Protesters gathered outside of the Minnesota governor’s mansion Friday rebelling against coronavirus stay-at-home orders and demanding an end the lockdown, chanting “open up.”
Despite the social distancing guidelines in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of people gathered in St. Paul for a “Liberate Minnesota” demonstration outside Gov. Tim Walz’s official residence, according to local news reports.
Hundreds of people openly defied a ban on mass gatherings and federal safety guidelines during a demonstration Monday against Pennsylvania’s coronavirus lockdown order.
Protesters rallied in front of the state Capitol in Harrisburg, where they crowded together on the steps and sidewalk in defiance of social distancing guidelines, recklessly dismissing their own health risk and the risk to others — many without even face masks, according to video posted on social media.
More than 100 South Floridians participated in a caravan protest Sunday to demand Gov. Ron DeSantis reopen the beaches and state parks closed under coronavirus lockdown measures.
Drivers first met up in separate groups in Hollywood, Coral Springs, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Boynton Beach. The caravans then drove to downtown Delray Beach, honking their horns and blaring sirens up and down Atlantic Avenue. Waving American flags and Trump 2020 banners, onlookers lined the sidewalks to watch.
We may be witnessing the birth of a movement that could be the most important result of the COVID-19 nightmare: the anti-lockdown protests sweeping the country.
Per our usual agreement, the media is totally getting it wrong. It’s not about being able to go to restaurants or movies or even only about going back to work. It’s certainly not about a death cult or not taking the virus seriously.
The protests are, at core, about people who want their rights back — rights that have been snatched in just a few weeks time. It’s driven by people who understand the threat of tyrannical government, and that threat is very, very real. It’s happening right in front of our eyes.
Probably the best face of Orwell’s dystopian 1984 is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Although the Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is a close second. Mayor de Blasio is calling on residents to report their neighbors to law enforcement for violations of social distancing protocols. And it’s made super easy. Yay! How do you narc out your neighbors who don’t obey government edicts? “It’s simple: just snap a photo and text it to 311-692.” de Blasio said. “We will make sure that enforcement comes right away.”
Wow, wow, wow. Please read 1984. This is *exactly* what Big Brother teaches neighbors and children to do. Everyone is a snitch. People live in terror. In 1984, they disappear if they don’t follow the government line. We’re not there yet. But this is an astonishing step in the Big Brother direction.
Michigan Golfers Flouting Lockdown Rules Right Next Door to Governor’s Mansion
Seig Heil! THBBT!Heil! THBBT! Right in the Führer’s Face!
The Country Club of Greater Lansing is again allowing its members to play on its course along Moores River Drive after a brief shutdown. And that’s despite guidance today from the state’s top law enforcement official that said otherwise.
“We cannot rely on the superfluous statements made by each respective office and must only rely on the text of the order itself,” according to an email from the Country Club to its members sent earlier this week, again allowing golf to be played. “If the governor intended the order to specifically ban golf, she would have included such specific language in the order.”
While I see some good things in part of this, and this may be ‘just me™’, the plan as a whole looks like a wish list for a massive powergrab by congress over every part of the U.S. economy and health system as they could get their claws into.
EXCLUSIVE: After spending weeks diving into coronavirus issues over video conferencing, a bipartisan group of 50 House members has crafted a plan for what’s needed to reopen the economy safely and help businesses recover from crippling mandatory shutdowns.
Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University, who also serves on the research and development advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, plotted the rates of new coronavirus infections of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. The numbers told a shocking story: irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or went about business as usual like Sweden, coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the exact, same, way. His graphs show that all countries experienced seemingly identical coronavirus infection patterns, with the number of infected peaking in the sixth week and rapidly subsiding by the eighth week.
The Wuhan Virus follows its own pattern, he told Mako, an Israeli news agency. It is a fixed pattern that is not dependent on freedom or quarantine. “There is a decline in the number of infections even [in countries] without closures, and it is similar to the countries with closures,” he wrote in his paper.
“Is the coronavirus expansion exponential? The answer by the numbers is simple: no. Expansion begins exponentially but fades quickly after about eight weeks,” Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel concluded. The reason why coronavirus follows a fixed pattern is yet unknown. “I have no explanation,” he told Mako, “There are is kinds of speculation: maybe it’s climate-related, maybe the virus has its own life cycle.” ……..
Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel concludes in his analysis summary paper that the data from the past 50 days indicates that the closure policies of the quarantine countries can be replaced by more moderate social distancing policies. The numbers simply do not support quarantine or economic closure. ……….
