WELL, THANKS, GUYS: The New York Times Provides a Handy Tool to Help Decide if You Should Own a Gun for Self-Defense.

The authors didn’t seriously address the detrimental effects of yanking thousands of police off the beat, reducing patrols, releasing criminals without bail or failing to prosecute criminals, only to have them repeat or commit more serious crimes. For the authors, law-abiding gun owners are the problem. The readers just needed to trust their narrative.

But the authors never proved their premise. They couldn’t show a definitive link between law-abiding gun owners and criminal activity – much less murders…because there isn’t one. There is no causation — or even correlation — between law-abiding gun ownership and shocking crime rates in urban communities across America. . . .

There is, though, a causation and correlation that goes in the opposite direction. As crime runs unabated, more Americans increasingly choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. They refuse to be willing victims, even when “progressive” policies force police departments to issue warnings to the public to just be nice to the criminal who’s threatening your life.

Background checks for firearm sales at retail skyrocketed in 2020 to over 21.5 million. They rose from 13.2 million in 2019. The kick-off of the buying frenzy started in March of 2020, the same month that pandemic lockdowns were ordered and police began pulling back community contact for concerns over the contagion.

It was also during that time that jails were emptied. That summer, violent protests erupted across America. Those weren’t confined to one city, one state or even one region. It was a nationwide phenomenon. Despite media pitching the riots as “mostly peaceful,” they were highly destructive. Politicians blamed the police and slashed their budgets. It was all made worse by rogue prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals to account. . . .

The good news is The New York Times has provided a helpful interactive tool for law-abiding citizens to decide if now’s the time to invest in personal defense. Plugging in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., shows that there were at least 794 fatal shootings from 2020-2023. It’s a good thing President Joe Biden has Secret Service protection.

For those who don’t have 24-hour top-notch trained security at their disposal, this could be a practical tool to decide if it’s time to invest in a self-defense firearm. After all, in Washington, D.C., the city’s District Attorney General Brian Schwalb said, “We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention…if we want to be safer in the long run. We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it.”

For those who might live in locations that see far less violent crime and murders, places like Bangs, Texas, where there were no fatal shootings between 2020-2023, it could still be helpful. Chances are, though, most residents in Bangs likely already live in the home of a law-abiding gun owner.

Likely.

I BELIEVE REPORTING THIS IS “JURY DENIAL,” WHICH IS THE LATEST FORM OF BADTHINK: Fraud trial juror reports getting bag of $120,000 and promise of more if she’ll acquit. “These seven are the first of 70 defendants expected to go to trial in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers $250 million. Eighteen others have pleaded guilty, and authorities said they recovered about $50 million in one of the nation’s largest pandemic-related fraud cases. Prosecutors say just a fraction of the money went to feed low-income kids, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Institutions have violated the trust of Americans, and a new revolution is coming.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Columbia Law Review Refused To Take Down Article On Palestine, So Board Of Directors Took Down Its Website.

A SEVERE BEATING WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, BUT THIS IS NICE:

Epic. Shoppers at a store in Nashville, Tennessee block a group of thieves after they attempted to loot the store until police arrived. It took the cops 30 minutes to come. pic.twitter.com/ZqIa7HL4ZU

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 5, 2024

And to be fair, in Nashville, for all its blue-city flaws, they probably won’t get the catch-and-release treatment.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: “The long-held myth that men who own guns are … err, overcompensating for something … has been debunked by scientists in a new study published in the American Journal of Men’s Health. Rather, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio found that men quite satisfied with certain physical assets are most likely to have guns.”

FASTER, PLEASE: First metal 3D printer on space station dribbles molten steel. “The first metal 3D printer aboard the International Space Station successfully dribbled out a molten ‘S curve’ last Thursday, in what the European Space Agency (ESA) is calling a ‘giant leap forward for in-orbit manufacturing.’ Combining a high-power laser and stainless-steel wire, an Airbus-built metal 3D printer deposited its first liquefied test lines inside the ESA’s Columbus research module. For ‘safety reasons,’ the machine operated in a ‘fully sealed box, preventing excess heat or fumes from escaping.'”

NO TECH COMPANY HAS: Windows Recall demands an extraordinary level of trust that Microsoft hasn’t earned.

WELL, GOOD: An anti-inflammatory curbs spread of fungi causing serious blood infections.

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE: In NCLA Amicus Win, Fifth Circuit Topples SEC’s Unlawful Effort to Regulate Private Funds. “Following the New Civil Liberties Alliance amicus curiae brief’s advice, the Court declared that SEC exceeded its statutory authority in promulgating the unlawful rule because Congress never gave SEC oversight of this aspect of private funds. NCLA thanks securities law scholars Paul Mahoney, Adam Pritchard, and J.W. Verret for joining in NCLA’s brief as amicus partners.”

Reminder/disclosure: I’m on the NCLA Board of Advisors.

