There’s a reason firearms are sometimes called “great equalizers”: A gun in the hands of a law-abiding citizen can level the playing field with criminals, and give individuals a fighting chance against being prey.

That’s exactly what a handgun did for a cashier in Kinston, North Carolina. According to WITN News, an armed robbery at a convenience store went sideways after the employee refused to be a victim, and defended himself with a concealed pistol.

“Officers were called to the USA Store on 201 S. Adkin St. for a report of an armed robbery,” reported the local news station. “It happened right around 10pm. Officers were told that two black men entered the store and demanded money; one of them reportedly carried a rifle.”

The criminals no doubt thought that nobody would dare fight back if they were carrying a large gun. They thought wrong.

“Police say the store clerk fired a shot at the two suspects who then fled the scene in a silver vehicle,” continued WITN. Surveillance video was also released of the incident, and it shows the dramatic confrontation unfold.

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As the two men barge in, the second thug quickly raises his gun toward the employee behind the counter. Thinking quickly, the worker appears to step sideways and then draw his own handgun, targeting the intruders.

The moment the robbers see that their “victim” is armed, they panic and flee. In the confusion, the man with the rifle drops his own gun in the doorway, leaving a helpful piece of evidence behind for the police. How thoughtful.

It isn’t clear how many shots the clerk managed to get off or if any of the criminals were injured. Considering how well armed they were, however, it’s a safe bet that the employee’s concealed carry pistol may have saved his life.

Once again, the media and liberal narrative that “guns never solve anything” has been proven to be false. One look at this video shows just how quickly and dramatically one armed citizen changed the dynamics of the incident.

The simple fact is that most criminals seek out easy targets. Once those “victims” bare their proverbial teeth, thugs often go scurrying back where they came from.

That certainly doesn’t mean that guns are magic crime-stoppers, but case after case shows that firearms can protect people and save lives when seconds count.

For instance, the NRA’s “Armed Citizen” archive collects press and police reports of guns being used by Americans for self-defense. It contains thousands of real-life, verified instances of individuals using guns to defend themselves.

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Statistics back up a trend that no doubt drives gun-grabbers crazy: Gun ownership in America has been increasing, but violent crime numbers are actually declining.

“According to data retrieved from the Centers for Disease Control, there were 7 firearm-related homicides for every 100,000 Americans in 1993,” reported CNS News.

“By 2013, the gun homicide rate had fallen by nearly 50 percent to only 3.6 homicides per 100,000 population,” continued that news outlet.

But what about gun ownership stats?

“Adjusted for the U.S. population, the number of guns per American increased from 0.93 per person in 1993 to 1.45 in 2013, which is a 56 percent increase in the number of guns per person that occurred during the same period when gun violence decreased by 49 percent,” CNS explained.

There’s no getting around it: When in the right hands, guns can stop crime… and that’s what two thugs in North Carolina found out the hard way.

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Despite the leftist narrative that President Donald Trump shuts out the mainstream media, New York Times photographer Doug Mills says he has more access to Trump than he ever did to former President Barack Obama.

According to The Hill, Jones met with C-SPAN for a sit-down interview that airs Feb. 11.

In a preview of the clip, Jones applauds President Trump’s availability to the media.

“We’re getting a lot more, I mean from a photographer’s standpoint, we get a lot more access to the president,” Jones said.

“I see him more on a daily basis than we did with Barack Obama,” he continued. 

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When asked about his job photographing the president, Jones said: “It’s exhausting, but it’s great.”

“I love what I’m doing, I’ve got the greatest job in the world,” he stated.

Clearly, a man who works for the media would not admit he loves his job if President Trump was as awful as liberals portray him.

Watch a clip of the interview below:

.@DougMillsnyt on the White House & President Trump: “We’re getting a lot more, I mean from a photographer’s standpoint, we get a lot more access to the president. I see him more on a daily basis than we did with @BarackObama.”

Full Q&A airs Sunday (2/11) at 8pm ET on C-SPAN. pic.twitter.com/rJN9PbHDuO

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 9, 2018

Jones also called President Trump “one of the most iconic” presidents he has ever photographed.

“I look at just the past year in photographing Donald Trump and he’s probably one of the most iconic. It’s challenging but it’s fun,” Jones explained.

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According to Fortune, President Obama once criticized President Trump for his dealings with the media.

Obama liked to tout his own availability and the “transparency” of his administration.

If all that is true, why did President Obama grant the media limited access to his life in the White House? Was there something to hide?

Perhaps President Trump is fine with being transparent and available to the media because unlike Obama, he didn’t have anything to hide.

