About Trish Deneen

Trish is a conservative from Michigan originally from the suburban Detroit area. Besides Red Alerts, you can also find her on Facebook and her website.

Update on Michigan Gun Law Activity

In a couple of my recent posts here and here, I’ve tried to keep readers up-to-date on some recent happenings in Michigan with gun laws. There’s actually more going on and Kent Wood from Michigan United Conservation Clubs covers some of it in this video.

The Senate and House bills mentioned will be of particular interest to those who travel with pistols and trap shooting enthusiasts.

[vimeo 42721158 w=400 h=300]

h/t MOOD Magazine OD

Michigan Democrats Want to Repeal Michigan’s Stand Your Ground Law

Representative, Tim Bledsoe (Democrat – Grosse Pointe) wants to trample on the self-defense rights of Michigan citizens. Our Stand Your Ground Law went into effect in 2006. Bledsoe recently introduced House Bill 5644 which would re-establish a duty to retreat to Michigan’s Castle Doctrine. This would require a citizen to first consider retreating during an incident when a criminal is attempting to harm them in public.

Twelve of his fellow Democrats are co-sponsoring the bill, seven of whom represent Detroit.  I use the term represent lightly. If there was ever a town where more citizens need to arm themselves and stand their ground against criminals, it’s Detroit. Apparently, this move was prompted by the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. These people fear there will soon be vigilantes crawling the streets of Detroit.  So instead of empowering people, they want to create more fear not just of the crime but of legal retaliation if they happen to defend themselves against it.

Supposedly this won’t impact our Castle Doctrine law. But if this bill gets passed by
hug-a-thug (Rob Taylor’s fave phrase) lawmakers, and even with the strides we’re making in other areas, more officials with this mindset will be emboldened to infringe on our rights to defend ourselves in our own homes.

To quote the NRA’s statement on self-defense laws:

“It’s a natural right. No law “gives” it or can take it away. It’s yours. It works. And its only alternative – the idea that distant, disinterested third parties can dictate after the fact that “you must retreat” – will never be accepted by the American people.”

I certainly hope it won’t be accepted by the citizens of Michigan.

Rick Ector of Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit is a tireless proponent of self-defense. I
urge any Detroiter or Metro Detroiter who is on the fence with this issue to at least check
out his Facebook page or his business website. He does a lot of interviews and debates with lawmakers and always posts this info on his FB page. In this video, Rick’s lawyer discusses the law we have now which will be in jeopardy with this bill.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6HDcGY9liw]

 

I first heard of this story on the Michigan Open Carry, Inc., Facebook page. They’re keeping a close eye on this issue and will be a good source for info.

The Michigan House of Representatives has listing for reps in your area if you want to contact them and ask that they shoot down this bill (pun intended).

Source.

Is the Detroit Free Press Pro Honor Killing?

Pamela Geller, the outspoken opponent of the Islamization of America, was in Dearborn this past weekend speaking out at a conference against Islamic honor killings. Sunday was the one-year anniversary of the murder of 20-year-old Jessica Mokdad of Warren, Michigan, by her stepfather because she refused to conform to Islamic cultural norms for women.

The Detroit Free Press covered the event in their piece Muslims oppose anti-Islam gathering; dueling events held in Detroit, Dearborn. The article opens thus:

“Anti-Islam advocates from across the U.S. gathered in Dearborn today for a conference to bring attention to what they say is a problem of Muslim honor killings.”

Anti-Islam advocates? Really? How is being against killing a woman because she’s becoming too Western anti-Islam? The conference was clearly about the issue of honor killings, not against Muslims.  And what the hell is meant by “what they say is a problem of Muslim honor killings” supposed to mean?  Girl wears makeup, goes out with unapproved boys, tries to be her own person.  Stepdad kills girl for not conforming to Islam.  How can anyone in their right mind ‘say’ it’s a problem with anything else?

Later in the article, the Freep writer states that:

“Last year, Mokdad, 20, was shot dead by her stepdad in Warren. Geller said it was a (sic) honor killing based on Islam, but Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo of Macomb County told the Free Press on Friday it was not. The family of Mokdad is opposed to the anti-Islam conference and didn’t want Mokdad’s name on it, Cataldo said.”

Yet, Geller on her Sunday April 29 post at her blog, Atlas Shrugs, points out that the prosecutor had something different to say a year ago:

“Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Contaldo said: “He thought she was becoming too Westernized. I think this was a very nice young lady wanting to experiment with Western culture without control and without abuse.” The Detroit Free Press reported: “Mokdad’s mother told police that Alfetlawi felt so shamed by her daughter’s Western ways. He killed her in an honor killing, Warren Police Sgt. Stephen Mills said.” Alfetlawi was so concerned about her behavior that he even forced her to go to a mosque and marry her boyfriend.”

You think the so-called journalists would be able to dig up that little tidbit on their own, especially since it was on their own damn news site.

