Despite the typical antipathy and critical rhetoric from liberals and leftists exhibit for bearing arms, a lot of them are buying guns during the coronavirus crisis.
As <a href="https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2020/04/02/yes-liberals-are-buying-guns-too/">Bearing Arms</a> points out, “Even The New Yorker is recognizing that many of the 1-million or more new gun owners around the country don’t fit neatly into the anti-gun stereotype of the typical Second Amendment supporter.”
<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/choose-your-weapon">The New Yorker</a> related a story from Gorge Guns in Hood River, Oregon, where owner Erika Bales said one new customer decided to buy a firearm:
<blockquote>At noon, a woman in her sixties came in. She wore plastic gloves and had a scarf wrapped around her face, and she traced a wide arc around the only other non-employee in the store. “I’ve been doing this since the beginning of March,” she said, referring to her protective gear. “I don’t feel sick at all. I’m self-quarantining.” She left her house only for essential activities. This was one. “I’m buying a gun,” she said. “I can’t believe it.” … Unlike many of the shop’s regulars, she was no fan of Trump: “He’s a divider all the way.”</blockquote>
The customer bought a Key-Tec PMR30 pistol. Bales noted, “I think she’s a liberal. There’s so many coming in. First-time-gun-owner liberals. I’ve probably seen ten this week. It’s so funny, because I hope it just turns them on to liking the Second Amendment. I mean, the Constitution was created for a reason. To protect us.”
Bearing Arms quoted an article from the <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/local/2020/03/22/guns-firearms-COVID-Pittsburgh-Pennsylvania/stories/202003220084">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a> describing a self-described “liberal Democrat from New York City” who bought a gun, then segued to noting, “His purchase last week occurred during a nationwide rash of firearm sales to people who had never considered gun ownership until becoming rattled by concerns about COVID-19’s impact on America’s social infrastructure. Last week, many southwestern Pennsylvania gun shops ran out of stock. Owners said they sold firearms of all types to many first-time buyers.”
On March 16, <a href="https://www.kunc.org/post/firearms-background-checks-double-colorado-coronavirus-concerns-spread#stream/0">KUNC</a> reported:
<blockquote>Anthony Navarro, the owner of Colorado Shooting Sports in Greeley, said his computer system was showing over 3,000 background check requests in CBI’s queue … “When people are scared, there’s that sense of grasping and hoarding mentality,” Navarro said. “It’s part of our DNA as cavemen.” He said many of his customers are worried about the government limiting or banning gun sales. “We’re seeing everything from your standard client that we see all the time, all the way to liberal, democratic anti-gun people, buying guns for the first time.”</blockquote>
CNN Business <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/business/coronavirus-gun-sales/index.html">reported</a> on March 19:
<blockquote>The ammunition website Ammo.com said it has recorded an unprecedented surge in bullet sales over the last three weeks. Administrators for the site, which ships ammunition to all but four states across the nation, released <a href="https://ammo.com/coronavirus-impact-on-ammunition-sales">sales figures</a> late Monday night showing a 77% increase in website visits between February 23 and March 15. Those visits led to a 222% increase in transactions over the same period when compared to the first three weeks in February.Revenue has increased 309%, according to the site, which said coronavirus fears are fueling the sales surge.</blockquote>

Hand gun and us currency on white background

Now Even Typical Gun Opponents Are Buying Guns

Guns

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has stripped Sheriff Alex Villanueva of his designation as the county&#8217;s chief of emergency operations, citing the historical inability of the sheriff’s office to navigate disaster response efforts during the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which occurred before Villanueva was elected. 
The <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-31/supervisors-vote-remove-sheriff-emergency-operations">Los Angeles Times</a> reports that the unanimous decision was made on Tuesday morning, several months after the board of supervisors brought up the need to remove the emergency responsibilities from the sheriff’s office. The decision does not change Villanueva&#8217;s designation as sheriff, a position he was elected to serve until 2022. 
The decision consolidates the emergency response duties with the county’s chief executive, a move Villanueva has called a “brazen attempt to consolidate power.”
“This is pretty much a silent coup, what they’re trying to orchestrate,” Villanueva <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-25/supervisors-remove-sheriff-villanueva-coronavirus">previously told</a> the news agency, remarking that the board of supervisors was retaliating against him for trying to close gun shops. “We should be worried about masks, about test kits.”
“This is not about him,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said at Tuesday’s meeting, which was conducted online, reports the news agency. “He was not really elected to represent county residents. The five of us were,” she continued, arguing the move was a matter of public safety. 
During the board of supervisors meeting, Villanueva expressed his objection to the move, arguing that they were simply adding additional layers to the bureaucracy, which would hinder the county’s disaster response efforts, reports <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/sheriff-villanueva-ousted-as-as-head-of-emergency-operations-in-midst-of-coronavirus-pandemic">Fox News</a>. 
&#8220;The last thing you want in the world is to have voices that have a different point of view silenced,&#8221; Villanueva said at the virtual meeting. &#8220;I&#8217;m the voice of Los Angeles County.&#8221; 
According to <a href="http://sgvtribune.com/2020/03/31/la-county-ceo-postpones-retirement-due-to-coronavirus-crisis/">The San Gabriel Valley Tribune</a>, Sachi Hamai, the county’s chief executive and appointee to head disaster response coordination, was supposed to retire on March 31, the very same day the county transferred power away from the sheriff and toward the chief executive’s office. Hami has since announced she will postpone retirement to serve in the new position. 
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/la-sheriff-closes-gun-stores-again-second-amendment-groups-file-lawsuit">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported, the sheriff has deemed gun shops as non-essential businesses on two occasions during the coronavirus pandemic — and reversed himself both times. 
The most recent time the sheriff decided to close gun shops was after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) told him that the sheriff’s office can, in fact, close them during an emergency. 
This reasoning prompted several Second Amendment groups, including the National Rifle Association and the California Gun Rights Association, to file a lawsuit against both the governor and the sheriff. 
“Twenty-eight years ago, the LAPD had to withdraw their officers to protect their safety,” said Gene Hoffman, chairman of the CGRA. “We hope that the stay-home orders will mean that our public servants will not become infected in this pandemic, but the Constitution guarantees that everyone has a right to acquire arms and defend themselves should law enforcement not be able to respond before it’s too late.”
But after the groups filed the lawsuit against Villanueva, the sheriff once again reversed his decision to ban gun shops, this time citing the Trump administration’s new guidelines that deem shooting ranges and gun shops as essential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, reported The LA Times.

Los Angeles County Sheriff

Los Angeles Strips Gunstore-Closing Sheriff Of Emergency Title

Los Angeles

Several Second Amendment advocacy groups have filed a federal lawsuit against Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva for enacting policies designed to restrict access to firearms in a time of crisis. 
The organizations, which includes groups like the National Rifle Association and the Firearms Policy Coalition, filed the lawsuit the day after Villanueva declared he would shut down the county’s gun stores as a public safety measure. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and two public health officials are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. 
Gene Hoffman, the chairman of the California Gun Rights Foundation, invoked the 1992 LA Riots to describe why the Second Amendment remains an especially critical Constitutional guarantee — one that cannot be suspended by a “petty autocrat.”
“Twenty-eight years ago, the LAPD had to withdraw their officers to protect their safety. We hope that the stay-home orders will mean that our public servants will not become infected in this pandemic, but the Constitution guarantees that everyone has a right to acquire arms and defend themselves should law enforcement not be able to respond before it’s too late,” said Hoffman in a press release. 
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/los-angeles-gun-shops-to-stay-open-after-county-lawyer-disputes-decision">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported, Villanueva has argued that gun stores are not essential to the county during a pandemic, and was targeting them specifically, in part, because he had received complaints about a lack of social-distancing at gun stores. 
“We have received complaints from particular businesses that have not been adhering to the social distancing. Chief among them gunshops, nightclubs, bars, and strip clubs, so we have fanned out and are making sure these business are complying,” said Villanueva, reports <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-24/l-a-county-sheriff-gun-stores-owners-must-close-or-face-citations-amid-coronavirus-restrictions">The Los Angeles Times</a>. 
“I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners,” said the sheriff, reports <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/la-county-sheriff-orders-gun-stores-to-close-adds-1300-deputies-to-patrol">Fox News</a>. “You have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”
According to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-25/supervisors-remove-sheriff-villanueva-coronavirus">The Los Angeles Times</a>, the sheriff is currently involved in a dispute with the board of supervisors, which is trying to remove him as the head of emergency crisis operations for the county. 
“This is pretty much a silent coup, what they’re trying to orchestrate,” Villanueva told the news agency, remarking that the board of supervisors was retaliating against him for trying to close gun shops. “We should be worried about masks, about test kits.”
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl has said that the move is about consolidating the crisis management operation, not about the sheriff. 
“I think the sheriff erroneously believes that centering the response to this crisis to the Office of Emergency Management is somehow a dis to him,” said Kuehl, reports the news agency. 
According to <a href="https://www.dailynews.com/2020/03/26/l-a-county-supervisors-might-remove-sheriff-villanueva-as-emergency-management-chief/">The Los Angeles Daily News</a>, Supervisor Kathryn Barger has echoed these sentiments, saying that the move began in November after an audit revealed that public agencies weren’t cooperating during the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Malibu, California. 
“The sheriff was provided with an opportunity to talk about this in November,” said Barger, reports the news agency. “As far as I’m concerned, I have moved on.”

