-Land of the Free | |
After 25 years, VDARE.com succumbs to lawfare | |
2024-08-03 | |
Someone I know recently lost his daughter. She was exactly the same age as my son Alexander, and in fact we have pictures of them together as babies. Needless to say, losing VDARE.com is absolutely nothing compared to that. But it still hurts. Very soon, the VDARE.com website will be suspended. We are currently unsure for how long the archives will remain accessible, or even if they will be accessible at all. (We do think that our social media, however, will still function). So my role here has been destroyed. After 25 years, I am resigning as Editor of VDARE.com and from the VDARE.com Foundation board. My wife Lydia will continue for now as President of the VDARE Foundation, handling the administrative details of winding down—and, of course, paying lawyers. One bright spot: The Berkeley Springs Castle, which is where we’re filming this, is owned by a separate foundation that is based in West Virginia. It will continue to host Dissident conferences as well as normie events like weddings and so on—if any of you want to get married and battle the Great Replacement. VDARE.com was a highly successful operation—particularly after Lydia solved the problem of us getting our conferences cancelled by buying the Castle. But it has been murdered by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. It’s important to note that she’s not charged us with anything. But under James, New York State has become what liberal law professor Jonathan Turley has described as “The Land The Law Forgot.” She has waged unprecedented, unethical and unscrupulous lawfare against, for example, the National Rifle Association and, most notoriously, against President Donald J. Trump. And, much lower down the food chain, against the VDARE Foundation. We have been registered, alas, in New York State since 1999, before anyone had ever heard of lawfare. Or of Letitia James. To repeat: James has not charged us with anything. She has simply battered us to death by a massive and intrusive “investigation” that bears no rational relationship to any conceivable offense. We estimate we’ve spent upwards of a million dollars on compliance, let alone hundreds of hours of work. All of these resources should have gone to our mission: advancing the cause of Patriotic Immigration Reform. Letitia James is quite obviously aiming at suppressing our speech. But the New York State courts have completely declined to protect our First Amendment rights. We can’t go on. But there are three other interlocking issues that are also forcing us to suspend.
It extends even to personal matters, for example our long-time personal financial advisor, who's been with us 15 or 16 years, was forced to drop us recently. Americans generally don't understand what is actually going on here—how this de facto “Social Credit “system, like the one the Chinese Communists have, being used to suppress patriots. | |
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-Land of the Free |
Should Gun Store Sales Get Special Credit Card Tracking? States Split on Mandating or Prohibiting it |
2024-06-30 |
[Newsmax] Beginning Monday, a California law will require credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard to provide banks with special retail codes that can be assigned to gun stores in order to track their sales. But new laws will do the exact opposite in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming by banning the use of specific gun shop codes. The conflicting laws highlight what has quietly emerged as one of the nation's newest gun policy debates, dividing state capitols along familiar partisan lines. Some Democratic lawmakers and gun-control activists hope the new retail tracking code will help financial institutions flag suspicious gun-related purchases for law enforcement agencies, potentially averting mass shootings and other crimes. Lawmakers in Colorado and New York have followed California's lead. "The merchant category code is the first step in the banking system saying, `Enough! We’re putting our foot down,'" said Hudson Munoz, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Guns Down America. "`You cannot use our system to facilitate gun crimes.’" But many Republican lawmakers and gun-rights advocates fear the retail code could lead to unwarranted suspicion of gun buyers who have done nothing wrong. Over the past 16 months, 17 states with GOP-led legislatures have passed measures prohibiting a firearms store code or limiting its use. "We view this as a first step by gun-control supporters to restrict the lawful commerce in firearms," said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group that backs laws blocking use of the tracking code. The new laws add to the wide national divide on gun policy. This past week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, citing a rising number of firearm-related deaths, including more than 48,000 in 2022. The move was quickly criticized by the National Rifle Association. |
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-Land of the Free |
Federal Judge Rules Millions Of NRA Members Exempt From ATF Pistol Brace Rule |
2024-04-05 |
