Category: Politics

Indiana looks to scrap carry permits for handguns, allow ‘constitutional carry’

(The Center Square) – Sixteen other states have done it. And Indiana now looks ready to join them in getting rid of the requirement that a person have a license in order to carry a loaded weapon on them or in their vehicle.

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives held a hearing to consider allowing what’s called “constitutional carry.”

It was the first time a hearing has been held on such a bill, and the first sign in years the Republican supermajority in the Indiana General Assembly is getting behind permit-less carry.

Numerous county sheriffs testified in support of the bill.

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Winning In 2022 And 2024 Requires A Coalition

If there is one lesson that we should take from some recent events, it is that removing anti-Second Amendment extremism from the levers of power at the federal, state, and local level is going to require a lot of work. Part of that work will involve building bridges, often to those who are most affected by the failures we have seen anti-Second Amendment extremists use their calls to attack our rights to distract their ill-served constituents.

Can anyone look at the state of affairs in cities like Chicago and Baltimore, and say that the onerous restrictions on Second Amendment rights passed by Illinois and Maryland have done anything positive for the citizens of those cities? The track records of failures are obvious – and are something that should be the focal point of many campaigns by Second Amendment supporters.

While the same anti-Second Amendment extremists push bills like the Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act, they are often allowing violent crime to run rampant, while refusing to enforce laws already on the books that would make a massive difference. For all the complaints some raised about Project Exile, it served Second Amendment supporters well on two fronts: It not only blunted the push for new gun laws, more importantly, it made people safer by taking bad guys off the streets.

As things stand in America right now, there is the chance for Second Amendment supporters to build a short-term coalition based around anti-anti-Second Amendment extremism. This is not a typo. What this means is that Second Amendment supporters should work to get a large number of Americans who either don’t have strong positions on Second Amendment issues, or who have let other issues override their support for the Second Amendment on board with opposition to the excesses of Eric Swalwell, Sheila Jackson Lee, and other anti-Second Amendment extremists.

By simply highlighting the failure to enforce laws of the books centering on the misuse of firearms in violent crime, or for drug trafficking, or even “gun-running,” Second Amendment supporters have the opportunity to gain enough non-opposition in the suburbs and in urban areas to carry statewide elections. One of the biggest reasons is that anti-Second Amendment extremists are all caught up in the latest fads from academia, and not in the real common-sense solutions.

Passing legislation like the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act and the Restoring The Armed Career Criminal Act at the state level – and pushing for passage at the federal level – would be the first steps to securing improvements like the Freedom Financing Act, the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act, the Home Defense and Competitive Shooting Act, and the FOPA improvements Senator Daines introduced at the state and federal levels.

This will take a lot of work, but it may be worth doing.

Virginia Senate Rejects Background Checks For Gun Rentals

While Democrats in Virginia are studiously avoiding Gov. Ralph Northam’s proposed ban on modern sporting rifles, commonly-owned ammunition magazines, and suppressors during the current legislative session, they’ve still been pushing a number of gun control bills that aren’t as high-profile ahead of November’s elections in the state.

One bill brought by Sen. Creigh Deeds would have required background checks on all firearm rentals at gun ranges. The measure was authored by Deeds after two suicides at a Richmond-area gun range last year, but many gun store owners and operators objected to the legislation, pointing out that they’re already working to ensure that troubled individuals aren’t using rented firearms to take their own life.

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I called it right. Schiff has been making a spectacle of himself simply for the publicity he needs to run for a statewide office when DiFi leaves the scene. And since Harris is a former Atty Gen, Shiff probably sees the post as another step up on the ladder.

ADAM SCHIFF LOBBIES TO BE CA ATTORNEY GENERAL, POSSIBLE SENATE RUN

Rep. Adam Schiff is quietly lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies to appoint him California’s next attorney general, according to people familiar with the matter.

Rep. Adam Schiff is quietly lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies to appoint him California’s next attorney general, according to people familiar with the matter.

…

If Newsom selects Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a confidant of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Democrats would lose a powerful party voice in the U.S. House and temporarily give up a seat in their slim 221-211 majority.

Nonetheless, Pelosi has given her approval to Schiff’s bid, a clear sign she thinks she can manage without him. according to people familiar with the matter. Spokespersons for Schiff and Pelosi declined comment.

The attorney general’s job also would better position Schiff, a high-profile Democrat who led the Russia investigation into then-President Trump, to run for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat, should the 87-year-old decide not to run for reelection in 2024

The move would mark a dramatic turn in Schiff’s career. In 2018, Speaker Pelosi was reportedly grooming him as her successor. But in 2019, he spearheaded the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, based on accusations by a so-called “whistleblower” whom Schiff promised to produce and then covered up once Republicans began asking questions.

