Category: Government

DeSantis removes Broward County school board members after grand jury report

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis removed and replaced four members of the Broward County school board on Friday after a grand jury that was convened to examine the failures that led up to the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida recommended the action. DeSantis said in a statement that it’s his “duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance”; pointing to evidence laid out in the grand jury report released last week that found the ousted board members had displayed all of those disqualifications when it came to a program called SMART.

In the 122-page report released Friday, the panel recommended that DeSantis suspend board members Patricia Good, Donna Korn, Ann Murray and Laurie Rich Levinson. A former member, Rosalind Osgood, also was targeted, but she has since been elected to the Florida Senate and taken office.

Levinson, the board’s chairwoman, angrily slammed the report as a “political hatchet job” orchestrated by the governor.

“It is nasty partisan politics. He should be ashamed of himself,” she said.

… Former Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie resigned last year after he was indicted for allegedly lying to the grand jury. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. The district is the nation’s sixth-largest, with more than 270,000 students at 333 campuses, and an annual budget of $4 billion.

The school board has nine members, including two, Debra Hixon and Lori Alhadeff, who were elected after Hixon’s husband Chris and Alhadeff’s daughter Alyssa died in the Stoneman Douglas shooting. They ran on platforms promoting better campus security. Alhadeff, in particular, has frequently been at odds with the targeted members, particularly over Runcie’s performance before his resignation.

Stand with Parkland, the group that represents most of the victims’ families, issued a statement that applauded the report, saying it “proves what we already suspected – acts of incompetence, negligence and coverup and a School Board (that) is unwilling to face the facts.” President Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina died in the attack, called on DeSantis to remove the four members from the board.

The grand jury said that Runcie’s and the accused board members’ “uninformed or even misinformed decisions, incompetent management and lack of meaningful oversight” has led to massive cost overruns and delays in a school safety and education program approved by county voters in 2014. The report says the $1 billion program that was supposed to be completed in 2021 is now projected to cost $1.5 billion when it is finished in 2025 — estimates the jury called “wishcasting.”

“This doubling of time and almost 50 percent increase in cost did not happen overnight,” the grand jury wrote. “It was a slow-boiling frog that resulted from years of mismanagement from multiple (district) officials whose mistakes were compounded by the Board, which has….refused to hold (district) leadership to account.”

I suspect this will be a broadly popular move around the state, though perhaps less so in Broward County itself. As for the new school board members, two of them have previous experience serving on school boards, and all four appear to have solid credentials in the community. And with the governor merely following the recommendations of the duly empaneled grand jury, the complaints from ousted school board members like Levinson that this is nothing more than “nasty partisan politics” isn’t likely to resonate with most voters.

According to the grand jury’s 122-page report, district officials and the ousted board members displayed “an almost fanatical desire to control data and use it to manipulate public perception,” and were seemingly more interested in the building the district’s “brand” while treating students more like statistics. If the voters of Broward County disagree with that conclusion I suppose they can always re-elect the now-former board members at the next opportunity, but for now there’s a new board, and one that’s hopefully more accountable to parents, students, and staff… not mention one that a grand jury doesn’t accuse of being more interested in student safety than public relations.

Concealed Carry Referendum Nixed In Kenosha County

Voters in Kenosha County this November won’t be asked whether holders of concealed carry permits should be allowed to bring guns into most county-owned buildings. Although the county board repealed a long-standing ban earlier this summer, Supervisor Jeff Gentz proposed that the voters be allowed to weigh in after the fact anyway. His proposal was defeated in committee Tuesday night. Then later at a meeting of the County Board, a move to suspend the rules to allow the full board to vote on the referendum idea failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority.

An overwhelming majority of citizens who spoke during public comments before the vote supported the referendum. Jodi Muerhoff noted that the committee members who voted against the referendum were some of the same supervisors who earlier this summer voted to put a ‘second amendment sanctuary’ question on the ballot. Another speaker accused those who supported the referendum of “whining.”

Oklahoma Pushes Back Against School Districts That Violated Ban on Critical Race Theory

After two Oklahoma school districts violated the state’s ban on teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT), the state took action to punish them.

