Category: Goobermint

Insurance isn’t “the way forward” on guns

When San Jose passed an insurance requirement for gun owners, many people figured that was a new frontier they could exploit in their war against the Second Amendment.

The fact that the requirement basically just said you should have homeowner’s insurance didn’t really do much.

But it was sold as if it were the answer.

Now, an insurance-focused publication reports that a poll shows many believe it’s the answer on guns.

According to a recent ValuePenguin survey, 75% of Americans believe that gun owners should be required to have liability insurance on their firearms.

This finding suggests that insurance companies could be a possible solution to gun control. Gen Zers, those earning more than $100,000, and parents with children younger than 18 were among the most likely to support insurance requirements.

Additionally, 82% of Americans think that gun owners should be held accountable for how their guns are used. This sentiment was especially prevalent among parents with children under 18, as well as millennials.

Divya Sangameshwar, an insurance expert with ValuePenguin, believes that insurance may be the smartest way to push for gun control. “Insurers have always led the way when it comes to safety,” Sangameshwar says.

Except actual accidents with guns are relatively rare, especially compared to things like auto accidents, fires, or pretty much everything else covered by insurance.

Where guns take lives are either through suicide or intentional homicide.

Guess what’s not going to get covered by any insurance? Exactly.

Insurance does not ever cover an intentional act. I can’t run someone on purpose with my car and expect Geico to foot the bill. That’s going to be on me, as it should be.

Similarly, with guns, liability insurance isn’t going to cover any intentional act. It won’t cover a homicide and it won’t pay out with a suicide.

Further, it’s unlikely that anyone polled understands that. I’d expect a publication named Insurance Business to at least understand the practicalities of trying to implement some kind of requirement like that and at least mention that.

Then again, a lot of people think gun accidents are a lot more common than they are. Still others likely think gun owners should be on the hook for firearms that are stolen from them for some idiotic reason. They apparently think the insurance would cover the misuse of a stolen firearm, but it won’t.

Look, I get that people want to find solutions to the violence we see on the news every single day.

What I don’t get is why people can’t get beyond trying to punish law-abiding citizens for the actions of those who are anything but.

An insurance requirement is just another step, another hurdle designed to keep guns out of the hands of anything but those financially better off while doing little to nothing to actually reduce crime. It’s insane that we’re even having this discussion in the first place.

Then again, we live in Clown World where anyone can just up and decide to come up with restrictions that have no basis on reality.

This crap-for-brains is nothing more than petty politics. They’re against it simply because it’s something they see as opposite to their politics

‘Level of ignorance is embarrassing’: Dems push to ban silencers they claim are designed for discreet murder

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) reintroduced the Help Empower Americans to Respond (HEAR) Act, which would ban the importation, sale, manufacturing, transfer, and possession of gun silencers or suppressors.

Menendez, a founding member of the Senate Gun Violence Prevention Caucus, took to Twitter to tout this gun control effort and in the process proved that he knows very little about that which he seeks to regulate.

“Gun silencers are designed to suppress the sound of gunfire from unknowing victims and reduce the chances they can run, hide, and call the police,” the Democrat said in a statement. “I’m reintroducing the HEAR Act to prevent these deadly devices from making shootings even more dangerous.”

U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) reintroduced the legislation in the House and she was no better informed.

“Silencers are not tools of self-defense, they are tools of murder. They have no legal application, which is why law enforcement officials around the country have called for their elimination,” Coleman said. “The HEAR Act will save lives and is part of the common sense approach to firearms legislation that has widespread support among voters on both sides of the aisle.”

Dana Loesch, a former NRA spokesperson, took to Twitter to call attention to their “level of ignorance.”

“Tell me that you have NO IDEA what silencers do without telling me you have no idea what silencers dSo. Holy wow, this level of ignorance is embarrassing,” she tweeted, before explaining,  “They’re literally required for hunting [in] Britain to protect hearing. It merely reduces decibel levels to that of concert PA system. Moron.”

