Engineer testifies during 2nd Amendment challenge to Illinois assault weapons ban

An engineer who spent decades designing weapons for one of the world’s leading gun manufacturers testified Tuesday that the assault-style weapons now banned in Illinois are intended only for civilian use and cannot be easily converted into military-grade firearms.

James Ronkainen, a former engineer for the Remington Firearms, said the AR-style rifles and many other weapons that are now heavily restricted under the Protect Illinois Communities Act, are classified in the industry as “modern sporting rifles,” or MSRs, and he said ordinary users of such weapons cannot easily convert them into fully automatic weapons.

“I don’t think they can,” he said. Ronkainen testified during the second day of a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn in a case challenging the constitutionality of the assault weapons ban. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to keep and bear the type of arms that are commonly used for lawful purposes such as self-defense.

But it also said not all firearms are protected under the Constitution, including certain “dangerous and unusual” weapons. Ronkainen testified that the AR-style weapons restricted under the Illinois law are widely popular with consumers and that they are intended for legal purposes, including self-defense, hunting and target shooting.

But attorneys for the state have said they plan to argue the weapons covered by the law are commonly used in mass shootings, including the one at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park in 2022 that left seven people dead and dozens more injured. That shooting prompted Illinois lawmakers to quickly pass PICA in January of 2023.

The attorneys for the state also said they will argue that the way gun manufacturers market and sell their products to consumers should not determine whether the weapon is protected under the Constitution. The trial is scheduled to continue through Friday, but attorneys in the case have suggested it could wrap up as early as Wednesday or Thursday.

 

Haitians & Cubans paroled into the USA for more than 1 year are “qualified aliens” to receive Federal Welfare, including Medicaid, Social Security, SSI, SNAP, TANF, & Student Aid.

Haitians & Cubans are specially exempted from the normal 5-year waiting period to get alien welfare that other “qualified aliens” have to satisfy prior to qualifying for these Federal Welfare programs.

President Trump needs Tier One military protection
Delta, DEVGRU (Seal Team -6) operators far superior to Secret Service.

President Donald J. Trump and the entire country have been lucky — twice — but the problem with relying upon luck as an executive protection strategy is that luck can eventually run out.

The United States Secret Service had their chance to protect our 45th and possibly 47th President. They failed miserably, two times, and a good man was murdered and three people — including the former president — were wounded because of their ineptitude.

Rather than ordering immediate firings, all the Secret Service offered an angry public was excuses. President Trump’s protective detail was “redlined” they claimed, suffering from too much overtime. As a result, a handful of unfit and inexperienced DHS agents were seconded to the President’s protective detail, but only after watching a two-hour webinar. One of the DHS agents couldn’t even holster her Glock.

While senior FBI and Secret Service officials dither, dodge and dick around over who is to blame, President Trump remains protected mostly by sheer luck and a lot of prayers.

This. Must. Change.

Trump’s sleepy Secret Service detail should be fired and quickly replaced by blue and green guys from JSOC’s Special Mission Units.

Delta and DEVGRU Tier One operators are infinitely superior to the poorly trained clock-watchers in the Secret Service. They’re faster, fitter and far more professional. They shoot with surgical precision and operate regularly on a zero-fail mission basis — a standard to which the Secret Service can only claim to aspire.

Key to our operators’ success is their training, which includes executive protection and just about everything else, and they don’t deploy alone. Both Delta and DEVGRU have their own highly specialized support elements, which include air assets, drone operators, cyber warriors and intelligence analysts, who are all experts in their fields and far superior to anything the Secret Service could ever dream of bringing to the fight.

It is clear the left will never stop weaponizing unstable individuals with their heated anti-Trump rhetoric. History has shown they’ll watch their mouths for a week or two, but then resume their “threat to democracy” hogwash en masse, as if on cue.

The Congressional investigations into the first assassination attempt will take months and likely blame only low-level supervisors who have already been allowed to retire and keep their federal pensions. Meanwhile, President Trump remains at risk.

By the Grace of God, he survived two assassination attempts. Delta and DEVGRU operators could guarantee there will never be a third.

Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hand-held radios used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south and in Beirut suburbs, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions launched via the group’s pagers.

Lebanon’s health ministry said nine people had been killed and more than 300 injured, while the death toll from Tuesday’s explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.

