Here We Go: SC Sheriff Says He Fears Constitutional Carry Will Turn State Into ‘Wild, Wild West’

[because that’s happened in the other 28 states with permitless carry….not]

Now that South Carolina has officially become the 29th state to adopt Constitutional Carry (and the 28th to have the law formally take effect, since Louisiana’s new statute doesn’t kick in until July 4th), the state’s few pro-gun control voices are ramping up their fearmongering. Everytown for Gun Safety’s South Carolina chapter is already predicting the new law will lead to more violence and less safety, while the state’s most politically powerful sheriff says he’s turning to the Almighty to protect the state from Constitutional Carry’s effects.

Law enforcement agencies in South Carolina are bracing for what could happen as permitless carry of handguns becomes more widespread in the coming weeks, with one sheriff already fearing the worst.

“I just said a prayer last night that I hope my greatest fears don’t come true, and that’s that South Carolina becomes the Wild, Wild West,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told The Post and Courier.

Lott’s comments came as Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law March 7 granting state residents the right to have handguns in most public places.

Key among the change is that obtaining a concealed weapons permit — and the training and background checks that come with it — is no longer necessary.

Additionally, the age to carry a gun lowered from 21 to 18, and firearms no longer have to be secured in the glove compartment or center console of a car.

I’ll never mock a person for talking to God, but it would behoove Lott to also speak to some of his colleagues in the 27 states where Constitutional Carry has been in place for at least a year before he starts panicking about a Wild West revival in the southeastern United States.

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CDC Redacts Every Single Word of 148-Page Study on Myocarditis After Covid Vaccination

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “released” a 148-page study on myocarditis after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination and every single word on every page has been completely redacted.

Nothing to see here, folks.

The 148-page document released by the CDC was in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Epoch Times. The totally redacted CDC study on myocarditis after mRNA vaccination can be accessed here.

Reporter Zachary Steiber explained on X, “Seeing some confusion about this document: It’s a CDC document sent to us in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and is fully redacted.”

“The request asked for information about the CDC’s MOVING project. The team has posted several studies, including this one. The CDC plans to submit another paper on updated findings from the project for peer review, a spokesperson told us in January.”

The establishment narrative around the COVID-19 mRNA vaccinations and serious health consequences including myocarditis continues to unravel in the face of public scrutiny.

Dr Anthony Fauci finally admitted during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” in September last year that the Covid-19 mRNA jabs can cause myocarditis.

After months of dismissing or downplaying concerns about the potential side effects of the experimental vaccines, president Biden’s former covid czar now says that there is a myocarditis risk, particularly in young men.

During the interview, Fauci was asked to discuss the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and the ongoing vaccine drive.

Meanwhile, nine new members appointed to the committee that advises the CDC on vaccine recommendations have taken huge payouts from Big Pharma companies to push the deadly mRNA vaccines, according to a new investigation.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in mid-February appointed the new members to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which dictates U.S. vaccine policy.

Commenting on the new appointments, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) President Mary Holland said:

“ACIP has long been a rubber stamp for any and all vaccines Big Pharma wants to push. But the brazenness of the HHS-Big Pharma fusion has never been so much on display.

“The only silver lining in this grotesque display is that more and more people are waking up to the reality that ACIP has nothing to do with health and everything to do with profit.”

The ACIP is described as an independent, nonfederal expert body made up of professionals with clinical, scientific and public health expertise. The committee decides which vaccines should be recommended to the public, who should take them and how often — recommendations the CDC typically rubber stamps.

It’s like the senile dolt believes if he repeats it enough, it’ll be come real

Biden Doubles Down on AR-15 Ban in State of the Union Speech

Headed into a tough re-election bid, President Joe Biden signaled he would stay the course on his aggressive push for new gun restrictions during his speech to the nation on Thursday.

The President laid out his view of how the country is fairing and his agenda for a potential second term. Part of that agenda is to pass new gun restrictions. Biden indicated passing and signing a new ban on popular firearms such as the AR-15 and other so-called “assault weapons” was at the top of his priority list on that front.

