July 5

1687 – Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, a work in three books written in Latin, stating Newton’s laws of motion, forming the foundation of classical mechanics, Newton’s law of universal gravitation; and a derivation of Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.

1775 – The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition, a final attempt by the colonists to avoid going to war with Britain during the American Revolution.

1813 – The British raid Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York during the War of 1812

1814 – American troops under Major General Jacob Brown defeat British troops under General Phineas Riall at Chippawa, Ontario during the War of 1812

1859 – The U.S. discovers and claims Midway Atoll – ‘midway’ between San Francisco and Tokyo.

1865 – The United States Secret Service begins operation.

1915 – The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia en route to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

1935 – The National Labor Relations Act is signed into law

1937 – Spam® is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1943 – During World War II, the fleet for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily sails from Tunisia.

1950 –  American forces of Task Force Smith engage North Korean forces during the Korean War.
The Israeli Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.

1954 – Elvis Presley records his first single, “That’s All Right”, at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.

1971 – The 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is ratified

1973 – A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills 11 firefighters.

1984 – In the case of United States v. Leon, the States Supreme Court establishes a ‘good faith’ exception from the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule against use of evidence obtained through defective warrants in criminal trials.

1989 –Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is sentenced to a 3 year suspended prison term, 2 years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours community service for his part in the Iran–Contra affair. The conviction is later overturned on appeal

1994 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.

1999 – President Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

2016 – The Nasa space probe, Juno, arrives at Jupiter and begins a 20 month orbital survey of the planet.

CDC Altered Minnesota Death Certificates that List a Covid Vaccine as a Cause of Death

Someone (who needs to remain anonymous) was able to obtain the death certificates from Minnesota for all deaths that occurred from 2015 to the present, which presented the opportunity to see if the CDC is being entirely honest about the US death data. Unsurprisingly, the CDC is not.

As we shall document, the CDC is concealing references to a covid vaccine on Minnesota death certificates (that are exceedingly rare to begin with because of widespread medical establishment denialism of vaccine adverse side effects). In almost every death certificate that identifies a covid vaccine as a cause of death, the CDC committed data fraud by not assigning the ICD 10 code for vaccine side effects to the causes of death listed on the death certificate.

Background

When someone dies, there is a death certificate that is filled out for official/legal purposes. Death certificates contain a lot of information (some states include more than others), including the causes of death (CoD).

Causes of death refer to the medical conditions that ultimately played some role in the demise of the decedent. To qualify as a CoD, a condition only needs to contribute to the medical decline of the decedent in some way, but doesn’t have to be directly responsible for whatever ultimately killed the person. If someone had high blood pressure, and subsequently suffered a heart attack that led to cardiac arrest which killed them, all three conditions qualify as CoD. On the other hand, this unfortunate fellow’s ingrown toenail is not a cause of death, because it in no way contributed to their demise.

This is from the CDC’s own guidance explaining how to properly fill out CoD’s on a death certificate (you don’t need to understand the difference between Cause A, B, etc for this article):

Continue reading “”

 The Geometry of Liberty: The Declaration of Independence Is a Logical Argument Based on Jefferson’s Axioms.

I was thinking about “We hold these truths to be self-evident” and remembered I’d written about it in 2019.

The Declaration as a whole is a logical argument that begins by stating its axioms:

  • That all men (by which Jefferson meant humanity, humankind) are created equal;
  • that by the very fact of their existence they have rights that inhere to them by their nature;
  • that among these right — that is, there are other natural rights that Jefferson doesn’t assert for the purposes of his argument — are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness;
  • that governments exists by the consent of the governed to secure — protect — those rights;
  • that a government’s only reason or justification for existence is to secure those rights;
  • and that a government’s only legitimacy and authority derives from that consent.

In that one sentence, Jefferson changes the world.