[ZERO] A federal judge has blocked the ATF from enforcing its pistol brace rule for millions of members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the appeals process plays out. It came after the NRA filed a lawsuit against the ATF, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arguing that the agency’s rule to reclassify the brace-equipped pistols as short-barreled rifles is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay sided with the gun rights group, arguing that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already concluded that the ATF pistol-brace rule "fails the logical outgrowth test and violates" the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and is "unlawful" under the act. "The court, therefore, sees no reason why it should not consider this argument and APA claim in ruling on Plaintiff’s Motion," the judge added. "To not do so would be exalt form over substance, particularly since the Fifth Circuit has already determined that this claim has a substantial likelihood of succeeding on the merits." The judge agreed with the NRA’s arguments that its members would be substantially harmed by the ATF rule, which was finalized in January 2023. |
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-Lurid Crime Tales- |
Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership ‐ here's why it doesn't have mass shootings |
2023-10-27 |
[Business Insider] Switzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself. The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero. The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit. But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use. Insider took a look at the country's past with guns to see why it has lower rates of gun violence than the US, where gun-death rates are now at their highest in more than 20 years, and the leading cause of death for children and adolescents. |
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-Lurid Crime Tales- |
NRA's Impressive Record of Defeat |
2023-07-27 |
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past four years — as is apparently the case with many NRA members and the entire NRA Board of Directors — the Attorney General of New York filed charges against the Association and several of its top executives in August of 2020 after the publication of a damning investigative report in April of 2019. The New York AG charged Association’s paid staff and elected officers with diverting charitable funds away from their intended purposes and into the pockets of NRA brass and their pals. There is no question that the New York Attorney General is an ambitious, partisan politician who campaigned on a promise to destroy the NRA, and it is undeniable that her pursuit of the Association is very much politically motivated. In their talking points, the NRA "leadership" restates that accurate analysis, and goes on to dismiss everything raised in the suit as just a politically-motivated attack with no substance. The trouble is that dismissal is a lie. There is a great deal of substance to the suits. When James’ investigators started looking into the organization, they found a seething den of corruption. In short, virtually all of the charges brought by the NY AG are backed up by documentary evidence and appalling levels of self-incrimination on the part of NRA "leaders." The sad truth is that NRA executives and their cronies have been blatantly pocketing tens of millions of dollars from the NRA for years. Meanwhile, the NRA Board of Directors, who hold a fiduciary responsibility to the members of the Association, have willfully looked away, abdicating their responsibilities, instead standing resolutely behind Wayne LaPierre and his fellow miscreants. Related: National Rifle Association: 2023-06-28 Gun-toting dad who thwarted mass shooting despite being shot in head now training others on self-defense National Rifle Association: 2023-04-21 Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership ‐ here's why it doesn't have mass shootings National Rifle Association: 2023-04-21 Trump Endorses Using Military to Crush Cartels: ‘I Would Do That' Related: Letitia James: 2023-07-18 NY State's top cop Letitia James sued for 'targeting and defaming' peaceful pro-lifers Letitia James: 2023-07-15 Founder of failed crypto lending platform Celsius Network arrested on fraud charges Letitia James: 2022-10-02 Trump slams 'racist' NY AG Letitia James for fraud lawsuit at Michigan rally |
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-Land of the Free | |
Gun-toting dad who thwarted mass shooting despite being shot in head now training others on self-defense | |
2023-06-28 | |
[FoxNews] Concealed-carry holder became certified NRA instructor last month. One year ago on July 3, Arizona resident and concealed-carry holder Raul Mendez and his family were enjoying a Fourth of July party before shots rang out and left their lives changed forever. Mendez was shot in the head as suspect Jason Hunt opened fire on the partygoers, leaving two men dead and four others, including Mendez, seriously injured. The rampage ended when Mendez was able to gather the strength to pick himself off the floor, unholster his concealed-carry weapon and shoot Hunt four times in the chest. "It's still something that's unreal," Mendez told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this week. "It's kind of like, now we know what's out there. And you always see it on the news that this happened, that happened … but you never think it's going to happen to you." "It's always like, 'Oh, this happened, that's horrible,'" he added. "But then life goes