Month: January 2020

Republican leaders vow to ‘protect’ gun rights for Missourians ahead of session

As legislators prepare to head back to Jefferson City this week, Republican lawmakers are making a point to reaffirm their aversion to taking up strong gun control legislation during the upcoming session.

Gov. Mike Parson held multiple meetings with a handful of metro area mayors this year as Kansas City and St. Louis, in particular, have grappled with an abundance of gun violence. Following a November meeting, news reports suggested the Republican governor agreed to back the mayors’ call for stronger gun control — among other things.

But in a one-pager published Saturday, Parson said he has not “supported restricting law abiding citizens’ right to bear arms.” Instead, Parson said the three big takeaways from his meetings with the metro area mayors centered on witness protection, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and “keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals.”

“I have never wavered in my support of the Second Amendment,” Parson said. “I firmly believe in protecting Missourians’ Second Amendment rights and will continue working with federal, state, local, and community partners to protect the citizens of our state. Over the past months, we have rolled up our sleeves, gotten to work, and identified the immediate actions we can take at the state level to keep Missouri citizens safe, while still protecting their Second Amendment rights.”

Missouri Republican Party executive director Jean Evans defended Parson on a recent episode of “This Week in Missouri Politics,” noting, “Saying everything is on the table is completely different than saying, ‘I’m for gun control or I want red flag laws or I want any of those other things.’”

House Speaker Elijah Haahr and Majority Floor Leader Rob Vescovo, too, have vowed not to support policies that “infringe” on the “Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Missouri citizens.”

“Our federal and state constitutions hold the rights of gun owners sacred,” Haahr told The Missouri Times. “I take those rights seriously, as do the members of my caucus. We look forward to upholding those rights in this 2020 legislative session.”

In a lengthy December Facebook post, Vescovo said “if heavy penalties that already exist” for murder and assault “don’t effectively deter” people from committing them, then “how will any new laws produce better results, especially if they’re little more than window dressing.”

“Both gun grabbing laws and red flag laws do not get to the root of the problem, which is that criminals will still find ways to obtain weapons with these policies in place. Instead, those policies will create additional hurdles for law-abiding citizens, while those who wish to do harm will continue to obtain stolen weapons on the black market,” Vescovo said.

Several bills have already been filed by Democrats in an effort to increase regulations and hamper gun violence throughout the state. Sen. Jill Schupp pre-filed legislation that would require passing a background check by a licensed firearms dealer before purchasing a firearm; Rep. LaKeySha Bosley is championing a proposal that would highly regulate the sale of ammunition, including by requiring dealers to keep records of those who purchase ammunition and require transactions to be done face-to-face.

The legislative session officially gets underway on Jan. 8.

Slugs for Euro Thugs

French Police Shoot ‘Allahu Akbar’ Knifeman

French police shot a knifeman in the leg on Sunday, one of three police shootings in response to allegedly “Allahu Akbar” shouting knifemen in Europe in three days.

Officers were called to the scene after a man was seen walking out of a shop carrying a knife in the north-eastern French town of Metz on Sunday afternoon. The responding officers were threatened by the suspect when they arrived and attempted to attack with a knife, which the French prosecutor is investigating as attempted murder.

Germany: ‘Allahu Akbar’: Police Shoot Dead Turkish Citizen Who Attacked Officers With Knife

German police shot dead a Turkish citizen Sunday evening after he allegedly attempted to attack officers with a knife and other weapons in the western city of Gelsenkirchen.

Police officers came under attack Sunday night in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, when a man attacked officers standing with their patrol car with what local reports described only as an “object”. When the officers noticed the man was also carrying a knife, they ordered him to drop his weapons but he continued to attempt to attack the police.

The Martyrdom of Saint Greta of Sweden

So Meat Loaf caused a little kerfuffle this weekend by saying he thought Greta Thunberg had been “brainwashed.”

I don’t know that should be a surprise, but it got me thinking about her again. I have a lot of sympathy for the kid.

For me, it started with seeing her picture. She’s small, slight, even scrawny; her head looks out of proportion to her body. She’s now 17 (as of 3 January) but she still looks childlike, prepubertal, younger than her 14-year-old sister. Frankly, she looks like she’s been in a concentration camp: malnourished over the long term

Sure enough, reading a little about her, we find that she’s an Asperger’s child (I guess this month that’s now called “high-functioning autism”), she has obsessive-compulsive disorder, she stopped eating for months and still refuses to eat anything but certain specific things, in particular, a dish of pancakes filled with rice — but her OCD keeps her from eating if there’s a sticker or label on the package. She suffers from “selective mutism”, which means basically that there are situations in which she’s unable to speak……..