A man chooses a gun at the Gun Gallery i

LA Sheriff Closes Gun Stores Again, Second Amendment Groups File Lawsuit

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who also serves as the city’s director of emergency operations during a crisis, has reversed a city-wide effort to close gun stores after the county’s top attorney disputed the move in a legal opinion. 
In a Twitter post early Wednesday morning, Villanueva announced that the sheriff’s department would halt efforts to close gun stores, and shared a video from Fox News revealing the decision was made after the county’s attorney intervened. 
“Tonight the sheriff told me in a phone call that he is stopping, halting all efforts to enforce the closure of any local guns stores, at least for now,” reporter Bill Mulligan said in the video. “He says that’s because the county’s top lawyer put out a legal opinion that she believes gun stores are essential businesses and should remain open.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
LA County Sheriff’s Dept. Enforcement efforts to close non-essential businesses have been suspended. CA Gov. Gavin Newsom to determine what qualifies as a non-essential business. Please click to view story <a href="https://t.co/HrRD8VKcUG">https://t.co/HrRD8VKcUG</a>
— Alex Villanueva (@LACoSheriff) <a href="https://twitter.com/LACoSheriff/status/1242750540158603265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2020</a></blockquote>
Villanueva has appealed to California&#8217;s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, for guidance. The sheriff previously argued gun stores should close because they weren’t &#8220;essential&#8221; to the city, reports <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-24/l-a-county-sheriff-gun-stores-owners-must-close-or-face-citations-amid-coronavirus-restrictions">The Los Angeles Times</a>.
“Gun shops, strip clubs, night clubs are nonessential businesses. We are trying to get them to close their doors,” said Villanueva, who clarified that the department would not arrest business owners for defying the order to close. “If they don’t close their doors, they will be cited.”
 The sheriff told the news agency that the city was receiving many complaints about gun shops in particular: “We have received complaints from particular businesses that have not been adhering to the social distancing. Chief among them gunshops, nightclubs, bars, and strip clubs, so we have fanned out and are making sure these business are complying.”
In an interview with <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/la-county-sheriff-orders-gun-stores-to-close-adds-1300-deputies-to-patrol">Fox News</a>, Villanueva said he was a Second Amendment supporter, but was concerned about an influx of first-time buyers at gun stores. 
“I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners,” said the sheriff, reports the news agency. “You have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”
One-hundred miles south of the city, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore has reached the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6818580-Sheriff-Gore-Statement-on-Firearm-Retailers.html">opposite conclusion</a>, and argued Tuesday that keeping gun shops open would prevent people from seeking them through illegal means. 
“The Sheriff’s Department recognizes the importance of licensed firearm retailers given the heightened concern for public safety. Licensed firearm retailers provide a valuable public service by conducting registrations, backgrounds and ensuring waiting periods are complied with,” said the sheriff’s Tuesday press release. 
“We do not want to drive lawful sales of firearms to an underground or off the books black market during these difficult times,” said the document.

Blue Ridge Arsenal Gun Store

Los Angeles Gun Shops To Stay Open After County Lawyer Disputes Decision

Coronavirus

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told Fox News on Tuesday morning that he has ordered all gun stores in the county to close, a move that will begin taking place immediately. 
“LA County Sheriff tells me he is beginning to close county gun stores immediately,” tweeted Fox News reporter Bill Melugin. “Deputies are currently going to the stores one by one to order them shut down. Sheriff to utilize scofflaw violations for any store still open after he deemed them nonessential.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: LA County Sheriff tells me he is beginning to close county gun stores immediately. Deputies are currently going to the stores one by one to order them shut down. Sheriff to utilize scofflaw violations for any gun store still open after he deemed them nonessential <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXLA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FOXLA</a>
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1242510531426017280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
According to <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/la-county-sheriff-orders-gun-stores-to-close-adds-1300-deputies-to-patrol">Fox News</a>, the sheriff, who is also the official director of emergency operations during times of crisis, said that the closures were, in part, motivated by an influx of first-time gun owners purchasing weapons. He later told the news agency that the increase in first-time buyers was creating social distancing problems at gun stores. 
“We will be closing them, they are not an essential function,” Villanueva said, the news agency reported. “I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners and you have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”
The move was taken alongside an effort to close down other businesses, including bars and strip clubs, according to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-24/l-a-county-sheriff-gun-stores-owners-must-close-or-face-citations-amid-coronavirus-restrictions">The Los Angeles Times.</a>
“Gun shops, strip clubs, night clubs are nonessential businesses. We are trying to get them to close their doors,” said Villanueva, reported the news agency. “If they don’t close their doors, they will be cited.” 
The sheriff also clarified that no one would be jailed as a result of the order, and similar closures had already been ordered in Northern California, Fox News reported. 
<a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-san-jose-orders-gun-store-to-close-in-one-of-first-tests-of-essential-under-shelter-order/">The Mercury News</a> reported that the city of San Jose, California, which has more than 1 million people, ordered the closure of gun stores last week, citing concerns that people were panic buying weapons. 
“We are having panic buying right now for food,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “The one thing we cannot have is panic buying of guns.”
Villanueva told Fox News in an interview that he was also increasing the number of sheriff deputies on patrol by 1,300. The sheriff also blasted local politicians for failing to convince the public to take the coronavirus threat seriously. 
“When we’re communicating the shelter in place or the safer at home, there’s a lot of anguish, however, the people who have to enforce it are public safety, and we were totally out of the process, we were not involved,” said the sheriff, as reported by Fox News. 
The city has also closed parks, trails, and beach parking lots because of &#8220;overcrowding&#8221; concerns, according to <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/la-county-parks-trails-state-beach-parking-lots-shut-down-after-overcrowding-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/2334163/">NBC Los Angeles.</a>

LA Sheriff Closing Gun Stores Via Non-Essential Order, Also Cites First-Time Buyer Concerns

Fox News

A New Jersey man who previously was arrested for carrying a handgun for which he had a permit, along with legal ammunition, now says he is considering a lawsuit against the police and prosecutor’s office who targeted him.
Roosevelt Twyne was arrested last month after he was pulled over for his car’s window tinting. Twyne informed the police officer that he had a handgun with him, and was arrested even though he had a license for the handgun and the ammo he was carrying was specifically listed as legal on a New Jersey police website, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-jersey-man-arrested-for-carrying-his-licensed-handgun-and-legal-ammunition">reported</a>.
New Jersey authorities eventually dismissed the charges against Twyne, but The Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski, who has covered this story since the beginning, has <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/jersey-gun-owner-pursuing-civil-suit-as-prosecutor-drops-all-charges/">reported</a> that Twyne is looking to file a civil suit over the ordeal.
Twyne’s attorney, Evan Nappen, told the Free Beacon that his client has been on unpaid suspension from his job as a security guard since his arrest. While Nappen said he was “extremely pleased” the charges were dropped, his client has still suffered damages due to the arrest.
&#8220;We still need to get his gun back,&#8221; Nappen told the outlet. &#8220;We&#8217;re working on that. Then, of course, you want to clear the record with expungement so he doesn&#8217;t have an arrest record. We&#8217;re looking at and weighing the options on further civil action.&#8221;
Nappen acknowledged that it would be difficult for Twyne to win his lawsuit, but insisted it was being done to help put a stop to New Jersey’s onerous gun laws that routinely result in the arrest of innocent gun owners. The most famous case is that of Shaneen Allen, a young mother of two who obtained a permit for a handgun after her home was burglarized in Pennsylvania. Allen was arrested in New Jersey after informing a police officer she had a gun during a routine traffic stop. She did not know that her permit didn’t carry over. Ignorance of the law is obviously no excuse, but Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain came under heavy criticism for his decision to throw the book at Allen. The young mother was <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mom-arrested-for-carrying-licensed-firearm-slams-nj-prosecutor-who-let-ray-rice-off-but-is-throwing-book-at-her">denied the chance</a> to participate in a first-time offender deferral program, meaning she faced up to three-and-a-half years in prison. That same prosecutor allowed ex-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice into the deferral program despite video showing him beating his wife.
&#8220;New Jersey&#8217;s over-zealous gun laws have enabled scenarios where law-abiding citizens—in this case, a security guard nonetheless—are being prosecuted,&#8221; Assemblyman John DiMaio (R) said in a statement regarding Twyne’s arrest. &#8220;Unfortunately, those good intentions have bad consequences. We want to fix that.&#8221;
DiMaio was one of several Republican lawmakers in the Garden State to introduce a bill that “would clarify the state&#8217;s restrictions against hollow-point ammunition, which is commonly used for self-defense in the rest of the country,” Gutowski reported.
The prosecutor’s office that charged Twyne admitted it had charged the security guard in error over the ammunition in this car, but insisted his carry permit only allowed him to have his gun on his person while he was at work – and he had left his job 16 minutes before he was pulled over.
&#8220;Mr. Twyne, who is an employee of Brinks, produced a permit to carry the weapon, which was subject to certain conditions,&#8221; the Union County Prosecutor’s Office said in <a href="https://ucnj.org/prosecutor/press-releases/prosecutor/2020/03/13/gun-charges-against-roselle-man-dismissed/">a statement</a> after the charges were dropped. &#8220;In particular, the permit was expressly limited to the time he was on-duty with Brinks. At the time of the stop, Mr. Twyne was not on duty with Brinks—and, accordingly, he was not legally permitted to carry a weapon at that time.&#8221;

