'Smart, effective immigration enforcement'

The protesters didn't find these questions too funny. But you sure will

Being that it took place in America, as far as volunteers at the Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center were concerned it was a story that could only happen in Texas. A family in the north Texas city of Amarillo found a baby bird lying cold and abandoned on the ground in their yard during a […] The post Baby Bird Rescued in Texas Panhandle Wrapped in a Warm Tortilla Until Wildlife Experts Arrived appeared first on Good News Network.

Books A Miraculous Apocalypse: The Ragpicker by Joel Dane Many books preach the power of kindness, but few treat it as radical. By Kerstin Hall | Published on July 23, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Many books preach the power of kindness, but few treat it as radical. Fewer still embody it in the guise of a half-mad drifter trapped inside a souped-up VR bodysuit, travelling through a lush post-apocalyptic land while haunted by a motley assortment of digitalised people—including his dead mother and husband. Welcome to The Ragpicker. It might just be the best book you read this year. It will certainly be amongst the weirdest. In some respects, it’s much easier to write about books you dislike than those you cherish, and I’m trying to avoid sounding inane, but Joel Dane’s latest novel is just… annoyingly excellent. Although it may be an acquired taste, I loved it fiercely, and have been on a singular mission to foist it on everyone in my immediate vicinity. (Hence, incidentally, this article.)  It’s got a band of serial killers called ‘likehunters.’Okay, so imagine inescapable Google Glass, but, like, worse.There’s a One Act Play in the middle! Just for fun! The problem with books that delve into the Power of KindnessTM is that, more often than not, they end up actually delving into the Power of Saccharinity. Not so with The Ragpicker. This is not a ‘nice’ book. It is, in fact, occasionally astonishingly violent. But for all that it is clear-sighted in the face of horror and ugliness, it remains passionately optimistic regarding the potential of unorthodox relationships and connections. It revels in humanity’s capacity for tenderness, especially towards that which is broken and fragile. Buy the Book The Ragpicker Joel Dane Buy Book The Ragpicker Joel Dane Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleIndieBoundTarget This shows up in the very premise of the worldbuilding. The Ragpicker takes place over a hundred years after a golden age of hyperconnectivity—it’s set, effectively, in the wake of a social media apocalypse. The satellites are failing, and the bulk of the once glittering digital realm now hangs over the land like the corpse of history. Sundered from the virtual powers that had formerly sustained them, the majority of humanity is implied to have died swiftly in “an easy departure,” still rapturously immersed in their reciprocal connectivity.  Not everyone died, however, and an aspect of the novel’s defiant optimism shines in its absolute refusal to depict societal collapse in the style of Hollywood disaster movies—that is, as a violent, individualist fight for resources, survival of the fittest, every man for himself, overrun with cockroaches, etc. etc.  “We expected, with the easy cynicism of people unacquainted with hardship, that the survivors of the apocalypse would descend into savagery,” one of the characters acknowledges. Instead:  “I remember the unruly mobs of survivors, grieving and anguished and outcast from the world they loved… shambling packs of half-starved, half-mad hominids who obeyed as if a single animal the compulsion to make any sacrifice to save one other… to feed the hungry, to soothe the injured, to ease the dying. To wrap each other in the warmth of yourselves.” It is this defiance in the face of adversity that marks the whole novel: a bloody-minded refusal to cede ground to cynicism. In another story, such earnestness might feel naïve or unearned, but Dane takes pains to never evade or sugar-coat the horrors of his world, or to suggest that people aren’t still fallible and cruel—and it’s precisely that contrast that lends the work its power.  Enter the eponymous Ragpicker. Thanks to his pre-collapse secondskin bodysuit, he has survived over a century of roving through the flourishing wilderness on his own. He has, by this point, largely lost the ability to verbally communicate—the deteriorating virtual personification of his dead husband, Nufar, says that he is “cognitively compromised,” but the Ragpicker prefers “characterologically adapted” to staying alive.  