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Proposed mandatory 10 years for gun crime draws warning at Texas Capitol By Greg Groogan

Significant pushback emerged at the Texas Capitol against a proposed law mandating 10 years in prison for those convicted of a crime involving a gun.

“This I think will go a long way as a deterrent effect to try and stop some of the very violent crimes that are happening in our state with the use of firearms,” said Houston State Senator Joan Huffman, author of SB-23.

SUGGESTED: Texas teachers speak out to lawmakers during Legislative Session

Criminal defense lawyers are opposing the harsh, mandatory punishment warning of “unintended consequences” if the automatic enhancement becomes law including police officers and armed citizens to prison for shootings that are not “clear-cut” cases of self-defense.

“We think that it throws such a big net that it catch a lot of people it really didn’t intend to,” said Betty Blackwell with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

“It really does scoop up people who are honestly protecting themselves and their families into this broad,” said defense attorney Emily Taylor who represents both police and civilians involved in shootings.

READ MORE ON TEXAS POLITICS

During Thursday’s hearing before the Senate State Affairs Committee, the defense bar found an ally in the “gun rights” movement.

TEXAS POLITICS: School voucher debate gets underway at Texas Capitol

“This bill will have the same consequences for law enforcement officers who believe they have acted in self-defense,” said Wesley Virdell, Texas Director of Gun Owners of America,

SB-23 has the backing of Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick who campaigned on the 10-year mandatory sentence for gun crimes.

Senate watchers say Patrick’s support makes the passage of SB-23 likely in the upper chamber.

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WATCH: SIXTEEN Out-of-State ATF Agents Visit and Intimidate Popular Gun Store in Smyrna, GA on Same Day as Nashville School Shooting, Get Scared Off by GOP Congressmembers! By Jordan Conradson

Georgia Republican Reps. Barry Loudermilk, Mike Collins, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rich McCormick

Sixteen ATF out-of-state agents reportedly visited Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, GA, to conduct a “routine” inspection of the popular longtime gun dealer on Monday morning.

Coincidentally (or not), this happened on the same morning of a school shooting by a transgender who kept a manifesto and mapped out his plan in Nashville, TN. The Biden White House on Monday afternoon called for Republican lawmakers to back a ban on so-called ‘assault weapons’ following the Nashville school shooting.

Both of these incidents happened months after Nashville Predators Foundation teamed with Nashville Police in offering People $50 Kroger cards to turn in their firearms.

Brian Glenn of Right Side Broadcasting Network shared the news Monday morning, calling it a “raid” and said they would continue to monitor the story.

Marjorie Taylor Greene can be seen telling off an ATF Public Information Officer below, saying, “it’s very odd for them to be treated this way.”

 

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted,

Members of our Georgia delegation were present for an unprecedented ATF inspection at longtime and well respected Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Ga.

After we questioned their motives and informed them of Oversight and Republican controlled Appropriations, they all left.

 

11Alive reports,

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones vowed an investigation Monday after an apparent visit by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to a Smyrna gun store.

11Alive contacted ATF to confirm the nature of the bureau’s presence at Adventure Outdoors, which was posted about by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, but the bureau did not respond to request for comment.

The presence of ATF was observed by fellow Georgia Republican Reps. Barry Loudermilk, Mike Collins and Rich McCormick as well, according to Greene’s post.

Lt. Gov. Jones reposted a video of the Congress members speaking to a person wearing an ATF public information officer jacket. He wrote: “Adventure Outdoors is one of the largest and most respected businesses in our state — and this appears to be an egregious overreach by Joe Biden’s ATF. We will be working to investigate this situation to protect this business and Georgians’ 2A rights.”

 

From RSBN:

Watch as roughly fifteen ATF out-of-state agents enter Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, GA for a “routine” inspection just days before Governor Ron DeSantis plans to visit on Thursday. Local congressional representatives heard of the supposed routine inspection and arrived on the scene and answered questions from the local media They also questioned the ATF public information officer about this unprecedented inspection.

Georgia lawmakers can be seen below denouncing the highly equipped inspection by the “politicized and weaponized” agency and explaining that the ATF agents would not answer their questions. “They’ve been the benchmark really nationwide for other gun stores of how it really should be done,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk. “It was unprecedented to have that many inspectors come for especially a dealership that has just renewed their Federal Firearms License (FFL).”

Rep Mike Collins told reporters, “we were told we didn’t have to be given a reason” from the ATF for their inspection. The ATF also asked about the upcoming political event on Thursday.

