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Mexico and Unites States Gun Control, Part Deux

The United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) bars the lawsuit in the case of Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The unanimous 9-0 decision, authored by one of the most liberal left Associate Justices, should send a clear signal to end these nuisance lawsuits. But of course, that isn’t going to happen.

Mexico’s President announced they will be continuing with a separate lawsuit against the distributors and retailers excluded from the case just dismissed by SCOTUS. This case, Estados Unidos Mexicanos v. Diamondback Shooting Sports, Inc makes identical claims against the distributors and five firearm retailers, all Federal Firearm Retailers (FFLs) as the previous case.

Mexico claims these distributors and retailers are aiding and abetting Mexican cartels use of firearms against the Mexican people. In this lawsuit, Mexico is not alleging any U.S. crimes were committed by the distributors and retailers. In fact, there is no allegation of any sales not fully compliant with all state and federal laws, including completing ATF Form 4473 and background checks on the purchasers. Multiple sales of handguns and, as is required in border states, multiple sales of centerfire rifles have all be reported to the ATF and local law enforcement as required by law.

What Mexico is alleging is these distributors and retailers had an “opportunity and obligation” to stop the sales of firearms likely to be illegally trafficked to Mexico. They continue to allege “design and marketing decisions” that could “stimulate cartel members’ demand for their products”, as a ploy to worm their way into an exception to the PLCAA. Allegedly, sales of the very same products popular in the United States should be a “red flag” these firearms may somehow unlawfully find their way into Mexico and into the hands of the cartels and used criminally be cartel members. Yet, the Mexico lawsuit does not identify any specific firearms sold by these retailers and later recovered at Mexican crime scenes.

It is worth repeating the PLCAA is a federal law which protects gun manufacturers and licensed dealers from being held liable for any ‘harm caused by those who criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm products or ammunition products that function as designed and intended.’ The law was designed to prevent nuisance lawsuits from being filed for actions clearly beyond the control of the firearm industry.

The fact that Mexico’s lawsuits were allowed to proceed in the first place is a problem. While joining with the majority, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas also authored a significant concurring opinion in the case and advised, “In future cases, courts should more fully examine the meaning of ‘violation’ under the PLCAA.”

“It seems to me that the PLCAA at least arguably requires not only a plausible allegation that a defendant has committed a predicate violation, but also an earlier finding of guilt or liability in an adjudication regarding the ‘violation.’ Allowing plaintiffs to proffer mere allegations of a predicate violation would force many defendants in PLCAA litigation to litigate their criminal guilt in a civil proceeding, without the full panoply of protections that we otherwise afford to criminal defendants,” Thomas wrote. “And, these defendants might even include ones who were cleared in an earlier proceeding, such as through a noncharging decision or a not-guilty or not -liable verdict. Such collateral adjudication would be at best highly unusual and would likely raise serious constitutional questions that would counsel in favor of a narrower interpretation.” “Particularly given the PLCAA’s aim of protecting gun manufacturers from litigation … this issue warrants careful consideration,”

What is really going on? As I pointed out in my original post – Mexico and Unites States Gun Control – this is all being driven by the very same billionaire/millionaire and taxpayer funded anti-gun/anti-Second Amendment lobbyists and lawyers who are writing laws for cities, states and the federal government in the United States and the rest of the world. These rabid anti-gun groups have been and are continuing to fund Mexico’s legal actions against Unites States firearm manufacturers, distributors, retailers, transportation companies and individuals.

They are going after the firearm industry from the manufacturers down to the smallest retailer with lawsuits designed to cripple their business and force them out of the civilian firearm market. Failing this, they would be content to have the courts impose such severe and limiting conditions that very few would be willing to risk the liability of selling firearms not specifically approved by the gun control community to civilians.

Mexico’s lawsuits are really about gun control in the United States and restricting what you and I can purchase, carry and use to protect ourselves and our families. With failures in the courts from District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. Chicago, Caetano v. Massachusetts, Garland v. Cargill, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, the gun control community has been searching for new and innovative ways to restrict firearm rights.

As intended by the gun control community, lawsuits like these will continue as long as they can find willing dupes to allow their names to be used as plaintiffs and ideology driven judges willing to twist and bend federal law and Supreme Court rulings. Meanwhile, millions of dollars will be spent by those caught up in these nuisance lawsuits to defend themselves and our Second Amendment protected rights.

Bob

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You’ll Never Catch Me Doing That – Election 2022

Admit it, as a kid you probably said this to your parents more than a few times. You figured you were pretty damn clever too. You figured your parents would accept this statement as meaning ‘I won’t do that’, when what you really meant is ‘You won’t catch me when I do that’. Well, that’s pretty much the same thing going on with the 2022 Midterm Elections. You’ll never catch me doing that!

If the 2020 elections are known as *the most secure elections in history (the asterisk for all the laws broken, illegal votes, ballot box stuffing, election monitoring interference and results that took days to cheat/count), the 2022 elections will be ones that fine-tuned and perfected the process.

All the affidavits, lawsuits and videos – you know, all that conspiracy theory stuff that never happened – has become nothing more than training materials for this year’s elections. Instead of running vote tally centers like a Las Vegas casino floor or cash room with super high-definition cameras covering every activity from multiple angles, we can expect to see far fewer cameras of lesser quality with more obstructions. We can expect new physical barriers to block public views. Even without the COVID excuse for distance, monitors will be keep further away and not allowed to do their jobs. Tabulation machines will be on hidden networks and those middle of the night, unexplainable spikes in votes for only one candidate will be far more gradual and easily justified by pre-planned statements. In other words, you’re going to see far slicker, more sophisticated operations to get the desired result.

