This is what ‘Gain of Function’ gets you.

Wuhan Lab Publishes Study Manipulating H7N9 Virus To Be More Lethal.

A scientific journal published by top Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers shared studies appearing to engage in gain-of-function type research, a controversial method of studying pathogens that can increase their lethality.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is believed to have engaged in the risky form of research regarding bat coronaviruses, as now-deleted webpages reveal the lab manipulating bat coronaviruses to “replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.”

Now, the latest edition of the lab’s journal, Virologica Sinica, appears to contain a similar style of research with the H7N9 virus in chickens and mice. The publication’s Editor-in-Chief is Wuhan’s infamous “bat lady,” Shi Zhengli, who is the lab’s premier bat coronavirus researcher and a recipient of funds from Anthony Fauci through Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance.

Virologica Sinica published the study “Combined Insertion of Basic and Non-basic Amino Acids at Hemagglutinin Cleavage Site of Highly Pathogenic H7N9 Virus Promotes Replication and Pathogenicity in Chickens and Mice” in its most recent edition, published February 2022.
The paper’s abstract outlines how researchers “generated six H7N9 viruses,” analyzing how various amino acids altered the virus’ virulence and infectivity.

“We characterized the reconstituted viruses in terms of viral replication in avian and mammalian cells, thermostability and acid stability, cleavage efficiency, the virulence in mice, and pathogenicity and transmissibility in chickens,” outlined the study.

“The I335V substitution of H7N9 virus enhanced infectivity and transmission in chickens, suggesting that the combination of mutations and insertions of amino acids at the HACS promoted replication and pathogenicity in chickens and mice,” explained researchers.

While the study conducted experiments on mice and chicken, it noted that H7N9 variants are “also highly transmissible in ferrets, posing the threats of pandemic potential in humans.”

Continue reading “”

California Church Shooter Has Chinese Communist Party Ties

David Chou, a 68-year-old Chinese immigrant who on Sunday killed one congregant and wounded five others at Geneva Presbyterian Church before being subdued by parishioners, in 2019 participated in an event hosted by the Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification. The group is controlled by the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department and argues that “peaceful unification” between China and Taiwan “is the only way to avoid war.”

At the 2019 event, Chou hoisted a banner calling for the “eradication of pro-independence demons.”

The Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification is a branch of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, which the United States in 2020 designated as a foreign mission of the Chinese regime.

The Orange County sheriff’s office said on Monday that Chou’s attack on the church was motivated by his hatred for the Taiwanese.

Attempted robbery in Antioch turns into self-defense fatal shooting
One man dead, another hospitalized after gunfire at apartment

ANTIOCH — One man died and another was injured after gunfire at an apartment early Friday that resulted from an attempted robbery, police said.

Police did not make any arrests and called the shooting a case of self-defense. Authorities did not identify either man immediately.

The self-defense shooting was one of two that occurred in the eastern area of Contra Costa County early Friday. An Oakley woman also fatally shot a man against whom she had filed a restraining order for elder abuse, police said.

The Antioch shooting happened about 3:30 a.m. in the 2100 block of Lemontree Way, police Sgt. Matthew Koch said in a statement.

Officers arrived after hearing reports of a shooting and found both men injured, Koch said. A 37-year-old died at the scene, and a 29-year-old was in stable condition at a hospital Friday, Koch said.

According to police, the 37-year-old tried to force the 29-year-old resident into his apartment unit and wanted to rob him. The resident got his hands on a gun — police did not say if the gun belonged to the homeowner — and shot the suspect, fatally wounding him. Before he died, the 37-year-old returned fire, hitting the resident in the lower body, police said.

An ambulance took the younger man to a hospital. Authorities did not immediately identify the person killed, pending confirmation of their identity and notification of next of kin.

Oakley [California] Woman Fatally Shoots Man in Self-Defense

A woman shot and killed a man in Oakley early Friday in a case that police are treating as self-defense.

Officers responded at 12:39 a.m. to a report of a 51-year-old man shot in the 200 block of West Cypress Road.

The man was found in the driveway of a home and succumbed to his injuries at the scene, police said. His name has not been released.

Investigators detained three people at the home and learned that a 74-year-old woman there has an elder abuse restraining order against the man because of a history of physical violence, and more alleged violence by the man led her to shoot him in self-defense, according to police.

