BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBMA) – A proposed new law aims to help protect places of worship in Alabama.
One state lawmaker says he’s preparing a bill to allow the use of deadly force in church for self- defense and the defense of others.
Rep. Lynn Greer (R- Rogersville) tells ABC 33/40 he expects this year’s bill to be similar to the one he filed the past two years. But he says this year he’s been working with the District Attorneys Association and the Attorney General’s Office to improve it.
Greer expects the bill to allow a person to use deadly physical force in self-defense or the defense of another if that force is used against an aggressor committing or attempting to commit a crime involving death, serious physical injury, robbery in the first degree, or kidnapping in the first degree on the premises of a church.
Greer expects his bill to include training from sheriff’s offices for church security members, and that it would provide immunity from criminal prosecution or civil action for a person using such deadly force.
Pastor Darryl Warren believes that bill could help, as he works on security for New Saint James Baptist Church in Birmingham.
“In church, it’s disheartening to know one day we may even need metal detectors in church, but this is where we’ve gotten and it’s disheartening to know someone would come into the church and do harm in God’s house but we live in a fallen world,” said Warren.
He has a eight person security team and nine cameras installed, monitoring inside and outside.
“A third phase might even be hired security if it comes to that and then having the sheriff’s department to come in and do some training as well,” he said. “So, we want to cover all the bases we can and make the members feel as secure as they can while they’re worshiping.”
Defense attorney Ben Preston believes the law already covers the church.
“I feel you have the right to defend yourself in certain situations no matter where you’re at,” he told us.
But says adding specific language could strengthen that.
He does have concerns about what the immunity would include and who would determine who and what qualifies.
“If they’re just going to give blanket immunity, it sounds like they would never be charged period,” he said. “Which would, then they’re not being charged, they’re not bonding out, they’re not having to wait for the stand your ground hearing, waiting for the judge to decide if they’re going to prosecute.”
Preston notes that we are still waiting for the bill to be released to read the exact language and learn what will be included in the immunity section.
Pastor Warren says immunity may offer assurance to his security team.
“That they are not going to be held liable for carrying out the act of defending someone in church,” he said. “So, if you have legislation to take care of that, it kind of removes the sense of- I’m worrying about if I do this, what’s going to happen to me.”
Greer got his bill through the House in 2018, but it died in the Senate.
If his bill does make it through the House in 2020, Senator Arthur Orr (R- Decatur) tells ABC 33/40 he plans to sponsor it in the Senate.
“We should help places of worship protect themselves,” Orr told ABC 33/40.
He says the state doesn’t need to encourage reckless behavior, but that he’s looking at what could be done to still add a layer of protection.
Orr added that he’s looking at what other states have passed, including Texas.
Reading this, you’ll see there’s still a lot of “it surely couldn’t happen here” still going around. A man with a ‘background in law enforcement’ and graphic examples of every size of congregation having been attacked, and he still has some kind of philosophical problem with providing armed security? This is the delusional type that needs a ‘cluebat’ upside his head until he finally sees the way of truth & knowledge.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — It’s a debate that has sparked new legislation across the country—should people be allowed to carry guns in churches? Indiana State Senator Jack Sandlin says absolutely.
“We need to let everybody in Indiana know they have the right to protect themselves,” Sandlin said.
Sandlin authored legislation that was signed into law earlier this year. It allows people to carry guns into church even if there’s a school or daycare on the property, which before the law, would have been considered a felony.
“I’ve had conversations with several different churches that have started to set up security teams within their churches as a result of the passage of the statute,” Sandlin said.
On Sunday at a church in Texas, a man pulled out a gun, and opened fire. He killed two people before a member of the church’s security team took out his own gun and killed the shooter with a single shot. Over 200 people were inside the church.
“If they hadn’t had an armed security team in the church, that could’ve gone on for a number of minutes, and then casualty count goes up pretty dramatically,” Sandlin said.
Incidents like this are why some local churches now put a priority on security.
Jack Dodd attends a small church near Kokomo. Dodd and his pastor recently went to an active shooter training. They have plans in place, but don’t yet have armed security.
“We have two individuals, myself and another individual, that sit in the back of the church always in the same spot, very near the door so that we can challenge anybody who walks in,” Dodd said.
