Category: International

Canada Has Proven the Ineffectiveness of Oppressive National-Level Gun Control Laws.

A high profile mass shooting happened in a heavily gun controlled state so, predictably, the civilian disarmament industrial complex has once again jumped onto the argument that we need far more federal-level gun rights restrictions. One of the countries they love to use as an exemplar for gun control Nirvana they seek is Canada.

For the last decade under Justin Trudeau, Canada ratcheted up their gun control laws. This went against what he had promised back in 2010, when he said he would never confiscate guns but that lie really isn’t surprising. We see that with purple and red state Democrats on this side of the border who engage in a sort of gun control taqiyya. They promise not to ban guns like the AR-15 during their campaigns, then support bans after the election (see: Conor Lamb, Jason Kander, and many others).

Under Trudeau, Canada did all of the following, which would make America’s gun control industry swoon if it happned here:

  • Passed new legislation which extended background checks from five years to a lifetime
  • Implemented a point-of-sale registration by business
  • Required authorization to transport restricted and prohibited firearms to locations other than the range (e.g. gunsmiths, gun shows, etc.) through strengthened transportation requirements
  • Prohibited 1,500 models of “assault-style” weapons, the public was offered a grace period to turn them in
  • National freeze on the sale of new handguns
  • Banned another 400 guns by make and model just recently

So, with all of this new gun control, homicides must have surely fallen through the floor, right? After all, that’s the whole point of passing more gun control laws isn’t it?

Nope.

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After breaking the ceasefire, Iran has a way to go before reaching #5.

The Trump Doctrine (aka the Businessman’s Way of War).

As the dust and smoke settle over Iran’s devastated nuclear weapons program, President Donald Trump’s method of waging war is coming into focus. We had hints of what I call the “Trump Doctrine” in his first term as he annihilated ISIS in Syria, but the two-decade war in Afghanistan that he had inherited initially obscured what has now become a coherent doctrine.

In his second term, the freedom of navigation attacks against Yemen’s Houthis were once again a hint of Trump’s way of war, but Saturday’s attack on Iran—and the events leading up to it—tell us much about the deliberate and precise manner in which Trump seeks to conduct American wars.

Similar to (but different from) the famous “Powell Doctrine” promulgated by former Secretary of State Colin Powell (more on that later), the Trump Doctrine is the doctrine of a businessman serving his stockholders. Explained another way, the Trump Doctrine is the “Businessman’s Way of War.”

To preview succinctly, the Trump Doctrine consists of a series of business-like, iterative steps for all uses of American military force, and it performs as follows:

1. Identify America’s national interest.

2. Bargain with the prospective enemy.

3. If/when negotiations fail, conceal & misdirect.

4. Strike with precision and overwhelming force.

5. Achieve submission.

6. Bargain again (from a position of complete strength) with the defeated enemy.

I’ll now examine each of these escalating steps in detail. Continue reading “”

Well, we just plastered three Iranian nuclear sites, including the one – FORDOW – built under a mountain.

I’ve lived almost all my life in ‘interesting times’, and I’ve really prefer the opposite.

Donald J. Trump

We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

Mexico Parrots Democrat Lawfare Despite SCOTUS PLCAA Rejection

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that anti-Second Amendment groups run by the Democrat party have been working closely with Mexican officials to attack American gun rights and subvert the U.S. Constitution. This collusion with a foreign government recently set the stage for the Supreme Court’s rejection of our southern neighbor’s $10 billion lawsuit which aimed to cripple the American firearms industry by seeking an outrageous judgement against Smith & Wesson and other U.S. gun manufacturers. But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, ever willing to blame her own country’s abject failure and corruption on others, another strategy on loan from Democrat cohorts, has decided to push forward with an almost identical lawsuit, this time targeting gun dealers and distributors in Arizona.

Nobody knows more about abusing the U.S. judicial system than Democrats, and all the big names came out to bat for Mexico in its failed Supreme Court challenge of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a federal law enacted in 2005 providing firearms and ammunition manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers broad immunity from civil lawsuits arising from criminal or unlawful misuse of their products. In both cases, the Mexican government, aka the legal arm of the narco-terrorist drug cartels, claims its damages stem from the illegal trafficking of firearms by the same cartels they work with and take bribes from under their normal course of business.

