Category: Safety

St. Louis and D.C. Show Gun Control Isn’t About Public Safety

With many prominent government officials exhibiting a flagrant indifference to violent crime, it’s getting harder for anti-gun politicians to pretend that their gun control schemes are anything other than a means to harass law-abiding gun owners. Recent incidents from anti-gun jurisdictions St. Louis and the District of Columbia further illustrate this point.

According to the station, Jones texted her father, “Chicago has strict gun laws as well but that doesn’t deter gun violence.” Jones put more faith in social programs, texting, “It’s about investing in the people.”

These once-private comments are a stark contrast to Jones’ public statements and actions. Jones is a co-chair of billionaire Michael Bloomberg front-group Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). MAIG, along with Moms Demand Action, are part of the Bloomberg gun control conglomerate Everytown for Gun Safety.

The mayor also supported a “federal Red Flag law.” As enacted, red flag laws empower the government to confiscate a law-abiding person’s firearms without due process.

As NRA-ILA has repeatedly pointed out, despite having some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, the District of Columbia has exhibited little interest in prosecuting those who misuse firearms.

A December 2021 study from the federal enclave’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) found that “In Washington, DC, most gun violence is tightly concentrated.” The report went on to explain,

This small number of very high risk individuals are identifiable, their violence is predictable, and therefore it is preventable. Based on the assessment of data and the series of interviews conducted, [National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform] estimates that within a year, there are at least 500 identifiable people who rise to this level of very high risk, and likely no more than 200 at any one given time. These individuals comprise approximately 60-70% of all gun violence in the District.

According to the report, “Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were known to the criminal justice system prior to the incident. Among all victims and suspects, about 46 percent had been previously incarcerated.” Further, “most victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had been arrested about 11 times for about 13 different offenses by the time of the homicide.”

Data in a 2023 D.C. Sentencing Commission report revealed that out of a total of 5,558 MPD arrests for carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL) made between 2018 and 2022, 56.6% (3,146 cases) were “no papered” (“the prosecuting authority… elected not to immediately file charges in Superior Court related to the arrest”) or were closed without a conviction. Only 97 cases (1.74%) ultimately resulted in a prison sentence. The figures on arrests and dispositions for “unlawful possession of a firearm” (UPF) offenses show the odds in favor of lawbreakers were pretty good, too. Out of 2,149 total arrests made for UPF crimes in the same time period, the majority (62.6%, or 1,346 cases) were “no papered” or closed without a conviction. Of the remaining cases that resulted in a conviction and sentencing for UPF, only 14.5% (312 cases) concluded with the offender behind bars.

Sometimes an individual case can illustrate an issue better than a mountain of statistics.

On July 5, a high school social studies teacher visiting the federal enclave from Kentucky was shot to death on Catholic University’s campus during a robbery. At least some of the incident was captured by surveillance cameras. Police announced on July 11 that they had arrested a suspect in the case. Further, police say that they have matched the suspect’s DNA to a ski mask found at the scene of the crime.

Reporting on the suspect’s criminal record, Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate noted, “Public records show [the suspect] has a lengthy criminal history. He was arrested five times since 2019 and was convicted of carrying a pistol without a license, burglary and threats.”

The Washington Post elaborated, reporting,

D.C. police arrested [the suspect] during a traffic stop in 2019 and charged him with having an illegal firearm after finding a .40-caliber Glock loaded with 15 hollow-point bullets tucked under a sweater.

Court records show he pleaded guilty to carrying an unlicensed gun and was sentenced to probation, with a one-year prison term suspended. Those records show he violated the terms of his release and in 2020 was resentenced to six months in jail.

Authorities said that after his release, he continued to violate his release conditions, alleging that he failed to report to the probation office, among other issues. A hearing on those violations is scheduled for July 18.

Washington, D.C.’s FOX affiliate shared more details on a pair of 2022 incidents involving the suspect, reporting,

In May 2022 [the suspect] was charged after getting into a shootout with a neighbor and in August 2022, he was arrested with making threats of bodily harm to a 7-Eleven employee. He was convicted in March 2022 and released.

In the shootout case, investigators say an unregistered Ghost Gun was used. However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. essentially dropped charges against [the suspect] after his attorney argued [the suspect] fired at his neighbor in self-defense. Charges were dropped in June, but a trial date had been set for July 10 — five days after Emerson was killed.

Targeting so-called “ghost guns” was purportedly so important to Mayor Muriel Bowser that in 2020 the District of Columbia enacted “Emergency Ghost Gun Legislation.”

The recent episodes in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. make clear that decisions to push gun control have little to do with public safety. Gun control offers unscrupulous politicians and their supporters a way to deflect from the repercussions of their own woeful mismanagement while often targeting the constituents of their political rivals.

Making it easier for people to possess the means to defend themselves against armed criminals apparently puzzles the overeducated expert.

Homicides in Brazil at the lowest level in over a decade, report says

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian researchers say the number of violent deaths last year reached the lowest level in more than a decade, puzzling some experts because there has been an explosion of firearms circulating in the country in recent years.

