A Forest of Flaws put our Children at Risk, but a Sea of Doubts Might Save Them

Maryland police arrested a mass-murderer before he attacked a school. The murderer taught us a lot. He was ordinary as mass murderers go. What was unusual was that the police in Rockville, Maryland included excerpts from the want-to-be murderer’s manifesto. We’ve read similar stories from earlier murderers, but now we have their statements easily accessible for the public to see. If you read deeply, these statements also show us the difficult problems we need to face in order to protect our children at school and in public.

Most of us face and solve problems every day. We become at risk when we fail to solve the common problems that keep us safe and healthy. Today, we see our society face similar challenges from the problems we’ve ignored for too long.

Mass-murderers go through consistent stages. They first justify their actions. In this case, the murderer complained that his teachers were “evil” and classmates were “assholes” even as far back as elementary school. Mass-murderers routinely study other attacks and the news media’s reaction to them. The Maryland murderer wanted a record number of victims in order to get the publicity he craved. Mass-murderers expect to be killed during the attack or to take their own life immediately afterwards. In the recent case in Maryland, the murderer worried about spending his life in prison if he survived. These murderers plan their attacks for months or even years. They form detailed plans about which schools and which classrooms are the easiest to attack. They plan the detailed route to the school and the tools they will use. The recent want-to-be murderer in Maryland considered both firearms and bombs.

This phenomenon of committing mass-murder to achieve notoriety is so new that we had to form new language to describe it. This recent celebrity-murderer was stopped before he went to the school he once attended.

In the last few years, we’ve seen a new trend with young men and women who feel alienated from their bodies. They try to live as the other sex in order to reduce their anxiety. Some of them then lash out at society. That appears to be the case with the murderers who attacked schools in Isla Vista, California, in Uvalde, Texas, and in Nashville, Tennessee. That was also the case for this want-to-be murder in Rockville, Maryland. He was born a female and now describes himself as male.

That leaves us with a lot of problems for us to face. We’ve prevented our children from failing and learning hard lessons. Social media now relentlessly compares children to their classmates. We forget that adolescence is hard. The attention seeking news media consistently turns attention-seeking murderers into worldwide celebrities. Unfortunately, we as a society have additional problems to face if we want to protect our children in school.

We know how to protect our children and we’ve known it for decades. The celebrity-murderers told us how. The want-to-be murderer in Rockville told us again as did the murderer who attacked a school in Nashville. Like those who commit suicide, these celebrity-murderers are not afraid to die but they are deeply afraid of failure. That tells us a lot. We don’t need a perfect defense to protect our children, but any credible defense at a school or church plants a forest of doubts in the mind of the attacker. Those doubts have formed a perfect deterrent so far.

The good news is that mass-murders at our schools are extremely rare. They are also so horrific that we can’t ignore them. Over 30 states allow school staff to be armed on campus. Thousands of school boards have gone through the process of qualifying and trained volunteer school employees to defend their students. We have millions of classroom-days of experience with armed staff at school. The trained school defenders didn’t have an accident with a firearm and shoot someone. Fortunately, the news gets even better.

The best defense prevents the attack in the first place. Mass-murderers do not want to get into gunfights with bullets going both ways. They consistently choose to attack somewhere else rather than face an armed defender at school. We’ve never had an attack on a school campus that had a publicly announced program of armed school staff. Unfortunately, that solution frightens politicians even as it saves students.

Politicians live in a world where perception is reality. The politician can’t afford a bad headline that says he put children at risk. A headline that says he proposed “More Guns in Schools” could kill his career. The headlines do the damage even if the story describes the perfect safety record a dozen paragraphs later.

I have to notice how differently the media treats the same politician after they defunded the police and then asked for a larger personal security detail. We don’t see the headline claiming that “More Guns in City Hall” are bad. Why are armed defenders good for the politician but bad for our children?

Our politicians are afraid of provocative solutions to school safety. So are the news media. Politicians can only consider solutions that the media already accepts. That leaves the real solutions up to us. We have to lead the politicians and the journalists. It is up to us to study and be better informed than our politicians. We need to face our fears and be louder than the news media when we tell our elected officials what to do.
~_~_~_

Sources-

Transgender 18-year old writes a manifesto of murder

Mental patients inform police of violent threats on school

Public Violence

Armed School Staff

Repost- Colorado Politics Put School Children at Risk

By Rob Morse and Jake Wiskerchen

Reposted from Ammoland, March 4, 2024- https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/colorado-politics-put-school-children-at-risk/#ixzz8WX41H8tM

---

It isn’t easy holding elected office. That is true from up in the Governor’s mansion to down in your local school board. Given the way that schools have become politicized, it could be harder to be on the school board. We’ve been worried about keeping our children safe at school for as long as we’ve had schools. Now, some Colorado legislators want to undo a lot of those protections. Let’s look at the political landscape and see how politics today are risking the lives of Colorado’s school children. Why would politicians put our children at risk, and why would we put up with it?

Start by thinking back to 25 years ago. Colorado shocked the nation when two sociopaths murdered school children at Columbine High School. For the last two decades, Colorado laws let trained and vetted volunteer staff defend their schools. The reason for those armed volunteers was obvious; something was better than nothing. There were lots of times when children were on campus without an armed defender. Some campuses didn’t have a School Resource Officer. Some SROs were only on campus part time. Volunteer school staff filled in the gaps.

In every Colorado school that used it, that program of trained volunteer defenders worked perfectly. There were no accidents and there were no attacks. Now, Colorado politicians want to outlaw armed school staff and leave children at risk. Politics tells us why.

Suppose you’re a school official. Other districts have armed law enforcement officers on campus. That is expensive. It is also politically difficult for you to have uniformed officers on your campus. Other districts have trained and vetted school volunteers who arm themselves on campus to deter attacks. Despite their perfect record of safety and effectiveness, you don’t want to allow armed volunteers on your campuses for political reasons. At the same time, you also don’t want to be blamed when a mass murderer decides to kill the children in the schools you’ve left disarmed and helpless. Maybe a senior politician can make this problem go away for you.

Colorado Democrats recently proposed making kindergarten through high school campuses into “sensitive places” where guns are outlawed. We already know that violent criminals ignore those laws. That means the new regulations would outlaw those honest armed volunteers at school. That certainly looks like a dangerous plan.

Maybe politics is simpler than the political pressures on a school board. Maybe we’re simply seeing Colorado legislators taking money from anti-gun billionaires. Maybe it is both.

We might have explained the politics behind Colorado’s proposed gun ban. It doesn’t explain why some voters would reject a low-cost program that’s worked perfectly across the country for decades to keep kids safe in schools.

Why would we accept such a bad plan?

Political claims are always easier than actions. Politicians often seek credit for what they say rather than what they actually accomplish. Few voters read past the headlines and politicians routinely put a rosy label on horrible bills. Still, fewer voters read the entire press release and do some independent research by actually reading the bill. It is sad to say that news reporters aren’t much better. Colorado Democrats can claim that disarming the defenders at school makes our children safer. That lets the voters breathe easier even though it denies the real risk of narcissistic mass murderers killing the kids. When there is an attack at school, the politicians can say they passed a bill and solved the problem, even if that claim isn’t true.

Politicians get credit for simply saying the problem went away. Note that politicians still have armed security guards.

It is easier to slant a story when voters are uninformed. Most voters don’t know that their neighbors use a firearm in armed defense several thousand times a day. They don’t know that one out of every 12 adults are legally armed in public. The public is never told that we already have 23-thousand firearms regulations, yet criminals still get guns and commit violent crimes. The voters were never told that experts suggest that School Resource Officers need help from armed staff to stop mass murderers at school. The voters never learn the facts if all they know is what they see on television.

It is always easy to sell fear. A politician can get votes by saying we’re safer if our neighbors are disarmed. Some people fear their neighbors and would be happy to disarm all law-abiding citizens. Maybe some of the school board members fear their neighbors, too. I’ve always found it odd that some people want to take our neighbor’s guns but they leave our neighbors with cars that are thousands of times more powerful than firearms. Your child is much more likely to be injured in the school parking lot than to be killed at school by a mass murderer.

The Democrat party has become the party of gun control. It is easy for low-level politicians to toe the party line. They don’t have to defend their political position or explain their decisions to their friends. And the liberals who do arm themselves seem to stay quiet about it.

Mass murderers follow their own rules, and they get a say in what happens. Armed school staff have a perfect record for a reason. Some of them have stopped attacks at their schools. Many more of them have diverted attacks to easier targets. The bill to disarm all school campuses lets mass murderers choose any campus rather than focusing the murderers onto the campuses that chose to go disarmed.

Change is hard. Once we listen to them, it looks like we’ve voted ideologues into office. They define themselves with a particular political point of view. Because of this conflation of Self with belief, they don’t know who they are if those beliefs are questioned. In other words, challenging an idea, a belief, or an assumption is tantamount to challenging the person. That makes it extremely hard for politicians to see evidence that calls their views into question. It is always easier to write another ineffective law than to question the world around us or question ourselves. Many of us pretend that all we need is more legislation, more ink on paper, to stop violent narcissists from targeting our kids.

What if we can’t label the problem without offending someone? Many of the recent mass murderers are in a politically protected class. We saw some people with untreated mental illness commit public violence. That is rare, but it happens. More recently, we’ve seen mass murder attempted by political and sociological ideologues. We saw murderers who wanted to kill their political opponents or who wanted to kill recent immigrants. We’ve seen recent mass murderers who want to kill anyone who questions their status as a victim due to their sexual orientation.

Reality is complicated. There are lots of political and psychological forces at play with any legislation. We want to make sure we do no harm when we make changes in how we protect our children. We’ve been thinking about protecting our children for a very long time. We’ve developed systems that work. We have every right to question someone who throws those efforts away. Let’s not roll back the quantifiably valid efforts we presently have in exchange for policies that will endanger our children even more.

Protect our children tomorrow by calling your representative today. Now that will save lives

---

Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast. Rob is an NRA pistol instructor and was a combat handgun competitor. He has written and commented on over 100 articles on armed school volunteers.

.

Jake Wiskerchen is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Reno, Nevada. He is the founder and CEO of Zephyr Wellness as well as being a board member of Walk the Talk America. Jake is the host of the Noggin Notes podcast.

Lessons from Armed Defense and Gun-Control

I saw these news stories of armed self-defense and needed to share them. They are critically important if we want to understand the political world around us today. We have millions of new gun owners in the US. Armed defense is both effective and common. Many existing and many proposed gun-control laws put us at greater danger rather than making us safer.

The first story I saw was out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. A grandmother was at home at night. She was also taking care of her young grandson. Grandma heard a strange sound in her house. She went to investigate. It was about 9:30 pm when she saw a stranger in her home. The male intruder demanded grandma’s keys. She pointed to a bowl of keys near the front door. The intruder went one way and grandma ran the other way. It isn’t clear if grandma moved her grandson into her bedroom or if the grandson was already there. Grandma also armed herself.

The intruder came to the bedroom and demanded more keys. Grandma shot the intruder when he tried  to enter the bedroom where her 4 year old grandson was hiding. The wounded intruder stopped advancing and Grandma stopped shooting. She called 911 and asked for help.

The 32 year old attacker was charged with burglary, attempted burglary and auto theft. The attacker was out of jail on pretrial release after he was found in a stolen vehicle in possession of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin. He broke into grandma’s home after the police used spike strips earlier that evening to stop him and the truck he’d stolen.

You might be surprised that grandma did such a good job at defending herself and her family. I”m surprised that Democrat billionaires want grandma disarmed.

Our second story was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A woman came home early Saturday morning and found two intruders in her apartment. The two male intruders attacked her. The female defender used her firearm and shot 13 rounds before the attackers ran away. The story says that she was a legal gun owner but it doesn’t say if she had her carry permit and was carrying concealed that morning. One of the attackers was found dead in her bedroom. The other was arrested at the local hospital after he ran away from the scene. The victim said she doesn’t know the men or know why she was targeted for the attack.

We don’t know why the criminals followed the victim to her bedroom. Resource predators want what we have. They are after our money or the drugs in our bathroom medicine cabinet. Process predators want to establish dominance. They want to assault and rape their victims. We do know that armed victims are seldom sexually assaulted.