At least one of Wednesday’s blasts took place near a funeral organised by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country and wounded many of its fighters.

A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels around them.

Lebanon’s Red Cross said on X that it was responding with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas, including the south of Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Hezbollah, which was thrown briefly into disarray by the pager attacks, said on Wednesday it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets, the first strike at its arch-foe since the blasts wounded thousands of its members in Lebanon and raised the prospect of a wider Middle East war.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labelled “ICOM” and “made in Japan.”

According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

The company has said that production of several models of the ICOM hand-held radio have been discontinued, including the IC-V82, which appeared to closely match those in images from Lebanon on Wednesday and which was phased out in 2014.

There was no immediate reply from ICOM to a Reuters request for comment on Wednesday.

Continue reading “”

BLUF
If there’s one thing the Democrats have proven without a doubt over these last three and a half years, it’s that they’re committed cheerleaders to censorship and shutting down opposing views.

CA Gov. Newsom Signs Ban Against Political Deepfakes; Elon Musk Mercilessly Trolls Him With… Deepfakes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a strict new censorship law Tuesday that will make it illegal to produce or distribute AI political videos around election season. Tell me that this doesn’t sound like it infringes on the First Amendment:

The new law, the strictest in the country, takes effect immediately and aims to crack down on deceptive content which uses artificial intelligence to create false images or videos.

The law makes it illegal to create and publish deepfakes ahead of Election Day and 60 days thereafter. It also allows courts to stop distribution of the materials and impose civil penalties, per The Associated Press.

The blowback was immediate. Former Republican State Senator Melissa Melendez (R) predicted this law will have a short shelf life:

A free speech group called The Fire argued that this is not the way to attack the problems posed by AI:

In targeting “deceptive” political content, California’s new law threatens satire, parody, and other First Amendment-protected speech.

A.B. 2839 bans sharing “deceptive” digitally modified content about candidates for office for any purpose. That means sharing such content even to criticize it or point out it’s fake could violate the law.

The law also requires satire and parody to be labeled, like requiring a comedian to preface every joke with an announcement he’s making a joke.

That’s not funny — it’s scary. Whatever concerns exist about AI-generated expression, violating the First Amendment isn’t the way to address them.

Newsom was triggered by a (hysterical) Kamala Harris campaign ad that Musk retweeted without telling everyone a fact that was completely obvious to any sentient being—it was a fake. I wrote about the “commercial” when it came out in July:

But Gavin grew cranky and failed to appreciate the humor. In fact, he said that the measure was in direct response to Musk’s post:

But what perhaps the elegantly coiffed governor failed to take into consideration was that Musk is kind of like a hornet’s nest: poke him, and he’ll come back at you like a swarm. He masterfully mocked the failed guv with several tweets, including one Tuesday where he retweeted the original fake Kamala ad (which currently has 55 million views) that so upset Gov. Grumpy:

He wasn’t done, though; remember that I said that it was like poking a hornet’s nest; you’ll probably get bitten more than once. On Wednesday, the X owner fired off another fake video, this one produced by the parody site The Babylon Bee. (Note to Mr. Newsom: the Bee openly says they are a parody site. I’m sure if they run afoul of this ridiculous new law, their lawyers will make that very clear.)

It is absolutely brutal—and brilliant:

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, and I am not qualified to deliver a detailed legal analysis of the law. However, I can nevertheless confidently tell you that there will be plenty of court action surrounding it, and that it could ultimately be struck down.

The incredible power of AI is a serious issue, and sensible laws will have to be considered as it gets better and better. That being said, I’m sure not comfortable letting folks like Gavin Newsom decide what we can and cannot say. If there’s one thing the Democrats have proven without a doubt over these last three and a half years, it’s that they’re committed cheerleaders to censorship and shutting down opposing views.

Burglary suspect in St. Louis County who tells victim ‘shoot me,’ is shot, criminally charged

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (First Alert 4) – A suspect in a burglary Tuesday in Hanley Hills who allegedly told his victim “you’ll have to shoot me (explicative),” when ordered to leave the home, was shot in the chest and is now criminally charged.

St. Louis County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Cedric Marshall, who court records show is either 47 or 48-years old, of Wellston, Missouri, with courts of first-degree burglary and misdemeanor assault. Courts have set bond at $250,000.

