by Cheryl Todd | Sep 3, 2024 | Opinion
By Cheryl Todd |
When tragedy strikes, politicians often rush to draft new laws to show that they are taking action in the wake of public outcry. But in the haste to “do something,” proposed solutions can actually have the opposite effect and make us less safe. They limit the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their loved ones and embolden criminals. Even worse, these knee-jerk legislative “fixes” are not only ineffective but dangerous.
New data continues to confirm what many of us have known for years: gun control doesn’t work. According to a recent study at the Duke University School of Medicine, which examined the impact of 36 different gun control laws on suicide and homicide rates involving children under the age of 18, there are “no significant reductions in suicide death rates in states with laws setting a minimum age for possession or purchase of firearms.”
Even in states with enhanced regulations for background checks, mandatory waiting periods, safe storage mandates, and Red Flag laws, researchers could not find “notable distinctions between states with and without the identified laws” when it came to deaths by homicide.
We have also seen data that affirms my deeply held belief that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens can save lives. Colorado State University Professor Youngsung Kim and K. Alexander Adams from the University of Wyoming’s Firearms Research Center analyzed crime statistics from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia between 1980 and 2018, finding that states with constitutional carry laws have a 6 percent lower homicide rate. They concluded by stating “Constitutional Carry does not lead to large-scale changes in homicides or firearm suicides. The doomsday scenarios of constitutional-carry opponents are not supported by social science.”
While restrictive gun control measures are clearly not the answer to curbing violence and keeping our families safe, we know that inaction yields the same result. That’s why I’m proud to be a part of Women for Gun Rights, a national, non-partisan organization that is working to safeguard the Second Amendment. We fundamentally believe that education – not legislation – is the key to a safer, stronger, more prosperous future.
Since our founding, we have sponsored firearms training classes for women and educators, advocated for programs like FASTER to protect children in the classroom, supported hunting education, testified in Congress and State Houses across the country in opposition of harmful legislation, and amplified the stories of women whose lives were saved by the Second Amendment.
During times of crisis, it is tempting to expect our leaders to enact immediate solutions and broad reforms without considering the long-term, unintended consequences. In these situations, data and research – coupled with some common sense – should drive the conversation instead of impulsive legislation written only to appease the vocal anti-gun crowd.
If we really want to protect our loved ones, we need policy decisions to reflect the facts – not political agendas.
Cheryl Todd is the Arizona Director for Women for Gun Rights.
by Staff Reporter | Aug 30, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Democrats are trying to win a Republican-leaning legislative seat in the southern Arizona area with a candidate who has been endorsed by several progressive organizations.
Kevin Volk is running for the Arizona House of Representatives in Arizona Legislative District 17. Volk was the only Democrat running in the primary for the chamber as his party attempts a ‘single-shot’ strategy to win enough votes for a first or second-place finish in November’s General Election. He obtained 26,330 votes in the July 30 Primary Election.
On his campaign website, Volk lists several endorsements from left-leaning organizations for his bid to ascend to the state House, including the National Organization for Women Arizona Political Action Committee, the Arizona Education Association, the Sister District Project, Moms Demand Action, Human Rights Campaign PAC, Climate Cabinet, and the Sierra Club.
Should Volk manage to win a seat in the Arizona House, his endorsement from the Arizona Education Association (AEA) shows that he would likely join with this organization and his fellow Democrat colleagues to undermine – and even dismantle – the state’s historic opportunities for school choice and educational freedom. The AEA has been a staunch opponent of the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program, which has unlocked a chance for tens of thousands of students around the state to receive the education that best unleashes their learning abilities.
On June 18, the AEA posted, “Happy to be endorsing John McLean and Kevin Volk in LD 17. This is a vital district to win to achieve a pro-education majority in the state legislature, and we’re so glad to have two strong advocates for public education and for Arizona working families in the race!
The Pima County Democratic Party cheered on the endorsement of Volk from the AEA in a post on X, writing, “This is simple. Kevin Volk and John McLean are champions for the public schools in Marana, SaddleBrooke, Picture Rocks, Tanque Verde, Rita Ranch, East Side, Tucson, and Oro Valley. Good public schools benefit all of us, and all of our community.”
While not on his website, on May 7, Volk also acknowledged an endorsement of his campaign from Save Our Schools Arizona, another organization committed to the end of ESAs and other mediums of school choice in the state. He wrote, “Thank you, Save Our Schools Arizona for your endorsement! As a former public school teacher, I believe that all children in Arizona – more than 90% of whom attend public schools – deserve an excellent education, and that means making sure that our schools are fully funded and fully staffed.”