National crime statistics help us understand if these two examples were typical or if they were unusual. Criminals commit about a million violent crimes a year. (robbery, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and murder). Criminals use a firearm in the commission of those crimes about a quarter million times. In contrast, about 100-million ordinary citizens own firearms in the US. Those honest citizens legally used a firearm in armed defense over 2.6-million times a year, or over 7-thousand times a day. That means we legally used a firearm for defense over ten times for each time a criminal used a gun illegally.

What do those statistics mean? They say that armed defense is common. About one in a dozen adults in public are legally carrying a concealed firearm. They tell us that most gun owners use their firearms with restraint. Most of the time, the criminal runs away when he finds out the victim was armed. When the victim had to shoot, the attacker usually lives. Because we’ve studied them so carefully, we know that ordinary citizens who have their concealed carry permits are more law-abiding and non-violent than the ordinary person. Those carry permit holders are even more law-abiding and non-violent than the police. That leads us to the next obvious question?

If ordinary people are so responsible with firearms,
then why do Democrats want them disarmed?

A bill proposed in Colorado would turn almost all public spaces, and many private spaces, into so called “gun-free” zones where honest citizens would be prohibited from carrying firearms. Disarming the good guys was advertised as crime control.

A law recently passed in New York City requires a gun owner to submit an application explaining how they have “good moral character”. This requirement is routinely used to disarm minorities, extort kickbacks, and reward politicians’ friends. Similar state laws have already been found unconstitutional.

A New Hampshire bill demands a mental health background check before an ordinary person could buy a firearm. Democrat politicians told us that these background checks would weed out the crazy people from getting guns. They said the background checks would prevent mass murder. That isn’t what we see.

Instead we see states like California. California has mandatory background checks AND mandatory waiting periods. They also have the highest rates of mass shootings. The reason is simple. Background checks look back at our history. In contrast, mass-murder is a one-and-done event and not a long term choice. California also has shocking rates of violent crime in its Democrat controlled cities.

It is easy to forget that armed defense is common. We forget that we have over 23-thousand firearms regulations today. Criminals ignore those laws just as they ignore the laws against burglary and robbery. Gun-control laws that keep honest citizens disarmed lead to more victims.

I’m sorry that ordinary people are attacked and forced to defend themselves. As long as they face those threats, I’m glad that innocent victims are well prepared and armed. Until we reach a crime-free utopia, the fantasy of gun control is dangerous.

---

I gave you 900 words and a lot of thought. Please share this article with a friend and leave a comment. RM

Guest post- Can you carry a concealed firearm in New York City?

Question: “Can you carry a concealed firearm in New York City?”

Answer: …drumroll… Yes. Of course. Thousands do so. Gang bangers, drug dealers, human traffickers, mafia types, enforcers.

Oh you mean LEGALLY?

That narrows it down a lot. Rich people, important people, beautiful people, such as politicians, publishers, authors, actors. Friends of the Mayor. Political contributors of the Mayor. These people can generally get a permit. On the other hand, most of these types of people don’t really need one- they are rich and can afford private security. Mayor Bloomberg lectured his inferiors on how they did not need a gun for self protection. After all, he didn’t need a gun-all this while his 8 man, gun carrying security detail stood close by.

Normal, law abiding, hardworking people? The single mom who gets home from her waitress job after walking the streets alone at 3AM. No. Your neighborhood rabbi ? No. The plumber who makes night emergency repair calls? No. The wound-care visiting nurse making house calls in a sketchy part of town. No.

Normal law abiding people aren’t important enough to qualify; they don’t have enough money or “pull”, so the powers that run the City require them, by law, to be defenseless. When one such as these winds up dead, there is a sad sigh and some “tut-tutting”, followed by comments such as “this is the price we pay for a peaceful, disarmed, society. If the victim had been armed it would just lead to more violence. We can’t have that now, can we?”

The “victim“ Class is pretty much successfully disarmed; and that pleases the Powers-that -Be. On the other hand, the criminals carry because, umm, weapons are their tools. They need them for business and social interaction. They ignore the Sullivan Weapons Law passed in 1911, and they ignore rest of the gun laws, too. Just like they ignore the murder, burglary, robbery, rape, extortion, assault and drug laws. What’s one more Penal Code violation on a charge sheet? In the mean time, they need their gun.

What happens if the unlawful gun carrier is caught?

Good question.

Maybe the gun carrier is a member of the victim class. His name is Fred. Fred is a good citizen. He is a CPA and practices tax accounting, helps with the Boys Scouts and is deacon at his church. He has never even had a parking ticket; he doesn’t even cheat on his taxes or his wife. Fred was mugged several years ago. His jaw was broken in the beating that ensued and his briefcase full of tax files, worthless to anyone else, was stolen. Fred fears a repeat and has resolved to prevent it. Fred borrowed a Glock 19 from his brother in law in Vermont and now carries it when he travels home late at night. Fred wants no trouble with anyone- he simply doesn’t want to have his jaw broken again. One night, as he peaceably walks home, a sudden wind blows his jacket open, revealing the holstered Glock. NYPD Officer Krupke observes the pistol. After a brief interview, calm and polite, Fred the accountant is arrested for illegal possession and carry. He is placed in jail.

Later that night, Officer Krupke and Officer Reagan arrest Jimmy Joe Thug on suspicion of armed robbery. There is a scuffle, Jimmy Joe doesn’t have time to actually draw the weapon he is carrying. He is placed in jail, charged with numerous offenses including “felon in possession of a firearm”, which is a New York State and Federal Felony. The Federal charge is punishable by up to FIVE years in a federal penitentiary.

What happens?

Jimmy Joe? The Federal prosecutor will not charge him with the Federal offense- too much trouble and small potatoes. Jimmy Joe, charged with numerous state offenses, has a good lawyer, and some cards to play. He gets to plea bargain the dropping of the New York State weapons charge, the resisting arrest charge, the assault on an officer charge; he agrees to plead to a lesser charge and as part of the deal, the armed robbery charge is downgraded to a lesser charge that will put him in jail for a year. Jimmy Joe Thug -Armed Professional Criminal. A year and one day in custody. A brief vacation. And then Jimmy Joe will be back in business-resolving to be slicker, sneakier and better at his business of criminal enterprise. If anything, his reputation will be enhanced.

Fred the Accountant? He has no string of serious charges with which to play cards. He is an upstanding citizen. He can’t swap a menu of unlawful activities and a lifetime of crime to make an overworked prosecutor offer him a deal. He’s just an honest man who didn’t want his jaw broken again- Nailed on a gun charge. The DA is going to make an example of him-we can’t have mere normal citizens carrying guns on the street. No plea-bargain. No morphing to a lesser offense. The full power of the Law will crash down on Fred. He may lose his CPA license. He will do a year and a day. His accounting practice will collapse. His wife will be embarrassed; the Boy Scouts will have nothing to do with him. His friends will pity him. His reputation will be destroyed.

Yes, you can carry a gun in New York City. Jimmy Joe Thug does. It’s part of his business. Fred the Accountant doesn’t any more. He figures another beating and a broken jaw is not as bad as what the Law could do to him. Again.

---

Gregory K. Taggart is a Texas Aggie. He writes about firearms, and Texas law and history. Greg teaches firearm safety and the common law of self-defense. He has been an expert witness. He also designs gun ranges.

How Should We Defend Our Rights?

Let’s keep this simple. The “rule of holes” says that the best way to get out of a hole you’ve created is to first stop digging. Our legal system doesn’t work. It has been turned against millions of honest citizens, and it is time to admit it is broken. What our legal system should do in theory is not what we see in practice, and this isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem.

The situation is easy to describe. The US Supreme Court offers a handful of rulings on a given subject each year. At the same time, lawmakers pass, and lower courts uphold, dozens of bad laws on that same subject. This isn’t a matter of accidently passing slightly imperfect laws. Politicians deliberately write laws that violate the constitution, and they do so faster than the US Supreme Court can correct them. The Constitution does not enforce itself. That means we get an ever-growing proportion of bad laws that undermine society. The right to bear arms is only one of the latest examples.

Justices as of November, 2021

Legislators in 11 anti-gun and anti-rights states effectively eliminated the right of the common man or woman to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The district courts and appeals courts upheld those bad rulings. In counterpoint, the Supreme Court overturns a few bad second amendment laws a year. The court takes a major second amendment case once a decade. The lower courts in those problem districts largely ignore the rulings of the superior court.

As I said, we’ve been here before. Recall the civil rights battles where it took almost a century from freeing black slaves until their great grandchildren could safely walk into public schools. In several states, the courts had to appoint special masters that took control of civil rights laws. Compare that to what we see today.

Recently, the USSC said that states must issue concealed carry permits to ordinary citizens who go to ordinary places for ordinary purposes. The 11 anti-rights states then declared that most of the state was now a “sensitive place” where concealed carry was outlawed.. unless you were a politician or a retired cop. Millions of honest citizens again have rights in theory but not in practice. The list of ongoing infringements is huge and growing.

I understand why judges are reluctant to use extraordinary measures. When should the court stop making adjustments at the margin? When will they say that Special Masters are needed to monitor and enforce civil rights laws surrounding armed defense?

Tomorrow is barely soon enough because bearing arms is not a trivial right. About one-in-a-dozen adults in public are carrying concealed today, and many more could carry, but don’t. These armed citizens stop over half the attempted mass-murders they encounter. Honest citizens use a firearm for legal defense of innocent parties almost 3-million times a year. That is a lot of lives that are saved each year, and put in jeopardy by bad laws every day.

Math is hard and feelings are easy. That is true for many voters, and apparently true for judges on the US Supreme Court too.

---

I gave you 500 words. Please share them with a friend and leave a comment. RM

Western Legislatures Claim Different Paths to School Safety

The Fifty States have been called the laboratory of democracy. As politicians try to control us more and more, their laws lead to some strange laboratory accidents. We see one behavior encouraged on one side of the state line, while that same behavior is considered a serious crime on the other side. They can’t both be right, but politics is more about getting campaign donations and press releases than actually making lives safer on the ground. Clear examples come from three western states who say they want to protect school children.

We saw attacks on schools increase a few decades ago after the 24-hour news media gave each murderer a multi-million dollar publicity campaign. We had to coin a new term for it, the celebrity murderer. We also saw attacks increase after Democrat politicians made schools into so-called “gun-free” zones. Despite the press releases, a thin plastic sign that advertised unprotected victims actually attracts mass murderers rather than repelling them.

Colorado Democrats recently proposed laws to make it extremely difficult to legally carry a concealed firearm in public. They proposed to make most public places into so-called “gun-free” zones. A similar Colorado bill proposed to remove the several hundred armed school staff who currently protect their schools. These armed school staff haven’t caused any problems. In fact, they have a perfect record of being both safe and effective. There were no accidents AND no attacks on their schools. Colorado Democrats aren’t pro-choice when it comes to protecting school children.

Across the western border from Colorado, Utah legislators wanted more school staff to go armed and offered them more training. The motivation is easy to understand. A dozen children will die as a school waits for the police to respond. School staff have tried to defend their students time after time. Like other ordinary citizens who legally carry a firearm in public, armed staff would contain or stop the threat in seconds rather than waiting minutes. If we asked you to defend children at school, most of us would say that we want to but that we don’t feel comfortable doing so without training. The bill in Utah would have local sheriffs offer that training to school staff.

Across the northern border from Colorado, Wyoming legislators took a different approach. They allow teachers to go armed. To address the concerns that not enough school staff were armed to protect students, the Wyoming legislature took down the gun-free zone signs. That meant that anyone who could legally carry a firearm in public could legally carry as they visited a school. The bus driver who has a carry permit and carries everywhere else can now carry on the job and at school. The maintenance contractor can continue to carry legally as he drives his truck into the school parking lot.

As usual, the press offered false alternatives wrapped in misleading headlines. Some of the blame for our poor record of school safety clearly lies with us. We literally have a child’s view of teachers and other school staff. In contrast, I attended five training classes where volunteer school staff learned to be first responders. Every person I met in those classes was exactly the sort of person I would want protecting my children. Without exception, they had the prudent mix of caution and courage that we all hope for.

School staff during training

I don’t know if these three bills in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah will become law. They can’t all be the right answer since they point in opposite directions. Over two-dozen states allow armed school staff already. It is a fascinating study in human nature to see how imaginary fears keep us from addressing a real threat to our children.