This was not an annual or regularly planned inspection, said Congressman Rich McCormick. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “They left after they met us.” She continued, asking, “Why leave if you’re not doing anything wrong? Why would they leave after meeting members of Congress, especially the Congressman where this gun store is in his district and he’s a customer here?”

The Congressmembers from Georgia said these 15 officers came from multiple states. One Representative said they came from 14 different states to intimidate this “flagship” gun store. “There’s 20 inspectors here in the Atlanta area,” said Loudermilk.

The Georgia delegation also be seen confronting the ATF’s Public Information Officer as a group.

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California

California: San Francisco Supervisors Considering Firearm Tax – The NRA-ILA

Today, the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco will consider whether to adopt File #230305, a resolution in support of Assembly Bill 28, which states the Legislature’s intent to impose a tax on firearms and ammunition. NRA members and Second Amendment supporters are invited to oppose File #230305 by submitting comments via email or by participating in the meeting, which is available in person and by calling in. Click here for the agenda and to view details for participating.

It is unjust to saddle law-abiding gun owners with punitive taxes. Such policies will not hinder the criminal misuse of firearms, but instead make it more expensive for law-abiding citizens to exercise their constitutionally protected rights or engage in lawful firearm related activities.

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This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things… In San Francisco from The NRA-ILA

Most Americans understand that our country has had a problem with a surge in crime over the last couple of years. In response, there has been a surge in gun purchases, and millions of law-abiding citizens have become first-time gun owners, as they understand that one of the most effective tools to better ensure their safety, and the safety of their loved ones, is a firearm.

Another way to better ensure the safety of American citizens is with an effective criminal justice system. It’s not a complicated concept, and one that can be understood by elementary school children.

Sadly, there are far too many politicians that have decided this concept is, somehow, outdated, and needs to be “reformed.” The ill-conceived “defund the police” movement, naïve calls for eliminating cash bail that allows extremely violent predators to walk our streets even after they have been caught and charged with crimes, and the numerous George Soros-funded DAs that seem uninterested in doing their job of prosecuting violent criminals have all directly contributed to an increase in crime across the country.

Which brings us to San Francisco.

The City by the Bay was once a beautiful, relatively safe destination. Many accounts from long-time residents and recent visitors, however, indicate the city is now plagued with rampant homelessness, filth (often of the kind one does not discuss in polite company) in the streets, and dramatic increases in crime.

Unfortunately, the city’s government has spent more time attempting to score political points by implementing the entire lexicon of progressive crime “reform” policies rather than focusing on keeping their residents safe.

Remember, this is a city whose Board of Supervisors declared NRA a “terrorist organization” in 2019, when such outrageously malicious and blatantly false messaging was being promoted by anti-gun extremists. The mayor was forced to back down on the Board’s “declaration” when the city faced an NRA lawsuit.

In 2022, voters recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin (D)—a radical “progressive” who was backed by anti-gun billionaire George Soros, and ran on a platform of reduced incarceration, elimination of cash bail, and refusal to allow his office to assist federal authorities with capturing people who had entered our country illegally.

The successful signature drive to put Boudin’s recall on the ballot was spearheaded by two Democrats, and the vote to oust him saw a greater turnout than his original election, so perhaps there are signs of sanity emerging from the left coast’s most prominent bastion of liberal extremism.

Still, the sanity cannot come soon enough, as recent examples of the crime problem in San Francisco highlight the notion that there is still a long way to go.

Recently, it was reported that CNN reporters had their car broken into and items stolen, in San Francisco. And while theft is bad enough, the crew was apparently working on a story “about voter discontent with the city’s rampant street crime,” making the crime fairly ironic. That’s just an observation, not an attempt at making humor out of the situation, as it gets even worse. Kyung Lah, a CNN senior national correspondent that was part of the reporting team, tweeted about the experience, stating, “Got Robbed. Again.”

Since it had happened to her before, you would think she would have taken precautions. Turns out, she did, as her tweet also mentioned, “We had security to watch our rental car + our crew car.” Yes, things are so bad in San Francisco that you can even go the extra mile of hiring private security to protect your belongings, and you can still become a victim of theft.

Snehal Antani, who describes himself as “an entrepreneur, technologist, and investor,” also recently tweeted about a car break-in experienced by work colleagues who were in San Francisco from out of town (perhaps from another country). Antani, CEO of the San Francisco-based cybersecurity company Horizon3.ai, posted, “A teammate visiting San Francisco for an offsite called me frantically last night. After dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf they came back to a smashed car window and 2 stolen backpacks. $10K in gear lost, passports gone, etc. #San Francisco.”

