Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
The last couple of weeks have been very educational.
FOAC-Institute is a non-partisan organization. We are neither for nor against any one particular party. However, one cannot ignore the fact that the Biden Administration, MANY of the Democrats in Washington D.C., and those that support the Biden Regime, are “ALL IN” for gun control. Every chance they get, they cry for bans, restrictions, confiscations, limitations, and red flags. All of which ONLY effect law-abiding gun owners, NOT the criminals that commit violent crime.
Today, I taught an honest to God firearm safety class in Quakertown, PA.
One of the universal firearm safety rules that I cover is to treat every gun as if it is loaded. We want to give the same level of respect to an unloaded gun as we would to a loaded gun. This is TRUE common-sense safety. Every time we come upon a gun that has been out of our direct control, we need to verify its condition and clear it. Conversely to that, if we are using it as a defensive tool, then we need to confirm that it is loaded. I cannot protect my family with an unloaded gun.
Later in the class, as I reviewed the safety rules I asked, “what should we do when we come upon a gun that has been out of our direct control?” One of the students said, “Make it safe”. I looked upon this statement as what we in the instructor-y world refer to as a “teachable moment”.
I asked, “when you say, ‘make it safe,’ what exactly would YOU do to achieve that?” The student explained, “Remove the ammo source (magazine) and lock the action open and check the chamber and magazine area to ensure there is no ammo in the gun.” I gave the student a hearty “atta-boy” on the explanation. Then I asked the class to consider a mindset change.
For the sake of illustration, imagine if I took a firearm, loaded it, and laid it on the ground with the safety disengaged. That gun will never fire unless something actuates the trigger OR if the gun ACTUALLY catches on fire. I asked, “Is the gun ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’ when it is loaded?” One of the students responded, “Neither”.
RIGHT!
A gun is neither safe nor unsafe on its own. It is a tool. Just like a chainsaw, sharp kitchen knife, hammer, or Ford F150 pick-up truck.
I then asked, “Are people safe or unsafe?” The same student as before responded, “Both”.
RIGHT!
I then shared the BIG PICTURE RULE.
Recognize that YOU are in control of a firearm, If you use that firearm carelessly, negligently, or with malice, YOU have the potential to harm or kill yourself or someone else. I could say the SAME thing while substituting firearm with sharp kitchen knife, hammer, chainsaw, or Ford F-150 pickup truck. It is YOU, not the tool, that could be careless, negligent, or malicious… NOT the thing. The thing is just a thing.
Why do politicians constantly remove the personal responsibility from the criminals and focus on the “thing” that the criminals use to commit crime?
Whereas Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said, “we have to remember that the more guns we have in the streets the more violence will occur”. Perhaps he’d be better to remember that the more criminals we have on the streets, the more violence that will occur.
Why?
Because PEOPLE (especially violent criminals) are downright dangerous!
Now the question remains, If Pittsburgh is so dangerous, why does Mayor Ed Gainey support Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto’s decision to have fewer officer on staff, lower priority calls going to telephone reporting unit and removing officers from “the desk” at police stations from 3-7am?
Mayor Gainey was quoted as saying, “The chief has made clear that there was a cutback, but there was going to be patrolmen there, and there would be patrol people ready to go, so again, that's why I'm saying you've always got to talk to the person that's implementing the new rules. That's the chief or the public safety director”.
Doesn’t the Chief or Public Safety Director answer to the Mayor?
Politicians clearly live in a land of no accountability.
Leaders in democratically-controlled cities across the country are seemingly letting the criminals run rampant. They are tying the hands of law enforcement and seeking new and creative ways to restrict law abiding citizens’ means to protect themselves.
In a world run by Pittsburgh Mayor Gainey (or his ilk across the country), when seconds count, police may never come and you will not be allowed to have the means to protect yourself or those that you love from criminals that are empowered, encouraged, subsidized, and in some cases funded by those “in power”.
WTF?
Not until these anti-gun / pro-crime politicians are voted out of office will we actually have safety in our streets. These elected class gun control tyrants want you to cower in fear while violent criminals reign over our communities. The politicians want to decide who has and who has not. They want ultimate control over YOU.