“The Washington Post complains that this could upend years’ worth of coordination between bureaucrats and would-be censors.”
Ahh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

BREAKING: Federal judge issues injunction against WH, gov’t agencies on speech suppression

Happy birthday, America — and RIP to its newly erected “Ministry of Truth.” That term comes directly from federal Judge Terry Doughty in the Western District of Louisiana, who issued an injunction a couple of hours ago that takes direct aim at the government-media censorship complex. Concluding that plaintiffs in the lawsuit have a strong likelihood of proving that the US government suppressed dissent — and particularly conservative dissent — Doughty ordered the Biden administration and its executive agencies to cease any coordination with social-media companies:

The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power.

All were suppressed. It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.

Although this case is still relatively young, and at this stage the Court is only examining it in terms of Plaintiffs’ likelihood of success on the merits, the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.”721

The Plaintiffs have presented substantial evidence in support of their claims that they were the victims of a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign. This court finds that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment free speech claim against the Defendants. Therefore, a preliminary injunction should issue immediately against the Defendants as set out herein. The Plaintiffs Motion for Preliminary Injunction [Doc. No. 10] is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

Emphasis mine. Missouri AG Andrew Bailey spells out the effects of the injunction:

 

The Washington Post complains that this could upend years’ worth of coordination between bureaucrats and would-be censors:

The injunction was a victory for the state attorneys general, who have accused the Biden administration of enabling a “sprawling federal ‘Censorship Enterprise’” to encourage tech giants to remove politically unfavorable viewpoints and speakers, and for conservatives who’ve accused the government of suppressing their speech. In their filings, the attorneys general alleged the actions amount to “the most egregious violations of the First Amendment in the history of the United States of America.”

The judge, Terry A. Doughty, has yet to make a final ruling in the case, but in the injunction, he wrote that the Republican attorneys general “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.”

The ruling could have critical implications for tech companies, which regularly communicate with government officials, especially during elections and emergencies, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, boo frickin’ hoo. The First Amendment makes it patently clear that government has no business regulating and censoring public debate and dissent. That’s one of the key values and liberties we celebrate today, in fact.

We’ll likely have more on this tomorrow. Even though this is a holiday, the news is too good not to share: the Big Brother Ministry of Truth has been derailed, at least temporarily

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who comes near that precious jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined.”

 

Democrat Rep. Has Psychotic Meltdown – Calls Supreme Court “Illegitimate White Patriarchy”

The separation of the political left from any sort of reasonable governance has been obvious for years now. To put it simply, they see the government as their personal weapon for deconstructing the country so they can rebuild society the way they want. They believe this is their right – The right of the collective to socially engineer

The notion that elements of the government might serve the interests of conservatives and independents is an unthinkable heresy. And, whenever they don’t get exactly what they want from the government (which is rare) they immediately act as if they have been betrayed; that an “insurrection” is afoot to enslave them.

This attitude seems to overlook the fact that every major institution in the US has been catering to the far-left for decades. Even when GOP Republicans have taken a majority in the House, the Senate or put their man in the Oval Office, the general legislative trend has always taken a progressive direction, to the point that America has become increasingly more socialist in its functions. It’s also the reason why America has become economically and socially unstable.

In truth, leftists have been getting what they want from governments and the corporate world for so long they have become utterly entitled, like spoiled children.

That’s the kind of sad energy we now see on display among Democrats in the face of multiple Supreme Court losses, including the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the blocking of Biden’s student loan relief program and the end of affirmative action on college campuses. All these court decisions really amount to is a reversal of entitlements that never should have existed in the first place. Leftists see such entitlements as “civil rights,” never mind that they exist as a means to take the rights of others.

Democrat Representative Jaamal Bowman echos this ideology, combining it with a tired and psychotic rant about “white patriarchy” being the core function of the Supreme Court.

