Off-duty officer fatally shoots man kills suspect linked to 3 shootings in Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WBAL) – An off-duty police sergeant from Baltimore is being praised for his bravery after he fatally shot a gunman linked to three shootings that left two people dead and another hospitalized.

While an off-duty Baltimore City police sergeant was getting a haircut, a suspect opened fire in a barbershop on O’Donnell Street shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday. A barber was shot and killed, according to Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.

The sergeant, who was in plain clothes but armed, pulled his gun out and shot the suspect, who died at the scene. Harrison praised the sergeant for showing “great bravery.”

Others, including Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, say the sergeant protected the others in the barbershop and could have saved even more lives.

“We don’t know what would have happened if he was not able to respond in that way and how many more incidents could’ve happened tonight in Baltimore City,” Scott said.

Police say the suspected gunman is connected to at least two other shootings earlier Saturday afternoon.

The first happened shortly after 2 p.m. Police say a 37-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition after he was shot multiple times. He was reportedly involved in some sort of argument with the suspect.

Police say the suspect then got in his car and showed up 15 minutes later at a barbershop on Eastern Avenue, where he got into an argument with another man. That victim died after being shot multiple times.

“You hear us talk about this time and time again: petty, mindless, stupid disputes ending up with people losing their lives, and we have to be understanding of that and, again, grateful that our officer was here,” Scott said.

Harrison did not go into specifics on how detectives were able to determine the shootings are connected or a possible motive.

Fort Smith man fatally shot at Scott County home

State police are investigating after a Fort Smith man was fatally shot Thursday night inside a Scott County home, authorities said.

Deputies responded to an armed disturbance at 3220 Yearling Ridge Road, south of Boles, shortly after 11 p.m., according to a news release from Arkansas State Police.

James Simmons Jr., 34, was shot inside the residence, and transported to Mercy Hospital Waldron, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Simmons had left the area of the residence when deputies arrived, state police spokesperson Bill Sadler said in an email.

No law enforcement were involved in the shooting, Sadler added.

State police special agents questioned the homeowner about the shooting, the release states. Authorities said no arrests in connection with the shooting have been made.

An investigative case file will be sent to the Scott County prosecuting attorney’s office to determine whether criminal charges should be filed, the release states.

Permitless concealed carry on the move in Ohio

Ohio lawmakers could vote next week to relax gun laws

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WXIX) – Ohio lawmakers could vote as soon as next week to relax current gun laws by waiving training and permit requirements to carry concealed guns.

If passed into law, House Bill 227 would make a concealed weapons permit optional, including the mandatory eight hours of training, and eliminate the current requirement that people promptly notify police officers they are carrying a concealed weapon.

The primary sponsor of the bill is Republican lawmaker, Rep. Tom Brinkman of Mt. Lookout.

The other sponsor is a Republican from Delaware County, Rep. Kris Jordan of Ostrander.

“It’s our Second Amendment rights. Government is too restrictive. People deserve their rights,” Brinkman tells FOX19 NOW.

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State Police Investigating Home Invasion in Grant Parish, Armed Suspect Shot

Grant Parish – On November 10, 2021, at approximately 10:45 p.m., the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office (GPSO) requested the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations/Alexandria Field Office (LSP AFO) to investigate a home invasion near Georgetown. The home invasion resulted in the suspect being shot. Detectives from LSP AFO responded to the scene to investigate the incident.
The preliminary investigation revealed an armed subject, later identified as 39-year-old Chad Scott of Pollock, forcefully entered an off-duty Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Agent’s residence. As Scott entered the residence, an altercation ensued and the property owner discharged a firearm. Scott was struck and sustained critical injuries. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment. There were no other injuries reported.
The Louisiana State Police will serve as the lead investigative agency. The investigation is on-going and additional information will be released after evidence is processed and interviews take place

Biden Shocked by Price of Gas During Biden Administration: “Did You Ever Think You’d Be Paying This Much?”

Psaki on skyrocketing gas prices: “Our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and our focus on clean energy options.”

Joe Biden’s nominee for the Comptroller of the Currency Saule Omarova on oil, coal and gas industries: “We want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change.”

The goobermint you see is a bunch of clueless morons.
It’s the goobermint you don’t see that’s the problem.