Thankfully, we have freedom fighter Geller to keep them honest.  I’m close to Dearborn, so I kicked myself for not keeping up with her site so I could go to this conference.  I’ve remedied that and hopefully will get a chance to hear her speak in person in the future.  She and her team are putting together videos of the full conference but below is a teaser to see her and other anti-honor killing activists in action.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNlaWi22wP0]

Michigan Considers Revising Outdated Handgun Laws

Michigan is finally reviewing its old laws regarding the requirements of purchasing a handgun in the state. A House Judiciary Committee will review House Bill 5225 which will
revise permit-to-purchase and registration requirements. The NRA has been working to repeal these requirements since federal law already requires a criminal background check and has done so since 1998.

The NRA has teamed up with some state Representatives to change the language in the bill.  Some of the changes include:

  • If an applicant has more than one licence application, then that person will only have to complete a single basic pistol safety review questionnaire.
  • “The application is not required to be notarized and shall be processed free of charge.”
  • There are also provisions to make it easier to transfer ownership to an heir or “devisee.”

Read all the changes in language here. They’re all in bold.

These changes are only common sense. The legislation was introduced by Representative Paul Opsommer who says:

“Much of what we have in our gun law regarding the purchasing and registering of firearms, known as Public Act 372 of 1927, is still on the books for no other reason than that it is the way we have done things for decades upon decades. It is time to make this all less duplicative and bureaucratic for gun owners and also free up law enforcement time and resources so that they can focus on things that have real impact on public safety.”

Indeed.  Making it easier for law-abiding citizens to purchase handguns while giving law
enforcement back some precious time to fight crime—I’m all for it.

If you want to support this revised bill, contact info for the Michigan Judiciary Committee can be found here.

h/t NRA-ILA

Smart Girls Need an Education

This is why I don’t join conservative women’s groups. A recent post by a blogger at the Smart Girl Politics site only goes to prove that some women calling themselves smart and conservative miss the boat by miles on both counts.

Louise Butler, who describes herself as a Republican Lutheran, in her post Witches in Georgia; Nuts in Texas, relates a story of a Wiccan woman from Georgia who got a restraining order against a man who was stalking her. She apparently met this man through a dating ad where she stated her religion. The author has this to say:

“She was then shocked that she didn’t attract an intelligent, emotionally mature male.  Instead she got a weird, obsessive stalker.  Whom did she think she was going to get?”

I’m not suggesting that Wiccans and Pagans in general can’t be immature or criminal.  But I have no idea about the Georgia woman’s maturity level.  Since the author of the post didn’t mention interviewing her or give any other indication of how she knows her character, then I have to assume she’s basing her judgment strictly on religion.

But before I get to the rank religious bigotry of Ms. Butler, I want to address another glaringly obvious issue that seems to have escaped her. Stalkers come from all backgrounds. Her comment stops just short of the old “well, her skirt was so short, so she deserved what she got” canard.  Whether or not you believe dating sites are a bad idea (and I may tend to agree depending on the circumstances), the man himself is responsible for his actions and stalking is hardly a Wiccan-only phenomenon.

Christianity is the majority religion in this country. Is she seriously suggesting that all rapes, stalking incidents and molestations are committed by people who don’t share her religion?Not one Christian is a stalker?

Ms. Butler seems to think that people who believe in witchcraft should go the way of the dinosaur. I say so should the idea that a victim of stalking is to blame for the crime committed against her. I realize that feminism is an “F” word for many conservative women. But accusing the victim of a crime of causing it by virtue of her religious beliefs is an attitude from the dark ages. How is this conservative in any way? For that matter, how is this attitude even remotely Christian? Aren’t conservatives the ones pointing out the war on women by radical Muslims when liberals keep their heads in the sand on this issue? Don’t American women who have different religious beliefs than Ms. Butler deserve the same protections that conservatives think all Muslim women should be getting?

As far as her religious ignorance, I don’t know where to begin. The woman compares people calling themselves witches to people who believe the earth is flat. She says:

“I realize that I am probably not being as tolerant as the times require, but it seems to me that any adult who calls herself a witch should not be expected to be taken seriously.”

Again, this is why I don’t join conservative women’s groups. I don’t expect there to be some great sisterhood that has my back. But if I’m a victim of a crime, I expect a conservative woman to blame the criminal and not me unless she’s a throwback to the 1950s.  This post on the main Smart Girl Politics site shows me that expectation is naïve.

The ironic thing is that the post before hers is promoting a rally for religious freedom. Another bit of irony is the ending to another post of hers in which she scolds conservatives supporting Rush Limbaugh’s terrible behavior towards Sandra Fluke. She says, “Be calm, be civil and keep the faith.”  Unfortunately, she comes off as just another Christian woman who doesn’t practice what she preaches.

I’m not asking that the conservative tent get bigger. I’m simply suggesting that all conservative women look up from the ground every now and then. When they do, they will see that the tent already includes people who may not share their religion but do share their respect for the ideals of American liberty and we might just get along because of that mutual respect.