While the American policies remain less restrictive than those of Israel, it is important to understand the origins of our own “mass hysteria” response. President Trump urged a strong coronavirus response after consulting with Dr. Fauci and his team, who relied on a British model predicting 2.2 million deaths in the United States and 500,000 deaths in the U.K. But that model was developed by Professor Neil Ferguson, who had a history of wildly overestimating death rates through his prediction models. ………
It’s been one month since our country declared a national coronavirus emergency and life as we knew it had ceased. Americans have been growing agitated, unwilling to continue in this way, knowing something is wrong. Trump has sensed that his constituency is displeased with the authoritarian power grab by our Governors and has repeatedly stated that he wishes to reopen the country, but that he needs more information to make the right decision. Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel’s data analysis provides Trump with the assurance that he needs to reopen America.
Pay attention, as today marks a pivotal point in American history as we struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Several states have banded together to oppose President Trump’s framework for getting America back to work, while other states have shown a willingness to protect individual liberty and the livelihoods of Americans. No two states demonstrate this stark contrast better than Texas and Washington.
On the same day, Gov. Inslee (D-Wash.) and Gov. Abbott (R-Texas) issued statements that display the fundamental question facing America. Shall the United States remain a nation founded on liberty, or shall we capriciously remove those rights as an exercise to increase the power of the state?
First, let’s examine Greg Abbott’s statement on reopening Texas for business:
3 Executive Orders released today will begin the process to Open TX.
Select activities & services that pose minimal to no threat of spreading #COVID19 can reopen using a Retail-To-Go model & schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year. https://t.co/xunPDOiwFNpic.twitter.com/knzdocu90b
Governor Greg Abbott today held a press conference where he issued three new Executive Orders to begin the process of reopening the state of Texas while revising hospital capacity and certain social distancing guidelines. Within the orders, select activities and services that pose minimal to no threat of spreading COVID-19 are allowed to reopen using a “Retail-To-Go” model, certain restrictions on surgeries have been loosened, and schools will remain closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year.
Within these orders, the Governor has established the Strike Force to Open Texas—a team of nationally recognized medical experts and private and public leaders who will advise the Governor on safely and strategically reopening the state of Texas.
“Texans are battling a colossal challenge—an invisible enemy that has tested our lives and our livelihoods—but overcoming challenges is part of who we are as Texans,” said Governor Abbott. “We have shown that Texas can continue our efforts to contain COVID-19 while also adopting safe standards that will allow us to begin the process of reopening Texas. The Strike Force to Open Texas brings together nationally recognized medical experts with public and private sector leaders to achieve this mission. By coming together, we can get Texans back to work, practice safe standards that will prevent the spread of COVID-19, and we can overcome this pandemic.”
Abbott believes that Texans can continue safe behaviors and practices while conducting business and picking up the pieces of shattered livelihoods — returning to jobs, reopening businesses, and slowly returning to normal. This reflects a belief in the principle of self-governance upon which the Founders based the Constitution.
What does Jay Inslee believe?
The president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19.
His unhinged rantings and calls for people to “liberate” states could also lead to violence. We’ve seen it before. 1/7
It appears Inslee doesn’t share Abbott’s belief in self-governance and would prefer that Washington remain unliberated. He would prefer more draconian measures to keep Washingtonians from their basic activities, even when those measures don’t make sense in fighting a pandemic. Inslee followed the example of New Jersey’s Democrat governor by banning private construction while declaring construction on government projects essential. Inslee has also ordered a ban on fishing and hunting, closed parks to camping and hiking, and ordered boat launches closed, among many other restrictions that will have little effect on slowing the virus. He seems to think individuals can’t be trusted to practice social distancing while wandering in the wilderness.
Inslee stated earlier this week, along with the governors of Oregon and California, that he is still months away from allowing citizens to resume their normal lives. Not weeks, months. One of the biggest conditions he placed on allowing folks to go back to work is widespread testing capability to be able to track sick people. He knows that testing is a long ways off, so that gives him all the moral authority he needs to continue to order people home. Meanwhile, more and more liberties are stripped away every day in Washington………..
Make no mistake, this is the battle for freedom that Ronald Reagan warned us about when he said:
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
A growing wave of rallies are taking place across the country as protesters demand that state governments lift their orders closing businesses and public places as soon as possible, even as officials urge caution to prevent a resurgence of coronavirus.
These Americans say they are suffering because of the economic shutdowns nationwide to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and are antsy to resume working and going out in public as usual…….
“Minnesota citizens now is the time to demand Governor Walz and our state legislators end this lock down!” the description of a Facebook event titled “Liberate Minnesota” scheduled for noon on Friday reads. “Minnesota’s economy must be reopened for business or destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Minnesota citizens and their families may result if we don’t act quickly.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday called for a number of states under extended lockdown to be “liberated” after telling governors on Thursday “you’re going to call your shots” over when to reopen.
In a series of Twitter missives, the president called for Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia to be “liberated.”
