Gun control lacks common sense
Estimates of the number of incidents annually where guns are used for defensive purposes overwhelmingly outweighs how often they are used for crime.

The Biden administration has proposed a myriad of “commonsense gun safety laws” which have little to do with common sense. While there is little evidence that supports a correlation between gun control legislation and a decrease in violent crime (in many cases, the opposite is true), Biden has falsely characterized gun violence as a “public health epidemic” and is using this caricature as a springboard to enact new policies that will do little to solve violent crime. Solving gun violence is a complex issue, and putting in place more gun control is not the answer.

Many arbitrary and overreaching gun control measures have already been enacted at the federal and state levels and do not historically improve violent crime rates. The number of murders and the overall violent crime rate nationally have declined substantially for decades, and although the rate of gun-owning households has declined, the number of guns owned by private citizens has steadily increased to roughly 120 per 100 people. The United States clearly does not have a “gun problem,” only a crime problem.

A study conducted by Gallup showed that opinion polls on gun control over the years varied dramatically depending on how the questions were worded. Anti-gun activists frequently portrayed in the media are well-aware that crime data shows no correlation between violent crime and gun ownership rates, however it has become all-too-common for them to blame all gun owners and guns in general whenever a mass shooting occurs.

These activists regularly cite mass shooting events as being indicative of a problem of gun violence that can only be solved with stricter gun control, while conveniently ignoring events where guns are used in self-defense. “Defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual [defensive] uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million,” according to a study conducted by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. Although defensive gun use is not uniformly tracked, even the lowest estimates significantly outweigh the number of times when guns are used in homicides and crime in general.

Chicago, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, is already on pace to exceed last year’s homicide numbers with 227 homicides so far in 2021, according to the Chicago Tribune. Shootings are attributed to a substantial amount of violent crime in the Windy City and are unforgivably common, despite already having many of the “common sense” reforms regularly pitched as federal policy proposals. If strict gun control laws prevented crime, or even shootings, Chicago would be one of the safest places in the world. But Chicago is largely regarded as one of the most dangerous cities in the nation and certainly has not even come close to eradicating its problem of violent crime.

The reason for this is simple: criminals, by definition, do not follow the law. It is entirely illogical to conclude that establishing prohibitive laws on gun ownership will prevent violent criminals from obtaining and using guns in violent crime, the same way drug prohibition doesn’t prevent addicts from obtaining and using heroin.

Of course, while we all want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, any new gun control measures will inevitably have widespread effects on law-abiding gun owners who use guns strictly for self-defensive purposes.

It is critically important to defend the Second Amendment, as the right to self-defense is one of the most basic and fundamental human rights that also serves to protect all of the other rights we hold dearly. We should all reject Biden’s gun control scheme and any other new gun control legislation and leave law-abiding gun owners alone.

The Texas Legislature Reaches an Agreement on Constitutional Carry

AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF) – The Texas House and Senate conferees reached an agreement on House Bill 1927, better known as constitutional carry.

The measure would do away with the need to have a license to carry a gun in Texas.

“By working together, the House and Senate will send Governor Abbott the strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history, and protect the right of law-abiding Texans to carry a handgun as they exercise their God-given right to self defense and the defense of their families,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Matt Schaefer Speaker Dade Phelan has been rock-solid every step of the way as House Bill 1927 has progressed, and I am grateful for his leadership and the bipartisan coalition who supported House Bill 1927.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick congratulated Rep. Matt Schaefer and Sen. Charles Schwertner for reaching a full agreement on permitless carry.

“This legislation restores our Second Amendment rights and upholds every Texan’s right to self-defense,” Patrick told WBAP on Friday. “HB 1927 is a historic bill and a national model. It includes the thinking of national gun rights advocates and many in Texas law enforcement and affirms our commitment to protect the rights of gun owners and the safety of those in law enforcement.”

According to Lt. Gov. Patrick, the bill will become eligible for a final vote early next week.

“Those who said HB 1927 would never pass and who perpetuated stories of a ‘poison pill’ and other conspiracies willfully misled many Second Amendment supporters in Texas,” said Patrick. “They also underestimated how hard members of the House and Senate were working to pass this bill.”

Governor Abbott told WBAP earlier this month that he will sign the bill into law when it makes it to his desk.

Not a lot compared to the yammering by media and other political hacks.

What Percent Of Mass Public Shooters Are White Supremacists?

The news media and entertainment television keep pushing the notion that most mass public shootings are done by white supremacists. Who is a white supremacist is actually fairly difficult to determine because many of the classifications are based on solely whether the person visited neo-Nazis or white supremacist website.

