March 25

1306 – Robert the Bruce, one of the great grandsons of King David I, is crowned King of Scots at the Abbey at Scone, Scotland, the capitol at the time.

1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.

1655 – Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

1911 – A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers in New York City.

1917 – The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly – basically being independent from a higher religious authority – that had been abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.

1947 – An explosion at the No. 5 coal mine Centralia, Illinois kills 111 of the 142 miners working there.

1948 – The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

1957 – The beginning of the European Union (EU) , the European Economic Community is established with West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg as the first members.

1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.

1979 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

1996 – The European Union’s Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its byproducts as a result of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy commonly called ‘mad cow disease’.

2006 –  A gunman kills 6 people and wounds 2 more at a party in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, before committing suicide

The Essential Second Amendment
Helping Americans understand and defend the Second Amendment.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms, enshrined in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, is centered not on hunting or sport shooting but on the natural right of self-defense. It gives “teeth” to the promises of liberty, ensuring that attempts to reduce our natural rights to mere dead letters may be met with meaningful resistance.
Download the eBook here.

Permitless carry passes Florida House, Nebraska Senate could vote on similar measure Monday

Next week could be a very big week for gun owners and Second Amendment advocates. There’s a very good chance we’ll see one more more favorable rulings coming out of U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez’s southern California courtroom, while Colorado and Michigan lawmakers could send gun control bills to Democratic governors for their signature.

The biggest news of all is likely to come from Florida and Nebraska, which are poised to give final approval for permitless carry bills early next week. On Friday afternoon, the Florida House of Representatives signed off on HB 543 by a vote of 76-32, with several lawmakers absent. The Florida Senate has its own permitless carry bill on the floor, and lawmakers are expected to start moving it towards a final vote as early as Monday.

On Tuesday Nebraska lawmakers are set for another round of debate and votes on LB 77. The permitless carry legislation passed its first reading in early March, but had been absent from the legislative calendar ever since. As of Friday afternoon, however, LB 77 was on the legislative agenda when lawmakers return from their four-day weekend break.

I’d say that Florida’s in a better position to become the 26th permitless carry state at this point, primarily because the GOP’s majorities in Tallahassee are so large Democrats can’t put up a lengthy fight. In Nebraska the Democratic minority has been filibustering virtually every bill introduced in the unicameral legislature, led by Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh. Legislative progress has almost ground to a halt as Cavanaugh and others have delayed votes by offering up numerous amendments and subjecting as many provisions as possible to as long a debate as the rules allow. As the Daily Mail reported a couple of weeks ago:

Clerk of the Legislature Brandon Metzler said a delay like this has happened only a couple of times in the past 10 years.

‘But what is really uncommon is the lack of bills that have advanced,’ Metzler said. ‘Usually, we’re a lot further along the line than we’re seeing now.’

Only 26 bills have advanced from the first of three rounds of debate required to pass a bill in Nebraska. There would normally be two to three times that number by mid-March, Metzler said.

‘I have nothing, nothing but time,’ she declared at one point. ‘And I am going to use all of it.

‘If people think that they are going to wear me down, if yesterday didn’t show you that you cannot wear me down – you cannot wear me down.

‘I literally left the floor yesterday, went up to my office, and laid down on the floor.

‘I laid down on the floor, a hard floor, and took a 20 minute nap before going to committee hearings. You cannot stop me. I will not be stopped.’

Cavanaugh’s stated reason for the filibuster is SB 574, a bill that, as amended, would ban sex-reassignment surgery from being performed in the state on anyone under the age of 19. After weeks of filibustering, the legislation finally received its first vote on Thursday, but Democrats are likely going to keep the slowdown in place throughout the remainder of the session.

That doesn’t mean that constitutional carry is done for this year. Far from it, as a matter of fact. If LB 77 clears second reading next Tuesday, as expected, only one more vote will need to happen before the bill goes to Gov. Jim Pillen for his signature. Ron DeSantis is probably going to get to put pen to paper first, but I think Pillen is still going to get the opportunity to enshrine constitutional carry into law before this year’s session is over.

Speaking of ‘When is Enough, Enough?”
While the whole hearing is interesting. Skipping to the 2:58 hour mark cuts though a lot of the normal BS.

