The combined lawsuits, Harrel et al v Raoul and Barnett et al v Raoul et al, is moving along as scheduled in the Seventh Circuit. Our brief is due Monday, June 19. The State of Illinois’s reply will be due Monday, June 26. The oral arguments will be heard on Thursday, June 29. I do not expect a decision for several weeks. Whatever the decision is, it will be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The May numbers are in from the National Instant Check System (NICS) regarding firearm purchases. NICS reports that an estimated 1,130,000 firearms were purchased in May 2023. The citizens of the United States have been consistently purchasing over a million firearms a month, for some time. Some estimate there will be 500 million firearms in private hands by the end of 2023. I believe that number has already been achieved. It is interesting that despite what the anti-gun crowd claims, the number of accidental shootings continues to drop as well as the murder rate, as the number of firearms increases. Dean Weingarten, writer, and firearms expert, points out that the number of firearm accidents has been dropping since 1934. Since that time, the accident rate with firearms has dropped 94%. This decrease has a lot to do with the efforts of the National Rifle Association over these many years. I have a manual written in the late 1930s or early 1940s, for the training of civilians in marksmanship before going into the United States military. In that manual, are the same safety rules we still use today. Over 700,000 people were trained using this manual before entering military service. Thousands of civilian instructors did the training. Because of the NRA, standardized firearm safety rules have become part of every firearm class. The NRA has saved thousands of lives, and yet gets no credit.
The number of legal, firearm-owning Americans is well over a hundred million and growing. Let’s hope they vote in the upcoming elections.
A recent self-defense case in Louisiana gives us a lesson in what we are all facing, like it or not. Last weekend at 6am, a homeowner shot and killed 20-year-old Kamerom Serigny in his living room. Serigny was caught on surveillance cameras pounding his chest and eating grass before he broke into the house. As he broke through the door, the homeowner fired one shot knocking him down. Serigny got up and continued the attack, forcing the homeowner to fire several more shots killing Serigny. It was later determined that Serigny was under the influence of drugs.
As drugs spread more and more, the chances that you will encounter someone on drugs increases. You have to be ready. You simply have to shoot until they drop. When an attacker uses drugs, those drugs keep them going long after a person not under the influence would quit. If they go down, you still have to ready because they may get up.
Sad but true. It is not your choice but theirs.
One refreshing note in the world of Second Amendment Rights is that Chris Cox, former head of the NRA-ILA, will soon be back in the fight. It was announced last week that the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), has contracted Capitol 6 Advisors which Mr. Cox launched in 2019. This means that firearm owners have regained 25 years of lobbying experience on Capitol Hill. It could not have come at a better time. Thanks to the SAF and CCRKBA.
The State of Illinois has filed its brief in the Harrel/Barnett et al v Raoul et al Lawsuits now before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The State basically Claims what we expected them to claim, all of which is untrue.
The State claims AR15s are not in common use when in fact, statistics show they are the most commonly used firearms with 24.5 million of them in use. They also claim these firearms are not suitable for hunting, self-defense or other lawful purposes. That is also untrue. They are the best firearm for self-defense. They are the best firearm for competitions. The last two coyotes I shot would disagree that they are not good for hunting. They won’t be able to testify, however. The State of course, wants everyone to believe they are commonly used in crimes when in fact they are only used in about 1.4% of crimes.
In a few days, our pro-gun attorneys will file our briefs. The State will have a chance to reply, and then we will have oral arguments on June 29. I believe it will take a few weeks for the court to render a decision. In any case, we will be moving on to the Supreme Court of the United States.
For those with AR15 braces, the ATF rule is in effect, but things are still confusing. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a Preliminary Injunction against the Biden Administration’s arm brace rule. Judge Jane J. Boyle’s order covers members of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) both old and new, apparently. The SAF membership has been exploding in the last few days. If you are joining the SAF, the website is staggering from the load. Be patient.
The Illinois State Rifle Association is the home of good marksmanship in Illinois. If you are not a member, you should join today. Shooting sports is a sport that a normal person can enjoy their entire life. It is rewarding to see your own progress and the progress of those you help get started in shooting sports. The great thing is you can be a normal person and be good or even great at marksmanship if you want to be. It takes work and dedication, but you don’t have to be seven feet tall, weigh 500 pounds, or be able to run the 100-yard dash in 9 seconds. It is moderate exercise. It was Thomas Jefferson’s favorite sport.
Carjackings in Chicago are not news. In fact, so little is done about them, and to the carjackers themselves, it has almost become a cottage industry in Chicago. On Sunday evening, a couple of would-be carjackers met someone who was willing to fight back. Anton Cheeks and Travell Quadir Deal approached a vehicle with at least one gun drawn. The 24-year-old driver wasn’t having any of it. He shot Cheeks in the thigh, which had a dampening effect on the whole scheme. Cheeks was taken to the hospital and then to jail. Deal was caught a few blocks away. I am sure that with the so-called criminal justice system in Chicago, they will be out in a couple of days. Still, it is nice to see the good guys win.
If you think you are safe in your own home behind locked doors, you are not. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, a 77-year-old homeowner heard a noise in his kitchen at about 6 pm Sunday evening. He grabbed his gun and headed to the kitchen. There he found a home invader who had broken out the window frame and was set to rob him or worse. The 77-year-old fired a shot at the home invader, and out the window, he went. He was not caught, but that house is probably off his list. His doors were locked, but that did not stop the criminal.
Once again, in both cases, there was no time to call the police. Get used to the idea that you are on your own. You need to be ready, willing, and able to defend yourself.