Category Archives: Second Amendment

The northeastern corner of Arizona that largely includes the state's current 1st Congressional District is again considered up for grabsin the upcoming 2022 election cycle.

The final boundaries for the new district won't be set by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission for at least several weeks, but the area is expected to retain its traditional political competitiveness.

Arizona has nine congressional districts and Rep. Tom O'Halleran, D-Ariz., is in his third two-year term on Capitol Hill.

The 1st District is now largely rural and includes Apache, Coconino, Graham, Greenlee, and Navajo countiesas well asparts of Gila, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties.

The redistricting commission hopes to complete mapping by Dec.22, and the Arizona Secretary of State's deadline is Jan.2.

At least for now, here are the major candidates running in Arizona's 1st District:

O'Halleran, a relatively moderate Democrat,is the incumbent in the 1st District. He won his seat in the 2016 elections, and won additional terms in 2018 and 2020.

On his campaign website, O'Halleran said he will"continue working across the aisle to find solutions to the challenges our communities face."

O'Halleran's website features alist of campaign issues, including a detailed job plan that highlights issues such as training and education on tribal lands, investing in education, supporting community colleges, and workforce development.

Other priorities cover modernizing taxes and giving Americans a "well-deserved raise."O'Halleran voted to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Also included is fighting against privatizing Social Security and Medicare, ensuring veteran's benefits and health care, and supporting immigration reform to secure the border, keep families together and supporting the DREAM Act.

Before his congressional career, O'Halleran served in the Arizona Senate from 2006 to 2009 and in the Arizona House of Representatives between 2001 to 2006 as a Republican. Heleft the GOP in 2014.

WaltBlackmanserves in the Arizona House of Representatives. Blackman, R-Snowflake,was the first BlackRepublican representative to be elected to the state House.

Blackman'swebsite includes campaign issuessuch as border security, improving health care access for veterans, reforming criminal justice to promote successful reintegration of former inmates,getting tough onChina, protecting the Second Amendment, restricting abortion rightsand protecting election integrity.

Blackman faced a backlash earlier this year after sponsoring an unsuccessful"homicide by abortion bill,"which would have allowed prosecutors to chargewomen who get abortions and the doctors who perform them with homicide.

Blackman took office in 2019 and his current term ends in 2023. Before politics, Blackmanserved in the U.S Army for 21 years.

Veteran and business ownerEli Cranealso aimsto unseat O'Halleran.

His campaign website describesCrane as "a faith oriented, family man and is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, and unafraid to take a stand against cancel culture and the radical left."

The race is Crane's first time seeking public office. The issues listed on his campaign website include strengthening border laws and "empowering frontline agents and officers to enforce the laws Congressand apprehended and return illegal border crossers."

Crane's other topissuesinclude strengthening the economy by fighting for lower taxes, fewer regulations and pro-growth policies. He wants to make voting more restrictive, in part through tougher ID requirements and by limiting mail-in balloting. Additionally, he favors more aid to veterans andthe military, especially for counter-intelligence.

Crane served in the U.S. Navy from 2001 to 2014 and created Bottle Breacher, a bottle opener company that he says employs and supports veterans.

Ron Watkinsmade headlines after announcing his run for Congress, after he was believed to be the author behind some QAnon conspiracy posts, but he has deniedthe allegations. Watkins' ties to QAnon surfaced after a bulletin board website of his became home to QAnon postings. In his campaign announcement video, Watkins says his run for Congress was motivated by the 2020 election.Watkins has completed paperwork with the Federal Elections Committee but hasnot launcheda campaign website.

John Moore, a "Strong Constitutional Conservative" according to his campaign website, says he is running for Congress to return politicalpower to the American people. Moore is a retired police chief and the current mayor of Williamsin Northern Arizona.The three top campaign issues listed on Moore's campaign website are quality education, border security and VA reform. Moore has filed paperwork with the FEC.

Katherine "Kat"Gallanthas not held public office before but has a political history in Mesa. As a former hair salon owner, Gallant ran for Mesa mayor in 1995 but did not win office. In 1997, Gallant went on a "freedom ride" across the country in protest of a voter-approved1996 law that banned smoking in most public places in Mesa. Gallant's campaign website calls for stronger border security policies, fighting election corruption and fraud, and holding those in office responsible. Gallant has yet to file with the FEC.

