2024 Republican Platform Drops Gun-Rights Promises

In its first official platform since 2016, the Grand Old Party (GOP) slashed all mention of its gun policy positions.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) Platform Committee voted 84-to-18 on Monday to adopt the new 2024 platform language after skipping the process entirely in 2020. The finalized document leans into former President Donald Trump’s “America First” outlook and parrots many of his stances on issues ranging from immigration to trade. However, it also minimized the party’s emphasis on gun policy compared to its previous platform.

The entire platform discusses gun rights just once, in a preamble statement about the party’s dedication to defending “our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.” The final product omits any discussion of tangible gun policy ideas.

The Republican Party platform’s downplaying of Second Amendment issues comes as the gun-rights movement finds itself in a precarious position politically. As guns have become increasingly polarized along party lines, gun-rights supporters have found themselves reliant on Republicans for political support. President Joe Biden has made gun control a fixture of his tenure in office and is already campaigning on even more sweeping proposals, including a ban on sales of the popular AR-15, in a potential second term. At the same time, while the GOP’s current standard-bearer has continued to seek the support of the National Rifle Association and make promises in speeches to the group, he has been fickle on gun policy at times. His felony convictions also mean he can no longer legally own or possess firearms.

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Colorado Finds 1 in 4 Homicides with Firearms are ‘Justifiable Self Defense’

The number of times firearms are used in self-defense is difficult to quantify. In a rare analysis of data concerning deaths related to firearms, the Colorado Center for Health & Environmental data has produced figures that indicate firearms are commonly used for self-defense.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment analyzed 5,287  firearm-related deaths in Colorado from 2016 to 2020. Of those deaths, the vast majority, 73.6%, were suicides. 24.9% were homicides/assaults (about 1316). Of the homicides, 24.7% were justifiable self-defense (about 325).

Firearms availability has minimal if any, effect on overall suicide rates. Firearms availability may increase or decrease overall homicide rates. The preponderance of the evidence is the availability of firearms has either no effect or slightly reduces overall homicide rates. Increasing legal firearms carry appears to have a small but measurable effect in decreasing overall homicide rates.

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Homeowner shoots an attempted burglar in Valley Village

A Valley Village [California] home became the scene of a shooting investigation Monday afternoon after the homeowner fired his weapon at attempted burglars, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Investigators believe three masked men tried to break into the home on Addison Street near Colfax Avenue, but they were stopped by the property owner.

The homeowner fired his weapon, injuring one of the three suspected burglars.

While the injured suspect was conscious and breathing when officers responded to the scene, the other suspects ran away.

Europe Doesn’t Want to Be Saved.

It hasn’t been a good week for Europe, and the news isn’t getting any better. In almost poetic fashion, the United Kingdom delivered itself into the clutches of the radical left on the Fourth of July, sweeping the socialist Labour Party into power.

Here’s how that’s going.

 

Keir Starmer is the new far-left prime minister, and oddly enough, his plan to release tens of thousands of criminals didn’t make it into the platform he ran on. Couple that with continued mass migration of Islamists, and you can guess how things are going to turn out long term. As bad as things have been in the United Kingdom over the last decade, the decline will accelerate.

Then there’s the French. After a surprise first round elevated the right-wing National Rally Party, the country’s far-left, from Emmanual Macron to the literal communists, colluded to win the second round. That included pushing hundreds of candidates to strategically drop out of their races to ensure the left wing held enough seats to form a coalition. French voters happily played along.

As in the UK, the results were predictable. Win or lose, there were going to be riots because that’s what European leftists do, with Palestinian flags marking the pro-migration messaging.

I wish I could say there’s hope for Western Europe, but the sad reality is that Europeans don’t want to be saved. These elections weren’t rigged. Voters chose this path, and now they are going to get the consequences good and hard.

By 2050, Muslims are projected to make up 14 percent of Europe’s population, but that’s not evenly distributed. Many Eastern European countries held the line with sane immigration policies, leading to the largest growth of Islamism occurring in Western Europe, including France and the United Kingdom. From there, it’s just a matter of time because Muslims nearly double the birth rate of native Europeans.

What is the solution? There is no solution. Europeans are more concerned with not being called bigots than preserving their freedoms and cultures. The welfare state will continue to grow, the economic malaise will deepen, and the downward slope toward Islamism will continue, not because of some nefarious force behind the scenes but because Europeans wanted this.

To that I say, I let it burn. You can only help those who want to be helped. The French, the Brits, and other surrounding nations do not want to be helped. They truly believe they can push forward with their left-wing ideals to form a better continent. They are mistaken, and eventually, they’ll figure that out. By then, it will have long been too late.

I will say this. When violence inevitably breaks out and Europeans once again look to the United States to bail them out, I have a feeling most Americans aren’t going to be interested. Can you blame them?

Man shot, killed in self-defense in Pike County

LOUISIANA, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Law enforcement is investigating a deadly shooting in Louisiana, Missouri, on Saturday.

Members of the Louisiana Police Department, Pike County Sheriff’s Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to the 800 block of North 4th Street in Louisiana, Missouri, for a call for a shooting Saturday. At the scene, they found a 53-year-old had been shot by a 24-year-old and was killed.