Observation O’ The Day

Fifty years ago this week ‘The Theme From Shaft’ kept John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ from getting the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top 40 and and it descended thereafter. I’m fine with that because I think ‘The Theme From Shaft’ was a way better song. Musically, and morally, superior.

I wonder how they’d feel if someone ‘lamented’ their misuse of the 1st amendment like Toobin is by sliding in lie or two?

CNN Laments Americans Exercising Their 2nd Amendment Rights

National media attention has focused in on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, a young man charged with murder after shooting his attackers during the Kenosha riots of August 2020. As Rittenhouse took the stand himself to testify, facing harsh interrogation from the prosecution and accusations of faking his own emotional breakdown while on the stand, even CNN’s own experts were forced to conclude that his testimony was compelling. On Thursday, the liberal cable channel took a different tack: actually complaining that people are allowed to carry firearms in public.

CNN’s chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, began by introducing the self-defense case as partly “a matter of public policy. What is a 17-year-old with no training, no gun permit, no ties to this community, doesn’t even live in the state of Wisconsin, going in the night — in the middle of the night to a riot to help out? Just an incredibly stupid irresponsible decision.”

Newsroom host Jim Sciutto appeared very concerned that people can exercise their Second Amendment rights by carrying firearms. Ignoring the fact that Rittenhouse was allegedly in Kenosha to provide medical aid and put out fires, Sciutto asked Toobin, “Do we as a country, in effect, allow people from anywhere to show up anywhere else and sort of self-appoint themselves sheriff, right? Or sheriff’s deputy. Are there any laws that govern that…are there any laws that bar me from showing up somewhere else and saying I’m going to help fight crime?”

Toobin replied by lamenting the fact that he has recently seen more people openly carrying guns:

One of the big changes in state laws over the last two decades are the increasing freedom that is being granted to individuals to carry concealed weapons, to carry publicly you know, visible, visible weapons. I mean, it is such a sea change in, in how the, how the law works. And, you know, I was just in Oklahoma the other day, in Arizona. You just see people carrying guns in public that you didn’t used to see.

He went on to suggest again that Rittenhouse was appointing himself as law enforcement, despite all the evidence in court thus far pointing to him acting solely in self-defense.

This commentary followed a line of questioning by the prosecution in the trial wherein the prosecutor seemed to imply that carrying a firearm is only acceptable when someone is actively in danger. This type of dangerous rhetoric tramples on the Second Amendment and makes everyday gun-carrying citizens into villains, just like the liberal media has attempted to make Kyle Rittenhouse into a villain.

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I just wanted you to read this.
The author, having seen the evidence presented, is of the opinion that an acquittal he actually agrees with would be ‘unjust’.
He’s either lying through his hypocrite teeth, or the confused and irrational  mental and philosophical state he’s in has made a near perfect exemplar of what ‘Cognitive Dissonance’  looks like.
This is the kind of banal idiot we fight against everyday.

Acquitting Rittenhouse in Kenosha murder case would be the correct, if unjust, verdict
Before, I could see Kyle Rittenhouse being found not guilty. Now, having seen the rest of the evidence, I’d be shocked if he’s convicted of anything more than a weapons charge

Lawyers are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments Monday in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and then the case will go to the jury.

If I were a member of that jury, I expect I would reluctantly vote to acquit Rittenhouse of the most serious homicide charges based on the evidence that he was acting in self-defense when he shot three people in Kenosha in August 2020.

That’s without the benefit yet of hearing those closing arguments. Prosecutors might still be able to pull together their case in a more compelling manner than they have managed so far.

And it’s also without knowing the jury instructions about the applicable law, which possibly could leave room for a compromise verdict on a lesser charge that would reflect the truth — which is that Rittenhouse was hardly faultless when he shot two people to death and very nearly killed two more.

But the evidence is the evidence, and I don’t expect the legal instructions to significantly change the outcome.

In the moments before he pulled the trigger, it’s pretty clear Rittenhouse had valid reasons to fear for his safety — first from a mentally unhinged man chasing him with full knowledge that he was carrying an AR-15 rifle and later from what he perceived as a mob violently attacking him to avenge the first shooting.

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Seemingly Insignificant News.