In response to both Tulsa Public Schools and Mustang Public Schools violating HB 1775, which “protects our children across the state from being taught revisionist history and that ‘one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,’ or that ‘an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously,” the Oklahoma State Board of Education voted to give the schools an “accreditation with warning,” which is the third of a five-step process.

The warning will require the two districts to show that they have made the changes needed to meet the board’s standards.

The board decided to go a step higher than what HB 1775 recommends, which is disciplinary action for violators of “accreditation with deficiencies,” which is the second step.

According to Townhall, the incident was first revealed when the board found out that the school districts held a training course for teachers including lessons on how “to shame white people for past offenses in history.”

In addition, Tulsa Public Schools was recently found to have made two books with explicit content available to students in middle school.

As I recall, ‘to secure..rights, Government are instituted…”. Seems that protecting free speech would be part of ‘Job 1’.

Limited government action may be needed to protect free speech, law professor argues.

A renowned George Washington University law professor recently called for limited government support for free speech, particularly on college campuses.

“The greatest danger is that the government will seek not to protect free speech but favor particular speech,” Professor Jonathan Turley wrote in a July 16 email to The College Fix. “My proposals are structured to confine government intervention to content neutral measures that protect the diversity of viewpoints.”

Turley defended limited government action to protect free speech in an article published July 9 by the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy titled “Harm and Hegemony: The Decline of Free Speech in the United States.”

“​​If we are to preserve this defining right, we may have to embrace the incongruous notion of coercing free speech,” Turley wrote in the article.

The piece included a section on college campuses, in which Turley argued that “any effort to reinforce free speech values in the United States must focus on universities, which play a vital role as enclaves for political and intellectual discourse.”

“The most chilling examples of intolerance have come from campuses of higher education,” he wrote. Furthermore, “the ultimate responsibility for the erosion of free speech values in our country … rests with academics, journalists, and others who actively support actions taken against those with opposing views or stand silent.”

Turley proposed in the article several solutions to free speech limitations on campuses, including making federal funding to state universities conditional upon compliance with principles of free speech.

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LAPD Stops Enforcing California’s ‘High-Capacity’ Magazine Ban

The Los Angeles Police Department has stopped enforcing California’s state law banning “high-capacity” magazines, according to an internal LAPD email obtained by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project.

The email was sent Wednesday morning to all LAPD personnel by Commander Ernest Eskridge, assistant commanding officer of the department’s Detective Bureau.

Eskridge noted that on June 23, the “United States Supreme Court vacated the ruling in Duncan v. Bonta and remanded the case back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal for further consideration in light of its recent decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.”

Because of this ruling, Eskridge said in the email, all sworn LAPD personnel shall not “investigate, detain or arrest” anyone for possessing a magazine capable of holding more than ten rounds unless they are already legally barred from possession of ammunition in the state.

There were three issues in Duncan v. Bonta: whether a law prohibiting law-abiding citizens from possessing magazines in common use violates the Second Amendment, whether confiscating legally obtained magazines violated the “takings clause,” and whether the “two-step” approach of the 9th Circuit and other courts applied to Second Amendment cases is constitutional and meets Supreme Court precedents.

In Bruen, the Supreme Court held that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home and that New York’s “special need” requirement for a concealed-carry permit violates those protections.

Ron DeSantis’s ‘Anti-Racist’ Mandate Leads University to Scrub Websites

The University of Central Florida (UCF) is complying with Gov. Ron DeSantis’s law prohibiting schools from accusing people of racism.

In the spring, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the “Stop WOKE Act,” which took effect on July 1 and laid out the restrictions of how race is taught in schools. It includes barring instruction that claims an individual’s “moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”

In its reporting of the development, the Associated Press (AP) noted that some critics are outraged that the content has been removed:

In an email, UCF spokesperson Chad Binette said the school recently removed departmental statements that could be seen as “potentially inconsistent with our commitment to creating a welcoming environment — one where faculty objectively engage students in robust, scholarly discussions that expand their knowledge and empower them to freely express their views and form their own perspectives.”

