Second Amendment Roundup: VanDerStok Tests Limits of Yet Another ATF Rule
The Supreme Court is set to decide whether the agency may expand criminal liability under the Gun Control Act.

On October 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Garland v. VanDerStok, a challenge to the Final Rule of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) from 2022 redefining and drastically expanding the meaning of the terms “firearm” and “firearm frame or receiver.”  This is the first of several posts in which I’d like to highlight some of the enlightening amici curiae briefs that have been filed in support of the respondents who challenged the rule.

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‘We never have anything ever happen in this neighborhood, ever.’

Normalcy Bias:
The normalcy bias describes our tendency to underestimate the possibility of disaster and believe that life will continue as normal, even in the face of significant threats or crises.

The Graham Combat Killhouse Rules:
1. NOBODY IS COMING TO SAVE YOU.
2. EVERYTHING IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
3. SAVE WHO NEEDS TO BE SAVED.
4. KILL WHO NEEDS TO BE KILLED.
5. ALWAYS BE WORKING.

Neighbors share concern after police say homeowner shoots intruder in southwest Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Several neighbors shared their concern with 8 News Now Thursday after police said a person shot and killed a man trying to break into their home in the southwest Las Vegas valley.

“I was shocked,” Jennifer Sauberan said. “Because it’s a very quiet neighborhood.”

Sauberan, who told 8 News Now she has lived in her neighborhood near Torrey Pines Drive and Flamingo Drive for decades, was startled by a crime scene on her street.

“I was just thinking oh my God what if I hadn’t come back the night before?” Sauberan said. “It could have been my house.”

During a news conference, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Homicide Lieutenant Jason Johansson said the homeowner called 911 around 7:40 a.m. stating that a strange man was breaking windows, trying to get inside their house.

“The man was not listening to what they were telling him,” Lt. Johansson explained. “He was acting extremely irrational as they continued to tell him to leave the property.” Lt. Johansson said that’s when the man moved toward the front door and the homeowner pulled the trigger.

Officers found that man in the driveway with a gunshot wound. He later died at the hospital.

Several neighbors shared their concern with 8 News Now Thursday after police said a person shot and killed a man trying to break into their home in the southwest valley. (KLAS)
“We want to see in a situation like this,” Lt. Johansson explained of the investigation. “Where did he come from? How did he get here?”

As detectives work to piece together why this happened, Sauberan told 8 News now she will continue to do what she can to stay safe.

“I have cameras around my house now,” she explained. “I put them up more recently, but then I put in flood lights and stuff because it makes me a little bit nervous sometimes.”

Sauberan said she hopes things in the area go back to what she’s used to seeing. “It was so unexpected,” she concluded of the shooting. ‘We never have anything ever happen in this neighborhood, ever.”

Lt. Johansson said during Thursday’s news conference that there are ‘self-defense’ elements in this case.

He said he does not believe the homeowner will face charges, but the investigation is ongoing and the Clark County District Attorney will make that determination.

After Nasrallah, Another Hezbollah Leader Killed In Israeli Strike

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a precision strike in the Dahieh district of Beirut on Saturday, eliminating senior Hezbollah intelligence operative Hassan Khalil Yassin. This operation took place not long after Hezbollah declared Hassan Nasrallah, their erstwhile leader, dead.

Yassin oversaw a division that was in charge of locating military and civilian targets both inside Israeli territory and near the country’s northern border. Yassin had a key role in communicating with Hezbollah’s attack divisions, according to the IDF. Throughout the conflict, he was instrumental in organizing assaults on troops and civilians in Israel.

The IDF said that the attack on Yassin was led by the Military Intelligence Directorate. The military made a point of highlighting Yassin’s role in organizing more terror strikes that are expected to take place in the next few days. His removal is a component of a larger plan to undermine Hezbollah’s capacity for operations.

Prior attacks focused on a number of Hezbollah locations in Lebanon, including factories that produce rocket and missile launchers. The IDF targeted smuggling routes near the Syrian border on Friday night. These routes were essential for bringing parts and weaponry into Lebanon from the east. According to the IDF, these materials were sent to factories that make a range of weaponry, including missiles with precise guidance.

Metro police investigating homicide after Spring Valley homeowner shoots, kills intruder

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metro Police are investigating a homicide at the 6400 block of Placer Drive in Spring Valley.

Around 7:40 a.m. on Thursday, metro said they received a call from a residence in the 6400 block of Placer Drive that a male suspect was breaking into their home. They said the suspect had just broken the glass around their front door.