Responses to the tweet contained what one might expect from random people on Twitter; some were sympathetic, others blamed the victims for not being more aware of the potential for having a car broken into, and plenty of people implied these crime victims were “snowflakes” after Antani suggested they might be “scarred forever” after being victimized.

But the reason we mention Antani’s tweet is because of one particular responder, as reported by Red State. A gentleman named John Hamasaki tweeted, “Interesting. Would getting your car window broken and some stuff stolen leave you ‘scarred forever’? Is this what the suburbs do to you? Shelter you from basic city life experiences so that when they happen you are broken to the core?”

Now, Hamasaki has no idea if the crime victims were actually from “the suburbs,” but besides that presumption and his condescension, there is probably no better example of the state of crime in American cities than his assumption that being a crime victim should be thought of as part of “basic city life experiences….”

And who is John Hamasaki? He’s a former San Francisco police commissioner and a failed candidate for San Francisco DA, having lost the 2022 special election to replace the recalled Chesa Boudin. He is, in other words, one of the reasons crime in San Francisco has become such a problem. When a former police commissioner opines that being a victim of crime is merely a part of “basic city life experiences,” it is easy to see how crime can get out of hand.

Hamasaki even seems to humble brag about his own crime victimization. In an interview with SFGate, he noted, “I’ve been a victim of a host of crimes in San Francisco; I’ve had my windows broken four times.” So, since he is often a crime victim, he thinks others shouldn’t make such a big deal out of it when they are victims?

Thankfully, there is that “former” tag when referring to his stint as police commissioner, and he also managed to lose the race to become the city’s district attorney.

Again, perhaps there are signs that sanity is taking grip in San Francisco. But, given the city’s recent “solutions” to its crime problem, perhaps not.

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" You have to be kidding, right!?!

Seattle’s Gun Tax: A Textbook Case on the Law of Inverse Consequences

International Money Transfer | Global Remittance with TranSwap

The law of inverse or unintended consequences refers to outcomes that are the reverse of the planned or expected results. As described in another context, “the law of unintended consequences could create a perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended and ultimately making the problem worse.”

Back in 2015, Pete Holmes, the then City Attorney, wrote about Seattle’s “inventive” new way to address violent crime. “In a Seattle summer marred by random gunfire, the City Council unanimously approved, and Mayor Ed Murray signed, the ordinance that, come January [2016], will levy a $25 tax on businesses for each firearm sold at retail within City limits to provide a sustained local revenue source for research and prevention programs.

In addition, the City will impose a 2-cent tax for every round of .22 caliber ammunition sold and a 5-cent tax for every other round of ammunition sold.” Describing this so-called “common sense step designed to reduce gun violence,” Holmes said, “This City acted to control its own destiny.”

At the time the ordinance was passed, the City Budget Office estimated that the gun tax would generate revenue of “between $300,000 and $500,000 a year.”

Seattle Police Department data on crime shows there were 3,830 violent crime incidents in 2015, of which 26 were homicides. Violent crime incidents have increased each year since, reaching 5,630 in 2022 (including 52 homicides). The department’s most recent  annual report reveals that Seattle’s overall violent crime rate reached a 15-year high in 2022, with homicides up by 24% and aggravated assaults (including shots fired and non-fatal shootings) “continu[ing] to be the highest reported in the last 10 years.”

Analyzing the numbers for shootings and shots fired specifically, police data for 2015 indicates there were 54 “shots fired” incidents, 16 shootings (nonfatal) and no shooting fatalities. By 2022, this had climbed to 79 “shots fired” incidents, 34 non-fatal shootings, and six “fatal injury” shootings. So far, 2023 looks to be at least as violent, with 84 “shots fired” incidents, 15 non-fatal injury shootings, and four fatalities already, a scant three months into the year.

Residents who may have looked to console themselves with what, by now, was supposed to be a multi-million dollar stash of cash generated by the gun tax for prevention programs were in for another rude shock. According to one source, the first full year of gun tax collection yielded just $103,766, with $93,220 collected for 2017, $77,518 in 2018, and $85,352 in 2019 – a  four-year total that failed to reach the midpoint, even, of the city’s predicted revenue for a single year.

To get the real financial impact of the gun tax, though, Seattle’s extreme overestimates have to be viewed in the larger context of actual lost revenues. At the time the gun tax was proposed, the proprietor of one of Seattle’s gun stores described what he called the city’s “grossly unsound” reasoning and revenue projections. Seattle, he added, had only two dedicated gun stores, plus a few big box sporting goods stores and pawnshops, but had “plenty more” located a short way out of the city. Rather than “just tighten the belt and hand over the money,” consumers would shop elsewhere and “Seattle gun stores would simply go out of business.”