“UCF is committed to building a culture that values respect, civil discourse, and creating a sense of belonging,” said Binette, the school’s assistant vice president of communications.

“This is a complete infringement of academic freedom,” Ann Gleig, a religious studies professor at UCF, said. “The statement was crafted over a period of time with dialogue and input across a person plus faculty trained in philosophy, religion and cultural studies and the humanities.”

“The DeSantis regime has made the anti-racist mission of my alma mater against the law,” Democrat State Representative Carlos G. Smith, a UCF graduate, tweeted. “This is a consequence of HB 7 and the Governor’s out-of-control censorship agenda. This is not freedom.”

The AP reported that according to the Orlando Sentinel, the anthropology department’s website previously said, “We acknowledge that many of us are born with unearned privilege, while others are denied basic human rights.”

Well, even though it’ll go nowhere, it is a nice gesture.

Sen. Daines Introduces Bill To Give Gun Owners Freedom To Carry Across State Lines

Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines introduced legislation Monday that would allow for those who live in a concealed carry or Constitutional carry state to carry their concealed firearms in other states.

The legislation, first obtained by the Daily Caller, is titled the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. The bill would ensure a Montana resident can legally conceal carry a gun into a state where the state’s own residents can conceal carry. This bill also allows for individuals with a state-issued concealed carry license to conceal a gun in any other state, as long as the permit holder follows the laws of that state.

READ THE BILL HERE: 

 

It’s amazing what the prospect for a winter with little to no heat will do

European Commission Declares Nuclear and Gas to be Green.

From Deutsche Welle

The European Commission has labeled nuclear and gas as sustainable. Critics are calling the step “greenwashing” and say it could threaten the bloc’s bid to become climate-neutral by 2050.

One good way to know someone is trustworthy is that they tell you how trustworthy (credible) they are.

In a proposal presented this Wednesday, the EU Commission stated that certain strings remained attached. For example, gas plants could only be considered green if the facility switched to low-carbon or renewable gases, such as biomass or hydrogen produced with renewable energy, by 2035.

Nuclear power plants would be deemed green if the sites can manage to safely dispose of radioactive waste. So far, worldwide, no permanent disposal site, has gone into operation though.

At a news conference in Brussels, Mairead McGuinness, the EU commissioner responsible for financial services, said her institution was not guilty of “greenwashing,” as gas and nuclear were labeled as “transitional” energy sources in the taxonomy. “Our credibility is still strong,” McGuinness added.

Not everyone was happy.

Environmental organizations most certainly see this critically, saying the proposal could jeopardize the EU’s aim to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The Climate Action Network Europe wrote that the EU Commission “sacrifices the scientific integrity of the taxonomy on the altar of fossil gas and nuclear lobbies” and failed to “reorient financial flows towards genuinely climate-positive investments.”

It’s a comprehensive article and well worth a read.

What happens next?

The European Commission’s taxonomy proposal will now be reviewed by the 27 EU member states and by the European Parliament.

As the EU’s executive opted for a delegated act, a type of fast-track legislative procedure, only a total of 20 EU countries, or a majority of EU lawmakers at the European Parliament, would be able to reject it.

While EU states are not likely to turn down the taxonomy, a win in the European Parliament is not yet certain. Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have expressed anger over the inclusion of fossil gas and nuclear power in the EU taxonomy.

Green lawmaker Rasmus Andresen said he was “disappointed” by the proposal, adding that the Green parliamentary fraction would fight hard to gather a majority against the taxonomy.

German Social Democrat Joachim Schuster told DW he thought it possible that the European Parliament could vote against the act.

And even if lawmakers were to support it, there is another threat looming: Austria and Luxembourg have already threatened to sue  the European Commission over the taxonomy rules.

Governor DeSantis Rights Another Pandemic Wrong for Florida Residents.

On July 5, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the No Patient Left Alone Act to right some of the most egregious wrongs of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, hospitals nationwide denied patients visitation, even at the end of their lives. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities did the same. Closing healthcare facilities to visitation from family is no longer legal in Florida.

