New York WEAPONIZES Regulatory Powers Against The NRA

AP Photo/John Minchillo

Regulatory powers have just been dangerously weaponized against the National Rifle Association. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent directive to financial regulators wants them to pressure private companies to break ties with the NRA, “or else…”

New York has never been known as a bastion of freedom, yet this is even highly reminiscent of all-out fascist tactics to eliminate basic fundamental human rights through weaponized regulations. And although no person should ever have the kind of power Cuomo exerted to “decree” private businesses and banks follow his orders, don’t be surprised if they cave to the tyranny.

“I am directing the Department of Financial Services to urge insurers and bankers statewide to determine whether any relationship they may have with the NRA or similar organizations sends the wrong message to their clients and their communities who often look to them for guidance and support,” the governor wrote in a statement.

The Department of Financial Services, which regulates the banking and insurance industries in New York, followed up with guidance letters to insurance companies and banks, according to Reason. 

The guidance then includes slight variations on the following language from the banking letter:

The Department encourages its chartered and licensed financial institutions to continue evaluating and managing their risks, including reputational risks, that may arise from their dealings with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations, if any, as well as continued assessment of compliance with their own codes of social responsibility. The Department encourages regulated institutions to review any relationships they have with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations, and to take prompt actions to managing these risks and promote public health and safety.

Why is this such a terrifying ordeal? The regulatory body that oversees these industries is warning companies under its power that they may be assuming reputational risk (a regulated area that draws official attention) by doing business with legal organizations such as the NRA. This reputational risk is said to exist because these groups are “gun promotion organizations,” which boils down to nothing more than them taking public policy positions at odds with those favored by the state’s political leaders.  Meaning the New York State government is weaponizing itself against any business it deems a political enemy…does this sound like East Berlin circa 1939 yet?

But this is hardly the first time government regulatory agencies have been weaponized against the public. “My father may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution,” Elliott Roosevelt observed of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The federal tax agency remains a handy bludgeon for politicians from that day through the present, including its recent deployment against Tea Party groups and its power to financially punish (at gunpoint of course) those who can’t afford or don’t wish to purchase government-approved health care plans. 

As Reason noted, yes, weaponizing regulatory agencies has been done before.  But making it explicit strips regulatory authority of any legitimacy. Punishing political opponents is a less compelling argument for such power than claims—valid or otherwise—that you’re enforcing good business practices. If it becomes standard practice, people are entitled to view regulators as nothing more than partisan hitmen and treat them accordingly.

New York’s long-established culture of corrupt and weaponized use of government power is a stain on the state, not something to be made official policy and extended to the country as an example to emulate.

The Backfire Continues: NRA Breaks Fundraising Records In Wake Of Gun Control Demands

The NRA continues to rake in money in the wake of gun control activists vocally demanding the government strip away the rights of gun owners.  The gun rights lobbying group broke fundraising records in March largely thanks to the gun control crowd.

The numbers don’t lie either. The National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund raised $2.4 million from March 1 to March 31 of this year, according to The Tampa Bay Times.  As the March for Our Lives movement captured the mainstream media’s attention because it fit their carefully crafted pro-government narrative, in the weeks after the Parkland shooting, the other side of the gun control debate enjoyed a big month of its own.

The $2.4 million haul is the most money raised by the NRA’s political arm in one month since June 2003, the last month when electronic federal records were readily available. It surpasses the $1.1 million and $1.5 million raised in January and February 2013, the two months after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Note that many of the NRA’s highest fundraising months are those after shootings when gun control Nazis seek to disarm the innocent over the actions of a lunatic. Another important tidbit to recognize about this particular fundraising month is that most of the donations, $1.9 million of the $2.4 million total, came from small donors who gave less than $200.  That means regular, everyday Americans are paying what little they have to avoid having even more of their basic fundamental human rights stripped away.

And much to the rights violators dismay, gun control groups haven’t been able to match the NRA’s fundraising. Everytown for Gun Safety’s Political Action Fund raised $13,580 in March while former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ Political Action Committee raised $129,589 in March, according to the Tampa Bay Times.  In fact, much of the demands for innocent people to give up rights is met with resistance and more guns flooding into the hands of Americans. 

The March for Our Lives group founded after the Parkland shooting has raised $3.5 million since February 18 via the online service GoFundMe, though that money was put toward organizing marches around the country. BUt big name companies, such as the fashion company Gucci has also publicly announced their own half-million-dollar donation. Those publicly disclosed donations total $2.5 million, meaning a large amount of the donations came from wealth celebrities or corporations.

 

History of Black NRA Groups Exposes that American Gun Control is Rooted in Racism

The history of the United States serves as a reminder that gun control was already tried in the 1950s, and it was intentionally implemented to suppress minorities.

The post History of Black NRA Groups Exposes that American Gun Control is Rooted in Racism appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

Trump Anti-Gun Nominee to Ninth Circuit Driving Away Core Supporters

Really? I’m not even sure we have one in Fairfax.

“Democrats praise Trump nominee for 9th Circuit,” The Washington Times reported Wednesday. “Republicans raise critical questions on his gun rights, Citizens United views.”

“Republicans brought the tough questions for Mark Jeremy Bennett over his defense of gun control laws and free speech rights,” the report elaborates. “Mr. Bennett, a former Hawaii attorney general now nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had backed a limited interpretation of Second Amendment rights that was overturned by the Supreme Court.”

Just being a highly-placed Hawaiian political nominee ought to raise red flags. The state is a “leader” in citizen disarmament. If they ever do have another real catastrophe there, most citizens are going to find out how badly those who have been defrauding them of their birthrights have screwed them.

Add to that the fact that the Ninth Circuit, widely recognized as one of the most “progressive” (read “anti-gun”) courts, recently lost the one sane voice it had on the Second Amendment with the #MeToo-pressured resignation of Judge Alex Kozinski.

Trump, who started out with a troubling record on guns, “rehabilitated” his public stand enough to win NRA’s endorsement. In recent months, however, he has revealed himself to be all about infringements (often with a green light from NRA). His so-called “bump stock” ban in reality dictates unprecedented non-negotiable terms of surrender from the executive branch. If Trump and AG Jeff Sessions can get away with this naked usurpation, guess what the Democrats will be able to pull, especially if enough feckless Republicans take the fire out of their core supporter’s bellies and majorities flip.