Andy Yates is asmall business owner in Arizona. Some of theissues listed on Yates' campaign websiteincludestanding up to China, border security by finishing the wall and a "merit-based" immigration reform, law enforcement empowerment, defending the Constitution and championing deregulation.Yates sayshe can create "commonsense conservativesolutions" to thoseissues. Yates has filed paperwork with the FEC.

Steve Beaver formerly served in the U.S Navy and Army National Guard. According to Beaver's campaign website, Beaver is campaigning on national security, including expanding the defense budget, campaign finance reform, border security, and building a strong community supporting small businesses and tax reductions. Beaver has yet to fill out paperwork with the FEC.

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Here are the candidates running in Arizona's 1st Congressional District - The Arizona Republic

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Jane Timken on Friday released a newstatewide ad touting her ties to former President TrumpDonald TrumpSenate confirms 40 judges during Biden's first year in office, the most since Reagan 'Stop the Steal' organizer testified to House panel about contact with GOP reps in lead-up to Jan. 6 Why you shouldn't expect a Biden shake-up MORE and his policies.

The ad, titled "America First," calls Timken a "Trump conservative" who "wiped out the Kasich establishment," referring to Trump critic and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). The 30-second spot also touts Timken's conservative stances on the Second Amendment, immigration, parents' rights, and the economy. The ad is a part of a previous six-figure media buy.

Timken is one of a number of candidates running the Republican Senate primary, which has become largely defined by their efforts to tie themselves to the former president.The field includes Timken, businessman Bernie Moreno, former Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel, author and venture capitalist J. D. Vance, investment banker Mike Gibbons and state Sen. Matt Dolan.

The primary is set for May 3and the campaigns have released a slew of ads that have garnered some national attention. Late last month,Gibbonsrolled out a $500,000 statewide advertising buytargetingVance,which invokesthe anti-Trump stances the author took during the 2016 presidential election.

The conservative group, the Club for Growth, which is supporting Mandel, has also targeted Vance over his past anti-Trump remarks, including in a $1 million television ad buy. Politico reported last month that Trump, himself, called the group's president to complain about the ads in the state, which he won in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Trump has not made an endorsement in the primary.

There has not been much public polling yetin the primary, but Mandel appears to be the early frontrunner. Timken's campaign has touted a recent internal poll that shows her polling four points behind Mandel.

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Timken releases ad touting ties to Trump in Ohio Senate primary | TheHill - The Hill

PHOTO PROVIDEDThe junior team was awarded third place overall at the PA State YHEC competition. Pictured from left are Coach Rob Baker and team members Dylan Baker, Collin Ankney, Glenn Hough and Malachi Gotshall. Missing from the photo is Thayne Jeffries.

MILL HALL Many youths in our area are getting the opportunity to participate in a non-traditional sport.

Southern Clinton County YHEC (Youth Hunter Education Challenge) continues to have a strong presence in the program. The team currently has 21 participants and will be holding a registration/informational night at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 10 at Millers Gun Shop to recruit new athletes.

You might be asking What is YHEC?

YHEC provides a fun environment for kids 18 and under to improve their hunting, marksmanship and safety skills. Through its simulated hunting situations, live fire exercises, educational and responsibility events, YHEC helps build upon skills learned in basic hunter education courses and encourages safer, lifelong hunting habits. From rifle, bow, and muzzleloader shooting at life-sized targets, to wildlife identification, map and compass orienteering, and more, YHEC participants can get hands-on training in eight skill areas, giving them expertise in all methods of take and all types of game.

The benefits, both physically and mentally, include strength, endurance, awareness, control, responsibility, stress management, maturity, patience, working through feelings of failure and disappointment, and teamwork all of which build character, and hopefully, self-confidence. Training for, and shooting in, competitions also fosters a real understanding of the nature and practicality of our Second Amendment freedoms.

PHOTOS PROVIDEDHunner Lindsey is shown shooting at the archery event at the Eastern Regional Championships.

