Everytown for Gun Safety is a Michael Bloomberg-funded gun-ban group that has never heard of an anti-gun proposal that it hasn’t supported. So, when Everytown recently joined with The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab to study “youth” and guns, it should come as no surprise that they “found” exactly what they were looking for.
The combined groups’ new “study,” titled “U.S. Youth Attitudes On Guns Report,” concluded that pro-gun youth are more likely to hold supremacist or racist views. “Evidence from this study suggests that pro-gun attitudes were associated with more extreme worldviews like male supremacist ideation and racial resentment,” the report stated.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts, let’s first take a look at an interesting aspect of the research. While it explicitly states “Youth” in the headline, the study participants ranged from 14 to 30 years old. Even the most-liberal definitions of “youth” tend to use the parameters of 14 to 24. While there is no consensus on what defines “youth” under law in the U.S., nearly every state, along with the federal government, considers the age at which one becomes an “adult” to be 18 years old. Some may debate including 18- to 24-year-olds among “youth,” but adding 25- through 30-year-olds to the study ensures it doesn’t have any validity concerning American “youth.”
1557 – During the 8 year war between the Kingdom of France and the Spanish Empire over territory in modern Italy, a decisive engagement between a Habsburg Spanish force under Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy defeating a French force under Duke Louis Gonzaga of Nevers, results in Philibert recovering the province of Savoy from French domination.
1776 – Battle of Long Island: In what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe inflict a defeat on American troops under General George Washington. Acting a a rear guard, the 1st Maryland Regiment repeatedly charges the numerically superior British force during the battle, allowing General Washington and the rest of the American troops to escape.
1803 – Reverend Edward Beecher is born in East Hampton, New York
1828 – Brazil and Argentina recognize the sovereignty of Uruguay in the Treaty of Montevideo
1832 – Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk tribe surrenders to the U.S., ending the Black Hawk War.
1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well.
1881 – A category 2 hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, killing an estimated 700 people.
1883 – Four enormous explosions so violent and loud that they are heard 3,000 miles away, nearly destroys the island of Krakatoa, causing an estimated 120,000 deaths due to the effects of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ash falls, and tsunamis.
1893 – A category 3 hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, killing an estimated 2,000 people.
1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary
1918 – U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas near Nogales, the only battle of World War I fought on American soil
1928 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact, titled The General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy is signed by fifteen nations.
1943 – Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia in the Solomon islands.
1975 – Ethiopian Emperor Tafari Makonnen, Haile Selassie I, dies while imprisoned at the National Palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1979 –Admiral of the Fleet, Louis, Earl Mountbatten of Burma is assassinated by a bomb planted aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles distant. No invasion by Martians is noted.
2006 – Comair Flight 5191, a Bombardier CRJ-100, crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, killing all 47 passengers and 2 of the 3 crew aboard.
2011 – Hurricane Irene , a category 3 storm, strikes the U.S east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage.
Mom and him were High School classmates.
Bob Barker, longtime ‘Price Is Right’ host, dies at 99 When producers hired Barker to host “The Price Is Right” in 1972, they hit the jackpot. The game show had faded significantly from its glory days in the late ‘50s and had been punted by two networks before it landed at CBS.
Bob Barker, the longtime host of television’s “The Price Is Right” who used his combination of comfort-food charm and deadpan humor to become an American television staple, has died, according to his longtime publicist. He was 99.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” publicist Roger Neal said in a statement Saturday.
Neal served as Barker’s publicist from 1987 to 1994 and again from 2020.
Bob Barker on the set of “The Price is Right” in Los Angeles, in 1985.CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
When producers hired Barker to host “The Price Is Right” in 1972, they hit the jackpot. The game show had faded significantly from its glory days in the late ‘50s and had been punted by two networks before it landed at CBS.
But in Barker, the show found its voice, and it has continued to air a decade and a half after he retired.
Robert Thompson, the director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said one reason Barker became an iconic game show host was the sheer length of his career. Barker spent more than half a century on TV, taking over as host of the popular “Truth or Consequences” in 1956 and retiring from “The Price Is Right” in 2007.
A contestant and host Bob Barker play “The Price Is Right” million dollar spectacular in Los Angeles in 2004.Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images “From the black and white era of television right up to the new century, Bob Barker had a real presence on two really big shows,” Thompson said.
“Secondly, you’ve got some game shows where the host just stands behind a podium, but Barker really interacted with regular people” who were selected as contestants. “And he was particularly good at it.”
Robert William Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, on Dec. 12, 1923, and at the age of 6 moved to a Sioux Indian reservation in Mission, South Dakota, with his mother after his father died in a workplace accident. His mother, Matilda, a schoolteacher, remarried and moved again to Missouri. After a two-year stint in the Navy at the tail end of World War II, Barker returned to Missouri to attend Drury College, now Drury University, and graduated with a degree in economics.
Barker landed a job at a radio station in Florida, and it didn’t take long for word of his smooth delivery to travel across the wires. In 1950, he moved to California to start his own radio program, “The Bob Barker Show,” in Burbank.