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Suburban Columbus, Ohio’s Westerville Police Department lost two officers Saturday when a suspect opened fire as they arrived to respond to a hung up 911 call.

Officer Eric Joering, 39, died at the scene. His partner, Officer Anthony Morelli, 54, made it to the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center before succumbing to his wounds. According to Columbus CBS affiliate WBNS, the two veteran officers had been on the force 16 and 29 years respectively.

The suspect is in custody, but nothing about his identity has been made public. His motive is also unclear, but Cinncinati.com reported that it may have been a “potential” domestic violence situation.

Westerville police Chief Joe Morbitzer told reporters the two policemen were “immediately met with gunfire,” when they arrived at an apartment at 12:10 p.m., minutes after their department received a 911 call that quickly hung up. “The officers gave their lives in defense of others,” Morbitzer continued, calling his officers “true American heroes.”

“These were two of the best we had, this was their calling and they did it right, they knew how to do policing the right way, both of them,” Morbitzer said.

Joering once made headlines for his kindness in the line of duty when he bought lunch for a homeless man about whom “suspicious person” calls had been made.

Ohio’s leading politicians of both parties offered their condolences on hearing the tragic news. Governor John Kaisch, who lives in Westerville, tweeted:

The finest among us are those who risk it all everyday for our safety, and Officers Anthony Morelli and Eric Joering were those people. Their deaths are a terrible tragedy for my hometown of Westerville and all of Ohio. (1/2)

— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) February 10, 2018

I’ve spoken with Westerville’s city leaders and Chief Morbitzer and pledged whatever support they need from the highway patrol. We extend our prayers and deep condolences to their families and fellow officers. Let’s pledge ourselves to never forget their service. (2/2)

— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) February 10, 2018

President Donald Trump also offered his thoughts and prayers:

My thoughts and prayers are with the two police officers, their families, and everybody at the @WestervillePD. https://t.co/AoingY77Ky

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018

Both victims are survived by their families, and Ohio Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #9 set up a GoFundMe to raise money for their support. The fundraiser quickly reached its $50,000 goal.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Joering and Morelli are at least the 14th and 15th police officers killed in the line of duty in the United States in 2018. The figure for 2017 was 129 killed.

Democrats and the broader left have “targeted the white male … for extinction,” said Michael Savage on Thursday’s edition of his eponymous radio show, pointing to Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) recent use of an anecdote involving her grandson to push racial politics.

On Wednesday, Pelosi described her six-year-old white grandson’s birthday wish to have brown skin as “beautiful” during a speech on the House floor:

I’m reminded of my own grandson. He is Irish, English, whatever, whatever, and Italian-American, he is a mix. But he looks more the other [Italian] side of the family, shall we say.

And when he had his sixth birthday … he had a very close friend whose name is Antonio, he’s from Guatemala. And he has beautiful tan skinned, beautiful brown eyes, and this was a proud day for me, because when my grandson blew out the candles on his cake, they said did you make a wish?

He said yes, he made a wish. What is your wish? I wish I had brown skin and brown eyes like Antonio.

So beautiful. So beautiful. The beauty is in the mix. The face of the future for our country is all-American. And that has many versions.

Savage described Pelosi’s anecdote as evidence of “child abuse” via the cultivation of self-loathing in a minor on racial grounds.

To tell a grandson that he should be ashamed of his own heritage and his own race is child abuse. This is the most powerful Democrat woman in America. This is a woman of Italian-American heritage who is boasting that she has so brainwashed her own grandson that he’s ashamed of his own race and his own heritage … Nancy Pelosi has committed child abuse by making her own grandson mistrust his own race and his own heritage … It is about the most racist thing I can imagine anyone would say. She is so stupid, that she says it with a smile and with glee and with pride. Her self-hatred is filled with pride.

“What Pelosi is doing has been done in this society for three or four decades,” said Savage. “They targeted the white male a long time ago. They targeted you for extinction, and it starts with very subtle things.”

Savage drew parallels between Nazi Germany’s anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws and contemporary neo-Marxist racial politics pushed by Democrats and leftists targeting whites.

“The cancer of hatred of Caucasians [and] white people,” said Savage, is advanced “every day” with narratives of “white privilege.”

“[Nancy Pelosi] runs in circles with the sickest people on the planet, people who hate white people,” said Savage.

Democrat politicians such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “dispense such hatred [of whites] … on a daily basis,” said Savage.

“There are forces right now that want you gone from your own country,” said Savage. “They’re committing ethnic castration [and] verbal eugenics on a daily basis.”