“I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden said in his State of the Union address.

The comments echo the President’s previous State of the Union speeches.

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Warning shots get ‘self-defense’ protections too, Ohio Supreme Court rules

A Clark County man was entitled to argue self-defense when he intentionally shot toward a person, and was not required to show he intended to kill or harm the man who threatened him, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.

A divided Supreme Court vacated the felonious assault conviction of Tyler Wilson for his altercation at a Springfield gas station in 2021. At trial, Wilson was acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of felonious assault after he fired a shot at Billy Reffett. The shot struck the window frame of Reffett’s truck, near his head.

The trial judge refused to instruct the jury to consider Wilson’s argument that he acted in self-defense. The judge ruled Wilson was not claiming self-defense because Wilson testified that he did not aim the gun at Reffett and had no intention of harming him but was just trying to get Reffett to “back off.”

In the Court’s lead opinion, Justice Melody Stewart stated that the Ohio self-defense law does not require an intent to harm or kill another, just the “intent to repel or escape force.” Shooting toward another with the intent to stop an aggressor is sufficient to justify a self-defense jury instruction, she concluded.

The Supreme Court remanded the case to the Clark County Common Pleas Court to vacate Wilson’s sentence and conduct further proceedings.

Justices Michael P. Donnelly and Jennifer Brunner joined Justice Stewart’s opinion. Justice Patrick F. Fischer concurred in judgment only without a written opinion.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Joseph T. Deters wrote that Wilson’s version of what had happened did not warrant a self-defense instruction.

Because Wilson insisted that he was not aiming the gun at Reffett or trying to shoot him, Wilson was arguing that he had not committed felonious assault. Arguing he was not guilty of felonious assault is different than claiming he acted in self-defense, which would require Wilson to admit he attempted to harm Reffett but was justified in doing so, Justice Deters explained.

Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy and Justice R. Patrick DeWine joined Justice Deters’ opinion.

ATF DIRECTOR LAMENTS CONGRESSIONAL, AMERICANS’ DISTRUST TO UPEND SECOND AMENDMENT

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Steven Dettelbach joined CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan to talk about violent crime committed with firearms and the tools he wants from Congress. The problem is those requests have already been rejected by Congress for good reason. Those tools would violate federal law and would chip away at the rights of those who obey the law without actually addressing the problem of crime.

“I was in Baltimore a few weeks ago with the law enforcement there, and it’s like, almost a 20 percent drop in homicides, but looks to me the caveat is that for many years in this country, we’ve had a very serious gun crime problem,” Director Dettelbach explained. “And we are the outlier among almost all Western modern nations, and not the outlier in a good way.”

He added later, “Well, I look at- look, I mean, data doesn’t lie.”

Juxtapose that with Director Dettelbach repeating the verifiably false claim that firearms are the leading cause of death among children. That’s just not true.

False Narrative

“The leading cause of death of children in the United States is firearms violence, right,” Director Dettelbach said. “Not cancer, not cars. Guns.”

That’s patently false. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris like to trot out the line in their gun control speeches even though it’s been proven to be false. The Washington Post, hardly a firearm-friendly news agency, admitted the narrative is false. To make the claim, The White House and now Director Dettelbach include people age 18 and 19. The problem is, 18 and 19-year-olds are adults, not children.

“When you focus only on children — 17 and younger — motor vehicle deaths (broadly defined) still rank No. 1, as they have for six decades,” The Washington Post reported. “In the interest of accuracy, it would be better for White House officials to refer to children and teens when citing these reports. When all motor vehicle accidents are counted, then motor vehicle deaths continue to exceed firearm deaths for children — defined as people under age 18 — whether or not infants are included.”

NSSF has blasted this twisting of data to arrive at the heated talking point. The claim in question came about as a result of a faulty study published by the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention in April 2022. That study included Americans aged 18 and 19 years old – adults – in the data set as well as manipulated motor vehicle crash data to assert firearms became the “leading cause of death among children and adolescents” in 2020. NSSF debunked the study when it was published in April 2022.

