Latest news with #SecondAmendment
Fox News
4 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
'I don't see any other way': Republicans push for gun tax cut in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Inside President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" are policy tweaks that would remove taxes and regulations on certain guns, but Senate Democrats aim to gut the changes from the bill. Tucked into the Senate Finance Committee's offering to the mammoth bill, which was unveiled earlier this week, are policy changes that would delist short-barrel rifles, shotguns and suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA). That means those particular guns and accessories would no longer be subject to a $200 federal tax and would no longer need to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The changes come from the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act, a bill pushed by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., in the upper chamber, and Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., in the House. Marshall told Fox News Digital he believed the gun language would make Trump's megabill "even more beautiful," while Clyde said in a statement the changes would "restore our Second Amendment rights." However, Democrats have vowed to inflict as much pain as possible on their Republican colleagues through the "Byrd Bath" process, which is when lawmakers and their staff work behind the scenes to ensure the litany of policy within the "big, beautiful bill" comports with the Byrd Rule that governs reconciliation. And the gun language is likely high on the chopping block for Senate Democrats. "Taxation and registration of firearms under the draconian NFA are inseparably linked," Clyde said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "I'm confident our pro-2A provision will survive the Byrd Rule, and I look forward to delivering this constitutional victory for the American people." Marshall, similarly, wasn't too concerned the provision would be scrubbed by Democrats in their Byrd Bath pursuit and noted, "That's what reconciliation bills are supposed to deal with, is taxes." He argued the Supreme Court upheld the NFA, which, despite being primarily a regulatory framework, does include an excise tax. The court upheld the NFA and the excise taxes it imposed as constitutional in the 1930s. More recently, the regulatory framework was upheld by the court in the Bruen decision in 2022. Still, Marshall viewed the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process, which allows Republicans to pass Trump's mammoth bill with only 51 votes, as the only chance he and the GOP have to codify the changes to the NFA. "I don't see another way to do it," he said. "I mean, obviously it would take 60 votes. And, you know, I don't see any other way to make this actually happen." Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., declined to get into detail on the exact strategy he and other Democratic lawmakers would use to go after provisions buried in the broader reconciliation text. But he noted that the point of reconciliation is to focus on spending and budgetary effects and that "a lot of times you see Republicans, very conservative Republicans, try to convince the parliamentarian that something really is spending when it's really an ideological trophy." "I can tell you this, the Byrd Bath is the legislative equivalent of prolonged root canal work," Wyden told Fox News Digital. "It's detailed, we've begun it, I'm practiced in it. I've worked in this area for some time, and my staff is expecting to spend the whole rest of next week digging into it."
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Prepared citizen movement growing amongst Americans
(NewsNation) — As natural disasters, civil unrest and war have engulfed the United States, a new alternative has arrived for Americans to not sit idly by and wait for destruction to hit their doorstep. The Prepared Citizen movement is a growing trend of people taking proactive steps to be self-reliant and ready for various emergencies or crises. The opportunity offers hardcore military training, like self-defense, and provides tools, such as first aid and emergency communication. The inspiration for the concept emerged from Eric Roscher as he watched Russia invade Ukraine in 2022. He watched as civilians in the country were flooding the streets with little ability to defend themselves. Colorado suspect shot man through his front door after knocking 'They were trying to learn how to shoot literally days before the Russians invaded,' said Roscher, United States Air Force, Owner, Barrel and Hatchet Trade Group. 'And so they were almost like helpless. And I saw it was like in America, we shouldn't have that problem. One, we have the Second Amendment, but we as citizens should have the ability to defend our country and ourselves, and it's in our Constitution.' Roscher teaches everyday Americans the combat-style training. That said, most of the Prepared Citizens told NewsNation they hope they never have to use the training or 'utilize it in a way that protects themselves and protects their families.' Police say accused stalker at Tennessee mayor's house had Taser, rope Those undergoing the training have come from all different professions. They include Brandon Jordan, a YouTube content creator and underwater diver, and Dan Pham, a civil engineer who builds robots. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Politico
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Politico
This Former Congressman Survived Political Violence. He Carried a Gun ‘To Fire Back.'
