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.
No, I don’t have ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder, but you might feel that way after this week’s President’s Message. It’s my observations on just some of the last few weeks’ news, with a few of my remarks mixed in.
My first story is about a case before the US Supreme Court; Rahimi v. U.S., where clearly a bad actor is attempting to overturn the restrictions against convicted domestic abusers (misdemeanors that should actually be felonies but that’s a different issue) from possessing firearms. Back in March the 5th Circuit sided with Rahimi, noting while he’s “hardly a model citizen,” the statute barring him from owning a gun is an “outlier that our ancestors would never have accepted.”
The second story is from Guns America and it highlights a study about inner-city gang members and why they are carrying firearms. The study, by The Center for Justice Innovation, highlights four reasons for the carrying of firearms by gang members.
Carrying for Protection: Those who carry for protection expressed ambivalence about carrying and, even more, firing guns. “I’m not trying to kill nobody. I’m not a killer.” But this ambivalence was trumped by the safety imperative: “It’s not about being cool or being tough or nothing. It’s just more about being safe.”
Carrying for Image: Those who carry for image might brandish the gun in a group, flash it to intimidate opps, or shoot and intentionally miss. They were also perceived as likely to get into beefs related to false claims or representation.
Carrying for Street Hustles: Those engaged in street hustles (e.g., drug dealers, scammers) were known to hold large amounts of cash or goods. They carried for protection against being robbed. Others engaged in robbing or breaking-and-entering used guns to acquire the cash or goods sought through intimidation and threat, seldom intending to kill.
Shooters: Rarer than the other three categories, “shooters” were carriers who regularly went on the offensive, if need be killing those perceived as threats.
Go figure, we all know the first reason above is the same as everyday law-abiding Americans who want to carry defensive firearms, to protect themselves from the latter three groups listed above! How much money was wasted on that study?
My third story is about Brazil, a notably dangerous country that has seen crime and murder rates start to drop under liberalized firearms ownership and carrying laws in the last few years. Go figure. Dr. John Lott is proven right again that more guns equals less crime. Yet criminologist researchers cannot figure out what is going on. My suggestion is they go read Dr. Lott’s seminal book on the subject titled “More Guns Less Crime”; it’s now in its third edition.
We all know how much our mainstream media lies through omissions. I don’t care if it’s our once-trusted Iowa WHO-Radio’s news department or the NY Times. A great example is the recent terrorist attack in of all places, Fargo, ND on July 16th. While you may have heard about the event, what has not been widely reported was that it was brought by a Syrian immigrant with no social media presence, who had spent years in the background of legal society, and had been a student of mass killing events. From local reports of an official release;
July 21 is the first time officials have released a photo of Mohamed Barakat. Officials say he is a Syrian national who came to the United States in 2012. Barakat became a U.S. citizen in 2019. Investigators say it appears Barakat was working off and on at different jobs, and over the years he has been researching mass casualty events and collecting weaponry. His name appeared on what officials call a “Guardian Report,” but they clarified the tip received was not about a threat of violence.
Wrigley says Mohamed Barakat was not on the terrorist watch list and all of the firearms appear to have been purchased legally. Investigators say he appears to have no ties to the local Muslim community. He has family living in the United States, but not in the local area. Wrigley says Barakat’s family has been spoken to, but they do not appear to have had a lot of communication with Barakat.
I have no idea what motivated the Syrian shooter and wanna-be bomber. But please remember to be Ready at All Times and 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.
Are the lower Federal Courts going rogue against SCOTUS’s Bruen decision? To answer that question we have to look at how case law is developed in America. We all know that Congress writes legislation, and the President either vetoes or signs it into law. After that, various administrative agencies write rules and regulations, some with criminal penalties and some with civil penalties.
After a party challenges or enforces that law, and once it’s been to trial, appeals can be brought based upon the outcome of the trial (either civil or criminal). That’s an overly simplified explanation on how to develop case law.
Recently voters in Oregon passed Ballot Measure 114 that outlawed “large capacity magazines” and required gun registration. That law has been challenged in federal court and a bench trial was held by the U.S. District Court. Judge Karin Immergu released her findings on July 14th that the new state law is constitutional.