Schiff also lied to the public about his committee’s prior contacts with the so-called “whistleblower,” who had no direct knowledge of the contents of the infamous telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski.

The appointment might be a risky one for Newsom, whose approval rating has plummeted, and who is facing a potential recall election later this year

Seems to me to be Congress actually cared less about Biden’s  political plans than they did about kicking Trump out of the Whitehouse.

Joe Biden’s Legislative Agenda Stalls in Congress

More than a week into his administration, President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda seems to have hit a wall in Congress.

Biden, who served in the United States Senate for 36 years before his ascension to the vice presidency, was pitched as a “master legislator” by allies and supporters during the 2020 campaign. The president, himself, bolstered that image with constant references to his history of working across the aisle to craft bipartisan compromise.

“Compromise is not a dirty word, it’s how our government is designed to work,” Biden told the National Education Association last July. “I’ve done it my whole life.”

“I’ve been able to bring Democrats and Republicans together in the United States Congress to pass big things, to deal with big issues,” he added at the time.

Such efforts, made in an attempt to convince voters that Biden alone could break the decades-old gridlock of Washington, DC, did not stop after the election was over. In the months leading up to the inaugural, Biden and his team promised that they would be ready “on day one” to hit the ground running on a long list of legislative priorities.

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The Flawed Thinking Behind Biden’s Gun Control Bill

“The coming years will decide the survival of our Second Amendment,” President Trump warned before the election.

Trump was right.

During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden promised a long list of gun control regulations. There is a reason that Michael Bloomberg spent $125 million helping Biden in Florida and something over $600 million nationally in the general election.

The agenda includes: classifying many semi-automatic rifles and magazines holding more than 10 bullets as Class 3 weapons (which can require nine months or more for approval and a $200 fee), national gun licensing, “red flag” laws that let judges take away people’s guns without a hearing, background checks on the private transfer of guns, and bans on some semi-automatic firearms that happen to look like military weapons.

The first gun control bill that Biden will push in his first 100 days would make gun makers and sellers civilly liable for misuse of guns they sell. That means people could sue manufacturers whenever a crime, accident, or suicide occurs with a gun. We aren’t talking about cases where there was a product liability issue or where laws are violated, such as selling a gun without a valid background check. While it isn’t stated, the goal is to put the gun makers out of business.

Can you imagine what would happen to the car or other products if similar rules were to apply? Some 4.5 million Americans are injured each year in car accidents, and 40,000 die. When accidents occurred because a driver wasn’t paying attention or was driving recklessly, it makes no sense to sue Ford for lost wages, medical costs, and pain and suffering.  Criminals also frequently use cars when they commit crimes. Why should car companies be liable for that?

Computers are used to plan crimes, hack into private servers, and steal intellectual property. If Apple were held liable, it would very quickly be drowning in lawsuits. If the company even survived, its products would become much more expensive in order to cover the new legal fees.

Guns aren’t any different. Far less than 1% of guns are ever used in crimes, suicides or accidents, and when they are, it’s virtually always the result of the user’s actions. Many other products, such as motorcycles, have much higher probabilities of causing harm. The death rate per motorcycle is 0.05%; the date rate for guns is 0.008%. The latter includes murder, accidental deaths and suicides. Guns are also used defensively about 2 million times in the average year, according to the FBI. Will government reward gun makers when their products are used to save lives?

My own research has found that increased gun ownership is associated with less crime, not more. Poor people in the highest crime areas benefit the most from owning guns, and gun maker liability would be sure to make guns unaffordable for these individuals.

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Iowa is one of the few states left that have constitutions that don’t address RKBA. I don’t know why, other than probably the idea the right would ever be challenged didn’t even enter their thoughts.

Iowa Legislature approves putting pro-gun constitutional amendment in front of voters

The Iowa Legislature has approved a proposed pro-gun amendment to the Iowa Constitution for the second time, paving the way for it to appear on Iowans’ ballots in 2022.

The Senate approved the resolution Thursday afternoon in a 29-18 vote along party lines after about two hours of debate. Hours later, the House voted 58-41, also along party lines, to pass the same measure. Both chambers are controlled by Republicans. Every Republican present voted in favor of the amendment, while every Democrat was opposed.

Thursday’s vote means that after years of work by Republican lawmakers — and a mistake by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office in 2018 that required them to start over — Iowans will have a chance to vote for or against the proposal themselves next year.

