Well, if the demoncraps didn’t have double standards……..

Anti-Gun Senator Has Spent Millions on Private Security

There’s something very elitist about anti-gun politicians and celebrities, especially those who have the resources to hire protective details for themselves, even as they work to deny you and me the ability to protect ourselves.

In other words, they act as if the only people deserving of being kept safe are those who can outsource it.

Take Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia (please?) for example.

And, it seems, that he’s spent millions on private security during that timeframe.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Raphael Warnock’s, D-Ga., re-election campaign has spent an eye-popping amount of cash on private security over nine months in 2025 despite a history of supporting stricter gun control measures.

Between January and September of this year, Warnock spent approximately $360,000 on security services from Executive Protection Agencies, LLC, an Atlanta-based security firm that includes both armed and unarmed options. Warnock’s office did not clarify what type of service he was paying the firm to provide.

However, the security firm’s website says it uses its armed services to provide protection for “political figures.” A Fox News Digital review found that Warnock’s campaign has spent over $2.7 million on private security dating back to Dec. 2020.

Warnock has regularly pushed gun control in Congress, including co-sponsoring legislation to ban assault weapons and require universal background checks, voting for federal red flag laws, supporting stricter penalties for those who purchase firearms from sellers not legally allowed to do so and stricter licensing requirements for sellers, among other initiatives.

Now, whether the security is armed or not is, in my mind, mostly irrelevant. Sure, it’s more hypocritical if it’s armed, but any kind of private security is hypocritical while he works to deny us the ability to protect our family.

See, any security detail is going to be visible. Armed or unarmed, they’re there and they’re a deterrent to any potential assault. No one knows if they’ve got guns, for one thing.

Yet you and I don’t get that. We don’t have big guys in suits standing around us, scanning the surroundings, giving off an air of “mess you up” to everyone around us. We don’t get that deterrent effect at all.

For us, it’s a different matter, and for many of us, that means carrying a firearm to keep us and ours safe.

Warnock, however, works against us being able to do that. He’s vocally supported numerous gun control measures, and his anti-Second Amendment advocacy goes back to 2013, according to the Free Beacon. This isn’t new for him.

Especially since he’s in a party that tries to make a big deal out of helping the less fortunate. The $450,000 Warnock spends per year, on average, sure would help an awful lot of less fortunate souls out there, don’t you think?

But then again, like so many anti-gunners, it’s not really about keeping people safe. It’s about making sure we rely on the government for everything, including our safety, which they cannot guarantee.

Gun Owners of America Learns Gag Orders Makes Strange Bedfellows

Gun Owners of America has been challenging the Department of Justice over a troubling program where American gun buyers are seeing their purchases monitored by the ATF. There’s no due process involved at all, either. All it takes is for a law enforcement officer to say he suspects someone of not being an ideal citizen, and suddenly, they’ll get a notification whenever that person has a NICS check performed.

Just how bad are things? We don’t know.

It seems GOA knows, but they’re not talking. It’s not because they don’t want to. They’re not allowed to. They’re under a gag order that prevents them from telling what they know.

Unsurprisingly, others have an issue with that.

However, as this video from GOA tells us, what’s surprising is who is standing with them on this.

The fact that we’re being monitored for exercising our Second Amendment rights is far from new information. That doesn’t make it a good thing, only that it’s nothing new.

But for groups like Reuters, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vox, NPR, and Politico, among others, to stand with gun owners and have a problem with the gag order is very, very new.

As noted in the video, many of these organizations are generally very hostile toward the Second Amendment and Second Amendment organizations like Gun Owners of America.

Yet this isn’t a gun issue. Not really.

Sure, the underlying surveillance is very much a relevant issue for gun rights supporters, but the fact that Gun Owners of America isn’t allowed to speak about information that was given to them, inadvertently, by the Biden Department of Justice, is troubling for anyone in the media. After all, we get information from a variety of sources. Not all of that information was intended for public consumption, which is often the point. It betrays troubling behavior by the government that’s hidden under various laws pertaining to classified material.

And the courts have traditionally understood that and sided with the free press on such things most of the time.

If GOA is unable to speak with material handed to them directly by the DOJ, even if it wasn’t intentional, then what about a reporter who finds out that the government is funding an illegal arms trafficking network via drug sales in our inner cities? Just to name one completely random and not at all historical example.

