Miguel has dutifully tracked the number of issued Florida CCW permits, which cleared two million earlier this year.

That’s great, but at the national level, we’re doing even better.

From the Crime Prevention Research Center:

New Concealed Carry Report For 2019: 18.66 Million Permit Holders Despite 16 Constitutional Carry States, Over 1.4 Million More Than Last Year

Despite the expectations of many after the 2016 elections the number of concealed handgun permits has increased for the third year in a row. In 2019, the number of concealed handgun permits soared to now over 18.66 million– a 304% increase since 2007. About an 8% growth over the number of permits since 2018.

Overall, that is more than 5% of Americans who have a CCW permit.  Of course, it’s not broken down evenly.

This map shows the states by percent of residents with CCW permits;

You are welcome by the way.

I have gotten a CCW in every state I have ever claimed residence in, including Illinois, and have lived in four of the five states that are above 15% (I’m just missing Iowa).  Throw in my Arizona and Utah permits and I’ve done my part to boost those numbers.

I think the state that impresses me the most is Pennsylvania at 10-15% despite being jammed next to a bunch of may/no issue ban-happy states (Maryland, New York, New Jersey).

This is a very quiet victory, you don’t hear much about concealed carry in the media, except when the are mocking the idea of a good guy with a gun, but our numbers are growing.

I spoke too soon.  The week of bad Leftist antisemitism wasn’t over when I wrote my post yesterday.

This time, we are going to turn to Portland, the city that the radical mayor has let come under the grip of Antifa.

From Willamette Week:

Portland Trail Blazers Announce the End of Its Partnership with Military Contractor Leupold & Stevens

The Trail Blazers are ending a controversial partnership with Beaverton-based sniper-scopes manufacturer Leupold & Stevens.

NBA writer Sean Highkin first reported that Blazers President Chris McGowan made the announcement this afternoon at the team’s media day.

“Leupold is no longer a partner of the organization,” McGowan said. “I thank them for many years of supporting our organization. They were a great partner when they were a sponsor. But, for various reasons…they’ve decided to go in a different direction, so they’re no longer a partner of our team.”

Several groups, including the Portland Democratic Socialists of America, have protested the Blazers’ relationship with the company, which supplies rifle scopes to the U.S. military and other armed forces, including the Israeli Defense Force.

It’s the company’s work with the Israeli army that has drawn protest from the DSA, which opposes the occupation of Palestine.

In Portland, the Democratic Socialists of America are an actual political force and not just a bunch of pampered college kids who need to be beaten to within an inch of their lives with a copy of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

And why is the DSA protesting Leupold?  Because of teh JOOOOOOOOOS!!!

Leupold supplies optics to a number of militaries around the world, including to places like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are only nominally our allies.  Nobody on the Left ever protests American companies supplying anything to a dictatorial monarchy that chops off hands and feet in soccer stadiums to jeering crowds.

Supply equipment to the IDF and they lose their Jew-hating minds.

McGowan said the protests were not entirely the reason for the end of the partnership.

Leupold & Stevens had sponsored a regular segment at Moda Center called Hometown Heroes, meant to honor local military veterans and first responders with free tickets, gifts and in-game recognition.

During a Hometown Heroes segment at a game last year, a former Marine Corps security guard and member of the Portland chapter of the DSA unzipped his jacket, revealing a shirt reading “End This Sponsorship #NoLeupold.”

I still support our military on principle, and I work with a lot of veterans, but everywhere I turn I find more and more people in our military who signed up while at the same time are ideologically opposed to every single thing this country stands for.

I understand that the military is not politically monolithic.  I can name more Democrats in Congress who are veterans than Republicans.  What I find frightening is that like Ted Lieu, Pam Keith, Amy McGrath, Seth Moulton, etc. they swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and then as politicians want to impose the most egregious restrictions on the rights of the people.  We have military veterans in office who want to use the power of the Federal government to disarm the civilian population.

But I digress…

“We are grateful for the hard work of the many community groups, activists, Blazers fans, and veterans who united around this important issue to stand up for Palestinian human rights,” DSA co-chair Olivia Katbi Smith said in a statement. “We are relieved that the Blazers have done the right thing and finally ended this completely unnecessary partnership with a company that has provided sniper scopes to a brutal occupying force.”

Katbi Smith added that the DSA is still planning to oppose the Blazers’ preseason game against Israel’s Maccabi Haifa on Oct. 10.

“Apartheid has no business in Portland, including in our sports and entertainment,” Katbi Smith said.

Translation: “We are historically illiterate but we hate teh JOOOOOS and need to justify our hatred in a way that sounds Woke and Progressive.”

In a more rational place, a bunch of Jew-hating socialists would have been told to go fuck themselves with various sharp and painful implements.  My recommendation is a length of shear cut #18 Rebar.

