Media’s double standard on the Second Amendment

The Colorado Springs Gazette covered the tragic killing of a Patriot Muster supporter by smearing the protest’s organizer, John Tiegen.

(You know Tiegen from “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” the movie based on the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. Tiegen and others guarding the compound fought off Ansar al-Sharia terrorists while pleading for help that never came.)

Though BLM/Antifa counter-protesters broke down a barrier and launched cans at the Patriots, they remained peaceful. However, as they were leaving, they were accosted in an ugly confrontation that culminated in the shooting death of one of their own. The shooter was immediately arrested and later charged with second-degree murder.

On the following Monday, Oct. 12, in a front-page feature entitled “Protest leader known in Springs,” the Gazette appeared to blame Tiegen for his death.

The article reprimanded Tiegen for being on a rooftop at an earlier BLM protest in Colorado Springs. It ominously described a rifle held by another man as “military-style” and noted a “sighting scope, like those used by military snipers.”

These are misleading terms used to scare us about guns. Some 16 million AR-15s are legally owned by Americans for self-defense and sport. While it has military roots, it is clearly a civilian firearm and not a machine gun. I wonder if the reporter would describe the Jeep Wrangler as a “military-style” vehicle?

Note that no shots were fired from that rooftop, no laws were broken and no arrests were made. Their choice of the roof guaranteed no confrontations ensued. Tiegen himself was holding a dog, not a gun.

Though the Gazette portrayed Tiegen’s presence as threatening behavior, isn’t it just as plausible to reason that Tiegen was there to keep someone from doing something stupid?

In fact, law enforcement counts on Tiegen’s power to persuade to keep the peace. For example, the reporter found this “coded” warning posted by Tiegen before the protest: “P.S. For Mechanical pencil that offers a concealed eraser, top lead advance and removable Clip no more than .15 mm lead allowed in each. City of Denver ordnance (sic).” Continue reading “”

“I once had a friend who grew up in China ask me why so many Americans watch the news. Confused, I asked, “What do you mean?”
She responded, “Well, in China no one watches the news because we all know it’s propaganda. I guess Americans haven’t figured that out yet.”
Among the moments that changed my paradigm on life – this was one of them.” -Jamie McIntyre, senior defense and national security correspondent for the Washington Examiner.

Florida mom defends family in gunfight with home intruders

An Instagram model may have saved her family when she grabbed a firearm and engaged in a gunfight with masked intruders who stormed into her Florida home, reports said.

Ansley Pacheco, 26, was at home in Miami-Dade County earlier this month when armed intruders ambushed her husband, 7-year-old son and their friends while they were watching the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, according to Local 10 News.

“While I was in the bathroom, I started to hear the commotion, I started hearing, ‘Get down, get down, give me everything you got,’” she recalled.

“I went to the nightstand; I grabbed the gun and I opened the door. I saw one of the guys face to face with me. He told me to put my gun down. I just shook my head no, and then I said, ‘Don’t shoot me, my son is in here.’”

After a tussle and gunshots, which were caught on surveillance video, the intruders took off with some watches and jewelry.

“They finally just ran out,” Pacheco said. “My husband ran and got the gun and shot back at the vehicle that was leaving.”

Luckily, Pacheco and her family were not injured in the melee. The woman, who streams videos on the website OnlyFans, remained defiant.

“I just knew that I had to do something, and my first instinct was to grab the gun and defend my husband and my son,” she said.

Woman shoots, kills suspected carjacker in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — A 29-year-old woman who told police she was robbed and carjacked in St. Louis Monday shot and killed her attacker, 5 On Your Side has learned.

The victim told police she was going into a business at about 3:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of North Vandeventer to get her paycheck and was robbed as she was returning to her car, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

She jumped into her car, got her own gun and shot the suspect once in the stomach before he fled in her car, according to the source.

At about the same time she called police, a neighboring police district got a call for an accident with injuries in the 3700 block of Finney Avenue, about half a mile away. Officers found the victim’s stolen car along with a man inside who had been shot in the stomach. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly before 4 p.m.

The man was identified Wednesday as 25-year-old Tyrell Williams.

Meanwhile, paramedics treated the carjacking victim at the scene. She had an injury to her leg, which she told police she got when she fell from her car during the robbery.

Homicide detectives interviewed the victim and released her.