The Government Accountability Office has a report identifying white supremacists and neo-Nazis from 2000 through 2016. There were 52 mass public shootings over that period and the GAO identifies four of them who are either white supremacists or neo-Nazis (7.69%). Over the 1998 through May 20, 2021, there were 82 mass public shootings and between 7 and 9 attacks that involved people who were white supremacists, neo-Nazis, visiting neo-Nazis or white supremacist websites, or anti-immigrants (8.5% and 10.97%). One of these racists, Patrick Wood Crusius, who did the El Paso, Texas, mass public shooting, was an environmentalist extremist. He didn’t want immigrants because he thought they would have more children, which would harm the environment.

All this isn’t too surprising given that we have pointed out that 71% of mass public shooters have no identifiable political views.

Our information for all mass public shootings between 1998 and May 20, 2021 is available here.

Mass-Public-Shooting_US_1998-2021Download

Europe unveils plans to bring ‘GPS’ and Skype to the moon with satellites.

Satellite navigation and teleconferencing could be available to lunar explorers by 2030.

SSTL and Telespazio lead two European consortia tasked with developing concepts of a lunar navigation and telecommunication constellation. (Image credit: ESA)

The European Space Agency (ESA) has kicked off the development of a future satellite constellation that will orbit the moon and provide navigation and telecommunication services to lunar explorers.

If all goes according to plan, the new system could be in place in the late 2020s, only a few years after the expected landing of NASA’s crewed Artemis 3 mission near the lunar south pole.

ESA believes that Earth’s celestial companion is set to become a busy destination in the coming years, with commercial companies and nations from across the world all wanting a slice of the “eighth continent.” The new constellation, called Moonlight, will make it easier and cheaper for a fledgling lunar economy to blossom, ESA officials suggested in a news conference on Thursday (May 20).

“Having a navigation and telecommunication network to relay what we learn on the moon back to Earth will be key for sustainability of future missions,” Elodie Viau, ESA’s director of telecommunications and integrated applications, said in the news conference. “You can imagine astronomers setting up observatories on the far side of the moon. And as we have all now become accustomed to virtual meetings, who knows? We could be doing Skype on the moon.”

An Honor Long Overdue:’ After 70 Years, Ranger Legend Ralph Puckett Receives Medal of Honor

President Biden presents Medal of Honor to retired Col. Ralph Puckett.

ralph puckett army ranger medal of honor

 

The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to

COLONEL RALPH PUCKETT JR.
UNITED STATES ARMY (RANGER)

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving as Commanding Officer of the 8th Ranger Company, 8213th Army Unit, 8th U.S. Army. First Lieutenant Puckett distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces near Unsan, Korea, on 25 and 26 November 1950.
With complete disregard for his personal safety, First Lieutenant Puckett led his company across eight hundred yards of open terrain under heavy enemy small-arms fire and captured the company’s objective. During this operation he deliberately exposed himself to enemy machine-gun fire to enable his men to spot locations of the machine guns.
After capturing the objective, he directed preparation of defensive positions against an expected enemy counterattack. At 2200 hours on 25 November 1950, while directing the defense of his position against a heavy counterattack, he was wounded in the fight shoulder. Refusing evacuation, he continued to direct his company through four more counterattacks by a numerically superior force who advanced to within grenade range before being driven back.
During these attacks, he left the safety of his foxhole in order to observe movements of the enemy and to direct artillery fire. In so doing, he repeatedly exposed himself to heavy small-arms and mortar fire. In the sixth counterattack, at 0300 hours on 26 November 1950, he was wounded again, so seriously that he was unable to move. Detecting that his company was about to be overrun and forced to withdraw, he ordered his men to leave him behind so as not to endanger their withdrawal. Despite his protests, he was dragged from the hill to a position of safety.
First Lieutenant Puckett’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

Ohhh, this will play well with the econutz.
And just to put a fine point to it;
If the U.S. is going to stop using coal and natural gas to produce power, nuclear has to be used as there is no way that all other methods combined can produce what’s needed, that is, unless the plan is to move back to a pre 1880s life.

Biden Climate Advisor Says Nuclear Energy Is “Essential”

The environmental battle has always been a game of political ping pong. Republicans take office and open up the energy sector. Democrats take office and restrict it. Back and forth, election after election. The battle has always been painted as “socialist hippies” versus “greedy capitalist pigs” and even though the subject is much more nuanced, our media knows nothing of nuance these days.

