Massad Ayoob’s ‘In The Gravest Extreme’ Still Relevant in 2021?

Most everyone in “gun land” knows who Massad Ayoob is. In the Gravest Extreme was first published in 1980. Even though it is over 40 years old, it is still available today, either new or used, for a few dollars less. It runs around $20 a copy, and I have seen it used as low as $13 a copy. Cheap enough that there really isn’t a good reason not to read it. 

Basic Overview

There are 17 chapters in the almost 130-page book. A wide range of topics are covered in those 17 chapters. Ranging from car guns (what commonly gets called a “truck gun” now), carrying guns outside of the home, using guns for home defense, and using guns to defend a business, to name a few. The book’s breadth is rather large, so the chapters tend to be short, easy reads. The common thread throughout that serves to tie it all together is the legal use of force and all of the potential pitfalls of using force.

The last few chapters get into topics like selecting a handgun for concealed carry, a comprehensive overview of defensive shooting, and the like. This is perhaps where the content has not aged as well as other parts of the book. Firearms, specifically handguns and the ammunition we feed them, have moved pretty far down the road from where 1980 was.

How Has it Aged?

It doesn’t take long to realize the age of the book when reading it. Not because the information isn’t relevant. But the word choices are just starting to show their age a bit. Ayoob’s flair for writing is clear, making the book a rather easy read despite the dated language. 

Because the laws have changed over the last 4 decades, some of the specific legal examples will not be useful anymore. Conceptually, for the most part, I think there is enough similarity that the value is not completely lost, though. It would be on the reader to know their local laws and what parts of the book are so outdated to no longer be completely accurate.

Even though dated, there is plenty of application left in the larger message Ayoob is trying to get across with this book. First and foremost, avoidance is preferable. Ayoob does a good job of showing both sides of the scale. The potential costs of a defensive action weighed against being able to avoid the need outright. It serves more to temper the often overly aggressive misunderstandings about the use of force to protect self and others than it does to encourage the use of force at all. If there is another way out, take the other way out. This is an idea that sometimes is lost in the bravado of the modern “gun culture.” 

Wrapping it Up

Overall, I think this sums up the purpose of the book well.

“The man who wears a gun carries with it the power of life and death, and therefore the responsibility to deport himself with greater calm and wisdom than his unarmed counterpart…”

It is about being prudent and good decision-making. Do not do the things that would be expected to put you in a bad position.

For something written so long ago, I was surprised to find a significant amount of alignment with what is considered best practice currently. At least partially proving true that “what is old is new again,” I suppose. While I probably wouldn’t call In the Gravest Extreme timeless, I do think there are still plenty of lessons to be learned from it, and it is certainly thought-provoking. It’s worth the read.

OK, Terry, You’re Crazy

One of the more common tactics of anti-gun extremists is to make some dramatic statement comparing our nation’s gun laws with some other aspect of everyday life. Every time—not usually or often, but every time—the comparison is wildly inaccurate. One of the more outrageous claims was made in 2016 by then-president Barack Obama (D), who claimed, “We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.”

Obama’s statement ignored many obvious facts, including that it would be illegal for any teenager to purchase a Glock, such firearms are far more expensive than books (even when purchased through illegal channels), and books are available through innumerable legal outlets—including for free at the more than 100,000 public libraries in America. Even PolitiFact, the “fact-checking” website many consider to favor liberals and Democrats, gave Obama’s statement a “Mostly False” rating.

Last week, Virginia Democrat gubernatorial nominee, Terry McAuliffe, got in on the game of comparing guns to other activities by making a ridiculous, and false comment that puts him in the company of Obama.

“Call me crazy, but I think it should be easier to vote than to buy a gun,” McAuliffe tweeted.

For a response to candidate McAuliffe, please refer to the title of this article. And based on the response to his ill-informed message, we are not alone.

So, where to begin with this latest entry in the competition for stupidest comments about guns?

First, when comparing two constitutionally-protected rights, neither should really be considered “easier” to exercise than the other.

But what of McAuliffe’s implication that it is currently easier to buy a gun than it is to vote? If he truly believes this, then maybe he is crazy.

