Category: Safety

92 Ohio school districts now allow staff to carry blasters

Ohio has been doing this since 2022, a year that saw 22 school districts arm their staffs after the passage of a new law allowing the practice. Fast-forward to 2025 and that number is 92.

The main argument for arming these teachers is that in rural areas like Eastern Ohio where Benjamin Logan Local School District is located, it takes too long (about 10-15 minutes) for police to arrive during an active shooter situation. With armed staff, this isn’t as much of a problem.

These armed staff members are required to take basic firearms training before they can carry in school.

Believe it or not, 30 states allow school staff to carry firearms.

From Newsweek:

 

 

 

Here’s what the comments look like on Twitter when it comes to the above report on Benjamin Logan:

 

Second Amendment rights must apply to our military service members | PHIL WILLIAMS

Gun control laws continue to fail.

And where gun control laws make the least amount of sense are on U.S. military installations ― policy that must change.

The world turned its attention recently to an active shooter incident in Manhattan. A depraved individual drove to the heart of New York City, walked calmly into a downtown high rise, killed five people and took his own life. No one knows why a bad guy took up arms and committed heinous acts of terror.

Just weeks before the New York shooting, we saw the heroism of a former Marine named Derrick Perry in Michigan, who pulled his concealed-carry firearm and saved innocent bystanders from a knife-wielding madman who had just stabbed multiple people at random. A good guy who took up arms and stopped heinous acts of terror.

In reality, it is not guns that are bad. It is bad people with guns who are bad. Let’s keep in mind that both New York and Michigan have stringent gun control laws. Gun control did not stop the loss of life in Manhattan. Gun control laws did not stop the violence in Michigan.

More recently, another episode of gun violence erupted at the U.S. Army’s Fort Stewart, Georgia. Army Sgt. Quornelius Radford, using a personal weapon, opened fire on fellow soldiers, wounding five. He was stopped by other servicemembers who have since been decorated for their bravery.

But none of the responding soldiers could be called “good guys with guns.” Why? Because the U.S. military has the most draconian gun control laws in the nation.

Let that sink in.

Fort Stewart is home to the legendary 3rd Infantry Division, whose exploits include those of Audie Murphy. It’s the same Fort Stewart with two Armored Brigade Combat Teams, and its nearby sister installation Hunter Army Airfield, which houses the 1st Ranger Battalion. Soldiers who are trained as experts in the use of firearms, yet they cannot have their own firearms on post. Unless of course they are a bad guy who snuck it in with intent to do harm.

What about red state Alabama whose state motto resounds “We Dare Defend Our Rights?” All personal firearms on Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal must be registered or be subject to confiscation. Outside the gate, Alabama citizens may freely open carry a firearm, and concealed carry no longer requires a permit. But on Redstone Arsenal, where soldiers have far more firearms training than the average citizen, that freedom is curtailed. The same is true for Alabama’s Fort Rucker.

Consider the disparity in treatment here. Outside the gate, civilians freely exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms. They do so with no prerequisite training or conditioning. There are no mandatory gun safety course. There are no annual weapons qualification requirements for civilians.

But on an Army installation, soldiers have all of the above: Basic training with firearms, advanced training, reflexive fire training, annual qualification and awards for marksmanship. And yet, they must face the complete curtailing of their Second Amendment rights.

In 2016, President Donald Trump called for the military gun control policies to be rescinded. Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley opposed the idea. Go figure.

Firearms are not scary. People are scary. Period.

Aside from noise and a general lack of familiarity, most people are more concerned about the manner in which firearms are used, maintained or handled, which are issues of purely HUMAN fault. Those are issues for which the U.S. military is more than qualified to address.

I bear the surgical scars from someone being lax with firearm safety. Despite getting shot by one of those evil firearms I was able to separate the causation from the instrument. It was not the shotgun that shot me in and of itself. Rather, it was the knuckleheaded laxity of the guy who shot me and who should have known better.

And soldiers? They know better than most.

Soldiers know how to handle firearms. Breach load, bolt action, magazine fed and pump. Holographic sights, iron sights, and no sights. Holstered, unholstered and slung. Long guns, sidearms and scatter shots. They are trained to carry them in combat. Trusted in every respect. Except when they are in garrison on the Army installations to which they are assigned.

“You don’t forfeit all of your rights when you enter the military,” Carpenter said. “Outside of a military situation, the service member has just as much Second Amendment right as anyone else.” Referencing the recent shooting at Fort Stewart, Carpenter also said, “All those rules aren’t going to prevent someone from doing what the guy did today,”

Guns are not scary. People are scary. GOOD people with guns are what often stands between potential victims and bad people with guns. And our U.S. servicemembers are among the best. We trust them with our lives and swear them to an oath before taking up arms. It is time that we looked them in the eye and told them that we trust them with their rights.

Let’s restore the Second Amendment for our military. They’ve earned it.

Phil Williams is a former state senator from District 10 (which includes Etowah County), retired Army colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. He currently hosts the conservative news/talk show Rightside Radio on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. The opinions expressed are his own.

Concealment merely hides you. Cover stops bullets.

Discover Cover: Having something between you and the bad guy that can stop incoming rounds is vital in a gunfight.