About 47,500 people were slain in Latin America’s largest nation in 2022, said a report Thursday by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, an independent group that tracks crimes. Its statistics are widely used as a benchmark because there are no official statistics on a national level.

While the number of killings in 2022 was down 2.4% from the previous year, it remained roughly even with levels recorded since 2019. The last time Brazil had less violent deaths was in 2011, with 47,215 killings.

The fall in homicides has left many public security experts somewhat puzzled, as it has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of firearms held by Brazilians. Some studies have suggested that more guns circulating among the population lead to more homicides.

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The Second Amendment Is The Great Unifier

We all want to protect what we love.

No matter your age, your background, your ethnicity, or your religious affiliation, there is one thing that we can all agree on: nothing is more important than protecting what you love.

Where we are divided is HOW we protect those things that are most precious to us.

People who ascribe to the anti-gun rhetoric and agenda, and who belong to groups such as Moms Demand Action (MDA), Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, all proclaim that saving lives is at the core of their mission. We all can applaud and agree on that. Life is precious. And each of us can name at least one life we want to protect.

But protecting what we love sometimes requires that good people stand against predators and murderers with the very tools that MDA, Everytown, and Giffords vilify: guns. People who understand that reality dedicate their own time, money, and energy to training themselves and others to be safe and responsible gun owners. This training and education is truly what will protect those you love.

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Surprise, surprise, surprise

South Bend shooting numbers down despite permitless gun law

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Despite a statewide permitless handgun carry law being in effect for more than a year, South Bend officials say that the number of shootings in the city has gone down compared to previous years.

HEA 1296, passed on July 1, 2022, removed the requirement to have a permit to carry a handgun in the state of Indiana. The proposed law had city leaders up in arms before it was passed.

“We had a say, and we said it, but it fell on deaf ears,” said South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski during a 2022 press conference. “The police departments said it, the Sheriff’s Association said it, the state police have said it… Don’t do this, and what did they do? They did it.”

Even with requirements being repealed, all nine counties in our viewing area (Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, LaGrange, LaPorte, Marshall, Pulaski, St. Joseph, and Starke) have seen a small increase in active licenses.

According to data from the Indiana State Police, on January 1, 2022, all nine counties showed a total of 120,956 active licenses. Exactly one year later, the number of licenses increased by 3.2% to 124,869.

“As Indiana was already a ‘shall issue’ license state prior to enacting constitutional carry, I don’t believe the new law had any impact on law-abiding people who wanted to carry a concealed weapon legally,” said Terry Demaegd, a moderator for a local second amendment group.

Mayor James Mueller said that while shootings are down, they could be lower. He also adds that the lack of permit requirements makes it difficult for officers to stop gun violence in the first place.

“Now if [police] see someone carrying a gun in public, unless they have knowledge that that person is not allowed to carry it…that officer cannot go and intervene, does not have probable cause,” Mueller said.

DeMaegd added that education is important for gun owners.

“Groups composed of responsible gun owners have always stressed safety instruction, firearm training, and adherence to the law for both licensed or constitutional carry persons who want to carry a concealed weapon,” DeMaegd said.

Pierre Atlas is a senior lecturer at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI and has extensive experience working on the topic of gun culture in America.

“What the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reported was a doubling of accidental shootings since the implementation of the permitless carry law,” said Atlas. “I think that goes to the point that, and this is my own interpretation, I think permitless carry facilitates irresponsible gun ownership. The carry license that Indiana had that ended last year served as a gatekeeper. You had to pass a criminal background check and give your fingerprints. So people who were prohibited persons automatically were rejected, and then they knew they were rejected.”

Despite the relaxed restrictions, other state and federal restrictions still stand in terms of who can and cannot possess a firearm.

A Modest Proposal for Increased Firearms Fees

We have 23-thousand firearms regulations on the books already. Gun-control lobbyists say this is only a first step and they need even more laws to protect us. While that is a fascinating story, real evidence calls it a lie. That is why I propose a different sort of fee and licensing structure for armed America. To make this more interesting, gun-control lobbyists say it would hardly cost a thing.

Gun-control lobbyists say we need “safe guns”, mandatory firearms training, and mandatory psychological evaluations of gun owners. They say we need more “gun free zones”, and higher taxes on gun and gun owners. Again, those are simply more “first steps” to make us safer and the last gun-control law is nowhere in sight.

The mainstream media plays along. Gun-control politicians say gun owners and gun manufacturers should be taxed to pay for the harm that firearms cause. In short, we’re told that a government employee is the only person who can really keep us safe and everyone else who has a gun is a danger to society. The mainstream media and gun-control lobbyists tell us that self-defense doesn’t happen, or if it happens at all it is vanishingly rare.

Since armed citizens need training in order to safely handle a firearm, I propose that ordinary citizens should be reimbursed by the state when they take a firearms training class. Those classes always talk about firearms safety, and the gun-control groups say we certainly need more of that. Let’s add another $200 dollars reimbursement per year towards bedside gun safes to safely store a firearm.