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Socialists Communists in Congress Silent as Cubans Rise Up Against Communist Dictatorship

Protests erupted yesterday in all of Cuba’s major cities against the nation’s ruling Communist dictatorship following over six decades of oppression. Protesters chanted “freedom,” “enough” and “unite,” and demanded the dissolution of their nation’s communist dictatorship.

Protesters had specific complaints about the nation’s food shortages, high prices, and handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which were correctly attributed to their government.

The Biden administration was initially silent on the protests, and only commented that they’d vow to condemn any violence in Cuba. Biden himself waited until this morning to say that the U.S. stands with the Cuban people.

Meanwhile the socialists in our Congress – Bernie Sanders in the Senate and all members of “The Squad” in the House – have remained completely silent. The Squad includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Bush.

According to Fox News:

Critics will likely say that these Democratic socialists are remaining quiet in the early stages of the protests because there are so many unknowns. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who heads the Communist Party, has already called on the country’s revolutionaries to counter the demonstrators. “We are prepared to do anything,” he said during a national address. “We will be battling in the streets.”

The National Review reported that these legislators have never even denounced Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Sanders, I-Vt., once defended some of the policies of Cuba’s previous communist dictator Fidel Castro.

Following his win during Nevada’s caucus in the 2020 Democratic primaries, Sanders was asked by Anderson Cooper during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” why the Cuban people didn’t rise up and help the U.S. overthrow the Castro regime. Sanders replied that the dictator “educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed the society.”

If or when our socialists in Congress do address the protests in Cuba, it’s more likely they’ll end up siding with the regime.

Six Facts the Left Doesn’t Want You To Know About Global Warming

President Biden implores us that climate change is an “existential threat” to humanity. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry preaches to us that “[t]he climate crisis as a whole is a national security threat because it is disruptive to the daily lives of human beings all over the world.” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warns us that in 2030, “the world is going to end … if we don’t address climate change.”

Hold on to your wallet. The Left’s global warming Chicken Littles insist that the sky is falling but don’t want you to know six key facts.

First, in his new book “Unsettled,” Obama Administration Department of Energy chief scientist Steven Koonin shows that the models relied upon by the Left to predict future global warming are so poor that they cannot even reproduce the temperature changes in the 20th century.

If these models cannot reproduce past temperatures already known when the models were developed, how can they possibly reliably predict temperatures decades into the future?

Second, Koonin’s book also documents that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s own analysis indicates that any negative economic impact that global warming eventually may have will be so modest that it warrants no action.

Third, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the UN IPPC do not claim that a link has been established between global warming and natural disasters.

Most people don’t know this company exists. That’s why Tim Plaehn wants to share this private information with you before other investors catch on.

In 2020, the NOAA stated: “it is premature to conclude with high confidence that increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities have had a detectable impact on Atlantic basin hurricane activity,” and “changes in tropical cyclone activity … are not yet detectable.”

The UN IPPC, the Wall Street Journal reported, “says that it too lacks evidence to show that warming is making storms and flooding worse.”

Fourth, as the earth’s temperature has risen, natural disasters have become far less deadly.

Since 1920, the planet’s temperature has risen by 1.29 degrees Celsius and world population has quadrupled from less than two billion to over seven and half billion – yet EM-DAT, The International Disaster Database, reports that the number of people killed by natural disasters has declined by over 80 percent, from almost 55,000 per year to less than 10,000 per year.

Fifth, some of the world’s best scientists believe that global warming will be beneficial rather than harmful.

In 2017, a group of eminent scientists – such as Richard Lindzen of MIT, William Happer of Princeton, and Judith Curry of Georgia Tech – wrote that “[o]bservations [over the last] 25 years … show that warming from increased atmospheric CO2 will be benign.”

Carbon dioxide, they noted, “is not a pollutant but a major benefit to agriculture and other life on Earth.”

Sixth, global warming saves lives. A study published in 2015 by the British medical journal The Lancet found that cold kills over 17 times more people than heat.