Television producers clearly tuned in, and Barker landed his first game show in 1956, NBC’s “Truth or Consequences,” a job he would hold for 18 years until it went off the air.
Bob Barker with contestants on “Truth or Consequences in 1963.Herb Ball / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Barker gave prizes away on “The Price Is Right,” which became the longest-running daytime game show in TV history in 1990, until his retirement.
And when he wasn’t giving away the keys to brand new cars, he was a TV fixture in other time slots. In 1967, he began a 20-year run as emcee of the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants, and in 1969 he started a similarly long run as the host of the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade.
But Barker’s made-for-television image took a huge hit 1994, when a former “Price Is Right” model accused him in a lawsuit of threatening to fire her if she didn’t have sex with him. Although the model, Dian Parkinson — a 19-year veteran of the show who had been fired the previous year — ultimately dropped the suit, Barker was forced to admit publicly that the two had had a less-than-professional relationship off screen.
Bob Barker with from left, Dian Parkinson, Holly Halstrom and Janice Pennington in 1986.CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty ImagesBarker’s wife, his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo Gideon, had died years before, in 1981. They married in 1945.
The scandal didn’t prevent Barker from being given an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Barker was also a longtime animal rights activist, ending each episode of “The Price Is Right” with the plea: “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
Bob Barker and his wife on the set of “Here’s Hollywood,” with his wife Dorothy Jo Barker. NBC / NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesHe founded a charity in 1995 that provided just such services for pet owners — the DJ&T Foundation, named after his wife and her mother. His passion for the cause can be traced to the first prize he gave away as host of “The Price Is Right” — a fur coat.
“I went to Mark Goodson and told him I didn’t want to be on the stage with these fur coats,” Barker told “CBS This Morning” in 2013, referring to the show’s producer. “So he took fur coats off our show.”
Barker’s longtime friend Nancy Burnet remembered him for his work in exposing animal cruelty.
“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker, and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” Burnet said in a statement Saturday.
She added that the two had been friends for 40 years. “He will be missed.”
In 2013, Barker donated $1 million to move three captive elephants from the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary in California.
The same year, Barker returned in a surprise visit to “Price Is Right” and his successor as host, Drew Carey.
“People ask me, ‘What do you miss most about ‘Price Is Right?’” Barker told Parade Magazine in 2013. “And I say, ‘The money.’ But that is not altogether true. I miss the people, too.”
You might call the time when a boys under 15 year oldhigh school soccer teambeat the women’s national team an indication this is true, but facts don’t matter when the narrative must go on.
A high school snowboarding coach has filed a lawsuit against his former employers alleging that he was fired for basically telling students in a conversation that men can outperform women in sports.
Coach David Bloch filed the lawsuit against the leaders of Woodstock Union High School in July demanding he be reinstated. An attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative firm that represents Bloch, said a hearing on the lawsuit is expected to take place in early September.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Vermont, states that Bloch was wrongly accused of violating the school district’s harassment and bullying policy for referencing a student “in a manner that questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of [a] student competing on the girls’ team.”
Windsor Central Supervisory Union officials did not respond to The College Fix’s requests for comment over the past two weeks.
Bloch founded Woodstock High School’s snowboarding team over a decade ago and has served as its head coach ever since, according to the lawsuit, focused on the intersection of biological differences between genders and the right to speak on controversial topics.
According to an Alliance Defending Freedom news release, the controversial, three-minute conversation occurred in February when Bloch’s team competed against another team that had a biological male who identifies as a female that competes in the female division.
“Before the competition, Coach Bloch overheard two of his student-athletes having a discussion about that male competing against females, and he stepped into the conversation,” stated the news release from the alliance.
“Coach Bloch said that people can express themselves differently and that there can be masculine women and feminine men. But he also acknowledged the biological reality that males and females have different DNA, and he shared his belief that the physical differences between men and women give men an athletic advantage,” it stated.
Bloch’s attorneys allege the coach never referred to the transgender athlete by name and the competition took place without incident. However, the next day, Bloch was informed of his “immediate termination,” his attorneys stated.
The lawsuit alleges the superintendent who fired Bloch “has a child who identifies as transgender.”
According to Matthew Hoffman, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Bloch’s dismissal raises concerns about his rights to due process and free speech.
“He received no notice of the allegations against him and was not given an opportunity to defend himself before being fired,” Hoffman said in a telephone interview with The College Fix, adding this raises serious questions about the thoroughness of the investigation conducted by the school district.
The lawsuit also argues the school district’s harassment and bullying policies are unconstitutionally vague “because they grant government officials unbridled discretion in deciding what constitutes ‘gender identity,’ ‘harassment,’ and ‘harassment on the basis of gender identity,’” as well as “because they utilize terms that are inherently subjective and elude any precise or objective definition that would be consistent from one administrator, teacher, or student to another.”
In addition to reinstatement, the lawsuit demands the school district acknowledge his termination violated his First Amendment rights to free speech.