SCC YHEC continues to see success in its seasons. This past June, members of the YHEC team traveled to Scotia Range in State College, to participate in the PA State YHEC competition. The Junior team finished third overall taking home first place in shotgun, second place in archery, third place in wildlife ID and second place on the hunter ed exam.

The Junior team consisted of Malachi Gottshall, Dylan Baker, Collin Ankney, Thayne Jeffries and Glenn Hough. Individual Junior recognition went to Malachi Gottshall, who placed third in shotgun and second in wildlife ID and to Collin Ankney, who placed second in archery.

The Senior Blue team had a third place overall finish taking home second place in shotgun, second place in muzzleloader, third place in wildlife ID, and second place in the hunter ed exam. The Senior Blue team consisted of Emery Gunsallus, Wyatt Ripka, Denny Dolan, Lance Bowman and Tyler Weaver. Senior Orange team placed third in shotgun. That team consisted of Hunner Lindsey, Trenton Haagen, Joe Proctor, Gavin Kerstetter and Hunter Jeirles. Individual Senior recognition went to Emery Gunsallus, who had a first-place finish in rifle and wildlife ID and second place in hunter ed exam. Tyler Weaver earned third place in muzzleloader. Gunsallus also took the podium with a third place overall in the senior division.

Six members of the team also traveled to Chemung, N.Y., for the three-day Eastern Regional Championships. The senior team, consisting of Denny Dolan, Emery Gunsallus, Hunner Lindsey, Wyatt Ripka and Tyler Weaver took home a first place in shotgun, second place in archery, third place in rifle and hunter ed exam. They also finished with a third place overall team.

Denny Dolan took home first place in the fun event called Mohawk Marathon and won a new muzzleloader. First-year junior Glenn Hough participated as an individual in the junior division. Although Hough did not make the podium, he did have an impressive fourth place finish in the hunter safety portion of the competition.

PHOTOS PROVIDEDEmery Gunsallus is seen on podium for his Third Place overall finish as an individual in Senior division.

Students are encouraged to take a look at the local shooting sports opportunities available in Clinton County. There is the YHEC, Central Mountain High Schools new clay target team, or indoor rifle leagues such as the Bald Eagle Rifle League. There are also opportunities from spring through fall to shoot sporting clay courses at your local sportsmens clubs.

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Youth Hunter Educational Challenge to hold informational night - Lock Haven Express

Traditionally, the Wisconsin gun deer season launches the weekend before Thanksgiving and runs through the Sunday following the national holiday. This years opening weekend found me on family property in north-central Wisconsin with my back to a huge oak tree and a lever-action rifle sitting across my lap. My blaze-orange coat was zipped up tight in the below-freezing temperature, but I know I had a satisfied smile on face.

Thanksgiving and Wisconsin deer hunting are state traditionsa time to celebrate family and friends, and to give thanks for all that we have in this country. This tradition is founded on the ideals of self-determination and freedom. Perhaps most crucial among the freedoms we enjoy is the Second Amendment, which, in a sense, is well celebrated during this week by Wisconsinites and by millions more around this great nation.

For many Wisconsin families, Thanksgiving itself starts with deer hunters getting out the door in the chilly pre-dawn and making their way to their hunting areas. They then, somehow, get back home early enough to enjoy the bird and all the trimmings with the family. After the meal, these hunters may take a quick nap on the couch while the football game plays on the television, and then itss up and back out for the later afternoon hunt.

Wisconsin is home to nearly 700,000 deer hunters, and those participating in the gun deer season are often called the orange army. While it is legal to use a bow during this season, most volunteers in the orange army head afield with the firearm of their choice. It may be grandpas lever-action or a new semi-automatic; whatever the choice, the experience is the same.

Those who are opposed to our Second Amendment rights have a different idea about the decisions we make as gun owners in a free nation. All too often these same anti-gun types have tried to divide gun owners at this time of the year by saying someone doesnt need this or that type of firearm to hunt deer with.