Earlier this year, in April, Volk announced that he had obtained the endorsement of Sister District Project, which has targeted Arizona to help Democrats win competitive races around the state. The organization states that it “prioritize[s] endorsing where we can build momentum at the bottom of the ticket to decrease roll-off in naturally higher turnout environments with strategic higher-ticket Democratic opportunities.”
To receive an endorsement from Sister District Project, Volk, like all other candidates who have been endorsed by the organization, had to agree to a six-prong policy plank, including more gun control policies and protection against climate change.
Volk’s support from Sister District Project and its devotion to the radical beliefs around the issue of climate change closely mirrors an endorsement of the LD 17 Democrat candidate from another climate-oriented organization, Climate Cabinet. This organization thanks a number of other likeminded partners – one of which is the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter.
Voters might find it hard to decipher what Volk believes (or does not believe) thanks to his nonexistent record, but as with the endorsements he has received and announced, there are concerning signs that he would be an unwavering vote for the Democrat Party in the Arizona Legislature. In an opinion piece for the Tucson Daily Star on March 6, Volk wrote against an election integrity proposal from Republican Representative Rachel Jones, stating that her legislation would mean that “politicians in our state could potentially choose the winner of the presidential election – regardless of your vote.” He added, “Bypassing Arizonans’ votes for president does not secure elections, it silences voters. I believe that Arizonans, not politicians, should help decide who the next president is.”
However, Volk’s sentiments appear to be hypocritical when it comes to recent actions from his own party at the top of the ticket, where President Joe Biden stepped aside from the votes of millions of Democrats around the country, including Arizonans, after an overwhelming crescendo of voices from his party’s elite forced his hand. What Volk raged against in the southern Arizona publication became reality, not with a Republican policy, but actually with his party’s presumed and eventual nominee who was elected by the votes of political delegates in Chicago, Illinois – not the votes of Arizonans and other men and women from states around the United States.
According to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, Legislative District 17 has an 8.34% vote spread between Republicans and Democrats in the last nine state elections. In those nine elections, Republicans have won all nine contests.
Volk will face off in the November General Election against Republicans Cory McGarr and Jones, who are both incumbent State Representatives. McGarr and Jones emerged over Anna Orth in the July Primary Election.
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by Cheryl Todd | Dec 15, 2023 | Opinion
By Cheryl Todd |
Our family just enjoyed a weekend in Disneyland. We love the Happiest Place on Earth and the opportunity to be lighthearted, spend time together, and play with our granddaughters. On this particular trip, I found myself thinking about the comparisons of how fairy tale storytelling compares to real life.
Does art imitate life, or does life follow art?
One thing that kept coming to my mind is that the villain in every Disney story is seeking to, in some way, control others. The Evil Queen from Snow White wants to take the lives of those who simply want to enjoy the beauty of love, freedom, and happiness. The Wicked Sorcerer wants to enslave or kill those who are simply living their lives. Some of the villains are male, some are female, and others are dragons or even snakes.
Regardless of their form, the one thing they have in common is their desire to control and take something from someone doing them no harm. I couldn’t help but reflect on how I’ve felt this way at times as a Responsibly Armed Citizen who simply wants to protect and defend what I love.
The people who want to chip away at our freedom to keep and bear arms seek what feels like a similar type of control over your life and mine. Oftentimes it comes with a “pretty face” or dressed up in some fashion that makes it challenging to disagree. They call it “smart gun laws,” or “common sense gun control,” and tell you it is “for the children.”
In the world of Disney and fairytales, the antagonists and adversaries often cast their spells using cleverly worded phrases and rhetoric to trick well-meaning people into mindlessly nodding their heads in agreement. In the same way, those who attempt to restrict gun ownership are like modern-day pied-pipers, they siren call their way into the words that spew from the mouths of our favorite Hollywood actors and feisty young politicians. And those of us who haven’t fallen under the spell are oftentimes painted with the brush of being small-minded social outcasts who love our guns more than our children.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, over 2.5 million times each year, lives are saved by people who are responsibly armed. I own and carry firearms for the express purpose of protecting my life and the lives of those I love. In this battle of wits and wills, what are we, the keepers of the truth, to do so that we too don’t willingly tie on our own puppet strings and become one of the Rights Restrictors’ bobble-headed marionettes? How do we save our children and our children’s children from drinking the poison of distorted history and protect this generation and the next from climbing down the steep staircase to the dungeon of gun-control lies?
