Saturday was named by the Romans diēs Sāturnī “Saturn’s Day” for their god of time and wealth,
Depending on the area, Germans use two different names, Samstag, derived from Old High German sambaztac which comes down a winding linguistic road from Hebrew Shabbat, and Sonnabend, which literally means “Sun eve”, the day before Sunday.
Many European countries use variations on the Sabbath theme; French, samedi, Portuguese & Spanish Sábado, Italian, Sabato, Hungarian, Szombat 

 

Nearly 300,000 lives could be saved in the next decade if states followed California’s example on gun laws, study says

Right, yeah sure ya betcha. Read the screed if you want, then come back to this

Everytown designated five foundational laws that they say have proven to be the most effective in lowering gun violence rates – all of which are in effect in New York and California.

They include requirements for a background check and/or permits to purchase firearms; a permit to carry concealed guns in public; the secure storage of firearms; the rejection of ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws; and the enactment of ‘extreme risk’ laws that temporarily remove a person’s access to firearms when there is evidence that they pose a serious risk to themselves or others.

Notice how “assault weapon” bans are nowhere on this list, and yet that’s what they are always calling for. Strange.

But as for this list?

  1. Background check and/or permits to purchase. Near-universal background checks already exist. If you want to make background checks better,  allocate more funding to make the existing system better and more efficient. And, open it up to the public so people can run their own checks  before selling a gun.

  2. A permit to carry concealed guns in public. Such has never yet stopped the criminal element from carrying a gun and everyone knows it. But, they have finally come to admit that law abiding people do carry.

  3. Secure storage. Awesome. Let’s subsidize the purchase of gun safes, trigger locks, etc.

  4. Rejection of “Stand Your Ground” laws. The various “stand your ground” laws aren’t gun laws at all,  they are criminal defense statutes that provide that person doesn’t have to run away before they can defend themselves.

  5. Extreme risk laws. If only there was a way to go further and physically restrain a dangerous person who had made credible threats of violence, based on a finding of probable cause by a judicial officer.
    Oh, wait: That’s called an arrest. How about we just arrest people who make felony threats?

And the vast majority are suicides, so I really don’t figure how

 

Oakton homeowner shoots & kills intruder who struck him with stick, rock

OAKTON, Va. (7News) — Detectives with the Fairfax County Police Department spent hours at the Oakton house Thursday where they say a homeowner shot and killed an intruder Wednesday evening.

“It’s still a very, very active investigation, but preliminarily, we are investigating this as a self-defense fatal shooting,” Second Lieutenant James Curry with the Fairfax County Police Department said on the scene Wednesday night.

Police identified the man who was killed Friday as 24-year-old Eduardo Santos of Herndon. They said it’s unclear why he walked up to that particular home at about 6 p.m. Wednesday. Police do not believe the homeowner knew the man.

Police said the homeowner was outside on his property, located in the 11400 block of Waples Mill Road in Oakton, when he first encountered the man.

“When he encountered this man, there was some sort of interaction that led to an altercation,” Curry said, adding that the homeowner then went inside the home. “He retrieved a firearm from inside the home and at some point the man made entry into the home with an object that appears to be a large landscaping rock. The homeowner then fired and shot the man.”

On Friday, police shared what they believe led to the shooting.

The homeowner saw Santos on his property and asked him to leave. Santos then allegedly assaulted the homeowner with a stick. When the homeowner tried to retreat inside his home, Santos tackled him and the homeowner was injured.

The homeowner got inside his home and grabbed his gun. Santos came into the home with the large landscaping rock and lunged at the homeowner. The homeowner shot Santos.

Curry said officers responding to the scene rendered immediate medical treatment, but Santos died on the scene.

Detectives said the homeowner’s family, including two kids, were inside the home when the shooting happened. 7News obtained dispatch audio, that describes the 911 call made by the homeowner’s wife:

Caller advised her husband fired his gun and shot someone that was approaching.

Investigators said there was one other call to the police from that neighborhood, earlier in the day on Wednesday.

“There was a call for service earlier in the day, where the man was seen in the area,” Curry said. “When officers responded, he was not found at that time.”

Neighbors who described their street as typically “quiet and peaceful” said they hoped to get more information soon from the police.

