Safety Before and During a Storm

If someone is pointing a gun on you, would you still try to draw your gun? Gregg Kielma No. Not while they are looking directly at me anyway. That’s a good way to end up shot or possible dead. You wait your turn. Anyone carrying a concealed firearm should have at least a 1.5 second draw to the first shot time. So, the idea is to wait until the chance presents itself and then go to work. That is called “waiting your turn”. For example, if someone is pointing a gun at you and they turn their head to look at something else and their ear is towards you, that means it is now your turn. With a 1.5 second draw to the first shot time, if his ear is towards you, you can literally put a couple bullets in the guy before he has time for his mind to register what is going on and react. A 1.5 second draw to the first shot is not that hard to accomplish. Anyone who is a concealed carrier should be able to achieve a 1.5 second draw to first shot. If the perp turns the back of his head towards you, it gets even better for you because now all you need is about a 2.5 second draw to the first shot time which is easy to accomplish with practice. However, if the perp is looking directly at you… it’s practically a no-win situation for you so it’s almost always better to wait your turn. I highly suggest training with Tactical K Training and Firearms today. There is information on the website to sign up for class with a certified instructor. We will conduct real self-defense encounters, break down the options, analyze what is happening, and teach you about when and how to react. It’s lifesaving information. Please call or sign up today.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has shown the country how pro-gun governors operate By Lee Williams Every morning as I don my Staccato 9mm and my Microtech automatic knife without any permits or paperwork cluttering my wallet, I realize that these freedoms would never have taken place without the honest pro-gun leadership of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Law-abiding Floridians no longer need to apply in writing or pay a state fee to carry a concealed weapon. Gov. DeSantis saw to that. For the state’s millions of gun owners, our 46-year-old, soon-to-be-former governor has been a true friend. Unfortunately, DeSantis is term-limited and barred from running again. Fortunately, during his terms in office, the good governor gave gun owners one heck of a good ride. Let’s take a close look at his pro-gun accomplishments. Permitless concealed carry On April 3, 2023, in Florida’s state capitol of Tallahassee, Gov. DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 543, which strengthened Floridians’ Second Amendment rights by allowing concealed weapons to be carried without a state permit. Concealed-carry permits are still available but are no longer required. “Constitutional Carry is in the books,” Desantis said at the time. Florida became the 26th state to enact concealed-carry legislation. However, Open Carry remains prohibited. According to state law, Floridians may only carry an exposed handgun “while traveling to or from fishing, camping, hunting or target shooting.” “Would be great to see it hit my desk — Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right,” DeSantis posted about Open Carry on X. DeSantis has promised he would change this and sign Open Carry legislation; however, the state’s Republican-led legislature has never given him a bill to sign, and they have never fully explained why. Some believe tourism – Disney and the beaches – as well as the powerful Florida Sheriffs Association could be the reasons why millions of Floridians do not yet enjoy all of their Second Amendment rights. Florida State Guard In December 2021, while Joe Biden occupied the White House, DeSantis created the Florida State Guard, a 200-member volunteer paramilitary force that answered to him, not Joe Biden. The Florida State Guard assists the Florida National Guard in state emergencies. DeSantis noted that the Florida State Guard was not “encumbered by the federal government,” and that the unit would give him “the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible.” Florida, he pointed out, has always been one of the most pro-military and veteran-friendly states. “We are proud of our veterans and active-duty military members and proud of what our communities do to support them,” DeSantis said in a press release. “Florida is one of the most veteran friendly states and I think there are very few places that you would rather be on duty than in the state of Florida. As a veteran, I really appreciate what everyone who wears the uniform does in our state and am excited about these proposals – they will go a long way and have a meaningful impact. In Florida, we are going to continue our momentum of supporting our military, supporting our veterans and being good stewards of our military installations.” Other 2A actions Last May, DeSantis ended a confusing portion of state law that automatically imposed reprehensible firearm restrictions during a local state of emergency.