What is the desired result? A victory for “certain” candidates.

We’ve already been warned that Pennsylvania results will take days to be finalized. Why? Because it takes that long to massage results and craft the evidence to support it. Just about every other country in the world can count their votes and declare a winner the same day as the vote. Every village, town and city, no matter how big or small in this country used to be able to do that too. Has our population grown so much, and elections grown so complex that it takes days to do a simple count? No, of course not. But it does take that long to get the results you want.

It’s not much of a stretch to say a lot of people in our country have lost faith in our election process. Recent verified reports show multiple states’ election official training programs instructing their personnel directly in violation of state laws. “Mistakes” in sending out absentee ballots mean illegal ballots abound. Anarchist group members are already claiming to be voting multiple times.

Those in charge of elections are rejecting court rulings and implementing their own standards, guaranteeing the results will be back in the courts for days, weeks, months, and years, only to have the rulings ignored again the next time. Instead of embracing monitors and audits of the election process, administrators and city/county/state councils are stonewalling and refusing to grant access to their processes, systems, and documentation.

For you, the voter, how does this look? Does this give you confidence everything is being done by the book or does is raise questions about what is being done behind closed doors?

I’m also looking at incumbent candidates this year who are trying to obfuscate their track record. Let’s look at how our country has been doing over the past two years and see if these people deserve to continue doing the same thing.

Who shut down your state for two weeks to flatten the curve, that turned into two years to flatten the economy?
Who shut down your business because it wasn’t considered “essential”?
Who quarantined you in your home and arrested you if you went out for “non-essential” reasons?
Who caused you to stand in the cold outside a store for hours just to get what little was available to feed your family?
Who decided you could buy vegetables but not vegetable seeds?
Who put sick patients back into nursing homes filled with the most vulnerable residents?
Who didn’t allow you to morn your family members deaths or attend new family births?
Who sent heavily armed police squads to shut down your business and place of worship?
Who forced people to choose between an experimental vaccine and food or a job?
Who has increased the costs of all essential goods including food, gas and clothing not seen for four decades?
Who has opened our borders to drugs, disease, crime and anyone that wants to walk in unobstructed?
Who has released criminals into our communities, defunded the police, stopped enforcing laws, and allowed crime to skyrocket as public safety plummets?
Who has been sending our tax dollars overseas when we can’t afford to take care of our own people?
Who has been deliberately suppressing YOUR free speech in partnership with the largest technology and social media companies?
Who has been targeting, harassing and arresting parents and concerned citizens for minor or imaginary crimes with large, heavily armed law enforcement officers using tactics once reserved for the most violent of criminals?
Who has blamed YOU for everything that is wrong with this country, when it was their policies, programs and laws that created the problems in the first place?

We’ve been told over and over that we are violent, out of touch extremists who are a direct threat to democracy, when it was someone else all along. Go figure.

I have high hopes that this election cycle will be the correction of the lies and misinformation that has spread across our country, and there’s only one thing that can make that happen.

It’s time to vote.

Bob

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Good Samaritan or Armed Vigilante?

Whenever a legally armed citizen stops a criminal from taking lives, or taking more lives, the anti-gun zealots do two things. First, the try to bury the story in the media and social media so the rest of the nation doesn’t hear about it. Second, when burying it doesn’t succeed, they minimize what happened, attack the legally armed citizen and attempt to show how stopping the threat was the worst, most dangerously irresponsible thing to do.

So is the case of the Greenville Park Mall shooting. A despicable excuse for a human being went to the mall with two rifles and one pistol. Emerging from the restroom, he began shooting at people in the food court. Within 15 seconds, a legally armed citizen who was shopping with his girlfriend, engaged the shooter from 40 yards away, hitting him with the first shot. He then closed in and neutralized him with eight of the ten total rounds fired, all while motioning for people to exit behind him. In the end, three people were killed, and two more injured not counting the deceased gunman. This legally armed citizen was carrying without a “permit” due to Indiana’s very recently enacted Constitutional Carry law. Even more remarkable was the fact he did not have a law enforcement or military background and had no formal firearms training. He learned to shoot from his grandfather.

Once the story was out, there was no burying it so anti-gun extremists put Plan B into effect. They attacked the good guy.

They disputed the fact that the armed citizen was legally carrying a firearm by noting the mall has a “Code of Conduct” which lists: No Weapons.
When the police and public began calling him a Good Samaritan, they began circulating the origin of the term and noting it was from a Bible passage describing how someone stopped and helped another person who was injured. Because of this it is unconscionable to describe someone who took a life as a Good Samaritan.
They called the legally armed citizen a “vigilante” because he shot and killed the gunman and didn’t let the police handle the situation.
They said the legally armed citizen put everyone in the mall in danger by having a gun battle with the shooter.
They claimed defensive gun use is extremely rare and that their data shows that “criminal carry” laws (what the anti-gun zealots call Constitutional Carry) “increase gun crime and gun homicides in the states where they’re passed.”

It’s times like this when a Luke Skywalker quote is appropriate. Every word of what you just said was wrong.

In Indiana, there is no criminal violation for carrying a firearm on private property in violation of a Code of Conduct. If discovered, the property owner can only ask the person to leave. Failure to leave on demand is trespassing.

But let’s expand on that a bit. Gun free zones, places which have signs saying no weapons allowed or a Code of Conduct forbidding the carrying of “weapons” are, and always have been the location of choice for mass murderers. Be it malls, schools or workplaces, 98% of all mass shootings in the United States since 1950 have occurred in a “Gun Free Zone”. The reason is painfully obvious. Law abiding citizens are expected to obey the rules not carry a firearm in them. But murderers have zero problems carrying a gun and killing in a Gun Free Zone. The fact that these Gun Free Zones do NOT screen 100% of the people coming into them and do NOT provide armed security or law enforcement within them makes it easy for murderers to kill unopposed.

