I don’t use it, I’ve never used it, I have no plans to use it. The lawsuit by Fried is a political stunt to gain votes from stupid people. The prohibition is under Federal laws and that’s the job of Congress to change that, not some bunch of bureaucraps

Marijuana, Guns, and Federal law

Federally, the use of marijuana is prohibited. Despite that, many states have legalized it and some even allowed people to even use it recreationally.

You see, the states can legalize it all they want, but the federal prohibition means that, technically, you can’t use it and lawfully own a firearm.

A lawsuit is trying to change all of that.

While California lawmakers are looking to further curb people’s access to guns, an effort by a Florida official to loosen federal regulations may have an impact for gun owners in California and across the nation, especially those who rely on medical marijuana.

A lawsuit has been filed against the federal government over its policies that bar medical marijuana patients from owning a gun.

Leafly Senior Editor David Downs, who calls the U.S government’s cannabis regulations unconstitutional, breaks it down.…

Does the lawsuit even have a chance when cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug?

What it does is raise pressure and temperature in Washington, D.C. with regard to a fix for this major conflict. In California there are an estimated 4.2 million gun owners, and a quarter of California adults have a gun in their home. Meanwhile, we have about 3.9 million cannabis users in California.

Could this legal case be a stunt?

It’s certainly keeping up with politicians carrying the banner of their constituents and raising around what they think are salient issues to consumers.

We see marijuana policy being very much bipartisan, and Florida is kind of the perfect place you’d see someone try to assert not only their gun rights but their medical marijuana rights on top of it. Fried is essentially saying guns are legal, cannabis is legal, and people shouldn’t have to choose.

Obviously, this is part of a longer interview.

As for whether this is a stunt, I think it kind of is and isn’t. The lawsuit in question is the one filed by Nikki Fried, which we’ve covered previously. Fried is trailing in the Democratic primary for governor and is desperate to accomplish something she can hang her hat on.

Yet Fried has also been pretty pro-marijuana for some time, so this is actually consistent with her beliefs in that regard.

Of course, she’s also been fairly anti-gun as well, so…

Regardless, it’s past time that the federal government adjusts its thinking on marijuana.

You see, a schedule 1 drug is one that has no medical benefit. That simply doesn’t apply to pot. While I don’t consider it the miracle drug many do, it does have medicinal uses, which means it belongs in schedule 2 at a minimum.

Especially because some of those medicinal uses could be of profound benefit to gun owners. For example, it’s good for anxiety and depression. That may translate into fewer suicides–roughly two-thirds of what are termed “gun deaths” every year–and may even translate into lower violent crime rates.

All in all, this is something that needs to happen.

Well, to be honest, I think SloJoe knows little beyond what he had for breakfast, if that. It’s his puppet masters that we have to be worried about

The War Is Getting More Dangerous for America, and Biden Knows It

If you just followed news reports on Ukraine, you might think that the war has settled into a long, grinding and somewhat boring slog. You would be wrong.

Things are actually getting more dangerous by the day.

For starters, the longer this war goes on, the more opportunity for catastrophic miscalculations — and the raw material for that is piling up fast and furious. Take the two high-profile leaks from American officials this past week about U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war:

First, The Times disclosed that “the United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have died in action in the Ukraine war, according to senior American officials.” Second, The Times, following a report by NBC News and citing U.S. officials, reported that America has “provided intelligence that helped Ukrainian forces locate and strike” the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. This targeting assistance “contributed to the eventual sinking” of the Moskva by two Ukrainian cruise missiles.

As a journalist, I love a good leak story, and the reporters who broke those stories did powerful digging. At the same time, from everything I have been able to glean from senior U.S. officials, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, the leaks were not part of any thought-out strategy, and President Biden was livid about them. I’m told that he called the director of national intelligence, the director of the C.I.A. and the secretary of defense to make clear in the strongest and most colorful language that this kind of loose talk is reckless and has got to stop immediately — before we end up in an unintended war with Russia.

The staggering takeaway from these leaks is that they suggest we are no longer in an indirect war with Russia but rather are edging toward a direct war — and no one has prepared the American people or Congress for that.

Vladimir Putin surely has no illusions about how much the U.S. and NATO are arming Ukraine with matériel and intelligence, but when American officials start to brag in public about playing a role in killing Russian generals and sinking the Russian flagship, killing many sailors, we could be creating an opening for Putin to respond in ways that could dangerously widen this conflict — and drag the U.S. in deeper than it wants to be.

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Pro-Abortion Domestic Terrorists Firebomb Wisconsin Pro-Life Non-Profit.

I’m so glad we all know what the theme of this summer’s riots will be and can finally start our shopping and planning! To no one’s surprise, Leftist brownshirts have quickly spasmed from caterwauling to committing terrorism in their quest to interfere with the official business of the Supreme Court. And anyone else who dares to hold pro-life views had better watch their back, too.

On Mother’s Day Sunday, a violent incident occured in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. (You may recall Madison earned its place on the Leftist extremism map in 2011 when union thugs, students, and assorted radicals occupied the state house for over a month in an attempt to derail Gov. Walker’s public union reforms. The goons ultimately failed, the reforms passed, and Walker was re-elected, lol.)