If firearms instruction and frequent practice make all of us safer, then let’s have the state and federal government reimburse the first $200 dollars spent on ammunition each year. To quote gun-control lobbyists, ‘This is only a first step, and it’s all worth it if it only saves one life.’

The news media and gun-control lobbyists tell us that we don’t need to protect ourselves or the people we love, and we’re simply supposed to call the police and let them take care of crime. Since armed defense “never happens”, I have another low-cost solution to make us even safer.

Since there are so many calls to “defund the police”, then let’s have the city and county pay $200 to each citizen who reports they used a personal firearm in self-defense. Also, let us wave all the state and federal taxes on the next firearm the defender buys. Likewise, both the firearm and the ammunition manufacturer should be paid $200 for each defensive use of a firearm.

Since gun-control advocates say it is the government’s job to keep us safe, then we should ask the state and county to pay for their mistakes when an honest citizen protects the public after the government failed to do its job of public safety.

According to the gun-control lobbyists, the state wouldn’t have to pay anything at all
since armed defense “never happens.”

It is odd that the mainstream media and the gun-control lobby deliberately ignore the 7,600 times a day that we use a firearm in self-defense. Just like the police, honest citizens touch their guns in armed defense far more often than they are forced to press the trigger and fire a shot.

In fact, the number of lives saved by ordinary citizens each year is amazing. The monetary benefits are enormous as honest citizens prevent injuries to innocent victims. The emotional costs are even larger.

There is so much more we can do to make us safer. If licensing and regulation is important, then our gun-control laws should apply to police and politicians too. That can come later, but this is a good first step.😉

Women Are Arming Themselves at an Accelerated Rate

The face of gun ownership is changing. Over the last few decades, more and more women are arming themselves.

As of 2022, women are the fastest-growing group of gun owners in the United States.

In 2005, only 13 percent of gun owners were women. Now, one in five women reported owning a firearm. What’s even more staggering is that most gun purchases during the pandemic were made by women according to a Harvard survey.

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Think Fast: Your reaction to a violent encounter might depend on your ability to out-think your opponent.

A young police patrolman of my acquaintance was checking his buildings while on late-night patrol. One of those businesses was an auto parts store that was in a stand-alone building. As the officer eased up in front of the dark building, he clearly saw someone inside the store. Late at night… no lights on… most probably a burglar. But, the building had a front door and a back door so the officer was in a quandary as to what to do until his backup arrived.

This young officer merely turned on his siren and all of the lights on the squad car and drove in tight, fast circles around the building until backup arrived. At which point two burglars were arrested inside the building without incident. One of them later told investigators that he wasn’t about to come out with that maniac out there trying to play like a race-car driver.

In another case, in another city, a man was accosted by a robber, armed with a large knife, who demanded his wallet. Appearing to be nervous and scared, the gentleman fished for his wallet with his left hand that was shaking so bad that the wallet hit the pavement about three feet from him. The robber’s eyes followed the falling wallet for just an instant and when he looked back at the victim, he was looking down the barrel of a .45 semi-automatic.

This citizen had planned for just such an encounter possibly happening. He purposely carried his wallet where it was accessible to his support hand and practiced the nervous routine. It gave him that split second to turn the tables.

It is a simple fact of human nature that some of us can think faster than others. But we can all work to improve our ability to successfully respond to a surprise encounter with criminals. Part of it is to realistically imagine the things that could happen and work up a variety of realistic responses. You need several ideas because this is definitely not a “one-size-fits-all” kind of deal. For example, a face-to-face encounter might be handled one way while the same situation with the criminal approaching from behind can change the whole thing.

Another excellent way to improve our ability to successfully respond is to take force-on-force classes using the little paint cartridges called Simunitions or other similar marking cartridges. These are much different than an afternoon spent playing with paintball guns and a group of friends. Proper force-on-force classes are carefully scripted. The only thing is that everyone knows the script except you, the victim, sorta like real life in that regard. Equally important is the fact that you, the victim, are debriefed after each scenario. An instructor talks with you about what you did right and what you could have done better.

The idea is to improve your ability to think fast and apply good solutions to the problem. In doing so, you have the best chance of taking control of the situation away from your attacker.

Jewish camp leaders challenge carry law due to anti-semitism.

If you’re part of a group that may well be targeted by someone simply because you’re part of that group, it’s probably a good idea to take steps to protect yourself.

Anti-semitism, homophobia, racism, and so many other forms of hatred are, unfortunately, real and if you’re someone who is concerned about any of those, it makes sense to arm yourself and to carry a firearm everywhere you can.

In New York, though, the people who run a camp for Jewish kids are challenging the state’s carry laws because it makes it impossible for them to protect the kids.

The CEO of Kars4Kids, a Jewish charity with a catchy advertising jingle, is challenging New York state’s concealed carry law in court — claiming that it leaves children vulnerable to antisemitic attacks.

Eliohu Mintz, who heads Kars4Kids, is also the CEO of Oorah, a Jewish outreach nonprofit funded by Kars4Kids that runs a summer camp in upstate New York. In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Mintz and a camp administrator, Eric Schwartz, say the law exposes the camp to antisemitic attack because it bans private citizens from carrying guns in places where religious activities are conducted.

