Florida Shooters Network

tector wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 11:40 am Yeah, even the MSM has figured out the SS completely failed in its stated {cough, cough} mission:

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/07/14 ... -so-close/

It didn't even occur to me this fucker got this close in to set up. How the fuck was that possible (assuming the SS was actually attempting to fulfill its stated mission)? 150 yards??? Crazy.

Heads need to roll, obviously.

Miami_JBT wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 8:11 pm

tector wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 11:40 am Yeah, even the MSM has figured out the SS completely failed in its stated {cough, cough} mission:

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/07/14 ... -so-close/

It didn't even occur to me this fucker got this close in to set up. How the fuck was that possible (assuming the SS was actually attempting to fulfill its stated mission)? 150 yards??? Crazy.

Heads need to roll, obviously.

I've personally worked protective details. It isn't as easy as you think.

tector wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 10:19 pm Luis:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... rcna161783

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9bFyHBS ... YTRydHM%3D

A growing gun rights group is threatening to turn its back on former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party for leaving protections for firearm owners off the party platform.

“Our stance is very simple,” Luis Valdes, national spokesman for Gun Owners of America, told the Washington Examiner. “We will not compromise, and we will be relentless in holding Republicans accountable to their campaign promises. Republicans campaign that they are pro-gun. We will hold their feet to the fire.”

That includes Trump for the GOP, Valdes said.

“[The GOP] platform for the last eight years was very solid, and for that to be all scrapped and thrown away is quite perplexing and foreboding for gun owners, especially because of the past history of the Trump administration,” he added.

Valdes faulted Trump for waffling on gun control, specifically pointing out that he praised Florida’s state legislature in March 2018 for passing gun-control measures. Valdes predicted Trump and the GOP’s snub to gun rights activists in the party platform could backfire.

“The Republican Party has forsaken one of the most die-hard bases of the party,” he said.

Gun Owners of America, a Virginia-based gun rights group, has operated in the shadow of the National Rifle Association for years but has risen in rank, growing to more than 2 million members and committed to taking down lawmakers who show any sign of compromise on gun control.

It proudly pitches itself as the “no compromise” gun group and spent more than $3 million last year on lobbying efforts. It has capitalized on the NRA’s financial and legal woes and emerged as a power player in politics.

“We will continue holding any and all lawmakers accountable. It doesn’t matter if they are Republican or Democrat. GOA is not an organization that carries water for a political party. We are an organization that protects, defends, restores, and expands the Second Amendment. We don’t care if someone has an R or D next to them. We hold them the same,” GOA said.

The GOA’s forceful comments come just days after Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

While the GOP has always been known for its embrace of gun rights, some are questioning the decision to quietly strip the Second Amendment from its platform and slash all mention of its gun policy positions.

“The Republican Party platform’s downplaying of Second Amendment issues comes as the gun-rights movement finds itself in a precarious position politically,” Jake Fogleman of the Reload wrote. “As guns have become increasingly polarized along party lines, gun-rights supporters have found themselves reliant on Republicans for political support. President Joe Biden has made gun control a fixture of his tenure in office and is already campaigning on even more sweeping proposals, including a ban on sales of the popular AR-15, in a potential second term.

“At the same time, while the GOP’s current standard-bearer has continued to seek the support of the National Rifle Association and make promises in speeches to the group, he has been fickle on gun policy at times. His felony convictions also mean he can no longer legally own or possess firearms.”

The Republican National Committee voted last week 84-to-18 to advance its new 2024 platform, a 28-page statement of first principles traditionally written by party activists, which was adopted this week at the convention. In the past, it included language about the role of the platform and the party in politics. This year’s finalized document, the first one since 2016, leans heavily into Trump’s “America First” policies but barely mentions gun rights.

In 2016, the GOP platform devoted three hefty paragraphs to it, taking aim at Democrats for proposing laws that would “eviscerate the Second Amendment.” It listed pro-gun policies it wanted to enact, as well as gun-control measures it opposed. In 2020, the party promised to “enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”

In 2024, the platform makes only a passing reference to gun rights in its list of “twenty promises that we will accomplish very quickly when we win the White House and Republican Majorities in the House and Senate.”

The right to bear arms is grouped in with defending the Constitution, which came in at No. 7.

The NRA had a more measured response to the news.