Recall my week-and-a-half old post on “scientists” from the “social sciences” field. It was titled Why They Hate and dealt with Russian brand-new family of satellites Arctika-M which are clear and present danger to this whole (primarily Western in origin) Anthropogenic Global Warming Ponzi scheme. Many real scientists from around the world who still have balls and integrity (which is minority in the West) know that Arctic is a reference point to all this climate change. Well, here is some news today:

Two icebreakers are on the way to rescue ice-locked ships on Northern Sea Route. Some 20 ships are either stuck or struggling to sail, as waters in the East Siberia Sea froze earlier than in recent years.

Oops! Wait a minute, you are telling me that Russia, which already leads the world in ice-breaker technology and numbers built and being built–leads so much, it is not even fair–was on it and didn’t buy this AGW BS? No way, those backward only two-gender, geophysics studying, satellite launching, hydrocarbon and nuclear using, at Tesla laughing Russians knew it all along?
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If more guns caused more crime, we would know it.

BLUF:
The violent crime rate fell by about 38 percent over two decades while the number of guns sold each year almost doubled. The implied number of gun owners also doubled. If anything, this data shows that firearms sales cause a decrease in violent crime.

Gun Ownership versus Crime in the US 2000-2019

I’ve seen analysis that relates guns and crime. In particular, the data looks at the growing number of firearms in civilian hands in the United States. It compares gun ownership with the rate of violent crime across the country. Unfortunately, that data is a few years old. It is easy to get raw numbers, but it is very hard to get good data. This is what I found.

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Comment O’ The Day

There seems to be a number of left of center “moderates” who have watched the trial and come to the inescapable conclusion that the media and Democrat politicians are nothing but liars and everything they were told to think about Rittenhouse was wrong. And not just about the Rittenhouse trial.

It’s the media and the administration saying everything is fine and inflation is good, even while the people hearing this are bring squeezed so hard it hurts.

The elites and activists on the Left are incapable of putting the truth over the narrative. And clearly the absolute disconnect between what the talking heads say and what they saw in the trial has been part of that awakening.

Kyle is suffering and I hope him nothing but the best, but his suffering has ripped the wool from the eyes of normies and for that sacrifice I thank him.

Oceanside Home-Invasion Victim Shoots, Kills One Intruder and Wounds Another

A resident grabbed a gun and opened fire on two men taking part in a predawn home-invasion robbery along with four other accomplices in Oceanside Wednesday, killing one of them, authorities said.

The shooting in the 300 block of Moonstone Bay Drive, near Libby Lake Park, took place at about 1:15 a.m., according to the Oceanside Police Department.

Patrol officers responding to reports of gunfire arrived to find a 31-year-old suspect mortally wounded in the residence, OPD spokeswoman Jennifer Atenza said. The man, whose name was withheld pending family notification, died at the scene

Meanwhile, other officers pulled over a suspicious vehicle in the area and detained its five occupants, including a man who had suffered a gunshot wound. Medics took the injured suspect, identified as 29-year-old Deshawn Ingram of Oceanside, to a hospital, where he was admitted in stable condition.

“It is unknown at this time if the (home-invasion victim) shot the… suspect who is currently in the hospital, or if this suspect was shot by one of the other suspects, who were also armed with a gun,” Atenza said late Wednesday afternoon.

The suspects taken into custody along with Ingram during the traffic stop were arrested on suspicion of robbery and murder. They were identified as Eric Dunnigan, 21, of Vista; Jaylen Harvey, 24, of Oceanside; Michael Simmons, 21, of San Diego; and Sydni Tucker, 25, of Oceanside.

Ingram was recently convicted of assault with a firearm and was out on bond and awaiting sentencing at the time of his arrest in connection with Wednesday’s incident, according to police.

Concealed carry holder kills catalytic converter thief who opened fire on him in West Lakeview

Update 3:59 p.m. — Based on statements made by CPD, the deceased man, Darion Blackman, is the 51st person accused of killing, trying to kill, or shooting another person in Chicago this year while on felony bail.

Update 3:20 p.m. — In addition to being on bail for a felony gun offense in Cook County, Blackman was also charged with a felony gun offense in Will County over the summer. Once again, the Illinois Department of Corrections decided not to revoke his parole for the alleged violation.