This study by 22 scientists from around the world – which examined over 74 million deaths in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 1985-2012, “the largest dataset ever collected to assess temperature-health associations”– reported that cold caused 7.29 percent of these deaths, while heat caused only 0.42 percent.

And small changes in the temperature matter: “moderately hot and cold temperatures” caused 88.85 percent of the temperature-related deaths, while “extreme” temperatures caused only 11.15 percent.

We must not let the Left bully us into draconian action with unfounded claims of a looming climate catastrophe. Know the facts. Global warming is not a problem.

The Politics of Gun Ownership Change as Millions of First-Time, ‘Anti-Gun’ Americans Bought Firearms.

According to this Washington Post article, the percentage of Americans who own guns has jumped from 32% to 39% in the past year. That’s due to huge waves of new, first-time gun owners, of all political and cultural persuasions, deciding that owning a firearm is a good idea.

For many new gun owners, though, the decision to arm themselves is a political pivot — an accumulation of anxieties that led them to discard long-held beliefs. It’s a decision that is particularly difficult for people who belong to groups at higher risk of being on the wrong end of gun violence.

Jabril Battle, a 28-year-old account representative at a financial services company in Los Angeles, had always believed that “anyone who had a gun was a gun nut,” he said. “I really bought into the whole idea that the more people have guns … the more likely it is for people to start killing each other.”

But as the pandemic paralyzed the nation, Battle said, “I just saw how crazy people got.” He found himself conjuring the worst scenarios: “I was like, if my block has 10 houses, how many people in these houses have guns? If the food and water gets cut off, [if] supplies run out … what does that look like? Is this going to be a ‘Mad Max’ situation? Like ‘The Walking Dead,’ but not with the zombies?

“I was just, like, ‘Do I want to be the person who has a gun or doesn’t have a gun?”

Battle bought a Beretta 92FS, then added a Glock 34 pistol.

Still, he had reservations: “Being Black with a gun is a very high risk, a way higher risk than other races,” he said. “You are seen as a threat without a gun, and with a gun you are seen as a super threat.”

He kept imagining the scene if he were stopped by a White police officer.

“It’s still in my head, honestly, when I go to the gun range and I have my gun in my car,” he said. “If I get pulled over, and they ask, ‘Are there any weapons in the car?’ [and] I say there’s a gun, and then I hand in my registration, will they shoot me?”

But he’s enjoying the new world that guns opened to him — classes, an organization of Black gun owners, shooting competitions.

“Once I started being around guns more, and I kind of saw the culture and the environment, I’m falling in love,” he said.

In Battle’s family, guns were “not a good thing,” he said. “It kind of represented crime, especially for Black people. It’s just different for African Americans.”

But his family has accepted his decision, he said. His grandmother and two aunts came to the range with him and are considering returning to take lessons.

— Marc Fisher, Miranda Green, and Andrea Eger in ‘Fear on top of fear’: Why anti-gun Americans joined the wave of new gun owners

Yes, I do notice something. It sounds like the symptoms of a head cold.

The Experts Say These Could Be New Symptoms of the Delta COVID Variant…Notice Anything Peculiar Here?

The COVID panic porn peddlers are still at it again with this Delta variant that no one should really fear, but the experts and the media are still treating like the Andromeda Strain. It is more contagious, but it’s not more lethal and it doesn’t make you sicker. Instead of peddling images of body bags, it’s being used to ensure we vaccinate everyone. No doubt the Democrat-media complex is going to use this to push for mandatory vaccination, even suggesting door-to-door measures to ensure the nation reaches that 70 percent threshold. Oh, wait—that’s already been tossed around by some folks.

As we debate the ‘ver are your papers’ protocols about vaccinations, let’s check in with The New York Times who reported these could be new symptoms of the Delta variant. I’m sure you’ll have a good laugh (via NYT):

The spread of the super-contagious Delta variant is prompting new lockdowns around the world and spurring new warnings from public health officials.

The World Health Organization, citing the rise of Delta, the dearth of vaccines and high rates of community transmission in many parts of the world, has encouraged fully vaccinated people to continue wearing masks.

