TODAY’S INSTALLMENT IN THE FEINSTEIN COUNTDOWN

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, a reliable barometer of certified liberal opinion inside the Beltway, has a column up about the matter of Dianne Feinstein, which even a careless reader can make out as another loud note in chorus of coordinated voices that has determined that Feinstein needs to be forced from office.

The article breaks no new ground in terms of news value or reporting, as with one small exception it simply recycles the details of the San Francisco Chronicle story. The one small exception is this passage:

Feinstein’s handling of the 2018 Brett M. Kavanaugh confirmation hearings — in particular, her decision not to alert fellow lawmakers to the allegations by Christine Blasey Ford — prompted a near-insurrection by her Democratic colleagues.

I hadn’t heard previously that other Democratic Senators had been annoyed by being blindsided by the Blasey Ford allegations, and I am not sure I believe it.

The column pretends to be a high-minded meditation on the general problem of people staying too long in office, and here, too, there is an interesting tell. As Marcus explains it:

Feinstein is the oldest sitting senator, but she is far from the only official whose mental acuity has been called into question. . .

So one question raised by the focus on Feinstein must be whether, as some of her defenders insinuate, there is sexism at work. I think I have pretty good radar for sexism, and I just don’t see it. . . To the extent that there is differential treatment, the explanation might be less gender than ideology. Progressive Democrats long frustrated by Feinstein’s centrism are eager for a more liberal replacement.

There it is. (Never mind that Feinstein’s “centrism” is largely a myth, but it is easy to pull off that con when your fellow Senator is Barbara Boxer and then Kamala Harris.) And beyond this candid admission, we have to wonder whether this effort to drive Feinstein from office is a dry run for how the left will try to remove President Biden at some point soon.

EVENTS OF APRIL 18, 1775

“Listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…”

With these words an American poet and ardent abolitionist named Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Paul Revere and Old North Church in American history and myth. Many of us may remember the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” but it doesn’t portray the true events of what took place on that fateful night. Longfellow wrote the poem 80 YEARS after Revere’s famous midnight ride when the country was on the brink of Civil War in 1860. He wanted to inspire people to join the Union army by demonstrating that one person could make a difference AND change history in the process. As we shall see, the only one really changing history was Longfellow himself through his creatively altered story. The real events of what took place on April 18, 1775 are far more interesting.

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Analysis: Biden’s Aggression Elevates Gun Politics Before the Election

Will gun control become a top election issue?

It didn’t seem likely for a while. The high visibility of pressing concerns like 40-year high inflation rates, a burgeoning humanitarian crisis in the ongoing war in Ukraine, and domestic culture warring over education policy have been at the top of most Americans’ minds.

But actions taken by President Joe Biden this week may very well have foisted the issue of guns back onto the radar of voters going into November’s midterm elections. Largely at the behest of a sustained pressure campaign from gun-control groups, President Biden announced his new nominee to head the ATF on Monday. He also announced the accelerated release of the final ATF rule banning “ghost gun” kits.

Either action taken on its own would be enough to raise the political stakes. Gun control by executive fiat is a policy route that draws the ire of gun owners and energizes gun-control advocates. But combining that announcement with the another attempt to successfully confirm a permanent ATF director takes the political stakes up a notch.

Getting a permanent ATF director confirmed is a tough battle in any political environment, as evidenced by the fact that only one director has been confirmed since 2006. The Trump administration was not even successful in confirming a nominee despite Republican control of the Senate at the time.

But the failure of David Chipman’s nomination to the ATF director role was perhaps the most high-profile political loss for Biden thus far in an administration that has seen its fair share of contentious confirmation battles. The fact that the Biden administration would return to that well after burning so much political capital in vain last time around suggests a commitment to making gun control a key selling point for his party.

Dettelbach may not have the same political baggage as his ill-fated predecessor. Chipman was a professional gun-control advocate employed by Giffords prior to his nomination. He also had a history of making controversial and derisive statements about the industry and gun owners he would be in charge of regulating at the ATF. Plus, serious concerns about his character while working as a federal agent were uncovered after his nomination.