“We understand the investigation is ongoing, but we really need to know more about it,” one neighbor told 7News. “We really want to know who this guy was. We want to know more details.”

That neighbor also told 7News she knows the homeowner.

“Yes, we know them. Very nice guy, a very good lady. Small kids – just a very good man,” she said. “We’re so sorry to hear this. It’s terrible.”

Police did confirm neighbors’ reports that the man who was killed knocked on the door of another nearby home prior to the deadly encounter. Neighbors said that homeowner did not know the man and did not open the door.

7News asked police whether they’ve determined if alcohol, drugs, or mental health issues are involved, but those questions have not yet been answered.

Police did respond to an initial call about Santos Wednesday. Officers found him, but there was no crime. Santos refused to speak to police and walked away from the area. When the second call happened, police didn’t find Santos.

At the scene on Wednesday, Curry said the man’s identity could help investigators “start putting some puzzle pieces together, as far as why he was in this area, why was he at this home”.

Curry reiterated that police do not believe there’s any connection between that man and the homeowner.

Police said the homeowner sustained non-life-threatening injuries during his altercation with the man. The homeowner was taken to the hospital on Wednesday but is expected to be okay.

Claudine Gay: the great DEI grift exposed.

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

I maintain that Claudine Gay, the now-former president of Harvard University, just may have, though, mind you, quite by accident, made the world a much better place. She accomplished this not by resigning as president of Harvard over ineptitude and academic dishonesty, and not in any way, shape, form, manner, or style that she intended, but by being selected, despite austere qualifications, to be the president of one of our most prestigious universities in the first place.

Gay’s inexplicable rise and quite explicable fall illustrate, in a difficult-to-misinterpret fashion, the plain grift that is the DEI industry.

You can explain and attempt to justify DEI in all of the highfalutin terms that you want, but in the end, it comes down to something quite simple: it’s a way for those who eschew achievement, merit, honesty, and perseverance to get ahead on the dubious grounds of identity. It’s a con game designed to pour money into the coffers of those for whom a genuine work ethic is anathema.

It’s plain and simple grift, endorsed by our own government and institutions of higher education. You know, the same people who are supposed to be watching out for such things on our behalf. And worse, there was no need for DEI to ever get started in the first place.

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It’s good to always keep informed about what your enemies are doing and planning. Quite inventive propaganda to smear the political ‘right’ and push for gun control, when most ‘mass shooters’ are either members of street gangs involved in the illicit drug trade, or mentally ill leftist and now ‘trans’ loners.

BLUF
Bruce Hoffman is senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council of Foreign Relations and a professor at Georgetown University.
Jacob Ware is a research fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and DeSales University.
Together, they are the authors of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America (Columbia Univ. Press).

How Far-Right Terrorists Learned to Stop Worrying and Leave the Bomb

On Sept. 16, 1920, a horse-drawn wagon slowly made its way down New York City’s Wall Street. It came to a stop at the Financial District’s busiest corner, just opposite the J. P. Morgan bank headquarters. And exploded. Thirty people were killed and nearly 150 others wounded. For most of the ensuing century, bombing was the preferred terrorist tactic in the United States. During one 18-month stretch between 1971 and 1972, there were an astonishing 2,500 bombings. Many were committed by radical left-wing groups such as the Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the New World Liberation Front. Others were orchestrated by such diverse actors as Puerto Rican independistas, Croatian separatists, anti-Castro Cubans, and a militant Jewish organization.

Today, however, the terrorists’ preferred tactic is the mass shooting. As we argue in our new book, God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America, assault-style rifles have replaced explosives. And the perpetrators come mostly from the far right. Eschewing the time-intensive preparations involved in the careful construction and placement of explosive devices — as seen in Oklahoma City in 1995 and at the Atlanta Olympics the following year — domestic terrorists now prefer shooting, a far simpler tactic that is facilitated by the Second Amendment and entails simply opening fire on a group of ordinary citizens going about their daily lives.

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When both Massad & Clint advise such, well……

The Primary Reason to Carry a Spare Magazine

There are several debates that endlessly rage in the firearms community, and one specific to concealed carry is whether or not to wear a spare magazine on your person when you are armed. A strong argument can be made that reloads virtually never happen in civilian self-defense, as the typical protocol seems to be people shoot until empty and then break contact. If the defender starts shooting, the criminal element most often becomes late for a different appointment. Therefore, in the vast majority of civilian defensive gun use, we don’t see reloads.