Metro said officers were dispatched to the residence and a gunshot was heard over the 911 call. The homeowners told police that they had just shot the male suspect.

As officers responded to the scene, they said they located the male suspect in the driveway of the residence with a gunshot wound. They said they rendered medical aid and personnel then transported him to University Medical Center where he died.

Metro said the homeowners have been cooperative with investigators and told police that the suspect was acting extremely irrational and not listening to demands to leave the property.

Metro said they do not anticipate an arrest at this time, but the investigation will still need to undergo review by the Clark County District Attorney’s office to determine if charges need to be filed.

Homicide detectives are canvassing the area as part of their investigation and said they are reviewing surveillance footage and collecting witness statements from nearby residences.

Metro said the homeowners are in their 20s and appears that they just moved in recently. The male suspect is believed to be in his 30s or 40s.

Hezbollah Confirms Its Leader Has Died in an Israeli Airstrike

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day.

A statement said Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs.” Hezbollah vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”

Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership were meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes, which leveled six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front and other commanders were also killed, the Israeli military said.

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Consequences Finally Arrive for ‘Just Stop Oil’ Lunatics, and the Response Is Priceless

After years of disruption and vandalism, consequences have finally arrived for “Just Stop Oil” protesters. I’m not just talking about some motorists throwing them out of the street either, as satisfying as that usually is. This time, actual prison sentences were handed down.

In October 2022, two women entered the National Gallery in London and threw soup onto a famous Van Gogh painting. They then glued themselves to the wall while ranting about climate change. Video of the incident went viral at the time.

Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, were arrested for their deeds, though it wasn’t immediately clear any real punishment would be handed down. Now, nearly two years later, the two soup aficionados will be eating a lot of it behind bars. Plummer received two years while Holland got 20 months.

The response from “Just Stop Oil” was priceless. Instead of defiantly proclaiming the sacrifice was worth it to save the world, they cried foul, suggesting the punishment was far too harsh for the crime.

“Just Stop Oil” is a cult. It takes impressionable people and convinces them that if they don’t break the law and make the lives of other people miserable, life on Earth will cease to exist in relatively short order. Being brainwashed doesn’t give a person the right to block streets and damage priceless pieces of art. That’s a lesson these lunatics have been loath to learn over the years. I don’t know if this will change the calculus for them, but it’s necessary nonetheless.

The judge who oversaw the case wasn’t kind in his sentencing remarks.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Hehir said:  “Your culpability is at level A. You did reconnaissance and planning and talked to a journalist. Your harm is at category 1, which means extreme harm to society.”

He indicated that conscience was not a mitigating factor and that “The action you took was extreme, disproportionate and criminally idiotic given the risks involved”. He continued  “There is nothing peaceful or nonviolent about throwing soup. Throwing soup in someone’s face is violent.” 

Addressing Phoebe he said “You think your beliefs entitle you to do anything. I was treated to a lengthy exposition to your political views. The suggestion that you and others like you in a democracy are political prisoners is ludicrous, offensive and idiotic. You have no remorse and you are proud.”

The key phrase there is, “You think your beliefs entitle you to do anything.” That is the paradigm these “activists” operate under. The fact that others have a right to go to work, get to hospitals, and enjoy their lives doesn’t register with them. Doomsday cults do not care about other people. They only care about their delusions of grandeur.

For context, “Just Stop Oil” is demanding all fossil fuel extraction be ceased by 2030. What would happen if they accomplished that goal? Millions upon millions of people would die, with the highest death tolls being in underdeveloped nations in places like Africa. Fossil fuels power the world. To think that can be stopped in the next five years is absurd and dangerous. If anything, these two women got off easy.

No Second Amendment, No First: God, Guns, and the Government

 

Today’s Left endlessly preaches the evils of “gun violence.” It is a message increasingly echoed from the nation’s pulpits, presented as common-sense decency and virtue. Calls for “radical non-violence” are routinely endowed with the imprimatur of religious doctrine.

But what if such teachings were misguided, even damaging? What if the potential of a citizenry to exercise force against violent criminals and tyrannical governments is not just compatible with church teaching, but flows from the very heart of Biblical faith and reason? What if the freedoms we treasure are intimately tied to the power to resist violent coercion?

This is the long-overdue case John Zmirak makes with stunning clarity and conviction in No Second Amendment, No First. A Yale-educated journalist and former college professor, Zmirak shows how the right of self-defense against authoritarian government was affirmed in both the Old and New Testaments, is implied in Natural Law, and has been part of Church tradition over the centuries.

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