And that’s what the president is doing by ignoring the concerns of his core constituency of gun owners who put him in power and expect him to take the oath he swore seriously. We’ve seen the disaster Republican presidential appointments of bad judges has caused in the past, and especially with the anti-gun feeding frenzy we see today, now is no time to put a squish on the federal bench.

It’s fair to ask why those who have been defending the president from so many self-inflicted situations he now finds himself in should care if Robert Mueller and “the Swamp” prevail.  A President Mike Pence could do no worse and possibly would do a lot better, especially considering his record on guns.

The president needs all the friends he can get right now. He needs to be reminded of that. Assuming there’s not some other agenda at play here.

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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work.  You can donate HERE.

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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

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BACKLASH: NRA’s Political Fund Donations SPIKE In Wake Of Parkland Shooting

It probably wasn’t the shooting at a Florida high school itself that caused donations to the NRA to triple since Valentine’s Day. But it was more likely than not the wave of anti-gun illogical and emotionally charged outbursts demanding those who are innocent of the shooting give up their rights that did it.

Supporters of the Second Amendment donated about $779,000 in February to the NRA’s political arm, the Political Victory Fund, according to recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. The figure marked a more than threefold increase compared to January when the PAC received nearly $250,000 in donations and was the fund’s second-best month over the last year.

Last weekend, thousands of people rallied in support of gun control during the “March for Our Lives” protest, with many placards openly attacking the NRA. The increasing onslaught against the organization, however, correlated with more donations going to the group’s PAC.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, two weeks before the fatal school shooting, the NRA’s PAC received $27,100 from itemized contributions – donations that exceed $200 – from 51 donors. Over the next two weeks after the shooting, the itemized contributions skyrocketed to nearly $71,000 from 226 donors.

Most donations to the group – totaling $685,099 – came in small donations that did not exceed $200. This means that normal, average, everyday Americans propped up the NRA in the wake of protests. Multiple politicians are facing the fury of anti-gun activists who criticize them for accepting the NRA’s support and donations. Yet there’s little to no criticism of the Antifa thugs who accept money from George Soros to fund their violent Communist temper tantrums.

The NRA is obviously not going anywhere, and this wave of marches has only added to their funding.  NRA memberships have been on the rise as well.

NRA (National Rifle Association) memberships have skyrocketed in recent weeks since the mainstream media has been ramping up their anti-gun agenda. As the media continues to weaponize the news in the form of gun control propaganda, the NRA’s profiting continues to go up. –SHTFPlan

There’s nothing like a little scapegoating when it comes to placing the blame for mass shootings.  It seems like the blame falls always on the NRA and law-abiding gun owners, not the psychopaths who shoot up schools. And that’s exactly why NRA memberships and donations are skyrocketing.

Media Bias BACKLASH: NRA Memberships Up As MSM Propagandizes For Gun Control

NRA (National Rifle Association) memberships have skyrocketed in recent weeks since the mainstream media has been ramping up their anti-gun agenda. As the media continues to weaponize the news in the form of gun control propaganda, the NRA’s profiting continues to go up.

The Daily Mail reports that Google searches for “NRA membership” rose 4,900 percent since the Parkland Florida school attack. That rise occurred at a time when many Democrats, media personalities, and Hollywood celebrities were denouncing the NRA and leveling blame on the association for the shooting that took 17 lives in a gun-free zone.

Hollywood also took to social media to make sure they press an anti-gun agenda for the elitists as well.  Notorious leftist, Chelsea Handler tweeted the following:

We have to elect candidates that are not funded by the NRA in November. We have an opportunity to elect candidates who won’t allow kids to go to school and get shot. It is disgusting how many times this has happened and Republicans do nothing. You all have blood on your hands.

— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) February 14, 2018

There’s nothing like a little scapegoating when it comes to placing the blame for mass shootings.  It seems like the blame falls always on the NRA and law-abiding gun owners, not the psychopaths who shoot up schools.

CNN’s February 21 gun control town hall highlighted the media’s animosity towards the NRA, as it featured survivors from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting confronting Republicans over NRA affiliation. The Guardian reported that one student spoke to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and asked, “Can you tell me right now you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?”

According to The Hill, a large swath of the American populace is equating these various attacks on the NRA with attacks on the Second Amendment and gun rights in general, while others see the attacks as proof of “media bias.” The result is an explosion in NRA memberships.

After several large corporations dropped discounts for NRA members, many took it as shots fired at the NRA for a crime they didn’t commit.  The Daily Mail quoted Cleta Mitchell, a former NRA board member and former Oklahoma lawmaker, who said, “There is no one. NO ONE. Who joins the NRA for a discount on a rental car. You can rest assured that the NRA will not lose a single member as a result of this. If anything, it should spur people to join the NRA as a means of demonstrating that we who believe in the Second Amendment will not be bullied by these left wing multi-billion dollar corporations.”

 

Gun Rights And Mental Health Restrictions: A Slippery Slope

This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, as in the wake of any mass shooting, there has been a scramble by various political groups to place blame for the violence. Everyone is looking for the source of the evil that causes these events, to little avail. In most cases, at least when it comes to the extreme Left, the blame is placed squarely on guns themselves. This is obviously an absurd notion. Placing blame on the particular tool used in the crime does not solve the problem of the criminal and what led him to the deed. Whether or not the tool made his crime “easier” is irrelevant to the greater disturbance at hand.

After years of debate and failed legislation, leftists have discovered that resistance to the incremental destruction of the 2^nd Amendment is insurmountable, and a change in narrative has occurred. Finally, we are talking more about mental health issues and a little less about guns. This is a win for gun rights, however, there is a danger that needs to be addressed.

First, while mental health is being presented in the mainstream media more and more as a central issue in mass shootings, I find it interesting that the problem of psychotropic pharmaceuticals has been conveniently ignored. In a large number of non-terrorist related shooting incidents, assailants have been subjected to long term psychotropic drug use. Why has this factor not been addressed?

Well, consider the fact that Big Pharma has spent at least $2.5 billion over the past ten years lobbying in Washington D.C. Compare this to the NRA lobbying budget, which in comparison was a paltry $20 million over the past 10 years according to OpenSecret.

This should put into perspective the idiocy of anti-gun advocates and their obsession with the “nefarious” NRA. The influence of the pharmaceutical industry is almost universally ignored when it comes to the debate on gun violence, yet their lobbying efforts dwarf all others. All this despite the fact that psychotropic drugs are proven to influence violent and even homicidal behavior in people.