Hoffman added that he hopes this incident will lead to changes in policies to prevent similar occurrences, emphasizing that speaking out on controversial topics should not result in the loss of one’s job. He also called for greater protection of employees’ rights to express their opinions.
Bloch is a Roman Catholic “who believes that God creates human beings as male and female. Consistent with his faith—and with scientific evidence—he believes that chromosomes determine a person’s sex,” the ADF news release stated.
Hoffman said that despite the difficult circumstance Bloch is in, many students and community members have privately shared their support with him.
Liberals only want one thing … and it’s disgusting.
Alright, well technically it’s three things — but they all fall under the same umbrella of the broader liberal world view.
In her analysis of the GOP debate Thursday evening, Laura Ingraham made a tongue in cheek comparison of Republican and Democrat campaign platforms. “Okay, here’s what the Democrats’ platform is,” she quipped, “pot, porn, Planned Parenthood.”
Liberals in the corporate media and online mocked the comments as orchestrated conservative hysteria making mountains out of a mole hill. They used the typical gas-lighting ploy of “it’s not happening, but it’s good that it is.”
Gisele Fetterman — the activist wife of Sen. John Fetterman who wheeled him across the finish line in Pennsylvania — gave away the game when she responded to the comment, apparently without a hint of irony, to say she’s in.
Of course, liberals love all three things. They are all natural out-growths of the New Left movement of the 1960s. The student hippies who steeped in “free love” and psychedelic drugs grew up to become tenured professors, legal activists, bureaucrats, and government officials — the counterculture of yesterday is now the dominant culture in America.
Liberals today are ideologically obligated to reject the possibility of any downsides to rampant drug use or hyper-sexualization. To reject pot, porn, or Planned Parenthood is to reject individual liberation — the ultimate goal of the modern liberal project.
Any law, norm, or tradition that kept you from pursuing your desires was bad. The powerful used the rules of society to keep the masses in line, while they exploited them at every turn.
The New Left said society must be re-made to help people realize their authentic selves. Narcissistic self-fulfillment was recast as a revolutionary act against an unjust system. Pursuing your desires became the highest — the only — moral good.
If you’re thinking like a liberal, smoking a joint isn’t just like having a beer after work. It’s a way to open your mind — to free your creativity and think about things in new ways. It’s liberating in a way that goes far beyond just being against the government having a say in what you ingest.
The New Left thought pot would liberate the masses from the slog of bourgeois life. Today’s left is banking on the opposite. They know pot makes you fat, lazy, and stupid — and hope that if they give you more of it you won’t notice or care as they destroy the country around you. But still, support would crater if they said this out loud, so they stick to the moral posturing.
The same goes with porn and Planned Parenthood. Sexual rules were designed by straight, white men to keep women under control — how many times have you heard this from a girl with purple hair?
Liberals defend porn as a way for women to reclaim a position of power in the patriarchy. Sure, a handful of women get rich and famous as porn stars, but countless more are trafficked, exploited, and abused. As a generation of young men grows up incapable of understanding sex outside of porn, it’s hard to argue that women are better off.
But in the liberal world view, this harm gets overlooked in the name of liberation. Do any disgusting thing you want for the world to see. If you enjoy it (and consent) no one has any right to stop you. All sexual acts become morally equal when there’s no universal standard to judge them against.
If porn frees women from oppressive norms, abortion frees them from biology itself. The modern woman shouldn’t be constrained by the natural functions of her body. If being a mother stops you from pursuing your desires — being a Girl Boss, drinking on a Tuesday night, or just sleeping around more — then drive on down to your local Planned Parenthood. The obligation to that clump of cells comes second to the obligation to yourself.
But like pot, this now serves to enslave more than liberate.
The cult of abortion worship has convinced millions of women that the best thing they can do is trade marriage and children in for a corner office and some cats. Porn normalizes hook-up culture and promotes sexual dysfunction in men and women. It’s hard to settle down when you’re never satisfied. You become a compliant cog in the liberal machine.
When you have a spouse and children, you think about the future of the country because you have a stake in it. When you’re just worried about your job or your date on Friday, you lose sight of what really matters.
Karl Marx wrote that religion is the opium of the masses. For today’s liberals, it’s just pot, porn, and Planned Parenthood.
NEW ORLEANS—During the COVID-19 pandemic Waylon Bailey made a joke about the virus, zombies, and his local sheriff’s department on Facebook. Today, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Waylon’s joke was protected by the First Amendment and that deputies violated his free-speech rights and his Fourth Amendment rights when they arrested him. Waylon teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to appeal a lower court decision that granted qualified immunity to the detective and sheriff responsible for his arrest.
“I’m relieved that the court recognized that the deputies were wrong to arrest me for making a joke on Facebook,” said Waylon. “I’m glad that I will be able to hold the detective and sheriff accountable, and hopefully my case will stand as a strong statement to officers about what the First Amendment protects.”
Judge Dana M. Douglas, writing for the unanimous panel, said that: “The First Amendment’s protections apply to jokes, parodies, satire, and the like, whether clever or in poor taste.”