Continue reading “”

What’s in the Washington State Gun Ban

Things went from bad to worse for Washington state gun owners on April 25, when anti-Second Amendment Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a punitive ban on many common semi-automatic firearms.

As he did so Gov. Inslee chided each and every owner of the more-than-24-million semi-automatic rifles currently owned and used for hunting, sport shooting, competition and self-defense in the United States, by saying, “No one needs an AR-15 to protect your family. You only need it to kill other families.”

Inslee later said, “We know we need to continue this effort on a national basis.”

H.B. 1240 is now the country’s most-comprehensive ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and firearm parts, according to the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA). “HB 1240 is the worst of such schemes in the country, exceeding what California imposes on its citizens,” reported NRA-ILA.

The new law bans the future manufacture, transfer and import of many semi-automatic firearms—including 62 enumerated firearm models and the “AR-15 in all forms”—on a list that includes shotguns, handguns and rifles. All semi-automatic rifles with an overall length of less than 30 inches are banned, as are any firearms with one or more of the features that exist on many modern designs. Semi-automatic pistols with threaded barrels, which are commonly used for self-defense, are included in the ban, as are semi-automatic shotguns with thumbhole stocks.

Additionally, the new law bans spare parts and what it calls “combination[s] of parts” that can be used to assemble banned firearms, but that are simply pieces of metal and plastic on their own. Because the bill included an emergency clause, the ban took effect immediately.

Proving that lawmakers recognize such firearms as being effective for defensive purposes, the law exempts, “The manufacture, importation, distribution, offer for sale or sale of an assault weapon by a licensed firearms manufacturer for the purposes of sale to any branch of the armed forces of the United States or the state of Washington, or to any law enforcement agency for use by that agency or its employees for law enforcement purposes.”

Of course, the NRA has already filed suit challenging the Washington ban.

“A state may not ‘prohibit an entire class of arms that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for a lawful purpose.’ Yet that is precisely what Washington State has just done,” the lawsuit says. “HB 1240 takes the radical step of banning nearly every modern semiautomatic rifle—the single most popular type of rifle in the country, possessed by Americans in the tens of millions. Indeed, Americans buy more of the most popular type of semiautomatic rifle (the AR-15) each year than the most popular type of automobile (the Ford F-150), and there are more AR-15-style rifles in private hands in America today than subscribers to all daily newspapers nationwide combined.” The lawsuit asks the court to declare HB 1240 unconstitutional and enjoin the state from enforcing it in the future.The other two measures signed into law by Gov. Inslee on April 25 were S.B. 5078 and H.B. 1143. S.B. 5078 undermines the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), and will subject licensed firearm manufacturers and sellers to frivolous lawsuits brought to recover damages for the criminal misuse of their products.

H.B. 1143 implements a 10-day waiting period, so purchasers will have to wait to take possession of their firearms. The law also denies law-abiding Washington citizens their Second Amendment right to acquire firearms unless they present proof of completion of official, sanctioned firearms training, paid for at their own expense, within the past five years.

Kentucky Supreme Court overturns rulings that allowed the removal of a Confederate statue

The Kentucky Supreme Court has overturned lower court rulings that allowed leaders in Kentucky’s largest city to remove a Confederate statue from a prominent location three years ago.

The 6-1 ruling issued Thursday said Louisville violated due process in getting approval to remove the John Breckenridge Castleman monument from Cherokee Triangle, news outlets reported.

The statue was vandalized several times over a few years before it was removed from its pedestal in June 2020 following a decision from Louisville’s landmarks commission.

A group called Friends of Louisville Public Art filed a lawsuit challenging the landmarks commission ruling. They argued the statue was a local landmark and said some commission members should not have been allowed to vote because they have a conflict of interest.

While the group acknowledged Castleman’s Confederate ties, they argued that he later renounced his allegiance to the Confederacy. Castleman later served as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. He was partially responsible for establishing Louisville’s park system and fought to keep the city’s parks and playgrounds open to Black residents.

