April 20

1775 – Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts militias block land access to Boston, limiting British resupply and reinforcements to only come from the sea.

1789 – George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration.

1836 – Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

1861 – Colonel Robert E. Lee, commander of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment,  resigns his commission in the United States Army to avoid, as he saw it, the dishonor of disobeying official orders to engage his troops against Virginia.

1898 – President McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for a declaration of war against Spain.

1914 – 19 men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War.

1945 – On his 56th birthday, Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface from the Führerbunker  in Berlin, to award Iron Crosses to soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

1961 – The invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba by U.S. backed Cuban exiles fails.

1972 – The lunar module Orion, of Apollo 16, commanded by John Young and copiloted by Charles Duke, lands on the moon in the Descartes Highlands.

1998 – Air France Flight 422, a Boeing 727, crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board.

1999 – Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shoot and kill 13 people and wound 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

2007 – William Phillips barricades himself in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, shooting and killing a hostage before committing suicide.

2008 – Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

2021 – Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota.

Nebraska Legislature Passes Permitless Gun-Carry

The Cornhusker State is now one signature away from becoming the 27th to adopt permitless gun carry.

The Nebraska legislature voted 33-14 to pass Legislative Bill 77 on final reading Wednesday morning. The bill would allow adults aged 21 and over who would otherwise be eligible for a concealed carry permit to carry a firearm in public without obtaining one. The bill now goes to Governor Jim Pillen’s (R.) desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.

“I am proud to support LB 77 and Nebraskans’ constitutional rights,” Pillen said shortly after the bill’s passage. “Thank you to the Nebraska Legislature for sending this bill to my desk.”

Once signed, the bill will add another feather in the cap of gun-rights advocates who have successfully pushed the policy in states across the country over the last two decades. The bill will make Nebraska the second state to adopt permitless carry this year, following Florida’s adoption earlier this month, and the 26th state to enact the policy in the last 20 years. Vermont has had the policy since its founding.

The bill’s passage led to a familiar call and response among activists on either side of the issue.

Gun-rights advocates immediately celebrated.

“With Gov. Pillen’s signature, Nebraska becomes the 27th state in America that protects the right of Americans to carry a firearm outside of their home without first asking the government for additional permission and paying additional fees,” Travis Couture-Lovelady, the Nebraska state director for the NRA, said in a press release. “Nebraska is the latest state to recognize law-abiding citizens are not the problem — criminals are.”

While gun-control advocates denounced the bill as an affront to public safety.

“Nebraska lawmakers have chosen to put politics over protecting our families,” Jen Hodge, a member of the Nebraska chapter of Moms Demand Action, said. “Over the past few weeks, tens of thousands of young people across the country, and here in Nebraska, walked out of school to demand action on gun safety by their representatives, but instead, Nebraska lawmakers are actively stripping away safety measures.”

But the bill also represents a significant victory for state Senator Tom Brewer (R.), the bill’s prime sponsor, who has tried for years to get permitless carry across the finish line in Nebraska. His 2022 permitless carry bill narrowly failed in the state’s unicameral legislature after falling just two votes short of overcoming a Democratic filibuster. However, state Republicans made gains in the chamber last November and now have a filibuster-proof majority. That cleared the way for Wednesday’s successful final vote.

“A person in Nebraska should not have to pay money to the government in order to exercise a constitutional right,” Brewer said.

While the bill would do away with permitting requirements for gun carry, it would not alter who is eligible to carry or obtain a firearm. Those, such as convicted felons, who can’t legally purchase or possess a firearm under state and federal law would not be allowed to carry under the permitless law. It also would not change where people are allowed to carry.

In addition to doing away with permitting requirements for gun carry, the bill would strengthen Nebraska’s preemption statute by removing the authority of local governments to enact gun regulations that are stricter than state law. That measure was aimed at the city of Omaha, which previously required residents to register any handguns they owned unless they possessed a valid concealed handgun permit.

If signed, the bill will take effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session.

ICYMI CDC Study Findings Show Americans with Guns Very Effective at Stopping Crime

Washington, DC – Remember that time a report from 2013 commissioned by President Barack Obama, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that the use of firearms for self-defense was and is a significant crime deterrent?

