Everytown Tells Who NOT To Vote For

Everytown for Gun Safety just sent out a press release giving voters a list of politicians not to vote for. Well, actually it was a list of Demanding Moms leaders and Everytown volunteers that they had endorsed.

John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, said, “We’re proud to endorse these Moms Demand Action volunteers and Everytown leaders who already have built a strong track record of fighting hard to keep their neighbors safe (sic) and are now making the leap from advocating for laws to writing them.” He confuses keeping neighbors safe with keeping them disarmed.

The full list of candidates endorsed today and the office they are running for is available below:

  • Arkansas
    • Kate Schaffer, Arkansas State House, District 10
    • Denise Garner, Arkansas State House, District 20
    • Nicole Clowney, Arkansas State House, District 21
    • Denise Ennett, Arkansas State House, District 80
  • California
    • Sam Liccardo, US Representative, CA-16
    • George Whitesides, US Representative, CA-27
    • Marisol Rubio, California State Senate, District 09
    • Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, California State Assembly, District 16
    • Catherine Stefani, California State Assembly, District 19
    • Pilar Schiavo, California State Assembly, District 40
    • Darshana Patel, California State Assembly, District 76
    • Linda Deos, Davis City Council, District 2
    • Jett Black-Maertz, Santa Barbara City Council, District 1
  • Florida
    • Gay Valimont, US Representative, FL-01
  • Georgia
    • Lucy McBath, US Representative, GA-06
  • Illinois
    • Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, Illinois State House, District 17
    • Marti Deuter, Illinois State House, District 45
    • Jackie Williamson, Illinois State House, District 47
    • Maura Hirschauer, Illinois State House, District 49
    • Nabeela Syed, Illinois State House, District 51
    • Maria Peterson, Illinois State House, District 52
    • Mary Beth Canty, Illinois State House, District 54
    • Tracy Katz Muhl, Illinois State House, District 57
    • Bob Morgan, Illinois State House, District 58
    • Joyce Mason, Illinois State House, District 61
    • Laura Dias, Illinois State House, District 62
    • Heidi Henry, Illinois State House, District 75
    • Anne Stava-Murray, Illinois State House, District 81
    • Valerie Simutis, Local School Council Member Chicago Public Schools
    • Sara Knizhnik, Lake County Board, District 18
    • Jennifer Merritt, Sangamon County Board, District 25
  • Iowa
    • Christina Bohannan, US Representative, IA-01
  • Michigan
    • Emily Busch, US Representative, MI-10
  • Mississippi
    • Shirley Meeks, Sunflower County Election Commissioner, District 5
  • North Carolina
    • Natasha Marcus, Insurance Commissioner
    • Claire Kempner, North Carolina State House, District 09
    • Allison Dahle, North Carolina State House, District 11
    • Maria Cervania, North Carolina State House, District 41
    • Beth Helfrich, North Carolina State House, District 98
  • Ohio
    • Allison Russo, Ohio State House, District 07
    • Crystal Lett, Ohio State House, District 11
    • Jessica Miranda, Ohio State House, District 28
    • Erika White, Ohio State House, District 41
    • Rachael Morocco, Ohio State House, District 60
    • Mark Gooch, Ohio State House, District 77
  • Oregon
    • Maxine Dexter, US Representative, OR-03
  • Texas
    • Rhonda Hart, US Representative, TX-14
    • Suleman Lalani, Texas State House, District 76
    • Denise Wilkerson, Texas State House, District 94
    • Chase West, Texas State House, District 132
  • Virginia
    • Missy Cotter Smasal, US Representative, VA-02

Looking over this list I see the anti-gun mayor of San Jose Sam Liccardo is being pushed. He is the one who wants every gun owner to be required to carry liability insurance.

With regard to North Carolina, State Senator Natasha Marcus is trying to be the Commissioner of Insurance. Her only experience on insurance issues is from serving on a Senate committee. Her campaign website speaks more about her dedication to stuff like clean energy, gun control, and abortion than it does to issues concerning the insurance industry and insurance consumers. I have written about her in the past especially with regard to her historical ignorance about the use of gun control to keep blacks disarmed.

I know looks should not matter but when I look at the official picture of Rep. Allison Dahle (D-Wake), I say WTF! I know she says she worked on Broadway as a stage manager but that picture does reinforce her image as a wild-eyed gun controller. She does want all the usual laws: AWB, magazine bans, universal background checks, etc.