In the aftermath of the assassination of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman over the weekend, members of Congress are increasingly worried about their safety and how to better protect themselves in a toxic political environment. Former Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) is the rare figure who has been both a victim of political violence and a key player in overseeing the protection of elected officials. A survivor of the 2017 congressional baseball shooting where Majority Leader Steve Scalise was badly wounded — Davis was at home plate when the gunman opened fire from behind third base — the former Illinois congressman later became the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, which oversees security arrangements for members of the House of Representatives. Davis, who now serves as a head of government affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, lost his 2022 primary after redistricting put him in the same district as his Donald Trump-endorsed Republican colleague, Mary Miller. As a result of the congressional shooting — which happened precisely eight years to the day of Hortman's death — the former Illinois congressman says he now carries a gun when he can 'in order to fire back if somebody decides to come and kill me and my friends again.' This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What was your reaction to hearing about the shooting in Minnesota especially given that it was the eight-year anniversary of the congressional baseball shooting? It brings back the memories of that day and watching my friends and wondering whether or not they were going to survive their shots. But at the same time, you begin to understand that there are just some bad people out there that are triggered for whatever reason, that they're going to save the world by killing others. And I don't get it. Never got it that day, never got it afterwards, and I still don't understand it today in Minnesota. How did the shooting change how you dealt with constituents and appearing in public for events? Well, it changed me personally. Even in private events, where I'm much more secure, I carry a gun, where I am able to, in order to fire back if somebody decides to come and kill me and my friends again. I'm much more aware of the security situation. I'm sitting here in London right now and working with the security officials that are on this trip that I'm a part of. And I always find myself walking at the end or watching our surroundings. I didn't pay as much attention to that before June 14 of 2017, but I do now. How much does the congressional baseball shooting serve as a dividing line for your service in Congress? Well, it was more of a divider immediately afterward, because the tension for Republicans in targeted districts like mine during the 2018 cycle was so immense. But then, you know, the tension went down with COVID and went down in 2022, so you don't think about it as much. But I'm a big believer in the Second Amendment, and, in my old district, I exercised my rights to be able to carry a firearm to protect myself and people wouldn't know it. I did not do that before the baseball shooting but I never wanted to feel like I couldn't fire back again. I've talked to one of your former colleagues who said he had to wear a bulletproof vest before appearing in a parade. Did things ever reach that level for you? I never had to do that, but I was more aware of security, and we would coordinate with local law enforcement a lot more when we did events, especially during the heightened tension of 2017 and 2018. Then, ironically, the tension went down in a presidential race. I never understood that, other than COVID, when people weren't out as much, but it just seems to me that the political atmosphere determines the security risk. And that's unfortunate, and that's what we have to address. How do you handle this practically since it's hard to give every member of Congress their own security detail? There are ways that member offices can work with local law enforcement to have flexibility to pay for security when there are more high-risk events. I never felt insecure going out to dinner in my hometown of Taylorville, Illinois. So I wouldn't have needed a security detail there. But parades in certain areas of the district, or more of a public town hall type of event, we were more cognizant of the security needs. But it doesn't negate the fact that you have, as a public official, threats on your lives that never get publicity. My wife would come home from work, and the kids would come home from school when I was in office, and they would immediately call me and say, 'Dad. Why is there a sheriff's car parked in front of the house?' 