Judge Immergu “weighed” the evidence she heard and clearly did not follow the guidance SCOTUS set down in Bruen. Her reasoning is clearly flawed, and the best analysis I have seen on the ruling so far was by RedState.com author JimThompson. I’ll quote a large section here because it’s so well written:
“In short, this court admitted some evidence but dismissed other evidence, such as:
“…between 1990 and 2018, there were 304.3 million detachable magazines in circulation in the United States.” Of those, “approximately 160 million had a capacity of eleven rounds or greater.” She found that that evidence “was entitled to little weight” (page 24). Instead, she found the testimony of an expert on self-defense use to be compelling. That evidence was that LCM is rarely used in self-defense and therefore were not in “common use.”
That is a stunning finding. It means that any gun or accessory not typically used in self-defense could be seen as not meeting the “common use” test and therefore could be banned.
This seems in conflict with what Justice Kavanaugh wrote in his Hellerdissent (before he was a sitting SCOTUS Justice).
“There is no meaningful or persuasive constitutional distinction between semi-automatic handguns and semi-automatic rifles. Semi-automatic rifles, like semi-automatic handguns, have not traditionally been banned and are in common use by law-abiding citizens for self-defense in the home, hunting, and other lawful uses. Moreover, semi-automatic handguns are used in connection with violent crimes far more than semi-automatic rifles are. It follows from Heller‘s protection of semi-automatic handguns that semi-automatic rifles are also constitutionally protected and that D.C.’s ban on them is unconstitutional.”
And in the remanded matter ofNew York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court was not inclined to side with what seemed to be laws restricting the right to keep and bear arms — like Oregon’s Measure 114. Judge Immergu frequently cherry-picked from Bruen to satisfy her conclusions.
Also of note, current LCM owners are “exempt” inasmuch as they can keep what they already own. If there is a compelling “public safety” concern because most mass shooters used LCMs, and they can cause more injury and death, why then are current owners not ordered to turn in their LCMs? If an LCM is “more” dangerous than a 10-round capacity magazine, and is an existential public safety threat by just existing, then it is a danger now, not just in the future. Oregon didn’t attempt to confiscate LCMs because the state knew that such a measure would go down in flames. But that still leaves me wondering — if something is “dangerous,” how can the state justify not asking for all LCMs to be turned in?
Magazine capacity is highly related to the lethality of a weapon, because capacity is what determines the number of shots that can be fired within a given time without having to pause to reload. Tr. 6/6/2023 513:5–10. State laws banning LCMs reduce the incidents of mass shootings between 48 to 72 percent and decrease the number of fatalities that occur in these mass shootings by 37 to 75 percent. Tr. 6/6/2023 506:14–19. Defendants presented credible evidence at trial demonstrating that the relationship between restrictions on LCMs and reductions in mass shootings is so pronounced that it is a causal relationship, meaning that the restrictions were at least partly responsible for the reductions. Tr. 6/6/2023 507:20–508:1
I am not convinced that Judge Immergu’s reasoning is sound and suspect it will not hold up on appeal. It seems that ignoring that millions of LCMs are owned (and never used in mass shootings) is a fatal flaw in her ruling. Her finding that although they are owned by millions not typically used in self-defense seems like a pre-conceived conclusion in search of facts to support it.
California, Hawaii, Washington, and now Oregon have passed laws restricting LCMs–even though these laws, like Measure 114, will eventually make their way to SCOTUS and, in my opinion, will be found unconstitutional.
Be careful what you ask for, Oregon. It may come back to bite you.
2024 Matters – Vote Thoughtfully!
Jim’s excellent analysis leaves out one important consideration. The left relies on activist judges to interpret our Constitution the way they want it. They do this because they cannot win in the court of public opinion or through the normal legislative process. Oregon is in the 9th Judicial District, the most liberal of all districts. My guess is that this is the first of many “set up” cases needed to strike down Bruen in a future more liberal SCOTUS. This is one reason that Presidential elections are so important. Who controls the White House controls the future of the judiciary. Let’s not fall for the next shiny thing come 2024 and ensure a pro-gun and pro-constitutionalist Presidential nominee comes out of the Iowa Caucus a winner and gets elected next year.
