Shocking Video Exposes Truth Behind Viral Bridge Explosion Hoax

In this special report, we debunk the viral video claiming to show a massive explosion on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Our investigation reveals the shocking truth behind this misleading footage and exposes the real cause of the bridge's catastrophic collapse. Discover how a ship collision, not an explosion, led to this devastating incident that left multiple people in need of rescue from the frigid Patapsco River. We uncover the origins of the misattributed video and provide a comprehensive timeline of events based on official statements and eyewitness accounts. Join us as we separate facts from fiction and shed light on the misinformation surrounding this tragic event. Don't miss our final thought, where we discuss the importance of verifying information in the age of viral media.

FOIA Seeks Information from DOJ on National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/foia-seeks-information-from-doj-on-national-extreme-risk-protection-order-resource-center; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
Spreading the Biden Administration’s citizen disarmament agenda throughout the land. (United States Department of Justice/Facebook)

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed Tuesday with the Department of Justice by this correspondent to obtain information on the newly announced National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center.

“[The Center]  will provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others,” the Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice announced Saturday.

“The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence,” Attorney General Merrick Garland declared.

Democrats continually remind the public that the bill was “bipartisan” because it helps them sell infringements as “commonsense gun safety laws” to voters not steeped in such matters beyond how the media influences them. Gun owners who are protective of their rights, consider the “compromises” made by Republicans, many of whom owe their seats to Second Amendment activism, and continued inexcusable examples of betrayals that are, at best, foolish and naive. In this case, it’s one more example of the all-too-foreseeable consequences when Republicans, trying to appear “reasonable,” either let Democrats outsmart them or hide that they were in on the fix from the start.

That ERPOs, or “red flag laws,” or however they normalized to allow for the denial of a fundamental right without a citizen even being charged with a crime let alone convicted of one, is a gun prohibitionist’s dream. That even Donald Trump, who has pledged Second Amendment fidelity to adoring masses of gun owners, has advocated “take the gun first, go through due process second,” ought to wake them up, but all too often provokes an angry response from the true believers."

Because information regarding the formation of the Center is of public interest, particularly to gun owners who have a personal and legal stake in the way it operates, with whom, and how it achieves mission objectives, the FOIA request seeks records to include:

  • All records regarding the creation of the “National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center,” including but not limited to all communications, emails, memoranda, recorded telephone calls, text messages, and notes;
  • All records, including, but not limited to, all communications, emails, memoranda, recorded telephone calls, text messages, and notes from any individual or group to and from the Department of Justice regarding the “National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center;” and
  • Any legal citations/correspondence/analysis used in the development of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center’s purpose, scope, and objective demonstrate consistency with the Supreme Court’s green standard of text, history, and tradition at the time the Constitution was ratified.

Who the DOJ is partnering with and how their activities are lawful in light of the Supreme Court’s latest ruling on the Second Amendment are of particular interest.

The FOIA request, filed by attorney Stephen D. Stamboulieh, is embedded below.


About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

‘WAKE UP’: Kristi Noem sends ominous warning to Americans

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem discusses the threat posed by China, its ownership of U.S. farmland, and the safety of U.S. food.

Maritime Expert Analyzes the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

Maritime expert Sal Mercogliano, host of the What's Going on With Shipping YouTube channel, joins Ward once again to provide in-depth analysis about what caused MV Dali to hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the mouth of the Baltimore Harbor early in the morning of March 26, 2024. Upon impact, the bridge immediately collapsed.

Lara Logan: Bridge Collapse Due to Cyber Attack on Shipping Vessel

Maritime Expert Analyzes the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

Maritime expert Sal Mercogliano, host of the What's Going on With Shipping YouTube channel, joins Ward once again to provide in-depth analysis about what caused MV Dali to hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the mouth of the Baltimore Harbor early in the morning of March 26, 2024. Upon impact, the bridge immediately collapsed.

Could Vladimir Putin Be As Clueless As Joe Biden?

Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Western intelligentsia has been busy portraying Vladimir Putin as a man who, unlike, say Lyin’ Joe Biden or Rachel Levine or your local drag queen, has transgressed all the bounds of decency. He’s an authoritarian. He’s an imperialist. He’s an autocrat. He’s a new Hitler. 

But while the media and numerous government officials have not hesitated to portray Putin as an evil incarnate, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone claiming that he is stupid. Few people, if anyone, doubt that he is as shrewd as he is ruthless, as thoughtful as he is menacing. Putin himself, however, has just put a massive dent in his fearsome reputation with his response to the ISIS attack in Russia.