Madison police and fire departments were called to the office of Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) around 6 a.m. on Sunday after a passer-by reported smoke coming from the building. The flames were extinguished and thankfully, no one was injured. Investigators found a smashed window and at least one molotov cocktail that had failed to ignite. A fire inside the office burned books and damaged furnishings. Additionally, the building exterior was covered with spray-painted graffiti, including the anarchy symbol (an A inside a circle, also used by Antifa), the anti-police tag “1312” (which stands for ACAB — All Cops Are Bastards), and the threatening phrase, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either.”

“We condemn violence and hatred in all forms, including the actions at Wisconsin Family Action in Madison last night,” said Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and “We reject violence against any person for disagreeing with another’s view.” But Evers also felt the need to say, “We will work against overturning Roe and attacks on reproductive rights by leading with empathy and compassion. We will defend what we believe in with our words and our voices — in the streets, in halls of government, and at the ballot box.”

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes also issued a mealy-mouthed statement. “The Madison Police Department understands members of our community are feeling deep emotions due to the recent news involving the United States Supreme Court,” read the very first line. So, you know — if WFA didn’t want to get firebombed and vandalized, it shouldn’t have worn that short pro-life skirt.

“Early Sunday morning, our team began investigating a suspicious fire inside an office building on the city’s north side,” the statement continues. “It appears a specific non-profit that supports anti-abortion measures was targeted. Our department has and continues to support people being able to speak freely and openly about their beliefs. But we feel that any acts of violence, including the destruction of property, do not aid in any cause.” Is this the weakest law enforcement statement ever?

“The irony of this happening on Mother’s Day is very poignant,” said WFA President Juliane Appling, who was at a Mother’s Day event at her church when she received word of the damage to her organization’s offices. “I pray that this doesn’t happen to anyone else. This needs to stop right now.” Too bad she’s not the police chief.

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May it fall on them like a ton – or three – of bricks

Everytown’s shouting that the sky’s falling

Nearly every colleague I have, whether here at Bearing Arms, over at AmmoLand News, or the numerous content creators I know all over the web, everyone seems to agree the anti-freedom caucus is coming unglued just thinking about NYSRPA v. Bruen. Now I certainly don’t want this to turn into a A League of Their Own kind of moment and say “We’re gonna win!” only to have our star player drop the ball, but I really do think we’re going to win. Based off an email a friend and tipster sent me, the gun grabbing anti-civil rights crowd thinks the same. In preparations for what’s likely to be an upset to the ilk of Nanny Bloomberg and the rest, Everytown for Gun Safety sent out the following e-blast begging for money:

In the next few weeks, we expect the Supreme Court to decide on a key New York state gun law in NYSRPA v. Bruen. If the Court sides with the gun lobby’s agenda, the future of critical gun safety laws could be at risk across the country.

We MUST be ready to elect Gun Sense Candidates and turn out the vote in the midterms. Just this week, several Gun Sense Candidates (including former Moms Demand Action volunteers!) won elections up and down the ballot in their primaries.

We need to get to work now if we’re going to show up for Gun Sense Candidates and secure victory at the ballot box in the midterm elections. The future of our gun safety laws depends on it.

Donate now to the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund so we have the resources we need to support Gun Sense Candidates across the country before this year’s crucial midterm elections.

If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately by clicking one of the dollar amounts:

The likes of all the progressives that hate freedom are collectively grabbing at their chests telling Elizabeth that they’re on their way in their best Fred Sanford impersonation. But what we’re seeing in this email is just another disgusting manipulation of the facts. “If the Court sides with the gun lobby’s agenda…” Really? “…the future of critical gun safety laws could be at risk across the country.” I don’t think they could get much more hyperbolic than that.

The reality is the Court, should it rule to answer NYSRPA’s prayer for relief, is not “siding” with any lobby. The Court would be siding with having to reiterate something that’s plainly written in simple English in the Bill of Rights, and further expanded on in several Supreme Court Opinions; notably Heller, McDonald, and Caetano. The court has already surmised that at the time of founding “bear” meant to “wear” or “carry” a firearm. As if they really should have needed to do so.

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Jack Carr Rips Politicians Trying To Restrict The Second Amendment, Reminds People It’s A ‘Natural Right’ To ‘Defend The Gift Life’

Jack Carr isn’t a fan of people trying to restrict the Second Amendment.

I sat down with the legendary author and former SEAL to discuss a variety of topics, and I asked him what his thoughts were on politicians applauding arming people in other countries while at the same time supporting gun control in the USA. His answer didn’t disappoint!

“You can’t make this stuff up. It’s insane to me that the hypocrisy, I’m sure there’s hypocrisy all through politics, but particularly on this issue on the left wanting to restrict your rights to own a firearm, to defend the gift of life, something that is explicitly written down as the Second Amendment, and it’s a natural right. You know, it’s not given to us by the government. It’s just written down so that the government can’t restrict it. That’s a natural right,” Carr explained when talking about the Second Amendment and hypocritical politicians.