“How can you let a thing like this go without understanding how sick this debate is and how demented these people are on the left with regard to race, and how obsessed they are with race?” asked Savage.

“How can anyone of European heritage ever vote for a Democrat?” asked Savage. “The worst Republican is safer for your future than any Democrat out there. They will kill all of us if this is not stopped.”

Colleges and universities are pushing left-wing racial agitation upon their student bodies, said Savage: “What do you think the radical feminist monsters are doing to your son and daughter in college by telling them that whiteness is a crime?”

Pelosi’s greater openness in pushing racial agitation, said Savage, may be a “gift” in combating Democrats and the broader left: “In many ways, I pray Nancy Pelosi stays there, because she’s the best gift we can ever have to save America from the scourge of progressivism.”

“White-bashing” and “cultural genocide” pushed by Pelosi would “result in deaths and violence,” said Savage in January.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter at @rkraychik.

Liberal “social justice” is never about actual equality. Case in point: A New York high school musical has been shut down due to protesting students, after a girl who is white was cast as the lead role in the play.

Why is this a problem for the oh-so-tolerant crowd? It turns out that a group of African-American students believe that only “brown and black” people should be allowed to have the role. So much for being colorblind.

According to Fox News, the kerfuffle at Ithaca High School started when a white classmate was cast as Esmeralda in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

“Student activists then banded together under the umbrella of Students United Ithaca and wrote a letter that included a list of demands,” Fox reported.

The protesting students even admitted that that young student cast as Esmeralda was “a stellar actor, singer, and dancer,” but she should be excluded from the role because she is the “epitome of whiteness.”

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How is this not blatant bigotry?

Ironically, the tone-deaf student group is claiming that the casting of a talented white girl in a lead part is “racist”… while simultaneously boycotting the production because of one actor’s race.

“At best, this is cultural appropriation,” the students whined in their letter. “At worst, it is whitewashing, a racist casting practice which has its roots in minstrelsy.”

That’s a flimsy argument to begin with, especially for a high school musical. What they’re essentially arguing is that no races can ever play a part written with a particular skin color in mind; to them, this obsession with race is progress.

But there’s an even more glaring issue: The character of Esmeralda as written by Victor Hugo is actually half Roma, half French. If they consult a map, the outraged students will find that France is European, and the Roma people from northern India are in fact Asian.

Yes, the character was not “black” to begin with, not that it should even matter.

“It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you,” one of the protesting students declared to the Ithaca Journal. “And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?”

Incredibly, the student group is literally complaining that color-blind casting is racist. No, this is not “The Onion.” You just can’t make this stuff up.

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“Stop the racist and openly stated policy of ‘color blind’ casting in the ICSD,” the students wrote in a hysterical and demanding Facebook post.

“Because of institutionalized racism this results in white children being cast in roles written as white parts and also white children being cast in roles that were specifically intended for people of color,” the unhinged high school students declared.

It becomes even more like a bad parody. The race-obsessed actors actually believe that they are forwarding Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a colorblind America.

“Members of the group told Fox News that their ultimate goal is in line with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of love, unity, understanding, and inclusion,” that news outlet reported.

“Our endgame,” the group declared, “is a performing arts program with more unity, more inclusion, and musical where we can all experience the joy and bonding of inclusive performing arts following best theatrical practices.”

Nothing says “inclusion” quite like demanding that a talented actress lose her role because she was born with the wrong skin color. The irony and twisted bigotry of this seems completely lost on them.

“Social justice” has gone crazy. King’s vision has been co-opted by a new generation of racists — there is no other term for them — who sees coin tosses as intolerant and academic performance as prejudice.

America better wake up, because a new wave of intolerance is starting to spread.

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Democrats are “winning the narrative” and “winning their priorities” in Capitol Hill spending deals despite congressional GOP majorities and a Republican president, said Tom Van Flein, current chief of staff for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour.

Van Flein, who served as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney before coming to Congress with Gosar in the 2010 Tea Party electoral victory, offered a grassroots conservative’s behind-the-scenes look at the dysfunctional congressional budget process.

Democrats’ political victories include the prioritization of a broad bipartisan push for amnesty despite Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, said Van Flein.

“Right now, for whatever reason, even though Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency, we’ve been dealing with Democratic priorities,” said Van Flein. “So Democrats got a lot their spending priorities passed. … We are losing even though we’re supposedly running the show. We’re talking about immigration amnesty, not building a wall, not border security; that means they’re winning the narrative and they’re winning their priorities.”

Van Flein explained how Congress’s repeated reliance on continuing resolution-style spending bills has reinforced the political priorities of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) and the Democrat Party, despite Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress and a Republican president.