---

I’ve written over one hundred articles about school safety and public violence. Please learn more, and share what you find. RM

Armed Defense- At Home and in Public

Firearms Instructor David Cole brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they doing the safest thing they could do? How did everyday defense demand such skill?

Here is what happened and what we can learn.

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Chicago, Illinois- Are you armed in public?

You’re sixty years old. You are out before dawn to get some money from an ATM in your neighborhood. You turn to a noise behind you. A man throws his bike on the ground and walks toward you. He pulls a gun from his pocket and tells you to give it up.

You have your firearms owners ID card and your carry permit in your wallet. You have your firearm on your hip. You shoot at your attacker and he shoots at you. You’re wounded on your back and on your arm. You run to a local gas station and ask for help. They call 911 while you put pressure on your arm.

You give a statement to the police. They take your firearm from your pocket. EMS transports you to the hospital. You are listed in stable condition. Your attacker was declared dead. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Reading, Pennsylvania-Are you armed at home?

You and your roommates are at home. It is six in the evening when you’re surprised to see a stranger enter your apartment. You don’t know him. Your roommates don’t know him. You ask him to leave. He gets offended and attacks you and your roommates. You grab your gun and shoot your attacker. Now he runs from your apartment. You and your roommates call the police. You put your gun away before they arrive.

Everyone stays at the scene and gives the police a statement. They find your attacker. They transport him to the hospital to treat his wounded leg. Your attacker is charged with criminal trespass and several counts of assault. You are not charged with a crime. It looks like your attacker was looking for a drug dealer and got the wrong address.

.

Atlanta, Georgia- Are you armed in public?

It is just after midnight. You’ve asked your daughter’s ex-boyfriend to leave. He continues to shout and to threaten your family outside your home. The ex-boyfriend threatens you again and draws a gun from his pocket. He shoots it into the air. You present your own firearm and shoot him until he runs. You and your family retreat inside the home and call the police.

Police arrest your attacker and he is now in the local jail. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Española, New Mexico- Do you have a firearm nearby at night?

You and your wife are at home in bed. It is just after four in the morning when you both hear something in your garage. Given that you’re both in your seventies, it was quite a noise to wake you up. You grab your gun and both go to see what is happening. You see an intruder in your garage. You tell him to leave. He attacks your wife and knocks her over. You shoot the attacker. You both retreat into the home and your wife calls 911.

You put your gun away before police arrive. You both tell the police where you saw the attacker. EMS declares your attacker dead at the scene. Police know your attacker. He has over 11 prior arrests for burglary and drug charges.

You are not charged with a crime.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about. Sure we want the right physical tools but we need more than that. We can buy a gun in a few minutes but it takes time to learn what to do with it. What we would do at home alone at night is very different from what we’d do on a job site or in a store parking lot. Your safety plan is probably different than your neighbors’. Those plans become a menu of best practices that fits you and your situations.

When was the last time you walked through one of your plans? Like these armed defenders, I want you to be safe at home, as you drive, and at work.

Comfortable Steps to Concealed Carry

As of last week, there are a few million more of us who can now carry a concealed firearm in public without paying a government fee. We might not need a state license any longer, but there is still a lot for us to learn before we feel comfortable with a loaded gun on our hip. Concealed carry is one of the first milestones in self-defense. That first step can feel like a giant leap but it doesn’t have to. These are the common stepping stones for new gun owners. The goal is not to race to the end but to avoid stumbling along the way. Take your time and enjoy the journey.

Concealed carry doesn’t have to be a giant leap.

• If you want to carry concealed, then take a basic firearms safety class with emphasis on the handgun.
• Learn how to safely store your gun in your home yet leave a firearm accessible to responsible adults.
• Take a basic handgun marksmanship course. Hitting your target is fun. You’ve started a lifetime of practice to stay accurate and fast as you learn armed defense.
• You need time with a gun in your hand. Hire an instructor or ask a friend take you to the range to shoot. Explain that you’re a new shooter interested in concealed carry.
• Shop for your own equipment. Buy a range bag, ear protection, and eye protection that fits you.
• Now that you have the training and the gear, make regular trips to the shooting range and try many different guns. Concealed carry firearms are a compromise. The more firearms you try the better the final fit will be. Keep concealed carry in mind.
• There are often shooting leagues at your local range. Some of them are for women only. Most shooters are eager to talk about and share their guns and their gear.
• If you’re not sure what would work for you, there are concealed carry fashion shows that show you what is hidden. There are some amazing online videos.
• Now you’ve bought your first handgun. It might not be the gun you want to carry concealed, but simply the gun you find the most fun to shoot. In either case, also buy a bedside rapid-access gun safe. Store your loaded firearm there.
• Buy a cleaning kit and take a class or ask a friend to teach you how to clean your firearm. Some gun shop employees will be particularly glad to help you if you’ve read the manual that came with your gun.
• Soon you’re going to buy your first gun belt and holster. Ask the gun owners you know to see what works for them. Avoid the padded nylon pouches. A good-fitting holster and a quality gun belt will pay you back time and again. Invest in quality.
• Take a concealed carry class where you learn the basics of on-body carry. If it isn’t covered in your class, then take another class on the laws of armed defense and the prohibited places in your state.
• Go ahead and apply for your carry permit even if your state doesn’t require one. The carry permit gives you reciprocity with other states and allows you to carry your concealed gun within 1000 feet of a K-12 school but not on school property.
• Wear your concealed holster at home.
• Buy snap caps so you can safely practice loading and unloading your firearm. You can also use snap caps for dryfiring.
• Rather than shooting your gun until it is empty, practice safely unloading your firearm at the end of each range session.
• Wear your concealed holster at home and in public places where a firearm is allowed.
• Take a class to efficiently present your firearm from a concealed holster. Speed comes later with practice. Learning to draw is one of the first steps in learning to fight with your firearm.
• Start dry-practicing your presentation at home. There are precious rules for dry-practice. Follow them.
• Carry your concealed and unloaded firearm at home.
• While you are still carrying your empty holster concealed in public, ask what the rules are for carrying at your church and at work. 
• Find a range that lets you practice presenting a loaded firearm from the holster as you shoot. Some ranges do this as a skill-building class they run at night. Some advanced classes let you engage multiple targets as you move.
• Carry your loaded firearm at home and continue to wear your empty and concealed holster everywhere you’re allowed to carry a loaded firearm in public.
• Carry a full day at home. Pants on gun on. 
• Now that you have your carry permit or are legal to carry in your state, go out in public with friends who are carrying concealed. You’ll learn a lot even if you’re not carrying the first time you join them.
• You will probably develop more than one method of carrying your concealed gun. At least have a holster for carrying inside the waist band, and a holster for carrying outside the waist band.
• Bring your gun and holster when you buy new clothes. I have to buy pants one size larger so the firearm will fit inside. Dark colors and dark prints work better than light colored shirts to conceal a firearm.
• Carry your loaded firearm as you drive to the ATM, the gas station, or grab some food at a fast-food drive through.
• Carry your loaded firearm as you visit friends who also carry concealed.
• Carry your loaded firearm as you do your regular shopping. These are the same places you’ve carried your empty and concealed holster several times already.
• You are now carrying a concealed loaded firearm all the time at home and carrying some of the time in public. Add more places to carry as you feel comfortable. Continue to carry your concealed holster in public even if you don’t yet carry your loaded firearm at a particular location.

Advance at your own pace. Continue to do what you can. It feels natural to carry a firearm after you’ve worn your handgun all day in a training class. This isn’t the end of your journey but only the beginning as there is more to learn. Also, this isn’t easy. I don’t carry as I lift weights, as I run, or as I swim. Try not to leave your firearm in your car where it can be stolen.

These are the stepping stones I can see from here. Please share your ideas.

Notes- 

-In case you missed it, please don’t carry an unloaded firearm in public for practice.

-This is a condensed list taken from two larger articles. (here and here). Thank you to Roger Temple for his suggestions.

Removing the Paper Ceiling in Concealed Carry

You might have to hit me over the head a few times, but I like to think I can eventually learn. Thanks to Karl Rehn, we all learned that most gun owners never take more advanced firearms classes than those required to get their concealed carry permits. Add that my state recently became the 28th state to adopt Constitutional Carry, the concealed carry of a firearm in public without a permit. I also analyzed some common incidents of armed defense last week, though that is something I’ve done thousands of times before. Put all that together and I wonder if more gun owners will continue their training now that the artificial ceiling of a concealed carry permit is gone.

1500 women learning about firearms in one weekend

.

This flickering insight came to mind as I looked at the stories we talked about in last week’s podcast.

A defender at home at night stopped an intruder as the intruder came up the stairs to the second floor. As simple as that sounds, there are some advanced skills that go unnoticed.

• Learn to live with a firearm in your home so you have your gun both secure and quickly accessible.
• Learn how to use cover and concealment so you don’t get shot.
• Learn to shoot from unusual positions like crouching, kneeling, or lying down.
• Learn to shoot in low light situations like inside your home at 5 in the morning.
• Learn and review the laws in your state so you understand if, and when, you have a duty to retreat.

A defender was attacked by her estranged husband who broke into their home at night. After she was attacked in her home, the female defender retreated to the front yard. Her attacker pursued her. She shot him as he ran her down. We don’t cover that in firearms safety or in the concealed carry class.

• Learn about restraining orders if you have an abusive partner or stalker.
• Learn to shoot as you move, and in particular as you move backwards away from the threat.
• Again, learn to shoot in low light conditions.
• Learn how to turn your neighbors into “ear” witnesses.
• Learn what to say to the police.

A defender was at home on a weekday afternoon when a stranger came to his front door. The news story isn’t clear if the door was unlocked or if the homeowner opened the door to talk. The stranger pushed the homeowner out of the way and entered the home. The homeowner shouted for the intruder to stop and tried to push him back outside. The stranger hit the homeowner with a hammer. That is when the defender shot his attacker.

That is too close for comfort and armed hand-to-hand defense is not taught in the first classes.

• Learn the habit of carrying concealed at home.
• Again, lock your doors and windows to buy yourself time.
• Learn to shoot from the close-quarters retention position.
• Learn what to say and what not to say to the police. (Hint- The hammer on the floor is important evidence.)
• Learn about the legal challenges you face any time you touch your firearm.

These stories of armed defense are common, however the self-defense skills required in these defensive examples are considered advanced. We all want the habits of self-defense when we need them in an emergency. No one argues that, but any skills we haven’t practiced recently are not available to us. That means we are making it up as we go along.

We’re not as safe as we imagine. We’re telling the truth when we say we want the skills. At the same time, we don’t seem willing to put in the time, the money, and the attention to maintain those self-defense skills.

Let’s start with the simple things first. I find dry practice to be easy and enjoyable,
but I’m amazed at how many people count on luck.

I hope our culture of armed-defense continues to grow. Though concealed from public view, we are walking ambassadors for civic responsibility. You don’t even need a class in order to join us now that we have constitutional carry in so many states. You don’t have to pay the government an entry fee to join the concealed carry club. True, you might feel out of place at first as you carry a concealed firearm in public. That feeling is natural as you learn what to do and when to do it. There are classes that will methodically explain what we’ve learned from four centuries of living with firearms. Other people have done it and you can do it too.

We all should sympathize with new gun owners. I still feel the responsibility of carrying concealed every time I put on a gun. I hope that more of us pick up that challenge. It has been an amazing adventure so far, and I hope it lasts a lifetime.

---

I gave you 800 words. Please share them if you found them useful. RM

Armed Defense- At Home and in Public

Firearms Instructor Candy Petticord brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they doing the safest thing they could do? Did they need the basics of marksmanship, or did they need more advanced skills? How should we act if we were in their place?

Here is what happened and what we can learn.

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Houma, Louisiana- Do you have a firearm nearby at night?

You are at home asleep in your bed. It is 5 in the morning and you’re woken up by the sounds of someone downstairs. You grab your gun. You go to the top of the stairs. Your intruder tries to climb the stairs and you shoot him. He runs back outside and you stop shooting. You call 911 and ask for help.

You put your gun away when the police arrive. You give the police a brief statement. Police search the area. They collect descriptions and security video from your neighbors. The police identify a suspect and go to his house. An armed woman comes out of the house and is arrested by police. Police find your intruder hiding under a mattress. EMTs take him to the hospital. He is treated for a graze wound to the head.