Dodd has a background in law enforcement and says he has plenty experience handling firearms. However, he says he still has not decided to bring his gun to church.
“We are a small country church, and we have talked about that,” Dodd said. “We’ve been a little bit resistant to it because you just don’t feel like you need a weapon in church… but then you hear about these kind of situations that come up.”
Sandlin hopes this law will remind Hoosiers they can protect themselves in church, but he also warns that a trained security team may be the best way to protect the congregation.
“I wouldn’t recommend just telling people to bring their guns to church,” Sandlin said. “I think that you have to have a security survey, I think you have to have a plan and know how you’re going to respond.”
“Just having somebody with a firearm is not the answer,” Dodd said. “It must be trained individuals.”
According to CNN, the man suspected of stabbing Jews during a Chanukah celebration at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York was taken into custody with “blood all over him.” However, Pamela Geller has reported on Twitter what neither CNN nor any of the other anti-Semitic media outlets would dare to print: “Monsey Machete Assailant Is Recent Muslim Convert and May Be Linked to Another BRUTAL Synagogue Stabbing.” Likely, the man’s head was filled with verses from the Koran and the Sunna, like this one from Sahih Muslim 41:6981, 6983: “[A] stone says: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; kill him!”
So why were there no defensive guns at the event, when there were reportedly 100 Jews at the rabbi’s Chanukah celebration? There certainly was armed defense present at a Christian worship service, in readiness for a possible attack, in Texas! This Chanukah season, an appropriate question may be this: “Why have Texas Christians acted more in line with the example of Judah Maccabee than New York Jews?”
“If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him.” —Talmud, Sanhedrin 1994,2,72a
It is more than a source of embarrassment to many Jews, this author included, that numerous Jewish political and religious leaders support victim disarmament laws, which go against long established Jewish laws, the most basic of which is the commandment to “choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Throughout Jewish history, there have been threats requiring armed defense to preserve the Jewish people and their religion. The biggest threat — from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich — has always come from the state and its representatives. It should not be lost on Jews that Joe Biden, about as devoted to state power as one can get, criticized Texas governor Greg Abbott for signing a bill that allows Texans to defend themselves against attack in their places of worship. Clear-headed Jews thank God that Donald Trump, perhaps the most philo-Semitic president of all time, is chief executive, rather than a statist Democrat, like Biden, who would disarm the people, allowing them to be murdered in their synagogues and churches, as well as in their own homes.
It is sad that so many Jews have forgotten their history and have chosen to put their trust in left-wing leaders who choose death over life (in the tradition of such Jewish leaders as Max Naumann and Hans Joachim Schoeps, in Hitler’s Germany). Jews must stop trusting in the government to protect them and, instead, need to take responsibility by invoking their Second Amendment right to self-defense. As the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership (JPFO) so aptly put it, “[t]he main threat to Jews in America, as elsewhere, is a government ‘gone bad.’ Jewish ‘leaders’ who emphasize victimhood to unify Jews are misguided. Jewish ‘leaders’ could strengthen Judaism by teaching proper observance” of Jewish law.
“You shall not murder.” —Exodus 20:13
The above commandment does not prohibit the righteous taking of a human life, only the immoral taking of a human life. Properly translated, this negative commandment reads, “You shall not murder.” The positive corollary of this commandment would go something like this: “You shall use deadly force, if necessary, to protect innocent life.” Thus, all righteous citizens in a republic, to the greatest extent possible and appropriate, should possess the proper means by which to fulfill their shared obligation to defend the lives of their loved ones and fellow citizens.
“If a burglar be found breaking in, and be struck dead, it is not murder.” —Exodus 22:2
Jewish law has always required the active defense of every innocent life. According to God’s commandment, in Exodus 22:2, a thief should be proactively attacked, to defend against the deadly threat he poses. If the thief were to die of his wounds, the defender’s blood is not to be shed as a penalty for having justifiably taken the life of a criminal. A person who is capable of defending the innocent but chooses not to do so is guilty of a tremendous wrongdoing. Also, he who actively enables the deaths of others, by supporting government-sponsored victim-disarmament (AKA “gun control”), has blood on his hands — the blood of those wrongly murdered, with no chance of rightfully defending themselves against their criminal aggressors, be those assailants lone outlaws or state actors.
