Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.
This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.
So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.
This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.
For those interested, please check out https://vladtepesblog.substack.com/ as an another avenue of expression. The Substack is a different project in a sense. It is older videos that in the light of subsequent events, look different or of increased importance, Check it out now and again if you like.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/reports-israel-raided-irgc-weapons-facility-in-syria-took-equipment-and-documents/
The Syrian Civil War is Restarting Right Now
Happy Friday the 13th:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5nYQm7SxPA0
Economic, Cultural, and Political Subversion – With Jimmy from Brooklyn
Dynamic Independence – September 5, 2024
https://dynamicindependence.podbean.com/e/economic-cultural-and-political-subversion-with-jimmy-from-brooklyn/
Dynamic Independence – Podcasts
https://dynamicindependence.podbean.com/
Outrageous! District Attorney Announces Iraq War Veteran Who Shot Pro-Hamas Agitator in Self-Defense will be Charged with Two ‘Crimes’ – Faces Several Years in Prison (VIDEO)
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/outrageous-district-attorney-announces-iraq-war-veteran-who/
Sep. 13, 2024 12:40 pm
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announces charges against Iraq War veteran Scott Hayes after he shot a pro-Hamas protester. (Credit: Kassy Akiva X)
There is no justice for ordinary citizens who exercise self-defense in blue states as they prefer to reward the criminal instead.
The Gateway Pundit reported this morning that a supporter of Hamas was shot Thursday evening after assaulting a pro-Israel Iraq War veteran during a protest in Newton, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb.
According to The Daily Wire’s Kassy Akiva, the incident occurred when the assailant began shouting at a group of roughly ten pro-Israel protesters.
47-year-old Scott Hayes, an Iraq War veteran from Framingham, Massachusetts, was part of the group and identified as the shooter.
Witnesses revealed that Hayes was preparing to leave when the pro-Hamas agitator, who has not been identified, flipped off the pro-Israel protesters and started cursing them out.
The Hamas lover then charged across the street through traffic and tackled Hayes, who was holding an American flag. The two men started grappling on the ground.
During the fight, a gunshot rang out, leaving the Hamas protester severely wounded with life-threatening injuries.
Here are videos of the incident from two angles obtained by Akiva. In the second, Hayes is seen giving medical care to the person who assaulted him.
BREAKING
A man wearing a Palestinian pin was shot in the stomach this evening after he charged through traffic and tackled a pro-Israel Iraq war veteran in Newton, Massachusetts.pic.twitter.com/Ix5JEJaJNp
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 13, 2024
In a second video, the veteran is seen giving medical care to the man who tackled him until first responders arrived.
pic.twitter.com/bWBkiQBkV0
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 13, 2024
However, this clear-cut case in self-defense could cost Hayes his freedom in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced during a press conference later Thursday night that she is charging Hayes with two crimes: assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury.
Hayes faces over a decade in prison for merely fighting back. Talk about a travesty of justice.
WATCH:
Here is the press conference with Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan announcing that Scott Hayes will be charged after shooting the man with a pro-Palestinian pin who tackled him during a protest. pic.twitter.com/YBuRhzHeJU
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 13, 2024
Akiva reports Hayes will be arraigned in Newton District Court later today.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/outrageous-district-attorney-announces-iraq-war-veteran-who/
BREAKING: Not Just Springfield, Ohio — Three Cats Found Mutilated, Cut in Half with Paws Cleanly Chopped Off, No Blood at the Scene in Houston, Texas in Less Than Two Weeks
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/horror-multiple-cats-found-killed-mutilated-houston-texas/
Sep. 13, 2024 11:00 am
The remains of a cat, found mutilated, were discovered (Credit: KPRC Click2Houston)
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Springfield, Ohio residents have alleged Haitians in their town are “grabbing up ducks by their necks, decapitating them, and walking off with them to eat.”
Others revealed how the massive influx of immigrants, thanks to border czar Kamala Harris, has drained Springfield’s resources and turned a once-safe city into a crime-ridden hell.
One resident even claimed she spotted a cat hanging from a branch and being carved up for food by Haitian immigrants. Reports have also emerged that American veterans who have put their lives on the line are getting denied benefits while Haitians sponge off the taxpayers for absolutely nothing.
Now, a sickening and horrifying story has emerged in Houston, Texas, that possibly lends credibility to the claims in Springfield. KPRC 2 reported Thursday that several cats have been found dead and cut in half in Houston’s East End neighborhood.
