“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” —John Adams (1770)

“Trojan Horse”: A deceptive stratagem to entice one group into willingly invite an adversary into their midst, convinced that the adversary is harmless.

As a starting point, let me state this irrefutable fact up front: The first civil right of all Americans is the foundational assurance codified in the Second Amendment, that the government may not infringe on “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.”

As Justice Joseph Story, appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison, wrote in his definitive “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States” (1833), “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”

In other words, the Second Amendment is the ultimate assurance of all other rights, and as such, was affirmed by our founders, and has been for generations since. The notion that such assurance is necessary is enigmatic for wealthy white suburban leftists, but that notwithstanding, the necessity for that assurance will never change.

So, what is up with all those suburban women besieging the offices of Tennessee state legislators?

Some background…

The ink was barely dry on my recent op-ed regarding a Tennessee mayor’s disgraceful assertion that one of our extended family members was murdered by “gun violence,” when I then discovered the latest leftist strategy to incrementally constrict the self-defense rights of law-abiding citizens. Tennessee is the testbed for this strategy, and your state is next…

Tennessee ranks among the most conservative states in the nation. That is why Joe Biden and his leftist cadres are constantly targeting this and other conservative states to determining the most effective manipulative strategies to undermine the foundational principles of American Liberty. That’s the primary purpose of Biden’s new White House office for “gun violence prevention.”

Their latest charade in our state is to enlist suburban “white privilege” women with emotive appeals. Most of those women live in comfortable homes with expensive alarm systems in safe communities protected by plenty of police. But the unmitigated and presumptuous arrogance of these enlistees is now in a full-frontal conflict with the interests of those minority constituencies whom they placate by pretending to support.

For context, the leaders of those suburban cadres are mostly wealthy, white social club sets, who have little genuine sense of self-reliance and are dependent on the labors and protection of others for their very existence. As a result of their own insecurity and inadequacy, they embrace the politics of government power.

Increasingly, those unhinged leftists cadres are dominated by women, whom Democrat strategists consider to be emotionally incontinent idiots — in other words, their most emotionally malleable and, consequently, most manipulable voter constituency.

These are the suburbanites who advertised their emotional IQ with plastic virtue-signaling yard signs, like those “Biden-Harris 2020” placards. Those were replaced by their “Hate Has No Home Here” signs with that soundbite slogan in six languages — later with rainbow colors to pay homage to the gender confusion crowd. Then the “Black Lives Matter” signs were fashionable until the abject corruption of that now-broke extortion outfit was exposed. Now that slogan has morphed into: “I’m not Black — But I hear you! I’m not Black — But I see you! I’m not Black — But I mourn for you! Black Lives Inspire!”

Isn’t that special?

More recently, springing up in some wealthy suburban Tennessee yards are signs proclaiming, “Protect Kids Not Guns.” That slogan implies that if you are a Second Amendment advocate, you don’t care about protecting kids. That’s a lie, and in fact gun-owners are most often motivated by their desire to protect their families and others.

These signs coincided with legions of white women who besieged a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly in Nashville in August, to demonstrate for “gun reform” – a protest resulting from the tragic murder of three white children and three adults at a Nashville Christian school, by a sociopathic gender-confused suburban white woman. It was a hate crime though does not meet the leftist narrative necessary to be classified as such.

Our Gov. Bill Lee, a genuine conservative and successful business owner – though somewhat a political novice, regretfully convened that special legislative session, understandably moved by the fact one of the Nashville murder victim was known to his family. His goal was to see if there were any reasonable measures to better protect Tennesseans, particularly “Red Flag” laws. After it became clear that neither the House nor Senate were going to agree on the terms of such a law, Lee has announced he will not float any such legislation next year.

To be clear about the “gun reform” mantra being screamed by all those white women at legislatures, “gun reform” is a leftist euphemism for “gun control,” which is and always has been a euphemism for gun confiscation. The Nashville protest focused on “gun violence” instead of “cultural violence,” which is the actual problem.