Your intruder is charged with one count of simple burglary and held on an outstanding warrant for violating parole. His girlfriend is charged with simple burglary, obstruction of justice, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

You are not charged with a crime.

.

Memphis, Tennessee- Are you armed at home?

Your husband is having an affair. You put his possessions on the front porch for him to pick up. It is dark outside when he husband arrives. He tears down the security camera on the front porch and then uses the camera to smash a window at the back of the house. You’re armed. Your husband enters the home and attacks you. You run out the front door. Your attacker follows you. You shoot him and now he stops chasing you.

Your neighbors come out and ask what is happening. You shout for them to call the police. You put your gun away and give a statement to the police when they arrive. You show the police your husband’s clothes, the broken camera, and the broken window. EMTs take your husband to the hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to the knee. News reports are not clear if our defender was treated by the EMTs. She is not charged.

.

Denison, Texas- Are you armed in the afternoon at home?

It is about 4:30 on a Monday afternoon when you hear someone knocking at your door. The news story isn’t clear if the door was unlocked and the intruder walked inside or if you opened the door to talk to them. The stranger pushes you out of the way and walks into your home. You shout for him to stop. You try and push him back outside. The stranger hits you with a hammer. You shoot your attacker. Now he stops hitting you.

You step back and call 911 for help. Police and EMTs arrive. You put your gun away. EMTs transport your attacker to the hospital. You give a statement to the police. It isn’t clear if your injuries required treatment. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Chicago, Illinois- Are you armed at work on a Saturday?

You’re working in a high end jewelry store in the middle of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. It is just before noon and you see a customer come in and walk around the store. He stops near the exit and starts punching a jewelry display case over and over again. You have your Illinois carry permit. You’re carrying concealed at work today. You present your firearm and shoot the robber several times. He stops trying to smash the display case and falls down. You stop shooting. The robber gets up and runs outside.

You stay inside the store. You ask if anyone else is hurt. One of the store employees calls 911 for help. You stay at the scene and put your gun away. You give the police a statement and show them your paperwork. You also show them the security video of the robber when he was inside the store and outside the store. You’re taken to the local police station to give a statement to detectives.

Later, you found out that the robber ran up the stairs to the train tracks and fell into a train car. He was arrested and taken to the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds to the buttocks and stomach.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about. Sure we want the right physical tools but we need more than that. We can buy a gun in a few minutes but it takes time to learn what to do with it. What we would do at home alone at night is very different from what we’d do on a job site or in a store parking lot. Your plan is probably different than your neighbors’ plan. Your safety plans becomes a menu of best practices that fits you and your situations.

When was the last time you walked through one of your plans? Like these armed defenders, I want you to be safe at home, as you drive, and at work.

Every Picture Tells A Story, Vol. 2, No. 4 –

My friend John Richardson has documented the progress on Constitutional Carry laws. Those laws allow individuals who could receive their carry permits to carry a concealed firearm within their state and without a permit. Those Constitutional Carry laws now cover a majority of states, but not a majority of the population. RM

“Louisiana became the 28th state to sign permitless carry into law as of today. While it had been passed by the Louisiana legislature in past sessions, previous Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-LA) would veto it. What a difference a year and a new governor makes. Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) today signed SB 1 – Constitutional Carry – as one of the bills passed during the Special Session on Crime.”

(Graphic from OnlyGunsandMoney.com)

John is always worth reading- Every Picture Tells A Story, Vol. 2, No. 4 –

Colorado Politics Put School Children at Risk- Repost from Ammoland

We’ve seen Democrat controlled legislatures recently propose sweeping gun-control. This happened from coast to coast and in between. One bill in Colorado would disarm many of the trained staff who defend schools. I asked Jake Wiskerchen to help me with an article about that Colorado bill. The article was posted at Ammoland.

Jake has a Masters degree in social work and family counseling. He started and now manages the Zephyr Wellness clinic in Reno. He is also on the board of Walk the Talk America. WtTA advocates to remove the barriers between gun owners and the mental health community.

I am lucky that such talented friends give me their attention. Please give this article your attention and forward it to your friends in Colorado.

---

Excerpt from Ammoland-
It isn’t easy holding elected office. That is true from the Governor’s mansion and down to your local school board. Given the way that schools have become politicized, it is probably harder to be on the school board. We’ve been worried about keeping our children safe at school for as long as we’ve had schools. Now, some Colorado legislators want to undo a lot of that. Let’s look at the political landscape and see how politics today are risking the lives of Colorado’s school children. Why would politicians put our children at risk, and why would we put up with it?

Read 900 more words at: https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/colorado-politics-put-school-children-at-risk/#ixzz8Tka2oph8
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook

Armed Defense- At Home and in Public

Firearms Instructor Amanda Suffecool brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they doing the safest thing they could do? How should we act if we were in their place? Here is what happened and what we can learn.

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Fresno, California-Are you armed at home?

It is just after 10 on a weekday morning. You are at home with your two small children. Your wife calls your cell phone. She says a neighbor saw three strangers run onto your property. The neighbor called her thinking she was at home. You check your ring doorbell and see three men who ran into your garage. News stories aren’t clear if you called the police or if your wife did.

You grab your shotgun. You open your garage door and shout get out, get out, get out. One of the intruders dives for the ground. The other freezes. The third one runs away. Police arrive a minute later. You lower your shotgun when the police arrive.

The robber who is standing up runs out the garage door. The robber on the floor is arrested by police.

You give the police a statement. They tell you that the three robbers were driving a stolen Mercedes and being chased by police after an armed robbery. The police were searching for them after they abandoned the Mercedes nearby. The police found the robber who was standing in your garage. They arrest him. The robber who ran when you entered your garage was found next door. He wouldn’t come out so they sent a dog in to get him.

You are not charged with a crime. You are glad your small children aren’t hurt. Your neighbor calls to see how you’re doing.

Tag- No Shots Fired

.

Las Cruces, New Mexico- Are you armed in public?

You’re standing next to your car in a business parking lot. It is about 5 in the afternoon when You see a policeman approach a homeless man who is standing in front of a business. The homeless man stabs the police officer. The officer yells and falls. You reach into your car and grab your gun. You shout for the attacker to stop. The attacker advances toward you and you shoot him. He falls. News reports aren’t clear what you did with your gun.

You run up to the officer and use his radio to call for help. Police and EMTs arrive quickly. You step back but remain at the scene. EMTs transport the officer.

You give the police a statement about what you saw and what you did. The attacker is declared dead at the scene. Later, you find out that the officer died in the hospital. His attacker had a criminal history including domestic violence, kidnapping, failure to appear in court, and repeated drug use. Police get security video from the businesses nearby. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Fullerton, California- Are you armed at work?

You work as a security guard. Today, you’re standing in a strip mall jewelry store. It is about about noon on a weekday when you see three men get out of a car that pulled up outside the store. The car doesn’t park. The three men who got out are all wearing masks and they are carrying pistols in their hands. They start to walk toward the jewelry store.

You present your firearm and shoot at the robbers. They run back to their car, shooting at you as they run. The news stories aren’t clear if you called 911 or if someone in the store called them. Neither you, nor store employees, the store customers, or any bystanders outside the store are injured. You give a statement to the police when they arrive.

There is extensive news coverage of the event, but that doesn’t include the store security video. The owner says that jewelry stores are robbed because the jewelry is so easy to sell for cash. You were supposed to meet with the store owner today and talk about extending your employment and asking for more money. They seemed to like you before the attack. They certainly like you now. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-Are You Armed in Public?

You are waiting at an auto repair shop. Your 12 year old son is with you. You hear gunfire from the back of the repair shop. Your son grabs his head and falls down. You hear screams from inside. You see a man with a  gun shooting at people inside the shop.

You have your Pennsylvania concealed carry permit. You’re armed today. You present your firearm and shoot at the attacker. Now he runs. You reholster your handgun and check on your son. News reports aren’t clear if you called 911, but a lot of customers did.

You and your son stay at the scene. You identify yourself to the police. EMTs take one of the mechanics to the hospital. Your son is treated for a graze wound at the scene and released. The officers say that the mechanic was the intended target and your son was struck by a stray shot.

You are not charged with a crime.

.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about. Sure we want the right physical tools but we need more than that. We can buy a gun in a few minutes but it takes time to learn what to do with it. What we would do at home alone at night is very different from what we’d do on a job site or in a store parking lot. Your plan is probably different than your neighbors’ plan. Your safety plans becomes a menu of best practices that fits you and your situations.

When was the last time you walked through one of your plans? Like these armed defenders, I want you to be safe at home, as you drive, and at work.

Sending Facebook and Facebook Advertisers a Message

You might have noticed the flood of advertisements on your Facebook feed. I have those advertisements too, and I think we can do something to stop them. I hope we can at least slow them down. If you’re like me then you want to see your friends’ travel and birthday pictures on social media. That means Facebook can put advertisements between us and what we want. Here is what we can do.

Let’s say you’re scrolling down past the puppy pictures, and you see another advertisement selling the “Annoying Product You Don’t Need.” To get the advertisements to slow down, you first have to follow a few of them. Rather than hide the advertisements by clicking on the “X” in the upper right corner, click on the advertiser’s name at the upper left so you go to the advertiser’s Facebook page. This strategy doesn’t work as well if the advertisement links to the company’s webpage or an application, but it does work if the company is trying to drive engagement to their Facebook page. Let’s take the improvements we can get.

Once you’re on the company’s Facebook page, then look for the three dots at the options line of their page. It is usually below their banner picture.

Clicking on those three dots opens a dialogue box. A few lines down in the dialogue menu is the option to block this advertiser. Go ahead and block them. Now the “Annoying Product You Don’t Need” Company can’t contact you with messages or put their posts on your feed.

Social media allows communication in both directions. If you really want to influence how this company uses Facebook, then send them a message before you block them. I suggest something like this.

Dear Annoying Company. Please stop spamming me. I blocked you. Now go away and stay away.

A company marketing manager doesn’t like that sort of reaction from the public. If it happens more than a few times, then the marketing manager communicates his displeasure to Facebooks or the company spends their marketing dollars elsewhere. Maybe both.

What do you think will happen to Facebook’s revenue when companies notice a surge in Facebook users who’ve blocked them? Sure, the advertiser got a few clicks for their social media marketing dollars. I doubt the “Annoying Product You Don’t Need” Company will be happy with Mister Zuckerberg when another ten-thousand users have blocked them in response to their Facebook advertisements. I might be wrong. I’m not a social media marketing executive so what do I know about such things?

I suspect that Facebook will soon remove the block option and force us to see advertisements from pages we’ve already blocked. In either case, blocking advertisers should cut into Facebook’s revenue as we tell more and more advertisers to go away and stay away.

I doubt that I’m not the first person to suggest this. Please try it for yourself and let me know what happens.

---

If you think this is a good idea then you might share it, but probably not on Facebook. I wonder how many of the mythical “Facebook community standards” I’ve broken with this post on WordPress?

Armed Defense- At Home, as you Drive, and at Work

Firearms Instructor Tony Simon brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they doing the safest thing they could do? How should we act if we were in their place? Here is what happened.

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Bartlesville, Oklahoma- Are you armed at home in the morning?

It is early morning and you’re already at work on your laptop. You hear someone banging on the front door of your apartment. You hear them shout for you to open the door. You are not expecting visitors. You grab your gun and shout for the stranger to go away. You grab your phone and call 911.

The stranger keeps hitting your door. They break the door hinges out of the door and doorframe. They tear the security chain off the wall. The door flies across the room. Your intruder enters your home and you shoot him one time. He stops. News reports aren’t clear if your attacker fell inside your home or if he ran outside. You ask the police dispatcher for help.

You put your gun away when officers arrive. EMTs transport your attacker to the hospital. You give the police a statement. You don’t know the intruder. You are not charged with a crime.

Later you find out that your 23-year-old intruder had been scammed and thought he was meeting someone for sex.

.

Jackson, Mississippi- Are you armed at work?

You are a contractor doing a job for the city water department. You and your co-workers are on site when a car drives up. A man gets out of the car and starts yelling. He draws a gun and starts shooting at you. You and your co-worker shoot back. Your attacker drives away. You stay at the scene and call 911 for help. You put your guns away when the police arrive.