As A1F.com Editor in Chief Frank Miniter recently wrote: Anti-Second Amendment groups and politicianssuch as President Joe Biden (D) and former senator and presidential candidate John Kerry (D)have tried to divide and conquer gun owners by going hunting or mentioning hunters and then claiming true sportsmen and women dont need this or that type of gun.

Were not going to take away your hunting guns, these anti-gunners claim, just the bad ones that no real hunter would use. You know, those scary black rifles, or some other guns they wish to villify.

This tactic implies that the Second Amendment is essentially a hunting right. And since these anti-gun individuals and organizations arent targeting our hunting guns, well, they think we should be okay with their desired restrictions and bans.

The Second Amendment was written to stop government from infringing on our inherent right to keep and bear arms, as self-defense and self-determination are critical elements of actual freedom.

That said, would we have the hunting culture we do today in the United States and Wisconsin without the Second Amendment? I dont see how.

This deer season, I am using a Henry Arms Big Boy All-Weather Sidegate chambered in .357 Magnum. I like lever-actions, and wanted to try this particular rifle with new .357 mag. hunting ammunition.

Actually, though, my favorite hunting rifle is one of those scary black rifles the anti-gunners despise. Its an AR-10, specifically a DPMS GII Hunter chambered in .260 Rem., and Ive used it to great success on many deer and hog hunts.

Anti-Second Amendment types will tell you no one uses an AR-style rifle for huntingthese people are either misinformed or are intentionally spreading a falsehood. All sorts of American hunters like myself use AR-style rifles for hunting game, large and small, and its their choice to do so.

A vibrant Second Amendment provides somewhere between 14 and 20 million Americans with the right to go afield toting the firearms of their choice (state and local hunting regulations dependent, of course). The hunting we do is an important cultural force in this nation; this is so even though most of us dont need to hunt to feed ourselves and our families.

Hunting connects us to the self-sufficiency of the past. Hunting further connects us to the land and to nature, and every Thanksgiving week, tens-of-thousands of Wisconsin hunters and their families share the hunt as an annual tradition.

And for all that, Wisconsin deer hunters like myself very much give thanks.

Read more from the original source:
Giving Thanks this Thanksgiving: Family, Freedom, the Second Amendment and Hunting - America's 1st Freedom

The National Rifle Association has notched a big milestone: its 150th anniversary.

"For 150 years, millions of Americans from all walks of life, races, colors, and creeds have been proud members of the National Rifle Association of America. From Presidents of the United States, military heroes, those with household names to rank and file Americans like us, all have entrusted the NRA to be the guardians of their Second Amendment, their self-defense and hunting rights, and indeed their freedom as Americans," NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre exclusively told Fox News.

"That is a solemn duty that all of us at the NRA take seriously. That is why the NRA never has and never will shrink from a fight."

Wayne LaPierre, NRA vice president and CEO, speaks to guests at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum at the 148th NRA Annual Meetings Exhibits on April 26, 2019, in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) ()

The NRA was officially founded on Nov. 17, 1871, by Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate. The pair launched the group after they became disheartened by the lack of marksmanship among their troops during the war. Church explained in an op-ed at the time that the NRAs primary goal was to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis."

NRA founders Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate (Provided by the NRA)

Its history also includes arming Americans so they could fight back against the Ku Klux Klan, and the organization touts that some of its first members were Black Americans looking to defend themselves against Klan members. Nine of its 10 first presidents were also Union veterans who fought to defeat slavery.

NRA INSTRUCTOR TRAINS THOUSANDS OF INNER CITY WOMEN 'TO ENSURE THEYRE NEVER VICTIMS'

The association has repeatedly come under fire from liberals who say it is rooted in racism, which LaPierre also shot down earlier this year at CPAC.

"The fact is, before the color barrier was broken in professional sports, before it was broken in schools, lunch lines, water fountains, in the media, or in Hollywood, before all of that, and since our founding 150 years ago, the National Rifle Association of America has not only welcomed all Americans. We've fought for civil rights and constitutional freedom for all Americans!" LaPierre said at the time.

Through the years, the NRA has remained on target with its founders goal: training Americans.