During the announcement, DeSantis explained, “It [the law] increases patient protections and ensures Florida families have a fundamental right to visit their loved ones receiving care in Florida hospitals, hospices, and long-term care facilities.” It also prevents the facilities from requiring that family members receive a COVID-19 vaccination to access visitation and bans any policy that prevents them from having physical contact, such as hugging their loved ones. “This ensures families can be there and patients can have their support system around them when it matters most,” DeSantis added.

One woman in Florida made national news during the pandemic and met DeSantis to share her story. Mary Daniel’s husband suffered from Alzheimer’s and was in long-term care in Florida when the pandemic began. She visited her husband every day after work and spent the evening with him. On March 11, 2020, she kissed him goodnight. On March 12, the staff called her and said she could not come back. In Daniel’s own words:

I knew that the isolation was going to hurt him. With dementia patients, Alzhiemer’s patients specifically, the human contact, the hand holding, the back rubbing, me being with him was the most important part. I couldn’t talk to him on the phone. I couldn’t talk to him on FaceTime. His verbal skills are very limited. He talks but I can’t understand what he says.

So there was no conversation that we could have. He would kiss the iPad because he didn’t understand where I was and how that worked. We tried two window visits and he cried the entire time. He just truly didn’t understand why are you not in here and why are you not with me? He had no knowledge and no cognitive idea of the virus. He didn’t know what it was and didn’t understand it and so didn’t know what was going on.

She spent 114 days advocating for herself and other families and figuring out how to get back to the daily routine her husband was used to. Daniel received national media attention when she took a part-time job as a dishwasher in her husband’s facility just to check on him. She also started to connect with other families in similar situations and has a Facebook group that was 14,000 strong when she interviewed with American Thought Leaders in April of 2021.

Recommended: Institutional Confidence Among Americans Plummets to All-Time Low

During the process she met with DeSantis and his wife Casey, who listened intently to her story. She participated in task forces trying to work out how to reconnect patients and families in the state. “Governor DeSantis has absolutely without question led the way in how to do this right and get us back to our loved ones. After our conversation, we walked out to a press conference, and he announced the establishment of a Long Term Care Task Force for Reopening Facilities in Florida.”

Initially, DeSantis issued executive orders to get families back in with their loved ones. Those activities resulted in the law he signed on Tuesday. Residents of other states, especially those with hard lockdowns, did not have a similar advocate in the governor’s mansion. Patty Heffernan, a resident of Michigan, lost her brother to cardiac disease during the pandemic.

Her 96-year-old mother, who is entirely cognizant and only requires assisted living, grieved the loss of her child alone. No family was allowed to visit and comfort her. The only people allowed to touch her mom was the staff. “It stays with you forever, ” Heffernan said. “We got no closure, could not gather in our grief, and only five people could attend his funeral. That just accommodated his immediate family.”

Needless to say, Governor Gretchen Whitmer did not help Heffernan or other families in a similar situation. She was too busy putting COVID-positive patients into facilities like Heffernan’s mother is in and ensuring no one could buy seeds at Walmart.

Recommended: Joe Biden Doesn’t Have a Clue What Americans Care About

The right to receive visitors should be in every patient’s bill of rights. Every patient deserves an advocate. And every family member needs to be able to make observations about the care their loved one is receiving and ask questions of their providers. As Daniel explained:

When I saw Steve after 114 days, there were light bulbs out in his room. His remote control was gone from his TV. When I took his shoes off to put him in bed, his toenails had not been cut in 114 days. This is a man who was meticulous about his appearance. We didn’t dry his golf shirts. We hung them.

He has every shirt he’s ever owned in that closet in there because he took care of his things and his appearance with such great care. I pulled his shoes off, and I couldn’t believe it. Now is that neglect? No, he doesn’t know, he doesn’t realize it. I know, and I see it. What do you think that looks like after 300 days?

The cruelty of making people die alone in any setting is unspeakable. We know this happened to patients who died of COVID. It also happened to countless Americans hospitalized for other illnesses and in long-term care facilities. The fact that healthcare administrators and caregivers around the country enforced policies that isolated these patients is sickening, and anyone who ever attended a death knows it.
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And thanks to the work of Mary Daniel and the decisive action of Governor DeSantis, it will never happen in Florida again.