Like Director Dettelbach said in his Face the Nation interview: data doesn’t lie.

Differing Ideas

Director Dettelbach lamented that the debate over firearms has become too heated. He recalled a meeting he had with residents of Lewiston, Maine, following the tragic criminal attack on innocent Americans there. He admitted that some in attendance, who were families of victims and victims themselves, were deeply suspicious of heavy-handed government intrusion on their rights.

“Those people were able to sit in that room with all that grief and have a discussion,” Director Dettelbach explained. “Tell me what they – what they – their feelings, differing feelings about how we should approach this problem. And they all had ideas.”

There are differing ideas. That’s why NSSF partners with the ATF to prevent the illegal straw purchasing of firearms in the “Don’t Lie for the Other GuyTM” campaign, of which he spoke. NSSF also partners with ATF for Operation Secure Store® to help firearm retailers improve security at their stores. However, there are some ideas that are just unacceptable.

Director Dettelbach bemoaned that Congress refuses to give him the authority to implement universal background checks. In fact, Congress has roundly rejected that idea because the Department of Justice (DoJ) admitted that for universal background checks to work, every law-abiding gun owner would need to be placed on a national firearm registry. That’s forbidden by federal law.

“So again, really, you know, people ask me, what’s my top priority? What’s my- what’s my wish list? I think the reality is it’s going to be a lot of things that we have to do to get out of this situation to make things better,” Director Dettelbach said. “… if Congress wants to consider more on universal background checks…”

Here’s why Congress isn’t giving in on surrendering the rights of law-abiding citizens to the government. It’s a false sense of security that would trade the rights of those who obey the law for an unkept promise to go after those who break the law. Congress is the representative government of “We, the People…” The “People” have been given every reason to distrust the government when it comes to protecting their Second Amendment rights.

Untrustworthy Track Record

Just weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department admitted that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) violated the private banking and financial records of Americans to create a government watchlist that included anyone who bought a gun, ammunition – even a Bible – or shopped at one of several big box sporting goods stores.

The Biden administration’s Commerce Department has been working to throttle firearm exports in an attempt to kneecap U.S. firearm manufacturers. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security issued a “90-day pause” that’s well beyond the initial 90 days to halt nearly all firearm exports while the administration re-examines policy. That’s despite the strongest safeguards that have been in place ever. The United States sets the leading standard in the world for firearm exports. All firearm and ammunition exports are – and always were – subject to both Defense and State Department review, and either can halt the export if there are security or human rights concerns. Firearm and ammunition license applications undergo a 100 percent end-user check by the BIS Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), regardless of how long an exporting company has been doing business with that customer, regardless of how many times the buyer was subjected to an end-user check and regardless of whether BIS has no derogatory information on that customer, even if the end-user was recently approved. At present, no other commodity is subject to the same 100 percent check.

There are more reasons why Congress is suspect of handing the reins over to the Biden administration when it comes to Americans’ Second Amendment rights. ATF itself has shown a willingness to infringe on Second Amendment rights through the rule-making process. ATF wrote a proposed “engaged-in-the-business” rule that would require nearly all private firearm sellers to obtain a federal firearms license and run background checks. Congress made a one-word change to the definition of “engaged-in-the-business” in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). ATF used that to launch 108 pages to require an estimated 328,000 additional licensees. It’s not just unconstitutional. It’s unfeasible.

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is demanding answers from Director Dettelbach, noting that the BSCA said the revised “engaged-in-the-business” definition “shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”

ATF also published a Final Rule redefining “frames or receivers” in an effort to outlaw the ability for law-abiding private citizens to make their own firearms in their own home for private use. That was legal even before the founding of the nation. That rule is being challenged in courts for exceeding the authority of ATF to set criminal code, which is the sole authority of Congress. It is likely to be petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court.