Will Reuters get slammed with a gag order because a source gives them information on how the CIA is arming cartels so they can fight a different cartel? Again, a hypothetical, though this one is actually one I pulled out of my fourth point of contact.

That’s what this stand is truly about, of course, and I get that. It’s even fair that they’d side with GOA over their personal interests above and beyond any potential intrinsic desire to stand for rights as a whole. They’re not suddenly going to be pro-gun. This is about them and only them. In fact, I doubt they give a damn about the monitoring effort at all.

But politics is said to make strange bedfellows. It seems so do gag orders.

 

Fired 7-Eleven clerk sparks debate over self-defense and company policy

Oklahoma City, Okla. — The firing of Stephanie Dilyard, a former 7-Eleven clerk in Oklahoma, has ignited widespread debate over self-defense rights and corporate policies.

Dilyard, 25, was terminated after using her personal firearm to shoot Kenneth Thompson, 59, who she claims attempted to strangle her when she refused a counterfeit bill.

Despite being protected under Oklahoma’s self-defense law, 7-Eleven cited a violation of company policy as the reason for her dismissal.

The incident has drawn significant public attention, with many criticizing 7-Eleven for prioritizing protocol over employee safety.

Attorney Noble McIntyre commented, “It’s unfortunate she didn’t shoot him twice,” highlighting the tension between self-defense rights and employment policies.

McIntyre noted that Oklahoma is an at-will employment state, allowing employers to terminate workers for almost any reason, provided it doesn’t violate public policy.

However, he emphasized that Oklahoma’s stand-your-ground law supports Dilyard’s right to defend herself.

Ed Blau, a criminal defense attorney, explained the company’s stance, stating, “7-Eleven as a corporation, they do not want all of their employees packing heat while working all over the country. That presents a tremendous liability risk for them.” Blau suggested that Dilyard might face challenges in pursuing a wrongful termination lawsuit, as the company’s policy was clear.

The case raises questions about the responsibility of employers to ensure the safety of their employees.

Blau noted, “If an employee of a convenience store such as 7-Eleven is injured or even killed while working and that store did not provide either adequate safety measures or security, that store could be held liable for putting their employee in an unsafe space.”

As the debate continues, Dilyard remains resolute, stating she would make the same decision again to ensure she returns home to her children.

The story has sparked a broader conversation about employee safety and corporate accountability, with many calling for 7-Eleven to reconsider its policies.

“People who pride themselves on their ‘complexity’ and deride others for being “simplistic” should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.” – Thomas Sowell

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” – Mark Twain

America Is in a Golden Age. Are We Headed Toward a Roman Ending?
“Once you have an ever-expanding system of entitlements that you can’t afford, that’s often the beginning of the decline and fall,” says historian Johan Norberg.

We media types obsess about America’s problems.

But we should acknowledge that today, life in America is better than life has been anywhere, ever.

For most of history, the norm was hunger, disease, illiteracy, slavery, and war.

There were a few exceptions (from some of those problems)—so-called golden ages, Ancient Athens, Rome, the Renaissance, etc.

In our new video, historian Johan Norberg, author of the new book Peak Human, looks at the miracle of the Roman Empire, which at one point extended throughout most of Europe, and parts of Africa and Asia.

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Just another long serving bureaucrap. Will he ever learn?

Trump Has Found His Pick for ATF Director

Since Donald Trump began his second term as president and Biden’s ATF Director Steve Dettelbach resigned ahead of being fired, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has been run by a couple of different interim directors, starting with FBI Director Kash Patel. Patel was replaced after reports surfaced that he was essentially a non-entity at the agency, and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has been doing double duty interim director alongside his work with the Department of Defense in April.

Shortly after Driscoll was named as the interim head of the agency, the ATF’s Deputy Director Marvin Richardson stepped down (or was pushed out), and was replaced by Robert Cekada, who was previously Executive Assistant Director and oversaw the agency’s Office of Regulatory Operations, Office of Field Operations, and the Office of Intelligence Operations.

Now President Trump has nominated Cekada to become the agency’s permanent director; not exactly a surprising move, but not completely expected either. Trump has shown a desire to install outsiders at the helm of many agencies and cabinet positions, but Cekada has worked for the ATF for 20 years. He started as a field agent Hyattsville, Maryland and worked on the Regional Area Gang Enforcement Task Force from 2005 to 2011 before transferring to the Tampa field office for two years. He’s been at ATF headquarters since 2013, moving up the ranks from his position as project officer in the Firearms Operations Division’s Frontline Branch.