During World War II, the NRA opened its ranges to the government and developed training guidelines. After the war, it focused on training hunters and established the first hunter education program, which has since spread from New York to across the country and Canada. In 1957, local North Carolina NAACP leader Rob Williams chartered an NRA-affiliated club to help residents of Monroe fight the KKK. And by 1960, the NRA became the only national trainer of law enforcement officers with its Police Firearms Instructor certification program.

The various training courses continue to today. One NRA instructor recently touted that he has trained thousands of women from Detroit on how to safely protect themselves with guns "to ensure theyre never victims."

The group also has also celebrated the many U.S. presidents throughout history who were NRA members, including John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

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Conservative political leaders also celebrated the NRAs birthday on social media, heralding the group as one protecting freedom.

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NRA celebrates 150th anniversary: Americans' 'guardians' of the Second Amendment - Fox News

As Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in two killings that he said were self-defense, armed civilians patrolled the streets near the Wisconsin courthouse with guns in plain view.

In Georgia, testimony in the trial of Ahmaud Arberys killers showed that armed patrols were commonplace in the neighborhood where Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down by three white men and shot.

The two proceedings sent startling new signals about the boundaries of self-defense as more guns emerge from homes amid political and racial tensions and the advance of laws that ease permitting requirements and expand the allowable use of force.

Across much of the nation, it has become increasingly acceptable for Americans to walk the streets with firearms, either carried openly or legally concealed. In places that still forbid such behavior, prohibitions on possessing guns in public could soon change if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a New York law.

The new status quo for firearms outside the home was on prominent display last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Local resident Erick Jordan carried a rifle and holstered handgun near the courthouse where Rittenhouse was tried for killing two men and wounding a third with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle during a protest last year.

I got a job to do protect these people. Thats it, said Jordan, referring to speakers at a news conference that was held in the hours after the verdict.

Speakers included an uncle of Jacob Blake, the Black man who was paralyzed in a shooting by a white police officer that touched off tumultuous protests across the city in the summer of 2020.

This is my town, my people, Jordan said. We dont agree on a lot of things, but we fight, we argue, we agree to disagree and go home safe, alive.

Thats real self-defense.

The comments were a counter punch to political figures on the right who welcomed the Rittenhouse verdict and condemned his prosecution.

Mark McCloskey, who pleaded guilty in June to misdemeanor charges stemming from when he and his wife waved a rifle and a handgun at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their St. Louis home in 2020, said the verdict shows that people have a right to defend themselves from a mob. He currently is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri.

The verdict arrived as many states are expanding self-defense laws and loosening the rules for carrying guns in public. Both gun sales and gun violence have been on the rise.

At the same time, six more states this year removed requirements to get a permit to carry guns in public, the largest number in any single year, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In all, 30 states have enacted stand your ground laws, which remove a requirement to retreat from confrontations before using deadly force.

Wisconsin has a tougher standard for claiming self-defense, and Rittenhouse was able to show the jury that he reasonably believed his life was in danger and that the amount of force he used was appropriate.

Ryan Busse, a former firearms-industry executive who now supports moderate gun control as an author and consultant, said the case reinforced the normalization of military-style weapons on city and suburban streets.

Reasonable gun owners are freaked out by this, he said. How is it that we see this and people are just like, Theres a guy with an AR-15. That happens in third-world countries.

He highlighted that a lesser charge against Rittenhouse as a minor in possession of a dangerous weapon was dropped before the verdict.

Theres a facet of Wisconsin law that allows kids to take their hunting rifle out with their dad or uncle, Busse said. Well hes not hunting. ... The old gun culture is being used to cover up for this new, dangerous firearms culture.

Gun-rights advocates seeking greater access to weapons and robust self-defense provisions argue that armed confrontations will remain rare.

Republicans including former President Donald Trump have been quick to applaud the verdict. They stand by Rittenhouse as a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness and exercised his Second Amendment rights.

Discord over the right to carry guns in public places spilled over into state legislatures in the aftermath of a 2020 plot to storm the Michigan Capitol, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and other threats. States including Michigan and New Mexico this year banned guns at their capitols, while Montana and Utah shored up concealed-carry rights.