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“Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”
– Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

IAF launches major strike on Iran and its nuclear program; PM: A decisive point in our history

Iran has been secretly advancing a plan for the “technological advancement of all parts of the development of a nuclear weapon,” the Israeli military says, after launching strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Reported to have been killed, so far:

Mohammad Bagherim, Chief of the Iranian military
Gholam Ali Rashid, Deputy Chief of the Iranian military
Hossein Salami, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Ali Shamkhani, reported to be Supreme Leader Khamenei’s right hand man
Mohammad Tehranchi, President, Azad University, theoretical physicist.
Fereydoon Abbasi, former head, Atomic Energy Organization & MP.

Strikes reported on:

The D2O (heavy water) manufacturing facility in Arak.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps HQ in Tehran
The Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan

Austrian School Shooting Shatters Gun Control Myths

School shootings aren’t the boogieman many make them out to be, as I noted just a couple of hours ago, but they’re far more common here than elsewhere.

However, they’re not “uniquely American” as some have said, and what happened in Graz, Austria yesterday kind of illustrates that point pretty well, as I noted on Tuesday morning.

I’m not the only one who noticed this, of course. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms noticed it too, and they sent out a press release talking about it.

Tuesday’s tragic school shooting in Graz, Austria not only refutes long standing arguments by the U.S. gun prohibition lobby that such crimes only happen in this country, but also destroys other contentions made by American anti-gunners, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

The attack, at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, claimed at least nine lives, and the alleged killer apparently took his own life, according to published reports. Details about the shooting, revealed by the BBC, place traditional gun control arguments in serious doubt, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

“What we have ascertained from various reports,” Gottlieb stated, “is that the alleged shooter used two legally-obtained firearms, and gun ownership in Austria requires registration. Purchases involve a three-day waiting period, and handguns may be purchased only by people over age 21 who hold firearms licenses.

“This tells us that the gun prohibition lobby is absolutely wrong when it argues that waiting periods and gun registration will prevent such tragedies,” the veteran gun rights advocate observed. “The 21-year-old suspect reportedly used a handgun and a shotgun, and he had a firearms license, so the notion that a licensing requirement will deter such attacks is also now thoroughly debunked.”

A report from the BBC also explained that in Austria, anyone wanting to own a firearm must first provide a reason for the purchase, which can be “sports shooting or self-defense.” Gottlieb noted that in the U.S., with its Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms, citizens do not need to provide a reason for exercising a constitutionally protected right, especially after the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen ruling.

“What we do know,” Gottlieb said, “is that restrictions on gun ownership in Austria did not prevent this attack, and that calling for such restrictions on gun ownership in America as a means of stopping tragedies here amounts to a promise gun grabbers have no intention of keeping, and know they cannot guarantee. What they do know, but will never acknowledge, is that their efforts are designed to discourage gun ownership, with the ultimate goal of eliminating it altogether.”

Now, I’ve had people try to point out that Austria has pretty liberal gun laws as European nations go, and that’s true. They have permit requirements, but they’re “shall issue” to anyone who qualifies, and they have concealed carry on a “shall issue” basis, which means Austria respected gun rights better than New York in some ways.

But they still have more extensive gun control laws than we have here, and much stricter than would likely be tolerated by the courts should anyone try to put them in place in the United States.

And they didn’t work.

It’s also not like we haven’t seen this in other places with even more restrictive gun control laws. We’ve seen far too many, unfortunately, and it’s a sign that there’s something wrong with society as a whole, not with the gun laws that may or may not be put in place.

Graz is a city I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. There’s an armory there with a lot of medieval armor there and since one of my passions is medieval armor, it’s something I desperately want to see. I actually feel better about going some day, knowing there is lawful concealed carry, even if I’m not allowed to be armed.

I feel much better, though, here in the United States, knowing I can deal with threats personally.

Mass shootings happen everywhere in the world. Anyone who calls them “uniquely American” is lying to you. They want you afraid, thinking that it’s only us.

Graz will fall out of the news cycle here very quickly, in part because they want you to forget it ever happened before the next tragedy strikes.

The truth, though, is that it’s not the guns.

This was a no-brainer. But why it even got past the District Court level before getting thrown out is the problem.