Before joining ATF, Cekada was a part of the NYPD and a member of the Plantation, Florida police. He held a variety of roles in those departments, including serving in the NYPD’s Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit and the Street Crime Unit and the SWAT unit in Plantation.

When Cekada was named the agency’s second-in-command back in April, the news was received positively by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. As we reported at the time:

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the firearms industry, was quick to praise Cekada as Trump’s choice as the ATF’s Number Two, pointing to his extensive history going after violent criminals and his respect for the right to keep and bear arms.

“Deputy Director Cekada has the experience, wisdom and respect of his colleagues to effectively lead the men and women of the ATF,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Deputy Director Cekada respects the Second Amendment and understands that the firearm industry is not the ‘enemy’ but valuable partner that assists ATF in its core mission of combatting violent crime. Firearm retailers are on the front lines helping to prevent the criminal acquisition of firearms. They are a vital source of information to ATF special agents on illegal straw purchasing of firearms.”

As a Special Agent-in-Charge, Deputy Director Cekada has been on the ground with the firearm industry to promote public awareness to stop these crimes from occurring and has the career history of working with the firearm industry to ensure law-abiding citizens can exercise their Second Amendment rights.

The fact that Cekada has already established a good working relationship with the firearms industry is a good sign, and I’ve heard from sources who have knowledge of the ATF’s day-to-day operations that he was instrumental in getting rid of the “zero tolerance” policy on gun dealers that Richardson continued to enforce even after Steve Dettelbach resigned as ATF Director when Trump assumed office for his second term.

Since his appointment as Deputy Director, Cekada has been working alongside the agency’s new Assistant Director and lead attorney Robert Leider, a former professor at George Mason’s Antonin Scalia School of Law specializing in Second Amendment issues. The pair have been overhauling many of the ATF’s rules and regulations, and though the shutdown sidelined much of their work for the past month, the agency has already announced it’s rolled back the Biden administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that treated minor paperwork errors cause to revoke federal firearms licenses.

Biden’s pistol brace ban has been undone as well, with the DOJ deciding not to appeal a court decision that found the rule was a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, and it’s expected that Biden’s “engaged in the business” rule treating almost every gun owner who sells a firearm from their personal collection as an “unlicensed gun dealer” will also soon be axed.

That doesn’t mean that Cekada’s nomination will be smooth sailing, however. Senate Democrats are likely to challenge Cekada’s reforms, while Republicans may bring up issues like the agency’s railroading of Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, who’s currently sitting in a federal prison after being convicted of selling restricted firearms that weren’t really functional or illegal to possess, purchase, or sell.

Cekada should have the support of NSSF, which could also hurt his chances among Senate Democrats, but that could prove valuable among the Senate Republicans who will decide if he should take the helm of the agency.

Cekada is no David Chipman, the former ATF agent turned gun control advocate who was Biden’s first choice to head up the agency. Cekada has already demonstrated a willingness to be a change agent at the ATF, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he has to say about the need for more fundamental reforms within the agency and how he plans to accomplish those goals as the confirmation process gets underway.

Grassroots Judicial Report—November 19, 2025

What’s New— SCOTUS: Duarte v. United States—Useful article by Jacob Sullum on this case; Gustafson v, Springfield: PLCAA case; Two “Assault Weapons Ban” cases—National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont; Case No: 25 – 421, and Viramontes v. Cook County: Case No: 25-238; The Four Boxes Diner interviews Judge VanDyke; District Court:Missouri: Brown v. ATF: Case No. 4:25-cv-01162: Plaintiffs argueargues that because Congress eliminated the making and transfer taxes on most NFA-regulated firearms in 2025, the NFA’s remaining registration and recordkeeping mandates are now unconstitutional: Vermont: Second Circuit:

VT. Fed of Sportsmen’s Clubs v. Matthew Birningham: Case No. 24-2028: An appeal regarding a denied preliminary injunction, and an amicus curiae;New Jersey: Third Circuit: Struck v. Platkin: Case No. 3:24-cv-09479: On Nov. 13, the Firearms Policy Coalition joined the NRA’s lawsuit to challenge New Jersey’s ban on purchasing more than one gun every 30 days.

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