ST. PAUL, Minn. (KEYC) – Governor Tim Walz today issued Executive Order 20-38, which expands allowable outdoor recreational activities. The changes will allow Minnesotans to continue to enjoy the outdoors close to home while following social distancing guidelines.
In a televised press conference, he will provide the latest update on his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic including addressing how to handle activities such as golfing, boating and fishing.
Executive Order 20-38 allows Minnesotans to engage in a range of activities, including golfing, boating, fishing, hunting, and hiking, as long as they follow new outdoor recreation guidelines. These guidelines include maintaining 6-foot social distancing, avoiding crowded areas, and staying close to home.
“It’s important for us to stay active and enjoy the outdoors while preventing the spread of COVID-19,” said Governor Walz in a statement. “This measure will allow Minnesotans to take advantage of more opportunities to get outside, while still doing their part to keep their neighbors healthy.”
Under Executive Order 20-38, facilities that may reopen or remain open include:
Bait shops for live bait
Outdoor shooting ranges and game farms
Public and private parks and trails
Golf courses and driving ranges
Boating and off-highway vehicle services, including:
Marina services
Dock installation and other lake services
Boat and off-highway vehicle sales and repair, by appointment only
Campgrounds and dispersed camping, outdoor recreational equipment retail stores, recreational equipment rental, charter boats, launches, and guided fishing remain closed.
Sheriffs from four different counties in northern Michigan spoke out against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s statewide lockdown Wednesday, saying the Democratic governor is “overstepping her executive authority” during the coronavirus pandemic.
Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Borkovich, Benzie County Sheriff Ted Schendel, Manistee County Sheriff Ken Falk and Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole issued a joint press release saying they will only enforce the governor’s order on a case-by-case basis by using “common sense.”
“While we understand her desire to protect the public, we question some restrictions that she has imposed as overstepping her executive authority,” the sheriffs wrote. “She has created a vague framework of emergency laws that only confuse Michigan citizens.
“As a result, we will not have strict enforcement of these orders. We will deal with every case as an individual situation and apply common sense in assessing the apparent violation,” they continued. “Each of us took an oath to uphold and defend the Michigan Constitution, as well as the US Constitution, and to ensure that your God given rights are not violated. We believe that we are the last line of defense in protecting your civil liberties.”
Ms. Whitmer’s stay-at-home order has faced harsh criticism for its extreme measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, including banning Michiganders from traveling between two residences and banning big-box stores from selling items deemed nonessential by the state, including plants and seeds. The governor has repeatedly defended the measures, claiming that residents won’t be traveling or gardening much anyway due to the snow.
We are approaching April 19. It’s an important date in history because it brings to our recollection the events of 1775 when the British Monarch sent troops to disarm his subjects at Concord, Massachusetts. The patriots who would not get off the Lexington Green were shot and or bayoneted. The British [or the Colonists – no one really knows ed.] fired, “The Shot Heard Round the World,” and history took a different path than that the people of the day may have anticipated on April 16th.
We have a republic and the only way that we will keep it is through eternal vigilance. I understand that we face a Chinese Plague, but the Chinese and their plague have not canceled the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We have the right to assemble peacefully, the right to worship according to the dictates of our conscience and the right to be armed and to defend ourselves.
The situation in some US states where governors have offered bounties for denouncements on people who may be walking a dog or sitting on a park bench by themselves taking air are most disturbing. The situation in Virginia with the recent passage of intolerable acts, or laws if you will, which are in direct violation of the Bill of Rights, also create concern.
Hundreds of cars, trucks and SUVs descended on Michigan’s state capital Wednesday afternoon as part of a noisy protest against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s social-distancing restrictions that critics say have gone too far.
Dubbed “Operation Gridlock” and organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, the protest did just that – creating bumper-to-bumper traffic throughout downtown Lansing as demonstrators blasted their horns, waved Americans flags and hoisted placards deriding Whitmer’s orders and demanding that she reopen the state’s economy.
The lockdown measures are meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, but Whitmer has gone further than some other governors — and the backlash in Michigan is among the most heated in the country.
“Let’s start with the fact that some counties have no or very few COVID cases and yet are totally shut down,” Rosanne Ponkowski, president of the Michigan Conservative Coalition, said in a statement. “When did a one-size solution solve everyone’s local issues? Governor Whitmer will put you out of business before allowing mere citizens to be responsible for their own behavior. That is madness.”
Whitmer announced over the weekend an expansion to her state’s stay-at-home orders, which among other things prohibits residents from visiting family or friends with exceptions for providing care, bans public and private gatherings regardless of size or family ties, and places restrictions on what types of businesses may operate and in what capacity.
Michigan has the fourth-largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with more 27,000 being reported as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
The orders, which are in place until at least May 1, quickly drew criticism from conservative Republicans in the state, who argue that the governor is turning Michigan into a “nanny state” and impeding their civil liberties.
