Kostas Moros

Moms demand recently published a defense of AB 1333, saying its “right wing extremists” attacking it. Wrong. No rational person wants some antigun prosecutor second-guessing whether you “could have run away” when you are attacked by some criminal and are forced to shoot.
If I am out with my toddler and a lunatic comes at us with a knife or other imminent deadly threat, I should not have to waste several moments (while under an adrenaline rush) calculating if I have a chance to escape before shooting to defend my little girl and myself.
That’s what “duty to retreat” does. It is outright evil. California has always had a Stand Your Ground defense and it’s never been a problem. California’s Stand Your Ground jury instruction already doesn’t allow for a viable self-defense claim if you provoked the attack. The antigunner’s claimed fear is not a thing. They just hate the right to bear arms and hate that more people in California can now exercise it thanks to Bruen.
@Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur have the decency to scrap this monstrous bill. Haven’t California’s voters made it clear they are done with you catering to criminals? If this passes, I say we get a proposition submitted to enshrine SYG into the CA constitution. I think that would pass even in this blue state.
This is already true under current law! SYG still requires that you reasonably bellieve you are facing an imminent deadly threat. All the legal elements of self-defense must still be there, or its criminal homicide. It just makes it so you arent obligated to try and flee first. And again, you don’t want Soros-backed prosecutors second-guessing what was “truly necessary”.
Read all of the Moms Demand’s nonsense here if you want. 

With due respect to friend Hobie, from the years I spent living at Newport News, I regard Virginia a good place to be from.

It’s Up To Gov. Youngkin To Rescue Virginians—Again.

If there’s a state that better exemplifies the phrase “elections matter” than Virginia, I don’t know which state it would be.

While Democrats maintain control of Virginia’s General Assembly, pro-gun efforts helped propel Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin into office in January 2022. Since then, he has been the primary barrier between commonwealth gun owners and numerous highly punitive gun ban schemes.

Last March, Youngkin vetoed nearly 30 anti-gun bills that Democrats had pushed through the assembly, including a so-called “assault weapons” ban and a five-day waiting period for firearm purchases after a purchaser has passed the federal background check. Now, Youngkin is once again the final hope to avert disaster, as Democrats have sent another two dozen anti-gun measures to his desk before the legislative session adjourned on February 21.

Here’s a brief rundown of some of the worst measures.

SB 848 would raise the purchase age for certain semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and pistols to 21. Under federal law, adults aged 18 to 20 can legally buy long guns (rifles and shotguns), so this measure would directly infringe upon their freedom.

SB 880 would prohibit carrying certain semi-automatic centerfire rifles or shotguns on any public street, road, alley, sidewalk, public right-of-way, or in any public park or other places open to the public. Such bans on carrying in specific areas often infringe on freedom, and if enacted, they are typically expanded to include more types of guns and additional areas.

SB 891 and its House companion HB1607 These proposals are rehashes of the waiting period bill passed last year but vetoed by Gov. Youngkin. They would impose an arbitrary five-day delay before a law-abiding citizen may take possession of a legally purchased firearm. As we’ve mentioned many times in the past, there is no evidence that waiting periods reduce suicides, homicides, or mass shootings. In fact, no studies identifying causal effects have been recognized by any of the independent literature reviews conducted since 2004.

SB 1134 would require firearms and ammunition to be stored in a locked container, compartment, or cabinet. While safe gun storage is an important part of responsible gun ownership, the freedom to choose how to store a self-defense firearm should always be left up to the owner.

Like SB 848, SB 1181 would prohibit law-abiding adults and individuals under the age of 21 from owning specific semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Additionally, it would expand this prohibition to include firearms magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Lastly, SB 1450 and its House companion measure HB 1608 would introduce new ambiguous laws and restrictions in an effort to undermine the already heavily regulated firearms industry. It would also empower the attorney general or a district attorney to sue a member of the firearm industry by alleging violations and even potential violations of these laws, allowing individuals “likely to be harmed” to seek equitable relief from a court, which could cost gunmakers millions in legal fees.

Most Virginians understand how close they are to legislative disaster, and hopefully, Gov. Youngkin will come through for them again with another mass veto. However, at some point, they will need to figure out how to regain Republican control of the General Assembly. If they don’t and a Democrat is elected governor, there won’t be much left to stop all the anti-gun schemes from steamrolling commonwealth gun owners.