I will have to give Everytown this. They are working hard to get their gun control activists elected at all levels. Their “Demand a Seat” program trains their activists on how to run for office and work on campaigns. Unfortunately, they are often successful. We on the pro-rights side have not done a good job in grooming future candidates. While we do support those who support us when they do run for office, finding good potential candidates is not something we have done that I am aware of. That needs to change!

None Dare Call It Racism

A recent Tweet by David Hogg has gotten some notice. He accuses white suburban women and their voting habits as the reason more gun control has not been enacted.

Given that the Demanding Moms would not even exist if it were not for white suburban women, his claim is ludicrous. One really should not expect anything honest or profound coming from “Camera” Hogg.

If this was the only thing regarding “persons of pallor” and support/non-support for gun control, it could be passed off as just more crap coming out of Hogg’s mouth. Unfortunately, it is not. A post by journalist Emily Miller of “Emily Gets Her Gun” fame (#commission earned) listing posts she began and abandoned led to a CNN story out of Denver.

It was a “whites only” demonstration for more gun control in Colorado.

Hundreds of White women gathered at the Colorado Capitol Monday morning, with more expected to show up throughout the day, to use their “privilege” in a silent sit-in to demand Gov. Jared Polis ban guns and create a gun buyback program….

Here4TheKids, a movement created after a mass shooting in Nashville in March left six people dead, including three children, calls for primarily White women to peacefully sit-in until Polis, a Democrat, signs an executive order banning guns. It was founded by two women of color, Saira Rao, who is South Asian American, and Tina Strawn, who is Black. Both are mothers.

Strawn told CNN the movement calls for White women to be at the forefront of the sit-in because, “we know what happens when we show up with demands.”…

“So, it appealed to me very much that this was actually a time where we are asking Black folks and other marginalized and vulnerable communities to sit this one out and allow the White women and their privileged bodies, their privilege, and their power to show up. It’s time for them to show up,” Strawn added.

The thesis pushed by Strawn is that white women are less likely to be arrested, less likely to run afoul of police overreaction, etc. She goes on to add that blacks and other “marginalized” minorities have been “traumatized over and over and over again” both by police and by violence within their communities. Thus, white women should use their “white privilege” to bring attention to the issue of gun control.

The aim of the sit-in was to have Gov. Polis (D-CO) sign an executive order that any court in the land would find unconstitutional.

The executive order Here4TheKids has proposed for Polis to sign calls for the governor to “ban the use, loading, possession or carrying of all firearms in Colorado, including but not limited to firearms for personal protection, hunting, law enforcement or any otherwise lawful purpose” and create a statewide gun buyback program.

The organizers of Here4TheKids want more action because gun control laws have not stopped “the violence”. They say “because guns can cross state lines, you can print guns on 3D printers” that gun control is not working. Cody Wilson would agree with that last part as that has always been his argument about making gun control futile.

I look at my friends in the gun culture. They are white, black, Asian, Native American, and everything in between. They are male, female, and transexual. They are rich and poor. They are urban, suburban, and rural. In other words, they all are part of this melting pot that we call America. We make no demands that only whites can be for gun rights. Indeed, we argue against laws that were implemented to keep blacks and other minorities disarmed. Unfortunately, the enemies of freedom and our God-given right to self-protection have argued for these very laws.

Frankly, I find this interjection of race into the arguments for gun control to be repulsive. I thought we left that behind years ago along with anti-semitism. Obviously, not.

You Are On Your Own

Michael Bane constantly reminds his listeners that in times of unrest or natural disasters that “you are on your own.” Reliance on police or emergency services to save you can be futile. Many Israeli civilians have just learned that fact. The Times of Israel estimates that the death toll from the Hamas terror attacks this weekend has reached 800 with many more wounded. If you were to scale that number up in the United States like blogger Cdr Salamander did, the number would approach 25,000 in a day.

IDF soldier next to dead civilians [Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo] from Al Jezeera

We often think that Israel is an armed country. We have all seen the pictures of off-duty IDF women carrying their issued M-16s. The reality is much different. It is estimated that only 2.5% of Israeli civilians have gun permits. Those permits allow them one firearm and 50 cartridges.

As Stephen Gutowski of The Reload reports, this crisis has forced the government to relax the requirements.

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir announced on Sunday he has ordered officials responsible for issuing gun licenses to broaden its standards. As the death toll inflicted by terror group Hamas grew to over 600, Ben-Gvir said he wants more Israelis to be able to legally arm themselves.