Remember, a true public servant has nothing to fear from an armed and educated citizenry. Only a moron or a tyrant would fear law abiding citizens exercising their natural born, God given, self-evident right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and the state. Especially if the same moron or tyrant politicians empower violent criminals through their policies.
Let’s vote these tyrannical cretins out of office… starting on Tuesday, November 5th!
Supreme Court Rebukes New York Officials Originally posted on Prince Law Blog on May 31, 2024 by Kevin P. Fenchak, Esq.
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court delivered a significant blow to New York State’s ongoing and unlawful harassment of the National Rifle Association. This controversy began in 2017, when New York’s Department of Financial Services, under the direction of Superintendent Maria Vullo, took issue with the NRA’s endorsement of an insurance provider named Carry Guard. While most companies currently offering “insurance” for use-of-force situations are careful about how exactly their services interact with state laws against insuring intentional criminal acts, Carry Guard was not. Consequently, the company violated New York law by offering its services in the state. It is also not disputed in this case that NRA violated New York law by promoting Carry Guard without a state insurance producer license. However, what transpired next, according to the NRA’s complaint, put the Department of Financial Services well past the pale of constitutional restraints on government action.
As alleged by the NRA in its lawsuit, in investigating and pursuing the violations with the NRA’s own insurers, Superintendent Vullo offered a thinly veiled quid pro quo: cut off the NRA, as well as any other pro-gun groups from your services, and we’ll cut you a break on any violations you may have committed, whether related to the NRA or otherwise. The inverse was left unspoken, but obviously implied: refuse to cooperate, and we’ll have to do this the hard way. Subsequent letters and press conferences by the State government drove the point home. The State and the DFS made no bones about their desire to target pro-gun advocacy by pressuring their financial service providers.
In its unanimous opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor, the Supreme Court held this alleged conduct to be blatantly unconstitutional. “Government officials,” Sotomayor wrote, “cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.” The allegations made by the NRA, if true, showed that Vullo “pressured regulated entities to help her stifle the NRA’s pro-gun advocacy by threatening enforcement actions against those entities that refused to disassociate from the NRA and other gun-promotion advocacy groups,” going far beyond the pursuit of any legitimate government law enforcement purpose or the mere expression of the government’s own opinion.
While the lawsuit is, after years of appeals at the motion-to-dismiss stage, still in the early phase of litigation and will continue to be fought in the lower courts, this ruling is a significant step in the right direction for defending the rights of pro-gun organizations and individuals targeted by unscrupulous politicians.
FOAC-Institute Summation of Efforts on Originally Published on June 2, 2024, By FOAC-Institute President, Jim Stoker
As you know, Democrat Leadership in the PA House of Representatives brought two gun control bills to the floor this past month. HB 335 sought to outlaw “bump stock” and similar items and HB 2206 served as an illegal digital backdoor gun registry.
Upon learning about these pending votes, FOAC-ILLEA leadership immediately began a stepped-up effort to defeat them both. We spent more than a week speaking for House leaders and taking as many one on one meetings with members as possible. We prepared talking points on both bills and walked our legislative allies through them all.
Part of our efforts included a press release stating our position on both pieces of legislation. This release was sent out the morning of the first scheduled vote to statewide news agencies covering every media market in Pennsylvania. We also sent the release to every member of the House of Representatives to reinforce our position. We engaged in a total and all-encompassing lobbying and public relations effort. It was our largest and fastest lobbying effort yet.
FOAC-ILLEA’s philosophy is simple: While a stick is necessary at times, we prefer to begin with the carrot approach… engage and educate. When other so-called Second Amendment groups attack and threaten pro-Second Amendment legislators, we work with these elected officials and their staffs so that they better understand all facets of these issues. While other groups make enemies with actual pro-Second Amendment legislators, FOAC chooses to use our friendship and two-way respectful relationships with them to get a win for ALL OF US.
