To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment.

In 2007, for the first time in nearly seventy years, the Supreme Court decided to hear a case involving the Second Amendment. The resulting decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) was the first time the Court declared a firearms restriction to be unconstitutional on the basis of the Second Amendment.

It was followed two years later by a similar decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, and in 2022, the Court further expanded its support for Second Amendment rights in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen—a decision whose far-reaching implications are still being unraveled.

To Trust the People with Arms explores the remarkable and complex legal history of how the right to bear arms was widely accepted during the nation’s founding, was near extinction in the late twentieth century, and is now experiencing a rebirth in the Supreme Court in the twenty-first century.

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Tenant shoots, kills intruder and injures another during suspected home invasion

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – An early morning home invasion ended with two men shot, police said. One died, while a second man was in critical condition, according to the Memphis Police Department (MPD).

Police said the two men broke into an apartment at the Cedarwoods Apartments in Raleigh. Police said the person renting the apartment woke up and saw the suspects breaking in and shot them.

FOX13 spoke to neighbors who live near the apartment unit where the shooting happened. “We were in bed and we heard about 15 rounds of gunshots,” said Mallorie Haley. “He heard, like, ‘Get away from here, get away from here!”

Van Buford lives with Haley. Buford and Haley told FOX13 they could hear the exchange between the tenant and the suspects. “He said, ‘They tried to break in my house. I killed somebody, and that’s when we heard another guy scream, ‘Help, help, help!”

Memphis Police were called to the Cedarwoods Apartments around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

MPD spokesman Chris Williams told FOX13 it will be up to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office on whether the tenant gets charged.

“We’ll present the facts, evidence to his office and they will make the determination if charges should be rendered in this case,” said Williams.

Buford told FOX13, he just wishes the crime would stop.

“Every day you look on the news, somebody’s doing something, somebody’s getting killed. This is reckless and people just don’t care anymore,” said Buford.

FOX13 will update this story when new information is available.

SpaceX launches private lunar lander on eight-day journey to the moon.

SpaceX early Thursday successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a payload of a private lunar lander that is being sent on an eight-day journey into space with a final destination of the moon. If successful, it will be the first U.S. moon landing in five decades.

The rocket launched at 1:05 a.m. Thursday from Launch Complex 39A of the iconic Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“Like an arrow from Cupid’s bow, the next commercial lunar delivery wings its way to the moon,” NASA said in a statement on X following liftoff.

First-stage separation was confirmed minutes into the flight, followed by the booster, which was on its 18th mission, returning to Earth where it landed on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A little less than an hour later, the lunar lander, named Odysseus, successfully separated from the second stage of the launch vehicle and made first contact with ground control as it embarked upon its eight-day trip to the moon.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, which is the size of a British telephone booth, is expected to reach the moon on Feb. 22, and if successful will mark the first U.S. moon landing since the Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago.

The IM-1 mission is the second under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which seeks to use U.S. companies to deliver science and technology to the moon as the federal government prepares for human missions.

The first CLPS flight occurred last month, attempting to land a Peregrine lunar lander on the moon’s surface, but it never made it. The lander suffered a “critical loss or propellant” following a successful launch.

NASA said in a statement that it has six instruments aboard the Nova-C lander that will conduct scientific research and demonstrate technologies to better understand the lunar surface and improve landing precision for missions to the lunar south polar region.

“The payloads will collect data on how the plume of engine gasses interacts with the moon’s surface and kicks up lunar dust, investigate radio astronomy and space weather interactions with the lunar surface, test precision landing technologies and measure the quantity of liquid propellant in Nova-C propellant tanks in the zero gravity of space,” NASA explained.

It was SpaceX’s 14th launch so far this year.

Car owner fatally shoots burglar outside NW Miami-Dade home

A man who was breaking into a car in a northwest Miami-Dade neighborhood was shot to death early Wednesday morning by the vehicle’s owner, officials said.

According to Miami-Dade Police, officers responded to the area of Northwest 79th Avenue and 194th Street just after 2:30 a.m. regarding a person being shot.

Authorities said the suspect was breaking into a vehicle when he was confronted by the owner of the car and an altercation ensued. The car owner then pulled out a gun and shot the suspect, police said.

“There were two subjects attempting to break in to a vehicle outside of a residence. When the vehicle’s owner came out and confronted those two subjects, an altercation ensued between vehicles owner and subjects,” Miami-Dade Police Det. Andre Martin said.

Authorities said the suspect then fled the scene in an awaiting vehicle, but crashed into several vehicles before coming to a stop.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews responded and pronounced the car burglar dead at the scene.