You and your partner give statements to the police. Your attacker crashes his car nearby. EMS takes him to the hospital for treatment of three gunshot wounds. He will be charged with aggravated assault when he is released. One of the news reports said the attacker knew one of the contractors. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Chicago, Illinois- Do you have a firearm nearby at night?

You’re at home and asleep in your bed. You’re startled awake by a crashing sound. You hear someone in your apartment. You grab your gun and go investigate what is happening. You see someone in your apartment and they rush at you. You shoot them before they reach you. You step back and turn on the lights. You grab your phone and call 911 for help. You stay at the scene.

You stay on the call with the police dispatcher. You put your gun away when the police are nearby. Police arrest your intruder. EMTs take him to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg. You give the police a statement. You show them your identification and your concealed carry permit.

Since you knew the intruder, this is being called a domestic incident. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania- Are you armed as you drive?

You are sitting in your parked car. It is after midnight and a white car drives by. That car knocks the side mirror off your car. You drive after them to get their license plate number. The white car stops and a man gets out of the back seat. He has a gun in his hand and walks toward you yelling for you to get out of your car. You are being carjacked.

You have your concealed carry permit in your wallet. You have your personal handgun in a holster on your hip. The news isn’t clear if you get out of the car or remain inside. You present your firearm and shoot your attacker. He shoots back and runs to the white car. They drive away. It isn’t clear when you put your gun away and if you called 911.

A police officer nearby hears the shots. He asks you what happened. You tell him about the car, the mirror, and the carjacking. The officer puts out a description of the white car and the robbers. You show the officer your identification and your carry permit.

Police follow the white car and catch two of the three robbers. One of the robbers is taken to the hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound. The white car was stolen yesterday. You are not charged with a crime.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about as armed citizens defend themselves. Sure we want the right physical tools but we need more than that. What we would do at home alone at night is very different from what we’d do on a job site or as we drive. We can buy a gun in a few minutes but it takes time to learn what to do with it. Your plan is probably different than your neighbor’s. Your many safety plans becomes menus of best practices that fit you and your situation.

When was the last time you walked through one of your safety plans. Like these armed defenders, I want you to be safe at home, as you drive, and at work.

Gun-Control and Personal Confessions

What stops a criminal from bringing a gun into a sensitive place, a so-called “gun-free” zone?

The way a politician answers that question tells us everything about them. It also tells us a lot about their supporters. The question is crucially important because Democrat politicians recently tried to turn almost all public spaces, and many private places, into locations where trained and licensed citizens would be disarmed by law. Even church security and school security teams are too close to “paramilitary organizations” for their comfort. What the gun-control advocates say may sound unbelievable but we have to believe them when tell us what they think.

Look around you. The obvious answer is that nothing stops an armed criminal from entering most “sensitive places.” There are no armed guards with magnetometers checking for weapons at the local park or at the school parking lot. There isn’t a cop frisking people at every farmers market. Gun-control certainly doesn’t disarm the druggies or the drug dealers. Gun-control doesn’t come close to disarming repeat criminals or disarming mass-murderers. With failure like that, why do they want to pass more gun-control laws?

A gun-control lawyer I debated told me, “But it might disarm them.” I didn’t believe him and you shouldn’t either. We have 23-thousand firearms regulations and they have not stopped the criminals so far. To pretend that the next law will be more effective than the last is delusional and dangerous. Here is the reality we see every day.

Gun-control laws disarmed the many honest citizens who don’t commit violent crimes. To the Democrat politicians who voted for it, the law worked exactly as intended. Their press releases about crime-control were simply another political means to achieve an end. So why would the gun-control politicians lie about disarming us? The reasons are obvious.

The gun-control politicians are comfortable with crime. They know that the police will eventually find a criminal after he has racked up a few-dozen victims. What the politicians fear is that their neighbors might put up a fight. Those politicians would rather offer sympathy to a rape victim than know that the girl next door would shoot a violent attacker rather than be robbed or raped.

Gun-control politicians and their supporters fear you.
They don’t trust you.

They are afraid that you’re armed today, but also that you and other honest citizens might be armed tomorrow. They consider you to be a dangerously violent person who is just looking for the right time and place to commit your crime. They think people are like ticking time-bombs that go off unexpectedly. That, my friends, is called psychological projection.

The thing that distinguishes us from violent sociopaths is that we are in control of ourselves and our thoughts. Unlike the criminals, we are never looking for easy victims, and this is where the story takes an odd turn.

The people who want you helpless think you are dangerously out of control. At the same time, they think criminals don’t really mean to hurt other people. They think we can stop crime with more kind words and more welfare payments. That has been my experience, and they don’t want to hear any argument with their point of view.

In the fantasy world of gun-control advocates, their are no threats from dangerous people and the true-believers can finally feel safe now that the guns are gone. The problem was never people with evil in their hearts but simply the danger created by evil tools. They got rid of those tools, those evil “weapons.” That means the true believers can leave their doors unlocked at night and safely stumble down the street while drunk at 2 in the morning. They also think that everything is negotiable and that “no” never really means no.

That is why they are afraid of you. They are barely in control of themselves and they are afraid you will stop them when they lose control.

Their latest proposals convert the world into one giant “gun-free” zone. The politicians who want you vulnerable will never be held accountable when the criminals and crazies continue to commit violence.

Now that I think about it, the Democrat politicians supporting gun-control might be right. When you’ve failed the last 23-thousand times and no one has called you out on it, then why not go for one more useless law.

Our safety is in our hands.

---

I gave you 700 words. If they helped you, then please share them with a friend and leave a comment. RM

Armed Defense- How Bad Could It Get

I wrote about a self-defense story and now I’m having second thoughts. There are a few sayings that capture a lot of wisdom. I’m thinking of ‘First do no harm.’ Right behind that is ‘The first rule of gunfighting is don’t get shot.’ Unfortunately, when we study how our neighbors defended themselves, we are usually working behind the veil of the news media. There is another truism, and that is the media only gives us some of the facts. I want to pour best practice all over this story and contrast it with what was reported in the news. The story sounded so simple at first.

One family member was waiting for someone to arrive home. It was after midnight when they were alerted by unusual sounds outside. They heard shouts. They saw their family member being robbed. They grabbed their gun and shot at the bad guys. The bad guys shot back as they ran away. None of the family members were injured.

None of the good guys were injured so I’d call this a success. For obvious reasons, I make it a point to not criticize the defenders. I wasn’t there and am commenting on what the media said rather than on what really happened. Even if the media gives us all the facts, we don’t know how they fit together and we’re ignorant of the many details that might influence a defender’s decisions. That said, let me show you what I worry about in this story. I have to begin somewhere else first.

We often talk about defending the inside of our home from attackers who are outside. In that case, we’d like to retreat to a back room. We want to get far away from the doorframe and use the bedroom doorway to conceal our position. Ideally, we’d like the intruder to be in a well-lit room while we defend ourselves from inside a darkened room. We’re doing what we can so that we see the bad guy better than he can see us. Now we’re going to turn that situation on its head.

An easy target

Back to our original story, now we’re moving out of a lighted home and stepping onto our front porch at midnight to see what is going on. That means we might give the bad guys one of the best targets they could ask for. They can see us and we can’t see them hiding in the dark. Also, there is no place we can move as we come through the door onto the front porch.

We call doorways and stairs the “fatal funnel” for a reason. They work both ways and confine the bad guys as much as they confine the defenders.

Suppose there is a child or adolescent in the home. They hear the strange sounds and follow us onto the porch to find out what is happening. With the best of intentions, we’ve turned a bad plan into a nightmare scenario where several of our family could be hurt or killed.

That was all speculation on my part. You can accurately call it the overworked imagination of an overcautious mind. My fevered guesswork doesn’t mean the defenders faced an unsolvable problem. It means then needed a plan.

Let’s play out the scenario as if the good guys, like you, were well prepared.

• The good guy arriving home sees a strange car in front of the house or he sees strangers in his yard. The good guy drives to a neighbor’s house and calls home to find out what is going on. We win every fight we avoid.
• Motion sensors detect the bad guys moving around outside. They turn on the lights to illuminate the driveway next to the home and light up the yard near the front porch. The bad guys don’t like this at all.
• The good guys inside the house hear a chime when the motion activated lights come on. That could mean that their loved one arrived home. The shouts from outside signal that there is a serious problem. The good guy who who arrived home stays inside his car with the doors locked.
• The good guys who were waiting inside the home shout an alarm to the rest of the family. One of them calls 911 just like they planned. One of them grabs a firearm and a flashlight because that was one of his jobs. The person who stayed awake waiting for their loved one was already armed. They point out how the victim outside is being robbed.
• The two-armed good guys turn off the lights inside the home and on the front porch. They exit the front and side doors of their home. They each move to cover where they can’t be shot. Now, the bad guys are visible and the armed good guys can’t be seen and are very hard to shoot.
• Red-dot sights work well in the dim and the dark. You still need enough light that you can identify your target and won’t shoot one of the good guys.

We’re not out to get the bad guys.
We’re trying to save our loved one who is being attacked outside.

We want to avoid a lethal problem rather than win a gun-fight. Motion-activated lights cost a couple of dollars at a big-box hardware store. A safety plan costs less but is probably worth a lot more. Installing the lights takes a few hours. Unlike the lights, you have to review your family’s safety plan every few months.

I want you and yours to be safe.

---

I gave you 500 words. Please share them with a friend and leave a comment. RM

Armed Defense- in Public and at Home

Firearms Instructor Robyn Sandoval brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they following best practice? What should we do in their place? Here is what happened.

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Edgewater, Illinois– Are you armed in public?

You are walking down the street before dawn on a weekday. Two cars stop in the street in front of you. Men get out of the cars and one man walks toward you. He is armed. He demands your possessions. You move to cover and present your firearm. Your attacker shoots at you and you shoot at him. He runs to the car and your attackers drive away. You stay at the scene and call 911 for help.

You stay on the line with the dispatcher. You put your gun away as the police arrive. You give them a brief statement and then show them your ID. You also show them your Illinois concealed carry card. Police find blood on the street.

Later, you find out that robbers using similar vehicles had robbed two other victims on the street that morning. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Houston, Texas– Do you have a firearm nearby at night?

It is just after midnight on a weekday. You’re expecting one of your family members to arrive home. You hear them arrive, and then you hear shouts outside. You look outside and see three men robbing your family member.

You grab your gun and go outside. You shoot at your attackers. They shoot back as they run. Two of them drive away while the third one falls down. You check on your family and then call 911 for help.

You put your gun away when the police arrive. They use a police dog to find your wounded attacker. You and your family give the police brief statements. EMTs take your attacker to the hospital. Your attacker is charged with aggravated robbery. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Salem, Indiana– Are you armed at home?

You let a friend sleep on your couch because he had problems with his girlfriend. Now your friend starts an argument in your home. He attacks your two female roommates. He attacks you and shatters a glass cabinet. You get your gun. The next time he attacks you, you shoot him. Now he stops so you stop shooting. You call 911 and ask for help. Your roommates apply first aid.

Police and EMTs arrive. You put your gun away. You and your roommates meet the officers with empty hands. All of you give statements to the police about what happened. EMTs declare your attacker dead at the scene. Police also interview your neighbors to find out what they heard.

You’re taken to the police station as detectives go over the reports. Your attacker was convicted of domestic violence. Your attacker had to leave his home after again attacking a domestic partner. You are released and not charged with a crime. The news reports don’t mention if you and your roommates needed medical attention.

.

Dothan, Alabama– Are you armed in public?

It is Saturday and you’re walking down the street. A man walks up beside you and asks you for help with his phone. Then he draws a gun and demands your purse. He grabs your purse and pulls on it. You present your firearm and shoot  at your attacker. He drops your purse and runs. You call 911 and ask for the police.

You put your gun away when the police arrive. You give the officers a brief statement and point out witnesses. Other people called 911 when they heard shots. Police find your attacker nearby. They also find his gun. He was using a bb-gun to rob people.

Your attacker is charged with first degree robbery and held on a 60-thousand dollar cash bail. You are not charged with a crime.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about as armed citizens defend themselves at home and in public. We want the right physical tools, the right plan, and the right habits to keep us safe. You can buy a gun in a few minutes, but it takes time to learn what to do with it, time for training, for thought and for repetition. Your safety plan becomes a menu of best practices. When was the last time you walked through your safety plan and made your family safer?

