FBI: don’t believe your lying eyes! Well, it would figure that the once-revered Federal Bureau of Investigation as the ‘best of the best’ in America has now totally succumbed to the Obama-Biden politicization of Federal Law Enforcement and our DOJ. The FBI is cooking the books when it comes to crime data in the United States, and it was another federal agency that ratted them out!
The FBI issues its Uniform Crime reports, butit fails to highlight that major cities like New York,Los Angeles, and others, don’t even report their crime data to the FBI. Also, many other cities including Baltimore and Chicago underreport theirs. Meanwhile, in its annual National Crime Victimization Survey, the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows crime skyrocketing!
Noted economist and author Dr. John Lott just published an article about this very subject, it’s worth a full read. I’ll highlight just a few paragraphs here:
“I have pointed out before that since 2020, the FBI’s number of reported crimes and the NCVS’s number of total crimes have gone in opposite directions. For example, between 2021 and 2022, the FBI showed a 2.1% drop in violent crime, but the NCVS showed an increase of 29.3%.
But there is a more fundamental problem. The FBI and NCVS’s estimates of reported crimes have also gone in opposite directions since 2020. From 2008 to 2019, the FBI and NCVS measures of reported violent crimes generally tended to move up and down together. But from 2020 to 2022, these two numbers were almost perfectly negatively related to each other. Each time one measure of reported violent crimes rose, the other measure fell.
For example, while the FBI’s number of reported violent crimes fell by 2% in 2021 and 2.1% in 2022, the NCVS’s measure showed increases of 13.6% and 29.3%, respectively.”
Dr. Lott sums it up here:
“The news media relies on reported crime numbers without considering unreported crime. However, the gap between the two measures of reported crimes provides strong doubts about the accuracy of the FBI’s reported crime data. Americans believe that crime is increasing as law enforcement is collapsing. They also say that they are reporting more crimes to the police, but that isn’t showing up in the FBI reports.”
How can we have good public policy without good data, while many cities and the FBI are clearly cooking the books? The answer is we cannot. It’s another reason why the Framers never wanted the government to have a monopoly on power and why they enshrined our God-given right to keep and bear arms into our Constitution.
Please stay Ready at All Times, and 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.
Tyranny is the problem with the progressive anti-liberty mindset. Whenever possible, they employ tyranny over us with glee and enthusiasm. Why? Because they tell themselves they’re saving us from ourselves. It isn’t that the 2A or 1A are fundamental problems. Rather, the average progressive, post-modern, neo-Marxist, or run-of-the-mill left winger can’t handle a world they don’t control. It won’t matter to them that you and I, among 99% of the rest of us do well, sometimes even great, with the exercise of our civil liberties, but more that they can’t imagine doing anything of the sort themselves. And because they can’t think through what it would be like to defend oneself with a firearm, they seek to remove any choice for you to do so.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
Lewis does a pretty good job of outlining this fundamental problem in the quote above. If you cut to the core of these silly progressive liberal arguments, you inevitably come to one irrefutable truth. They can’t possibly grapple with the precept surrounding responsibility and consequence. They wish to place upon us restrictions that make them feel better about themselves with simultaneous safety nets to make it work.
Why safety nets you ask? Well, when the consequences are no longer bound to the choices we make, we simply don’t learn the lesson. Without lessons learned, we are apt to make more bad choices. With more bad choices, we see poor outcomes associated with everything you can chart, categorize, or easily reference. To avoid the truth associated with such endeavors, safety nets are necessary to mask the logical conclusion that ethics matter and serve as the basis for our morals in action.