Still, this author leans towards having and not needing rather than needing and not having. I almost always carry a reload. I can confidently say that many people I know and respect who carry all the time do not carry a reload, while others do. Therefore, it is impossible to suggest the right thing to do here. The chance of needing the gun on any given day is slim, and the chance of needing to reload it in a fight is minuscule. However, concealed carriers opt to go prepared rather than just rely on statistical probabilities.

Historically, low-capacity handguns and no reloads on-person seem to have most often been all that is required to get the civilian self-defender out of trouble. This will probably continue to be the case most of the time. What about the minority of the time? With an undeniable increase in mob violence that involves multiple assailants, as well as an increase in active killer attacks, which have proven to demand distance shooting and a significant amount of rounds fired to neutralize the threat, carrying a reload makes more and more sense.

Even here, though, the most pressing reasons to carry a reload are seldom discussed. Consider the following more likely reasons that may warrant a second magazine:

The Magazine Can Go Missing
Yes, you read that correctly; a magazine can go missing. Especially during the stress and chaos of a fight. How does a magazine go missing? You inadvertently eject it out of the gun. If that happens, would you prefer to reload with the second magazine on your belt or in your pocket, or would you rather search around on the ground for the one you dropped while violence is occurring? According to my way of thinking, this is the primary reason to carry a reload.

Many will declare that they have never dropped a magazine unintentionally, so why discuss it? Those who say this have probably never shot beyond a flat range’s predictable comfort and casual atmosphere. I was at an IDPA match years ago when a competitor, who was a good shooter and an active duty cop, accidentally ejected his magazine from his Smith and Wesson M&P twice during a single stage. After the stage, he told me that he had fired thousands of rounds through that gun, and that had never happened before. I asked him how many matches he shot with the gun, to which he replied that this was his first. Thus, even the stress and faster pace of a match induced malfunctions that this shooter never before experienced. Do you suppose that in the stress of a fight, you might do something differently compared to what you have done only at the range?

Beyond just the always-present possibility of dumping the magazine due to stress-induced mishandling of the gun, environmental factors can come into play. I know of an instance in which a police officer experienced the base plate of the magazine in the gun getting ripped off by the seatbelt as he hastily exited the vehicle. This is less likely to happen to a gun under concealment, but there are other factors as well. I have seen people draw their guns at the range, and the magazine immediately hit the ground because it became unseated while in the holster because the release button got bumped. It can happen.

Contact Distance Fighting
Anyone who has done force-on-force training fighting with simmunitions guns knows how easily they can malfunction when in a contact distance fight. Admittedly, sims guns malfunction more easily than real guns of a quality make. Still, the magazine is often ejected during a struggle. In a real contact distance fight, this is of high likelihood. If you are in a fight and break free of the attacker, you now may be holding a gun with only a single round in it, if not empty. Being able to reload from the belt or pocket is a much better solution than searching around on the ground for a dropped magazine.

While a gun with no reload on body will likely do what is needed if you face violence, a reload may make all the difference, should the unlikely event become even more unlikely. Like the gun itself, the reload is something to have and not need rather than need and not have.

Friday is derived from the Old English frīġedæġ, meaning the “day of Frig”,  the Norse goddess of the hearth, home and fertility and wife of Odin, Frigg

Again, as in other modern countries that were part of the Roman empire, variations in the Latin dies Veneris or “day of Venus” is found in vendredi in French, venerdì in Italian, vineri in Romanian, and viernes in Spanish.

An exception is European Portuguese (Paul will have to tell us whether the Brazilians and Jim the Mozambicans do this), who use the word  sexta-feira, meaning “sixth day of liturgical celebration”,

Judge allows challenge to NY assault weapons ban to proceed

A federal judge is allowing a challenge to New York’s assault weapons ban to proceed after he denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Thursday.