Her public career started when she took Fridays off from school to hold up a sign outside the Swedish Parliament; this grew into a movement that spread throughout Europe.

Through it all, things keep striking me as odd. I don’t know what it’s like in Sweden, but cutting classes one day a week isn’t normally feted as heroic in the US. And she hasn’t been attending school for months as she traveled. In the US, that’s called “dropping out”.

So, this is what we’re being asked to believe: that an autistic kid with OCD who often can’t speak on her own has

  • organized a worldwide movement
  • given TED talks, spoken to the UN General Assembly, and been named Person of the Year by Time Magazine
  • managed to get a ride on a multimillion-dollar racing yacht so she wouldn’t have to fly (and bragged on how she wasn’t releasing CO2 on the trip, although it required seven plane tickets for the crew for the boat).

There’s a bucolic barnyard term for that — actually, several, depending on your choice of equine, bovine, or galline.

This isn’t a neurologically atypical high school kid arranging this: there are adults, and probably a lot of adults, using her as a front.

Trump Is Quietly Winning Bigly At The Border.

Before this policy went into effect, illegal immigrant families knew that if they crossed the border and claimed asylum, they’d effectively get a free pass. Immigration officials would release them into the U.S. within 20 days, on the promise that they would show up for their court date months in the future. Few bother to return. This policy was dubbed “Catch and Release” for a reason.

Now, they must wait in Mexico while immigration judges review their cases.

What “Remain in Mexico” revealed is how few asylum seekers have legitimate claims. In fact, judges granted asylum in less than 1% of the more than 10,000 MPP claims resolved so far, according to TRAC Research Center at Syracuse University.

The impact of this program has been little short of profound.

The number of apprehensions at the southwest border plummeted from 144,000 in May 2019 to just 42,649 in November – the last month for which the government has data. The number of families caught crossing illegally went from 84,486 in May to a mere 9,000 in November.

As the El Paso Times put it, “the policy has proved to be a virtual wall.”

Nearly 400K Anchor Babies Born in 2019, Exceeding U.S. Births in 48 States

Canada and the U.S are the only 2 ‘developed’ nations that have birthright citizenship, and there are only 28 more in world who also do so.

Close to 400,000 anchor babies were born in the United States in 2019 as an executive order to end birthright citizenship gets kicked down the road for another year by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies revealed in 2018 that about 300,000 U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are born every year. These children, often referred to as “anchor babies,” immediately obtain American citizenship and anchor their illegal or foreign parents in the country.

In addition, about 72,000 anchor babies are born to foreign tourists, foreign visa workers, and foreign students every year — all of whom obtain immediate American citizenship simply for being born within the parameters of the country.

Altogether, about 372,000 anchor babies are estimated to have been born last year despite a commitment by Trump to sign an executive order ending the nation’s “anchor baby policy” that incentivizes pregnant migrant women to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in the hopes of securing American citizenship for their children.

This indicates that there were more anchor babies born in 2019 than births in each of the 50 states except California and Texas. California residents deliver about 455,000 babies a year, while Texans deliver about 379,000 babies a year, just slightly more than the total annual number of anchor babies born.

For example, there were more than 34 times as many anchor babies born nationwide than American children born in the state of Delaware and nearly five times as many anchor babies born nationwide than the American children born in Arizona.

To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens must be granted automatic American citizenship, and a number of legal scholars dispute the idea.

Many leading conservative scholars argue the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not provide mandatory birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens or noncitizens, as these children are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction as that language was understood when the 14th Amendment was ratified.

The Supreme Court’s Failure to Defend Heller Has Created The Situation in Virginia

Why does it seem that liberal extremists are pursuing new infringements on gun rights seemingly unchecked? Why do we have an escalated situation in Virginia where liberal politicians seek to further infringe the Second Amendment rights of its citizens, threatening imprisonment and even violence against Constitutional gun owners who have committed no crimes?