'Yeah, somebody threatened to blow Dad's head off again today. So I'm making sure you guys have some protection if this is serious.' Now, those are the types of things that really have an impact on families, that have an impact on people wanting to serve in office and that, to me, is the key fact that goes unnoticed. After the shooting, you became the top Republican on the House Administration Committee. How big of an issue was member security for you in that position? It's a major issue for us. We wanted to address every security issue there was. And in my case, anytime I would have a threat, we would have the Capitol Police work with local law enforcement, and local law enforcement would take care of things back home. I never had a detail based on my threats. While I was in DC, my threats were always at home, and there's a gentleman who threatened to blow my head off one morning after clearly a night of drinking that now he has a felony on his record. Because another aspect of this is you have to prosecute those who make stupid decisions to actually deter stupid decisions, and no one ever threatened to blow my head off again after somebody got a felony on their record and it was publicized. You can have all the security in the world. But at the same time, we have to remember things are different back home, and that's where that coordination between the Capitol Police and local law enforcement has to be seamless, and that's where I think we can do a better job to make that happen in the future. And is that on Capitol Police, local law enforcement or members to make that work? It's everyone. I mean, when you think about it, there are plenty of times where I never would have thought a threat would have existed back home, because it's home. And after the baseball shooting, we became more aware. And you know, local law enforcement was more than willing to help, and you have to be able to make that coordinated effort. How much does dealing with security matter versus dealing with the political environment that has produced such an increase in threats and violence? We have to deal with the environment. I mean, you know, when you have a CEO of a company like United Healthcare assassinated in New York, you can't have politicians like [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren saying, 'You know, it's a tragedy. But.' There shouldn't be this immediate reaction, 'Oh, wait, I'm okay with this because I wear a red shirt,' or 'I'm okay with this because I wear a blue shirt.' And that's the message that I tried to send immediately after the baseball shooting when I got back to the Capitol that day. And the message was we have to stop villainizing everyone, Republicans or Democrats. We have to do what we can as former elected officials or elected officials to be able to call that out, regardless if they're on your team or not. Is it possible to do that at this point? There's no other option.
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
How an original Rooftop Korean got red-pilled: ‘These protests are not organic'
They became the stuff of Second Amendment lore — young men with firearms, patrolling the streets and positioned on rooftops in the Koreatown neighborhood during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Thirty years later, as the City of Angels again faces threats of anarchy, coupled with a defunded and demoralized police force, many people recall the group of men — later known as the Rooftop Koreans — who took it upon themselves to bulwark their community. 'Back then, I didn't really have any skin in the game, so to speak,' Tony Moon, now 53, tells The Post. Advertisement As the fires and looting crept north from South Central to Koreatown, Moon's father no longer had a business in the neighborhood. In fact, the family was living in nearby Hollywood. But a friend's brother asked for assistance protecting his stereo-equipment store on Hoover Street, and Moon, then 19, joined the militia of around 75 men to patrol the neighborhood from looters and vandals. 7 Meme @DonaldJTrumpJr/X Advertisement It worked. Bedlam gripped the city — the LAPD had stood down to the rioters — but Koreatown remained unscorched. The '92 riots erupted on a Wednesday after four LAPD officers were acquitted in a police brutality case in which they were caught on video beating suspect Rodney King, who was black, during an arrest after a high-speed chase for driving while intoxicated. The unrest lasted six days and would become the most destructive civil disruption in US history, leaving 63 people dead, thousands injured and a billion dollars in property damage.\ 7 Korean Americans guarded Koreatown during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Wikipedia Advertisement LA Koreans felt particularly vulnerable; tensions with the black community were at an all-time high. A Korean shop owner in South Central the previous year shot and killed 15-year-old Latasha Harlins following a struggle when the woman accused the girl of trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. The shopkeeper was found guilty but sentenced only to probation, enraging the black community. In response, that year rapper Ice Cube released 'Black Korea,' a track full of anti-Asian racial epithets and threats of violence against Korean shopkeepers. 