Sununu Signs Controversial Firearms Bill Into Law

In the press release Gov. Chris Sununu sent out Friday about 36 bills he signed, he added a statement explaining why he signed HB 1178 prohibiting the state from enforcing any federal statute, regulation, or Presidential Executive Order that restricts or regulates the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

 “New Hampshire has a proud tradition of responsible firearms stewardship, and I’ve long said that I’m not looking to make any changes to our laws,” Sununu said. “This bill will ensure that New Hampshire’s law enforcement efforts will be on our own State firearms laws – and that’s where I believe their focus should be.”

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When you’ve lost NBC……………

I love this part:

Beyond policy, Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct [yeah, sure baby] statement — only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he’s not fully in command.

Well, when you have apparently have senile dementia, making stupid off the cuff remarks that constantly get corrected by your staff the lackeys of your puppet masters, and also sound like a broken record repeating utter crap-for-brains nonsense, it sure does appear that he isn’t in command of anything. 
Just me, but the question arises about SloJoe­™ feeling his staff ‘undermines him’. If he feels that way, why weren’t those people fired the second time it happened? (figuring you’d warn them after the first time to stop it) One obvious answer is that he can’t, because he’s been told who is really running the show, and it ain’t him. He’s nothing more than a figurehead who gets ordered about like an actor.

BLUF
“We’re on a track — a losing track,” Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, said of the Democrats.

Inside a Biden White House adrift
Amid a rolling series of calamities and sinking approval ratings, the president’s feeling lately is that he just can’t catch a break — and that angst is rippling through his party.

WASHINGTON — Faced with a worsening political predicament, President Joe Biden is pressing aides for a more compelling message and a sharper strategy while bristling at how they’ve tried to stifle the plain-speaking persona that has long been one of his most potent assets.

Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters’ confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say. 

Crises have piled up in ways that have at times made the Biden White House look flat-footed: record inflation, high gas prices, a rise in Covid case numbers — and now a Texas school massacre that is one more horrific reminder that he has been unable to get Congress to pass legislation to curb gun violence. Democratic leaders are at a loss about how he can revive his prospects by November, when midterm elections may cost his party control of Congress. 

“I don’t know what’s required here,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., whose endorsement in the 2020 Democratic primaries helped rescue Biden’s struggling candidacy. “But I do know the poll numbers have been stuck where they are for far too long.”

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Sen. Rick Brattin Amends Bill to Exempt Firearms and Ammunition from Sales Tax

JEFFERSON CITY —This week, State Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, successfully added language to House Bill 1606 exempting all purchases of firearms and ammunition from state and local sales tax in Missouri.

“Across our nation, there is a movement by anti-gun forces to tax guns out of existence,” said Sen. Brattin.  “We have to fight back against this and one way we can do that is stopping the unconstitutional taxing of our guns and ammunition. The Second Amendment is a basic constitutional right and there’s no reason any government should be taxing that right or putting up deliberate barriers to keep Missourians from exercising their right to keep and bear arms.”

Senator Brattin was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2020 after previously serving four terms in the Missouri House of Representatives and two years as Cass County Auditor. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Education Committee and also serves on General Laws; Local Government and Elections; the Joint Committee on Government Accountability; and Seniors, Families, Veterans and Military Affairs. Senator Brattin lives in Harrisonville with his wife, Athena, and five children. They are members of Abundant Life Church in Lee’s Summit.

Gov. DeSantis predicts Florida will pass constitutional carry
The governor is sure the bill will pass, but he did not say when.

At a press conference Friday morning in Williston, Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis predicted the legislature will pass constitutional carry, but he didn’t say when.

“Well, the one thing I wanted the Legislature to do, and I think we will do it — I can’t tell you exactly when — but I’m pretty confident I will be able to sign a constitutional carry into law in the State of Florida,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis said it is just a matter of time, and he took a swipe at Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who oversees Florida’s Concealed Weapon and Firearm Licensing program and is running to replace him as governor.