A government official’s breaking of his oath to defend the Constitution — which includes the Second Amendment — is a wicked deed, akin to endorsing the same types of fascist victim disarmament policies enforced by Hitler’s criminal gang of National Socialists.
Besides Joe Biden, another potential dealer of death on the national stage, in 2019, has been Governor “Blackface” Northam of Virginia. Northam is planning to arrest and incarcerate legal gun-owners, to further his unconstitutional — indeed, criminal — crackdown against law-abiding Virginians. This includes Jews, of course, who share the common desire with their fellow Virginians simply to live in peace. But with the police busy and, therefore, usually arriving too late to a crime scene to defend human life, firearms need to be available to ensure the security and tranquility of Jewish communities.
The old Roman idea “Si vis pacem, para bellum” remains true to this day. If Jews want peace, they must prepare to defend themselves.
A new gun law in Tennessee will make it easier for people to obtain a concealed carry permit.
The legislation signed by Governor Bill Lee earlier this year creates a new concealed carry handgun permit with less stringent training requirements than the traditional permit. The original permit will be known as an “enhanced” permit and keep the same eight-hour course requirement. The new handgun permit will require a ninety-minute course than can be completed online. No hands-on training is needed.
Clarksville gun store owner James Allen said the bill allows potentially unsafe gun owners to obtain a permit. He said training requirements under the new law are too lax.
“There’s no hands-on training on proper safety and how to hold a gun, how to shoot a gun and when to shoot a gun,” Allen said. “It’s a stupid law.”
State Representative Andy Holt of Dresden sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives. He said the nonrestrictive training requirements are no cause for concern because Tennessee already recognizes concealed carry permits from states including Georgia and Alabama that require no training. He also said the expansion of gun rights in the state makes all Tennesseans safer.
“At the end of the day, I still believe that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens equates into less crime…and I’m a proponent of less crime,” Holt said.
In a matter of days, lawmakers in Virginia could pass some of the most radical gun control bills in the nation, the impact of which will be felt across the country.
As a recent college graduate who founded Students for Trump from my freshman dorm room, I remain active on college campuses today as co-chair of Turning Point Action. Everywhere I go, I meet young people who are closely following events in Richmond. Many of them are genuinely scared police are coming for their guns. During our lifetime, we’ve watched lawmakers chip away at our rights, and we are here to say, “Not today, Gov. Northam. Not today.”
Like many in my generation, I didn’t grow up with firearms. I was introduced to them in a high school ROTC program, which focused heavily on the Constitution. I learned the basics of firearms and self-defense. Perhaps more importantly, that class taught me the Second Amendment guarantees all the other rights in the Constitution.
As I visit with college students across the country, I am struck by how informed and educated they are about their rights. We may be young and inexperienced, but we know what’s going on around the world. In Hong Kong and Venezuela, we watch governments oppress their unarmed citizens. In our own country, we watch as state and local politicians exploit tragedies to pass more gun control laws. We watch New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg buy his way into power and influence across the country………..
Young people are fed up with politicians who exploit tragedies to push more failed gun control schemes. We’ve spent our youth watching politicians chip away at our rights. We will not stand idly by and let this continue. My generation is engaged, energized, and willing to stand up and fight for our rights in Virginia, and around the country. We are not only watching and listening to everything unfolding in Richmond, we engaged in this fight. Many of us are proud to be part of the NRA’s new student group, Students For 2A. We will never let a tyrannical government take away our rights.
In Texas, a gunman killed two people before a volunteer armed security team shot and killed him in the church near Fort Worth on Sunday. That led Texas politicians to praise a recent law that allowed guns to be carried in places of worship.
The issue of whether worshipers should be armed breaks along the usual fault lines in the wider debate on gun laws. Supporters of gun control legislation say the better solution is to reduce gun ownership, rather than to invite weapons of death into the pews. But in Texas, which has a strong gun culture, Republicans seized on the shooting Sunday as proof of their long-held belief that more trained gun owners can prevent casualties during mass attacks.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, praised the law that allows licensed handgun holders to carry weapons in houses of worship that don’t explicitly ban them. The law, which was passed after 26 people were killed at a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017, took effect in September.
On Monday, state Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Fox News that had that law not been passed, “I fear that we could have lost, you know, hundreds” in Sunday’s shooting.
Paxton, a Republican, said he hoped other states would pass similar measures.