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Filibuster Preservation Bought Two Years For The Second Amendment

Washington DC – -(AmmoLand.com)- The decision by Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin to keep the legislative filibuster has given Second Amendment supporters something they desperately needed: Time. The next two years will be critical, both to shift the Senate landscape and to also regain the House.

Sinema and Manchin are not the most reliable of champions. In 2018, we noted that Martha McSally was a better choice as compared to the former. The latter could have been replaced by West Virginia Attorney General Pat Morrissey. Those two races, and the failure to beat Jon Tester loom large now. Had we won, it would mean control the Senate stayed in GOP hands, and it would have been a massive check on the Biden-Harris regime.

That is not the case, though. But by keeping the filibuster, it means the Supreme Court keeps its sure 5-4 majority on Second Amendment cases (6-3 if Roberts wants to influence who writes the rulings). That means there is a chance for key Second Amendment cases, like the Duncan case, to reach the Supreme Court, and shift that landscape in our favor.

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This – if the demoncraps keep their word (yeah, I know) – is the best of a bad situation. If the 60 vote barrier for ending debate holds, there is little chance of new gun control laws getting passed. It also means ‘court packing’ and statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico is off the table as well. The rabid lunatic commies in congress may yet figure out that rabid commieness makes the standard operational congresscritterz uneasy.

With Democrat Path to Nuclear Option on Filibuster Closed, Senate Leaders Proceed on Power-Sharing Agreement

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Monday that a power-sharing agreement in the Senate no longer needs to stipulate that the filibuster rule remain intact after two Senate Democrats confirmed they would not support abolishing it.

“I’m glad that two Senate Democrats confirmed they will not vote to end the legislative filibuster,” McConnell stated. “They agree with President Biden and me on protecting the Senate. With this win, we can move forward with a 50-50 power-sharing agreement built on the 2001 precedent”:

The filibuster, a rule that requires three-fifths of the Senate, or 60 votes, to close debate on major legislation, had become a point of contention as McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) work out a plan to organize the upper chamber, which is tied 50–50 between Republicans and Democrats. The last time the Senate was tied, in 2001, a similar plan was used to distribute authority among the chamber and its committees.

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Unity Watch: Sorry President Biden, the Honeymoon Is Over Before It Even Started

Most of the time, a new president gets at least a short honeymoon period. President Joe Biden is not so lucky. His approval is already underwater at -2 in Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Usually, the country settles down after the election and gives the nation’s new leader the benefit of the doubt. Even President Trump entered the Oval Office with a +2 approval rating, which increased through the end of January 2017. President Obama went in at +8 in 2008.

It was a whirlwind of activity for President Biden in his first 72 hours. He signed an executive order to allow biological men and boys to enter women’s spaces and compete with them directly in employment, education, and sports. With the stroke of the pen, he killed the Keystone XL pipeline and even reversed President  Trump’s prohibition on the Chinese Communist Party’s involvement in the U.S. power grid.

The world is also getting more dangerous with alarming speed. China has breached Taiwan’s Air Defense Zone with multiple bombers and fighter jets. We have seen continuing riots in Portland and now one in Bellingham, Washington.

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Ted Cruz wore a mask emblazoned with the Gonzales Flag’s “Come and Take It” logo to President Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: Sen. Ted Cruz (C) (R-TX), wearing a face mask that reads "Come and Take It", arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. During today's inauguration ceremony Joe Biden …

An empty Biden inauguration for a false victory

For those who still think Joe Biden won his election legitimately and with popular support, you need only look at the two screen captures  comparing the crowds at the previous presidential inauguration (at the top) and the crowd today at Biden’s inauguration.

Comparing crowds at presidential inaugurations

It is also important to note that the Trump crowd in 2017 was totally normal, comparable to every past public inauguration since such events became occasions of grand splendor.

For Democrat Joe Biden, however, the lack of a crowd is essentially unprecedented. While past inaugurations were greeted with large enthusiastic crowds of citizens coming to celebrate the democratic and peaceful transition of power, today’s event was heralded by wartime security, barbed wire fences, military checkpoints, and a military police guard of 25,000 troops. Biden officials claimed this tight security was necessary because of the threat of violence.

I ask however: If 80 million voters swarmed the polls on November 3rd to elect Joe Biden, why does his new administration feel so afraid of the American people? No president in the past was this terrified of taking his oath of office in front of a gigantic crowd. Even Abraham Lincoln did so before a huge crowd in 1865, even as the Civil War still raged, as the photo below shows most emphatically.

Abraham Lincoln surrounded by crowds at 2nd inauguration

Abraham Lincoln surrounded by crowds at 2nd inauguration
The red arrow points at Lincoln speaking.