Let’s not forget the words of the Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Mayor following the November 21st, 2020 shooting at the Mayfair Mall that left eight people injured. “Mayfair has a strict no-gun policy. If the shooter had complied with that policy, no one would have been hurt yesterday.”

Side note: Even the Greensville Park Mall commended this armed citizen: “… We are grateful for the strong response of the first responders, including the heroic actions of the Good Samaritan who stopped the suspect.”

Attacking the term Good Samaritan is just a straw man argument from the anti-gun zealots. Since the original Samarian only helped by rendering aid vs. taking a life to save many others, no modern day legally armed citizen who uses a firearm can be considered a Good Samaritan. Personally, I find it painful to think someone spent time coming up with that.

This legally armed citizen did not seek out someone to punish without legal authority, he responded to a threat to his life and the lives of innocent people all around him. It was self-defense, not a vigilante inspired gun battle that risked the lives of others. Had this legally armed citizen not intervened, how many would be dead waiting for the law enforcement response? Is this what they would have preferred? Sadly, the answer to that question is yes since a high body count helps them pass more gun control.

The anti-gun zealots are always trying to restrict an individual’s right to self-defense in this country. Even though the United States Supreme Court has ruled the Second Amendment DOES include this right, they’d prefer nobody except a tightly controlled, severely restricted and defunded law enforcement be able to use it.

Following the example of the United Kingdom, the Canadian Prime Minister recently declared: “No one in Canada has a right to defend themselves, their family, or their property with a firearm.” How long before they start saying that in the United States?

And finally, is defensive gun use rare? Not really. Firearms are used by everyday people around our country at a rate of 3:1 over felonious use, to the tune of approximately three million per year. In most of these incidents, the firearm isn’t even fired. Simply demonstrating the ability to be able to adequately defend yourself against a criminal is often enough to stop the crime in its tracks.

It’s also important to note the anti-gun zealots always claim Constitutional Carry laws will turn American cities into the wild, wild west and there will be blood running in the streets. Yet each and every time Constitutional Carry is signed into law, violent crime goes down and public safety goes up.

The FBI (yea, those guys) recently put out their metric of armed citizens stopping active shooter incidents at 4.4%. Except, they missed quite a few shootings and defensive uses. The real number is conservatively around 14.6%. Whether this was intentionally done to help drive a political narrative or simply incompetence, it’s best to take anything that comes out of the former premier law enforcement agency in our country with a massive grain of salt.

There’s one more thing I’d like you to take away from the Greenville Park Mall shooting and that’s the lack of focus on the gunman. Why? Because he was stopped quickly and effectively, we aren’t obsessing about every stupid detail about this psychopath. No stories about his pathetic life, how misunderstood his family says he was, or his horrific body count. Most people wouldn’t be able to recall his name, just as it should be.

Why? Because a hero named Elisjsha Dicken was there to stop him. The focus has been on the young man who had the skills and mental discipline to put a stop to the killing as soon as it started.

What do you think will deter the next mass shooter at a mall, school or workplace? A no weapons “Code of Conduct” policy with a little plastic window sign saying “Gun Free Zone” and a disarmed rule obeying population, or the realization that a legally armed citizen might be there to shoot you when you try to start killing people?

Bob

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Reclaiming NOT Expanding Second Amendment Rights

Perhaps as soon as this week, the United States Supreme Court will issue a decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. The issue before the court is whether the state of New York’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment. However, it is the underlying facts that may ultimately decide whether Second Amendment protected rights are applicable outside the home. This case has the potential to be as significant as Heller and McDonald.

As with all Supreme Court cases, it could be a narrow decision applicable only to New York’s highly restrictive and discriminatory conceal carry permit laws, or wider to include other states with similar conceal carrying permits that require applicants to show “proper cause” or a “special need for self-protection”, namely California, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Hawaii. There is also the chance this ruling may even include setting the standard by which all Second Amendment cases are to be decided.

What it is NOT is an expansion of Second Amendment rights. This is a lie created by the gun control groups to scare people into thinking they will be less safe. None of it is true.

Despite many people trying to pick apart, redefine, reinterpret or creatively reimagine it, the 27 words of the Second Amendment remain extraordinarily clear.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

One of the most widespread misconceptions about the Second Amendment is that it grants the right to bear arms. The truth is, it does nothing of the kind. It merely protects that right. The right to bear arms is considered a natural right, one that is not dependent on the laws or customs of any culture or government. Rights of this kind are also called inalienable or even God given rights, inherent to all persons.

Despite this, the nation, states and individual cities and communities have been writing laws to infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms since it was adopted on December 15, 1791. In fact, those defending New York’s highly restrictive gun control law in Bruen note that the law is over 100 years old, thus they claim any reversal of it would be an expansion of Second Amendment rights.

But what the anti-gun zealots call an expansion, is in fact a reclaiming of rights that preexisted BEFORE the unconstitutional gun control law was put in place.

Sadly, Bruen shows how long it can take to reverse unconstitutional laws. If in fact the law in question is over 100 years old, then it took over 100 years for it to be successfully challenged and appealed to the United States Supreme Court to be (hopefully) ruled unconstitutional and reversed.