In Portland, what the Jew-hating socialists want, the Jew-hating socialists get.

I don’t blame Leupold, the political demographics of Portland have shifted so far and so fast I will honestly be surprised if they are not run out of the state the way gun makers were run out of New York.

If/when that happens, I’d like to welcome Leupold to the Huntsville, Alabama area.  We have lots of engineering and manufacturing capabilities to help them as the world-class optics manufacturer that we are.

Also, if the shit hits the fan, I’ll make sure that I bag at least one DSA with my 308 topped with a Leupold Mk 4.

This post is not for the discussion of Guyger’s innocence or guilt, but on a very specific turning point in the trial. Let’s keep it there.

From Massad Ayoob’s:

Watching the defendant’s cross-examination last week, I cringed when I saw what I knew would be a turning point in the trial. One source quoted the brief exchange that seems to have hurt Guyger’s case the worst:

“’When you aimed and pulled the trigger at Mr. Jean, shooting him in center mass exactly where you are trained, you intended to kill Mr. Jean,’ (prosecutor) Hermus said. ‘I did,’ Guyger said.”

Under Texas law, a finding of intent to kill is essential to a murder verdict.  In a self-defense shooting, our purpose is to shoot to STOP, that is, to stop the opponent from killing or crippling us.  “Shoot to stop,” as I’ve preached for decades, is not a figure of speech from the lexicon of political correctness; “shoot to kill” versus “shoot to stop” goes to the heart of state of mind.  State of mind, in turn, is what makes or breaks a self-defense plea.

LEARNING FROM THE GUYGER TRIAL AND MURDER

This is a cautionary tale. Sometimes what comes out of our mouths is not a true reflection of what we are but the result of cultural programming and I believe this is one of this times.

In Aldous Huxley’s book A Brave New World, there is  behavioral tool called Hynopeadia which is teaching by repeating a slogan or a principle over and over in your sleep.

Foster patted the Assistant Predestinator on the shoulder. “Every one belongs to every one else, after all.”
“One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years,” thought Bernard Marx, who was a specialist on hypnopædia. “Sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth. Idiots!”

How many times in our lives have we heard the term “shoot to kill” in our lifetimes? It has been tens of thousands of repetitions accepted without complain because they came attached to a work of fiction in a book,  TV show or a movie. And no, we are not asleep, but our brain is in a passive state simply taking in the message that somebody else is putting out in words without truly processing it.  Those words are now ingrained in our psyche and its repetition or affirmation come out in a pavlovian response even when they are the farthest thing from the truth.

If we have used a firearm in self-defense and the outcome is the death of the attacker, you will be under enormous amount of stress and same thing being the defendant on a murder case. What we say matters and we have to be very careful with it and not allow automatic responses sending us to jail.

I leave you with two guidelines. One we have covered before more than once.

Massad Ayoob’s Five-Point Checklist

1.     Tell responding officers “I’m the victim; he is the perpetrator.”
2.     Tell responding officers, “I will sign a complaint.”
3.     Point out pertinent evidence.
4.     Point out any witnesses who saw what happened.
5.     If there is any hint that you are a suspect, say “Officer, you will have my full cooperation after I have counsel here.

And the second, I once again abuse  Greg Ellifritz and send you over his article : What Do I Say After a Shooting?

The crux of the issue is that our brains don’t work very well when we are under extreme amounts of stress.  When the adrenaline is coursing through your system, it’s extremely difficult to calm down enough to allow for rational thought and clear recall.  No matter how cool and collected you may feel, you’ll likely make a mistake when answering police questions immediately after a shooting.

Never forget that we never stop training and that training is not only comprised about how precisely you can deliver a bullet downrange but it includes a wide variety of subjects, any of which can end your lifestyle as you know it if you are unaware of them.

After the familiar nightmare about oversleeping and missing a final exam or a big job interview, waking up usually brings relief. But for 21-year-old Deandre Somerville the nightmare came after he actually overslept for jury service in a Florida courtroom. A judge later punished him with a 10 day jail sentence.

A judge sentenced Somerville to the jail time, plus one year on probation and 150 hours of community service after he failed to serve on a jury Aug. 21. Somerville was released Sunday and has a hearing scheduled Friday.

Florida Man Oversleeps Jury Duty, Goes to Jail for 10 Days

“ZOMG! That awful, I mean everybody has overslept once or twice, tight? I bet you cash money the judge is a white racist mofo.”

“See? What did I tell you! Black LIves Matter!”

This is one of those things you can smell the biased writing by just clicking on the link.  Let’s continue reading:

But he missed his alarm and woke up around 11 or 11:30 a.m. It was almost time to head to his afternoon job so he didn’t bother going to the courthouse or calling the bailiff. He just hoped it would all just work out.