“Today I directed the Firearms Licensing Division to go on an emergency operation in order to allow as many citizens as possible to arm themselves,” he posted, according to a Google translation. “The plan will take effect within 24 hours.”

Ben-Gvir also increased the amount of ammo that one can have from 50 rounds to 100 rounds. To my mind, both amounts are insignificant when faced with terrorists armed with full-auto AK-47s.

Tom Gresham on his Sunday Gun Talk Radio broadcast devoted time to the attack on Israel and its people by suggesting an “imagination exercise”.

While there is no magazine in my ready AR-15, this is what is next to the AR along with a ready bag with more filled magazines and a first aid kit. In retrospect, I think I need to add a set of shooting muffs to the setup.

I can’t say my idea is original. I got it from author Matt Bracken who first wrote about how to make duplexed magazines in 2010. I modified mine a bit from his in that I used a piece of dowel instead of a pencil for the spreader and I didn’t fill the space in between with silicone caulk. If you decide to make your own, use GI-type metal magazines. I think mine were either C-Products or D&H. P-Mags just won’t work for this. You could just get the 60-round drum mag from Magpul but the duplexed mag is a lot cheaper and works just as well.

I don’t expect to be attacked by Hamas, Hezbollah, or Mexican drug cartels. But then again neither did most of the Israeli citizens who were killed or kidnapped this past weekend. That said, home invasions with multiple attackers are on the rise. Being prepared doesn’t mean you are paranoid. It just means you are prepared for something you hope will never happen. If you are prepared, then it will be one less thing to have to worry about.

Playing Politics With Guns In St. Louis

Leftist politicians everywhere would prefer to blame the implement rather than the criminal who used it. Such is the case in St. Louis, Missouri where Mayor Tishaura Jones (D-St. Louis) is proposing a multitude of new firearms ordinances.

From her press release issued yesterday:

  • Prohibit military-grade weapons on our streets 
  • Prevent transfer or sale of guns to minors
  • Take action on ghost guns and similar untraceable firearms
  • Prepare St. Louis for the passage of Blair’s Law
  • Prohibit insurrectionists and those convicted of hate crimes from having guns

She goes on to say:

“In the coming days, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, aldermen are ready to introduce commonsense gun safety legislation,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. “We come together around a shared vision: a safer, stronger St. Louis, ready to stand up for our values. We know Missourians are demanding state-level action to pass measures like red-flag laws and background checks, but we are ready to try every tool available to us at the local level to protect families from gun violence.”

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes on her press conference, she includes AR-15s and AK-47s in the list of firearms subject to prohibition. Mayor Jones also expects blowback from Republican legislators.

Other than the obvious constitutionality issues with Mayor Jones’ moves at gun control, there is an even bigger obstacle at the state level. Missouri has state preemption on all issues regarding firearms with the exceptions of banning open carry to those without a carry permit and regulating discharge within municipal boundaries.

Missouri General Statute 21.750 states, in part:

 *21.750.  Firearms legislation preemption by general assembly, exceptions — limitation on civil recovery against firearms or ammunitions manufacturers, when, exception. — 1.  The general assembly hereby occupies and preempts the entire field of legislation touching in any way firearms, components, ammunition and supplies to the complete exclusion of any order, ordinance or regulation by any political subdivision of this state.  Any existing or future orders, ordinances or regulations in this field are hereby and shall be null and void except as provided in subsection 3 of this section.

  2.  No county, city, town, village, municipality, or other political subdivision of this state shall adopt any order, ordinance or regulation concerning in any way the sale, purchase, purchase delay, transfer, ownership, use, keeping, possession, bearing, transportation, licensing, permit, registration, taxation other than sales and compensating use taxes or other controls on firearms, components, ammunition, and supplies except as provided in subsection 3 of this section.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey reacted swiftly to Mayor Jones’ attention-grabbing pronouncements. He reminded her that Missouri has strict scrutiny with regard to firearms laws and that her proposed ordinances were against Missouri general statutes.

When speaking of St. Louis, it should be noted that the city and the county are not one and the same. St. Louis County has a population of just less than one million people. The City of St. Louis, by contrast, has a population of 296,000. What locals refer to as North County, West County, and South County compromise a much larger proportion of the population than the City.

Does the City of St. Louis have issues with crime? Absolutely. Are the guns recovered by police at the scene of crimes AR-15s or AK-47s? Not really. 90% of all firearms recovered are handguns.

The meme below does give an indication of the level of crime in St. Louis. Perhaps if Mayor Jones focused more on criminals and gangs she would have more success than focusing on firearms.