Gun and ammo

Jersey Man Arrested For Legal Gun, Ammo, Plans To Sue Over Ordeal

Gun Laws

New Jersey

Sales of guns, ammunition, and &#8220;survival gear&#8221; are skyrocketing this week, amid concerns that the coronavirus could lead to breakdown in civil order or even a suspension of weapons sales, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article241164136.html">according to Business Insider</a>.
Stores specializing in the &#8220;sales of survival gear like ready-to-eat meals, guns and ammunition&#8221; are experiencing a boom, and some retailers are even struggling to keep such items in stock.
&#8220;We’re bringing pallets (of MREs) up all the time now, and even our supplier in Southern California is having trouble keeping them in stock,&#8221; one California gun retailer <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/sales-survival-gear-guns-ammo-spike-amid-coronavirus-fears/45QL4VC2CVGF3LYMEUIZRROWHU/">told a local television station</a>.
“It’s clear our customers want to be prepared in a worst-case scenario,” another retailer told the NRA&#8217;s news service, per BI. &#8220;For a lot of our families, a disaster plan includes having ammo on hand.&#8221;
In some cases, retailers say they&#8217;re selling &#8220;twice as much&#8221; or even five times as much ammunition as they were before coronavirus began making headlines. &#8220;Sales on Ammo.com, an online ammunition store, were 68 percent greater from Feb. 23 to March 4 than they were the preceding 11 days, the company said in a press release. Residents in North Carolina and Georgia had the biggest increase in sales on the website,&#8221; Business Insider, says.
“It’s an unknown, so there are people that are concerned,” a gun retailer told the outlet, referring directly to coronavirus. “In those times of uncertainty, people have a reaction to make sure they want to protect themselves and their families, and I think that’s what we’re seeing especially here in our store.”
“If you’re prepared, you’re not afraid,” he added.
Even people who never considered owning a firearm are suddenly finding themselves in the market for a gun.
“People who tell me that they don’t like guns, but they’re here to begrudgingly buy one,” a retailer told the same California TV outlet. “And if it makes somebody feel safe and they’re legal to own one, then sure.”
Among gun owners, there&#8217;s a growing concern that states may try to restrict the sale of firearms if individuals fail to heed to commands to &#8220;social distance&#8221; and remain indoors, away from crowds, in order to slow the spread of coronavirus. Although the idea sounds outlandish, some cities and towns have incorporated the ability to limit firearm and alcohol sales into their enumerated powers when those same cities and towns are under a state of emergency.
The mayor of Champaign, Illinois,  Deborah Frank Feinen, sent tempers flaring earlier this week after she &#8220;signed the executive order on Thursday declaring a state of emergency for the city,&#8221; <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/illinois-mayor-signs-executive-order-granting-power-to-ban-sale-of-guns-and-alcohol-while-addressing-coronavirus">the Washington Examiner reported</a>. &#8220;That executive order, which is in line with municipal code, comes with extraordinary powers for the mayor to enact over a short period of time as the city combats the spread of the coronavirus.&#8221;
&#8220;Among the powers Feinen gained after signing the executive order was the power to ban the sale of guns, ammunition, alcohol, and gasoline. Feinen could also cut off access to individuals&#8217; gas, water, or electricity. The city also has the ability to &#8216;take possession of private property&#8217; or order the temporary closing of all bars or liquor stores.&#8221;
Feinen says she won&#8217;t exercise the power to confiscate weapons or ban firearms sales but the edict remains on the books.

guns

Sales Of Guns, Ammunition Skyrocket Amid Coronavirus Concerns: ‘Better Safe Than Sorry’

Gun Control

The charges have been dropped against New Jersey security guard who was arrested earlier this month for illegal possession even though he had a license for his handgun and was carrying legal ammunition.
The Union County Prosecutor’s Office (UCPO) announced in <a href="https://ucnj.org/prosecutor/press-releases/prosecutor/2020/03/13/gun-charges-against-roselle-man-dismissed/">a press release</a> on Friday that charges would be dropped against Roosevelt Twyne, the 25-year-old security guard with Brinks. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Twyne was stopped by police on February 8 for his tinted car windows. He informed officers of his weapon and was arrested for illegally carrying a firearm and being in possession of “hollow point ammunition,” even though the ammunition he had with him is specifically listed as legal on the New Jersey State Police <a href="https://www.njsp.org/firearms/firearms-faqs.shtml">website</a>.
The UCPO said that Twyne did have a permit to carry the weapon, but it was subject to certain conditions. He was only supposed to carry it when he was on-duty with Brinks and that the company “will be responsible for the adequate safeguarding of the weapon during periods when employee is off duty.” Twyne had clocked out of work 16 minutes before he was pulled over.
The UCPO said that Twyne had a gun box with him and that if he had simply put the gun into the box, he wouldn’t have been charged with illegal possession. The office also seemed to admit – though it did not apologize for – that Twyne was erroneously charged with carrying illegal ammunition, writing, “although featuring a hollow nose, the specific ammunition in the possession of Mr. Twyne is not illegal under New Jersey law, due to the polymer filling inside the hollow tip.”
“In light of that investigation, this Office has concluded that, although probable cause existed to arrest and charge Mr. Twyne at the time of his arrest, it is not in the interests of justice to continue his prosecution,” the UCPO wrote. “In particular, this Office notes that the motor vehicle stop occurred shortly after Mr. Twyne had left work; that he possessed a gun box, which, if utilized, would have made it legal for him to transport the firearm home; that there is no evidence one way or another as to whether his failure to utilize the gun box was intentional; and that at no point during the motor vehicle stop did he pose any danger to the police officers involved.”
Because of the facts, the UCPO wrote that it “has elected to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and has administratively dismissed all charges pending against Mr. Twyne.”
The Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski previously <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/jersey-cops-arrest-black-gun-owner-over-licensed-gun-legal-ammo/amp/?__twitter_impression=true">reported</a> how difficult it is to navigate New Jersey’s gun laws.
“The charges against Twyne are representative of the difficulties of navigating New Jersey’s gun laws, which are among the strictest in the nation. They may also reveal issues in the police’s understanding of the state’s voluminous, complex gun restrictions. The case also shows how disruptive gun-related charges can be, even when the accused has a clean record and is not alleged to have done anything violent,” he reported.

A security guard

New Jersey Drops Illegal Weapon Charges Against Security Guard With Legal Weapon, Ammo