Video captured by Chopper 6 showed the crashed car, debris on the ground and what appeared to be the man’s body covered by a yellow tarp next to the vehicle.

The second suspect who was inside the vehicle with the burglar fled the scene and remains at large, police said.

Officials have not released any information on the identities of the passenger, the car burglar, or the vehicle owner who shot him.

It is still unclear if the owner of the car is facing charges.

“Cases like this can be complicated especially when someone is alleging they were a victim of a crime but detectives will see this investigation all the way through and see all angles,” Martin said.

Concealed Carry Crime Stats 2024: The Impact of Permitless Carry on Crime in the U.S.

Report Highlights

  • There are 26 states with permitless concealed carry freedoms
  • Washington, D.C., has the highest rate of firearm-related homicides even though it has strict carry laws
  • 83% of states with permitless concealed carry have a homicide rate at or below the national average
  • 45% of states with no permitless concealed carry laws have homicide rates above the national average
  • 3 out of 5 of the safest five states in the U.S. have permitless concealed carry
  • 2 out of 5 of the top five most dangerous states in the U.S. have permitless concealed carry, and 3 out of 5 require permits for concealed carry
  • 84% of states have a lower violent crime rate in 2022 than they did before permitless concealed carry

Concealed Carry Crime Stats

In 2024 there are several states with open carry and permitless concealed carry laws.

However, there isn’t a positive correlation between permitless carry and criminality.

The following sections explore crime rates and homicides in states with and without permitless concealed carry laws.

States with Concealed Carry vs. Permit Required

State laws vary widely regarding when and how citizens can carry a concealed firearm.

Twenty-six U.S. states have permitless concealed carry, and Mississippi has some limitations regarding which calibers and how citizens can carry without a permit. However, nineteen states and Washington D.C. require permits for concealed carry of firearms.

Does Concealed Carry Reduce Crime

One of the more pressing questions about crime in the U.S. is whether permitless concealed carry reduces violent crimes and homicides. Unfortunately, we don’t have the data to support a conclusion on the subject.

However, several states with permitless concealed carry have lower crime rates today than they did before the passage of these new laws. Moreover, you’ll find the states with the highest and lowest crime rates have varying concealed carry laws.

By definition, only twenty-six states allow citizens to conceal carry firearms without a permit. Other states implement restrictions on how one can carry a firearm, and others require training and permits for any carry (open or concealed).

Moreover, it’s important to note that permitless concealed carry laws do not make it easier to obtain a firearm. Although state laws vary, Federal laws restrict certain individuals from purchasing and possessing firearms nationwide (even if purchased from private sellers).

States with Concealed Carry vs Permit Required

There isn’t a strong correlation between concealed carry rights and crime.

Concealed Carry Reduces Crime Stats

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Happy Saint Valentine’s Day.

Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That’s what Valentine’s day is all about, right? Well, maybe not.

The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn’t romantic at all—at least not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O’Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday—St. Valentine.

“He was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at that particular time,” Father O’Gara explains. ” He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died.”

“I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived,” says Father O’Gara. “Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged. And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this.”

“The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict.”

Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. There are legends surrounding Valentine’s actions while in prison.

“One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, whose daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a result.”

In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius’ daughter. He inspired today’s romantic missives by signing it, “from your Valentine.”

“What Valentine means to me as a priest,” explains Father O’Gara, “is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that —even to the point of death.”

Valentine’s martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. In fact, Whitefriars Street Church is one of three churches that claim to house the remains of Valentine. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint.

“Valentine has come to be known as the patron saint of lovers. Before you enter into a Christian marriage you want some sense of God in your life—some great need of God in your life. And we know, particularly in the modern world, many people are meeting God through his Son, Jesus Christ.”

“If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you’re going to have to suffer. It’s not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don’t be surprised if the ‘gushing’ love that you have for someone changes to something less “gushing” but maybe much more mature. And the question is, is that young person ready for that?”

“So on the day of the marriage they have to take that into context,” Father O’Gara says. “Love—human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God—but also the shadow of the cross. That’s what Valentine means to me.”

 

1, All homicide cases are referred to a Grand Jury in Texas, itza state law.
2, Texas law permits use of deadly force in just such a situation.


Man sleeping in truck shot and killed intruder who allegedly tried to rob him

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A man shot and killed an alleged intruder who tried to rob him as he slept in his truck at an apartment complex in north Harris County, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Tuesday morning.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the scene in the 300 block of Parramatta Lane near Imperial Valley Drive at about 3:12 a.m. after a man called saying he had shot someone, police said.