Dettelbach supports many of the same gun restrictions Chipman did. He was endorsed by the gun-control groups during his failed 2018 AG campaign, but has never directly worked for them like Chipman did. He has used heated rhetoric to question the integrity of Ohio’s elections. But much of his background is still unexplored to this point.

The renewed push for a permanent ATF director is likely part of the White House’s attempt to dissuade voter concerns over rising crime. Dettelbach’s background as a prosecutor and the bipartisan support he has received thus far from other prosecutors and law enforcement officials provides some support for that idea.

However, Dettelbach is on record as supporting contentious gun-control policies like “assault weapons” bans and universal background check mandates. His backing of those policies will undoubtedly raise the salience of gun politics alongside crime concerns in his upcoming confirmation battle.

The president is taking a political risk by announcing another gun-control advocate to lead the agency charged with regulating the firearms industry while releasing controversial new gun regulations. It isn’t immediately clear this nominee will fare better than the last in terms of securing the support of moderates in the Senate, and another tense confirmation fight this close to election season could be a political liability for Democrats. At the same time, his final “ghost gun” kit ban has already mobilized Republican political opposition, and the forthcoming pistol brace ban–which will directly impact millions of Americans–will only add more fuel to that fire.

The President’s handling of gun policy has been underwater for nearly a year. Now, Democrats as a party are polling behind Republicans on guns too.

As election season draws nearer, it’s unclear how enthusiastic moderate Democrats from vulnerable states will be to vote for an ATF candidate with an established history of support for gun restrictions.

But it is clear that the President has set in motion the potential for gun politics to be a motivating issue for voters just months away from a midterm election poised to deliver serious Republican gains. How will voters react?

BLUF:
Elon Musk will not save free speech online. Even if his intentions really are good ones, the scale of the problem goes beyond one platform. And free speech online is too important to rely on the benevolence of billionaires. But his attempted takeover of Twitter has already done us a great service, in revealing how important censorship now is to America’s permanently hysterical elites. (Just call them what they are: wanna-be tyrants)

WHY ELON MUSK HAS RATTLED THEM

We stand here on the edge of tyranny… Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter. That, roughly speaking, has been the commentariat reaction in recent days as the world’s richest man has launched a takeover attempt of the social-media giant, citing his concerns about its censorious policies as his main motivation.

Musk revealed last week that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.2 per cent stake. Now he’s offered to buy the whole company for a cool $43 billion, a nice premium on its current worth. As it stands, Twitter’s board is resisting and America’s great and good have gone berserk.

The Washington Post’s Max Boot was swift out of the blocks. ‘I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter’, Boot tweeted. ‘He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.’

On an even more demented note, Robert Reich, veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, essentially argued that Musk buying Twitter would put us on a fast track to fascism; that Musk’s vision for an ‘uncontrolled’ internet was ‘​​the dream of every dictator, strongman, demagogue and modern-day robber baron’.

Reich wasn’t the only one gripped by this interesting idea that dictators love free speech and that more of it online will bring the Third Reich back. New York University journalism professor ​​Jeff Jarvis had this poetic response to Musk’s bid: ‘Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany.’

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More Gun Control Is Not the Solution, Most Voters Say

In the wake of Tuesday’s mass shooting on a Brooklyn subway train, most voters don’t think more control laws will prevent such incidents.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters don’t think stricter gun control laws would help prevent shootings like the one Tuesday that left 29 people injured in Brooklyn. Thirty-eight percent (38%) think stricter gun control laws would help prevent mass shootings, while another 11% are not sure. These findings are virtually identical to a March 2021 survey, when President Joe Biden called for new gun control measures in the aftermath of two mass shootings. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on April 12-13, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Man, 21, arrested a week after 3 killed at Georgia gun range

GRANTVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a fatal armed robbery at a Georgia gun range that left three members of a family dead last week.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday that Jacob Christian Muse, of College Park, is charged with three counts of malice murder.