on because, you know, it's never happened to you and never really think about that it's going happen to you." Mendez recounted to Fox News Digital that he was attending a party with his two daughters and seven-months pregnant wife with friends and other families to celebrate the founding of America at a home in Surprise, Arizona. About 30 people were gathered in the home, including young children, as the group celebrated with fireworks and food, Mendez previously told Fox. Surprise is a quiet Arizona town, Mendez said, which is located next to Sun City West, one of Arizona’s largest retirement communities. A neighbor of the man hosting the party soon joined and mingled with the group despite not being close friends with anyone there, according to Mendez. That neighbor was later identified by police as 46-year-old Jason Hunt, the sole suspect in the case who opened fire unprovoked on the families and partiers, police said last year, according to the Arizona Republic. Hunt and other partiers were grabbing food from the kitchen when the suspect pulled out a gun and began firing on the crowd, sending everyone fleeing, according to Mendez. Mendez was shot in the head in front of his wife, who rushed to his side and believed he was dead due to the amount of blood covering his face. She then grabbed their two daughters and put them into a room deeper in the house, barricading them and other children inside. Two other women in the home tried to fight Hunt while Mendez’s wife protected five children barricaded in a closet. The women called to Mendez hoping he was still alive as they knew he had a concealed-carry weapon. "By the glory of God or the adrenaline and just everything, just the will to live and the will to protect my family, I was able to hear those pleas, those yells for help," he said after the shooting. "I heard my name. And I was able to get up." Hunt was thwarted and police later said Mendez was "acting in self-defense and defense of other innocent parties."
Mendez lost his left eye, fractured his jaw, suffered a torn eardrum and lost his sense of smell because of the shooting, but he said he has been on the mend since. Following the carnage, Mendez is now taking his experience to help train others to defend themselves and embrace their Second Amendment rights. He became a certified NRA (National Rifle Association) instructor last month and is preparing to lead classes by teaching his immediate friends and family about gun safety. | |
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Europe |
Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership ‐ here's why it doesn't have mass shootings |
2023-04-21 |
The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero. The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit. But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use. Insider took a look at the country's past with guns to see why it has lower rates of gun violence than the US, where after a mass shooting that killed 6 at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, gun-death rates are now at their highest in more than 20 years, and the leading cause of death for children and adolescents. |
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-Land of the Free |
Trump Endorses Using Military to Crush Cartels: ‘I Would Do That' |
2023-04-21 |
[Breitbart] Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively that he supports a proposal from Reps. Michael Waltz (R-FL) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) that would authorize the use of military force against Mexican drug cartels to target the criminal enterprises and dismantle them. “I would do that,” Trump said when asked about the congressmen’s Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) legislation that they have recently proposed. Trump had earlier this year released a policy video in which he explained he supported using the military to target the cartels, but this is the first time he has weighed in on the specific proposal before Congress to do so. In response to Waltz’s AUMF plan, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said he opposes it and even threatened to interfere in U.S. elections to help Democrats and oppose Republicans in response to it. “In addition to being irresponsible, it is an offense to the people of Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said in March. "And it would impact my income" Trump, in his exclusive interview here with Breitbart News last week after his speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual gathering, noted that he does in fact have a good relationship with Lopez Obrador. Trump called Lopez Obrador a “gentleman,” even though he is a “socialist” and argued that if elected back to the White House he believes he would be able to work with the Mexican leader to crush the cartels and use U.S. military assets to help. “I also have a very good relationship with the president of Mexico,” Trump told Breitbart News. “He’s a socialist but he also happens to be a gentleman. You can’t have everything, right? But he’s a great person. Certainly, I would deal with him. This is an invasion of our country — this isn’t just people walking over. This is an invasion. Many of these are people we do not want in our country. They’re very bad for our country. They’re very bad and dangerous. But this is an invasion of our country. Nope, we will stop it and we will stop it