The gun grabbers actually don’t like any of the rights the Bill of Rights protected from goobermint.

GUN CONTROL LOOKS TO DRY UP LEGAL TALENT FOR GUN INDUSTRY

Gun control groups are foisting gun control on the American public by taking to university campuses to convince law students to pledge to never represent the firearm industry, or its interests, in court.

Gun control groups are big Shakespeare fans, apparently. They’re taking a page from the famed Elizabethan-era bard’s Henry VI as the next play on foisting gun control on the American public.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” Shakespeare wrote in the play.

Two gun control groups are putting a 21st Century twist on the line and taking to university campuses to convince law students to pledge to never represent the firearm industry, or its interests, in court.

Call it the long game. Gun control isn’t satisfied with attacking Second Amendment rights, or even First Amendment rights. Now, they’re targeting Sixth Amendment rights too. That’s the amendment that guarantees the right to be represented by legal counsel.

Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence and March for Our Lives, gun control groups headed by former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, respectively, are canvassing campuses to convince law students to sign a pledge they won’t represent the firearm industry or firearm owners when it comes to protecting and preserving Second Amendment rights. The gun control groups’ pledge peddles verifiably false claims to convince the aspiring lawyers that the firearm industry is responsible for violent crime in America.

Not criminals. Not gang violence. Not the illicit drug trade. They’re blaming the industry for crimes committed by violent offenders and ignoring basic legal foundations to sway law students to deny legal services to companies and individuals that follow the law.

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California Wants Gun Mag BAN Case to Go Away, Not So Fast Freedom Haters

BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a long-running legal challenge of California’s magazine ban statute have filed a memorandum in support of their motion for summary judgment and opposition to the state’s counter-motion for a summary judgment. The case is known as Wiese v. Bonta, originally filed in 2017.

SAF is joined by the Calguns Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation, and several private citizens. They are represented by attorneys George M. Lee at Seiler Epstein LLP in San Francisco and Raymond M. DiGuiseppe at DiGuiseppe Law Firm in Southport, N.C. The case is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

“California has been stubbornly defending what amounts to a confiscatory effort to deprive state residents of magazines which are commonly owned by millions of citizens across the country,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Following the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling last year, the state has doubled down with its gun control efforts, and defending this indefensible magazine ban is a major component of what amounts to a campaign of resistance which the courts should not allow.”

“We’ve been in this fight for six years,” noted SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “The state has now resorted to absurd arguments that concede an inherent operating part of a firearm is an ‘arm’ only so long as it holds an arbitrarily determined number of rounds, but suddenly becomes something else if it holds more. As we explain in the text of our memorandum, nothing in the Second Amendment supports the state’s position on drawing these random lines to determine whether something is an ‘arm’ or not.

“Last summer’s Supreme Court ruling in the Bruen case established a new directive for handling Second Amendment cases, which now require that challenged gun laws must be supported by historical traditions, and the state cannot do that in this case,” he added.

The 28-page memorandum also notes;

“Therefore, the common use of an arm overrides any decrees or policy judgments of the State as to what its citizens ‘really need’ for purposes of exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear protected arms for self-defense and other lawful purposes. And it is beyond any reasonable dispute that the magazines at issue are commonly owned, both here in California and throughout the United States.”

June 3

1098 – After a 5 month siege during the First Crusade, the Crusaders seize the city of Antioch, near the current city of Antakya, Turkey.

1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain.

1621 – The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherland on the current east coast of the U.S.

1781 – Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson at his home of Montecello, and the Virginia legislature at Charlottesville, of an impending raid by Lt Colonel Banastre Tarleton.

1861 – At the of Battle of Philippi, Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia.

1864 – At the of Battle of Cold Harbor, Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.

1889 – The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law by President Wilson, creating the Army Reserves, the Reserve Officer Training Corps – ROTC,  and Army Aviation, also expanding the Presidential powers to federalize the National Guard.

1942 –Imperial Japan forces begin the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island, an elaborate feint to lure U.S. forces out from Pearl Harbor and keep them far enough away from the invasion of Midway island that they will be unable to respond until the Japanese Navy has set up a trap for the remaining U.S. carriers stationed in the Pacific.