This is due to a failure of our system of checks and balances. Due to a failure of the courts to deal with a barrage of important Second Amendment cases over the last ten years, we are perilously off balance.

In 2008, we had the epic Heller decision, and the subsequent McDonald decision in 2010, which applied Heller to the states. In the more than 10 years since those decisions were handed down, we have seen relentless encroachments on Second Amendment rights by extreme anti-rights fanatics.

When will it ever end? When will the Supreme Court make it end?

The response by gun rights supporters to these continued, ongoing infringements has been appropriate: seek redress using the three branches of government. Specifically, file lawsuit after lawsuit begging the Judiciary to enforce Heller’s holdings on concepts like individual rights and common-use.

Unfortunately, the Judiciary has repeatedly ignored these petitions for redress—a complete and dangerous failure to enforce the provisions enumerated in the Heller decision. The results have been a painful, unconstitutional existence for those of us in states like New Jersey and, most recently, it has brought Virginia to the edge of chaos.

This judicial hibernation, combined with the limitless funding of special interest groups and individuals like gun control sugar daddy Michael Bloomberg’s funding of Moms Demand Action and Everytown, has resulted in a highly explosive situation.

Since 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States has declined the opportunity to grant several petitions for certiorari.

In 2014, the Court denied the petition in a New Jersey case asking the critical question of whether or not the Second Amendment applies outside the home. See Drake v. Filko. In 2017, the petition for cert was denied in Peruta v. San Diego.

These denials have resulted in terrible consequences. They have provided liberal, anti-gun rights extremists an unfettered highway to infringement.

On the micro level, in the repeated failure to act swiftly in upholding the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court itself has placed citizens like New Jerseyians (who are automatically denied a right to carry) in danger of criminal activity and terror, such as we saw in the recent Texas church shooting.

The Court’s failure to act has also placed us in danger on the macro level, such as in Virginia where politicians have threatened to use the National Guard against the state’s citizens and to jail those who have committed no crimes.

The Court must act soon. It is abundantly clear, despite a dearth of reporting by the mainstream media, that complete civilian disarmament is the end goal. Americans will not allow them to succeed.

Gun Control Radicals File FOIA Requests on Dozens of VA Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties

Just in case anyone could forget, there isn’t a low that the Left won’t stoop to. While “gun-friendly” politicians all over the country have made an art form of kissing tail and making friends, the radical Left is busy fighting down and dirty in the mud.

And frankly, nationwide, the Left has been winning because of it.

Case in point: Virginia. While their gun owners have woken up to find their gun rights under siege after years of sleeping at the wheel, the Left isn’t going to go down easy.

After all, Bloomberg paid good money for this election in November. A few Second Amendment Sanctuaries won’t stop him.

That’s why he’s had his paid activists file Freedom of Information Act requests with dozens of counties in Virginia. The same counties that have recently declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries.

The FOIA requests ask for any documents in or out of the office that have to do with the Second Amendment. It’s clear they’re hoping to intimidate these local bodies or catch them in technical errors…………

There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

Firstly, gun owners nationwide could start sending  emails to these county attorneys with the text from any random gun article.  That way, Any Clown for Gun Safety and the Commie Mommies would be drowned in documents that technically involve that county office and the Second Amendment.  Heck, they might learn a thing or two about guns rights in their reading!

Another option would be to send them everything Virginia has on file for the Second Amendment starting from oldest to newest. (They said we could make it easier by starting after August 1st, but hey, what can we say?  We’re thorough and helpful!)   We’re thinking of the Tryon Resolves and every speech by Patrick Henry.  Then they can read The Fairfax Resolves, the Fincastle Resolutions and the Augusta Resolves.  When they finish those, they can read The Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Nah, Better to Fight Fire With Fire

No, all kidding aside, these people are out for blood.  They’re playing for keeps.  They’re happy to be in the mud and they like the fight.  Can you and your ‘gun friendly’ politician say the same?

Tidy, smiling, friendly politicians will have no place at the table in the future.  It’s time for the good guys to get mad and play hardball.

You may catch ‘more flies with honey,’ but in our experience, all you get is fat, diabetic politicians who want to keep their seat at the table.  We’re done with honey. We’re out for meat.

 

No, You Don’t Have to Join the Military if You Support the Airstrike that Killed Soleimani

Of all the asinine arguments in all of the news cycles in all of the media universe, they are using this one. I’m talking about an annoying tendency of some who oppose the airstrike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. For some reason, they have chosen to use the tired, “If you support the airstrike you should be willing to join the military” trope.