The Double Standard About Gun Ownership

While looking at gun-related stories earlier, I came across one that asked people of different faiths if the American interest in firearms was idolatry. Now, as a Christian myself, I was curious to find what people thought.

I had my ideas of what I’d find, of course, but one of the responses just outright infuriated me.

See, while most of those they talked to about it recognized that there’s no actual worship of firearms, one person both failed to answer the actual question and managed to show just how idiotic they were on the topic itself. It was kind of impressive, really.

David Gardiner – Buddhist

David Gardiner is an associate professor in the Colorado College Religion Department, specializing in Buddhism and religions of China and Japan, and is co-founder and director of BodhiMind Center.

I believe the relationship many Americans have with guns is pathological. Not all gun owners idolize their possession, but those who do suffer from insecurity, paranoia, susceptibility to conspiracy theories, likely racism and other disorders. Similarly, some idolize the power of the military and police to keep our world and communities safe. Missing is a consensus to care for one another just as we care for ourselves. We have a violence fetish in America that profoundly damages our individual and collective well-being. As some bible scholars say, perhaps one source is the image of the angry, retributive God of the Hebrew bible that remains strong in our Christianity, despite Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek, to practice forgiveness. Regardless, we need to grow.

Now, first, I’m always amused when a non-Christian seems to try to lecture Christians in how to Christian correctly. Usually it’s atheists that try to do it, at least in my experience, but a Buddhist doing it doesn’t surprise me.

However, what really pisses me off is the first sentence in his response. “I believe the relationship many Americans have with guns is pathological,” Gardiner said.

Just how is it pathological? Our relationship with firearms, even if you’re susceptible to conspiracy theories or what have you, is not a pathology. Maybe the susceptibility is, but the relationship with guns? Hardly. Continue reading “”

Study Reports Record Number of Carry Permits in U.S.

A study issued by Crime Prevention Research Center on Sept. 21 reported that the number of concealed carry permits nationwide is now up to 19.48 million, a 34-percent increase compared to 2016’s figure. The continued upswing is particularly noteworthy when the number of states that no longer require law-abiding citizens to secure the license is now up to 17.

Roughly 7.6 percent of Americans have a carry permit, according to its findings. Slightly more than 26 percent of them are female and the number of new women outpaced men by 101.2 percent. There are now five states with more than 1 million people with carry permits. They are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas. Per capita, by qualified adult resident, 28.5 percent of the Alabamans have a license—the top figure in the nation. Indiana claims second-place honors with 18.7 percent and Iowa trails in third.

The cost is even going down. John R Lott and Rujun Wang, the report’s authors wrote, “A lot of changes in fees are occurring this year. Arkansas just reduced its fee from $142.11 to $91.9 and Washington from $48 to $36. Indiana’s 5-year license to carry has become fee exempt since July 1, 2020, while Tennessee’s 8-year license fee has dropped from $100 to $65, effective from January 1, 2020. West Virginia also reduced $75 fee for a LCDW to $25, starting on June 1, 2020.”

The number of people with carry permits in 1999 totaled 2.7 million. The figure rose to 11.1 million by 2014, but pales by comparison to this year’s record-setting 19.48 million.

“At the same time that there has been an exponential growth in permits, there has been a general linear decline in murder and violent crime rates,” the co-authors wrote. “Murder rates fell from 5.7 to 5.0 per 100,000, a 12-percent drop. Overall violent crime fell by 29 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of adults with permits soared by five-fold.”

Never bring a gun to an SUV fight.

BLUF:
In short, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is not only not anachronistic — it’s crucial. If the police are defunded or forced to stand down, the only way to protect oneself and one’s property will be to exercise one’s right to armed self-defense.

The Second Amendment is as necessary today as it has ever been

In the summer of 2020, riots and looting broke out across the United States. In cities from Seattle to New York, police were ordered to stand down and let the riots and looting take their course. The lesson from these events is that you cannot rely on the police to protect your life and property from criminal aggression. And that makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms more important than ever.

The right to defend oneself with firearms against criminal aggression dates back to the days before the U.S. became independent of Great Britain. While that right was often successfully defended in the political process, it took until 2008, in the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, for the Supreme Court to hold that the Second Amendment guarantees against the federal government an individual right to possess firearms and to use them for self-defense within the home. Still, that right has been hanging by a thread because four justices dissented.