When the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for Friday’s jihad terror attack in Moscow, in which the death toll is currently 139, its claim was met with widespread skepticism. ISIS issued a statement boasting that “the Islamic State dealt a strong blow to Russia with a bloody attack, the most violent targeting it in years.” It added that “security sources told Amaq Agency that a coordinated attack was launched by Islamic State fighters, on Friday, on a large crowd of Christians in the city of Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of the capital, Moscow.” Amaq Agency is ISIS’ mouthpiece for its announcements of various jihad activities.  

Despite this, however, the usual suspects of conspiracy paranoia, notably the CIA and Mossad, were accused on social media of being the real culprits. And Putin himself, in his initial statement on the attack, blamed the massacre on “international terrorism” but didn’t mention ISIS and suggested that Ukraine had something to do with it: “They tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border."

On Monday, however, Putin issued another statement, in which he acknowledged the truth he had skirted previously: “We know that the crime was committed by radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries.” Really, Vlad? Where? 

As "The History of Jihad" demonstrates, one constant amid 1,400 years of jihad warfare around the world was that there was never any pushback from within the Islamic world. In all of the centuries of jihad warfare and bloody jihad conquests, there was never an Islamic group dedicated to fighting against “radical Islamists” and showing that Islam is a religion of peace. There were never even any protests until a handful of Muslims began standing against jihad terrorism in the modern West.

Putin wasn’t finished. He asked, “And how do radical Islamists, who position themselves, by the way, as devout Muslims, professing so-called pure Islam, commit serious atrocities and crimes during the holy month of Ramadan for all Muslims?” Well, Mr. Putin, it’s like this: Ramadan is the month in which Muslims are supposed to redouble their efforts to please Allah. A hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad: “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44) So if there is no greater deed than jihad, and Ramadan is the month to do great deeds for Allah, the month of jihad.

Many Muslim authorities have said as much. In April 2022, the Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Sharia Judge, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, declared that “Ramadan is not a month of laziness but rather a month of activity, of effort, and of hard work, and as it also was in the life of the Prophet, a month of jihad, conquest, and victory.” The jihad he had in mind was violence against unbelievers, as a Muslim cleric in India, Maulana Bashir Ahmad Khaki, made clear in 2018: “Ramadan is the pious month of ‘Jihad-o-Qital’ (Jihad and killing). Those who attain martyrdom while waging Jihad, doors of heaven remain open.” In 2012, a jihad group in Bulgaria explained that “Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and God’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators.” 

      Related: Are You Ready for a Major Jihad Attack in the U.S.? Because It's Coming.

So is Vladimir Putin retreating into Bidenesque, FBI-style denial and willful ignorance regarding the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat? It certainly seems as if he is. After all, he has restive Muslim populations in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia, and he doesn’t want them to get the idea that their ruler is an “Islamophobe.” And as Russia continues to cultivate relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran and other Islamic entities, it would be poor business sense to risk saying something that might ruffle the ever-so-easily ruffled feathers of the motherland’s partners.

That means that just as in the West, Russia’s most respected foreign policy analysts will continue to look everywhere except in Islam for the motivating ideology behind the massacre in Moscow and so many others. The jihadis, meanwhile, will keep plotting more bloodshed and murder.

Biden Considers Handing Out Green Cards To Foreigners Entering U.S. Illegally, Granting Amnesty

Biden Considers Handing Out Green Cards to Foreigners Entering U.S. Illegally, Granting Amnesty

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Chavis Community Center on March 26, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Eros Hoagland/Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
12:49 PM – Wednesday, March 27, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/biden-considers-handing-out-green-cards-to-foreigners-entering-u-s-illegally-granting-amnesty/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

President Joe Biden is now considering giving illegal immigrants amnesty “in an effort to address the escalating immigration situation,” according to Politico.

In response to ongoing criticism regarding how Biden has not taken enough action on illegal immigration or the southern border issue, the president and his administration say that they are now considering a number of alternatives to adopt a more “aggressive” position, the White House claimed.

According to three sources familiar with the plans who spoke to Politico, the administration may begin awarding green cards to illegal immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a “considerable amount of time,” thus granting them amnesty to remain there.

The proposal would reportedly let immigrants who have been in the nation for more than ten years apply for the cancellation of the removal program, given that their relatives would “suffer” if they were to be deported.