You can listen to his full comments below.

Man shot intruder at home on West Side; suspect later escaped from ambulance
Suspect eventually taken to hospital in stable condition

SAN ANTONIO – A man who broke into a West Side home overnight was shot by the homeowner and later tried to run from officers, according to San Antonio police.

The incident happened just after 1:30 a.m. Sunday near Wilmot and Knoke streets, near North General McMullen.

Police said the man tried to break into the home and the homeowner, a man in his 50s, grabbed a gun and shot the suspect twice.

The suspect ran away but was found by emergency medical services down the road.

He was loaded into the ambulance and was about to receive treatment, but he became angry and escaped from the ambulance, police said.

Police officers were able to capture him again. He had gunshot wounds to his right elbow and right thigh and had cuts from jumping over a barbed-wire fence.

He was taken to University Hospital in stable condition.

The incident is under investigation.

Homeowner shoots and kills naked suspect who tackled wife on lawnmower

LIZELLA, Ga. — Investigators in Georgia say a homeowner shot and killed a naked man who attacked the homeowner’s wife while she was mowing the lawn.

Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies said in a news release that a 67-year-old woman was cutting her grass using a riding mower when a naked man tackled her.

The victim’s husband tried to pull the suspect off her, but was then attacked himself. When the suspect started to attack his wife, the husband got his gun and shot the suspect, WSB reported.
Deputies identified the suspect as 25-year-old Wade McElhenny, but did not offer any motive for the attack or say whether the suspect knew the victims.

McElhenny died from gunshot wounds to the chest, WSB reported.

The woman who was attacked was taken to the hospital, where she was listed as stable. Her husband had minor injuries and was treated at the scene, deputies said.

Observation O’ The Day
The problem with the climate cult isn’t even trying to fix a car while it’s running. It’s trying to fix a car while it’s running and they have no idea how a car runs to begin with. We don’t know enough to “fix” anything. We don’t even know enough to know if anything is wrong. And chances are our influence on the climate is much smaller than they wish to think.–Sarah Hoyt

The Ocean Is Still Sucking Up Carbon—Maybe More Than We Think.

Recent studies looking at carbon-sequestering microbes suggest we still have a lot to learn about the ocean’s biological carbon pump.

By Nancy Averett 3 May 2022

A newly discovered marine microbe has a “mucosphere” that chemically traps other microbes and their nutrients—including carbon. Credit: Nature Communications, CC BY 4.0

The ocean plays a critical role in carbon sequestration. Phytoplankton, which live on the warm, light-filled surface, suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for food. They also need nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen from colder, heavier, saltier water that upwells into warmer layers. When phytoplankton die, they sink, bringing some of the carbon and other nutrients they consumed with them back to the ocean depths.

Key to this circular process, known as the ocean’s biological carbon pump, is the vertical mixing of the surface and deeper water layers, which occurs through such mechanisms as currents, winds, and tides. However, because higher ocean temperatures cause greater stratification of these layers, traditional scientific models have long predicted that as the planet warms, this process would be disrupted, phytoplankton would be unable to thrive, and the ocean would sequester less carbon.

Now, two studies have shown the limits of such models. One found evidence that phytoplankton may become more efficient as the ocean warms. The other reported the discovery of a new, widely distributed ocean microbe species that also has the potential to sequester carbon.

​​“We often view the response of ocean carbon cycling to global warming as an on-off switch, but these results show it’s a dimmer switch and has some flexibility to take care of itself,” said Mike Lomas, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine and lead author of the first study, published in Nature Communications.

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First prosecution of San Diego’s “ghost gun” ban shows how worthless the law really is

San Diego, California is one of several cities in the state that have banned the possession of “ghost guns” in recent months. Anyone caught with an unserialized firearm in the city is now subject to criminal charges, but the first case to actually get to the sentencing phase is a perfect demonstration of just how useless the new ordinance really is.

The ordinance, authored by San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert (a name that sounds like it would also be good for a Disney villain), in essence mirrors existing California law, which already prohibits the possession of an unserialized firearm. The San Diego ordinance specifically creates a misdemeanor offense to possess or sell any firearm that does not have a serial number on it, which is supposed to make criminals think twice about carrying a home-built gun around. As of March of this year, the law wasn’t having any impact on violent crime, with homicides up 80% compared to the same time period in 2021 and 77 unserialized firearms seized by police. There were also 295 serialized firearms seized by police, which is another sign that going after “ghost guns” isn’t going to stop the individuals committing the shootings in the city.

But none of that matters to the virtue-signaling politicians in San Diego, including von Wilpert, who are instead now eagerly singing the praises of the “ghost gun” ordinance now that someone’s been sentenced for violating the law.

“The city’s novel ghost gun ordinance is an effective tool for removing untraceable firearms from the hands of criminals,” City Attorney Mara W. Elliott said. “We thank Councilmember Marni von Wilpert for bringing forward this ordinance, which keeps San Diego at the forefront of our nation’s battle against gun violence.”