Two people supported by gun rights advocacy groups sued New York officials in December 2022 over the state’s ban on assault weapons, saying the law was “infringing the right of law-abiding, peaceable citizens to keep and bear commonly possessed firearms for defense of self and family and for other lawful purposes.” U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas sided with the individuals bringing the lawsuit in a ruling released Thursday, denying state officials’ motion to dismiss the case.

Attorneys for New York officials filed a motion in the Southern District of New York to dismiss the complaint in May, arguing that the court does not have the jurisdiction to address the plaintiffs’ claims. The state officials’ legal team said the individuals “fail to establish that any injury-in-fact is traceable to the assault weapons ban” because they do not say they hold a license required to buy a semiautomatic rifle.

Karas dismissed the defendants’ arguments in the ruling.

“While there may be serious questions about Plaintiffs’ exemption argument, the Court need not address that question here because Plaintiffs adequately allege standing under Defendants’ interpretation of the statute,” Karas wrote.

“Put simply, Defendants have failed to explain how invalidating the Assault Weapons Ban would have no effect on the ability to obtain licenses for those same weapons,” Karas added later in the ruling.

The attorneys for the state officials also contended that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the individuals have not proved that they have “suffered an injury-in-fact.” Karas also pushed back on the argument, saying that the individuals “have also demonstrated that they face a credible threat of enforcement if they follow through with attempting to acquire assault weapons.”

What We Know About the Iowa School Shooter

The now-deceased suspected gunman who shot at least six victims—killing one, a sixth-grade middle schooler—at a small-town high school in Perry, Iowa, early Thursday morning has been identified by authorities as 17-year-old student Dylan “DJ” Butler.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation assistant director Mitch Mortvedt confirmed at an afternoon press conference that Butler “made a number of social media posts in and around the time of the shooting.” Investigators are working to “secure” those pieces of evidence, Mortvedt said. When asked about footage circulating online, Mortvedt said he hadn’t seen the video in question.

According to a since-deactivated TikTok profile that many are claiming belong to Butler, the last TikTok video posted to the page @tooktoomuch featured a selfie taken in what looks like a bathroom stall moments before the shooting took place.

“[N]ow we wait,” read the clip’s caption as the rock band KMFDM’s song Stray Bullet played in the background. A blue duffle bag sat on the ground. An emoji of the gay Pride flag was featured in the TikTok page’s bio and an image of an anime girl was selected as the profile picture’s avatar. In another TikTok video, the account used the hashtag “genderfluid.”

According to a series of Reddit posts that Butler appears to have authored, he interacted with transgender and “femboy” forums.

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US strike kills militia leader blamed for Iraq attacks, Pentagon says

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military launched a retaliatory strike in Baghdad on Thursday that killed a militia leader it blames for recent attacks on U.S. personnel, the Pentagon said, a move condemned by Iraq’s government.

The U.S. strike took place at about 0900 GMT and targeted Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al Jawari, the Pentagon said, adding he was a leader of Harakat al Nujaba who was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel.

“The strike also killed one other Harakat al Nujaba member,” said Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, describing it as a self-defense strike. “No civilians were harmed. No infrastructure or facilities were struck.”

Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October the U.S. military has come under attack at least 100 times in Iraq and Syria, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.

The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in neighbouring Syria focused on preventing a resurgence of Islamic State militants.

Iraqi police sources and witnesses had earlier said a drone fired at least two rockets at the headquarters in eastern Baghdad of the Nujaba militia group.

Police and militia sources said the rockets hit a vehicle in the compound and killed four people, including a militia commander and one of his aides. Health sources confirmed the death toll.

Video published by pro-militia websites showed a destroyed vehicle in flames. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq and Syria oppose Israel’s campaign in Gaza and hold the U.S. partly responsible.

In a statement, the military spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani denounced the strike on the group, calling it an “unjustified attack on an Iraqi security entity” that was operating with Sudani’s authorisation.

Sudani has limited control over some Iran-backed factions, whose support he needed to win power a year ago and who now form a powerful bloc in his governing coalition.

Asked whether the U.S. military struck a member of Iraq’s security forces, Ryder said the individual targeted was a leader of an Iranian proxy group responsible for attacks against U.S. personnel.

Iraq slams US after strikes on Iran-aligned forces
Iraqi militia commanders vowed to take revenge for Thursday’s strike.

