We’re getting near the end of the year, and I thought it would be worth it to see how guns are being used by law-abiding Americans to deter criminals from committing crime. This is especially important for citizens living in Democrat-run cities that are “defunding the police”. I have some examples of defensive gun uses from November and December in this post.

This article from Daily Signal has a legal update, as well as some defensive gun uses.

Excerpt:

In a case called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court in June struck down concealed carry permitting frameworks in several states that effectively prohibited ordinary Americans from carrying firearms in public for self-defense.

Since then, residents of those states have applied for concealed carry permits in droves, showing just how willing many of them always have been to exercise their Second Amendment rights when the government no longer prohibits it.

Take, for example, New Jersey, a state where only 870 applications for concealed carry permits were filed in 2021, when residents knew that almost no one would be granted such a permit. This year, the state administrative office in charge of permitting expects that 11,000 applications will be submitted by the end of December.

Similarly, Maryland State Police say that in the two weeks after the high court’s Bruen decision, they received over 7,000 concealed carry permit applications—up from just 1,000 during the same period in 2021.

Examples:

Oct. 4, Dunn, North Carolina:  Police said a woman woke up at home to discover an intruder trying to steal several items—including her dog. She grabbed her handgun and, despite never having fired a gun before, successfully “shot [the intruder] out of the house.” Police said they later arrested the intruder, who was shot twice, and charged him with first- degree burglary.

Oct. 9, Church Road, Virginia: After a man fatally shot his father and two dogs during an argument, police said, an armed family friend intervened and held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived. Local law enforcement officials said his actions likely saved the lives of several others inside the home.

Oct. 22, Las Vegas, Nevada: When a mentally disturbed man broke into a home, grabbed a kitchen knife, and threatened to kill everyone inside, the homeowner and his wife barricaded themselves in a second-floor bedroom. Police said the homeowner grabbed his gun and fired a warning shot, but the intruder continued trying to force his way inside. The homeowner fired the next round through the door, striking the man in the leg. Police arrested the intruder, who they said was the subject of several 911 calls that night and may have tried to break into other homes.

Oct. 25, Edinburg, Texas: Police said a woman shot and  wounded an intruder through the door of the bedroom in which she and her children were hiding. The intruder fled, but responding deputies found him about 100 yards from the home. He had entered the residence through a garage and continued trying to break down the bedroom door even after the woman warned him that she was armed and had called police.

Daily Signal had another article with December defensive gun usages:

After mass public shootings in Colorado and Virginia last month, President Joe Biden appeared to call for a ban on all semiautomatic firearms.

Biden told reporters: “The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”

[…]Almost every major study on the issue has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to the latest report on the subject by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just this year, a more comprehensive study concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.

Examples:

Nov. 2, St. Louis: An armed repairman came to a woman’s rescue after a neighbor opened fire on her. Police said the repairman sprinted down the street to confront the gunman, then dragged the injured woman behind a car for safety and rendered first aid. His actions caused the gunman to retreat inside his home, where he was arrested after a stand-off with law enforcement.

Nov. 6, Warner Robbins, Georgia: A man waiting for an oil change intervened to stop a kidnapping, following a child’s distressed cries into some woods, police said. He discovered someone on top of the child, choking him. The good Samaritan drew his firearm, grabbed the child away, and detained the kidnapper at gunpoint until police arrived. The assailant was charged with aggravated assault and cruelty to a child.

Nov. 9, Chandler, Arizona: The hunt for a suspect in a fatal shooting ended several blocks away from the crime scene after an armed resident detained him at gunpoint, police said. After the resident saw the man near a shed in his backyard, the man began to assault him and another resident when confronted. The resident then armed himself and was able to hold the suspect until police arrived.

Nov. 12, Seattle: Police said an armed ride-share driver assisted a young woman in her harrowing escape from a violent sex trafficker, offering the woman shelter in his car and then engaging in a rolling shootout with her pursuer while calling 911. The man’s actions not only saved the woman’s life, but ultimately helped to take down a multistate trafficking enterprise, investigators said.

Nov. 17, Covert, New York: An armed resident helped end a manhunt for a burglar who broke into two homes and may have stolen a handgun, police said. The armed resident confronted the suspect as he tried to break into a third home and detained him at gunpoint. Officers said they recovered a gun stolen by the suspect, who was on parole for a string of burglaries he was convicted of committing in 2014.