… “It’s clear from this conviction that San Diego’s landmark ghost gun law is starting to work to stop the proliferation of dangerous, untraceable firearms in our community,” said von Wilpert.

Is it though? I realize I haven’t actually said what the sentence the defendant received here, so let’s delve a little deeper into the events that led to 23-year old Rene Orozco having the dubious distinction of being the subject of a press release by the city attorney.

Orozco’s arrest apparently didn’t make the news at the time, but according to the Elliott’s account he was arrested after fleeing from police and leading them on a car chase through San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, allegedly tossing the unserialized gun as he then continued to try to elude officers on foot.

Would Orozco would have avoided arrest and prosecution if the gun he’d been caught with had a serial number? Of course not. So what exactly is the point of a misdemeanor charge for possessing a “ghost gun” when he could already be charged with illegal possession of a weapon for simply having a gun in the first place. Then there are the charges of eluding police, tampering with evidence, and any number of traffic misdemeanors that were committed during the police pursuit. But the City Attorney needs to show that this new ordinance is working, and so Orozco was charged with having a ghost gun, and now gets to experience firsthand the draconian punishment that will surely cause him to rethink the decisions he made.

He was sentenced last week to 45 days in custody and one year of probation. As a result, his driver’s license will be suspended from six months and he is prohibited from owning firearms for a year.

45 days in custody with good credit time means that Orozco will likely spend about three weeks in the county lockup, which doesn’t sound like much time considering how scary “ghost guns” are supposed to be. And again, he could have gotten that same sentence just by charging him with misdemeanor crimes in California state statute that have nothing to do with unserialized firearms. What’s the point?

San Diego’s “ghost gun” ordinance is pure political theater; designed to have an impact on the electorate, not armed criminals. As long as politicians like von Wilpert can convince constituents that she’s “doing something” to address their fears about violent crime, she doesn’t have to bother coming up with doing something that actually works. And in California, “doing something” means putting another gun control law on the books that at best is worthless, and far too often ends up harming the law-abiding instead of curtailing violent criminals.

Pointless Red Flag Laws

“Red flag Laws”, which allow police to seize the firearms of people accused of being at risk to misuse them, have been passed in 19 states. Do they do what proponents say they do? A recent study by Veronica Pear, PhD and Garen Wintemute, MD, and co-authors says the answer is clearly, “No”. It appeared as “Firearm Violence Following the Implementation of California’s Gun Violence Restraining Order Law” on JAMA Network April 5.

In looking at California’s Red Flag law they used methods that are better than those of earlier similar studies. They focused especially on San Diego, whose city attorney was a strong proponent of Red Flag Law use and looked at what changed when California’s Red Flag law went into effect. Using data from hospital reports they studied injuries due to aggressive use of guns. They looked as well at self-harm using guns, again reviewing hospital reports.

Based on data from a number of California counties, trends through the years 2005-2015 were determined regarding aggressive use and self-harm. The authors wanted to see If adopting California’s Red Flag law was followed by a reduction in these incidents below the trends predating the law’s going into effect, which occurred in 2016. Examining 2016-2019 they found that neither aggressive use of firearms nor self-harm from gun use was reduced by the new law. In fact, they found that after the introduction of the law the number of acts of self-harm involving firearms exceeded the prediction, although this result was not statistically significant.

The authors say that their methods were more rigorous compared to others who have examined these questions. Another strength of their study was that itincluded injuries rather than just deaths. They emphasize that one factor in finding no change following the new law may be the availability of illegal guns: if the government takes away guns held legally, those who want to harm themselves or others may seek to obtain guns illegally.

Different states have adopted these laws under different labels, including: Extreme Risk Protection Orders, Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Orders, and Risk Protection Orders. Gun Violence Restraining Orders is the term used in California. “Red Flag Law” is a general term that encompasses all these.

Proponents stress their potential to prevent harm although, as this study by Pear and associates indicates, this is highly questionable. At the same time, the threats to Constitutional rights are minimized or ignored, which go beyond just threats to the Second Amendment. These threats include undercutting the right to due process. Is the person whose gun may be seized entitled to the presumption of innocence? What is the standard of proof – clear and convincing evidence? Or just a preponderance of the evidence? Is the subject entitled to legal representation? Shall rules for the admissibility of evidence be followed?  Readers can no doubt think of other similar questions.

Strangely, if a Red Flag process leads to your losing your guns in Indiana, they may be destroyed! If you lose your driver’s license, is your car crushed? If you’re disbarred, are your law books burned?

Throughout their report Pear et al stress the shortcomings of laws in preventing violence, and with regard to aggression the authors pay little attention to the perpetrators.

The NRA has seemed to tread cautiously on Red Flag Laws. This may involve not wanting negative press regarding this issue to contaminate efforts to support the Second Amendment in other ways. The NRA has at least called attention to the due process issues, some of which are noted above.

The bottom line: There’s little to recommend Red Flag Laws. The findings of this study reinforce what gun owners have been saying all along. The surprise is that it comes from Wintemute’s group, which usually finds ways to endorse firearm restrictions. 