The Heller dissenters argued that whatever the original intent of the Second Amendment, the right is obsolete in modern society. They claimed that, while armed self-defense may have been needed when the U.S. lacked the infrastructure needed to provide security for the citizenry, the existence of modern professionalized law enforcement eliminates the need for armed self-protection.

Two years later, multiple large American cities unsuccessfully urged the Supreme Court to allow local and state governments to disarm citizens in McDonald v. City of Chicago. They argued that “in more urban areas that have the benefit of a concentrated and highly trained police force … the need for individuals to arm themselves for self-defense is less compelling.”

Seeking justice outside the courtroom

The riots of this summer undermine this claim. The country hadn’t seen such destructive violence in decades. For example, in Minneapolis, the killing of George Floyd sparked mayhem and lawlessness that resulted in two more deaths and at least $500 million in damage, the most destructive riots since 1992 in Los Angeles.

The chaos that followed Floyd’s killing touched off an unprecedented surge in Minneapolis crime the following month, including more than 1,500 shots-fired 911 calls — twice as many as the same period the year before. Homicides in Minneapolis went up 114%.

Second Amendment critics tell people to rely on the police for self-protection. Where were the police during this crisis? The mayor ordered them to stand down, leaving Minneapolis residents and business owners to their own devices. The same thing occurred during riots and looting in Chicago, Columbus, Louisville, and Portland. Continue reading “”

How The Left Tries To Trick Gun Owners Into Supporting Gun Control
Fake pro-gun groups like ‘Gun Owners for Safety’ are always smokescreens for the same, tired gun control agenda of Giffords, Brady, and others like them.

The Giffords Gun Control Group launched a new entity titled “Gun Owners for Safety” to spearhead the organization’s latest efforts to attack the Second Amendment. This group markets itself to American gun owners, who they claim are looking for “an alternative to the NRA … but [who] also want to reduce gun violence.” The past two decades, however, show that fake gun-rights groups like “Gun Owners for Safety” are always smokescreens for the same, tired gun control agenda of Giffords, the Brady Campaign, and others like them.

That agenda, which includes banning modern sporting rifles, is unpopular with gun owners and was conceived with zero input from the firearms industry. That industry has in fact proposed and implemented truly effective firearm safety proposals for decades.

Giffords Is No Friend of Gun Owners

Giffords’s latest iteration of a gun control group made up of gun owners is an obfuscation of facts. The group’s website landing page is a front. It hosts an image of a hunter plus a word salad that includes talk of gun ownership, common-sense gun laws, and reducing violence. It lists its principles as respect, devotion, and compassion, as if these traits are exclusive to those who favor the group’s gun control ideals.

Past this mirage is the truth. The so-called common-sense gun control ideas are really the radical proposals embraced by ideologues such as failed presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Giffords’ gun control measures would criminalize private firearm transfers, enact a national licensing scheme for Americans to exercise Second Amendment rights, enact mandatory home storage requirements the Supreme Court already struck down as unconstitutional, and ban, ban, ban.

Giffords seeks to outlaw the sale of precursor firearm parts for home-built hobbyists, which has always been legal, and to ban the most popular-selling centerfire rifle on the market, the modern sporting rifle. More than 18 million are in circulation. The group also wants to ban the standard-capacity magazines used in those rifles, which account for more than half of all the magazines in existence. If Giffords had its way, open and licensed concealed carry would also be gone, and the group would repeal laws that protect homeowners who are forced to defend their lives in their own homes.

Gun Control Groups Have Tried This Before Continue reading “”

Yeah, socialism sounds real nice, that is until you find out how much it really costs. The real question is whether or not these kids can overcome their college indoctrination.

Campus Reform recently asked students at Virginia Tech if they support Medicare for All.
Most students agreed with the plan, but were reluctant to donate their own money to the cause.

“Ohhhh. Now I see. They ask the same question, over and over again, hoping to catch him misspeak out of frustration, then edit the interview with selected clips, that present him in the worst possible manner, to further damage his chances of being re-elected; To affect the outcome of the election.”==Robal

Trump Releases Raw Video of ’60 Minutes’ Interview and It’s Everything You Thought It Would Be

Trump’s reasoning for the move has been that the media doesn’t represent him honestly, and he wanted to make sure the people could see the full footage and make their own judgments.

Watching back the video, it is obvious they made the right choice. Stahl came in loaded for bear and set up the interview by asking the President if he was “ready for some tough questions.” Trump responded with a shrug…..