If an immigration judge confirms a migrant’s request for cancellation of removal and they complete the standards, they will be granted a special green card, giving them permanent residency.

According to the three officials who spoke with Politico, it would also be part of a bigger push by Biden to act on behalf of illegals who have long resided in the country. Additionally, the government has considered extending even more assistance to states and towns like Denver, Colorado, and New York City that have welcomed a sizable influx of illegal immigrants.

Biden previously claimed that he needed permission from Congress to take action on the southern border crisis or illegal immigration, even going so far as to accuse Republican lawmakers of blocking him.

“I’ve done all I can do. Just give me the power. I’ve asked from the very day I got into office,” Biden claimed on January 30th.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

SEAN SPICER: MTG’s Commitment to Republican Voters

MTG is committed to delivering on the promises she made to Republican voters and her district. The Republican majority, on the other hand, has fallen apart and the actions taken do not match the promises made. Speaker Johnson waited till the government funding deadline to pass the latest $1.2 trillion bill and forced the House to vote on the 1,012 page bill in one day. Today she sits down with Sean to explain her decision to file a 'motion to vacate' Speaker Mike Johnson. MTG considers the bill a complete failure and passed under suspension, which leaves no room for making amendments. The bill was a Chuck Schumer dream come true. It contained funding for many social issues: including funding for abortion clinics up to full-term, trans agendas directed towards children, funding for DEI, funding a brand new facility for the weaponized FBI and DOJ, and to top it all off - continuing with a wide open border policy. MTG has the intestinal fortitude and the will to turn our country around from the dark road it's headed down. She has fired a warning shot at Speaker Johnson that he's on borrowed time. Featuring: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Georgia | 14th District https://greene.house.gov/

Is Pete Buttigieg Responsible For the Baltimore Bridge Collapse?~Or could it have been poor construction due to racism in the area?

Following the tragedy that unfolded early this morning in Baltimore Maryland when a cargo ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge (causing it to collapse), frustrations have everybody pointing fingers in every direction, looking for somebody to blame. Is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responsible? Or could it just be because of racism when the bridge was built?

U.S. Supreme Court Gives Hamas-Linked CAIR a 9-0 Thumbs-Up

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/u-s-supreme-court-gives-hamas-linked-cair-a-9-0-thumbs-up; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) files many lawsuits, but wins comparatively few. So when it does receive a favorable decision, its operatives crow about it loudly. In the latest example, CAIR is calling a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling in its favor a “historic milestone for American Muslims.”

However, a simple reading of the Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Bureau of Investigation et al. v. Fikre, or of any of the many media reports on that decision, shows that CAIR is overstating the victory.

See, for example, “Supreme Court Says ‘No Fly List’ Suit Can Proceed Against FBI, for Now”, by Jimmy Hoover, Law.com, March 19, 2024. In essence, the court ruled:

Yonas Fikre, a U.S. citizen from Sudan, can—for now—pursue his claim that the FBI violated his constitutional right to due process when it placed him on the list roughly eight years ago. He says the placement left him stranded abroad for four years and led to his torture in the United Arab Emirates.

The government had tried to have Mr. Fikre’s case dismissed as moot, since the FBI had already removed Fikre from the No-Fly list, and as a result, there was no more damage to him. However, the Supreme Court did not accept this reasoning. From FBI vs Fikre:

In May 2016, the government notified Mr. Fikre that he had been removed from the No Fly List and sought dismissal of his suit in district court, arguing that its administrative action had rendered the case moot.”

Mootness is defined in Maniar v. Mayorkas, Civil Action 19-3826 (EGS), 36 (D.D.C. Mar. 30, 2023), as

[a] change in factual circumstances[,] . . . such as when the plaintiff receives the relief sought.

Additionally,

the party urging mootness bears a heavy burden.

However, in the current case, according to FBI vs. Fikre:

The government has failed to demonstrate that this case is moot.

Were the rule more forgiving, a defendant [FBI] might suspend its challenged conduct after being sued, win dismissal, and later pick up where it left off; it might even repeat “this cycle” as necessary until it achieves all of its allegedly “unlawful ends.” Already, 568 U. S., at 91. A live case or controversy cannot be so easily disguised, and a federal court’s constitutional authority cannot be so readily manipulated. To show that a case is truly moot, a defendant must prove “‘no reasonable expectation’” remains that it will “return to [its] old ways.”