Update 7:09 a.m. — The Cook County medical examiner’s office has now publicly identified the deceased man as Darion Blackman. Our original report, which did not refer to him by name, follows.

A suspected catalytic converter thief was shot dead by a concealed carry holder on the North Side late Wednesday, according to a source and initial information from Chicago police. What’s more, CWBChicago has learned that the dead man was on parole, and he was charged with illegally possessing a firearm two months ago — but state authorities decided not to revoke his parole, and he was released back onto the streets.

Around 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, a 44-year-old man was sitting on the steps of his home when he heard a loud noise coming from the street in the 2900 block of North Wolcott in West Lakeview, police said. He investigated the noise and discovered two men under a vehicle.

The two men both drew guns and began shooting at him without warning, police said. The concealed carry holder pulled out his own gun and returned fire, striking one of the men in the neck, according to police.

That man, age 25, collapsed on a nearby sidewalk with a gun under his arm, according to officers at the scene. He was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m. by a doctor at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Witnesses said a man carrying a saw escaped in a Dodge Durango occupied by at least one other person. Police determined that the Durango, which was previously reported stolen, made its way to the Loop and River North after the shooting, but no arrests were made.

Police were interviewing the concealed carry holder overnight.

CWBChicago is not identifying the man who was killed because authorities have not released it. However, state records indicate he was released from prison in April after serving half of a four-year sentence he received for possessing a stolen motor vehicle.

Chicago police arrested him for illegally possessing a firearm on a West Side street in September. The next day, a judge ordered him held without bail at the request of the Illinois Department of Corrections, which wanted to review his parole status, according to bond court notes maintained by CWBChicago. But state officials decided not to send him back to prison for a parole violation, and they released their hold.

The bond court judge set bail in the gun case at $5,000 with electronic monitoring, meaning the man would have needed $500 to get out of jail on home confinement after the state released its hold. But sheriff’s office records indicate the man was not enrolled in the electronic monitoring program as recently as Tuesday, so another judge may have changed his release conditions.

Just two days ago, three catalytic converter thieves threatened to shoot a man who interrupted their work in Bucktown, according to a CPD report and a neighborhood Facebook group post. The man was investigating a car alarm on the 2000 block of West Shakespeare when the thieves pulled out a gun and said, “you don’t want to do that,” a relative of the man said in the post.

The thieves got away with the man’s catalytic converter but did not fire any shots.

“They were in a silver Infiniti and [they] waved at him as they left,” she said.

Woman shoots 13-year-old suspect in attempted carjacking

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – A St. Louis woman says she’s grateful to be alive after two teenagers attempted carjacking her at gunpoint. Afraid for her life, she used her own gun against them, wounding one.

The 37-year-old victim says just seconds after she parked outside her apartment Monday night, two young men passed her. She says at first the 13-year-old suspect asked to use her cell phone. He was with an older teen, about 16 years old.

“The other young man said, ‘So, you don’t have a phone?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And he pulled out his gun and said, ‘Well, give me your keys,’” the woman said.

The woman says the 13-year-old took off with her keys and kept trying to start her car. She says he kept his hand wrapped in a piece of clothing, as if he had a gun, but never revealed one.

“My mind frame was to keep the other gentleman calm, so therefore, he wouldn’t shoot. It was pretty frightening,” the woman said.

But despite her fears, the woman pulled her own gun out of her purse and fired multiple times.

“It’s a six-round, and I let the clip loose. All six in fear of my life,” she said. “I am very grateful to be alive.”

As the teens took off, the 13-year-old was hit in the leg. Police found him a block away, and he is now in juvenile custody.

Welcome back, Carter………..

By the way, SloJoe’S handlers had this group removed from the list of organizations that President Trump had designated as terrorists. These clowns simply can’t abide anything Trump did, so they’re stupidly trying to erase all of it, no matter the consequences.

Iran-Backed Militants Storm US Embassy in Yemen, Seize Hostages and Equipment
State Department ‘concerned about the breach of the compound,’ demands release of hostages

The State Department is working to secure the release of several kidnapped hostages taken by Iran-backed terrorists just a day after the militant group stormed the U.S. embassy facility in Sana’a, Yemen, U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon early Thursday.

