Tag: Self Defense

Tennessee Considers Bill Legalizing Non-Lethal Weapons on College Campuses Following Murder of Laken Riley

Tom Pappert
State Rep Gino Bulso and Laken Riley

The Tennessee General Assembly is considering legislation that would enshrine the legal right of members of the public to carry a variety of non lethal weapons on college campuses.

Already passed in the Tennessee House of Representatives on last Monday, HB 1909 by Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) would specify “that it is not a criminal offense for an adult person to carry or possess pepper spray, a taser, or another similar device for purposes of self-defense” when on any college or university.

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Former Arizona AG: States Have Constitutional Right to Self-Defense

The Center Square
Brnovich State Rights

Former Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich again on Tuesday argued the constitutional authority given to states for self-defense.

Brnovich testified at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing addressing the issue after being the first and only state attorney general to issue a formal legal opinion that defines an invasion and lays out the constitutional authority of states’ self-defense.

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Ohio Senator JD Vance Introduces Bill to Codify Border States’ Rights to Defend Own Territory from Illegal Migrants

Kaitlin Housler

Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would “codify the right of every state along the U.S.-Mexico border to defend its own territory.”

Vance’s State Border Security Act would prevent federal agents from dismantling barbed wire or other fencing erected by state governments within 25 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Commentary: Gun Owners End 2023 Proving Gun Control Advocates Wrong

Admin
Hunting

As 2023 drew to a close, millions of peaceable Americans geared up for a new year that will bring with it many new limitations on their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

In California, for example, Jan. 1 was the date to ring in the state’s plethora of new restrictions on carrying concealed firearms in public, courtesy of SB 2, a law passed in the wake of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen to punish concealed carry permit holders for having their rights vindicated by the Supreme Court.

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Commentary: 11 More Examples of Defensive Gun Use to Fend Off Criminals

Admin
Gun Bullets

As cities across the country reel from explosive crime rates, many politicians at the local, state, and federal levels are too preoccupied with disarming peaceable American gun owners to identify, arrest, and prosecute actual criminals adequately.  

Two masked attackers met their match last month when they attacked Los Angeles resident Vince Ricci as he walked toward the front door of his house. The pair brandished a firearm at Ricci, who pulled out his own gun and shot at the thugs, who ran away.

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Commentary: 12 Defensive Gun Uses Show That Armed Citizens Make Communities Safer

Admin

As the nation continues to reel from historic violent crime spikes, many gun control activists turn reflexively to the same “bumper sticker slogan” policy “solutions” that fail to address real problems while often undermining the Second Amendment rights of peaceable citizens.

Last week, some Hartford, Connecticut, residents made headlines for taking a different approach. Instead of demanding that their fellow citizens abandon their rights to armed self-defense, they announced that they would henceforth start exercising those rights in a public manner to enhance community safety.

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Heritage Foundation Attorney Says Tennessee Man Wrongly Charged with Reckless Endangerment After Returning Fire on Assailants

Peter D'Abrosca

A lawyer from the conservative Heritage Foundation says that she is “floored” after a Tennessee man who returned fire on multiple assailants was charged with reckless endangerment. 

“I’m floored that the home owner here is being charged with ‘reckless endangerment.’ The arguments from police seem absurd on their face to me. The only people he endangered were…the ones shooting at him. And he’s 100% entitled to ‘endanger’ them,” said Heritage Senior Legal Fellow Amy Swearer. 

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Murfreesboro Police Won’t Charge Man Who Killed Home Intruders

Peter D'Abrosca

Police in Murfreesboro say they will not charge a homeowner shot and killed an intruder after that intruder, along with a second suspect broke into the home, used a taser on the homeowner’s dog and held a gun to one of the homeowner’s children.

“MPD Criminal Investigations Division detectives are investigating a home invasion where the homeowner shoots two intruders, killing one and injuring the other on Friday night. 52-year-old Kevin Ford was pronounced dead at the scene,” according to the police department’s Twitter account.

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Booted from GoFundMe, Legal Defense Funds for Rancher Who Fatally Shot Illegal Immigrant Raise over $350,000 on GiveSendGo

Rachel Alexander

George Alan Kelly, a southern Arizona rancher, received over $350,000 in legal defense fund aid on GiveSendGo after being kicked off of GoFundMe for trying to raise money for his case.

Kelly is being charged with first-degree, premeditated murder for allegedly shooting an illegal immigrant on his property on January 30. GoFundMe took off multiple legal defense funds for Kelly because the company said these funds violated its terms of service about raising money “to cover the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime.”

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Commentary: Defensive Gun Uses in Month of July Show Protective Benefits of Second Amendment

Admin

I testified before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee last month in a hearing focused on “the economic toll of gun violence.”

Of course, there’s no doubt that gun violence imposes a tremendous cost on society, both financially and in far less readily calculable ways. How does one measure, for example, the mental and emotional toll of being shot?

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Commentary: Rittenhouse Case Highlights a House Divided on Self-Defense

Admin

The conclusion of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, in which the 18-year-old was found not guilty of murder or assault in the shootings of three rioters in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, reflects a widening gap in how Americans conceive of justice and self-defense. 