Jefferson Parish Man Guilty of Possessing Machine Gun Thursday, September 4, 2025 U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Louisiana shane.jones@usdoj.gov NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced that on August 21, 2025, JAHBRELL PRICE (“PRICE”), age 25, of Marrero, La. plead guilty before United States District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown to a two-count indictment pending against him. Count 1 charged PRICE with possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(3). Count 2 charged PRICE with possession of a machine gun, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(o) and 924(a)(2). Sentencing is set for December 4, 2025. According to court documents, on January 7, 2024, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives located PRICE at a motel in the 6700 block of Westbank Expressway, Marrero, Louisiana. He was taken into custody for an outstanding Orleans Parish arrest warrant. Detectives then secured a search warrant for PRICE’s hotel room and located twenty (20) bottles of promethazine (9,460 ml), $1,375.00 in United States currency, and a Glock Model 45 nine-millimeter handgun with an attached external and visible machine gun conversion device. PRICE faces up to 1 year imprisonment, up to a $100,000 fine, and a $50 mandatory special assessment fee as to Count One, and up to 10 years imprisonment, up to a $250,000 fine, and up to 3 years of supervised release for Count Two, as well as payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee for each count. This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson praised the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mary Katherine Kaufman of the General Crimes Unit . Contact Shane M. Jones Public Information Officer United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana United States Department of Justice Updated September 4, 2025

Laredo Weapons Trafficking Coordinator Pleads Guilty to Charges for Conspiring to Smuggle Military Grade Firearms to Mexican Drug Cartel U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas SAN ANTONIO – A Laredo man pleaded guilty in a federal court in San Antonio today to four conspiracy counts related to his role as the coordinator for a weapons trafficking organization that illegally obtained hundreds of firearms and smuggled them from the U.S. to Mexico in support of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN). According to court documents, Gerardo Rafael Perez Jr. aka Jerry, 24, and his network of straw purchasers illicitly obtained the firearms, including FNH SCAR rifles, Barrett .50 caliber rifles, FNH M249S rifles, M240s and M1919s, from gun stores and unlicensed dealers in San Antonio and other Texas cities. They also acquired FightLite MCR belt-fed upper receivers, which allow standard AR-15 lower receivers to use belt-fed ammunition and provide for a greater capacity of continuous fire before reloading. Perez directed the acquisition, trafficking, and illegal export of guns and parts in support of the cartel, all without an export license or a license to deal firearms. Agents searched for the cell phones of multiple straw purchasers of firearms who were receiving directions from Perez, revealing communications in which Perez sent instructions on specific guns to buy from specific sellers across Texas. On one occasion, a straw purchaser purchased six firearms for Perez in San Antonio with nearly $50,000 in cash, including three FN SCAR 17S 7.62 caliber rifles, an FN SCAR 20S 7.62 caliber rifle, an FN M249S belt-fed rifle 5.56 caliber, and a Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber rifle, all which Perez acquired for the purpose of delivery to Mexico. Communications showed Perez telling another straw purchaser he was obliterating serial numbers from trafficked guns so there was no way the gun could be tracked to the original seller. On Sept. 26, 2023, law enforcement conducted a search of Perez’s residence and recovered multiple firearms and various types of ammunition, blank ATF Form 4473s, and CDN jewelry. Agents seized and searched Perez’s cell phone and found photos depicting him in tactical gear and wearing CDN jewelry, as well as photos of numerous guns. His phone also contained messages in which Perez solicited firearms, coordinated their purchase, and negotiated prices with sellers. Perez was arrested March 20, 2024, along with co-defendants Antonio Osiel Casarez, Luis Matias Leal, Francisco Alejandro Benavides Jr., and Mark Anthony Trevino Jr. Three other co-defendants, Gerardo Ibarra Jr., Gerardo Corona Jr., and Jose Emigdio Q. Mendoza were named in an earlier indictment and arrested in 2023. The ninth and tenth co-defendants, Armando Mata Jr., and Felipe Vasquez III, were charged in a superseding indictment and arrested in March 2025. Perez pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to traffic firearms, conspiracy to straw purchase firearms, conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States, and conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He faces up to 25 years in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas made the announcement. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Calve is prosecuting the case. This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN). ### Contact USATXW.MediaInquiry@usdoj.gov Updated September 4, 2025