“The court’s opinion makes clear that the First Amendment applies with full force to online speech,” said IJ Attorney Ben Field. “Government officials can’t get away with stretching criminal laws to go after people who make jokes at their expense. This is a victory for free speech and common sense and against the pernicious doctrine of qualified immunity.”
Waylon Bailey’s March 2020 Facebook post used over-the-top language, emoji, and a hashtag referencing the Brad Pitt movie World War Z in facetiously warning that the local sheriff’s office had been ordered to shoot the “infected.” Despite the obvious indications that it was a joke, sheriff’s deputies decided to arrest Waylon, without a warrant, under an anti-terrorism law and sent a SWAT team with guns drawn to his garage.
Waylon was taken to jail and booked, though the absurd charge was dropped when a prosecutor reviewed the case. But when Waylon brought a civil-rights lawsuit, the deputy responsible for the arrest was granted qualified immunity by the district court. To add insult to injury, the court also said that Waylon didn’t have any free speech rights to make a joke in the first place. The 5th Circuit reversed and remanded to the district court, which will now fully consider Waylon’s civil-rights lawsuit.
“Any reasonable officer would have known that Waylon’s zombie joke was clearly protected by the First Amendment, and certainly wasn’t ‘terrorizing,’” said IJ Attorney Caroline Grace Brothers. “By denying qualified immunity to the detective who arrested Waylon, this decision confirms that government officials should not escape accountability when it should have been obvious that their actions were unconstitutional.”
The Biden administration has already put nearly 2,000 gun sellers out of business in just two years. Just a few years ago, a lawsuit helped drive the 200-year-old Remington Arms into bankruptcy. But activists won’t stop suing gun shops and anyone else that comes close to the industry.
Last week, attorneys from Everytown Law, the legal arm of Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety, filed a lawsuit against a shop that sold the gun used in the fatal shooting of 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022. The murderer is a racist who specifically targeted racial minorities. Everytown claims the attack “could have been prevented,” but in fact, the gun seller performed all of the proper background checks.
Others are also being sued, including the 18-year-old murderer’s parents and social media companies that allegedly “transformed and addicted” the murderer by allowing extremist content on their sites.
But the lessons from this shooting, like many other mass public shootings, are hiding in plain sight. One needs only to read the killer’s manifesto.
“Areas where CCW [carrying a concealed weapon] are outlawed or prohibited may be good areas of attack,” wrote the shooter. “Areas with strict gun laws are also great places of attack.”
But Everytown ignores those quotes. Nor does the organization mention that the Buffalo mass murderer self-identified as an “eco-fascist national socialist” and a member of the “mild-moderate authoritarian left.” The shooter expressed concern that minority immigrants have too many children and will damage the environment. “The invaders are the ones overpopulating the world,” he wrote. “Kill the invaders, kill the overpopulation and by doing so save the environment.”
Leftist politicians rarely tell the truth. Their policies and ideals are so bad that they can’t, and they know it, thus the nonstop hyperbole, grandstanding, and projection. It’s infuriating that so many Americans either are unable to see this, thanks in part to a complicit MSM, or so blinded by their ideology that they choose to ignore the fact that they get endlessly played by those they keep electing.
As with any good totalitarian leftist regime, gun confiscation is at the top of the leftist wish list. It’s much easier to institute control and compliance over an unarmed citizenry than it is an armed one. They may deny it, but deep down, this is what they want. All you have to do is watch and listen to them.
You hear them use code words like “military-grade weapons” and “red flag laws.” Even our leftist administrative state is getting in on the action, as the ATF is now targeting gun dealers by denying more and more of their business licenses. It probably won’t be long until this administration starts mandating that banks curtail any financial dealings with gun manufacturers and dealers, just as it has with the fossil fuel industry. House bills are already written to pin blame on gun manufacturers for gun-related crimes. Once instituted, there is no way those business can survive the legal onslaught that would come their way. Leftists may not be able to repeal the 2nd Amendment, yet, but they can sure regulate their way around it.
This leftist playbook was recently revealed by progressive St. Louis mayor Tishaura Jones. Under her leadership, the city recently passed Bill 29, which repealed the city’s open carry law, but that wasn’t enough for her. Now she’s proposing more “commonsense gun legislation,” including but not limited to red flag laws, background checks, banning “military-grade” weapons, and prohibiting insurrectionists and those convicted of hate crimes from owning guns.
While I find red flag laws deeply concerning, as they blatantly infringe upon an individual’s right to bear arms simply via another’s accusation, the last two in the list really set the alarm bells off. Of course, Mayor Jones didn’t specifically say what constitutes a “military-grade weapon,” and I’m not going to put words into her mouth, but any time the government looks to limit something, it’s only getting started. Military-grade weapons, or “weapons of war,” is an extremely vague term that can mean whatever the government wants it to mean, which is exactly how the government wants it. All these people need to do is to open that door and stick their foot in it, and then, over time they’ll be able to step right through.
