Senior Legal Fellow at @Heritage. Always technically as advertised, but never quite what you expected. All views and cat pictures are my own.
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Oct 3 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A defenseless Detroit woman was kidnapped and raped by her abusive/stalker ex-boyfriend just one day before she was set to take her state-mandated course for a concealed carry permit.
fox2detroit.com/news/detroit-p…
We only know about this because her failure to show up for the class tipped off that something was wrong, and ended up being key to getting police involved in finding and rescuing her. So the article mentions it in passing. God knows how often it happens but isn't mentioned.
Sep 17 • 10 tweets • 10 min read
Since the NYT wouldn't dare allow a response op-ed to this, I'll settle for response tweet thread. Buckle up.
nytimes.com/2024/09/16/opi…
The interesting part about the last sentence is that it's so particularly true in the case of the Tucson shooting that it undermines the argument it's just "about the guns." Loughner was both an abuser of illegal substances, as well as clearly mentally ill and dangerous, and everyone knew it. His parents were incredibly worried about it. At the insistence of police, they took away his shotgun. On their own initiative, they kept disabling his car at night so that he couldn't easily leave. But the state never took action to ensure he couldn't just buy a new gun, which he did. His parents never really pushed the issue about a mental health evaluation (though I'm not unsympathetic to the difficulties of forcing your adult son to do anything). It's not that he fell into some grey area where there wasn't anything anyone could do under existing mental health frameworks - he should have been a clear candidate for involuntary inpatient commitment. Of all mass shooters, Loughner's stands out with the Parkland shooter as one of the most clear cut cases of "holy cow why did no one ever officially follow up or intervene." And that's not actually a story about guns. It's a story about our mental health system, where people who are clearly schizophrenic and dangerous are allowed to spiral sans appropriate intervention until they reach a point of acute crisis.
Jan 18 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
I'm reading through the DOJ's scathing report on the disastrous Uvalde response so that you don't have to.
Here's what sticks out: 🧵
static.texastribune.org/media/files/17…
The investigation "identified several critical failures and other breakdowns" during the response and refers to "cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy, and training that contributed to those failures and breakdowns."
Aug 14, 2023 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Can we take a minute to appreciate how many women have protected themselves and others with firearms in the last two or so weeks? It's basically a highlight real of just how important the right to keep and bear arms is for us, too. Tip of the DGU iceberg, but important:
📜📜📜
Aug. 11, Tucson (AZ) - A woman living by herself fatally shot a would-be intruder who kept trying to break into her home despite knowing she was armed.
(1) She was 30 weeks pregnant, which would have been illegal in most states pre-Roe [and most of the world], and is 20 weeks past the FDA's approved usage timeline for abortion pills.
(2) She wasn't charged under the abortion law. She was charged with concealing the remains.
(3) Her mother is charged with *performing* the abortion after 20 weeks, as well as with performing the abortion without a medical license.
(4) Doctors lose their licenses all the time for far less egregious things than prescribing abortion pills at 30 weeks.
Jun 27, 2023 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
It's indisputable that an armed civilian stopped an active shooter last week.
You almost certainly haven't heard about it.
Why?
Because Las Vegas Police have gone out of their way to downplay it, while the media have shown basically zero interest.
THREAD.
Last Friday, LVPD responded to a shooting at a luxury condo just off the Las Vegas strip. The initial reporting on it looked generally like this:
Example #1837 of why it's a horrible idea to only count defensive gun uses if they're confirmed in some publicly available media report.
Often, the public doesn't get updated if a shooting is later deemed justified unless it's suddenly relevant again.
wtvr.com/news/local-new…
Case in point - a Richmond teenager was fatally shot in Nov. 2021. Limited info, except for a March 2022 article detailing that his family was upset no arrests had been made. That could mean many things, including a lack of suspects.
This is some Orwellian doublespeak. You don't "enshrine freedom" by literally limiting the scope of your existing freedoms, which are already enshrined. And you can't "leave the Second Amendment intact" while cutting out its heart and removing its soul.
The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, protects what citizens may do by telling the government what it cannot do.
Newsome's amendment turns this on its head, mandating what government MUST do in order that peaceable citizens may NOT do certain things.
Jun 6, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Normally, I'd say this isn't going anywhere, given that Colorado's ERPO statute explicitly states there's no civil, criminal, or administrative liability for declining to initiate investigations or file petitions...