We reached out to pro-Second Amendment leaders in the House and provided them with resources to combat the two bills as best we could. A constant line of communication built by remaining loyal to our own cause of strengthening the Second Amendment in Pennsylvania meant the pro-Second Amendment legislators opened the doors for FOAC-ILLEA to reach the decision makers and the legislators who would argue for our rights. Discussing the impact of the bills with representatives co-sponsoring one of the initiatives, their legal advisor, and working with a fellow pro-Second Amendment advocate in the NRA had the direct result of changing the mind of one of the legislators. That led directly to HB 2206 failing on the floor. It was not threats but conversation that prevailed.
We also made sure that YOU, the membership, were engaged in the process. You were sent updates on the movement of the legislation. We provided the link to watch the vote live on our screens, during which time I hope you celebrated with me upon hearing both bills fail to pass the House, a major slap in the face to the anti-Constitution legislators spending their days and nights trying to strip away the very liberties our Founding Fathers warned government were inviolate, and NOT TO BE QUESTIONED.
I have attached to this email the two papers we send to our allies in the legislature. As members, you deserve to see what your elected leadership is doing to fight for YOUR rights. The leadership of FOAC-ILLEA is happy to let others pose for photos to their small organizations while we do the heavy lifting.
So, take a victory lap, FOAC members… this one is yours right alongside the pro-liberty legislators that voted with us that day.
FOAC Institute Press Release on HB 335 and HB 2206
By George E. Emanuel – FOAC-ILLEA Life Member
In a previous article about the Founders and their views on the Second Amendment and why they drafted it to protect the Citizens from the Government one little word was not mentioned but, it was likely an underestimation of the controversy that would one day swirl around the Second Amendment, even, and especially til this day.
The word is “parity”. A few synonyms for parity are coequality, equality, par, and equivalency. To ascertain this unstated intent, we must look at the history and the extent to which the Revolution formed their opinion and provide us with the context in which to read the Second Amendment.
To arrive at a useful knowledge of the true meaning of the Amendment we need to have at least a fundamental understanding of the conflict and the war in its totality.
It is a quintessential fact that the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution were included as they represented the most egregious of the wrongs the King had put on his subjects in America.
Freedom of religion, the press. of assembly and speech in the First Amendment
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms, in the Second Amendment
The Right to be Free from Quartering Soldiers in their homes
The Right against Unreasonable Search or Seizure
The Right of Charges requiring a Grand Jury, against Self Incrimination, Due Process, Double Jeopardy, Just Compensation
The Right to Speedy Trial by a Jury of Your Peers, confronting your accuser, right to call witnesses in your defense, representation by a lawyer
The Right to Jury Trial in Federal Civil Cases
The Right to a fair bail, and protection from cruel and unusual punishment
Other Rights not specifically spelled out but which would also exist
Finally, any power not specifically granted to the Federal Government is Reserved to the States and the People
The list is an encapsulation of the ten amendments. It is recommended however that you read the original document wording. Not only is the language exquisite, but it is written plainly enough that even today we can look beyond the poetry of it straight into its’ heart and true meaning.
Which brings us back to my point.
We hear much from the anti-gun zealots about what we do or do not need for hunting, sport shooting, self-defense, and a myriad of other ‘legitimate’ reasons to ‘allow’ firearms to be held in any portion of modern society. This is all done under the guise of the innocuous-sounding moniker of “interest balancing’ which loosely translated into contemporary English means “they win, we’re screwed.
What is modern about Nazis, Stalin, and Chairman Mao, Pol Pot or Idi Amin? They were just thugs on a much larger scale. The Bible is replete with tales of murder, theft, lying, cheating, adultery, and other crimes which are quite modern. But are they, or do they point to the man who is so dark on the inside that no light has penetrated his soul for millennia after millennia? Why would we think this has changed?
The Revolution was fought with muskets, rifles, pistols, swords, knives, cannons, on land and on the sea. In other words, every weapon available at that period was employed. Now……. Wait for it…………. On both sides. The British indeed had a better supply of these, but the colonists were also well armed, though shod, not so much.