This brings me to Jones’s most disturbing statement: “prohibiting insurrectionists and those convicted of hate crimes” from owning guns. We’ve already seen how loose our federal government is when it comes to labeling citizens as “insurrectionists.” Would local leftist leaders be at all different? Of course not.
In fact, let’s take this a step farther. With our federal Justice Department labeling concerned parents voicing opinions at school board meetings as “domestic terrorists,” what would stop local authorities from targeting them as well? Or the fact that certain crimes against certain “oppressed” or “victim” groups, as determined by the administrative state, constitutes forgoing your 2nd Amendment rights, too? This is nothing but blatant political weaponization against “enemies” in the guise of “commonsense” gun laws, with the government picking and choosing the winners and losers. In the 17th century, they were called “witch hunts.”
The fact that Mayor Jones used the word “insurrectionists” was no accident. On the surface, who would argue with disarming insurrectionists, right? But to the left, “insurrectionists” refers to anybody leftists disagree with, as well as other code words like “fascists,” “MAGA,” and “terrorists.” This is the semantic word game that leftists love to play. They’ll pass laws that, on their surface, may appear sensible and provide a good sound bite, just for them to then use these laws to cudgel their opposition, while giving free passes to those who support them.
We all have to vehemently resist leftists’ assault on the 2nd Amendment, for there is absolutely no question as to what their end game is: the disarmament of the populace and the persecution of their adversaries.
August 26
1071 – The Seljuq Turks defeat the Byzantine army at Manzikert in modern day Turkey.
1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia.
1768 – Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour for his first expedition to the South Pacific Ocean area.
1791 – John Fitch is granted a U.S. patent for the steamboat.
1883 – The volcano on the island of Krakatoa begins to erupt
1920 – The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.
1942 – At Chortkiv, in Ukraine, the state police and German Schutzpolizei deport 2000 Jews to Bełżec extermination camp, murdering over 500 children and the sick beforehand.
1972 – The Games of the XX Olympiad open in Munich.
1974 – Charles Lindbergh dies on the island of Maui at age 72
1980 – While trying to disarm a bomb planted by John Birges at the Harvey’s Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, the FBI accidentally detonates it, without any deaths or injuries.
2003 – Colgan Air Flight 9446, a Beechcraft 1900 crashes after take off from Barnstable Municipal Airport in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, killing both pilots, the only people on board.
2009 – Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard is discovered alive in California after being missing for over 18 years. Her captors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido are apprehended.
2015 – 2 U.S. journalists are shot and killed by a disgruntled former coworker while broadcasting a live report in Moneta, Virginia with the murderer committing suicide after a vehicle pursuit by police.
2018 – 3 people are killed and 10 wounded by a losing player at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida with the murderer then committing suicide.
2021 – During the precipitous evacuation of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, an attack on the Kabul airport kills 13 U.S. military personnel and at least 169 Afghan civilians.
“Only the police should have guns”
(You ever notice that all the gun control laws the demoncraps want always exclude the police?)
A gunman who killed three people Wednesday night at a beloved local bar in Trabuco Canyon and wounded six others — including his estranged wife — was a former police officer, according to officials.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department identified the gunman as John Snowling, a retired Ventura police sergeant. When John Snowling, 59, came to Cook’s Corner, his target was his wife, who was a regular at the bar on Santiago Canyon Road. He fired on her and then began “shooting randomly,” Sheriff Don Barnes said Thursday afternoon.
Snowling entered the bar around 7 p.m. Wednesday during its weekly $8 spaghetti night — a family-friendly event — armed with two handguns, Barnes said. The retired cop walked up to his wife and immediately shot her once, wounding her, then shot the woman with whom she was dining. That woman, who has not been identified, later died.
There was no conversation or argument that preceded Snowling opening fire on his estranged wife, Barnes said.
“Mr. Snowling … then started randomly shooting at patrons within Cook’s Corner,” Barnes said. “That progressed to the outside area.”
At one point, Snowling returned to his truck in an upper parking lot, where he was confronted by a man from the bar — whom Snowling also shot, Barnes said. That man, who also has not been identified, later died.
When deputies arrived — within two minutes of the first 911 call — they found Snowling in the parking lot, Barnes said. The former cop began firing at deputies, hitting multiple law enforcement vehicles.
A gunfight ensued, and “it was gunfire from those deputies that ultimately took the life” of Snowling, Barnes said. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said seven deputies opened fire, firing at least 75 shots.
After the shooting, deputies recovered four weapons Snowling had brought to the scene: two pistols, a revolver and a shotgun, Barnes said. All were acquired legally.
Barnes identified one of the men who was killed as John Leehey, 67, of Irvine. He did not identify the two others who were killed, as officials have not yet notified next of kin.
The six people who were injured in the shooting were taken to Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo on Wednesday night. Two were in critical condition — a man shot in the chest and a woman shot in the jaw, according to James Chisum, a spokesman for the hospital. The woman, believed to be Snowling’s estranged wife, Marie Snowling, was transferred overnight to UC Irvine Medical Center, Chisum confirmed Thursday.
