Below The Radar – LEAD Act

Attacks on our right to keep and bear arms don’t just take the form of gun bans or universal background checks. If anything, anti-Second Amendment extremists have always been scheming to find ways to make it harder to exercise our rights, and some of them are quite diabolical in the way many Second Amendment supporters do not see them coming.

One such bill is HR 405, the LEAD Act, introduced by Ted Lieu, a congressman from California (no surprise, a Democrat). In this case LEAD stands for Lead Endangers Animals Daily, and it bans the use of traditional ammunition on lands that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has jurisdiction over. For a first offense, there is a $500 fine, with additional offenses leading to fines from $1,000 to $5,000.

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Today we laid to rest my eldest Uncle.
Ninety and Nine he was.
He shall be missed.

Arthur Hyde Barner
July 12, 1921 – February 24, 2021
Arthur H. Barner passed away peacefully at his home on February 24, 2021. He was born on July 12, 1921 in Pontiac, Missouri to Sam and Ida (Wilbanks) Barner.
In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his wife of almost 60 years Retha (Jones), brothers Elza, Gene, Jim, sister Elsie (Alcorn) and son Richard and daughter-in-law Donna (McCracken).

Arthur is survived by son Wendell (Ellen) of Steubenville, OH; daughter Joyce Allen (Mike) of Joplin, MO; granddaughters Nichole Harvey, Brandi (Nick) Frisbee, Stephanie (Josh) Howard, and grandson Chris (Lisa) Allen; and eight greatgrandchildren; brothers Bill, Gerald, and Fred and sisters Laverne Dutcher, Mary Ruth (Si) Larsen, Danny Kaye Barner, and Carolyn McCorkle.

 

We Now Know the First Gun Control Move Congressional Democrats Are Making

Democrats have had a few legislative priorities since they took control of both Congress and the White House. Their number one focus has been on the “American Rescue Plan,” President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. But their next policy focus is shifting towards imposing stricter gun control laws.

According to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Democrats are planning to pursue “enhanced background checks” as early as next week.

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New House Bill Would Expand List of ‘Prohibited Persons’

Not all gun control attempts are as blatant as Democrat Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s manifold (and yearly) insanity.

Indeed, most look positively reasonable — at least if you only read the title.

Such is H.R. 882, the “Keeping Guns from High-Risk Individuals Act” introduced by Rep. Robin L. Kelly, (D-Illinois).

Introduced in early February, text of the bill was just released, and is hair-raising, particularly if one digs a bit deeper, than the simple language.

In short, Kelly’s bill is a huge expansion of the criteria used to prohibit persons from legally owning a firearm under federal law, which right now includes those convicted of a felony or a domestic violence misdemeanor, and those adjudicated as mentally ill.

H.R. 882 would amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to include anyone who:

… in the most recent 10-year period, has been convicted in any court (emphasis added) of a crime of violence (as defined in section 16);

“(11) has not attained 25 years of age, (emphasis added) and has been adjudicated by any court as having committed an offense that would have been a crime of violence (as defined in section 16) if committed by an adult;

“(12) in any period of 3 consecutive years in the most recent 10-year period, has been convicted in any court, on 2 separate occasions, of an offense that has, as an element, the possession or distribution of, or the intent to possess or distribute, alcohol or a controlled substance (as so defined); or

“(13) has been convicted in any court (emphasis added) of stalking.”

Now 18 U.S. Code section 16 is disturbingly vague, and simply defines a “crime of violence” as:

(a)an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or prop­erty of another, (emphasis added) or

(b)any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.

Clearly, no one could argue against keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals right?

Much will be dependent — should this pass — on how Section 16 is interpreted, and on the relevant case law, but as written if you got in a bar fight when you were 21, and were charged with simple battery (generally a misdemeanor) or even threatened violence (assault in many jurisdictions, also a misdemeanor) — or were a young idiot and did a little vandalism —  you would suddenly be ineligible to own a firearm for the rest of your life.

Note too, this says “any court,” not just federal court.

Kelly’s legislation would create an entirely new class of federally-prohibited persons — those who have been “convicted of a crime of violence,” even if no violence actually took place.

Look, no one wants firearms in the hands of violent felons, but this bill doesn’t prevent that. Anyone convicted of a felony is already a prohibited person.

This expands the list of “prohibited persons” to include those convicted of misdemeanors, not just felonies.