The woman was not taken into custody.

Debunking lawmaker’s claim of 9,000 murders with ghost guns

Illinois passed its ban on so-called ghost guns and now it has been signed into law. The damage has been done.

In a report on the new law, an opponent of homemade firearms had some interesting thoughts.

One of those proponents is Pamela Bosley, who co-founded the organization Purpose over Pain, which aims to help raise awareness of gun violence, host community events and provide parents of children killed by gun violence with crisis support.

Bosley started the group after her son Terrell was shot and killed in 2006.

“You can take these guns and you can purchase them online, you can purchase them in the store, you can put them together and you could shoot any of us,” said Bosley on Wednesday.

The bill, HB 4383, was passed in the final hours of this spring’s legislative session on 31-19 and 66-36 votes in the state Senate and House, respectively. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Jacqueline Collins and Rep. Kam Buckner, both Chicago Democrats.

“In this year alone, ghost guns have claimed more than 9,000 lives,” said Collins.

Really? That’s a pretty bold statement.

Especially since a previous report about Illinois’s proposed law gave a much different number, citing just 325 homicides with such weapons since 2016.

But homicides are increasing, apparently, so maybe she’s privy to some numbers the media hasn’t seen? It seemed highly unlikely that they skyrocketed quite that much, but stranger things have happened, so I thought I’d take a look and see what I could find.

There aren’t a lot of sources for running totals on gun-related homicides in this country, so I had to go to the Gun Violence Archive. While I often criticize their methods with regard to mass shootings, there’s not a lot of monkey business they can play with murders.

The problem is that it’s unlikely they track it by weapon type. Still, 9,000 murders with “ghost guns” seemed awfully high. Maybe if I just looked at the percentages, I could get an idea as to whether Collins had a clue what she was talking about.

Unfortunately for her, GVA only reports 7,325 gun-related, non-suicide deaths in 2022 so far. That includes confirmed defensive gun uses (438 of them), which drops the number down to below 6,900. It also includes 552 accidental shooting fatalities.

That leaves just a smidge over 6,300 murders in total so far in 2022. Now, these aren’t the official numbers, but they’re as good a snapshot as anyone is going to find at this point in time. If anything, with GVA’s biases, you’d expect the numbers to be a bit on the high side compared to the real numbers.

So how in the hell could “ghost guns” claim 9,000 lives this year alone when there are nowhere near that many lives claimed by guns at all?

Look, you can make whatever arguments you want about “ghost guns.” You’re entitled to your own opinions. What you’re not entitled to are your own facts.

Lawmakers can make honest, good-faith mistakes, but there should be some way to tell that it was a mistake. Instead, what Collins told the media appears to be nothing more than an outright fabrication.

In short, it looks like she’s lying and the Illinois media isn’t interested in fact-checking her on this.

Anti-gun groups, Eric Swalwell try to fundraise off Buffalo massacre

Wasting little time in the aftermath of Saturday’s mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, gun control groups and at least one Democratic lawmaker are already using the monstrous, racially-motivated crime to try and fill their campaign coffers.

Screenshots of fundraising emails sent out by Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady PAC and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) were shared on social media this week.

“This weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo is yet another horrifying reminder of how white supremacy is deadly, especially when it’s combined with easy access to guns,” read a screenshot of an email from Everytown for Gun Safety that was tweeted by Second Amendment activist Robert Romano Monday.

Continue reading “”

demoncraps is such stupid people, but this moron is right about one should be “…sick of the pipeline from racist rhetoric to racist violence.”
So I wonder when the demoncraps will give up being racist?

Dem Rep. Beatty blames White supremacy for Dallas Korean hair salon shooting, but suspect is Black
Congressional Black Caucus chair blamed ‘White supremacy replacement theorist’ for Dallas Korean hair salon shooting

The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) blamed White supremacy for last week’s shooting at a Dallas Korean hair salon, but the suspect charged with carrying out the attack is Black.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, made the claim at a Thursday press conference outside the Capitol that saw House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in attendance.

“On Monday, three people in a Korean-owned hair salon in Dallas were gunned by yet another White supremacy replacement theorist,” Beatty said to the assembled crowd.