“The violent attacks on Jewish people targeting places of worship and places where children are — the most vulnerable of the population — are random and provide the victims with no notice or advance warning,” Mintz said in a declaration attached to the lawsuit. “I cannot be left unprepared and unarmed in the event that an evildoer decides to attack one or both of the [camp’s] campuses nor can the other licensed staff members.”

Now, there’s a provision that amended the law in question that allows for armed security personnel at places of worship. The problem?

“The plaintiffs are staffers who have carried for personal protection and want to continue carrying,” Amy Bellatoni, the attorney for Mintz and Schwartz, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “They are not designated security personnel and, therefore, not part of the exemption.”

And therein lies the problem.

Obviously, I side with Mintz and Schwartz here. The carry law was written to include as much of the state of New York as possible and removes any possibility of a so-called sensitive location to decide for itself whether it allows firearms or not. New York decided and a lot of people are paying the price.

And anti-semitism is very real and isn’t likely to go away. Those who want to harm Jews aren’t going to be deterred by the idea that these places of worship are gun-free zones, either. I mean, if the laws against murder aren’t going to deter them, a Ghostbuster-like side with a gun in the center instead isn’t likely to do anything either.

So it’s my heartfelt desire to see this change. The people of New York deserve better than they’re getting from their so-called leadership. Concerns of racism or anti-semitism or anything else like that should be taken seriously and people should be empowered by the constitutionally protected rights granted them by being human beings to combat them, with words when appropriate and with bullets when their lives are threatened.

As I heard it explained many years ago; ‘Fast with a gun’ didn’t mean the “quickdraw” that western movies, TV & some artists have made famous. It meant the man was fast -as highlighted below – in deciding that he would draw and shoot and then not hesitate in doing so.

Lessons on Gunfighting from Wyatt Earp.

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Old West gambler, a deputy sheriff in Pima County, and deputy town marshal in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, who took part in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw cowboys.

Here is an interview that Wyatt Earp shares on “gunfighting“. This was dated back in the 1910 he offered to give an interview about his thoughts on using a gun. In his own words, Wyatt is going to explain how he became one of the most feared and accurate gunslingers… even if he was about the slowest.
The interview was originally posted on primaryandsecondary.com forum.

The most important lesson I learned from those proficient gunfighters was the winner of a gunplay usually was the man who took his time. The second was that, if I hoped to live long on the frontier, I would shun flashy trick-shooting—grandstand play—as I would poison.

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What’s next for the Blue Grass Army Depot?

RICHMOND, Ky (WTVQ)- A piece of national and world history was made Friday afternoon right here in Central Kentucky when workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County destroyed the last of more than 500 tons of chemical agent stored there since the 1940s.

The rockets containing the deadly nerve agent sarin also were the last declared chemical weapons in the United States and the world.

Closure and cleaning up the site will take three or four more years and keep many of the 1500 workers employed. But local leaders already are looking at the opportunities the multi-billion dollar effort offers the army depot and community for the future.

“The workforce here is highly skilled, highly trained, highly security-cleared. They will be looking for work in the next year and a half to two years. We would like to have that work force as an entre’ for corporations that could use those talents to come here. We’re also looking at a number of projects be erected inside the depot fence line that will add to the depots military value and keep it viable,” says Craig Williams, co-chair of the Citizen’s Advisory Board.

The Blue Grass facility is the last of nine across the country and the Pacific Ocean where thousands of tons of obsolete chemical weapons were destroyed since 1990.

Construction of the pilot plant began in 2006. Destruction of chemical weapons began in 2019.

Once the plant is completely closed in 2026, the army depot will continue its mission serving the country.

Analysis: The Murder Rate Appears to Be Dropping. How Will That Impact Gun Politics?

After a multi-year spike following the onset of the COVID pandemic, the U.S. homicide rate looks to be falling. If that continues, it could usher in a reshuffling of the country’s current gun politics.

The murder rate is down roughly 11 percent in 100 major U.S. cities through the first half of the year, according to crime analyst Jeff Asher. Though the overall murder rate is still about 12 percent above pre-pandemic levels, according to the AH Datalytics dashboard, the numbers are on track to land about 10 percent lower than last year.

That drop would “be among the largest declines in murder ever formally recorded,” according to Asher.

He found that the U.S. homicide rate declined slightly in 2022 from 2021 levels as well, though not to the same degree as in the first half of 2023. That means that the decline in murder has been more sustained than just a simple six-month window of good fortune. If Asher’s analysis is anything close to accurate, and the reduction in homicide continues to be as substantial as it appears, the American people will eventually take notice.

As it stands now, they don’t seem to know quite yet. A series of recent polls have identified violent crime and gun violence as a significant focus for voters, so much so that the public has even begun to sour on the need to defend gun rights.