Grantville officers who arrived at the scene of Lock Stock & Barrel Shooting Range on the night of April 8 discovered the bodies of the gun range’s owner, along with his wife and grandson.

Investigators said that as many as 40 guns and the range’s surveillance camera were also stolen. Authorities did not release additional information about Muse’s arrest.

Blinded Me with Violence: How the Left Fosters ‘Hate Crime’ Then Plays the Victim

I haven’t seen anyone else mention this, but subway shooter Frank James’s decision to shoot up a train in Sunset Park, Brooklyn likely wasn’t random. Check out the racial background of the neighborhood:

35.6% – Hispanic
34.8% – Asian
23.7% – white
3.9% – black

Until recently, you could see shooter Frank James spewing his black supremacy and hatred, but YouTube has now removed his channel. For those who didn’t see the videos, they were brimming with racial loathing for Asian, Hispanic, and white people.

You can see here that many of Frank James’s victims are Asian. For a “crazy” guy, he seems to have known what he was doing.

FACT-O-RAMA! In one if his videos, Frank James actually sobs upon hearing the news that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is married to a white man.

The problem is this: Frank James sees himself — and all black people — as victims. In one of his now-deleted videos, James tells other black folks that white people hate them, and that black people will be exterminated like the Jews were in Europe. This, despite the fact that America is bending over backward to keep black people out of jail. Shoplifting is all but legal now. Lefty cities have decriminalized certain driving laws that black people are more likely to break seem to affect black people more. Let’s not even get started on the surge of Soros-funded DAs who refuse to send black criminals — even violent miscreants — to jail. New York’s commie District Attorney, Alvin Braggs, is now actually allowing people to have their convictions “reviewed.”

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Why not just say it plainly? Biden is a bald faced liar, and always has been.

Biden Is Truth-Challenged When It Comes to the Second Amendment (and Much Else)

Since taking office, Joe Biden has been busy weaponizing the federal government against Americans who make or desire to purchase firearms. Naturally, he defends this by trotting out false claims about the Second Amendment. A favorite of his is the statement that when the Second Amendment was adopted, people couldn’t buy a cannon.

He’s taken to task for that assertion in this Truth about Guns post. 

Since he first made that statement, it has been refuted several times, such as in this article by Robert Wright.

Does Biden know or care? Of course not. The truth or falsity of a claim doesn’t matter, only advancing his agenda.

Even if it were true that the Second Amendment doesn’t allow anyone to buy a cannon, that would not logically lead to his conclusion that the feds should prevent buying all kinds of other firearms. Neither truth nor logic are of any concern to Biden.

If you’d like to be well armed to argue with Bidenistas over the meaning of the Second Amendment, I suggest reading America, Guns, and Freedom by Miguel Faria.

Would-be carjacker shot by intended victim in Bywater

A would-be carjacker remained hospitalized Friday in New Orleans after his intended victim shot him in the neck.

The wounded 17-year-old arrived unresponsive Thursday night at Tulane Medical Center, where police also found his alleged accomplice in the botched Bywater theft, a law enforcement source said. The second suspect, also 17, reportedly admitted participating in the crime, the source said, and the Police Department planned to book both with armed robbery and illegal possession of a gun.

The crime was reported in the 500 block of Louisa Street. Police arrived at 7:08 p.m., 10 minutes after being called, according to publicly available data.

There, the two teens targeted a 48-year-old man who had gotten out of his vehicle and was walking toward his house, the source said. The teens drove their own vehicle in reverse down the man’s street, and one got out of the passenger seat, pointed a gun at the man and demanded his keys.

The man told police he flung his keys, took cover under a nearby car and pulled out a pistol. He said he saw one teen by his vehicle, pointing a gun at him. The man told police he fired a single gunshot at the teen then ran for his house.

He said he heard someone scream an expletive, then both teens drove away on Louisa in their vehicle.

The teens picked up a third person then went to the hospital. There police seized two pistols, one of them stolen, from the accomplice, who told officers the guns belonged to him and the wounded suspect.