The suspected shooter was sleeping in the back seat of his four-door pickup truck when another man, believed to be armed, entered the truck and tried to rob him, Gonzalez said.

“The decedent was apparently burglarizing a number of vehicles in the parking lot – climbed into the reportee’s pickup truck. The reportee was armed with an AR-15 rifle,” HCSO Sgt. Ben Beall said.

The burglary suspect was shot several times and died on the scene.

“He was sleeping in the back seat of the truck, and the windows are heavily tinted, so he did not realize that the truck was occupied until he was actually sitting in the truck,” Beall continued.

The sheriff’s office says the burglary suspect was in his 20s, had a Glock pistol in his pocket, and a large screwdriver they believe he used to break into three or four other cars before breaking into the pickup truck.

ABC13 is told the man who was sleeping in his truck and fired the shots is cooperating with the investigation, and this case will be referred to a grand jury

How Biden Allowed Iran to Save Its Terror-Supporting Officers in Syria

Following the deadly Iran-backed attack on American troops in Jordan on January 28, President Biden and his Pentagon brass pledged a “multi-tier” response for the brazen assault that killed three U.S. service members.

The retributive strikes saw at least one senior leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah — one of the handful of Iran-backed terrorist organizations that have been coordinating scores of attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East since October — in Baghdad, but there was a notable lack of punishment for the source of all the chaos in the region: the regime in Tehran. It appears that was by Biden’s design.

Instead of acting swiftly and decisively, however, the administration telegraphed its considerations and likely targets for days on end. Waiting until after the fallen heroes had returned to the United States for a dignified transfer in Dover, Delaware, the Biden administration finally began launching strikes in the region.

According to reporting from the Financial Times, “Iran pulled senior commanders of its Revolutionary Guard out of Syria days before the US launched strikes against Iranian-linked targets in the Arab state to prevent the elite force suffering further casualties.” Conveniently, the IRGC “officers had left Syria by the time Washington launched air strikes five days” after Biden promised to launch a response to the attack that killed U.S. troops.

Reminding that the Biden administration said it “directly targeted Revolutionary Guard facilities in Syria,” that means the agents of Tehran operating in support of Iran’s terror proxies were able to get away, thanks to Biden’s delays and ample warnings.

As Joe Truzman, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noted, Iran saving its officers’ hide was “exactly what the Biden administration intended” to happen.

Even worse — and proving that Biden’s strikes in response to the killing of U.S. Army Sgts. Kennedy Sanders, William Rivers, and Breonna Moffett won’t prevent future attacks on American troops — is this nugget, also reported by the Financial Times.

Iranian officials, calling the decision to withdraw IRGC commanders merely a “change in tactics,” received notice from the U.S. “through indirect channels that it did not seek a conflict with Iran.”

That is, after Iranian patronage to terrorist organizations saw more than 170 attacks launched at U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan and took the lives of three American service members, the U.S. told Tehran we didn’t seek a conflict.

That also means, as an “Iranian analyst affiliated to the Islamic regime” told the Financial Times, “[o]nce there is relative calm, these forces will return to Syria.” And Tehran’s support of terrorist proxies in the region will resume at full strength.

I don’t have any idea if this is reliable or not, but it does appear;
“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear”


Multiple US military whistleblowers reveal how a disc-shaped UFO intercepted nuclear missile and disabled it with ‘laser-beams’ in mid-air over California.

The US military is in possession of a video of a UFO apparently disabling a nuclear warhead during a routine test, according to multiple former officials.

They claim the video in question captured a saucer-shaped craft circling the unarmed, dummy warhead shortly after it detached from the Atlas missile booster, then shooting four beams of light at the warhead, disabling it.

Retired US Air Force officers Lieutenant Bob Jacobs and Major Florenze Mansmann claim to have viewed the recording of the 1964 encounter before the tape went missing.

The former officials were part of a team responsible for capturing video of missile test launches in California with telescopic photography and videography equipment.

Two days later, after they screened the video, they claim that two plain-clothed CIA agents confiscated the footage and swore them to secrecy.

The incredible account is part of a pattern that some UFO experts have identified, where UFOs seem to interfere with nuclear weapons.

Retired Air Force Major Florenze Mansmann claimed he saw a flying saucer disable a dummy nuclear warhead during a missile test. He was ordered not to breathe a word of what he had seen

Retired Air Force Major Florenze Mansmann claimed he saw a flying saucer disable a dummy nuclear warhead during a missile test. He was ordered not to breathe a word of what he had seen

The alleged incident occurred nearly six decades ago, on September 15, 1964, but it has more recently come into public knowledge due to author Robert Hastings investigating it.

