My first read every day is The Federalist. I found a very good “end of year” article summarizing a bunch of conservative wins from the past year, and wanted to cheer everyone up about those.

Here’s the list of 10 conservative wins from The Federalist, then we’ll take a look at a few of them:

1. The Dobbs Decision Overturned Roe
2. States, Courts, and Parents Pushed Back on Trans Agenda
3. Americans Realized the Corporate Press Is a Threat to Democracy
4. The Supreme Court Upheld Second Amendment Rights
5. Wyomingites Threw Liz Cheney out of Congress
6. A Federal Judge Smacked Down Biden’s Unlawful Mask Mandate
7. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Celebrated American Greatness
8. Loudoun County Schools Saw a Measure of Justice
9. Twitter Censors Lost Their Stranglehold on Speech
10. States Started to Fight for Election Integrity

I think the story about Twitter becoming safe for free speech is probably the biggest story, but going forward, I think transgenderism and election integrity are going to be winning issues for conservatives.

So let’s take a look at transgender wins and election integrity wins:

2. States, Courts, and Parents Pushed Back on Trans Agenda

As the Biden administration pushes parents, schools, and the rest of America to embrace its transgender agenda, 2022 saw several victories in the fight against adults who try to sexually manipulate confused children.

After the U.S. Department of Agriculture added “sexual orientation and gender identity” to its interpretation of “sex” in Title IX — a move that could see schools “lose federal funds for lunch programs unless they allow boys in girls’ bathrooms” — 22 states sued the USDA and insisted that the rule change was in conflict with Title IX. Earlier this month, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Biden administration’s attempt to force religious medical providers to perform sterilizing sex surgeries on patients with gender dysphoria.

Meanwhile, states such as Alabama and Arizona approved legislation this year banning doctors from deforming the sexual organs of minors. The Florida Board of Medicine passed similar protections, and Texas’s executive branch began investigating such procedures as child abuse. Roughly a dozen other states considered similar measures. And Virginia’s Department of Education released policies requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding with their sex, and requiring parental involvement and approval before school personnel could address minor students by any pronouns but their biologically accurate ones.

Parents and pastors have continued to fight back against the sexualization of children, too.

And:

10. States Started to Fight for Election Integrity

While Republicans and state election officials have a lot of work left to do, 2022 saw some administrators realize what time it is and start pushing back on Democrats’ coordinated effort to federalize elections and institute mass mail-in voting and get-out-the-vote campaigns that overwhelmingly help Democrats. In August, 15 secretaries of state demanded a halt to the Biden administration’s plan to federalize elections via executive agencies.

In 2022, Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia all passed laws banning private groups like Mark Zuckerberg’s Center for Tech and Civic Life from buying elections with grant cash. They joined Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, and Tennessee, which banned “ZuckBucks” in 2021, and Texas and West Virginia, which have regulated their use. Furthermore, at least seven states passed 10 new laws tightening mail-in voting requirements, voter ID laws, address requirements, restrictions on Election Day voter registration, and voter-roll maintenance.

I think it’s going to be a great year. The school choice movement is making good gains, and the middle class is being hit with higher energy prices and inflation. We have a massive border crisis that is going to cost ordinary citizens a lot in higher education, health care and law enforcement costs. Most economists are expect a recession, and the spending bills of the secular left are only going to make that recession worse. By the time the primaries start, people will be ready to put the adults back in charge. I’m excited. It was easy to vote Democrat when the price was paid by other people. Now Democrat voters are paying the price for their own stupidity.

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.