ATF ‘Acts as a Fifth Column for Gun Control Advocacy Groups,’ Witness Testifies at Congressional Hearing
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives accused of overreach during joint subcommittee hearings

A congressional hearing on the actions of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was stopped briefly by the parents of a victim of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), who presided over the hearing, said the parents, Manuel and Patricia Oliver, were removed because they violated the hearing’s rules of decorum. He said purposes of discussion and debate are not served when meetings are disrupted.

“Dissent is not kryptonite,” Fallon said.

The Olivers’ 17-year-old son, Joaquin, was killed on Feb. 14, 2018, by a gunman who entered the school.

Fallon called a 5-minute recess about two hours into the hearing after the victim’s mother appeared to blame Republicans for “taking my son away from me.” Fallon asked officers to remove the couple, which drew loud protests.

Fallon said the hearing would be run civilly and with decorum as the demonstrators could be heard in the background. At one point Fallon looked at another congressman and asked, “Can’t the Capitol Police do their job?”

Later in the hearing, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) identified the couple and said that Manuel had been arrested. He asked Fallon if the committee could do something about that. Khanna said the committee should acknowledge the couple’s grief and pain.

“We need to, in this country, have some empathy,” Khanna said.

Fallon replied that he had no way of knowing who the couple was or why they were there. He also pointed out that no one on the committee had asked for them to be arrested.

“We requested they be removed, we did not request their arrest,” Fallon said. “What happened in the hallway, I can’t speak to.”

Prior to the disturbance, Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow with The Heritage foundation, was one of four witnesses testifying on March 23 before a joint hearing of subcommittees of the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability titled “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment: When is Enough Enough?”.

Continue reading “”

Whistleblowers sound alarm on FBI’s anti-gun effort

We’ve previously written about the FBI’s anti-gun shenanigans. In particular, how the FBI was pressuring Americans to essentially sign away their Second Amendment rights in an effort to apparently avoid prosecution.

It was particularly troubling, to say the least. Now, whistleblowers are offering warnings on the program in question.

FBI whistleblowers are raising concerns over the bureau’s involvement in a secret plea agreement conditioned by the U.S. government that stripped a defendant of their rights to own, buy, or even use firearms.

The FBI and Secret Service worked behind closed doors with an apparent prosecutor in 2019 to condition the signing of the form, which also stripped at least 60 people of their gun rights between 2011 and 2019, according to multiple Washington Examiner reports. Two FBI whistleblowers say the bureau’s actions in connection to the forms are yet the latest revelation of the politicization of agencies, an allegation at the heart of the newly launched GOP-led weaponization of the federal government subcommittee…

Kyle Seraphin, an FBI whistleblower and agent until April 2022 who notably leaked information related to the Justice Department taking aim at parents on school boards, said the bureau’s internal form usage is an example of it going “rogue.”

“I think it 100% relates to that,” he told the Washington Examiner. “There’s no meaningful oversight by Congress. The FBI resists oversight whenever it wants to hide behind the guise of an ongoing investigation or national security — take your pick. And it refuses to reveal information that is necessary for oversight.”

“This happens all the time,” Seraphin added.

The FBI has continued to come under fire for obtaining signatures on the NICS forms, which were also fed to at least five hospitals and medical centers so they could use them on patients, the Washington Examiner reported on March 7. The facilities were located in New Hampshire, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma, documents show.

However, as the Examiner notes, there’s nothing in the Gun Control Act of 1968 that permits these forms in the first place. While people who are a danger to themselves or others may be adjudicated by the courts as such, there’s no provision for being listed as such on a “voluntary” basis.

Further, there doesn’t appear to be any legitimate reason for the FBI to do anything like this, much less make such documents available to other law enforcement agencies or healthcare centers.

Let’s also not pretend that anything about this was really voluntary.

If the FBI shows up on your doorstep saying you’ve been a naughty boy or girl and then sits a form down in front of you saying that if you sign this, everything goes away, is that really voluntary? I mean, they don’t have a literal gun to your head, but there is a proverbial one.

No, they were coerced, plain and simple.

It’s well past time for them to have been called out for it, too.

At least 60 people have been stripped of their Second Amendment rights due to the FBI’s intimidation. That’s not how things are supposed to work in this country. It’s well past time we made sure things happened as they’re supposed to and not how some unelected bureaucrat thinks they should work.

Frankly, I can’t help but wonder if charges for those responsible are appropriate or not, but if so, I want the book thrown at them.

The demoncraps don’t like the idea that their houses of indoctrination may have some oversight by parents.