It gets better.

“At work, I was looking on my phone thinking, ‘What’s the worst case scenario that could happen?’ I thought maybe I would get a fine or something like that,”

And here the narrative starts to really stink:

He was out playing basketball when his worried grandmother called to say there was a police officer at the door with a court summons.

Please notice you are not being told how long passed between his failure to appear for Jury Duty and being taken to the judge. I finally found this line in Unilad UK:

Alas, jury duty is no joke. In the days following, Somerville was served with a subpoena to go before the judge.

So basically our young abused hero decided not to how up to court at all. He was not late the day of duty or missed that day but went the next, no: He simply did not went back at all.

I was checking for the penalties associated with jury duty and found something a bit chilling: They are as the Judge decide to be so I am assuming Deandre pissed the judge enough to get nailed with everything short of a felony. My take is that he found jury duty so boring, he decided to play hooky and “hope for the best.”

And let us not forget our friends of NBC 6 Miami who maintain their ill gained reputation to play loose with the facts with this report. Let us not forget they are the station that edited the 911 recordings of George Zimmerman to make him look racist.

It has been announced that Blue Origin, the private space flight company owned by Jeff Bezos, is opening a facility in Huntsville in 2020.

This is the video that they released about their self-landing, reusable space launch vehicle, New Shepard:

That is incredible technology.

Too bad all I can think of is this:

I thought Harvard took a huge hit when it admitted mediocre student but anti-gun activist darling David Hogg.

It dropped even further when it decided to cancel and rescind the acceptance of much better Parkland student Kyle Kashuv because of some private, year-old chats that got leaked by one of his anti-gun classmates.

Then I saw this in my newsfeed.

Jazz Jennings Delays Starting at Harvard So She Can ‘Recenter to Be the Strongest Version’ of Herself

Jazz Jennings is a trans-child who has been the subject of a multi-year long TLC reality TV show.  Jazz is a famous LGBT and child-transitioning activist.

Jazz Jennings won’t be attending Harvard classes this fall, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be forgoing her arrival in Cambridge, Massachusetts forever.

“I wanted to share some news,” the TLC star, 18, wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“After careful consideration I have decided to take a break before starting at Harvard,” Jennings said. “It wasn’t an easy decision but it is the right one for me. These past few years have been so full and busy that I realized I could use some time to refocus and recenter to be the strongest version of myself.”

The LGBTQ+ activist continued, “I am so grateful to have the support of my parents and Harvard in making this decision and look forward to focusing on some self-care and getting prepared to start this exciting next chapter in my life❤️.”

After announcing in May that she got into the Ivy League school and planned to attend this fall, Jennings admitted that she was “nervous” about what college would do to her mental health.

Jennings has suffered from depression and other issues in the past, documented and exacerbated by being the face of trans-youth activism and a reality TV show.  This show was set to continue while Jazz attended college.

Harvard has clearly stopped being an elite college with the intention of turning America’s best and brightest into future world leaders.

Harvard’s transition into a diploma mill that Liberal elites use to reward their friends and political mouthpieces is complete.

You can be a great student with a promising future but don’t bother going to Harvard for an education.

Its classrooms are going to be full of self-righteous know-it-all partisan idiots and mentally unbalanced children famous for having their genitals mutilated for a reality TV show.

Yesterday I wrote a post about a few choir boys on their way back from helping little old ladies cross the street who just happened to throw a brick through a Synagogue window on Rosh Hashanah.

That was the tip of the Antisemitic iceberg for the week.

All of the incidents I read about, none seems to be carried out by Trump-supporting white supremacists.  Quite the opposite, they all seemed to be carried out by intersectional Leftists.

Story #1:

Demi Lovato apologizes for ‘offending anyone’ following ‘magical’ trip to Israel

I didn’t know who Demi Lovato is, but she is apparently a popular singer for the youth who started her career with the Disney Channel.

She took a spiritual, apolitical trip to Israel, and posted it on Instagram.

She was savaged by the Woke Scolds of the Left and forced to post a struggle session on her social media account.

Lovato, 27, traveled to the Middle East after she “accepted a free trip to Israel in exchange for a few [social media] posts.” But her trip apparently sparked backlash, as the singer saw the need to explain the reasoning for her experience in a follow-up Instagram Story.

“I’m extremely frustrated,” she wrote. “No one told me there would be anything wrong with going or that I could possibly be offending anyone. With that being said, I’m sorry if I’ve hurt or offended anyone, that was not my intention.”

Lovato went on to apologize for not being “more educated, and sorry for thinking this trip was just a spiritual experience.”