For the record, attacks on schools are high profile, but very rare — more than 99% of ALL murder victims are NOT killed in a “mass shootings” in schools or any other location. Moreover, a grossly disproportionate number of mass shootings and assaults are black-on-black, but Demos don’t want to touch that politically inconvenient truth.

However, on those rare occasions when a sociopathic assailant murders white children, Democrats are quick to use the coffins of those victims as a political soapbox to promote “gun control.”. They always do so when the victims are white children, because Demos know they can rely on their crass political strategy to invoke a strong emotive response from white suburban women.

Here are the relevant questions regarding the Nashville murders: Was it unlawful for a mentally ill person to possess a firearm? Yes. Was it unlawful for her to carry that firearm onto a school campus? Yes. Was it unlawful for her to murder people on that campus? Yes. Would any of the firearm restriction proposals put forward by all those white suburban women protestors have prevented this attack? No. NO! Would any of those proposals be obeyed by outlaws? No. NO!

Despite the fact that most of these suburban white women are being emotively manipulated, many are not idiots – but decent people who are fearful, having virtually no exposure to violence and lacking the confidence to defend themselves and others. In their angst, they are wholly unable to process that only law-abiding citizens obey laws – which will not deter outlaws.

To that end, many cities with the most restrictive gun policies in the nation have become the most dangerous urban centers in the nation.

Commenting on urban violence recently, Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, a black woman who understands violence is a culture problem not a “gun problem,” declared: “This is not about law-abiding gun owners. Even if you took all guns…from law abiding citizens, the others who mean harm, who mean to kill and maim, they’re still going to have guns. So we have to figure out what is going on in our communities…to figure out the real problems so we can determine the real solutions. … If we don’t lock [offenders] up and just release them back into the community so they can keep killing, when do we say ‘enough is enough’? … Who is in charge? Is that the mayor? Is that the chief? Let’s start naming names, because otherwise no-one is accountable… We need leadership, true leadership, because this is not happening where the movers and shakers live. … This has to stop, and we know where it starts. … The people who elected here, they are in charge, they must make the adjustments so the shootings don’t keep happening.”

The latest “Protect Kids Not Guns” charade being tested by Democrats and their Leftmedia publicists in Tennessee involves the establishment of local “gun control clubs” led by wealthy suburban white women in otherwise conservative states.

The Tennessee testbed gun control front calls itself “Safer Tennessee,” and asserts that it is a “nonpartisan statewide coalition dedicated to prioritizing firearm safety and advocating for common sense gun laws to make communities across Tennessee safer for all of us.” They insist, “If you believe our children deserve a safer Tennessee, then we are on the same side.”

Actually, no we are not.

As most reading this column will recall, the reference to “common sense gun laws,” is the ubiquitous euphemisms for outlawing firearms coined by Bill and Hillary Clinton 25 years ago, and constantly invoked now by Democrat Party leftists. The arrogance of that slogan asserts if you don’t agree with our gun-control agenda, then you don’t have common sense. Similarly, disagreeing with their “responsible firearm reform” agenda implies you are just irresponsible. That level of hubris is, well, Clintonian.

It’s the same false dichotomy invoked by those phony “protect children” yard signs. When any leftist political group proclaims they are doing something “for the children,” they aren’t. And, protecting children is precisely why “common sense” folks should oppose their gun-control agenda.

“Safer Tennessee” is largely organized and funded by wealthy suburban folks and a few celebrities, and it promotes itself as “non-partisan” to a fault. However, it is promoting a very partisan agenda. For the record, I could find a handful of wealthy suburban women who identify as “Republican” but who are pro-abortion – however, if they joined with a group promoting abortion, that does not make the issue “non-partisan.”

To be clear, this group is following Barack Obama’s “community organizing” template, forming their gun-control clubs in counties across the state. Most of those local groups are populated by angry leftist women, and somewhere behind the curtain, there are some radical leftist rats.

The organization is headed by Claudia Huskey, who was the Democrat campaign manager for the disgraced former Nashville Mayor, Megan Berry. Before that she was director of scheduling for ultra-leftist Al Gore and a long record of working for Demos before Gore.