The fact is that some companies will take advantage of weak pollution regulation. The fact is that solar and wind energy are ridiculously expensive and ineffective and harmful to the environment. There seems to be some ground in between to be found but our politicians won’t let us find it because actually solving a problem would mean no one can run on that problem anymore.

The truth is that the best compromise for meeting our energy and environmental needs is nuclear energy. It is clean, efficient, and extraordinarily safe in its most modern iterations. France has learned the value of nuclear energy and leads the way in clean energy production. It seems unthinkable that America is still arguing about solar panels when we have access to an energy source that could meet the demands of both those dirty hippies and capitalist pigs.

Unfortunately, the Democrat party has traditionally taken up a position against nuclear, most likely because wind and solar lobbies pour a lot of money into the party; and because media tends to glamorize wind and solar, making it difficult to sell alternative clean energy sources like nuclear to the general public. Public disasters like the failure at the Fukushima power plant in Japan after a devastating earthquake dried up private funding sources for nuclear over fears related to the incident.

However, in an unusual break from the party line, one of Biden’s climate advisors has gone public in saying that nuclear energy should be an important leg of Biden’s green energy plan.

White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy was attending a virtual event at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy when she told attendees that in order to meet the lofty climate goals of the current administration, more support for nuclear power would be necessary.

“In many areas continuation of the existing nuclear, as long as it’s environmentally sound and it’s permitted, is going to be absolutely essential” because it will provide time to develop renewable energy into a bigger part of the energy mix, McCarthy said at a Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy virtual event.

The White House signaled privately to lawmakers and stakeholders recently that it supports taxpayer subsidies to keep aging nuclear facilities from closing as shutdowns make it harder to meet U.S. climate goals.

The United States currently has the most power plants in the world, but no new plants have been constructed since 2012, even as the population and energy needs increase. In 2005, President George Bush signed the “Nuclear Power 2010” initiative which was meant to ease regulations enough to make the construction of new plants more viable. Unfortunately a lot of fear still surrounds nuclear energy and construction hopes were never met.

Nuclear power has zero carbon emission and a low environmental footprint. A nuclear reactor takes up 13 acres per megawatt. To put into perspective just how incredible that is – a wind farm takes up 77 acres per megawatt and a solar farm takes up 44 acres per megawatt. A hydroelectric plant takes up a whopping 315 acres of land per megawatt.

The benefits of nuclear energy are becoming more clear every day. It creates a rare point of cooperation among groups who are typically opposed to one another’s solutions. If even Joe Biden’s climate expert is touting nuclear, maybe we need to start thinking more seriously about clearing the way for nuclear and leaving behind environmentally damaging projects like wind and solar farms.

Louisiana Legislature Votes Overwhelmingly for Constitutional Carry in 2021

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- HB 596 was passed on 5 May 2021. It is a fairly good Constitutional Carry bill with a 21-year-old age limit and a requirement to reveal to peace officers your condition of being armed.

Voting was 73 to 26 for final passage.  From the advocate.com:

A bill that would allow citizens 21 and older to carry a concealed handgun without a permit breezed through the Louisiana House on Wednesday.

The measure, House Bill 596, won approval 72-28 after a short but spirited debate.

It next faces action in the state Senate, which approved a similar bill last week by an equally lopsided margin.

Eight Democrats voted for the bill, with 64 Republicans. 70 votes are needed to override a veto……..

Shortly after the vote on Constitutional Carry, the House voted unanimously for HB 124.  HB 124 removed the ban on carrying knives from people who have a concealed carry permit.  It passed 94 – 0.  It did not make sense for people to have the right to carry pistols, but not knives.

Constitutional Carry is a reasonable approximation of the state of law when the Second Amendment was ratified, in 1791. At that time, no permit was required to carry weapons, openly or concealed.

Governor John Bel Edwards has promised he would veto a Constitutional Carry bill. Then the Senate passed SB118, which is similar to HB596. It passed with a strong majority, 27 for and 11 against.

Both House and Senate votes are enough to override a governor’s veto. An override would require a 2/3 majority, 70 votes in the House, and 26in the Senate.

For a number of reasons, veto overrides are often more difficult to obtain than the original votes suggest. Legislators may wish to go on record as voting for something, knowing the governor will veto it. Then they vote to uphold the veto.  There is also party loyalty involved. Many are unwilling to override a veto of a governor of their party.

It is still a good strategy to attempt a veto override of a governor of the opposite party. It shows the base you are serious; it shows principle on the part of the legislators.

For Democrats, it might show a willingness to go against the party, when their voters are more conservative. While an override may be a long shot, it may be work in this case.

