Smith & Wesson Gets Booted Off Facebook

One of the oldest firearms manufacturers in the United States, with generations of history supplying legal firearms worldwide to law enforcement, police and other government organizations, not to mention millions of civilian customers, has had their Facebook account shut down.

Getting the boot

According to a post that Smith & Wesson made on The Social Media Platform Formerly Known As Twitter (“X,” as Elon Musk wants us to call it now), the historic manufacturer saw their Facebook account canceled in late November, 2024. Here’s their announcement, verbatim:

Despite our extensive efforts and resources spent on trying to adhere to Facebook’s ever-changing community guidelines on firearms, our account was suspended indefinitely on Friday, November 22nd, 15 years after its original creation.

In an era where free speech and the right to bear arms are under constant attack, we want to thank @elonmusk and @X for supporting free speech and our constitutional rights guaranteed by the 1st and 2nd Amendments.

While we work to reinstate our account, we encourage our 1.6 million Facebook followers and fans to seek out platforms that represent these shared values.

https://twitter.com/Smith_WessonInc/status/1861856272657822178

 

They posted the following image of their ban announcement as well:

And for his part, Twitter/X owner Elon Musk replied to Smith & Wesson’s post by saying “We restored the gun emoji and believe in the Constitution 🔫🔫.”

An ongoing trend

While some readers might be surprised by this news, they shouldn’t be. Meta-owned Facebook is just one of many online platforms that continue to enact restrictions on legal firearm owners—I myself have received warnings for posting photos from a hunting stand. YouTube creators have seen their channels targeted by anti-firearm restrictions in recent months. In an era of political and social instability, Big Tech appears to be doubling down on its slow march to ban public displays of firearms, instead of walking back policies that discriminate against gun owners.

Suspect killed, food vendor with Concealed-Carry License hurt in exchange of gunfire in Austin (Chicago neighborhood)

CHICAGO (WLS) — A food vendor with a Concealed-Carry License shot and killed a man who pulled a gun on him Friday night, Chicago police said.

Police said the shooting happened in the South Austin neighborhood’s 300-block of South Central Avenue just before 9 p.m.

A 30-year-old man approached a 35-year-old man, who is a food vendor, and there was a brief struggle, police said.

Police said the 30-year-old took out a gun, and the 35-year-old, who is a CCL holder, also took out a gun.

There was an exchange of gunfire, and the 30-year-old, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his body, was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The Cook County Medical Examiner later said 34-year-old Demitrius Manning was killed in the incident. Police had reported earlier the man who died was 30 years old.

The 35-year-old food vendor, shot in his right arm, was transported to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.

Police said the incident is being investigated as an attempted robbery.

There were two firearms on the scene, and Area Four detectives are investigating, police said.

Police did not immediately provide further information about the shooting.

BLUF
Learn and memorize your rights, exercise them, and protect them every single day.
If you truly want politics and government to leave you alone to live your life in peace, you have to pay attention. That is your ultimate responsibility.

Citizen Responsibilities

As far back as elementary school, I remember teachers telling kids that we, as citizens of the United States, had responsibilities to ourselves and the country. I know that a lot of people would prefer to avoid politics and political topics altogether. I get it. Politics is frustrating, angering, annoying, and at times boring (ever try to read a policy proposal? I highly recommend them if you have insomnia and don’t want to take any drugs). But we as adult citizens have a responsibility to keep this country running as well as possible, oppose bad policies, and most importantly, we have a responsibility to pay attention so that we are fully aware of what is going on with our politicians and institutions. It’s our responsibility to pay attention and stop them from going off the rails.

I don’t care that you don’t want to pay attention to politics. YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SO. Especially if you want everything to become or remain “normal.”

I will discuss equality of opportunity versus equity of outcomes in a future post. That is not the topic for today.