Huskey is the definition of “partisan,” and a well-heeled fundraiser, who claims she has already raised more than $600,000 for their political agenda.

Her board of directors is chaired by Todd Cruse, who was a lobbyist for a foreign company and who claims his “non-partisan” credential is his association with disgraced former “Republican” Gov. Don Sundquist. Two decades ago Sundquist, with Cruse as his policy advisor, attempted to force a state income tax on Tennesseans. Fortunately their leftist “tax and spend” measure was defeated by the legislature, which is one reason Tennessee is among the most financially sound states of all.

Cruse, proclaimed at a recent gathering of wealthy suburban white women, “I’m a numbers guy and numbers don’t lie.” However, the statistics he uses to define the “children” who they claim the want to protect, is a very deliberate lie. They insist a “child” is someone aged 1-19, but fatality studies, including Tennessee’s data, classify a child as 0-17. The reason Cruse uses the “1-19” data is that excludes infant deaths (a large percentage of all childhood deaths), and includes the age group for most drug and gang violence murders, ages 18-19. In other words, this is a slick way to make the number murdered “children” appear much higher.

Cruse’s policy assistant is Erin Rogus, who has also mastered the numbers game.

As that old sage Mark Twain declared, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Apparently Huskey, Cruse and Rogus have perfected all three. Again, Trojan Horse.

Of course, the largest number of children killed nationwide, are those euthanized in the wombs of their mothers before birth, but this group certainly does not want to dilute their numbers with those deaths.

“Safer TN” is promoting three legislative initiatives, all nicely packaged to seem benign, which is why they have attract some Republicans on their regional fundraising host committees. Unfortunately, their website does not publish any phone number or email contact address in order to inquire about their political agenda.

The first two initiatives involve perennial issues – an effort to implement so-called “Red Flag” laws to confiscate firearms under the umbrella of “temporary transfer” language, and the implementation of more stringent “background checks.”

Regarding the confiscation of firearms from an individual adjudicated to be an immediate harm to themselves or others, nobody wants such a person to have ready access to a deadly weapon. However, there are serious civil rights questions about how to protect the individual rights of those who are not a threat to anyone, but have been accused of being such out of vindictive retribution.

Moreover, in this group’s misguided penchant for criminalizing victims, the they also support a “test” requirement for an individual to regain the right to possess a firearm. That is a violation of the Supreme Court’s 2022 6-3 ruling striking down New York’s “proper cause” requirement and its “may issue” concealed carry permit standard, under which authorities could deny an application for a permit simply because they didn’t think the applicant showed sufficient cause. Thus New York must comply with similar “shall issue” permits now available in 43 other states, which prohibit government infringement of “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

In regards to the second measure, ensuring lawful firearm transactions, I think there could be some reasonable compromise with the assurance the legislation does not morph into something else once codified in state law, and sunset provision requiring reauthorization.

A third legislative initiative they are promoting is a non-starter: Cruse wants to criminalize victims of crime in the name of “responsible firearms ownership.” They want legislation to make you a criminal if your property, in this case a firearm, is stollen from your vehicle – and this will be expanded to include firearms stolen from your home. Not only do they want a law-abiding citizen to be held criminally liable, but by extension this would open a wide door to civil liability.

Of note – predictably, though firearm thefts in Tennessee and other states increased after Biden and his Demos unleashed a record surge in lawless violence nationwide in 2020, those thefts are now declining.

Further, Huskey, Cruse and their crew also promote the grossly mistaken assumption that the Second Amendment is about protecting the rights of hunters to have firearms. That is a typical and intentional misconstruction by people who don’t even have a passing relationship with our nation’s Constitution, and the price of American Liberty. Few of these wealthy suburbanites have ever risked their lives “to support and defend” others in any capacity, and they have virtually no connection with grassroots Americans.

All these thankless gun-control advocates actually owe a great debt of gratitude to gun owners, because lawless thugs don’t know the difference between their “gun free” households, and those occupied by men and women who have the willingness and ability to protect both our own families and our neighbors. Unfortunately for the defenseless, violent felony offenders chose victims who are least able to defend themselves.