How much difference does it make in real-life situations to have a round chambered when carrying a concealed weapon or your home defensive weapon? Gregg Kielma I've noticed a trend lately. Let's take a look at having a firearm chambered whether your carry or use for your home protection. Several factor will help you make a decision that's best for you or your family. Remember to consider pets, location, and most importantly children. What I have seen is a push to use .22lr as a suitable self-defense round. I’ll talk about that later in a follow up point of view. I've also seen a sudden surge in pushing for carrying with an empty chamber. When I consider this, I'd think that perhaps the firearms prohibitionists are gearing up to push these as mandates, since their hopes of gun bans or carry bans have been dashed. When they have no hope of banning guns, they seek to make them less useful… Having an empty chamber in your everyday carry will cost you a second or two in deployment. Frequently that can be the difference between living or dying. In 15’ to 21’ the perp has 1.5 seconds to be on you. My everyday carry is always chambered, with no safety, and a hard sided holster to protect the trigger. If and when it needs to come out as a reasonable person, it's ready to fire. This is my plan and has been for 30 plus years. Is it right for you? I don’t know, however, this is how I always carry. Having an empty chamber is as close to a foolproof safety as it's possible to get. Chambering a round is a deliberate action that won't happen by accident. My home defense weapon has a full magazine and a loaded chamber. It’s stored securely to my bed post so it can’t get knocked over by one of my seven dogs. I have designed it so it breaks free in less than .1 seconds and if needed I can start to defend my family right away. Again, this is my plan. Is it right for you? Only you can answer that question. This is what I advocate. Notice that I advocate. I do not mandate, nor compel or even advise anyone to follow my “plan”. Here’s what I do know, any mandate would be intolerable. The surest way to get legal firearm owners to chamber a round in any home defense weapon is to mandate that they leave the chamber empty…Sad but true.

Dick's Sporting Good's The Sad Truth Gregg Kielma Everytown and the gun grabbers like Gabby Gifford are always pressuring retailers to stop selling firearms to win their war on guns. Retailers usually if not always, back down to the pressure and stop selling firearms making it harder for firearm enthusiasts to buy guns and gun accessories. Note: Come and see Tactical K Training and Firearms for the best deals on Firearms. Case in point, go to a Dick’s Sporting Goods Store , if you can still find one, and ask them how that worked out for them? Just for the record, a few years ago, Dick’s Sporting Goods bowed to pressure and announced that they would stop selling firearms. This was where, I believe, the saying “Go woke, Go broke” came from because even their sales of other sporting good items fell off the charts because as it turns out a lot of people who liked shooting, liked other sports items Dick's sold, and now go to other stores that sold both kinds of sporting goods to purchase them. Plain and simple, stores that sell guns make money off guns sales, or they would not do it.

Two More Worthless Feel-Good “Buybacks” That Won’t Make Anyone Safer Mark Chesnut It’s hard to describe the disdain I have for so-called gun “buybacks,” since they are nothing, but feel-good publicity stunts held by anti-gun bureaucrats to act like they are doing something to curtail criminal violence. They are so worthless, in fact, that Texas lawmakers are trying to ban them altogether! Still, politicians in some anti-gun states continue to make a big deal out of “buybacks.” And two such recent events in New Mexico and California prove gun-banners are more interested in deceiving their constituents than cracking down on violent criminals who use guns for evil. An article headline at koat.com summed up the jubilation over the August 23 “buyback” in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It read: “Gun buy-back eases worry about unwanted firearms.” Of course, easing worry and making the community safer are drastically different things. Still, Miranda Viscoli, executive director of New Mexicans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, bragged about the 200-plus guns taken in by her group at the University of New Mexico Police substation. “We’re getting all of the unwanted firearms out of communities,” Viscoli told the news station. “We know that communities that have more guns have more gun violence. That’s a simple fact.” Of course, that’s not a “simple fact,” or any kind of fact for that matter. Before I explain why, let’s jump over to San Diego, California, where anti-gunners there also think they are doing the Lord’s work by compensating people to confiscate 270 of their firearms over the same weekend. At that event, individuals received a $100 gift card for handguns, rifles and shotguns, or a $200 gift card for so-called “assault weapons.” A report at nbcsandiego.com was even thorough enough to announce to all gun owners in the area that if they missed the event, “The public can always turn in their unwanted weapons at any Sheriff’s station or substation, as well as at any law enforcement agency.” Well, that’s a relief! Now, here’s why both “buybacks” were bogus, feel-good efforts. And if the sponsors of the events don’t already know that it’s because they are ignoring the facts that are available to anyone wanting to investigate the matter. First, they can’t be “buybacks” because the government never owned the firearms they are confiscating through compensation. Equally as important, a 2022 study looking at the effectiveness of so-called gun “buybacks,” what the researchers called GBPs, and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, concluded that such “buybacks” have no measurable impact on reducing violent crime. The paper is titled “Have U.S. Gun Buybacks Misfired,” and was authored by Toshio Ferrazares, Joseph J. Sabia and D. Mark Anderson. “Gun buyback programs (GBPs), which use public funds to purchase civilians’ privately-owned firearms, aim to reduce gun violence,” the paper’s abstract stated. “However, little is known about their effects on firearm-related crime or deaths. Using data from the National Incident Based Reporting System, we find no evidence that GBPs reduce gun crime.” That said, the abstract provided further information that should put an end to the fallacy of such events once and for all. “Given our estimated null findings, with 95 percent confidence, we can rule out decreases in firearm-related crime of greater than 1.3 percent during the year following a buyback,” the abstract concluded. “Using data from the National Vital Statistics System, we also find no evidence that GBPs reduce suicides or homicides where a firearm was involved.” So, there you have it: gun buybacks are not effective at helping anything—except anti-gun politicians mislead their constituents and anti-gun groups make it look like they are “doing something” so they can solicit more donations.