………………….Many media outlets seem all too willing — nay, all too eager — to bury a truly salacious story because it would harm the candidate they secretly (or perhaps not very secretly) support. But both the Hunter Biden scandal and Obamagate are real stories, whether the legacy media likes it or not. It is utterly unfair and absolutely shameless for media outlets to bury these stories simply because they reflect poorly on the candidate those outlets secretly hope will win the election.

That may be the worst scandal of all.

Philadelphia Victim Services Advocate Fatally Shoots Would-Be Robber In Strawberry Mansion

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia Police say a man was shot and killed by a person he was trying to rob in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city on Tuesday morning. The shooting happened on the 2600 block of North Napa Street, shortly before 10 a.m.

Police sources say the shooter is a city employee, working as a victim services advocate for the District Attorney’s Office.

Police say when the 31-year-old man tried to rob the city employee at gunpoint, he pulled out his own weapon and fired, striking the would-be robber in the chest.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

No charges have been filed.

Eyewitness News reached out to the District Attorney’s Office and a spokesperson says that this is an active investigation that has been referred to another agency, and declined to give additional comment.

Hey Hobie! One here for you.

Staunton council to hold public hearing regarding 2nd amendment

STAUNTON, Va. (WVIR) – In Staunton, a special meeting over the second amendment is now planned for next week.

Council will hold a public hearing using both virtual and in-person participation. The meeting will be held at City Hall on Thursday, October 29 at 6 p.m.

At Council’s last meeting, the majority of council members voted to revisit talks of becoming a “second amendment sanctuary”. Several cities and counties deemed themselves as such to make it clear they will not use public funds to restrict second amendment rights.

A notice from the city says people can take part both in-person or virtually. The meeting will held on zoom, and will be accessible online here: www.staunton.va.us/cogord2020-04 and https://www.ci.staunton.va.us/home/showdocument?id=9758.

I have one too. And for $60 on Amazon (that includes shipping)  I think it’s a pretty good deal for a portable shooting bench.

MTM PREDATOR SHOOTING TABLE

This isn’t a new product by any stretch but every time I head to the range for a product review, I’m so happy I own an MTM Predator Shooting Table. Shaped like a traditional shooting bench, the table folds into a lightweight, compact package that’s easy to transport and stow in my garage. Best of all, it offers a quick, stable surface anywhere on the range or even in the field.

The 30″ tall table also has three molded-in gun barrel notches so you can stand up long guns and there are even grips for easy carrying. In addition to sighting-in and general shooting range duties, the table works well as an indoor cleaning bench to avoid having to explain why your gun solvent ate off the finish from the kitchen table.
Retail price: around $60

 

Gun-wielding man in Roseville basketball complex fatally shot by CPL holder

ROSEVILLE, Mich. (FOX2) – A deadly shooting left a man fatally wounded after a basketball game Tuesday.

Roseville police say a fight at Midwest Athletics Basketball City at 1640 Eastland Street, led to a man leaving and coming back with a gun. When he pointed the firearm at the person he had fought with, a second man with a valid concealed pistol license, intervened. After an exchange of gunfire, police say the suspect was seriously injured and was pronounced dead at the scene just before 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Family of the victim claims that there was one shooter who left after an altercation on the basketball court, returned, and gunned down their relative – conflicting with the police version of the story.  They say the victim did not have weapon at the time of the shooting and was a CPL holder.

The CPL holder is in custody as the investigation continues.

Police said in a release:

“An altercation occurred over a basketball game. One individual left the building after the altercation was broken up by other patrons. This individual returned a short time later carrying a firearm. He then pointed the firearm at an individual from the earlier altercation.

“At this time, it appears a valid CPL holder intervened. After a brief exchange of gunfire, the individual who left the building was seriously injured and was eventually pronounced deceased at the scene.”

In Championing the Goodness of America, Trump Defines the Choice in This Election. 