The Schools Reviving Shop Class Offer a Hedge Against the AI Future
Hands-on skills are staging a comeback at leading-edge districts, driven by high college costs and demand for more career choices

In America’s most surprising cutting-edge classes, students pursue hands-on work with wood, metals and machinery, getting a jump on lucrative old-school careers.
School districts around the U.S. are spending tens of millions of dollars to expand and revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century. They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college.
With higher-education costs soaring and white-collar workers under threat by generative AI, the timing couldn’t be better.
In a suburb of Madison, Wis., Middleton High School completed a $90 million campus overhaul in 2022 that included new technical-education facilities. The school’s shop classes, for years tucked away in a back corridor, are now on display. Fishbowl-style glass walls show off the new manufacturing lab, equipped with computer-controlled machine tools and robotic arms.
Interest in the classes is high. About a quarter of the school’s 2,300 students signed up for at least one of the courses in construction, manufacturing and woodworking at Middleton High, one of Wisconsin’s highest-rated campuses for academics.
“We want kids going to college to feel these courses fit on their transcripts along with AP and honors,” said Quincy Millerjohn, a former English teacher who is a welding instructor at the school. He shows his students local union pay scales for ironworkers, steamfitters and boilermakers, careers that can pay anywhere from $41 to $52 an hour.

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Forgotten Home Apothecary : 250 Powerful Remedies at Your Fingertips.

Forgotten Home Apothecary is the only complete herbal medicine book that covers the most important remedies that used to be made by our grandparents back when apothecaries hadn’t been replaced by pharmacies.

It lays the strongest foundation for someone who wants to recover all that forgotten knowledge. Unlike others, this book is very easy to use!

The first thing you’ll see when you open the book is your new Apothecary. Here you’ll find all the 250 remedies, organized on shelves by specific ailments.

Each page of the appendix displays the remedies found inside the book, and the page you’re going to find it. There, you will find step-by-step instructions, color pictures, measurements and dosages.

BLUF
Cardinal Dolan may one day discover that he was unwittingly encouraging elements that no one, churchman or otherwise, should have encouraged. By then, however, it could be too late.

Cardinal Dolan Hails ‘Our Islamic Brothers and Sisters,’ Calls Ash Wednesday ‘Our Ramadan’

On Friday, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, posted on X: “Ramadan starts tomorrow! Ramadan is the season of penance for our Islamic brothers and sisters. Do they ever take it seriously! I tell you that because Ash Wednesday is coming up – that’s kind of like our Ramadan.”

These generous statements were entirely in keeping with the spirit of ecumenism that Pope Francis has advocated so assiduously, and so the cardinal’s words came as no surprise, but their graciousness was no guarantor of their accuracy. Unfortunately, virtually every part of Dolan’s statement was wrong, and some of it was dangerously misleading.

Ramadan is not, first off, exactly a “season of penance.” It does involve self-denial and cultivation of a sense of self-control, although the gorging all night somewhat mitigates the ascetic effect of the fasting all day, the focus is not primarily upon penance. Nobody “gives something up for Ramadan.” Ramadan superficially resembles Lent in that it is a season for Muslims to redouble their efforts to please Allah, but in Islam, this takes on a radically different form from efforts to please God in Christianity. (Note for those who need it: yes, “Allah” is the Arabic word for God — actually “the God,” and yes, Arabic-speaking Christians do use the word, although some, notably Copts, shy away from doing so because of its association with the God of the Qur’an. I am using it here to refer to that God.)

The highest form of service to Allah, according to Islam’s prophet Muhammad, is jihad, which principally involves warfare against unbelievers. A hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad: “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44)

So what better way to increase one’s devotion to Allah than by waging jihad? Every Ramadan, therefore, we see an increase in jihad attacks. This is hardly something that Cardinal Dolan should be celebrating, but of course, he is certain that Islam is a religion of peace, and that anybody who tells him otherwise is just an “Islamophobe.”

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Republican Hints at Using Appropriations Bills to Target Federal Gun Laws

The GOP may have majorities in both the House and Senate, but thanks to the filibuster in the upper chamber, Republicans are still going to struggle to get the 60 votes necessary to roll back federal gun laws using standalone bills. If, however, the GOP is serious about undoing current infringements as well as strengthening the Second Amendment, they could always try to attach those measures to appropriation bills, which only require simple majorities in both chambers before they’re adopted.

That strategy is likely to be deployed in the near future, according to one House member who recently spoke to Roll Call.

Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said former President Joe Biden was not going to sign an appropriations bill with certain language that went after his own administration’s gun rules.

“We don’t have that issue this time,” Aderholt said. “I think it’s very ripe that we can get some of that language this time.”