Responsibilities of citizenship go beyond simply turning up to vote every couple of years. Although that is one of the most important activities you can do. HOWEVER, if you are an uninformed voter, you are not helping anyone. Uninformed voters simply go along to get along and vote as they’re told or as they always have without regard to any changes in party platforms, policies, candidates, funding sources, anything. All of those things should inform you, the voter, as to whether or not your preferred party is engaging in business as usual or has changed course. Or no longer matches your values and preferred outcomes.

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BREAKING: NIH Chief Admits COVID Global Health Initiatives Were “Completely Made Up;” Reveals COVID Vaccines Don’t “Stop You From Getting COVID”.

Raja Cholan, Chief of the Health Data Standards Branch at the U.S. National Library of Medicine for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has raised eyebrows with his candid remarks on COVID vaccines, global health strategies, and their broader implications.

Cholan admitted he has chosen not to receive the latest COVID vaccine boosters, citing mixed evidence of their efficacy: “I haven’t gotten the latest COVID shots, and I’m not going to… there’s mixed evidence about if it really does anything.” He also expressed concerns over the risks the vaccine poses to younger individuals, saying, “For people that are 30 or under, it really increases your risk for heart conditions. The data does show that… I’m close enough to 30 to where I don’t want to have a heart attack.”

Cholan further questioned the vaccines’ effectiveness, stating, “I don’t even know if these vaccines stop you from getting COVID. They don’t.”

Cholan also linked the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to funding research in Wuhan, China, alleging, “There is some evidence out that the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases… they might have funded Wuhan, a lab in Wuhan, China, to make COVID.” He pointed to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s former role at NIAID, claiming, “That’s where Fauci was the director. Like they might have funded some labs to do vaccine studies and disease, like to prepare for an outbreak.”

Criticizing the expedited vaccine approval process, Cholan noted the contrast with the measles vaccine, which requires multiple rounds of testing: “The measles vaccine requires several rounds of approval, but the COVID-19 vaccines were accelerated through the approvals for all of us to get our boosters.” He also highlighted the financial motivations behind the vaccines, saying, “Pfizer and Moderna are just getting a bunch of money from it.”

Cholan concluded by commenting on the difficulty of implementing reform, even under an administration led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He pointed to the entrenched relationships between federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies, adding, “Anything that RFK would want to do probably would just, like, wouldn’t happen.”

O’Keefe Media Group reached out to Cholan for comment regarding his statements but did not receive a response. On release day of the first installation of the NIH Tapes, Cholan deleted his LinkedIn account, sparking further speculation about his involvement in the issues raised.

Tom Cotton slams ‘partisans and obstructionists’ in DOD reportedly plotting to block Trump plans

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blasted anyone within the Defense Department working to safeguard certain norms or policies that they expect the incoming Trump administration to target.

“It appears that partisans and obstructionists inside the Department of Defense are laying groundwork to defy or circumvent President Trump’s plans for both military and civil-service reform,” Cotton wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in reference to reports of such strategizing among DOD employees.

“These actions undermine civilian control of the military and our constitutional structure of government.”

Earlier this month, it was reported that there were “informal discussions” occurring among Pentagon officials on what the department would do if Trump ordered the military for a domestic purpose or if he fired a significant number of employees, per CNN.

One anonymous defense official was quoted in the report saying, “Troops are compelled by law to disobey unlawful orders.”

“But the question is what happens then – do we see resignations from senior military leaders? Or would they view that as abandoning their people?” they reportedly asked.

President-elect Trump promised during his campaign to shake up the federal government, whether it be through staffing changes or reorganization. Some reports have indicated specific people are being looked at for termination once he enters office again. An ally of Trump, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has been vocal about his belief that the federal government must be shrunk in size.

Ramaswamy has been tapped by Trump, along with billionaire business magnate Elon Musk, to lead his planned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in his new administration. The proposed department has the goal of reducing the size of government, cutting spending and increasing efficiency.

Cotton criticized Lloyd in his letter for “promulgating false claims that the incoming administration plans to arbitrarily fire uniformed leaders.”