“We will retaliate and make the Americans regret carrying out this aggression,” Abu Aqeel al-Moussawi, a local Iraqi militia commander, said.

Last month, the United States carried out retaliatory air strikes in Iraq after a drone attack by Iran-aligned militants that left one U.S. service member in critical condition and wounded two others.

A STERN WARNING

The Houthi terrorist group is an Iranian proxy that Iran has found increasingly useful. The Houthis have attacked American assets stationed in their vicinity at will and disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea. American forces sunk three Houthi boats attacking a commercial freighter this past Sunday.

The Biden administration has politely warned the Houthis to knock it off. Going a step further, the Biden administration has organized Operation Prosperity Guardian, “a multinational naval task force to protect commercial ships in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” according to the recent New York Times story.

And yet the Houthis persist. Yesterday the Houthis claimed responsibility for the latest attack on a merchant ship in the Red Sea, as the vessel’s operator sharply raised prices between Asia and Europe. The Times of Israel reports that story here (with credit to AFP).

It’s come to this: A Joint Statement from the Governments of the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. This is the statement in its entirety as posted by the White House:

Recognizing the broad consensus as expressed by 44 countries around the world on December 19, 2023, as well as the statement by the UN Security Council on December 1, 2023, condemning Houthi attacks against commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea, and in light of ongoing attacks, including a significant escalation over the past week targeting commercial vessels, with missiles, small boats, and attempted hijackings,

We hereby reiterate the following and warn the Houthis against further attacks:

Ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing. There is no lawful justification for intentionally targeting civilian shipping and naval vessels. Attacks on vessels, including commercial vessels, using unmanned aerial vehicles, small boats, and missiles, including the first use of anti-ship ballistic missiles against such vessels, are a direct threat to the freedom of navigation that serves as the bedrock of global trade in one of the world’s most critical waterways.

These attacks threaten innocent lives from all over the world and constitute a significant international problem that demands collective action. Nearly 15 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, including 8 percent of global grain trade, 12 percent of seaborne-traded oil and 8 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade. International shipping companies continue to reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding significant cost and weeks of delay to the delivery of goods, and ultimately jeopardizing the movement of critical food, fuel, and humanitarian assistance throughout the world.

Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways. We remain committed to the international rules-based order and are determined to hold malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks.

I wish Henry Kissinger were available for comment. I’m quite sure this is not how he did these things. Under the circumstances, it seems unlikely that a rhetorical escalation will produce the desired deterrent effect, but that is only a guess. We shall see.

Iowa School Shooter Made Several Social Posts Before Killing 1, Wounding 5 Others

and the usual

So you’ve just bought an AR-15. Now what?

Consumer demand can be a fickle friend to businesses that stock firearms. While overall gun sales have remained brisk since I entered the industry as a custom manufacturer and gunsmith in 2009, interest in specific firearm types tends to ebb and flow. As a result, a gun shop can easily get caught between having stagnant inventory that suddenly fell out of favor and not having enough of the latest, high-demand firearms. However, two categories that remain fairly constant are concealed-carry handguns and AR-style rifles (or large-format pistols). We’ll focus on the AR-15-style firearms here.

The modular, utilitarian design of ARs (and similar platforms) is near the top of a long list of factors that drive the platform’s popularity. Home defense, hunting, emergency preparedness, target shooting and competition are the most common intended uses I hear from customers, in that order. If you’re a new member of the modern sporting rifle (MSR) club, welcome aboard. Your next logical step is to become intimately familiar with your AR, before you dump a bunch of money into accessories that marketing gurus guarantee will make you the envy of the range.

If you left the gun shop with an armload of extra gear, that’s OK. But before you accessorize your new purchase into something that’s no longer fun to carry, it will help your long game to focus on the basics. The prevalence of basic operation and maintenance questions from my customers demonstrates that an early emphasis on those topics is a critical part of new MSR owners’ first steps.

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Indy homeowner says he fought off intruder, killed him with his own gun

INDIANAPOLIS — One man is dead following an attempted home invasion on Indy’s east side.

Today the homeowner who killed the suspect spoke out about the shooting a short time after he was released without charges.

The front of his home and car were riddled with bullets after the homeowner said he killed an intruder and then exchanged gunfire with additional suspects outside. That homeowner insists he had no choice but to defend his life.