'It was lawless. A lot of us wondered if this was going to be a full-on attack on the [Korean] community. You could have pretty much gotten away with anything,' Moon recalls. Advertisement 7 Tony Moon is now a suburban family man — with an edge. Courtesy of Tony Moon But with riots returning to Los Angeles in recent years — Black Lives Matter in summer 2020 following George Floyd's death and again to a lesser extent last week protesting federal immigration enforcement — Moon sees few, if any, similarities to 1992. 'When the Rodney King verdict came through, there was genuine anger and frustration from that community. And I felt it, too,' Moon tells The Post from his home outside Los Angeles. 'These are not organic. There's no groundswell support from the community. Having gone through the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots and seeing how those were organized, we know that these are all manufactured, and they need to pay these people to show up,' he says. He accuses 'dark-money NGOs' of bankrolling the unrest, pointing for instance to Neville Singham, a China-linked tech tycoon who's under House probe. 7 Moon was a Rooftop Korean at 19, trying to prove himself to his father. Courtesy of Tony Moon 'Another good example would be the Tesla protests that you saw not that long ago, where they would show up at a specific time and they're out of there a couple hours later. If you're really passionate about your cause you would probably stay from sunup to sundown, but you can tell these people were on the clock.' His experiences in 1990s LA, in part, led to Moon's early, enthusiastic support for Barack Obama — until the Democrat's presidential term wore on and Moon became disillusioned with the Washington establishment. Advertisement 'I have a heart for the black community because I grew up with that culture. My hope was, with Obama, that with the black community, there would be a real, genuine change. Because as a country, we're only as strong as our weakest link. And right now, those areas are, I consider, our weakest link. Because they are the least educated, have the most crime. But I didn't see that change with Obama. And I saw how everything was just business as usual. Obama was just a neocon elitist, like everyone else,' Moon says. 'That's what communism is, which most people don't understand. These kids that are pushing for socialism, communism think that the people on top are going to be generous and kind to them, but they're not. They're just being used as useful tools. It's a feudal system again.' 7 A Los Angeles Korean shopping mall burns on the second day of the 1992 riots. AP While he was born in West Germany and immigrated to America at age 5, Moon grew up with horror stories of life under the communist North Korean regime. Advertisement In one family tale, his grandfather — suspected of having ties to anti-revolutionaries — was marched into a field to be executed by North Korean soldiers. A chance flyover of American helicopters spooked the troops, and he escaped. That's when the family decided to leave, eventually landing in the United States. 7 More than 1,000 Korean Americans rallied at LA's Admiral Park in 1992 to call for healing between the Korean and African-American communities. AP But at 19 years old, when Moon found himself standing guard outside a shopping center on Olympic Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue carrying the Remington 870 shotgun he'd bought himself with his first paycheck, he wasn't thinking of any of that. Advertisement He always thought of himself as an Angeleno first — being Korean had little to do with it. At the time, 'I was kind of a screw up. I didn't finish high school. My dad was on to me,' Moon recalls. He got his act together and went to the University of Southern California, where he studied business. He began working as a mortgage lender and started a family; his kids are now 14 and 16. 'I became just a Joe Schmo citizen.' As COVID-19 restrictions intensified in 2020, Moon began to suspect the authorities were lying about the illness' severity. Then he started following bizarre behavior from vote-counting precincts on election night that year. 7 Moon became a meme again in 2001. @PplsCityCouncil/X Advertisement He joined Twitter to have a place to vent his political frustrations and was shocked to discovere he'd become a meme: The younger generation had stumbled upon 1992's 'Rooftop Koreans' (a term Moon had never heard before) and, from 2020 riots' ashes, had sent out the bat-signal beckoning their return. 'They understood the call went out. A lot of the Korean guys were saying, 'Yeah, I'll go out again,'' Moon remembers. (Turns out they weren't needed; Koreatown was left untouched in 2020, as if someone had already gotten the message.) By now the mild-mannered suburban father was rapidly becoming a full-on political activist. On Jan. 6, 2021, Moon showed up in Washington, DC, to express solidarity with election-integrity protesters — though he didn't go inside the Capitol that day. 