SMITH & WESSON BRANDS, INC., ET AL. v. ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS

Here, the Government of Mexico sued seven American gun manufacturers, alleging that the companies aided and abetted unlawful gun sales that routed firearms to Mexican drug cartels. The basic theory of its suit is that the defendants failed to exercise “reasonable care” to prevent trafficking of their guns into Mexico…..

Held: Because Mexico’s complaint does not plausibly allege that the defendant gun manufacturers aided and abetted gun dealers’ unlawful
sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers, PLCAA bars the lawsuit.

Goobermints still want to gatekeep the means to confront and deal with tyranny

Poland Sets Gun Ownership Record, Argentina Drops Minimum Age: Another reminder that the right to keep and bear arms is a universal right.

The number of residents in Poland applying for a permit to own a firearm set a record in 2024 at nearly 46,000. The previous highwater mark, set in 2023, was roughly 41,000. The total number of guns owned by civilians in the nation now stands at 930,100, a figure that is twice what it was in 2017.

Requirements to own a gun in Poland are stringent and include passing an exam, acquiring a certificate of health from a doctor and another from a psychologist. With a few exceptions, all applicants must be at least 21 years old, have a clean criminal record and not be addicted to drugs or alcohol. Issued permits fall into distinct categories that identify the gun’s intended use, including possession for self-defense, training, hunting, etc.

Between medical checks, courses that offer the exams and the sometimes-required sporting-club membership, it is expensive. The government’s fee for applying for a Polish gun-ownership permit is the bargain in the time-consuming process, 242 zltoys (about $65 U.S.), according to a summary from Hartmann Tresore—a highly renowned Polish manufacturer that began offering gun safes in 1983.

Poland relaxed its firearm ownership laws in 2011, although permit applications trickled in until 2022—the year Russia invaded Ukraine. Since that conflict began the nation also made gun safety and marksmanship education mandatory in its school systems.

Elsewhere

Patricia Bulrich, Argentina’s Minister of Security, used X (formerly Twitter) to post an update to that nation’s gun laws in December. She wrote, “From now on, those over 18 can be legitimate gun owners. This measure, promoted by the National Government, updates an outdated 1975 law and respects the 2015 Civil Code reform, which set the age of majority at 18. At 16, they have the right to vote. At 18, they can go to war, start a family, or join a security force. And, incredible as it may seem, at any age they can choose a sex change that will affect them for life. So, why can’t they be legitimate users or bearers of a gun at 18? For years, no one dared to make this decision. We didn’t hesitate. While we disarm narco-terrorist gangs and organized crime, we celebrate the fact that good citizens can access weapons as legitimate users. Empty speeches are a thing of the past. In this government, we are making the right of Argentines to protect themselves and live in freedom a reality.”

Prior to the announcement the minimum age for an Argentinian to own a gun was 21. The change, however, did not remove the nation’s other stringent requirements to secure a permit, which are similar to those in Poland.

South African Government Releases Terrifyingly Chilling Statement on Fleeing White Afrikaners

The case of around 50 white Afrikaner refugees from South Africa has turned the political discourse upside down. After years of never finding a migrant they didn’t approve of, Democrats and their press allies are suddenly greatly offended that President Donald Trump would dare grant asylum to a statistically insignificant number of people.

On CNN, former Obama campaign official and current analyst Ashley Allison went on a racist rant, proclaiming they should go back to “Germany” if they don’t like the “law of the land” of being persecuted financially and physically. Notably, Afrikaners, who migrated to South Africa some 400 years ago, aren’t from Germany, nor would Allison ever suggest that about any other racial group in any other country.

But while the left was busy taking the bait and going out on a limb by claiming that granting refugee status wasn’t justified, South Africa’s government came right out and said the quiet part out loud.

Here’s the key line.

What the instigators of this falsehood seek is not safety, but impunity from transformation. They flee not from persecution, but from justice, equality, and accountability for historic privilege.

Reading that sent a chill down my spine. These are people whose ancestors have been in South Africa for nearly half a millennium. They are as much South Africans as black Americans are Americans, which is to say, fully. To claim they are fleeing “transformation” while citing “justice” and “accountability for historic privilege” is terrifyingly Orwellian. Everyone knows exactly what that means, which is the continued ethnic cleansing that has been endorsed by South Africa’s ruling party.

At this point, the United States should not even consider reopening diplomatic ties with South Africa (the ambassador to the U.S. was expelled in March). The Trump administration should likewise pressure Europe into speaking out or face consequences. They have sat idly by, ignoring the forcible seizure of land and extra-judicial killings committed under the guise of punishing “historic privilege” simply because it’s been coming from an African government.

