Month: September 2022

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Followup On East Henderson Youth Raffle

September 13, 2022 by

This is a follow-up on the FN-15 patrol rifle raffle being held by the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheer League. The “concern” offered by gun prohibitionists appears to have back-fired on them. East Henderson YFCL has now received nationwide support for their raffle and has raised much more than anticipated.

From Fox News:

“We are so grateful for the blessings that God has provided us through this ridiculous backlash,” the mother said. “We have far surpassed our goals, and now have the ability to pass those blessings on to others in need. We have read every message, transaction note and email that has come our way. The supportive messages are coming from both retired and active military personnel, law enforcement officers, firefighters, fellow youth organization leaders, teachers, lawyers, entrepreneurs and grandparents trying to save our backwards society.”

“They are thanking us for standing our ground, for volunteering our time to support our future, for loving these children, for praying over them; for teaching them to have a backbone, to stand up for what they believe in, to protect our constitutional rights and to not back down to bullying. Everyone wants to talk about bullying, but no one wants to stand up against them. When someone finally does stand up, they are the ones who are punished, not the bully. We’ve all had enough,” the mother continued.

“The truly validating thing about this entire experience is that the Second Amendment community is full of heart, compassion, safety, protection, love, honor and respect. The opposition has been disrespectful, hateful, intolerant, uninformed and often downright disgusting. Our young children do not conduct themselves in the manner that these adults have been behaving,” she added.

One of the groups that helping bring awareness to this raffle is Grass Roots North Carolina. Not only did they send out an alert to the 125,000 on their email list, their alert was published in Ammoland. It should be noted that this raffle is still open. I bought my $20 worth of tickets and would urge you to help as well.

From GRNC:

Standing for liberty can have some rewarding results. We at Grass Roots North Carolina tend to take exception to the bullies of the liberticidal left.  That’s why we decided to help out the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheerleading League (EHYFCL) in East Flat Rock, North Carolina, that which was raffling off a perfectly legal product.

Said an organization representative: “The use of the field, stadium, and facilities are not free, the lost uniforms, mouthpieces, chin straps, ear pads, bows, and socks are not free … Equipment is not free, the insurance is not free, and all the other fees the league must pay are not imaginary.”

Bless their hearts, the ‘woke’ mob leftists lost their minds over the fact that it was a –Gasp!– FN 15 Patrol Carbine M-LOK 16″, an ArmaLite 15-style rifle with a suggested retail price of $1,299.  That was just too much for the tyrannical ten percent.

Had they kept quiet about an inanimate object that only has two enemies, dust, and oxidation.  The group would have sold a few tickets, and that would have been it.

But like all the other anti-liberty authoritarian leftists down through history, they just couldn’t leave well enough alone.  Their collectivist urge to control others was just too strong, and they just had to start complaining.  

Leftist authoritarians can’t deal with the fact that people who possess what is rightfully called the modern-day musket tend to be independently minded defenders of liberty – liberals in the truest sense of the word.

Thanks to Ammoland.com, we heard of this and we acted to help them out by publicizing their raffle, causing it to go viral.

So, we find it very satisfying that tickets are selling like preverbal standard capacity hotcakes and a lot of liberty grabber lobbyists lost what is left of their minds over this.  We would like to thank them for helping out.   After all, it is a team effort, the pro-freedom community acting normally, while leftists were acting like.. leftists..

I have heard rumors locally that the gun prohibitionists that were stymied in their efforts to shut down this raffle have now turned their attention to the Henderson County Public Schools Board. As I understand it, they are trying to lobby the school board to deny this league and these kids the use of school facilities such as athletic fields as retribution.

You can let the school board know that you support these kids and the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheer League by contacting them at this link. I would mention that denying the league the use of the facilities amounts to a denial of free speech and is a violation of civil rights under the color of law which could lead to a Federal lawsuit. Just a suggestion.