It’s a fool’s errand to believe that once a law has been enacted, it can successfully be drawn back. Of the thousands of gun control laws passed around the country, precious few are successfully appealed and reversed. The only ones who benefit from the fight are the lawyers. The best way, the ONLY way to stop them is to prevent them from being enacted in the first place.

As is the norm now for cases being decided by the Supreme Court, states and cities around the country who disagree with projected decisions are preparing their response. Not how to fully comply with the decision mind you, that would mean they accept the decision of the highest court in the land. Since they know better than the Supreme Court, they are crafting ways to circumvent the new law-of-the-land and accomplish the very same thing just ruled unconstitutional in a new and creative way.

This is nothing new, especially in the gun control community. Each time a ruling comes out against a gun control law, the anti-gun zealots come up with new ones to take its place. States with highly restrictive concealed carry laws have been particularly good at coming up with new requirements like physical and mental health exams, training and qualifications, multiple interviews, waiting periods, numerous trips to the police station for appointments, all only available during the day during the work week, and ever-increasing fees, fees and even more FEES to help limit who they have to give a permit to.

Remember that each and every time a state has proposed eliminating permits for concealed carry, gun control zealots, led by the activist Giffords organization, has flooded the airwaves and internet with “research” and “studies” showing this would directly lead to people settling all their disputes in restaurants, bars, stores and the streets with guns. It would be the wild, wild west and there would be blood running in the streets of American cities.

Yet each and every time, the exact opposite has happened. Violent crime has gone down and public safety increases.

As we wait for the Bruen decision, let’s keep in mind what has been happening with regards to conceal carry across the country. 25 states now do not require a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public, otherwise known as constitutional carry. That’s half the country that says you don’t need government permission to lawfully carry a firearm outside your home. The national trend is clearly in the opposite direction from New York’s highly restrictive permitting scheme, and there are at least 25 states where we are all safer because of it.

It shouldn’t take 100 years to reclaim your Second Amendment protected rights. Only you can prevent unconstitutional gun laws from being enacted in the first place.

Yes, it does matter who you vote for.

Bob

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Riots & Broken Windows Theory

In a time when rioting, vandalism, theft, looting, arson, assault and murder have become synonymous with the term “peaceful protest”, perhaps we should look at how we got here and who is responsible. Oh, I know, these so-called “peaceful protestors” are simply exercising their First Amendment rights against a systemically racist system. It doesn’t matter that whatever they thought they were fighting against didn’t actually exist in the first place, what is important now is the violence and destruction. As for how it got to this level, we have their supporters, enablers and sponsors in mayor’s offices, city councils and prosecutor’s offices across the country to blame. It could have been stopped a long, long time ago, but they choose to let it go on and grow for political purposes. The destruction, pain and death we are seeing now is on them. It never had to be this way.

A little primer on Broken Windows Theory. I’m going to steal Wikipedia’s definition since they have such a nice one:

A criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes, such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking and fare evasion, help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes.

You can probably relate to this with other common phrases such as ‘Give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile’ or for parents the ever popular ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’. The concept is pretty simple, the more you let someone get away with things, the more they are going to try to get away with. In the world of criminal justice, if you interrupt criminal behavior early you will better prevent further criminal behavior. Yes, I’m a believer and properly applied, it does work.

So what does this have to do with riots?? What started out as genuinely peaceful protests, something laudable and in the best traditions of our national spirit, quickly devolved into nothing more than looting, destruction, violence and death. Yet those who support and encourage these now clearly unlawful actions maintain it is still a “peaceful protest” and all about Constitutionally protected First Amendment expression. What a bunch of garbage!

What should have happened? The MOMENT the actual peaceful protests began to break the law, trespass, curfew violations, vandalism, theft and looting, they should have been decisively shut down. The perpetrators should have been arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Instead the lawlessness was allowed to grow. What used to be actual protest turned into destruction. First a few businesses were damaged, then looted, then burned. From trying to get bystanders to see their point of view and support their cause to anyone who didn’t bow to the mob’s demands was berated, harassed and beaten. From looking at our nation’s history for lessons to destroying anything that might offend someone. From speeches and signs of unity to rocks, bricks, clubs, lasers, explosives, Molotov cocktails and bullets. From trying to improve the system to “burn it all down”.

It’s not like any of this wasn’t predictable. History tends to repeat itself when ignored, and this one has been a doozy. In the name of political correctness and not wanting to provoke, we’ve allowed people who have zero interest in anything social justice to run rampant in our cities as long as they are holding the ‘correct’ demonstration sign or flag. And it’s not just the so-called “peaceful protests” that have escalated. Crime of all kinds has skyrocketed in these protest friendly cities. Burglaries, robberies, assaults, shootings and murder have been setting new records. It’s apparently okay now to assault someone, anyone, just because. And while you’re at it, how about shooting and killing someone holding their daughter’s hand while walking across the street or a child playing in a driveway. Read a little of the non-filtered news and you’ll see just how bad things have really gotten.

As for who is to blame, look no further than the politicians; the mayors, city councils and prosecutors who have ordered the police out of protest areas, disarmed them of the tools they need to protect themselves and the public and steadfastly refused to pursue charges when law enforcement makes an arrest. Rioters are given a free pass, released without charges in mere hours after being arrested, allowed to go out and continue and escalate their criminal activity. Those who are actually held on charges are immediately bailed out thanks to the funding of celebrities, politicians and rich political influencers who want them back out on the street committing more violence.

Who hasn’t been spared from charges? The people who have been standing up and protecting their lives and properties from the violent mobs. Activist prosecutors around the country have been quick to charge those defending themselves, especially if they should dare to use a firearm. Even when all of the evidence clearly shows they were lawfully defending themselves or others, prosecutors have made sure they are charged as an example to others. The message is unmistakably clear. If you are committing a crime for the right social cause, you are merely exercising your Constitutionally protected rights. If you are defending yourself against “peaceful protestors”, you are taking the law into your own hands and violating THEIR rights.