The message? It’s complicated because it’s unhinged, but at bottom the far-left wants to fundamentally change the very fabric of the government so that it always acts in their favor regardless of who else is trampled in the process. Let’s try to break down Bowman’s claims…

Playing the racism card is the Democrat go-to tactic for a reason. The primary purpose is to incite civil unrest as a tool for control – “Give us what we want or the cities will burn.” The secondary purpose is to declare ownership of minorities. The propaganda acts as if all minorities are a monolith that serves the aims of the political left. The idea that minorities might also be conservative is ignored.

Affirmative action has always been a racist policy; it allows institutions to actively discriminate based on skin color and ethnicity. Interestingly, white people are not the most affected by affirmative action on college campuses; Asian people are the most discriminated against, with double standards in testing and academic excellence designed to keep them out of the classrooms. According to research from Princeton University, students who identify as Asian must score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites and 450 points higher than Blacks to have the same chance of admission to private colleges.

The notion of a constitutional convention has already been cited by other Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom as a means to dismantle the 2nd Amendment, but Bowman seems to be suggesting a convention to completely upend the Supreme Court and the very foundations of the law. Keep in mind that Democrats have avidly defended the court structure when it works in their favor, but since the court is finally operating on a more constitutional framework they argue it is now corrupt and white supremacist.

Student loan debt relief is nothing more than a way for Dems to buy votes – “Put us in office and we will eliminate the debts you accrued getting that degree that was probably useless.” Of course, taxpaying Americans would have to cover the bill for debt forgiveness on college loans, not the Democratic Party. It’s rather brilliant when you think about it – Democrats use your money to buy votes to keep themselves in office so they can continue to erode your constitutional rights. You pay for your own oppression.

People should have to pay for their own debts. Taxpayers should not have to pay their debts for them. It teaches a terrible lesson to the next generation that if they make mistakes the government will make sure they don’t have to learn from those mistakes.

Finally, it’s not surprising that Bowman attacks expanded gun rights in his diatribe on affirmative action, given that the political left cannot maintain power unless the public is eventually disarmed. Leftists believe in majority rule, as long as they are the majority. If they are the minority, they riot. If they are the majority, they demand government suppress their political opponents. In either case, gun rights stand as a major obstacle to them.

It was only a couple years ago that establishment elites and Democrats were pushing for permanent covid mandates, jail time for those who spread information contrary to the government narrative and economic discrimination for anyone who refused to take the vaccines. The political left took the mask off completely and showed who they really are. They cannot be trusted to rewrite or rebuild core government structures.

Their hatred of the Supreme Court is not based on any legitimate grievances, it’s based on how they view power. The court is a center of power that does not always act according to the dictates of social justice Marxism. They see the court as just another “platform” that needs to be co-opted.

Many conservatives and moderates also have concerns about how the Supreme Court makes decisions, but one cannot deny the constitutional logic behind their recent rulings. It’s a shift that should have happened a long time ago, though it is happening in an era in which leftists see ideological deviation as treason. They will use every trick at their disposal to undermine the law and create double standards to their benefit. Bowman essentially admits that this is the plan.

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

July 4

1054 – A supernova, SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1187 – At the Battle of Hattin, the Saracen army of Saladin defeats the Crusader army of Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.

1584 – Under direction of Sir Walter Raleigh to find land in North America to colonize, 2 ships commanded by Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island

1744 – Under terms of The Treaty of Lancaster, the Iroquois cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British.

1774 – The Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in New York, protesting against the British Parliament’s Coercive Acts.

1776 – The United States Declaration of Independence is published by the Second Continental Congress.

1778 – U.S. forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign of the Revolution.

1802 – The United States Military Academy opens at West Point, New York

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced

1817 – Construction on the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York

1826 – Revolutionaries, Founders and Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die within hours of each other at their respective homes.

1827 – Slavery is abolished in the State of New York.

1831 – Samuel Smith writes the lyrics to the song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”

1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.

1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.

1863 – Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to U.S. forces under Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege.
Confederate forces are repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg

1898 – The Newlands Act to annex Hawaii and organize it as a territory is passed by the Senate and sent to President McKinley to be signed into law.