A May NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found the highest number of Americans in over a decade who say the need to defend gun rights is less important than reducing gun violence. It found 60 percent of Americans now think controlling gun violence is more important, including 55 percent of self-described political independents, while just 38 percent say the opposite. That’s up significantly from a decade ago when the public was evenly split on the question.

Additionally, a June poll from Pew Research found 60 percent of Americans now say violent crime and gun violence are “a very big problem.” The number of respondents who rated gun violence as a “very big problem” increased 12 percent since 2016 and was up nine percent since May of last year.

That same poll found that 58 percent of Americans want gun laws to be stricter, up five points from 2021. There was also an 11-point increase since 2018 in the number of Americans who say overall gun ownership does more to “reduce safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing the chances for misuse.”

In other words, as broader concerns over gun violence and violent crime began to increase alongside real-world increases in homicide, so too did support for gun control and negative feelings toward guns. As the reverse starts to happen with homicides, support for gun rights may begin to rise again.

However, some important caveats could complicate that. While murder appears to be declining, mass shootings do not appear to be abating. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which takes an expansive definition covering any incident in which four or more people are shot, the U.S. is currently on a record pace for mass shootings in 2023.

Even under a more traditional definition like the one used by the Violence Project—which tracks events where four or more people are killed in public shootings, except those attributable to underlying criminal activity, such as robberies or gang fights—2023 is shaping up to be a particularly grim year. The site tracked seven such incidents in all of 2022, while there have already been five recorded this year.

Though such events only represent a small fraction of the country’s homicides every year, they tend to disproportionately capture the psyche of the American public, shape political narratives around guns, and have the largest impact on public opinion over gun control. That means that whatever boost gun-rights supporters might otherwise receive from an overall decline in homicide could ultimately hinge on the frequency of mass shootings moving forward.

Ultimately, it remains to be seen what happens over the next six months. If current trends hold and there is a substantial reduction in homicides, historical polling dynamics would suggest that could be a boon for political support for gun rights. But the ongoing scourge of mass shootings could thwart any potential polling boost unless those also start to decline.

Defending Your Vehicle: From carjackings to aggressive drivers to violent demonstrations, it’s not all that safe on our streets right now.

A man’s home is his castle, or so the saying goes, but these days, we also tend to look at our cars, trucks or vans as a castle as well. They’re our refuge in the stormy maelstrom of traffic. They provide us with soothing music from the stereo and cool breezes from the air conditioning vents. However, just because our vehicles are comfortable, it doesn’t mean they’re invulnerable, and that’s why something like the Vehicle Defense Class from Go Noisy USA starts to make a lot of sense.

Neil Davis, Go Noisy’s chief instructor, is a veteran with years of service in British Intelligence in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and a number of other locations, working primarily undercover in some of the hottest of the world’s hotspots. These actions required him to work primarily from “civilian” vehicles like passenger cars and trucks, so unlike other vehicle skills classes tailored to law enforcement, Neil’s classes have “real world” application for the armed citizen, as the needs of a teacher driving to work vary from the needs of an Uber driver who regularly has strangers in the car or a law enforcement officer at a traffic stop. The class was four hours in the classroom and four hours on the range and covered three different scenarios:

  • Carjacking
  • Aggressive Motorists
  • Violent Demonstrations

Carjackings

Carjackings, according to Davis come in two different flavors: Opportunistic carjackings, where the crooks are looking for any old car in a storm, and planned or targeted attacks, where the goal is to relieve someone of their expensive car.

shooting from the car

Shooting through your door? Bad idea. Move your pistol up a little higher.

 

For the armed citizen, an opportunistic carjacking will most likely be a “wrong place, wrong time scenario,” something we can help avoid by not being in the wrong places at wrong times. Targeted carjackings, on the hand, are meticulously planned, with copious prior surveillance so the crooks know exactly when and where they are going to strike.

Which brings up an important point. Crooks choose victims based on how they look and act, so anything you can do to deselect yourself as a victim is probably a good thing. One way to do that is what Davis called the “soak.” Simply put, when you arrive at a new location, take a few seconds and “soak in” the environment. Where are the other cars parked? Is there anyone just standing around? If so, how many, and where are they standing? Who is coming and going from your destination, and what do they look like? Taking a few moments to observe your surroundings like this gives you a baseline of what “normal” looks like and allows you to quickly spot what’s changed when you come back out of your destination, helping you spot potential trouble before it becomes a real problem.

Aggressive Motorists

Angry attacks on the road, Davis says, generally aren’t caused by traffic jams by themselves. Rather, traffic is the spark that sets off an emotional reaction to pre-existing frustration, such as a bad day at the work or a previous incident on the road. Because these kinds of incidents are escalations of other events, being able de-escalate the event is critical, as is not escalating things even more.

Getting out of dodge and putting distance between you and your attacker is the fastest and easiest way to avoid becoming a victim of an incident that has the potential for violence, as is knowing your state’s use of force laws so you can respond in an appropriate way if violence cannot be avoided or de-escalated.