The report, titled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” * notes that most firearm incidents do not result in a fatality and that violent crimes, including homicides, have declined in the past five years. It also highlights that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year.

The 2013 report expressed uncertainty about gun control measures, stating that there is no evidence that passage of right-to-carry laws decrease or increase violent crimes and that proposed “gun turn-in programs are ineffective.” Instead, the CDC report proposes gun safety technologies such as “external locking devices and biometric systems” to reduce firearm-related deaths.

Commenting at the time, John Frazer, from the National Rifle Association, had this to say;

“I thought it was very telling that this report focused so heavily on . . . futuristic technology that’s not been brought to the market in any kind of reliable form that consumers have any interest in,” said John Frazer, director of research and information at the National Rifle Association (NRA).”

“These “smart gun” technologies are “designed to prevent misuse, to prevent either accidents or crimes committed with stolen guns,” Frazer noted. “Obviously it wouldn’t have any effect on crimes committed with a gun purchased by the criminal. It obviously wouldn’t have any effect on suicides by people who bought the guns themselves.” However, “it could have a huge burden on self-defense rights of law-abiding people if they’re forced to use an unproven technology.”

The CDC’s findings that guns are an effective and often used crime deterrent and that most firearm incidents are not fatal could affect the future of gun violence research.

However, there has been criticism of the study from some quarters, with concerns expressed that the research may be used to promote gun control.

“The anti-gun researchers out there who want to study and promote gun control are perfectly free to get funded to do that by [New York] Mayor Bloomberg or by any number of other organizations or foundations,” said Frazer. “It depends on who’s doing the research. I would be very concerned that a lot of the follow-up research that might come from this agenda would be more of what we’ve seen from the anti-gun public health establishment in the past.”

The report establishes guidelines meant only for future “taxpayer-funded research,” Frazer said. At the time, the Annie E. Casey Foundation issued a statement reaffirming its support for the study, which “is in keeping with our work to collaborate with public agencies, nonprofit organizations, policymakers, and community leaders to make a positive impact on the lives of kids, families, and communities.” Other supporters of the CDC study include The California Endowment, The Joyce Foundation, on whose Board of Directors Obama served for eight years prior to his Senate run, and Kaiser Permanente, which contributed over half a million dollars to his presidential campaigns.

The report highlights that the majority of firearm deaths are from suicide, not homicide.

African American males are most affected by firearm-related violence, with “32 per 100,000” deaths. Risk factors and predictors of violence include income inequality, “diminished economic opportunities . . . high levels of family disruption” and “low levels of community participation.”

This review of the CDC study underscores the importance of firearms for self-defense and as a crime deterrent. It recommends gun safety technologies as a means of reducing firearm-related deaths, rather than gun control measures. Despite the findings in his report, we can most certainly count on the biased MSM to only promote gun control as a solution to the out-of-control crime in 2023.

*Source “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence”

Missouri: House Passes Public Transit Self-Defense & Church Carry Bill

Last night, the House voted 102-45 to pass House Bill 282, to ensure law-abiding citizens may carry firearms for self-defense on public transit, with an amendment by Representative Ben Baker, to allow places of worship to make their own security decisions. It now goes to the Senate for further consideration. Please contact your state senator and ask them to SUPPORT HB 282.

House Bill 282 repeals arbitrary “gun-free zones” that do nothing to hinder criminals, while leaving law-abiding citizens defenseless. It removes the prohibition on law-abiding citizens carrying firearms for self-defense on public transit property and in vehicles. This ensures that citizens with varying commutes throughout their day, and of various economic means, are able to exercise their Second Amendment rights and defend themselves.

The bill also repeals the prohibition in state law against carrying firearms for self-defense in places of worship. This empowers private property owners to make such decisions regarding security on their own, rather than the government mandating a one-size-fits-all solution.

Illinois assault weapons ban still in effect after appeals court denies injunction

A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled to keep an Illinois state-wide “assault weapons” ban in effect, denying a request from a business owner who claims the ban is unconstitutional.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided to uphold a lower ruling by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, who found the ban to be “constitutionally sound,” despite the request for an injunction, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Robert Bevis, a firearms store owner in Naperville, is appealing the gun ban signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 10. He contends it fails to meet a legal standard on what guns can and cannot be banned previously set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bevis requested the appeals court to block the ban for himself and other business owners affected by the law so that they can resume the sale of the impacted firearms.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation banning the sale of guns classified as assault weapons, rifle magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and pistol magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds in the state on Jan. 10, 2023.