The Trump administration is angling for change on its own. An executive order from Trump this month stated that the Second Amendment “is an indispensable safeguard of security and liberty” and ordered the attorney general to examine all orders and regulations of executive departments to “assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.” The order also instructed the attorney general to present a “proposed plan of action.”

Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Wisconsin Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said he sees a role for Congress in going after Biden regulations.

“I don’t think we should make the administration do all the heavy lifting here,” he said, mentioning the Congressional Review Act, a tool that allows Congress to overturn federal agency rules.

The problem with using the Congressional Review Act to repeal federal rules is this: while the CRA only requires simple majorities, Congress only has sixty legislative days to disapprove of any given rule after the rule has been published in the Federal Register. The Biden administration’s rules on unfinished frames and receivers, pistol stabilizing braces, and who is “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms have already passed that threshold, so the CRA really isn’t a viable option to repeal those regulations.

Appropriations, on the other hand, are fair game for lawmakers, who could try to attach measures like the SHUSH Act or national Right to Carry reciprocity measures to budget bills.

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Victor Davis Hanson

Ten bad takeaways from the Zelenskyy blow-up

1. Zelenskyy does not grasp—or deliberately ignores—the bitter truth: those with whom he feels most affinity (Western globalists, the American Left, the Europeans) have little power in 2025 to help him. And those with whom he obviously does not like or seeks to embarrass (cf. his Scranton, Penn. campaign-like visit in September 2024) alone have the power to save him. For his own sake, I hope he is not being “briefed” by the Obama-Clinton-Biden gang to confront Trump, given their interests are not really Ukraine’s as they feign.

2. Zelenskyy acts as if his agendas and ours are identical. So, he keeps insisting that he is fighting for us despite our two-ocean-distance that he mocks. We do have many shared interests with Ukraine, but not all by any means: Trump wants to “reset” with Russia and triangulate it against China. He seeks to avoid a 1962 DEFCON 2-like crisis over a proxy showdown in proximity to a nuclear rival. And he sincerely wants to end the deadlocked Stalingrad slaughterhouse for everyone’s sake.

3. The Europeans (and Canada) are now talking loudly of a new muscular antithesis, independent of the U.S. Promises, promises—given that would require Europeans to prune back their social welfare state, frack, use nuclear, stop the green obsessions, and spend 3-5 percent of their GDP on defense. The U.S. does not just pay 16 percent of NATO’s budget but also puts up with asymmetrical tariffs that result in a European Union trade surplus of $160 billion, plays the world cop patrolling sea-lanes and deterring terrorists and rogues states that otherwise might interrupt Europe’s commercial networks abroad, as well as de facto including Europe under a nuclear umbrella of 6,500 nukes.

4. Zelenskyy must know that all of the once deal-stopping issues to peace have been de facto settled: Ukraine is now better armed than most NATO nations, but will not be in NATO; and no president has or will ever supply Ukraine with the armed wherewithal to take back the Donbass and Crimea. So, the only two issues are a) how far will Putin be willing to withdraw to his 2022 borders and b) how will he be deterred?

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US Forest Service Closes Majority of Pike National Forest to Target Shooting, Sparking Legal Objections

Colorado – The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has finalized a sweeping ban on dispersed recreational shooting – where forest visitors set up targets and practice shooting in an undesignated, undeveloped location – across 73% of the 1.1 million-acre Pike National Forest, a move that has drawn significant opposition from Second Amendment advocates.

The decision, part of the agency’s Integrated Management of Target Shooting Project, aims to address what officials call “unacceptable risks to public safety” as the forest sees increased use from hikers, cyclists, and off-roaders.

Under the new policy, over 800,000 acres will be off-limits to dispersed target shooting, while six designated shooting ranges will be developed with noise abatement features and safety measures. The closures will be implemented in phases, with areas near Rampart Range Road, previously subject to emergency orders, among the first to be restricted. The agency insists that the plan balances public safety, resource management, and recreational shooting opportunities.

“This decision marks the transition from one era of recreational shooting into the next,” said Douglas County Board of Commissioners Chair George Teal, who supports the ban.

The move has also been praised by the Southern Shooting Partnership, a coalition of government and utility agencies that have worked for years to address shooting-related conflicts in the region.

However, gun rights advocates argue that the ban is a clear violation of the Second Amendment.

The Mountain States Legal Foundation’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms has filed an official objection, challenging the Forest Service’s authority to restrict firearms-related activities on such a massive scale.

“By restricting the people’s right to engage in dispersed target shooting within the Pike National Forest, the USFS is attempting to regulate arms-bearing conduct in violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the foundation’s objection states.

