Random Thoughts. We all have them. Here are a few of mine from the last few days:
Judge Shopping
If you are a leftist and you want a favorable judicial ruling, you go to San Francisco Federal Court to file your lawsuit. Remember that bad cases make bad case law. You know that at the SF Federal Court, you will get a reliable leftist activist judge (because they all are), to hear your case and rule in your favor.
Causing the adults in the room to spend years and possibly millions of dollars to get the case to the US Supreme Court to get it corrected. But if you are a conservative, you go somewhere like the Northern District of Texas where there is only one Judge, who happens to be pro-freedom, and he will rule in your favor.
Funny that now Senator Chuck “U” Schumer wants to make sure you can’t do that. He wants to force those lower court districts to have more than one judge. Hat’s off to Attorney Mark Smith at the Four Boxes Diner in his YouTube video “Anti-Gun Senator Tries to Stop 2A “Judge Shopping”“. He pointed out this bit of backroom arm twisting. The linked video is worth watching if you want to know how the sausage is made.
Fake Data?
Professor John Lott, PhD. sends out a weekly email newsletter. This week’s newsletter was incredible because it highlighted two things:
underreporting of crime since Covid
that 92% of violent crime does not include the use of a firearm!
This new research, I think is really important. The American news media has been working overtime to convince people that violent crime is dramatically falling, and castigating Americans for falsely believing that crime is increasing. However, new research shows that Americans are right and the media is wrong.
Arrest rates have plummeted since COVID. In 2022, only 20% of reported violent crimes, and 4.5% of reported property crimes in cities with over one million people, resulted in an arrest. As arrest rates have fallen, people have been less likely to report crimes to police. This led to criminals committing more crimes, as they have little to worry about. The end result is that reported crimes have fallen even as total crimes have risen. To show how law enforcement is collapsing in these large cities, only 8% of all violent crimes and 1.4% of property crimes result in an arrest.
But, there is a big problem with using the FBI Uniform Crime Report data on crimes reported to police because victims don’t report most crimes. More importantly, the number of crimes reported to police falls as the arrest rate declines. If people don’t think the police will solve their cases, they are less likely to report them to the police. While the violent crime rate reported to police fell by 1.7% between 2021 and 2022, the National Crime Victimization Survey shows that total violent crime (reported and non-reported) rose from 16.5 to 23.5 per 100,000. Violent crime in 2022 was above the rate the last year before the pandemic in 2019 and above the average for the five years from 2015 to 2019.
Additional research, also from John R Lott, PhD, shows that over 92% of violent crimes over the last eight years ending in 2022, did not involve guns. It doesn’t exactly fit the frequent claim that violent crime is a gun problem.
The short answer is YES! And I fully expect it will while we have such a weak and compromised President in the White House. TownHall.com editor and author Kurt Schlichter wrote a piece on March 25th, 2024 that you should read. “America is Going to Be Targeted for a Massive Terrorist Attack, Will You Be Ready? Describing an October 7th type of attack, I know I am ready and I hope you will be too. Please stay Ready at All Times. Be it ChiCom or ISIS, you are America’s first responders. But then, we are Iowans and we are used to taking care of business.
Help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Yes, Gun-Free School Zones Are Unconstitutional! With the help of Mark Smith, on the YouTube channel Four Boxes Diner, I’ll explain why.
Those anti-gun dangerous quacks would have you believe that under the Heller decision, and later affirmed under the Bruen decision, schools are included in the “sensitive spaces” illustration. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only three sensitive spaces were identified by the Supreme Court:
polling places
legislative bodies (the US Capitol Building)
some courts (generally considered the US Supreme Court)
HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
Importantly, the historical record of 1791 at the adoption of the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights must be considered. At the time, only a few colleges regulated the possession of arms by students. The reason for that was that many college students were still not of majority age. That is, they were not over the age of eighteen, able to enter into contracts, vote, or own real property, for example. Mr. Smith points out that Alexander Hamilton entered Kings College in New York City at the age of sixteen! It was very common at the time of our nation’s founding that some college students entered as young as fourteen years of age.