The legislation was introduced in January, six months after a shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade left seven victims dead and wound more than 48 others injured.

The ban includes penalties for anyone who “Carries or possesses… Manufactures, sells, delivers, imports, or purchases any assault weapon or .50 caliber rifle.” Anyone who legally possessed such a weapon was required to register it with state police.

It also includes penalties for anyone who “sells, manufactures, delivers, imports, possesses, or purchases any assault weapon attachment or .50 caliber cartridge.” It also bans any kit or tools used to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm.

The legislation also capped the purchase of certain magazines for several weapons.

Gov. Pritzker, a billionaire Democrat, signed the controversial bill shortly after.

The attorneys who are representing Bevis, who owns and operates Law Weapons & Supply in Naperville, Illinois, argue their client has suffered because of the ban and that he may have to close his business.

In the lower court ruling, Judge Kendall ruled that “because assault weapons are particularly dangerous weapons … their regulation accords with history and tradition,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Bevis’s lawyers dispute this interpretation and instead argue earlier Supreme Court rulings clarify weapons must be found to be “dangerous and unusual” to be banned, per the report.

Because certain rifles are “commonly possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” they do meet the legal definition of “not unusual,” and thus cannot be banned, they argued, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Several legal challenges remain underway against the state’s ban.

‘Our Schools Will No Longer Be Soft Targets’: Tiny Rural Ohio Town Lets Staff Arm Themselves

An Ohio school district centered in a tiny town of 560 people has responded to recent school shootings by permitting its teachers to be armed.

River Valley Local School District in Caledonia, which has roughly 2,000 students from around the area, citing a law signed by Governor Mike DeWine in June 2022, said it will allow staff members in its high school, middle school, Heritage, and Liberty elementary schools to arm themselves.

“Our schools will no longer be soft targets and unprotected,” Superintendent Adam Wickham told The Marion Star. “Most active-shooter events occur in areas of ‘gun-free zones’ or with minimal safety measures in place. We want to ensure our schools will not be soft targets.”

“As a rural community, response times can often be minutes away in the event of an active shooter,” he continued. “The use of armed staff in our buildings can potentially save lives by providing a more immediate response to the threat. Recent school shootings such as in Nashville, Uvalde (Texas), and Parkland (Florida) clearly show that the quicker the response time, the more likely you are to potentially save lives.”

Wickham noted that the River Valley Local Schools policy has more stringent training than state requirements.

The bill DeWine signed, House Bill 99, states that it “allows the previous practice of permitting school boards to choose to arm specific staff members and mandates reasonable training requirements for those individuals.”

“Some have expressed questions about the training and selection process,” Wickham acknowledged. “The vast majority of parents have expressed appreciation for the proactive approach in protecting their children. That is really a main reason for adopting the use of armed staff. While we understand not everyone will support this program, every safety measure we take at River Valley, including the use of armed staff, is put in place to try and ensure our staff and students can go home safely to their families and loved ones, each and every day.”

“The River Valley Board had previously approved the use of armed staff for the 2020-21 school year,” Wickham said. “At that time the use of armed staff for the 2020-21 school year was confidential as protected by Ohio law, as part of the district’s safety plan. School districts had to suspend the use of armed staff with the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling in the summer of 2021. Once HB 99 was passed, training details were released by the state in December of 2022, I recommended to the board resuming this program and the board approved the use of armed staff at the Jan. 12, 2023, meeting.”

Today Should Be a National Holiday: An Annual Tradition.

If there were any justice today would be a national holiday at least as big as Independence Day.  I’m not kidding.

Back in the 1770’s an unrest that had started more than a century before–with Colonial reaction to the English Civil War, the Catholic reign of James II, and the Glorious Revolution that followed–was growing in the American colonies, at least those along the Atlantic Seaboard from New Hampshire down through Georgia.  Protests over taxes imposed without the taxed having any voice in the matter, complaints about a distant monarch and legislative body making rules and laws over people to whom they are not beholden.

There had been clashes which fed that unrest, including the famous “Boston Massacre” where British troops fired into a rioting mob resulting in several deaths.  Think of it as the Kent State of the 18th century.