If you like these examples of defensive gun usage, please share the post. It’s important for people to understand why law-abiding Americans need to be able to own firearms. When seconds count, the police are minutes away.

I had some very good conversations during the Christmas break, and some of them were about the existence of God and intelligent design. I thought it might be a good idea to help everyone to get an overview of the evidence for a creator and designer using short videos. Dr. Stephen C. Meyer is probably the best author, speaker and debater on these issues, so here is his overview.

It’s a series of five 5-minute videos published by Prager University.

Here’s number 1: Are Religion And Science In Conflict?

Description:

Does belief in God get in the way of science? The idea that science and religion are inevitably in conflict is a popular way of thinking today. But the history of science tells a different story.

Here’s number 2: How Did The Universe Begin?

Description:

Was the universe always here, or did it have a beginning? If so, how did it start? Mankind has debated these questions for centuries and has only recently begun to find some answers. And those answers may point to some even more intriguing conclusions.

Here’s number 3: Aliens, The Multiverse, Or God?

Description:

Even staunch Darwinists have acknowledged that life in the universe displays an appearance of design, rather than being created out of random chance. If that’s true, where did that design come from? In other words, does a design require a designer?

Here’s number 4: What Is Intelligent Design?

Description:

Chances are if you’ve heard anything about intelligent design, you’ve heard that it’s faith-based, not science-based. Is that true? Or does modern science, in fact, point us in the direction of a designing intelligence?

Here’s number 5: What’s Wrong With Atheism?

Description:

Is there any meaning to life? Or is life nothing more than a cosmic accident? Scientific atheists claim the latter, but ironically, it’s science itself that suggests the former.

If this looks interesting to you, you should check out Dr. Stephen C. Meyer’s three-book series on creation and design. The first book talks about the origin of life. The second book talks about the fossil record. The third book talks about the origin of the universe, and cosmic fine-tuning.

These videos are just an introduction to these arguments. To really understand the details, you have to read deeply about them. That’s why these books are necessary. Christians can only be persuasive when they understand this material well.

Lately, Joe Biden has been trying to prove to everyone how seriously he takes border security. But if you ignore his words, and look closely at his actions, you get a very different picture.

Consider this story from The Post Millennial:

Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey is stopping the construction of a wall at the US-Mexico border made out of shipping containers due to pressure from the Biden administration.

The project of installing approximately 3,000 containers at a cost of $95 million was approximately a third complete, but protesters held up the work recently over concerns over the wall’s environmental impact.

[…]The Biden administration is more concerned with the environmental impact of a border wall, but not the social impact of illegal immigratino. In order to not damage natural resources in the area, Arizona will work with officials from the US Forest Service and Customs and Border Protection.

[…]The agreement comes a week after the Biden administration sued Ducey on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service and two weeks before Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs is scheduled to move into the governor’s mansion.

Hobbs also opposes the wall, and the people of Arizona apparently elected her as governor anyway. Some of them will probably be the victims of crimes committed by people she let in. I wonder if they will learn anything from that experience?

Most people in the Democrat party think that illegal immigrants don’t commit any crimes. That’s why it’s safe to let them in, because no American taxpayer will be harmed. But is that true? We have to look at the evidence.

Here’s an article from Fox News:

The number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants in the United States surged in fiscal year 2021 after declining in the years before that.

Homicides, assaults, incidents of domestic violence, illegal weapons possession, and sexual offenses committed by illegal aliens all increased dramatically in fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows.

Illegal immigrants committed 1,178 assault and domestic violence crimes in 2021, which represents a more than 400% increase from the 208 in 2020.

Sixty homicide or manslaughter convictions were attributed to illegal immigrants in 2021, a 1,900% increase from the previous year.

Driving under the influence convictions rose 347% from 364 to 1,629, and illegal possession of or trafficking of drugs rose 453% from 386 to 2,138.

[…]U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that officials apprehended 10,763 “criminal noncitizens” in fiscal year 2021, which marks an increase of over 300% from previous years.

Now, when I bring this up with Democrats, they say “what evidence do you have that illegal immigrants commit more crimes than citizens”. That’s the wrong question. The right question is “how many American taxpayers would be the victims of illegal immigrant criminals if there were not allowed across the border?” And the answer to that is ZERO. Which is what it should be.

We already have a system to let in legal immigrants. If those legal immigrants commit crimes, they are immediately deported. That’s a system that works.