“I think they’ll end up saving lives for years and years and years,” he said.
Jack Wilson, a member of the volunteer security team at the church, said he was concerned about the shooter’s appearance from the moment he came in wearing a wig and a fake beard.
“Most of the members there didn’t feel like it would happen, but we were prepared if it did, and, you know, had we not had the security team in place, it would’ve been much, in my opinion, probably a much more severe outcome than what happened,” he said.
In the New York attack, five people were stabbed at a rabbi’s home during a Hanukkah celebration Saturday in what Gov. Andrew Cuomo called “domestic terrorism.” Cuomo directed state police to increase patrols in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods across the state.
Four Jewish elected officials in New York asked Cuomo to go a step further Sunday, calling for him to declare a state of emergency and to deploy the National Guard to “visibly patrol and protect” Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.
On Sunday, according to The Associated Press, several members of the community stood guard armed with assault-style rifles. Rockland County officials later said a private security company would help municipal law enforcement patrol the community.
Armed members of the Jewish community stand guard at a celebration in Monsey, New York, on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019.
Patrick Brosnan, founder of the security firm Brosnan Risk Consultants, praised the congregants who fought back.”You have to look this evil in the face,” he said. “You have to step up. There’s not enough law enforcement out there.”
Something happened today that rarely happens on CNN: a guest was allowed to make a conservative argument defending good guys with guns. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared on CNN Newsroom Sunday evening to comment on the church shooting that happened this morning near Fort Worth Texas, and he was amazingly allowed to argue against the left’s gun control agenda without being cut off or shut down.
Fill-in CNN anchor Jessica Dean first shared the disturbing live stream video from this morning’s shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ showing an armed intruder interrupting the church service and shooting two people before two armed parishioners stopped him and killed him before he could murder anymore of the 200+ people present.
Paxton praised the “heroic efforts” of the church members before arguing how important it was for citizens to be able to defend themselves:
What I will say is they were heroic efforts. And I have been saying this for years. We need to make sure that people with protect themselves. Oftentimes law enforcement can’t react quickly. They can’t be there in seconds when the shooters are suddenly shooting. And so it really is a remarkable thing the people reacted so quickly. And saved the lives of the other 239 people in the congregation.
After this, the CNN anchor gushed about gun violence and subtly tried to push for gun control:
I feel we have these conversations over and over again, sadly in this country. What can be done to curb this kind of violence? How do we stop gun violence in the country? What else can be done? You mention there have been other horrific shootings in Texas in this year alone. What can we do to protect people?
But Paxton pointed out that the red state’s laws protecting armed citizens was exactly why this shooter was stopped in his tracks:
But the reality is I think our laws in Texas allow, allow us to protect ourselves. So more people need to carry in our state in our churches, places of business so that if something like this horrible thing does happen, at least we have people that can react and save the lives of those around him.
As Dean wrapped up the interview, she asked Paxton to share a message to the Jewish community in New York and the churchgoers in this Texas community who may be afraid to attend their religious services now.
The Attorney General again was allowed to forcefully argue for the 2nd Amendment, by pointing out the obvious point liberals and the media seem to miss consistently: someone who wants to kill will not obey gun laws:
I do know there’s always discussion about imposing more gun restrictions. The reality is somebody like this is willing to kill somebody, is unlikely to follow a gun law. So we need to continue to be vigilant and we need to allow our citizens to protect themselves. Exactly what happened today and I’m so grateful for the quick reaction because what happened in other churches about a year ago, in other places around my state, when people were not armed, we had a lot more people die.
Jack Wilson, the security volunteer who quickly shot the Texas church shooter at West Freeway Church of Christ, stopping him and likely saving many lives, is a former reserve deputy sheriff who was the long-time owner of a firearms training academy.
“I don’t feel like I killed an individual. I killed evil,” Wilson told reporters, according to Fox4 News. “I don’t see myself as a hero. I see myself as doing what needed to be done to take out the evil threat.” He fired a single shot. It was a head shot, and he says it was his round that killed the shooter. “I only fired one round. It was the only shot I had, which was a head shot.”
The gunman, now named as Keith Thomas Kinnunen, died at the scene after being shot; ……….