Like many Americans, I am sick and tired of the wanton violence and destruction in the supposed name of justice. What we are seeing now has absolutely nothing to do with any of the names or causes being screamed as justification. It is only for the sake of destruction in order to place political blame and for someone to say, ‘I support you and I can make everything better if you vote for me.’

The unchecked escalation of violence, the destruction of property and lives, the blood and death in the streets, all could have been mitigated a long time ago. Instead politicians chose to surrender to mob mentality and virtue signal their way out of addressing the real problems facing our communities. THAT takes hard work and confronting hard, unpopular realities. It’s much easier to blame everything on someone else and get reelected for another term.

Vote wisely.

Bob

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Power To The People

This past year has seen an unprecedented number of gun control bills submitted around the country. While another year of gun control laws that do nothing but punish the law-abiding is nothing new in the nanny states, even traditionally firearm friendly states have seen an influx. Why is quite simple. Politicians put in place by big money special interests are ignoring their constituents and their oaths of office and peddling unconstitutional laws. But guess what? The people are standing up and standing together to say no. And it is working. Draconian gun control bills are being altered, tabled, shelved and defeated. What could be more patriotic than the people taking control of their representatives and their government? But there is still a long way to go.

If you live in states like California, New York, New Jersey or Massachusetts, you’ve probably grown used to seeing a new crop of gun control laws come out every year. Sold to the public as laws that are “common sense”, will “save lives” or to close “dangerous loopholes” in existing laws, they build on the already oppressive laws that do absolutely nothing to promote public safety. In reality, they make the public more vulnerable to crime and violence. Yet with each additional law, more restrictions and more costs are put on law-abiding citizens.

But even outside the most restrictive states, extremist politicians swept into office in 2018 by those big money special interests have been busy paying off their debt by introducing anti-Second Amendment bills. Some highlights:

Arizona: Assault weapon and “high-capacity” magazine ban, firearm registration and transport restrictions
Nebraska: Proposed waiting period for firearm sales and universal background checks
Maryland: Proposed home firearm storage (unloaded AND locked) and new firearm dealer monitoring requirements
Hawaii: Ammunition purchases limited to calibers of registered firearms
Washington: Ban on “high-capacity” magazines and concealed carry training requirements
New Mexico: A so-called “red flag” law
Connecticut: A 35% tax on ammunition
Vermont: A 30-day proceed on firearms purchases (vs. the federal three-day default), a ban on carrying semi-automatic firearms in most public places, expanding the “red flag” law
Rhode Island: Assault weapon, “high-capacity” magazine and 3D gun ban
Virginia: Assault weapon, “high-capacity” magazine, suppressor and 3D gun ban, universal background checks, limit of one handgun per month, “red flag” law, removing state preeminence for firearm laws

Keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list. It is simply a sampling from around the country. When you start looking at what is being proposed in the various communities and state legislatures around the country, you start to get a sense of how expansive the assault on our Second Amendment rights really is. And like most things, if you follow the money it leads back to the usual suspects, the fringe left wing extremists funded by billionaire money.

So how about some good news? Law-abiding citizens from all walks of life and every demographic imaginable are standing together to fight back against these Second Amendment infringing laws. They are gathering at state houses around the country by the thousands to peacefully protest and let their representatives know they do NOT support these proposed laws.

Whole communities in states all over the country are banding together to declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries. County sheriffs and law enforcement officers are standing up WITH and leading their communities in opposition, even as they themselves are targeted by the rouge anti-gun legislators.

And it is working. Not everywhere and not on all bills, but cracks in the gun control foundation are forming and these new gun control laws are being defeated.

Despite what the media is telling you, Second Amendment protected firearm rights is not a red vs. blue thing. It’s not a rural vs. urban thing. It’s not how much someone makes or the color of their skin. It’s about natural rights for all United States citizens. And that is why protest rallies don’t just represent one part of the population, they represent everyone.

THIS is why the cracks in the gun control foundation have formed. Representatives are starting to realize they need to be accountable to their constituents in order to keep their jobs. And the people are pissed! Those special interest dollars aren’t going to do a damn thing for them when voters band together to replace them.

If nothing else, this year’s assault on our Second Amendment rights has gotten people off the sidelines. They are realizing the power of the people who stand together and fight for a common goal.

Every elected seat at every level in every community in every state makes a difference. Only by standing together to protect our rights will we be able to counter the fringe special interest dollars trying to alter our communities to put their needs above ours.

Bob

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Goodbye California

You may have noticed the Odd Stuffing pages have been silent for a while. As some of you are aware, the Mrs. & I have recently moved out of the People’s Republik of Kalifornistan. The constant increase in prices, taxes, fees and oppressive laws aimed at the law-abiding while decreasing the consequences of violence and victimization of others, combined with the virtual elimination of the Second Amendment, had become too much for us. When the right opportunities came up for us we made the decision to join the hundreds of thousands of Californians to flee the state. Does this mean we are giving up on fighting for the Constitutionally protected rights in California? HELL NO!

On a personal note, it was a lot more difficult to move than we imagined. Not only does 25 years together and 20 years in the same house accumulate a lot of ‘stuff’, it also accumulates a lot of very, very close friends. And, as the Mrs. commented while taking one last drive around our neighborhood, we grew old here.