The Houston Police Department (HPD) is investigating and asking for the public’s help to determine whether a demented person is responsible or whether it’s another animal.
The HPD says there have been at least three cases in recent days of dead cats showing up mutilated in the area. The first case was reported on August 26th, the second on Sunday, and the third on Wednesday.
In each gruesome case, the cats were found cut in half, paws cleanly chopped off, with no blood at the scene. Neighbors told KPRC 2 that all of the dead cats were found within a block of South Lockwood Drive and Park Drive.
One of the neighbors the outlet spoke with, Jackson Hime, said his mom was walking her dog when she stumbled upon a black cat who had been chopped in half.
“My mom was out walking her dog, and she passed by, saw that black cat was severed in half,” said Hime. “It doesn’t look natural to me.”
He said he had difficulty believing an animal was responsible because incidents like this had never happened in the 30 years he had lived in the neighborhood.
“It’s disgusting. It’s frightening,” Hime stated. “For this to happen three times in two weeks when we haven’t seen anything like this in 30 years, I find it hard to believe that that’s just a random animal attack.”
KRPC 2 reports staffers from BARC, Houston’s Animal Shelter and Adoption Facility, showed up to collect the cat’s remains a full day after neighbors made the 911 call. A necropsy will be performed on the remains.
“We talked to the officers yesterday, and as you can see, the body is still out here being eaten by flies,” Hime said.
A representative from BARC told KRPC that based on the evidence, it appears a human is responsible for the mutilation.
The Houston Society and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, though, released a statement explaining why they think that it could be an animal attack:
Earlier this week, a Houston SPCA Animal Cruelty Investigator responded to the East End after a cruelty report was filed with the animal rescue organization that two deceased cats were dismembered. After an initial investigation, it is believed this was caused by an animal attack, possibly coyotes, as the area where the incident occurred has a very high population of feral cats.
Houston SPCA was made aware of a third similar incident. Based on the current facts gathered, it is believed that this too was caused by an animal attack. The case will remain open pending further investigation if warranted.
The Houston SPCA encourages the community to file a report for suspected animal cruelty at 713.869.7722 or HoustonSPCA.org.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/horror-multiple-cats-found-killed-mutilated-houston-texas/
Breaking: Ohio’s Election Integrity Unit Uncovers Illegal Haitian Voter Registration Fraud Operation – Using Creole Language Forms
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/breaking-ohios-election-integrity-unit-uncovers-illegal-haitian/
Sep. 13, 2024 10:45 am
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose
Ohio’s election integrity unit announced on Thursday that it had uncovered a voter fraud scheme that involved Haitians living in the state.
In a press release on Thursday, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose outlined details of the scheme and said he would “aggressively pursue” those involved, including third-party groups and paid canvassers.
The release stated:
Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced today that his Election Integrity Unit has issued a warning to Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections after an investigation uncovered the use of illegal voter registration forms by a government agency.
“This is a reminder to all of our elections officials to be vigilant as we enter the final weeks of voter registration eligibility for the 2024 general election,” said Secretary LaRose. “We’re continuing to aggressively pursue third-party groups and paid canvassers who’ve been submitting fraudulent registration forms, and we’re cracking down on the use of illegal forms that aren’t authorized by my office as the law requires. These investigations are happening even as we continue to broaden the enforcement of Ohio’s constitutional citizenship voting requirement.”
The office’s Election Integrity Unit recently concluded an investigation into the origins of an illegal voter registration form translated into the Haitian Creole language. The Clark County Board of Elections reported this form to our office after rejecting its submission by a local applicant.
“The Board confirmed they’ve only received one of these unauthorized forms, but they rightly recognized it as illegal and worked with my team to track down its source with the help of a county government assistance office,” said Hun Yi, Director of Investigations for the office’s Public Integrity Division, in a memo to elections officials. “The form was erroneously included among others outsourced to a foreign language translation service. It garnered national attention considering the high number of Haitian refugees that have recently migrated to the Springfield area, and it serves as an important reminder that boards and designated voter registration agencies should be vigilant about the use of forms submitted to their office.”