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Russian warship Admiral Makarov ‘on fire after being hit by Ukrainian missile.’

Russia’s massive Admiral Makarov warship has reportedly been hit by Ukrainian missiles causing it to burst into flames.

The Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate was on fire this morning in what would be a fresh blow for warmonger Vladimir Putin, a number of unconfirmed reports suggest.

It was said to be close to Snake Island in the Black Sea, where a rescue operation was underway involving multiple aircrafts and rescue boats.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko took to his Telegram channel to report the ship had been hit by Ukrainian neptune missiles.

He said that the ship had been hit by Ukrainian attacks and was “badly damaged”, but remained afloat for now.

In his post, he wrote: “Yes, yes, you understood everything correctly! The God of the seas takes revenge on the offenders of Ukraine.

The Russian Navy's frigate Admiral Makarov

The Russian Navy’s frigate Admiral Makarov (  Image: REUTERS)

“The Admiral Makarov frigate was laid down in February 2012 at the Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad, launched in September 2015. And in 2022- oh, when he took part in the murder of Ukrainians, he went towards the cruiser “Moskva”, where he was supposed to!”

His reports were backed up by Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko who said: “Admiral Makarov frigate is on fire off the coast of Snake Island.

“According to preliminary data, the ship was hit by Ukrainian Neptune missiles.

“Now enemy aviation is operating in the ship’s disaster zone, and ships of the Russian Navy have come out of the temporarily occupied Crimea to help the sinking ship.”

Alongside that, a number of unconfirmed reports said the warship was hit by Ukrainian missiles near the Sevastopol naval plant in Crimea, on the Black Sea.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine added a ‘+1’ to their boats column in their daily report on Russian losses this morning, which they tweeted out.

Early reports suggest these images show the burning frigate

Early reports suggest these images show the burning frigate  ( Image: Twitter)

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Clare police investigating home invasion, where homeowner shot and killed alleged intruder

CLARE, Mich. (WJRT) May 5 – The Clare Police Chief is one of the witnesses of a shooting, as an alleged suspect in a home invasion is shot by the homeowner.

It was around six this morning in Clare when a 911 call was made from a homeowner saying someone broke into his house.

The home is attached to a popular business in the city and police say they got to the home in about two minutes.

Clare Police Chief David Saad was just getting to work when the 911 call went out that there was a home invasion in progress on McEwan Street.

McEwan Street runs through the heart of the city of Clare, population of about 3,200

It was six o’clock in the morning when police chief David Saad was just getting to work and was called to this home for a reported break-in.

“My officer and I arrived at the scene, it was six am so I was just coming into service as well as him, when we responded down over here, we received the call, and as we were making entry into the residence that’s when the shots went off,” says Saad.

Saad was in the home and saw the gunshots being fired.

He says the suspect in the home invasion was shot to death. The male homeowner, Saad and the officer were not injured.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab was on the scene collecting evidence throughout the afternoon. The shooting happened in a home connected to the popular Dairy Phil restaurant.

“A separate residence is in the back, but the individual that owns the Dairy Phil also lives in the back residence,’ he says.

Saad confirms it was the owner of the Daily Phil that shot the man. He did not want to comment on whether the home invasion suspect had a weapon of any kind.

“To my knowledge they are not acquainted to each other,” he says.

He says gun used in the shooting was registered to the homeowner. Saad says its not typical for a home invasion to occur at that time of the day.

“Pretty uncommon around 6 am, most of the time they occur in the middle of the night,” he says.

The chief did not release the name of the man who was shot and he says once their report is done, it will be sent to the prosecutor’s office to review.

While I don’t agree with the premise that possession stats should be publicized, the fact that ‘more guns’ means ‘more safety’ is undeniable.

More guns, more safety

Late in 2008, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a leading Tennessee newspaper, unleashed a whirlwind of controversy when it decided to publish a database of all state residents with permits to carry handguns. The information was already available through the Tennessee Department of Safety, but the state website wasn’t especially user-friendly.

With the publication of the newspaper database, however, it became easy to search for people with gun-carry permits by name, ZIP code, or city. For a while, the database was the most viewed item on the newspaper’s website, with more than 65,000 page views per day.

Firearms owners and their advocates were furious, as WMC-TV reported at the time:

Some Mid-South gun owners are outraged over a website that lists handgun carry permits, claiming the site gives away too much personal information.

Tom Givens, who runs the Range Master pistol range, said the database, published by the Commercial Appeal, has many of his clients upset.

“First, it’s an invasion of privacy,” Givens said.

Using the database, a visitor to the website can look up the name of anyone who has a permit to carry a hand gun in the state of Tennessee.  Information listed includes the owner’s year of birth, along with his or her city, state, and ZIP code of residence.

Givens said his phone has been ringing off the hook from clients upset about their personal information being so accessible.

“By publishing this database your employers, your co-workers, church members, even relatives that may not know you have a permit, now know that you’ve got one,” he said.