Words Matter

Americans, for the most part, don’t like to be controlled. It is part of our collective DNA and has been from the time the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown, continuing on through the westward expansion, and through to today. That is why the gun prohibitionists have begun to couch their aims behind innocuous buzzwords.

First it was “gun safety”. I attribute that to Mayor Bloomberg and his PR flacks including the Demanding Mom herself Shannon Watts. They understood that if they couched their desire for control behind the concept of “safety” then there would be less objection. The mainstream media has bought into the terminology wholeheartedly.

Of course, if Bloomberg, Watts, the Biden Administration, and the rest of the gun control industry were truly serious about “gun safety”, they would be insisting upon classes like hunter safety and the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program be taught in every school in America. As it is the Biden Administration through the US Department of Education is withholding funding to schools for archery and hunter safety programs. They are using the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 as their excuse. So in their pursuit of “gun safety” and “safer communities” they will defund the exact types of programs that actually work for safety.

Now it appears that the successor word to “gun safety” will be “gun responsibility”. This comes from Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey. He, of course, is using the tragedy in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas as the pretense to urge for “gun responsibility.”

White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

McConaughey says there is a difference between control and responsibility in his op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman.

There is a difference between control and responsibility. The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.

That all sounds nice but it is sophistry. As Bishop Robert Barron noted in his commencement address at Hillsdale College:

Their concern is not being truthful or just but rather speaking in such a way that they appear truthful or just and hence become convincing to others. Such sophists were, obviously enough, enormously useful to prospective lawyers and politicians in ancient Greece, and it should be equally obvious that their intellectual descendants are rather thick on the ground today.

McConaughey enumerates four key points for “gun responsibility” in his op-ed.

  • Universal background checks
  • Age 21 to buy an “assault rifle” (sic) unless one is in the military. “Assault rifle” is undefined.
  • “Red Flag Laws should be the law of the land.”
  • National waiting period for the purchase of “assault rifles” (sic).

So in the end, what McConaughey calls “gun responsibility” is just a rehash of many prior “gun control” proposals. They are all, as the gun control industry has said for decades, a “good first step.” A good first step to even more onerous control upon an enumerated right.

The gun control industry and their fellow travelers have to rely upon sophistry and buzzwords. Otherwise they have nothing.

Executive Order Establishes “Office of Violence Prevention”

I don’t know what it is with Democrats in the executive branch, both state and Federal, but they love their executive orders. On the same day that President Joe Biden released a new executive order on gun control, Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) released Executive Order No. 279 which established the North Carolina Office of Violence Prevention. While I have no confirmation that they were coordinated, I’d be very surprised if they were not.

Bloomberg’s North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (sic) was all a-twitter about this. They sent out a long gushing email and included a picture of Cooper signing the EO.

From NCGV’s missive:

North Carolinians Against Gun Violence and our coalition partners commend Governor Cooper for signing an Executive Order creating an Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) today. This is the first such office in the South. NCGV’s coalition partners include:  Community Justice Action Fund, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, Giffords, Equal Justice USA, Gate City Coalition, Boots on the Ground, NC Black Alliance, MomsRising, and the North Carolina Council of Churches….

Becky Ceartas said, “Today the Governor further demonstrated his dedication to preventing gun violence by creating an Office of Violence Prevention. He is focused on promoting evidence based public health solutions. Preventing gun violence takes a multifaceted approach. Coordination among state agencies and supporting grassroots programs are critical to addressing this problem. We need to address the root causes of gun violence.”

I note that Attorney General Josh Stein (D-NC) who would like to be Cooper’s successor is in the picture on the far right. Ceartas of NCGV was relegated to the back row and you can see her peering over the shoulder of the bearded African-American gentleman.

The Executive Order establishes two new organizations. First, there is the Office of Violence Prevention which will be a part of the Department of Public Safety. Second, it also establishes a Community Violence Advisory Board. The former is charged with working with existing North Carolina agencies such as Department of Health and Human Services and the new Community Violence Advisory Board.

The EO states that the Office of Violence Prevention may engage in activities that align with its mission. These include “offering training and technical assistance; issuing best practice guidance and model processes; facilitating cross-jurisdictional information sharing; conducting public awareness campaigns; sharing data and collaborating with research institutions; and identifying and applying for funding from federal and philanthropic sources.”

I can easily imagine monies will be sourced from the various Bloomberg Foundations as well as the Joyce Foundation and others. In terms of research institutions, I am sure Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and Garen Wintemute’s program at U. Cal. – Davis will seek to be involved. I could foresee this morphing into the establishment of a new research program at one of the UNC constituent institutions as well.