The memo also highlights the Secretary of State’s efforts to enhance the ongoing statewide audit of Ohio’s voter rolls for citizenship compliance, using records provided by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. The office is also implementing more extensive cross-checks of Social Security Administration records, federal jury pool data, and naturalization records maintained by the justice system, while repeatedly asking the Biden-Harris administration to grant access to additional DHS databases, specifically the Person Centric Query Service (PCQS) database, the Person Centric Identity Services (PCIS) database, and the Central Index System 2…
…The memo concludes with a notice of ongoing investigations into evidence of a pattern of fraudulent voter registration activity in multiple counties under the paid employment of a group called Black Fork Strategies.
Such findings underline the efforts made by LaRose, who is one of the few Republicans attempting to crack down on the widespread voter fraud that tainted the 2020 presidential election.
Last month, LaRose referred 597 noncitizens for prosecution after they were found to have either registered to vote or cast a ballot illegally in recent elections.
Ohio Secretary of State Refers 597 Noncitizens for Prosecution After Registering or Voting Illegally
The findings come amid heightened tensions in Springfield, Ohio following numerous reports that Haitian migrants, 20,000 of whom have been shipped into the state by the Biden regime, have been eating animals including cats and geese.
The release added that it continued to investigate “evidence of a pattern of fraudulent voter registration activity in multiple counties under the paid employment of a group called Black Fork Strategies.”
According to its website, the goal of Black Fork Strategies is to build “long term progressive power,” mainly through canvassing and get out the vote campaigns.
As reported earlier in August…
The Gateway Pundit’s Patty McMurray reported on a different Democrat-funded voter registration group that is accused of turning in hundreds of suspected fraudulent voter registrations – this time in Ohio!
We have discovered that a group called Black Fork Strategies, which operates across the state of Ohio, is being investigated by the Ohio Secretary of State over another alleged fraudulent voter registration campaign. The Hamilton County Board of Elections has turned over several suspicious voter registration applications Ohio Secretary of State’s Public Integrity Division.
Hamilton County Director of Elections Sherry Poland recently held up an inch-wide stack of suspected fraudulent registrations turned in by Black Fork Strategies that appear to have all of the same handwriting.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/breaking-ohios-election-integrity-unit-uncovers-illegal-haitian/
President Trump Announces Plan to Save America from Barack Obama’s Marxist Crusade to Abolish the Suburbs
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/president-trump-announces-plan-save-america-barack-obamas/
Sep. 13, 2024 8:15 am
Trump announces new plan to save America from Barack Obama’s crusade to turn the country into a Marxist hellhole.
Of course, this won’t make headlines — President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he will save America from Barack Obama’s Marxist crusade to abolish the country’s suburbs.
President Trump made the announcement today during his rally in Tucson, Arizona.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Finally, I will SAVE AMERICA’S SUBURBS by protecting single family zoning. The Radical Left wants to abolish the suburbs by forcing apartment complexes and low-income housing into suburbs nationwide. I will end this Marxist crusade, stop the Washington assault on American Communities, and rescue the suburbs’ safe and beautiful way of life, and especially, the housewives of America will love Donald Trump.
For years Barack Obama worked to transform America into a Marxist hellhole.
In 2013, Barack Obama passed regulations to force suburban neighborhoods with no record of housing discrimination to build more public housing targeted to ethnic and racial minorities.
According to author Stanley Kurtz, the underlying thrust of the rule change was to force racial and ethnic diversity on the suburbs.
In June of 2015 the Obama administration moved forward with regulations designed to help diversify America’s wealthier neighborhoods. The regulations would force communities to build affordable housing in more affluent areas in order to receive federal grant money.
Kurtz later wrote on how the Biden regime took the Obama plan and went much further.
Biden has embraced Cory Booker’s strategy for ending single-family zoning in the suburbs and creating what you might call “little downtowns” in the suburbs. Combine the Obama-Biden administration’s radical AFFH regulation with Booker’s new strategy, and I don’t see how the suburbs can retain their ability to govern themselves. It will mean the end of local control, the end of a style of living that many people prefer to the city, and therefore the end of meaningful choice in how Americans can live. Shouldn’t voters know that this is what’s at stake in the election?
It is important to mention that the core of their idea is given in Marx’ and Engel’s Communist Manifesto. It is found at point number nine of the ten expressed:
“Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.”
