Now, I get having zero tolerance for actual firearms, for actual threats, and things of that sort. I may not necessarily agree with it, in part because I grew up in a time when people would go hunting in the morning before school and have their guns in a gun rack on the back window of their trucks, so my opinions might be skewed a bit.

Yet some schools have sought to punish kids for a lot of stupid reasons, including the aforementioned Pop-Tart. In particular, pictures on social media and other cases where they were disciplined for things that didn’t happen at school at all.

At least those cases involved someone trying to claim an implied threat. This case, though? This case is something else entirely.

Florida Carry, Inc., has filed a lawsuit against the Hillsboro County School District over its decision to suspend a high school student identified in their lawsuit only as “J.S.,” who officials claim brought three spent shell casings into one of their schools.

According to the pro-gun group’s lawsuit, school officials learned of the incident via a message sent to them on the FortifyFL app — a “suspicious activity” reporting tool that allows parents or other students to relay information to “appropriate law enforcement agencies and school officials.”

The school principal told a Hillsborough County Deputy Sheriff working at the school about the FortifyFL message. The deputy sheriff then searched J.S.’s backpack and conducted a pat down of the young student at around 8 a.m., November 21.

“The search revealed three expended metallic casing contained in a Ziploc bag, along with some spare change. The casings had been used while target shooting with J.S.’s parents on a recent excursion,” the lawsuit claims. “The expended casings did not contain any powder, projectiles, shot, bullets, wading, or live primers.”

The deputy sheriff told school officials that J.S. had committed no crime by possessing spent shell casings. The youth, the deputy said, had done nothing wrong. However, the principal ignored the deputy’s claims and called the student’s parents, who arrived about 40 minutes later. The parents were told to take their child home and wait for a phone call.

It seems, though, that because the parents “went to bat” for J.S., the kid caught a suspension because the principal is a vile piece of filth. OK, that last part was my interpretation, but tell me I’m wrong. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

But I’m not the only one asking the question and looking at why Gallup’s push doesn’t seem to reflect electoral reality.

Others are asking and in doing so, they hit on some points I didn’t.

Bias in Question-Wording

Gallup’s survey uses emotionally charged scare words, particularly with terms like “assault weapons ban.” The phrase “assault weapon” is a politically charged term that lacks a consistent legal or technical definition, making it ripe for misunderstanding. Respondents may conflate these firearms with fully automatic weapons or military-grade equipment, which are already heavily restricted.

This loaded terminology can lead to inflated support for bans based on confusion rather than genuine public sentiment. A more neutral phrasing—such as “semi-automatic rifles”—would likely yield very different results. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

As Rep. Elise Stefanik and Rep. Andy Barr write at Newsweek, the weaponization of the financial industry is likely to ramp up as well, with the mandating of merchant category codes tied specifically to gun stores across the country. According to the gun control advocates who back their use, MCC’s are supposed to help banks and credit card companies identify “suspicious” transactions at gun shops, but critics contend that the codes are essentially useless, not to mention a violation of gun owners’ privacy.

The MCCs don’t track specific purchases. Instead, banks and other financial institutions can see when and where a purchase was made as well as the total dollar amount, but they have no way of knowing if a particular transaction involved a gun, ammunion, accessories, or even clothing. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, to identify a “suspicious” transaction, and it could easily lead to companies erring on the side of caution and flagging perfectly innocent transactions. Stefanik and Barr, however, have an answer for that threat.

To counteract this infringement on our rights, we introduced the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act.

Our bill aims to ensure that firearms retailers are not unjustly targeted by payment card networks or other financial entities, and purchases by law-abiding citizens are protected from monitoring and denial by the government. Specifically, our bill ensures that firearms retailers are not considered differently than general or sporting goods merchants.

This protection preserves the privacy of Americans making lawful purchases, prevents the creation of a backdoor registry of gun owners, and guarantees that legal commerce is not unfairly surveilled or impeded based on the nature of the goods sold. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

But a lot of people are uncomfortable with it. They’ve been conditioned to believe that guns lead to violence by a media that wants you to believe it, even though they know better.

Some places aren’t necessarily buying it or, if they did, are at least willing to reconsider.

Places like this school system in Texas.

Fredericksburg Independent School District officials have approved a program that allows some teachers to carry concealed firearms at school, with a district spokesperson saying the plan could provide an additional layer of campus security.

Fredericksburg ISD trustees voted last month to authorize district teachers to apply to carry concealed firearms in classrooms, if they meet certain criteria and pass a screening process.

The school district is already in compliance with state law that requires an armed police officer or guard on each campus, district spokesperson Rachel Malinak said.

“The main reason that we wanted to start allowing teachers or staff to apply to carry firearms is the safety and security of our staff and students,” district spokesperson Rachel Malinak told the Express-News. “It is our main priority.”

Fredericksburg ISD has one school resource officer — a law enforcement officer working at a school — covering the district’s six campuses and 3,000 students. However, each campus has armed security and the district has a “very good relationship with local law enforcement,” Malinak said.

Teachers will need to already have a state-issued concealed carry license to apply to the program, according to district officials. The screening process, which will be conducted by a third-party contractor, will include a psychological exam and a marksmanship test, according to the district.

Which staff members will be armed will not be made public, Malinak said. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

Those plans haven’t panned out, and for now, visitors and residents are still free to carry a concealed firearm without a state-issued permit, so long as they’re legally allowed to own one. So has the new law led to anarchy in the Crescent City?

Not according to the city’s crime stats.

New Orleans police have seized fewer guns and made fewer illegal gun possession arrests this year compared to last, leading experts to question the impact of Louisiana’s permitless carry law.

According to the NOPD’s most recent crime report, illegal gun possession arrests have dropped by 42% and officers have confiscated 1,788 firearms in criminal investigations, a 21% decrease.