‘Parents Bill of Rights’ wins zero votes from Dems who attack it as ‘fascism,’ ‘extreme’ attack on schools
The bill is the GOP’s response to growing anger about lack of access to school information across the nation

The House voted to pass the Parents Bill of Rights Act on Friday over objections from Democrats who argued the bill is aimed at promoting “fascism” and “extreme” views of Republicans by making it easier for parents to ban books and out LBGTQ+ students.

The GOP bill is a response to growing anger across the country about access to information on everything from school curricula to safety and mask policies to the prevalence of gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom. Parents’ anger over these issues at school board meetings led to an effort by the Biden administration’s Justice Department to examine the “disturbing trend” of violent threats against school officials.

House Republicans reacted by approving the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would require school districts to give parents access to curriculum and reading lists and would require schools to inform parents if school staff begin encouraging or promoting their child’s gender transition.

The bill passed narrowly in a 213-208 vote that saw just a handful of Republicans vote against it, along with every Democrat.

Continue reading “”

Biden admin cracks down on air conditioners as war on appliances continues
Government mandates ‘enforce a level of efficiency that doesn’t make sense,’ energy expert says

The Biden administration announced its latest home appliance regulations this week, targeting air conditioners in an action it said would reduce the nation’s carbon emissions.

The regulations, unveiled Thursday by the Department of Energy (DOE), finalize energy efficiency standards for home air conditioning units, or window air conditioners, and portable air cleaners. The DOE said the move would cut air pollution and push consumer costs down by billions of dollars via energy savings.

“Today’s announcement builds on the historic actions President Biden took last year to strengthen outdated energy efficiency standards, which will help save on people’s energy bills and reduce our nation’s carbon footprint,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

“DOE will continue to engage with our public and private sector partners to finalize additional proposals like today’s that lower household energy costs and deliver the safer, healthier communities that every American deserves,” she continued.

Continue reading “”

Yes. It took 14 years, Justice Kennedy dying and Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett being seated to get the job nearly done.


Report: Far More Gun Laws Struck Down in Wake of Bruen Than Heller

The Supreme Court’s latest Second Amendment ruling has delivered more immediate effects than its previous landmark decision.

revised analysis from Jake Charles, an associate professor at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law, shows dozens of gun-rights claims have already succeeded in federal court since New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen was decided in June 2022. The new count, posted on Tuesday, puts post-Breun decisions far ahead of the pace of 2008’s District of Columbia v. Heller, which saw gun-rights advocates achieve relatively little in its immediate aftermath.

“There wasn’t a single successful Second Amendment challenge in the 6 months after Heller,” Charles said in a social media post. “In my research, I found *31* successful claims in the 8 months since Bruen.”

The disparity demonstrates that lower courts may be taking a different message from Bruen than Heller. While Heller established the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, it didn’t produce an explicit test for deciding future Second Amendment cases and struck down a total handgun ban that was already an outlier. Bruen struck down a concealed-carry permitting regime that was still used by eight states before the case, set down a specific test for deciding gun cases, and chastised lower courts for the test they had been using to decide cases after Heller.

One complicating factor in comparing the results of either ruling is that Heller wasn’t incorporated and applied to the states until 2010’s McDonald v. Chicago. Still, comparing the Charles count to one in a 2018 paper by Duke Law Professor Joseph Blocher and Southern Methodist University associate professor Eric Ruben, it took until 2012 for gun-rights advocates to top 30 wins after Heller. The success rate for Second Amendment claims has also been significantly higher post-Bruen than it was in the first several years after Heller, with Charles finding 14.6 percent of post-Bruen claims succeeding while Blocher and Ruben found fewer than ten percent succeeded in the four years after Heller.

There has been a significant difference in success rates for civil claims compared to criminal claims, which won far less often. Charles also broke out challenges by topic and saw a stark difference in how lower courts have handled different issues. Claims involving carry licensing or defaulting private property to be off limits for gun carry have won every time thus far. Claims over age restrictions, “ghost gun” regulations, and sensitive place bans have succeeded about half the time. In contrast, challenges to commercial regulations, the National Firearms Act, unlawful gun use, sentence enhancements, and bail conditions have failed every time.

