As I mentioned on Tuesday of this week there is so much to cover, that I’ve split up this week’s President’s Message. Here is Part II of Legal News.
Bad Data = Bad Policy
Our third item this week is about our politicized Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dr. John Lott has just published an article at RealClearPolitics.com “FBI Data on Active Shooters is Misleading” His conclusion is that the FBI under-reports — by a factor of seven or eight times — the number of active shooters who are stopped by armed citizens.
TheCPRC’s numbers tell a different story: Out of 440 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2022, anarmed citizen stopped 157. We also found that the FBI had misidentified five cases, usually because the person who stopped the attack was incorrectly identified as a security guard.
We found these cases on a budget of just a few thousand dollars. Though we found that armed citizens had stopped eight times as many cases as the FBI claims, I make no assertion that we unearthed all of these stories. It is quite possible that the news media itself never covers many such incidents.”
The scary thing here is that bad data creates bad policy. If the lawmakers in our country are fed garbage, they will produce garbage.
The last item this week is about a case out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s about a Center for Biodiversity vs. The US Forest Service case. Here is a first brush taken on the case by Constitutional Attorney Mark W. Smith in this twelve minute YouTube video:
“The Biden Administration’s Forest Service successfully fought off (with the help of the NRA, NSSF and others) a lawsuit seeking to require the regulations/ban of the use of lead-based ammunition in the Kaibab National Forest near the Grand Canyon. A big win for the 2nd Amendment and, in particular, hunters and sportsmen. Mark Smith Four Boxes Diner breaks it down in this video.”
This case is important in that parties are not liable for actions not taken by themselves (or in this case regulatory agencies) regarding the use of their products (or federal land) by third parties. In simpler terms, Ford can’t be sued by the victims of a drunk driver who was driving a Ford-produced vehicle, nor can a Federal Agency be forced to take action not specifically authorized by Congress.
These cases are all illustrations of why the Freedom Amendment in Iowa and the Bruen decision are so important to restoring what our founders saw as an inalienable right, the right to keep and bear arms, as enshrined in the 2th Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Stay Ready at All Times and never forget that those gun control dangerous quacks are playing a long game but so are we at IFC. Help us by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
This week there is so much to cover, that I’ve split it into Part I of Legal News, and later this week (on Thursday) we will publish Part II.
Knife-weilding Attacker Shot – Case Closed
First up, news out of Polk County, Iowa. Finally, the Polk County Attorney announced a decision that took far longer than it should have regarding 62-year-old Steven Miller, who shot a knife-wielding attacker who was threatening a group of people. To quote one of the victims:
“He saved our lives. We would have been stabbed if he wouldn’t have kept his line of sight with that man to make sure that we did not get hurt,” said Shelby Meier, the wife of the alleged shooter.…
“Horrific. I am in shock. Like how everything went down. Not something I expected,” said Katelyn Moredock, the wife of the second shooting victim who will survive.
Meier and Moredock allege that Miller was being aggressive from Moredock’s room, attacking Moredock’s husband. That is when Meier said her husband went into the room and that is when Miller grabbed a knife. From there the ladies described being chased with the blade into the apartment hallway, fearing for their lives, saying the shooter had no choice.
“He did have his gun raised and told him ‘stop please, please don’t do this, please stop’, and he just charged at him like a wild animal,” said Meier. “…He just kept coming. He wouldn’t stop even the first shot he still stayed standing.”
The ladies would go on to say that the alleged shooter helped Moredock’s husband by providing first aid until medics arrived.”
This is another of many examples of defensive firearms use that happen every day in the United States. Despite claims to the contrary by the anti-gun dangerous quacks of the left, lawful gun owners are not vigilante wannabees, but are responsible citizens who, for the most part, just want to be left alone.
ATF vs John Corey Fraser
Up next: We have all watched the Department of Justice run out the clock on the Hunter/Joe Biden investigation by slow-walking looking into corruption until the statute of limitations had run out. Another case of trying to slow walk, or time-out a case, is before US Fourth District Circuit Judge Robert E. Payne. The DOJ was trying to moot a claim by then nineteen-year-old Virginian, John Corey Fraser. that as a nineteen-year-old he was prohibited from making a handgun purchase as unconstitutional–by delaying the case until Fraser turned twenty-one.