In addition to botching the date of the shooting, Beatty got a key detail wrong about the “White supremacy replacement theorist” charged with attacking the Dallas salon: the suspect is Black.

Beatty’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Jeremy Smith, 37, was booked into the Dallas County jail and is charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He allegedly walked into the Hair World Salon on May 11 and opened fire on the seven people inside with a .22 caliber rifle, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia told reporters.

Smith got off 13 shots before fleeing into a minivan, he said.

The FBI said it is investigating the shooting as a hate crime. Surveillance video captured Smith’s van with specific details and determined it to be a 2004 Honda Odyssey, authorities said.

An arrest warrant affidavit said Smith drove the minivan with a paper license plate that matched several of the numbers seen by witnesses. He also admitted to being in the area on the day of the shooting, Fox Dallas reported. A vehicle crash that occurred two years ago with an Asian male resulted in him having panic attacks and “delusions” when around people of Asian descent, Garcia said.

Smith was also fired from his previous job at an Ulta Beauty warehouse for attacking his Asian boss, the document states.

Man shot and killed after attempting to enter Lenoir City home

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — One man was found shot and killed Tuesday after a homeowner said he attempted to force his way into the residence, Lenoir City Police said.

Officers responded to West 2nd Avenue around 10:15 p.m. for a report of a disturbance. Upon arrival, officers became aware of another disturbance at a nearby home on the same street where a man reportedly attempted to force his way into the residence.

Lenoir City Police said the owner of the second home shot the man, identified as 20-year-old Michael Owen, multiple times. Owen was pronounced dead at the scene.

The initial disturbance police had responded to was between Owen and people living at the first West 2nd Ave home. Witnesses told police that Owen was acting erratically before the shooting and claimed that he may have been under the influence of an unknown substance.

The body has been sent for an autopsy.

 

Critical Race Theory is marxist/communist/totalitarian BS

Report: CRT Symposium Speaker Calls Diversity of Thought ‘White Supremacist’ Excrement

Does diversity of thought equal white supremacy? It appears so, according to a college professor.

As reported by Campus Reform, academics gathered recently for a Critical Race Theory conference. Organized by Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA) and hosted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, the symposium took place between May 31st and June 2nd.

CRSEA’s website describes its mission thusly:

[W]e are committed to (1) countering and combating systemic and structural racism with scholarship and praxis, (2) recognizing the multiple locations of oppression and the myriad manifestations and effects of their intersections and (3) co-constructing liberating knowledge that facilitates collective agency to transform schools and communities.

Amid the meet-up, instructors waxed on that most pernicious of all contemporary blights, whiteness.

According to a witness, per Campus Reform, a California college teacher whacked away:

“Whiteness has already been constructed against blackness. There is no virtue in whiteness, it is inherently violent,” one conference-goer tweeted, referencing a quote from Michael Dumas, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who spoke at the event.

Continue reading “”

True ‘liberalism’ is respecting the rights, freedom and liberty of others.

We Battle the Left By Standing Up for Free Speech, Standing Up for Liberalism

When the Biden administration announced the creation of a Disinformation Governance Board last month critics immediately started portraying the agency as the “Ministry of Truth” from George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984.

Critics were right to make this comparison. The federal government has no business, constitutionally or morally, in deciding what Americans can say and not say.

But there was more to it than that. It was a line. A marker thrown down by the Left in the ongoing culture war over free speech.

Because it was truly crazy that the Biden administration would even consider going there. That any president in modern times would. This showed not only that mainstream Democrats had become this comfortable with censorship, private or even public, but that they believed their governance of our speech was a reasonable policy that Americans should just accept. It’s as if the people governing the country were completely unfamiliar with the historic rules and norms of the country they were running.

Hey Joe Biden, meet ‘America!’

 

Yet on Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that the Disinformation Governance Board was “paused” for the time being—just three weeks after its creation was announced.

This is also a marker in the war over free speech. And it’s not the only victory in recent times for those of us who oppose censorship. For a change, it has been the Left on defense recently.

Obviously, Team Biden figured out that the creation of this new Department of Homeland Security agency was bad politics for them heading into the midterm elections, along with a dozen other obstacles they will have come November.

But this move was also an acknowledgment that people aren’t going to put up with being dictated to by the woke mob anymore, which has seemed to control much of social media, entertainment, and the Democratic Party for the past few years.