New Jersey continues to be one of the worst states for gunowners.
The latest example involves an African-American security guard, Roosevelt Twyne, who had a handgun carry permit and legal ammunition yet still was arrested over the firearm. The Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/jersey-cops-arrest-black-gun-owner-over-licensed-gun-legal-ammo/amp/?__twitter_impression=true">reported</a> that Twyne was arrested by Roselle Park Police last month after he was pulled over because his car windows were tinted too darkly. Police then found the handgun and ammunition and claimed he was illegally carrying a firearm and was in possession of “hollow point ammunition,” even though the ammo he had with him was not that.
&#8220;He was arrested for the hollow point ammunition,&#8221; Twyne’s attorney, Evan Nappen, told the Free Beacon. &#8220;Then they claimed he was transporting his handgun illegally. He had a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cropped-Carry-1-REDACTED.jpg">permit to carry a handgun</a>. The law … makes it clear that it&#8217;s illegal to transport unless you are licensed pursuant to chapter 58. And that is precisely what a handgun carry permit is.&#8221;
Nappen then told the Free Beacon that the ammunition Twyne was arrested for is the same as what his employer issues and is deemed legal by a New Jersey State Police <a href="https://www.njsp.org/firearms/firearms-faqs.shtml">website</a>. That website says that the ammunition Twyne was carrying – polymer-tipped Hornady “Critical Duty” ammunition – is “not considered to be hollow point ammunition.&#8221; It is specifically listed as legal ammunition on the website.
&#8220;It&#8217;s lawful,&#8221; Nappen told the outlet. &#8220;It&#8217;s publicly announced as lawful because it is. It&#8217;s not hollow. It&#8217;s filled.&#8221;
More from Gutowski:
Roselle Park police chief Daniel J. McCaffery did not return a request for comment. The Union County Prosecutor&#8217;s Office did not respond to questions about the charges against Twyne but did say his case will be heard next month in New Jersey Superior Court.
The charges against Twyne are representative of the difficulties of navigating New Jersey&#8217;s gun laws, which are among the strictest in the nation. They may also reveal issues in the police&#8217;s understanding of the state&#8217;s voluminous, complex gun restrictions. The case also shows how disruptive gun-related charges can be, even when the accused has a clean record and is not alleged to have done anything violent.
Twyne told the Free Beacon what the arrest has done to his personal life.
&#8220;Honestly, it&#8217;s been traumatic and has impacted my life in a way that I&#8217;ve never experienced before,&#8221; he told the outlet in a statement. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard because now even looking for a part time job or any job, it&#8217;s made it so much harder for me. Not only has it tainted my name and reputation, which I have worked hard to attain, not just growing up in Elizabeth, but as a black man trying to make a difference.&#8221;
His attorney said three white police officers arrested Twyne, and though they did not make racist comments, the issue of race was the “elephant in the room.”
&#8220;They didn&#8217;t make racist comments,&#8221; Nappen said. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t say anything racist but, on its face, it&#8217;s dubious. Let&#8217;s just say it&#8217;s dubious.&#8221;

Handgun

New Jersey Man Arrested For Carrying His Licensed Handgun and Legal Ammunition

Katlyn Alix, a wife and police officer who had been on the force for two years, was shot and killed in January 2019 while off-duty.
Alix, 24, had agreed to play a game of Russian roulette with fellow St. Louis police officer Nathaniel Hendren, 30. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ex-st-louis-officer-to-serve--year-term-for/article_d447022e-cebd-5c75-a64d-ffe7a50167f3.html">reported</a> that Hendren and his partner, Patrick Riordan, were on duty at the time of the shooting but had skipped a call about an alarm going off at a business in order to hang out with Alix. Hendren and Alix were “dry firing” their personal guns, the Post-Dispatch reported, when Hendren removed all the bullets from his revolver except for one. He then spun the cylinder and pulled the trigger while aiming at Alix. When the gun didn’t fire, he handed the weapon to Alix, who aimed and Hendren and pulled the trigger. Again, the gun didn’t fire, so Hendren took it back, aimed it at Alix’s chest, and fired. This time, the gun went off and struck Alix.
Hendren and Riordan reported the shooting using their police radios and then rushed Alix to the hospital in their department-issued vehicle. Alix died from her injuries. Hendren claimed he did not think there was a bullet in the active cylinder position when he fired at Alix.
Hendren resigned from the police department less than a month after Alix was killed and had his state peace officer license suspended, the Post-Dispatch reported. He was arrested and charged with Alix’s death and was set to go on trial next month when he pleaded guilty on Friday to first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/28/ex-cop-gets-7-years-for-killing-fellow-officer-in-russian-roulette-shooting/">reported</a>.
Hendren’s plea agreement includes seven years in prison for the manslaughter charge and three years for armed criminal action, to be served concurrently. The seven-year sentence was close to the maximum allowed as a class C felony.
In court, Hendren expressed remorse for his actions.
“I don’t intend to try and explain anyone else’s hurt or make this day any more about me than it already is,” he said. “I simply wish to express my sincere remorse to this court and to the family of Katlyn Alix, a wonderful woman full of tenacity and self-determination.”
“These actions have no excuse and I will not attempt to look for one. The pain I feel is nothing compared to that of the family of Katlyn,” he added.
Alix’s mother, Aimee Lyn Wahlers, attended the sentencing as well as her siblings. Wahlers filed a wrongful death suit against Hendren, his partner Riordan, and their sergeant, Gary Foster, the Post-Dispatch <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-cop-who-fatally-shot-katlyn-alix-had-played/article_4af35154-b896-55c0-a053-2505a4db8c3f.html">reported</a>. Wahler claims in her lawsuit that Hendren had “forced other girlfriends to play Russian roulette and engage in other sexual activity that involved firearms,” according to the outlet. She also claimed Hendren had a “complicated psychiatric history” and suffered from anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and “suicidal ideations and gestures.” She alleged that Hendren, a former Marine, was occasionally known to put a loaded gun in his mouth “when alone, just to feel something.”
Hendren’s attorney, Talmage Newton IV, told the Post-Dispatch the lawsuit contained “all sorts of inaccuracies and misstatements,” but did not explain what those were.

Russian roulette

Ex-Cop Pleads Guilty To Killing Colleague In Game Of Russian Roulette

Crime

Police

On Monday, an Idaho grandfather addressed a legislative hearing in the Idaho statehouse accompanied by his 11-year-old granddaughter, who was wearing something she carried on her right shoulder: a loaded AR-15.
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Accompanied by her grandfather, Charles, an 11-year-old girl named Bailey Nielsen carried a loaded AR-15 into the Idaho statehouse.<a href="https://t.co/mLq7V1JLlU">https://t.co/mLq7V1JLlU</a>
&mdash; New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/1232105189949095937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The hearing was discussing a proposal that would allow visitors to Idaho to conceal carry within city limits if they are legally permitted to own firearms, as <a href="https://apnews.com/721bb463922ef156626ef839abf40b9a">AP reported</a>.
Bailey Nelson stood by her grandfather, Charles Nielsen, who told the committee, “Bailey is carrying a loaded AR-15. People live in fear, terrified of that which they do not understand. She’s been shooting since she was 5 years old. She got her first deer with this weapon at 9. She carries it responsibly. She knows how not to put her finger on the trigger. We live in fear in a society that is fed fear on a daily basis.”
Referencing visitors to Idaho, he continued, “When they come to Idaho, they should be able to carry concealed, because they carry responsibly. They’re law-abiding citizens. It’s the criminal we have to worry about.”
AP noted, &#8220;Guns are not an uncommon sight in the Statehouse when gun legislation is being debated, particularly handguns on belt holsters. Long rifles such as AR-15s also appear occasionally. Some Idaho lawmakers are known to carry concealed weapons in the Statehouse.&#8221;
Republican Rep. Christy Zito, who proposed the bill, stated, “I stand here before you today as a mother and grandmother who has had to use a firearm to defend their child.” She recalled an incident in which she warded off two men who approached her vehicle in which her daughter was seated, saying, “Even though I didn’t have to pull the trigger, just the fact that they could see it, and they knew that I had it, was the determining factor.”
Idaho law <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title18/T18CH33/SECT18-3302/">states</a>:
<blockquote>No person shall carry concealed weapons on or about his person without a license to carry concealed weapons, except:
(a)  In the person’s place of abode or fixed place of business;
(b)  On property in which the person has any ownership or leasehold interest;
(c)  On private property where the person has permission to carry concealed weapons from any person with an ownership or leasehold interest;
(d)  Outside the limits of or confines of any city, if the person is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is not otherwise disqualified from being issued a license under subsection (11) of this section.</blockquote>
The <a href="https://isp.idaho.gov/bci/concealed-weapons/">Idaho State Police</a> add, &#8220;Idaho recognizes all other states validly issued and current concealed weapons licenses/permits. Out of state residents must have their state concealed weapons license/permits on their person when carrying a concealed weapon in the state of Idaho.&#8221;
AP added, “Idaho residents 18 and older are allowed to carry a concealed handgun within city limits in Idaho without a permit or training following a new law that went into place last summer. The legislation would extend that to any legal resident of the United States or a U.S. armed services member.”
<h4></h4>

Idaho state capital building Boise Idaho,usa

Grandfather Brings 11-Year-Old Granddaughter To Conceal Carry Hearing. She’s Wearing An AR-15.