On gun owners’ message boards, complaints abounded. A common concern was that residents with carry permits would be put at particular risk, since the paper’s database enabled any would-be thief looking for a gun to steal to know exactly where to find them. “I’m not happy about it at all,” fumed one resident on the City-Data web forum:

I’m not a criminal — just a law-biding citizen who has a clean background and has undergone background checks in order to exercise my right to protect myself from all the thugs in this world. I could see the database used to “shop” for homeowners to rob who probably have guns in the house. I see no legitimate reason to have this information online other than to demonize permit holders in some way.

The National Rifle Association’s CEO and executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, denounced the Commercial Appeal for engaging in what he called a “hateful, shameful form of public irresponsibility.” Added another NRA official: “What they’ve done is give criminals a lighted pathway to [burglarize] the homes of gun owners.”

But the paper’s editor, Chris Peck, argued that newspapers should be a comprehensive source for community information, and that it was neither illegal nor unethical for the Commercial Appeal to make public records more accessible to the public. In fact, he pointed out in a lengthy column, the Commercial Appeal eliminated street addresses and birth dates from the Department of Safety data it published. That meant that the “posted list of permit holders for concealed weapons has less information about individuals than the phone book, your voter registration form, or the credit card you use to buy dinner at a restaurant.”

As for the potential danger to gun owners from burglars looking for weapons to steal, Peck turned that argument on its head:

Think about it for a minute. Many, if not most, households in Memphis possess a firearm. So you don’t really need a list to find a house with a gun.

And, if criminals were checking the permit-to-carry list before picking a target, would they likely choose a house where they know the owner could be carrying a gun, or would they more likely steer away from that house to avoid a possible confrontation?

Neither logic nor common sense is carrying the day on this issue. It’s emotion.

Peck went on to explain why, in his view, there was “a powerful case to be made both for a permitting process to carry concealed weapons and for keeping that permitting process public.” The Commercial Appeal, he insisted, “isn’t anti-gun” but “pro-news and -information.”

I thought it was a good column, though I doubt it changed the minds of LaPierre and the gun owners who were certain the Commercial Appeal’s reasons for publishing the database weren’t benign. I’d guess, too, that they didn’t buy Peck’s contention that, far from endangering them, the database would lead criminals to avoid their homes.

But now we know: He was right.

After Memphis-area gun permit data was published, districts where more residents were licensed to carry saw a decrease in crime.

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FPC responds to Duke Center for Firearms Law article on test courts should use on Second Amendment cases

A rebuttal in response to criticism of a scholarly paper authored by FPC Action Foundation director of constitutional studies, Joseph Greenlee, was published today by the Duke Center for Firearms Law. In its April 27 article, “Ghost Guns, History, and the Second Amendment,” the Duke Center called into question an argument Greenlee makes in “The American Tradition of Self-made Arms” defending the test of text as informed by history and tradition (THT) as being the correct methodology for Second Amendment jurisprudence.

The Duke Center criticizes THT for “transform[ing] nonregulation into a right,” suggesting that history is only useful in Second Amendment analyses if it proves that “a past practice was protected as a right, not simply that it existed without regulation.” This loose constructionist’s view of the Constitution’s explicit placement of limits on governmental power has it backwards. The People don’t need to prove their enumerated Constitutional rights are protected; it is incumbent on the government to prove it has the authority to regulate or restrict the rights of the People. This is why history and tradition matter.

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Text, History, and Tradition: A Workable Test that Stays True to the Constitution

Last week Professor Charles highlighted the burgeoning legal controversies involving “ghost guns” (homemade firearms that have no serial numbers) to illustrate what he perceives to be problems with a judicial test based on text, history, and tradition (THT). As an advocate of the THT Test, I offered a response, which Professor Charles graciously accepted. I thank him for presenting my opposing view.

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Ghost Guns, History, and the Second Amendment

The Biden Administration recently pushed out a new rule to restrict “ghost guns”—firearms without a serial number. The rule would require that kits for homemade do-it-yourself firearms are manufactured only by federal firearm licensees (FFLs) and that the kit’s frame or receiver be marked with a serial number. It also requires that any FFLs or gunsmiths who come into possession of an unserialized firearm  affix a serial number before selling it. As the administration notes, “[t]his requirement will apply regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers.” The rule is almost certain to be challenged by gun-rights advocates and, whatever other arguments there may be against the rule (such as the administrative law challenges that have been raised against the bump stock regulation), the Second Amendment is likely to take center stage. And if the Supreme Court in Bruen declares text, history, and tradition to be the guiding methodology for evaluating Second Amendment claims, courts are going to face serious challenges in evaluating the ghost gun rule.

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We Can’t Let Ourselves Be Oppressed by Weirdos, Losers, and Mutations

Have you noticed the absolute freakshow quality of the people who want to keep us in chains? Perhaps it’s one thing to be repressed by people who are at least nominally badass, like Romans or Mongols. But these geebos who make up the Democrat Party’s loudmouth wing? The sexually hopeless toads outraged because other people who might someday know the loving touch of another human can’t whack their babies? No. Not only does their tyranny fail the freedom test, it fails the aesthetic test.