A booking photo was not immediately available.

According to charging documents filed by North County Police Cooperative, officers responded Tuesday to the 7900 block of Bloom Drive to investigate a reported home invasion and shooting. At the scene, they found Marshall in the backyard of a home suffering a gunshot wound.

Police said the residents were awakened by Marshall standing over their bed naked from the waist down. One of the residents allegedly retrieved a pistol and told Marshall to leave when Marshall lunged and stated he would have to be shot.

The resident then shot Marshall once in the chest and he fell to the floor saying, “alright man don’t shoot me no more,” according to charging documents.

Police said the victim ordered Marshall out of the house again and he complied, apparently making it to the backyard. Two children were also present in the home when the alleged burglary and shooting took place, charging documents state.

Forensic evidence at the scene corroborated the victim’s account, police said.

Josh Hawley
🚨🚨 NEW WHISTLEBLOWER allegations – this time about the latest attempt on Trump’s life. Whistleblower alleges Secret Service apparently failed to account for “known vulnerabilities” at Trump’s golf course. Shooter was able to lie in wait for 12 hours. What is the explanation?

Contradicting herself in the same sentence, how efficient

Kamala Harris: We’re Not Taking Anyone’s Guns, but We Must Ban AR-15s

Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris said she would not be taking away anyone’s guns then immediately pushed an AR-15 ban during a Tuesday question-and-answer with reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists.

Harris said, “I am a gun owner, and Tim Walz is a gun owner, and we’re not trying to take anyone’s guns away from them, but we do need an ‘assault weapons’ ban.”

It appears that such a ban — if it were actually a ban — would take AR-15- and AK-47-style rifles away from the law-abiding Americans who currently own them.

Banning AR-15s, AK-47s, and other firearms that Democrats describe as “assault weapons” has been part of Harris’s gun control agenda since she vied for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2019. Moreover, Harris made clear during the 2019 nominating cycle that she would enact such a ban via executive action if elecetd.

On April 22, 2019, Breitbart News reported Harris’s plan to give Congress 100 days to pass new gun controls if she won the White House. Should Congress fail to act, Harris made clear she would simply use executive orders to achieve the gun control she desires.

Then, on July 13, 2019, Harris again pledged to bypass Congress and enact executive gun control should she win the presidency.

Harris remarked, “Gun violence is the leading cause of death for young [b]lack men in America. We must stop this. When president, I will take executive action to ensure guns do not fall into the wrong hands.”

So…Harris wants a ban on certain types of guns, but she also claims she is “not trying to take anyone’s guns away from them.”

CCRKBA: TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT PROVES GUN CONTROL DOESN’T WORK

BELLEVUE, WA – The arrest of a man in connection with an alleged assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Florida has elicited calls from several sources for more gun control, but the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says the incident actually provides more evidence that gun control laws simply don’t work.

The suspect, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Various published reports say he has “an extensive criminal record” with more than 100 criminal counts filed against him when he lived in North Carolina, and he has a felony conviction for possession of stolen property. He is also known to have made political donations to Democrat campaigns.

“What this case shows is that someone with evil intentions will find a way to get his hands on a firearm,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Reports that the serial number of the rifle recovered by police had been filed off indicate the suspect knew what he was doing.

“We know from various reports this man appears to have violated several existing gun control laws,” he added.

“Just as important,” Gottlieb continued, “is that this case also reinforces the notion that our criminal justice system, rather than the country’s gun control laws, is what needs to be reformed. With this guy’s reported criminal history, he should not have had a firearm. But guess what? Gun laws have never stopped someone determined to commit mayhem.”

Gottlieb is pleased that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised an investigation by authorities in the Sunshine State, which could yield more valuable information about the suspect, and how he was able to get so close to the former president.

“This sort of thing should never happen even once,” Gottlieb observed. “But now it has happened to Donald Trump twice.

September 18,  2024

1793 – The first cornerstone of the United States Capitol is laid by George Washington.

2010 – At 15:30 hours Eastern Standard Time, Sergeant First Class Ronald A. Grider, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, United States Army Special Operations Command, dies as a result of wounds suffered earlier in action against enemy forces in Kunduz Province Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.