A group of Houthi rebels reportedly stormed the U.S. compound on Wednesday seeking “large quantities of equipment and materials,” according to regional reports translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The raid comes just five days after the Houthis kidnapped Yemeni nationals who work for the U.S. embassy. “The alleged raid comes after the Houthis kidnapped three Yemeni nationals affiliated with the U.S. Embassy from one of the employee’s private residences in Sana’a on November 5,” according to MEMRI. At least 22 other Yemenis were kidnapped by the Houthis in recent weeks, “most of whom worked on the security staff guarding the embassy grounds,” according to MEMRI.

The State Department confirmed to the Free Beacon that the Yemeni staffers are being detained without explanation and that the Iran-backed militants stole property after breaching the American facility in Sana’a, which housed U.S. embassy staff prior to the suspension of operations there in 2015.

“The United States has been unceasing in its diplomatic efforts to secure their release,” a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. “The majority of the detained have been released, but the Houthis continue to detain additional Yemeni employees of the embassy.”

Those still being held are “detained without explanation and we call for their immediate release,” the State Department spokesman said.

Among those who were kidnapped and held by the Houthis include a former embassy employee, an economic officer, and a U.S. Agency for International Development employee, according to MEMRI.

The United States is also “concerned about the breach of the compound” and is calling “on the Houthis to immediately vacate it and return all seized property.”

The Biden administration “will continue its diplomatic efforts to secure the release of our staff and the vacating of our compound, including through our international partners,” the State Department said.

The hostage situation is likely to further inflame tensions between the United States and Iran, which arms and funds the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Trump administration designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization, but that designation was removed when the Biden administration took office—a move that was seen as a goodwill gesture to coax Iran into diplomatic negotiations aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear accord.

‘Creating a database’ really isn’t doing much of anything except dilly-dallying around on a computer.

Pentagon Ratcheting Up Efforts to Get Americans Out of Afghanistan.

Without bothering to give its hapless readers any reminders about how and why Americans got stuck in Afghanistan in the first place, NBC News reported Monday that “the Pentagon is stepping up efforts to get family members of U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, creating a database of the dozens who are trapped there.”

That’s terrific, but why now? Why the long delay in moving on this? And why was priority placed on bringing unvetted and unvettable Afghans into the United States rather than getting the Americans out? As usual with Biden’s handlers, no useful answers are forthcoming.

NBC noted that on Thursday, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl “issued a memo asking any U.S. military personnel and DOD civilians with immediate family members who need help leaving Afghanistan to email his office.” Wonderful, but why did it take him two months since the American military withdrawal to do this?

The NBC report also states that “there are still several dozen immediate family members of U.S. service members in Afghanistan, according to defense officials. Those include children, sisters and brothers, and parents. There are well over 100 extended family members still in Afghanistan, but it’s not clear how many of them want to leave the country, the officials said.” Kahl’s new memo demonstrates, according to the unnamed defense official that NBC quotes, “a more deliberate effort at the DOD level” to get these people out. “There is an increased desire to make sure that as we make this push that we have every situation accounted for.”

However, even as this new effort is being made, “the Pentagon does not have a good accounting of how many DOD civilians still have immediate family members in Afghanistan, the officials said.”

That’s inexcusable, as these people are severely threatened. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: “Over the past month, I have been contacted by hundreds of Texans who are desperately trying to get friends and family members safe out of the country. That includes the family members of several Texans who currently serve in the military. The federal government has turned their backs on them. If we abandon the family members of our service men and women in Afghanistan, they will certainly be slaughtered by the Taliban.”

That’s certainly true, but Biden’s handlers had other priorities. 70,000 Afghan evacuees are already in the U.S., and the total number is expected to exceed 124,000 before long. The foolishness of this, and the howling injustice of prioritizing getting these people out before rescuing all the Americans in the country, is already becoming apparent: one of Biden’s handlers, unnamed in a late October Wall Street Journal report, has admitted that ten of these evacuees have already been detained as risks to national security.