In an effort to quell the unrest, or at least have it be less of a threat to British officials, General Thomas Gage, Military governor of Massachusetts, under orders to take decisive action against the colonists, decided to confiscate firearms and ammunition from certain groups in the colony.  His forces marched on the night of April 18, 1775.

The colonists, forewarned of the action (the Longfellow poem, which children learn in school–or they did when I was in school “Listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere”–is historically inaccurate, but it sure is stirring, isn’t it?), first met the British troops at Lexington Massachusetts where John Parker, in command of the local Colonial Militia said, according to the recollection of one of the participants,
“Stand your ground.  Don’t fire unless fired upon.  But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Whether Parker actually said those words, the first shot was fired.  No one knew who fired it, whether British or Colonial.  In the ensuing, brief battle the British regulars put the Colonial militia to flight.

The British then turned toward Concord.

A small unit of militia, hearing reports of firing at Lexington marched out but on spotting a British unit of about 700 while themselves only numbering about 250 they returned to Concord.  The Colonial militia departed the town across the North Bridge to a hill about a mile north of town where additional militia reinforcements continued to gather.

The British reached the town and began searching for the weapons they came to confiscate.  They found several cannon, too large to be moved quickly, and disabled them.  Other weapons and supplies had been either removed or hidden.

On seeing the smoke of the burning carriages from the cannon, the Militia began to move.  It is not my purpose here to go into detailed description of their movements but in the end the British regulars found themselves both outnumbered and outmaneuvered.  They fled, a rout that surprised the Colonial Militia as much as the British regulars.  Again, I simplify but in the end they marched back to Boston continuing to suffer casualties from what amounted to 18th century sniper fire from the surrounding brush.  The frustration of the British soldiers led them to atrocities, killing everyone they found in buildings whether they were involved in the fighting or not.

Eventually the British forces fought their way back to Boston where they were besieged by Militia forces numbering over 1500 men.

And the Revolutionary War had begun.

And so, on this day in 1775, the nascent United States took the course that would lead eventually to Independence.

And that’s why April 19 deserves to be a National Holiday on a par at least with Independence Day.  The latter was recognition of what became fact on the former.

April 19

1529 – Accepted by many as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, a group of rulers and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms after the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism.

1775 – At Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts militia confront British troops marching to confiscate arms and military supplies.

1782 – John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.

1818 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary “Note on the Theory of Diffraction” . The document ends with a set of mathematical equations now called the Fresnel Integrals which leads to the development of the Fresnel lens, a flat, thin, compact, more powerful and less expensive refractive lens.

1861 –In Baltimore, Maryland, a group of pro-Secession protesters attacks U.S. Army troops marching through the city.

1943 – In Warsaw, Poland, the Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews and holding off the Nazi force for nearly a month using only a handful of weapons.

1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death, which is later commuted to life imprisonment, for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.

1985 – 200 ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord near Three Brothers, Arkansas

1989 – Aboard the USS Iowa, an explosion of the center 16 inch gun in Gun Turret 2, kills all 47 sailors in the turret.

1993 – The 51 day siege by the FBI of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, ends when a fire breaks out. 76 Davidians, including 18 children under the age of 10, die in the fire.

1995 –  In retaliation for the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, is bombed, killing 168 people, including 19 children under the age of 6.

2013 – In the city suburb of Watertown, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard.

2021 – The Ingenuity helicopter flies off NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover becomes the first aircraft to achieve powered independent flight on another planet.

Observation O’ The Day
Neighbors say this really is a quiet neighborhood…they say crime is practically unheard of, and they are stunned there was a deadly shooting.

Smyrna homeowner shoots and kills man breaking into his home

SMYRNA, Ga. – Smyrna police say a homeowner shot and killed a man who was breaking into his house Sunday evening.

First responders raced to the home near the corner of Lochlomand Lane and Highland Drive. Detectives immediately went to work. Police tape was visible along a dirt path which leads to the backyard of the house.

Police have not released the name of the homeowner or the man who was shot and killed.

Neighbors are stunned.

“That’s very terrifying to hear in this type of neighborhood,” said Paige Nowacki, who lives nearby.