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State V. Philpotts – Ohio Supreme Court Justice Brunner’s Dissent (Updated)

September 10, 2022 by 2 Comments

The Supreme Court of Ohio ordered all parties in State v. Philpotts to file supplemental briefs addressing the impact on the case of the US Supreme Court’s decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen. Given the import of the Bruen decision on both the state and federal level, this seem eminently reasonable.

That is except for Justice Jennifer Brunner (D-Ohio) who seems to take the first line of Sam Cook’s classic What a Wonderful World as her motto. She issued a dissent in which she objected to this order of the Ohio Supreme Court.

After rambling on about it being hard to convey lessons from history, about how revisionists have re-written history to make it fit modern times, and how it is hard to use primary documents, she comes up with this objection to the use of text, history, and tradition.

{¶ 8} Importantly, the glaring flaw in any analysis of the United States’ historical tradition of firearm regulation in relation to Ohio’s gun laws is that no such analysis could account for what the United States’ historical tradition of firearm regulation would have been if women and nonwhite people had been able to vote for the representatives who determined these regulations. How would this problem be addressed in any modern analysis of historical gun regulations? It cannot simply be ignored. And even if a court tries to take the views of women and nonwhite people into account, are there sufficient materials on their views available to enable reliable conclusions to be made? (emphasis mine)

Does she not know that gun control was historically used to keep nonwhite people disarmed and disenfranchised? There have been many books and articles on this such as Prof. Nicholas Johnson’s book Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms. Perhaps she is unaware of Ida B. Well’s seminal work on lynchings in which she said, “a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.” A very recent study by economists at Clemson found that when blacks had greater access to firearms, the incidence of racial violence and lynchings was diminished.

Does Justice Brunner really think that nonwhite people preferred being disarmed in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries? Since there were no laws preventing women from being disarmed, I will skip that except to say that Annie Oakley was a damn fine shot.

And to answer her question, yes there are sufficient materials available to discern the views of nonwhites on gun control with which to enable the court to come to a reliable conclusion.

UPDATE: I found out this evening that Justice Brunner is running as the Democrat candidate for Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. Among her pledges is for “bail reform”. Given the experience in other states with “bail reform”, it seems a recipe for more property and violent crime in Ohio. That, when combined with her willful ignorance of history, makes her totally unsuited for the position she seeks.

Her opponent, Justice Sharon Kennedy, has the endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association along with many law enforcement organizations. Before she went to law school, Justice Kennedy was a police officer in Hamilton, Ohio. Justice Brunner, by contrast, has a number of union endorsements but not a one of them deals with law enforcement.

If you live in Ohio, I would urge you to get out to vote for Justice Kennedy and get your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same.

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My Favorite Photo Of Queen Elizabeth II

September 8, 2022 by 2 Comments

As most people know by now, Queen Elizabeth II passed away today at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She was 96 years old. She met with US presidents starting with Truman and up to Biden. She had 15 Prime Ministers in her reign starting with Sir Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss whom she met on Tuesday.

All that said, this remains my favorite photo of QE2.

She is out in the rain firing a L85 variant of the SA80 rifle. I don’t know if she is firing it semi-auto or full-auto. The photo was taken in 1993 when she was 67. I have no doubt she would have done it in her 90s if given half a chance.

This was not her first time first time firing a full auto firearm. Her father King George VI refused pleas by MI6 to evacuate to Canada in 1940.

From The Mirror on a Channel 4 Documentary:

Warwick University’s Prof Richard Aldrich adds: “He says everybody is going to stay and going to fight. He says, ‘I want to get my German. I want to at least kill one of the invaders and we will all fight to the last.’

“When Churchill hears of this he says, ‘You need to be able to kill more than one German.’”

So he sent the King a Tommy gun and the Queen Mum, Elizabeth, 14, and Margaret, ten, also learned to use it.

Describing the wartime scenes Prof Aldrich says: “The royal family and equerries are all practising with pistols, rifles and Churchill’s Tommy gun. The Queen Mother enjoys taking pot-shots at rats in Buckingham Palace’s gardens.