“President Trump and the RNC went with a more concise platform this year while still maintaining support for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, told the Washington Examiner. “President Trump and Senator Vance are strong supporters of gun rights and the NRA, and the NRA looks forward to their victory in November.”

The move to pare down the language in the party platform caught some of the GOP faithful off guard.

“I wasn’t aware of it and am surprised,” former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told the Washington Examiner from Milwaukee. “I did look through it and it’s just like Trump’s imprint was everywhere in there. But no, I didn’t really notice that, and that really surprised me.”

Similar to Hutchinson, who called the omission “stunning,” Idaho state Sen. Tammy Nichols also said she was unaware of the changes.

“It really wasn’t on my radar,” she told the Washington Examiner, adding that she would have to see “exactly what they have in it and how they worded things.”

Nichols thought the GOP might be “making it more of a state’s rights issue” but wasn’t sure.

“The Second Amendment applies to everybody, all over the nation,” she said. “So, yeah, I hope that it’s something though, that it’s not been thrown out just willy nilly.”

Others, such as Vance Patrick, chairman of Michigan’s Oakland County Republican Party, said the overwhelming consensus from his state’s delegation was the language used would attract more people to the party.

“The 2024 GOP platform accomplishes something that has been missing from previous years: Simplification of language so that you don’t have to be an expert in political science and public policy to understand it,” Patrick told the Washington Examiner. “It reaffirms the GOP’s commitment to our Constitution and the rights of individual states to pass laws to cover issues not governed by the Constitution.

“It reaffirms our commitment to ensuring every American has the right to defend themselves by keeping and bearing arms. It reaffirms our commitment to our critical ally, Israel, and our fight against antisemitism,” he added.

Calls and emails to the RNC and the Trump campaign for comment were not returned.

Trump Snubs Gun Rights in Longest Acceptance Speech on Record
Jake Fogleman - July 19, 2024 - 12:32 am

The 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) came to a close Thursday night. From start to finish, gun policy was entirely left off of the main stage–even during Donald Trump’s hour-and-a-half keynote.

Former President Trump officially accepted the party’s nomination to attempt to retake the White House. He took the stage for his first speech since a would-be assassin nearly took his life at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last weekend. His remarks began with an uncharacteristically stayed recounting of his harrowing near-death experience and paid tribute to the man who was killed in the attack before pivoting to accepting the nomination.

“Tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States,” Trump said.

The latter half of his address saw the former President revert to his typical stump speech, featuring meandering and often off-script comments on his favorite policy subjects, including immigration, trade, foreign policy, and inflation.

Notably, however, gun policy went entirely unmentioned in the 92-minute speech.

The lack of discussion surrounding gun politics from the Republican Presidential nominee comes after his party has made several recent moves downplaying the gun policy. It officially adopted a new 2024 platform this week that stripped all of its previous gun policy pledges and only mentions the right to keep and bear arms once. The convention also did not feature any speakers representing gun-rights groups on the main event stage any of the four nights. By comparison, the 2016 platform featured a series of specific policy promises. Chris Cox, the former head of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), also spoke at the 2016 RNC.

Instead, details surrounding the party’s priorities on gun rights were largely relegated to a one-hour session hosted by the United States Concealed Carry Association at Pfister Hotel near the convention Tuesday morning. The session consisted of a panel discussion about the party’s position on guns featuring three congressional Republicans and Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita.

“I think what we’ll see is a continuation of supporting and defending the Second Amendment and where that really comes into play is the judiciary, the appointment of judges,” LaCivita said, according to the Wisconsin Examiner, when asked what a second Trump administration would do for gun rights. “And so that is clearly, you know, one of the largest impacts that President Trump had clearly during his first term was a remake of the judiciary.”

LaCivita also suggested that gun owners don’t vote—echoing a sentiment Trump shared with NRA members at the group’s annual meeting in May—calling it “mind-blowing,” according to Courthouse News Service.

The most energizing moment of the convention for gun-rights advocates came when Trump officially tapped Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential nominee Monday afternoon. Groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) immediately celebrated the pick.

“Senator Vance has been an unwavering supporter of constitutional freedoms, especially the right to keep and bear arms,” Randy Kozuch, Chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund (PVF), said. “In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently stood against the Biden-Harris gun control agenda.”

“Senator Vance is a friend of the American gun owner, one who will fiercely defend our Second Amendment rights,” Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior VP, said. “We are thrilled with his selection and look forward to removing the anti-gunner-in-chief from the White House.”