When folks begin to develop their personal-defense plans, I think one important subject that is often overlooked is the use of cover. For our purposes, cover is anything that will stop a bullet. In addition to the obvious safety value, moving yourself to cover can also disrupt the criminal’s attack plan and cause them to lose some of the advantage they might have had.

And, the good news is that cover is all around us, wherever we might be: Trees, cars, brick walls, that large neighborhood mailbox; the list is huge. Then there are all of the available cover opportunities waiting to be found in the average home: bookcases, large appliances, heavy furniture, even that mattress and heavy box-spring on the bed. It is an excellent exercise to identify all of the good cover nearby during one’s regular daily routine, whatever that might be.

A good dry-practice exercise (with an assuredly unloaded gun) would be to move through your home and actually make use of that cover as if dealing with an actual attack. In the home, on the outside property and at work, there is really no excuse for not taking the time to identify available cover as merely just a defensive exercise.

In Col. Jeff Cooper’s awareness color code, we talk about Condition Orange: the potential threat. For whatever reason this situation is not currently a threat, but it certainly could become one. Our first thought should be to just get away from this potentially bad situation. But, that might not be possible or practical. While keeping an eye on the situation, this is an excellent time to identify the closest cover or areas of cover and decide which one to use if things go bad.

The biggest mistake is to wait until an attack occurs to try to decide what to do. At that point, there are too many other things that require our immediate attention. We might overlook the best cover or exit.

Another thing to keep in mind is that all cover is not equal. Actually, it is your attacker’s choice of firearms that is the problem. Some things that will stop pistol bullets won’t stop bullets from a rifle. And even among handguns, we know that a .44 Mag. will get through things that will stop a 9 mm hollowpoint. That is one of the reasons we look for several cover options instead of just one.

Interior sheetrock walls may offer concealment, but they provide poor cover. The same can be said of most modern automobile bodies, with the exception of the car’s engine. If you have to take cover behind a vehicle, it is very advisable to do so at the front end. And, for goodness sake, don’t then peek up over the hood; crooks will be expecting that move. Instead, get low, on your knees if you have to, and peer around the front of the vehicle, eyes level with the headlights or even the bumper.

I know a highway patrolman who engaged an armed felon as they chased each other around a vehicle. The patrolman went prone and, looking under a car, could see the crook’s feet. His .357 Mag. round went through both of the outlaw’s ankles, effectively stopping the fight.

It is often a good idea for the armed citizen to disengage and get away from the fight if possible. The use of cover allows them to consider and identify an exit while dealing with the attack. However, we never want to turn our back on the attacker while making an exit. Besides the potential for injury, we might also lose track of their location.

We can practice using cover during dry-practice sessions in our home or around it. On the live-fire shooting range, we might set up objects that simulate cover. A barricade post, a wooden cabinet or some such object can give us the opportunity in order to practice our pistol presentation and then quick movement to this simulated cover if your range allows. And we can also practice our live fire from kneeling or prone while using that cover.

Another excellent practice situation would be to find a facility that has an outdoor range with vehicles to use as cover to practice (Gunsite Academy, for instance).  We can practice quickly exiting and taking cover (where the RSOs will permit it). And, again, get live-fire practice on targets from prone or kneeling from behind the vehicle’s engine compartment. Just keep in mind that all safety rules apply, all the time. We are not out there to look cool, but rather to be safe and learn something.

Identifying and using cover should be an integral part of any personal-defense plan. Such a practice is an great idea to keep an eye out for whatever cover is available wherever you happen to be. In a lot of our defensive-shooting classes, we teach students to incorporate movement into the pistol presentation—some call it getting off the “X”—and going to the closest cover is the best use of that movement.

More good advice from fellow shootist Sheriff Wilson

Taking Care Of Your Guns
Your life may depend on it, so take good care of it.

As a young man I spent a lot of time around older shooters and old lawmen trying to learn as much as I could. One of the things that most of them had in common was how well they took care of their guns. Many of them were shooting guns from the pre-WWII era, but those guns were still in very good shape. When they shot them, they cleaned them and generally wiped them off at night with an oily rag. They generally understood how their guns worked and could replace worn parts when that became necessary.

The armed citizen doesn’t need to be a firearm expert, but they do need to know how their choice of a defensive firearm works. It is also important to know what type of failures are common to a specific type of firearm, how to spot them and what to do about it.

Many semi-automatic pistols should have their mainspring replaced on a regular basis; some gunsmiths advise that every 1,000 rounds would be a good interval. One should also learn how to check the extractor and ejector for excessive wear. Semi-automatic pistol shooters quickly learn to spot the malfunctions that are caused by a faulty or worn magazine. And for goodness sakes, a bad magazine belongs in the trashcan, not among your practice gear.

Revolver shooters need to make sure that each chamber in the cylinder lines up properly with the barrel; spitting lead is a good indication that this is not the case. In some revolvers the ejector rod can come loose and tie up the gun; preventing that is an easy fix if one knows what to look for. Some revolvers have an external screw on the front of the grip frame that puts tension on the mainspring and keeps it in place; this should be snug and tight to prevent misfires.