Continue reading “”

They made a movie about this……….in point of fact, more than one

While we might lose a cure for cancer, it’s time to permanently shut down most of this crap-for-brains gene hacking stuff, for if there’s one (1) thing we’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that these morons will discard all ethical considerations if they can make a few bucks.

SCIENTISTS GENE HACK HAMSTERS INTO HYPER-AGGRESSIVE MONSTERS

Hamster Brawl

Scientists say that a little gene hacking turned adorable hamsters into vicious monstrosities.

Researchers at Georgia State University may have published the scientific understatement of the year when saying that their CRISPR experiment with hamsters “found that the biology behind social behavior may be more complex than previously thought.”

Using the revolutionary gene editing tech, the GSU neuroscience team discovered that knocking out a receptor of vasopressin — a hormone associated with aggression, communication, and social bonding in both humans and hamsters — instead seemed to supercharge the cute rodents’ worst instincts.

“We anticipated that if we eliminated vasopressin activity, we would reduce both aggression and social communication,” GSU neuroscience researcher H. Elliott Albers said in a statement. “But the opposite happened.”

Judge Napolitano is too kind. Actually she doesn’t have blinders on. She’s just another wanna-be tyrant who complains about the Constitutional restrictions on goobermint like they all do.

BLUF:
The governor has blinders on. She complains of too much freedom. In New York, there is too little.

Blaming the Constitution

Within hours of the tragic killings of 10 Americans — nine Black and one white — in a Buffalo supermarket by a deranged white racist last week, the governor of New York began calling for infringements upon personal liberty. First, she argued that social media platforms were somehow liable for these killings since they provided a platform from which the killer could reinforce his hatreds and on which he could manifest them.

Then, she argued that hate speech and incendiary speech should be prosecuted. Finally, she attacked the U.S. Supreme Court, which is about to rule on a challenge to New York’s restrictive concealed carry laws. She said twice that “New York is ready for you.” It is unclear just what she meant, but the implication was that she’d find a way around whatever the court rules.

She uttered a bitter constitutional mouthful.

From the writings and mental history of the gunman, we know that he was and is deeply disturbed. Police brought him to a mental hospital after he made threats at school, and his hatreds were posted on dark websites. Nevertheless, New York gun laws — among the strictest in the country — did not stop him from lawfully purchasing a rifle and the ammunition with which to use it.

The gun control crowd, personified by the governor, makes critical errors in its arguments and shows material misunderstandings of fundamental liberties.

Its critical error is a mistaken belief that someone willing to commit mass murder will somehow comply with gun regulations. It doesn’t matter to the killer what the gun laws are; he will find a way to attempt to kill. What matters is a set of laws with which law-abiding folks do comply, the effect of which is to neuter their ability to defend themselves.

This column has steadfastly maintained that the only language mass murderers respect is their own — violence. Only violence against them, or its serious imminent threat, will stop them.

Continue reading “”

There’s a reason why gun control fails after mass shootings

In the wake of any mass shooting, we hear a lot about gun control. Proponents of it argue we simply need to embrace it to make such shootings a thing of the past. It just hasn’t worked out for them.

Over at Axios, they decided to lament this fact by pointing out all the times gun control failed to materialize after a mass shooting.

What they miss is that there’s a reason it didn’t pass in pretty much all of those cases.

Sandy Hook, December 2012
  • After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, in which 26 victims — including 20 children — were killed, Congress proposed a bipartisan bill expanding background checks for gun buyers, a ban on assault weapons and a ban on high-capacity gun magazines.

Part of the reason that didn’t pass was that the killer didn’t purchase his gun. He murdered his own mother and took an AR-15 that she lawfully purchased–and underwent and passed a background check for–to use it to carry out that particular atrocity.

Expanding background checks wouldn’t have prevented such an attack.

Charleston church, June 2015

When a white man opened fire at a Black church congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people, Democrats proposed legislation to tighten background checks.

Democrats sought to eliminate what became known as the “Charleston loophole,” which allows people with incomplete background checks to purchase guns after three days, Politico reports.

And that remains because going beyond those three days is too much of an infringement on people’s Second Amendment rights.