Second, the focus on mental health in terms of the Parkland shooting seems to be glossing over the vast failings of the FBI and local law enforcement in following up and investigating the dozens of warnings they received about Nikolas Cruz.  As I outlined in my recent article ‘“Mass shootings will never negate the need for gun rights,” gun grabbers love to trot out legislation on increased background check restrictions and closing the “gun show loophole,” yet none of their suggested solutions would have stopped the Parkland tragedy from taking place.

The success of Nikolas Cruz’s attack was due to the abject failure of the FBI and law enforcement, NOT the failure of background checks. Had they done their jobs, Cruz never would have been able to purchase a firearm to begin with. I find it rather ironic that gun grabbers constantly argue that average citizens do not need guns for self defense because they have law enforcement to rely on, yet it was exactly the stupidity or inaction of law enforcement that opened the door wide for Cruz to (allegedly) kill.

Clearly, the so-called “authorities” are not trustworthy enough to carry out the job of protecting us all from active shooters. The only people capable of stopping an active shooter in a fast and practical manner are armed citizens on the scene at the moment the attack begins.

Third, and most important, is the issue of mental health parameters and how they will be used to restrict gun rights. The ATF already has rules regarding people “adjudicated as mentally defective,” which includes people ruled a danger to themselves and others by a “court, board or commission or other lawful authority.” Now, these guidelines themselves can be rather broad, but abuse by government so far has been limited (though some instances have been egregious). If the Trump administration seeks to broaden the guidelines even further, then we may have a problem.

Take for example the unacceptable abuse of military veterans and their 2^nd Amendment rights by the Bureau of Veterans Affairs. The VA has in recent years placed restrictions on thousands of veterans, negating their gun rights without due process and without oversight. And all of this has been predicated on the claim that some veterans are “mentally defective” based on dubious parameters, including whether or not they let their spouse handle household finances.

This is what I am talking about when I bring up the dangers behind “mental illness” and gun rights. WHO gets to decide who is mentally ill and why they are mentally ill? Will this be done by a jury of our peers? Or, by an unaccountable and faceless bureaucracy? Will the guidelines for mental illness be strict and specific, or will they be broad and wide open to interpretation? Once a person has been labeled mentally defective, will they have the ability to appeal the decision, or will the label haunt them for the rest of their lives?

Gun rights activists should not put blind faith in the Trump administration to ensure that new mental health legislation will remain fair to the 2^nd Amendment. Unfortunately, Trump is on record as supporting the “No Fly List” gun control bill. This type of bill is something liberty activists opposed vehemently under the Obama administration because it allows the government to erase the gun rights of almost anyone without due process merely by placing them on an arbitrary watch list. A list, I will remind readers, that is a matter of national security and not subject to public overview.

Would a list of “mentally defective people” fall under the same Orwellian standards?

What about the new and disturbing designation by the psychiatric community of oppositional defiance disorder? This absurd “illness” is being applied to people as young as pre-school age and suggests that adults with the illness often display resistance to authority figures and government.

What if your opposition is not to “authority” in general, but to CORRUPT authority specifically? Is this mental illness, or the very epitome of sanity?

In the Soviet Union, it was all too common for the government to abuse “mental illness” designations as a means to silence and imprison political dissent. Anti-government agitation and propaganda were criminalized under Soviet legal codes, and these codes were frequently applied in conjunction with the psychiatric system. This was sometimes referred to as “punitive medicine.”

The problem with government and psychiatric institutions joining forces to determine constitutional rights for individuals should be obvious. Government should be as separate from the medical establishment as possible yet they are often intertwined to terrible effect. If mental illness is not adjudicated by a jury of ones peers and with extreme oversight by gun rights groups, then abuse of such laws by government is almost guaranteed. The temptation to use backdoor bureaucracy in a totalitarian manner to underhandedly confiscate guns and sabotage the 2^nd Amendment will be high.

It is also important to remember that even if you have placed full and blind faith in the Trump administration, there are no guarantees that the constitutional rules we allow him to bend today will not be completely broken by the next president in line. Gun rights are paramount to a free society. Without them, governments almost always revert to increased socialism and “tyranny creep” while violent crime continues or increases as the citizenry is left defenseless. Mental illness AND psychotropic drugs need to be taken seriously in terms of gun violence, but it is also vital that we do not allow the issue of mental health to be exploited as a subversive means to undermine our freedoms.

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You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

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These Companies Still Support the NRA

This morning when I was reading the headlines, I came across one that talked about the companies which still supported the NRA after all the ridiculous boycotts that caused other businesses to withdraw their support. I eagerly clicked the link and saw this sub-headline:

Come for the discounts, stay for the opposition to common sense gun laws.

What???

Of course, then I saw that it was ThinkProgress and wasn’t surprised anymore, but I figured I should make my own list that was a bit more positive than their dismal droning, blaming the guiltless NRA instead of the FBI or the other law enforcement agencies that actually WERE at fault for not stopping the school shooting in Florida that took the lives of 17 people on Valentine’s Day.

For more information, read Part 1 and Part 2 of my investigation into the shooting.

*Climbs off soapbox.*

In the article, Josh Israel (any relation to Sheriff Scott Israel?) and Kira Lerner ranted:

After the shooting in Parkland, Florida, the NRA has been the focus of renewed national attention, as the group continues to successfully block any legislation to curb gun violence on the national level. Dallas’ mayor pro tem told the NRA Monday that the group will be “met with opposition” if it holds its scheduled May conference in his city. And over the weekend, hundreds of people gathered outside the group’s Virginia headquarters to hold a vigil and protest.

ThinkProgress asked more than two dozen corporations that offer incentives to NRA members whether they plan to continue their relationships with the gun lobby. A growing number of those companies have ended their relationship with the NRA since this list was initially published. (source)

Anyway, the following companies haven’t caved to pressure and continue to support the NRA. If you get a chance, you can support them in return.

• eHealth


• FedEx


• HotelPlanner.com


• Life Insurance Central


• LifeLine Screening


• ManageUrID


• Medical Concierge Network


• Vinesse Wines

Shots fired.

Many other businesses have severed ties with the NRA or have announced plans to do so.

The NRA denounced those companies in a statement, saying:

“Some corporations have decided to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice.