There’s also the recently-challenged Final Rule banning bump stocks, which was just heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. That challenge also questioned ATF’s authority to write criminal law. A decision is expected later this year.

There are more examples of why Congress – and the American public – distrust the federal government when it comes to their Second Amendment rights, including the Obama-Biden administration’s abusive Operation Choke Point, the ill-fated ATF Fast and Furious, California’s “accidental” release of concealed carry permit holders’ information to the general public and the same instance of New York City releasing concealed carry permit holders’ information to the media.

Data – and history – don’t lie.

Observation O’ The Day
The gratitude of the people of Gaza for the United States Armed Forces’ humanitarian efforts on their behalf will express itself just as did the gratitude of the people of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Lebanon when we we made comparable efforts on their behalf: they will take the aid and make strenuous efforts to slaughter as many Americans as they possibly can.

Desperate Biden Signs off on U.S. Military Building Infrastructure for Hamas.

Think of this story as you watch the State of the Union address. President Biden has given his ok for the U.S. military to build a port on the Gaza coast to bring relief to the population there.

This is how desperate Joe Biden is to win the state of Michigan in November. The Uncommitted movement has taken him by surprise and a victory in Michigan is not certain for Biden. It is hard for Biden to win in November without winning Michigan.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib and her sister have organized the Uncommitted movement in Michigan to oppose Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Muslim Arab American voters make up an important bloc and Joe Biden is nervous. The voters in places like Dearborn are telling Team Biden they will not vote for Biden in November. They aren’t going to vote for Trump, either. They will probably skip the top of the ballot. Or they will stay home.

During his State of the Union address, Biden will announce his decision to send the U.S. military on an emergency mission for Hamas. The White House said this mission will not include putting American military boots on the ground.

‘The President will announce that he’s directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water medicine, and temporary shelters,’ a senior administration official said on a briefing call with reporters on Thursday.

‘The planning involves the presence of US military personnel on military vessels offshore but does not require US military personnel to go ashore to install the pier or causeway facility that will allow to the transportation of humanitarian assistance,’ a senior defense official said.

‘We’re not planning for this to be an operation that would require U.S. boots on the ground,’ an official noted.

Pardon my skepticism but do we trust this administration on any “planning” going on by this incompetent lot? Remember the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Since then American bases in the Middle East have been attacked by Iran and its proxies while Joe Biden twiddles his thumbs and goes for ice cream cones.

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Home burglary leads to man being shot and wounded as IMPD reports double-digit decrease in non-fatal shootings

INDIANAPOLIS — An attempted home break-in led to a man being shot and wounded on Indy’s near east side.

Just after 5 a.m. Tuesday on Forest Avenue, police were called following a confrontation between a homeowner and a would-be thief that turned violent.

The homeowner admitted he shot the suspect, who was trying to steal his generator. “As I confront him about my generator, he goes into his pocket like he’s about to pull a weapon, and I shot him in the leg to make him stop,” said Alfred Burdine.

Burdine had to have his home and garage doors repaired after they were damaged during the overnight break-in.  Alfred admits he didn’t want to shoot the victim, but felt he had to defend himself and his property.

Burdine wishes the city would do a better job to help fix the root causes of violence.

“You’ve got too many homeless people and drug addicts in the neighborhood, and no one is offering them treatment,” said Burdine.

At the same time, IMPD has reported that there has been a double-digit decrease in non-fatal shootings over the first two months of the year.

So far this year, there have been 80 non-fatal shooting incidents.  That’s a decline of 20% compared to the 100 incidents at same time last year.

The number of victims has also gone down.

That continues a trend of non-fatal shootings decreasing over the last three years.

Fewer non-fatal shooting victims has translated to fewer fatal incidents.   Total homicides have declined by 13% compared to last year as well.

“We’re doing well, but we have a lot more work to do,” said Antonia Bailey.

Bailey supervises IMPD’s non-fatal shooting victims support program, which connects shooting survivors with assistance and tries to prevent violence by sharing an important message.