What people have to remember is that the three-day window was put in place to appease gun rights advocates who worried that people could be long-term denied the ability to purchase a firearm simply because their background checks never came back.

The three-day window remains because no one trusts the government enough to take it away.

San Bernardino, December 2015

A shooting at a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health holiday party killed 14 people and injured 22 others.

One day after the shooting, the Senate rejected two gun control proposals introduced by Democrats on background checks, the Washington Post reports.

California pass universal background checks in 1991. The killers in this case still acquired weapons illegally and without undergoing a background check.

Why pass more of what clearly didn’t work?

Pulse Nightclub, June 2016

The proposed bills would have prevented people on the federal terrorism watch list from buying guns and closed loopholes in background check laws, per the Times.

And that one failed because there’s no due process on the terrorism watchlist. You can be added for any reason and aren’t told you’re on it. Getting yourself removed is a nightmare.

Plus, the terrorism watch list is a list of names. There are no other identifiers. So if a terrorist named Tom Knighton exists somewhere on Earth, I don’t get to purchase a firearm under this rule.

Yeah, it’s an absolute mystery why this didn’t pass.

Look, you’re starting to see how this goes, and Axios does continue.

For example, they bring up Atlanta and how background check bills didn’t pass despite President Biden calling for just that, but the shooter in that one actually passed a background check. They tie this to Boulder, but he also passed a background check.

Time and time again, there’s a mass shooting, then lawmakers make demands for laws that wouldn’t do anything to stop the attack, but would do wonders for infringing on people’s rights.

Look, gun control isn’t the answer to this. Especially since the two high-profile attacks we saw last weekend were both in heavily gun-controlled states.

Gun control doesn’t pass because, in each of these cases, it’s clear that the laws proposed wouldn’t have done a damn thing. Further, each of these is actually something of a black swan event, meaning they’re not the norm, despite people trying to pretend they are.

So I’m actually OK with inaction from Congress on this. Frankly, I prefer inaction in Congress on most things, but especially here.

There are better ways to handle mass shootings than infringing on the rights of the non-shooters, especially when it’s clear that infringement wouldn’t have stopped diddly.

But they said nobody wants to take your guns.
And actually, if there were magically, mystically, no guns, life would return to the world of ‘main force’ where might makes right and the stronger rule over the weaker. The world “BG” – before guns – had a much higher murder rate than after they became reliable. That’s her world with swords

Sick of Massacres? Get Rid of the Guns. [hah]

Gail Collins Gail Collins

[it’s sooo nice they provide pictures for positive identification]

A) Toughen background check laws
B) Limit the sale of semiautomatics to people with hunting licenses
C) Good Lord, just get rid of them
Yeah, C does simplify things, doesn’t it?

Continue reading “”

Observation O’ The Day

If the left wrote The Emperor’s New Clothes, the kid who correctly pointed out that the Emperor was naked would be the bad guy.
If they wrote The Grasshopper and the Ants, the ants would be the bad guys.
If they wrote The Three Little Pigs, the pig who worked hard and built the sturdy brick house would be the bad guy.
If they wrote The Little Red Hen, the hen would be the villain.
Added from a Twitter response :
If the left wrote Chicken Little, Chicken Little would be lauded as a scientist.

Manchin gives Democrats a reality check on gun control

Democratic lawmakers are calling for new gun control legislation in the wake of the racially motivated massacre in Buffalo, New York, last weekend, but once again Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is standing in the way of the most fervent progressives.

President Joe Biden went to Buffalo on Tuesday and visited with the families of 10 people who were killed and three others wounded by a white supremacist gunman. In a speech, the president denounced the attack as an act of “domestic terrorism,” condemned white supremacy, and renewed calls for a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

“There are certain things we can do. We can keep assault weapons off our streets. We’ve done it before. I did it when I passed the crime bill,” Biden said, referring to the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included a 10-year assault weapons ban.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), also speaking in Buffalo Tuesday, vowed that Democrats would “work towards finally ridding our streets of weapons of war.”

But Manchin, speaking to reporters shortly before Biden spoke, gave his realistic assessment that in the 50-50 Senate, the only gun control legislation that has a chance of passing is a bipartisan compromise on background checks that previously failed. That bill, named for Manchin and his chief co-sponsor, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), would expand federal background check requirements to all advertised commercial sales, including sales at gun shows and over the internet.