1965 – Aboard Gemini 4, astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White launch from Cape Kennedy on the first multi day space mission by NASA with White performing the first American spacewalk.

1969 – Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with and cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half, killing 74 sailors aboard the Evans.

1980 – The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak hits Nebraska, causing 5 deaths and $300 million in damage.

1989 – Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dies.

2013 – The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Bradley Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland.

2017 –  8 people are murdered and 48 more wounded when 3 moslem islamists stage a vehicle crash and and knife attack at London Bridge that lasts over 8 minutes before the policer arrive and shoot all the terrorists dead 20 seconds after arriving, proving the point that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Man tries to carjack MS family, gets shot by victim

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Little Rock police said that the man found shot in the River Market parking deck on Memorial Day attacked a Mississippi family before he was injured.

According to the Little Rock Police Department, one of the victims told officers that a man came up from behind and hit him several times as the victim was loading a wagon onto the roof of the vehicle.

Another victim, who was in the passenger’s seat of the car, told officers that the suspect got into the front seat of the vehicle and hit her in the face with his fist. The report said she told police that she pulled out her pistol and shot toward the suspect, striking him in the head and neck area.

Once the suspect fell to the ground, the report said that woman in the car called 911.

Officers said that two children were in the vehicle at the time of the attempted carjacking and shooting.

Once officers arrived at the scene and made sure the victims were safe, they began first aid on the suspect until medical personnel arrived.

Police said Wednesday that the suspect is still in the hospital.

June 2

455 – Due to a perceived violation of a peace treaty, the Germanic tribe of Vandals led by their king Genseric, sack Rome.

1098 – During the First Crusade, Crusader forces take the city of Antioch.

1763 – After the end of the French and Indian War in the colonies, Chippewas, under Chief Pontiac capture Fort Michilimackinac  – now Mackinaw City, Michigan.

1774 –Parliament in London, passes the The Quartering Act – one of the ‘Intolerable Acts’ – for the colonies, allowing a colonial governor to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outbuildings, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.

1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the U.S.

1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph.

1919 – Followers of the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani simultaneously set off bombs in 8 separate U.S. cities killing 2 people and wounding another 2.

1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all members of Indian tribes born within the territorial limits of the United States.

1930 – Astronaut Pete Conrad, the 3rd man to walk on the moon, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1966 – The Surveyor 1 probe lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world.

1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado’s gas chamber, the last execution in the U.S. before the Supreme Court rules the death penalty unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia in 1972.

1983 – Enroute from Dallas to Toronto, Air Canada Flight 797, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, is forced to make an emergency landing at Cincinnati because of an in flight fire. After landing, 23 passengers aboard are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane’s doors open.

1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12 people.

1997 – In Denver, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and sentenced to the death penalty.

 

Why All the Hate for Smart Guns?

We’ve been hearing about “smart guns” for well over a quarter century. The dream (of some) has been a gun that recognizes its owner and will only work for that person. The idea is to make sure that people who aren’t authorized — thieves, children — are locked out and can’t use the firearm. That ideal is obvious and laudable. The history and execution, so far, have been less than impressive.

Lots of people have advocated a wide array of designs and hyped allegedly market-ready models. Some were well intentioned people who thought they could overcome the technological challenges involved. Some seemed more like snake oil salesmen who hawked not-ready-for-prime-time contraptions, some of which were downright awful.

But we’re living in a time of string theories and God particles. Anything is possible, right? Technology marches on and no one really doubted that one day, someone would develop and market a viable “smart gun” with systems of one type or another that would reliably (within reason) ID authorized users.

Then along came the legislative wizards in New Jersey state government who single-handedly stifled “smart gun” design for a couple of decades. Led by some very big brains like Senator Loretta Weinberg, they enacted a law that mandated that once a smart gun design was marketed to consumers anywhere in the US, all guns sold in the Garden State would have to have the technology.

In the grand tradition of Soviet central planning, Senator Weinberg’s mandate had some, shall we say, unintended consequences among rational economic actors who live and work out here in the real world.

To wit, the Jersey mandate put a damper on “smart gun” R&D. No one wanted to trigger the law and be responsible for condemning millions of Garden State gun buyers to having a choice of exactly one gun

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Skynet, and HAL, smile……..