A single shot
The suspected accomplice was with his grandmother at the hospital, and both agreed to interviews, the law enforcement source said.

At the scene of the crime, police found evidence of a single gunshot.

Since May, four people have had their vehicles stolen at gunpoint, by force or intimidation in the 500 through 900 blocks of Louisa Street, according to the Police Department’s major offense log, and two people were victims of attempted carjackings there, making it one of the busiest stretches in one of the busiest neighborhoods for carjackings.

Well, after sinking their Black Sea Fleet Flagship, I’d think talks would collapse too.

UKRAINE INVASION UPDATE 23

April 15

“Negotiations: Ceasefire negotiations have effectively collapsed.”

The Ukraine Invasion Update is a weekly synthetic product covering key political and rhetorical events related to renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine. This update covers events from April 8-14. All of the ISW Russia’s team’s coverage of the war in Ukraine—including daily military assessments and maps, past Conflict Updates, and several supplemental assessments—are available on our Ukraine Crisis Coverage landing page.

Key Takeaways April 8-14

  • Ukraine and Russia are both unlikely to advance ceasefire negotiations until the ongoing Russian campaign in eastern Ukraine develops further. The Kremlin likely seeks to capture at minimum the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, while Kyiv seeks to further degrade the Russian military and potentially conduct major counteroffensives.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin may be purging elements of his intelligence service and blaming close allies for Russian intelligence and planning failures in the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  • The Kremlin is likely falsely blaming Ukrainian forces for planning or conducting provocations in areas where Russian forces intend to commit or have already committed atrocities.
  • Independent actors are unlikely to be able to verify Ukraine’s April 11 claim that Russian forces used chemical weapons in Mariupol, but Russian forces retain the capability to use chemical weapons beyond this specific instance.
  • The Kremlin is reframing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a Western war against Russia in a likely effort to maintain Russian domestic acceptance of the war.
  • Belarus and Russia are increasing economic ties—and likely Kremlin influence over Belarus—as sanctions cut off both states from international markets.
  • Finland and Sweden are increasingly reconsidering their non-aligned status and may move to join NATO in the coming months.
  • Western countries continued to search for alternatives to Russian energy while the Kremlin tried to downplay the effects of Western sanctions on its economy and energy sector.
  • NATO countries continue to secure their eastern borders and provide military assistance (including several high-end capabilities) to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression.

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I think if you don’t already have a Pocket Rocket™ this looks like a good one.

Gun Review: Smith & Wesson CSX Hammer-Fired 9mm Micro Compact

Smith & Wesson’s new CSX fills a gap in the pocket pistol market, scratching that double-digit round count micro compact itch we all seem to have, but doing it with an external hammer. The CSX is a little old school and a lot new school, and TTAG took it to the range to see how it stacks up.

If you’d rather watch than read, you’ll find my video range review embedded above. Otherwise, here we go . . .

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The Brooklyn Subway Attack Just Unraveled the Gun Control Argument Presented in NYSRPA v. Bruen.

The attack that occurred in New York City subway yesterday is proof positive that gun control, as envisioned by the Gun Control Industry and like-minded politicians, simply does not work. Honest, hard-working people were going about their day in Brooklyn, headed to work. Thanks to the intransigence of their local and state governments, these people were completely disarmed, left to the mercy of someone who’d planned his attack to do the most damage possible.

“First responders” were too late to do anything about the shooting. They always are.

As a former police officer, I know the sad truth. We virtually always respond to events after the fact. We rarely prevent them from occurring. What stops bad people from doing terrible things is good people. Good people who are there, at the scene, and armed.

New York City’s Mayor, Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, knows this, but like so many before him, he chooses to ignore it. Instead, he spews the same old media-friendly prescriptions of increasing the number of police in NYC’s Subways. It’s all just security theater that will continue to leave the city’s residents vulnerable to the rising crime and violence that have plagued the city.