Neighbors say this really is a quiet neighborhood. Just a couple of miles from Truist Park, they say this is the kind of place where everybody waves to each other. They say crime is practically unheard of, and they are stunned there was a deadly shooting.

“People protecting their houses. It happens more times than not. I’m glad the homeowners are okay and protected themselves. Still, it’s terrifying,” said Nowacki.

“There’s going to be a million arguments on why it’s a good or bad thing or surprising or not,” said another neighbor, Dakota Jarrad.

Jarrad moved into the neighborhood last year. He says he works with firearms and is trained to know how to use them to protect himself.

“You get it for a sense of protection, but you don’t want to use it,” said Jarrad.

Police say the investigation is still underway. At this time, no charges have been filed against the homeowner.

The Biden 10-Step Plan for Global Chaos.

Why is French President Emmanuel Macron cozying up to China while trashing his oldest ally, the United States?

Why is there suddenly talk of discarding the dollar as the global currency?

Why are Japan and India shrugging that they cannot follow the United States’ lead in boycotting Russian oil?

Why is the president of Brazil traveling to China to pursue what he calls a “beautiful relationship”?

What happened to Turkey? Why is it threatening fellow NATO member Greece? Is it still a NATO ally, a mere neutral, or a de facto enemy?

Why are there suddenly nonstop Chinese threats toward Taiwan?

Why did Saudi Arabia conclude a new pact with Iran, its former archenemy?

Why is Egypt sending rockets to Russia to be used in Ukraine?

Since when did the Russians talk nonstop about the potential use of a tactical nuclear weapon?

Why is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador bragging that millions of Mexicans have entered the United States, most of them illegally? And why is he interfering in U.S. elections by urging his expatriates to vote for Democrats?

Why and how, in just two years, have a confused and often incoherent Joe Biden and his team created such global chaos?

Let us answer by listing 10 ways by which America lost all deterrence.

Continue reading “”

Gun groups sue Michigan Legislature over firearm bills, alleging open meetings violations

A pair of Michigan-based pro-firearm organizations, Great Lakes Gun Rights and Michigan Open Carry, Inc., have sued the state Legislature over its passage of gun safety bills recently signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing lawmakers violated the Open Meetings Act by not properly allowing public comment on the legislation.

Last week, Whitmer signed legislation expanding background checks on firearm purchases and creating criminal penalties for gun owners who fail to keep firearms out of the hands of minors, commonly referred to as “safe storage” laws. A third proposal to temporarily confiscate guns from those deemed a risk to themselves or others by a court is also making its way through the Legislature.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in the Michigan Court of Claims aims to get a temporary restraining order against the gun safety bills and laws.

Plaintiffs allege both the House and Senate judiciary committees violated Michigan’s open meeting laws by not allowing opposition testimony during some of the hearings before the bills were voted on.

Committees in each chamber held hearings on the bills in March and April. In each, members heard mostly from supporters of the legislation. Groups, including speakers from Great Lakes Gun Rights and Michigan Open Carry, submitted cards in opposition but were unable to speak during an April 12 hearing on the so-called “red flag” bills. Lawmakers cited time constraints.

“Defendants have, and continue, to blatantly favor testimony from parties in support of Defendants’ own viewpoints while openly suppressing and outright denying testimony from Plaintiffs and others critical of Defendants’ viewpoint,” wrote Thomas Lambert, an attorney representing the gun groups in the lawsuit. “This is in direct contravention of the Open Meetings Act’s unambiguous mandate that ‘a person must be permitted to address a meeting of a public body,’ which unquestionably includes Defendants.”

The groups are seeking an ex parte motion, meaning they seek an order from the court before defendants can provide a brief of their own.

The lawsuit argues the hearings were unbalanced in terms of the number of speakers, although under both current Democratic and previous Republican leadership, committee hearings on politically contentious proposals have generally featured more speakers in favor of the position of the majority party.

The Open Meetings Act is Michigan’s law requiring public bodies to make their meetings and actions accessible to members of the public. Under the OMA, boards are required to make time for members of the public who attend meetings to speak, although they do have flexibility when it comes to making time limitations for speakers.

“The Michigan House complies with the Open Meetings Act. The groups that filed the lawsuit did participate in the committee process,” said Amber McCann, a spokesperson for House Democrats, over email. In a statement, Sen. Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, also said committees complied with the law.