The government failed to meet its burden because the declaration did not disclose the conduct that landed Mr. Fikre on the No Fly List and did not ensure that he would not be placed back on the list for engaging in similar or similar conduct in the future.

Again, the court’s ruling means Fikre’s suit against the FBI can continue. But as Justice Gorsuch said in the court’s decision:

The case comes in a preliminary position, framed only by uncontested factual allegations and a terse declaration. As the case unfolds, the complaint’s allegations will be tested rather than taken as true, and different facts may emerge that may call for a different conclusion.

CAIR’s very well-established pattern of overstating the results of court decisions in its favor really should be more widely discussed.

  • When Judge Anthony Trenga ruled in CAIR’s favor, saying that the terror watch list was unconstitutional, CAIR hailed this as the greatest legal decision in the history of the country. Indeed, CAIR’s victory was widely reported in the mainstream media. However, when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded Judge Trenga’s decision, sending the case back with instructions to rule properly, there was little word from CAIR on that.
  • More recently, CAIR was very proud of a favorable ruling in the case A & R Engineering and Testing, Incorporated vs. John Scott, Attorney General of Texas. But CAIR minimized the fact that the judge’s ruling applied to just this one case, and only to the plaintiff, Rasmy Hassouna.
  • In the article “Why a Texas Court Ruling on Israel Boycott Was No Victory for CAIR” by Erielle Davidson, which appeared in The Algemeiner on February 4, 2022, there is this statement: “But CAIR is patently wrong in its legal analysis, rendering the recent victory lap is nothing short of bizarre." While the opinion does deem a fraction of the language in the Texas law unconstitutional, the opinion itself explicitly asserts that most of the language in the Texas statute — including the central element prohibiting economic boycotts of Israel — is constitutional.”

CAIR is, among other things, a public relations firm with itself as its biggest client. As a result, any event which is favorable to the organization and its goals is exaggerated out of all proportion, while incidents that do not fit a favorable narrative are whitewashed, hushed up, or simply ignored completely.

Although the FBI is certainly no friend of Jihad Watch, and the terror watch list may be a necessary evil, it does have value. Already, DHS has stopped at least 160 people on the watch list from entering the U.S.’s porous border. Additionally, Project Veritas has reported that many of the Afghan refugees on the terror watch list are roaming free in the U.S.

As Justice Gorsuch wrote in the court’s decision:

The government does not generally disclose the full reasoning for why people are placed on the list, and the Justice Department expressed concerns that allowing cases such as Fikre’s to move forward would needlessly force the government to reveal its sometimes-classified explanations.

Of course, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations appears to have absolutely no regard for the national security of the United States of America.

Kamala Unveils ‘Red Flag’ Centers to Take Away Guns~Repressive states~Gun control governors

Higbie: Any government that takes guns away is going to do something terrible

Repressive States: No Right to Carry, Ban on Semi-Autos, No Suppressors, and High Taxes

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/repressive-states-no-right-to-carry-ban-on-semi-autos-no-suppressors-and-high-taxes/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
gun control gun rights iStock-gguy44 962772470
gun control gun rights iStock-gguy44 962772470

Nine states show up again and again as the most repressive states in the union of the United States of America. With the occasional exception, these states refuse to honor the Constitution; they have extremely restrictive policies on who may bear arms, they ban common rifles, they ban the ownership of suppressors, and they tend to have high taxes. They are all controlled by the Democratic Party.

The nine most repressive states are California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

Of those nine states, all but Rhode Island have enacted bans on some semi-automatic firearms, usually under the politically defined label of “assault rifles.”

Washington State has also banned certain semi-automatic rifles. Litigation challenging such bans as unconstitutional is moving forward in several states, including Maryland, New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey. At some point, the Supreme Court will rule on one or more of these cases.

Of those nine states, all but Rhode Island have enacted bans on some semi-automatic firearms, usually under the politically defined label of "assault rifles." 
Of those nine states, all but Rhode Island have enacted bans on some semi-automatic firearms, usually under the politically defined label of “assault rifles.” 

Of the nine repressive states, eight of them have laws that prevent most of the population from exercising their Second Amendment rights, especially the right to bear arms outside of the home.

The right-to-carry map shows the current state of the right to carry in the United States of America by state.
The right-to-carry map shows the current state of the right to carry in the United States of America by state.

Out of the nine repressive states, eight have “may issue” laws whereby a government official has discretion to deny a carry permit based on his subjective opinion.