I think that we often fail to realize the wear and tear that guns can receive from the mini-explosions that we call shooting. Gun parts wear just a little bit every time we pull the trigger. If an armed citizen will take the time to visit with a good gunsmith, they can quickly learn wear-related and other problems that might occur in their particular firearm. Then regular cleaning sessions and just taking the time of give the gun a good once over can often catch the problem before a misfire or failure to fire occurs. Simply put, you may have to bet your life on it, so it is a good idea to make sure that gun is in good working order.

 

Gun-Free Zones Like Fort Stewart Invite Mass Shootings

On Wednesday, another mass shooting unfolded — this time at Fort Stewart military base in Georgia. A male Army sergeant, who illegally carried a gun on the base, wounded five soldiers before others tackled and disarmed him.

Typically, only authorized designated security forces such as MPs are armed on duty. Any other soldier caught carrying a firearm faces severe consequences, ranging from a rank reduction, court-martial, potential criminal convictions, dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay, and even imprisonment.

So why would a soldier risk such harsh penalties? Because if you’re the attacker, planning to murder fellow soldiers, gun control laws won’t stop you. If you expect to die in the assault, as most mass public shooters do, extra years added to your sentence mean nothing. Even if you survive, you already anticipate multiple life sentences or the death penalty.

But for law-abiding soldiers, those same rules carry enormous weight. Carrying a gun for self-defense could turn them into felons and destroy their futures. These gun control policies disarm the innocent while encouraging a determined killer to attack there as they will know that they are the only ones who will be armed.

Yes, military police guard entrances, but like civilian police, they can’t be everywhere. Military bases function like cities, and MPs face the same limitations as police responding to off-base mass shootings.

Consider the attacks at the Navy Yard, both Fort Hood shootings, and the Chattanooga recruiting station. In each case, unarmed JAG officers, Marines, and soldiers had no choice but to hide while the attacker fired shot after shot.

Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, then commander of Third Corps stationed at Fort Hood, testified to Congress about the second attack there: “We have adequate law enforcement on those bases to respond … those police responded within eight minutes and that guy was dead.” But eight minutes was simply too long for the three soldiers who were murdered and the 12 others who were wounded.

Time after time, murderers exploit regulations that guarantee they’ll face no armed resistance. Diaries and manifestos of mass public shooters show a chilling trend: They deliberately choose gun-free zones, knowing their victims can’t fight back. While we don’t yet know if the Fort Stewart shooter made that same calculation, his actions fit a pattern seen in dozens of other cases. It’s no coincidence that 94 percent of mass public shootings happen in places where guns are banned.

Ironically, soldiers with a concealed handgun permit can carry a concealed handgun whenever they are off base so that they can protect themselves and others. But on the base, they and their fellow soldiers are defenseless.

These are soldiers trained to handle firearms. We trust them with weapons in combat, yet we deny them that same trust on their own bases.

In 1992, the George H.W. Bush administration started reshaping the military into a more “professional, business-like environment.” That shift led to tighter restrictions on firearms. In 1993, President Clinton rewrote and implemented those restrictions, effectively banning soldiers from carrying personal firearms on base.

After the 2015 Chattanooga recruiting station attack, the military slightly loosened the rules. Commanders gained the authority to approve individual service members to carry privately owned firearms. But in practice, commanders rarely grant that permission.

Importantly, U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan were required to keep their weapons on them at all times — even on base. These soldiers needed to protect themselves against threats, and there are no known cases of them turning those weapons on each other. The policy worked.

So why do we make it easy for killers to target our own troops at home? Why do we force soldiers, like those at Fort Stewart, to tackle armed attackers with bare hands?

Let’s stop pretending that gun-free zones protect anyone. They only protect killers.

Jankovich: Walmart stabbings show flaw in gun control logic

Last weekend, a man walked into a Walmart in Traverse City and stabbed 11 innocent people in a random, brutal act of violence. The scene was horrifying—but thankfully, everyone survived.

The media covered the initial shock. The politicians issued generic statements. But something’s missing — something that always seems to go missing when the narrative doesn’t fit: no one is talking about “knife control.” Why is that?

A knife was used to commit mass violence — just as we’ve seen before with hammers, axes and even cars. These are real tragedies, carried out without a single bullet fired. And yet, no one is proposing sweeping legislation to regulate or ban knives or to require background checks before buying a truck.

Because deep down, we all know the glaring truth: it’s not the object that commits the violence; it’s the person. But the moment a firearm is involved, the story changes. The headlines explode. Politicians scramble to propose more restrictions. And the blame shifts from the criminal to the tool they used.

Police respond to multiple people being stabbed inside a Walmart Supercenter store near Traverse City, Mich. on Saturday, July 26, 2025.
This double standard isn’t just frustrating, it’s dangerous. It distracts from real solutions, and it deliberately ignores the fact that, in Traverse City, a law-abiding citizen with a firearm stopped the attack before more people were stabbed.

When police arrived at the scene, the alleged attacker had already been restrained, held at gunpoint by a shopper.

That’s right: a proverbial “good guy” with a gun stopped a “bad guy” with a knife. It’s textbook self-defense and the outcome we hope for in moments of crisis.

This is the very reason Women for Gun Rights exists. We believe the Second Amendment protects not just the right to “bear arms” — but the right to defend yourself and others when no one else can. At the end of the day, despite the best efforts of law enforcement, you are your own first responder. Your life, and the lives of others, is your responsibility.