Smith: The NRA Has Won and America Is Stuck in a ‘Doom Loop’ of Gun Buying

[O]ne would think supporting policies that let Americans carry any type of gun, anywhere, at anytime would be a losing proposition for any politician, much less one who wants to be president.

And yet as I listened to Trump — and the parade of equally craven Oval Office hopefuls who preceded him onstage — I began to realize that he just might be right in his political calculation. Because, far from losing, the NRA seems to be winning. In fact, it might already have won, polls be damned.

Why would I believe such a thing?

It’s not because of the nonsense I heard longtime NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre spout last week, including that the Founding Fathers created the 2nd Amendment so that, from “the day you’re born,” Americans have the “God-given right” to carry a gun for self-defense that cannot be infringed upon.

Nor is it because, as former Vice President Mike Pence told the NRA faithful, “freedom is under attack,” and Americans are determined to not let the government take their guns. I’ll spare you the stories of people I know who think this so fervently that they’ve buried boxes of semiautomatic rifles and ammunition in their backyards.

I believe it because of what I’ve seen and heard in liberal California over the past few years — and how similar it is to what I saw and heard at the NRA convention in the conservative state of Indiana last week.

Consider that the past three years have been the most profitable in modern history for gun manufacturers, even as the country has been plagued by mass shooting after mass shooting. …

Of course, this was the NRA’s grand plan all along, this having America armed to the teeth. It’s a lobbying organization for gun manufacturers, after all. Under the veneer of patriotism is just naked greed.

Aside from the true believers, like the woman in the red, white and blue pants, I have to think most Americans know this by now. We were under no obligation to follow the NRA’s grand plan. LaPierre didn’t force us to buy more guns. Republicans didn’t make people start carrying sidearms to the mall like we’re sidling up to a bar in an old western.

Sure, the NRA has made it easier to do all of this. But I don’t think we can blame the gun lobby for the number of people in coastal California who, as CalMatters reported, are rushing to capitalize on last year’s Supreme Court ruling that made it easier to get a concealed carry license before state lawmakers can close the loophole.

We made these choices. And now it appears we’re stuck in a San Francisco-style “doom loop,” when the sheer number of guns owned by Americans, and the violence and death they cause, is prompting still more Americans to buy more guns, leading to more violence and death, and so on.

So as much as I applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom for taking on the NRA and its political lackeys in his so-called Campaign for Democracy, we’re going to have to fix a lot of this ourselves. Somehow we’re going to have to break our addiction to guns. 

— Erika D. Smith in Trump and the NRA Might Be Right About Guns — And We Mostly Have Ourselves to Blame

Hobbs vetoes guns bills, saying they won’t prevent violence

Parents won’t be able to bring their loaded weapons onto school campuses, at least not while Katie Hobbs is governor.

Nor will students get training on gun safety.

In a single veto letter Monday, the governor vetoed both measures saying they do nothing to prevent gun violence. And she said if safety of school children is really a concern of lawmakers there are better ways to do that — ways the Republican-controlled Legislature has refused to consider.

Hobbs also vetoed two other measures.

One would have directed judges, when confronted with two conflicting interpretations of a state election law, to err on the side of which promotes more transparency.

“This bill adds unnecessary language into statute and does not solve any of the real challenges facing election administration,” the governor wrote of HB 2319. “I look forward to working with the Legislature on bills to do that.”

And even Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, who crafted the bill, acknowledged much of this wouldn’t be necessary if lawmakers crafted clearer statutes.

Hobbs also rejected HB 2297, which would have said that prosecutors pursuing cases of fraudulent schemes and artifices are not required to establish that all the unlawful acts occurred within the state.

“This bill will lead to confusion where none currently exists,” Hobbs said in her veto message.

“Existing state law adequately outlines the jurisdictional issues addressed in this bill.”

But the governor saved most of her comments for the two gun-related measures.

SB 1131, proposed by Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, sought to create an exception to existing laws that preclude loaded guns on school property. It would have allowed parents who have a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon to keep it with them if they also have a child at that school.

Shamp said that, if nothing else, it would keep parents rushing to the school from being charged with a felony simply because they forgot to first unload the weapon.

Anyway, she told colleagues, it is far safer to keep the gun loaded than risk accidents when unloading and reloading it.