“We used to be a leader on the Second Amendment — there’s like 25 states that have already done it, and I think if you look now, you have a situation where the official in charge of these permits doesn’t support Second Amendment rights. So why would you want to subcontract your constitutional rights to a public official who rejects the very existence of those rights?” he said. “So, the Legislature will get it done. I can’t tell you if it’ll be next week, six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that bill.”

There are several options DeSantis could use to prompt the legislature to consider a constitutional carry bill.

During the special session next month, which will address home insurance issues, he could issue a “communication from the governor” — a formal message to House and Senate leadership, telling them to consider constitutional carry during the special session.

After the special session ends, DeSantis could issue another proclamation calling the legislature back for another special session for the “sole and exclusive purpose” of considering constitutional carry.

House Brings Back World War II-Era Weapons Program To Support Ukraine, Biden Expected To Sign

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Thursday to reinstate a World War II weapons sharing program to support Ukraine against the continuing Russian invasion.

Republican South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson introduced the Ukrainian Democracy Defense Lend Lease Act in February. It is modeled after the Lend Lease Program, which was first created by Congress in 1941 to arm Great Britain. It passed the House 417-10, with 221 Democrats and 196 Republicans voting in favor. Ten Republicans voted against the legislation.

A companion bill unanimously passed the Senate in an April 6 voice vote. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation, Politico reported, although Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby declined “to get ahead of the president’s decision with respect to” the bill during his Wednesday press conference.

“It’s absolutely the amazing, the unintended consequences of Vladimir Putin, that he’s brought Democrats and Republicans together,” Wilson said on the House floor. “He has united the people of the U.S., and with the leadership of [House Foreign Affairs Committee] chairman Greg Meeks and the ranking member Mike McCaul, Americans are united in their support of the people of Ukraine. For 63 days, the courageous people of Ukraine have resisted full-scale invasion by war criminal Putin with his murderous occupying forces, in large part due to the courageous leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

“Ukraine’s request is simple: provide the weapons needed to protect the Ukrainian homeland and Ukrainian families.”

The initial Lend Lease Program allowed the U.S. government to provide weapons to first Great Britain and then the Soviet Union during World War II. With both countries bankrupt, the U.S. provided them with weapons that they could either return or pay for at a later date.

The U.S. has already provided Ukraine with $13.6 billion in military aid. Biden announced earlier Thursday his request for an addition $33 billion in military and humanitarian aid, as well as funds for the Ukrainian government to keep essential services in place.

Kansas Senate Overrides Governor’s Veto On Transgender Sports Ban Bill

The Kansas Senate on Monday voted to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto on The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, a bill that would ban biological male athletes from competing in women’s school sports across the state.

Also known as SB 160, the legislation “requires interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by public educational institutions” to ban male students from joining teams or sports “designated for females.”

It does not ban female athletes or girls from participating in men’s or boys’ sports.

The bill was introduced by Republicans in February 2021 and vetoed by Kelly on April 15.

However, the Senate voted 28–10 on Monday to override the governor’s veto, and it now heads to the House for lawmakers to vote to sustain or override the veto.

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TN: House Passes 18-20 Year Old Adults Eligible for Carry Permit

On April 21, 2022, the Tennessee House voted 64 to 28 to pass HB 1735. A similar bill in the Senate is known as SB 2291.  The bill is an incremental step toward restoring Second Amendment rights to young adults. The bill requires the department of safety to issue an enhanced handgun carry permit to people who are at least 18 years of age, and meet the other requirements which apply to people 21 and older. Previously, the minimum age was 21.  From legiscan.com, bill text:

(b) Except as provided in subsection (r), any resident of Tennessee who is a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident, as defined by § 55-50-102, may apply to the department of safety for an enhanced handgun carry permit. If the applicant is at least eighteen (18) years of age and is not prohibited from possessing a firearm in this state pursuant to § 39-17-1307(b), 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), or any other state or federal law, and the applicant otherwise meets all of the requirements of this section, the department shall issue a permit to the applicant.