That’s right folks. Many on the left — and some on the right — are eschewing nuanced and well-reasoned argumentation regarding the president’s airstrike for the intellectually bankrupt implication that those supporting it should don a uniform, grab a rifle, fly to Iraq, and get their John Wick on.

So let’s say I was a 67-year-old woman with arthritis, but I happen to think Trump’s airstrike was a novel idea. Am I supposed to somehow do my part in the fight against Iran and terrorism? Should I go to the front lines with a weapon and start shooting?

What about you, dear reader? If you happen to think President Trump made the right decision in killing Soleimani, are you ready to suit up and report for duty?

Does this argument make any sense at all?

Of course it doesn’t. It’s just something people say when they don’t know how to address your opinion. It’s a lazy form of virtue signaling, a way to let the world know that they would not advocate for military action unless they damn well mean it. And the only way to prove their sincerity would be to enlist, isn’t it?

VA County Addresses Its 2A Ordinance “Ordering” The Militia

Most of the 115 counties, cities, and towns in Virginia that have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries have done so via a resolution, but a couple of counties have gone further by passing an actual ordinance.
Tazewell County, a beautiful and somewhat remote county (at least once you get off Interstate 81) in the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau, is full of Second Amendment supporters, and the county supervisors not only declared the county a sanctuary on December 3rd, it passed an ordinance “ordering” the militia in an attempt to prevent any lawfully owned firearms from being seized.

Since then, the county’s been fielding questions from residents, reporters, and others who are curious about what exactly that means. According to Southwest Virginia Today, the county’s been giving a “stock answer.”

That answer is “On Dec. 3rd, 2019, our Board of Supervisors chose to exercise some of its rights under the Virginia Constitution to order or regulate militia.  By insuring that our residents have the opportunity (1) to possess certain types of firearms, (2) to educate themselves on their use, (3) to learn common military practices, and (4) to learn basic survival skills, we hope to preserve a group of residents who could form a militia, were such a body needed.  Without these most basic elements our County would not have a group of persons from whom a militia could be drawn.  At the moment, however, the Board has not called any such militia to arms and prays that such moment never occurs.”

In other words, the ordering of the militia wasn’t necessarily meant to lead to thousands of residents drilling on the courthouse lawn, but to make the argument that, because virtually every law-abiding resident is a member of the county militia, they need access to the type of firearm most suited for use in defense of self and county; a semi-automatic rifle. Since SB 16 in Virginia currently is written to make continued possession of legally owned semi-automatic rifles a crime, this is an attempt to protect residents from the effects of the unconstitutional law.

Note, however, that the county reserves the right to call the militia to arms, though its statement doesn’t indicate what would trigger such a response.

As the paper in southwest Virginia points out, while Tazewell County may have been the first in the state to order the county’s militia, it likely won’t be the last.

Some counties that passed just the second amendment sanctuary bill are now considering following Tazewell County’s lead and calling for a militia.  A large crowd of Wythe County residents attended its December supervisors meeting to ask for a militia to be formed and many of the speakers carried copies of the Tazewell County ordinance.

Buchanan County passed both a second amendment sanctuary and a preservation ordinance at its December meeting. That board also requested its county attorney write Governor Northam a letter demanding he resign due to his stance on gun control and abortion.

They later held a called meeting and tabled the request for the letter until new board members office take office this month. They were also asked to consider a militia ordinance this month.

The Second Amendment Sanctuary resolutions that have been passed by the vast majority of Virginia counties are the first step, not the last word in the movement. Despite tough talk from Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, these counties don’t seem interested in backing down from their pro-Second Amendment stand.

U.S. service member, 2 contractors killed in attack on base in Kenya

This bunch is Sunni moslem, as opposed to the Iranians being Shite moslem, so it’s hard to say if this was a coordinated attack, or was something already planned. That being said, there’s the old thing about them considering the U.S. a common enemy. Of course, the solution for one sect is the same for all of them.

Al-Shabab, a Somali terror group linked to al-Qaeda, attacked a military base Sunday morning in Kenya, killing one U.S. service member and two Defense Department contractors, and wounding two others, U.S. African Command said.