In this way, Martin Luther King was denied a carry permit in Alabama in 1956. John Stossel was denied a carry permit in New York City. Illinois is shown as a “shall issue” state. Illinois was forced by the Court of Appeals in the Seventh Circuit to pass a “shall issue” law or risk being forced to become a permitless carry state.

Of the nine repressive states, all but one ban the possession of silencers/suppressors in their state.

Suppressors/silencers are effective safety devices, which are common in Europe and many other countries. The American Suppressor Association maintains a map showing which states ban the legal possession of silencers/suppressors. Maryland does not ban the ownership of suppressors and allows them to be used for hunting. Suppressors/silencers are banned in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

Of the nine repressive states, all but one ban the possession of silencers/suppressors in their state.
Of the nine repressive states, all but one ban the possession of silencers/suppressors in their state.

Now, taxation, of the nine most repressive states, is in the top ten highest tax states: New York, Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Delaware.

All of the nine most repressive states are Democratic party trifectas, as shown by Ballotpedia. A Democratic party trifecta means both houses of the legislature and the governorship are in the hands of the Democratic party.

A similar situation existed with states in the South when they refused to follow Supreme Court rulings to desegregate public schools. Eventually, under a Republican administration, President Eisenhower enforced the desegregation order in Arkansas schools. Do not expect a Biden, or any Democratic administration, to use troops to enforce Second Amendment rights in repressive states.  Just as the Democratic party was the party of government power and segregation through the 1950’s, the Democratic party has been the party of government power and repression of Second Amendment rights since the Supreme Court rulings in Heller (2008), McDonald (2010), Caetano (2016) and Bruen (2022).


About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten was a peace officer, a military officer who was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

_______________________________________________________________

Gun Control Governors Need a Hard Reality Check

Opinion
By Matt Manda

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/gun-control-governors-need-a-hard-reality-check/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Crime Scene Tape NRA-ILA
Shutterstock 56280433

Several of the nation’s most ardent gun control activist governors and mayors of the largest metropolitans are staring down a divergent reality. They continue to stick with publicizing increasing gun control restrictions on law-abiding citizens, as crime is going down in many – though not all – major cities, while gun sales continue to increase at “new normal” historically high rates.

The tired scare tactic of warning “more guns means more crime” is crumbling apart as millions of law-abiding Americans are awakening to what it means to be a lawful and responsible gun owner. The streak of more than one million NSSF-adjusted FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verifications processed for the purchase of a firearm that hit 55 months in February 2024.

Those firearm sales figures include significant increases in gun ownership in some of the country’s bluest states and cities. In those same areas, crime has been rampant over the past several years as politicians embraced “Defund the Police” efforts, bail reform policies and going soft on criminals.

The rest of the law-abiding population has pushed back in a resounding way.

Eyes on the Big Apple

One city where the divergent reality is most prominently seen today is New York City. Perhaps no city has seen more dissatisfied citizens about their feelings toward public safety than the Big Apple. It was a major factor under former accidental Mayor Bill de Blasio and continues under Mayor Eric Adams. That includes a stretch in 2022 where 70 percent of New York City residents felt unsafe.

That figure hasn’t improved much in the past year. The New York Times reported on a new poll showing that only 37 percent of city residents felt satisfied with the level of safety in their neighborhood. The same poll found that only half of residents admitted they planned to stay in the city past 2028.

“People are fed up with the quality of life. There’s a general sense of lawlessness. You go into CVS and there’s shoplifting. "People's cars get vandalized,” Queens Councilman Robert Holden told The New York Post about the polling.

Despite residents still feeling unsafe in their city – particularly while New Yorkers still face spikes in crime on the city’s subway – two trends have overlapped to demonstrate why crime is falling a bit in New York City from the recent highs over the past few years: increases in gun ownership and law enforcement getting tough on criminals.

In New York City, the rampant crime of the past several years, as well as more recent events including rises in antisemitism, have contributed to large numbers of new law-abiding gun owners in the city. WomenAfrican AmericansJewish residents, and even a collection of hundreds of the city’s bodega owners have all taken the Second Amendment into their own hands to purchase firearms. It’s also led to a decrease in crime so far compared to last year.

“Anyone that’s out there looking to rob us, hurt us, kill us – beware,” Fernando Mateo, a spokesperson for the United Bodegas of America, recently said. “You may be walking into the wrong bodega because now we have the same firepower you have.”