What will you do? RM

How Armed Defenders Prevent Mass-Murder

Is it just me, or have you noticed a pattern too. This is an election year. That means democrats need to come up with new excuses why it isn’t their fault that their cities are a violent mess. The news media usually gives these politicians a pass rather than asking them to explain why some Democrat controlled cities have a violent crime rate several times above average. The good news is that most of us aren’t waiting. Millions of us have decided to protect ourselves and our families by moving someplace safer. Millions more have decided to legally go armed. If we only read the news, then it is easy to forget how effective going armed can be. Your neighbors save lives, but I want you to do even more.

Armed good guys

Each week I record how our neighbors used armed defense. For example, we now see a legally armed citizen defend themselves in Chicago at least once a week. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the frightening violence in Chicago. Those examples of armed defense make it into the news, but we can forget the less visible benefits of going armed in public. It turns out that our armed neighbors also stop mass-murder about once a month. That seldom makes headlines but it has a profound effect all across the United States.

Time and again, mass-murderers told us what they feared. They may be eager to die in order to become media celebrities but they are deeply afraid of failing. They often spend years planning their attacks in meticulous detail. They study what worked and what failed. These celebrity-seeking-murderers have learned to attack us where ordinary citizens are disarmed. Mass-murderers hunt for victims in gun-free zones.

Looking across the United States, about one-out-of-a-dozen of us are armed in public every day. Mass-murderers attack schools in states where parents and staff are disarmed. These murderers deliberately attack churches where parishioners and staff are disarmed by law. Mass-murderers attack bars and nightclubs where even police officers are disarmed. We’ve seen mass-murderers travel across the state to conduct attacks in cities where police chiefs refused to issue carry permits to ordinary citizens.

These celebrity-seeking murderers choose these targets on purpose because they want to rack up a high body count for the news media. The murderers need their victims disarmed. The murderers look for victims who obeyed the law and left their guns at home. If that isn’t outrageous enough, consider that many politicians want to make it even easier for these murderers to find innocent victims.

The US Supreme Court said that state and local governments break the law when they require permits to go armed and then refuse to issue those permits to ordinary people. That is important because ordinary citizens use a firearm to stop violent crime several million times a year. The legislatures in several Democrat controlled states responded by making almost every public location into a “sensitive place” or a “restricted location” where firearms are prohibited. Those ridiculous laws are slowly being overturned in the courts, but I’m afraid the mass-murderers won’t wait. Our neighbors are at risk if they are disarmed.

  If they have to issue you a carry license,
then they want it to be illegal for you to leave your home with a legally owned firearm. 

We know that armed school staff deter mass-murderers. We know that armed church staff made celebrity-seeking-mass-murderers look for easier targets. We know that mass-murderers can be stopped, but what about your local church and your local mall?

I’m afraid the answer is up to you. Please carry when you can and carry where you can. You might need to replace your local politician to make your family safer in public.

---

I gave you 500 words. Please share them with a friend. RM

Biden calls for More of the Same after Law Enforcement and Bureaucrats Leave Children to Die

There was one mass murder at a school in 2022. That attack happened in Uvalde, Texas. The United States Department of Justice recently released a report on that attack. The report said law enforcement failed. They said school officials failed. As expected, President Joe Biden called for more of the same. That is simply unacceptable.

Police standing outside Uvalde classrooms

The murderer at Uvalde had a mental health history that was ignored. We have never held mental-health professionals accountable when their patients become violent. That is why the 23-thousand firearms regulations we already have in place failed to disarm the Uvalde murderer before the event. No law stops an attacker when bureaucrats don’t do their job. We can’t replace the judgement of family asking for a mentally ill person to be institutionalized. That said, I have never seen bureaucrats punished, even if children die as a result.

Depending on people and organizations who don’t suffer consequences is a bad plan. Letting bad plans remain in place is failed governance by elected officials and failed supervision by citizens.

Law enforcement also failed at Uvalde. The school district security staff failed to plan for and to train for an attack like this one. Note that we don’t hold police officers or school district security officers responsible when they stand outside while children die inside their buildings. Looking back a few years, we didn’t hold the negligent police officer responsible after the attack in Parkland, Florida. At Uvalde, we again didn’t hold officers or law enforcement executives criminally responsible after the needless deaths.

The Uvalde School Board had a plan in place that deliberately disarmed adult staff in the schools and depended on the actions of police officers who are never held responsible if they fail to act. You don’t need a PhD in education or criminal justice to recognize that as a bad plan. As concerned citizens and parents, we let those bad plans remain in place. We failed to remove our children from school when their safety was treated so casually or disregarded completely.

Predictably, President Joseph Biden called for more gun-control and more bureaucratic regulation after the DOJ released their report.

“Congress must now pass common sense gun safety laws to ensure that mass shootings like this one don’t happen in the first place.  We need universal background checks, we need a national red flag law, and we must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

When all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. When you’re a career politician, then everything looks like a reason to pass more laws and regulations even though those 23-thousand gun-control regulations we already have continue to fail every day.

In particular, the Uvalde murderer didn’t have a criminal record that would prevent him from buying a gun. That means background checks were useless to disarm him. More mass-murders are committed by handguns than with long guns, but that doesn’t matter when you are a politician whose only concern is an effective sound bite to get more media coverage for your reelection campaign.

We know how to stop mass-murder. Fortunately, we know how to stop it in our schools even if President Biden doesn’t. Have you asked your school board when their safety plan was reviewed? Do they have armed school staff on campus every hour that children are on the property? That is a place to start.

---

I gave you 600 words. Please share them with a friend.

How the second amendment is treated as a second class right by California Democrats.

Gun-Free Zone

You clearly want more innocent children to die if you don’t pass more gun-control. You can try and dress it up, but that is the basic marketing pitch for gun-control. You have to ignore the millions of violent crimes we stop and the lives we save each year for that emotional appeal to have a prayer of making sense. What is passing strange is that the lawyers for the state of California are trying to sell a similar sales pitch to the 9th Circuit Court.

This story started last year when the US Supreme court confirmed that ordinary citizens have the right to bear arms in public. More to the point, governments violate our rights when they infringed on our right to bear arms. In reply to that federal ruling, anti-rights states like California discovered a new cause. Urged on by the campaign donations of anti-gun billionaires, the legislature made a surprising discovery. The places where trained, investigated, and licensed citizens had been carrying guns for decades were suddenly discovered to be “sensitive” places. Who knew?

California’s SB2 made almost every public place and commercial location into a new “gun-free” zone. In theory, we understand places like a jail, a prison, and a secure courtroom to be a sensitive place. We are legally prohibited from carrying a personal firearm in those rooms. The state is responsible for our physical safety in those areas because we have been disarmed as we passed through the security check point.

Now bear with me a moment as I show you a few of the places that California turned into disarmed-good-guy zones.

California said that hospitals, nursing homes, medical offices, and urgent care facilities are gun-free zones. So are their parking lots. That means honest citizens like you can’t go armed to the business that shares a parking lot with the doc-in-a-box-urgent-care office. I am positive that there isn’t a cop guarding every urgent care office. What you might not know is that people are often attacked in hospitals and their parking lots. Criminals like to rob weak people as they cross the parking lot while carrying plastic bags filled with drugs.

I know there isn’t a policeman or sheriff’s deputy at every bus, train, and ferry terminal. There isn’t a cop at every restaurant chain where you can buy a beer. There isn’t a security fence and a magnetometer screening portal at every concert or public gathering. There certainly isn’t much security at every school and playground. None of that matters and the California legislature said that honest citizens should be disarmed even though they were trained, vetted, and licensed to carry.

But its for the children! Don’t you care about them?

Unfortunately, those facts don’t matter to the California legislature. They want you disarmed anyway, and the legislators won’t be blamed for the rising rate of crime. To be fair to the Democrat legislators, those facts probably don’t matter to a majority of judges on the 9th circuit court either. I’m sorry, but these are the consequences we warned you about before the last election.

Right now, the California “gun-free” zone law is enjoined while the case is appealed. Here is the full list of prohibited places where honest citizens are disarmed.

---

I gave you a few hundred words. Please share them with a friend and leave me a comment. Rob

Armed Defense is Simple, Hard, and Necessary

We go along and then something happens to us that changes our perspective. I was talking to a young man not long after I wrote about armed defense. Each of the ordinary stories I covered included an advanced self-defense skill. The young man said he wanted to make his family safer. We talked about it for a minute. I think that is where emotion raised its head, where truth and fantasy parted company. Let me state the obvious. Protecting your family takes work. Knowing what to do is the first layer of defense. Armed defense is also a skill that takes practice.

We often think that we can buy skill. I’ve felt that way myself. It is true that some firearms will fit your hands better than others. That said, is the problem that your hands are not doing what you want them to do, or is the problem that your brain doesn’t know what your hands and feet should be doing? Hardware won’t replace study and practice. Sometimes we have to climb over our ego and admit we have some homework to do. Let me give you a window into armed defense by looking at the examples from my recent podcast.

In the first story, male and female intruders entered an apartment and attacked the occupants. This happened on a Sunday morning. What could be more ordinary.

On a Sunday morning, it is easy to imagine that our children would be home and that they would open the door if someone knocked and shouted. When you read through this story, there were also children in the apartment but they didn’t open the door.

Right there is our first dose of reality. We need a safety plan at home. We have to talk with our family about what all of us will do. We have to talk with our roommates or frequent guests. We also have to walk through that plan. The walk-through does several essential things. It changes words into habits. It also uncovers the errors that seemed good at first but didn’t work well in practice.

Who is going to call 911? Who is armed or going to be armed, and where will they be positioned to defend the rest of the occupants? It sounds simple, but I’m sure your third attempt will be vastly better than your first rehearsal. It is easier to learn in the daylight than to discover problems at night when a stranger is hitting you.

Staying with this first story, a female roommate shot the attackers while they were hitting the male roommate who opened the door. Shooting at moving targets is beyond what we learned in basic marksmanship. In this case, the attackers and the victim were both moving. Speed, distance, and motion work together to determine how accurate we will be with our shots. Even though a gun works at a distance, we might have to get closer so we are sure to shoot the attackers and not shoot our roommate. Do you know what you can do and how much time you need?

Your safety plan should also include calling your lawyer and getting help as you fill out the final police report. That also includes your roommates knowing what to say, and what not say, to the police. That information is only lightly covered in most concealed carry classes.

In the second story, the defender had to move out of the way to avoid being shot. The defender then had to present his concealed firearm on the move. He had to shoot at his attackers who were likely moving as well. Firearms instructors teach classes where the students move and shoot. Some competition includes moving targets and multiple attackers. Have you practiced moving from one target to another? Have you practiced shooting while most of your body was hidden behind a wall or a car?

In the third story, the defender was being robbed at work. The robber tried to push the victim into a back bathroom. That is horribly dangerous for the victim, and he decided to fight. The defender had to turn so that the attacker couldn’t reach the defender’s gun. The defender then had to create enough distance between himself and his attacker so he could rotate his firearm and point it at his attacker. That means the defenders support arm was in front of his muzzle and between him and the the bad guy. You want to see how that works before you have to perform it on your own. At first, you want to practice with an instructor making sure you’re safe.

In the fourth and last story, an elderly woman was trying to stop a strange dog from biting her dog. In that case, it is best practice to grab your attacker and hold on tight so you both move together. That keeps you from shooting your dog or shooting yourself as the attacker moves.

I said that armed defense was both simple and hard. The contrast is complex and easy. Fortunately, we can decompose a new lesson into small incremental steps so that each new skill is relatively straightforward. The hard part is admitting we won’t suddenly become John Wick when we hear glass break at night.

Many of us have taken some form of firearms class. Please review those skills so they remain available when you need them.

---

I was sick for much of December. I returned from traveling overseas in 2024. There is so much to say and I’m trying to collect my thoughts. RM

Armed Defense- Up Close and Personal

Firearms Instructor Andee Reardon brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they following best practice? What sould you do in their place?

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

From Katy, Texas- Are you armed at home?

You are at home in the middle of the morning on Sunday. You hear someone banging on your apartment door. One of your male roommates opens the door. A man and a woman force their way inside and attack your male roommate. Your roommate fights back.