Al-Shabab is a Sunni Muslim group and is not linked to Shiite Iran. Last Friday, a U.S. drone strike killed Iran’s top military commander, and Iran has vowed to retaliate.

Six civilian aircraft were damaged at Manda Bay Airfield, which is on an island in the coastal region of Lamu near the border with Somalia, AFRICOM said.

Initially, the U.S.-led coalition said there were no casualties in the attack but several hours later AFRICOM released an updated statement.

https://twitter.com/USAfricaCommand/status/1213780265560092679

Iran Eulogist Puts $80 Million Bounty on Trump’s Head

The eulogist at the funeral procession for General Qassem Soleimani placed an $80 million bounty on President Donald Trump’s head on live state TV, according to Al Arabiya. However, contrary to some reports, the government of Iran itself did not place a bounty on Trump’s head.

Two sites that have reported on the bounty: Bild, a German news site and Al Arabiya English, a Saudi Arabian platform.

Al Arabiya reported on January 5, 2020 that “the eulogist at the funeral procession of prominent Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iran put an 80-million-dollar prize on US President Donald Trump’s head on live state TV.” The eulogist was not named.

Democrats want to make it harder to prosecute property theft in Virginia

But they want to make it a felony to have an 11 round magazine

A new law being proposed by Virginia Democrats would make it harder for police officers to prosecute property theft suspects in the commonwealth.

Democrat Alfonso Lopez, a Virginia House delegate and former Obama administration official, is sponsoring House Bill 263, which would raise the property value threshold for grand larceny charges from $500 to $2,000.

Lopez’s bill is one of three pieces of legislation designed to raise the threshold for stronger property theft charges that carry stiffer penalties and qualify as felonies in Virginia.

Part of a ‘weak-on-crime’ pattern

At least one prominent conservative leader is speaking out against the proposal. Reached by telephone, constitutional law attorney and Daily Wire editor-at-large Josh Hammer told TheBlaze that Lopez’s bill is part of a pattern among Democrats and like-minded “weak-on-crime” Republicans.

“Across the country, we see so many leftist Democrats — joined by no small share of libertarian-leaning Republicans — subscribing to the same weak-on-crime agenda,” Hammer, who has been critical of similar so-called “criminal justice reform” efforts, said………..

Dave Briggman, a conservative activist in central Virginia, described the proposal as a “radical” effort by local Democrats.

“In a state where driving 10 over the 70 mph highway speed limit can get you a 12-month jail sentence and a $2,500 fine, Virginia Democrats continue their radical efforts to ‘reform’ our criminal statutes,” he said in an interview with TheBlaze………….

“The Democrats’ goal here is to allow for the commission of serious crimes, without labeling offenders as ‘felons’ so they can continue voting for extreme leftists in elections and turn Virginia into California,” he said. “Keep in mind that is happening while the same Democrat extremists are trying to make felons out of most law-abiding gun owners in laws that seek to to ban and confiscate most semi-automatic weapons in production today.”

 

 

1 suspect dead, another shot in apparent home invasion in Tampa

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting that has left one suspect dead and another injured.

The two suspects were shot during an apparent home invasion, according to deputies. The second suspect shot is currently in critical condition.

Deputies say the shooting took place at an apartment complex in the 12000 block of Citrus Falls Circle, near Sheldon Road and Westwind Drive.

During a press conference, HCSO Major Frank Losat said four teenagers aged 16 to 17 were considered suspects in the home invasion. Two suspects went to the apartment and the other two stayed in a car.

Losat also said the couple in the apartment were targeted as this was not a random act.

No other information has been released at this time.

Man shot while attempting to rob driver at gas station

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 20-year-old man is in critical condition after police say he attempted to rob someone at a gas station and the victim shot him.

Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were called to a gas station at West 34th Street and North Moller Road around 9:26 p.m. Friday on a report of a person shot.

Police arrived to find a 20-year-old man with an injury consistent with a gunshot wound, and emergency medics took the man to an area hospital in critical condition.

Detectives at the scene learned that the man who was shot had approached a vehicle at the gas station and attempted to rob the driver, who shot the robbery suspect.

The person in the vehicle stayed at the scene and on Friday night was cooperating with police.

Man shot and killed by restaurant security guard in Montclare

CHICAGO — A man was shot and killed by a restaurant security guard an armed confrontation in the city’s Montclare neighborhood early Saturday morning.