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Texas homeowner shoots trespasser in self-defense

ORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A 41-year-old Hispanic man was found with gunshot wounds after allegedly trespassing in a homeowner’s yard early Thursday morning, according to police. The incident occurred around 4:28 a.m. in the 900 block of Airline Road.

Officers were dispatched following a report of a trespasser, and upon arrival, they discovered the injured man in the front yard. He was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The homeowner reported that the man was initially found in the backyard before moving to the front yard, where the homeowner, fearing for his safety, fired several shots at the trespasser. No arrests have been made, and the case remains under investigation, with plans to present it to the District Attorney’s office for review, according to the police.

VPC Hit Piece On Concealed Carry: Another Bogus Sham

The startling headline knocked me out of my morning news-browsing haze. “More Than 2,500 Non-Self Defense Deaths Involving Concealed Carry Killers Since 2007, Latest Violence Policy Center Research Shows,” the headline seemed to scream at me.

“Oh, no,” I realized. “They’ve caught us. Finally, the truth has come out about how truly dangerous it is to have people walking around all over the country with concealed firearms and a bloodlust for innocent victims.”

Actually, that’s not at all what I thought. However, after reviewing the article from an organization that has never encountered an anti-gun proposal it didn’t support, I realized that’s the impression they wanted to create with the headline. The beginning of the article clearly indicates their purpose—to attempt to halt any momentum that National Carry Reciprocity might currently be gaining.

“Concealed handgun permit holders are responsible for at least 2,541 deaths not involving self-defense since 2007, according to the Violence Policy Center’s (VPC) ongoing Concealed Carry Killers project, an online resource that provides examples of non-self-defense killings involving private citizens with permits to carry concealed handguns in public,” the press release began. “This latest update comes as legislation endorsed by the gun lobby and firearms industry has been introduced in the U.S. House (H.R. 38) and Senate (S. 65) to allow individuals with state-issued concealed firearm permits to carry their weapons in any state that issues carry permits or does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms.”

Instead of TTAG readers having to waste their time on the report, I bit the bullet and did it for you. And now, as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story.

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Wyoming Bill Targeting “Gun-Free Zones” Becomes Law Without Governor’s Signature

A bill scrapping many of Wyoming’s “sensitive places” is now law, but Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon isn’t too happy about it. Though Gordon allowed the law to take effect without his signature, avoiding a veto override fight with the legislature, he had some choice words for the overwhelming number of lawmakers who voted in favor of HB 172.

In an open letter to House Speaker Chip Nieman, Gordon said he was “tempted” to veto the bill, just as he did with a similar measure in the 2024 session.

In my veto message, I noted my major concerns with the disregard shown to local jurisdictions and the infringement of our state Constitution’s intrinsic separation of powers. Importantly, my message also included a call to action for school districts and colleges around the state to review their gun free zone policies while my administration pursued reviewing the State’s.

Reflecting this legislature’s lackadaisical effort to openly debate and work on this legislation before sending it to my desk, it is tempting to copy and return my same veto letter.

Compare that effort to the work done locally from the time of my veto letter, when only four school districts had firearm carry policies, to today, when 60% of school districts (according to the Wyoming Association of School Administrators), every single community college, and the University of Wyoming heeded my call to action and took up the debate.

This exercise in local governance was noticed by a handful of legislators, who attempted to pass amendments to HB0172 recognizing that local process and grandfathering in those local decisions. Such lack of regard for the principle of “government closest to the people” so fundamental to our Republic is stunning.

It’s true that many of these educational institutions debated rescinding their gun-free policies over the past year, but many of them (including the University of Wyoming) chose to keep their prohibitions in place. Gordon might be okay with that, but a “government closest to the people” doesn’t always act in the people’s best interest or with the Constitution in mind (looking at you, Jim Crow).

I stated in my veto letter last year that I support the repeal of gun free zones. I also respect local self-government.

My actions underscore my passion for both, which is not diminished. I am left to imagine this legislative session was never about “self-defense” or a common sense effort to extend carry rights. More to the point, it was always about the legislature grabbing power.

I find it interesting that this legislature’s vote was not so much about the sanctity of Second Amendment rights as it was who got to control them. Gun free zones are not repealed – they are now determined exclusively by the legislature.

Well, yes. Does Gordon take issue with firearm preemption laws that establish a statewide policy rather than a patchwork quilt of local ordinances that vary from town to town? It sure sounds like it. And despite the governor’s contention that HB 172 is nothing more than a legislative power grab, the bill still contains a major carveout for political subdivisions, which still have the authority to prohibit “the open carry, display or wearing of a firearm in its facilities or on its campus”.