It’s clear that the goal of Kelly’s legislation isn’t about reducing gun violence (not that any of these proposed bills are), it’s all about reducing the number of people who can legally own a firearm.

Sound like he got a ‘tune up’

Mitt Romney knocked unconscious, suffers black eye during fall

Sen. Mitt Romney was knocked unconscious when he fell in Boston over the weekend, leaving him with “a lot of stitches” and a black eye.

“I took a fall. Knocked me unconscious. But I’m doing better,” Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday night.

The Utah Republican said he was visiting his grandchildren when he got injured.

With noticeable bruising under his right eye, Romney infused some humor into the situation.

“I went to CPAC, that was a problem,” the Republican lawmaker joked, referring to the Conservative Political Action Conference that ended Sunday.

Romney was not invited to the marquee event after receiving backlash over his vote to impeach ex-President Donald Trump.

Asked how many stitches he received, Romney claimed he was not sure.

“A lot of stitches. I don’t know how many. I asked the doctor how many stitches and she said, I don’t know, but it’s all through my eyebrow and my lip.”

Just me, but I remember ‘Concealed Means Concealed‘, I figured out what was meant.

Criminals Know Rideshare Drivers Are Disarmed And They Are Targeting Them

It appears as if the word has gotten out in the criminal underworld; if you’re looking for an easy target to rob, rape, or carjack, finding a victim is as easy as pulling out your phone.

We’ve been covering the rise in carjackings and other violent crimes committed against Uber and Lyft drivers for some time now, including the story of Cynthia Norman, a Cleveland woman and driver for Lyft who was cut loose by the company because she dared to defend herself against a pair of attackers with her legally owned and lawfully carried firearm.

Both Uber and Lyft have policies that require drivers be unarmed, and most of the folks contracting to drive for the companies abide by those restrictions (though clearly not all of them do).

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Requiring Training Before Owning A Gun is a Threat To The Second Amendment

A question I get a lot is do I believe everyone should be required by law to get some form of firearm training before they can own a gun?

I deeply believe that anyone who owns a gun or plans to buy a gun should to some degree get some training on how to use and operate the gun not only safely but more effectively.

But the question still remains, do I agree with government mandated training before owning a gun? Absolutely NOT and here is why.

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The Stand Down Order Raises Questions

In early February, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a stand-down order of sixty days for all of the armed forces. Such an order will enable military officers to make sure there are no extremists in their units.

This stand-down order was issued in response to the January 6 Capitol riot, during which military veterans and even active-duty military personnel were said to have participated in the violence.

Meanwhile, National Guard units are still being deployed in Washington, D.C. to thwart any potential violence, and will be leaving sometime in March. Ironically, some liberals have speculated that these units might have extremists among their ranks. In addition, extra security measures (e.g. concrete walls, fencing) have been taken, particularly for Inauguration Day.

So how exactly will the military determine if there are any extremists within their ranks? Obviously, background checks are conducted on all individuals who want to join the military, so that would eliminate any chances of extremists serving in the armed forces.

Is this stand-down order necessary, or is it a knee-jerk reaction to the events of January 6?

It is apparent that liberals have not always cared much for the military,
considering all the cutbacks that they have imposed or proposed over the years.
And given the fallout from the Capitol riot, some of them are afraid of a possible coup, perhaps even one similar to that depicted in the film Seven Days in May, or possibly military coups that have taken place in other countries.

But liberals are probably concerned about an insurrection from the American people themselves, which is why Parler has been shut down and criticism of liberals on social media can result in one’s posts being removed, or possibly their account(s) being suspended or even terminated.

Needless to say, liberals are apparently not going to tolerate any type of criticism or questioning of their policies. Such intolerance is evident when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advocated the “reprograming” of those she considers to be white supremacist or extremist.

If her idea of reprograming is adopted, I wonder if the government will start off by implementing it on all military personnel.

And how exactly will such reprograming be implementing? Re-education camps (similar to those in communist nations)? Brainwashing? Indoctrination? Mind- control?

Is it clear that liberals do not trust the American people, given their contempt for America. And that is why they need to be voted out, starting with the 2022 elections.

Noop. Even after they learn this, they don’t get to lecture anyone.

14 Things Everyone Should Understand About Guns
Guns aren’t that complicated. Learn a little bit about them before lecturing other people about gun safety.