1903 – The Philippine–American War is officially concluded.

1911 – A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern states, killing 380 people in 11 days and breaking temperature records in several cities.

1934 – Leo Szilard patents the chain reaction reactor design that would later be used in the design of the atomic bomb.

1939 – Lou Gehrig announces his retirement from major league baseball at Yankee Stadium due to the effects of the illness, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

1950 – Radio Free Europe begins broadcasting

1951 – At Bell Labs, William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.

1960 – The 50 star Flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, due to the post Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th state on August 21 of the previous year.

1966 – President Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act

1976 – The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial.
Israeli commandos execute Operation Thunderbolt, raiding Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but 4 of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists, suffering only 1 casualty, the commander of the force, Yonatan Netanyahu.

1997 – NASA’s Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City.

2005 – NASA’s Deep Impact collider hits comet Tempel 1 as planned.

2009 – The Statue of Liberty’s crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure for repairs.

2012 – The discovery of the Higgs boson, which is fundamentally how things have ‘mass’, by experiments performed at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva Switzerland, is announced at CERN.

But will it sound like a sky car from The Jetsons?

World’s first fully electric flying car approved by FAA and accepting preorders.

A California company building a flying electric car is now taking preorders.

Alef Aeronautics’ flying car has been given a Special Airworthiness Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), meaning the company will be allowed to road/air test the car, the company said in a news release.

The fully-electric vehicle (with a hydrogen option for a higher price) is a low-speed vehicle that can be driven up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a regular garage, but it can also launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles, according to Alef’s website.

The company’s “Model A” car “can fly forward above the obstacles until a desired destination is reached,” the San Mateo-based company says.

“The driver and the cabin are stabilized by a unique gimbaled rotating cabin design.”

Alef touts the car’s ability to avoid traffic, fly in any direction while giving a “cinematic 180 plus degree view for safe and enjoyable flight.”

Customers can preorder the vehicle, which can seat up to two people is expected to cost around $300,000.

Alef Aeronautics
Alef Aeronautics’ flying car has been given a Special Airworthiness Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), meaning the company will be allowed to road/air test the car. FOX Business 

An FAA spokesperson told Fox Business it “issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate for the Armada Model Zero aircraft on June 12, 2023. This certificate allows the aircraft to be used for limited purposes, including exhibition, research and development. This is not the first aircraft of its kind for which the FAA has issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate.”

Alef first unveiled the car last October, and said it has already taken a “strong” number of preorders from people and businesses.

The FAA is working on policies for the takeoff and landing of electric vehicles, the company said.

“We’re excited to receive this certification from the FAA,” Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny, who co-founded the company in 2015, said in a statement.

Alef Aeronautics
The fully-electric vehicle is a low-speed vehicle that can be driven up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a regular garage, but it can also launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles. FOX Business 

Dukhovny and co-founders Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin and Oleg Petrovwere were first inspired to first try to create a flying car in 2015, when they realized it was the same year Marty McFly drove one in “Back to the Future II,” the website says.

“During one of the Science Fiction lectures, Jim Dukhovny talked about how flying cars are finally possible in 2015,” the website says.

“But he lacked technical skills to take on such a complicated task by himself.”

The four met at a café and set out to design a flying car.

Dukhovny added that the certification “allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week. This is a one small step for planes, one giant step for cars.”

Fox Business has reached out to Alef Aero for comment.

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.

The whole point of the 2nd amendment is that the people most certainly have the right to keep and bear arms that are most useful for military purposes, i.e. WAR. It always amazes me that people don’t get, or have lost, the spirit the patriot founders possessed to stand up to a tyrant government.

A conversation about gun ownership

Tennessee Republican Fudd Explains:

The basics

Many are familiar with basic weapons handguns, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns.