This incident also highlights another uncomfortable pattern that truly undermines the efficacy of gun control. Authorities said the suspect had a history of “assaultive incidents.” In other words, they knew he was dangerous and capable of violence. While shocking to hear, this isn’t an isolated occurrence. Over and over, we’ve seen mass casualty events carried out by individuals who were already on law enforcement’s radar. The signs were there. The threats had been made. Reports were filed. But the system didn’t act.

And yet, every time a tragedy occurs, the focus shifts — not to the failures of intervention, but to restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens. Groups like Moms Demand Action and anti-gun politicians push for Red Flag laws, assault weapon bans and magazine limits, as if taking tools away from the responsible will somehow stop the reckless and violent.

But Traverse City shows the flaw in that logic.

The attacker didn’t use a gun. He used a knife. Would a Red Flag law have prevented it? Would a gun ban have saved those people? Of course not. The answer isn’t to criminalize gun ownership — it’s to crack down on actual criminals, take real threats seriously and enforce the laws we already have against people who have proven themselves violent and dangerous.

This is an important moment in Michigan and across the United States. It’s time to stop pretending the tool is the problem and start focusing on the truth: dangerous people are the threat. And guns, in the hands of the right people, save lives.

Marcy Jankovich is the Michigan State Director for Women for Gun Rights.

Well, I can see such as ‘another club in the bag’ so to speak

What We Really Need for Effective Self-Defense: Reliable Non-Lethal Incapacitation.

Recently, Shooting News Weekly shared a quote from Open Source Defense. In short, they called for technological improvements in guns to make them easier to shoot, have higher capacities, and otherwise be more useful for the average human. I agree with the idea that weapons should continue to improve as technology advances.

On the other hand, humans have a tendency to get stuck in a paradigm that keeps us from moving on to better technologies. For example, there’s the famous quote from Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The automobile was a radical departure from using animal power to get around, and is better for nearly all use cases. But few had imagined that at the time.

To avoid that trap, I propose the industry should set goals and then determine what technologies need to be further developed or created from scratch to meet those goals. This kind of leadership by objective isn’t perfect, but it can help us avoid seeking “faster horses” in the gun world.

One of the biggest things anti-gunners misunderstand is the alleged desire among gun owners to kill people. While there are always a few nutters who fantasize about having an excuse to kill another human being (we can call them the “I wish an MF’er would” crowd), the vast, vast majority of gun owners only want to be able to stop a threat to their lives and those of people they care about.

If it were possible to stop the threat consistently and reliably without the attendant tragedy of ending another human life, that’s what virtually all of us would choose. We have some tools designed for non-lethal incapacitation, but sadly, They’re not reliable enough for life-and-death situations. TASER darts don’t always stick and things like OC spray can be affected by wind, sunglasses, the influence of drugs, etc. That’s why such weapons aren’t good answers to the threat of death or grievous bodily harm. We just can’t take a chance on them not working.

Still, we try to find ways to avoid needing to kill someone. Non-violent dispute resolution tactics like Verbal Judo are widely taught in the firearms community. Farnam’s “Rule of Stupids” (avoid doing stupid things with stupid people in stupid places) has long been taught to people who want to carry a gun for self-defense. Avoiding situations where you might need to use a gun entirely is the key here.

In the long run, it’s my hope that the industry takes this to heart as it seeks to improve weapon designs and invent new tools for self-defense. Instead of a faster horse — a gun that’s easier to shoot and throws more pieces of metal around — what we really need is something like Star Trek phasers. On one setting, people in that fictional world can reliably knock most threats out when it’s appropriate. The option to kill, however, is still available when it’s absolutely necessary. Kirk’s phaser was also good as a powerful cutting tool, a signal, a source of heat, and many other uses.

We’re probably nowhere near such a weapon yet, but it’s a good north star to guide the industry. Reliable incapacitation might not come from an energy weapon like we see in science fiction, but whatever the path it is that leads in that direction, we should focus on finding it.

Right to bear arms also a responsibility

A violent attack in Traverse City, Michigan, would not have been prevented by any of the myriad proposals for more intrusive “gun control” — the attack, in which 11 people were viciously stabbed, was carried out with a folding knife.

Instead the first gun at the scene of the attack, which authorities are seeking to define as terrorism, was carried by a law-abiding citizen, who helped defuse the situation and coax the alleged perpetrator into surrendering.

The citizen, a retired Marine bearing arms in concordance with the Second Amendment rights we frequently defend in our editorials, acknowledged in an interview with the Detroit Free Press that the Second Amendment is as much a responsibility as a right.

“The only that separated me from the other gentlemen that had stepped in as well was what was I was carrying in my hands,” Derrick Perry said. “I think I would have ran out there or walked out there and helped either way. … It was just a moment of ‘I got a duty to protect.’”

We are not saying that everyone needs to bear this responsibility, or that everyone is well-suited to bear it. We recognize that a society that allows people to pursue their opportunities and exercise their liberties will depend on everybody taking on different responsibilities — the responsibilities they are best equipped to fulfill.

But we believe that the men, women and children of Traverse City should appreciate that Derrick Perry understands that he not only has a right to own and carry a firearm, but as someone willing to train and educate himself on the use of firearms, he has an opportunity to shoulder the responsibility of helping to keep his community safe.