“Quarantine is when you restrict movement of sick people. Tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people,” Meshawn Maddock, an organizer of “Operation Gridlock” with the Michigan Conservative Coalition, told Fox News. “Every person has learned a harsh lesson about social distancing. We don’t need a nanny state to tell people how to be careful.”
Attorney General Bill Barr announced Tuesday that the City of Greenville in Mississippi appeared to have “singled churches out” as essential services that may not operate according to state social-distancing guidelines, Fox News reported.
The Justice Department intervened in Temple Baptist Church’s lawsuit against Greenville police for ticketing congregants during a drive-in service amid coronavirus social-distancing rules, saying that it “strongly suggests that the city’s actions target religious conduct,” according to Fox.
Police began issuing $500 tickets to congregants who refused to leave a parking lot where the church was holding a drive-in service, prompting the Justice Department to file a statement of interest following the church’s lawsuit. “The United States has a substantial interest in the preservation of its citizens’ fundamental right to the free exercise of religion, expressly protected by the First Amendment,” the statement says…………..
On Saturday, Department of Justice (DOJ) spokeswoman Kerri Kupec announced that Attorney General William Barr would take action to protect churches from tyrannical local government orders that destroy their religious freedom.
“During this sacred week for many Americans, AG Barr is monitoring govt regulation of religious services,” Kupec tweeted. “While social distancing policies are appropriate during this emergency, they must be applied evenhandedly & not single out religious orgs. Expect action from DOJ next week!”
During this sacred week for many Americans, AG Barr is monitoring govt regulation of religious services. While social distancing policies are appropriate during this emergency, they must be applied evenhandedly & not single out religious orgs. Expect action from DOJ next week!
This statement follows a week of legal clashes as Democratic mayors have explicitly banned drive-in church services where parishioners remain apart in their cars with the windows up. Police in the city of Greenville, Miss., have slapped worshipers with $500 fines and mobbed a drive-in service, apparently aiming to prevent attendance.
“One of the police officers said the mayor wanted to make an example of our church,” Temple Baptist Church Pastor Arthur Scott, whose drive-in service was targeted by police handing out $500 fines on Wednesday, told Todd Starnes. “I told them to get some more tickets ready because we will be preaching Sunday morning and Sunday night.”
“Government is clearly overstepping its authority when it singles out churches for punishment, especially in a ridiculous fashion like this,” Ryan Taylor, director of the Center for Christian Ministries at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said in a statement. ADF is representing Scott in a lawsuit against the leaders of Greenville. “In Greenville, you can be in your car at a drive-in restaurant, but you can’t be in your car at a drive-in church service. That’s not only nonsensical, it’s unconstitutional, too.”…………
Democrat governors and mayors are starting to become drunk on power. – In Kentucky, the Democrat governor has police recording the license plate numbers of church parishioners and issuing them $500 tickets for being parked in the church parking lot.
In Philadelphia, the Democrat governor has police arrest a man for attempting to board an empty subway car without his mask on.
In California, the Democrat governor has police arresting a lone Santa Monica man on an empty beach for the crime of attempting to swim in the ocean.
In New York City, the Democrat Mayor not only orders churches to remain closed to any and all parishioners, but threatens to shut them down permanently if they do not bend to his will.
But none of those governors and mayors can hold a candle to Michigan’s Democrat Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer has been such a despot in exercising her nebulous emergency powers during the Wuhan Virus crisis that she is now the subject of an online recall petition that had collected over 80,000 signatures within a few hours of its being issued on Saturday.
Rather than simply ordering the closing of “non-essential” businesses, as pretty much every other governor has done, Whitmer has taken things much further, ordering law enforcement officers to go into the stores remaining open and rope off sections selling items she deems to be “non-essential.” This would be items like plant seeds and American flags:
You can’t buy seeds with which to grow your own food or a flag to hang out over your front porch, but hey, you can buy pot and lottery tickets, because the state government can’t afford to lose the tax collections it receives on those items. Isn’t life in Michigan grand?
Two Fridays ago, Whitmer decided it would be a great thing for her political ambitions (she wants to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee) if she banned hydroxychloroquine after President Trump had spoken highly of it as a treatment for Wuhan Virus. Four days later, as mountains of evidence proving the President’s claim became public, she was forced by public outrage to withdraw that stupid order.
The budding 3rd-world dictator has banned travel by motorboat on the state’s many lakes and other waterways, and late this week took the draconian step of banning any travel between residences in her state. That means that residents not only are banned from getting in the car or walking across the street to visit friends or family, they also cannot travel between two homes that they might own, or travel to rental homes that they might own and run as a business.