If this were Russia, they’d all be denouncing it, and everyone knows it. The color of someone’s skin should not dictate whether they are treated fairly as refugees, and assuming that just because someone is white, they couldn’t possibly be facing persecution is grotesque.

Make no mistake. This is what “equity” initiatives inevitably lead to, whether they are carried out in South Africa or Western nations. It’s never enough for everyone to ensure everyone has equal rights. Eventually, you end up with the seizure of money and property to pay for “reparations” and worse, punishing people for things their ancestors did hundreds of years in the past. The next time someone questions the dangers of DEI and why the right has fought so hard against it, just point to South Africa and what’s happening to the Afrikaners.

See If You Can Spot the Biggest Difference Between Biden’s and Trump’s China Deals.

As Matt writes nearby, on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a complete economic and trade reset with China that is aimed at bridging a lopsided $1.2 trillion trade deficit with the U.S.

Details of the new agreement are promised on Monday, but let’s take a look at the abundant differences we can see between Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s approaches with China.

While people love to tout Trump’s “art of the deal” transactional dealmaking with super powers, it was actually Joe Biden who leveraged his job as vice president and then as president to personally enrich his son’s “business” and, by extension, his own personal bottom line.

Biden encouraged his son’s ferociously greedy dealings with the Chinese energy firms and even fronted a deal for China to get raw earth minerals to help with the communist state’s electric car battery production and to help its notorious “Belt and Road Initiative.”

At one point, Hunter Biden and family were paid in diamonds in an apparent obvious attempt to avoid paying taxes.

As we now know, Hunter’s businesses always had to kick back “10% to ‘The Big Guy.'”

His investment firm was involved in a deal where a Chinese state-backed company gained control of a cobalt mine. This deal involved a $3.8 billion transaction and transferred 80% ownership of the Tenke Fungurum mine from an American company to China Molybdenum.

When Joe Biden was vice president he took his granddaughter and his family bagman, Hunter Biden, on Air Force Two to China.

While Joe Biden was discussing world relations with Ji Xingping, Hunter was off sealing deals for the Biden family. The senior Biden always claimed he had no personal knowledge of his son’s business dealings, but on that trip then-Vice President Biden met with Xi Jingping for hours and thereafter introduced him to his son.

Just ten days later, Hunter’s company was given the proper licenses enabling him to do business in China.

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Police Raid Shatters British Gun Control Myth. Again

“We need sensible gun control laws like the UK has.”

How many times have you heard something like this? Often, the country is different, but a lot of times it’s not. Far too many Americans forget we fought an entire war because of British attempts at gun control and think we should import it here.

In fairness to them–well, sort of–they actually think it would work.

The problem is, it doesn’t. Like, at all.

Police have arrested seven people after uncovering a stash of guns, knives and machetes during a raid at a petrol station.

Armed officers swooped on a row of businesses around the Gulf Petrol Station in Birmingham today amid a major operation.

Firearms officers, drones officers, dog handlers, and officers from the Organised Crime and Gangs team descended on the complex at around 2.30am, where they seized several dangerous weapons.

Two stun guns, shotgun cartridges and a large number of knives and machetes were all recovered and are now being examined by officers….

Photos taken from the scene show forensics officers handling a number of guns including what appears to be a shotgun and a revolver.

A black Vauxhall was also pictured at the site of the raid, with a large dent and several scratches along the front passenger door.

Yeah, not a lot of guns, but let’s also remember that they regulate stun guns and bladed weapons, which also don’t seem to be much of a problem for some people to get.

I don’t know the specifics of this raid, nor do I care.

For me, this is just another example of how criminals will get guns, even on an island with only one roadway leading into the country. If the UK can’t keep guns out of the country, how would we?

We have a porous southern border, which isn’t as porous as it was, but is still bad enough. Once it becomes profitable enough, some criminal enterprise would start importing guns into the United States, rather than out of here.

There’s very little in the way of legal gun sales in the UK, which clearly doesn’t stop bad people from getting guns, and people want this here? They claim, “I support the Second Amendment, but…” and then want to completely gut it by doing exactly what the British were trying to do at Lexington and Concord, all without a hint of irony at the fact that it doesn’t work in the UK.