While we are far from the scene of this crime in northern Michigan, we appreciate Perry’s willingness, as a retired Marine, to serve his country and his willingness, as displayed by his bravery that day, to continue to serve his fellow Americans by being prepared to defend their lives and liberties.

We hope people across our nation can learn both to respect the necessity of a sense of responsibility in each of us, and the necessity of respect for the freedoms and liberties that allow us to bear those responsibilities.

Canada Has Proven the Ineffectiveness of Oppressive National-Level Gun Control Laws.

A high profile mass shooting happened in a heavily gun controlled state so, predictably, the civilian disarmament industrial complex has once again jumped onto the argument that we need far more federal-level gun rights restrictions. One of the countries they love to use as an exemplar for gun control Nirvana they seek is Canada.

For the last decade under Justin Trudeau, Canada ratcheted up their gun control laws. This went against what he had promised back in 2010, when he said he would never confiscate guns but that lie really isn’t surprising. We see that with purple and red state Democrats on this side of the border who engage in a sort of gun control taqiyya. They promise not to ban guns like the AR-15 during their campaigns, then support bans after the election (see: Conor Lamb, Jason Kander, and many others).

Under Trudeau, Canada did all of the following, which would make America’s gun control industry swoon if it happned here:

  • Passed new legislation which extended background checks from five years to a lifetime
  • Implemented a point-of-sale registration by business
  • Required authorization to transport restricted and prohibited firearms to locations other than the range (e.g. gunsmiths, gun shows, etc.) through strengthened transportation requirements
  • Prohibited 1,500 models of “assault-style” weapons, the public was offered a grace period to turn them in
  • National freeze on the sale of new handguns
  • Banned another 400 guns by make and model just recently

So, with all of this new gun control, homicides must have surely fallen through the floor, right? After all, that’s the whole point of passing more gun control laws isn’t it?

Nope.

Continue reading “”

The Misogyny of the Anti-Gun Movement

A couple of days ago my colleague Tom Knighton wrote about some examples of misogyny in Second Amendment spaces, but the issue is perhaps even more pronounced among gun control advocates.

As Paige Pearson writes at the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s blog, many gun control groups have institutionalized their opposition to women exercising their Second Amendment rights… and they have become more vocal as more women are becoming gun owners.

The Smoking Gun is Everytown for Gun Safety’s media arm that describes itself as “the online resource committed to exposing the gun industry’s” role “in our gun violence epidemic.” Apparently that includes exposing the evils of marketing and advertising in a manner that attracts 50 percent of your possible customer base.

Enter Greg Lickenbrock, who spoke with three marketing and sociology professors from Oregon State University about their observations in advertising towards American women from firearm manufacturers and retailers.

“The fact that we now see women in these ads, and portraying different ‘characters,’ demonstrates the industry’s efforts to increase ownership among women,” Dr. Brett Burkhardt said.

“After a few years of experimenting with sexualized ads that didn’t correlate with increased sales to women, the industry now seems to have landed on an advertising idea that works: showing women as competent and serious gun owners,” added Dr. Michelle Barnhardt.

Dr. Aimee Dinnin Huff offered her thoughts as well. “There isn’t yet an established female American gun owner identity or image that consumers can latch onto. Many ads still rely on gendered assumptions rather than a nuanced understanding of the different types of relationships women have with firearms,” she said.

Dr. Burkhardt added another thought, stating, “These new and more common depictions of women and firearms are examples of how the industry is seeking to naturalize women’s gun ownership.”

Why shouldn’t gun ownership be considered natural for women? Or, to put it another way, why do anti-gunners want to denormalize half the population exercising a fundamental constitutional right?

To be fair, groups like Everytown are just as opposed to guys owning guns as they are with women exercising their 2A rights. But the anti-gunners can’t stand the fact that more women are choosing to purchase a firearm; whether for self-defense, hunting, competitive shooting, or just because it’s fun to spend time at the range. And they absolutely hate that the firearms industry has recognized that a growing number of women are making up their customer base.

Media still widely misrepresents American gun owners as old, white guys but recent trends in firearm purchasing couldn’t put this caricature to rest any better. Over the past five years, the surge of new first-time buyers has made the gun-owning community the most diverse population of gun owners ever. That’s a good thing – as the Second Amendment is for everyone. And that includes women.

Women are featured more prominently today in advertising because more women are buying firearms for any number of reasons – all good ones – and the industry is listening to them. Women’s nights at neighborhood shooting ranges, women-only firearm training classes and even friend groups choosing to go to the range together are all increasingly more popular activities as women choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights in any safe way they choose.

Marketing has changed over the last few decades to follow the customer. For Lickenbrock and others, that means seeing a lot more women with guns. And that’s a good thing.

I certainly think so, and if you’re reading this I’m relatively sure you’re in agreement with Pearson too. The gun control lobby, on the other hand, isn’t just going to clutch its collective pearls. They too will be targeting women with anti-gun messaging and campaigns designed to discourage them from keeping and bearing arms; portraying it as something that’s far too dangerous for ladies to engage in… and ignoring stories about women saving their own lives thanks to their decision to become a gun owner.