But since we’re not dead yet, we had to consider what is best for our future. Add to the issues listed above, California’s so-called “public safety blackouts”, known to the rest of us as the protect PG&E profit blackouts and businesses being left to fend for themselves against increasingly violent criminals with no hope of intervention by the police and courts. At the same time, your waitress is being arrested for giving customers a plastic straw without asking for it, but it’s okay to leave your used syringes everywhere. Not to worry; they’ll give you more to shoot up with for free. It’s illegal to not clean up after your dog poops in public, but it’s perfectly acceptable for you to poop on the street, sidewalk or any place else you want. In other words, California is train wreck and getting worse by the day.

Our new home is in the Land of Enchantment. It’s a beautiful state, rich in culture and tradition, with far more Second Amendment rights than are available to those on the left coast. But… that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way. With a Democratic Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and majority in both houses of the legislature, you can be sure gun control will soon be on the agenda here.

While most of the people I have spoken to here agree that firearm rights are taken very seriously here, I’m sure not everyone is aware the New Mexico Attorney General signed a letter of support for California and Vermont’s magazine restrictions. If the New Mexico Attorney General thinks this is a really good idea in those states, how long do you think it will take before it’s a really good idea in New Mexico?

My observations of politics have shown me politicians have two main goals once elected to public office. Get reelected and get elected to a higher office. Everything they do while in office revolves on achieving those two goals. The only way they are going to do that is to tow the party line to get the party money. And when the party platform is to enact nationwide, draconian, do-nothing-for-public-safety gun control, that’s what they are going to do. Those who choose to be moderate and not support the gun control party line are soon facing very well funded challengers from their own party who will. That’s just the way party politics work.

So if you look at states that are ripe for the introduction of gun control laws, New Mexico starts rising to the top of the list. It will start slowly and cautiously as it always, but it will start. The top three low hanging fruit laws likely to be introduced first are Universal Background Checks (a ban on private party transactions), magazine capacity (reduced to the national gun control standard of 10 rounds) and so-called “red flag laws” (allowing families, employers, coworkers and the police to strip away your Second Amendment rights based on here say evidence in an ex parte hearing). Other more restrictive laws will follow in subsequent years once the ground has been broken. Then, it will be a slow but steady push towards full elimination of your rights and ability to defend yourself and your family.

Since we moved we’ve had some interesting reactions to people learning we moved from California. From what I’ve gathered, a lot of Californian’s have moved to New Mexico to flee the conditions there, then immediately started working to change New Mexico into the California they left. I’ve had to assure many people that while I moved FROM California, I’ll be doing everything in my power to not let the state change TO California.

Overconfidence in the current legal protections and traditions of the state is what has already doomed many formerly pro-Second Amendment states. Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada and Vermont are all examples of not seeing the change coming, and now not being able to stop it.

How do you stop it? If you think the courts are the answer, they’re not. It’s a fool’s errand to believe that once a law has been enacted, it can successfully be drawn back. Of the thousands of gun control laws passed around the country, precious few are successfully appealed and reversed. The best way – the ONLY way to stop them is to prevent them from being enacted in the first place. And the only one who can do that is you.

Even if you are in the fiercest, gun loving, Second Amendment protecting part of the state, you still need to be fighting for your rights. That means getting involved in what is going on in your home town/city, county and state RIGHT NOW. If you haven’t called or written a letter to every one of your elected representatives recently, then how do they know what is important to you? You can count on the fact the gun control advocates have been speaking to them, a lot. Do you want that to be the only voice they hear?

Your rights are in your hands. If you don’t protect them, there is a slippery slope waiting that will turn your hometown into the third world living conditions currently spreading across California. Think it can’t happen here? Californians didn’t think so either.

Bob

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The Complete Failure Of Gun Control

When our nation is looking for safety, the elitist gun banning politicians always have the same answer, gun control. The problem is it never seems to be enough. No matter how much gun control they impose, there is always ‘one more law’ that will make the difference and keep people safe. When that one inevitably fails, there is always ‘one more law’ that will do the trick. Each flawed gun control law built on all the previous failures do nothing but oppress the law-abiding, make them more vulnerable and less safe. Gun control is a complete failure.

Whenever gun control comes up, we’re told “smart gun laws save lives” or that “Gun Free Zones don’t attract shooters, they repel them!” Yet every time I look at the impacts of gun control laws, I see the exact opposite.

Take a look at the most heavily gun controlled cities and states in our country. Baltimore, New York, Chicago, St Louis, Los Angeles – or most anywhere in the states they reside. The strictest, most restrictive, most draconian gun control laws in the nation are in play here. Yet, at the same time, they have the worst violence rates in the country.

Take a look at any week in Chicago and you’ll see what can only be described as horrific body counts from “gun violence”. And, if you think that’s bad, consider that this is just the “gun violence” numbers. Not reported here are the rest of the homicides from knives, clubs, hands and feet. Not counted are the armed robberies, aggravated assaults, rapes, burglaries or the rest of the crime so rampant in that city. Yet Chicago has among the most restrictive gun laws in the country and ZERO gun stores.

So how do they explain this? Simple – the guns are coming from OTHER states that have less restrictive gun laws than Chicago. The current Chicago mayor, as did her predecessors, blames other states for causing Chicago’s gun violence. The thinking is they are only as safe as the gun laws in neighboring states. In other words, it’s not OUR fault, it’s someone else’s. We’ll just ignore the federal and state laws (in both states) that may have been broken in the process or the act of murder committed in Chicago, not the other states.