In fact, that language may prove to demonstrate the weakness of HB 172 if, say, the University of Wyoming interprets that language as giving the Board of Regents the authority to prohibit concealed carry… which is, generally speaking, the “wearing” of a firearm”.

States chafe at having the Federal Government tell us what we can and cannot do. So I understand why local governments would harbor that same attitude for an “all-knowing” Cheyenne. To wit, the ability to debate nuances and advance wise, considered policy is not a strength the people of Wyoming have witnessed during this legislative session.

Honestly, if Gordon truly feels that lawmakers made a massive mistake in adopting HB 172, the courageous thing for him to do would have been to veto the bill and let the legislature override his decision. That, however, would have demonstrated Gordon’s political weakness, so instead he chose to let the bill become law alongside a heaping helping of snarkiness directed at the representatives and senators who voted for it. That’s not a good look for the governor, but at least his pouting won’t be standing in the way of Wyoming residents exercising their Second Amendment rights in more publicly accessible places once the law officially takes effect on July 1, 2025.

Zelensky goes to town
He behaved like a spoiled child, talking over Trump and Vance

If the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, were on my Christmas list, I think I might give him a copy of Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War. I’d mark that bit in book five we call “The Melian Dialogue.”  It tells the story of how Athens confronts the tiny island of Melos, a neutral ally of Sparta. Athens demands that the island surrender its neutrality. The leaders of Melos resist. Athens delivers an ultimatum: surrender or be destroyed.

The Melians offer a number of arguments about why they should not be forced to capitulate. Athens is not being fair, the Melians have right on their side, et cetera. In perhaps the most famous bit of the episode, the Athenians explain that “the right, as the world goes, is only in question between equal power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

This was not, perhaps, a shining moment for the Athenians. But it does have the virtue of being a true description of the way the world actually works. Machiavelli, who knew a thing or two about that subject, would have understood. I am not sure that Volodymyr Zelensky does.

In his extraordinary performance with Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and others in front of the press in the Oval Office today, he behaved like a spoiled child, talking over Trump and Vance, shouting and essentially telling them that Ukraine was the aggrieved party in the war with Russia and that he was not interested in a ceasefire.

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The Approach Trump Had in the Zelensky Meeting Is One Democrats Can’t Wrap Their Head Around.

The meeting between President Donald Trump, VP J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was nothing short of explosive, fantastic, and satisfying. So much so that America collectively need a smoke afterward.

The Democrats, however, seem to think Trump just beheaded a statue of Apollo and now the gods will be wrathful.

But besides watching an entitled brat of a world leader get raked over the coals by the guy from The Apprentice and a hillbilly millennial, Zelensky’s strategy was a head scratcher. Perhaps he was so used to American politicians who were willing to lay themselves down into puddles, so Zelensky wasn’t ready to talk to two dudes who don’t feel the need to perform for the media, which Vance seemed hyper-aware of, and pointed that out to Zelensky.

Perhaps he thought America owed him one, and thus his smug attitude, but as Bonchie noted in his article, this wasn’t wise: 

Trump has never accepted the idea that Ukraine is doing the United States a favor by fighting Russia as a way of justifying unlimited aid. Perhaps Joe Biden found that argument persuasive, but Joe Biden is not in office anymore. Russia is not going to invade the United States or any NATO country (if for no other reason than a lack of capability), and using that as a type of blackmail for support was never going to play. 

And herein we find the trump card that Trump had on Zelensky… you know, besides the money the world’s most successful beggar came to get.

Trump’s negotiation strategy vastly differs from many other American leaders, especially those on the Democrat side of the aisle. Despite Trump’s reputation as a rough-around-the-edges man whose political charm is far divorced from what people expect after watching The West Wing too much, he is a master negotiator.

Even when it comes to our enemies, Trump is not going to negotiate from a position of bad faith. He sees everything as a businessman would. There are no friends or foes while at the table, just good deals and bad deals.

I thought The Federalist CEO Sean Davis put this very well in a post he made on X:

Trump doesn’t bad mouth anyone who comes to the negotiating table in good faith. Ever. It’s a near-cardinal rule of negotiations for him, and a major reason he’s been such a successful dealmaker. 

If you refuse to negotiate, he will trash you. If you lie or negotiate in bad faith, he will trash you. He has zero interest in allowing empty moralizing to get in the way of a deal that he wants.  

He has done this his entire career, in business and in politics, and it’s fascinating to me how many people who think of themselves as smart and savvy are incapable of seeing or understanding this dynamic.

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