Be Prepared or Be a Serf

You should not live in fear, but you should live with the understanding that there are bad people out there who want you either enslaved or dead. Donald Trump’s courageous strike against the scumbag Iranian mullahs only highlighted the fact that we may very well have hundreds, if not thousands, of sleeper agents within the United States who can act on command to unleash a wave of murder the likes of which we’ve never seen. I wrote a best-selling novel about it. But that’s only one threat. Another threat is homegrown nuts, terrorists, and criminals, to the extent that they differ. And then there is the threat posed by leftists who want to rule over you forever, no matter the cost. You might be out at church, in the mall, or at your own house when it happens, and you better be prepared to deal with it all.

What I’m trying to say is you need to buy guns and ammunition.

The fact is that things are getting uglier. Our opponents are getting uglier, and not just aesthetically (although a lot of them are really unattractive). As Donald Trump racks up win after win, his enemies, both foreign and domestic, are going to get more and more desperate. Obviously, the Iranians, who have killed well into four figures of Americans over the last 50 years, will be looking for payback if their own people don’t hang them from the nearest construction crane first.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, they won’t have struck. We’ve also got, among other disaffected bands of jerks, Hamas, the Houthis, and probably the Hottentots gunning for Americans. For four years under President Biden, the border was wide open with a big flashing “Welcome” sign inviting every Third World psychopath and communist cadre into America. Some of them are sleeping in their sleeper cells. Some of them are running around our college campuses, protected by credulous district court judges who think that the Constitution requires us to put out the welcome mat for people who want us dead.

Here at home, criminals who Soros prosecutors won’t prosecute are walking the streets because these poor, justice-involved persons deserve pity for us making them into criminals with our capitalism and structural racism. Of course, were you even to smudge the line between legal and illegal, they would come down on you like Trump came down on Fordow. There are still plenty of legal aliens out there who kill Americans through drunk driving and murder. And then there are the lunatics, like the guy who thought Tim Walz commanded him to kill because Jazz Hands would be a good senator; anyone who thinks that has already won on his insanity defense.

But the people we should be more concerned about are the leftists enraged at our challenge to their political, social, and cultural supremacy and who would happily shed blood to keep it. We have an entire ruling class that is facing the prospect of losing power for good. It has never been effectively challenged like this since it came into being after World War II, except for short periods, and never so radically. The worst it has ever experienced until now is a temporary slowing of America’s decline into a socialist miasma rather than a complete reversal of the whoosh down that slippery slope. But a reversal is what it’s getting now, and they are frantic to stop us.

Look at the things they’re trying to impose on us and look at how they are not just being stopped but are being turned around. Last week, there was a major Supreme Court case that basically said, “No, there is no constitutional right to mutilate children, dummies.” They really thought they had it. If Kamala Harris had won, they would have. You would have seen the Constitution interpreted to create an affirmative right to cut your children’s bodies apart to conform to the delusions of mentally ill kids or their Munchausen mommies. But because of Trump and his appointments, that didn’t happen. And you saw the Democrats react. Every single one of them was mad about it. Why, not letting young ‘uns be mutilated was the worst thing in the history of ever. Move over, Dred Scott, because not being able to carve up the kiddies is like the Fugitive Slave Act on steroids.

Today, they’re losing across the board. Abortion. DEI. Illegal aliens. We’re not just slowing their roll; we’re rolling them back. Do you think they’ll sit still for it? Do you think they’re just going to allow everything that they’ve built, every mile they’ve trekked in their Gramscian march through the institutions, come to naught?

No, they’ll fight – and I write about it in my upcoming novel, America Apocalypse: The Second American Civil War (you can pre-order now). But the trouble is not going to start with big movements of troops across the battlefields. It’s going to be smaller, more directed actions against particular people – people like you. We had a small-scale insurgency from the late-60s to the mid-70s in this country in which hundreds of people died, and thousands of bombs were detonated by leftist, urban terrorists, mostly spoiled college brats who decided that since the working class wasn’t going to rise up, they would just start killing. Two people already tried to kill Trump. We’ve all seen the statistics that over half of Democrats are open to the idea  of murdering their political opponents. At some point, somebody’s going to pick up a gun and start trying to make that happen on a larger scale.

You don’t want to be caught short. You don’t want to be caught unprepared. It’s not fair that we have to go through our lives taking into account the fact that there are other Americans who would hurt us because we refuse to live under their boot heel, but life isn’t fair. That’s the way it is. Nothing is free, especially freedom. It isn’t going to guard itself, and you’re not always going to be able to rely on the government to protect you either logistically – when seconds count, the police are minutes away – or intentionally, like when the FBI and other law-enforcement organizations under President Eggplant made the conscious choice to allow leftist terrorists to flourish while focusing on such crimes as conservatives’ premeditated petitioning of school boards and Catholics intentionally praying. Even today, blue city cops will do nothing about illegal aliens, including ones who are even more criminal than they all are by virtue of being illegal aliens.

So, prepare. Get the equipment you need. Get the training you need, and not only about shooting guns but about understanding the legal aspects of lawful deadly force. You also need an understanding of basic emergency medical aid, like how to stop the bleeding. Talk to your family about what to do in bad situations. Talk to your neighbors about sticking together if things get ugly. You are your own first responder.