Insofar as the Community Violence Advisory Board is concerned, the way the Executive Order is written, it would seem to preclude any involvement by those with real expertise in gun safety and violence prevention such as NSSF’s Project Childsafe, John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center, and the like. It states that the members of the Advisory Board consists “of individuals dedicated to the mission of the Office.”

Much about this new Office of Violence Prevention is public relations fluff which will have no impact on either violence or policy. It is intended to make the gun control industry and its players happy. However, where it could be dangerous to our rights is through reports and advice used to provide support or window-dressing for gun control measures in the General Assembly. We need to keep an eye on them as well as their budget requests. Without money, they exist only on paper which is where they belong.

The Same Old Blah, Blah, Blah

I’m sorry but I just can’t watch Joe Biden bloviate on TV. I know it is the State of the Union speech which is supposed to be important but really isn’t. Thus, I went to the White House website to see what he was going to say about firearms. It is easier to read his words than to hear him shout them on TV.

From his prepared remarks:

Do something.

That was the same plea of parents who lost their children in Uvalde: Do something on gun violence.

Thank God we did, passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades.

That includes things that the majority of responsible gun owners support, like enhanced background checks for 18 to 21-year-olds and red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others.

But we know our work is not done.

Joining us tonight is Brandon Tsay, a 26-year-old hero.

Brandon put off his college dreams to stay by his mom’s side as she was dying from cancer. He now works at a dance studio started by his grandparents.

Two weeks ago, during Lunar New Year celebrations, he heard the studio’s front door close and saw a man pointing a gun at him.

He thought he was going to die, but then he thought about the people inside.

In that instant, he found the courage to act and wrestled the semi-automatic pistol away from a gunman who had already killed 11 people at another dance studio.

He saved lives. It’s time we do the same as well.

Ban assault weapons once and for all.

We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994.

In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled.

Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.

C’mon, man. Don’t you know that the firearm arm used in Monterrey Park was banned in California years ago?

I do agree that Brandon Tsay is a hero for stopping the murders. On that we can agree.

As to the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, why are we treating 18-21 year olds like second-class citizens? We are OK with sending them to war in faraway places with fully automatic weapons to fight and die for this country so why are they treated differently. They can vote, they can enter a contract, they can be imprisoned as adults, and, in most states, they have reached the age of majority.

With regard to red flag laws, they make a mockery of due process. More importantly, if the person is so dangerous to either themselves or to us, why are they still out on the street? As seen in both Europe and in Wisconsin, a killer or terrorist with a vehicle can kill a lot of people.

Finally, mass shootings are rare events. They are aberrations. They are black swans. Yes they do happen but they are not the norm. Moreover, rifles including “assault weapons” (sic) are one of the least used weapons in homicides. They lag even fists and feet.

I’m sure Joe got some cheers from the left side of the aisle for his comments. But that is all he should get.

Tweet Of The Day

The New York Times is bemoaning the fact that all those gun control laws in California do nothing to stop mass casualty events.

The reply by “JustynWS” nails it – do you treat the symptom or do you treat the cause.

Ricketts To Replace Sasse In US Senate

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) resigned his seat in the US Senate on Sunday in order to take a new position as President of the University of Florida. While he had been wishy-washy on some things, Sasse was strong on gun rights and voted against the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022.

Today, Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) announced that his immediate predecessor, former Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) would be appointed to fill the position.

Ricketts on left. Courtesy of NSSF.

In terms of gun rights, Ricketts should be great. He pledged to sign a constitutional carry bill at the NSSF Governors’ Forum held at the SHOT Show last year. Unfortunately, it did not reach his desk due to a couple of wishy-washy Republicans standing in the way. Ricketts was in favor of the right to open carry in the Nebraska Capitol building. As the tweet below makes clear, he objects to Biden’s gun control agenda.

Ricketts will serve for the next two years and then will have to run again for a full term. He has indicated he plans to run in 2024.

Ricketts and his family are large contributors to conservative causes including a $1.4 million contribution to the PAC Conservative Nebraska. Ricketts’ father Joe was the founder of the brokerage TD Ameritrade. Charles Schwab Corporation purchased TD Ameritriade in 2020 for $22 billion. The Ricketts family also owns a 95% controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Of course, Nebraska Democrats are miffed about it. They claim Ricketts’ appointment is merely pay-to-play payback by Gov. Pillen for a large campaign contribution. Whatever.