Fact is, none of the Clintonian “common sense” gun-control legislative initiatives being advance by “Safer Tennessee” would have prevented the devastating murder of six people at that Nashville Christian school last March.

Moreover, Cruse claims that once they have advanced their three initiatives, the organization will shutter its operations, “close and walk away.” It is not clear if he is disingenuous or naive, but once this organization has established all its gun-control groups in each county, they wont stop with their current slate of initiatives.

Again, the overarching concern, regardless of whether this group has some measure of success with their gun-control agenda, is that the leftist “community organizing” template they are using poses a political threat to Liberty and conservative majorities in Tennessee and other states where this women’s wedge model will be deployed. “Safer TN” claims they have 30,000 members in all 95 counties, and anyone who assumes this organized constituent base will not be used in perpetuity for leftist agendas across the state, is perilously mistaken. The organization notes that implementing its leftist agenda “is a marathon and not a sprint.”

Let me repeat, it’s “a marathon and not a sprint,” which is to say this leftist community organizing strategy is about much more than “gun control,” and they plan on being a leftist force moving forward.

So, that begs the somewhat rhetorical question, who are the leftist puppeteers behind Huskey, Cruse and Rogus, who are pulling their strings?

I have offered to come and speak with several of these “non-partisan” groups should they want to be something other than a gun-control echo chamber, but for some reason they have not responded.

Oh, and as I noted in the subtitle to this column, this “Trojan Horse” has pitted unwitting wealthy white suburban women against poor black urban women.

How?

Well, after four years of record firearm sales, now more than half of all adults are legal gun owners.

But you may not have heard that, because self-defense is the primary reason Americans acquire firearms, women are now the fastest growing demographic of new gun owners. In fact, it is estimated that women comprise 42% of new handgun owners.

Moreover, much to the ignorant disregard of those wealthy suburban white women who are not among those new handgun owners — given the inconvenient truth that a grossly disproportionate number of murders and violent crimes are perpetrated in urban centers by black assailants against black victims — 30% of the women purchasing firearms are black urban residents.

Yes, black women are actually the fastest growing gun-owning demographic. And another inconvenient truth the gun-control crowd neglects to mention: Almost 92 percent of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms.

In other words, what we have here is cadres of wealthy, white-privileged suburban women attempting to dictate to mostly lower income urban black women what they can and can’t do to defend themselves.

Oops, they didn’t see that coming. May I suggest cat-fight cage matches to resolve this issue — game on!

Again, only law-abiding citizens obey laws. That is abundantly evident given the fact that in urban centers besieged with a rising generation of sociopathic murderers, combined with the most restrictive self-defense policies in the nation, those Demo-controlled cities are also besieged with violence.

Taking away the ability of law-abiding citizens to protect their spouse, their children and others from outlaws, has deadly consequences.

And finally, given that all those suburban white women who are being used as Demo-pawns, insist they are concerned about the safety and protection of others, how about they put down their wine glasses and ban alcohol use? Alcohol abuse is far more deadly than firearm abuse.

According to the latest CDC data, 140,000 people died from alcohol-related causes last year – more than SEVEN times the number homicides associated with firearms. Drunk drivers are responsible for 28 deaths per day. And notably, it is estimated that alcohol is also a key factor in at least 30% of homicides involving firearms. (Include illegal drug use and that number jumps to about 60%.) If Democrats are serious about homicides, they should outlaw alcohol. Problem is, the vast majority of alcohol users possess and use it legally and responsibly.

Likewise, the vast majority of firearm owners possess and use them legally and responsibly. Enacting a prohibition on firearms is tantamount to enacting a prohibition on alcohol. In both cases, only law-abiding users are penalized while outlaws don’t obey laws.

Finally, the big picture: American Liberty has been a beacon of freedom to the world for more than two centuries, and remains so today because that beacon has been sustained by the foundational right to self defense set forth in our Second Amendment. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand our history.

BOTTOM LINE: The First Civil Right is To Keep and Bear Arms. It is the “the palladium of the liberties of the republic,” as it is the ultimate assurance of all other rights.