Criminologist Ashraf Esmail, Ph.D., from Dillard University, says the decrease is partly due to a new state law allowing residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit or prior training.

“Police are now limited to stop anyone suspected of a gun because permitting concealment is no longer necessary,” Ashraf Esmail, Ph.D. said.

Esmail says the law restricts how the NOPD can make arrests and take guns off the street.

“The use of guns have to visible for law enforcement to do something about it and that could lead to even more gun violence,” he said. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

Even if he didn’t have a clue what would eventually happen, though, he’s still lightyears better than Kamala Harris on guns.

For example, he’s never actually advocated for a ban on either handguns or so-called assault weapons with a mandatory buyback on the latter. I’m not completely convinced Shannon Watts wouldn’t be a better option than Harris, if we’re being honest.

But things in the polls are scary for gun control fans. Harris isn’t doing as well as they think she should be. After all, a lot of people hate Trump, and yet he’s clearly got a strong chance of sitting in the Oval Office once again.

And anti-gunners are freaking out if this piece from The Guardian is any indication. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

The city council in Pinole, located a few miles north of Berkeley, included another gun storage mandate in their new ordinance aimed at those traveling with a firearm requiring guns left in vehicles to be disabled with a trigger lock and stored in a locked container in the locked trunk of the vehicle. Though the city’s press release says the text of the ordinance can be found on the city’s website, it wasn’t available to view as of Sunday morning.

There’s a significant issue with the ordinance adopted by the city council, as well as an older ordinance that’s been in place since the late 1970s. The Supreme Court ruled in Heller that a similar ordinance in Washington, D.C. requiring guns to be kept locked up with ammunition stored separately unless being used for “recreational purposes” violated the right to keep and bear arms because there was no exception for self-defense. Pinole’s ordinance doesn’t appear to include a self-defense exception either. In fact, when I was perusing the city’s municipal code, I discovered that the city currently prohibits discharging a firearm in self-defense.

Chapter 09.20.10 of the Pinole City Code declares it’s “unlawful for any person to discharge any firearm, air gun, air rifle, or other gun or device discharging by the use of powder, air, or springs, any bullet or shot of any kind, or sling-shot, in the city of Pinole”, with only three exceptions:

• On any pistol, skeet, trap, or rifle range, the location of which has been approved by the chief of police of the city of Pinole;
• In certain designated areas which have been approved by the chief of police for hunting of migratory game birds; or
• Peace officers as defined in Section 830 of the California Penal Code and acting within the scope of their official duties […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

Permitless carry hasn’t led to the “Wild, Wild West” or anarchy in the streets, but it’s safe to say that there are more armed citizens ready to defend themselves, their loved ones, and even strangers when necessary.

A man apparently trying to steal a car — with a mom and her kids inside — is dead after witnesses allegedly opened fire and killed the man. It happened Sunday afternoon in Pompano Beach. The Broward Sheriff’s Office shared these details with BocaNewsNow.com:

Detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit are investigating the circumstances surrounding a deadly shooting in Pompano Beach. At approximately 4:58 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13, BSO deputies and Pompano Beach Fire Rescue responded to a disturbance and possible shooting in the parking lot of the RaceTrac located at 599 W. Atlantic Blvd.

On scene, emergency crews located Brian Semil suffering from a gunshot wound. He was transported to Broward Health North where he was pronounced deceased. BSO’s Homicide and Crime Scene units responded to conduct an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. After the Democrats forced Joe Biden off the ticket and anointed Harris as the handpicked candidate of the party establishment, Democrats did see a boost in the polls, but Harris is still struggling in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Walz doesn’t seem to be helping her connect with small town and rural voters.

POLITICO recently went to Walz’s former congressional district to find out why so many of his own constituents have soured on him, and found plenty of folks eager to explain what’s changed over the years.

I met Jeffrey in the field house overlooking the football field where Albert Lea’s high school football team, the Tigers, were getting beat. As the sun set over the far endzone, Jeffrey adjusted a window shade for a group of mostly older alumni watching from inside.

They weren’t exactly fans of the governor. There was Jim Munyer, the retired teacher I’d met at a Civil War Roundtable the previous night, who called Walz a “chameleon.” He suspected Walz was really more “California East, or California Midwest, I guess.”

There was Lowell Peterson, who told me over coffee earlier that day that when he saw Walz’s camo-print cap, all he saw was a desire to “be a friend to everybody.” And, he said, “I don’t like that crap, sucking up to everybody.” […]

— Read More: bearingarms.com

As Fox News reports, 19-year-old Juan David Ramirez-Olivo is alleged to have shot 17-year-old Stephanie Lopez Ramirez when his illegally-acquired gun went off in an apartment. While officers arrested Ramirez-Olivo on first-degree murder charges, they ultimately presented Foxx’s office with evidence pointing to a lesser charge, but even those charges were rejected.

The Chicago Police pushed for Olivo to be charged with involuntary manslaughter; Foxx’s office went to bond court last Friday afternoon and repealed the charges, citing “insufficient evidence” to Fox News.

A CPD source says a police chief assigned to this case was not happy with Foxx’s decision and was pressing for Olivo to be charged.

“If they want to say that it was a complete accident and it wasn’t reckless then minimally charge him with the weapon that he admitted to illegally purchasing,” the CPD source told Fox News. “No one thinks it’s legal to purchase a gun off a guy on the street. Plus, he shouldn’t even have a weapon.”

Ramirez-Olivo was in an apartment on Tuesday, October 1 with 17-year-old Stephanie Lopez Ramirez when, a CPD source said, his illegally acquired gun went off–hitting Stephanie in the arm and killing her.

[…]

— Read More: bearingarms.com