Further, he slammed the secretary for a message after the election that the military would specifically follow “lawful orders” from Trump. Cotton said this was “a thinly veiled and baseless insinuation that President Trump will issue unlawful orders.”

“I have to observe that these actions and reports only prove the need for reform and fundamental change at the Department of Defense. And, of course, while inappropriate and annoying, these tactics are also useless because no action by the outgoing administration can limit the incoming president’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief,” the Arkansas Republican wrote.

Cotton was recently elected to serve as chairman of the Senate Republican conference in the new Congress. He is also expected to take Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s place as the head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The DOD did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital for purposes of this story.

November 28, 2024

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Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Outside the United States, it is sometimes called American Thanksgiving to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name and related celebrations in other regions. The modern national celebration dates to 1863 and has been linked to the Pilgrims 1621 harvest festival since the late 19th century. As the name implies, the theme of the holiday generally revolves around giving thanks with the centerpiece of most celebrations being a Thanksgiving dinner.

 

Trump Cabinet Nominees And Administration Appointees Threatened, Swatted Before Thanksgiving.

Former President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees faced a series of threats overnight and on Wednesday morning.

“Several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote in a press release on Wednesday morning.

The threats, which came the night before Thanksgiving eve, “ranged from bomb threats to “swatting,’” in which a suspect falsely reports an emergency to trigger a police response against his target, according to the release. Police and “other authorities” quickly acted for the “safety of those who were targeted.”

“President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action,” Leavitt wrote. “With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us.”

Trump has so far faced at least two attempted assassination attempts. In the first, a would-be assassin shot Trump in the head at a Pennsylvania rally, and in the second, a shooter waited in the bushes on a Florida golf course to ambush him, as The Federalist previously reported. Apparently this violence is now being directed toward Trump’s associates.

Leftists have consistently incited violence against Trump by calling him a “Nazi,” peddling the recent Madison Square Garden media hoax and refusing to abandon their incendiary rhetoric in the days after the first assassination attempt.

FYI, they’re ‘often called silencers’ because 1, the inventor, Hiram P. Maxim called them that and 2, that’s what they’re called in federal law; NFA-34

Major Medical Group Endorses Firearms Silencers to Prevent Hearing Loss

Sound suppressors, often called silencers, help protect gun owners’ hearing.

That’s the conclusion one of the largest ear-doctor organizations, with more than 13,000 members, reached this month. The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) issued a position statement backing the use of the noise-reducing devices. It pointed to three different studies that found suppressors help prevent hearing loss.

“Sound suppressors are mechanical devices attached to the barrel of a firearm designed to reduce harmful impulse noise of firearms at its source,” the group’s statement reads. “CDC research has shown that ‘The only potentially effective noise control method to reduce [shooters’] noise exposure from gunfire is through the use of noise suppressors that can be attached to the end of the gun barrel.’ Suppressors reduce muzzle blast noise by up to 30 dB.”

The backing of a major medical organization could help boost the use of suppressors among gun owners. It could also lend support to efforts to reform the laws governing their purchase and possession. While the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has opened up online suppressor registration and increased the speed they process those registrations, the devices remain heavily regulated under the same federal law that governs machine guns.

Reform is what Dr. Timothy Wheeler was hoping for when he proposed the statement alongside six colleagues. Wheeler, a board-certified otolaryngologist and AAO-HNS life fellow, is also the founder of Doctors For Responsible Gun Ownership. He said he hopes AAO-HNS’s adoption of the statement leads to a different approach to gun ownership at major medical organizations.

“My personal hope is that this represents maybe a change of heart for at least one small part of academic medicine,” Wheeler told The Reload. “Academic medicine has a very long way to go to climb out of the credibility gap that they have created for themselves in the public eye because they’ve been pretty much taken over by a lot of social and political crusades, including gun control, going way back to the late 1980s.”

He emphasized the AAO-HNS statement doesn’t advocate for any law or policy changes.

“It’s purely a scientifically based observation,” Wheeler said. “They are saying nothing beyond what’s in the statement.”

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