Gill (Bo Gill, chair of the Bedford County [TN] Republican Party and a self-described “amateur gunsmith,”) said firearms are broadly categorized into two main types: automatic and semi-automatic. The difference lies in their firing mechanisms, which significantly impact their functionality and practical applications.

Semi-automatic firearms are designed to fire one round with each pull of the trigger. After firing, the expended cartridge is ejected, and a fresh round is automatically loaded into the firing chamber for the next shot. Unlike automatic firearms, the trigger must be released and pulled again to fire subsequent rounds.

For reference, the transgender shooter at The Covenant School used a semi-automatic, which is the most common type used for recent mass shootings.

“Any semi-automatic firearm cannot be readily converted into an automatic firearm,” though bump stocks, which the 2016 Las Vegas shooter used, can mimic an automatic.

Automatic firearms, commonly known as machine guns, are capable of firing rounds continuously as long as the trigger remains depressed. These firearms use the energy from each fired round to automatically load and fire subsequent rounds without the need for additional manual manipulation.

Often automatic weapons are $10,000 and up and not readily available in gun stores but are available online.

You know it’s coming, or it wouldn’t be a “news” article. Ah, yes, the, however!

However, like some gun owners, Gill agrees, “I don’t think automatic firearms have a place anywhere but war. They’re not practical and they’re a waste of ammo.”

It’s a Bill of Limited Ammo Use. What he’s saying is that the government should have a sole monopoly on force. He’s for self-defense and “sporting,” which is a totally made-up word. But he misses the purpose of the Second Amendment if he thinks the government is the only acceptable entity to make war. That’s scary to the modern weak, prissy Western man of which America has an epidemic.

There is also much discussion around “military-style” weapons.

Gill explains, “Visual resemblances do not necessarily indicate an increase in functionality or lethality beyond that of other semi-automatic firearms.”

Military-style firearms, also referred to as “assault weapons,” feature certain cosmetic characteristics that resemble firearms used by military or law enforcement agencies. These features can include folding or collapsible stocks, pistol grips, flash suppressors, and detachable magazines, among others.

The article indicates those are not “genuine” firearms. Only Fudd purposes are genuine.

Then there are genuine firearms that come in a multitude of designs and models, serving various purposes such as self-defense, sport shooting, hunting, and collecting.

Gill explained, in an opinion letter he wrote in 2020, that, “It is important to evaluate the firearm’s functional characteristics rather than solely relying on its appearance to determine its intended purpose or danger level.

He said, “The main thing is the guns are not the issue. It’s the intent, the person that does it.”

The intent of a person, in Western Jurisprudence, is determined solely by courts of law in a trial by jury. Red Flag laws are a usurpation of the right to a fair trial. You can’t possibly know the intent of somebody or their mental condition. You could, however, stop giving psychotropic mind and mood-altering chemicals falsely labeled as medicine (which they are not) to people.

“Now the ease of mentally ill getting a gun, it could be tightened.” Gill added, “I think private sales is something that could be done more responsibility.”

Who get’s to define mentally ill? What is the definition?

He explained those purchasing firearms in private sales are asked for the receipt, name, and number. This information is then run through the sheriff’s office.

If you’re in Tennessee you should check to make sure, but I don’t think that’s the law. You need to verify TN state residency with a Driver’s License.

“That is what a law-abiding citizen should do,” said Gill. “But, see, that’s not going to happen with ‘no guns allowed.’ All the responsible gun owners are going to put their guns back and that’s going to create soft targets.”

Often, places that do not allow for guns on the premises, such as schools, some churches, and movie theatres, are the targets of mass shootings.

“I don’t think the solution is taking away guns. It’s a societal issue that independent families have to fix,” said Gill.

Disarmed men create soft targets. There’s more at the link. Anyway, what’s the rule? Never talk to the press! The guy probably feels bad. I’m certain they mischaracterized some of what he said, but some are quoted. He’s a Fudd.