Let it be absolutely clear. The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world.” (source)

The companies which have caved to the public pressure of websites like ThinkProgress are:

• Alamo Rental Cars


• Allied Van Lines


• Avis Rental Cars


• Budget Rental Cars


• Chubb (they underwrote carry insurance for gun owners)


• Delta Airlines


• Enterprise Rental Cars


• First National Bank of Omaha


• Hertz Rental Cars


• LifeLock


• Lockton (they underwrote carry insurance for gun owners)


• MetLife


• National Rental Cars


• North American Van Lines


• Republic Bank


• Securian Financial Group


• SimpliSafe


• Starkey Hearing Technologies


• Symantec (the company that produces Norton Antivirus software)


• Teledoc


• TrueCar


• United Airlines


• Wild Apricot

ThinkProgress smugly concluded:

In early 2013, weeks after the Sandy Hook shooting, ThinkProgress published a similar list. Since that time, several companies have discontinued their relationships with the pro-gun group.  Following a grassroots pressure campaign led by the global advocacy group Avaaz.org, both Best Western and Wyndham hotels stopped offering an NRA discount…

…A similar pressure campaign by a coalition of LGBTQ rights groups and gun violence prevention organizations began pressuring FedEx to do the same in 2016, but has not yet had success. (source)

It’s astonishing to me that the NRA is being publicly crucified, yet none of these people are talking about the failures of the FBI, the Broward County Sheriff’s office, or the local police to follow the laws that are already on the books.

Then again, I guess it isn’t really that astonishing at all. But it certainly demonstrates where their priorities are.

The post These Companies Still Support the NRA appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

State of Disunion – Besieged on All Sides: Outline for My Portion of Tonight’s Webinar

 

I hope you can join us.

Oath Keepers will be hosting a webinar tonight on “The Florida School Shooting and How to Counter Renewed Efforts to Disarm Us.” I’ll be joining author Matt Bracken and Stewart Rhodes tonight at 9 Eastern.

These are the topics I intend to cover, presented here to give those undecided on participating an idea of information to be shared, and to keep things organized so that webinar attendees can follow along:

Opening remarks.

Media:

• Full court press to attack RKBA and scream for citizen disarmament (DSM)


• Calls to Repeal 2^nd Amendment (NY Times/Rolling Stone)


• Gun bans


• Licensing


• CNN anti “good guy with a gun” propaganda


• Negative spin on everything (FL gun show)


• Even “conservative media” offering concessions


• Social media squeeze-out

Politics:

• Democrats predictable


• Republican turncoats: Kasich, Rubio, Rice, and more, even Trump


• Midterms: Self-fulfilling prophecy?


• Expect more gun edicts


• Battleground -The states


• Likely “laws” and a word about the courts


• Compliance/Enforcement

NRA:

• Avatar for all gun owners – politicians and public treat as monolith


• Green light on bump stocks, “FixNICS” and mental health blanket dragnets


• Companies dropping partnerships


• Calls for censorship by gungrab groups

Police:

• The Only Ones


• School resource officer and multiple Broward County deputies


• Multiple warning and police interactions


• FBI dropped the ball (again)


• Unholy alliance between Broward schools and police


• Scott Israel

The Children’s Crusade:

• The Women’s March Alliance


• Emma and David


• Wild in the Streets

There will be a “Next One.”

The ultimate deterrent.

• The one “gun law” that would make a difference


• The big lie objecting “teachers” tell

What can you do?

• You are a leader


• Learn the truth


• Be force multipliers


• We will not disarm

I hope you can join us. Since this is my first time taking a role in one of these things and since I’m not the event organizer, I’m not sure how many attendees the system can accomodate, but if it’s possible to max it out, let’s do so.

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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work.  You can donate HERE.

—–

David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

The post State of Disunion – Besieged on All Sides: Outline for My Portion of Tonight’s Webinar appeared first on Oath Keepers.

Raising Rifle-Buying Age to 21 Leads to Inconvenient Truth

Rubio thinks he can appease the mob by pledging to “take [a] right away.” (CNN YouTube screen capture)

“I absolutely believe that in this country if you are 18 years of age, you should not be able to buy a rifle, and I will support a law that takes that right away,” Sen. Marco Rubio pandered to an inflamed mob at a CNN “town hall meeting,” drawing applause from a crowd that for the most part would never vote for him in a million years, no matter how many gun owners he betrays. And he wasn’t done throwing those that trusted him with political power under the bus, also offering up a “bump stock” ban, prior restraint disarmament orders and a willingness to put a normal capacity magazine ban on the table. That and he’s dead set on keeping schools “gun-free zones,” nixing any plan to recognize the right of teachers who so choose to keep and bear arms.

So naturally it was in CNN’s interest to portray this poltroon, who by his own words doesn’t understand what a right is and that no one has legitimate authority to take any away, as “a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights.”  Getting low-information viewers to swallow that lie allows them to portray anyone who opposes serial surrenders as an “extremist,” and with just a bit more media conflation, as a fascist and a hater.

And Rubio is hardly alone. Donald Trump has now thrown his hat in the “Ban semi-auto rifles for anyone under 21” ring. It’s fair to wonder, with the green light given him by NRA on “Fix NICS” and “bump stocks,” if his contention that “The NRA will back it and so will Congress” means any vocal opposition from Fairfax will be for show, and at the end of the day members will be fed a load of “Who else do you have to vote for?”

It’s also fair to wonder how anyone with judgment so impaired they’re too young to own a semi-auto could be considered mature enough to vote, to contract, to parent, to cohabit or marry, to join the military and deploy with actual “in common use at the time” ordnance,” or to make any of the daily adult choices expected of a free citizen. Instead, we see a “progressive” law professor making the case—as amplified by CNN, to lower the voting age to 16.

Time was, that would have been considered “the yeomanry of America,” but that’s not what they have in mind. Anybody remember “Wild in the Streets”?

Never ones to let a crisis they contribute to go to waste, CNN has resurrected a video from Bryant Gumbel showing a 13-year-old buying a bolt-action .22 from a private collector at  a Virginia gun show. What is it with CNN and scripts, or with gun-grabbers using actors?

“The HBO clip has resurfaced following a deadly school shooting in Florida,” The Daily Mail “reports.”  All by its own self, no doubt. And it’s being used to show minors can’t buy cigarettes, scratch-offs and porn, but it’s open season on children  and unrestricted gun sales.