Idaho

A 7-year-old boy was interrogated by police deputies without his parents present after he was falsely accused of bringing a gun to school.
Fox 11 <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/7-year-old-interrogated-by-deputies-without-parent-present-after-false-accusation-of-having-gun-at-school">reported</a> that the boy’s mother, Thea Marie Perkins, said her son, Solomon, attends Tesoro Del Valle Elementary School in Valencia, California, and was accused by another student of having a gun in his backpack. KTLA <a href="https://ktla.com/2020/02/18/seven-year-old-saugus-boy-wrongfully-accused-of-bringing-gun-to-school/?utm_source=fark&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_content=link&amp;ICID=ref_fark">reported</a> that on the day of the incident, there was a fire drill, and Solomon was outside talking to a student who had bullied him, when that student left and told a teacher that Solomon had a gun.
“They checked his backpack and saw that he had over 20 or so Valentine&#8217;s Day cards that he was going to give to his friends,” Perkins told the outlet.
Solomon didn’t know why the other student made the accusation.
Even though school administrators searched Solomon’s backpack and didn’t find a gun, they called the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station – but not Solomon’s mother. By the time Perkins learned of the incident and arrived at the school, she said half a dozen sheriff’s officers were already there and that her and her son’s civil rights were violated.
“[The school administrator] didn’t call one sheriff… there were six sheriff’s department officers that showed up,” Perkins told FOX 11. “Three squad cars, not cars but trucks, when I arrived.”
Perkins said Solomon was questioned by the sheriff’s deputies without her being present.
“This district has criminalized a 7-year-old African American child and I am absolutely angry,” Perkins said. “There’s really no reason for that after there was evidence that the accusation that was made was false.”
After Solomon was accused and interrogated, the school principal sent a message to parents that stated: &#8220;As many of you may be aware we have had law enforcement on campus today. All of our students are safe and the school day is progressing as normal.&#8221;
Perkins told Fox 11 she was disappointed that the principal didn’t mention that the accusation was false. Now she’s worried Solomon will be bullied or treated differently by those who believe he actually did have a gun. She told Fox 11 that she asked the school to send out a statement saying her son was innocent. The outlet reached out to the school district multiple times but did not hear back.
For their part, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station issued a statement regarding the incident:
During their investigation, the deputies determined a 7-year-old male student had allegedly made ‘specific threats’ about possibly engaging in a school shooting. The responding deputies made contact with the student and enlisted additional resources to evaluate his emotional and mental wellness. Not only did the deputies have a duty to protect the other children present at the school, but we&#8217;re also obligated to ensure the safety of the student involved.
Perkins, however, told Fox 11 she believed her son was treated this way because he is African American.
“I really feel as though African American boys are an endangered species in the United States of America that hurts my heart,” she told the outlet. “Why would she call a sheriff after she looked in his backpack and saw that it was a false accusation? Why?”

Kid with backpack

Police Interrogate 7-Year-Old After He Was Falsely Accused Of Bringing A Gun To School

California

Children

On February 4, Alabama state Representative Proncey Robertson (R-District 7) introduced H.B. 39, which pertains to the issuance of “carry permits,” and to the creation of a “standardized statewide process to issue concealed carry permits for terms of 1 year, 5 years, or permit holder&#8217;s lifetime.”
The bill was read and “referred to the House of Representatives committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security,” according to <a href="https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB39/2020">LegiScan</a>.
“Under current law, concealed carry permits are issued by the sheriffs of each county. Each sheriff may have different fees, forms, and processes for the issuance of a concealed carry permit,” the synopsis of the bill reads. “Further, each county may maintain separate databases of individuals authorized to carry a pistol in a vehicle or concealed on or about his or her person within this state.”
The synopsis continues, proposing a standardized, statewide process instead:
<blockquote>This bill would standardize a process by which concealed carry permits may be issued statewide and would create a state concealed carry permit information system by which relevant data may be maintained and provided to law enforcement. This bill would also integrate into that state information system existing data relating to concealed carry permits issued by county sheriffs.</blockquote>
Later, the <a href="http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/ALISON/SearchableInstruments/2020RS/PrintFiles/HB39-int.pdf">text of the bill</a> goes into more detail:
<blockquote>Upon receiving notice from a sheriff of an approved application for a concealed carry permit, the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall immediately enter the information into the state concealed carry permit information system and ensure that a concealed carry permit endorsement is viewable by law enforcement officers and other authorized persons through the individual&#8217;s driver license&#8230;</blockquote>
Further, it details how one’s license could be revoked under the proposed system:
<blockquote>Upon receiving notice of a denial of an application for a concealed carry permit or a court disposition which would prohibit that individual from purchasing or possessing a pistol or firearm under state or federal law or render that individual ineligible for a permit based upon the factors provided in paragraph [a] of subsection (b), the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall enter the information into the state concealed carry permit information system and ensure that a &#8220;Concealed Carry Prohibited&#8221; restriction is viewable by law enforcement officers and other authorized persons through an individual&#8217;s driver license.</blockquote>
On Thursday, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20200220/alabama-senate-committee-hearing-on-lifetime-carry-permit-bill">stated in a release</a> pertaining to a <a href="http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/ALISON/SearchableInstruments/2020RS/PrintFiles/SB47-int.pdf">parallel bill</a> in Alabama’s state Senate, “contact committee members and ask them to support S.B. 47.”
Despite the NRA-ILA’s seeming endorsement of the legislation, Alabama gun rights organization BamaCarry has a different perspective.
Speaking with Fox affiliate <a href="https://www.wbrc.com/2020/02/22/state-lawmaker-proposes-statewide-database-gun-permit-holders/">WBRC</a>, BamaCarry president Eddie Fulmer said: “They need to back off of trying to regulate people who lawfully carry weapons.”
After stating that “permit holders in Alabama are some of the most law-abiding citizens there are,” Fulmer added, “What they are worried about here is a very insignificant amount of people when it comes to revoking a permit.”
The Daily Wire reached out to Rep. Proncey Robertson, and he answered several questions pertaining to the proposed law.
Robertson first noted how information pertaining to gun licenses in the state of Alabama is quite disparate: “Most people may not even realize this, but the concealed carry permit process in the state of Alabama is done in 67 different counties, by 67 different sheriffs. The 67 different processes and 67 different databases or local systems that hold your information – some of them, very insecure to say the least – they’re just on a standalone server under the front desk, for instance.”
The lawmaker added: “When an officer stops you in one end of the state and you have a permit from the other end of the state, he has very little confidence that that permit is valid, or that the Sheriff used the same background process or even maintained the records correctly.”
Robertson said that his proposed H.B. 39 would “standardize” all these various processes under the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) or the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC), giving law enforcement the ability to access it.
As for the accountability of law enforcement as it pertains to information searching, Robertson stated: “As a police officer, if I want access to that information, I am passworded into it, and you would know what I looked at, every key stroke, what I obtained, what I learned, what I did with it, and I have to have a law enforcement purpose for accessing that information.”
In response to BamaCarry president Eddie Fulmer’s comments, Robertson said: “I have no interest in regulating people who carry legally. What the system would do is it would begin to keep records of those who are prohibited to carry firearms.”
He added:
<blockquote>If we just do away with the permits in the state of Alabama, you still have to have one if you&#8217;re going to cross the state lines. So, this is just a way to secure that information. Number two, currently ACJIC and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), it keeps arrest records, but that is much different than conviction records or disposition records.</blockquote>
Robertson then noted that if he, as a police officer, were to stop someone he didn’t know personally, who had a history of arrests for “robbery or domestic violence, something what would prevent them from carrying a concealed weapon or obtaining a concealed weapons permit,” NCIC or state records can tell him if they had been arrested, but not if they were convicted, which, he said, “is what I need in order to make an arrest.”
According to Robertson, H.B. 39 would connect the courts to the permit database. “The day that the court convicts you, they would enter into the system that you are now prohibited, and it would revoke your permit if you have one in the system,” he stated.
When probed as to how his bill isn’t a centralized firearm registry, Robertson replied: “It has nothing to do with your gun. I&#8217;m not registering your guns. It never asks you one single question about your gun.”
He continued:
<blockquote>It&#8217;s about your concealed carry permit. It&#8217;s you coming in, taking a background check that says you&#8217;re not someone convicted of anything that would prohibit you, and it says it&#8217;s your license to carry concealed. They never ask you what gun you have or own or possess.</blockquote>
Robertson said that nothing in H.B. 39 requires new information from citizens, rather, it would simply standardize and centralize the current data from all the numerous hubs in which they currently reside.
The lawmaker also made sure to state that “the ATF, every time you purchase a gun, they do a background check at the gun dealer. They collect the make, model, and serial number of the gun you bought, and your name, address, and all your personal information.”
<blockquote>The federal government and the state of Alabama already has that information. This has nothing to do with your guns. This is just about, do you have the right to carry concealed, have you been convicted of something that would prohibit you from carrying a concealed weapon – and that&#8217;s any violent crime, it&#8217;s domestic violence, and it&#8217;s being ruled by a probate judge with a mental defect and involuntarily committed.</blockquote>
Lastly, Robertson explained why he believes Constitutional Carry or Permitless Carry isn’t an option in Alabama as things currently stand:
<blockquote>If you do that, here&#8217;s what happens – because many of these other states that have done it have very good record-keeping systems of criminal convictions, so an officer can look when he stops someone, and tell what they have been convicted of. In Alabama, we do not have that record keeping on the bad guys. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m trying to do with this bill.
Right now in Alabama, if we went Permitless Carry, I could literally stop someone who is a convicted felon carrying a gun, and I have no way to prove that he is a felon carrying a gun there on the side of the road. So, I would have to let him drive away or walk away with that gun.</blockquote>
“That&#8217;s what people don&#8217;t understand about the way the system works currently,” Robertson added. “We do not have a good enough records management system of convictions in the state of Alabama to go with Constitutional Carry.”
“H.B. 39 requires the courts to report any conviction, misdemeanor, or felony that would make you a prohibited person to carry a firearm. So this improves things for the citizens, it improves the safety for our officers, and it begins to organize this so if there was ever a dream of going to Constitutional Carry in the state of Alabama, the first thing that we have to do is begin to maintain proper criminal conviction records,” Robertson concluded.