 

Subway crime is hardly unusual. From February 21 to February 27 alone, 55 subway crimes were reported. That’s compared to 18 in 2021. NYC had a 205.6% jump in crime. New Yorkers can actually track the crime that’s afflicting their city on the NYPD’s own website.

Subway crimes stats increased 72.4% for the most recent 28-day period, and 72.8% year-to-date compared to the same time last year, the data shows. Hate crimes have jumped up 200% and the total crime index jumped up 47%.

This has become the new norm for the city’s straphangers.

 

The irony of this is thick. In her arguments last year before the Supreme Court against lifting New York’s “may issue” concealed carry permitting system — which, in practice, is a no-issue system, except for the rich and powerful — New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood cited the city’s subway system as an example of why legal concealed carry by average citizens must continue to be banned.

Here’s how her exchange with Justice Samuel Alito went . . .

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Hitler thought the west was weak and decadent
Tojo thought the U.S. people were weak and lazy.
Napoleon thought the British were a ‘nation of shopkeepers’

While that Russian priest was correct about a lot of the immorality seen in the west, he, and a lot of others, always seem to make the mistake of believing that the loudest is an actual majority.

The Russian conservative elites currently in power supported war because they see Western power as decadent and declining.

“In his sermon approximately two weeks into the war, on March 6, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church justified the invasion of Ukraine as necessary to defend Orthodox Christians against Western values and gay pride parades. On March 24, during a meeting with young artists, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained about… the West was now ‘trying to cancel a whole 1,000-year culture, our people … Russian writers and books are now canceled.’… Russian media filled with TV shows and ‘documentaries’ on ‘Gayropa’ and ‘Sodom.’

These shows conjured up a caricature of weak ‘gayish’ Western males and women who lost their femininity by competing with men in spheres where they could achieve nothing serious. Russian media frequently stressed the oddity that many Western democracies nominated women as defense ministers… … Russia depicted itself… as the country of strength, the bulwark of traditional families: with strong men, fertile women and children properly guarded against subversive homosexual propaganda… Fascinated by this flattering vision of Russia, elites, it seems, overestimated the nation’s strength and underestimated Ukraine’s.”

Write Kristina Stoeckl and Dmitry Uzlaner in “Russia believed the West was weak and decadent. So it invaded. Russia sees itself at the global forefront of the culture wars, leading the resistance to gay parades, ‘cancel culture,’ and liberal values more generally” (WaPo).

How Many Senile Democrats Does It Take To Ruin a Country?

We had a couple of “senior moment” stories yesterday involving people in the upper echelons of power in this country. It’s not pretty, but it can’t be ignored. Those of us here on the reality-based side of the aisle are duty-bound to acknowledge when things are amiss.

The first story involves Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who it often seems has been in the Senate since Andrew Jackson was president. Actually, she has been in office since winning a special election in 1992.

It would appear that the senior — no pun intended — senator from the Golden State is not quite as sharp as she used to be, which Robert wrote about yesterday:

Hunter Biden is just the tip of the iceberg: it’s lucrative to be a politician today, even if your father isn’t playing the role of president of the United States. There are innumerable ways in which our elected representatives can grow rich while doing the bidding of some powerful group, all perfectly legal: astronomical advances for books that hardly anyone will read, similarly inflated speaking fees, and much more.

What was once known as the public service has become so remunerative that it’s no wonder that politicians are clutching to power as they never have before in American history. Washington is now top-heavy with the Geritol set, and it doesn’t look as if that’s going to change anytime soon. But the talk around the nation’s capital Thursday is that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Beijing) is in the throes of a cognitive decline so severe as to make Old Joe Biden look as sharp as a tack, and that’s no malarkey, Jack.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote Thursday: “When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they’d had with her many times over the last 15 years.

Instead, the lawmaker said, they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted several hours.” Dagnabbit, Chron, “they” refers to a group, not to an individual, but nowadays when women can get other women pregnant, grammar is the least of our worries.