Kentucky’s Court of Appeals upheld a Jefferson Circuit Court judge’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit. The appeals court ruled that there were “no facts to support the conflict of interests claim.”

The Supreme Court disagreed. Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said it was a “patent” conflict for city employees to vote on the application to remove the monument.

“… Their employment and their being asked to sit in review of an application filed by their employer were sufficient to raise a reasonable question of impartiality such that recusal was required as a matter of law,” he wrote for the majority.

Plaintiff Steve Wiser said he was pleased with the court’s ruling.

Kevin Trager, a spokesman for the city, said officials were reviewing the opinion before deciding how to proceed.

Analysis: Will Tennessee GOP Governor’s Red Flag Proposal Change the Debate?

The Volunteer State is the place to watch for the country’s most interesting gun law debate right now.

As gun policy moves forward along preestablished partisan lines in red and blue states, Tennessee is the one place where a policy outside those lines has some chance of passing. Republican Governor Bill Lee, motivated by last month’s Nashville school shooting, is pushing the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a modified “red flag” law, which he has relabeled an “order of protection” law. But, unlike many previous proposals, Lee appears to be working to address common critiques levied against the temporary gun confiscation orders.

“Throughout the last couple of weeks, I have worked with members of the General Assembly – constitutionally minded, second amendment protecting members – to craft legislation for an improved Order of Protection Law that will strengthen the safety and preserve the rights of Tennesseans,” Lee said last week. “We all agree that dangerous, unstable individuals who intend to harm themselves or others should not have access to weapons. And that should be done in a way that requires due process and a high burden of proof, supports law enforcement and punishes false reporting, enhances mental health support, and preserves the Second Amendment for law-abiding citizens.”

Since gaining prominence as a possible solution for mass shootings in the wake of the 2018 Parkland shooting, “red flag” laws have been dogged by complaints that they don’t offer sufficient protections for the rights of those accused of being a threat to themselves or others.

In most states that have adopted them, the civil orders can be filed by a wide array of groups, including some where nearly anyone can file for one. They don’t provide a public defender for those accused. They can be granted in ex parte hearings where the accessed isn’t even notified of the proceedings. And it can take weeks after their guns are seized before subjects of the orders can challenge them.

Lee identified these shortcomings as the main problem with policies in other states that he said “don’t deliver the right results.”

“They don’t actually preserve the constitutional rights of Tennesseans in the best way possible, and they don’t actually get to the heart of the problem of preventing tragedies,” he said. “This is hard. I’ve said that all along.”

He’s announced plans for a special session to pass the expanded protection orders. That was requested by GOP House Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison, who said it was unlikely a bill could be put together with enough support to pass before the end of the regular session. While Lee hasn’t backed any specific bill yet, he has announced the sort of changes he wants.

Continue reading “”

Court Finds Geofence Warrants to be Unconstitutional

As far as potential privacy violations at the hands of law enforcement go, the so-called geofencing stands out.

It’s a dragnet-style type of mass surveillance that determines a geographical area (typically as a criminal investigation is in progress — but the authorities really could use it for anything) — and then all those who happened to be in those confines, at a given time, with their mobile device broadcasting their location and other personal data, are basically fair game for searches.

Concerning and extremely sketchy — particularly without proper legal safeguards or even proper warrants — to say the least. And to say the most, straight up unconstitutional, on account of the Fourth Amendment (protecting from unlawful searches).

The latter definition of the practice is what the California Court of Appeals has gone for when it recently ruled in the People v. Meza case, during the appeals stage of the proceedings.

While it might sound logical to observers, the court’s decision is still very significant — digital rights group EFF says — because it set a precedent, being the first time a US appellate court looked into a geofence warrant.

“Dragnet” means that instead of saying who the suspect is and going after them, their online accounts, etc., law enforcement agencies have reportedly been taking it upon themselves to go the easiest route – not to put too fine a point on it, but just “digitally round up everyone” – and then decide if any of these people were involved in a crime.