At the Supreme Court, justices are weighing the biggest guns case in more than a decade, a dispute over whether New Yorks gun permitting law violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Defenders of the law say that striking it down would lead to more guns on the streets of cities, including New York and Los Angeles.

During oral arguments this month, justices also appeared to worry that a broad ruling might threaten gun restrictions on subways and at bars, stadiums and other gathering places.

New Yorks law has been in place since 1913. It says that to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense, an applicant has to demonstrate an actual need for the weapon.

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This story has been edited to correct that Jacob Blake was paralyzed, not killed, in a shooting by a police officer.

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Find APs full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse

Continue reading here:
In Kenosha and beyond, guns become more common on US streets - Associated Press

In a real scene, you can look around for the truth. This is what we depend on journalists to do. Too often, however, todays reporters dont report; they frame fake narratives.

I recall the scene outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on the bright morning in 2008 when the Court was poised to hear D.C. v. Heller. This case resulted in a 5-4 decision in which the Court affirmed the Second Amendment does, indeed, protect an individual right.

I watched as a handful of anti-Second Amendment activists were herded by a few TV talking heads into a tight group for the cameras. Shown this way, this small group of anti-freedom activists could be made to look like they were a small part of a large demonstration of people there to demand the high court rule the Second Amendment into meaninglessness.

Even here, in front of the main entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court, and under the eyes of a pair of statues carved by James Earle FraserContemplation of Justice, a seated woman holding a figure of blindfolded justice, and Authority of Law, a statue of a seated man holding a tablet of laws and a sheathed swordthese media members were busy shaping a fake-news narrative against our Second Amendment rights.

This, of course, was just a small part of the overall scene. All around this obvious narrative shaping were hundreds of people peacefully lined up, all hoping for a spectators seat inside. Many had lined up before the sun rose.

Later, inside, I sat on a bench up above the main floor watching the hearing with other members of the media. Not far away was an AP reporter. I didnt think much about her until, mid-hearing, when former Justice Anthony Kennedy asked a question that hinted he was pro-freedom, she gasped, Oh no!

I looked at her and smiled. Oh no, indeed.

Such is our media. But such are also our social-media companies and the narrative-shaping control they have over many Americans. The American public now receives censored news in their social-media feeds with no gun advertisements allowed; if gun owners talk about the shooting sports or self-defense in these digital spaces, they might be canceled or shadow banned. The real picture is, thereby, being shaped and controlled, just as those reporters in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building had done.

When a news source does this, you can see their politics woven into stories and put down the publication and pick up another. But Big Tech isnt a publication or a cable news channel; it is an entire digital reality we are all feeding and being fed. It is family, friends, news, ads and a bombardment of everything else.

We dont yet know the impact these digital realities are having on us, our politics and our freedom. But we do know we are being manipulated.

This, of course, is a big, complicated First Amendment topic that affects the Second.

Well continue to look for answers to this modern and deep problem.

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Control of the Narrative - America's 1st Freedom

The year 2020 was historic in Milwaukee, and not just because of the pandemic. The year set a record high for both homicides and gun violence, with 190 people killedthe vast majority killed with guns.

This year, were on pace to beat those numbers. One local organization, Milwaukee Mothers Against Gun Violence, is among the many working to combat this issue, but also changing the way we view victims.

Milwaukee Mothers Against Gun Violence was founded by Debra Gillispie after her son, Kirk Bickham Jr., was shot and killed. Gillispie was one of the winners of this years Betty Awards from Milwaukee Magazine, and she shares why she made gun violence the focus of her lifes work.

"Because they [her son and his friend] were murdered and because they were African American, they [media] assumed it was under negative pretense, says Gillispie. It was victim blaming. And so that sparked my action. [Of] me going into action to clarify how my son was murdered."

Gillispies work has led her to meet many other survivors and other people like herself who were affected by gun violence. She says every person she's met has stuck with her.

"They all stick out to me because their stories are so unique. Not one is the same. But what I would say is that those who want to keep the voices going, those people actually stick out to me," says Gillispie.

With the Rittenhouse trial putting gun rights in the forefront, Gillispie says she's been lucky to be in contact with organizations like Wisconsin Anti Violence Effort. Now, she says she's able to stay abreast of the changes and what's going on in real time with gun legislation.