Violent Demonstrations

Here’s where things get really tricky. A mob blocking a road can turn ugly and violent in the blink of an eye, and that can change your response just as quickly. It’s one thing to be stuck in traffic surrounded by a crowd of angry, shouting people, and it’s another thing to have Molotov cocktails thrown at the car next to you and a brick come through your windshield.

Your options for what you should do if you’re alone are radically different than if you have people in your car. This is dependent on the situation, of course. If you can use your vehicle to exit the area, make great haste to do so. However, if you can’t get away (which is the optimal solution) because your vehicle has been disabled or blocked in by immovable objects and it’s clearly a situation where things have gotten out of control, staying in your car means staying in one place, making yourself an easy target. If you’re alone and have to use a firearm, Davis recommends exiting the car to engage an attacker as soon as things turn to lethal force because of the shorter draw time when standing and the wider range of options available to you.

However, if there are others in your vehicle and you can’t leave, he recommends having the unarmed passengers assume the “crash position” found on airliner safety cards into order to give themselves a smaller, more defensible position. Either way, the instability of a riot means you’ve got to have a flexible plan. A one-note response of going to lethal force as quickly as possible is probably going to get you and those in your car in a lot of trouble. We are not in control of the people outside our vehicle, and that’s where the problems can happen.

Staying safe when you’re away from home is a complex task that pushes all our self-defense skills to their limits. However, a calm, clear mind and having the tools and ability to respond quickly and appropriately can help us come out on top when everything has gone south.

The sun may be out, but guns are not. Lawsuit challenges a new gun ban on Hawaii beaches

HONOLULU — 
Sun’s out, guns out? Not on Hawaii’s world-famous beaches.

Beginning Saturday, a new law prohibits carrying a firearm on the sand — and in other places, including banks, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

Three Maui residents are suing to block the measure, arguing that Hawaii — which has long had some of the strictest gun laws in the nation and some of the lowest rates of gun violence — is going too far with its wide-ranging ban.

Residents carrying guns in public is new to Hawaii. Before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanded gun rights nationwide, Hawaii’s county police chiefs made it virtually impossible to carry a gun by rarely issuing permits to do so — either for open carry or concealed carry. Gun owners were only allowed to keep firearms in their homes or to transport them — unloaded and locked up — to shooting ranges, hunting areas and places such as repair shops.

The high court’s ruling found that people in the U.S. have a right to carry firearms for self-defense. It prompted the state to retool its gun laws, with Democratic Gov. Josh Green signing legislation in early June to allow more people to carry concealed firearms.

At the same time, however, the new law prohibits people from taking guns to a wide range of places, including beaches, hospitals, stadiums, bars and movie theaters. Private businesses allowing guns must post a sign to that effect.

The lawsuit, which the three residents and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu last week, doesn’t challenge all the prohibited locations. But bans on carrying at beaches and parks, in family restaurants or in bank parking lots where people might be getting cash from ATMs are “egregious restrictions on their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms,” the lawsuit says.

“There’s a lot of crime at some of the parks and beaches,” said Todd Yukutake, a director of the coalition. “And it can be very scary at some of these beach parks.”

Alan Beck, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said his clients especially want to protect themselves at isolated beaches, where they might be fishing or going for a walk rather than sunbathing or swimming.

“The truth is it’s probably safer at Waikiki Beach during the day when there’s, you know, thousands of people around,” he said of Honolulu’s tourist mecca. “But a lot of these beaches in Hawaii aren’t the beaches people think of when, you know, they see movies or TV.”

Guns at beaches is not the image that tourism-dependent Hawaii wants to project, said Democratic state Sen. Karl Rhoads.

“A sensitive place is a place where you would not expect there to be guns,” he said. “Where you expect to have a good time and not have to worry about violence and being shot.”

Hawaii’s beaches are “the livelihood of our state in many ways,” said Chris Marvin, a Hawaii resident with the gun-violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety.

“And they are safe today. By allowing people to carry guns on them, they will become less safe.”

He recalled the “pandemonium” that ensued last year when a man brandished a gun on Waikiki Beach, causing tourists “to run for their lives.”

The lawsuit doesn’t challenge restrictions on carrying guns at bars, but the plaintiffs don’t see why family restaurants that serve alcohol should be included, Beck said. As for banks: Going to an ATM at night is “prime time for someone to try and mug you,” he said.

Legal challenges to similar laws adopted in New York and New Jersey last year are making their way through federal courts.

A federal appeals court temporarily agreed to keep in effect part of New Jersey’s handgun carry law, which also includes public beaches, as court proceedings play out.

In January, the high court ruled that New York can continue to enforce its sweeping law that bans guns from places including schools, playgrounds and Times Square.

Hawaii’s law reflects a “vast reach that goes beyond any other jurisdiction to date,” said Kevin O’Grady, another lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

The restrictions render concealed carry permits virtually useless, he said.

The Hawaii attorney general’s office said in a statement that the law is constitutional and vowed to defend it.

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi is scheduled to hear a motion for a temporary restraining order blocking the law on July 31.