All told, NSSF-adjusted FBI NICS verifications for the purchase of a firearm in New York have totaled nearly 1.6 million. There's a lot of new, empowered New Yorkers taking their personal safety into their own hands and not relying on delayed or understaffed law enforcement. Criminals are taking note.

Busting Bad Guys

In addition to the massive number of new gun owners in the Big Apple, the falling crime rate is likely due to another logical effort that has nothing to do with placing more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. Instead, it turns out that going after and getting tough on criminals who break the law has a real, positive impact on the city.

Gothamist reported on a new survey released by the mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and the New York Police Department that highlighted new information about what types of illegal guns police are seizing and where. The report breaks down more than 6,200 firearms that police seized between July 2020 and December 2021.

“About a third of [the seized firearms] had been used in a crime and about two-thirds had not. The guns that had not been used in a crime included those seized from people who didn’t have a license to possess a firearm, and weapons that people voluntarily turned over to law enforcement at gun buybacks,” the report stated. It should be noted that illegally possessing a firearm is, in fact, a crime.

The report also demonstrated that most of the seized firearms connected to a crime came from police precincts with high crime rates, reinforcing that police know where violent criminals are, that they are using and possessing illegal firearms and that those areas deserve the most attention.

Lastly, the crime report reinforced that illegally possessed handguns are, by far, the most commonly used firearm when a crime is committed. More than 70 percent of all the guns seized were handguns, with only eight percent being either a rifle or shotgun. When the report segments those guns out further to look at the “crime guns” the numbers are even more telling. More than 80 percent of recovered firearms were handguns, with only three percent being a long gun.

This data tracks fairly closely with what the firearms industry has said for years: that the overwhelming majority of firearms used in crime are illegally obtained handguns and that, also, Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs), which there are more than 28 million in circulation, are seldom used in a crime.

Not an Outlier

While crime is staying high in Washington, D.C., even though the city already implements nearly every gun control law imaginable, and a few other major cities that have notoriously soft-on-crime prosecutors or that severely cut police budgets, New York City isn’t an outlier. Across the country, in major cities crime seems to be trending downward in the right direction.

Not all major cities can point towards new gun restrictions or gun control laws as the reason behind the decrease. But, in every state – including many of the major cities which often have Left-leaning, gun control supportive mayors – firearm sales have kept up at a blistering pace.

With more law-abiding gun owners, and with more states like Louisiana and South Carolina opting for permitless carry, it’s abundantly clear criminals have recognized they are facing more empowered and confident residents that won’t be such easy targets as victims anymore.


About The National Shooting Sports Foundation

NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

National Shooting Sports Foundation

Trump’s Truth Social Stock Shoots Up On First Day After Hitting Stock Market

Trump’s Truth Social Stock Shoots Up On First Day After Hitting Stock Market

MINDEN, NEVADA - OCTOBER 08: Former U.S. President Donald Trump greets supporters during a campaign rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport on October 08, 2022 in Minden, Nevada. Former U.S. President Donald Trump held a campaign style rally for Nevada GOP candidates ahead of the state's midterm election on November 8th. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

OAN’s James Meyers
11:00 AM -Tuesday, March 26, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/trumps-truth-social-stock-shoots-up-on-first-day-after-hitting-stock-market/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media company Truth Social shot off to a blistering start in its stock market debut on Tuesday, surging more than 50% at the beginning of trading. 

Trump Media & Technology Group began trading on the Nasdaq index under the ticker name “DJT,” the initials for Donald John Trump. The stock dipped from its opening spike to around $71 a share by 10:30 a.m. ET, 42% higher than its closing price on Monday. 

Meanwhile, Trump owns a massive majority stake in DJT with almost 79 million shares, raising his value to nearly $5.9 billion. 

Meanwhile, Trump celebrated the stock’s stellar performance with a post on his platform early on Tuesday morning. 

“The valuation of the business is rich relative to its underlying fundamentals, but I would not get in front of it in the near term,” said the chairman of Great Hill Capital, Thomas Hayes, regarding the Truth Social stock.

“This valuation may be more of a proxy on the enthusiasm of supporters for Trump than a reasonable estimate of underlying business prospects,” he continued.

With the surge, the 45th president’s net worth earned him a position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which valued his net-worth at $6.5 billion before Tuesday’s opening bell. The income increase comes just after a New York state appeals court agreed to hold off collection of the $454 million civil fraud judgment if he posts the reduced payment of $175 million within 10 days. 