No, the inauguration of Joe Biden is something quite different than any past American transition of power. It comes surrounded by numerous allegations of election tampering and vote count fraud. A vast part of the population — quite likely the majority of the country — strongly believes the election was stolen, a belief that has been reinforced by the aggressive resistance of election boards and Democrats to investigate those allegations. That resistance has been so strong that the Democrats and their supporters have even made it their goal to blacklist and destroy anyone who even dares raise the question.

The tight security imposed on Biden’s election acts as proof that those allegations might very well carry weight. If Biden was truly elected legitimately, he would not feel the need to be surrounded by barbed wire and tens of thousands of soldiers, like any tinpot dictator. No, like Lincoln he would be able to nonchalantly walk through a crowd of fellow citizens, with everyone confident that the person the American people actually chose was now in office.

The military nature of Biden’s inauguration signals the end of American democracy in other ways. It is clearly a sign that the Washington swamp, having finally gotten rid of outsider Trump, is now telling us they will no longer tolerate further resistance to their power. That corrupt ruling class of bureaucrats can now wield the military against you if you dare oppose them, and today’s occupation of Washington was their way of proving this fact to everyone.

You will accept their rule, or you will face blacklisting, censorship, and even the sound of storm-troopers banging at your door, there to arrest you for wrong-think.

And if you doubt me, just give it time. The downward path to dictatorship by this Washington crowd has been steady and continuous since President Bill Clinton got away with perjury in the late 1990s. They will go there, mark my words.

What will Americans do in response? For myself, I tell them to go to hell. I will be a free American until the day I die, and if that means they come at me with guns because they don’t like what I write, so be it. It will only prove that I stand for freedom, and they for oppression.

Which side are you on?

WA Legislature Eyeballs Bills to Ban ‘Assault Weapons’

Almost as predicted by opponents of anti-gun Initiative 1639, the measure that among other things invented a definition for a “semiautomatic assault rifle,” anti-gun Democrats in the Washington Legislature have introduced legislation to ban so-called “assault weapons.”

I-1639 defined “semi-auto assault rifles” as literally any self-loading rifle, regardless of caliber (including rimfires) that has ever been manufactured anywhere in the world. Under the more specific definitions found in Senate Bill 5217 and its companion measure, House Bill 1229—both introduced at the request of anti-gun Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson—rimfires do not appear to be included. But semi-auto centerfire rifles are, and it’s quite a list. The legislation would also prohibit folding stocks and other accessories.

Both bills are now in committee. The House version is in the House Committee on Civil Rights and the Judiciary. The Senate version is in the Law & Justice Committee.

Two years ago, following passage of I-1639, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told reporters the only reason to create the definition in state statute was to one day allow a move to ban such firearms.

I-1639 includes this definition:

“Semiautomatic assault rifle” means any rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge.

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Montana: Senate Judiciary to Vote on Permitless Carry Legislation Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Permitless Carry Legislation, House Bill 102.  Please contact committee members and ask that they SUPPORT House Bill 102.

House Bill 102 will strengthen Montana’s self-defense laws by allowing law-abiding Montana gun owners to carry a firearm for self-defense throughout the state without first having to obtain a government-mandated permit to do so.  Further, this bill will remove some of Montana’s “gun-free zones” from the list of prohibited places and stop the unnecessary disarming of Montanans as they go about their day-to-day lives.

Again, it is important that you please contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and ask them to SUPPORT House Bill 102.

The painful symbolism of the 26,000 National Guard troops in D.C.

Those of you who are reading this post are the type of people who pay attention to things. That’s why you already know that 26,000 National Guard troops drawn from all over America and from Puerto Rico, have assembled in Washington, D.C., in advance of Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. (That’s about three divisions worth of troops.) But have you given serious thought to what the troops’ presence means?

I’ve heard from some optimistic people who believe that the troops are the last phase in a Trumpian plan to reclaim America and maintain it as a true constitutional republic, rather than the socialist tyranny the Democrats seem to have planned. I’m a perennial pessimist, so I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe that the troops’ presence means anything good.

Instead, I’m inclined to agree with Tucker Carlson’s brilliant Monday night opening monologue regarding the deeper meaning behind a massive D.C. lockdown that makes it look like Baghdad, circa 2003. As Tucker noted, this troop build-up is five times the number of military personnel currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

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This is somehow a shocking revelation?

BLUF:
Republicans shouldn’t feel guilty about vocally opposing Biden’s COVID-19 relief efforts. Conservative opposition isn’t an obstruction of a commonsense emergency response but a rejection of an imposition of a liberal economic agenda on the United States through a back door.