AI-Enabled Drone Attempts To Kill Its Human Operator In Air Force Simulation.

AI – is Skynet here already?

Could an AI-enabled UCAV turn on its creators to accomplish its mission? (USAF)

As might be expected artificial intelligence (AI) and its exponential growth was a major theme at the conference, from secure data clouds, to quantum computing and ChatGPT. However, perhaps one of the most fascinating presentations came from Col Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the Chief of AI Test and Operations, USAF, who provided an insight into the benefits and hazards in more autonomous weapon systems.  Having been involved in the development of the life-saving Auto-GCAS system for F-16s (which, he noted, was resisted by pilots as it took over control of the aircraft) Hamilton is now involved in cutting-edge flight test of autonomous systems, including robot F-16s that are able to dogfight. However, he cautioned against relying too much on AI noting how easy it is to trick and deceive. It also creates highly unexpected strategies to achieve its goal.

He notes that one simulated test saw an AI-enabled drone tasked with a SEAD [Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses] mission to identify and destroy SAM sites, with the final go/no go given by the human. However, having been ‘reinforced’ in training that destruction of the SAM was the preferred option, the AI then decided that ‘no-go’ decisions from the human were interfering with its higher mission – killing SAMs – and then attacked the operator in the simulation. Said Hamilton: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”

He went on: “We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”

This example, seemingly plucked from a science fiction thriller, mean that: “You can’t have a conversation about artificial intelligence, intelligence, machine learning, autonomy if you’re not going to talk about ethics and AI” said Hamilton.

Most Gun Control Laws Render Us More Unsafe

Every time Democrats unveil a new gun control proposal, their message is the same: their bill, if enacted, will save lives. Actually the exact opposite is true.

States have recently rushed to pass new laws in response to a decision the U.S. Supreme Court made last year in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen.

It held that the Second Amendment prohibits government requiring applicants to prove a “special need” in order to be issued a concealed carry permit.

States that included this requirement are called “may issue” states; others, which comprise the majority, are called “shall issue” states.

Maryland was one of those “may issue” states, and concealed carry applications there soared in response to Bruen.

“The Maryland State Police has received 11 times the usual number of new permit applications since the court struck down state provisions requiring gun owners to demonstrate a special need for carrying a firearm for self-defense,” The Washington Post reported.

However, to paraphrase a verse in the Book of Job: “the government giveth, the government taketh away.”

Many “may issue” jurisdictions, including Maryland, scrambled to change their concealed carry laws to comply with Bruen, while still limiting the right to carry, despite the plain language of the Second Amendment that states “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

So while newly-elected Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, eased restrictions to obtain a permit, he simultaneously tightened them — by limiting the places where one may carry.

“Gun violence is tearing apart the fabric of our communities, not just through mass shootings but through shootings that are happening in each of our communities far too often,” Moore said at a bill-signing ceremony. “We will act, and that’s exactly what today represents.”

But by signing Maryland’s new law, he only made Baltimore’s “mean streets” even meaner.

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New Oregon gun law, Measure 114, to face federal court test next week

Oregonians passed Measure 114 in November. It would ban the manufacture, purchase or sale of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. It would also require people to take a safety course and pass a background check to get a permit allowing them to purchase firearms. But before the law went into effect, it ran into a flurry of legal challenges at the state and federal levels.

The state case is expected to pick up again in September. And several bills meant to tighten Oregon’s gun laws are among the legislation sidelined by the Republican-led walkout in the Oregon Senate.