Robert then goes on to brilliantly provide a variety of reference points to give the reader a sense of just how old Sen. Feinstein is. It’s not mean, it’s factual. I have long advocated for the repeal of the 17th Amendment. The Founding Fathers never intended for senators to be able to linger in Washington with multiple six-year terms, acquiring power that rulers of lesser countries might only dream of.

More troublesome is the ongoing saga of decline that we are witnessing in the man who currently occupies the Oval Office. Matt covered the latest episode in this national torture tale:

Joe Biden has had his fair share of Joe Biden Moments. Slurred words, confusing people, not knowing where he is. Yet, his senility repertoire seems to be expanding as of late, and on Thursday, seeing people who aren’t there appeared to be his latest trick. After giving a speech in which he again tried to blame inflation on Vladimir Putin, Biden turned and appeared to shake hands with thin air, before wandering around confused.

I’m not engaged in some gleeful pile-on here. This is rough stuff. I’m not the youngest guy on the block, I don’t want to end up like this. One of the ways I try to keep my mind sharp is by making sure that I’m not a Democrat.

It isn’t cruel to point out what we are all seeing whenever Biden’s handlers let him go in front of cameras — it’s a legitimate concern. He is, after all, still the most powerful man on Earth. While we’re all on edge worrying about a renewal of nuclear tensions with Russia, having a president who rarely knows where he is might be a cause for worry.

We’re blessed to live in a time when people can have much longer, and more productive, lives. Unfortunately, some people still hit the age wall and need to have the keys to the car taken away.

Or the nuclear launch codes.

UNREGULATED “GHOST GUNS”

I think it’s high time for manufacturers of unfinished frames to start suing the heck out of Everytown for Gun Safety.

But gun safety advocacy groups, like Everytown for Gun Safety, which pushed the federal government for years to take action on ghost guns, applauded Biden’s moves and insisted that both Dettelbach’s appointment and the finalized rule will help combat gun violence.

“Ghost guns look like a gun, they shoot like a gun, and they kill like a gun, but up until now they haven’t been regulated like a gun,” said John Feinblatt, Everytown’s president. (link)

Feinblatt isn’t stupid. He isn’t ignorant. He isn’t mistaken.

He is a liar.

Privately manufactured firearms are firearms, and are regulated as such. A prohibited person may not build one. A prohibited person may not possess one. They may not be manufactured with the intent to sell, only for personal use. All that before the Biden administration’s new rule.

Certainly the Department of Justice and ATF are aware of that.

Seven men charged with guns trafficking in Inland Empire, ‘ghost guns’ among 30 firearms seized
Seven men have been arrested and charged with multiple federal firearms- and drug-related offenses as part of a federal investigation that recovered seven automatic weapons among a haul of so-called ghost guns, officials said Tuesday.
[…]
Most of the guns were privately made firearms bearing no serial numbers or identifying marks, commonly referred to as “ghost guns.”
[…]
Damon Moore, aka “Damage,” 27, of Bellflower was charged with engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license, being a prohibited person in possession of a gun, and distribution of methamphetamine.

If “ghost guns” are, as Everytown Liar-In-Chief claims, unregulated, exactly what US Code were these men charged under, eh? Looks like a truckload of 18 U.S. Code § 922 and 18 U.S. Code § 923 violations, but Feinblatt says it ain’t so; not too swift for an attorney. Maybe the Catholic University of America should demand his law degree back.

And a question for real attorneys: Is it a reportable ethics violation for an attorney to deliberately misrepresent laws?

I’m a bit curious about why the AP’s “Lead Justice Dept. & federal law enforcement reporter” let a demonstrably false statement like that go unchallenged. It raises the question of whether he’s an ignorant idiot, or just a fluffer for the victim-disarmament industry. (Rhetorical, of course; it’s AP.)

Bill seeks to preserve gun rights for modern nomads

I’ve known a few people who sold most of their stuff, bought an RV, and spend their time traveling the country. They established a P.O. box somewhere so they could get regular mail and hit the open road, circling back occasionally to pick up anything that might be there.