California’s governor is also quick to blame other states for the violence in his own. After doing photo ops with young victims of violence, he also blamed the White House, the Republican Party and of course, the NRA for the violence. It has nothing to do with his own state’s failed policies of disarming law-abiding citizens and letting violent criminals out of jail to prey upon them. It has nothing to do with ensuring more and more gun free / victim rich environments are established in the state and that less and less criminal acts will ever be prosecuted.

The Brady United gun control group echoed the Chicago mayor’s and California governor’s blame of other states saying “California is not an island” and “they are only as strong as their neighboring states”. Perhaps all these folks need to look at actual islands and gun control to learn the truth.

Australia and England, both islands and both with extremely strict gun control laws. Yet somehow, both continue to have severe violence – including “gun violence” – problems. Both continue to have new, state-of-the-art-yet-completely-illegal firearms flooding into their countries. Go take a look at what just the City of London seizes every month and you’ll get the picture. How is this possible??

The answer can be found in the lack of success in stemming the flow of illegal drugs. Drugs, people, merchandise – including cars, trucks and boats – are smuggled out of and into countries around the world. Do you really think smuggling firearms is going to be that difficult?

So let’s say the gun control craze is able to take over all the neighboring states, who then will they blame? Two states over? Three states over? Even if EVERY state gives in and the nation repeals the Second Amendment, who will they blame then when the violence doesn’t stop? Oh I know, Mexico! Except Mexico has far stricter gun control laws than any state in this country and they have only ONE gun store in the entire country. Besides, the previous Presidential administration got Mexico to blame the US for its gun violence problem, so that’s not going to work.

The truth is the only thing gun control laws are successful at is turning law-abiding citizens in to law-abiding victims. When you legislate away peoples rights and ability to protect themselves and their families at home and in public, while giving criminals a free pass to continue committing crimes and escalating violence with no repercussions, you are going to get exactly what you see happening – every terrorist, criminal and thug targeting your helpless residents.

Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.

For all you elitist gun banning politicians, it’s time to stop lying to the people about gun control and just admit their safety means nothing to you.

Bob

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Sacrificing Children For Gun Control

School is officially out for the year and everyone is diving head first into their summer plans. Something we wish our lawmakers and school administrators were doing during the summer months is making school shootings a thing of the past. Instead, come the start of the next school year, all we can expect to see is a bunch of plastic “Gun Free Zone” signs protecting our children from the next active shooter. Why? To be blunt, gun control politicians are using your children as active shooter bait. They know that when children’s lives are lost, they’ll be able to advance their completely unrelated and useless gun control agenda.

It’s not as if the gun control politicians don’t know any better. The inconvenient truths are out there.

98% of all mass shootings in the United States since 1950 have occurred in Gun Free Zones.
The duration of most mass shooting incidents is less than the average law enforcement response time, and only after the incident has been reported.
Gun Free Zones deny law-abiding citizens their most basic Second Amendment right to bear arms while providing absolutely no protection from predatory actors.
Gun Free Zones provide nothing more than a false sense of security for those who enter them.

If you don’t think these politicians understand how to make an area protected and people safe, take a look at where they work. A secure perimeter where everyone has to go through weapons screening to get in. Nobody except them, select staff and their law enforcement and armed security are allowed to possess a weapon of any kind inside. They are protected and they can protect themselves.

Contrast this to the security situation at your local school. Thanks to the Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) of 1990, the public isn’t allowed to carry firearms at any public, private, and parochial elementary schools and high schools, and to non-private property OR within 1000 feet of them. The Federal law allows states and localities to grant exemptions to it, but states like California – which used to allow local school districts to decide if they would allow administrators, staff and teachers to be armed – has now completely outlawed the practice.

Even in the schools that do have law enforcement officers on duty, some school districts like Baltimore, Maryland, do not allow their sworn officers to be armed. The result is sadly predictable. Unprotected schools are targeted by psychopaths who face no opposition in carrying out their plans.

As the offices of the politicians themselves prove, this is a correctable situation. Schools can be secured, hardened against attacks and unauthorized access restricted. Armed law enforcement and security can be deployed to stop anyone who does try to harm the students and staff. As a last line of defense, volunteer administrators, staff and teachers can be vetted, trained and armed.

Before you jump on the “teachers are there to teach not shoot” bandwagon, consider a few things:

With the exception of suicides or gang violence outside of school hours, no school that allows teachers to carry has experienced a death or injury from a shooting.
No student has ever taken a teacher’s gun. In fact, the only accidental discharge occurred outside of school hours and resulted in minor injuries for the teacher in possession of the handgun.
Not all teachers are interested or qualified in being armed, and nobody is going to force them to be.

I’d also like to point out the similarities between airline pilots and teachers. At one point in time, our Federal Air Marshal program was robust and had marshals on many flights in and around our country. Over time, as the threat of hijacking diminished, the bean counters decided they were too expensive and massively cut the program. Then 9/11 happened. Only AFTER the fact, did the Air Marshals get re-staffed and returned to the skies. At the same time, airline cockpits were hardened and the Federal Flight Deck Officer program started to train pilots to carry weapons and defend aircraft against criminal activity and terrorism.

Why did they do this? Because they knew from history what would, and has already happen. Once the initial shock and threat has faded, the bean counters started looking at the number of arrests the Air Marshals made and decided the program could again be scaled back. What remains is the piece that the airplane can’t do without, the pilot – and the hardened planes. The very same thing will happen with armed law enforcement and security personal in schools. Once the shock and threat has faded, budgets will be cut and they will be gone, but the teachers – and the hardened schools, will remain.

Politicians and schools know how to fix this, but they are unwilling to spend the time and money to do it. The massacre at the high school in Parkland, Florida could have been stopped before it started if not for massive incompetence by federal, state, county and local authorities. The school itself had not acted on threat assessments that could have stopped or limited the loss of life.