In the meantime, the federal bench trial — no jury — starts next week in Portland and will be heard by U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee. The federal trial, which is slated to run for five days, will result in a first ruling about whether the new law is legal under the U.S. Constitution. No matter what Immergut decides, the ruling will likely be appealed, possibly all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A lawyer for one of the groups hoping to overturn the law declined an invitation to come on Think Out Loud this week, citing the pending case. But a lawyer for the state, Michael Kron, did agree to come on the show and spoke to host Dave Miller on Wednesday. Kron is special counsel to the State Attorney General and is part of the legal team defending the voter-passed law.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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No one NO ONE, who has attained this high status is this naïve. So, he’s a stooge, nothing more than a Godless communist in disguise who is pushing the disarmament agenda. So, the following applies:

BLUF:
“The voluntary self-restraint that I am calling for will not solve the problem of gun violence all by itself, but it can help us change our culture from one that is obsessively focused on individuals’ rights to a society dedicated to ensuring the common good,”

Newark cardinal asks Americans to voluntarily forgo right to guns

NEW YORK – Amid a mounting debate in America over the constitutionality of gun control, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark has entered the fray with a different argument: That people should voluntarily forgo their Second Amendment rights for the betterment of society.

“I honestly believe it is the best thing we can do to change the culture of violence that threatens us today,” Tobin said.

“Let’s voluntarily set aside our rights in order to witness the truth that only peace and never violence, is the way to build a free society that is lived concretely in our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities, our nation and our world,” he said.

Tobin made the plea in a recent letter, “Pray for an end to all instances of violence,” where he calls on community leaders and Catholic bishops, himself included, to call for a “synodal effort” to actively resist gun violence. He proposed a threefold process that includes prayer and work, advocacy, and voluntary self-restraint from the Second Amendment.

The letter, published May 26, is the latest call to action amid a spate of mass shootings in recent months. May 30 marked the 150th day of 2023, over which time there have been 263 mass shootings – incidents with four or more people shot – that have led to 327 deaths.

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Gun rights advocates ask judges to uphold ruling in fight over gun law

Attorneys for Second Amendment advocates fighting New Jersey’s new gun law are urging a federal appeals court to uphold a recent ruling blocking most of the law from taking effect.

State attorneys failed to prove anyone would be irreparably harmed by U.S. District Court Judge Renée Marie Bumb’s order earlier this month affirming people’s right to carry guns in many places state lawmakers banned them, the lawyers wrote in two briefs filed Tuesday in response to the state attorney general’s appeal of Bumb’s order.

Attorneys representing New Jersey gun owners Ronald Koons and Aaron Siegel filed separate challenges the day Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in December. The cases were later consolidated.

In two briefs totaling almost 60 pages, the attorneys repeatedly refer to Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down restrictions on gun carry, as a reason why the state’s bid to halt Bumb’s preliminary injunction is “flawed from start to finish,” as Siegel’s attorneys put it.

“Governments may bar the carrying of firearms in only ‘exceptional circumstances,’” Koons’ attorneys noted, citing Bruen. “The exception cannot become the rule.”

In defending lawmakers’ decision to ban guns in about 25 “sensitive places,” the state failed to prove such prohibitions are “historically justified,” as Bruen requires, Koons’ attorneys added.

“The state is left with speculative public-safety and public-confusion arguments,” they wrote.

But any ruling further altering the status quo would just add to public confusion, they added.

Both briefs take aim at the new law’s “anti-carry default,” in which lawmakers banned guns on government and private property that is open to the public, such as stores, and guns loaded and within reach in vehicles. Private property owners have the right to forbid guns on their property, but the government can’t make that decision for them, the attorneys argue. Bumb had enjoined both the private property and vehicle restrictions.

“To the extent there is any ambiguity, it must be interpreted in favor of the Second Amendment,” Koons’ attorneys wrote.

A spokeswoman from the Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.

Massachusetts assault weapons ban targeted in federal suit 1998 law at odds with Supreme Court decisions, group says

A national gun rights group has asked a federal judge to immediately halt the state’s longstanding ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines while the court decides whether the law should stand at all.

The National Association for Gun Rights, a Colorado-based Second Amendment advocacy group, on Tuesday was heard by First Circuit U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in their attempt to overturn a 1998 assault weapons weapon ban made a permanent law in 2004 by then-Gov. Mitt Romney.

“Massachusetts has been directly violating the Second Amendment for decades,” NAGR President Dudley Brown said. “Under Bruen, there is no doubt in my mind the days of Romney’s Assault Weapons Ban are numbered. The National Association for Gun Rights will see to it that the rights of the people of Massachusetts are restored.”

The gun rights group says that their lawsuit comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which struck down certain licensing conditions in New York State and elsewhere, including Massachusetts.