Trump is trying to save America from the Marxists. That’s why they hate him.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/president-trump-announces-plan-save-america-barack-obamas/
Canada’s detested PM makes Canada a target:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-informs-un-security-council-direct-war-nato-assured-if-us-approves-long-range
WATCH: Josh Hawley Drops Disturbing Details on Secret Service Agent in Charge During Trump Assassination Attempt and Reveals Biden Regime is Ordering Agency Not to Comply with Congress
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/watch-josh-hawley-drops-disturbing-details-secret-service/
Sep. 13, 2024 3:20 pm
Senator Josh Hawley drops damning new details on the Trump assassination attempt during an appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime. (Credit: Fox News Screenshot)
The scandal regarding the attempt on former President Trump’s life continues to grow despite the corporate media’s desperate attempts to make the story disappear.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) warned that the American public would be ‘shocked, astonished, and appalled’ by the level of incompetence and failure within the Secret Service surrounding the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
Trump almost got killed during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by an armed Democrat donor named Thomas Crooks. The would-be assassin infiltrated the rally, climbed onto rooftops, and fired off multiple shots thanks to Secret Service negligence.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) appeared on Jesse Watters’s show Thursday night and dropped some more shocking details, this time focused on the lead Secret Service agent during the assassination attempt. Hawley stated that not only did the agent FAIL at least one of her training exams, but she was also known not to be a quality agent.
Despite this, disgraced former Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, a close friend of the Biden Crime Family, promoted her anyway.
Hawley described the pattern that had emerged during his conversations with whistleblowers as the Trump rally being “undermanned, understaffed, and lacking people who had experience on it.” He then slammed acting director Ronald Rowe for refusing to tell the truth and disclose all relevant details regarding what happened that fateful day.
“The fact that the director will not level with the American people about what’s going here is just totally unacceptable and unbelievable,” said Hawley.
WATCH:
Now a whistleblower alleges that the lead advance agent for President Trump’s entire trip to Butler, PA had failed training exams when she first joined the Secret Service.
And the Secret Service Director won’t even level with what’s going on here. It’s absurd. pic.twitter.com/Zu0BNvOQsL
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 13, 2024
Hawley then revealed to Watters that the Department of Homeland Security is ordering the agency to refrain from complying with document requests to Congress. Yes, the Biden regime does not want the truth regarding what happened on July 13 to be unveiled.
Upon hearing this, Watters said this confirms that a major cover-up is going on.
Now I’m told the Department of Homeland Security is pressuring the Secret Service not to comply with document requests by Congress about the Trump assassination attempt.
What are they hiding from the American people? pic.twitter.com/lQt0bu6NNY
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 13, 2024
One can only hope that Blumenthal is telling the truth and that Congress is serious about fully exposing the Secret Service. Otherwise, the attack on a former president will likely be swept away altogether.
If this happens, no one should ever fully trust words from the federal government again, especially one controlled by Democrats.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/watch-josh-hawley-drops-disturbing-details-secret-service/
Court Rejects “Breathtaking, Jawdropping, & Eyepopping” Arguments in Guns & Public Transit Suit
Ammoland Inc. Posted on September 13, 2024 by NRAHQ
Opinion
Trains, Planes, and Automobiles
iStock
Long before the United States Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen (2022), a federal appellate court relied on the right to bear arms for self-defense to invalidate an Illinois law that generally prohibited the carrying of guns in public.
As justification, the court observed that “in Chicago, at least, most murders occur outside the home,” and that “a Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of the Park Tower.”
Self-defense has to take place wherever a person happens to be, and Chicago’s public transit is far from a gun-free or crime-free zone.
CWB Chicago, a local crime reporting outlet, provides some idea of the hazards public transit users face. Recent incidents include an “elderly victim” being mugged on the Red Line on August 26; on August 28, a man armed with a handgun allegedly punched and robbed another man at the Sox-35th station; on September 1, a “man was stabbed and critically injured while riding a Red Line train in Uptown,” with the assailant remaining at large; and on September 3, outside a transit station, a transit employee “was shot and seriously injured by a drive-by gunman.” In the worst incident by far, on Labor Day four passengers were shot dead on a transit train, apparently while they were sleeping, in what is described as a “completely random” attack.
Illinois law, 430 ILCS 66/65-(a)(8), prohibits knowingly carrying a firearm on public transportation or in public transportation facilities, even for those with a concealed carry permit. A first violation is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1,500.00 and confinement in jail for 180 days; a second or subsequent offense is a more serious misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $2,500.00, confinement in jail for 364 days, and potential suspension or revocation of the offender’s carry license.