You understand why they want you to be afraid. You understand why they want you disarmed. It’s because when you are not afraid and when you are prepared to defend yourself, your family, your community, and your Constitution, they can never intimidate you. They can never take what is yours from you. And they can never rule over you.

‘Girls Just Wanna Have Guns’ coming to Coeur d’Alene

COEUR d’ALENE — It’s not uncommon for North Idaho women to have guns in their home — but many lack the skills needed to use one effectively in a self-defense situation.

Adelina Mae is looking to change that.

Mae began “Girls Just Wanna Have Guns,” a woman-owned and operated business, after realizing her own mother didn’t know how to use the guns her father kept in the home.

“My mom of all people, who has had guns in her house for a long time, did not know how to use the gun in her own nightstand,” Mae said.

Based in Arizona, “Girls Just Wanna Have Guns” holds events for women in cities across the country to teach them just about everything there is to know about owning and operating a gun, from holding it correctly to aiming, shooting and reloading.

“We go through everything as though you haven’t seen a gun in your life,” Mae said.

Mae said it’s common for women to have limited experience with shooting because they often receive help from their husbands, fathers or other men in their life out on the range.

“Most women, when they go to the range, their husband will load the gun and everything and they’ll just pull the trigger,” Mae said, “but it’s the same gun they would grab and need to operate if something happens at home.”

“Girls Just Wanna Have Guns” hosts events by women, for women, Mae added, because some women may have their reasons to not want to learn about guns from a man, such as survivors of domestic violence.

“It gives them a big sense of confidence and independence,” Mae said. “They know they are doing everything they can to protect themselves.”

Later this month, Mae is bringing “Girls Just Wanna Have Guns” to Coeur d’Alene — a homecoming of sorts, as Mae’s parents that inspired the business live in Athol.

The June 28 event will include about three hours of dry fire, hands-on learning at the Fernan Rod and Gun Club. Attendees also receive goody bags with essentials for a day on the range — all in pink and black.

Tickets to the event are $175 and can be purchased at girlsjustwannahavegunsevents.com. Info: @girlsjustwannahavegunss on Instagram.

The important thing to note is that there are armed antifa thugs embedded in these protests.
And they’re STUPID.
So follow the ‘Stupid Rules™’:
Don’t go Stupid places, with Stupid people, at Stupid times, and do Stupid things.

Innocent bystander mistakenly shot dead at Utah ‘No Kings’ protest was ‘Project Runway’ designer
Police chief confirms victim was ‘not the intended target’ when peacekeepers fired at suspect carrying rifle

An innocent bystander who was a fashion designer that appeared on “Project Runway” died over the weekend after he was shot during a “No Kings” protest in Utah, police said Sunday.

The victim was identified as Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, a Samoan designer who appeared on the hit Bravo show and a married father of two.

He was shot during the Saturday protest, which attracted around 10,000 people, and died later that night, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said.

“Our victim was not the intended target,” said Redd, who added that Ah Loo, 39, was just participating in the march.

Redd said Ah Loo was mistakenly shot by one of two event peacekeepers in neon vests who opened fire after a suspect, identified as Arturo Gamboa, 24, ran toward the crowd with a rifle.

They saw Gamboa pull out a rifle before raising it in a firing position before moving toward a crowd of protesters, Redd said. One of the men in the vests fired three times, striking Gamboa and the victim, who later died.

Gamboa was wounded and was allegedly found with a rifle and a gas mask in his backpack. Paramedics took Gamboa to the hospital. Detectives later booked Gamboa into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on a charge of murder.

Two SWAT medics performed life-saving care on the victim before he was taken to a hospital, where he later died, police said. The shooter was cooperating with investigators, police said.

Gamboa, who did not fire a shot, doesn’t have any criminal history, the chief said.

Ah Loo appeared in Season 17 of “Project Runway” in 2019 and returned for “Project Runway Redemption.” He also created couture for cast members of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” and was invited by the late Queen Elizabeth II to present his collection at Buckingham Palace during London Fashion Week, the New York Post reported.

Utah state Rep. Verona Mauga told KSL-TV that she was with Ah Loo hours before he was killed.

“Afa is a person who believed in equity and equality for all people and all communities. He believed that everyone was deserving of basic human rights,” Mauga said. “And that’s why he was there. He was with his community and he was with people he cared about, marching and rallying for all of those things that make our community, like, really great.”

An online fundraiser to pay for Ah Loo’s funeral has raised more than $200,000.

JAMA? What else is new?

JAMA Pediatrics Publishes Extremely Flawed Studied Titled: “Firearm Laws and Pediatric Mortality in the US”

A new study in JAMA Pediatrics asserts that states with “permissive” gun control laws experienced higher pediatric firearm mortality rates following the 2010 Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. Chicago. The study analyzed data from 49 states spanning 1999 to 2023. This has to be one of the dumbest studies done in a long time. After Public Health officials fumbled the COVID response, you’d expect some hesitation before trusting their research on crime, a field far outside their expertise. The fact that they don’t even mention policing and law enforcement in discussing crime rates should provide some warning to the media.

We have previously written extensively on the false claim made in the first sentence of this study: “Firearm deaths are now the leading cause of death among US children and adolescents” (see here and here).