First, consider the source. We’re talking about someone who calls us “pigs.” They admit things are scripted, but not how much.  Who is the seller?  Which gun show did this take place at?  Does it require an adult to accompany juveniles to get in, so would it be fair for a seller to assume “adults” he could have seen with the boy were overseeing things, and that he’d have some ‘splainin’ to do when he showed up with purchase in hand for the ride home?

What else was said, by or to him, by the boy or by the crew that has not been revealed in order to maintain a “pig” presumption with viewers?

In any case, Virginia law was not broken. While the Code of Virginia makes it “unlawful for any person under 18 years of age to knowingly and intentionally possess or transport a handgun or assault firearm anywhere in the Commonwealth,” the same does not apply to the rifle allegedly purchased on camera.

That’s the way things have been in much of the country for much of my lifetime.

Time was, boys and rifles did not result in school shooting headlines.

Years back I related the story of a friend of mine, then 13, who used to take his scoped .22 rifle on a Santa Monica bus to do target practice, opening the action to show the driver it was unloaded and walking several blocks to and from the range. I’ve told the story in “Lies of Omission” of my encounter with a deputy while my friends and I were having fun with a 16-gauge shotgun.

“You boys being careful?” he asked after rolling down the cruiser window, getting a feel for our demeanor and behavior.

“Yes sir,” I replied, gun broken open.

“See that you are,” he replied before driving off, satisfied that there would be no need to prone us out, and that we were doing nothing any different than what he used to do when he was our age. If any stop signs showed up peppered with dents, he had my license plate.

It was a way of life, especially in Virginia before the “progressive” grasp over all aspects of our lives had established an intended death grip on everyone’s throats. Boys routinely took rifles with them to school to do some hunting on the way home. It was part of a culture those who would “fundamentally transform” America need to destroy.  And what the idiot Republicans going along with the betrayal of their oaths fail to account for is that “21” is just another incremental slide down the “slippery slope.”  The gun-grabbers don’t want anyone of any age who is not serving the power elites to own a rifle (or a handgun) for the same reason totalitarians throughout history have looked to citizen disarmament as their best guarantor of success.

But what these examples of past freedoms enjoyed by young people throughout our history prove beyond any doubt is that we, who they furiously demand to disarm, could be trusted with guns when we were young, as could those who raised us. Look at the “progression” of the numbers of incidents as the country changed politically, and the objective conclusion is that the Republic Mr. Franklin challenged us to keep is being destroyed from within by an oxymoronic  culture of “progressive values.”

Helping that along is rapidly accelerating slow suicide. Republicans either need to stop being useful idiots or else admit the false “conservative” wing is –and has been all along — a controlled opposition con job. With each new betrayal, they’re making it easier and easier to assume the worst.

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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work.  You can donate HERE.

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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

The post Raising Rifle-Buying Age to 21 Leads to Inconvenient Truth appeared first on Oath Keepers.

CNN Openly Admits That They Are Leftist Anti-Gun Activists Masquerading As Journalists As They Publish NRA Name And Shame List

Since the moment the news broke that yet another horrific mass shooting had taken place in America, this time in Parkland, Florida, the mainstream media has been quick to blame private gun ownership while heavily promoting those that are pushing gun control.

No network has shown their leftist leanings more than CNN, which has gone into full blown overdrive in their around the clock anti-gun coverage, with the first 7 articles on their homepage, including their featured story, all attacking the NRA and promoting leftist gun control causes.

The featured story was a direct attack on the NRA itself as it contained a sort of “name and shame” list of Florida politicians who were terrible people responsible for children dying because they had taken money from the National Rifle Association.

Interestingly, the piece was marketed as an actual news report while openly promoting and admitting that the authors of the article were anti-gun activists themselves!

Nearly a week after a gunman stormed the hallways of their school in a deadly rampage, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are heading to Florida’s state Capitol to demand lawmakers take action on gun control.

Meanwhile, gun control advocates are putting pressure on Florida representatives who take money from the National Rifle Association.

Here’s a list of members of Congress from Florida who received contributions during the 2016 election cycle from the group’s political action committee, the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund. All of them are Republicans.

It does not get more blatant than that. The reporters literally note that gun control advocates are putting pressure on Florida representatives then they themselves put pressure on said politicians by actually creating a list with all their names and the amount of money they took.

Keep in mind that the so-called reporters for CNN, who are so busy worrying about 3,000 dollar donations, are also purposefully ignoring the hundreds of millions of dollars that the anti-gun left has put into gun control measures throughout the country.

As Clifford Cunningham noted, the entire establishment is conducting a massive psychological campaign against the NRA and the tens of millions of gun owners across the United States. This includes the supposedly non-partisan Florida school shooting survivors who have parroted Democratic talking points for the last week.

Supposedly apolitical student activists who survived the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida wasted little time in attacking the NRA, with one suggesting the organization supports “child murderers” and another calling for it to disband.

“Here’s a time to talk about gun control: March 24. My message for the people in office is: You’re either with us or against us. We are losing our lives while the adults are playing around,” declared high school student Cameron Kasky in an interview with CNN.

Another student demanded the organization immediately disband, while claiming politicians who receive campaign contributions from the NRA are “accepting blood money” and are “against the children.”

“Disband, dismantle … don’t make another organization under a different name. Don’t you dare come back here,” said student Emma Gonzalez. “The fact that you were in power for so long and that you had so much influence for so long in America just goes to show how much time and effort we still need to spend on fixing our country.”

She also noted gun control “is just the first thing” they are focused on – leading one to question just how non-partisan their supposedly apolitical grassroots activism really is.

Make no mistake, this is a clear cut operation to limit and then eventually ban private gun ownership in America, all under the guise of protecting children who the anti-gun left are only too happy to use for their partisan political objectives.

One can only hope that the majority of Americans see through this obvious propaganda campaign and continue to support the absolutely fundamental right to bear arms.

Kasich’s Renewed Betrayal Foreshadows Establishment GOP Retreat on Guns

“Republican” Kasich proves once a betrayer, always a betrayer.

“If all the sudden you couldn’t buy an AR-15, what would you lose?” Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich asked on CNN, talking about new citizen disarmament edicts he’d favor in the wake of the Stoneman atrocities. “Would you feel your Second Amendment rights would be eroded because you couldn’t buy a God-darned AR-15?”