The deceased has been identified as Daniel W. Norris, 53, of rural Louisiana, Missouri.

According to police, early investigations are showing that the shooting happened in self-defense and is believed to be an isolated incident.

This is an active investigation.

Great Divide: As Cal. Enacts Retail Code Law, Four Other States Say ‘No’

It is the latest warning sign of a great divide in the U.S.; a political and philosophical chasm growing wider in an election year which appears headed toward a collision of monumental proportions between the woke far left and traditional conservatives, with guns and the Second Amendment in then eye of this brewing storm.

As noted by News Nation, California’s new law requiring mandating the creation of specific retail codes that credit card companies provide to banks so the sales of firearms and ammunition at gun stores can be tracked just took effect.

At the same time, four states—Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming—have prohibited the use of such retail codes.

Next year, similar retail code requirements are scheduled to take effect in Colorado and New York.

There is more division on the table, with the U.S. Supreme Court declining to review two cases—one in Maryland and the other in Illinois—challenging their bans on semi-auto rifles, leaving the country divided with ten states and the District of Columbia banning the guns and the other 40 states allowing ownership. Presently, 29 Republican-controlled states allow permitless carry, and the remaining 21 states controlled by Democrats still require licenses or permits.

The retail code issue could be a Fourth Amendment cause as well as a Second Amendment because critics say it violates the privacy of gun owners, and lays the foundation for gun registration, despite what CBS News is reporting.

“The idea behind a gun merchant code is to detect suspicious activity,” the CBS report explained, “such as a person with no history of buying firearms suddenly spending large sums at multiple gun stores in a short period of time. After being notified by banks, law enforcement authorities could investigate and possibly prevent a mass shooting, gun control advocates contend.”

Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, was quoted by the Associated Press stating, “We view this as a first step by gun-control supporters to restrict the lawful commerce in firearms.”

Many activists have already decided to pay only cash for their gun and ammunition transactions as a result of these tracking laws.

There is also a legitimate concern among gun owners that the California law equates all gun purchasers to criminal behavior.

This was illustrated in a remark by Hudson Munoz, executive director of Guns Down America, a gun prohibition lobbying organization, which states on its website, “Guns Down America is successfully building a future with fewer guns by weakening the gun industry and building political and cultural support for policies that will keep us safe from gun violence. Small but mighty, Guns Down America has led the gun violence prevention movement by ending the NRA’s lucrative insurance program, pushing major American banks to end their business relationships with irresponsible gun manufacturers, and forcing large retailers like Walmart to dramatically shrink gun sales.”

In his view, the new California law is as “first step.”

“The merchant category code is the first step in the banking system saying, `Enough! We’re putting our foot down,’ Munoz told News Nation. “You cannot use our system to facilitate gun crimes.’”

So the question arises, how can there be any progress when one side treats the other side as criminals? Eventually, that philosophy could collide with common sense, plus the Constitution.

If the ‘outdoors’ has immediate access to me, I’ve got a gun in the pocket.

No Safe Place
No one can predict when and where we might have to defend themselves from a criminal attack.

I just have to shake my head when I hear comments like, “I didn’t carry my gun because, after all, we were just going to church.” Or, “I was only going down to the corner grocery, so I just dropped the little two-shot derringer in my pocket instead of my usual carry gun.” Some people just don’t learn until they survive a real deadly encounter. And that, my friends, is a tough way to learn.

Every month, I try to read the Armed Citizen column in my copy of Shooting Illustrated and you should too. Take the current issue, for instance. They list six deadly encounters, four of which occur in the home. One is at an ATM (no surprise there) and the last involves an encounter between a motorist and a cyclist. Who in the world would expect to have a deadly encounter with someone on a bicycle?

When you bother to educate yourself, you realize that deadly encounters can occur anywhere and when we may least expect it. They occur in churches, parking lots, movie theaters, sporting events, the home and in fact, everywhere that people gather. And the victims are people from all economic levels, from poor to extremely wealthy. Everyone is subject to experiencing a criminal attack and that, my friend, includes you and me.

I don’t want to hurt feelings, but the person who says they will only carry their defense gun when they think they might need it is either a fool or is just playing at personal defense. We carry a defensive handgun because we don’t know when we’ll need it. If we knew, we’d carry a rifle or shotgun … or, better yet, just stay home.

Not long ago, I changed clothes and then set out to run my morning errands. As I was cranking up my truck, I realized that I hadn’t put on my revolver, instead it was lying on the bed right where I had been changing. Since I was only going to the post office and the corner grocery, I was, for a moment, tempted to just go on. But, mentally kicking myself in the butt, I went back in and got my gun. Just a few minutes later I sat in the store parking lot while the city police arrested a drunk who was trying to get a fight started. Even though I was not involved in any way, I gave myself a mental pat on the back and went on about my errands.

When it comes to the folks who are just playing at personal defense, about all we can do is to continue to try to educate them. As for the rest of us, we remind ourselves and each other that no one can predict when and where we might have to defend ourselves from a criminal attack. We went to the trouble to be able to legally carry a defensive handgun, we got good training and we carry all the time because it is our right to do so and it is the smart thing to do.