[…]

Does the Delta variant cause different symptoms?

It’s not clear yet. “We’re hurting for good data,” Dr. Osterholm said.

In Britain, where the variant is widespread, reports have emerged that Delta may cause different symptoms than other variants do. Researchers conducting the Covid Symptom Study, which asks people with the disease to report their symptoms in an app, have said that the most common symptoms of Covid have changed as the variant has spread through Britain.

“What we’ve noticed is the last month, we’re seeing different sets of symptoms than we were seeing in January,” said Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist at King’s College London, who leads the study.

Headaches, a sore throat, and a runny nose are now among the most frequently reported symptoms, Dr. Spector said, with fever, cough and loss of smell less common.

These data, however, have not yet been published in a scientific journal, and some scientists remain unconvinced that the symptom profile has truly changed. The severity of Covid, regardless of the variant, can vary wildly from one person to another.

So, nothing has changed. We’re acting as if sore throat, headache, and runny noses are new ailments never seen in medical science. There is nothing peculiar about these symptoms. Nothing. First, all three have been around since the time of Hammurabi’s Code. Second, they’re the same freaking symptoms when COVID first escaped from a Chinese lab, I mean—they’re the same when this virus first appeared. ………….

Texas silencer law, NFA, No Commandeering, Commerce Clause, Test Case

Texas recently passed HB 957 into law. It will become effective on 1 September, 2021. The law repeals the Texas state ban on the possession of silencers/suppressors/gun mufflers, puts into effect a “no commandeering clause” for federal enforcement of the National Firearms Act (NFA) for silencers, and sets up a federal test case of the NFA in federal court.

In a previous article the repeal of the Texas law and the anti-commandering section were discussed. The likely federal test case was not.

HB 957 came from the brain of Representative Oliverson of Texas District 130, north of Houston. Dr. Oliverson is not a lawyer.  This correspondent was able to talk to Representative Oliverson about how he formed the idea for the law.

Dr. Oliverson came up with the idea to reform suppressor law in Texas because he had purchased two suppressors. He personally experienced the bureaucratic insanity it takes to legally obtain a silencer/suppressor/gun muffler in the United States.

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Five Tenets of CRT: What they say vs. what they mean

One of the problems with discussing and debating CRT is that it’s a complicated set of teachings and beliefs about which people know very little and which probably vary at least somewhat according to whom is doing the trainings. The most pernicious aspects of CRT are often in the details of how the trainings and/or classes go.

Here’s a set of five supposedly basic tenets of CRT:

(1) Centrality of Race and Racism in Society: CRT asserts that racism is a central component of American life.
(2) Challenge to Dominant Ideology: CRT challenges the claims of neutrality, objectivity, colorblindness, and meritocracy in society.
(3) Centrality of Experiential Knowledge: CRT asserts that the experiential knowledge of people of color is appropriate, legitimate, and an integral part to analyzing and understanding racial inequality.
(4) Interdisciplinary Perspective: CRT challenges ahistoricism and the unidisciplinary focuses of most analyses and insists that race and racism be placed in both a contemporary and historical context using interdisciplinary methods.
(5) Commitment to Social Justice: CRT is a framework that is committed to a social justice agenda to eliminate all forms of subordination of people.

As with so much jargon, one can use these principles in a benign way or a destructive one. From what I know about CRT in actual practice, they tend to be used destructively and somewhat differently than the words in those five principles would indicate.

For example, let’s take principle #1: “CRT asserts that racism is a central component of American life.” Actually, CRT asserts that racism is the central component of American life and pervades every aspect of it.

Or #2: “CRT challenges the claims of neutrality, objectivity, colorblindness, and meritocracy in society.” Actually, CRT challenges not just the claims of those things, but also challenges the idea that they are worthwhile goals. CRT considers meritocracy, for example, to be utterly bogus and inherently racist and would like to eliminate it as a goal or standard. CRT would like to substitute color awareness and eliminate colorblindness. Same for objectivity and neutrality, which are defined as white values and inherently racist.