Charles, who ran the Duke University Center for Firearms Law before joining Pepperdine, has been critical of the Court’s decision in Bruen. Most of his newly-published analysis focuses on claims the standard it adopted is unworkable and asserts “the Supreme Court may desire to sit as a super-legislature over nationwide gun policy” while imploring ” lower courts, legislators, and citizens” to resist that possibility. He critiques the use of a history-based standard for deciding cases about current firearms regulations and notes areas where lower courts have been at odds on how to implement it in practice.

He cites the increase in victories for plaintiffs making Second Amendment claims as evidence the Bruen standard is degrading gun restrictions across the country.

“The Court’s historical test has the potential to significantly expand the Second Amendment’s scope,” Charles wrote in the analysis. “No matter how compelling the state’s interest, no matter how narrowly tailored its regulation, Bruen’s new method appears to dictate that a modern gun law cannot stand without adequate grounding in the distant past.”

Naturally, gun-rights activists took an opposing viewpoint. The Truth About Guns, a pro-gun publication, echoed language from the Bruen majority to explain the difference in how lower courts have reacted to each ruling.

“It’s no longer a second-class right,” the publication tweeted.

Kostas Moros, a lawyer for the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said the deluge of pro-gun decisions was akin to the release of pent-up demand. He argued Bruen itself was the result of how little effect Heller had on the way lower courts viewed the Second Amendment.

“We are just making up for lost time,” he posted. “If courts had applied Heller in good faith and we had a sort of ‘win some, lose some’ scenario, Bruen probably never would have happened (or would have been limited to just being about carry).”

Flip-Flopping Bureaucraps, of all the departments, will be the death of the U.S.

Republicans blast gun brace rule, claim Second Amendment violation

WASHINGTON (Nexstar) – Republicans on Capitol Hill say the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is violating the Second Amendment with a new rule that took effect in 2023.

“Ever since Mr. Biden took office, his administration has actively sought to infringe on this right,” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) said.

Republicans specifically object to a new rule applying regulations on pistol stabilizing braces.

The inventor of the brace said he designed it to help disabled veterans use firearms, but Democrats say regardless of the intent, the device is used to exploit and create loopholes to gun laws.

Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD) said this would “allow owners to turn their weapons into short barrel rifles, efficient weapons of war without triggering traditional ATF oversight.”

Rep. Raskin says gun owners and sellers know and advertise the use of stabilizing braces to make pistols more accurate, and more dangerous while remaining easy to conceal.

Republicans say the rule could turn Americans who already own the device into criminals overnight — but that would only happen if the owner fails to register it before May 31.

Dianna Muller And The D.C. Project
Women of the D.C. Project meet with lawmakers to bring Second Amendment message.

Last September, the all-women D.C. Project had another successful trip to Washington, D.C., bringing its Second Amendment message that resonated with legislators on Capitol Hill. On a mission to share its credo that gun rights are human rights, the D.C. Project’s visit culminated in a successful rally at the Supreme Court Building.

The D.C. Project is a nationwide organization of women committed to safeguarding the Second Amendment. Started in 2016 by pro shooter and former NRA World Shooting Lady Champion, Dianna Muller, she had one goal—bringing this rapidly-growing demographic of gun owners in direct connection with legislators. Women can provide another perspective on the Second Amendment to lawmakers, including their involvement in competitive shooting.

Dianna Muller

Dianna Muller started the D.C. Project in 2016 to bring women firearm owners in connection with lawmakers. She is pictured on the right testifying last month before the Florida House Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law and Government Operations subcommittee about the Permitless Carry Bill.

Continue reading “”

I remember the sign at Christ Chapel that invited those carrying to volunteer that information so we could include them in our security plan so they could be seated accordingly for better coverage.


Missouri legislation seeks to allow guns in places of worship

Missouri Republicans are making a push to allow firearms to be carried inside religious establishments and lessen restrictions on access to firearms.

House Bill 485, heard in the House Emerging Issues Committee Wednesday evening, would override existing Missouri law that restricts the possession of a concealed carry firearm in places of worship without consent or knowledge of persons in charge.

Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, is sponsoring the bill, which he said the purpose of the bill is to ensure Missourians “constitutional right” to carry firearms when attending places of worship.

Private property rights would still stand, and if religious organizations want to not allow firearms in their spaces they may still choose to do so by posting signage outside, under the bill. Opponents questioned if that would put them at further risk.

William Bland spoke in support of the bill, stating that mass shootings in churches are real and would allow other concealed carry permit holders to strengthen the force against them.

