By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—Politics: Presidential Race: NRA-PVF event for Oct. 22 has been canceled; Campaign news; Walz’s shooting credentials suspect; FBI Crime Data revised: Trump was right on crime data—ABC’s David Muir was wrong; New Second Amendment Executive order by Biden; DOJ sues South Bend Police Department over hiring criteria; Marquette University poll: 70% of Americans support the Bruen decision.
Politics
Trump Campaign
The NRA-Defend, the 2nd Event in Savannah, GA,where former President Donald Trump was to be the keynote speaker, has been canceled as Trump will not be attending due to a scheduling conflict.
Harris-Walz Campaign
Donald Trump Jr. reposted a video of Tim Walsh, a Democrat candidate for vice president, having trouble loading his shotgun while hunting.Some of the comments following this tweet are hilarious. At this campaign photo shoot, no one was actually hunting for game, although it was about pheasant hunting. As @mnfrankenstein tweeted, “This is a complete and total political stunt to try to gain traction with male voters. Do you know anyone else who takes a bunch of reporters with them while hunting?”
FBI Crime Data and Politics
On Oct. 16, the New York Post headline screamed FBI quietly revised 2022 crime data to show violent offenses rose rather than dropped. The article goes on to say: “The apparent stealth edit to the bureau’s statistics, first reported by RealClearInvestigations, shows that the raw number of violent crime incidents — including murders, assaults, and rapes — rose to 1,256,671 in 2022 from 1,197,930 in 2021, an increase of 4.9%.”
During the debate moderated by NBC’s David Muir and ABC’s Linsey Davis on Sept. 10, former President Donald J. Trump asserted that crime was significantly increasing. He pointed to a rise in violent crime, including shootings, murders, and assaults in cities like Chicago, New York, and Portland, which he identified as being under Democratic control.
Trump stated, “We have a new form of crime; it’s called migrant crime, and it’s happening at levels nobody thought possible.” In response, Muir fact-checked Trump’s claim, stating, “Overall violent crime is actually coming down in this country.” Trump countered, “The FBI made defrauding statements. They didn’t include the worst cities or the cities with the highest crime rates.”
Six weeks later, as noted by the New York Post above, the FBI revised the crime statistics and corrected the previously reported 2.1% decrease in violent crime for 2022, changing it to show a 4.5% increase. That is an actual change of over 6.5%. These changes vindicate Trump’s comments as more local and state law enforcement agencies have restarted reporting crime data to the FBI. As participation in crime reporting programs, such as the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), has increased following the pandemic, the total number of reported crimes has risen. The statistics could still include underreporting. As the NY Post article concluded, “According to one analysis, the FBI is missing data from about a fifth of key local agencies, while the rate of reporting dipped below 70% in 2021 for the first time in at least two decades.”
Now we know that Trump was correct. Crime has increased significantly under the Biden-Harris administration, and residents of those Democrat-controlled cities are living through the terror of increased crime.
Biden-Harris Administration
New Second Amendment executive order
On Sept. 26, to bolster the Harris campaign for President, current President Joe Biden announced his latest anti-Second Amendment executive order that creates an inter-agency task force to implement “enhanced coordination for two key challenges: combating emerging firearms threats and understanding and improving school-based active shooter drills.”
The delineated list of task force members includes eight people, but the Chairperson may add members at any time. This order ensures that anti-Second Amendment voters still support the Harris ticket.
The Biden-Harris Administration has a long history, having been in office for almost four years, of issuing executive actions related to gun control, though not all were formal executive orders.
April 2021: Biden announced several executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence, including:
- Directing the Justice Department to issue a proposed rule to stop “ghost guns” (homemade firearms that lack serial numbers), which has become the
- Proposing model “red flag” laws would allow family members or law enforcement to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
- Reclassifying pistols equipped with stabilizing braces to subject them to stricter regulations.
June 2021: Biden signed an executive order to crack down on the illegal sale of firearms by gun dealers who willfully violate federal law.
March 2023: Biden issued an executive order to increase background checks by expanding the definition of who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. This would require more sellers to become licensed and conduct background checks.
DOJ sues South Bend, Indiana Police Department
Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed suit against the South Bend, Indiana, police department. In a lawsuit, United States v. City of South Bend, Case # 3:24-cv-00830, filed on Oct. 11, the DOJ alleges that the police department has“violated Title VII by engaging in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination against African-American and female applicants in its police officer selection procedures.”According to an article on Reason.com, the physical fitness test and the written test were changed in 2017 and 2019, respectively, after DOJ filed a complaint. The current starting salary for a police officer is $74,000 annually, and the acceptance rate for women and minorities is at the national average. The DOJ is asking that the police department “refrain from using a written test [that] results in a disparate impact on African Americans,” as well as the elimination of “a physical fitness test [that] results in a disparate impact on women.” One would think that since there was a sharp increase in both retirements and resignations among police officers after the summer and fall of 2020, the DOJ would not take police departments to court to remove written and physical tests before employment.
Second Amendment News
The Marquette University Law School Poll of adults asked the following question, among many others:
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that subject to some restrictions, the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home. How much do you favor or oppose this decision?
Strongly favor: 40 percent
Somewhat favor: 30 percent
Somewhat oppose: 18 percent
Strongly oppose: 12 percent
State Legislation and local communities
It is October, and most legislators are running for reelection except in New Jersey.
States that are still in session: California (recess), Illinois (recess), Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire (recess), New Jersey, Ohio (recess), New York (recess), Oklahoma (recess), North Carolina (recess), Oklahoma (recess), Pennsylvania, South Carolina (recess), Virginia (recess), Wisconsin (recess)