According to EFF – thanks to this vast, to say the least, database of everyone’s location – it is mostly Google who is asked to go through that data to identify users in a “geofence” delimited by law enforcement.

The Court of Appeal had problems with all this. But all is not as good as it might seem.

In the case at hand, the court found that the warrant that was operated under did not succeed in placing “any meaningful restriction on the discretion of law enforcement officers to determine which accounts would be subject to further scrutiny or deanonymization.”

The court was also not happy, to say the least, that people could be identified “within six large search areas without any particularized probable cause as to each person or their location.”

Biden Administration Paves Way for Confucius Institute Affiliate Schools to Receive Federal Funding

The Defense Department in late March announced that it would grant waivers to allow schools to host chapters of the Confucius Institute, a Chinese Communist Party-backed program that Beijing uses to peddle influence and steal intellectual property from American universities. The department’s waiver program is a response to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which barred American colleges and universities from receiving federal dollars if they maintain Confucius Institute chapters.

Lawmakers say the Defense Department is subverting federal law.

“The Chinese Communist Party is subverting U.S. institutions and Joe Biden is sabotaging legislation to stop them,” Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Select Committee on China, told the Washington Free Beacon. Banks added that the Biden administration has essentially “greenlit China’s espionage and malign influence operations on college campuses.”

The workaround comes amid warnings from the intelligence community that American colleges are a “soft target” for Chinese spies. China has opened at least 100 Confucius Institutes in the United States since 2008, with China pouring more than $158 million into them. The FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned that these outposts are “ultimately beholden to the Chinese government” and pose an espionage risk.

Continue reading “”

Biden Bemoans Banning Of Pornographic Children’s Books

Joe Biden bemoaned the banning of several books depicting child pornography in a video announcing his candidacy for president in 2024.

Biden announced his run in a tweet posted Tuesday morning at 6:00 am eastern time. If he wins a second term, Biden will be 86 by the end of it.

“But, you know, around the country MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms,” Biden said in the ad. “Cutting social security, that you’ve paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy. Dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books.”

Included in the stack of books Biden claims are banned are To Kill A Mockingbird, Kite Runner, Invisible Man, Paradise, The First to Die At the End, Lawn Boy, The Bluest Eye, They Both Die at The End and Homegoing.

Continue reading “”

SloJoe doesn’t think children belong to their parents, but to the state. Expect this clip to go nation wide next year during campaign season.
And those sunglasses again. Speed (amphetamines) cause the eyes to dilate and make open sunlight painful. Every time you see him wearing the shades, it’s because they’ve had to drug him up just to get him moving.

You gotta wonder why this was classified information. Ya know, the jihadis already know what they’re doing there and aren’t trying to hide it, so……

Afghanistan has become a terrorism staging ground again, leak reveals

Less than two years after President Biden withdrew U.S. personnel from Afghanistan, the country has become a significant coordination site for the Islamic State as the terrorist group plans attacks across Europe and Asia, and conducts “aspirational plotting” against the United States, according to a classified Pentagon assessment that portrays the threat as a growing security concern.

The attack planning, detailed in U.S. intelligence findings leaked on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post, reveal specific efforts to target embassies, churches, business centers and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, which drew more than 2 million spectators last summer in Qatar. Pentagon officials were aware in December of nine such plots coordinated by ISIS leaders in Afghanistan, and the number rose to 15 by February, says the assessment, which has not been disclosed previously.

“ISIS has been developing a cost-effective model for external operations that relies on resources from outside Afghanistan, operatives in target countries, and extensive facilitation networks,” says the assessment, which is labeled top-secret and bears the logos of several Defense Department organizations. “The model will likely enable ISIS to overcome obstacles — such as competent security services — and reduce some plot timelines, minimizing disruption opportunities.”