The result? No gun tax income and the city would lose the sales tax, other revenue and jobs the businesses had been generating until then. In his case – because he moved his business to the suburbs outside Seattle when the gun tax was passed – Seattle lost close to $64,000 in sales taxes that his business paid in his new location in 2017.

Another large gun retailer, the owner of Seattle’s Outdoor Emporium, was interviewed in late 2016 and blamed the gun tax for his “$2 million hit” in lost sales, a 32% drop in his customer count, and an estimated $600,000 loss of potential sales tax due to his plummeting sales.

If these figures are accurate, Seattle accomplished the unbelievable financial equivalent of cutting off its nose to spite its face by collecting, in 2016, a little over $100K in gun tax revenue but losing at least seven times as much in sales tax dollars alone. Driving these figures even further into the red, in 2017 the city reportedly spent more on defending a failed lawsuit on the tax (over its refusal to disclose the 2016 revenue collected) than it obtained that year in total gun tax income.

It’s not just a case of the usual wonky progressive math. Civic politicians have hurt city taxpayers, to be sure, but taking “control” of the city’s destiny with this “inventive” ordinance has correlated with violent crime rates reaching record highs. The same ordinance has created an uncompetitive business climate for gun retailers, so residents who need the means to protect themselves and their families from the burgeoning crime wave are forced to go outside Seattle. Even apart from the gigantic question mark on how the gun tax revenues have been spent and to what end, it’s difficult to interpret these outcomes as anything other than a complete and dismal failure.

From The NRA

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Who watches the watchers? Who guards the guards? | Neil Oliver

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends"

From STORMBRINGER SENDS – My Friend Ed

Ed and I have known each other since Basic, way back at Fort Benning (aka Fort Beginning). Ed is one of the smartest guys I know. While I stayed in and ruined my health (and sanity) in the Army, Ed got out, went to college and got an engineering degree and these days he’s in charge of a huge operation and he’s pulling in the big bucks. Ed is African-American – the reason this is significant is that over the years he has opened my eyes to a few realities that never occurred to me.

I am a big 2nd Amendment guy, but a question I struggled with for years was the whole thing about justification for a semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round magazine. There is no sporting application for such a firearm. When I got out, I didn’t get myself an AR-15 – I was trying to decompress, and I didn’t want to own a sinister looking black rifle. I made do with my Lee-Enfield for any long-range applications, and a shotgun for home defense.

Then one day Ed explained it to me.
Ed said, “There used to be this thing called lynching, in this country. People who form up lynch mobs, go after black men, and string them up in trees. And when they did this, they used to take group photos in front of the lynching tree, and the county sheriff would be there right alongside everyone else. And often, state governors would either turn a blind eye to it, or outright endorse this behavior.”

I got it immediately. What Ed was describing was the epitome of tyranny, contrary to the freedom that is referenced within the Second Amendment:

“Imagine,” my friend Ed said, “that if every black man in America had an AR-15 with seven 30-round magazines; the era of lynching would have been over before it even began.”

I get it now. Imagine if, prior to the Krystallnacht in 1938, every German Jew had a Luger pistol with three 8-round magazines; the Holocaust would have been over before it ever got started. And if every Jew and Slav in Eastern Europe had a Mauser M98 or a Mosin-Nagant rifle with a basic load of ammo, with instructions to kill just one German soldier each then go home and bury their rifle in the back yard, the Third Reich would have never taken Poland, much less launched into the Soviet Union.

When President Biden announced that he was going to ban AR-15s, I went right out and purchased an AR-15.

“When the Government says you don’t need an AR-15 – YOU NEED AN AR-15”
After the Rittenhouse episode in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it is evident that there’s a whole new lynch mob out there. How ironic it is that they call themselves Antifa – short for “Anti-Fascist” – when they are the modern day incarnation of the Nazi brownshirts.
If Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t have an AR-15, he would be dead at the hands of a tyrannical mob that the Government allowed to pillage and burn without constraint across the nation – and it is telling that Rittenhouse was found innocent by a jury of peers and is a free man today.
If anybody asks, this is why you need an AR-15, with as many 30-round magazines as possible.
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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom

House Republicans pass bill to loosen requirements for teachers having firearms in classrooms by: Nick Camper/KFOR

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – House Republicans voted on Tuesday to give Oklahoma teachers more access to guns.

House Bill 2139 would add a concealed carry license to the list of approved licenses teachers could obtain in order to bring a gun into the classroom.

Current law states teachers must hold an armed security guard license or a valid reserve certification as a peace officer, in order to carry on campus.

Concealed carry takes about eight hours to acquire and does not require CLEET certification.