'I would fight for anyone's right to protest and speak their mind regardless of whatever side of the issue you're on,' Moon says, taking a swig from an orange water bottle — the very same bottle that in July 2021 led him to become another meme. That month he joined a protest outside Wi Spa in LA's Koreatown in support of women who'd complained about a nude male in their changing room, clashing with pro-transgender activists. As Moon was giving an interview a woman approached and kicked him in the groin. He reacted by bonking her with the water bottle, a moment that went viral. With more anti-Trump protests being organized across the country, does Moon think we're in for a repeat of 1992? Or a sequel to 2020's 'Summer of Love'? Not really. 'You can't fool people a hundred percent of the time. You can't use the same playbook over and over again. People have a certain degree of pattern recognition,' he says, believing the unrest is more theater than heart. 'I think everyone's going through riot fatigue.' Maybe even the ones being paid for it.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
New R.I. Senate leaders push revised ban on assault-style weapons to Senate floor
New Senate President Valarie J. Lawson, who also leads the National Education Association Rhode Island, and new Senate Majority Leader Frank A. Ciccone III, a licensed gun dealer, used their power to vote in any committee, and backed the bill. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican, and Minority Whip Gordon E. Rogers, a Foster Republican, also used their ex officio powers, voting against the bill. Advertisement The 10-member Judiciary Committee had been seen as evenly split on the issue. But Senator John P. Burke, a West Warwick Democrat , voted for the bill, defying expectations. The revised gun bill has drawn support from Everytown for Gun Safety leaders, who have said, 'Compromise is a part of public policy progress, and the amended version of this bill is still a massive step forward.' But it has drawn criticism from the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence, which issued a statement Wednesday and said it remains 'deeply disappointed' in the 'weakened' ban on assault-style weapons and favors the House-passed bill. Advertisement Senator Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat, voted for the bill in the Judiciary Committee, and said she has prepared floor amendments that would restore the bill to the House-passed version. The vote had been seen as a test for both Lawson and Ciccone, who has opposed prior gun bills and has said he sells a small numbers to friends and family. On May 20, the state Ciccone, a Providence Democrat, is one of 99 federal firearms license holders in Rhode Island who would be affected by a proposed ban on assault-style weapons. The Ethics Commission voted 8 to 1 for an advisory opinion that says Ciccone falls under the ethics code's 'class exception,' which says public officials don't have a conflict of interest if legislation would not help or hurt them any more than any other member of a business, profession, or group. Senator Leonidas P. Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat, voted against the bill in committee, saying, 'I need to emphasize my disgust that we are once again abridging our Second Amendment rights for all Rhode Islanders. No form of firearms ban is acceptable under the guise of making us safer.' Raptakis predicted the residents will be less safe 'because law-abiding citizens will not be able to buy weapons to defend themselves next year.' The Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence, which emphasized that it's the only Rhode Island-based gun control advocacy group, asked advocates to ask senators to support the version of the bill passed by the House. Advertisement 'Our No. 1 goal is to keep Rhode Islanders as safe as possible from preventable gun violence,' coalition Executive Director Melissa Carden said in a statement. And she said the House-passed bill was the 'result of years of collaboration of gun safety advocates and legislators getting to the best bill possible.' 'At a time when the federal government is rolling back gun safety measures across the board, the states need to do all they can to make sure our communities and families are safe,' Carden said. She noted that Attorney General Peter F. Neronha had backed the House-passed bill and said he would defend it in court. On Bluesky, Providence resident Suzanne Ellis Wernevi asked Neronha to weigh in on the revised gun bill. Neronha replied, 'It's an approach followed by some states like Washington. We haven't looked at it carefully. I support the version passed by the House, which we studied carefully and participated in the drafting of, and which best preserves public safety.' House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, issued a statement, and said, 'I am withholding comment until the entire Senate considers the bill. The final bill is subject to change on the Senate floor, so it would be premature to comment at this time.' Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