The four other victims, all men, were stable, Chisum said. One was released from the hospital late Wednesday, and two others with minor injuries were expected to be released Thursday. A fourth man, shot in the arm, was likely to have surgery Thursday.
No children or deputies were injured in the shooting.
The Sheriff’s Department confirmed that Snowling’s wife was among the injured.
Mark Johnson, pianist for the Orange County band that was performing at the bar Wednesday night, said two members of the M-Street Band “were hit and were hospitalized but stable.” Johnson, drummer Brian Lynch and singer Debbie Johnson said in a video that guitarist Ed Means and bassist Dave Stretch were in the hospital. Lynch said they were “all going to be OK.”
Officials declined to identify the other injured victims.
Barnes said investigators were still searching for a motive. Snowling, who used to share a home with his wife in Camarillo, was most recently living in Ohio, Barnes said. He recently traveled back to Southern California, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he followed his estranged wife to the bar or found out she was going there, Barnes said.
On Thursday morning, heavily armed Orange County sheriff’s deputies surrounded Snowling’s home in the Camarillo neighborhood of El Capitan Place, not far from Adolfo Camarillo High School.
Deputies ordered any occupants to exit as they prepared to serve a search warrant. Two vehicles were in the driveway, but no one exited.
It wasn’t immediately clear what deputies seized or hoped to find in the search.
Snowling worked for the Ventura Police Department from 1986 to 2014, rising to the rank of sergeant, according to a department spokesman. He served as the president of the city’s police union in 2008 and 2009, records show.
In December 2022, Marie Snowling filed for divorce, writing that she had been estranged from her husband for two years, court filings show.
The couple had been married almost 32 years when they separated in November 2020, her attorney wrote, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split. The case file contains no allegations of acrimony or abuse.
In February, John Snowling was served with the divorce papers in Newark, Ohio, records show. He had yet to respond to his wife’s petition.
His attorney, Tristan Tegroen, told The Times he was shocked by the shooting Wednesday, given how measured and fair the divorce proceedings had been so far.
Tegroen noted he is accustomed to rancorous divorces, but said with the Snowlings, “there was nothing like that — nothing at all.” As the lawyers in the case went about identifying and valuing their assets, Marie Snowling did not seek a restraining order against her husband, raise accusations of abuse or say she was fearful of him, he said.
Tegroen did not get the sense that any one issue had prompted the split, only that the two felt their marriage had run its course. “John was living in Ohio and she was here, and they were living apart,” he said.
“Honestly, this came as a horrible shock to me,” Tegroen said. “There was nothing on the radar to suggest he might do this.”
Marie Snowling’s lawyer, Kenneth Henjum, said his team was awaiting further information about her condition.
“The Snowling family is in shock at the events from last night and are requesting their privacy,” Henjum said in a statement.
John Snowling, then a Ventura police officer, patrols the Pacific View Mall in Ventura in 2000. Snowling, who retired in 2014, was identified as the gunman in Wednesday night’s mass shooting in Trabuco Canyon.
(Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
James Goldsmith, 68, lived two doors down from the Snowlings in Camarillo for more than two decades. Marie Snowling had moved out to live with her sick mother in Orange County a few years ago, he said, adding that he knew the couple had been going through “marital issues” but never heard any shouting or saw the police come by due to domestic disputes.
“John was always kind of a standoffish kind of person,” Goldsmith said. “He wasn’t the most personable guy, not that I can say that there was anything really negative. He wasn’t the type of neighbor that you’d get the warm fuzzies from.”
He described Marie Snowling as an “absolute sweetheart.” She was the more social one of the couple, according to Goldsmith.
Goldsmith didn’t know whether Marie had a new partner but said she often posted on Facebook about her life after filing for divorce.
“I think she wanted to have friends and live life, and that’s why I think she made the move that she did,” Goldsmith said. “It’s sad that he couldn’t allow that and let her live her own life.”
Snowling had recently purchased a house in Ohio and was staying there most of the time, Goldsmith said. He most recently saw Snowling come back a few months ago to do some maintenance work on the house, he said.
Marie Snowling had moved to a mobile home community in Orange, where she’d recently become a manager, a job her late mother previously held, residents told The Times.
On Wednesday night, neighbor Mary Talian watched out her window, waiting for Snowling to come home. Talian, 82, knew her neighbor was at Cook’s Corner because Marie often talked about the bar’s spaghetti night.
“She loved to be around people, around music, and she loved to go out,” Talian said.
“Marie would always take my calls,” Talian said, adding that Snowling would often check on her and pick up her groceries. “That’s how I knew that something was wrong last night, when she didn’t call back.”
Snowling was the perfect fit to manage the mobile home park, said Talian’s daughter, Carol Franke.
“The first words out of her mouth are always, ‘How are you?’ or ‘How are the kids?’ She never talked about herself,” Franke said. “Marie celebrated other people’s wins. That’s just who she is.”
John Snowling, right, and Ventura police partner Sam Arroyo on patrol at Ventura’s Pacific View Mall in 2000.
(Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Denise Craft, another neighbor in Orange, described Marie Snowling as nice and personable. Craft knew about Snowling’s divorce and how her estranged husband had taken custody of their dog.
Marie Snowling had recently confided in her that her that John Snowling was being very sweet lately, but she didn’t know why.
“I told her to be cautious about that,” Craft, 59, said.
Geoffrey Kagy, 52, a regular at Cook’s Corner, said his girlfriend, Jacqueline Bass, was at the bar without him Wednesday night — but around 7:30 p.m. she suddenly sent Kagy a volley of text messages. The first said “911,” followed by “Help” and “Omg.” She’d been inside Cook’s Corner when the gunman opened fire.
When they spoke by phone, Kagy said, “she just kept saying how she was running and that she saw somebody shoot.”
At about 7:07 pm Wednesday, a dispatcher on the radio channel for local California Highway Patrol troopers said: “Male came in and started shooting. Eight shots were fired. White male. Plaid shirt and jeans. Still shooting. Possibly active shooter.”
Emergency dispatchers reported hearing gunshots in the background of radio traffic as multiple deputies arrived at the bar, Orange County Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said at a late-night news conference Wednesday.
In a video posted to Facebook by Betty Fruichantie, a friend of Marie Snowling’s, first responders are seen putting victims on gurneys to be taken to the hospital. Fruichantie wrote that the gunman fired “4 or 6 shots” at her but missed.
In the video, Fruichantie pans to a woman being wheeled away on a stretcher.
“Oh my God, Marie,” she says.
Fruichantie mentioned in Facebook comments that she was sharing a table with Marie Snowling before the shooting and later learned that the gunman was her friend’s estranged husband.
“He shot her in the face,” she wrote. “They transported her to the ER.”
Cook’s Corner, which sits at the juncture of El Toro, Santiago Canyon and Live Oak Canyon roads near O’Neill Regional Park, is a popular haunt among local riders who want to avoid freeway congestion and enjoy the winding route to get there, and it’s become a spot where families gather for an inexpensive weeknight dinner.
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said he was devastated by the shooting, and that it happened at an establishment that had become a cornerstone of the community.
“You hear Cook’s Corner, ‘Oh it’s a biker bar,’ and in many ways it is. You go out there you’ll see motorcycles galore … because it’s really fun to ride your bikes out there,” Wagner said. “But the truth is that it’s a family spot.
“It will be forever sad — there’s no other word for it — that such a happy place will now go forward under the shadow of what happened last night,” he said.
Gus Gunderman, 60, stopped by Cook’s Corner on Wednesday evening for a bite to eat and left just minutes before the shooting started. The bar was filled with patrons sipping beers as the band prepared for its set. On the patio, families sat devouring large plates of spaghetti and salad.
Gunderman ordered a burger and a soda, not remembering it was all-you-can-eat spaghetti night. Looking back, he’s grateful for that decision.
“Had I ordered spaghetti I would have gotten another plate or more salad, and then I would have been in the thick of it,” Gunderman said. “It’s a tragedy.”
Orange County sheriff’s deputies monitor the scene after the shooting.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
In the four decades he’s frequented the eatery, Gunderman said he’d never once felt unsafe.
“I’ve never even seen a fight there. This could have happened anywhere,” he said. “It has nothing to do with motorcycles or motorcycle culture.”
News of the shooting brought concern from local officials and residents.
An aerial view of investigators on the scene at Cook’s Corner.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m heartbroken by the news of yet another mass shooting tonight, this time at Cook’s Corner, a historic bar in the heart of Orange County,” state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) said in a statement. “My heart breaks for the families and loved ones of the victims.”
In a statement Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he “mourns for the victims of last night’s horrific shooting.”
He also urged Californians to utilize the state’s red flag laws, especially in instances of domestic disputes, which can temporarily remove firearms from someone who poses a threat to themselves or others.
“We must continue to strengthen, defend, and use these laws,” he said. “If you see red flags, say something — and in doing so, save lives.”
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley echoed the governor’s call for people to proactively respond to threats, stalking or domestic violence.
“It’s disturbing to learn that another domestic dispute led to another mass shooting,” Foley said. “We must do more to prevent senseless acts of gun violence and protect survivors.”
“Our hearts weigh heavy with the distressing incident at Cook’s Corner,” Ventura Police Chief Darin Schindler said in a statement. “Our deepest condolences are with the families of the victims, the survivors, [and] the Orange County deputies who swiftly responded to the scene.”
Ventura County Fire Capt. Brian McGrath said the Snowlings’ son, Patrick, works for the department as a firefighter. “We are doing everything we can for him in his time of need,” McGrath said.
Spitzer said his heart was “broken into a million pieces for the people who know and love Cook’s Corner … and for the people who were subjected to this unspeakable act of violence.”
First responders attend to people at the shooting scene.
(OnScene.tv)
On Thursday morning, Erwin Lima stood outside the police tape blocking the two-lane road that leads to Cook’s Corner. The Victorville resident has worked weekends detailing motorcycles at Cook’s Corner for more than 15 years and drove there hoping to learn anything he could about the condition of his co-workers and friends.