Handguns

Alabama Republican Who Proposed New Gun Permit Bill Says People Are Mislabeling It As A Gun Registry Bill

Alabama

Concealed Carry

Second Amendment

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden made extreme remarks during a CNN town hall event on Thursday night where he called for banning semi-automatic firearms and &#8220;clips that have multiple bullets in them,&#8221; which would effectively ban nearly all firearms.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to do everything in my power in office or out of office to get those assault weapons off the street, which I have done once already,&#8221; Biden claimed. &#8220;And to get those clips that have multiple bullets in them not for sale, not be able to sell silencers, all those things.&#8221;
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Joe Biden ratcheted up the Democrat Party&#39;s attacks on the Second Amendment:
Biden: ban &quot;assault weapons&quot; &amp; &quot;get those clips that have multiple bullets in them not for sale, not be able to sell silencers, all those things.&quot;
This is a broadside on every law abiding American. <a href="https://t.co/NDA0YYVlQv">pic.twitter.com/NDA0YYVlQv</a>
&mdash; Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1230662788688699392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden made similar remarks last September, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-compromise-biden-goes-extreme-guns-calls-ban-ryan-saavedra">saying</a>, “The idea that we don’t have elimination of assault-type weapons, magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them, it’s absolutely mindless.”
“It’s no violation of the Second Amendment,” Biden falsely claimed.
Biden, who made the remarks while talking to reporters, later said that there should be no compromise with the Republicans when it came to his extreme anti-Second Amendment proposals.
“None,” Biden. “None on this. I think this is no compromise. This is one we have to just push, and push, and push, and push, and push.”
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-joe-biden-stand-issues-heres-everything-josh-hammer">highlighted</a> Biden’s views on the Second Amendment in a profile piece last September:
<blockquote>Biden was a leading proponent and sponsor of the federal “assault weapons” ban, a subset of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Throughout his career, he has generally been supportive of curtailing Second Amendment rights. Biden has also supported mandating five-day waiting periods for gun purchases, as well as closing the alleged “gun show loophole.” Biden supports a ban on the undefinable sub-class of firearms referred to as so-called “assault weapons” — a line of thought that, if taken to its logical conclusion, could <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42837/hammer-kamala-harriss-flirtation-banning-all-semi-josh-hammer">lead to the banning of all semi-automatic firearms in America</a>.</blockquote>
Biden&#8217;s extreme proposal of banning semi-automatic firearms would do little to reduce mass shootings in the United States, according to a new study released this month by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, named after notorious anti-Second Amendment activist billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who is also running for president as a Democrat.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloomberg-school-of-public-health-no-evidence-assault-weapon-bans-reduce-mass-shootings">study</a> “did not find an independent association between assault weapon bans and the incidence of fatal mass shootings after controlling for the effects of bans on large-capacity magazines.”
Statistician Leah Libresco reported in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-used-to-think-gun-control-was-the-answer-my-research-told-me-otherwise/2017/10/03/d33edca6-a851-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html">The Washington Post</a> in 2017 that she used to wish that “the National Rifle Association would stop blocking common-sense gun-control reforms such as banning assault weapons, restricting silencers, shrinking magazine sizes and all the other measures that could make guns less deadly.”
“Then, my colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and I wound up frustrated in a whole new way,” Libresco wrote. “We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence.”
In response to several horrific school shootings in the U.S., Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-announces-war-guns-education-plan-wants-far-ryan-saavedra">said</a> that he did not want to protect kids at schools by arming school faculty.
Biden also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-attacked-texas-governor-for-signing-law-letting-churchgoers-carry-guns-totally-irrational">attacked</a> Texas Governor Greg Abbott last September for signing a bill into law that allowed Texans to carry lawfully owned firearms into places of worship, saying that it was &#8220;totally irrational.&#8221;
Three months after his remarks, a hero at a church in Texas stopped an attacker within a matter of seconds after the attacker opened fire on the congregation.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Delivers His Plan To Curb Gun Violence While Campaigning In Las Vegas

Joe Biden Essentially Calls For Banning Nearly All Firearms

2020 Election

Joe Biden

A video of a brawl breaking out between two self-described Bernie fans, one white and one black, has gone viral — and initially inspired a bunch of assumptions about what started it, including that a &#8220;Trump supporter&#8221; infiltrated the event to stir up trouble. But a video posted later and a pair of interviews with two men claiming to be the ones involved indicate that the blow up was ultimately about the African-American man&#8217;s &#8220;Black Guns Matter&#8221; T-shirt, which the white &#8220;Bernie bro&#8221; condemned as &#8220;racist.&#8221;
The fight broke out during a Sanders rally held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver Sunday evening. The initial fight was caught on camera by Colorado&#8217;s CBS4. The video of the sudden eruption of violence, which occurred at the back of the rally near the media risers, rapidly circulated online.
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At last night’s Bernie Sanders rally in Colorado, the Bernie rally briefly turned into a Bernie vs Bernie brawl 😂😂 Notice in the background, Bernie’s speech is uninterrupted! 😂😂 <a href="https://t.co/c6Dq8H24GZ">pic.twitter.com/c6Dq8H24GZ</a>
&mdash; Shawnasaurus Rex (@ShawnG927) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShawnG927/status/1229749115434782725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;CBS4’s news camera was capturing video of the event when two men began fighting,&#8221; <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/02/17/video-fight-bernie-sanders-rally-denver/">CBS4</a> reported. &#8220;They pushed through a metal barrier fence toward the back near the media risers as they grappled with each other and one man knocked the other down onto the ground after lifting him up. They both landed on the ground partially under the stage Sanders was in the middle of delivering his speech from. Friends of both people quickly intervened and after some more shoving successfully broke up the fight.&#8221;
CBS4&#8217;s crew said that they were initially unsure what started the scuffle, but on Monday, the outlet was contacted first by a man, Tyler, a self-described Sanders supporter who said he was the white guy shown duking it out in the video, then by another man who asked to remain anonymous who said he was the African-American man battling with Tyler. Another video involving the incident, this one before the fight broke out, shows Tyler and the African-American man arguing over the latter&#8217;s &#8220;Black Guns Matter&#8221; shirt.
The first to contact CBS4 Monday was &#8220;Tyler,&#8221; who told the outlet that a man with a &#8220;&#8216;Black Guns Matter&#8221; shirt was with two other men &#8220;and they were booing during the speech,&#8221; CBS reports. &#8220;When Tyler tried to capture video of the booing on his phone’s camera, the man shoved him through the barrier. Tyler then retaliated. It was that action which was captured by CBS4’s camera.&#8221;
After the interview with Tyler, CBS4 was provided with a new video from an anonymous source showing the argument leading up to the blow-up. The outlet was then contacted by a man claiming to the &#8220;Black Guns Matter&#8221; shirt-wearer, who described himself as African-American and said the whole thing started over his shirt.
&#8220;He had a problem with the shirt I was wearing,&#8221; the man told CBS4. &#8220;I was recording the event, he walks up and calls me a racist. But I thought, ‘What’s he know about black lives, about discrimination, or, for that matter, the representation of the shirt.'&#8221;
&#8220;Black people and their ability to own firearms has historically been very restricted,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The shirt I got from a conceal-carry class.&#8221;
The man also told CBS4 that he agrees with Sanders on most policies but not on guns.
&#8220;I think it’s really a sad thing at a Bernie rally, when someone has a difference of opinion, that someone would be treated like that,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I thought it really would be a lot more inclusive than that. It’s not a safe place to express differences. I would expect that sort of thing at a Trump rally.&#8221;
Below is the video that appears to have been sent to CBS4:
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Here’s the reason for the brawl: White guy called Black guy a racist at a Bernie rally. <a href="https://t.co/cJouk3Kvri">pic.twitter.com/cJouk3Kvri</a>
&mdash; Deirdra Lichtenberge (@diamondsoul317) <a href="https://twitter.com/diamondsoul317/status/1229628620643217410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Bernie Sanders

WATCH: Brawl Breaks Out At Sanders Rally; Video Shows What Started It: ‘Black Guns Matter’ Shirt