Those 1791 colleges, and their administrators, were acting in the role of loco parentis, Latin for “in the place of a parent”. No sane person that I know of has ever argued against a parent’s right to control the use of firearms by their children. In their loco parentis role, those administrators could regulate the possession of arms by their students under their care and supervision. But clearly at that time, the very same Americans who fought off the British King and gave us the Bill of Rights -including the Second Amendment – would not have prohibited any adult from bearing arms at, near, or in schools.
PRESENT DAY
More importantly, nearly all college students in the present day are over the age of eighteen when they enter college. They are, therefore, legal adults. This prohibits the colleges from regulating their possession of arms! There is no historical evidence that law-abiding adults cannot possess arms in and around schools or school zones, whether they be colleges or your local elementary school.
Mr. Smith goes on to give us a very exhaustive explanation of why that legal issue matters. You can watch his video about this very subject here.
TIME FOR ACTION BY THE IOWA SENATE
IFC and our partners at the NRA are still involved in the legislative fight at the Iowa Senate on important legislation involving the Students First Safety Act, and the Gadsden License Plate initiatives. Please go over to the IFC Action Alert page and use it to reach out to your State Senator encouraging him or her to support these bills.
Personally, I find it repulsive that in the last three years, the Iowa Senate has ignored Iowan’s demands to act on these important issues. They seem to forget that in 2022, 65.17% of Iowa voters (in a bi-partisan vote) supported the Freedom Amendment. Yet the Senate continues to refuse to act to clean up the current Iowa Code to bring it in line with the Bruen decision and the 49th Amendment to the Iowa Constitution.
Yes, it’s obvious from my arguments at the beginning of this President’s Message that the need for the Student First Safety Act should be moot. However, getting things done legislatively is faster than waiting for the US Supreme Court to rule on something that could take a decade to get done. Frankly, when it comes to our kids, Time and Math proves we can’t wait.
Help us defend all Iowan’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today. And please stay Ready at All Times.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Unserious Dangerous Quacks. As many of you know, I love referring to our opposition as dangerous quacks. Nothing points out how those leftists have twisted themselves into knots over their ever-changing definitions of things.
It wasn’t that long ago when in her confirmation hearing (now) Justice Jackson-Brown could not define what a woman is. When asked that question, she answered: “I’m not a biologist”. Just a few days ago, she stated that a bump-stock increased the rate of fire of an AR15 to 800 rounds per second!
But it gets even worse with those Leftist Dangerous Quacks. A national treasure, Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana, took apart federal Judge Nancy Maldonado when he asked her to define an assault weapon.
“You said, ‘Assault weapons may be banned because they’re extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate for legitimate self-defense purposes’. Tell me what you meant by assault weapons? “
Judge Maldonado did everything she could to not answer that question, despite having signed a Legal Brief on the issue years before in her role as an anti-gun activist!
This is just one more example of it being time to end the Chevron Deference ruling that allows the courts to defer to “reasonable” agency interpretation of ambiguous federal statutes. It is high time to start calling out the absurd idea that unelected government experts be given authority over everyday Americans. Or, for that matter, Federal Judges with no idea about the subject matter over which they rule.
Elections have consequences. Let’s push the anti-gun and anti-freedom leftists out of power this November.
Iowa Legislative Update
We have passed the second funnel. Our priorities, both The Students First Safety Act and the Gadsden Flag Iowa license plates bills are still sitting in the Iowa Senate awaiting action. Please keep the pressure on your Senators through the IFC Action Alert System on these two bills.
Help us defend all Iowan’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today. And please stay Ready at All Times.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Selective prosecution — Are Americans seeing what’s happening? I’m not sure how any thinking person could believe otherwise. Let’s just look over these examples:
LAWFARE AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP
The latest news in the saga to stop Trump took a huge turn last week in Georgia. Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Fani Willis, an elected District Attorney, will be allowed to remain on the case, despite perjury on the stand. The Judge ruled that she only had to fire her paramour in order to continue the ridiculous prosecution of Trump on RICO claims. Clarice Feldman over at the American Thinker published this great piece, “Mendacity and Corruption in the Judiciary”, on March 17th with the legal details.