Texas is a strong contender to pass Constitutional Carry in 2021.

Utah, Iowa, Tennessee, and Wyoming have all restored Constitutional carry this year. There are now 20 states with Constitutional Carry.

People in red states want to send a message to President Biden: Do not mess with the Bill of Rights! They also want to be ready for societal unrest.  Gun sales continue to break records. Ammunition is difficult to find, even though it is being produced as fast as possible

BLUF:
Seems that Mike Bloomberg, Kevin Sheekey, Everytown and the Chinese Communist Party all share a common goal, don’t you think? I mean, judge for yourselves.

Everytown’s Chinese Communist Party Connection

On May 17, Breitbart News published an exclusive article detailing Mike Bloomberg and his buddies working hand in hand with the Chinese Communist Government. Over at Mom-At-Arms, we published our own article after researching those involved in Breitbart’s, and as it turns out, someone very important within Everytown‘s ranks is among the individuals pinpointed. You could say Everytown might not exist without him.
It‘s no secret the Chinese government is not a fan of the 2nd Amendment. In fact in 2012 (and to this day), they say that civilian gun ownership in the US is a “human rights violation“ (thank you, David, for the link). So where does Everytown fit in? Per the Breitbart Exclusive, focus on Kevin Sheekey:
  • December 21, 2015: Bloomberg LP global executive vice president Kevin Sheekey met with Jiang as well as Zhang Fuhai and Zhang Hongbin, respectively the director general and deputy director general of the SCIO Internet Affairs Bureau. They run an arm of the Chinese regime that deals with Internet censorship. Sheekey would become Michael Bloomberg’s campaign manager for his 2020 presidential run.
  • June 7, 2017: Kevin Sheekey, who was then vice president of government relations at Bloomberg LP, again met with communist propaganda minister Jiang. According to the Chinese government, “they talked about China-U.S. media exchanges and cooperation, the introduction of Chinese stories to the world, and efforts to promote healthy and stable relations between the two countries.”
Kevin Sheekey, as named in Breitbart’s article along with many more, is friendly with the Chinese Communist Government and has been working closely with those that deal with censorship, as well as promoting pro-Chinese stories here in the US.

Continue reading “”

The reason I post this is that I really wonder why it took so long for the prosecutor to take this in front of a Grand Jury, not a question on the particulars of the case, of which I have no more information than what’s in the article.
It seems to me, that if a prosecutor takes this long to do his job, the problem isn’t the investigation of the facts of the case, it’s the prosecutor not liking the fact he had such a weak, or non-existent case that he couldn’t even convince a Grand Jury that there was just enough evidence to show ‘probable cause’. Which is all it takes for a Grand Jury to send a case to court.

Grand jury declines to indict man in Thanksgiving Day shooting death

JACKSON COUNTY, Ky. WTVQ) – A 45-year-old McKee resident has been released from jail after more than five months after a grand jury declined to indict him in connection with a shooting death on Thanksgiving Day 2020.

According to the Jackson County Detention Center and Commonwealth Attorney Gary Gregory’s office, the grand jury returned a ‘no true bill’ against Clint Cox and he was released from jail May 5.

A ‘no true bill’ means the grand jury did not find enough evidence to support a criminal indictment on murder or some related charge.

Gregory was out of his office Thursday but an assistant prosecutor said he didn’t hear the grand jury presentation in the case but usually a ‘no true bill’ in such a case meant some evidence of self defense.

Kentucky State Police Det. Rob Morris could not be reached for comment Thursday about the evidence.

Cox originally was arrested and charged with murder on Nov. 26 after he fatally shot 21-year-old Justin Burkhart during an argument outside a home on Highway 421 in the McKee community. He had been in jail since then until his release earlier this month.

ORIGINAL STORY POSTED NOV. 27, 2020

MCKEE, Ky. (WTVQ) – A Thanksgiving Day argument left one man dead and another in jail in Jackson County, according to Kentucky State Police.

Investigators say 21-year old Justin Burkhart, of McKee, got into an altercation outside a home on US Highway 421 with 45-year old Clint Cox, also of McKee.

KSP says Cox grabbed a gun and shot Burkhart to death. Investigators say it happened just after 2:00 p.m. They did not say what the argument was about.

State Police say Cox was arrested and charged with murder. He was taken to the Jackson County Detention Center.

Burkhart’s body is being taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville for an autopsy, according to KSP.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by KSP Post 7 Detective Rob Morris. He was assisted at the scene by KSP personnel, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the Jackson County Coroner’s Office, Jackson County EMS and the McKee Fire Department.