This isn’t to say progs don’t care about people. Of course, they do. But they don’t love them enough to allow them to grow in ways that can often result in a bruised knee or a scraped elbow. My dad pushed me down the driveway, which had a considerable grade, without training wheels, and yelled, “Peddle son!” Guess what? I learned to ride a bike in 7 seconds. How long might it have taken me if I’d had training wheels on? I’m unsure, as it was the road not traveled. But I’m guessing longer than 7 seconds. Dad wasn’t wrestling his own mind about what was going to happen or not happen when he gave me a push. He had sized me up, knew I was probably ready to rock, and gave me a shove. Progs have a hard time with that metaphorically speaking, so they tend to avoid the possibility it won’t go well, by placing everyone on perpetual training wheels for their own good.
Unfortunately, their version of training wheels is perpetual intolerance of us while demanding 100% tolerance of them. Thus, tyranny and Hell on Earth. Pay close attention to what they say when they’re talking. They rarely skip an opportunity to talk down to you. Go read the Lewis quote above again, and let it sink in.
GUNCON 2024 is happening and it isn’t too late to get your tickets and be part of the “collective” as it were… This event is the next evolution of our TGC Panel you know and love. We are bringing together some of the top content creators, some of your favorite brands, and YOU all at the Brownells HQ! There will be tours of the Brownells facility, tons of cool guns and gear, as well as some big giveaways!
The Gun Collective is brought to you by Jon Patton, and he produces all the content for TGC. Jon makes every effort to be honest and forthright, focusing on educating firearm owners and enthusiasts, while pay close attention to continual quality content. The news, reviews, videos, or podcasts you see coming from TGC is top tier. That’s what makes GUNCON being held in our neighborhood so exciting. You can listen to the panelist discussions, talk to vendors directly, and shake hands with the people you’ve followed for years. GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.
GUNCON 2024 is happening and it isn’t too late to get your tickets and be part of the “collective” as it were… This event is the next evolution of our TGC Panel you know and love. We are bringing together some of the top content creators, some of your favorite brands, and YOU all at the Brownells HQ! There will be tours of the Brownells facility, tons of cool guns and gear, as well as some big giveaways!
The Gun Collective is brought to you by Jon Patton, and he produces all the content for TGC. Jon makes every effort to be honest and forthright, focusing on educating firearm owners and enthusiasts, while pay close attention to continual quality content. The news, reviews, videos, or podcasts you see coming from TGC is top tier. That’s what makes GUNCON being held in our neighborhood so exciting. You can listen to the panelist discussions, talk to vendors directly, and shake hands with the people you’ve followed for years. GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.
This bill would have created a distinctive vehicle license plate featuring the famous “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. During the War for Independence, the Gadsen flag became the first ensign of the Continental Navy. It has always been an icon of Liberty. Such a license plate would be a great complement to Iowa’s own flag, with its motto, “Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain”.
As the Gadsden Flag is frequently associated with Second Amendment rights, the introduction of this license plate would have been an appropriate recognition that nearly two-thirds of Iowa voters recently approved the Freedom Amendment, adding strong protections of the right to keep and bear arms to Iowa’s Constitution.
The bill provided that the fees for this specialty plate would have funded grants for education and training on these fundamental rights. In the awarding of these grants, the bill specified that “first consideration” would go to the official state association of the National Rifle Association and similar organizations. Iowa Firearms Coalition is, of course, the official state association of the NRA.
This bill was important to the future of IFC. It passed the House with bipartisan support and we had expected the Senate to approve it and send it to the Governor. It is not entirely clear why it failed in the Senate, but this is a severe blow to IFC’s plans to use those potentially significant grant monies for important educational initiatives, scholarships, and the like. It is too early to determine if it will be feasible for IFC to try to revive this effort in the next legislature.
Finally, we need to discuss the death of HF654 – the Safer Families Act.
Provisions of this failed bill included:
A much-needed correction to an erroneous word introduced into Chapter 724.15 in 2021. The error has resulted in the Iowa Courts wrongly prohibiting persons sentenced for certain misdemeanors from possessing firearms for two or three years.