Many examples of politically motivated cases are available. Hillary Clinton’s crimes in her role in Russia-Gate were ignored. Special Counsel Robert Hur declined to indict President Biden for illegally taking and revealing classified materials as a Senator and former Vice-President. Hur’s published report stated plainly that his decision not to prosecute was because the President is too old and too feeble to stand trial. Professor Jonathan Turley wrote in “…The Odor Of Selective Prosecution” that New York Attorney General, Letitia James, prosecuted President Trump (and fined him half a billion dollars) in a Soviet-style “show trial”.
If you are from the Left, you can riot, assault, and burn down with impunity. However, if you are from the Right, walk through Washington DC on January 6, 2021, and you are hunted down, even years later, by the FBI. In contrast, illegally entering the country, is no big deal in the eyes of the Biden Administration.
Professor Turley concludes with this;
“The rest of us are left in courtrooms, from Georgia to Washington to New York, asking the same question of Tennessee Williams’ “Big Daddy” Pollitt: “What’s that smell in this room? …Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity.”
STAYING READY AT ALL TIMES
For the last few months, I’ve included the note; “And please stay Ready at All Times.” in my weekly IFC President’s Message. Last week an article about repeated drone incursions over the strategically important Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was published by The War Zone. They highlighted the admission by the Air Force regarding these ongoing events:
“The installation first observed UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] activities the evening of December 6 [2023] and experienced multiple incursions throughout December. The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size/configuration,” a spokesperson for Langley Air Force Base told The War Zone in a statement earlier today. “None of the incursions appeared to exhibit hostile intent but anything flying in our restricted airspace can pose a threat to flight safety. The FAA was made aware of the UAS incursions.”
The Biden Administration continues to apply two standards of justice and ignores warnings about obvious threats to our nation. Like on 9-11, the first response to any future attack is most likely going to be by everyday Americans.
Help us defend all Iowan’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Follow the science, that’s what those Dangerous Quacks on the left tell us all the time. Well, except when the science does not fit their agenda. For example, disarming our population so our “betters” in government, academia, and corporate America can have their way with us. So, what does the science say?
STUDIES PROVE “ASSAULT WEAPONS” RARELY USED IN MURDERS
In the post-1994 gun-ban world, two different studies by the Department of in-Justice show that the 1994 Crime Bill had no impact on the type of weapons used in crime (here and here). Another study conducted in 2017 made some highly questionable claims. However, it did note that “[s]pecific laws directed at … the banning of military-style assault weapons were not associated with changes in firearm homicide rates”.
Despite President Biden’s claims that mass shootings tripled after the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban expired, that has been proven false (again) by Dr. John Lott. Instead, the vast majority of multiple-victim shootings involve rival gang members.
But remember, the same Saint Fauci followers who are trying to get us to think they know what is best for us, are the very people who want a monopoly on power.
IOWA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Turning to pending legislation, two major pieces of legislation have passed out of the Iowa House to the Iowa Senate. One is the Students First Safety Act. The other is the Gadsden License Plate Bill that just passed in the House, on a vote of 60-39. Note that a similar measure was introduced last year in the Iowa Senate. This gives us hope that this year it will be passed and signed into law. The funding, like funding for other specialty plates, will be earmarked to the Department of Public Safety. Specifically, that portion of the bill reads:
Such moneys are appropriated to the department of public safety (DPS) to distribute in the form of grants to provide education and training on the right to keep and bear arms. In the awarding of grants, DPS must give first consideration to any official state association of the national rifle association and similar nonprofit organizations.
The Iowa Firearms Coalition is the NRA-sanctioned state organization in Iowa.
It has to kill the leftists to have to see this funding for 2A education and gun safety training that will come from voluntary vehicle license plate sales!
Help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today. And please stay Ready at All Times.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
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This new research, I think is really important. The American news media has been working overtime to convince people that violent crime is dramatically falling, and castigating Americans for falsely believing that crime is increasing. However, new research shows that Americans are right and the media is wrong.
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