"Everyone seems to talk about the Second Amendment, as opposed to the First Amendment, which is our right to live and feel safe. I think that it should be at the top of the discussion," says Gillispie.

In the future, Gillispie says she would like to channel her activism into giving survivors a platform to tell their story.

"Giving survivors the opportunity when they're ready to share with us what it is that they would like to happen or to change, after they lose someone to gun violence. I pray someone gives me the opportunity to do that for our survivors or victims of gun violence," says Gillispie.

Original post:
Milwaukee Mothers Against Gun Violence is working to change the way we view victims of gun violence - WUWM

Although I participated in the countercultural "revolutions," antiwar protestsand racial conflicts of the 1960s, it wasn't until August2016 that Ihad my first truly unnerving intimations of a full-blown American civil war: Then-presidential candidate Donald Trumptold a rallythat if Hillary Clinton "gets to pick her judges, judicial appointments, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people maybe there is. I don't know."

By June 1, 2020, Trump's seeming afterthought about "Second Amendment people"hadmetastasizedinto something truly scary. He and combat-fatigues-clad Gen.Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,along with Attorney General William Barr, strode from the White House to Lafayette Park, where a peaceful demonstration had been dispersed brutally by National Guard troops.

Trump's insistenceonlydays earlier that the U.S. Army itselfshouldbe sent against the protesters a demandechoed by Arkansas Sen.Tom Cottonin a now-infamous New York Times op-ed reminded me of Julius Caesarleading Roman legions illegally across the river Rubicon from Gaul into Italy in 49 B.C. to subdue Rome's own citizens and, with them, their republic.

Kenosha, Wisconsin's closest approximation to the Rubicon is the tiny Pike River, which flows from Petrifying Springs into Lake Michigan. Its closest approximation to a military crackdown was the police mobilization againstviolent protests aftera police officer shotand paralyzedan unarmed young Black man in August of last year. Those police failed to challenge Kyle Rittenhouse, the illegally armed, 17-year-old "Second Amendmentperson" who shot three men, killing two of them.

And when a Kenosha County jury failed to convict Rittenhouse on even a misdemeanor, sendingwhat the parents of Anthony Huber one of the men Rittenhousekilled characterized as"the unacceptable messagethat armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street," I couldn't help but wonder what, if anything, will stop armed "Second Amendment people" from showing up near polling places a year from now, as a Republican National Ballot Security Task Force" has done intermittently since 1981, although without brandishing guns.

More unnervingly and urgently, I wonder why a jury of ordinary citizens, along withthousands of others who approved and even celebrated the Rittenhouse verdict are walking themselves across a Rubicon to deliver the message I've just cited, even though they haven't been "demagogued" into doing it by a Caesar or driven to do it by a military force.

New York Times columnistCharles Blow has notedthat Rittenhousewas the same age asTrayvon Martin, the unarmed Black youth shot dead in Florida by George Zimmerman, who consideredhimself a "protector" of his neighborhood and who was acquitted of murder. Blow notes that although Trayvon Martin "was thugified" by Zimmerman and the judicial process, Rittenhouse was "infantilized" by the defenseargument that a 17-year-old may be excused for misjudging dangers that hehimselfhas provokedillegally. It's hard to imagine a similar jury acceptingsimilarexcuses for a young Blackman with an assault rifle,even if he never fired it.

I've contendedfor yearsthatswift, dark undercurrents are degrading and stupefying Americans in waysthatmost of us trynot to acknowledge. Moreof usthan ever before arenormalizing ouradaptations todailyvariants of force and fraud in the commercial groping and goosing of our private lives and public spaces; in nihilisticentertainment that fetishizes violence without context and sex without attachment; in the "gladiatorialization: and corruptionofsports; in home-security precautions against the prospect of armed invasion; in casino-like financing of unproductive economic activities, such as the predatory lending that tricksmillions out of their homes; and in a huge, ever-expanding prison industry created to deter or punish the broken, violent victims of all these come-ons, even as schools in the"nicest,""safest," neighborhoods operate in fear of gunmenwho, from Columbine to Sandy Hook and beyond, havebeen students orresidents there themselves.