Or #3: “CRT asserts that the experiential knowledge of people of color is appropriate, legitimate, and an integral part to analyzing and understanding racial inequality.” Is there anyone who disagrees with that? I think you’d find very few people who don’t think that the experiences of black people and other minorities are worthwhile to hear. However, CRT actually asserts that this “experiential knowledge” is far more important than statistics in the aggregate – in other words, that anecdotal evidence (which, among other things, can be a misperception even if a sincere one) is of far more importance than anything else, and it’s only the anecdotal evidence of “people of color” that matters.

On #5: “CRT is a framework that is committed to a social justice agenda to eliminate all forms of subordination of people.” More jargon that obscures what’s happening. “Social justice agenda” is an example of what Thomas Sowell referred to in his book The Quest For Cosmic Justice (highly recommended by me) as an endeavor that is doomed to create more problems than it solves. As Sowell writes:

In its pursuit of justice for a segment of society, in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole, what is called “social justice” might more accurately be called anti-social justice, since what consistently gets ignored or dismissed are precisely the costs to society.

The costs of achieving justice matter. Another way of saying the same thing is that “justice at all costs” is not justice. What, after all, is an injustice but the arbitrary imposition of a cost—whether economic, psychic, or other—on an innocent person? And if correcting this injustice imposes another arbitrary cost on another innocent person, is that not also an injustice?

Those who are promoting CRT leave out all the costs and are mum about the anti-white racism inherent in those costs. However, word has been getting out recently, and more people (not enough, but more) are starting to understand what CRT is actually about in practice rather than in the descriptive language that attempts to obscure that practice.

Man shot and killed during attempted home invasion in Naples [Florida] gated community

A man was shot and killed while attempting a home invasion Saturday morning in a North Naples gated community, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office says.

At around 4:30 a.m., the suspect fired a single gunshot through the front door of an occupied residence in Raffia Preserve, detectives said in a news release. A confrontation between the suspect and an armed resident ensued outside the home, which ended in the resident shooting the suspect.

The suspect, who detectives are working to identify, was transported to a local hospital where he died, CCSO said.

No arrests have been made, the sheriff’s office said.

The investigation is ongoing, but detectives said it was an isolated incident with no danger to the community.

Homeowner shoots, kills distraught man who tried to break in and threatened family near Battle Ground

A homeowner shot and killed a distraught stranger who got past a locked gate, tried to push his way into the house and threatened to hurt the family inside, Clark County sheriff’s officials said Friday.

Deputies were called to a home near Battle Ground in a rural area of the county about 9:45 p.m. Thursday after a 911 caller said an “unknown and unwanted man” was at the front door of the home and trying to get inside, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The caller said the stranger had gotten past a locked driveway gate and was trespassing.

Sheriff’s officials didn’t immediately identify the homeowner or the man who was killed.

The man appeared to be emotionally distraught and was agitated, according to the statement. The homeowner answered the door armed with a handgun and tried to speak to the man.

The man tried to push past him into the house, but the homeowner eventually calmed him down and talked to him on the front porch as others in the home hid in a back bedroom, sheriff’s officials said.

The 911 caller reported that the man at one point told the homeowner to shoot him and threatened to “go after” or “hurt” the homeowner’s wife if the homeowner didn’t shoot him, sheriff’s officials said.

The homeowner was still trying to calm down the man when the man assaulted him, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The homeowner then shot the man, who died at the scene, sheriff’s officials said.

The homeowner and residents of the home near Northeast 176th Avenue and 202nd Street in unincorporated Clark County have cooperated with the investigation, sheriff’s officials said. No arrests have been made, they said.

Gunfire erupts when West County homeowner confronts burglar

EUREKA, Mo. (KMOV.com) – Eureka police are investigating after a homeowner confronted a burglar rifling through his truck and it turned violent.

As the suspect was running away, surveillance video captured him shooting at the homeowner, who returned fire.

“It happened so fast, I didn’t know he had a gun,” said the homeowner, Jesse Leuthauser.

It happened just before 1:00 a.m. on White Doe Court. The bullet the suspect fired at Leuthauser missed him. Eureka police are not sure if the suspect was hit. Police believe there were three suspects involved. They took off in a Nissan after the shooting.

