The Laws and Taxes Meant to Limit Minority Gun Ownership in America

“There’s a direct correlation between gun control and black people control.” – Stacy Swimp, President of the Frederick Douglass Society

Every schoolchild knows that the Declaration of Independence declares that the basic equality of man is “self-evident.” The United States Constitution enumerates what the inalienable rights only alluded to by the Declaration. An inalienable right is one that exists regardless of whether or not it is recognized by the state. For example, you have a right to free speech regardless of whether or not the Constitution recognizes it. Thus any restrictions on free speech are curbs of this pre-existing right, not an actual elimination of that right. One of them is the right to keep and bear arms. Another is the right to a speedy and public trial.

However, particularly with the Second Amendment, there’s long been a struggle between the ideals of America and the reality on the ground with regard to race. What’s more, minorities in the United States are disproportionately the victims of violent crime. Both of these things together make it crucial to understand self defense and the Second Amendment from the perspective of race in America.

Part of the problem is that, unlike European nations which grew organically, America is an invention of a handful of Englishmen. They founded the nation on a set of ideas and there has always been a tension between those ideas and the reality. This is, in some sense, unavoidable: reality will always have trouble living up to an ideal. A failure to live up to that ideal in the past according to terms established today doesn’t make the entire project – or any specific part of it – worthless or suspect.

Before we get into the meat of the matter, we should note that the American ideal has expanded the Second Amendment (and the rest of the Constitution for that matter) to de jure include all Americans. One can be skeptical of the notion of “progress” while seeing the moves to repeal race-based restrictions on firearms ownership as big steps in the right direction.

Finally, it is worth noting – and we will do so at length later – that none of the racially-motivated laws on the books in America are uniquely American. Racism, in the sense employed by the average person not the expanded version used by left-wing ideologues, was not a uniquely American institution, but the norm throughout human history. Continue reading “”

A Dark Moment for Democracy Affirms the Need for the Second Amendment

Businesses in major American cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. erected plywood barricades for fear of election day violence. To observers in other countries, the picture of boarded up businesses looked like they came from the third world. To historians, the pictures looked like they were taken from a country descending into tyranny.

We all know who these barriers were built to defend against. They weren’t built to defend against Tea Partiers. They weren’t built to defend against Proud Boys. They were built to defend against Antifa and Black Lives Matter, groups who Joe Biden has repeatedly refused to condemn despite their coordinated violence and property destruction.

Shortly before the election, Biden tweeted that he would ban “assault weapons,” implement “universal background checks,” and enact other allegedly “common sense” gun reform laws.

If he proves the victor, and the Democrats win one run-off race in Georgia, America will see an unprecedented assault on the Second Amendment. A Biden Department of Justice would try to bankrupt gun manufacturers in court. And gun confiscation would be on the table, given that Biden has promised to put Beto O’Rourke, who famously said “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15s,” in charge of his administration’s gun policies.

Fortunately, over the last six months gun sales – especially to first-time gun-buyers – have shattered all historic records. This is because for hundreds of thousands of Americans, 2020 has settled the gun control arguments they hear so often in the media. The question “what could anyone need an AR-15 for?” has been answered by images of store owners standing guard against a mob with that gun as their neighbor’s businesses burned to the ground.

The argument that “people should rely on the police for protection,” has been countered by the reality that in major American cities our elected officials pro-actively refuse to allow the police the enforce the law. This wasn’t a matter of the police getting there moments too late. What we saw was elected officials refusing to allow the police to enforce the law because they agreed with the political aims of the violent mob. Continue reading “”

Alabama voters approve gun proposal for Franklin County

Alabama voters have approved a constitutional amendment that provides specific protection to anyone who kills someone in self-defense in a church in Franklin County. The attorney general’s office has said Alabama’s “stand your ground” law already applies inside churches. But backers supported Amendment 5, saying more specific provisions for churches in the northwest part of the state.

I’ll take riots in Philly for $500, Alex

Why people are buying guns at a record pace in Pennsylvania in the run-up to Election Day

Charlotte Heller, a 71-year-old grandmother from Lower Macungie Township, was never a fan of guns.

Then came 2020.

This September, Heller and her 73-year-old husband Ira joined scores of other Pennsylvanians in becoming first-time gun owners during a year expected to break gun purchase records across the country.

“Let me tell you, I’ve never liked guns. I was always kind of afraid of guns,” Charlotte Heller said. “I felt like we didn’t need them.”

But 2020, of course, is a year like no other ― fueling gun sales with a combination of factors, experts say. Start with the coronavirus pandemic and shortage of basic supplies, then add a wave of protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the resulting property damage and violence, and cap it with one of most divisive presidential elections in modern history, and you’ve got a perfect storm for one of the most basic human emotions. Continue reading “”