“Please just put the guns down,” Bailey said. “There’s plenty of resources out here that can assist you. “We’re just hoping people think before they act.”

Bailey’s team is also taking proactive steps to prevent non-fatal shootings by speaking to students in middle and high schools about gun violence.

The team also plans to begin canvassing high-crime neighborhoods in the coming months to make people aware about resources offered by the city.

Burdine was not arrested following the shooting. He said just a few hours after the shooting, a second suspect also tried to break into the home.  That suspect was detained without violence until police arrived.

Alfie Steadmon, 30, was named as the suspect caught breaking into the home. He is charged with one count of burglary, a Level 5 felony, and possession of meth, a Level 6 felony.

New Report Exposes Massive Government Surveillance of Americans’ Financial Data

March 6, 2024
Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim staff report titled, “Financial Surveillance in the United States: How Federal Law Enforcement Commandeered Financial Institutions to Spy on Americans.” The report reveals alarming evidence of federal law enforcement engaging in broad financial surveillance and prying into the private transactions of American consumers. This surveillance, not predicated on specific evidence of criminal conduct, targeted terms and transactions related to core political and religious expressions protected by the Constitution.

Federal law enforcement, including the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI, facilitated multiple backchannel discussions with financial institutions to gather Americans’ private financial information. These discussions involved some of the largest financial institutions in the United States, such as Barclays, U.S. Bank, Charles Schwab, HSBC, Bank of America, PayPal, and many others. Tactics included keyword filtering of transactions, targeting terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” as well as purchases of books, religious texts, firearms-related items, and recreational stores, like Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. This surveillance extended beyond criminal suspicion, likely encompassing millions of Americans with conservative viewpoints or Second Amendment interests.

The report also details the existence of a web portal run by the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), a public-private partnership led by the FBI’s Office of Private Sector and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. This portal appears to have shared intelligence products with financial institutions that were used to identify individuals who fit the profile of criminal and “domestic violent extremists,” often because of their conservative political views or other constitutionally protected activity. Federal law enforcement used these reports and other materials they shared with financial institutions to commandeer their databases and conduct sweeping searches of individuals not suspected of committing any crimes, without a warrant, in order to identify individuals making certain “suspicious” transactions.

The pattern of financial surveillance uncovered in the report raises serious concerns about federal law enforcement’s and financial institutions’ commitment to respecting Americans’ privacy rights and fundamental civil liberties.

Read the full interim staff report here.

House Paves Way For Bost’s Veterans’ Second Amendment Provision To Be Signed Into Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives approved a spending package that includes legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (IL-12) to protect veterans from losing their Second Amendment rights without due process. Bost’s proposal, which restricts the Department of Veterans Affairs’ from automatically submitting veterans’ names for background checks when they need help managing their finances, is expected to pass the Senate this weekend and then be signed into law.

“For far too long, men and women who donned the uniform to protect our constitutional rights have had their own rights violated,” said Bost. “No veteran should lose their constitutional right to bear arms simply because they need help managing their finances. As a Marine and a proud gun owner, I can think of no Americans I’d trust more to responsibly own firearms than our veterans. And if a veteran is determined to be a danger to themselves or others, let a judge make that decision – not some D.C. bureaucrat. I am honored the House approved my legislation and look forward to it soon being signed into law.”

The House and Senate each previously approved an amendment sponsored by Bost to stop the automatic referrals without a court’s order. Bost’s effort has the support of the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Mission Roll Call, National Defense Committee, Vets 4 Vet Leadership, Veteran Warriors, Catholic War Veterans, and National Association for Gun Rights.

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.”

Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787

“The ultimate authority…resides in the people alone…The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition.”

James Madison

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?”

Patrick Henry

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers and will generally even if these are successful the first instance enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”

Justice Joseph Story

“The great object is, that every man be armed…Every one who is able may have a gun.”