Democrats argued allowing teachers to carry in classrooms could make the environment more dangerous.

“I’m trying to break up a fight,” explained Rep. Jacob Rosecrants (D-Norman), a former teacher. “My firearm just hanging out. I can’t keep an eye on everything.”

The author of the bill, Rep. Kevin McDugle (R-Broken Arrow), said more guns would deter a potential shooter.

“If there’s a possibility when they go into a school that they can get shot, they will chose the pathway of least resistance and they’ll go somewhere else,” said McDugle.

Moms Demand Action weighed into the debate with a statement from a member of their local chapter.

“This kind of blatant disregard for public safety cannot, and will not, go unnoticed,” said Kay Malan, a volunteer with the Oklahoma chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Year after year, we’ve fought these spineless lawmakers who put our lives at greater risk just to pander to local gun extremists. They have already shredded all of our gun safety laws. When will enough be enough?”

Republican Scott Fetgatter said Democrats and opponents of the bill are exaggerating its effects, emphasizing the bill makes concealed carry for teachers an option.

“Mr. Speaker, I don’t recall the state legislature ever purchasing weapons to put in any mother-freakers hands,” said Fetgatter.

Emotions were high on both sides of the floor.

Trish Ranson, a Democrat from Stillwater, said teachers would face an increase in scrutiny from community members.

“God-forbid, there was a school shooting and I didn’t act the way the other teachers or the other students or the other people in my community should have act,” said Ranson, referring to the added pressure on teachers that take on the duty of carrying a firearm.

The bill passed along party lines, 79-20 and will now head to the Senate.

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Born again Cynic! Gun Fearing Wussies You have to be kidding, right!?!

Joe Biden is coming for your Glock 7! by Lee Williams

Detective John McClane was the first to warn us about the dangers of the Glock 7. “That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It’s a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesn’t show up on your airport X-ray machines here and it costs more than what you make in a month,” Detective McClane said in Die Hard 2.

Thank God the White House was listening.

As part of his latest sweeping and unconstitutional Executive Order issued Tuesday, Joe Biden announced he is strengthening, modernizing and making permanent the Undetectable Firearms Act, which will save us all from the perils of porcelain pistols, even though they don’t yet exist.

White House “Fact” Sheet issued in conjunction with the EO states that Biden will “advance congressional efforts to prevent the proliferation of firearms undetectable by metal detectors.”

“In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of technology that allows guns to be made with polymers and other materials that are increasingly capable of avoiding detection by metal detectors,” the Fact Sheet states. “President Biden is directing the Attorney General to help Congress modernize and make permanent the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988, which is currently set to expire in December 2023.”

To be clear, no modern firearm or ammunition can make it through a metal detector undetected, but the Glock 7 “crackdown” is just part – the silly part – of another one of Biden’s overreaching assaults on guns, gun makers, gun dealers and gun owners.

Nowhere in the actual EO or the “Fact” sheet does Biden mention how he intends to hold criminals accountable. Instead, he’s holding the gun industry accountable, as if gun makers and gun dealers are responsible for the surging crime plaguing Democrat-run cities, which is giving Biden’s pollsters fits as 2024 approaches.

Biden wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate “how gun manufacturers market firearms to minors,” which is ludicrous. The only firearm I can recall ever marketed toward minors was the Daisy Red Ryder BB-gun. Besides, advertising is constitutionally protected speech, so I guess Team Biden doesn’t mind infringing upon the First Amendment as long as it leads to infringements upon the Second.

The EO shows Biden plans to use his sycophants in the legacy media to gaslight the public “with more information regarding federally licensed firearms dealers who are violating the law.” They aren’t, although scores of law-abiding gun dealers are being put out of business every day by Biden’s weaponized bullyboys in the ATF, who are revoking FFLs like it’s cool for the most minor of clerical errors, not for any serious reasons, like failing to run a background check, which only Biden believes leads to crime.

Joe actually proposed the creation of a new federal team that would swoop in whenever and wherever there’s a mass shooting to exploit the tragedy, which Biden and his cronies would never dream of letting go to waste. Maybe they’ll have “Federal Blood-dancing Bureau,” or FBB stenciled on the backs of their blue windbreakers, because that’s exactly what they’ll be doing.

To be clear, criminals have nothing to fear from Biden’s latest imperial decree. There’s nothing they need worry about. For the law-abiding, this is just the latest in a long line of infringements that we’ll have to endure until there’s a new occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who views us as citizens, not subjects.

This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.


About Lee Williams

Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.

Lee Williams

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Gun Fearing Wussies Some Red Hot Gospel there!

Yeech!