Race

Florida&#8217;s &#8220;red flag&#8221; gun confiscation law has been used thousands of times in the two years since a mentally unstable young man who had given several warning signs that he was dangerous went on a horrific shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And the pace of the gun confiscation law&#8217;s use is only picking up.
The law was voted into law about three weeks after the tragic 2018 Valentine&#8217;s Day shooting. The law was supported by congressional members of both parties in the state and signed into law by the Republican governor. As reported by <a href="https://apnews.com/6560501986455adcb0ef57fdb370035a">The Associated Press</a> on the two-year anniversary of the massacre, the law has been applied on Florida residents &#8220;more than 3,500 times since, with the pace accelerating during the last half of 2019.&#8221;
Application of the law is initiated by police submitting a request to a civil court that contains an explanation of why authorities believe the individual is a threat. Among the potential reasons is mental illness. Approval of the request by a judge results in a temporary suspension of the individual&#8217;s Second Amendment rights to possess a firearm and authorizes police to confiscate any of the individual&#8217;s firearms.
A hearing must be held within two weeks to determine whether the individual&#8217;s firearms can be retained for a year. If the person is perceived to be a long-term threat by law enforcement, authorities can apply for an extension. If the judge determines the confiscation is unwarranted, the weapons are returned.
Despite the stunning number of uses of the law, AP suggests that it is potentially not being used enough. An AP analysis found that the law&#8217;s use is &#8220;inconsistent, with some counties and cities using it rarely and others not at all.&#8221; AP provides some more details on its findings:
<blockquote>
The AP analysis shows that from March 2018, when the law was enacted, through December 2019, there was a wide disparity in its per capita usage in Florida’s 67 counties. Twenty issued at least one for every 5,500 residents during that time period, the statewide average. Three issued at least one for every 2,000 residents, including Gualtieri’s Pinellas County, which includes the Tampa Bay area, and has nearly 1 million people. Highlands County, near Lake Okeechobee, ranked No. 1, issuing one for every 850 residents.
On the other extreme, 12 counties issued one for every 30,000 residents or less. Two neighboring Panhandle counties — Escambia and Santa Rosa — issued one for every 100,000 residents or more. Another nine small, rural counties issued none.
</blockquote>
Sheriffs from the counties that had sparingly used the law or not used it at all told AP in a questionnaire that they are not &#8220;philosophically opposed to the law&#8221; but rather &#8220;just haven’t needed it,&#8221; AP notes.
Florida is one of 17 states that now have their own versions of &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws. The District of Columbia also has a similar law. Eleven of these laws were enacted after the Parkland shooting, AP notes.
One of the states that has recently implemented its own &#8220;red flag&#8221; law is Colorado, which enacted the “Zackari Parrish Violence Prevention Act” — named after a sheriff’s deputy shot in the line of duty by a heavily armed, mentally ill man — at the start of the new year. As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/red-flag-law-first-colorado-judge-denies-gun-confiscation-for-first-time-under-law">The Daily Wire</a> reported, two weeks after the law&#8217;s enactment, law enforcement had already submitted at least four confiscation requests, three of which were approved and one of which was rejected.
One of the states that is making the most waves in the Second Amendment debate in recent weeks is Democrat-controlled Virginia. Amid a wave of pro-Second Amendment protests, the Democrats&#8217; attempt to pass an &#8220;assault-style rifle&#8221; ban failed in a Democrat-majority Senate committee on Monday.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-gun-ban-fails-in-senate-committee-marking-legislative-blow-for-gov-northam">Virginia Gun Ban Fails in Senate Committee, Marking Legislative Blow For Gov. Northam</a>
H/T <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/02/17/floridas-red-flag-law-led-massive-gun-confiscation-numbers/">Jazz Shaw</a>

Florida ‘Red Flag’ Gun Confiscation Law Has Been Used Thousands Of Times Since Parkland

Parkland Shooting

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Sunday that he believes that having a &#8220;rational policy&#8221; on guns means making sure that people can&#8217;t have &#8220;50 clips in a weapon,&#8221; which is gibberish, and said that a person would need a lot more than an AK-47 to take on a tyrannical government.
Biden made the remarks on the campaign trail in New Hampshire while talking about why kids learn active shooter drills in school, saying, &#8220;because we&#8217;re unwilling to have a rational policy that says you cannot have 20, 30, 40, 50 clips in a weapon.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Democrat Joe Biden says that a &quot;rational policy&quot; on guns means making sure “you cannot have 20, 30, 40, 50 clips in a weapon.” <a href="https://t.co/3XsN7TpqzH">pic.twitter.com/3XsN7TpqzH</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1226652845400682496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden also claimed: “I now have over 58% of the NRA members acknowledging that you cannot own an assault weapon. There is no need for it. You can’t have a magazine that is more than 10 rounds in it.”
The Daily Wire contacted The National Rifle Association (NRA) to inquire about which poll Biden got his statistics from and was informed that Biden’s claims are false because the NRA is a private organization that does not give out information on its members, let alone for polling purposes.
At a different point in his town hall, Biden said, &#8220;Those who say, &#8216;The tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots&#8217; – a great line, well, guess what: The fact is, if you’re going to take on the government, you need an F-15 with Hellfire Missiles. There is no way an AK-47 is going to take care of you if you’re worried about the government knocking down your door.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Biden: &quot;Those who say &#39;the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots&#39; &#8212; a great line, well, guess what: The fact is, if you’re going to take on the government you need an F-15 with Hellfire Missiles. There is no way an AK-47 is going to take care of you.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/npmW40DHS2">pic.twitter.com/npmW40DHS2</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1226627073055318017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden’s remarks drew instant mockery online from critics who attacked his lack of knowledge on the subject.
Federalist co-founder Sean Davis wrote: “Joe Biden is so dain-bramaged that he thinks ‘The government will bomb your house if you get out of line’ is an A+ argument against the 2A in the state whose motto—&#8217;Live Free or Die’—was coined by a militiaman who personally defeated the British Empire.”
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Joe Biden is so dain-bramaged that he thinks “The government will bomb your house if you get out of line” is an A+ argument against the 2A in the state whose motto—“Live Free or Die”—was coined by a militiaman who personally defeated the British Empire. <a href="https://t.co/j4t8f1wdBB">https://t.co/j4t8f1wdBB</a>
&mdash; Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1226632412081348609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden&#8217;s extremist gun control policies includes banning semi-automatic firearms and &#8220;magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them,&#8221; which effectively would ban the overwhelming majority of firearms.
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Joe Biden makes the most extreme gun-control push of all the 2020 Democrat presidential candidates:
Biden calls for banning &quot;magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them&quot;
All magazines hold &quot;multiple bullets,&quot; that&#39;s the point
This call from Biden would ban most handguns <a href="https://t.co/4iQkalBxVa">pic.twitter.com/4iQkalBxVa</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1168615170395922432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Not only do Biden&#8217;s views on guns go against the U.S. Constitution, they are also non-nonsensical and do not work.
For example, last September Biden attacked Texas Governor Greg Abbott for signing a bill into law that made it easier for Texas to carry firearms into their places of worship.
“Dealing with firearms, it is irrational, with all due respect to the governor of Texas, irrational what they are doing,” Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-attacked-texas-governor-for-signing-law-letting-churchgoers-carry-guns-totally-irrational">told</a> reporters on September 2. “On the very day you see a mass shooting … and we’re talking about loosening access to have guns, to be able to take them into places of worship, it’s just absolutely irrational. It’s totally irrational.”
A couple of months later, a man named Jack Wilson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-footage-emerges-of-good-guy-with-gun-taking-down-attacker-in-seconds">stopped</a> a mass shooting attack at his church in Texas by engaging the attacker with a firearm and neutralizing the threat in approximately 6 seconds, thus significantly reducing the amount of life that was lost in the attack.
This report has been updated to include additional information.
&nbsp;

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Campaigns In New Hampshire Ahead Of Primary

Biden: ‘Rational’ Gun ‘Policy’ Is Banning ‘50 Clips In A Weapon’; AK-47 Won’t Protect You From Government