HMM: Surgery to relieve nerve compression may help ease migraines.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: A Quick Q&A with … economist Michael Strain on AI.

ELIZABETH PRICE FOLEY IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Trump’s Trial Violated Due Process: He was denied notice of the charges, meaningful opportunity to respond, and proof of all elements.

Whether you love, hate or merely tolerate Donald Trump, you should care about due process, which is fundamental to the rule of law. New York’s trial of Mr. Trump violated basic due-process principles.

“No principle of procedural due process is more clearly established than that notice of the specific charge,” the Supreme Court stated in Cole v. Arkansas (1948), “and a chance to be heard in a trial of the issues raised by that charge, if desired, [is] among the constitutional rights of every accused in a criminal proceeding in all courts, state or federal.” In in re Winship (1970), the justices affirmed that “the Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.” These three due-process precepts—notice, meaningful opportunity to defend, and proof of all elements—were absent in Mr. Trump’s trial.

The state offense with which Mr. Trump was indicted, “falsifying business records,” requires proof of an “intent to defraud.” To elevate this misdemeanor to a felony, the statute requires proof of “intent to commit another crime.” In People v. Bloomfield (2006), the state’s highest court observed that “intent to commit another crime” is an indispensable element of the felony offense.

New York courts have concluded that the accused need not be convicted of the other crime since an “intent to commit” it is sufficient to satisfy the statute. But because that intent is, in the words of Winship, “a fact necessary to constitute the crime,” it is an element of felony falsification. Due process requires that the defendant receive timely notice of the other crime he allegedly intended to commit. It also requires that he have opportunity to defend against that accusation and that prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt his intent to commit it.

Mr. Trump’s indictment didn’t specify the other crime he allegedly intended to commit. Prosecutors didn’t do so during the trial either. Only after the evidentiary phase of the trial did Judge Juan Merchan reveal that the other crime was Section 17-152 of New York’s election law, which makes it a misdemeanor to engage in a conspiracy “to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.”

To recap, the prosecution involved (1) a misdemeanor elevated to a felony based on an “intent to commit another crime,” (2) an indictment and trial that failed to specify, or present evidence establishing, another crime the defendant intended to commit, and (3) a jury instruction that the other crime was one that necessitated further proof of “unlawful means.” It’s a Russian-nesting-doll theory of criminality: The charged crime hinged on the intent to commit another, unspecified crime, which in turn hinged on the actual commission of yet another unspecified offense.

To make matters worse, Judge Merchan instructed the jury: “Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were.”

If I had more money, I’d have paid someone to release live kangaroos in the courthouse.

She concludes: “Mr. Trump, like all criminal defendants, was entitled to due process. The Constitution demands that higher courts throw out the verdict against him. That takes time, however, and is unlikely to occur before the election. That unfortunate reality will widen America’s political divide and fuel the suspicion that Mr. Trump’s prosecution wasn’t about enforcing the law but wounding a presidential candidate for the benefit of his opponent.”

Well, that’s because that’s precisely what it was about.

WHEN CAN WE START THE PURGES? Ayaan Hirsi Ali: We Have Been Subverted.

LEFTY HATE IS EVERYWHERE: GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick’s volunteer attacked by anti-Israel protester on University of Pittsburgh campus.

BORDER REMINDER:

Joe Biden wants us all to forget what he did on DAY ONE of his presidency.

It would be a shame if we made this viral. pic.twitter.com/IvjEWg8dlD

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 4, 2024

FINALLY: Boeing’s Starliner capsule finally launches, carries crew into space for first piloted test flight.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Antisemitism’: U. Michigan regent’s office vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Lasting Impact of the Penn Encampment: Administrative dithering allowed an unlawful encampment to tarnish storied traditions.

SOME OF US HAVE FELT THAT WAY ABOUT HIS ENTIRE PRESIDENCY: “Most of the prominent Democrats with whom I speak have been concerned to the point of panic about how inept they’ve found [Biden’s] campaign.”

YEP:

"Russian disinformation" that was banned by Twitter in 2020 is now evidence for a federal criminal trial in 2024: pic.twitter.com/vRsxsuO8qW

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 5, 2024

Flashback: Hunter’s laptop, Wuhan and more: ‘Disinformation’ and ‘conspiracies’ turn out to be true — again and again.

STANDING UP AGAINST RACISM AND BIGOTRY: 21 State AGs Urge ABA To Remove Race-Based Criteria From Law School Accreditation.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: U.S. Job Openings Fall to Lowest Since 2021.

Flashback: Why Team Biden Might Be Purposefully Grinding Down the Middle Class.

OFT EVIL WILL SHALL EVIL MAR: Trump up in two post-conviction polls.

Related: ‘Elites’ don’t want you to vote.

80TH ANNIVERSARY: Biden In France To Mark D-Day Anniversary Under Ukraine Shadow.