Senator: Gun-free school zone law is attack on 2nd amendment

A law that would place restrictions on guns in schools was tabled in the Senate Friday after Republican legislators claimed it was unconstitutional and unfair to law-abiding citizens.

House Bill 201, sponsored by Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, aims to enable a police officer to act immediately when they see or suspect a person with a gun in a safe school and recreation zone.

“I don’t understand how this bill keeps the bad guys out,” said Sen. Bryant Richardson, R-Seaford. “Ones that have nefarious objectives are going to enter the schools anyway, so how does this do anything?”

The bill cites that as of April 4, 74 people have been killed or injured by guns in schools in 13 separate school shootings across the country this year.

School shootings hit a record high in 2022 with 46 shootings, the bill states, surpassing 2021’s record of 42 shootings. In 2022, 43,450 children experienced a school shooting.

Sen. Dave Lawson, R-Marydel, said the bill was yet another attack on the second amendment.

“Law enforcement has a right to stop anyone if they believe there’s about to be a crime committed; they do not have to wait,” he said. “They can intercede and violence does not have to happen for them to take action, so this bill really has a false premise.”

Under the bill, the crime of possession of a firearm in a safe school and recreation zone is a class E felony, which means the culprit could face up to five years in prison.

Only police officers, constables or active-duty military personnel who are acting in an official capacity are allowed to have a gun in the school zone, per the bill.

However, it allows holders of a valid license to carry concealed weapons only if the firearm is in a vehicle.

Lawson said the bill puts out the idea that a bad actor has free run at a school.

“There’s no one there to stop them and they’ll have free rein to get to our kids and our teachers with free rein as we advertise this is a gun free zone,” Lawson said. “Look at Sandy Hook. The man drove by the schools that had SROs and went to one where there were no guns, it was a free zone. This is not a good idea.”

There have been several incidents of guns found in Delaware schools in the 2022-2023 school year, which led to many districts re-evaluating their safety policies and even one investing in metal detectors for entryways.

The bill also would require a student who possesses a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone to be expelled for at least 90 day. However, it also would give a local school board or charter school board of directors may, on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion.

Schwarzkopf’s bill would include exemptions to the rule. They include if a gun-holder is on private property not part of school grounds; if the firearm is in a locked container or locked firearms rack that is on or in a motor vehicle; or if a gun-holder is engaged in lawful hunting, firearms instruction or firearm-related sports on public lands not belonging to a school.

The bill was laid on the table.

Later, though, it appeared in the house with an amendment from Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, to create the offense of possession of a firearm in a Safe Recreation Zone while not changing changing the violation of possession of a firearm as established under the Act.

When it came up in the House, Valerie Longhurst, who knew she was about to be elected speaker of house replacing Schwartzkopf, joked, “This is the last bill of yours I’m running.”

The fate of the bill was the object of curiosity in the House of Representatives, where Schwartzkopf was about to announce he was stepping down from the speaker’s role to spend more time with family.

The Senate also sent bills aiming to prevent child abuse to Gov. John Carney’s desk for his signature.

Saving Our School Children from Tennessee Politicians

Tennessee politicians left our students defenseless, and we have to save them. A celebrity-seeking mass murderer killed students in a Nashville private school. That should be a wakeup call that the Republican controlled legislature and Governor have failed us again. We need angry parents to change the status quo and save our kids. As grim as this sounds, there is plenty of good news. We also know how to reduce and to prevent mass murder in our schools. Tennessee parents have been ignored for too long.

The gun-control politicians say we should disarm honest citizens to protect our children. Other politicians say they will put armed deputies in the schools to save our kids. Both have been lying to us for years. Gun-control fails and the legislature never funds enough school resource officers to protect our kids. I understand the problem because mass-murders are rare and even a small school needs several defenders. The solution is simple, but it is not politically easy.

I want our children protected at school the same way our kids are protected by their parents at home. I want our children protected the way our politicians are protected at the capital, and I want it now. Unlike some proposals that sound good in theory, we know this solution stops mass-murderers. Don’t listen to what politicians and celebrities say they want. Instead, look at what they do.

Politicians are protected by men with guns. Celebrities are protected by men with guns. The spouses and children of politicians and the spouses and children of celebrities are protected by men with guns. When a celebrity-seeking mass-murderer comes to school, even the advocates of gun-control shout that we should call men with guns. The only debate is about when the armed defenders should arrive. I want our kids defended now.

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American U. students at odds with D.C. group that favors unarmed police

Some American University students are skeptical at claims made by the District of Columbia’s so-called “Peace Team” that unarmed police are “highly effective” at preventing gun violence — in one of the deadliest cities in the country.

According to its website, the DC Peace Team’s mission is to “cultivate the habits and skills of nonviolence in communities, so [it] can better resist injustice, and thus, build a more sustainable just peace.”

The team is a huge proponent of, and utilizes, restorative justice (which has been growing in the nation’s school systems, much to many teachers’ chargrin) and weaponless “civilian protection units.”

According to Peace Team Board Member Sal Corbin (pictured), such methods “emphasize inclusion rather than exclusion […] and punishment.”A former psychology professor, Corbin told The Eagle he grew up in a violent atmosphere where punishment was “swift and severe.”