Democrats in Virginia will try to change the language of Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D-VA) gun ban bill to avoid losing their jobs in the next election.
Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms <a href="https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2020/02/06/va-dems-gun-ban-bill-support/">reported</a> that the state’s House Public Safety Committee was meeting Friday morning to discuss a bill proposed by Northam that would effectively ban “assault firearms” – the vaguely defined term applied to guns by people who do not understand them.
“Democrats will move to modify the current language and remove a registration requirement for so-called ‘assault firearms,’ [sic] as well as changing a ban on ammunition magazines that can hold more than ten rounds to a ban on those that can hold more than twelve, according to a draft copy of the legislation reviewed by Bearing Arms,” Edwards reported.
Virginia’s state elections are a year behind the nation, meaning state assemblymen will be up for re-election in 2021. Anger over the proposed gun laws appears to have made many Democrats uneasy about their political futures, as more than 90 counties in the state have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries. As Edwards reported, even if Democrats are successful in removing the registration requirement, the bill would still “turn the vast majority of the state’s legal gun owners into felons overnight.”
“There are many problems with the draft substitute language, but let’s start with the fact that by banning the sale, manufacturing, and transfer of so-called ‘assault firearms,’ [sic] the legislation is still declaring that these firearms are only allowed to be owned through the good graces of the government,” Edwards wrote. “We also know what Democrats really want, which is the outright ban on the possession of these firearms. That was the intent of SB16, the original gun ban bill backed by Gov. Northam. If HB961 becomes law, Democrats will be back in 2021 with their registration requirement, and then back to impose their ban on possession in 2022.”
The new language Democrats are trying to insert would make it a felony for gun owners to continue to possess a magazine that can hold more than 12 rounds. It would also be a felony to continue to possess legally purchased suppressors. This means that people who have legally purchased these items would become felons overnight due to this bill, even with the updated language.
Edwards reported that similar language in New Jersey resulted in gun owners not complying with the law. Further, the bill would immediately face a court challenge. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Virginia, previously ruled semi-automatic rifles aren’t covered by the Second Amendment because they’re “like” machine guns (they’re not). But as Edwards noted, the 4th Circuit has changed in the past three years and may be more open to ruling correctly this time around.
Democrats appear to still be working on the language in an attempt to make the bill more favorable. This may include changes to the substitute language regarding magazines and suppressors. At some point, the Democrats are going to have to realize that coming for Virginia’s gun owners is simply a losing battle.

Virginia gun owners

Virginia Democrats, Fearing Retribution, Change Language For Governor’s Gun Ban

Virginia

Anti-gun rights activist and the father of a Parkland school shooting victim, Fred Guttenberg, was asked to leave President Donald Trump&#8217;s annual State of the Union (SOTU) address on Tuesday night after the activist heckled the president for vowing to protect Americans&#8217; Second Amendment rights.
Mr. Guttenberg shouted about gun control when Trump vowed that he would “always protect your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
The father attended the SOTU address as a guest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/04/state-of-the-union-address-pelosi-guest-a-father-of-parkland-shooting-victim-booted/">New York Post</a>, the speaker &#8220;turned to the gallery with a stern look after the disruption and muttered something under her breath&#8221; after Guttenberg&#8217;s outburst.
The father, who tragically lost his 14-year-old daughter Jaime during the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, is a constant activist against gun rights.
In September, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) met with both actress/left-wing activist Alyssa Milano and Guttenberg to discuss the Second Amendment.
&#8220;I am always grateful for the opportunity to engage in positive, civil discussion on the substantive issues of the day — especially with those with whom I disagree. Today&#8217;s meeting was productive and respectful, and I appreciate Alyssa and Fred&#8217;s willingness to come here with an open mind. I believe more conversations like this will go a long way in helping unite and heal our divided country,&#8221; Sen. Cruz said in a <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&amp;id=4647">statement</a> following the meeting.
&#8220;We all agree we have far too many of these mass shootings, and they need to stop. It is long past time for everyone to put away the partisan talking points so we can work together to solve this problem. We need to act,&#8221; he added.
Though Pelosi was seemingly displeased with Guttenberg&#8217;s outburst, the speaker offered some disobedience herself on Tuesday night. The leading Democrat refused to properly announce President Trump at the start of the evening, and ripped up her copy of Trump’s speech following the event.
As reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-violates-protocol-by-refusing-to-announce-trump-properly-at-sotu-rips-up-speech">The Daily Wire</a>, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/search/?sdate=&amp;edate=&amp;searchtype=Videos&amp;sort=Least+Recent+Event&amp;text=0&amp;tagid%5B%5D=2109&amp;show100=">decades of past SOTU addresses show</a> that is protocol for the House Speaker to announce the president by noting that it is their “high privilege and distinct honor” to do so: “Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States.”
Instead, Pelosi merely <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdU4MGyOmLA">announced</a> Trump as follows: “Members of Congress, the President of the United States.”
Pelosi was unapologetic about ripping up Trump&#8217;s speech, too.
In a statement reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-shreds-trumps-speech-reflecting-a-tumultuous-year-in-washington/2020/02/04/c378856c-4771-11ea-ab15-b5df3261b710_story.html">The Washington Post</a> on Tuesday, the speaker called the speech from the president a “manifesto of mistruths.&#8221;
“The manifesto of mistruths presented in page after page of the address tonight should be a call to action for everyone who expects truth from the President and policies worthy of his office and the American people,” a statement from Pelosi said.
“Nancy Pelosi says ripping up Donald Trump’s speech was ‘was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative,'&#8221; Jim Roberts reported.
Eight House Democrats (listed below) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) all skipped the president&#8217;s speech:
<blockquote>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
Rep. Al Green (D-TX)
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)</blockquote>
WATCH:
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Fred Guttenberg

WATCH: Parkland Dad Booted From SOTU After Heckling Trump, Second Amendment

Donald Trump

New York Post

State of the Union

Democrat presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg&#8217;s $10 million anti-gun ad that is set to air during the Super Bowl tomorrow makes false claims about child gun deaths and falsely suggests that the victim highlighted in the commercial was a child when he was tragically killed.
The one minute ad features Calandrian Simpson Kemp talking about the loss of her son, George Kemp, who was killed in a shooting in 2013.
The emotional ad then states, &#8220;2,900 CHILDREN DIE FROM GUN VIOLENCE EVERY YEAR.” However, the claim is not attributable to any source.
Fox News&#8217; Gregg Re <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bloomberg-10-million-dollar-super-bowl-ad-gun-violence">reports</a>:
<blockquote>However, a recent report from the Bloomberg-founded group Everytown for Gun Safety came up with that same number – but only when it included teenagers ages 18 and 19 in the calculation. Bloomberg&#8217;s advertisement makes no mention of older teenagers and suggests that the statistic is referring to younger children only. Washington Free Beacon reporter Stephen Gutowski <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenGutowski/status/1223662192848973824" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">found</a> that once adults were removed from the calculation, the number dropped by nearly half.
Additionally, court documents from a Texas state appellate court reviewed by Fox News show that the victim referenced in the advertisement, George Kemp, was 20 years old at the time of his death.</blockquote>
Everytown for Gun Safety is a leftist anti-freedom group bent on decimating the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens and that recently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-bloombergs-gun-safety-group-announces-60-million-spending-plan-for-2020-elections/2020/01/27/fcedb218-412c-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html">announced</a> it would spend $60 million to defeat pro-freedom Second Amendment advocates in the 2020 election.
Fox News&#8217; report also noted that &#8220;the court said the case arose from a &#8216;gang-related shooting,&#8217; writing that &#8216;two groups of young men&#8217; had met that night &#8216;for a fight,&#8217; including a group led by &#8216;B. Dilworth, which included &#8230; Kemp.'&#8221;
None of these facts were mentioned in Bloomberg&#8217;s misleading ad, which will be seen by tens of millions of people.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) hammered Bloomberg for exploiting Kemp&#8217;s loss of her son to promote his anti-freedom political agenda, which the NRA noted would not have prevented the tragedy from occurring.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not surprising that salient facts were left out of Bloomberg&#8217;s ad,&#8221; Amy Hunter, director of media relations at the National Rifle Association (NRA), told The Daily Wire. &#8220;It&#8217;s also not surprising the billionaire exploited the emotional story of a mother losing her son to push his gun control agenda without addressing whether his policies would have prevented the crime in the first place. Bloomberg enjoys 24/7 armed security, yet he wants to disarm law-abiding Americans who can&#8217;t afford their own personal security detail. He sees America as his kingdom, and American citizens as his subjects.&#8221;​
Bloomberg, for all his disdain for the Second Amendment, knows little to nothing about firearms or existing firearm laws.
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Bloomberg said he did not know if a minor was legally permitted to purchase and possess a firearm, saying, “I don’t know what the law is today on a 14-year-old owning a .22-caliber rifle.”
Bloomberg also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloomberg-unveils-radical-anti-freedom-plan-attacking-second-amendment-rights">said</a> during the interview that he believes that anyone who owns a firearm is &#8220;pretty stupid.&#8221;
During a 2012 interview on ABC News, Bloomberg demonstrated that he does not know the difference between semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms, the latter of which is effectively banned in the United States.
WATCH:
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Democrat presidential candidate billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who spends tens of millions of dollars pushing for extreme gun control laws, demonstrates that he knows literally nothing about firearms.<a href="https://t.co/SCjpNdQm6h">pic.twitter.com/SCjpNdQm6h</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1192572237670281216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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