At the start of the novel, he is travelling back homeward in the hopes of uploading Nufar to external physical storage, thereby restoring the ‘obit’ and protecting him from any further data loss. En route, however, he is waylaid—first by a bear, and then by a teenage girl named Ysmany who needs him to help her save a baby. The narrative alternates between the Ragpicker and Ysmany’s perspectives, both of which serve as a masterclass in voice-based characterisation. Where the Ragpicker’s sections are rambling, tangential, marked by unexpected and suggestive fractures in sentences, and internal arguments between the dead digital voices haunting him, Ysmany’s sections are direct, specific, and organised into brief ligaments of narrative. Motherless, she lives in a village protected by another cognitively compromised person in a skinsuit—this one named Server. Ysmany’s role is to assist Server in building and maintaining the lampstack: an arcane collection of thousands of significant but random objects that are braided into cords and strung up throughout the village.  It’s a role to which Ysmany is uniquely suited, and one that grants her a certain degree of status, although it also sets her apart from her community. The novel reflects both the structure of the lampstack and Ysmany’s way-of-seeing through the arrangement of the text on the page, with each block of text serving as nodes in a string—because Ysmany is actually engaged in the impossible task of recreating the structure of the lost internet through physical media.   Bird skulls, nails, lost teeth, cellophane, ballpoint pens, lipstick tubes… and most recently, body parts from the people Server has murdered.  Ysmany fears an orphaned baby boy named VK might be Server’s next victim. When she learns that the Ragpicker is passing through the area, she sees an opportunity to save the child, and perhaps reunite him with his extended family.  She is woefully unprepared to survive on her own, let alone act as a surrogate parent to a screaming infant, but she is resolved to try. “We’ll find a new momma!” she says, and then must amend: “for you… a new momma for you.” Ysmany and the Ragpicker’s lonelinesses take different shapes, forming distorted reflections of the same pain—a dislocation emblematic in the world itself. Everything is fragmented in the fall of connection, and the novel is constantly navigating the tension between the perils of complete union and assimilation (as personified by insidious groups of serial killers who stage bloody carnage, apparently for the appreciation of an absent, long-dead audience—literal hunters for ‘likes’) and those of complete discreteness (as seen in Server, who regards fragmentation as “a prerequisite of survival,” and ruthlessly eliminates any threats to this vision.) Characters both ache for connection, and fear it. Ysmany and the Ragpicker come to recognise in each other the same broken human need, and through that recognition form a wary sort of harmony—something that weaves between the poles of collectivism and individualism, something specific, intimate, and unsentimental.  In strange ways, they seem better able to understand each other than themselves—the Ragpicker is terrified by his potential capacity for violence even as he sews menstrual pads for Ysmany and changes VK’s diapers and collects postcards. Ysmany regards herself as “a nasty little spider” in the web of the lampstack, inhuman and lacking in some ineffable way, even as she continually makes self-effacing choices for the benefit of others. And it is not that the Ragpicker isn’t violent, and Ysmany can’t be mean, but that the narrative continually, gently, insistently refutes their worst opinions of themselves in ways which are profoundly touching. Although The Ragpicker is a daring, intelligent, and somewhat batshit book, I feel this kindness is what truly sets it apart. It is hilarious and incisive, and contains one of the most gut-wrenching narrative twists I have ever encountered, but, in the end, the singing depth of its humanity is what truly continues to linger with me. It contends that you cannot go back to who you have been—you can only become more.[end-mark] The Ragpicker is published by Meerkat Press. The post A Miraculous Apocalypse: <i>The Ragpicker</i> by Joel Dane appeared first on Reactor.