This woman with the plastic face is, in other words, stumbling, bumbling, falling down drunk with power. She isn’t just the drunk who hangs out at the local power bar, she’s the raging town drunk who closes down the power bar at 2:00 a.m. and spends the rest of the night walking through the streets slugging from a bottle of MD 20/20.
Gretchen Whitmer represents an object lesson for all Americans to heed. The people of Michigan are finding out how dangerous it is to elect someone with no real qualifications or life experience that might have prepared him or her to handle such a big job. Whitmer won the governor’s office based on being physically attractive, carefully polled talking points written by a team of talking points monkeys and having tons of out-of-state money to spend, much of which came from front groups funded by George Soros
Even worse than her inexperience and lack of preparedness for a crisis, Whitmer’s radical leftist ideology leaves her prone to crave the rush of exercising power over the common people who all leftists seek to dominate and control. In this regard, she is proving to be the very worst of all the governors in America.
The apparent consideration of her as a potential Biden running mate now renders this wretched human being as not just a threat to the freedoms of the Michiganders who so stupidly chose to elevate her to a position of power, it makes her a threat to all Americans. Because let’s face it: Joe Biden is too elderly and obviously impaired to handle the office of the presidency. Were he to be elected in November, his vice president would inevitably rise to the presidency within a few months of Inauguration Day.
So, regardless of where you live, pay attention to the actions of this power-mad woman. Because the actions she is implementing today from the governor’s mansion to control the lives of Michigan residents are what she would love to be doing to you some day from the White House.
With panicked consumers emptying store shelves around the country, and shoppers in at least one city fighting over toilet paper, the coronavirus pandemic seems just a short distance from coronavirus pandemonium.
The panic comes at a time when many police departments, to reduce spread of the virus, have curtailed arrests and are releasing certain criminals from prison. This is exactly the type of situation that the Second Amendment is meant to address. The White House has publicly recognized that reality. Yet many public officials insist on flaunting the Second Amendment, ordering gun shops closed or banning firearm sales.
Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, for example, has ordered “all non-life-sustaining businesses” to close their physical locations. The long list of businesses that may remain open in Pennsylvania includes groceries, drug and hardware stores, newspapers, rental centers, and take-out from restaurants. But gun businesses didn’t make the cut.
Yet the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Declaration of Rights declares that “the right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, without even mentioning that provision, refused to issue an injunction on behalf of some gun shops against the governor’s order. Three justices dissented, including Justice David Wecht, who wrote:
The inability of licensed firearm dealers to conduct any physical operations amounts to a complete prohibition upon the retail sale of firearms — an activity in which the citizens of this Commonwealth recently have been engaging on a large scale, and one guaranteed by both the United States Constitution and the Constitution of this Commonwealth.
The dissenting justices suggested that the constitutional right could be accommodated by allowing the completion of sales with minimal contact.
New gun buyers are often surprised by how difficult it is to purchase a gun in their state. In Maryland, for example, it takes a month to get a handgun-qualification license. It could take six months in New York, where a judge has to sign off on each handgun license. California has a ten-day waiting period for delivery of a firearm after the sale is approved.
Buying a gun requires a background check, which in most states is conducted by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). NICS conducted 2.8 million checks in February, the third-largest monthly total since the system was set up in 1998. Most NICS searches are automated and tell the dealer almost instantaneously to “proceed” or “deny” a sale, although some transactions must be delayed for examiners to research incomplete records.
Some states insist on conducting the background checks directly. That’s the case in New Jersey, where Governor Phil Murphy has ordered “non-essential” businesses, a category in which he includes gun shops, to close. The state police then shut down NICS checks as well, effectively banning all firearm sales. A legal challenge has been filed. By contrast, Governor J. B. Pritzker of Illinois declared that firearm retailers are “essential” and may remain open for business.
Gun sales already had been skyrocketing from the ever-escalating threats of gun bans coming from Democrat presidential contenders. The fear of societal breakdown stemming from the coronavirus has added to the demand for firearms across the country.
Everyone wants to slow the spread of COVID-19. The various emergency decrees being issued distinguish between essential and non-essential businesses. What could be more essential than protecting yourself and your family from criminal violence, especially when the Bill of Rights declares it to be an essential right that may not be infringed?
Americans should be mindful of the dangers of “emergency” decrees. History tells us that government diktats in response to man-made and natural disasters often lead to unprecedented restrictions on individual liberty that last long after the disasters are forgotten.
Some of the anti-gun decrees now being issued appear to be motivated by the false premise that limiting gun sales will prevent upheaval in the event that the contagion causes mass shortages and desperation. Yet citizens who purchase firearms must pass stringent background checks to ensure that they are mentally stable and have no felony records or other legal barriers to firearm ownership. They are exactly the kinds of armed citizens needed if law and order break down.