Feelings would have nothing to do with it, even though his came through loud and clear. The unconstitutional infringement to “the birthright of an American” would be demonstrable, not that those intent on seeing their countrymen disarmed ever let evidence get in the way of stirring up a mob mentality.

BFFs John and Bill…

In Kasich’s case, it was no surprise.  As a congressman, he was one of 46 Republican members who helped pass the 1994 semi-auto ban by a narrow 216-214 vote margin, putting him on a first-name basis with Bill Clinton.  Then, when running for governor and needing the votes, he “convinced” (a more than willing) NRA to change his “F” to an “A,” paying them back with “good” gun actions as long as he felt pandering to Ohio gun owners was in his political interests.

Having almost screwed all gun owners over big time by attacking candidate Donald Trump during his post-primaries presidential campaign and thus working to Hillary Clinton’s political advantage, Kasich has irredeemably sided with “the swamp,” and evidently figures he has nothing to lose by reverting to form. And he never “got it” anyway. The stated purpose behind his public ambivalence to a proposed “Obama gun ban” was because “it wasn’t effective,” not because it was an affront to freedom and a gross betrayal of his oath of office.

When it comes to doing the Democrat’s work for them, Kasich is hardly alone, and we’ll see more defections the hotter things get politically and the faint of heart feeling it opt for appeasement.

So we see Florida Rep. Francis Rooney now saying “some freedoms are going to have to be given up” and speculating that some of those surrendered freedoms probably entail more gun bans.  When asked if there’s a reason “a private citizen needs to own an AR-15 assault rifle.” Rooney responded:

“To be honest with you, I’m not sure. I think people should be able to use them in gun ranges if they want to go rip off a lot of caps, if you will, at a gun range. But, do they need to own them and take them out of the facility? I’m not sure.”

And there are others coming out of the woodwork, some being more cautions with their virtue signaling. Mitt Romney is being careful at present not to repeat his past support for banning semi-autos, so aside from saying he’d “probably be OK with a prior restraint background check “enhancement” by Orrin Hatch (that he hasn’t read yet), he’s recommending things advance at the state level – pretty much the “3,000 Tyrants” strategy the gun-grabbers are using as long as federal incursions are being blocked.

Which may not be for that much longer. Donald Trump is supporting background check “improvements” and just instructed AG Sessions to find a way to make “bump stocks” illegal. And while it’s easy to put all the blame for betrayal on him, don’t forget who gave him the green light to ignore “shall not be infringed” on both counts. NRA and NRA.

Add to that a billionaire Republican donor making it clear that unless candidates betray their oaths and their constituents, he’ll risk letting their seats fall to Democrats.

What do grassroots activist gun owners do about being increasingly abandoned by those they have supported and empowered? First of all, realize that it’s probably going to get worse.

And imagine, with the frenzy the country is in now, what the political mood (and the spines of Republican politicians) will be like the next time there’s another “gun free zone” massacre — especially if it’s an even bigger one. No doubt there are some not averse to that.

We must keep presenting truths to counter a media that has a voice dwarfing ours, finding those receptive to it, and recruiting them to join with us. And ultimately we must remember that – all the noise aside in order to be disarmed we must make the choice to surrender.

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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work.  You can donate HERE.

—–

David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

The post Kasich’s Renewed Betrayal Foreshadows Establishment GOP Retreat on Guns appeared first on Oath Keepers.

[Watch] Colion Noir Explains How To STOP School Shootings

NRA spokesman Colion Noir put together a quick video to explain how to stop school shootings. We send our children to schools already declared “gun free zones.”

Not one single person besides that shooter had any way to defend themselves against this horrific act – as is the case in most, if not all school shootings. And yet, after a tragedy, the weakest members of society seek regulations (aka punishments and more red tape) enacted on those who are entirely innocent, and already made targets of recently committed criminal atrocity. But, the most simple fact that all of these communist cowards seem to ignore can be summed up in the simple meme below:

But for those who still don’t understand that not all people are good and will always find a way around the law, Colion Noir has put together a short video to explain how to really stop school shootings. “We childishly cling to gun control,” Noir begins.

“Laws only matter to the people willing to obey them,” Noir says. And he’s right. Look at how many people have been jailed for feeding the homeless in places where it’s banned by law. “Depending on laws to prevent random acts of murder is delusional at best and suicidal at worst,” he continues. “You can’t legislate evil! That’s like holding up a “no biting” sign in front of a rabid dog and expecting it not to bite you. So instead of wasting time adding more words to our ‘no bite’ sign, how about we focus on how to stop the evil when it arises. Gun free zone signs don’t keep guns out of school, especially in the hands of mass murders who aren’t phased by signs telling them they’re not supposed to bring guns in schools.”

By now, most gun owners are aware that the left doesn’t actually care about stopping murder, they care about disarmament of all people. However, with 300 million (estimated) guns in the United States, they’ve got one hell of the debacle on their hands if they ever actually seek full confiscation. So what’s the solution to school shootings?

“Metal detectors. Put metal detectors in our schools,” Noir suggests. It’s certainly a better idea than “adding more words to a sign.” Metal detectors prevent guns from getting into courthouses and other places infinitely better than a sign on a window. And if a mass shooter shows up and sets off a metal detector, armed guards should be there to stop them. “We use armed guards to protect everything we consider valuable; I can’t think of anything more valuable than our kids,” Noir continues. “These are our kids. The future of our society. There is nothing more valuable.  And in the worst event, somebody gets past all of these things, the last layer of defense against these psychos should be our teachers. Let the teachers be armed if they wanna be armed, instead of becoming defenseless human sacrifices that still result in kids dying! Give them the power to fight back!”

The disturbing reality, though, is that leftists won’t even entertain these options. Their cognitive dissonance is so strong when it comes to guns that rationality left a long time ago and we haven’t witnessed it since. “You don’t want a visual representation of your reality,” Noir sums up. The left doesn’t want to see that some people seek to do harm against the most innocent in society, and the reality is, they don’t care about laws. “Feeling safe is more important than being safe…But the metal detectors, having armed guards, and arming teachers is a constant reminder that no matter how progressive you become, you cannot out progress evil. You’re still vulnerable and there’s nothing you can do about it except prepare.“

“One Of The Most Vile, Misleading Headlines Of Our Time”: NY Daily News Runs FAKE NEWS Headline Claiming Florida Shooter Was “Trained” By The NRA

In what has been described as one of the most vile, misleading headlines of all time, the left leaning New York Daily News published their Saturday edition with a cover that includes the ridiculous fake news claim that alleged Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was actually “trained” by the NRA themselves.