Books romantasy What Exactly Makes a Romantasy — And What Are Your Favorite Examples? Let’s look at the key aspects of this wildly popular new subgenre, and discuss some of the best romantasy books and series around… By R. Nassor | Published on July 23, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Like so many fabulous winged creatures, romantasy books continue to fly off the shelves. It’s undeniable that romantasy is quickly becoming a major subgenre. But my question is… how exactly are we defining Romantasy? I think it might be useful to establish the parameters of the subgenre, and discuss a few favorite examples of romantasy books to see what aspects have made them so attractive to readers. So, let’s jump right into things… Romantasy is, of course, a relatively new portmanteau for a subgenre that combines both fantasy—a story with fantastical elements—and romance—a story with a central love story featuring a romantic group that ends in a happily ever after or happy for now (HEA/HFN). The question readers new to the concept often ask is if romantasy is simply a new term for either romantic fantasy—a fantasy book with romance elements—or fantasy romance—a romance story taking place in a fantasy setting. Right now, a book marketed as romantasy could technically fit into either subgenre category. After some deliberation, I’d argue that romantasy books should have a central romance with an HEA/HFN, not just a romance subplot. In short, romantasy should be more fantasy romance than romantic fantasy. And of course, I’m hardly the only one making the case that a central love story is a crucial feature of romantasy books—for more on that, check out this piece for The Washington Post from earlier this year by Sarah Wendell, longtime book blogger, author, and podcaster. Part of my rationale comes from the implicit social contract between romance readers and romance writers. There is a promise baked into the premise that no matter what happens in the middle of a book, the characters in the romance will find their way to each other in the end. It is not a spoiler to know a romantic couple or grouping will end up together, it’s a genre requirement. How an author gets to the HEA/HFN is where an author’s skill and ingenuity comes into play. If romantasy is a genre marketed largely to romance readers, it must follow the same social contract or readers will feel hoodwinked. Speaking of marketing, I know the current excitement over romantasy can seem a little overhyped, as it’s started to appear everywhere you look, but personally, I believe the overzealousness and buzz is coming from a sincere place. People in charge of book marketing are trying to get fantasy books in front of the most faces as possible, and the way to do that right now is by marketing everything with any amount of romance as romantasy. Also, we cannot discount the fact that for a long time, it was very difficult for fantasy books with romance subplots to get book deals at all. It was even more difficult when those authors were not white, straight, cisgender, and or men. Trust me when I say I get it. I loved fantasy before I loved romance and I grew to love them both so much I got a master’s degree in the intersection of fantasy, romance, and neomedievalism. I very much want there to be more books that prioritize friendship, romance, and intersocial relationships in fantasy books. There is plenty of space for fantasy romance, romantic fantasy, and romantasy to be published, marketed, and delivered into the hands of eager fantasy readers. However, when non-HEA/HFN romantasy is promoted to romance readers, it results in them feeling disappointed when they finish it, since they went in expecting a central, happily-ever-after romance, and that’s not what they got. This is not because it’s a bad book, mind you—the problem is that the romance reader’s expectations (based on the marketing of the book) aren’t going to be met if the romance isn’t central to the plot. Although romantasy is a relatively new label—after all, the term only gained traction with book blogs, readers, and publishers in about 2022—the popularity of romances in fantastical settings is nowhere near new. As a medievalist, the northern French medieval poems known as Breton lais are my go-to, prime examples of popular twelfth- to thirteenth-century entertainment that often centered a romance and the fantastical. Let’s take Marie de France’s Lanval as an example (famously written in the local language over Latin because it was primarily public entertainment). In the poem, Lanval is an honorable foreign knight in King Arthur’s court who hasn’t been getting his pay from the king, and so, he is unable to pay his retinue. When two ladies in the forest ask him to meet their mistress, he follows them and meets an absurdly wealthy and beautiful fairy lady in the woods who promises to love him and fund his people if he doesn’t reveal her identity to others. To make a long poem a bit shorter, he reveals her existence to the court when Guinevere falsely accuses him of making unwanted advances and shaming her. The fairy lady shows up at Lanval’s trial anyway, whisking him away to the fairy realm, Avalon. It is one of my favorite examples of just how long we have loved stories in which romance and the fantastical work hand in hand in popular literature. Stories that combine romance and fantasy can push people to reconsider what they want from life when they look at something wildly out of reach. We don’t expect a fairy