Guns can be dangerous in the wrong hands. But so are articles about guns written by people who don’t understand anything about them.

There’s sadly no excuse to be ignorant about firearms. They’ve been around for hundreds of years. They’re owned and operated safely by tens of millions of Americans each year. Our Constitution guarantees our individual right to possess guns so that we might be able to defend ourselves from those who would violently take away our freedom. Many gun controllers, however — some of whom have bylines for major media organizations — don’t actually know the first thing about firearms.

Here’s a good example of the kind of self-inflicted injury that can result from weaponizing an ill-informed opinion about guns and gun-related paraphernalia, courtesy of Ryan J. Reilly of Huffington Post:

Unfortunately, Reilly is hardly alone in his complete ignorance of how guns work. Our nation is facing an epidemic of gun-related misreporting. As a public service to those who have opinions about guns but don’t really want to spend much time learning anything about them, I’ve compiled a simple list of 14 basic things everyone should understand before writing or talking about guns.

1) Don’t Lecture Anyone On Gun Safety Until You Understand The Basic Rules

These are rules literally every person should understand, because you never know when you might be in a situation that requires you to handle a firearm. To seasoned gun owners, these basic gun safety rules are gospel. If faithfully followed, they will prevent the likelihood of you ever shooting someone who did not pose an immediate and mortal threat to an innocent person.

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Virginia College Forfeits Basketball Game After Suspending Players For Kneeling During Anthem.

………The players claim that a pro-Trump rally held near the campus shows that some protests are OK with the school. But the school pointed out that the Trump rally was held on city streets, not college grounds.

That didn’t satisfy the players: “So it’s OK for everyone to have a Trump rally with Confederate flags, but it’s not OK for us to kneel for our people who’ve fallen,” Christian said. “He didn’t have an answer for that.”

This is the mind of a child in the body of a college athlete. The Trump rally was not on the college grounds. The school had no connection with it. [College President David Olive] tried to explain that to all the children on campus.

“We are a private entity, not a governmental entity,” Olive said in his statement. “We have policies and guidelines throughout the student handbook and the academic catalog that limit certain rights you otherwise might have elsewhere, such as in your home or in a public venue. The most important to me as it pertains to this matter, however, is what I shared earlier. When someone puts on a uniform or is performing a function on behalf of Bluefield College, that person is now representing Bluefield College. Heightened expectations are now placed on that individual as to what s/he can and cannot do or say as a representative of the College.”

Virginia school system cancels Dr. Seuss, citing racial ‘undertones’ in writings: report.

Celebrated American children’s author Dr. Seuss is now considered too controversial for one of Virginia’s largest school districts, a new report reveals.

For over two decades, Dr. Seuss’s birthday has been celebrated in schools as Read Across America Day — a day dedicated to the importance of reading and literacy. The day falls on Dr. Seuss’s birthday in honor of the impactful author, whose books have helped countless children learn to read across the globe.

But folllowing pressure from activists, Loudon County Public Schools is reportedly dropping the annual Dr. Seuss celebration.

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I have the honor of being acquainted with Chief Durant, along with some of the other pilots who served in the 160th, and elsewhere.

Desert Storm 30th anniversary: Mike Durant

Feb. 28 marks the 30-year anniversary of the end of the Gulf War – a nearly 7-month battle resulting in almost 300 American deaths.

Mike Durant had, as the saying goes, “a front-row seat to history”.

Long before he became a renowned master aviator, best-selling author, husband and father of six, Durant was a kid growing up with a younger sister in a working-class family in Berlin, northern New Hampshire.

One summer, he worked for an Army National Guard warrant officer who owned a small aviation business with some helicopters and airplanes in his home state. “I got to go flying with him over the White Mountains in New Hampshire. It was the most amazing thing I had experienced at that point in my life and, from that moment on, set my sights on becoming a warrant officer and flying helicopters in the Army.”

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The Bidens do another joint Presidential interview.

Banning whole categories of popular guns will lose in Supreme Court

On Feb. 14, President Biden marked the third anniversary of the deadly shooting incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with an announcement that he is calling on Congress to enact “common sense gun law reforms.”