In a compromise, the bill prohibits people aged 18 to 20, who have the enhanced permit, from transporting or storing firearms at all sorts of schools; then grants exceptions to those with military connections, as listed in the bill:

(e) Notwithstanding subsection (a), this section does not apply to a person who is under twenty-one (21) years of age and transports or stores a firearm or firearm ammunition in the person’s motor vehicle while on or utilizing a public or private parking area that is located on any public or private school campus, grounds, recreation area, athletic field or any other property owned, operated, or while in use by any board of education, school, college or university board of trustees, regents or directors for the administration of any public or private educational institution, unless the person:

(1) Is at least eighteen (18) years of age; and

(2) 

(A) Is an honorably discharged or retired veteran of the United States armed forces;

(B) Is an honorably discharged member of the army national guard, the army reserve, the navy reserve, the marine corps reserve, the air national guard, the air force reserve, or the coast guard reserve, who has successfully completed a basic training program; or

(C) Is a member of the United States armed forces on active duty status or is a current member of the army national guard, the army reserve, the navy reserve, the marine corps reserve, the air national guard, the air force reserve, or the coast guard reserve, who has successfully completed a basic training program.

SECTION 5. This act takes effect July 1, 2022,

The Tennessee legislature has only a few more days to pass the reform bill if they are going to. The legislative session ends on May 7, 2022.  The Senate has a large majority of Republicans, 27 to 6. If the bill passes the Judiciary Committee and is voted on in the Senate, it will likely be sent to Governor Bill Lee for his signature. It is not certain that Governor Lee would sign the bill, but it seems likely. He signed the Constitutional Carry bill a year ago in 2021.

WKRN characterized HB 1735 as giving “18-year-olds the right to carry a gun.” From whnt.com:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – If you’re 18, it is unlawful to smoke or drink before turning 21, but Tennessee House lawmakers want to give 18-year-olds the right to carry a gun.

Opponents say the bill would increase gun crimes and self-harm, but supporters say it’s a constitutional right all adults should have. HB 1735 lowers the age from 21 to 18 to lawfully carry a handgun openly or concealed.

As shown in the actual bill, the legislation does not “give” anyone anything. It simply allows 18 to 20-year-olds the opportunity to apply for an enhanced carry permit.

Across the nation, permit holders have shown themselves to be more law-abiding than police officers.

DeSantis’ Office Releases Examples Of Rejected CRT-Inspired Math Textbooks

Florida’s Department of Education released examples of critical race theory in mathematics textbooks, including one book that claimed conservatives are more racially prejudiced than liberals, according to a press release.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office announced Monday that the state’s education department rejected 41% of the math textbooks for reportedly including “indoctrinating concepts” and Common Core standards, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Florida’s education department released examples of CRT material Thursday after they received multiple requests from the public to view the alleged controversial books, according to a press release. VVVVVVVV

https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/instructional-materials

^^^^^^^^^^^

“These examples do not represent an exhaustive list of input received by the Department,” the presser reads.

One textbook showed students a bar graph that measures racial prejudice by political identification. The graph shows that conservatives are reportedly more racist than liberals, citing data from the debunked Race Implicit Association Test.

A separate page highlighted the concept of “social-emotional learning,” which is steeped in the tenets of critical race theory.

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Kentucky lawmakers override governor’s veto of bill banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports

The Republican-controlled legislature in Kentucky voted Wednesday to override Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of legislation that would prohibit transgender athletes from competing in sex-segregated sporting events from sixth grade through college.

The expected move came after Beshear refused to sign Senate Bill 83 last week and claimed it was most likely unconstitutional. He said the legislation “discriminates against transgender people” and therefore would not hold up in court.

The measure is now law in the state after the Republicans overrode the veto of the legislation, which originally passed through the state House with a 70 to 23 vote and the state Senate with a 26 to 9 vote.

Under the new law, a student’s gender will be determined by the “biological sex” indicated on the student’s certified birth certificate “as originally issued at the time of birth or adoption.” This means individuals who transitioned to female later in life could not participate on sports teams designated female in the state.