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The Wisdom Of Robert Ruark

September 7, 2022 by 2 Comments

Robert Ruark, a native North Carolinian, was a journalist, columnist, outdoor writer, and author. He fought in WWII as a Navy gunnery officer during the Battle of the Atlantic. Ruark was also a hunter who took multiple hunting safaris to Africa. For my generation and generations after mine, his hunting trips and the books he wrote about them are his enduring legacy.

I came across this quote from on Facebook which was posted by Gunsite Academy. Given I’ve never been into jewelry for myself, never owned a yacht, and am a one-woman man, I would agree with his statement.

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Tongue In Check Comment Of The Day

September 6, 2022 by

Frankly, I’m not sure why the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives bothers to have a social media presence on Facebook. However, they do and it attracts a large number of comments. Most are of the “you need to be disbanded” variety.

Today ATF had a post celebrating Labor Day and thanking workers for the contributions that they have made to this country.

The post attracted this wonderful tongue in check comment from a Greg Kovats.

Thank you for working fast and furiously to keep us safe. If you don’t believe me just Google “ATF fast and furious”

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East Henderson YFC Raffle

September 5, 2022 by 2 Comments

A youth football and cheerleading league has a raffle for a FN-15 patrol rifle to raise money for kids and the usual suspects have a hissy fit. Just down the road from me in East Flat Rock, North Carolina, the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheerleading League is holding just such a raffle. It goes to support equipment and fees for kids ages 5 to 12 who cannot afford it.

The winner must be 21 years old and pass a FBI NICS check as you might well expect.

The story first hit local WLOS a few days ago and now has gone national to Fox News.

In response to anonymous criticism, the league released this on their Facebook page according to WLOS.

In response to complaints made both publicly and “anonymously” regarding our raffle:

1) We’re currently taking applications for an official Fund Raiser. If you have a sure way to raise enough money quickly to get us through the rest of the season and still have enough to start up next season, we need you to use that energy in a positive way.

2) We’re ALWAYS accepting donations. This organization doesn’t run on air and water. We’re not “affiliated” with Henderson County Public Schools nor are we sponsored by Henderson County in ANY way. The referees aren’t volunteers, the LEO and first responders for the children’s safety aren’t volunteers, the use of the field, stadium, and facilities are not free, the lost uniforms, mouthpieces, chin straps, ear pads, bows, and socks are not free, equipment is not free, the insurance is not free, and all the other fees the league must pay are not imaginary.

3) If we’re not raising enough money, we’re forced to raise fees.

A spokesperson for the EHYFCL told Fox News this:

“We aren’t offering an assault rifle. We are offering an FN 15 Patrol Carbine,” a spokesperson for EHYFCL told Fox News Digital. “This is an ArmaLite 15-style rifle, not fully automatic, which by definition excludes it from being classified as an assault rifle. We are following all ATF guidelines. The item is being held at an FFL, the recipient must complete an ATF form 4473 and pass an NICS background check before taking possession of it.”

I love how they have called out the naysayers. I plan to buy tickets and I would urge my readers to do so as well.

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Gun Rights Policy Conference 2022

September 3, 2022 by

The 37th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference will be held in Irving, Texas from September 30th to October 2nd. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 GRPCs had to be held virtually. This year the conference returns to its regular in-person format. Starting with a reception on Friday night, the meat of the conference will be the presentations on Saturday and Sunday by speakers covering everything from legal issues to gun politics in the states to international issues.

GRPC is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

I have been an invited speaker for the past few years. As to my topic, I’m not sure what will be this year. However, I have spoken on the use of new media to build support for the Second Amendment while last year I spoke about the history of armed neutrality as represented by Swiss and Swedish firearms.

If you can only do one day, make it Saturday. You don’t need to worry about lunch as box lunches are provided free of charge. Moreover, you will go home with a library of books on the fight for gun rights. If you cannot make it, it will be streamed live on the Second Amendment Foundation’s Facebook and YouTube pages as well as on the OpsLens app.

One thing that needs to be emphasized over and over is that this is a great chance to meet fellow activists in the fight for the Second Amendment from around the country. Oh, and by the way, it is free!