For those cheering Rittenhouse’s exoneration, the case was a prototypical demonstration of rights and obligations of republican citizenship. A lawfully armed Rittenhouse joined with neighbors, in the absence of effective governance, to protect lives and property by putting out fires, cleaning up damage, and offering medical assistance to the injured. When he was directly assaulted for engaging in this activity, Rittenhouse defended himself, harming no one who had not directly placed him under reasonable fear for his life.

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Two Black Men Made Self-Defense Claims Against Police This Year and Won

Admin

Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber (both white men) because of white supremacy, according to left-wing politicians and journalists.

Rittenhouse shot three people (all white), killing two, in a claimed self-defense incident after he was charged by left-wing rioters during unrest in Kenosha last year. A jury cleared him of all charges on Friday.

According to people like Rep. Cori Bush, Rittenhouse’s acquittal was “white supremacy in action.”

“This system isn’t built to hold white supremacists accountable. It’s why Black and brown folks are brutalized and put in cages while white supremacist murderers walk free,” she said on Twitter.

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Judge Dismisses Weapons Charge Against Rittenhouse, Closing Arguments Delivered

Peter D'Abrosca
Kyle Rittenhouse

In the high-profile trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, accused of intentional homicide after killing two and wounding one during an August 25, 2020 riot in Kenosha, Judge Bruce Schroeder began Monday by dismissing a weapons charge against the 18-year-old defendant. 

Count six of the complaint, possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, was dropped before closing arguments began. That was a lesser charge in the complaint – a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in prison. 

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Ohio ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Takes Effect Tuesday

Peter D'Abrosca
State Senator Tim Schaffer

Senate Bill 175, which removes the duty to retreat in the event of a physical attack against a person or residence, will go into effect Tuesday. 

“For purposes of determining the potential liability of a person in a tort action related to the person’s use of force alleged to be in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of the person’s residence, the person has no duty to retreat before using force in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of that person’s residence,” the text of the bill says. 

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Georgia Senate Passes Bill to Repeal Citizens Arrest Law

Peter D'Abrosca

Georgia is on its way to repealing a centuries-old citizens arrest law that currently allows citizens of the Peach State to detain others if a crime is committed in their presence “or within their immediate knowledge.”

Monday, HB 479  passed the Georgia Senate with a 52-1 vote. It will head back to the House where a Senate amendment giving business owners the right to detain suspected thieves will be voted open. 

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Analysis: These 11 Examples of Defensive Gun Use Undermine Push for More Gun Control

Admin

March is Women’s History Month, yet Congress appears ready to celebrate in the worst way possible by creating more barriers for women who seek to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

While COVID-19-related bills have taken up much of the national spotlight, several gun control bills are primed for passage this week in the House. This is hardly surprising, given that just last month, President Joe Biden called on Congress to enact a plethora of new federal gun legislation.

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Eleven Cases of Defensive Gun Use That Show How Biden’s Key Picks Miss the Mark

Admin

Joe Biden has begun naming his picks for top political positions in a Biden administration, and it is already evident that many of them are not fans of Americans’ Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

For example, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra—Biden’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services—has spent the past three years defending that state’s absurdly restrictive gun control laws in federal court.

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Analysis: In These 11 Incidents, Gun Owners Defended Life and Property

Admin

The last week of May proved just how quickly the seemingly stable peace of our world can devolve into chaos and near-anarchy. Many of us, already concerned that police departments were stretched thin by COVID-19, watched in horror as law enforcement seemed to lose control of protests in major cities.

For several nights, police officers scarcely could keep their own precincts from being overrun, much less respond to calls for help from terrified civilians.

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Latest News of Self-Defense With Firearms Contradicts Gun Control Rhetoric

Admin

by Amy Swearer   Gun control advocates long have controlled the narrative about defensive uses of firearms, calling the “good guy with a gun” scenario a “myth meant to scare people into buying guns for self-defense.” This is a false narrative that does not reflect reality. Despite a backdrop of rhetoric asserting that “the average person … has basically no chance in their lifetime ever to use a gun in self-defense,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2013 report concluded that studies routinely find that Americans use firearms in defense of themselves or others between 500,000 and 3 million times every year. Data collected by the CDC itself, but long hidden from the public, indicates that the number is likely around 1 million defensive gun uses per year. But even the lowest end of this statistical range far outpaces the number of times Americans use firearms for unlawful purposes. It’s one thing to hear that incredible number and know that the “good guy with a gun” is not a myth. It’s another thing entirely to dig deeper into the firsthand accounts of individual law-abiding Americans whose lives and livelihoods were saved because they were able to exercise…

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The Tennessee Star Report Talks to Brentwood Police Officer, Scott Willey About How to Stay Smart and Safe This Holiday Season

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the duo spoke with Brentwood Police Officer Scott Willey about how to be aware and protect yourself this holiday season and strategies on how to prevent an attack . Gill: I was talking with one of my friends in the Brentwood Police Department, Scott Willey the other day and he was talking about some of things that they’re seeing in law enforcement not just in Brentwood, Williamson County but across Middle Tennessee that kind of raised my eyebrows on wow, we need to let people know what to be aware of, particularly during this holiday season.  Your running around, it’s rushed, it’s chaos, it gets dark early.  So how do you protect your property when your heading to the mall or your heading to a shopping center somewhere.  We’re seeing an increase in violence and crime in Nashville and it’s bleeding into, no pun intended, suburban areas.  So I thought we’d get Scott on to give us just some tips, some advice on how to keep your “head on a…

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