Four Illinois residents – all of whom had valid Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) cards and state concealed carry licenses, and who rely on public transportation to travel to places essential to their daily lives – sued Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, and other officials, claiming that they wished to carry for self-defense while using public transit and that the ban was unconstitutional. Citing Bruen, they argued that there was no “historical evidence that carrying firearms was restricted on public transportation conveyances” or other relevantly similar analogues, with “no direct corollary or even analogue between the Public Transportation Carry Ban and historical sensitive places restrictions.”
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U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston, ruling on competing summary judgment motions, agreed. “After an exhaustive review of the parties’ filings and the historical record, as required by Supreme Court precedent, the Court finds that Defendants failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the Founding that would allow Illinois to prohibit Plaintiffs – who hold concealed-carry permits – from carrying concealed handguns for self-defense onto the CTA [Chicago Transit Authority] and Metra” commuter rail agency lines.
The plaintiffs’ proposed conduct (carrying a concealed firearm for self-defense while on public transit) fell under the plain text of the Second Amendment, meaning the conduct was presumptively protected.
Turning to Bruen’s second inquiry, the court was clear that “whether there’s anything from 1791 that might appropriately be labeled ‘public transportation’ isn’t a silver bullet that shortcuts Bruen’s framework.” Instead, Judge Johnston analyzed historic regulations that purportedly had the same “how and why” as the transit carry ban. Old English law on going armed in public to terrify others (the Statute of Northampton) and similar state statutes were inadequate analogues, as the “why” of these laws was different. “A concealed arm doesn’t terrorize; it’s concealed. Consequently, these historical laws do not serve as an appropriate historical analogue.”
Other would-be analogues presented by the defendants failed as well, being too recent or insufficiently widespread to serve as a “national” tradition. Restrictions by railroad companies (that passengers keep firearms unloaded in their bags, or that barred firearms completely) were discounted because the companies concerned were private, not government, entities. The last and most sweeping argument (“sensitive places”) was so undefined and broad (“any place where the government would want to protect public order and safety”) as to be unsupportable.
Conversely, the court also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that a lack of early weapon restrictions on stagecoaches and ferries translated to a historical tradition regarding guns on public transit. Many of these transportation facilities were, like the railroads, not government-run, and the “why” was likely different, too (rather than guarding against the danger posed by the person carrying, the focus of these old restrictions was “dangers from the outside, such as wildlife”).
Along the way, the court disposed of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s egregiously misguided attempt to assert a proprietary (and in the alternative, a “market participant”) exception to Bruen, and indeed, the Constitution as a whole. Her argument, which the court described, politely, as “breathtaking, jawdropping, and eyepopping – is this: the ban applies only to property ‘funded in whole or in part’ by Illinois, so Illinois has a proprietary interest in what it regulates… On her view, when the government regulates its own property, that regulation is exempt from the coverage of the Second Amendment, or any other constitutional guarantee of individual rights.” In fact, the “constitutional protection afforded to other individual rights isn’t nullified on public property; Ms. Foxx’s proffered authority says nothing to the contrary.”
Ms. Foxx also argued that the ban didn’t “infringe” on the plaintiffs’ right to keep and bear arms, because “infringe” required the “total destruction of a right;” further, the Second Amendment didn’t cover the plaintiffs’ proposed conduct “because using a firearm on a crowded and confined public transit vehicle would result in more force than necessary for lawful self-defense.” Both of these arguments were as successful as her “proprietary” exception claim.
Ultimately, the judge dismissed the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, in part, and granted declaratory relief – that the ban on concealed carry on public transportation violated the Second Amendment, as applied to the four plaintiffs when travelling on the CTA and Metra. (The as-applied finding was based on the court determining that the plaintiffs framed their challenge only in terms of how the carry ban applied to them, and the court proceeded accordingly.)
Anticipating how the ruling might be portrayed in the mainstream media, Judge Johnston advised, in a footnote, that the ruling was specific to the facts presented, adding;
“‘Trump-appointed judge allows firearms on Illinois public transit’ is a likely chyron for this decision. That’s unfortunate. Federal judges –including those who will review this decision – engage in exacting, thoughtful, and careful analyses that are not results oriented or reducible to headlines and chyrons. We’re doing the best we can.”
A source quoted Illinois Governor’s J.B. Pritzker’s response to the ruling:
“So it’s clear that there are some misguided decisions that get made at the circuit court level, the federal court level, and I’m hoping that it will be overturned along the way, if it has to all the way the Supreme Court. It will be disappointing if they uphold this. But I’m hopeful that the law that was passed in Illinois a number of years ago, that’s frankly done a lot to keep people safe, will be upheld.”