However, for these people, one thing they’ve been forced to give up is their gun rights to some degree. They can keep their guns, of course, unless there’s some other reason they couldn’t, but if they want to buy a new one? Then they have a problem.

After all, the ATF requires a home address, not a P.O. box.

A new bill, however, seeks to change that.

WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) introduced the Traveler’s Gun Rights Act. This bill would update federal law to account for various residency-related issues facing full-time Recreational Vehicle (RV) travelers, individuals with multiple physical residences, active-duty military personnel, and military spouses. Companion legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.).

“The Traveler’s Gun Rights Act removes an unfair prohibition facing Americans with unique living situations,” said Rounds. “This legislation will make certain that law-abiding citizens do not face a burdensome roadblock when trying to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”

“An address is an address – individuals who rely on a P.O. Box as their primary mailing address shouldn’t have their right to possess a firearm compromised,” said Johnson. “Our bill fixes that problem.”

So far, 17 senators have signed on to their version of the bill and 28 representatives have co-sponsored the House version.

Frankly, I like what I see. Not just because a part of me would love to live such a nomadic existence–at least, I would if I didn’t have kids–but because, frankly, it’s stupid.

Once upon a time, people who were nomadic usually didn’t have the best of circumstances. Or they were retired. There were relatively few of them looking to buy guns while living such a lifestyle.

However, in this digital age, people can live anywhere and work anywhere that has an internet connection. They’re not tethered to a house like they used to be. They can work freelance or from Fortune 500 companies. It’s a new age, folks.

As such, there are going to be those who decide to buy a firearm while they’re traveling the highways and byways of this great land. Yet under current law, they can’t legally do so.

There’s simply no reason for that.

At the end of the day, people have a right to travel and live how they want to live and travel. They’re not required to have a house with a white picket fence, all so they can exercise their right to free speech or freedom of religion, so why would we require something like that so they can exercise their right to keep and bear arms?

The answer is that we shouldn’t.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this bill has a prayer of passing at this point. After the midterms, depending on how strong a majority the GOP ends up with–they’ll need a supermajority–maybe. Otherwise? Well, it’s a nice idea that should pass, but won’t.

Kemp’s pro-gun retort to challenger Perdue is glorious

Gov. Brian Kemp has signed constitutional carry into law. It’s now in effect here in the state of Georgia, which means your’s truly doesn’t need a permit anymore unless I leave the state and want reciprocity.

And since the two states I generally travel to are also constitutional carry states…

Anyway, I appreciate what Kemp did, but the truth is that we’d have liked to have seen it happen much sooner. I think everyone feels that way.

Yet, political realities are what they are.

Despite that, it’s a point of contention in the GOP primary where the governor’s challenger, former U.S. Senator David Perdue has taken issue with it not being done earlier

“I think that’s great,” said David Perdue. “It’s too bad it took four years to get it done and it’s too bad it took me getting in the race for them to get any energy to get that done, but I’m glad it’s getting done.”

Now, understand that it would have passed last year were it not for House Speaker David Ralston deciding the bill shouldn’t advance because of the mass shooting in Atlanta. I don’t really see how you can put that on Kemp.

However, Kemp had a response to Perdue’s criticism.

“Well, you had to get the votes in the legislature,” Gov. Kemp explained.  “But look, he was in the United States Senate for six years.  I don’t ever remember him pushing this bill up there.  It’d be great if they did that at the federal level.  We wouldn’t have to do it with all the states.”

OK, I don’t care who you are, that’s amazing.

Look, even though I live in Georgia, I don’t have a dog in this particular fight. I’m skeptical of Perdue’s claims that he’s the only one who can beat Stacey Abrams when he couldn’t even beat career candidate Jon Ossoff while Kemp actually did beat Abrams.

Yet either is preferable over an anti-gun Abrams.

However, Perdue’s attacks on Kemp for not doing something earlier seem more than a little bizarre considering Kemp actually got it done.

The governor is also right about how great it would be to have a law like this at the federal level. It would be absolutely amazing. Then even California and New Jersey residents could enjoy the benefits of constitutional carry.