...but the kicker is that it has to be done in "good faith."
This could be a problem for a Sheriff that explicitly and repeatedly said his office simply wasn't going to pursue or initiate these, ever, as a categorical rule...and would only enforce privately-initiated ones in "extreme circumstances."
Is that a "good faith" declining?
Jun 6, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Assuming that the basic facts are correct - that the woman fatally shot her unarmed neighbor through a locked door during a dispute - I'm genuinely astonished that the woman hasn't been charged yet.
"Stand your ground" isn't relevant here.
Here's why:
cbsnews.com/news/florida-m…
Florida authorizes the use of deadly force when a person reasonably believes such force is necessary to prevent either imminent death or great bodily harm or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.
26 felonies. They're charging him with 26 felonies, each of which has a mandatory minimum of 3.5 years in prison.
Why?
Because an otherwise upstanding, peaceable citizen with a license for 5 rifles...didn't have a license for his other guns.
abc7ny.com/queens-shootin…
If he has a NYC permit for 5 rifles, he's an upstanding citizen *according the city itself*.
The process for obtaining a rifle permit is virtually identical to the one for a pistol permit, except that the latter is twice as expensive and requires an in-person interview.
Jun 1, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is actually worse than it appeared at first, and it appeared really bad.
Turns out, the guy has a license to own a shotgun or rifle. Just no license to own a handgun. And no license to carry.
People think I'm being dramatic about just how big of a problem these giant teen "house parties" are becoming...but let me present a short rundown of recent times they turned into shootings. And by recent, I mean "just this year."
If you want to understand the rise in "children" being shot - the "who, where, when, and why" - look no further than this recent incident.
Let's break this down.
whio.com/news/local/sho…
The article calls 2 victims "children" and states the incident took place at a party with "50 to 60 kids." You'd think someone opened fire on an 11-year-old's mid-day birthday party with that framing, and that it's just random violence killing our kids during low-risk activities.
Apr 18, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Gun owners, let's talk about the many ways this tragedy could have been prevented. I understand being elderly and feeling vulnerable in general, but we have to make better decisions - and set ourselves up to avoid costly mistakes.
cnn.com/2023/04/17/us/…(1) Install a peephole so you can see who's there without having to physically open your door. I'm not suggesting that this teen was inherently threatening. But let's say you're uncomfortable for whatever reason - a peephole allows you to be uncomfortable BEHIND the locked door.
Apr 14, 2023 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
Because they're not "weapons of war." They're incredibly useful for defending innocent life from criminal threats in noncombat zones like...say...downtown Louisville. Which is exactly why the peace officers responding to that civilian-context threat used them, too.
But while I have everyone's attention, let's have a history lesson and reality check at the same time.
Gather round, children, and let me tell you the tale of how mass public shooters have ALWAYS been able to kill a lot of people with far more...rustic...guns.
Mar 30, 2023 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
An AR doesn't prevent a home invasion. But it will help you end one.
Also, tell me you've lived a very safe and privileged life without telling me you've lived a safe and privileged life.
Happy for you, truly, but do you realize how often people face multiple home intruders?
Someone has never been a woman alone in the woods and it shows. I'm far more concerned with other humans. But also not taking my chances with bears, mountain lions, and [in the south] those damn wild boars.
I don't typically tell people what guns I own, but I literally own this gun because it is a perfect home defense weapon. Let me explain why I recommend it (and its more expensive pistol caliber carbine cousins) to everyone for urban/suburban home defense:
It's a pistol caliber carbine, meaning it shoots the same 9mm round as my handgun. But unlike my handgun, it gives me third point of contact for increased stability and accuracy under pressure. So I have the tactical benefits of a rifle but a lesser risk of overpenetration.
Mar 29, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This isn't a super helpful framing because it implies that the mere existence of an emotional order is sufficient to prove a person is dangerous to self or others - even worse, that actively seeking treatment and cooperating with one's own healthcare should be held against them.
Obviously, this person WAS dangerous. But they seem, like almost all mass shooters, to have exhibited specific violent tendencies, including a recent history of being actively suicidal. But an emotional disorder on its own isn't evidence of dangerousness.
Mar 23, 2023 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
Guns don't protect women. But women armed WITH guns are far more capable of protecting themselves. And, just like men, women often rely on their Second Amendment rights to do just that.