Continue reading “”

Comment(s) O’ The Day
If it contained something bad for Republicans, it would have been leaked by now. Is that cynical of me? Yeah, and also correct.

If they don’t want you to know about it, it’s because they don’t want you to think and feel the things you’d think and feel if you did know about it.

Nashville Police Deny Daily Wire’s Request For Trans Shooter’s Manifesto.

Nashville police have denied The Daily Wire‘s request for a copy of a manifesto or diary from the transgender killer who shot up a Christian school March 27, leaving six dead, including three 9-year-olds.

It has been 25 days since the shocking shooting spree, in which the killer — a woman who identified as a man and who this publication is not naming to avoid giving notoriety to shooters — carried out the massacre at the Covenant School before being gunned down by police. City Council members said shortly after the incident that there was a “manifesto” and that it would be released. But since then, state and local police have gotten “assistance” from the FBI in psychologically profiling the killer, which has been used as a reason to block release of the materials.

Continue reading “”

Tennessee [Congesss]Adjourned Sine Die but Special Gun Control Session Coming

Yesterday, the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned Sine Die, and all anti-gun bills have died in committee. Despite intense pressure from Governor Lee, no “red flag” or gun confiscation bills were introduced. We want to extend our thanks to the leadership of the House and Senate for their unwavering defense of the Second Amendment and for protecting the rights of Tennesseans.

The Tennessee General Assembly did pass Senate Bill 494/House Bill 395, which was sent to the Governor’s desk for his signature. This legislation recognizes a person’s Second Amendment right, if not otherwise prohibited by law, to carry a handgun while hunting for self-defense. NRA thanks Senator John Stevens for sponsoring this piece of legislation and for his steadfast commitment to defending the Second Amendment rights of Tennesseans throughout session.

However, the fight is still ongoing. Governor Lee has stated he will call a special session to address public safety which we know from previous statements will likely include “red flag” and gun control legislation. The NRA will be there to defend the Second Amendment rights of Tennesseans. We must remain vigilant and fight against any attempts to infringe upon our constitutional rights.

Fauci’s legacy

Judicial Watch Obtains Docs Showing U.S. Funded Wuhan Lab Research From 2013-2020.

Nothing like rewarding scientists from a hostile foreign nation for creating catastrophe! According to documentation obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the U.S. government (NIH) didn’t just fund bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab leading up to the leak of COVID-19. The government gave another grant for work with the Wuhan lab in July 2020, long after COVID-19 likely leaked from the lab where it was probably created.

There is a lot of significant and interesting information in the Judicial Watch press release about the documentation. This includes EcoHealth Alliance’s initial “Application for Federal Assistance” submitted on June 5, 2013, which said it aimed to create mutant bat viruses and see how coronaviruses infect humans.

To understand the risk of zoonotic CoV [coronavirus] emergence, we propose to examine 1) the transmission dynamics of bat-CoVs across the human-wildlife interface; and 2) how this process is affected by CoV evolutionary potential, and how it might force CoV evolution. We will assess the nature and frequency of contact among animals and people in two critical human-animal interfaces: live animal markets in China and people who are highly exposed to bats in rural China.

The mention of live animal markets is very interesting since global elites tried to claim (and still do) that COVID-19 actually originated in a live animal market in Wuhan. Perhaps it did, but naturally or through this U.S.-funded Chinese lab program? Judicial Watch says:

EcoHealth Alliance’s $3.3 million grant to fund a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Coronavirus Emergence” was initially to run from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2018. The first “Project/Performance Site Location” is the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Three other Chinese sites follow: East China Normal University in Shanghai, Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control and Prevention in Dali, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong in Guangzhou.

A 2013 EcoHealth grant application lists a scientist from the Chinese CDC, which is a Chinese government agency. In China, all labs are answerable to the CDC; but, in this case, the link between NIH funding and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government seems disturbingly direct.