1. Wilson Declared That ‘Evil Does Exist in This World’ & Revealed He ‘Had to Take Out an Active Shooter in Church’
2. Wilson Was President of On Target Firearms Training Academy, Inc., a Gun Range That Burned Down in 2016
3. Wilson Is a Former Deputy Sheriff Who Negotiated Contracts for a Major Defense Company
4. Wilson Is a Donald Trump Supporter Who Believes the ‘Survival of the USA’ Will Be Determined by the 2020 Election
This photo is from the live feed the church puts on YouTube. The shooter can be seen in the top just left-of-center and the church member who took the shooter out can be seen in the top left.
This is how fast things can happen, and how much some people will be calm and cool under pressure, while others go into hysterics.
Oh, and not to be too morbid, but being able to draw your gun quickly and get it into action can make a world of difference. The first man shot by the murderer was still trying to get his gun out of his pocket. Take that poor man’s experience for what it’s worth.
WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Two people are dead and another person is critically injured after a shooting at a church in the Tarrant County city of White Settlement, officials said.
Authorities responded to the shooting Sunday morning just before 10 a.m. at the West Freeway Church of Christ on Las Vegas Trail.
A witness told CBS 11 News the gunman walked up to a server during communion with a shotgun and then opened fire. According to the witness, another church member shot the suspect……..
During the incident, two men died from their injuries and another man was critically injured. Authorities believe the gunman is among the three but it’s unknown if he was killed or is injured.
Violent crime dropped by 48.6% in the U.S. in the same period that saw the record number of arms purchases: 423 million firearms, according to recently released data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Firearms-related accidents alone declined 68 percent between 1986 and 2018, a period in which U.S. citizens purchased 8.1 billion rounds of ammunition.
“These figures show that the United States has a strong desire to continue buying firearms for lawful purposes,” Joe Bertozzi, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told American Military News.
“The continued popularity of guns demonstrates that Americans have a keen interest in protecting themselves and their homes,” he added.
American citizens have the right to defend themselves. They have been able to counteract crime as opposed to what is happening in Latin American countries where the hyper-regulation of arms has granted a monopoly to law enforcement, state security forces, and criminal groups that act above the law, such as organized crime groups.
Caracas, Venezuela, which lost the right to carry arms under Hugo Chavez, is the most striking example of the city with the most homicides. Now Mexico, with more than 100 homicides per day and the second most violent city in the world, Acapulco, is living through the most violent year in its history and shows how the rigid law restricting the bearing of arms leaves the law-abiding citizen vulnerable.
Meanwhile, in the United States, more and more citizens have legal access to firearms. More than 25 million people registered in 2019 to carry guns in the US.
According to the FBI, 202,465 people registered to buy weapons on the biggest selling day. The gun registry process involves authorities corroborating whether the person has a criminal record.
This was the second-highest figure in history. The highest was in 2017 when 203,086 people filed their information for review in a single >
Both historical dates coincided with “Black Friday,” which falls on the last weekend of November, the day when there are massive discounts across the country.
Compared to last year, there was an 11% increase in domestic sales. At the end of November 2018, there were 182,093 registered arms buyers. As Christmas and New Year approaches, the numbers continue to rise.
In rural states like North Dakota, the number of buyers increased by up to 20%. According to Cody Schuh, owner of Shooters Inc., the political climate always contributes to a spike in sales. But he says this year was noteworthy. People not only stocked up on ammunition but also bought new rifles and pistols.
“Now we’re beginning to see that individuals buy weapons because they want to be safe without being told to do so by the state,” Schuh said.
It should be noted that the figures show the number of buyers, not the number of weapons. In October of this year alone, 1.2 million firearms were sold in the USA, 10.8% more than in October 2018.
Also, in October, the FBI reported that it reviewed the profiles of 2.4 million potential buyers, the highest record in a given month. In October last year, it was 2.3 million.
According to Small Arms Analytics and Forecast, 1.1 million firearms were sold in the U.S. in September of this year, 11% more than in September last year.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms and overthrow an abusive government with a militia.
“What this tells us is that Americans vote with their wallets when it comes to the ability to exercise the Second Amendment,” said Mark Oliva, director of public relations for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Oliva says that this phenomenon is interesting, because contrary to the will of politicians who openly demand to restrict the Second Amendment, citizens are supplying themselves with weapons.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution speaks of the right of every American citizen not only to bear arms but to arm a militia if the government abuses its power and exceeds its functions.
