Thank you for your objective assessment, Sheryl.
Actually, first, we used our own limited funds to purchase needed equipment and supplies for families in underserved communities who had children with Down syndrome.
And then we started a non-profit (Team Iron Will) to provide equipment, education, therapy, connection and inspiration to people in the Down syndrome community experiencing financial difficulties, unsure of where to turn or simply looking for fellow travelers on this amazing journey.
You can learn about our efforts to assist, empower, and advocate more effectively for people with Down syndrome from the moment of conception onward at the following link:
https://t.co/4Oq2z5XPHP
God bless.
#TeamIronWill #DownSyndromeAdvocacy #SayYesToPossibility
Let me ruin your June for a second.
Every year when National Gun Violence Awareness Month rolls around, the same people who have not read a single page of John Lott's 13,312-regression peer-reviewed study start posting pictures of children and demanding you feel responsible for deaths you did not cause and had nothing to do with.
So. Let us talk about children. Since they brought it up.
In 2006, the CDC recorded 642 accidental firearm deaths in the entire United States. For children under the age of ten — the number was 31. Thirteen under age five. Eighteen between five and nine.
Tragic? Absolutely. Every single one.
But here is the number that will not appear on a single "Orange Friday" awareness post: 80.
Eighty children under the age of five drown in bathtubs every year. Every. Single. Year.
ALMOST THREE TIMES as many children drown in bathtubs annually as die from ALL firearm accidents combined — including adults. And forty more drown in five-gallon water buckets. The kind you buy at Home Depot for $4.99.
I have given this information at talks and watched jaws drop, because people genuinely believe the number is in the thousands. They have been so thoroughly marinated in "gun violence awareness" content that their perception of actual risk is completely detached from reality. That is not an accident. That is the point of the campaign.
Where is Bathtub Awareness Month? Where is the congressional hearing on five-gallon bucket control? Where is the hashtag? Where are the orange ribbons for the children who drowned while their parents were in the next room?
There are none. Because the campaign was never about children. It was never about safety. If it were about safety, they would be equally outraged about cars — which killed 1,305 children that same year. Or fire. Or drowning. But they are not. The selective fury lands exclusively on firearms. And if you are a scientist, which I happen to be, you do not get to cherry-pick your data based on which conclusion you prefer. Quinn's Law Number Six: facts are the enemy of liberalism.
Now let us talk about what the actual data says about guns and safety, because John Lott ran 13,000-plus statistical regressions across every county in America and the results are not ambiguous.
Fifty-six percent of convicted felons surveyed in a ten-state study said they would NOT attack a target they believed was armed. Fifty-six percent. The deterrence is real, it is documented, and it functions whether or not a shot is ever fired. The firearm you carry protects your neighbor whether your neighbor knows it or not.
When states passed right-to-carry laws, multiple-victim public shootings — what the media insists on calling "mass shootings" to maximize terror — dropped by 67 percent. Deaths in those events dropped by 75 percent. Injuries by 81 percent. States that adopted these laws virtually ELIMINATED mass public shootings within four to five years. The remaining events? They happened almost exclusively in the specific locations where guns remained banned. The gun-free zones. The places we hang the sign that only the law-abiding ever read.
There were between 760,000 and 3.6 million defensive gun uses in the United States last year alone, depending on which of fifteen national polls you consult. A JAMA Network Open study from March 2025 estimated 489,000 DGUs in which a firearm was actually discharged. The Department of Justice's own National Crime Victimization Survey puts the conservative floor at 65,000 defensive uses per year against assaults, robberies, and home invasions.
No dead body. No coverage. No awareness month.
Here is one more number for you: 74. Seventy-four percent of convicted felons in a National Institute of Justice survey said they actively avoided homes they believed were occupied by armed residents. Criminals respond to incentives. That is not ideology — that is basic deterrence theory, and it is confirmed by the people who actually commit the crimes.
I also want you to think carefully about something the Supreme Court already settled. DeShaney v. Winnebago County (1989). Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005). Two separate rulings establishing that the government has NO legal obligation to protect you as an individual. None. You are your own first responder. That is not my opinion — that is settled constitutional law from the highest court in this country.
So the political class that just told you the government is not required to protect you... is also the one demanding you surrender the tool you use to protect yourself.
I want fewer people dead. That is why I know the data. That is why I read the book. That is why I am furious every June when emotion and fundraising replace science and evidence in a "debate" that has actual life-or-death consequences for real people.
You want to honor the children? Honor ALL of them. The ones who drowned. The ones who died in car crashes. And the ones who will never be born because a woman alone in her house at 2 a.m. had no way to stop what was coming through her door.
But what do I know — I am only a published textbook author, a science teacher, a father of four, and a combat medic who spent his career reducing human suffering and who actually read the peer-reviewed data before forming an opinion.