“By granting permission, the church is exposed to liability in the event of a CCW permit holder is involved in an unfortunate event involving the firearm even if that action is justified,” Bland said. He said that removing the restriction of firearms would keep the church from being liable.

Continue reading “”

Fallon: Biden Administration Weaponizing ATF Against Law-Abiding Firearm Owners

WASHINGTON — Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon (R-Texas) opened today’s joint subcommittee hearing by slamming the Biden Administration’s recent actions infringing upon Americans’ Second Amendment rights. Subcommittee Chairman Fallon highlighted how under the Biden Administration, the ATF has been weaponized against law-abiding gun owners and Americans who wish to acquire firearms.

He emphasized how the ATF’s recent final rule related to stabilizing braces upends over a decade of precedent and could turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals unless they comply. Subcommittee Chairman Fallon closed by urging the Biden Administration to go after actual criminals rather than Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Below are Subcommittee Chairman Fallon’s remarks as prepared:

Continue reading “”

This decision by the entire 5th Circuit is precedence setting, and law, for these states: Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.


ICYMI 5 Circuit: Ban on 2A Rights by Civil Restraining Order is Unconstitutional

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-In the Fifth Circuit, the entire Court has ruled, en banc, that mere civil restraining orders may not infringe rights protected by the Second Amendment. The unconstitutional infringement was placed into law by the infamous Lautenberg Amendment in 1996. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been turned upside down and ruined by this infamous and unjust law.

Continue reading “”

I have not one doubt, even if I am in agreement with the National Rifle Association, that that kind of record keeping procedure [gun registration] is the first step to eventual confiscation under one administration or another.
—CHARLES MORGAN, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON DC ACLU

U.S. contractor killed, five service members and contractor wounded in drone strike in Syria

US retaliates with airstrikes in Syria after Iranian drone strike kills US contractor

The U.S. military carried out several airstrikes in Syria on Thursday in response to a drone strike Iranian forces conducted earlier in the day on a coalition base that killed one American.

The Defense Department said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps crashed a UAV into a building near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time, leaving one U.S. contractor dead. The attack also wounded five U.S. service members and another U.S. contractor.

U.S. intelligence assessed the UAV and determined it to be of Iranian origin — so President Biden authorized the military to retaliate, the Pentagon said.

Three service members and the U.S. contractor were medically evacuated to Coalition medical facilities in Iraq while the other two wounded service members were treated on-site.

“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Secretary Austin continued. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”

He added: “Our thoughts are with the family and colleagues of the contractor who was killed and with those who were wounded in the attack earlier today.”

The Pentagon said the U.S. took “proportionate and deliberate action” that limited the risk of escalation in its targeted response.

The U.S. has roughly 900 troops stationed in Syria.

DeKalb County homeowner shoots, kills man who broke into his home

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A man is dead after police say he tried breaking into a DeKalb County home early Thursday morning.

Investigators interviewed the homeowner, who they say shot and killed the intruder.

One neighbor told Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach that she heard two loud blasts and detectives said the homeowner used a shotgun. “It was that close, it was that loud,” one neighbor told Gehlbach, asking not to be identified.

DeKalb County police said they got a call of shots fired at a home on Peachcrest Road around 5:30 a.m. Thursday.

The neighbor said she heard two shots while getting ready for work.

“it’s kind of hard to believe. I’ve been living here my whole life, never had a break-in, never had anything like that,” the neighbor said.

But Sandy Mize, who lives next door, wasn’t that surprised.

“We didn’t hear the shots, but around here there’s shootings going on all the time,” Mize said.

Dekalb police said the man who tried to break in was shot and killed inside the house by the homeowner. He has not been identified.

Investigators have not said if there was any connection with the suspect or if the intruder also had a weapon.

“We knew he had guns though,” Mize said.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes was outside the home on Thursday night when a group of women from the Salvation Army came to the home to pray over it and offer assistance to the family.

Neighbor Gary Casten had no idea what brought all the police to his neighborhood and was speechless when he heard what had happened.

“Wow, I didn’t know,” Casten said. “You don’t have stuff like that happen around here.”

Neighbors said the homeowner lives in the home with his girlfriend but aren’t sure if there was a reason they would be targeted, or if it was just a random crime.

Gehlbach said it appears the homeowner will not face any charges because he was defending himself and his property.

“I just think it’s a sad state of affairs for the country,” one neighbor said. “In this case, somebody having a gun was a good thing.”