Biden COVID-19 relief plan is a Trojan horse for a sweeping liberal agenda

President-elect Joe Biden just unveiled his proposal for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. Democrats insist it is targeted to respond to the crisis and only full of “commonsense” measures and much-needed emergency spending.

Yet, even a cursory glance at the specifics of the package reveals that it’s a Trojan horse for a sweeping liberal agenda that Biden could never otherwise get passed.

Yes, the proposal does include billions for vaccine distribution, testing, school reopenings, and the like. But it also includes blatant partisan priorities, such as a federal $15 minimum wage.

Biden knows that this far-left, job-killing policy would never make it out of Congress in a straight up-down vote. The Democrat’s hope here is obviously that he can sneak a doubling of the federal minimum wage into an “emergency” package that lawmakers feel obligated to support. We should all hope this duplicity is unsuccessful.

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Montana House of Representatives Pass ‘Permitless Carry’ Bill

HELENA- The Montana House of Representatives voted 66-31 Thursday to pass House Bill 102 by Representative Seth Berglee (R-Joliet). House Bill 102 removes state barriers to individuals exercising their constitutional right to carry a firearm for self-defense. It allows individuals who are lawfully allowed to open carry a firearm to carry concealed in the same areas without a permit. Additionally, HB 102 ensures that young adults on our college campuses aren’t denied their fundamental right to self-defense.

“It is long past due that law-abiding Montanans’ right to self-defense is respected without state barriers,” Rep. Seth Berglee said Thursday. “This bill modernizes Montana’s antiquated permitted and permitless carry laws to better reflect the safe carrying of firearms in the 21st century.”

House Bill 102 now moves to the Montana Senate for consideration.

“House Bill 102 is a priority bill for House Leadership, and I want to thank Representative Berglee for carrying it,” said Speaker of the House Wylie Galt. “House Republicans will continue advancing bills this session that protect the rights and individual freedoms of Montanans from government intrusion.”

Well, actually it’s ‘We The People‘ are the key.

Manchin Key to Thwarting New Gun-Control Legislation, Second Amendment Groups Say.

As the Biden administration prepares to enter office, Second Amendment activists are looking to a Democrat in the hopes that he will serve as a bulwark against his own party’s efforts to tighten gun-control laws.

With Democrats set to take control of the presidency and both houses of Congress in just seven days, Second Amendment activists are raising the specter of sweeping legislative action, from an assault-weapons ban and universal background checks to a federal red-flag law that would allow police to seize guns from those perceived as a threat.

The activists are looking to the upper chamber’s most conservative Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (W. Va.), as a key ally, pointing to his opposition to the sorts of procedural changes, such as ending the filibuster and court packing, that could allow Democrats to pass gun-control legislation with a simple majority.

“If [Manchin] caves on that, we lose everything. If he stands strong, then we can defeat everything,” said Erich Pratt, senior vice president of the Gun Owners of America.

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For Our Leftist Elites, the Double Standard’s Meant to Be Blatant. That’s the Point

I came to understand our political situation today by watching gorilla documentaries. Let me explain.

At day’s end, when I’m exhausted, I wind down by finally turning on the television. The last things I usually watch are nature films, on the diverse, fascinating, and mostly apolitical channel CuriosityStream. For a grand total of $12 per year (as of now), you get access to thousands of polished, beautifully produced documentaries on every subject from ancient history to contemporary science. It’s the best entertainment money I’ve ever spent.

Invariably, I look for animal films. First of all, I’m a sucker for God’s innocent creatures, especially the furry ones. But I take delight in all the evidence of direct, Divine design all through the animal kingdom — from speeding sharks to circling condors. I do wish CuriosityStream would air some programming from the Discovery Institute. Its scientists do much better explaining nature via design than Darwinists do with their “just so” stories and smuggled-in teleology. (“Evolution developed the eagle’s eye to make it a better hunter… .”)

The Pyramid Is the Point

One thing I notice among most higher mammals, especially primates: the almost universal preoccupation with hierarchy. In some species, only the highest status female gets to breed. Once she claims that position, usually by bullying other females, it goes mostly unchallenged. But much more prevalent are species where the status that matters is male. The dominant male collects a harem of she-gorillas or sea lionesses, and fathers all the group’s children. Lesser males steer well clear of females, and accept the scraps from hunts, lest they summon the alpha male’s wrath. Often the dominant males will go out of their way to humiliate their lesser brethren, just to remind them who’s boss.

And that’s how to understand what’s happening politically right now in America.

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