Stressed by this republican derangement, millions are spending billions on palliatives, medications, addictions and even surveillance designed to protect them from themselves. All those vials, syringes,home-security systems and shootings reflect the insinuation of what Edward Gibbon, the historian of ancient Rome, called "a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire" until Roman citizens "no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army."

Is it really so surprising that some of the stressed and dispossessed, too ill to bear their sicknesses or their cures, demand to be lied to instead, withsimple but compelling fantasies that direct them toward saviors and scapegoats into cries for strongmen to cross a Rubicon or two and for "Second Amendment people" to take our streets?

Read the rest here:
The Rittenhouse syndrome: Has America crossed the Rubicon? - Salon

Tom Campbell| Tar Heel Voices

Maybe you remember the classic 1975 film, Network, where the anchor Howard Beale, throws open a window and shouts, Im mad as hell and Im not going to take it anymore.

Perhaps thats an explanation for the 2020 statistics on violent crime.

The good news-bad revelation is that the overall crime rate in our state declined again in 2020, however violent crime increased by 31 percent year over year. Philip Cook, a professor of public policy at Duke, said it was the largest increase since experts started keeping stats in the early '30s. 2020 became the most violent year of the 21st Century, Cook said. It looks like that is also true for North Carolina.

A crime is considered violent if it involves rape, robbery, aggravated assault or murder. Our state reported 44,452 violent crimes and 852 homicides, ranking us 21st in the nation ahead of New York, Georgia and most southeastern states, with the exception of South Carolina. We experienced 670 gun deaths, up from 2019s 511, and there were 20 mass shootings. Preliminary evidence indicates these numbers will increase again this year.

After years of decline in violent crimes how can we explain last years large increase, especially since most of us were cooped up in our homes for much of last year? Perhaps our pandemic frustrations morphed into anger. The hyper charged political climate could also have spawned violence and hatred. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that North Carolina has 29 active hate groups within our borders, groups that include white nationalists, neo-confederates, Ku Klux Klans, racist skinheads, Islamic, anti-immigration and Proud Boys.

Complete data from last year isnt yet available, but we know the majority of gun-related deaths involved suicide. In 2019 suicide deaths were 1,358 and since violent crime numbers rose last year it is reasonable to assume suicides did also. There are two responses to this data.

The first involves mental illness. Few can deny that our states mental health reforms, begun in 2003, are a disaster. Our state eliminated 854 psychiatric hospital beds from state facilities and re-directed funding to local communities. These local management entities were neither capable of dealing with the swell in patients nor able to provide adequate staffing and resources for them. Many with mental illness end up in emergency rooms, in county jails or committing suicide. Better options might have prevented some of these problems.

The second issue is gun control and I can already hear the gun lobby getting their dog-whistles ready to resist any restrictions to their second amendment rights. Take another look at what this article in the Bill of Rights says and doesnt say.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." In 1791, when the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, there was no massive federal Army, no full-time or part-time state militias, police or sheriff departments like we have today. It was essential to have citizen militia groups, and they needed guns to defend themselves and their communities.

We support that right today, but it has been abused to mean anyone can own any weapon they want and carry it anywhere they go. Whenever even the hint of gun control is raised we hear threats that the boogey-man is trying to take all your guns. Not so. It is time for reasonable gun owners to show some backbone and admit there are too many guns too easy to buy and in the wrong hands. Daily we see headlines of drive-by and public shootings. Recently a North Carolina pastor call on his congregation from the pulpit to get gun training. Do we really want someone sitting in the pew next to us coming to church carrying?

Whats it going to take to move away from the anger and hatred evident today? We must lower the boiling point and find workable solutions for reducing both the anger and violent crime. For the time being, the best advice is the old time-honored axiom to count to ten before taking action.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina Broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965. He recently retired from writing, producing and moderating the statewide half-hour TV program NC SPIN that aired 22 years. Contact him at tomcamp@carolinabroadcasting.com.

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Tar Heel Voices: Mad as you-know-what and not going to take it - Kinston Free Press