HB 2332 was pushed by Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Scottsdale. It would have required public and charter schools to provide “age-appropriate” training in firearms safety to students in grades 6 through 12.

None of that would involve the actual instruction on how to operate weapons. Instead, it was promoted as teaching “simple, easy-to-remember steps so individuals who receive the training know what to do if they ever come across a firearm.”

Hobbs found neither plan acceptable.

“Mandatory firearm safety training in schools is not the solution to gun violence prevention,” the governor wrote. She said the requirement could have “immediate and long-term impacts” on the health and well-being of students, teachers and parents, though Hobbs did not spell out what those were.

Nor did she like Shamp’s proposal.

“Allowing more guns on campus will not make a campus safer,” she said. Then there’s the fact that police officers, arriving at a school with an active-shooter situation, won’t necessarily know who are the criminals who are armed and who are the parents.

“I’m focused on finding concrete solutions to gun violence prevention that protect Arizona families, including but not limited to, policy focused on trauma-informed emergency planning and safe, secure gun storage,” the governor wrote.

And Hobbs said lawmakers did have a chance to consider such a measure.

She pointed to HB 2192, which would have made it illegal to keep a firearm or ammunition in any home unless they were in a “securely locked box” or the gun was equipped with a device that makes it inoperable without a key or combination. The only exception would be if the owner was carrying the gun or it was within “close proximity.”

It is dubbed “Christian’s Law,” named after Christian Petillo, who, while at a friend’s house in Queen Creek for a sleepover, was fatally shot. The death was ruled an accident.

House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Peoria, never even assigned the measure by Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, for a committee for a hearing.

In fact, GOP leadership used a procedural motion to block a bid by Longdon, who is paralyzed from the waist down since a random drive-by shooting in 2004, to bring what is known as “Christian’s Law” to the full House and put all lawmakers on record. House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, defended the maneuver.

“At the end of the day, it’s the person behind the gun,” he said in engineering the move to block a vote. “And we should never forget that it (the Second Amendment) says ‘shall not be infringed.’ ”

Monday’s actions bring Hobbs’ total vetoes this session to 52. The record of 58 was set by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2005.

April 18

1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is laid.

1521 – The trial of Martin Luther continues into its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms.

1775 – Paul Revere and others ride to warn the leadership of the rebellion, and militia, that British troops are moving out from Boston towards Concord.

1783 – The first instance of slaves in the U.S. being counted as 3/5th of persons (at this time, for the purpose of taxation), is introduced as a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation to be part of the Articles of Confederation.

1831 – The University of Alabama is founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

1847 – U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott outflank General Santa Anna’s forces in battle at Sierra Gordo, near Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz,  during the Mexican-American War, opening the way for the further invasion of Mexico.

1906 – A magnitude 7.9 earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California, killing over 3000 people.

1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 of the survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.

1923 – Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York opens for the Yankees’ first home game, hosting the Boston Red Sox.

1942 –  U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, leading 51 Officers and 28 Airmen, flying 16 specially modified B-25B Mitchell bombers, are launched from the U.S. Navy carrier, CV-8 USS Hornet on a mission to attack targets on the main islands of  Japan.

1943 – Over Bougainville Island in the Solomons, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto IJN is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. P-38 Lightning fighters, after radio messages informing Japanese bases of the schedule of his inspection tour had been intercepted and decoded.

1983 – A suicide bomber in Lebanon destroys the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people.

1988 – In retaliation for the USS Samuel B. Roberts striking an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.

1997 – Due to heavy snow and ice melts up stream, several dikes are breached along the Red River of the North, causing flooding in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Southern Manitoba, resulting in over $3.5 billion in property damage.

2019 – A redacted version of the Mueller Report is released to the United States Congress and the public.

Man shoots, kills intruder in Ohio home

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man who reportedly was trespassing in a home Saturday was shot and killed by the homeowner.

WBNS Channel 10 reports the shooting occurred at about 6 p.m. in the Southern Orchards neighborhood of Columbus. Officers were called to the home for reports of a trespasser.

By the time officers arrived, the homeowner had shot and killed the intruder, police tell WCMH Channel 4. The accused trespasser, whose identity has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The homeowner has not been charged but the incident will be reviewed by the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, WBNS reports.