Thankfully, Judge Payne prevented the DOJ from killing the case, first by adding Fraser’s younger brother as an additional plaintiff and then by granting Class Action status:
“By infringing upon the Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, the challenged statutory and regulatory provisions inflicted an irreparable injury on Plaintiffs. “[I]t is well-established that ‘(t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.’” Legend Night Club v. Miller, 637 F.3d 291, 302 (4th Cir. 2011) (quoting Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373 (1976))}. The same holds true for Second Amendment freedoms. After all, the Second Amendment “is not a second-class right.” New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc., Inc. Bruen, 142 S.Ct. 2111, 2156 (2022) (quotation marks and citation omitted). As the Supreme Court explained in Bruen, because “[t]he Second Amendment is the very product of an interest balancing by the people. . . it surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms for self- defense.”
Contrary to the Government’s view,’ it does not matter that, one day, Plaintiffs will age out of the prohibited category. Since they turned 18, and at this moment and this point in their lives, their constitutional rights have been, and continue to be, denied by the Government’s conduct in enforcing the challenged statutory and regulatory regime. That establishes that the Plaintiffs have suffered an “irreparable injury.”
Nor is the irreparability of the constitutional injury eliminated because, as the Government argues, the Plaintiffs and class members “may lawfully obtain handguns as a gift from their parents.” Nothing in the Second Amendment limits the Plaintiffs’ exercise of their constitutional rights to what a third-party, by grace, may choose (or not) to do to help Plaintiffs exercise that right (here the right to purchase that which the Second Amendment entitles them to purchase on their own).”
Although the nationwide injunction was issued in the Fraser case it has been stayed until the DOJ has time to appeal to the Fifth Circuit the ruling. This is an important case from a legal protection perspective. I’ll be watching it closely to keep you informed.
These cases are all illustrations of why the Freedom Amendment in Iowa and the Bruen Case are so important to restoring what our founders saw as an inalienable right, the right to keep and bear arms as enshrined in the 2nd Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
STAY TUNED FOR PART II OF THIS WEEK’S LEGAL NEWS — CHECK BACK ON THURSDAY!
Stay Ready at All Times and never forget that those gun control dangerous quacks are playing a long game but so are we at IFC. Help us by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Gun control groups don’t really care about people, they only care about political power. Let me explain. The first example is an article by Dr. John Lott, the renowned economist who wrote the book; More Guns, Less Crime.
Dr. Lott argues in his recent article that gun control groups don’t care about the real causes behind mass shootings, or they wouldn’t waste their time suing those who are not at fault.
Last week, attorneys from Everytown Law, the legal arm of Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety, filed a lawsuit against a shop that sold the gun used in the fatal shooting of 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022. The murderer is a racist who specifically targeted racial minorities. Everytown claims the attack “could have been prevented,” but in fact, the gun seller performed all of the proper background checks.
Others are also being sued, including the 18-year-old murderer’s parents and social media companies that allegedly “transformed and addicted” the murderer by allowing extremist content on their sites.
But the lessons from this shooting, like many other mass public shootings, are hiding in plain sight. One needs only to read the killer’s manifesto.
“Areas where CCW [carrying a concealed weapon] are outlawed or prohibited may be good areas of attack,”wrote the shooter. “Areas with strict gun laws are also great places of attack.””
Dr. Lott goes on to explain that even in past cases where the shooter was receiving mental health services, provided by trained professionals, they failed to identify the threat in advance. That fact lays bare the argument that it’s only a mental health problem.
Statistical Analysis
My second example is a recent study cited the Daily Mail, their headline lays it all out, almost:
America’s mass shooting hotspots revealed: First of its kind study breaks down thousands of massacres by state – and there’s NO correlation between gun control laws.
The article cites a somewhat, but not completely flawed study published at JAMA Network Open that points out that the rate of mass shootings is not related to the level of gun control laws. The error in the study is that it compares states, not cities. It cites the top ten states for mass shootings (four or more victims with no reference to homicides, only those shot) in the United States.
“As detailed by the Daily Mail, the “Top Ten” jurisdictions for mass shootings are:
Washington, D.C. (10.43 per million)
Louisiana (4.28 per million)
Illinois (3.61 per million)
Mississippi (2.91 per million)
Alabama (2.32 per million)
Missouri (2.29 per million)
South Carolina (2.26 per million)
Delaware (2.18 per million)
Tennessee (2.03 per million)
Maryland (2.2 per million)”
If you take out New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis & Kansas City, MO, then Memphis, and Baltimore, those states would have a rate similar to Montana or Wyoming.
Also is this breakdown from the report.
“From 2014 to 2022, there were 4011 mass shootings, ranging from zero events in Hawaii and North Dakota to 414 events in Illinois. For these 9 years, one-third (27.3%) were social-related mass shootings, 15.8% were crime related, 11.1% were domestic violence (DV) related, 1.4% were school or work related, and 52.0% were not a part of these categories (Table). There was a median of 45 mass shootings per state for all states and the District of Columbia (mean, 78.6). A total of 21,006 people were killed or injured (Table).”