There will be more of that sort of thing. In mid-October, a delegation led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) arrived at Doha’s Al Udeid Air Base for a briefing on the efforts to get Americans and our allies out of Afghanistan. The briefing, said Issa, was “shocking to a lot of members.” It was shocking because the lawmakers were told that fully 12,000 of the Afghans who had come to Camp As Sayliyah and then went on to the U.S. had no identification at all. Issa stated: “They came with nothing. No Afghan I.D., no I.D. of any sorts. Those people were all forwarded on to the U.S., and that’s quite an admission. So many people had no I.D. whatsoever and yet find themselves in the United States today based on what they said.”

As terrible as this was, it is was in line with what we already knew. Back on September 1, according to Politico, “a State Department official said in a private briefing to reporters that ‘the majority’ of special immigrant visa applicants were left in Afghanistan due in part to the complications of the evacuation, and that he and his team are ‘haunted’ by the evacuees the U.S. could not get out by the Aug. 31 deadline.”

So now it is the second week of November, and there are still Americans trapped in Afghanistan, while there are hundreds of Afghans, natives of a jihadi hotspot, who have walked off bases and are now somewhere in the United States, but no one knows where. What’s more, there are thousands of others who are here or on their way here, about whom we know absolutely nothing. Could they be jihad terrorists? We’re likely to find out eventually.

And as this fiasco is unfolding, Biden’s handlers are only now starting to get to work on getting the remaining Americans out of Afghanistan. If there weren’t so much other evidence of the malevolence and incompetence of this administration, all this might actually be shocking.

So the leftist media have crap-for-brains….
Do I need to cue the meme again?

ABC News Touts Gun, Ammo Taxes To Fight “Gun Violence”

For the past several days, my colleague Tom Knighton has been covering the ABC News series “Rethinking Gun Violence” and doing a great job of pointing out the bias in the network’s reporting. I’m going to tag in and take on ABC’s latest report in the series, which is all about the supposedly wonderful benefits of taxing the exercise of a constitutional right; in this case, slapping additional taxes on the purchase of firearms and ammunition.

Here is how advocates argue that a tax could be used as one policy lever in a holistic approach to ameliorating gun violence — not with the goal of keeping people from buying guns, but rather to claw back revenue from industry profits to raise billions for American communities.

Does ABC News even understand how taxes work? Any additional tax imposed on the purchase of guns and ammunition doesn’t “claw back revenue” from gun makers. It simply takes more money out of the pocket of gun owners. And why should law-abiding gun owners be singled out for a special tax if the money is supposed to be used to increase public safety for all?

A particularly bloody summer in California this year led lawmakers to propose a tax on guns and ammo to generate revenue specifically to fund community-based prevention programs. AB1223, which would have added an excise tax of 10% on handgun sales and 11% on long guns, precursor parts and ammunition, fell four votes short of advancing by super majority in the state Assembly last summer, but it’s set to be re-introduced in January.

“This tax is for funding gun violence prevention programs,” California Assembly ember Marc Levine, a Democrat who helped draft the proposed legislation, told ABC News. “It’s something everyone can agree on.”

Everyone? I don’t think so. There are certainly plenty of gun owners who are opposed.

Republican opponents of the bill have argued it’s unconstitutional.

“It is a clear violation of the First Amendment,” Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, told ABC News. “It is unconstitutional to require an excise tax, insurance, any monetary requirement before someone exercises an enumerated constitutional right.”

And even some on the Left see this for what it is; a shameless attempt by anti-gun politicians and the gun control lobby to go after legal gun owners instead of actually focusing on violent criminals.

“Unfortunately we have very little information, very little data to work with — there have not been that many really high-quality studies trying to look at this issue,” Robert McClelland, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told ABC News. A tax like the one proposed in California “really punishes people who are high-volume users, who are going to tend to be target shooters or hunters.”

“I don’t know if those people are really the ones that are responsible for most gun violence, but that doesn’t sound likely,” he added. “So an ammunition tax seems like it’s misdirected.”

As for any potential decrease in sales resulting from a tax, according to McClelland, “People who are on the borderline between making a purchase and not making a purchase, to that extent, yes, you would see fewer purchases. I would expect a much larger effect to be people would would simply go to private sales for used handguns and used firearms.”

I’m sure the gun control lobby has an answer for that too. Maybe a ban on private sales or transfers altogether?

I can’t help but wonder what the bean-counters and even reporters at ABC News would think about a special tax on each and every broadcast; something like 10-11% of all the commercial revenue generated, with the proceeds being directed at efforts to combat online disinformation.