Trump has agreed to post the $175 million bond, which will stop the state of New York from taking his assets while he appeals. 

However, Trump will most likely be barred from using his earned wealth from DJT for six months due to lock-up restrictions that could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shares. Questions remain about how the company’s financial footing will remain steadfast. 

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Erdogan’s Litany of False Accusations Against Israel

Backing Hamas to the hilt.

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/erdogans-litany-of-false-accusations-against-israel/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]

After the failed coup attempt in July 2016 by a faction within the armed forces organized as the Peace at Home Council, that was opposed to Erdogan’s undermining of the secularism that Ataturk had promoted, and disturbed, too, by his determination to “re-islamize” Turkey, Erdogan came down hard on those whom he inaccurately described as followers of Fethulleh Gulen, an opponent of Erdogan’s dictatorial ways who lives in Pennsylvania. There were mass arrests, including those of more than 10,000 soldiers and 2,745 judges, charged with being affiliated with the coup attempt. In addition, 15,000 education staff in public institutions were also fired, and the licenses of 21,000 teachers working at private institutions were revoked — all because they supposedly supported Gülen. More than 77,000 people have been arrested and over 160,000 fired from their jobs, on reports of connections to Gulen. Among the professionals who lost their jobs were university rectors and professors, lawyers, judges, and journalists. Turkey has now jailed more journalists than any other country in the world. So much for Erdogan’s respect for civil liberties.

Erdogan accuses Israel of “war crimes.” Is this correct? Israel is making colossal efforts to always minimize civilian casualties. It does this mainly through an elaborate system of warning civilians to leave areas about to be targeted by the IDF. In Gaza, to this end, the IDF has so far dropped 14 million leaflets, made two million robocalls, and 26,000 personal calls, as well as using the “knock-on-the-roof” technique. And these mass warnings have worked so well to keep the all-important civilian-to-combatant ratio as of early March, with 30,000 Gazans killed, according to Hamas itself — about 15,000 of that figure were, according to the IDF, combatants. That means the ratio of civilians to combatant deaths is 1:1, an unheard-of number. The UN has said that in all wars since World War II, the average civilian-to-combatant ratio is 9:1. In Afghanistan, the British and Americans managed to get that ratio down to 4:1. In Iraq, the Americans did even better, killing three civilians for every combatant. But no army in the world has done what Israel has achieved in Gaza: a civilian-to-combatant ratio of 1:1. No wonder that the commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, has stated that “the IDF is the most moral army in the world” and John Spencer, head of the Department of Urban Warfare at West Point, has described the IDF in similar terms, noting that Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in the history of war.”

In Erdogan’s bizarre view, Israel is “behind the terrorist organizations in northern Syria and Iraq.” If he is talking about ISIS, that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and of the entire world of Infidels, he makes no sense. Why would Israel support Islamic fanatics dedicated to its destruction? If he means the Kurds who live in Syria and Iraq, and whose continued presence and supposed threat to Turkey render Erdogan hysterical, he is again off-base. Israel sympathizes with the Kurds, but has not sent military aid to its militias in Iraq since just after the Gulf War in 1990. It has sent some humanitarian aid to Kurds in Syria — after the Americans left, leaving a handful of soldiers, in 2019. And the Kurdish groups in both Iraq and Syria are not “terrorist organizations,” as Erdogan claims; they do not attack civilians to sow terror. Besides, Erdogan’s indignation over “terrorist organizations” is hard to take, since he has given Turkish citizenship and passports, and provided refuge to many dozens of Hamas’ senior echelon. And in his latest speech in Istanbul, he made clear that he, and Turkey, support Hamas to the hilt: “No one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization." Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”

So Turkey “firmly backs” Hamas, which is listed as a terror organization by the US, Israel, the UK, the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. And let’s not forget Erdogan’s prediction that there may be a future war between the Crescent and the Cross, leaving no doubt as to which side he would be on. Indeed, he sees himself as the natural leader of the forces of Islam.

NATO is supposed to be a military alliance of democratic and Western countries that share a common civilization. It cannot continue to tolerate among its members a country that is led by a despot who backs Hamas to the hilt, and sees himself, in a future war, as the leader of the Muslims against the “Christian” countries. It’s time that NATO booted Turkey out of this quintessentially Western alliance, showing the door, too, to Turkey’s grobianistic ruler, the anti-Semitic Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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