Based on not just these two reports, but lots of other evidence clearly illustrates that the gun control crowd does not care about facts, science, or even our school kids’ safety. Why else would they ignore all of the above? There can only be one reason, it’s not about guns, but it’s about control. Free and armed men and women can resist their agenda with equal force, so they cannot be controlled.
I recently told my twins to never be too smart to learn something from everyone they meet. Clearly the gun controllers have reached that level of “smart”.
Stay Ready at All Times and never forget that those gun control dangerous quacks are playing a long game but so are we at IFC. Help us by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Gun Free Zones are also known as unarmed victim zones (in military speak – “kill zones”). With next week’s IFC Educators Academy, we will showcase a proven solution to protecting Iowa’s kids…arming present, willing, and trained school staff to intervene immediately to stop any threat to our kids.
A highly regarded researcher just published the obvious (to most of us) answer to this question. Allow armed citizens to defend themselves. Here is the Abstract from the study. I suggest you read the entire thing (link below).
Is There a Policy That Reduces Mass Public Shooting Deaths?
Carlisle E. Moody1
1 Department of Economics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA
Received: June 1, 2023 Accepted: June 12, 2023 Online Published: July 21, 2023
doi:10.22158/elp.v6n2p15 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elp.v6n2p15
Abstract
The fact that an individual is willing to commit the most serious crime that carries with it the most serious
punishment means that that person is unlikely to be deterred by laws with less serious consequences. This
situation is compounded by the fact that many multiple victim public shooters are expecting, even
planning, to die in the commission of their crimes. Combining newly developed and traditional
difference-in-differences methodologies, we analyze several policies that have been suggested as
possibly effective in reducing deaths due to mass public shootings. We find that none of the proposed
policies significantly reduce such deaths. However, we find evidence that mass public shooting deaths
are lower in places that allow the carrying of concealed firearms.
But please remember, like our willing school staffers who are attending the IFC Educators Academy to be Ready at All Times, never forget that those anti-freedom dangerous quacks are playing a long game — but so are we at IFC. Help us by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
IFC’s Educators Academy, our first ever, is just two weeks away. It’s an intensive three-day training event designed to quickly train those school staff members volunteering to be present, trained, and willing to stop any violent attacks on Iowa school kids.
This prototype course has been developed to be easily duplicated across Iowa. There are still a few seats left for the first night of the Academy’s special event IFC Steak Dinner; “An Evening With Ed Monk” on August 15th. You can get tickets here.
One of the best examples of this concept in action comes out of Texas. Here is an important highlight of the Texas Guardian Program and its cost-effectiveness, brought to us by Ammoland.com about the Groesbeck, Texas Independent School District’s implementation of this program.
Two months ago, I sent my monthly superintendent newsletter informing parents of our Guardian Program and new signage (see picture below). Being installed this week, signs will be posted on our campuses which state, “ATTENTION: GISD STAFF ARE ARMED AND TRAINED TO PROTECT OUR STUDENTS. 12”X12” signs will be attached to all building entrances, and larger 3’X3’ signs will be displayed at all parking/drive way entrances.
Last year the Groesbeck ISD school board watched the devastation of schools across the country, being forced to prepare for the unthinkable –the potential of a school shooting, and considered appropriate policies. The Board updated local policy, authorizing a School Safety “Guardian” Program (TX Govt. Code 411.1901). Its purpose is to provide students and faculties an armed self-defense option prior to the arrival of Law Enforcement in the event of an active shooter or “active killer” on campus.
The Guardians are ISD staff members who have passed strict requirements and training. In order to protect them from becoming targets of an intruder, their names are confidential and are not to be released. I ask that names not be guessed at nor rumors passed in an attempt to protect these individuals.
Although the program has been in place for almost a year, the Board of Trustees approved for the district to make the program more visible. By providing the community this information and by placing signs up across the campuses, we are taking additional steps so that people know we are NOT an “easy target” .
The cost of a School Resource Officer is approximately $100,000 per year, but in Texas, Guardians can be trained for about $1000! Yet, believe it or not, it’s the insurance industry here in Iowa that is trying to shut down IFC’s efforts to protect our most loved school children. They are doing that by cutting off insurance protection for any school district that has non-law enforcement armed staffers. This is the same industry that recently engineered a medical malpractice claim in Iowa City to scare our legislatures into limiting medical malpractice non-economic damages in Iowa to protect their profits.
But please remember, like our willing school staffers who are attending the IFC Educators Academy to be Ready at All Times, never forget that those anti-freedom dangerous quacks are playing a long game — but so are we at IFC. Help us by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
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