The various parts of the projects examined by Judicial Watch include DNA sequencing, “testing predictions of CoV inter-species transmission,” testing viruses of “varying pathogenicity” on “humanized mice,” and “the infectious clone of WIV1 was successfully constructed using reverse genetic methods.” Some scientists previously argued that COVID-19 was created in a lab and then reverse engineered to make the virus seem naturally evolved from bats.

A document dated July 13, 2020, detailed NIH funding (or rather funding from NIH’s NIAID, then headed by Anthony Fauci) and other information for a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” It was for Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth. NIH increased funding to EcoHealth Alliance, including providing “funds for activity with Wuhan Institute of Virology in the amount of $76,301.” How can NIH possibly excuse this July 2020 grant? The U.S. government should not be funding research in China at all, since all labs are answerable to the anti-U.S. CCP government, but funding research at the Wuhan laboratory after the allegations that COVID-19 was created there and leaked from there is completely unacceptable.

This week, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) released the “bombshell” COVID-19 origins report. It provided evidence to support the lab leak theory of COVID’s origins, with the help of U.S. government funding. Marshall estimated two leaks from the Wuhan lab, with the first one happening by September or October 2019, and possibly as early as July 2019 (a whole year before the Wuhan lab got another NIH grant). The documents obtained by Judicial Watch strengthen the evidence Marshall has.

So the U.S. government funded the research that likely created COVID-19 in a Chinese lab, and continued to fund research at that lab after COVID-19 had been wreaking havoc on the world. If only we could trust our government, and conspiracy theories didn’t keep turning out to be true.

The Biden 10-Step Plan for Global Chaos.

Why is French President Emmanuel Macron cozying up to China while trashing his oldest ally, the United States?

Why is there suddenly talk of discarding the dollar as the global currency?

Why are Japan and India shrugging that they cannot follow the United States’ lead in boycotting Russian oil?

Why is the president of Brazil traveling to China to pursue what he calls a “beautiful relationship”?

What happened to Turkey? Why is it threatening fellow NATO member Greece? Is it still a NATO ally, a mere neutral, or a de facto enemy?

Why are there suddenly nonstop Chinese threats toward Taiwan?

Why did Saudi Arabia conclude a new pact with Iran, its former archenemy?

Why is Egypt sending rockets to Russia to be used in Ukraine?

Since when did the Russians talk nonstop about the potential use of a tactical nuclear weapon?

Why is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador bragging that millions of Mexicans have entered the United States, most of them illegally? And why is he interfering in U.S. elections by urging his expatriates to vote for Democrats?

Why and how, in just two years, have a confused and often incoherent Joe Biden and his team created such global chaos?

Let us answer by listing 10 ways by which America lost all deterrence.

Continue reading “”

Gun groups sue Michigan Legislature over firearm bills, alleging open meetings violations

A pair of Michigan-based pro-firearm organizations, Great Lakes Gun Rights and Michigan Open Carry, Inc., have sued the state Legislature over its passage of gun safety bills recently signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing lawmakers violated the Open Meetings Act by not properly allowing public comment on the legislation.

Last week, Whitmer signed legislation expanding background checks on firearm purchases and creating criminal penalties for gun owners who fail to keep firearms out of the hands of minors, commonly referred to as “safe storage” laws. A third proposal to temporarily confiscate guns from those deemed a risk to themselves or others by a court is also making its way through the Legislature.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in the Michigan Court of Claims aims to get a temporary restraining order against the gun safety bills and laws.

Plaintiffs allege both the House and Senate judiciary committees violated Michigan’s open meeting laws by not allowing opposition testimony during some of the hearings before the bills were voted on.

Committees in each chamber held hearings on the bills in March and April. In each, members heard mostly from supporters of the legislation. Groups, including speakers from Great Lakes Gun Rights and Michigan Open Carry, submitted cards in opposition but were unable to speak during an April 12 hearing on the so-called “red flag” bills. Lawmakers cited time constraints.