Gun-control groups had a similarly strong reaction to the pick.

“Donald Trump’s pick for Vice President has a record of undermining the gun violence prevention movement,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said in a press release.

“Republicans and Democrats alike are concerned about gun violence in this country, yet Donald Trump and JD Vance have consistently put gun industry profits over the safety of American communities,” Giffords Executive Director Emma Brown said. “We owe it to future generations to keep this pair out of the White House.”

Notably, Vance’s official acceptance speech Wednesday night did not discuss his record on the Second Amendment. Instead, he referred to guns just once in an anecdote about his grandmother.

“Now, my Mamaw died shortly before I left for Iraq, in 2005. And when we went through her things, we found 19 loaded handguns,” he said. “They were stashed all over her house. Under her bed, in her closet. In the silverware drawer. And we wondered what was going on, and it occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around very well. And so, this frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was within arms’ length of whatever she needed to protect her family. That’s who we fight for. That’s American spirit.”

However, Trump’s speech lacked even a pro-gun anecdote or aside promoting gun rights.

Mostly absent on GOP convention stage: Abortion, gun rights and Reagan.

Fixtures of the GOP’s rhetoric for decades have been conspicuously missing from much of the party’s presentation in Milwaukee.

July 18, 2024 at 8:58 p.m. EDT
MILWAUKEE — Eric Trump made somewhat dismissive comments this week about the Republican Party watering down its platform on abortion and same-sex marriage.

“This country has real holes in the roof, and you’ve got to fix those holes, and you’ve got to stop worrying about the little spot on the wall in the basement,” former president Donald Trump’s middle son told NBC News.

Imagine a big-name Republican likening abortion to a “spot on the wall” even four years ago. The backlash would have been swift. They might well have been excommunicated from the party.

But abortion has indeed been little more than a spot on the wall at the 2024 Republican National Convention — or at least the version of it being conveyed to the American public. Despite years of rhetoric likening abortion to mass murder, the party hasn’t seen fit to say much of anything about it.

And it’s got company in other fixtures of the party’s rhetoric.

Through three nights at the GOP convention, the word “abortion” didn’t appear to have been uttered once onstage. That’s compared with 18 times in a single night of the 2020 convention, according to a transcript.

While Trump has hailed the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to decide the issue — an outcome he often falsely claims virtually “everyone” desired — speakers aren’t even promoting that talking point. Roe hasn’t come up.

There have been passing references to the issue. But that comes with a strong emphasis on “passing.”

A Catholic archbishop opened Monday’s events with a prayer citing “the dignity of every life from conception to natural death.” But since then, nothing abortion-related has approached a real point of emphasis. Trump adviser Peter Navarro cited supposed government persecution of “pro-life activists,” while fellow Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway briefly cited “protecting life” in a list of priorities, not even pausing before mentioning the next one.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP’s new vice-presidential nominee, are among the most antiabortion members of that chamber. Rubio has said he supports no abortion exceptions, while Vance has said he wants to make abortion illegal nationally, with some exceptions. But neither mentioned the issue.

(Rubio did open by mentioning that the “life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind is in the hands of God,” but it was more a reference to the assassination attempt on Trump this past weekend.)

Another, possibly even more surprising, absence has been any real emphasis or mention of gun rights, in the days since that assassination attempt.

Vance in his speech earned roars from the crowd for mentioning how, upon his grandmother’s death two decades ago, “we found 19 loaded handguns” among her possessions. But despite that crowd-pleaser of a line, almost no speakers have approvingly mentioned guns or even merely protecting the Second Amendment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) briefly claimed Tuesday night that Democrats want to “eliminate Second Amendment rights” — again, as part of a laundry list of issues — but that’s about it.

When guns have come up, it has more often been in the context of crime, such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) mentioning how the “devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle” to shoot at Trump.

A final conspicuous absence has been the name of the man who, before Trump at least, defined the Republican Party more than any other: Ronald Reagan.

Reagan got three mentions Monday, the convention’s first night, but only one identifying the party with Reagan. Scott said, “We are the Republican Party of Frederick Douglass and of Abraham Lincoln, of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.”

Reagan wasn’t mentioned again until Thursday night, when the convention played a brief video featuring his voice.

The video played up not Reagan’s muscular foreign policy or his iconic status in the party, but rather his famous question asking voters whether they were better off now than they were four years ago.