Just before 7 p.m. Tuesday night, police were called to a neighborhood near 38th and Post after a homeowner reported a masked man forced his way into the home during an attempted robbery.

“He smacked me in the head with a gun and told me I knew what it was and then I yelled out he’s trying to rob me,” said Brent Smith.

During that struggle, Smith admits he shot the intruder with the suspect’s own gun.

Damon Swanigan Junior, 22, died on the front step of the home, which was then hit by a barrage of bullets from outside. That gunfire damaged the siding, the front door and shattered the windows of a car parked in the street.

“When the gun went off I heard thousands of gunshots,” said Smith. “It was a lot of gunfire man, a lot of gunfire.”

Smith said during that shootout, he grabbed his own gun and returned fire before the suspects in the street drove away leaving behind a pile of broken car glass.

“I didn’t even think them or me. I was just basically trying to survive myself man,” said Smith.

Police questioned Smith overnight, but because the law allows people to defend themselves and their home with deadly force, he was released pending further investigation.

The next morning Smith remained emotional thinking about the life he had taken.

“That doesn’t make no sense man. I didn’t want to do that,” said Smith. “I don’t know his intention, but I didn’t want to be shot. That’s just all there is to it.”

Police did not have any information on the suspects who may have fled the scene.

Nebraska Bill Would Ban State Enforcement of Most Federal Gun Control

LINCOLN, Neb. (Jan. 3, 2024) – A Nebraska bill would end state and local enforcement of many federal acts that infringe on the right to keep and bear arms within the state.

Sen. Steve Halloran introduced Legislature Bill 194 (LB194) last year and it has been carried over for the 2024 session. Titled the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” the bill would prohibit state agencies and law enforcement officers from willfully enforcing a federal statute, order, rule, or regulation purporting to regulate a firearm, a firearm accessory, or firearm ammunition that “does not exist under the laws of this state,” except to comply with an order of a court.

The proposed law would also bar any Nebraska government entity from utilizing assets, state funds, or funds allocated by the state to engage in any activity that aids a federal agency, federal agent, or corporation providing services to the federal government in the enforcement of the same.

State or local agents guilty of violating the act would be subject to civil penalties of up to $3,000 on the first offense and class I misdemeanor charges on a second offense. Local governments or agencies found guilty of violating the law would lose grant funds in the following fiscal year.

LB194 is similar to a law passed in Arizona during the 2021 legislative session.

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Ohio sees drop in gun crimes across major cities after permitless carry law, study shows

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Contrary to concerns from some local leaders, a new study shows a decrease in gun crimes across six of Ohio’s eight largest cities following the implementation of the state’s “constitutional carry” law.

The research, conducted by the Center for Justice Research (CJR) in partnership with Bowling Green State University, analyzed data from June 2021 to June 2023, covering a year before and after the law went into effect in June 2022.

It focused on crimes involving firearms, verified gunshot-detection alerts, and the number of officers struck by gunfire.

The findings revealed:

  • Overall Decline: Across all eight cities, the rate of gun crimes decreased.
  • Significant Drops: Parma experienced the most significant decline (22%), followed by Akron and Toledo (both 18%).
  • Mixed Trends: Dayton and Cincinnati saw increases in gun crime rates (6% and 5%, respectively).

“This is not to downplay the very real problem of gun violence in our cities,” noted Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who commissioned the study. “But the key takeaway here is that we need to focus on criminals, not responsible gun owners.”

He acknowledged concerns expressed by several mayors before the study, stating, “I genuinely did not know what the study would find. I thought it would be useful either way.”

CJR Director Melissa Burek, a Doctor of Criminal Justice, led the research.

She emphasized the importance of examining the impact of policy changes: “This study helps us understand the complex picture of crime rates and policy implementation. It’s valuable data for informing future decisions.”

The findings add to the ongoing debate surrounding permitless carry laws, challenging concerns that such laws would lead to a surge in gun violence.

While proponents highlight responsible gun ownership and increased self-defense, critics argue it removes valuable safety measures like background checks and training.

Further research and analysis are needed to fully understand the long-term implications of Ohio’s permitless carry law and its impact on various factors influencing crime rates.