Strong measures must be taken against the spread of the coronavirus. But they must be tailored to accommodate the citizens’ ability to protect their safety in all aspects and to preserve their constitutional rights.
Give someone power if you want to see their character. Unfortunately, the usual characters have revealed themselves during the Wuhan virus epidemic. Government officials asked citizens to limit their contact with others in order to slow the spread of the virus. Some government officials went well beyond that. They closed roads, released jail inmates, refused to arrest or prosecute suspects, closed gun stores, and refused to process firearms applications. It is precisely during such an emergency that we need government officials to stay within their authority.. and not one inch beyond.
Lots of us wanted a firearm after we saw criminals released from jail and law enforcement refuse to respond to calls. We increased the rate of firearms sales up to four fold, and up to eight fold for sales of ammunition. The instant background check system run by the FBI was overwhelmed. State agencies added weeks of delays to complete a firearms transfer..if the state bothered to process the applications at all.
The sheriff of Los Angeles County, CA told stores to close. The mayor of LA said they would shut off water and power to stores that stayed open. The county council, the lawyer who advises LA county officials, told the sheriff not to close gun stores or he would face lawsuits. The sheriff rescinded and then reinstated his order to close stores. As predicted, he was sued by four human rights organizations within hours. Sheriffs in Pennsylvania and New York said they would not process concealed carry firearm applications. Officials in New Jersey and Illinois simply stopped processing the permits required to purchase a firearm.. and they were sued.
The order to close gun shops and the refusal to process state required firearms paperwork is a significant confession on the part of these law enforcement officials. They are saying that they are more important than you are, that they should have guns and you shouldn’t. Many of these government officials were quickly sued for violation of civil rights under color of law. Government officials don’t have the power to suspend the constitution and violate civil rights. They exceeded their authority.
Idaho took the Wuhan crisis to heart and expanded the segment of people who have a right to carry concealed without a permit. Called “permitless carry”, that right only applied to state residents. Soon in Idaho, permitless carry applies to all legal US residents who may legally possess a firearm. Sensible government officials also extended the expiration dates for concealed carry permits just as they had for existing drivers licenses that could not be renewed during the quarantine. If only all government officials were that smart.
The lesson is clear. If it is too dangerous for a government official too to sit at their desk and process paperwork, then it is a state of emergency. The state has admitted that it can not fulfill its obligations to honest citizens. Under those emergency conditions, permits should not be required for citizens with a clean criminal record to own, transfer, or carry a firearm. We’ve used that same relief valve during hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes when civil government ceases to exist. Your rights and your safety take precedence over the convenience of a bureaucrat.
That lesson sounds obvious, but some politicians are blinded by their bigotry against honest citizens protecting themselves. Now we know the officials who don’t trust us, and in whom we should not place our trust. We gave them power, and they revealed the shortcomings in their character.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He now serves as President of the Law Enforcement Education Foundation based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Original copies of the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights remain on display at the National Archives in our nation’s capital. Many Americans consider that the system of government established by those documents is as strong as the pieces of parchment themselves. Quite the contrary. The system of government bequeathed to us more than 230 years ago – one of defined and limited powers designed above all else to protect individual liberty — is far more fragile than most citizens realize.
At no time is the fragility of guaranteed individual liberty more at risk than in times of “emergency;” including, as we face today, one posed not by outside human forces, but by nature. Many in our country clamor for the federal government to control virtually every aspect of dealing with the COVID-19 virus, including use of the military and virtual suspension of civil liberties (as some cities and states are already doing).
If the system of limiting government power and maximizing individual liberty as delineated in the Constitution is to continue in any meaningful degree, we need to remember that our Founders and their generation faced challenges far beyond those we face today. They knew the country they were establishing would face serious threats, including military threats from beyond our shores. They knew as well that Americans would be challenged by Mother Nature, whether by natural forces or by disease.
Yet knowing all that, the system of government they created was one of deliberately limited and defined powers and premised on fundamental pre-existing individual liberties. Our Founders clearly understood that individual liberty protected by the limitations on government power incorporated in the Constitution, could not survive if temporal challenges were permitted to justify circumventing those very restrictions.
In the intervening decades, of course, many U.S. presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and others, have ignored the profound and correct understanding of human nature reflected in the Constitution. Predictably, civil liberties suffered with little if any real or lasting “safety” gained in return.
Nineteen years ago, the United States faced a serious and very real challenge. Some of the measures undertaken by the federal government in response to the 9-11 attacks violated existing laws, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Other measures, imposed in accord with the hurriedly enacted USA PATRIOT Act, were clearly at odds with the Bill of Rights. But all such steps were justified by government officials at the time because they would “make us safe.”