Oliva considers FBI data to be the most accurate barometer when measuring arms sales and argues that this is not just a whim or coincidence but a “meaningful investment.”
He argues that U.S. citizens choose to invest their hard-earned money to exercise their rights, unlike the politicians seeking to restrict their ability to defend themselves.
The Democratic Party wants to remove Trump from power, but to deprive citizens of the right to rise against a tyrannical government.
For example, the Democratic Party demands greater control when carrying arms and has the backing of at least 150 companies that demanded greater control before the Senate. But sales show that millions of people disagree.
The irony is that the same party that seeks the removal of President Trump, whom they consider to be abusing his power, is the one that wants to deprive citizens of the ability to remove a tyrant from power.
This reflects the actions of the Democratic Party. They demand that the high and mighty state be the one to remove Trump from power, not “the people” they claim to represent.
Meanwhile, those with a more libertarian or conservative political orientation refuse to give more power to the state, much less to take away their right to self-defense.
For history has shown that every tyranny is established once it disarms its citizens. This is what happened in Cuba through Fidel Castro’s speech “Guns? For what?”
Sixty years later, Cuba is still run by the same family. Twenty-five million people in the U.S. showed with their weapons that they are not willing to risk the same thing happening in their country.
They are safer both from crime and the possibility of the emergence of tyranny. That is why they are literally in charge of their self-defense.
The gun control groups like to include all deaths through age 19 as children. Here are the 2016 breakdowns by category and age. Click to enlarge.
Accidental deaths (all firearms types)
Homicides (all firearms)
Suicides (all firearms)
None of these are wonderful, but notice that mostly these include the gang member age range: 15-19
What is our nation coming to? Impeaching the president when no actual crime has been committed. Taking away our Second Amendment rights. It’s so surreal. We have state governments fighting against federal agencies trying to protect us from the surge of illegal immigrants and human and drug trafficking. Politicians want to force us to give up our guns while mass shootings are becoming more frequent, and violent organizations like Antifa are gaining more power. On top of all that, you know things are critical when law enforcement tells citizens to arm themselves and be prepared for war.
Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida, has a strong message to impart in what he calls a strategy for survival. In a video, he warned citizens, “This is war, and you’d better be prepared to wage war to protect you, your family, and those around you.” The police usually recommend calling 911 in an emergency rather than fighting. But not Ivey. He suggests people be prepared; anyone with a concealed carry permit, he says, should be armed at all times.
First Line Of Defense?
“Folks, now more than ever is the time for our citizens to be prepared to serve as the first line of defense,” the sheriff warned.
Ivey’s message is strong – and a bit scary – but is he right? Some might consider his call to arms speech a tactic to alarm people unnecessarily, but when one takes into account all that is happening in the country today, he might just be right on target. We had two shootings on military bases a couple of days apart: Pearl Harbor, HI, and Pensacola, FL. If safety cannot be reasonably guaranteed at a military facility, why would anyone feel protected at a mall, a concert, or in their own home?
The 2A Resistance
The Florida sheriff isn’t the only one pulling back the reins on anti-gun policies. Local law enforcement agencies across the nation have vowed to uphold the Second Amendment, despite what state or federal officials may try to enforce. Virginia is a prime example of this resistance with 90% of the state’s counties turning into Second Amendment sanctuaries. And if that weren’t enough, Tazewell County has gone even further by approving a resolution to create a militia for the protection of county citizens and law enforcement from unfair firearm restrictions. This new policy came just days after Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, threatened “consequences” for refusing to enforce state gun control laws, which, according to one lawmaker from the Democratic Party, might include deploying the National Guard!
The American people have finally reached their limit, and all the aggressive pushing by the liberal left and demanding Democrats is only sending us that much faster into the next civil war.
“Be not afraid of any man; No matter what his size; When danger threatens, call on me— And I will equalize!”
—Anonymous, on the virtues of the Colt revolver, c. 1875
The anti-gun movement is compelling. How could you not be when your entire argument is based on saving human life? Their objective is noble; however, their reasoning has flaws. Guns don’t simply exist to allow crazed murderers to take innocent life – they are the great equalizers for a civil and law-abiding society.