To break the spell, simply keep asking (and answering) one little word. “Why?” Why do we have a Constitution? Why did our Founding Fathers include a Bill of Rights? Why do the 27 Words of the Second Amendment include the clause “shall not be infringed”? Why did the very first gun control laws come about? And why are the loudest voices that are trying to restrict your rights to self-protection coming from the very people who have armed security protecting them and their children 24 hours a day? Why, if guns are bad, do these people rely on guns to protect them? Just keep asking why, and you will soon see the smoke and mirrors, half-truths, emotional manipulation, and outright lies begin to vaporize as the phantoms they really are.
You and I simply want to live the American hope of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We want to build our little cottage, snip off the puppet strings, and live out the promise of a future filled with freedom. It is important to keep our eyes on the North Star of truth so that we too do not fall prey to the spells of those who want us to fall into the deep sleep of apathy and who seek to enslave us under their heavy boot of tyranny. We must know the truth and constantly plant the seeds of truth. We must every day take up our shield of wisdom and teach the next generation how to use the sword of truth because the villains are many, the villains are loud, and because every villain wants the same thing: control.
Cheryl Todd has an extensive history of being a Second Amendment Advocate. Along with being a Visiting Fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum, she is the owner of AZFirearms Auctions, Executive Producer & Co-Host of Gun Freedom Radio, the founder of the grassroots movement Polka Dots Are My Camo, and the AZ State Director for the DC Project.
by Cheryl Todd | Aug 19, 2023 | Opinion
By Cheryl Todd |
Much has been said, debated, pontificated, blustered, and raged about the Second Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights. Major news media, political talking points, and even official speeches delivered by the President of the United States are filled with confusing and contradictory rhetoric posing as factual information. Quiz yourself and your friends with this “Two Truths and a Lie.” Can you spot what is true and what is not?
A. The Second Amendment refers specifically to the right to keep and bear guns.
B. The Second Amendment is the only place in the U.S. Bill of Rights that includes the clause “shall not be infringed.”
C. The Second Amendment refers to the “right of the people.”
A. LIE! The Second Amendment refers to “arms” which can be guns—rifles or handguns, knives, swords, bows and arrows, spears, axes, cannons, explosives, etc. As explained by The Tenth Amendment Center, “Today the word ‘arms’ refers collectively to offensive or defensive weapons. The word’s meaning has changed little since it was first used seven hundred years ago. Its definition has never restricted civilian use of military weapons, including when the Second Amendment was approved.”
B. TRUTH! The original text of the Second Amendment is a mere 27 words in length and ends with the clause “shall not be infringed.” This phrase is not found in any other amendment or in any other part of our Founding Documents. This speaks volumes to the vital importance of this amendment.
C.TRUTH! The text of the Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” While proponents of anti-Gun ideology hyper-focus on the first four words (“A well regulated Militia”) and ignore the following words that define and clarify (“the right of the people”), the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has ruled on this issue multiple times. In Heller v. District of Columbia in 2008, in McDonald v. Chicago in 2010, and most recently in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, “[T]he Court points out, the primary purpose of the Second Amendment is to preserve the right of the people to keep and bear arms for self-defense.”
In summaries from these historic SCOTUS cases, the Justices have stated that “The Second Amendment protects the rights of law-abiding, adult citizens (‘the People’) to keep and bear arms, particularly weapons in common use. Therefore, any law restricting that right needs to be consistent with the Nation’s ‘historical tradition of firearm regulation.’” And, “The Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to both possess and carry weapons for self-defense, particularly weapons that are in common use among the populace.”
Bottom Line:
The brilliance and foresight of our Founders have stood for centuries as a firewall preventing people in positions of power from whittling away at the freedoms of the average citizen. Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, our Founders have been proven prophetic. Through regulations, legal maneuvers, politically-based compromises, propaganda, or tricky wordplay, infringements have been ever-eroding our right to own and use tools of self-defense. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are inspired documents, and so far the Supreme Court has upheld the power and significance of these documents, but it is the responsibility of each generation to reassert the principles that our Founders fought, bled, starved, and died to secure for our nation. Read the documents for yourself. Do not rely on others to interpret them for you. They are part of your precious and unique inheritance of Freedom and heritage of American values.