Republican Sen. Robby Mills, the bill’s lead sponsor, has said the measure would ensure girls and women compete against other “biological females.”

Mills has said the bill reflects concerns from parents across the Bluegrass State. He said it “thinks ahead” to prevent situations where girls or women are unfairly competing against biological males.

“It would be crushing for a young lady to train her whole career to have it end up competing against a biological male in the state tournament or state finals,” Mills said during a previous debate on the bill.

In vetoing the measure, Beshear said its backers had failed to present a “single instance” in Kentucky of someone gaining a competitive advantage as a result of a “sex reassignment.”

“Transgender children deserve public officials’ efforts to demonstrate that they are valued members of our communities through compassion, kindness and empathy, even if not understanding,” the governor wrote.

The measure also faced criticism from others in the state.

“This bill is a solution in search of a non-existent problem,” said Samuel Crankshaw, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. “It is rooted in hate and unconstitutional.”

And then there were 25

Gov. Kemp signs bill allowing concealed carry of handguns without a license

Standing outside Gable Sporting Goods in Douglasville, where Gov. Brian Kemp said he bought his daughter Lucy’s first handgun, the governor signed a bill that allows Georgians to carry concealed handguns without first getting a license from the state.

Making good on a 2018 campaign promise, Kemp signed Senate Bill 319, referred to by backers as “constitutional carry.”

SB 319 allows a “lawful weapons carrier” to carry a concealed handgun everywhere license holders currently are allowed — meaning guns would still be prohibited in places such as the secured areas of airports or government buildings that have security at the entrance, including the state Capitol.

A lawful weapons carrier is defined as anyone who is now lawfully allowed to have a gun. The bill went into effect upon his signature.

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Alabama lawmakers pass bill meant to block Biden orders

Alabama is a very pro-gun state. They just passed constitutional carry earlier this year, for example, and it seems lawmakers there aren’t interested in resting on their laurels. They’re still trying to make pro-Second Amendment moves.

In fact, they just passed another law that’s bound to rustle the proverbial jimmies of the gun control crowd.

Alabama lawmakers have passed a bill intended to block state and local officials from enforcing executive orders by the president that restrict ownership or use of firearms.

The bill by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, is called the Alabama Second Amendment Protection Act.

Allen and other Republican lawmakers have proposed similar bills since President Biden took office last year.

Democrats opposed the bill, questioning the purpose and practicality of the bill and citing the Supremacy Clause, which holds that federal law generally supersedes state law.

Rep. David Standridge, R-Hayden, the House sponsor of the bill, said people in Alabama are concerned about the possibility of presidential orders on firearms.

Standridge has said he believes states can decide whether state and local police enforce presidential orders. That state authority does not apply to federal officers, he has said.

And Standridge makes a valid point. After all, the law doesn’t dictate what laws are in effect within the state of Alabama’s borders, only what state and local law enforcement do with regard to those laws.

This will probably spark a legal challenge much like how Missouri’s SAPA did, but there are differences between the two measures.

Frankly, though, I’m not interested in hearing criticism of this measure from anyone who supports sanctuary measures at the state level for illegal immigrants. After all, this is fundamentally no different than those laws, really. The only difference is what is being tolerated.

Of course, for far too many anti-gun jihadists, guns are different. The rules are different and they should be free to enact whatever legislation they want, at least in their minds.

The thing is, that’s not how it works. Any tactic you try is fair game for someone else to give a go. Sure, what works in one policy arena may not work in another, but you can’t pretend to be offended when someone gives it a go.

So, Alabama did.

Now we’ll just have to wait for what the courts say. I suspect we’ll see similar arguments to what we’ll see in Missouri, but in the end, it doesn’t matter.

Even a decision that comes down against the Second Amendment will ultimately hurt the Democrats who are pushing this stuff. Instead of just winning for gun control, they’ll manage to epitomize the statement, “Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.”

However, truth be told, I don’t see that happening. Laws aren’t being nullified and insisting police enforce federal executive orders amounts to an unfunded mandate, which is problematic as well.

In the end, I suspect the law will fly and I suspect we’ll see a number of other states pass similar measures in short order.