“Defendants have, and continue, to blatantly favor testimony from parties in support of Defendants’ own viewpoints while openly suppressing and outright denying testimony from Plaintiffs and others critical of Defendants’ viewpoint,” wrote Thomas Lambert, an attorney representing the gun groups in the lawsuit. “This is in direct contravention of the Open Meetings Act’s unambiguous mandate that ‘a person must be permitted to address a meeting of a public body,’ which unquestionably includes Defendants.”

The groups are seeking an ex parte motion, meaning they seek an order from the court before defendants can provide a brief of their own.

The lawsuit argues the hearings were unbalanced in terms of the number of speakers, although under both current Democratic and previous Republican leadership, committee hearings on politically contentious proposals have generally featured more speakers in favor of the position of the majority party.

The Open Meetings Act is Michigan’s law requiring public bodies to make their meetings and actions accessible to members of the public. Under the OMA, boards are required to make time for members of the public who attend meetings to speak, although they do have flexibility when it comes to making time limitations for speakers.

“The Michigan House complies with the Open Meetings Act. The groups that filed the lawsuit did participate in the committee process,” said Amber McCann, a spokesperson for House Democrats, over email. In a statement, Sen. Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, also said committees complied with the law.

Hobbs vetoes guns bills, saying they won’t prevent violence

Parents won’t be able to bring their loaded weapons onto school campuses, at least not while Katie Hobbs is governor.

Nor will students get training on gun safety.

In a single veto letter Monday, the governor vetoed both measures saying they do nothing to prevent gun violence. And she said if safety of school children is really a concern of lawmakers there are better ways to do that — ways the Republican-controlled Legislature has refused to consider.

Hobbs also vetoed two other measures.

One would have directed judges, when confronted with two conflicting interpretations of a state election law, to err on the side of which promotes more transparency.

“This bill adds unnecessary language into statute and does not solve any of the real challenges facing election administration,” the governor wrote of HB 2319. “I look forward to working with the Legislature on bills to do that.”

And even Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, who crafted the bill, acknowledged much of this wouldn’t be necessary if lawmakers crafted clearer statutes.

Hobbs also rejected HB 2297, which would have said that prosecutors pursuing cases of fraudulent schemes and artifices are not required to establish that all the unlawful acts occurred within the state.

“This bill will lead to confusion where none currently exists,” Hobbs said in her veto message.

“Existing state law adequately outlines the jurisdictional issues addressed in this bill.”

But the governor saved most of her comments for the two gun-related measures.

SB 1131, proposed by Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, sought to create an exception to existing laws that preclude loaded guns on school property. It would have allowed parents who have a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon to keep it with them if they also have a child at that school.

Shamp said that, if nothing else, it would keep parents rushing to the school from being charged with a felony simply because they forgot to first unload the weapon.

Anyway, she told colleagues, it is far safer to keep the gun loaded than risk accidents when unloading and reloading it.

HB 2332 was pushed by Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Scottsdale. It would have required public and charter schools to provide “age-appropriate” training in firearms safety to students in grades 6 through 12.

None of that would involve the actual instruction on how to operate weapons. Instead, it was promoted as teaching “simple, easy-to-remember steps so individuals who receive the training know what to do if they ever come across a firearm.”

Hobbs found neither plan acceptable.

“Mandatory firearm safety training in schools is not the solution to gun violence prevention,” the governor wrote. She said the requirement could have “immediate and long-term impacts” on the health and well-being of students, teachers and parents, though Hobbs did not spell out what those were.

Nor did she like Shamp’s proposal.

“Allowing more guns on campus will not make a campus safer,” she said. Then there’s the fact that police officers, arriving at a school with an active-shooter situation, won’t necessarily know who are the criminals who are armed and who are the parents.

“I’m focused on finding concrete solutions to gun violence prevention that protect Arizona families, including but not limited to, policy focused on trauma-informed emergency planning and safe, secure gun storage,” the governor wrote.

And Hobbs said lawmakers did have a chance to consider such a measure.