Numbers being equal, there is no battle, at least none that any of us has heard of that we lost because the British had superior weapons. In the beginning, training was an issue, but the Prussian Von Steuben rectified that eventually at Valley Forge in the snow.
It was tactics that ruled the battlefield, maneuver and counter maneuver, the skill of the soldier equal in arms with his opposing counterpart, except in one huge area. The Colonists had the grit and determination to win their freedom against the most powerful army in the world at that time. They were fighting on their land for their homes. They had no other choice. But thank God they had parity when it came to arms.
Contrary to what we have all heard from the President, we do have a right to a machine gun, and in fact if he is going to wield an F18 against us we have a God given right to one with which to defend ourselves. The fact that we don’t does not negate the validity of the statement. But his certainly suggests how he truly looks at the Citizens of OUR Country.
Parity was a small word that may have been left out of the Constitution, but we must hold it close in our breast when looking at the True Meaning of the Second Amendment.
Get a copy of the Constitution, they are free, just Google “free Constitution.” No Excuses valid.
To read the entire report from ammo.com written by Cassandra McBride, CLICK HERE
Armed Citizen Aids Pennsylvania Officer Who Came Under Fire
Jim Jordan Plays Shocking Video Of ATF Agents Preparing For Controversial Raid
Hunter Hopes to Change Doctrine That Gives Wildlife Agents Free Rein on Private Property
It’s All On The Line For Gun Owners In The 2024 Election
“Crime Impacted” Chicago Resident Told, Defend Yourself, Get a Gun
'Gun Curious' Author Offers Liberal Support for Gun Ownership
Anti-Violence Project Based on Misinformation
Creating Universal Ammo Access By Mimicking Abortion “Shield Laws”
Anti-Gun Expert Ignores History of the Racist Roots of Gun Control
Supreme Court Sides With Government in 3-strikes Gun Law Ruling
Remember those who fought against evil and tyranny. June 6th, 2024 is the 80th Anniversary of D-Day!
FOAC-Institute presents Concealed Carry Seminars with Pro-Liberty Elected Officials, works with County Sheriffs at Satellite License to Carry Events, provides information tables at Gun Shows, and organizes for Pro-2A Rallies, gun bashes, and special events. To see the most up-to-date schedule of FOAC-Institute events and meetings, CLICK HERE.
Join us in the Scranton Area and in the Bucks County THIS week for a USCCA / FOAC-Institute PA Gun Law Seminar.
Wednesday June 5th, 2024
6PM-10PM
200 Tigue St.
Dunmore, PA 18512
Thursday June 6th, 2024
6PM-10PM
125 Titus Ave
Warrington, PA 18976
FOAC-Institute is a member of the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League.
Sign up for the ACSL Family Field Day by Clicking Here.
To read the Blog Posts from FOAC-Institute President Jim Stoker Click Here
To read the Blog Posts from FOAC-Institute VP Klint Macro Click Here
To Read the Blog Posts from FOAC-Institute Board Member Stephen LaSpina Click Here
To Read past editions of the FOAC-Institute Newsletter Click Here
The Babylon Bee is a satire news service. It ain’t real… but it sure seems real sometimes.
Click here to read this satire piece.
FOAC-Institute Life Member, Milan Mijatov Jr. attending AR15 Training with FOAC-Institute VP Klint Macro
I have been on the road a lot these last couple of months. I try to “carry” and encourage you to carry your defensive tools with you any time you can anywhere you can do so legally.
Admittedly, it is often a pain in the ASS to carry all the things we might carry to protect ourselves and those that we love. Traveling with firearms is tricky both practically and legally.
I wrote a blog post sometime back that could be helpful. It was called “Have Gun Will Travel” that talks about traveling with firearms across state lines on the road or in the air.
No matter your tools, remember that your DEFENSIVE MINDSET should be the primary component of your everyday carry (EDC) infrastructure. Without a defensive mindset, you are more likely to find yourself in situations where you might need defensive tools and you will likely be less able to articulate that you exhausted all other force or avoidance options IF you needed to use your firearm and deadly force to defend yourself and or a loved one.