The man, 40, was shot in the neck after the confrontation with the security guard on the 7100 block of West Diversey Avenue around 1:45 a.m. at the El Taconazo La Fiesta restaurant.

He was taken to Loyola Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His identity has not yet been released.

Chicago police said two weapons were recovered at the scene.

The investigation is ongoing.

This is not the first time a shooting has happened at the restaurant. In May 2017, a man wearing a ski mask went into the restaurant, opened fire, killed a man and injured another. That was when the restaurant’s owners hired security for the weekends.

Climate Alarmists Want Eco-Reparations To Fund Green New Deal

The leftists participating in the weekly Fire Drill Fridays want to eliminate the fossil fuel industry and take all the money from the energy industry companies.

They tout wealth redistribution from fossil fuel companies as the piggy bank to fund the Green New Deal.

In other words, take the profits of capitalism and give the money to a socialist takeover of the energy sector. Sound good?

A woman named Tamara To’L, described as an Environmental Strategist delivered an aggressive message to the crowd. She conflated climate change and racism as she tried to get the crowd fired up.

“Shout out if you want to destroy fossil fuel capitalists.” That sounds almost like inciting violence, doesn’t it? “Let me hear your vigor for ending racism while you do it.” “We need to make them pay today.”

https://twitter.com/FireDrillFriday/status/1213157015628976129

California news anchors get redpilled on live television.

Good and hard, California just like Mencken said.

The blue governments that Californians continually vote in may have finally crossed the line, at least so it seems to these [L.A.-based] KTLA news anchors.

A video of the show titled “KTLA 5 Morning News Anchors Get Redpilled,” shows the anchors discussing the matter at hand, specifically regarding California’s 55 gallon-of-water-per-day.

“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” said anchor Jessica Holmes to her co-anchors. “You’re not going to be allowed to shower and do a load of laundry in the same day.”

While that may sound insane, what California Attorney Richard Lee breaks down the hypothetical figures.

“Doing a load of laundry takes about 40 to 50 gallons of water. Taking a shower for about eight minutes uses about 17 gallons of water. Well, there’s a limitation of your daily use of water, 55 gallons per day. So that means if you’re taking a shower and doing a load of laundry, you can’t do both without being in violation of the law.”

According to California water expert Kristi Diener, though, those figures aren’t totally accurate, stating that the anchor “doesn’t have the facts exactly correct.”

“Right now there is no way to monitor individual indoor usage, nor is there a way to separate indoor watering from outdoor watering. The ‘standard’ for indoor use has been set at 55-gallon per person per day, eventually decreasing to 52.5 gallons in 2025, and 50 gallons per person per day by 2030. The first standard will be adopted no later than June 2022.”

While that actually makes things sound worse than before… Well, it may be because it is.

“The water agency has to create a water budget that combines all usage across their entire service area, and then determine how they are going to meet this budget. If they go over, they may have to give rebates for tearing out lawns, credits for low-flow fixtures, raise water rates, charge for irrigation meter installation, or impose fines for using too much.

How they will implement the water budget has not been determined, but they will be subject to monthly reporting requirements and fined $1000 per day when they go over. If they exceed the budget in a dry year, the fine is $10,000 every day they go over. There will also be a whole new level of bureaucracy created with a new ‘governing body’ to oversee water suppliers, and an enforcement arm,” Diener states, making things sound all the more ominous for Californians.

 

This is How You Know That Virginia’s Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement Has Them Running Scared

This is how you can tell that the Virginia Second Amendment Sanctuary movement has them really rattled…the Washington Post pays enough attention to run drivel like this. First there’s the economic argument.

These crazy gun nuts are going to scare away all of the entrepreneurial lefties with cash — the kind of people we REALLY want here — who are fleeing New York, Illinois and California!

Then there’s the nauseating spectacle of likening the sanctuary movement — everyday citizens standing up to defend a constitutionally guaranteed civil right — to slavery and segregation.

[T]he anti-control fervor got its start in rural areas and then spread to wealthy suburban counties, including Henrico and Hanover near Richmond. “I think it reveals the deep cultural divide you have in Virginia,” political analyst Bob Holsworth told me.