It’s absolutely bonkers, and yet, here we are.

No, the UK’s gun control doesn’t work. It never worked. As I’ve noted before, our non-gun homicide rate is higher than their total homicide rate, which means looking at them as a guide on guns makes absolutely no sense due to significant differences in our culture.

So excuse me if I don’t bend over and accept that the empire we kicked out of our borders in the 18th century and that has since shrunk to a minuscule portion of where it was, a nation that now arrests people for mean words on the internet, is a country we can learn anything from other than how not to become a totalitarian hellhole in the making.

Part of that is not giving up our guns, because I promise you, if Europeans as a whole were armed like Americans, memes wouldn’t be the thing the powers that be over there fear.

Just something to keep in mine; Both nations have the bomb….

India launches strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan
The military action comes amid tense relations between the nuclear-armed states following an April 22 attack that killed 26 people

India said it attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in neighboring Pakistan on Wednesday in two of its occupied territories, killing at least one child and wounding two other people, Pakistani security officials said.

The Indian armed forces launched “Operation Sindoor,” which targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed, the Press Information Bureau of India said in a statement.

“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” India’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted.”

“India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” the statement said.

The missiles launched Wednesday struck locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province. A mosque in the city of Bahawalpur was struck, killing a child, and a woman and man were injured, one Pakistani security official said.

The attack occurred in a remote valley only accessible on foot or by horse, and survivors claimed after the attack that the gunmen had accused some of the victims of supporting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

President Donald Trump said he hoped the tension between the two nations subsides.

“It’s a shame. We just heard about it just as we were walking in the doors of the Oval (Office),” he said. “I just heard about it. I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time. You know, they’ve been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it.”

“I just hope it ends very quickly,” he said.

The military action comes amid tense relations between the nuclear-armed states following an April 22 attack that killed 26 people in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, a long-disputed territory that has been the source of tension between the two nations and is one of the most militarized regions in the world.

Kashmir has been a disputed region since both India and Pakistan gained their autonomy from Britain in 1947.

India has blamed Pakistan for backing the militant attack, which Islamabad has denied.

Pakistani army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, told ARY News that the missiles were launched Wednesday from within Indian territory and that no Indian aircraft had entered Pakistani airspace.

“This was a cowardly attack targeting innocent civilians under the cover of darkness,” Sharif told the broadcaster.

I think that Operation Nitro Zeus never really ended.

Quip O’ The Day: ‘Cardboard factory’, suuuure

What the Hell Is Going on in Iran This Time?

Iran is on fire — literally, again — and nobody knows why. A massive power plant and a “cardboard factory” caught fire bigly in Iran over the weekend. But there is impressive new video of Iran’s port explosion from last week.

Iran International reported that a “series of incidents unfolded in Alborz Province, west of Tehran, on Saturday evening, including two fires, reports of an explosion, and a magnitude 4.0 earthquake, according to official statements and eyewitness accounts.”

Israeli action? Typical authoritarian regime attention to maintenance issues? God just doesn’t like the mullahs’ regime? Who knows.

For reasons yet unknown, the Montazer Ghaem power plant in Karaj, just west of Tehran, caught fire on Saturday. Here’s that video:


Those cooling towers make Montazer Ghaem look like it might be a nuclear power plant, but it burns natural gas and other fossil fuels.

Tehran posted undated video of the plant not on fire and claimed that there was nothing to see here, move along.

In the same province, also on Saturday, a “cardboard manufacturing factory” was seen burning brightly.

The Germans never really abandoned the authoritarian state.

Spain experienced a nationwide power outage one week after reaching 100% “green” energy.

Across all of Portugal and Spain, people were left without power or cell service of any kind. The nations literally went dark.

Tens of millions of people had to resort to old handheld radios to figure out what was even happening. It could have been an alien invasion for all they knew!

From El Pais:

The outage suddenly set Spain back to the 19th century. Traffic lights out of service, traffic jams forming across the country, pedestrians wandering around cities without public transportation, desperate families trying to communicate with their loved ones, passengers left stranded without trains or flights, canceled medical appointments, rescues underway in subway stations and elevators, lines forming outside small shops due to supermarket closures…

I wonder what could have caused this?

For no reason at all, here’s a video of Spaniards celebrating the destruction of a nuclear power plant three years ago.