Unlike typical research, which compares crime or suicide rates before and after states change their laws and contrasts those changes with states that didn’t alter their laws, this study ignores how laws change over time. It takes what could be panel data which allows one to account for average differences across states and years (so-called fixed effects). The paper limits there discussion to a purely cross-sectional comparison. The purely cross sectional comparison cannot be used for any discussion of causation. They don’t even try to account for basic factors like law enforcement practices—such as arrest and conviction rates, imprisonment rates, or the death penalty—that influence crime. Nor do they account for any factors that might explain changes in suicides or accidental gun deaths in the 2011 to 2023 period.

The study categorizes the level of gun control laws in each state into one of three broad categories and assumes that there laws remain constant over time, and lumps many different laws together in an arbitrary manner. Are these additive? Do we simply add a concealed-carry law to a safe-storage law to universal background checks? For these gun control advocates, is a red flag law twice as important as having lots of gun-free zones? There is so much arbitrariness in how a measure that combines these different laws and even what laws to include. How did they decide to have eight strict gun-control law states, eleven permissive states, and 30 most permissive states? Why not 1/3rd in each of these different categories?

The methodology falters in several ways. It relies on the epidemiological concept of “excess deaths,” commonly used to gauge the impact of diseases like Covid-19. The authors applied Poisson regression, using only a time trend as a control variable, to estimate expected deaths for three state groups. They labeled the gap between predicted and actual deaths as “excess deaths,” attributing these to permissive state laws. This gap, however, could simply reflect error or residuals, encompassing random error, omitted variables, heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, measurement errors, and other statistical challenges inherent in such analyses.

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We Must Protect the Right to Self-Defense Nationwide

For the past several years, America has been undergoing a self-defense awakening. From urban centers to rural towns, more Americans spanning all walks of life are making the personal decision to arm themselves for protection. The USCCA has seen firsthand this growing movement — a reflection of citizens taking responsibility for their own safety in an uncertain world.

As a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent, I have spent my 30 year career in law enforcement focused on keeping Americans safe. I understand the importance of preparation, awareness, and the right to self-defense. Today’s environment — marked by rising crime, strained law enforcement resources, and growing concerns about personal security — has prompted a renewed commitment among everyday Americans to take proactive steps in safeguarding themselves and their loved ones.

To put this into context, in 2024, there were over 15.2 million background checks processed through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), according to the NSSF, the Firearm Industry Trade Association, marking the 65th consecutive month with over 1million checks. This underscores a sustained commitment to responsible firearm ownership following pandemic-level highs.

Organizations like the USCCA are encouraged by the tremendous support from Americans across the country who are purchasing a firearm and seeking proper training. Yet right now, because of an antiquated patchwork of state laws, there are tremendous legal risks for law-abiding gun owners who simply want to protect themselves and their families. For example, if a gun owner carries a concealed weapon into a state that does not recognize their permit, they may be charged with a felony or misdemeanor, even if they’re otherwise following the law.

Earlier this year, a bill that would create a federal standard allowing law-abiding gun owners with concealed carry permits to legally carry in other states, was introduced in the House of Representatives. H.R. 38, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, sponsored by Representative Richard Hudson (NC-09), has the potential to be one of the most significant pieces of self-defense legislation passed by Congress in recent years.

This critical framework will bring much-needed clarity to the current patchwork of state laws, which often leaves gun owners uncertain about when and where they can safely exercise their rights, ultimately compromising their safety and the security of their families. By recognizing concealed carry permits issued in any state, the bill empowers responsible gun owners to exercise their fundamental right to self-defense, regardless of state boundaries. If enacted, this crucial legislation will keep us all safer, safeguarding and bolstering Americans’ right to defend themselves and ensuring firearms are in the hands of responsible gun owners.

The bill’s momentum in the House of Representatives represents a move in the right direction, a resounding wave of support for ensuring that Second Amendment rights are respected from coast to coast. It appears now, more than any other point in recent history, there is the political will both in Congress and in the White House to safeguard the fundamental right to self-defense.

President Trump’s administration is already taking decisive action to protect the Second Amendment. Earlier this year, an Executive Order directing a review and rollback of unconstitutional, anti-gun policies from the previous administration represents a strong step toward restoring and strengthening Americans’ right to self-defense.

The message from Americans is clear: the right to self-defense must be protected, not punished. More than half a million citizens have already signed a USCCA-sponsored petition urging Congress to pass national concealed carry reciprocity—demonstrating broad, diverse support from across the country.

As communities continue to grapple with crime, Americans are standing up and saying enough is enough. No longer should responsible gun owners be criminalized for acting on their Constitutional right to protect themselves or their loved ones. There’s a growing national realization: self-defense is not just a right—it’s a necessity. Congress now has a historic opportunity to respond—to recognize that self-defense is not just a right, but a necessity—and enact national reciprocity to protect the Second Amendment for millions of gun owners nationwide.

Rob Chadwick is the Director of Education & Training for the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA)

In Dangerous Times, Train for Self-Defense
My wife and I built our defensive skills with six days of sweat, dust, and the right mindset.

If you’re going to own a tool, it’s best to know how to properly use it. That’s as true for firearms as it is for chainsaws. Given the rising temperature of American politics, including escalating violence against people and property, my wife Wendy and I decided it was time to up our game when it came to self-defense. To that end, we enrolled in Gunsite Academy’s Defensive Pistol class.

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