She pointed to HB 2192, which would have made it illegal to keep a firearm or ammunition in any home unless they were in a “securely locked box” or the gun was equipped with a device that makes it inoperable without a key or combination. The only exception would be if the owner was carrying the gun or it was within “close proximity.”

It is dubbed “Christian’s Law,” named after Christian Petillo, who, while at a friend’s house in Queen Creek for a sleepover, was fatally shot. The death was ruled an accident.

House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Peoria, never even assigned the measure by Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, for a committee for a hearing.

In fact, GOP leadership used a procedural motion to block a bid by Longdon, who is paralyzed from the waist down since a random drive-by shooting in 2004, to bring what is known as “Christian’s Law” to the full House and put all lawmakers on record. House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, defended the maneuver.

“At the end of the day, it’s the person behind the gun,” he said in engineering the move to block a vote. “And we should never forget that it (the Second Amendment) says ‘shall not be infringed.’ ”

Monday’s actions bring Hobbs’ total vetoes this session to 52. The record of 58 was set by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2005.

WA Gun Sales Spike Following Gun Ban Bill Passage

Gun sales in Washington State have spiked in the aftermath of last weekend’s passage of legislation to ban the future sale, manufacture and importation of so-called “assault weapons,” according to a report from KOMO News.

The story quoted longtime Bellevue gun dealer Wade Gaughran, owner of Wade’s Eastside Guns, who said sales have jumped 400 percent this month. The House adopted the gun ban legislation, House Bill 1240,  in March. He said the legislation violates the Second Amendment, and he predicted it will likely be overturned by the courts.

According to KOIN News in Portland, Oregon, the bill bans more than 50 specific firearms. It is noiw back in the House for concurrence on two amendment adopted by the Senate.If approved, the bill then goes to Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee, who will likely sign it within days.

Gaughran has estimated the gun ban will affect about 30 percent of his business. He does not believe it will accomplish what the proponents say it will, which is a reduction in violent crime in the Evergreen State. Historical crime data supports his position.

Gun control has been hampering Washington gun owners since the passage of Initiative 594 in 2014. That measure was bankrolled by the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a Seattle-based gun prohibition lobbying group.

Crime data from the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and Seattle Police Department have shown the steady increase in homicides since 2015, the first full year I-594—mandating so-called “universal background checks”—was in effect.

In 2015, Washington reported 209 homicides, including 141 involving firearms, according to the FBI/UCR. By 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, Washington suffered 325 murders, including 209 involving firearms.

In 2015, Seattle passed a special “gun violence tax” on the sale of firearms and ammunition. It was supposed to generate between $300,000 and $500,000 revenue annually and finance programs to reduce so-called “gun violence.” It has failed on all accounts.

In 2016, the first year the gun tax was in effect, Seattle police reported 19 homicides. Last year, Seattle racked up 52 murders. The revenue has never come close to projected levels.

Gaughran told KOMO he’s been selling modern semiautomatic rifles for some 35 years. In all that time, he said, “we’ve never had one traced back that was used in a serious crime and I’ve sold thousands and thousands of them.”

Tennessee gun lobby throws water on governor’s protective order plan

The Tennessee Firearms Association is trashing Gov. Bill Lee’s push for what it calls a “red flag law,” saying he wants to pass an unconstitutional measure as an emotional reaction to the Covenant School shooting.

“Governor Lee called for the Legislature to react to the emotional response of some citizens after the Covenant murders and more particularly after the expulsion of two Democrat House members who demanded gun control,” Executive Director John Harris said in a Wednesday statement. “Nothing in Bruen authorized knee-jerk emotional responses to murders or the calls of progressive Democrats and their mobs to justify government infringement of a right protected by the Constitution.”

The association contends Lee’s plan would violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Justices found that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to “keep” firearms in their homes and to “bear arms” in public, including the ability of “ordinary, law-abiding citizens” to carry firearms “for self-defense outside the home,” without infringement from state and federal governments.

Continue reading “”