Luis Elizondo acknowledged the existence of the video and claimed he has seen it, according to a February 10 post by Hastings on The UFO Chronicles website.

Elizondo says he was the former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) program to study UFOs, and he has been involved in several high-profile leaks of military footage purporting to show UFOs.

Graphic re-creation of what happened in the 1964 video when a UFO allegedly intercepted the Atlas rocket over the Pacific Ocean

 Graphic re-creation of what happened in the 1964 video when a UFO allegedly intercepted the Atlas rocket over the Pacific Ocean

An unnamed source revealed to Hastings that Elizondo confirmed the details of the event in internal interviews.

Back in the 1960s, Jacobs was in charge of a military telescopic photography site in Big Sur, California, which captured the video as the missile traveled several thousand miles per hour in its planned flight path over the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, Mansmann was the chief photographic imagery analyst at Vandenberg Air Force Base – now called Vandenberg Space Force Base – in Santa Barbara County, California.

The Cold War was progressing apace, including lots of black ops programs testing sophisticated and secret military hardware. Some UFO skeptics have claimed that reports of UFOs provided cover for these programs.

Lieutenant Bob Jacobs, at the middle and bottom, pictured with his crew. Jacobs reported his sighting in the press in 1982 but was ridiculed and threatened for his claims

Lieutenant Bob Jacobs, at the middle and bottom, pictured with his crew. Jacobs reported his sighting in the press in 1982 but was ridiculed and threatened for his claims

The craft inadvertently caught on film was domed and disc-shaped, according to Jacobs and Mansmann.

It was a ‘classic disc, the center seemed to be a raised bubble…the entire lower saucer shape was glowing and seemed to be rotating slowly,’ according to a letter Mansmann wrote about the incident in 1983.

‘At the point of beam release…the object turned like an object required to be in a position to fire from a platform…but again this could be my own assumption from being in aerial combat.’

Forty years later, a US Senate investigator told Hastings that Elizondo had confirmed this description in an official interview last year.

‘During that briefing, the former AATIP director confirmed the existence of the video, the details regarding what it showed, and the location of a copy of it in AATIP’s workspaces,’ Hastings wrote in the new post.

Despite Mansmann telling Jacobs not to discuss what they had seen, Jacobs began to talk about the event in 1982, thinking enough time had passed since the event that he could speak freely about what he saw.

But his claims were dismissed by skeptics, and he was even subjected to harassment and anonymous death threats.

Hastings’ new report appears to match up with Elizondo’s recollection of the video.

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) told a Senate investigator that he had seen the 1964 video

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) told a Senate investigator that he had seen the 1964 video

When investigators went to look for the DVD recording of the video, where Elizondo had told them it was, it was not there, Hastings reported.

And although the recording is missing and the story of Elizondo viewing the recording comes secondhand from an investigator, Hastings reported that he has additional evidence to support it:

‘On November 10, 2023, a highly-reliable source – who I am not at liberty to identify – told me that UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena] whistleblower David Grusch has privately confirmed that Elizondo also told him about having screened the Big Sur film, and that it did indeed capture an amazing, UFO-related, dummy warhead-interference event.’

It seems that the video may have been lost when the Pentagon destroyed Elizondo’s files and emails, Hastings wrote. This would have occurred in 2017 after he resigned as AATIP director, which he claimed was in protest of the Pentagon covering up UFO matters.

‘This highly unusual move by the Pentagon is in direct violation of a legal Preservation Order that was mandated based on Elizondo’s other duties at the time,’ Hastings wrote. ‘The order requires all of Elizondo’s electronic and hard copy files to be preserved indefinitely, including email and correspondence.’

Beyond the video, there is some limited evidence supporting the story.

A declassified but unreleased set of radar data of the September 15, 1964 event apparently confirmed that an unidentified aerial object was observed near the dummy warhead during the missile test, a source told Hastings.

The analysis of the radar data at the time suggested that the unidentified object could have been debris. It’s also possible that it was ‘chaff,’ metallic objects meant to confuse radar to prevent enemies from pinpointing the exact location of a warhead.

‘So, perhaps the mysterious target tracked on radar near the warhead was merely the chaff,’ Hastings wrote. ‘On the other hand, it may have indeed been the actual UFO, whose presence the author of the radar data report would probably not have known about, given the incident’s Top Secret status.’