N.M. Waiting Period Ruled Unconstitutional The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that New Mexico’s waiting period law, which requires gun purchasers to wait seven days after completing payment and passing a background check, is unconstitutional. HB 129, signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2024, established a seven-day waiting period for any gun buyer, except those holding a concealed handgun license, who successfully completes an FBI background check. The legislation also included an additional provision. According to the law: “If the required federal instant background check has not been completed within twenty days, the seller may transfer the firearm to the buyer.” Under existing federal law, if there is a NICS delay and no response within three days of the background check, the Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) may choose to complete the transaction. On August 19, a panel of three judges from the 10th Circuit Court ruled in Ortega v. Grisham that the law violated the Second Amendment. The lawsuit was filed by the National Rifle Association and the Mountain States Legal Foundation. The court stated: “Cooling-off periods infringe on the Second Amendment by preventing the lawful acquisition of firearms. Cooling off periods do not fit into any historically grounded exceptions to the right to keep and bear arms and burden conduct within the Second Amendment’s scope. In this preliminary posture, we conclude that New Mexico’s Waiting Period Act is likely an unconstitutional burden on the Second Amendment rights of its citizens. We also conclude the other preliminary injunction factors are met and that Plaintiffs are entitled to an injunction.”

Marianna Mitchem Former ATF Senior Official Joins Everytown for Gun Safety Marianna Mitchem, formerly the Associate Assistant Director of Field Operations (Industry Operations) at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), has joined Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. This information was provided by a former ATF senior official who requested anonymity. According to this source, Mitchem has engaged with her former colleagues since joining Everytown, with a focus on issues related to Glock and similar handguns. Mitchem’s career at ATF began in 2005 as an Industry Operations Investigator (IOI), responsible for inspecting firearms retailers to ensure compliance with record-keeping and inventory standards. She did not serve as an armed Special Agent during her tenure. In 2011, Mitchem was promoted to field supervisor, and by 2014, she led Industry Operations for ATF’s Phoenix Field Division. Her move to Washington, D.C. came in 2017 when she became deputy chief of Field Management Staff; she was subsequently promoted to Chief in 2018. By 2019, Mitchem served as ATF’s deputy chief of staff, reporting directly to the agency’s director, and in 2020, she advanced to chief of the Firearms and Explosives Industry Division. Her final position at ATF was Associate Assistant Director of Field Operations (Industry Operations), which she held from March 2024 until departing in May 2025. Professional Character The former ATF senior official described Mitchem as intelligent and an effective communicator, also noting that she holds strong views regarding firearm regulation. Anti-gun history Marianna Mitchem, the former ATF senior official who worked with Mitchem said she was smart, a good communicator, but very anti-gun.