“I’m not scared of them. I’m going to take these guys head on if they come back,” said Leuthauser.

Leuthauser is worried they will return because he believes the same guy have been at his house before.

“This is the third time in three months that it’s happened. They stole it on May 23 and took me 11 days to get it back, and it was destroyed,” said Leuthuaser.

Leuthauser said several of his neighbors’ cars were also hit early Friday morning. Eureka police believe the trio is behind as many as 12 break-ins Friday alone.

“We believe it’s an organized group that’s out there targeting, they’re using stolen vehicles, they are armed. What they’re looking for is weapons and other valuables,” said Lt. Mike Werges with Eureka police.

Werges said this type of crime is on the rise across the St. Louis metro. His department is stepping up patrols, which will include unmarked cars and license plate readers since many of the vehicles used in these crimes were reported stolen.

“I think that at times we live in a kinda a false sense of security. This is a very safe community; however, you wake up to motion in your driveway, you go out to confront someone, which you think maybe is just stealing change and you end up being involved in a violent altercation,” said Werges.

Leuthauser’s situation is proof that even a well-lit home and an obvious camera mounted on the garage won’t always stop criminals. He said the criminals’ boldness is what he finds most alarming.

“It’s getting old, you know? Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot,” said Leuthauser.

Pandemic gun violence surge was not linked to rise in gun sales, study finds
Research suggests looking at role of job loss, economic change, closure of schools and community organizations and civil unrest

Gun homicides surged across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic, in the same year that Americans bought a record-breaking number of guns.

But some of America’s leading gun violence researchers have concluded that what might seem like an obvious cause-and-effect – a surge in gun buying leads to a surge in gun violence – is not supported by the data.

Through July of last year, there was no clear association between the increase in firearm purchases and the increase in most interpersonal gun violence at the state level, according to a new study published in Injury Epidemiology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

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Arizona Governor Signs Bill to Prohibit Critical Race Theory Teaching

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a bill on Friday preventing local governments from teaching critical race theory.

The measure, House Bill 2906, prohibits “the state and any local governments from requiring their employees to engage in orientation, training or therapy that suggest an employee is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously,” Ducey’s office said in a statement.

The Arizona state House passed the bill in a 31-25 vote, according to records from the state legislature. The state Senate passed the bill on a 16-12 vote…..

OKC Dispensary Owner Shoots Armed Robbery Suspect

OKLAHOMA CITY – A metro dispensary owner fought back Tuesday in an attempted armed robbery, police said.
According to Oklahoma City police, a robbery suspect was armed with knives, started making demands and smashing cases.

At last check, the man was hospitalized at OU Health in critical condition. Police and eyewitnesses said this crime is becoming all too common.

“They have a product that a lot of people want,” said Al Jenkins who lives nearby. “They’re a cash only businesses and they have a few things that criminals want. Something that’s untraceable like marijuana and then cash,” said Oklahoma City Police Lieutenant Isaac Goodman.

Jenkins lives near the dispensary at Northwest 23rd and Villa. After hearing a commotion, he went to investigate. “I just couldn’t understand why an alarm on the building would go on in the day,” said Jenkins.

He said police responded immediately. “I heard a screech, a tire screech. I didn’t know what it was until I came around the corner and it was police officers showing up on the scene,” said Jenkins.

According to police, the armed suspect stormed in and began making demands.“An armed subject came inside and started breaking display cases. He was armed with two knives threatening the owners inside the business,” said Goodman. After refusing to leave, police said the business owner took action. “The owner pulled a handgun and shot the suspect in defense of himself,” said Goodman.

Theta Hale works at a nearby dispensary and said it’s getting dangerous. “It is concerning. It makes you think if this is what you want to do,” said Hale.

Police said criminals should think twice “The majority of dispensaries in our city limits are staffed by folks that are armed because they know it’s a risky business and they also have very elaborate security systems,” said Goodman. No one else was injured in the shooting.