Less than four years after the World Trade Centers were attacked, one of America’s oldest cities – New Orleans – was beset with a disaster not of terrorists’ making, but of nature’s wrath. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, officials in that city worked to disarm law-abiding citizens trying to protect their homes, families and businesses from looters and other criminals. In one of the most counter-productive government decisions in modern history, officials deliberately swept aside the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to arm one’s self in self-defense simply because the city faced an “emergency.”
The precedents set by those constitutionally ill-advised actions present troubling questions today for officials in our nation’s capital and in cities across the country. As I wrote in this publication just one week ago, troubling steps already have been taken that severely limit the civil liberties supposed to be protected by our Constitution as against infringement by federal, state and local governments.
Now, it appears the federal government is readying additional measures that would undercut one of our Founders’ deepest fears – use of the military for domestic law enforcement purposes.
Steps likely under consideration include further expanding exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act (the law designed to prohibit use of the Armed Forces in domestic matters), and broadening the president’s power to deploy the military to quell an “insurrection” in circumstances having nothing to do with such a domestic uprising. Additionally, federal officials may impose other clever sleight-of-hand measures to undercut the “great writ” of habeas corpus to facilitate arresting and detaining individuals for the duration of the declared “emergency.”
Whether it is these contingencies, or others creatively contrived by lawyers in Washington, none would be in accord with the principles and mechanisms mandated in the Constitution. “National Emergency” Phase Two would be even more constitutionally troubling than Phase One.
Being proactive for sure, not that I’ve heard that the Kansas Gubbernor has this on the stove, much less even a back burner.
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- The NRA-ILA just announced that the previously worrisome Kansas bill HCR 5025, has been amended to include language that limits the emergency powers of the KS state government. Previously, the bill could have been interpreted to allow authorities to restrict the sale and transportation of firearms, as well as confiscate arms and ammunition during the coronavirus pandemic. Thankfully this was remedied and the changes subsequently approved on Thursday. More information below from the NRA-ILA.
“Late Thursday night, the Kansas Legislature passed House Committee Resolution 5025. This measure prevents Governor Laura Kelly from using emergency powers to seize ammunition or limit the sale of firearms during the current Covid 19 outbreak. HCR 5025 was overwhelmingly supported in both the House and the Senate. Thank you to those legislators who voted in favor of this important legislation.
The Legislature has now officially adjourned and is planning to reconvene on April 27th. Your NRA-ILA will continue to monitor this and keep you updated on any changes.
Stay-tuned to NRA-ILA Alerts for more information on issues affecting your Second Amendment rights.”
The change came in the form of the following clause being added to HCR 5025:
Be it further resolved: That, for the purposes of this ratification, the Governor shall not have the power or authority to temporarily or permanently seize, or authorize seizure of, any ammunition or to suspend or limit the sale, dispensing or transportation of firearms or ammunition pursuant to K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 48-925(c)(8) or any other executive authority.
This is great news for supporters of the Second Amendment, as any legislation that clearly defines the limits of a government’s power as it applies to firearms is a good thing. Especially with all the abuse of power occurring across America in the wake of the CORVID-19 outbreak.
Gunfucius say;
He who already have gun and ammo can laugh in face of imperious dictator
“Bay Area orders ‘shelter in place,’ only essential businesses open in 6 counties,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday. “Businesses that do not provide ‘essential’ services must send workers home. Among those remaining open are grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants for delivery only and hardware stores.”
What about gun stores? If we’re talking that which is essential, what is it the Founders deemed “necessary to the security of a free State”? How is that not relevant in this situation that has developed into what we are being told is a national and global state of emergency? We’ve already seen government has been utterly incapable of protecting the populace, and it appears things are only going to get worse and resources more strained. What do we do if civil order collapses, those resources are triaged and most areas are essentially left to fend for themselves?
I sent a copy of the City and County of San Francisco order to a prominent name in the “gun rights” movement with resources to file legal actions and was essentially dismissed when he replied, “since there are no gun stores left in San Francisco it is of no consequence.” I’m not going to name him here because we have enough to tackle without starting another internecine squabble and I suspect he’ll come around. Remember, we’re talking “6 counties” and the Chronicle report notes “the orders…are all similarly worded.”
There are plenty of gun shops in the Bay Area. And they are not specifically deemed “essential,” which means they interpretively fall under the closure order. The thing is, there’s not a lot out there right now to corroborate my opinion coming from either government or “news” sources, so I checked some of the websites and social media accounts for some of the stores listed at the above link.
“Reed’s will be closed through April 7th. If you have a gun to pick-up, you will receive a call with further information.”