As always, the details matter. The president defined “common sense” as a requirement for background checks on all gun sales, a ban on “assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” and an end to “immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”

The U.S. Supreme Court held in 2008, in the District of Columbia v. Heller decision, that the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” is an individual right that is not contingent on service in “a well-regulated militia.” That means the U.S. Constitution limits the federal government’s power to pass laws restricting that right.

Exactly where are the limits? That’s always a matter of interpretation. The Heller opinion, written by the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, held that the District’s law prohibiting the possession of handguns was over the line, as was its law requiring residents to keep their lawfully owned, registered long guns “unloaded and dissembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device” unless the guns were located in a place of business or in use for lawful recreational activities.

Scalia wrote that the handgun ban “amounts to a prohibition of an entire class of ‘arms’ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society” for the “lawful purpose” of “the inherent right of self-defense.” Under any standard that the court has used, he wrote, “banning from the home ‘the most preferred firearm in the nation to keep and use for protection of one’s home and family,’ would fail constitutional muster.”

So if the president’s definition of “assault weapon” and “weapons of war” includes commonly owned firearms and magazines, it’s likely that new laws banning these or seeking to create new legal liability for their manufacturers will be found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, should these laws be challenged.

And there’s no doubt that such laws would be challenged. After Biden’s statement was released, the Firearms Policy Coalition responded, denouncing what it called “unconstitutional and immoral policies including bans on common semi-automatic firearms and ammunition magazines.” A number of lawsuits over various state laws related to firearms ownership are already working their way toward the high court.

The Heller decision was 5-4, with Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Steven Breyer in the minority.

Former President Donald Trump campaigned as a staunch defender of Second Amendment rights, and it would not be surprising, to say the least, if the three justices he appointed to the high court share that view to some extent. Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett likely have created a solid majority to strike down broad bans on semiautomatic weapons and laws that flatly prohibit law-abiding citizens from exercising the right to carry a gun. In Scalia’s words, “the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table.”

That won’t stop the Democratic majorities in Congress, together with the president, from enacting doomed laws, or from sending fundraising letters attacking their opponents. It’s always about the next election. It remains a fact that constitutional rights cannot be overridden by a majority vote, except on the Supreme Court.

 

Teen killed in Wildwood double shooting was an intruder; no charges will be filed

WILDWOOD, Mo. (KMOV.com) — No charges will be filed after a teenager was killed in a double shooting inside a Wildwood home Wednesday night.

Officers with the St. Louis County Police Department said 17-year-old Willie Hall, of St. Louis City, was shot to death in the 1100 block of Eagle Creek Road just before 8 p.m. Wednesday. An 18-year-old was also shot and taken to a hospital for treatment.

Investigators said the young men forcefully entered the home looking to buy marijuana. Police said the 18-year-old shooter weighs 133 pounds and Hall was 6’4” and weighed 260 pounds. Officials said no criminal charges will be filed at this time because they were intruders, invoking the shooter’s right to self defense.

1 dead, 2 injured in Rusk County home invasion, gunfight

RUSK COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) – Three people suffered gunshot wounds, and one person later died after a home invasion in Rusk County turned into a gunfight, according to the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a post on the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, RCSO deputies responded to a 911 call about gunshots at a home in the 10000 block of Main Street in New London on Sunday.

When the deputies got to the scene, they found three gunshot victims – two men and a woman. A medical helicopter transported the two men to a Tyler hospital, and an ambulance took the woman to a Tyler hospital as well.

“The preliminary investigation revealed that an armed male entered the residence without consent,” the Facebook post stated. “This woke up the other male who lives at this address. Words were exchanged between the two males, and both males began shooting at one another.”

Both men were shot multiple times, and the woman was hit as well, the Facebook post stated.

The man that broke into the home later died as a result of his injuries.

“The District Attorney’s Office was notified and they will assist with presenting the case to the Grand Jury,” the Facebook post stated.

Iowa Permitless Carry Self Defense Package Bill Introduced

House Study Bill 254 allows a law-abiding adult to carry a concealed firearm, without first needing to obtain government permission. This ensures that citizens have their right to self-defense without government red tape or delays. In addition, it also adds the option for law-abiding citizens to pass a federal background check to acquire a handgun without obtaining a Permit to Acquire, ensures that public housing cannot deny Second Amendment rights to tenants, ensures that local governments cannot restrict lawful carrying of firearms, expands the types of training accepted for a Permit to Carry Weapons, and other Second Amendment provisions.