WHY BIDEN WANTS A WAR IN ISRAEL

Terrorists have only one thing to offer. It’s right there in the name.

The business model of terrorism is killing people and then demanding a payoff. The game always works the same way. The terrorists attack, their targets fight back, and a third party sends in the diplomats to negotiate on behalf of the terrorists before they get hit too hard.

The Islamic terrorist war against Israel has worked exactly this way for generations.

Like a radio pop song that plays every time you go into a supermarket, you know the next verse and can feel the next beat before it even kicks in no matter how much you hate the music.

It’s the same way with the regular mini wars that begin with a manufactured political provocation that can be blamed on Israel, (this time a court ruling evicting illegal Muslim colonists occupying homes that were seized during the ‘48 ethnic cleansing of Jews from Jerusalem), followed by terrorist violence with the usual pattern of attack and escalation.

Hamas and a few of its allies shell Israeli towns and cities using the latest Iranian technology and some of their own cruder models. Israel responds by calculatedly taking out terrorist compounds which Hamas has, with equal calculation, filled with civilian human shields.

Especially children.

Politicians, the media, and social media (three distinctions without a difference) rush to attack Israel, vastly inflating the already inflated casualty figures put out by the terrorists, lying about the nature of the conflict, and doing their best to mainstream antisemitism a little more.

The Biden administration makes a few public statements vaguely supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, an absurd point, and sends in mediators to negotiate the payoff for the terrorists.

Israel had a brief break from America acting as the paymaster and bagman for the terrorists.

It was a refreshing pause especially for all the children who didn’t get bombed, the homes that didn’t have rockets smash through their roofs, and the soldiers who didn’t get shot just so that State Department negotiators could tell Israel the current going rate for ending the attacks.

Islamic terrorists aren’t crazy or irrational. The average suicide bomber might be, but their leadership doesn’t do anything without a profit motive.

The profits for Islamic terrorism against Israel come in two ways.

First, the terrorists are backed by Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and the rest of the Islamist gang to carry out attacks on Israel. Second, the terrorists are rewarded by the United States, Europe, and Israel for ending the attacks.

This never leads to peace because if you keep rewarding terrorists for ending the violence, you’re also telling them that if they do it all over again, they’ll profit from the violence.

Paying the terrorists not to attack you is really the same thing as paying them to attack you.

But the essence of the peace game is obliviousness. That means believing that there are root causes that can resolve the underlying grievances. The root cause is the existence of Israel.

The terrorists want to destroy Israel: Israel doesn’t want to be destroyed.

Continue reading “”

Biden Administration Is Flying Illegal Aliens to American Cities in the Middle of the Night

As the illegal immigration crisis on the U.S. southern border with Mexico continues, the Biden Administration is flying unaccompanied minors and family units to cities around the country in the middle of the night. From local WRCBtv in Tennessee:

Chattanooga’s Wilson Air Center is receiving planes carrying migrant children who are being bused to multiple southeastern cities during overnight hours.

Channel 3 obtained video of one of those planes arriving Friday, May 14 shortly before 1:30 a.m.

A second video, shared with Channel 3, shows more children arriving late Saturday night. According to the source who provided the video, a third plane carrying children arrived Friday afternoon. Flight records confirm that a fourth plane arrived early Wednesday morning, May 19.

The video obtained by Channel 3, shows children who appear to be in their early teens carrying matching bags. The children then boarded buses, which were staged on the runway. Two of the four buses seen in the video are owned by Coast to Coast Tours of East Point, Georgia.

The flights are prompting questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill as the Department of Homeland Security continues to hide how they are dealing with a historic influx of illegal immigration.

If ‘gun control’ laws really worked, this wouldn’t happen.

Tremonton man pleads no contest in gun trafficking case

A Tremonton man who was restricted from owning firearms due to a previous violent felony conviction in the 1980s has pleaded no contest to 11 misdemeanor charges after he was caught selling guns online in a January 2020 Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) sting operation.

Richard Lewis Andrew Christiansen, 67, who had been convicted in the 1980s of a felony for sending threatening communications through the mail in another state, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in April of this year that had him plead “no contest” to five counts of Class A misdemeanor attempted transfer of a firearm by a restricted person, five counts of Class A misdemeanor attempted unlawful solicitation for a firearm transfer, and one count of Class B misdemeanor providing false information on a concealed weapons application.

In exchange for the “no contest” pleas, Box Elder County prosecutors dismissed 18 third-degree felony counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, and six third-degree felony counts of transaction of a firearm or dangerous weapon in violation of law.