Patrick Henry, Speech of June 14, 1788

“The Constitutions of most of our states assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, both fact and law, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person; freedom of religion; freedom of property; and freedom of the press.”

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Cartwright, June 5, 1824

“That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

Samuel Adams, in Phila. Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789

I could go on, but I think this is more than enough to tell that Professor Erdozian is ‘full of it’

Another supercilious, over educated, foreign born and schooled ‘scholar’ with no roots in American culture, ethics or care about the fundamental principles the founders went to war over, thinks he’s more knowledgeable than we are. And makes claims that are so easily refuted by the Founder’s own quotes that it makes you wonder about today’s quality of education and worth of degrees from the famed English universities that apparently produce nothing more than partisan propagandists.

Historian Dominic Erdozain discusses new book, U.S. gun culture, Second Amendment at book event

Historian Dominic Erdozain discussed the politics, culture and laws surrounding guns in the United States at a Wednesday talk for his book “One Nation Under Guns.”

In “One Nation Under Guns,” Erdozain argues that the Second Amendment was never meant to guarantee individuals the right to bear arms and that the U.S. neglects critical consideration of the role of guns in democracy. His book talk, hosted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, was moderated by Ieva Jusionyte, an associate professor of international security and anthropology.

The modern U.S. gun culture is “in contradiction with the values of democracy and the goals of the Constitution,” Erdozain said.

“This modern idea of free and open access to deadly firepower is not just a departure from the legal norms of U.S. history,” he said. “It is a violation of the very principle of freedom, as defined in the democratic tradition. It turns out that the founders, the very people who are invoked in support of gun rights, furnish a far more robust and coherent account of liberty than this kind of muscular freedom to go armed as and when you choose.”

He stated that the country’s founders would be “heavily critical of the reckless individualism that is attached to gun rights at the moment.”

A key argument of Erdozain’s book is that the founders of the country believed “the liberal state is there to protect us not only from tyrannical rules, but from the tyranny in all of us.”

Erdozain challenged the notion that the Second Amendment was written to guarantee that all individuals have a right to bear arms, instead characterizing it as an anti-war measure that prevents a “professional army that allows rulers to rule as dictators.”

He also highlighted the ties between slavery and gun ownership. “The argument against slavery was partly based on the fact that by encouraging it, you encourage an armed society,” he said.

In the talk, Erdozain also challenged the acceptance of gun culture he witnessed around the country. When he arrived in the U.S. from the United Kingdom, he said he felt “alarmed at the fatalism of liberals on firearms as the reckless seal of the right.”

Attendees described the event as educational and inspiring.

“I felt that (the talk) was a gift to the community. Dr. Erdozain is brilliant,” Fraser Lang ’67 said.

Betty Lang, another attendee, said that “it was fascinating to hear about the connection between gun violence and slavery.”

Melissa Carden, the executive director of Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence, also attended the event.

“The history of the Second Amendment is not something people are educated about,” Carden said, noting that 120 people are killed in the U.S. daily because of gun violence. “The more we have honest conversations based on data and the truth in light of today’s gun violence, the better.”

From a friend:

Violent criminals and governments always keep and bear arms. Always.

They lose their ability to function if they do not retain the ability to project their will through the deliberate consolidation of the ability to administer violence.

Criminals, because they are lawless sociopaths, don’t fear their victims, the police, courts, or prison. – But they do fear armed prey.
Governments, because they must, through themselves, or through proxies, so that they can self-protect and ensure compliance with laws. – But they do fear an armed populace.

All disarmed / physically disadvantaged people – and nations – rely on others to project strength and the threat of violence to protect them. All of them, without exception.

The decentralized ability to administer violence at will is the coin of the realm. Without it, criminal savages ravage the defenseless. Governments oppress and subjugate the defenseless. The inarguable fact is, that when people do not have the civil right to protect themselves, they are subject to the whims of all those stronger than they are.

Whether or not this is done by criminals or the government is only a matter of scale. Knowing this, why would you allow yourself to be disarmed?