Reed’s also included a link to the Santa Clara County order in their post. See “Section 10.f.” for those businesses declared “essential”:
See anything missing? (Screenshot by D. Codrea)
What this means is, the Bay Area’s anti-gun (in private hands) rulers could be having an eye-rolling feeding frenzy come true and be exploiting the crisis to make sure that citizens who don’t have guns and/or ammunition stay disarmed as it worsens and turns into who knows what?
I put in inquiries to a couple of other places Tuesday night but they have not responded at this writing. I just got off the phone moments ago with one where the clerk confirmed they were affected and who referred me to his manager, who was understandably reluctant to speak to anyone from the media. You can’t blame him, the unfair way these guys are consistently treated. Another store manager, who was not willing to go on the record due to the same reluctance to talk to media, informed me not all stores are closing including his, and that they interpret the order to exclude essential businesses, of which they consider themselves.
That’s the proper and principled attitude to take, but it may not prove to be one that holds up in enforcement actions, especially in the Bay Area, so I called Santa Clara County for clarification. Their rep wouldn’t give me a direct answer and I am now waiting for him to email me a hotline number accessible from out of the area. If this article is posted before I get the information, I will update it when and if I do, but note when he found out what I wanted he couldn’t seem to hang up fast enough (and I subsequently sent them a Facebook message).
But after customers lined up around gun stores in several counties Tuesday — including outside the Bullseye Bishop in San Jose — San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo declared that “gun stores are non-essential.”
While some will no doubt conclude Bay Area constituents are getting just what they voted for, good and hard, we have no real assurances that the same ordered closures will not happen at the national level — especially if we start seeing increased urban violence and Astroturf disarmament zealots, control freak politicians, and the media start screaming.
Case in point, check out what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security considers to be “National Critical Functions”:
“The functions of government and the private sector so vital to the United States that their disruption, corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”
Anybody see anything in there about the Constitutional Militia, or the right of the people to keep and bear arms? Will there ever be a time to activate “the Militia of the several States”? Before it’s too late and some of us just say the hell with it and activate ourselves out of raw survival instinct…?
Of course not—the intent is for the populace to turn to a provide-all government interested primarily in maintaining and increasing its power, even when they clearly don’t know what the hell they’re doing and opposing factions are exploiting the crisis for political advantage. That’s especially troubling considering our supposedly “pro-gun” administration is still of the official opinion, even after being publicly petitioned, that “The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms.”
The marketplace is essential to freedom. Constitutional scholar Edwin Viera Jr. has demonstrated, among other places, in his Motion for Leave to File Brief Amici Curiae to the Supreme Court of the United States in Kolbe v. Hogan:
“This reliance on a permanent private market for firearms guaranteed that most militiamen, through their own efforts, could always obtain firearms suitable for both collective and individual self-defense, and forestalled tyranny by precluding rogue public officials from monopolizing the production, distribution, and possession of firearms.”
The president doesn’t shy away from issuing executive actions on guns when they serve his purposes and he is depending on gun owners to be reelected in November. It would be more than appropriate if he ordered Homeland Security to recognize the need of the people to lawfully obtain guns during national emergencies to the point that a disruption in supply “would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”
Do it, Mr. President.
Unless it’s all been just words and the Second Amendment is now officially deemed “non-essential.”
Either it’s one of the more massive over-reactions in NooYawk history, or the gubbermint knows something we don’t.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is deploying the National Guard to enforce a mile-radius coronavirus “containment area” in a Westchester County community dubbed perhaps the “largest cluster” of cases in America.
“New Rochelle, at this point, is probably the largest cluster of these cases in the United States,” Cuomo said in a Tuesday afternoon press conference. “And it’s a significant issue for us.”
The midpoint of the circle will be the Young Israel of New Rochelle Synagogue, where a lawyer at the center of the area’s now-108-patient outbreak worships, officials said.
Cuomo announced he was dispatching the National Guard to enforce the closure of “large gathering areas” within the radius, including schools, houses of worship, and other large gathering facilities effective starting Thursday and running for two weeks. The two Metro-North stations serving the area will remain open, transit sources said.
Grocery stores will not be closed, and civilians will be free to come and go from the containment area.
“We’re also going to use the National Guard in the containment area to deliver food to homes, [and] to help with the cleaning of public spaces,” said Cuomo.
The state’s second coronavirus case was confirmed last week in New Rochelle, with the infection of a lawyer identified by sources as Lawrence Garbuz, 50.
His family and neighbors soon contracted the potentially deadly disease, and led to the requested isolation of some 1,000 people who came in contact with the lawyer.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the total number of cases in the state sat at 173, tops in the nation.
Cuomo announced 10 new cases in Westchester County, bringing that hotbed’s total to 108.
In the five boroughs, 17 new cases were revealed Tuesday, nearly doubling the city total to 36.
Long Island’s Nassau County and upstate Rockland County saw two more cases each, bringing their totals to 19 and six, respectively.