My guess is that the network brass would be hollering about unconstitutional attacks on a free press, but I’d be happy to test that hypothesis if any congresscritter would like to conduct an experiment.

So the leftist media are deceitful…Cue the meme.

See the source image

Without False Claims About The Risk of Concealed Handgun Permit Holders, The Left Has Nothing

Preface: Last Friday, the National Law Journal ran an op-ed by Lisa Vicens and John Donohue with many errors in it regarding a case that the U.S. Supreme Court heard last Wednesday on New York’s concealed handgun law.

The article gave readers very inaccurate information on the academic research regarding the risk of crime by concealed handgun permit holders. This false claim of public safety is really all the state of New York has to base its case on. The left-leaning National Law Journal, a business partner with Michael Bloomberg, is unwilling to respond to repeated requests to correct the record on these extreme inaccuracies, so we are publishing our response here at Townhall. Unfortunately, all the judges, lawyers, and law professors who read the National Law Journal won’t hear the other side of the argument.

Our Piece: “The last thing we need is the infusion of additional guns into New York City,” said New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Sunday. After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen last Wednesday. New York’s legal team argued to the Court that this would worsen gun violence.

 New York is one of seven “May-Issue” states where officials can turn down carry permit requests for any reason (or no reason) at all. The Court is considering replacing this discretionary process with objective “Shall-Issue” rules. That way, people can get a permit as long as they reach a certain age, have no criminal background, pay the fees, and complete any required training.

Since 1976, 18 states eliminated “proper cause” requirements, and gun control advocates have consistently predicted disaster. But in state after state, concealed handgun permit holders have proved to be extremely law-abiding, and Right-to-Carry states have never even held a legislative hearing to consider moving back to “proper cause.”

Those same fears were raised again and again during Wednesday’s oral arguments. Justice Stephen Breyer speculated: “People of good moral character who start drinking a lot and who may be there for a football game or — or some kind of soccer game can get pretty angry at each other. And if they each have a concealed weapon, who knows?”

But, with 21.5 million permit holders and laws over many decades, you should have seen that example at least once. We haven’t. 

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I’ve posted two of Professor Yamane’s articles here, and here that indicate he’s an ‘honest broker’ when it comes to his research. Seems some others have noticed it as well.

Wake Forest Professor Views Recent Gun Buying In Interesting Way

It seems that every time we see any research about guns, it’s focused on negative things. There’s very little research that seems to look at guns from a positive standpoint, and that is why a lot of gun rights advocates look at researches in an adversarial manner. After all, when you set yourself up in opposition to a deeply held principle, what do you expect?

That’s something that is going to play on people’s minds as researchers look at the surge in gun buying over the last two years. After all, more and more people are buying guns and a lot of folks want to know why.

A researcher at Wake Forest University, though, says he starts from a different place than many of his colleagues.

Sociology professor David Yamane is unique among social scientists in understanding American gun culture on its own terms, from the inside out, especially the normality of gun ownership and use for individuals with diverse religious, racial, gender, and sexual identities.…

Why are people buying more guns?

Over the past half-century, the center of gravity of America’s historic gun culture has evolved from hunting and recreational shooting to armed self-defense. This can be seen in the liberalization of concealed carry laws, the changes in gun advertisements, and in the many new products and services offered to satisfy the self-defense market.

Yamane isn’t wrong here. Whereas guns were once predominantly about hunting and plinking, now guns are focused primarily on self-defense. Hunting is still a large segment of the market, sure, but most hunters also buy self-defense weapons why a number of those focused on self-defense have little interest in hunting.

Interestingly, Yamane’s answer is devoid of a lot of what we typically hear. There’s no talk of fear or paranoia or racism in Yamane’s claim, that’s likely because Yamane starts at a different place when it comes to guns.

What makes your research on guns unique?

I have spent more than 10 years studying guns in America. I’m able to speak to individuals and organizations across the spectrum of opinions on guns. My work begins with the foundational premise that guns are normal and normal people use guns. This is a dramatic departure from standard social scientific approaches that view gun owners as deviant and focus exclusively on negative outcomes associated with guns such as crime, injury and death.