woman to show up, bankroll us, and solve all our problems, but maybe we would feel better if it felt like we were being properly compensated and recognized for our work. Plus, it’s satisfying to see the failure of an intersocial relationship (that between Lanval and his king) fixed by a new successful intersocial relationship with the fairy lady. Given this history, I am not surprised that in the early modern period, Shakespeare was thinking about negotiating romantic relationships and the fantastic in his comedic play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I am almost certain that there are a host of fantasy romance-style works of popular fiction written before the late 1980s, when fantasy romance books like Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks, featuring rock band singers and a fairy war, were published, even if they might be hard to track down today. After all, one of the biggest problems with genre history continues to be documentation and availability of extant copies of books, many of which were printed cheaply and treated as relatively disposable. In more recent years, authors like Nalini Singh, Sarah Beth Durst, Elizabeth Vaughan, and Jennifer L. Armentrout have been publishing in the fantasy romance or romantasy space. Queer authors like Jane Fletcher and Merry Shannon have also been publishing lesbian romantasy books since the early 2000s—queer stories have always been a part of the subgenre. While there’s a long history preceding the current explosion of interest, I noticed a real shift in the widespread success of romantasy beginning when Sara J. Mass’ A Court of Thorns and Roses books—already preforming well as young adult fantasy romance—were rebranded for adult fantasy readers in 2020. Subsequently, Red Tower Books’ runaway romantasy success, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, was published in 2023. The popularity of both series was also undoubtedly fueled by the spike in readership that occurred during the pandemic. Today the subgenre is generating enough revenue that two publishers have imprints dedicated to publishing romantasy books. Tor Publishing Group launched Bramble, an imprint dedicated to publishing romance across a number of different genres (including, of course, science fiction and fantasy), and the independent Entangled Publishing launched the aforementioned Red Tower Books, a new adult fantasy imprint. Even publishers without specific romantasy imprints like Hachette Book Group’s Orbit, and HarperCollins Publishers’ Harper Voyager both have acquired romantasy series for their publishing catalogues. Another indicator of romantasy’s success was the inclusion of a romantasy category in the Best Books of 2023 Goodreads choice awards. I think it is fair to say that readers, and therefore publishers, are set on romantasy being here to stay, as long as it continues living up to their desires and expectations. And, after making my way through a lengthy self-assigned reading list, I do have a few recommendations that highlight different features of romantasy: A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford is a gorgeous, nonbinary-led wolf shifter romantasy reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty.” Although they are twins, Briar was a princess raised to marry Prince Grae and Calla was a soldier raised to lead their armies…even though Briar doesn’t love Grae and Calla does. When an evil sorceress abducts Briar at her wedding to Grae, Calla goes against royal orders and she/they run away from the prince she loves to save their sister. Mulford has quickly become an expert at crafting romantasy, managing to balance fantasy worldbuilding and compelling, satisfying HEA/HFN romances. If you are looking for more series-long romantasy epics, book one of Nisha J. Tuli’s Artefacts of Ouranos series, Trial of the Sun Queen, is a good place to start. Lor and her siblings were whisked away from their home and sentenced to live in the Aurora King’s deadliest prison work camp. They unexpectedly survived for twelve years. So, when Lor is taken from the prison, she is desperate to never return, as long as she can get her siblings out too. Although Lor doesn’t quite understand why Sun King saved her and entered her into a deadly competition for his hand, she is willing to do anything to secure her family’s freedom. Deadly stakes and uncertain allegiances are hallmarks of the series, and—not to spoil anything—the romance spans all three books. One of the best romantasy duologies out there right now begins with the wonderfully queer A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows. Velasin’s diplomatic marriage contract with a woman from a neighboring kingdom is transferred to the woman’s brother, Caethari, when the envoy witnesses a confrontation that outs Vel to his homophobic family. With the knowledge that he cannot return home, Vel is forced to travel to meet his new husband in the queernorm country he’s always dreamed of living in. Cae is kind, and everything Vel has ever wanted in a partner, but Vel is still overcoming the trauma from his last relationship, adjusting to new cultural values, and trying to avoid dying from the multiple assassination attempts that threaten his life. The romantasy duology explores what it means to start living an openly queer life and what it costs to attempt to overcome internalized homophobia and bigotry all, in a politically complex high fantasy world. Shifting tone, That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming is a joy-filled romp of a romantasy that lives up to its anime-inspired title. Cinnamon is a simple cinnamon farmer who does not want to go on a grand adventure…that is, until she accidentally frees a demon from a violent spell while walking home drunk. Now Fallon—the demon, who has the ability to shift into a dragon—wants her help infreeing demons across the land and defeating the evil witch posing as a goddess. He’s also busy trying to convince Cinn to marry him every chance he gets on their journey. Lemming’s romantasy trilogy is a good time with a fun plot, well-developed worldbuilding, and a set of three romantic relationships you’ll want to root for. There are also a couple of queer romantasy trilogies, all set in alternate versions of Edwardian England, that I really think should be considered as falling under the romantasy umbrella. The Kingston Cycle by C. L. Polk is a trilogy that follows three couples uncovering a government conspiracy behind the magic powering their world in a queernorm, witch-filled London. The first book is Achillean, the second book is Sapphic, and the third book features a relationship between a woman and her genderqueer spouse. My second recommendation in this oddly specific romantasy subcategory would be The Last Binding trilogy by Freya Marske. The series follows three different couples who are working to find and protect three powerful magical items power from a sinister group that’s conspiring to steal and control witches’ magic. Books one and three are Achillean and set in England, and book two is Sapphic and set on an Edwardian ocean liner. Personally, I am all for romantasy books, like these two series, that prove that the power of queer love and found family can overcome magical bigotry. Subgenres and their boundaries and parameters will always be subject to change and debate, particularly ones as undefined and amorphous as romantasy. The essay above is simply my own personal attempt to come up with a working definition of the term, based on my understanding of genre history and reader reception. From my perspective as a reader and fan, romantasy gives me everything I could possibly want, providing a highly enjoyable reading experience filled with compelling worldbuilding and satisfying genre romances. However we ultimately define romantasy, I hope many more books like these get published, and continue finding their way into the eager hands of readers looking to fall in love, over and over again.[end-mark] The post What Exactly Makes a Romantasy — And What Are Your Favorite Examples? appeared first on Reactor.

WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden’s letter announcing that he is standing down from the general election documented all the reasons the incumbent had to go. But it’s too late, Joe. Your legacy is lost. Biden should have announced he was not running for reelection a year ago—or, at the very least, before he blew the June 27 debate with Donald Trump. Instead, the 81-year-old clung to power in defiance of calls, even within his own party, that he step aside. Now that he has announced he is not running for reelection, Biden nonetheless apparently plans to stay in office. Tell me how that works. Biden’s actions have shown the world that he himself is every bad thing he has said about his 78-year-old Republican rival—unwilling to let go of power, uninterested in putting the country first and not even remotely up to the job. Biden, who tested positive for COVID in Las Vegas last week, seemed unaware of recent polls that showed Trump ahead, often beyond the margin of error. That is, the letter inadvertently put the spotlight on the president’s alarming state of denial. On Truth Social, Trump opined, “Does anybody really believe that Crooked Joe had Covid? No, he wanted to get out ever since June 27th, the night of The Debate, where he was completely obliterated. That was the big moment in Joe Biden’s demise.” In his letter, Biden gave a nod to Kamala Harris, 59. She may be a walking word salad, but she’s his walking word salad, the very individual he chose as his running mate in 2020. When Biden chose the then-California U.S. senator, he made no secret of the fact that the former San Franciscan’s race and gender were prime reasons behind his choice. Now she’s the country’s first female vice president, and also the first Black and Asian American to serve in that office. There’s no way Biden can abandon her now. And really, for all that talk from self-styled insiders that Democrats might hold mini-conventions that could select Harris or another Democrat, how exactly would that work? In politics, there are times you have to gut out a bad decision. In 2020, party leaders and primary voters decided that Biden was the only Democrat who could beat Trump. Sure, he was old, they told themselves, but he’ll just serve as a placeholder. One term. And then Biden became the guest who wouldn’t leave. This idea that he can remain president when he hasn’t even spoken to the country about why he isn’t running for reelection, it’s not going to fly. As House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement, “The Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election. Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite.” Now Harris will have to defend not only Biden’s bad policies, but also his selfish decision to hang on past his due date. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post It’s Too Late, Joe appeared first on The Daily Signal.

By rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats are setting themselves up for a replay of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat—and they’re OK with that. As humiliating as Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump was, she didn’t drag down congressional Democrats, who gained six seats in the House and two in the Senate that year. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was hellbent on ending President Joe Biden’s reelection bid because she knew how much damage he’d do to down-ballot Democrats. What she saw in the party’s internal polling was grounds for a coup. The most vulnerable House and Senate Democrats, with good reason, were among the first and loudest to call for his ouster. Biden didn’t step aside selflessly: his choice was between going down in flames while being blamed by his fellow Democrats for their losses, too, or dropping out and letting someone else bear responsibility for whatever happens. Either way, he wasn’t headed back to the White House, so Biden opted to cut his losses. Now that his dream of a second term is over, are Democrats ready for “what can be, unburdened by what has been”? Not exactly—because Harris is burdened by everything Biden was except age. And with Biden still in the Oval Office, Democrats can hardly say that Trump, younger and more cogent than the president, is too old for the job. Nor can Harris run from the record of the administration she shares with Biden: She owns all the inflation, illegal immigration, disgrace in Afghanistan, and inadequacy in confronting crises from Yemen to Ukraine that characterizes the past three years of Democratic government. What does she bring that’s new? She’s a woman, of course—but so was Secretary Clinton, who campaigned unsuccessfully on the prospect of being the first woman elected to the White House. Clinton knew she might have a problem winning rural and working-class white men, so she chose a running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, with proven appeal to them. It didn’t work: Clinton lost Rust Belt states that had voted Democrat for decades. If Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania didn’t take to Clinton, what are the chances they’ll find Kamala Harris more agreeable? Clinton was formidable in Democratic primaries at least, overcoming Bernie Sanders in 2016 and putting up stiff resistance to Barack Obama in 2008. Harris didn’t fare so well against Sanders, or anyone else, when she sought the nomination in 2020. Polling in the single digits, she quit the race before the first contest. Now Harris is fast-tracked for the nomination without having competed in—let alone having won—a single presidential primary. Buoyed by friendly media, her numbers this time might look better in the short term, and the Democratic ticket will benefit from a fresh choice for running mate. Yet none of Harris’ likely V.P. picks is much different from Tim Kaine, who couldn’t rescue Clinton in the industrial heartland eight years ago. Maybe Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro would tip his state safely into the Democratic column. By itself, that’s not enough—Trump only needs to win one of the three big Rust Belt battlegrounds, as long as his leads in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina hold up. Other prospective Harris running mates, such as Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, are variations on the same theme: men meant to balance the ticket’s appeal, all as little known outside their states as Kaine was when he became Clinton’s veep pick. Choosing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would give Democrats the first two-woman ticket in presidential history, but aside from her sex, Whitmer fits the same pattern as the others.    Trump is by any measure stronger than he was when he beat Clinton and Kaine. He’s gained presidential experience, and he’s survived two impeachments and an assassination attempt. The only enemy ever to beat him, Joe Biden, imploded the second time he tried it. Trump may have trained to take on Sleepy Joe, but he’s all the more ready for a repeat of 2016 if Democrats field a similar ticket. Harris and her running mate might improve on the Clinton-Kaine formula, and in a country as closely divided as ours, winning is a game of inches. But ditching Biden hasn’t changed the fundamentals of the presidential election, however much it may have helped down-ticket candidates. Harris is running with Biden’s record and Hillary Clinton’s profile—not a winning combination, but one the party’s bosses have decided to settle for. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Kamala Harris Is the Opponent Donald Trump Wants appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A 20-year-old man with a rifle, perched atop a nearby roof, fired several rounds July 13 at Donald Trump as the former president spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and wounding at least two others. As we know now, one round nicked Trump’s right ear and he avoided a serious wound or death with a fortuitous head turn that moved him out of the bullet’s path at the last second. Almost immediately, some gun control activists saw the attempted assassination as an opportunity to call for their wish list of more restrictions on the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Talk about missing the point. If the government can’t protect the former (and possibly future) president of the United States from a single, highly motivated amateur bent on violence, it certainly can’t protect ordinary Americans from every potential threat at all times and in all places. Nor should we want to live in a police state that is remotely capable of offering such assurances of our physical safety. Highlighting the fact that no one—not even Donald Trump—is ever truly safe from violent threats to life, liberty, and property doesn’t simultaneously highlight a need for more gun control. Arguably, for those of us without professional security details, it underscores the importance of the Second Amendment’s fundamental purpose—not hunting or sport shooting, but the unalienable right to self-defense. Ordinary, peaceable Americans rely on their right to keep and bear arms to protect themselves and their loved ones from criminals and crime far more often than many others realize. Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year. For this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts here from past years.) The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in June. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.  June 1, Ormond Beach, Florida: When a couple parked at a gas station were getting out of their car to use the restrooms, a woman pushed the driver out of the way, got into the driver’s seat, and tried to steal the car, police said. An armed bystander saw what was happening and intervened, drawing his gun on the woman and prompting her to stop. Police arrested the woman, who was held without bond. June 2, Stanton, California: An armed ride-share driver was dropping off a passenger when he saw a naked man violently assaulting a much older woman, police said. The driver quickly tried to intervene by firing a warning shot, but the naked assailant charged at the car and “hit the glass repeatedly.” The driver shot the assailant, critically wounding him. June 5, Lufkin, Texas: Within an hour of being released from jail after an arrest for domestic violence, a man tried to steal a truck in which a mother and young child were sitting, police said. The woman’s husband, who owns the truck, drew his weapon on the man but tried to de-escalate the situation by offering him a different vehicle. The man instead began to fight the truck owner, who fatally shot him. June 9, Plainfield, Illinois: When a woman’s ex-boyfriend broke into her home, two juveniles inside tried to barricade themselves in a bedroom, police said. The intruder followed them and kicked down the bedroom door, prompting one of the minors to get a firearm and hold the intruder at gunpoint until police arrived. The suspect faced numerous charges, including possession of a controlled substance after investigators said he dropped a bag of cocaine while breaking in.   June 12, Henderson, Nevada: Police said a man in a Walmart parking lot fatally shot an armed assailant in self-defense after the assailant approached his vehicle “with a firearm in a confrontational manner.” June 15, Plainfield, Michigan: Police said a homeowner awoke to screams from his daughter’s bedroom and found an intoxicated intruder—sans pants—stabbing his daughter’s 11-year-old friend, who was there for a sleepover. The homeowner held the intruder at gunpoint until police arrived and arrested him. The intruder later told officers that he planned to kill everyone there and have sex with the body of the 11-year-old. June 17, Uniontown, Pennsylvania: An assailant with an illegally possessed gun shot and wounded someone. The victim, also armed, returned fire in self-defense, hitting the assailant once in the leg. Police said the victim wouldn’t be charged with a crime. June 20, D’Iberville, Mississippi: An armed resident fatally shot a man who drove to his home and threatened him with a gun. The dead man had a history of threatening the resident, police said. Investigators said they believe that on the way to the resident’s home, he shot at another driver. Neither the resident nor the victim of the road rage shooting was hurt. June 23, East Klamath County, Oregon: A local sheriff’s office publicly thanked an armed citizen for helping to detain one of two suspected car thieves who fled in the car after deputies interrupted them as they committed a burglary. “Often it is the eyes, ears, and actions of neighbors that make the difference, especially in rural areas,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. “While the sheriff’s office would never request someone put themselves in harm’s way, in this case, the citizen’s efforts are greatly appreciated.” The arrested suspect faced a slew of criminal charges. June 26, Alliance, Nebraska: An armed homeowner fatally shot an intruder who local police say had a history of burglary. Police determined that the evidence at the scene was consistent with the homeowner’s account and didn’t recommend charges against him. June 29, Louisville, Kentucky: Two armed men tried to rob a gaming store at gunpoint but were thwarted by an armed customer who was walking by, saw the robbery in progress, and shot both robbers—one fatally. Neither of two employees in the store was hurt, nor was the armed customer, apparently. The manager of a nearby business told reporters that this was at least the fourth time that robbers had targeted the gaming store. June 30, Martinsburg, West Virginia: Police said a woman watched as her godson was physically assaulted and then threatened with a gun by two individuals while he was taking out the trash. She grabbed her gun and went to the door, at which point one of the two began shooting at her. The woman returned fire in self-defense, police said. Unfortunately, she was fighting an eviction notice even though the rental office agreed she acted in self-defense and the sheriff’s department publicly announced that her actions “likely prevented injury, loss of life, or further damage.” As these stories demonstrate, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms isn’t some dangerous and outdated relic that undermines public safety. It is, rather, one of the best tools ordinary Americans have when faced with violent threats to their unalienable rights. The attempted assassination of Trump should cause the nation to reevaluate plenty of things and give many an opportunity to pause for a moment of self-reflection. But in no world should it lead us to reevaluate the Second Amendment. And in no way ought that self-reflection lead us to hamstring our right to an armed defense. The post Assassination Attempt on Trump Shows Second Amendment More Important Than Ever appeared first on The Daily Signal.