Apparently aiming to give Democrats an assist with their renewed push to disarm the American people, The NY Daily News latched onto the fact that the JROTC program at the school received funding from the NRA as evidence that the shooter himself received training from them.

The problem? The claim is about as misleading as they come, especially when you consider that while it is true that Cruz was at one time a member of the JROTC, so where dozens of other students, some who even HELPED others get out of the school during the shooting itself!

All the NRA did was give a grant to the JROTC program. They did not “train” Cruz and, sadly, the leftist propagandists at the NY Daily News are well aware of this fact but are hoping their readers are so uninformed that they believe this actual fake news.

The story itself was specifically designed as a hit piece against an organization that liberals throughout the country have painted as an all powerful, well-funded group when, in reality, anti-gun groups have spent literally hundreds of millions of more dollars than ANY pro-gun group ever has.

Users on Twitter were quick to destroy the fake news cover, making it clear that at least some Americans are able to see through this transparent leftist propaganda.

One of the most vile, misleading headlines of our time. The term “Hack” is way too good for you

— Chris B (@chrisbrown111__) February 17, 2018

Rare is the week that journalism does a good job to bolster its credibility, but goddamn this week has been such an abysmal display of dishonesty and incompetence. https://t.co/7COMSFCmHp

— Blame Big Government (@BlameBigGovt) February 17, 2018

It’s the NRA’s fault he joined the ROTC.

— Jim Treacher is a dumb pseudonym (@jtLOL) February 17, 2018

So was one of the children who died defending his classmates, you scum sucking smear merchants. https://t.co/D8neIquGBL

— Dead Agent (@Recursion_Agent) February 17, 2018

You CAN write headlines like this that mislead your readers, but HOW do you live with yourselves?

— Hugh Shytle (@shytleh) February 17, 2018

You are not news, you are propaganda.

He was in JROTC before his expulsion, the funds were for JROTC.

GFY. https://t.co/zHd8Q1mkbg

— Fire and Furry (@KesaraRiku) February 17, 2018

He joined a JROTC program in school which is for kids who want to join the military later on in life. You didn’t mention that other kids in this program helped protect some of their classmates. By this logic US taxpayers also trained him cause this is a public school program

— Sam’s Dad (@zesty_tacos) February 17, 2018

The air rifle team was part of the school’s Junior ROTC program but I suppose click bait is what it’s all about. I guess “trained by Junior ROTC” doesn’t have that certain frisson. (And not to put too fine a point on it, Junior ROTC kids at that school protected fellow students.) https://t.co/MU3BspbLO8

— Mike Glenn (@mrglenn) February 17, 2018

So was one of the children who died defending his classmates, you scum sucking smear merchants. https://t.co/D8neIquGBL

— Dead Agent (@Recursion_Agent) February 17, 2018

The club was an air rifle team and was hosted by the ROTC. Amazing smear here considering JROTC students helped other students out of the school. This is really amazing. https://t.co/9XesQ7izWy

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) February 17, 2018

The NRA gave a grant for the JROTC program. This isn’t even reporting. It’s clickbait garbage. This isn’t journalism. It’s why no one trusts the media. @C_Sommerfeldt @Janon_Fisher

— Taro Tsujimoto (@RCannon74) February 17, 2018

Good God, I didn’t even realize this was the Daily New’s front page today. Sometimes media cynicism can be so breathtaking that it becomes affirmative malice. pic.twitter.com/GECBwW7eXX

— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) February 17, 2018

On par w/ CNN’s celebration of Kim Jung Un’s sis as the lowest media moment of 2018 … if not ever https://t.co/EH44Xq3pWd

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 17, 2018

Can the media sink any lower? https://t.co/beTyBB3nt2

— Botty McBotface (@JammieWF) February 17, 2018

Make no mistake. ALL those involved with this disgusting hit piece, including the reporters who wrote it, the editors who allowed it, and the punk who wrote the fake news headline are nothing more than leftist propagandists masquerading as journalists.

Far-Left Group Calls For Murdering Republicans as Revenge For Florida School Shooting

This article was originally published by Paul Joseph Watson at Infowars

A far-left group on Facebook is calling on people to murder Republican lawmakers who support the NRA as revenge for the Florida school shooting.

The unhinged posts appeared on a Facebook group called ‘Milkshakes Against the Republican Party’ in the hours after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“Dear Crazed Shooters, The GOP has frequent baseball practice. You really wanna be remembered, that’s how you do it. Signed, Americans tired of our politicians bathing in the blood of the innocent for a few million dollars from the terrorist organization NRA,” states one of the posts.

The irony of openly encouraging terrorist attacks as revenge against a “terrorist organization” is seemingly lost on whoever posted the message.

“You remember the shooting at the Republican baseball game?” asks another post. “One of those should happen EVERY WEEK until those NRA-funded sons of bitches do something about this.”

Neither of the posts has been removed by Facebook despite being online for approaching 48 hours.

The mention of GOP baseball practice is in reference to the June 2017 shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise, which was carried out by a far-left Bernie Sanders supporter, James T. Hodgkinson, who was attempting to murder as many Republicans as possible.

These posts again illustrate how extremists on both the far left and far right are exploiting the hyper-partisan environment to spread hate and encourage violence.

Leftists on Twitter responded to a parent of one of the victims who lost his daughter in the school shooting with total vitriol merely because the man was wearing a ‘Trump 2020’ t-shirt.

Actual responses to a man whose daughter was murdered in the Florida school massacre. Why? Because he voted for Trump. Some people are sick pic.twitter.com/9jUmHH1wFJ

— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) February 15, 2018

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

Just One ‘Gun Law’ Could Have Reduced ‘Stoneman Shooting’ Killings

The “Only Ones” the “law allows” to be armed will never be able to prevent multiple victims from being slaughtered. (@FranklinWSVN)

“Another school shooting” has rocked America, once more bringing out how divided the country is on guns. As we’ve seen before, furious words are being hurled by  raging citizen disarmament zealots manifesting their hatred of those who believe in the right to keep and bear arms, and accusing “NRA” of having “blood on its hands.” As usual, we see opportunistic and strident “progressive” politicians, cheerleading “journalists” and foaming-at-the-mouth “celebrities” egging that on, and posturing loudly for new “gun laws.”