Democrats Demoncraps Try to Blame Guns for the Crime Surge Caused by Liberal Demoncrap Policies (FIFY)

As the Left tries to avoid responsibility for its own mistakes, many Americans see the progressive narrative about guns and crime for the charade that it is.

Acrime wave is gripping American cities, and the Left, in the wake of a ruinous series of radical criminal-justice “reforms,” needs scapegoats.

As Kevin Williamson has explained, much of this can be traced back to ridiculous city ordinances, such as the abolition of cash bail in some major cities. But, glossing over such decisions, major news outlets and politicians have instead taken to describing the problem as an issue of gun violence. There’s a reason for this: So long as they maintain this account, the Left can avoid responsibility — even with their policy fingerprints all over the crime scenes.

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What Is Trump To Us?

To be worthy of following, post-Trump leadership must become consistent in deed with the insight that vaulted Donald Trump to public attention.

Donald Trump became the political vehicle for the American people’s resentment of an overweening, corrupt ruling class. Trump’s invaluable contribution to the Republic was to lead Americans publicly to disrespect that class.

Americans elected Trump to preserve freedoms and prosperity against the encroachments of that class. But instead, he became the catalyst by which that class cohered to transform the American Republic into an oligarchy.

During Trump’s presidency, more wealth passed from ordinary Americans to oligarchs, and more freedoms were lost than anyone imagined possible. As we consider how to remedy these losses, Trump’s fateful combination of things said and unsaid, of things done and not done, must be part of our search for the persons and policies most likely to lead republican Americans out of our quandary.

Persona Politica

In 2015 and 2016, candidate Trump’s disrespectful, disdainful attitude toward the ruling class put him at the head of presidential preference polls ab initio, and kept him there. Throughout the campaign, he said little of substance—just enough to give the impression that he was on the side of conservatives on just about everything. His leitmotif was “I despise those whom you despise because they despise you. I’m on your side, America’s side.”

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It makes you wonder if these demoncraps own stock in gun manufacturers

Biden is gun salesman-in-chief, threats driving surge in purchases.

President Joe Biden’s latest round of attacks on guns is helping to drive a historic sales surge that continues to leave store shelves bare of firearms and ammunition.

Industry officials said that June sales were the second-highest ever for the month, at about 1.3 million. Only June 2020 had a higher number for that month, at 2,177,586.

“To be clear,” said Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, “June 2021 is the second-highest June on record.”

FBI background checks are also rolling to new highs. Through just the first six months of the year, they are already higher than for all of 2014, indicating that 2021 will see a new high of over 40 million.

Driving the sales surge, said industry officials, are the gun control threats from the Biden administration. Most recently, the White House has pushed a plan to tax and regulate the pistol style of AR-15 rifles and one of the most popular firearms.

In a review of the June sales, Oliva, whose group represents gun makers and sellers, also said that Biden’s nomination of a gun control advocate to head Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is helping to spark sales.

He said:

“It cannot be discounted that the continued elevated level of increased firearm purchases is driven, in part, by the gun control overtures by the Biden administration. As we head into Independence Day, Americans are exercising their right to keep and bear arms in record numbers even as the Biden administration is throwing up roadblocks to keep that from happening. These factors continue to drive the elevated levels of gun sales: the nomination of David Chipman, a gun control lobbyist to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the proposed rules to reclassify firearm receivers as well as pistols equipped with stabilizing arm braces under the National Firearms Act, and repeated calls to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The Biden administration is determined to use every lever within reach to stifle and disrupt the free exercise of Second Amendment rights which begin with the ability of citizens who obey the law to freely approach the gun counter.”

However, while Biden has emphasized gun control, his party does not have enough support in the Senate to pass his agenda.

Disturbing Reports From US Troops and ROTC Cadets of “Woke” Military Priorities
Woke priorities are now trickling down to our troops, and reports are surfacing about some humiliating drills and exercises that boost neither morale nor preparedness among our service personnel.

Professor Jacobson published an outstanding analysis of the “ideological capture” of our military, which featured chilling testimony from General Mark Milley (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff) and Admiral Michael Gilday (Chief of Naval Operations).