“Cleanup” language (Chapters 724, 483A, 321G) in the wake of changes made in 2021, including:
Repeal of the obsolete “Manner of Conveyance” hunting statute that prohibits having a long gun in a vehicle on a public highway unless it and its magazines are unloaded and the gun is broken down or cased
Repeal of obsolete and confusing statutory language regarding carrying firearms on ATVs/snowmobiles
Elimination of several of the few phony “No Guns” zones remaining in Iowa law:
Publicly accessible and non-secure state and local government parking lots
Correctional facility parking lots (in locked vehicles in non-secure lots)
Regents’ university and community colleges (weapons in locked private vehicles)
Vehicles transporting children in foster care
Repeals the prohibition on casino management approving lawful carry of guns
Firearm Safety and Hunter Safety Instruction Programs in Schools
Allowed certain qualified retired law enforcement officers to carry firearms on school grounds
Persons with a Permit to Carry Weapons may have a concealed pistol or revolver in their vehicle while picking up or dropping off at a school
After a strenuous multi-year effort by IFC to craft and champion this important bill, it passed the House during the first session of the 90th General Assembly last year. The bill in its final form had dropped several provisions IFC had sought, but it included the most critical ones and laid the groundwork for more advancements in the future. Unfortunately, due to several other controversial issues taking up much of the Representatives’ time and attention last year, the bill was passed and sent to the Senate very late in the session. It also contained a provision regarding insurance coverage for schools that choose to train and arm staff members that turned out to be too problematic and needed to be modified or removed. For this and other reasons, the Senate failed to take up the Safer Families Act, but IFC worked to ensure that it was put on the unfinished business calendar. IFC fully expected that the Senate would take it up this year, amend it as necessary and send it back to the House.
Unfortunately, various circumstances combined to prevent that from happening. IFC worked until the very last days of the session to overcome the obstacles but were ultimately unsuccessful. Therefore, we begin now to plan how to revive these important legislative initiatives in the 91st General Assembly, most likely in a different form.
The Safer Families Act was an omnibus bill, meaning that it had several divisions dealing with separate parts of the Iowa Code. Such bills have both advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that if you can get such a multi-part bill through the committee process and to the floor, there need be only one debate and final vote, whereas separate bills with the same provisions each have to pass through the committee process and then require separate debate and votes on the floor of the legislative chamber. Of course, an obvious disadvantage of a multi-part bill is that various parts may find different legislators in opposition, often making it difficult to gather sufficient support for the whole. IFC has had some great successes with omnibus bills, including the massive and momentous one in 2017. The permitless carry bill in 2021 was a mini-omnibus. However, it is IFC’s sense that going forward, we will need to focus on multiple smaller bills, each with a narrower scope. It certainly seems that tactic will bring a greater chance of success in the Senate.
Iowa Firearms Coalition intends to continue to build on our record of success in ensuring that the Iowa government recognizes, protects, and respects our fundamental right to keep and bear arms. We will continue to work to maximize individual liberty by streamlining and clarifying Iowa’s laws on weapons and use of force, and by eliminating unnecessary, obsolete, or unconstitutional regulations whenever possible.
To do this, we need your help! We need our current members to renew or upgrade their memberships and to encourage their friends, family, and acquaintances to join as well. IFC’s mission is to protect the civil rights of all – and there is strength in numbers.
Additionally, especially throughout the primary and general election campaign seasons, contact your Representative and Senator. Let them get to know you and your concerns, especially regarding Second Amendment-related issues. If you want to eliminate phony “No Guns” zones, TELL them. If you think that schools should offer elementary students vital firearm safety instruction, TELL them. If you want to be able to voluntarily contribute to important education and training on the right to keep and bear arms by buying a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden license plate, TELL them! Seek them out at events in your community or when you see them at the store or on the street. Let them get to know YOU and what you expect of them.
Together we can continue the restoration of essential liberty that is represented – and ultimately protected by – our natural and fundamental right to keep and bear arms.
-Richard Rogers – IFC Board Member and Chief Lobbyist
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