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June 1

1215 – Zhongdu, now Beijing,  falls to Mongol forces under the command of Temujin, better known as Genghis Khan.

1779 – Benedict Arnold faces court martial for malfeasance.
He is finally cleared of all but 2 charges later in the year.

1792 – Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.

1796 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th state of the United States.

1812 – U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

1813 –During the War of 1812, in the Battle of Boston Harbor , the U.S. Navy frigate USS Chesapeake is captured by the Royal Navy frigate HMS Shannon in a brief but intense action in which 48 U.S. sailors are killed and 99 wounded in action.

1849 – Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey declares the Territory of Minnesota officially established.

1890 – The U.S. Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith’s electromechanical tabulating machine to count census returns.

1918 – During the Battle of Belleau Wood, Allied Forces under the command of then General, later General of the Armies, John J. Pershing begin to engage Imperial German Forces, eventually halting their advance and clearing them out of the woods.

1929 – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.

1962 – Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel for crimes against humanity

1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

1980 – The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

1988 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union comes into effect.

1990 – President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production.

1999 – American Airlines Flight 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 slides and crashes while landing at Little Rock National Airport, killing the Captain and 10 of the 145 passengers on board.

2004 – Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols is sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of a parole.

2009 – General Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the 4th largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

2011 – Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final landing after 25 flights.
During a tornado outbreak in New England, a EF3 power tornado strikes Springfield, Massachusetts, killing 4 people.

 

Building Defenders for Our Schools and Churches

Ask someone if they can shoot a gun and you are sure to get memorable answers. You hear about their relatives or their family friends who taught them. Ask them if they passed any shooting qualification tests and you’ll find that most have not, at least not recently. Last week I watched a group of volunteer defenders in Arizona train and test to become the emergency first responders for their schools and churches. They learned to stop the threat and treat the injured victims until police and EMTs arrive. These volunteers are not your average Joe or your average Jane.

It is true that almost half of us live with a gun in our home. About 17 million of us go on to get a concealed carry permit and carry a personal firearm in public. Fewer of us learn armed defense and practice the required skills so our responses are subconscious. Said another way, few people drive their gun as automatically as they drive their car.

Like driving a car, we are describing both mental and physical skills. Frequent review lets you easily recognize a lethal threat when you see it. Making those physical skills feel routine lets you present your firearm without looking for your holster. Just like driving your car, everyone thinks they shoot well until we actually measure their performance.

The defenders in this class looked to refine every movement with their firearm. Rather than saying, “But that is the way I’ve always done it,” they had the humility and willingness to learn. They asked how to improve time after time. They showed an inspiring eagerness to change and grow.

It helps to know your limits. How accurately can you shoot if accuracy is all that matters? How fast can you go before you become erratic? It takes both speed and precision to be a good defender. They need both without sacrificing too much of either. These volunteer first responders learned better techniques in a day, but it takes patient practice to make those new refinements smooth, consistent, and routine.

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Three Pro-Rights Bills Passed by Texas Lawmakers

Three pieces of legislation backed by the National Rifle Association were passed by the Texas Legislature over the weekend and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has already signed one of the measures.

According to the NRA, the three bills are:

House Bill 1760, which has already been signed into law, provides a solution to allegedly “roving gun-free” school zones, which apply to school events occurring away from the school campus. This legislation limits “gun-free” restrictions to facilities actually owned and controlled by schools, or where high school, collegiate and UIL activities described in the State Penal Code (Section 46.03) are held.

House Bill 2837, which is awaiting Abbott’s signature, is designed to protect the privacy rights of people who purchase firearms and ammunition by preventing financial institutions from requiring the use of a firearms-specific merchant category code (MCC) when such purchases are made. This bill thwarts efforts by gun control groups to essentially separate gun and ammunition purchases from other retail buying with a unique MCC as established by the International Organization for Standardization. The NRA contends anti-gunners were looking for a way to create a defacto registry of gun owners, since the federal government is prohibited by law from doing so.

House Bill 3137 prevents local governments (city and/or county) from requiring firearm owners to obtain liability insurance, under the state firearms preemption law.