The movement is dangerous, he added, because it could hurt the state economically as more high-tech firms consider moving in with more progressive-minded workers. Some may not want to locate in a gun-toting state. And it is certainly ugly, he said. “The threats that have come up are really over the top as people talk to officials,” Holsworth said.

A sad irony is that the “sanctuary” movement conjures the disturbing nullification movements of the past three centuries in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison argued that the states have the right to ignore federal laws they consider unconstitutional.

That thinking was applied to proslavery movements, leading to the Civil War and the fight over integration in the 1950s and 1960s. Prince Edward County, for instance, shut down public schools for several years rather than desegregate.

– By Peter Galuszka in The disturbing ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ trend in Virginia

Inconvenient Truths About Guns and Gun Control

Politicians and journalists often portray fiction as fact. It is easy to be opinionated, but hard to be informed. This came to mind as I listened to Virginia Democrats tell us we’d be safer if we were disarmed. What is the truth about gun-control laws? What politicians says a law will do might have nothing to do with what the law actually does. Lives are at stake when gun-control laws fail. Saying that the next gun-control law is necessary to stop violent crime admits that the 23 thousand firearms regulations already on the books didn’t work as advertised. It is a rare politician who admits how limited the government really is when it comes to public safety.

Fortunately, we’ve lived with firearms for several hundred years. We know some things that work. Here are a few inconvenient truths I’ve found after a few decades of study.

Inconvenient Truth: Most gun-related deaths are suicides, not murders. Unfortunately, restrictions on firearms have not reduced the rate of suicide. Fortunately, informed gun owners are reaching out to other gun owners who are dealing with mental illness. Mental health treatment works. We’re changing the gun culture for the better, no thanks to the politicians.

Inconvenient Truth: Most murders with a firearm in the United States are committed by members of criminal gangs. The police know who most of these murderers are. Gun-control laws that restrict the actions of honest gun owners have not changed the actions of known criminals. Most of the young people shot with guns are gang members who were shot by other gang members. Unfortunately, some of the victims are also innocent bystanders or victims of crime. Disarming the innocent victims doesn’t stop the criminals.

Inconvenient Truth: Background checks don’t reduce the rate of violent crime. Criminals don’t buy their guns at gun shops or gun shows. Criminals get their guns the same way they get their drugs; they get them illegally from other criminals. (By the way, there is no gun-show loophole. Every law that applies outside a gun show also applies inside a gun show.)

Inconvenient Truth: Honest gun owners do not cause crime. In fact, licensed concealed carry holders are both more law-abiding and more accurate with their guns than the police. Civilians with a permit to carry a gun in public are the most law-abiding group that sociologists can find.

Inconvenient Truth: Civilian gun ownership is the most cost-effective way to reduce violent crime.

Inconvenient Truth: Owning a gun does not make you more likely to be a victim of violent crime. It is true that people who live in high-crime areas are more likely to want a firearm for personal protection. People tend to be more sensitive about personal safety when someone they know have been victims of violent crime. Gun ownership is often a response to criminal violence rather than the cause of it.

Inconvenient Truth: Criminals don’t often take  a person’s gun and hurt them with it. There are more examples of victims disarming criminals than of criminals disarming victims.

Inconvenient Truth:  A sexual assault almost never becomes a rape if the victim is armed. The armed victim is such an uninviting target that the attacker usually runs away once he sees that the victim is armed.

Inconvenient Truth: Criminals don’t fight fair. There are usually several criminals attacking a single victim. We civilians are the first victims of crime. Police are our backup and usually arrive after the fight is over.

Here is one last inconvenient truth: Politicians often exempt themselves from the laws they pass. Some politicians own guns. They must think guns are useful. Some politicians have armed security. They must think guns make them safer. If politicians don’t live by the gun regulations they want for us, then the politicians don’t believe in gun-control.

I agree with what these gun-control politicians do even if I disagree with what they say, and that is the truth.

The world isn’t safe. If you don’t believe me, then ask a policeman who deals with criminals every day. The policeman wants a firearm because he lives in a dangerous world. Unfortunately, the average criminal will victimize over 20 civilians before the policeman catches him. That is why you and I need a firearm too. We have to protect ourself and our loved ones until the police arrive, and we only call the police after we’ve been attacked. There is no doubt that self-defense is inconvenient, but I’d rather be inconvenienced now than be a helpless victim later. To make matters worse, you don’t get to pick when you might be attacked. ;-(