Law-abiding Chicagoans might take exception to just how “safe” the law and law enforcement have kept their public transportation, as evidenced by another scroll through recent entries at the CWB Chicago website. An “eight-time convicted felon,” already on parole for robbing someone at a CTA station when he was caught displaying a gun on Chicago’s Red Line, was reportedly given a seven-year sentence but was released the next day. A man who was allegedly part of a gang that placed a CTA passenger in chokehold and robbed him was released on electronic monitoring, despite prosecutors asking that the man be kept in custody as “a safety risk.” The 30-year-old suspect in the Labor Day quadruple murder had allegedly been charged with illegal firearm possession in 2021, but prosecutors dropped that case, along with others. On being apprehended at a CTA Pink Line station some two hours after the shootings, the man was reportedly still in possession of a handgun.
https://www.ammoland.com/2024/09/court-rejects-breathtaking-jawdropping-eyepopping-arguments-guns-public-transit-suit/
This Is What Passes For Journalism Education In This Country?
By Tom Knighton | 7:01 PM | September 13, 2024
AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File
When I took journalism in college, it was in a time when journalists were still expected to at least appear unbiased. My journalism professor–we just had one–made it clear that whatever your personal opinions were, you left them at the door when you started work. He acknowledged that we might have it, we were just forbidden from showing it.
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In this day and age, journalists don’t even bother anymore, especially on issues like guns.
However, I hoped it was an artifact of the news industry post college. Why I hoped that, I don’t know, considering what we see on college campuses in general, but I hoped they’d at least try to teach people who to at least look unbiased.
Yet this bit from a student journalism website for Florida A&M University shattered that dream forever. It starts by asking why Florida isn’t an open-carry state. That’s a valid question. Florida tends to be pretty pro-gun, though not quite as pro-gun as a lot of other places, but it completely forbids open-carry unless you’re hunting, fishing, or camping.
But what we got was nothing but anti-gun nonsense.
Florida, recognized for its strong gun culture, upholds a ban on the open carrying of firearms, which contrasts with the trend in other states that have relaxed their open carry laws.
With several states around the country adopting open carry laws, this has kept Florida in another league. Despite Florida’s unique gun-related challenges, the state’s prohibition on open carry is rooted in historical, political and public safety reasons.
The development of firearm-carry laws in Florida has been a concern in the state. In 1987, Florida lawmakers approved a concealed carry law, allowing citizens who qualify to carry a gun with a permit. That law, however, prohibits carrying a firearm openly. This decision was influenced by fears that open carry could escalate confrontations in public spaces.
Law enforcement, policymakers and the tourism industry in Florida are against open carry laws. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement chose not to provide a comment, emphasizing that it simply enforces existing laws.
“FDLE has a long-standing tradition of political independence and impartiality; that tradition allows us to offer investigative and forensic findings free of any perceived bias. Our role is to enforce the laws that our lawmakers establish. For this reason, FDLE does not take positions, and we must decline the interview,” FDLE told the CapitalBureau.
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Now, FDLE is a valid place to go for information. It’s a state agency and about as neutral as you’re going to get in that context. I have no issue with them having reached out to them for information or comment, just as I have no issue with FDLE opting to stay the hell out of the conversation. That was the right decision by a state law enforcement agency.
Yet what follows from there is literally nothing but the journalism student just quoting gun control organizations.
Seriously, there’s no mention of reaching out to the NRA or GOA, both of which have a strong presence in Florida. I’m sure both would love to comment on just why Florida isn’t an open-carry state.
Instead, the author only quotes Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords.
What do those two organizations have in common again? Oh, that’s right, damn near everything.
That’s what it looks like when the journalism student and the faculty teaching her don’t even bother to try and hide the bias. This wasn’t just a first piece ever written by the student–it is the first one published on this site, though–but the kind of thing a J-school student turns in as a first assignment, something they get corrected on and learn from.
Instead, this was rewarded with publication, which is a big deal for any student journalist. It just signals she did things right.
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And this is why our nation is so completely screwed these days.
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2024/09/13/this-is-what-passes-for-journalism-education-in-this-country-n1226220
The MAGA People
TheLibertyDaily – September 13, 2024
https://rumble.com/v5ete77-the-best-campaign-ad-of-september-who-really-are-the-maga-people.html