“Going against all advice right now and apologizing because it feels right to me and I’d rather get in trouble for being authentic to myself, than staying quiet to please other people.”

Being a famous person on the Left and going to Israel will get your canceled unless you go to Israel to protest for the Palestinian people.

Story #2:

University and College Union apologises after failing to include Jews on list of groups of Holocaust victims
The organisation blamed ‘drafting errors’ after an e-mail promoting Holocaust Memorial Day mentioned all groups targeted during the Shoah – except Jews

The University College Union (UCU) has apologised after it left out Jews from a description of the different groups murdered in the Holocaust, an omission the chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust called “completely unacceptable”.

It described how the Nazis had persecuted groups such as “trade unions, including social democrats and Communists”, “Europe’s Roma and Sinti people”, “Black people”, “disabled people”, “freemasons”, “gay and lesbian people”, “Jehovah’s witnesses” and “’asocials’, which included beggars, alcoholics, drug addicts prostitutes and pacifists” were persecuted by the Nazi regime.

It also specifically mentioned “non-Jewish Poles and Slavic POWs”. However, it made no mention of Jews, the primary targets of the Holocaust.

In a subsequent e-mail from the union’s “equality support official”, the organisation apologised for what it called “drafting errors” in its initial message.

“UCU apologises for the offence this caused and reassures all members that it continues to fight against all forms of antisemitism, hatred and bigotry in society.”

That is a bullshit excuse.  It wasn’t an oversight, it was deliberate.  One of the articles of faith shared by the radical Left and Islamists is that Israel was created by Europe on Muslim land as reparations for the holocaust, and therefore it is an illegitimate state.

By denying or downplaying the Holocaust, it further pushes the idea that Israel is illegitimate because the Jews are getting reparations they didn’t deserve.

Leaving Jews off the list of Holocaust victims is Holocaust denial by omission, done by the radical Left, probably to appease the Muslims.

Story #3

Australian Jewish Student Forced to Kiss Muslim Student’s Feet for Being Jewish

An Australian Jewish student was forced to kiss a Muslin student’s feet or else he would be physically assaulted for being Jewish, the Australian Jewish News (AJN) reports.

The Cheltenham Secondary College Jewish student, 12, was at a Melbourne park near the school back in July when the Muslim student and nine other students from the same school surrounded him and issued the aforementioned threat. 

The incident was filmed and was shared extensively on Instagram. Since then, the Jewish student has been subjected to anti-Semitic slurs at school and was assaulted in a locker room by one of the students who watched him kiss the Muslim student’s feet.

The Jewish student’s mother told AJN that the school didn’t take any disciplinary action against the Muslim student or any onlookers because the incident didn’t take place on school property.

“They didn’t even want to call it anti-Semitism,” the mother said. “To avoid action, everything becomes an ‘isolated incident,’ so then it is not bullying or religious vilification.”

More Leftist Antisemitism being carried out to appease the Muslims population.

“We sat down, his parents, the two boys and myself, around the table and explained the velocity of [the bullying] and what it meant to us as parents as far as building bridges between Jews and Muslims in society and not creating division like that photo does,” the mother said.

Remember a few days ago when I criticized an OpEd that the Jews and Muslims had to come together because of Bad Orange Man?   Does anybody think that there is a bridge between the Muslim and Jewish communities?  No there isn’t and stories like this one prove that.

AJN also reported on extensive anti-Semitic bullying of a five-year-old Jewish student at Hawthorn West Primary School stemming from the student being circumcised. The student has been subjected to anti-Semitic slurs like “Jewish vermin” and “dirty Jew.”

The bullying had reached a point where the student broke down one morning, telling his mother, “Mummy, you shouldn’t love me. I’m a worthless Jewish rodent. I’m vermin.”

The student’s parents discussed the matter with the school’s principal, advocating for a program against anti-Semitism. The principal refused.

Australia has had a real problem with Antisemitism, and it has only gotten worse as it’s gone Left and started to embrace radicalized Islam.  Government officials will not combat Antisemitism because Jew-hatred is an Islamic cultural tradition.

Doubly unfortunate for Australian Jews, like all the Commonwealth countries, self-defense is verboten.  Beating up a Jew and forcing him to humiliate himself by kissing a Muslim’s feet doesn’t justify the Jew fighting back.

In the US, thank God, the rules (still) are different.

Do not assume they won’t beat you up after you kiss the feet just for fun.  If you are going to go down, you go down swinging.

If someone tells my son to kiss someone’s feet or get beaten up, I’d rather pay a defense attorney than a hospital bill.  There is no such thing as a fair fight, you pick up a rock and start bashing in teeth and eye sockets.

If you wonder why I am the way I am, this is why.  If Jews don’t fight back we will be subjugated, humiliated, wiped out, and erased from the history books.