The woke priorities are now trickling down to our troops, and reports are now surfacing about some humiliating drills and exercises that boost neither morale nor preparedness among our service personnel.

To begin with, active duty members of the Navy in San Diego were recently forced to take part in a mandatory ‘diversity hike’ during which they flew LGBT flags. Of course, American flags were nowhere to be seen.

“A woman whose husband is active duty Navy sent me this. His command held a “diversity hike” in honor of Pride Month. Attendance was mandatory. They hiked while waving a rainbow American flag,” tweeted Matt Walsh.

As Chris Menahan explains, the event was promoted by the Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303, which celebrated “Pride Month” with a “Pride Hike” at Sunset Cliff last week.

The servicemembers were made to carry a version of the LGBT flag which incorporates the stars and stripes, although no actual American flag was flown.

Earlier this year, about 15 ROTC cadets from Temple University participated in a school-sponsored Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event, during which men stumble through a pre-set route while sporting high heels, supposedly as as a way to raise awareness for sexual assault victims.

Several cadets walked while wearing Army Combat Uniforms, as did the school’s professor of military science, Lt. Col. Greg Nardi, who runs Temple’s Red Diamond Brigade.

Military blogs like This Ain’t Hell reported on the cadets weeks later. Around that time, another high-heel walk, this one sponsored by the ROTC brigade at Arizona State University, drew attention when a screen shot of a message allegedly from an ASU cadet complaining about his school’s event landed on Reddit’s Army channel, the Facebook page of U.S Army W.T.F! Moments, and other sites.

It is highly doubtful that either of these activities enhanced our military’s preparedness, or contributed to unit cohesion.

For decades, a hallmark of the military has been building up its personnel (physically and mentally) via physical training and conditioning. However, this effective method of strengthening our troops is now being quashed in favor of high-heels and diversity stunts.

The Air Force announced Monday it will allow walking and modified push ups in its revised fitness test, according to Task and Purpose.

The fitness test, which to this point featured a 1.5-mile run with sit-ups and push-ups, will now allow members to walk instead of run, and do raised-hand push-ups instead of traditional push-ups.

As for the core, service members have the option to do planks instead of traditional sit-ups.

Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, the branch’s deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services told Task and Purpose the Air Force will also set up a sprint-test alternative to walking and running.

But can the Air Force personnel do those push-ups in high-heels while waving the LGBTQ flag…that is the important question!

Appears that the California court system with its lax parole/probation policy is the proximate cause of the crime increase. Of course, another way to look at it is that the courts are thinking that a significant number of homeowners will likely solve the criminal problem the old fashioned way.

California homeowner shoots, kills armed intruder after man kicks down door

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (KTXL) – A Northern California homeowner fatally shot an armed man – who was on parole for another home invasion – after he kicked down the homeowner’s door Tuesday morning, police say.

On Tuesday, a piece of plywood covering the front door of the home on Vintage Valley Drive in Fairfield is the only sign that something happened.

“I’m kind of blown away,” neighbor Nathan Biggs said. “I’ve lived here all my life, 18 years. Probably the most eventful thing that’s happened in this neighborhood.”

Police said the couple in the home were having breakfast when they saw an unknown man through their Ring camera who knocked on their front door.

The homeowners didn’t answer.

“The suspect did ultimately kick the door down, kicked it off the hinges and attempted to make entry into the house,” said Fairfield Police Department’s Lt. Jausiah Jacobsen. “The homeowner defended themselves, fired rounds. The suspect ended up fleeing and [the homeowner] obviously called us, asked for us to come and help him.”

When officers arrived, they found the intruder across the street, suffering from at least one gunshot wound to the chest.

Despite first responders doing CPR, the man died at the scene.

“He was in possession of a semi-automatic handgun that was loaded with an extended magazine,” Jacobsen said.

Neighbors were concerned for the welfare of the homeowners, stopping by, even bringing flowers.

“They’re a wonderful family. And they’re well-liked in the community. And I’m just really grateful that nothing more serious might have happened to them,” said Cordelia resident Tamer Totah.