The gun prohibition lobby portrays Texas as something of a no-man’s land, and the media focuses on mass shootings there, while essentially supporting states such as California, with its strict gun laws, but which also has mass shootings.

Anti-gunners were busy this session in Austin, where, according to NRA figures, there were a dozen bills aimed at so-called “universal background checks,” eight so-called “red flag” bills, nine bills proposing restrictions on magazine capacity, and a whopping 21 bills that would have placed restrictions on firearms or ammunition sales to young adults.

Man charged after fatally shooting suspect who allegedly tried to rob him in Queens

KEW GARDENS, Queens (WABC) — A man in Queens has been charged after he shot and killed another person who was allegedly trying to rob him, police reported.

Officials say the shooting happened in a driveway on 82nd Avenue in Kew Gardens at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The 32-year-old was armed with a sharp object and attempted to rob a 65-year-old of money and cigarettes, authorities said.

The 65-year-old, identified as Charles Foehner, pulled a silver handgun and shot him as many as five times.

In surveillance video viewed by Eyewitness News, the assailant confronts Foehner from 40 feet. Foehner waves him off, raising his left hand, but the assailant continues to approach aggressively. With that, Foehner draws his gun from 20 feet. When the assailant waves an object and lunges, Foehner fires from 8 feet.

He then called 911, stating he was in a shooting and the gun was in his jacket pocket. He voluntarily surrendered to responding officers.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene and a pen was discovered in his right hand.

The 65-year-old was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm, according to a spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

The Queens district attorney will need to determine whether it was a case of self-defense.

The 32-year-old had many prior arrests for robbery, burglary, drug possession, and other related charges.

Several of Foehner’s neighbors told Eyewitness News they are sympathetic.

“He was protecting himself. So how can I blame him? You know, unfortunately, the guy had to lose his life. I don’t wish that on anybody. But this is the circumstances when you randomly just rob people. You never know what you’re going to get,” neighbor Vercelle Evans said.

In the minutes before the shooting, investigators believe the assailant went on a rampage, inexplicably smashing windows in two neighboring buildings. Foehner lives around the corner with his wife, where he is well-liked. Sources say he has an active NYPD firearms permit.

Angel Rodriguez lives down the hall.

“If video shows that, you know, he was acting in in self-defense and the guy was actually trying to harm him, then I you know, I believe we should be able to protect ourselves,” neighbor Rodriguez said.

Katz says the case is complicated.

“This is a complicated case and we’re going to review the evidence,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said before the charges came down. “We just went to the crime scene. I will have comments for you after we investigate it.”

NSSF COMMENDS NORTH DAKOTA GOV. BURGUM FOR SIGNING SECOND AMENDMENT FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, commends North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for signing legislation to protect the financial privacy of purchases with credit cards at firearm retailers. Gov. Burgum signed the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act to prohibit the use of a special Merchant Category Code (MCC) for credit card purchases and prevent personal financial information from being shared by financial institutions.

“Governor Burgum is putting gun control special interests in ‘woke’ Wall Street financial corporations on notice that their attempts at antigun policies end at North Dakota’s borders,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “North Dakotans legally purchasing firearms and ammunition should never be threatened by private financial service providers or government authorities by having their name and financial data being added to a government-accessible watchlist simply for exercising their Second Amendment rights. Governor Burgum is ensuring North Dakotans won’t be held captive by the radical ‘woke’ antigun agenda that seeks to weaponize credit cards in gun owners’ wallets against them. Gun owners should worry about what’s in their wallet, not who’s in their wallet.”

Gov. Burgum signed the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act (HB 1487). The law prohibits financial institutions from requiring a firearm retailer-specific code that is different from that of other sporting goods or general merchandise retailers.

In late 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced it would create a unique MCC, at the behest of Amalgamated Bank which has been described as the Left’s Private Banker, that would allow credit card companies to monitor transactions at firearm retailers. Credit card companies suspended plans to implement the use of unique firearm retailer MCCs after significant opposition by NSSF and several state governments.

North Dakota joins Florida, West Virginia, Mississippi and Idaho in enacting laws to protect firearm purchasers’ privacy when using credit cards at firearm retailers. Legislation similar to these state laws is pending in Congress.