immediately.” Trump is right that he and Lopez Obrador had a decent working relationship when he was president. In fact, that relationship was the foundation for one of Trump’s most consequential policies, the Remain-in-Mexico plan, which had asylum seekers stay on the other side of the border while their claims were processed rather than being released into the United States as current Democrat President Joe Biden is doing by the millions. Waltz, in an exclusive interview last month at the House GOP conference retreat in Orlando, told Breitbart News that what his AUMF would open up is the use of military resources like space and cyber assets. “It essentially authorizes military resources,” Waltz said. “So, space assets for targeting. Your Border Patrol — our law enforcement and border entities don’t have their own space assets. The military does. Offensive cyber — as opposed to just defending our networks here at home, but actually getting inside somebody else’s networks and start disrupting their money, their logistics, their ability to communicate. That all sits inside the Defense Department. So, this would authorize the use — this would authorize the use of military force, but I think it’s more accurate to call it resources.” Waltz during that interview compared his proposal to something that former Democrat President Bill Clinton did with the Colombian government in the 1990s to use the U.S. military to help dismantle two major Colombian cartels. That mission, titled Plan Colombia, saw the U.S. military cooperating with the Colombian government to successfully destroy the Cali and the Medellin cartels. Asked about that comparison that Waltz made back to Plan Colombia during the Clinton years, Trump told Breitbart News that “absolutely” he could see something like that with Lopez Obrador and Mexico if he’s back in the White House. Trump also noted that many people streaming across the border are sick or susceptible to spreading serious diseases, something recent statistics confirm. As Breitbart News reported this week, for instance, more than half of the border crossers brought to New York City are not vaccinated against polio. “We’re being invaded. They’re invading our country,” Trump told Breitbart News. “They’re killing people. The crime is up because of the people that are coming in. Not all, but many, and they’re coming in from prisons and mental institutions. These countries are doing it. I had it stopped. I had it totally stopped. If other countries wouldn’t do it, we weren’t going to give them any money. We give a lot of money to these countries. I would have that stopped immediately and we would bring people out. But absolutely, this is an invasion. We have soldiers coming into our country. They’re making people sick. Many of these people are sick with very contagious disease and they’re spreading this all over our country. This is an invasion of our country. It has to stop. So if somebody is talking about military, I certainly wouldn’t rule that out.” |
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-Land of the Free |
GOP lawmakers, NRA slam ATF rule to regulate pistol braces: 'Unconstitutional overreach' |
2023-01-17 |
Reads like victims were beaten with the pistol braces. [FoxNews] Republican lawmakers and gun rights groups blasted the Biden administration over a new rule that tightens regulations on pistol stabilizing braces. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (ATF) finalized a new regulation Friday that will treat guns with stabilizing accessories like short-barreled rifles, which require a federal license to own under the National Firearms Act. The move is part of a comprehensive gun crime strategy President Biden announced in April 2021, in response to the massacre at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, where a gunman using a stabilizing brace killed 10 people. A stabilizing brace was also used in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that left nine people dead in 2019. Announcing the rule, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that stabilizing brace accessories, which were designed to help disabled combat veterans enjoy recreational shooting, transform pistols into short-barreled rifles. "Keeping our communities safe from gun violence is among the Department’s highest priorities," Garland said. "Almost a century ago, Congress determined that short-barreled rifles must be subject to heightened requirements. Today’s rule makes clear that firearm manufacturers, dealers, and individuals cannot evade these important public safety protections simply by adding accessories to pistols that transform them into short-barreled rifles." "Certain so-called stabilizing braces are designed to just attach to pistols, essentially converting them into short-barreled rifles to be fired from the shoulder," said ATF Director Steven Dettelbach. "Therefore, they must be treated in the same way under the statute." Second Amendment advocates were apoplectic over new requirements for gun owners to register existing pistols equipped with stabilizing braces with the government within 120 days, or else remove the brace or surrender the firearm to ATF. "The Biden administration chose to shred the Constitution today," the National Rifle Association said. "Joe Biden is an enemy of our Second Amendment," the group added. Gun Owners of America, which bills itself as the only "no-compromise" gun