Look, I’m not doubting both of these two men support the Second Amendment. I also know that it’s a primary and they’re going to fight it out.

However, I can’t help but feel like Perdue is counting on Georgia gun rights advocates to buy into this idea that Kemp could have just snapped his fingers at any time and made constitutional carry happen. It’s like he’s counting on the ignorance of a segment of the base he’s desperately courting, and I don’t like that at all.

Yet the governor flipped the script on him in a way that works for me.

Frankly, I can’t find Perdue  sponsoring any pro-gun legislation during his time in the Senate. As such, he probably needs to sit the gun arguments out

How alleged Brooklyn subway shooter got his gun

Now that the alleged New York subway shooter has been arrested, we won’t be using his name anymore. However, we will be talking about him. After all, how can we not?

What he did was horrible and it seems, as almost has to be the case with someone like this, that he was a very disturbed individual. We mentioned some of it in coverage of this on Wednesday, yet others have gone even deeper and found that he was even more damaged than we thought.

So how did a person like this get a gun? Well, now we know.

[Name redacted], the lone suspect in the Brooklyn subway shooting that wounded 10 people, purchased the gun used in the attack at a pawn shop in Ohio, Fox News has learned.

[The accused], 62, purchased the 9 mm Glock handgun at a pawn shop in Columbus, Ohio, in 2011, a law enforcement source told Fox News on Wednesday.

Now, some will look at this and think this is evidence we need more gun control. However, let’s remember something here. He bought it from a pawn shop. For a pawn shop to buy and sell guns as they do, they have to be Federal Firearms License holders. That means they conduct NICS checks on each and every firearm sold.

The alleged subway shooter passed.

“But he was clearly mentally ill!”

Clearly. However, there’s mental illness and then there’s mental illness. Someone with mild depression or some anxiety disorders suffers mightily from their condition, but they don’t necessarily represent a threat to themselves or others. There’s no reason to even remotely pretend they do.

Is that what the accused subway shooter was suffering from? I don’t have any idea. After all, his mental health records aren’t open and available to the public. Nor, frankly, should they be. There’s enough of a mental health stigma as it is.

Yet if the accused stands trial, it’s likely all that information will come out and we’ll all know then.

However, with regard to being able to buy a gun, we already have a process for preventing someone from purchasing a firearm. If they’re “adjudicated as mentally defective,” as the law phrases it, then they can’t buy a gun. Not in Ohio, not in New York, not in Missouri, not anywhere.

The accused wasn’t, though. That suggests whatever was wrong wasn’t to that level. So why would he be denied a firearm?

What many are missing, though, is that he then took that gun to New York. Under New York City law, even if you already own a firearm, you must obtain a permit from the city before bringing that gun with you. Failure to do so is a crime.

In theory, that should prevent people like the accused subway shooter from doing just that, but clearly, that didn’t work.

At the end of the day, what we know is that there’s a lot going on with the suspect the police have in custody and I don’t know that a trial will accomplish a whole hell of a lot to clear much of this fiasco up. Still, it’s an opportunity to get answers and we should all hope we actually get some for once.

One man’s experience with the Moderna vaccine

Louie Traub Profile picture

Today is my one year “regretiversary” of the vaccine that ruined my life. So to celebrate the fact it hasn’t killed me (yet), here’s a thread attempting to summarize the rollercoaster ride this last year has been…

On April 13, 2021 I received Moderna #2 after believing the BS we were told by the gov and media, all my friends/family were fine after their shots, docs recommended it, if I wanted to work/travel I’d have to get it. I thought it was the ticket to get back to normal. I was wrong.

The side effects came on hard and heavy the same day, so for the causation doesn’t equal correlation crowd that tries to discredit adverse reactions, enough. And no, it wasn’t covid. I never had the virus. Previous years were healthy and I backtested negative. It was the vax 100%Image
I experienced a host of side effects that can’t even fit in a single post because so many symptoms popped up almost instantly and have evolved for the worse over the last year.

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