You grab your gun and shoot your two attackers. You stop shooting when they stop hitting your roommate. The woman falls down. The news reports aren’t clear if you called 911 or if your roommates did. Your neighbors also called 911 to report shots fired. You put your gun away before the police arrive.

EMTs declare your female attacker dead at the scene. The male attacker is taken to the hospital for treatment of life threatening gunshot wounds. You and your roommates give statements to the police. There is another male and two children in the home. They are uninjured. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Peoria, Illinois- ARE YOU ARMED IN PUBLIC?

You’re helping your friend buy a car. He sees a vehicle he likes on Facebook Marketplace. You go with him to look at the car after work. When you get to the location, you see two men waiting for you. They say the car is around the corner. There, you see three more men, and they have guns in their hands. You’re being robbed.

You have a concealed carry license and you’re armed. Your attackers start shooting and you shoot back. Everyone runs. You and your friend are not wounded and you stay nearby. You call 911 and ask for help.

Police and EMTs arrive and you put your gun away. The officers find one of your attackers nearby. He is wounded. EMTs try to save his life but then pronounce him dead at the scene.

You and your friend give statements to the police. You show them  your Identification and your carry permit. Your friend shows them the Facebook advertisement. You are not charged with a crime, but the police suggest using the police parking lot to make exchanges.

.

Grafton, Virginia- Are you armed at work?

You’re behind the counter at a gas station/ convenience store. It is about 9 AM and the morning rush is over. Another customer walks in and pushes his way behind the counter. He says this is a robbery. You let him have the money. Now the robber pushes you toward the back bathroom.

You’re armed. You present your concealed firearm and shoot your attacker twice. Your first shot hits him in the leg and your second shot hits him in the abdomen. He stops pushing you and you stop shooting.

You step away and call 911 for help. You talk to the dispatcher and ask for police and Emergency Medical Services. You stay on the line, but have to put your phone down when you put your gun away. You give a statement to the police when they arrive. EMS takes your attacker to the hospital for treatment. You have to close the store for the rest of the day as the police collect evidence at the scene.

When your attacker is released from the hospital, he is held without bond in the county jail. He is charged with robbery, abduction by force, possession of stolen property, and also charged with grand larceny from an earlier incident.

You are not charged with a crime.

.

Are you armed at home?

You’re in your front yard pulling weeds in the middle of the morning. A stray pitbull runs up to you. You don’t know the dog and he doesn’t have any tags. You retreat to your garage and the dog follows you. You try to shoo the dog out of your garage with a broom, but that doesn’t work. You grab a hatchet, and use the blunt side of the hatchet to frighten the dog. He moves toward you and you retreat into your home through the garage door.

The stray pitbull pushes past you to enter your home. He bites your dog and then drags your dog to your bedroom. You grab your gun from the nightstand and shoot the pitbull twice at the base of his skull. Now he lets go of your dog.

You call 911 and your veterinarian. After the police arrive, you take your dog to the vet’s office. He was at the office for three days before you got him back.

Near Austin, Texas- Are you armed at home?

You’re in your front yard pulling weeds in the middle of the morning. A stray pitbull runs up to you. You don’t know the dog and he doesn’t have any tags. You retreat to your garage and the dog follows you. You try to shoo the dog out of your garage with a broom, but that doesn’t work. You grab a hatchet, and use the blunt side of the hatchet to frighten the dog. He moves toward you and you retreat into your home through the garage door.

The stray pitbull pushes past you to enter your home. He bites your dog and then drags your dog to your bedroom. You grab your gun from the nightstand and shoot the pitbull twice at the base of his skull. Now he lets go of your dog.

You call 911 and your veterinarian. After the police arrive, you take your dog to the vet’s office. He was at the office for three days before you got him back.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about as armed citizens defend themselves at home, in public, and at work. We want the right physical tools as well as good mental habits. You can buy a gun in a few minutes, but it takes time to learn what to do with it, time for training, thought and repetition. Your safety plan becomes a menu of best practices. Lots of people think about a new firearm, but when was the last time you walked through your safety plan and made your family safer?

What is your plan? RM

Armed Defense- Do You Have a Firearm Nearby at Night

Every situation is different. This week we reported on several violent attacks and each had their own motivation. One attack was robbery of personal jewelry. One attack was drug related. This story was an ex-boyfriend who was hunting for the victim in her home. Domestic abuse is common enough, but it becomes particularly dangerous when the victim ends the relationship. This story took place last week in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

More honest citizens carry concealed

The single woman was home alone on a Monday night. She heard her ex-boyfriend at the back door of her apartment. Fortunately, her doors and windows were locked. She armed herself and shouted for him to go away. The ex-boyfriend responded by kicking down first the back door and then kicking down the apartment front door as he was looking for the victim. Fortunately, the victim stayed inside her apartment and shot her attacker when he approached her inside.

The defender stopped shooting when her attacker ran away. She stayed inside inside her apartment and called 911 for help rather than chase her attacker down the street. She put her gun away and met the arriving officers with empty hands before she gave a preliminary statement to the officers.

Police arrested her attacker at the hospital where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was also arrested for an outstanding warrant.

That is a lot for a defender to do correctly at about 10:30 at night. We also make better decisions if we have thought about what to do before we hear our back door being shattered.

Our defender chose to own a firearm for self-defense. She recognized that her ex boyfriend put her at an increased risk of violent attack. She locked her doors and windows. That forced her boyfriend to break into her home.

The area is full of small homes and duplexes when you look on Google Street View. That means there were probably a number of ear witnesses who heard the attacker break down the door. Some of the neighbors might have heard the victim shout for the attacker to stop and go away.

It looks like the defender stayed inside her home and out of sight even after the attacker broke through the back door. The attacker then broke through the defender’s front door as he searched for her. The defender then shot her attacker rather than let him get close to her. She also stayed inside her apartment rather than chase her attacker as he ran away.

There are several other things we can do to be safer but they are seldom covered in the news reports. It is relatively cheap to add some motion lights on our front and back doors. Motion activated security cameras will now link directly to our phone. Either of these are considerably less expensive than buying a firearm.

It is also a good idea to get a restraining order so it is clear that the ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend was supposed to stay away from you. The process of getting the restraining order varies from state to state, but in Pennsylvania it appears to be relatively simple. You apply at the county courthouse, complete a petition, and possibly speak to a judge. If you can afford an attorney to advise you, that makes it even easier. If you don’t know where to start, then most police officers can also advise you on how the process works in your area.

The restraining order does not stop an assault, but it does establish who was the aggressor. In most cases, the judge’s order requires that the attacker be taken to jail if he is found near the victim.

It is best practice to lock yourself into a safe room even though your attacker broke down your door. Ideally you have a panic button on your phone so you can quickly call the police. It is ideal if the attacker is in a lighted area of the home while the defender is in the dark. It is harder for an attacker to hit, stab, or shoot a victim who can’t be seen.

Doorways and stairways are easy locations to defend. Crouching behind your bed with your gun already pointed at the locked bedroom door makes it very hard for an attacker to get to you. As simple as that defense sounds, it is easy to overlook after someone breaks down your door. That is the huge advantage of walking through a plan in your home.

Walking through the plan creates a habit. You’ve done those motions before so they are familiar in the middle of the night. You already know where to go and what doors to lock. You know who to call. You also know when to shoot because you’ve made that decision ahead of time.

Facing an attacker is hard enough that we want every advantage on our side.

---

Armed Defense- at Home, in Public, and at Work

Firearms Instructor David Cole brought us four new stories of armed defense. Across the United States, honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they following best practice? What would you do in their place?

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Denver, Colorado– Are you armed in public?

You and your girlfriend are taking your kids to the museum. It is the middle of the weekday afternoon when you park your car and start to unload your kids. You see two young men run toward you. They are armed and have guns in their hands. One of them hits you in the back of the head. You’re armed as well. You present your firearm and shoot at your attackers. They run. They also shoot at you as they run across the parking lot. You stop shooting and check on your family. No one is wounded. You call 911 and ask for help. You stay at the scene. You and your girlfriend give statements to the police. You describe your attackers, their clothing, and their get-away car.

Police arrest your attacker when he is dropped off at the hospital. Unfortunately, the officers don’t stop the car that drops him off. Your attacker is charged with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of felony menacing, and attempted aggravated robbery.

You are not charged with a crime.

.

Reeds Spring, Missouri– Are you armed at home?

You and your family are at home on a Saturday evening. It is about 10:30 when you hear someone outside. Your wife calls 911 and asks for help. You go out on your front porch to see if someone needs help. A stranger crawls through the woods and shouts at you. You tell him that help is on the way and to stay away. The stranger rushes you and grabs you. You present your firearm and shoot your attacker. He lets go of you so you stop shooting.

You and your wife give statements to the police when they arrive. The 911 recording includes your shouts for the attacker to stop and move away. A toxicology report shows that the attacker was on methamphetamine at the time of the attack. Several of his prior criminal convictions involve drug use. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania– Are You Armed at Home?

You are home alone on a Monday night. You hear your ex-boyfriend at the back door of the apartment. Fortunately, your doors and windows are locked. You arm yourself and shout for him to go away. He kicks down your back door and then your front door as he is looking for you. You stay inside the apartment and shoot him when he comes inside. You stop shooting when he runs. You stay inside and wait. After a minute, you call 911 and ask for the police. You put your gun away and give a statement to the officers when they arrive.

Police arrest your attacker at the hospital. He is treated for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He is also arrested for an outstanding warrant. You are not charged with a crime.

.

Akron, Ohio– Are You Armed at Work?

You’re working behind the counter at a fastfood restaurant. It is late Monday night when another pair of customers comes inside. One of the customers draws a gun and demands the money from the cash register. It isn’t clear from the news story which employee handed over the money. After he received the cash, the robber started shooting. You’re armed. You present your handgun and shoot back. Your attackers run. You stop shooting when they are gone. You stay inside the store. It isn’t clear who checks on the other employees and who calls 911. You put your gun away when the police arrive.

You and the other employees give statements to the officers. You also show them your identification.

Police identify the two robbers when they arrive at the hospital. One is treated for a gunshot wound to the upper body. Both are arrested for armed robbery.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about as armed citizens defend themselves at home, in public, and at work. We want the right physical tools as well as good mental habits. That takes training, thought and repetition. Your safety plan becomes a menu of best practices. Lots of people think about a new firearm, but when was the last time you walked through your safety plan and made it better?

What is your plan? RM

Portland Facing Shigella Outbreak, Generally Found in Third-World Countries

The bad consequences of bad political decisions continue to accumulate until we force our politicians to fix them. RM

Portland homeless from OPB

“Shigella is a bacteria that spreads through human feces. People transmit the infection after getting the microbes on their hands and then touching their mouths. People can also spread the intestinal infection through sexual intercourse. Multnomah County in Oregon has warned that homeless people and same-sex male partners are most at risk because of their lack of access to hygienic facilities. In the last month, 45 cases have been found in Portland, bringing the total from 2023 to 218. The influx of infections were reported among unhoused people in downtown Portland’s Old Town neighborhood.”

(The report also mentions that the disease in Portland is now immune to common antibiotics. RM)

Source: Portland Facing Shigella Outbreak, Generally Found in Third-World Countries

PS- I’ve been ill for most of December and that has slowed my posts.

Armed Defense- at Home, in Public, and as you Drive

Firearms Instructor Heather Reeves brought us four new stories of armed defense. Honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm thousands of times a day. Were these gun owners lucky or were they following best practice? What would you do in their place?

The Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast

The longer discussion of what we should do and what we should avoid is on the Self Defense Gun Stories webpage. For now, here are the stories and the links to the original news sources.

.

Greenfield, Indiana- Are you armed as you drive?

It is very clear that this story was taken from a police report. We know the incident happened in a car, but we know neither whose car it was nor who was  driving.

We know you were in a car with your ex-boyfriend. You have a restraining order out against him. That means it is a crime for him to deliberately come within several hundred feet of you.

It is about 1 in the morning. Your ex-boyfriend hits you. You tell him to stop. You present a firearm and shoot him when he doesn’t. Now he stops and runs away. You drive to a nearby business and ask for help. It isn’t clear if you had to drive in another car or if you were originally driving your own car. You call the police and stay at the business until they arrive. You give the officers a statement.