Studies have shown that there is a large range in how many times weapons are used for self-defense in America every year. Estimates range from 500,000 to 3 million defensive uses per year, affirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of defensive uses is higher than one would likely suspect, the firearm is usually dispatched for defensive use by someone completely ordinary, and the majority of these occurrences receive little media attention.
In fact, the rate of occurrence is so high and so under-reported that The Heritage Foundation has launched a project to share some of the stories of Americans who use their weapons in a defensive manner each month. While readers may follow the link to read the rest of the November stories they shared, I wanted to share one particularly compelling story verbatim:
“Nov. 5, Genesee County, New York: A 76-year-old man used his shotgun to fend off an armed home intruder, potentially saving both his life and the life of his wife. The man responded to a knock on his door during the night, only to have the intruder force his way inside at gunpoint and tell the couple to give him all their money or else he would kill them. The intruder then ordered the couple to go into the basement, where the man thought the intruder was going to kill them. Instead, the man was able to grab his loaded shotgun and shoot the intruder in the hip, then held him at gunpoint for 15 minutes until police could arrive.”
Any loss of human life is horrific, hands down, full stop. I completely agree with the anti-gun lobby there. However, I would count myself naive if I believed that adding barriers to obtaining weapons would actually reduce the amount of gun violence we see in this country, and not simply reduce the number of law-abiding gun owners who rely on their weapons for defensive use every year.
Guns are the great equalizers of our society, the things that deter crime and allow everyone to stand on equal ground.
They are there for the elderly couple who could by no means fight off an intruder who breaks into their home.
They are there for the college student living by herself in a cheap apartment in the city.
They are there for the young mom who wants to protect her family.
And, they are there for every community and ethnicity in America that has ever felt marginalized or discriminated against. They are there to remind them that they are equals under the law, and that includes their right to defend themselves.
As Cliff Maloney, president of Young Americans for Liberty, once said, “An armed society is a polite society.” If society is to be equal and to treat one another lawfully, that equalization must begin with the right to self-defense.
There’s a lot of talk about how civility has declined in America since Donald Trump took office.
They are right, of course.
I was driving in Los Angeles the other day, and people behaved like animals. The homeless people downtown looked quite sane compared with the lunatics in BMWs piloting their murderous machines like go-carts, driving with their knees while they text with one hand and sipped their frappa-latte with the other.
Ijits of the highest order were driving on the shoulder and using turn lanes to go to the front, then cut people off at the last second, flipping them the bird as they did so. I thought I was in Mexico City or New Delhi … except for the flipping-off part. It would have been funny, had it not been so dangerous.
It was so bad that–when a fleeing robber crossed into oncoming traffic and nearly hit me head-on bypassing stopped cars at an intersection–I wrote it off as just another LA psychopath trying to save ten seconds. Then five police cars came around the bend after him, and the helicopter with the spotlight.
Americans are wound up and stressed out, sure; but civility was cratering long before Donald Trump took office. Many people took his election as a cue to turn the a**hole up to 11. Our loss of civility is a feature, not a bug.
Speaking of a**holes: the riots after the UK election inspired me to go get some pistol practice this morning in anticipation of our own 2020 extravaganza coming up soon.
I went to the San Diego GlockStore for a spring, then The Gun Range for 30 minutes of practice. In both establishments, I noticed something:
Everybody … was … polite. Everybody. Super polite.
Patrons were courteous and patient with one another in the parking lot. Customers waited their turns and said “please,” “thank you,” and “sir/ma’am.” Nobody yelled at the (armed) employees to hurry up with their order. I felt as though I’d stepped into a time warp.
It’s not like people were walking around in terror of one another, worried about dissing someone and getting capped. On the contrary, everyone seemed relaxed, comfortable, and friendly.
All present seemed to understand one another, to know within those two micro-communities
The argument in favor of arbitrarily revoking the Second Amendment rights of college students, as is done in dozens of states, has ostensibly been rooted in safety concerns.
And it just got a lot weaker.
Two anti-gun professors wrote in the Washington Post that “campus-carry laws will invite tragedies on college campuses, not end them.” Another liberal professor, writing for the New York Times, warned that “when there are more guns around, there is more risk – it’s as simple as that.”
The trouble with such predictions is that they tend to be tested as time goes by. And as it turns out, they simply weren’t true. Students just aren’t waging the gun battles that anti-gun activists expected. A new report from the College Fix looked into this narrative, and it came up empty.