“I couldn’t believe it when I started getting calls,” said Lima, 54. “My body just shut down.”
Marie Snowling frequented the bar most weekends for the live music, Lima said. Sometimes it would get so crowded that she’d bring her own chair so she’d have somewhere to sit.
“Everywhere now is shootings: schools, bars, church,” he said.
NEW – Biden's climate czar John Kerry: "Now humanity is inexorably threatened by humanity itself."pic.twitter.com/n5MBBzU6EL
Aside from the constitution, why are citizens allowed to purchase semi automatic rifles?
Because there is no “aside from the Constitution”. You have appreciated the American system opposite to how things work here.
You ask why we’re ‘allowed’ to do something? It doesn’t work that way. We Americans can say, do, own, buy, sell, possess whatever we want. We’re not ‘allowed’ anything. We need no ‘permission’. Read the whole Constitution, including the Bill of Rights and you’ll find nothing among the powers given to government, by the people, saying we must first seek to be allowed to do something.
This is the main difference of the American way where we are free citizens not government subjects. America has the ethos that anything not explicitly banned is allowed. Not that anything not explicitly allowed is banned.
To stop, ban, or restrict this freedom, a law, eventually found to be ‘constitutional’ if someone thinks it isn’t and takes it to court in our judicial system, must be passed in the legislative political process. Not the other way around.
A man who tried to rob a Metairie taxi driver at gunpoint was shot and killed when the cabbie fired his own pistol in self-defense early Monday morning, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The death of Gerald Pope, 23, was classified as a justifiable homicide, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. The taxi driver, 43, will not face criminal charges, according to authorities.
Gerald Pope Photo from NOPD
The shooting occurred just before 1 a.m. near the intersection of Robertson Street and Merit Way (map)
The driver was in his cab when a man armed with a handgun, later identified as Pope, approached and demanded money, Rivarde said.
The cab driver, who was not publicly identified, shot Pope multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene, said Tim Genevay, a spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office.
“The driver was presented with a threat to his life,” Rivarde said in explaining why the shooting is being considered justifiable.
Sheriff’s Office investigators suspect Pope is the man who robbed two other drivers from the same cab company, according to Rivarde.
Pope matched the description of the robber in a holdup at 3 p.m. the day before the shooting and another reported last week, Rivarde said. No other details were immediately available about the two earlier robberies.
When asked why the Sheriff’s Office did not release any information about the fatal shooting on the day it occurred, Rivarde said, “The sanctity of the criminal investigations comes before anything. In an investigation like this, ensuring that information about the shooting was not publicly available was very important.
Eight Republican presidential candidates were under the bright lights in Milwaukee, Wis., last night as the 2024 election officially kicked off with the first televised debate of the campaign.
Fox News hosted the debate and candidates who qualified for the stage included North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, former Gov. and Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Former President Donald Trump sat out the debate and instead sat for a Tucker Carlson interview posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Only one question in the two-hour debate focused on crime and how criminals are held accountable for their crimes, or in many big cities – not held accountable. The candidate responses highlighted reasons why Americans are continuing to buy firearms at historic levels, including more than 8 million first-time buyers just in the last couple of years. As Americans cite self-defense as a top reason for buying a firearm, 1 million or more National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verifications have been processed for 48 straight months.
BELLEVUE, WA – Two days after filing a federal lawsuit challenging a so-called “Red Flag” law in Maryland, the Second Amendment Foundation is announcing the launch of a new project to take subsequent legal actions against similar laws in several states.
This new initiative is called “Capture the Flag,” and it will focus on abuses and mis-application of “Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO)” statutes which have been adopted by 21 states and the District of Columbia.
“SAF’s ‘Capture the Flag’ initiative looks to challenge these laws that deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms, where appropriate, based on evidentiary standards that are constitutionally impermissible,” explained SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, who is a practicing civil rights attorney.
Kraut said the project will initially focus on “Red Flag” laws in six states: California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington.
“SAF has been concerned about these statutes since they first started showing up,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We have already taken legal action against officials in Maryland for an egregious abuse of the law against a citizen in Dorchester County. But all of these laws should raise alarms because they prioritize citizen disarmament ahead of due process, and that can easily lead to deprivation of rights under color of law.”
Kraut said the fundamental flaw in all of these laws is that they essentially consider people guilty until they prove themselves innocent, a concept diametrically opposed to the way our criminal justice system is supposed to work, where the burden of proof is on the state, not the individual.
“When any citizen is unjustly deprived of his or her rights, it is an affront to all of us,” Kraut observed, “and we must do whatever we can to prevent it, including challenging such laws in federal court. ‘Capture the Flag’ provides the means for us to seek out such cases and take appropriate action.”
SAF encourages individuals residing in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Washington that have been subject to a baseless, groundless and unsubstantiated ERPO to contact the organization by sending an email to info@saf.org with information regarding the circumstances surrounding the petition, order, and outcome.