Christiansen is scheduled to be sentenced on May 24 by 1st District Judge Spencer Walsh. He faces up to a $1,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail on the Class B misdemeanor charge, and up to a $2,400 fine and 364 days in jail for each Class B misdemeanor charge.

According to court documents, the BCI first became aware of Christiansen when he was denied a gun purchase after he answered that he was a convicted felon on a required form.

“In May 2014, Defendant attempted to purchase a firearm but was denied because he marked that he was a convicted felon on the application form,” reads the statement of probable cause. But in an application for a concealed carry permit from March 12, 2018, Christiansen answered “no” to the question asking about felony convictions.

An oversight at BCI led the agency to issue Christiansen the carry permit, which was discovered nearly two years later.

In January of 2020, agents from the BCI conducted an undercover operation targeting Christiansen and were able to purchase two guns and ammunition from him using an online auction site. Christiansen was taken into custody after meeting with the undercover agent to complete the gun sale. A search warrant executed on Christiansen’s Tremonton home turned up 23 additional guns, which Christiansen “admitted he owned.”

Christensen was able to post a $10,000 bail bond, and made an initial appearance before 1st District Judge Brandon Maynard on June 22 of 2020. A preliminary hearing held on Nov. 2 found there was enough evidence to support the charges, and Christensen was bound over for trial.

At a pre-trial conference on April 14 of this year the plea arrangement was reached, dropping the felony charges.

“Since that felony conviction back in the 80s he’s really had no other criminal involvements and has become a good, productive member of society. Due to him leading an otherwise good life and the oversight by BCI, I decided to offer a plea to misdemeanors,” said Box Elder County prosecutor Blair Wardle, when asked about the plea arrangement.

Just because politicians have an “R” after their name doesn’t mean they’re automatically less tyrant minded than their demoncrap counterparts.

Senator Marco Rubio admits he’s a Second Amendment ‘butter’
The senior Senator from Florida tells a reader he supports the Second Amendment, but

At 5-feet 10-inches, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is the same height as Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), but that’s not all the two have in common.

Neither Rubio nor Feinstein support the Second Amendment.

While Feinstein is open an upfront about her anti-rights passion, Rubio is riding the fence. Several bills he’s introduced clearly infringe upon the Second Amendment, but he still tries to hide his anti-rights zealotry in communications with constituents.

A reader recently reached out to Rubio after reading this story: Sen. Rubio’s red-flag bill would allow ‘temporary’ firearm confiscation and delay due process.

“I emailed him a while ago about his Red-flag bill he sponsored after you taught me about it and telling him it violated several amendments and to my dismay this was the response I received,” she said in an email. I am not publishing her name.

She noted that Rubio’s reply was “vague” and that he was “not specifically addressing the issues about his bill’s violation of due process and our other amendments as opposed to him saying that our communities lack the law enforcement resources.”

Politicians have form letters for irate constituents. I have no doubt our reader received one of Rubio’s letters designed to appease an angry Second Amendment supporter. I’m guessing his staff sends out a lot of them, especially since he introduced the federal red-flag bill.

“I hold the fundamental belief that the Second Amendment should not be altered,” Rubio’s email states. “While I have always supported the right of law-abiding Americans to bear arms to protect themselves and their families, I am committed to working with my colleagues in the Senate to create a more effective system to prevent senseless gun violence, without unnecessarily infringing on the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment.”

Two things leap out of that statement. First, “senseless gun violence” is a Bloomberg talking point, which is used by Demanding Moms, Everytown and the Trace.

Second, Rubio hopes to create a more effective system “without unnecessarily infringing on the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment.”

I guess that means the Senator is willing to infringe upon our Second Amendment rights, but only when he believes it’s necessary.

Bunkum, that is.

Continue reading “”

Now is the Time to Make the Case: Remove SBRs from the NFA

As the Biden administration gears up to pass fresh guidance on pistol stabilizing braces, I humbly suggest that this is precisely the time to get working on legislation to remove SBRs — short barreled rifles — from the purview of the 1934 National Firearms Act.

Arguments and assertions from the DOJ / ATF / Biden administration related to pistol braces only strengthen the case that SBRs shouldn’t be subject to special scrutiny as compared to rifles with 16-inch or longer barrels.