“Debate” with fanatics vested in citizen disarmament is a wasted effort. At best, those attempting to inject reality into the public discourse may help enlighten those who have not given the matter close scrutiny and retain open minds. As for those whose minds are on lockdown, ask what laws would have made a difference in the atrocity at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. You’ll get the same tired old platitudes.

Background checks? How have those worked at “stopping the violence” in places like Chicago? Besides, the suspect reportedly passed one.

Banning so-called “assault weapons”? Those represent only a small fraction of homicides committed with firearms, so anyone seriously proposing that needs to also demand a ban on handguns.

As previously reported at Oath Keepers, Nancy Pelosi admitted the “slippery slope” gun-grabbers used to ridicule as “paranoid,” but  which the founders of the modern disarmament movement freely endorsed. And lest you think banning all guns hasn’t been a long-term goal, check out what I found from the Jan. 1968 issue of GUNS Magazine while doing some research:

It’s only in recent times that gun-grabbers feel it more prudent to mask their true goals with terms like “common sense gun safety laws.”

So much for the lie that “No one is talking about taking your guns.” Of course they are. That’s the end game, or at least the beginning of the end game.

Not on our watch.

OK, so if guns are at a stalemate, what about identifying common factors to stop killers before they can strike? Like Hollywood’s Department of Precrime…?

There are plenty of conflicting reports about the suspect’s mental state, temperament, politics and ideology, with many playing “Gotcha” to conflate and spread blame. And people are naturally curious about such aberrations in their midst and information gets put out there that later turns out to be inaccurate. We’re still finding out much about him, not that the finger-pointing matters in terms of resolving anything. And our finding out is being hampered anyway now that the suspect’s social media presence is being taken down, forcing the public to rely on major media passing along what civil authority wants them to know.

The only relevant ideology is that he is twisted and evil. No one in his right mind advocates killing innocents.

Speaking of “right mind,” how about the “fact” that “everybody knew” the suspect was a likely school shooter?  Even the FBI had been informed and they didn’t follow up properly!

While we don’t know what they legally could have done, it’s tempting to believe they could have taken the suspect out of the general populace.

On what grounds? We can’t throw away due process. Recall that despite three visits, cops from a few years back say they didn’t have enough to remove the Isla Vista killer from circulation (which, among other things, was a spectacular admission of how California gun registration has proven useless at preventing anything.)

So I’m saying that’s just the way it is? Nothing can be done?

Not at all. There is one “gun law” that at least had the potential to make a difference, but it was being infringed by “gun free school zoned” edicts.  Broward County Public Schools, of which Stoneman Douglas is part, explains on its website:

No person shall be authorized to carry any weapon or firearm into any meeting of the public school district; any school athletic event not related to firearms; any school administration building; any school facility; and/or school sponsored event. Any person possessing, transmitting, and/or using a weapon on School Board property shall be subject to arrest. In addition, employees who violate this policy may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. The SBBC hereby waives the exception in section 790.115(2)(a)3., and therefore prohibits the possession of any firearms in vehicles for student or campus parking privileges. a. Certified law enforcement officers are exempt when working within scope of their employment. b. School Board property shall be defined as school grounds, facilities, administrative offices, bus stop, school bus, or vehicle provided for transportation by the school system. c. School sponsored activities shall be defined as any approved School Board event or official School Board business, on or off School Board property.

Don’t look for the Second Amendment to be recognized any time soon by our representatives or the courts as “being necessary to the security of a free State.” Instead, look for renewed demands to enact even more citizen disarmament edicts.

We’ll see if this puts the kibosh on the Republicans’ stomach for nationwide concealed carry reciprocity with the midterms coming up. And don’t be surprised if some “gun rights leaders” — prone to endorsing “compromises” on things like “bump stocks” or “Fix NICS”  — decide it’s time for them to extend another olive branch to those who want nothing less than everything.

The proper response of course, for those who would “guard with jealous attention the public liberty,” is to respond to gun-grab demands with one word:

“No.” You can add “Your move” for effect.

For those who still insist on the disarmament we see so many calling for, I have one question:

How many men who resist are you willing to see killed in order to make that happen?

Don’t be surprised if some of the more emotion-driven and restraint-challenged answer “All of you.”

 

STATEMENT BY STEWART RHODES, FOUNDER OF OATH KEEPERS:

This shooting only reinforces the problem with “victim disarmament zones” and the utter necessity of armed officers in the schools AND armed and trained school staff and teachers.   As for calls to disarm us and ban guns, remember, in Paris, the terrorists at both the Charlie Hebdo and theater attacks used select-fire AKs which were smuggled into the country and were entirely illegal in France.  Frances ban on all such weapons in civilian hands didn’t matter.

A terrorist, a drug lord, a gang, or a raving lunatic, can all get whatever they need on the black market worldwide. That is the reality.

Given that reality, exactly what gun law here in the U.S. would have possibly prevented that crime?   None.  You can’t legislate away the existence of modern firearms.   They will exist.  But you can empower we the people, in all places, to be the protectors and actual first-responders the founders expected us to be as the militia.  An armed populace – including teachers and school staff – who are allowed to protect the children under their care, is the answer, just as it has been the answer in Israel for decades in defense of their children at school.  It works.   in fact, that is the only thing that works when a school is targeted for attack.  Everything else is simply too slow, as this latest shooting again demonstrates with the police failing to stop the shooter in time to prevent 18 deaths, and counting.

The staff and the teachers need to be able to put a stop to the killing, because they are ALWAYS THERE and don’t need to come from somewhere else.  They and they alone can provide the fast response that is needed to stop the killing.  When seconds count, the police are only moments away.  And that means the teachers and staff need to be armed and trained, just like in a church the staff and volunteers need to be trained.   The recent mass slaughter at Sutherland Spring Baptist Church in Texas shows that reality all to well.  Even with a local hero like Stephen Willeford responding as fast as he could with his own AR to stop the killing (beating the cops there) he was nowhere near as fast as an armed church member would have been, if any had been armed.

Whether it is a church, a school, a college, a mall, or any other public soft target for terrorism or mass murdering nuts, the answer is that the intended victims must be able to defend themselves and to protect those under their care.

One answer short term is for us trained military and police veterans to volunteer to do shifts at schools as armed guards across the nation until we can get enough teachers and staff trained up.  I’ll serve,  Won’t you?    Stewart

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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work.  You can donate HERE.

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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

 

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