Cheryl Todd has an extensive history of being a Second Amendment Advocate. Along with being a Visiting Fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum, she is the owner of AZFirearms Auctions, Executive Producer & Co-Host of Gun Freedom Radio, the founder of the grassroots movement Polka Dots Are My Camo, and the AZ State Director for the DC Project.
by Cheryl Todd | Jul 22, 2023 | Opinion
By Cheryl Todd |
We all want to protect what we love.
No matter your age, your background, your ethnicity, or your religious affiliation, there is one thing that we can all agree on: nothing is more important than protecting what you love.
Where we are divided is HOW we protect those things that are most precious to us.
People who ascribe to the anti-gun rhetoric and agenda, and who belong to groups such as Moms Demand Action (MDA), Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, all proclaim that saving lives is at the core of their mission. We all can applaud and agree on that. Life is precious. And each of us can name at least one life we want to protect.
But protecting what we love sometimes requires that good people stand against predators and murderers with the very tools that MDA, Everytown, and Giffords vilify: guns. People who understand that reality dedicate their own time, money, and energy to training themselves and others to be safe and responsible gun owners. This training and education is truly what will protect those you love.
People who value life and liberty belong to groups like The DC Project: Women dedicated to safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms. Members of the DC Project are the counter-voice to the groups that are solely focused on guns and laws. The DC Project focuses on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by emphasizing education, not legislation, as the key to keeping our communities and our children safe.
KidSafe Foundation is another organization that loves kids enough to empower them to be safe around guns. KidsSafe has trademarked the phrase “ZERO firearm accidents are the only acceptable goal!!®” and teaches age-appropriate safety training to children to ensure kids know to “Stop, don’t touch, run away and tell an adult!” if they find a gun, or if a friend is playing with a firearm.
Reducing suicide is the goal of Walk The Talk America (WTTA). By building a bridge between mental health professionals and responsible firearms owners in order to reduce suicide and increase the availability of trusted mental health care, WTTA is “paving the way by educating mental health professionals about gun culture and breaking negative stigmas around mental health for gun owners.”
Another solution-focused organization is Hold My Guns (HMG). HMG helps to reduce firearm-related deaths by partnering with local gun stores and ranges to offer safe and voluntary storage of firearms to people and families who want to temporarily remove guns from their homes. As stated on HMG’s website, “While many organizations use ‘gun safety’ as a cover to take away your rights, our focus is to never compromise rights for the sake of ‘safety.’”
The anti-gun groups think that laws will make us safer. Each one of these groups condemns something they call “gun violence” and believes that laws will stop this kind of violence. One can only assume that the people in charge of these organizations are aware that guns, all by themselves, cannot cause violence. Surely, the people in charge of these organizations know that it is people who cause violence. Some use guns, others use knives, and still others harm their fellow humans with cars, bombs, and even clubs and hammers.
Perhaps it’s not as catchy to say that their organizations condemn people who harm other innocent people; sometimes by using guns.
Inherent in the brand names of these groups is the valuation of children, towns, safety, and courage. However, when we take a look at their methods of protecting these things they purport to hold dear, they have but one tool in their toolbox: laws. Laws they naively expect law-breakers to follow. These anti-gun groups believe that laws, more laws, and some as-yet not enacted magical laws will make humans who do not value and respect human life somehow value and respect words on a legal document stating that assault and murder are bad. Extra bad, apparently, if the murderer uses a gun.
In addition to being anti-gun, these groups are anti-self-defense, anti-individual liberties, and anti-civil rights. They profess to protect life, and yet the results of their actions make it harder for law-abiding, responsibly-armed citizens to defend themselves against predators and murderers. It is well documented by the CDC as well as the Crime Prevention Research Center that, at least two million times each year, lives are saved by responsibly armed citizens, and 200,000 times every year women prevent sexual assaults because they were responsibly armed.
Every one of the organizations mentioned is undoubtedly sincere in its mission to save lives and make our communities safer. However, laws piled on top of more laws are not making the difference we all seek. Teaching and training children from their youngest ages to respect firearms and how to be safe around them is as common sense as teaching them to be safe around kitchen knives. Helping people get effective mental health care, free from stigma and judgment, and allowing safe and voluntary storage of firearms for families going through difficult times and emotional turmoil or drug addiction offers real-world solutions for individuals where and when they need it most. And emphasizing education over legislation is how we all truly can protect what we love.
Cheryl Todd has an extensive history of being a Second Amendment Advocate. Along with being a Visiting Fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum, she is the owner of AZFirearms Auctions, Executive Producer & Co-Host of Gun Freedom Radio, the founder of the grassroots movement Polka Dots Are My Camo, and the AZ State Director for the DC Project.