lobby in Washington, D.C., vowed to file a lawsuit challenging Biden's new ATF regulation. "This admin continues to find ways to attack gun owners. We will continue to work with our industry partners to amplify the disapproving voices in the firearms industry and [Gun Owners Foundation], our sister legal arm, will be filing suit in the near future," said Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America. "Pres. Biden just initiated the largest federal gun registration scheme in our nation’s history w/o even the passage of a new law. GOA is actively working with Congress to pass a resolution blocking this rule under the Congressional Review Act," added the organization's director of federal affairs, Aidan Johnston. Their cause was taken up by Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who in June 2021 wrote a letter signed by 140 lawmakers expressing opposition to the proposed rule on stabilizing braces. Related: Gun Owners of America: 2023-01-15 ATF Final Rule: Stabilizer Brace Owners Have 120 Days to Register Them Gun Owners of America: 2022-02-02 ATF Admits To Secret Database Of "Nearly One Billion Gun Records" Gun Owners of America: 2021-01-24 Chief Justice Roberts will not preside over any Senate impeachment trial of President Trump |
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-Great Cultural Revolution |
Hunters fear 'end of firearm sales' until Oregon creates gun permit system |
2022-11-19 |
[FoxNews] Oregon police rush to create gun permit system as December deadline approaches. One of the nation's strictest gun control measures takes effect next month in Oregon. Hunters and other gun groups fear it will force all firearm sales to pause. Gun rights advocates fear all firearm sales will freeze in Oregon in three weeks when one of the nation's strictest gun control measures takes effect. Measure 114, which voters appear to have been passed by a 1.5% margin, bans ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and mandates the creation of a permit-to-purchase system that includes hands-on firearm training. "We're looking at the end of firearm sales in Oregon until this system is put into place," Amy Patrick, policy director for the Oregon Hunters Association, told Fox News. Oregon State Police announced this week that Measure 114 will take effect Dec. 8. Fox News asked OSP in an email whether firearm purchases will halt on that date if a permit processing system is not yet in place. A spokesperson for the agency said only that "OSP is working diligently to ensure that the new Permit to Purchase program will be operational by December 8, 2022." Six out of Oregon's 36 counties voted in favor of the measure. At least five sheriffs have said they will not enforce part or all of the law when it takes effect, but it's not yet clear how that would work with a permitting system that will likely be implemented at the state level. Numerous outdoor and sportsmen groups have expressed opposition to Measure 114, including the national Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and National Shooting Sports Foundation. "It’s a feel-good measure that only adds new unfunded burdens on local police, eliminates opportunities for recreational activities and hurts conservation funding while not making any tangible impact on the real problem," Keely Hopkins, the manager of Pacific states & firearm policy for Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, wrote in a statement. Patrick said gun stores are preparing for the worst-case scenario, telling customers they may have to stop selling firearms next month. "That also means that Oregonians cannot go out of state to purchase firearms either," Patrick said. "We're basically being held hostage by 114 because firearms dealers have to respect the laws of a person's home state." Federal law forbids gun sales for buyers from outside states in most instances OSP has seen an "extreme" increase in requests for background checks since before the midterm elections, according to a Facebook post by the agency. The spike now appears even more dramatic than during the coronavirus pandemic, when Oregon and other states saw record-breaking gun sales. Currently, Oregonians only need to pass a background check to buy a gun. But the new measure requires that prospective gun buyers complete "in-person demonstration of the applicant’s ability to lock, load, unload, fire and store a firearm before an instructor certified by a law enforcement agency" — a much stricter process than what is currently required to obtain a concealed handgun license in Oregon. The language of the magazine capacity limit may also impact bird hunters and skeet and trap shooters, leading to opposition from the Oregon National Rifle Association, the Democratic Party of Oregon Gun Owners Caucus and the Oregon Firearms Federation which argue that several shotgun models are capable of holding more than 10 rounds. "That's going to make a big impact on our shot gunners and whether or not they can utilize the firearms that they have or potentially purchase a firearm that would be appropriate for bird hunting," Patrick said. She said OHA knows of several state and national groups preparing to file litigation. "We are hopeful that there will be an injunction put in place with some of these lawsuits," she said. "That's the best case scenario right now." |
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