We simply cannot allow ourselves to be serfs toiling in the fields of a bunch of people who, in any just and sane society, would spend their lives living in fear of getting wedgies for being so bizarre.

Look, I’m not saying that our society should bring back bullying nerds. I am simply observing that when nerds were busy trying to avoid swirlies in the boys’ room, they did not have the time to devote to getting their groomer allies access to Kindergarteners. If Melvins and Pointdexters living in fear is the price of little kids not getting chatted up by pedo-adjacent strange-os, I say that’s a bargain.

All leftists are insufferable, but this current crop is insufferable in many diverse ways. It’s not just the ones who defile or mutilate themselves to get their parents’ attention. It also includes ones that don’t tatt up, who appear normal until they open up their kale holes. Think Nina Jankowicz. On the surface, she looks like any other childless, middle-aged Chardonnay-guzzler who is pushing 40 but has failed thus far to earn the love of a man. But when she starts talking, yikes. And just look at the antics of that fascist disinformation girl. She sings show tunes. She’s into Harry Potter – non-threatening sensitive and magical boys are sooooo dreamy. She’s also eager to shove you into a train car headed to a gulag, and as it pulls away from the station she’ll be shouting at you ruffians to use your inside voices.

That’s right – the mediocre girl who played the lead in your high school’s production of “Hello, Dolly!” – which you skipped to go pound Buds with your pals like normal people – is the harbinger of tyranny.

Ugh, that’s so sad. Tyranny is intolerable even if you are facing a worthy foe. But tyranny by this kind of over-credentialed, shame-free dork? No way. Never.

And that’s true of the rest of the salty commie crew. Pierced beings with blue hair. Fat-positive behemoths in spandex. Daddy-issue goofs of all genders who can’t do a push up. If we are going to lose our country and our freedom, it can’t be to this gallery of goblins. At least with proper enemies – like, say, the Hessians – you could get some satisfaction shoving a bayonet into their guts. With these weebles, you fail to call them by their bespoke pronouns and they collapse into a sobbing heap. Where’s the challenge?

We simply cannot lose to these people. It’s undignified.

And it’s unnecessary. The only way they win is if we let them win. They can’t take a punch, and the whole caste of them – which probably numbers a couple million across the country – collectively probably has access to about as many guns as the average Trump voter. The only threat they pose is to fetuses, and pretty soon only in Moloch-friendly states like Cali and New York. They talk big about revolutions and insurrections, but they have neither the cold steel or the upper body strength to pull it off.

What are they going to do – pester us into submission? Yes, that’s actually their plan. They really think that if they call us “racist” enough, if they moan enough about patriarchy, if they bleat enough about how us saying what we think is “unsafe” we will simply give up. And they have a point – a lot of those from the Miracle Whip faction of the GOP have prioritized politeness over freedom and tried to treat this coterie of creeps with respect.

But here’s the thing. These weirdos have not earned our respect. Instead, they leveraged our courtesy and tolerance, often amplified for the fact that we feel sorry for these failed humans, against us to neutralize our resistance. “Oh no, don’t point out how that show tunes girl is a ridiculous adolescent fetishizing children’s books and singing kiddie songs in her affected drama geek voice.” No, we’re supposed to pretend that she’s not a joke, and that we should take seriously her insights into how it’s dangerous to allow us the free speech rights God invested us with upon our creation.

But we’re done pretending. We’re done being nice. We tried being cool, live and letting live, and then we noticed the lack of reciprocity. It’s live and let submit, and that’s a bad deal. Hard pass.

You weirdos, losers, and mutations could have been cool. You could have done your own thing and ignored us like we ignored you. But no. No, you wanted more. You wanted to be the Big Non-binaries on Campus. Except you don’t get to, because you suck and we’re not going to be ruled over by theater dorks, infanticide fetishists, and bitter fringies.

We’re going to rule ourselves, and my advice is to keep the hell out of our faces lest you figuratively end up hanging by your Fruit-of-the-Looms from the flagpole.

Just how many defensive gun uses are there each year?

Gun control will be a hot topic for a very long time. However, one area that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough is the total number of defensive gun uses.

While the media spends a lot of time talking about how many people die from gunshots each and every year–typically conflating suicides with homicides–in an effort to advance a gun control agenda, they ignore the many times law-abiding citizens use firearms defensively every year.

But just how many defensive gun uses are there?

How often are firearms used defensively in the United States? According to the most-recent study, about 1.6 million times annually. Over a lifetime, about a third of gun owners will use a firearm defensively at least once. This recent data is broadly consistent with decades of social-science research.

The first pollster to ask about defensive gun use (DGU) was the Field Poll in California in 1976. Over the subsequent 18 years, polling companies such as Gallup, Hart and Tarrance, as well as scholars and media, conducted their own surveys of DGU. They reported results as low as 764,000 annually (Tarrance, 1994) and as high as 3.6 million (Los Angeles Times, 1994).