IF you agree:
LIKE this post so the algorithm shows it to people who need to read it.
SHARE this.
COMMENT below — did you know the bathtub number? Or did the narrative keep that from you? Tell me.
And if you want MORE of this -- the data, the history, the science, the stories -- JOIN Bski's Classroom community on X or YouTube.
#MAGA #Veterans #Trump
@JoJoFromJerz@GuntherEagleman@catturd2
@_Wuthering@TheResoluteLife@McJuggerNuggets You shoulda kept this one to yourself. That was a really cruel thing to say, when his post was not. Eugenics is wrong, all of the time.
@Ngamini2004@McJuggerNuggets Yeah did the people who weighed in that have autism or DS say yeah dude I should have been killed? Such a weird thing for them to say.
@McJuggerNuggets You wrote a novel just to say you killed your kid. If you were truly at peace with your choice you wouldn't have given so many excuses and "reasons"
@Oilfield_Rando I first realized this when my ex watched Kardashians. You could tell when it was a rehearsed bit bc she would have a slight smirk on her face that she didn't normally have. I have hated "reality" TV even more than I already did since then
Samuel Chase might be the messiest Founding Father in American history, and almost nobody knows his name. Buckle up.
1762: He gets expelled from his Annapolis debating club for "extremely irregular and indecent" behavior. He is 21.
1765: He leads the Sons of Liberty in storming public offices and burning the local stamp distributor in effigy. The mayor's circle publicly brands him "a busy, reckless incendiary, a ringleader of mobs, a foul-mouthed and inflaming son of discord." Chase's response, basically: yes, and?
1776: Maryland is the holdout on independence. Chase races roughly 150 miles on horseback to Annapolis, strong-arms the convention into a yes, and gets word to Philadelphia just in time for the vote. He signs the Declaration of Independence at 35.
1778: As a congressman, he learns of a secret plan to buy flour for the French fleet. He allegedly tips off business partners to corner the market first. A furious 23-year-old Alexander Hamilton invents a pen name just to publicly destroy him, writing that his crimes were "infamous in itself, repugnant to your station, and ruinous to your country."
The pen name Hamilton invented to torch Samuel Chase? Publius. The same one he'd reuse nine years later for the Federalist Papers. The most famous byline in American political history started as a burner account for one feud.
Somehow Chase rehabilitates himself, and in 1796 George Washington puts him on the Supreme Court. His colleagues nickname him "Old Bacon Face" because of how red he turns when he rants from the bench. He rants a lot.
He rants so much, openly campaigning against Jefferson from the bench, that in 1804 he becomes the only Supreme Court justice ever impeached.
Now the twist. The official who presides over his 1805 Senate trial is Vice President Aaron Burr, who at that moment is wanted in two states for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
A Boston newspaper covered it under the headline "The World Upside Down": formerly the murderer was arraigned before the judge, but now the judge is arraigned before the murderer.
Burr ran the trial flawlessly. Chase was acquitted on every count. And that acquittal is the reason, to this day, that a president cannot remove judges just for ruling against him.
One man's rap sheet: expelled, mob ringleader, profiteer, justice, impeached, acquitted, and the accidental origin of the Federalist Papers. They don't make Founders like this anymore.
@emilymiller If you have answered these questions I apologize,
What department cut off your access?
Did they give you a reason as to why?
If not, have you spoken to anyone that you have gotten to know ab what the reason could be?
Do you plan to challenge the decision?
About a week ago I attempted to roll down my window at the Chick Fil A drive through, but nothing happened. I opened the car door slightly and explained to the smiling teenager standing there with an iPad that my window button wasn’t working. I tried to restart the car but all I got was a pathetic clicking noise. Instantly it hit me that my car had literally just died in the chick fil a drive through. During the dinner rush. Embarrassed as hell I apologized profusely to the kid, who immediately assured me that this happens all the time and not to worry about it. I was about 45 minutes from home, 7 months pregnant, didn’t have jumper cables with me, and my husband was out of town. He immediately got his manager who got me a chair and a huge glass of ice water, and told me I could wait inside if I wanted to (it was hot as hell) while they figured it out. 3 or 4 coworkers come out to jump my car and doubled up the drive through line on the other side. People were honking for the first 5 mins but they were able to get the line moving quickly and jumped my car so that I was able to move it in about 20 minutes. After this the manager comped me a free meal, anything I wanted. I couldn’t help but wonder how differently this would have played out if I had decided to stop at McDonalds
@zball6987372@intotheweids@Aneka15amyth Yeah He loves us so much He wants to make his point. So he firebombs cities, floods the earth, sends plagues killing 1st borns...not exactly chill.