As such, he wanted to study an alternative. Corbin believes an unarmed police force is “extremely effective” and involves “deploying teams to events where violence or escalation is a possibility.”

Robert Schentrup of the youth gun reform group Team ENOUGH added that “when victims of [gun] violence don’t get help, their natural response is to traumatize other individuals in that same way.”

The Peace Team notes it will even intervene in certain situations “with their bodies.”

But The Eagle notes some American U. students are wary. One student said even with stricter gun control, criminals will still find a way to possess firearms, so yes, cops should be armed. Another said disarming police when the threat of a mass shooting is ever-present seems like a bad idea.

American, like other colleges in and around the nation’s capital (Georgetown, Howard) have unarmed campus cops. George Washington University, however, recently decided to arm a small percentage of its officers.

Washington DC’s violent crime is up 10 percent so far this year, and is 147 percent higher than the national average. Other crimes in the city occur at a rate 87 percent higher than the national average.

Even Corbin conceded that “clearly there are circumstances where weaponry is needed.”

“Our goal isn’t to replace law enforcement entirely, but rather give an alternative approach to it that doesn’t necessitate, increase or escalate violence,” he said.

As we knew it would be.

Police Handwringing Over Ohio Permitless Gun Carry A Big Nothing Burger

“It has been one year since Ohio loosened its concealed carry weapon law, and community advocates, elected officials and law enforcement alike are reflecting on the changing gun landscape,” NBC4 Columbus reported Tuesday.

“A year ago on Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law Senate Bill 215, which eliminated a concealed carry permit requirement for adult Ohioans who are legally eligible to own and carry a firearm in the state.”

The usual suspects, starting with the Fraternal Order of Police that had unsuccessfully lobbied to kill the bill, are still bellyaching, “argu[ing] that Ohio’s streets are less safe – and so are its law enforcement.”

“When the delegates met at Philadelphia during the sweltering summer of 1787, the task before the Constitutional Convention was almost insurmountable. How, in the face of the revolution just fought, could a coalition of states unite and govern nationally when individual freedom and state sovereignty were paramount?” he asked. “Our founders got it right in 1787. Their model has stood the test of time and history. The Ohio Fraternal Order of Police strongly urges legislators to look to the founders’ model. Maximize individual freedom.”

Through “compromise”? And means testing against this cop union bureaucrat’s arbitrary definition of the proper “balance between public safety and individual freedom”? That’s what the Framers meant by “shall not be infringed”?

That’s some industrial-grade gaslighting right there, Mr. Wolske.

As for specific FOP objections;

“Michael Weinman, director of governmental affairs for the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, told the House Government Oversight Committee … [I]t would make police jobs harder by removing the requirement to carry documentation, and prevent officers from holding and patting down someone for a firearm… [and] predicted it would lead to more police officers getting shot.”

That’s a version of the old and unfounded-in-reality “blood in the streets/Dodge City over fender benders” argument the gun prohibitionists used when railing against licensed concealed carry.  And note his concern was not for “public safety” but for officer safety.

So: Did his dire prediction come true? Have any of the FOP’s concerns?

Instead, because when you’ve got nothing but aren’t ready to admit you were wrong and have face to save, we’re offered this bit of meaningless blather:

“No conclusive research yet exists about the effects of permitless carry on gun crime in Ohio specifically, but a September 2022 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found firearm assaults rose about 10% in states that relaxed restrictions on concealed carry weapons.”

That’s an old junk science trick, and it’s no coincidence we see the Bloomberg name attached to it: Present a correlation/causation fallacy under the auspices of a presumably authoritative name, and everybody, particularly NBC reporters, with a narrative to parrot, is sure to be impressed and not recognize it for the total unsubstantiated BS that it really is.

Crazy, huh?

Gov. Greg Abbott signs new law mandating armed security at all Texas schools

SAN ANTONIO – Security at your child’s school will look different this upcoming school year.

During a meeting at the capital, Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 3 into law mandating all public schools to have at least one armed security officer or armed school personnel at each public school campus statewide.

According to the Intercultural Development Research Center, the price tag to pay an armed security guard for an entire school year could cost up to $100,000.

“I’m glad my tax money is going towards that. I support it,” San Antonio resident April Reyna said.

This new law would allot $330 million to build security centers on campuses. Legislators in Austin claim this new law will strengthen the state’s School Safety Center, responsible for disseminating safety information to all schools. The law will also mandate annual audits of school protocol and require staff members to get mental health training.

“We have to provide the support systems to our personnel working in our communities,” San Antonio resident Jenny Kazmierczak said.

Some people believe adding armed personnel to campuses would increase protection.

“I think if we have the good guys armed, I think it would minimize deaths,” Reyna said.

However, others disagree.

“I hope that there are other measures to address this problem. This is not the isolated solution,” Kazmierczak said.

As concerns grow, some people are wondering whether some schools will have to dip into their own locally generated revenue to keep the burden of funding an additional salary from falling on schools and local taxpayers.