When a reporter reached out to numerous universities that permit campus carry, “all of the schools that responded confirmed that they have seen no uptick in violence since their respective policies were put in place.” Responding colleges included Emporia State University, Dixie State University, and Valdosta State University. Separately, the Texas Tribune has reported that after the Lone Star State implemented campus carry at four-year colleges state-wide, it resulted in “no sharp increase in violence or intimidation,” and in fact, the following year was “quiet” and “uneventful.”
These are just a few examples, but even studies cited favorably by gun control advocates admit that “results certainly do not prove that campus carry causes more crime.” Essentially, it’s now clear that conservatives and libertarians had this one right. Allowing American adults aged 18 to 22 to exercise their Second Amendment rights on public college campuses is a no-brainer, as there are few rights more fundamental than the right to self-defense. Plus, the inconsistent nature of current “gun-free campus” rules already makes little sense.
The current system in many states bans college students from carrying guns but would allow adults of the same age who do not attend college to carry firearms. This is an arbitrary inconsistency that makes little sense, as there’s nothing to suggest that college students are more violent or less responsible than their noncollege peers. So, too, guns are often allowed at high-risk off-campus sites such as fraternity houses, yet barred from the actual campus — a glaring inconsistency that makes little sense. And now it’s officially confirmed that arbitrarily revoking college students’ Second Amendment rights doesn’t even make anyone safer.
It’s impossible for blue-state legislators and liberal college administrators to keep justifying their harsh anti-gun policies. That is, unless they’re willing to admit that they just hate the idea of gun rights.
President Donald Trump said Friday that he would review policies that keep troops from carrying personal weapons onto military bases.
“If we can’t have our military holding guns, it’s pretty bad,” Trump said in a wide-ranging speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Maryland, “and I’m going to look at that whole policy on military bases.”
“So we want to protect our military. We want to make our military stronger and better than it’s ever been,” Trump continued in the speech, in which he also renewed his call for allowing trained teachers and military retirees to carry concealed weapons in schools.
Schools and military bases currently are “gun-free zones” that are easy targets for deranged shooters such as the one in Parkland, Florida, who killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week, Trump said.Defense Department policy mainly has been that base security is the province of military police. In most cases, troops are required to leave their personal weapons at home or check them at the gate in an effort to prevent accidental shootings and discourage suicides.”We had a number of instances on military bases, you know that,” Trump said in his speech, apparently referring to active shooter episodes.
In making the case for personal weapons on military bases, Trump appeared to be referencing the July 2015 incident in Chattanooga, Tenn., where four Marines and a sailor were killed.
The shootings occurred at a recruiting storefront in a strip shopping mall and at a U.S. Naval Reserve Center some miles away. But Trump said the victims “were on a military base in a gun-free zone.”
The victims were Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, 40; Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 35; Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist; Lance Cpl. Squire D. “Skip” Wells, 21; and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26.
The FBI and local police said that Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez carried out a drive-by shooting at the recruiting center and then drove to the U.S. Naval Reserve Center, where he was killed in a shootout with police.
Then-FBI Director James Comey later said that Abdulazeez was “motivated by foreign terrorist organization propaganda.”
“You know the five great soldiers from four years ago, three of them were world-class marksmen,” Trump said in his account of the incident. “They were on a military base in a gun-free zone.”
“They were asked to check their guns quite far away. And a maniac walked in, guns blazing, killed all five of them. He wouldn’t of had a chance if these world-class marksmen had — on a military base — access to their guns,” Trump said.
In his 2015 Senate confirmation hearing to become Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley was asked about the Chattanooga shootings and said that “in some cases I think it’s appropriate” for recruiters to carry weapons for self-defense.
He said that arming recruiters was complicated by a patchwork of state laws but “I think under certain conditions — both on military bases and in outstations, recruiting stations, reserve centers — we should seriously consider it.”
Then-Lt. Gen. Milley was commander at Fort Hood, Texas, in April 2014 when Spec. Ivan Lopez opened fire, killing three soldiers and wounding 12 others before killing himself.
Numerous lawmakers then called for allowing troops to carry weapons on base, but Milley said at a news conference that he didn’t support the idea.
“I don’t think soldiers should have concealed weapons on base,” he said.