“I support the Manchin-Toomey, I’ve always done that,” Manchin told reporters, according to The Hill. “The Manchin-Toomey is the one. I think if you can’t get that one, then why try to do something just for basically voting for the sake of voting?”

While some Democrats want action on a universal background check bill that passed the House in March last year, the West Virginia moderate has previously said that bill goes too far because it would extend to private transactions, such as those between neighbors, hunting buddies, or even family. The Manchin-Toomey bill exempted those transactions.

“The best piece of legislation that we’ve ever had, that most people agreed on, was the Manchin-Toomey. We didn’t infringe on anyone’s rights privately,” Manchin said.

But if Manchin-Toomey was the bill “that most people agreed on,” that wouldn’t mean much — the bill failed in 2013, coming six votes short of the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster at a time when a stronger Democratic majority held the Senate. Only two Republicans voted for it, Toomey and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

It is far more unlikely that 10 Republicans would cross the aisle to vote for any sort of gun control bill this year, especially before the midterm elections in November.

Gun control groups issue new (and impotent) demands to D.C. Democrats

A day after the number two Democrat in the U.S. Senate publicly stated that he doesn’t see a reason to hold a vote on any gun control proposals because they’re doomed to failure, a coalition of 38 gun control organizations (who knew there were that many?) is demanding that Congress not only vote on, but approve Joe Biden’s gun ban and more.

The gun control activists laid out three demands for the Democratic-controlled Congress, none of which are likely to happen. First, the gun control lobby wants the House to approve spending $750-million on “evidence led Community Violence Initiatives”, which is on top of the roughly $2-billion that was approved in Biden’s “American Rescue Plan”. Just a few days ago the White House even issued a call for these groups to apply for grants because the money is there for the taking. Nancy Pelosi might be willing to go along with this demand, but I doubt there are 60 votes in the Senate.

The second demand from the gun control groups is House passage of “legislation banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines,” which is also going nowhere in Congress. Nancy Pelosi, who put a universal background check bill on the floor of the House for a vote, hasn’t pushed for a similar vote on Biden’s gun ban plan, and while that could change, any bill that would pass the House is going to die in the Senate.

The gun ban fans are also specifically calling on the Senate to “live up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s pledge to hold a Senate debate and vote on legislation expanding background checks to all gun purchases and addressing the Charleston Loophole,” though oddly they don’t say anything in their demand letter about the Senate voting on Biden’s gun ban and compensated confiscation scheme.

“Following the most recent racist act of domestic terrorism in Buffalo, New York and the increase in gun
violence across the country, we are calling on you to immediately do everything and anything in your power to live up to the promises you make to voters every election year,” the groups wrote in their letter.

The groups also asked the Biden administration to answer the calls of survivors and “establish a White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in order to expedite the government’s response and issue further executive actions that will save lives.”

“With voters expressing concern about public safety and rising crime, you have a moral and political
responsibility to fight for the safer future you promise Americans on the campaign trail every election season,” the groups wrote.

The White House has resisted that particular demand for well over a year now, and new press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked again yesterday about the idea, but was decidedly non-committal in her response.

Q    Further on the issue of guns: Gun prevention groups or gun violence protection groups — prevention groups, rather — have been pressing the White House to start an office of gun violence protection.  Is that something that President Biden is considering, particularly in light of this most recent attack?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So I would have to go back to the team and see if that is something that’s actually on the table.  I have not heard of that.  I could understand why that is being requested or asked, especially what we have been seeing these past — this past weekend.  I just don’t have anything more to share or preview or anything to —

If Jean-Pierre hasn’t heard about the idea, then that means no one in the White House is seriously talking about it, because that particular demand has been made for well over a year. My guess is she knows far more than she was willing to disclose in a press gaggle; namely that the White House has no plans to acquiesce to this particular demand from their anti-gun allies.

I’ll confess that I’m a little surprised that Biden hasn’t thrown the gun control lobby this particular bone to appease them, but whatever internal politics are in play seem to have kept that option off the table. Still, with Congress a dead-end for their anti-gun agenda at the moment (and likely for the next two years as well, begging the White House to help make them relevant is the best option the gun control lobby has left.