In my comprehensive “How Does ATF’s Vague Pistol Brace Guidance Contradict Itself?” article, I went section-by-section through the draft guidance document (which, to be sure, is going to be the model for whatever comes out of the Biden White House if it isn’t simply used verbatim) and played angel’s advocate, arguing why each and every section was and is wrong, vague, inconsistent, misleading, anti-factual, self-contradictory, and/or just plain dishonest.

The Biden administration is in the final stages of drafting a regulation on firearm accessories that can be used to make pistols more like rifles . . .

. . . The firearm accessory can make pistols more accurate and deadlier. It effectively transforms a pistol into a short-barreled rifle . . .

Does your head also spin when you see the exact same people who have always banned or attempted to ban “assault weapon” features on the basis that they allow for “spraying fire” and “firing from the hip,” and have banned “Saturday Night Specials” in part due to their inherent inaccuracy now railing against pistol stabilizing braces for having exactly the opposite effect?

I’m sorry, but can y’all please decide if accuracy is a good thing or a bad thing? I’ll give you a hint: it’s good.

Continue reading “”

Washington Post Frets That Iron Dome Means Not Enough Israeli Civilians Are Getting Killed for Hamas to Win

For the past week, Israel and Hamas have been engaged in an energetic exchange of ordnance. The catalyst for the current rejuvenation of Hamas’ terror campaign against Israel is unclear but the reason it is happening now and not one or two or three or four years ago is crystal clear. Unhappy at inheriting a quiescent Middle East where Israel and the Arab world are developing economic, security, and diplomatic ties and Iran is so cash-strapped that it is finding it difficult to fund its terrorist operations, the Biden bunch is, in a flashback from the Obama administration, attempting to bolster Iran as the regional superpower while limiting assistance and cooperation with our Arab allies and with Israel. The same sort of big-brain thinking that gave us the Arab Spring, a terrorist state in Libya, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Syria, and made Iraq into a de facto Iranian satrapy is now trying to encourage the Palestinians to engage in a new intifada.

Hamas continues to launch rockets from inside residential areas using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

They are conspicuously attacking civilian targets within Israel. Both actions are crimes against the law of armed conflict but they are shooting at Israelis so no one cares.

What has made this conflict less harrowing for Israeli civilians is a missile defense system called “Iron Dome.”

If you were alive during the Reagan era and can remember MIT physics professors yammering on and on about how the Strategic Defense initiative could never work because it required “hitting a bullet with a bullet,” you probably enjoy their repudiation as much as I do. Nearly every day we see video evidence that Iron Dome overmatches Hamas’ rocket inventory, see Israel Moves Armor Towards Gaza as Hundreds of Rockets Are Launched by Hamas — Iron Dome on Display Again and Remarkable Videos of Israel’s “Iron Dome” Stopping Rockets Fired From Gaza — Where Is the Biden Administration?

The success of Iron Dome and the astonishing lack of casualties on both sides should be a cause for hope and celebration among sane people but such folk are in short supply on the pages of the Washington Post. For instance, there is this from the Washington Post’s aptly named “Monkey Cage”  section that purports to provide “Analysis:” Israel’s Iron Dome defense system protects Israeli lives. It also perpetuates the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Here’s the ironic outcome: Even as Iron Dome enables devastating Israeli bombardment from the air, it protects Gazan civilians from potentially devastating outcomes of an Israeli ground offensive, which would be the likely alternative. The increasing legal scrutiny of Israel’s wars, from the U.N. investigations that followed the earlier operations and the current attention from the International Criminal Court, gives Israel an interest in diminishing global pressure for military restraint and a political resolution……..…

Iron Dome up to this point has saved Israeli lives from Gaza rocket attacks, while enabling air campaigns against Palestinian citizens. But the reduced pressure to resolve the conflict with Gaza also means Iron Dome gives Israelis a false sense of security, based on technological success — which isn’t guaranteed forever — rather than political solutions.

Consider this for a moment. You have a defensive system that protects Israelis from Hamas terrorism and because it is damned effective, there is no political pressure on the Israeli government to conduct a punitive expedition into the terrorist stronghold of Gaza. This saves the lives of Israeli soldiers and Gazan civilians. Yet, the system is bad because it saves lives, renders Hamas terrorism ineffective, and Israel is not bludgeoned into accepting a victory by the terrorists. This is an incredible admission that the Washington Post stands foursquare with Hamas terrorists and their methods and endorses the idea that the more people killed the better.

Continue reading “”

Comment O’ The Day:
Actually Mao said “Women hold up half the sky.”
This potato cant even plagiarize correctly.