In 1993, Florida State University criminology professor Gary Kleck conducted a survey that was much more methodologically sophisticated than all the above polls. Kleck included safeguards designed to weed out respondents who might misdescribe a DGU story. Kleck and his coauthor Marc Gertz found a midpoint estimate of 2.5 million DGUs annually, with a possible range of 2 to 3 million. Their study is described in the Kleck and Gertz article, “Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun,” in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (1995), which is available on the web, and is further described in Kleck’s 1997 book Targeting Guns. The book and the article also examine all previous surveys.

Oh, but some claim, Kleck’s work has been debunked.

Has it, though?

The same journal issue that published the Kleck & Gertz study also published a response by Marvin Wolfgang. He had long been the most-influential criminologist in the English-speaking world, and he was past president of the American Society of Criminology. Wolfgang wrote: “I am as strong a gun-control advocate as can be found among the criminologists in this country … . I would eliminate all guns from the civilian population and maybe even from the police. I hate guns … .

Nonetheless, the methodological soundness of the current Kleck and Gertz study is clear … . The Kleck and Gertz study impresses me for the caution the authors exercise and the elaborate nuances they examine methodologically. I do not like their conclusions that having a gun can be useful, but I cannot fault their methodology. They have tried earnestly to meet all objections in advance and have done exceedingly well.”

Wolfgang isn’t exactly an NRA supporter.

Of course, most of us have long known these numbers. We knew how many millions of defensive gun uses there are each year. It well outstrips the number of lives claimed by gunshot wounds, that’s for sure.

However, it’s interesting how even the smallest estimates for defensive gun use outstrip those numbers as well. Literally no credible study shows otherwise. Even the more heavily biased studies that put defensive gun uses at 100,000 each year still argue there are twice as many lives saved by guns than taken.

Why is the media ignoring this reality?

We all know why. They can claim they are simply neutral parties in the debate all they want, but they always seem to miss this. Even if they report the studies themselves, they never seem to make it into later stories about guns and gun control.

But the number of gun deaths always does.

Funny how that shakes out, isn’t it?

Tacoma hotel employee shoots man who threatened 3 employees with a knife

TACOMA — A hotel employee shot a man who was threatening three employees with a weapon Tuesday night in Pierce County.

Police say a 45-year-old man, who brandished a knife, threatened workers at the Quality Inn and Suites Tacoma in the 8800 block of South Hosmer Street around 11:45 p.m.

A 32-year-old female employee shot the man, who was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He was shot in the left abdomen, according to the police scanner. The woman called 911 claiming she shot someone outside and the victim was still moving on the ground.

The man was booked for three counts of assault upon being released from the hospital.

Homeowner justified in fatal shooting of armed intruder, Kent County prosecutor says

KENT COUNTY, MI — A Kent County homeowner who traded gunfire with an intruder trying to steal his truck keys, killing the man, was justified in using deadly force, prosecutors have ruled.

Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker issued a ruling Tuesday, May 3 on the March 30 shooting at a Byron Township home on 108th Street just east of Wilson Avenue.

He ruled that homeowner Alan Lenhart was within his right to shoot and kill 39-year-old Christopher Carl-James Worth of Middleville…….

Los Angeles armed suspects scramble for cover after employee whips out his own gun
Gunfire erupted when four suspects tried committing an armed robbery in the Compton smoke shop, authorities said

Two suspects are wanted in connection with an armed robbery in a Los Angeles smoke shop that resulted in a shootout between a security guard and four others in which one person was killed, authorities said.

The gunfire broke at the “Smoke Shop” just before 7 p.m. in Compton, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said. Four people entered the store and pointed handguns at an employee behind a counter.

An employee appears to be wearing a ballistic vest with “SECURITY” written on it, according to security footage released by authorities Wednesday. One suspect can be seen taking out a gun and pointing it at him.

Four suspects got into a shootout with a smoke shop employee in Compton, California during an armed robbery. One suspect later died, authorities said.

Four suspects got into a shootout with a smoke shop employee in Compton, California during an armed robbery. One suspect later died, authorities said. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

The employee pulls out a gun and a gun battle ensued. The suspects trip over each other as they try to flee and fire several rounds at the store employee.

He was shot in the neck and face but was later released from the hospital.

A half-hour after the gunfire exchange, deputies responded to Martin Luther King Hospital for a gunshot victim. Investigators said the victim was one of the four suspects at the smoke shop who had been wounded.

The sheriff’s department told Fox News that suspect later died. A second suspect was arrested the following day on April 4.

Keith Rachel and Kahlel Lundy.

Keith Rachel and Kahlel Lundy. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)

Kahlel Lundy, 23, and Keith Rachel, 21, were identified as the other two participants in the robbery and are wanted for murder, authorities said.

Just in case it has never crossed you mind.

Dealing with Dentists, Endodontists and Maxillofacial surgeons sucks

Nothing personal, as many of them seem to be kind people and provide relief from pain.

It just sucks having to deal with so many of them to finally get to the specialist that will finally pull the tooth everyone else has said they can’t fix, and can’t do anything else about it.

Oh, before I forget.

Thank God for Papaver Somniferum, more commonly known as the Opium Poppy.

We now return you to our regular programming.