The anti-freedom dangerous quacks are playing a long game but so are we. Help us by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Inflation hits all of us. Despite Biden telling us it’s transitory, we all know every day it’s not. Many of those of us who read George Orwell’s classic book on big government “1984” saw it as a warning. The leftist in America led by “Divider-in-Chief” Joe Biden see it as a road map to total one-party control. They like the wealth that capitalism provides but still want total power over our everyday lives.
Unfortunately, even we at IFC are stuck living with its effects. As a result, we have to raise membership dues for the first time in several years.
Starting September 1st of this year Membership dues will be as follows:
Annual $45 American Hero $35 Life $750
That’s the bad news. The good news is we are making many membership improvements that these increases will help fund, including behind-the-scenes digital content efforts, additions to our Trusted Partners Discounts Program, and expansion of the Iowa Outdoor Alliance Program. Of course, the underlying drive here is to add value to each person’s membership.
As always, the best thing you can do is join or renew your IFC membership to continue to support this all-volunteer effort to secure your 2nd Amendment Rights.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Be Ready At All Times – A ChiCom Red Dawn in 2024?
“BE READY AT ALL TIMES” is a common South African Professional Hunter statement when you are in the bush and on the trail of an animal. How does that apply here in Iowa, and across the USA these days? I’m not just talking about being ready to defend yourself from criminal assault.
First, let me set the stage:
Have you seen the 1984 movie RED DAWN by John Milius? It was based on a fictional invasion of the United States by the then USSR and how a bunch of high school kids had to grow up overnight and became partisans.
Today we have an intentionally uncontrolled US-Mexico border where literally millions have crossed into the US illegally since the start of the Biden Administration. Many of whom are military-age males of Chinese descent.
China’s Covert War
Continued harassment of US Forces in the South China Sea by the CCP Navy and Air Force, a reconnaissance balloon that flew over the US, and the feckless ( Compromised?) Biden Administration did nothing until it cleared our mainland and had completed its mission. That same CCP is behind the loss of over 100,00 American young people per year to fentanyl poisoning. Our Intelligence agencies are reporting that COVID-19 was made in a lab. What would you do differently if you were looking to weaken your opponents around the world than what the CCP has done with COVID? Seven million people have lost their lives because of a genetically modified virus from a ChiCom Bio-lab. We have daily cyber hacking attempts out of China on America’s critical infrastructure, and rifle fire attacks on electrical power transmission stations. Widespread intelligence operations across America using CCP-provided tools and technologies and even secret CCP Police Stations here inside our borders.
China set out to dominate the world in 1949 and has been engaged in Total War against the US ever since.
Some argue that China is a Dying Paper Dragon…but that cornered dragon appears to have the goods on America’s POTUS and his minions. Chairman Xi knows that demographics are against his and his predecessor’s desire to dominate the world by 2049. The one-child policy has propelled China into having the fastest aging population in the world. In less than one generation, by 2050 his population will be a fraction of what it is today. To make this dream possible, they must control the first island chain in the Pacific Ocean.
Why does this matter to us? Chairman Xi knows he has a small window to retake Taiwan. That window is closing because of the lessons learned in the war in Ukraine, the likely replacement of our indecisive POTUS in the 2024 election, and the world slowly waking up to the CCP’s threat to the Post WWII order.
When war or a blockage starts around Taiwan, America should expect attacks on our major capital ships, Pacific bases and our west coast ports. I’d fully expect hundreds, if not more, of two to four man Chi-Com Special operations teams to simultaneously start Mumbai style attacks and sabotage across the US and Canada. It’s stupid to think that a high percentage of the number of Chinese military age males walking across the US-Mexico border are not Chi-Com saboteurs — one intelligence analyst reports that as many as 10,000 of them are CCP Army soldiers.
Not unlike the first counter-attack on 9-11 being conducted by a small group of brave Americans on United Flight 93. The difference between a successful CCP attack might very well be armed American’s stopping those ChiCom Special Forces dead in their tracks on American soil.
Be Ready At All Times, because we live in interesting times.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
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