FOOTNOTE: Regarding so-called “gun violence” and “mass shootings”: For the record, murders of multiple people, particularly mass murders, are very rare in our nation of 330 million people. There were approximately 25,000 homicides in the U.S. in the latest year of record, which you can view state by state, and fortunately there are indications that homicides may be declining after the surge in violence unleashed by Joe Biden and his Democrat agitators in 2020.

The Demos ubiquitously and falsely label the generational murderous contagion they have seeded, “gun violence,” and focus exclusively on the infrequent high-profile “mass shootings,” which account for only a tiny fraction of all homicides. More than 99% of murders in the U.S. are not the result of mass attacks. (Notably, guns don’t commit violence, thugs and sociopaths commit violence.) The oft-cited Gun Violence Archive defines a “mass shooting” as any incident that involves a “minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed.” The vast majority of those violent attacks are the result of drug and gang violence committed on Democrat-controlled urban centers.

In a country and culture that ignores the rising generation of sociopathic murderers – thugs in violent urban centers who are saturated with cultural violence to the point of glorifying it, it is fortunate that the incidence of mass murder is not ten times higher. Arguably, the only thing keeping that number from being higher is that 125 million Americans are legal and responsible gun owners.

Democrats don’t focus on the vast majority of murders, particularly the epidemic of black-on-black murders on their degraded urban poverty plantations because they want to avoid at all cost, the “inconvenient truth” about race and violence, which is the direct result of failed Democrat social programs. Those murders aren’t useful for the gun control narrative they invoke to evoke emotional reaction from mostly wealthy white suburban women, whom form the Demos’ largest voter constituency.

As for actual mass murders, that is detailed in the FBI’s data on “active shooter incidents” – which it defines as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” – in 2022 the FBI reported 50 incidents resulting in 313 casualties (100 killed and 213 wounded). That number was up significantly from 2020, when the FBI reported 40 incidents resulting in 164 casualties (38 killed and 126 wounded). A more relevant record of “mass shooting” data is maintained by the Associated Press and Northeastern University, which uses the Department of Justice definition of mass public shooting: “A multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms.” These numbers fluctuate significantly year over year, and range between 20 and 40 incidents.

FOOTNOTE 2: Regarding why Democrats only focus on less than 1% of murders nationwide – they are intentionally using these rare high-profile tragedies to foment fear – most notably their oft-repeated but erroneous claim that “gun violence is the leading cause of death for children.” If by “children” they mean gang and drug associated murders of those primarily between the ages of 16 and 21, then yes. Democrats are experts at fomenting fear and division.

The fear and angst Demos are intentionally propagating is taking a toll on Americans’ mental health. Psychological researcher Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson observes: “Watching it time and time again on your phone or on the headlines can really impact you in ways that I don’t think we knew before to be as impactful. It’s so ‘in our face’ all the time and we have access to so much footage, so many pictures, so many videos, so many accounts that we’re ingesting it in ways that’s really unhealthy for us.” The result for many mothers is an irrational fear that their children will be shot. That is precisely the fear that Democrats want to perpetuate, especially among their female constituents, in order to advance their gun control agenda.

FOOTNOTE 3: Regarding those so-called “assault weapons,” for much the same reason Democrats focus only on the rare high-profile attacks to generate fear and angst, some of those attacks involve semi-automatic rifles versus pistols, thus the calls to ban them. However, rifles and shotguns of combined are used in less than 3% of all homicides, but Democrats never let facts get in the way of their political agenda.

FOOTNOTE 4: Regarding firearms and violent crime, researcher John Lott reports, “Over 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms.” Again, the only thing keeping that number from being much higher is that 125 million Americans are legal and responsible gun owners.

FOOTNOTE 5: Regarding firearms and suicide, 54% of all deaths involving firearms are suicide, most also involving drugs or alcohol abuse, but the big numbers in “gun violence” reports often do not distinguish between murder and suicide. It would seem that the Demos’ support for assisted suicide is in conflict with their support for gun control.

(Updated) (Photos from Safer TN social media and fundraising appeals.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

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