Biden Parrots Quote Made Famous By Communist Dictator Mao Zedong: “Women Hold Up Half The World”

Joe Biden Has a ‘Please Clap’ Moment That Would Make Jeb! Bush Blush

If you thought Jeb! Bush was low energy, you haven’t seen Joe Biden lately, and by lately, I mean anytime in the last few years. Now, Biden is one-upping the former Republican presidential candidate in a different area.

While attending a graduation ceremony for the U.S. Coast Guard, Biden had his “please clap” moment in a cringe-tastic display where he insulted the graduating class and then wondered allowed why they didn’t break out into applause at his brilliance.

For posterity, here’s Bush’s viral moment.

Yeah, that was cringe, but I think Biden has him beat. Here’s the current president attempting to make a joke about the Navy that apparently no one understood. In response,he calls them “dull” and then ponders why they didn’t clap while proclaiming “C’mon man, is the sun getting to you?”

Biden’s appearance as a cosplay of Skeletor should be enough to elicit a few laughs, but this joke was that bad, I guess. You’ve probably noticed that one of Biden’s tics is that when people don’t respond the way he wants, he insults and belittles them. It’s a defense mechanism that never comes across well. Here, after he chastises the class, he finally gets a few laughs from what sounds like officers near the front, but there’s never a real response.

Of course, maybe some of this has to do with the fact that military members aren’t necessarily keen on Biden and his party. With more and more woke garbage being shoved down their throats by the top brass at the direction of the administration and a foreign policy that promises to cause chaos, why would they be?

Past that, if you’ve got a really good memory you may recall that this isn’t Biden’s first time to insult military members while demanding applause. He did it back in 2016, calling the troops he was speaking to “dumb bastards” for not clapping at a quip about his wife and a military appointment.

Here’s the quote via a “fact-check” by Reuters which desperately tries to spin what he said.

Then he said, “I just want you to know that. Clap for that, you stupid bastards.” After the applause, Biden said to the audience, “Man, you are a dull bunch.  Must be slow here, man. I don’t know.”

Everything that’s old is new again for this administration, I suppose. To be fair, Biden probably doesn’t even remember that he had already made nearly the exact same comment half a decade earlier.

Even still, maybe Biden should take a breath and realize that military members do not exist to clap like seals for him every time he says something dumb.

He wasn’t just interested in Edison’s medicine.

Nikola Tesla invention from 100 years ago suddenly makes more sense today
The eccentric inventor is known for dabbling with electricity, but his Tesla valve is impressing scientists anew.

Inventor Nikola Tesla has long been recognized for a body of work that ranges from brilliant (AC electricity) to baffling (an “earthquake machine“?). Scientists have studied one of his lesser-known inventions  in new detail, and they think they may have found new uses for it in the modern world.

Tesla’s macrofluidic valve — often just called the Tesla valve — is a sort of odd-shaped conduit for fluids in which a main channel is interspersed with a series of diverting teardrop-shaped loops. The loops are oriented in such a way that fluids easily flow through in one direction, but when reversed, the flow is almost totally blocked.

Continue reading “”

Cowardly Journalists Chuckle as Biden Jokes About Murdering Them:

Imagine if Donald Trump had jokingly threatened to murder journalists standing in front of him. They probably wouldn’t have laughed. Yet that’s what Joe Biden did on Tuesday and the assembled reporters just chuckled at the funny threat. While test driving an electric Ford F-150, ABC’s Cecilia Vega broke up the adoring queries about the car by actually asking, “Mr. President, can I ask you a quick question about Israel before you drive away since it’s so important?”

Biden, who was sitting in a truck at the time, sneered, “No, you can’t. Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it. I’m only teasing.” The off-camera journalists awkwardly snickered in reply. Biden then drove off, having threatened the press and then not answered the serious question.

Just prior to a real question, the reporters acted as Democratic hacks, offered up sycophantic queries about the photo-op. They included, “How does it feel to be behind the wheel, sir?”  and “Mr. President, how fast were you going?” Biden was happy to answer those.

We don’t actually have to imagine how the networks would react if this were Trump. In July of 2017, the then-President tweeted a video of a wrestling video in which Trump grappled with a superimposed CNN logo. On the July 3, 2017 Today, Hallie Jackson warned, “A spokesperson for the cable network saying, ‘It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters’…”

Then-CNN political commentator Sally Kohn fretted, “Both sides have a problem with hateful crazies. The difference is the left denounces theirs. The right elects theirs president.” Journalists on the network declared Trump a “dangerous” madman who will get members of the press killed.

How will Cecilia Vega report this story? Wonder how the people at CNN feel now? They probably laughed along with the reporters Biden threatened today.