Étienne de La Boétie, who graced this planet from 1520–1563, may have died young, but he made his mark, mostly because he was best friends with Michel de Montaigne.
It was Montaigne who helped assure the literary and political immortality of his friend’s most important work, an essay called “Discours de la servitude volontaire” (“Discourse on Voluntary Servitude”).
La Boétie’s curious work has been an arrow in the quiver of anarchists and libertarians as well as classical liberals for centuries. It is an impassioned attack on tyranny, longer, perhaps, on denunciation than prudence but nevertheless a tonic reveille.
Among other things, La Boétie points out that even those who are duly elected can be tyrants, a fact that was pressed home upon me from a recent visit to the state of Michigan, whose governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is the very model of the modern major mandarin.
Whitmer has issued hundreds and hundreds of executive orders that impinge on the quotidian freedoms of the people she was elected to serve (how ironic that sounds: they also serve who only play the scold).
Whitmer was recently upbraided by the Michigan Supreme Court for exceeding her authority.
Her response was to transfer that authority to the state public health establishment, which set about enforcing her edicts about mask-wearing, “social” distancing, communal gatherings, quivering in place, and kindred impositions on liberty.

‘Voluntary Servitude’

“Voluntary servitude”: isn’t that where we find ourselves now? This is no “social contract,” wherein we implicitly pledge allegiance to a regime in exchange for an escape from a sanguinary “state of nature” and entrance to a realm of law and order.
On the contrary, we find ourselves more and more subject to the extraordinary whims of those—and they are legion—who would be our masters, for our own good, we are told, but we can’t help noticing it is also very much for their good, or at least their profit.

Continue reading “”

Carson City man jailed after homeowner shoots him in foot for alleged attempted break-in

A 24-year-old Carson City man was arrested early Saturday for suspicion of felony home invasion after being shot in the foot by a homeowner who had attempted to scare the suspect away, according to a sheriff’s office booking report.

Moses Aristides Sandoval was arrested at 5:14 a.m. in the 300 block of Corbett Street. According to the booking report, deputies were dispatched to the area for a report of a home invasion in progress. The homeowner informed dispatch they had the suspect on the ground at gunpoint and that they were in the backyard………..

Female homeowner shoots one of three armed intruders

A second arrest has been made in a Monroe Louisiana home invasion that left one of the assailants injured.

Rodney Darrell Mitchell, 21, of Tallulah, was arrested Tuesday and booked into Ouachita Correctional Center on a charge of aggravated burglary and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Mitchell was identified as one of three armed men who forcefully entered a Monroe home on Oct. 11. Two men reportedly threatened the male resident, demanded money and hit him with their guns. The female resident woke up, grabbed her firearm and shot at the burglars after one reportedly pointed a gun at her………..

Armed robber killed during home invasion, three others injured

BATON ROUGE – Authorities say a 20-year-old man was killed and three people were injured during a home invasion late Monday night.

According to a representative with the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD), 20-year-old Marcus Hayes Jr. was allegedly committing an armed robbery at a home in the 900 block of West McKinley Street around 11:10 p.m., Monday.

Six people were apparently home during the incident and police say one of them grabbed a gun and shot Hayes.

Officials say Hayes died at the scene of the crime.

An attempted robbery ends with the robber killed

A 38-year-old Montgomery Alabama man who police accused of committing a robbery was fatally shot during the robbery attempt early Friday, according to a Montgomery police news release.

Police have launched a death investigation after Timothy Rollins was shot in the 5900 block of Monticello Drive, according to the news release. Medics and investigators found Rollins after a report of a robbery and a man shot about 3:47 a.m.

He was taken to a hospital where he later died.

 

Facebook Demonetizes Satire Site Babylon Bee, Claims Monty Python Spoof ‘Incites Violence’

Facebook Demonetizes Satire Site Babylon Bee, Claims Monty Python Spoof ‘Incites Violence’

Facebook is demonetizing the Christian, political satire page “The Babylon Bee” after they published an article satirizing Sen. Mazie Hirono’s comments during the Amy Coney Barrett hearings in a fictional depiction.

The Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon announced the demonetization on Tuesday in a tweet, claiming that the big tech company pulled down the article based on a “regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie.”

“So after a manual review, Facebook says they stand by their decision to pull down this article and demonetize our page. I’m not kidding,” he wrote. “They say this article ‘incites violence.’ It’s literally a regurgitated joke from a Monty Python movie!”

 

Dillon pointed out the absurdity of Facebook’s critique.

“In what universe does a fictional quote as part of an obvious joke constitute a genuine incitement to violence?” he asked. “How does context not come into play here? They’re asking us to edit the article and not speak publicly about internal content reviews. Oops, did I just tweet this?”

Continue reading “”