Instead of taking concrete steps, or allowing the school districts themselves to take concrete, proven steps to stop the violence, the gun control politicians pre-write their tweets and speeches in preparation for the inevitable next attack on soft target schools with the most vulnerable of our population waiting to become victims. They will repeat their call for laws such as universal background checks / firearms registrations, so-called assault weapons bans and myriad other useless programs that have never done and never can do anything to stop criminal or terrorist violence – or would have stopped the incident that just occurred. The ONLY impact of these gun control laws is to keep firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.

If these politicians want to “do something”, they should tackle the root causes of crime like the economy, poverty, jobs and mental health in our nation. They might also want to rethink their so-called criminal justice reform efforts that release violent criminals back onto the streets with no punishment or accountability for their actions.

If you want to keep children safe in schools, stop electing gun control politicians who are willing to sacrifice children in the name of gun control.

Bob

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Sanctuary

The concept of sanctuary dates back thousands of years. Sanctuary was usually in the context of a religious organization providing a place of safe refuge for someone accused of some type of crime. Throughout the years, the legal significance of sanctuary within the walls of a place of worship diminished, however the concept mutated to political jurisdictions where sanctuary is granted against allegedly unjust laws. As you might expect, you can only support sanctuary for a politically correct cause, otherwise you’re just a criminal.

Sanctuary cities in the United States got their start in San Francisco, California in 1985 with the “City of Refuge” resolution. It was followed by an ordinance prohibiting the use of city resources to assist federal immigration enforcement. In the eyes of supporters, so-called sanctuary cities are better off when residents are not in fear of being deported. There are now more then 500 such sanctuaries across the United States.

While there is some logic to the argument, the contention that these individuals haven’t broken any laws is completely invalid. Federal immigration laws exist for many reasons. Less the Native American peoples, we are a nation of immigrants and millions upon millions have jumped through the proper legal hoops to join our nation.

The federal government, who is responsible for the security of the nation and to oversee immigration, is obviously not supportive of these sanctuary cities. Efforts to force them to comply with federal law have been mixed. Threats of withholding federal grants and funds to sanctuary cities have been met with lawsuits and injunctions, which are still winding their way through the courts. The cities and states that support immigration sanctuary call the federal government racists, the laws unjust and say they have the moral obligation to provide refuge.

But what happens when a jurisdiction within a sanctuary state says they do not agree and decline to be a sanctuary area? You then see the state threatening to withhold state funds and grants, or those involved face prosecution if they do not comply. If this sounds a lot like the same ‘evil tactics’ the federal government is being accused of, you’re right. The only difference is it is the state imposing its will on the cities and counties. In other words, if you support the politically correct cause, you are okay. If you don’t, you’re a criminal.

Left wing politicians call the supporters of sanctuary cities and counties in non-sanctuary states heroes for doing what is right for their counties and say the state should stay out of the way of these localities.

Fast forward a bit and you now have gun control zealots in charge of many state legislatures. Their so-called “common sense public safety measures” tend to trample the Second Amendment to death. But, since they do this in the name of public safety, activist/politician judges have ruled these infringements acceptable and provide the legal stamp of approval. This has given rise to a new type of sanctuary, the Second Amendment Sanctuary City/County/State.

Second Amendment sanctuaries have adopted resolutions prohibiting the use of city, country or state resources to enforce gun control measures that violate the Second Amendment. Much in the same way immigration sanctuary cities are refusing to cooperate with laws they see as unjust, Second Amendment sanctuary areas are refusing to cooperate with laws they see as unjust. And the movement is spreading. At last count, three states and many jurisdictions within 11 more have declared themselves as Second Amendment sanctuaries.

As you might expect, the reaction within gun control states has not been favorable. Threats of withholding state funds and grants as well as prosecution for not following state laws are leveled at those responsible for declaring themselves a Second Amendment sanctuary.

Left wing politicians call the supporters of Second Amendment sanctuary cities and counties in non-Second Amendment sanctuary states rogue politicians, sheriffs and police chiefs who are out of touch with their communities and the call for the state to force them from office or prosecute them for disobeying state laws.

A little hypocritical? You betcha!

On one hand, you have supporters of immigration sanctuary openly defying federal immigration laws they believe are unjust. They call the efforts of the federal government to deny them federal dollars illegal and immoral.

At the same time, and most often the very same group of people, say there is no justification for Second Amendment sanctuary against the gun control laws THEY enacted and vow to withhold state dollars, as well as threaten Second Amendment sanctuary supporters with prosecution for defying them.

To me this boils down to a single key concept: the lack of respect for the rule of law.

Despite what many believe, this nation is a republic, a nation of laws. If we were a pure democracy, 51% of the population could vote to take away the rights of the minority 49% and it would become the law of the land. But our republic says you have to obey certain basic rights principles – the Constitution – from which our entire system is built. Even if 99% of the population votes to take away the rights of the remaining 1%, the 1% would be protected, as the law must still pass Constitutional muster.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights aren’t optional documents. You don’t get to pick and choose the rights and laws you like, while ignoring the ones you don’t. You don’t get to implement your own interpretation of other people’s rights just because it better fits your social agenda. And lastly, we seem to have forgotten the concept that nobody is above the law. If the law applies to one person, it applies to every person. Yea, I’m looking at you US Congress.

I admire people who see an injustice and want to correct it. But you don’t get to do that by making up your own laws to follow, and then punish those who do the very same thing with the laws you are unjustly imposing on them.

Perhaps we should choose our representatives a little bit more carefully.

Bob

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