A short summary worth reading. Three Alito Majority Opinions Mark a Good Day for the Second Amendment and Textualism | National Review
The Supreme Court handed down three decisions yesterday that amount to welcome if not unexpected victories for the Second Amendment and, in a pair of immigration decisions, for textualism.
Click thru. (Hat tip to KABA)
Governor Bill Lee doesn't think the courts should worry about the Constitution. Tennessee Governor Defends Gun Control: Don't Worry About 'Abstract Categories of Constitutionality'
Bill Lee, the Republican Governor of Tennessee, has been defending gun control for years, but the state’s latest reply brief in a case challenging Tennessee’s recently struck down “intent to go armed” clause is particularly offensive, asking the court to set aside the “abstract categories of constitutionality.”
I am sick to death of Republicans who are really Progressives in hiding. He doesn't think the courts should involve themselves in issues of the Constitution.
Despite Governor Lee’s rhetoric positioning himself as a conservative, the state’s latest brief would be right at home among the attorneys general of New Jersey, New York, and California for its nonchalant treatment of civil liberties and constitutional rights.
A real conservative should challenge him. (Hat tip to Jews Can Shoot)
More than 20 minutes.
Sarah McKinley was 18 years old in 2011. Her husband, Kenneth, had recently died from cancer, and she was left with a baby son in the outback of Oklahoma. Two guys who were armed, were trying to break in on New Year's Eve.
This is the Colion Noir video Armed 18-Year-Old Mother Holding A Baby Shoots Intruders
That's it right there. That's the Second Amendment. Not in some abstract legal argument. Not in a debate stage soundbite. Not in a history book. It's an 18-year-old widow left with nothing but grief, a baby, and forced to face down two armed men by herself. And the only reason she lived to tell the story and her son grew up with a mother is because she had the means to fight back.
The video is eight and a half minutes long. There is a news story below the embedded video.
Here is a news story from that time. The Story of Sarah McKinley: The 18-Year-Old Who Killed an Armed Intruder to Protect Her Child
On New Year’s Eve, 2011, Sarah was at home with her baby when she heard someone knocking on her door. She looked through the peephole and saw a man she did not recognize. She said he claimed to be a neighbor who needed help, but she did not believe him.
She said he had a suspicious look on his face and she felt uneasy. She did not open the door and told him to go away. But instead of leaving the premises, he went to the back door and tried to break in, and even threatened to kill her, “Let me in, or I’ll kill you,” he thundered from the backdoor.
It took about 20 minutes for the intruder to break in the door. She shot him with the shotgun she had armed herself with.
The police arrived shortly after Sarah shot the intruder and found him dead on the floor. He was identified as Justin Martin, 24, who had a criminal record and was holding a 12-inch hunting knife when he died. He had an accomplice, a 29-year-old man, Dustin Stewart, who had fled the scene when he heard the gunshot. He was later driven to the police station by his parents.
Oklahoma has The Castle Doctrine, which means you can defend yourself in your own home. Sarah's shooting was deemed Justified.
The second guy, Dustin Stewart, was sentenced to life in prison. He admitted that they targeted Sarah because they knew her husband had died, and they thought she probably still had the painkillers he used for his cancer.
Notice 2 things. She called 911. Cops did not save the day. They showed up after the fact and dealt with the aftermath. In this case it was a dead bad guy and not a dead mother and child. The other thing is that 911 operators, even in a place like Oklahoma, which recognizes your right to defend yourself, cannot tell you what you can legally do. Not their job. (That would be practicing law without a license.) You need to know what you can do.
At least the ending was as good as it could be. The news story contains an interview with Sarah MicKinley, which I found interesting.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) wants to know how much the Biden Administration was working against our rights. NSSF Asks FTC to Disclose Extent to Which it Colluded With the Gun Control Industry to Limit Gun Makers’ Commercial Speech During Biden Years.
Much the same as the Biden administration weaponized the federal government’s power against speech it didn’t like or that opposed its agenda, the Bidenoids also took a “whole of government” approach to rolling back Americans’ Second Amendment rights, too. Part of that effort involved pressure brought against gun companies regarding their product advertising, sort of hybrid violation of both speech and gun rights.
While Trump 2.0 has done a lot to undo much of the government side of the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex since it took office in January, we still don’t have anything approaching a full accounting of what took place prior to January 20.
And while in theory it was the Biden Administration, no one believes that Joe Biden was in control of anything.
So NSSF wants the current Federal Trade Commission to shine a light on everything Biden & Company were doing to destroy the 2nd Amendment.
From Granite Grok: The Cornerstone of a Free Society: Everyone Should be Armed
“Self-defense is a primary law of nature, which no subsequent law of society can abolish.”
That’s how the great Mercy Otis Warren put it. But this wasn’t just a philosophical view for the Founders and Old Revolutionaries. They knew an armed society was essential to preserving liberty – because they lived it firsthand.
A lot was written about the Entire Populace being the militia at the time of the writing of the Constitution. Even people who were opposed to the federal system, wanted the people to be armed. But you can research those views yourself.
The Founders understood that a well-armed people would continue to serve as the first line of defense in a free society. General Henry Knox, the first Secretary of War, recommended to Pres. Washington:An energetic national militia is to be regarded as the Capital security of a free republic; and not a standing army, forming a distinct class in the community.
Gun-hating politicians are hurt the worst. Preckwinkle, Lowry disappointed with state Supreme Court's ruling against county's tax on guns
The Supreme Court’s opinion, written by Justice Mary Jane Theis, stated that, “While the taxes do not directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to use a firearm for self-defense, they do directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to acquire a firearm and the necessary ammunition for self-defense.”
Crook County politicos promise to try again.
Leftist stereotypes hardest hit. Black, Armed, and Aware
The media is having a hard time wrapping their tiny minds around the fact that gunowners are not all white and male.
The Firing Pin, a busy spot off Interstate 490 on the outskirts of Monroe County, is home to the Rochester African American Firearms Association, or RAAFA, which provides gun and self-defense training mostly — but not exclusively — to African Americans like me.
The growth in the number of organizations like RAAFA in the United States has mirrored a surge in gun sales to Black people fueled by the uncertainty of the pandemic, skyrocketing violent crime, and polls showing that half of Black Americans feel they can’t trust the police to treat them fairly.
There is more, including how the RAAFA has to justify its existence to the media. (Inclusive? Not if you question the narrative!)
“It is our fundamental belief that the duty of the people is to arm and educate themselves in order to protect and defend themselves,” reads a statement on the RAAFA website, which claims the group has received an “overwhelming interest and response” and is now the largest of its kind serving upstate New York.
“We’re not criminals. We’re not a gang,” said [Paul] Adell, a U.S. Concealed Carry Association and National Rifle Association instructor. “We’re not any type of militia or military or militant type of group. We’re a community-based organization that offers training and education.”
Click thru and read the whole thing.
“Praise God and pass the ammunition,” [Adell] said.