So, basically, Yamane admits what we already suspect, that most supposed gun researchers think we’re deviants to some degree and simply don’t care to look at how guns are beneficial.

He does things differently, which is why he’s not tripping over himself to make the case that a surge in gun buying is because of people being afraid of everything.

Now, I do think people being scared has driven a lot to buy guns. That’s not a controversial position in and of itself. Some may make the claim that it’s driven by racism–“Oh, you’re afraid of all those black people might come and kill you, aren’t you?”–but people being concerned for their own safety makes sense.

Yet without research showing that, I suspect Yamane isn’t interested in speculating.

Meanwhile, he also points out that while gun buying has increased year after year, violent crime rates fluctuate, showing that the prevalence of firearms alone simply cannot account for the violent crime rate being what it is year over year. There has to be more going on.

Frankly, he’s right and it’s nice to see someone in academia that doesn’t treat gun owners like villains.

Hard Drive: Joe Biden Thinks ‘2A is Being Badly Interpreted’

Buried in the broad-ranging material found on the hard drive from Hunter Biden’s laptop—a copy of which has been obtained by AmmoLand News—is a view of how Joe Biden looks at the Second Amendment, with reports from his daily newsletter titled “Office of Vice President Joe Biden News Briefing,” published when the Delaware Democrat was no longer serving as vice president, and before he entered the campaign.

This newsletter, produced five days a week by Bulletin Intelligence LLC, based in Reston, Va., is a treasure trove of news and daily Biden updates, evidently published to keep Biden relevant to anyone reading. AmmoLand reached out to Bulletin Intelligence for comment, but there was no response.

A note on each newsletter said Bulletin Intelligence LLC gathers content “from thousands of newspapers, national magazines, national and local television programs, radio broadcasts, social-media platforms and additional forms of open-source data.” The Biden newsletters are no longer available online. But the file remains on Hunter Biden’s hard drive.

Links to various “Biden in the News” stories over the course of several months in 2018 and early 2019 reveal that the former vice president was busy on Twitter following a school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas and five weeks later following a shooting at the newspaper offices of the Capitol Gazette newspaper.

Following the school shooting, Biden sent what might be considered a “boilerplate” reaction declaring, “Enough is enough is enough. Decent people have to take a stand. These are our children.”

In the aftermath of the newspaper office attack, Biden was again on Twitter, stating, “Another shooting. Another night in America where a father, a wife, a friend, a neighbor won’t be coming home. We can’t accept this. It must end. Congress must act.”

They are the sort of messages an anti-gunner would tweet, following the established dictum of “never let a crisis go to waste.”

According to The Hill, as noted in the newsletter, Biden declared during a “discussion” with Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, “I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted. It’s not consistent with what our Founders intended.”

This from the man who repeatedly insisted there were certain types of gun prohibitions in effect at the time the Second Amendment was written. It was a claim even the Washington Post Fact Checker refuted, giving Biden Four Pinocchios in the process, essentially calling the former vice president a liar.

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The moron is the problem, and now he complains about it?
I’m coming to the conclusion that the people actually running things don’t care about this, because they want us to see a senile puppet who anyone can tell isn’t really in charge of anything but doing what he’s told, and rub our noses in their belief that nothing can be done about it.

Biden: Can you believe how much things cost right now? Including gas?

Wait until Grandpa Simpson here finds out who the president is. Won’t he be surprised to learn where this particular buck stops.

Maybe his staff should tell him that Jimmy Carter’s still in charge. It wouldn’t be far from the truth.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. The president is now admitting it, and making a bunch of Republican attack ads in the process:

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Man Shot by Sedalia Homeowner Charged With Burglary
Police in Sedalia say a man has been arrested and charged with first-degree burglary after a homeowner heard an intruder, grabbed a gun and shot him.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — Police in Sedalia say a man has been arrested and charged with first-degree burglary after a homeowner heard an intruder, grabbed a gun and shot him.

The Kansas City Star reports that police responded Wednesday to a reported burglary at a residence. Police said the sleeping homeowner heard the intruder and began checking the home after arming himself. The homeowner told the intruder to leave, but police said the intruder moved toward the homeowner, who shot him once

Police found Daniel Schnack, 52, after he fled the home. He was treated for non-life threatening injuries.