Your ability to articulate that your actions were reasonable will help you to defend yourself legally after you defend yourself physically. A logical decision-making process is harder to defeat in court than “it just happened”. A defensive mindset HELPS to stack the deck in your favor. Also, if you are able to collect and process information and make sound defensive decisions, you are less likely to need to use the tools you carry in the first place.
If you never go to Sheetz at 4AM you will never get jacked up at Sheetz at 4AM.
Thinking defensively is not always easy, and safety is rarely convenient. Make smart decisions about where you go, who you go with, and when you go there, and you will be LESS likely to be attacked by opportunistic criminals. LESS LIKELY. There are no guarantees. This is WHY you should carry your tools whenever you can do so legally. EVEN if it is a pain in the ass.
How silly would you feel if the day you chose not to carry, was the day you needed your defensive tool(s)?
I certainly believe that a firearm is the most efficient tool of self-defense available to mankind. It is the great equalizer. But it is more than the gun.
Knowing what the laws are of where you are, where you are going and where you are going through to get there, will help you be less likely to be victimized by the judicial system. Knowing what to say and NOT to say to police will likely do the same.
Author’s current EDC “Gear Dump”
With that said, a reliable firearm that fits your hand, a quality holster, extra ammo, a less lethal option, a communication device, flashlight, knife, medical equipment, carry permits/licenses, a means to contact and pay for a defense attorney (my personal preference is a USCCA membership), and a way to lock up your tools when they aren’t on your body are some of the thing you might want to invest in and carry with you.
Of course, the appropriate training to be able to use said items goes without saying. But without a defensive mindset, all of those things might not matter.
There is a great deal of responsibility in being your own family first responder.
You are worth protecting. YOU CAN DO IT!
Stay Armed and BE Well Regulated!
Yours In Liberty,
Klint Macro
FOAC-Institute VP
FOAC-Institute is continuing to fight for the hearts and minds of our fellow Pennsylvanians to promote individual liberties and freedoms. We are steadfast and resolute and dedicated to protecting our Constitution and advancing the cause of the 2nd Amendment and Article 1 Section 21 of the PA Constitution.
FOAC-Institute’s educational efforts are expanding across the Commonwealth. FOAC-ILLEA volunteers are teaching more concealed carry classes each month and additional virtual education events are forthcoming.
FOAC-Institute is continuing to fight in the courts. Whether this means new litigation to challenge local tyrants, fight the bureaucrats that make it harder for Pennsylvanians to exercise their most basic rights, or the funding of amicus briefs to support others who are already involved in court battles, we are actively helping to establish case law that will help advance the cause of liberty.
FOAC-Institute volunteers research proposed legislation, consult with experts, and offer advice to elected officials about legislation as well as educate the public on the strength or folly of legislation that could have lasting positive or negative effects upon our liberty and the liberty of our children.
I urge you to help me spread the word about FOAC-Institute. Share this newsletter and the website with your sphere of influence. Get a fellow gun owner to join FOAC-Institute.
Contact your Legislators HERE.
Read previous newsletters HERE.
The FOAC-Institute website is a wealth of information. Track current legislation, contact legislators and elected officials, look up gun laws, read easy to understand synopsis’ on stand your ground, castle doctrine, and legal use of force. Keep up to date with current gun related news. There is all this and more on the FOAC-Institute website.
Get involved!
If you have read this entire newsletter and made it here to this statement… you are already interested and vested.
Donate your time, your talents, or your treasure. VOTE pro-2A and get your friends to vote pro-2A as well. Become a member and get your friends to become a member. If you are already a member, consider “upping your membership” to a higher level. Volunteer to help at the bash. Volunteer to join a committee to send emails, write letters, make phone calls… NOW IS THE TIME TO DO. DON’T PUT IT OFF. “We the People” have been sitting on the sidelines too long.
An Armed and Educated Citizenry is the true check and balance in our Constitutional Republic and the ultimate homeland security!