The officers find your attacker and arrest him. They apply emergency first aid until Emergency Medical Technicians arrive. EMTs take your attacker to the hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his arm. He is arrested upon release from the hospital and is now in jail without bond. He was recently arrested for a parole violation.

You are not charged with a crime.

.

 Chicago, Illinois- Are you armed in public?

It is late on a Saturday afternoon. You are approached by four teenagers as you walk down the street. They are armed and tell you to hand everything over. Your wallet has an Illinois Firearms Owners ID card inside. You have a gun on your hip. You present your firearm and shoot the armed attacker who is closest to you. The three other attackers run. You call 911 and stay at the scene.

You put your gun away before the police arrive. EMTs take your attacker to the hospital where he is pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. You show the police your identification and your carry permit. You are 68 years old. Your attacker was 19.

You are not charged with a crime.

.

Fort Worth, Texas- Are you armed at home?

And here https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12897077/Texas-woman-shot-dead-teenager-break-fort-worth.html

It is just after noon when you hear someone try to open one of the windows in your house. You and your four daughters are at home. You grab your gun. You think there are several people outside your home and you shout for them to leave. You call 911 and ask for the police. The police arrive and you give them a statement. The officers take photographs and then leave.

A half hour later, you hear someone force the window open in your four year old daughter’s bedroom. The intruder starts to enter your home and you shoot him. Again you call 911 for help. Police find a man outside. He has a bullet wound to the chest. EMTs pronounce him dead at the scene. Again, you give the police a statement.

You are not charged with a crime, but you get an eviction notice from the property management company that manages the apartments. They say to call the corporate office. The corporate office says to contact the local managers. You have to find a new place for you and your family to live.

.

Houston, Texas- Are you armed at home?

You hear someone knocking on your door. It is almost 8 in the morning on a Saturday. You are not expecting visitors. You go to the door armed. You hear a woman calling for you to open the door. You open the door and the strange woman attacks you. You step back and defend yourself. Finally, you present your firearm and shoot your attacker. Now she stops hitting you and you stop shooting.

You call 911 and ask for help. You put your gun away when the police arrive. EMTs take your attacker to the hospital. You give a statement to the police.

You are not charged with a crime.

---

These stories give us a lot to think about. We want the right physical tools and good mental habits. That takes training, thought and repetition. Your safety plan becomes a menu of best practices. Lots of people think about a new firearm, but when was the last time you walked through your safety plan and made it better?

What is your plan in your home, at work, as you drive, and as you walk in public? RM

The Wonderful Truth Behind Recent Concealed Carry Statistics

Across the United States, fewer US citizens applied for new concealed carry permits. That is what the numbers say, and it is true from a certain perspective. It is also true that more people are legally carrying concealed firearms than ever before. That may seem like a contradiction, but it is also very good news.

More honest citizens carry concealed

What the headline doesn’t say is that we’ve seen a considerable number of states recently adopt constitutional carry laws. Those laws typically say that you don’t need a license to carry a concealed firearm if as long as you would have qualified to get one. That means you don’t have a criminal record so you don’t need to get a permission slip from the state to carry concealed in public. Even with Constitutional carry in your state, you’ll often want a carry permit if you often drive to another state and want to carry there.

Back to the report from John Lott, we now have a record number of people legally carrying a personal firearm, but fewer of them had to apply for and pay for a state license in order to do so. That might be good news, and in fact it is fantastic news.

People who don’t have a carry permit often worry that more people are now carrying a gun but they don’t have the training that the state previously required. That concern sounds obvious, but let me show you one flaw in that thinking.

Suppose you want to learn something new. Let’s say you wanted to speak a foreign language or to learn how to drive a motorcycle. Like everyone else, you only have so much time and money that you can invest in your new studies. For the sake of argument, let’s say that you have enough time and money to buy ten hours of training.

You start the class, and then discover that we’re going to pay you extra money to take that training class. We’re going to pay you to buy the language books. We’re going to pay you extra for your language classes. We’re going to pay some of the cost of your motorcycle and pay for some of your motorcycle driving instruction. It wouldn’t surprise anyone that you took more language or driving classes when someone paid you to take them. You get more of what you subsidize and you get less of what you tax.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that self-defense students take less instruction when the state taxes them.

The politicians didn’t call them a tax on firearms training, but that is what they are when you have to pay for a carry permit, for fingerprint fees, and for the state mandated classes. Those classes usually have little to do with actual self-defense. If it acts like a tax then we should call it a tax. We could call it a “processing fee” but we have better intuition on what it will actually happen if we simply call it a tax.

We get less of something once we tax it. That is what politicians told us would happen when they taxed alcohol, gasoline, and cigarettes. We also get less concealed carry and self-defense instruction when we tax them too. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that we had more people take firearms safety instruction when we stopped taxing it. Our neighbors spent more money on firearms training when they didn’t also have to pay a additional state fee as well as paying for their firearms training. That is some of the good news for constitutional carry, but that certainly isn’t all of the good news.

I remember applying to buy a gun and needing several letters telling the police officers that I was a good guy. My friends had to explain how long they knew me. Fortunately, I’d been in that town long enough to meet the requirements so I could get a firearm. The application scheme worked for me, but it doesn’t work for everyone. It certainly doesn’t work if you’re new in town. What if you travel for a living like a contractor or a trucker? I don’t see how we’re safer if people who travel for a living are disarmed.

Carry permit schemes pretend that a stranger in town could be a danger so they should be disarmed. Those permit schemes were originally put in place to keep recent immigrants disarmed. Those schemes ignore the fact that the criminals don’t actually apply for carry permits. The criminals simply buy their guns from the drug dealer down the street. Licensing and permit schemes were a way to control who got to exercise their right of armed defense. They were a way for politicians to reward their friends and punish their enemies.

Anything that reduces political corruption is a step in the right direction even if the mayor and chief of police complain about it.
There is a wide variation in how states treat carry permits. Alabama has the highest carry rate at 27.8% of the adults with their concealed carry permits. One county in Alabama has almost 2/3rds of the adults with their carry permits even though Alabama is already a Constitutional Carry state. In Pennsylvania, a five year permit only costs $20 and over 15% of adults have their carry permits. The fingerprint fee is %12.95 in Indiana and the permit is free.

There are a number of states where the permit is now free. It will be fascinating to see how many people apply. In contrast, some cities in California drove the carry permit costs to over a thousand dollars.

---

I gave you about 900 words and a lot of thought. Please leave a comment. RM

The Sad Proportions of Gun-Control

Gun Prohibitionists call for more gun-control every time a criminal uses a firearm. Like a bunch of short attention span headline surfers, our politicians pass more gun-control laws every year without asking if they actually work. When you stand back and look, you can’t help but notice that the places with the strictest gun-control laws include some of our most violent cities. Are gun-control laws making us safer, or are they putting us in greater danger?

We know a lot about the honest people who own guns. There are between 80 and 100 million gun owners in the US today. 40 to 50 percent of us live in a household with a gun, though one report said that number might be as high as 60 percent. We know that gun owners defend themselves about 1.6 million times a year, and people who have access to a legally owned firearm defend themselves as much as 2.8 million times a year. That is over 7,600 times a day. It is common for our neighbors to use a firearm as they protect their family.

We know a lot about individual gun owners too. About one in a dozen adults legally carry a firearm in public. We know the identity of the particular individuals who applied for a license to carry concealed. Because we know who they are and can track their history. We discovered that these concealed carriers are safer with their guns, less violent, and more law abiding than even the police. Our neighbors use firearms to prevent violent crime rather than to cause it. What does that say about politicians who make guns harder to get?

We also know a lot about criminals. Most violent criminals did not use a firearm in the commission of their crimes. Said another way, if we somehow disarmed all the criminals, then about 90 percent of violent crime would continue unchanged since those criminals didn’t have or use a guns in the first place. Though informative, those statements leave out vitally important information.

Most criminals don’t use a gun but many more honest citizens do use a firearm to stop a crime. Also, many of the most violent criminals did use a firearm. Why didn’t our laws stop those criminals?

The good news is that violent crime doesn’t happen very often or in many places. Murder is both localized and extremely rare. Most counties won’t have a murder of any kind, let alone one that involves a firearm. Most of our murders are in our failed Democrat controlled cities. In those cities, most of our murders are committed by drug gangs. Within those drug gangs, murders are committed by a few particular criminals. Two percent of our counties account for over half of our murders. Most of our murders are in a few zip codes. Those simple statements contain a lot of uncomfortable truth.

Most cities stopped murders, and it wasn’t with a law. They stopped crime with a mom and a dad who were sober. They stopped crime with a job and a future. It isn’t that you and I couldn’t kill, but that we choose not to. You couldn’t make us hurt an innocent person.

It isn’t the law on paper that keeps us from committing murder,
but the law that was written onto our hearts
while we were sitting around the dinner table. 

The truth is that we have crime in our failed cities because of bad political decisions. Politicians need to appear relevant. They need to pass new laws particularly when their cities are failing around them. That doesn’t mean the laws have to work other than to get the politician more media coverage.

Ink on paper isn’t what stops you and I from killing, and ink on paper doesn’t stop the violent enforcers in drug gangs either. In fact, disarming honest people makes it easier for criminals to find vulnerable victims. If gun-control stopped violent crime then Democrat cities would be utopia.

Millions of honest citizens living in blue states recently learned how hard it was to buy a firearm legally. Getting a gun legally can take months while criminals get their guns on the street in a few minutes. Gun-control laws don’t change criminal behavior. Gun- control makes it harder for honest people to defend themselves.

Criminals get their guns the same place they get their drugs.. off the street.

The way I see it, gun-control laws serve one purpose. Politicians need gun-control laws to hide their failed policies. No wonder we have 23-thousand gun regulations.. and the list is growing every day.

---

I gave you 700 words and a lot of thought. I study how you defended yourself every week. Please leave a comment and share this article.
I’m also getting better every day as I recover from a cold. RM

Democrats say Trump is a Dictator and Honest Citizens Should be Disarmed

President Donald Trump recently said the Biden Administration’s open border policy puts US security at risk. The Biden administration then compared Trump to Hitler. So did CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. Those Democrat apologists conveniently ignored that the Biden administration actually arrested and charged journalists for covering the January 6th protests. It was Democrat politicians who had previously called for Trump supporters to be forced into reeducation camps. If Trump is actually a threat to democracy, then why did the Democrats immediately turn around and demand that honest citizens should be forcibly disarmed? Why would you disarm the people if they are facing imminent tyranny? The reason is simple. For Democrat politicians and their apologists, any excuse will do to disarm honest citizens.

Adolf Hitler invaded Europe, North Africa, and Russia. 35 million people died in the European theater during World War 2. That includes 6-million Jews. Hitler staged the burning of the German Parliament building to suspend civil liberties in Germany. Donald Trump wrote mean tweets and questioned the integrity of an election. A few democrats see this as morally the same. Most of us don’t.

When you look at our recent history, Democrat politicians across the country call for gun-control every month. Each proposal is called an urgent response to protect public safety. What they don’t tell us is that there are already 23-thousand firearms regulations in place. They don’t tell us that criminals ignore our gun laws just like they ignore the laws against violent crime. The news media never asks how the next law will work where the existing thousand laws failed. The media certainly won’t mention that much of the Democrat’s push for gun-control is outside the US Constitution.

Because of the media-fueling distortion, I need to remind you that there was one mass murder at a school in 2022. (Uvalde, Texas) At the same time, honest citizens legally use a firearm to stop violent crime about 7,600 times a day. For all the breathless interviews and spilled ink, you’d think that the news media would have mentioned those simple facts that put gun-control into perspective.

It is important to follow the money to understand politics today. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to disarm honest citizens. He also spent over a hundred-million dollars getting Democrats elected. Those elected officials then propose and support more gun-control laws. There may be pro-gun democrat voters, but gun-control is now the official plank of the Democrat party.

Democrats may say they want to empower us, but they work to destroy the economy. Democrats say they may want to make us safer, but they open our borders to drug gangs, refuse to prosecute criminals, and then make it impossible for honest citizens to protect themselves.

Actions speak louder than words. Please remember that Hitler disarmed the Jews before he began rounding them up.

---

Writing has been slow because I am still getting over a cold. Please share this article with a friend. RM