“We’ve been really running, when you do these continuing resolutions, Nancy Pelosi’s priorities since 2006,” said Van Flein. “They’ve just increased the amounts, but the priorities pretty much remain the same; that’s how a continuing resolution works.”

Representatives and senators could not have sufficiently considered Friday’s 652-page spending bill prior its passage, said Van Flein, pointing to the 18-hour window allotted for its review.

“The Senate passed this bill at 1:30 in the morning,” said Van Flein. “It is 650 pages long. It passes it at 1:30 in the morning. The House then gets it, has a couple of preliminary and procedural votes and the rules committee has to take look at it and pass it through, and at 5:30 AM – nobody is up to any good at 5:30 AM unless you’re getting up to work out — and they pass this ‘budget,’ they call it a ‘budget,’ it really is not a budget, it’s just a spending bill, a [continuing resolution], and a budget agreement, and they pass it at 5:30 AM. I’m going to challenge anyone who thinks that the Congress is doing it’s best work in the wee hours of the morning when you have septuagenarians and octogenarians up at that hour. Is anyone really understanding what they’re voting on and what is going on? Has anybody really had the time to study this? There we no hearings, there was no testimony. No amendments were allowed. … that’s what Rand Paul was mini-filibustering about was the fact that he wanted the chance to talk about this and maybe get some amendments in … [but] it takes time to do that, and they wanted to rush this because they didn’t want another shutdown.”

Assorted Republicans disingenuously posture as fiscal conservatives, said Van Flein.

“[It is] a monstrosity of a spending increase,” said Van Flein. “It’s hard to believe that Congress is controlled by supposedly fiscal conservatives when it just added approximately $300 billion in increased spending.  We now have a federal debt of $20.5 trillion dollars, and supposedly, every time I see election season come around, the same Republicans that voted for this are out saying, ‘We need to shrink the size of the federal government. We need to reduce spending. Send me to Congress and I’ll fight for you.’ They come back here, and look what’s going on.”

“Dependence on Democrat support for passage of the continuing resolution in the House should worry conservatives, said Van Flein.

“There were a bunch of Republicans who voted ‘no,’” said Van Flein. “This bill would not have passed without the Democrats. … It took Democrats to pass this. Whenever leadership is relying on Democrats to pass a bill, you’re going to have many bad things in it, because they’re going to want their priorities.”

The bill passed the House with a vote of 240 to 186, with 5 abstentions. Of the 240 ‘aye’ votes, 167 were Republicans and 73 were Democrats. Of the 186 ‘no’ votes, 67 were Republicans and 119 were Democrats. Gosar voted against the spending bill.

Politicians are misrepresenting funds as allocated for “disaster relief,” said Van Flein, funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) four times what the agency requested.

“They’re throwing money at all sorts of things, and they’re calling it ‘disaster relief,’ even though FEMA said they only needed $40 billion, they’re gonna throw $160 billion at it,” said Van Flein. “If FEMA says it’s far more than what was necessary, then I don’t know what it’s really going to go to. … When it’s more than what the people in charge of the project tell you they need, then you need to ask yourself, ‘What’s really going on? Who’s really going to get that money? Why are we spending more than we need?’ That is almost the quintessential definition of wastefulness.

Van Flein echoed Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) description of the continuing resolution; the latter referring to it as “Christmas tree on steroids.”

“The question is, why don’t you listen to the agency that’s responsible for assessing the damage and for getting the repairs going?” asked Van Flein. “That’s how you know this is really just a Christmas tree at this point where people are hanging on all sorts of goodies under the guise and pretext of disaster relief. It’s obviously not disaster relief if it’s  more than FEMA says is necessary.”

Friday’s passed continuing resolution is “wasteful” and a “black eye for Republicans,” said Van Flein: “As Republicans or conservatives, we’re not supposed to be wasteful with tax money. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened, last night. This is a very wasteful spending program, and it’s a black eye on the Republicans for having this pass on their watch. This is not hat they were elected to do and this is not why the taxpayers sent them back to Congress.”

Breitbart News Tonight airs Monday through Friday on SiriusXM’s Patriot channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific).

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Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee are exploring ways to get testimony from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts regarding FISA judges, but are deliberately trying to make sure they do not cross any constitutional lines in doing so.

FISA warrants are issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), with any appeals going to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR). Unlike other courts where both sides appear and present arguments, FISC proceedings typically involve only the government, making it all the more important that lawyers representing the executive branch must be fully transparent and reliable in what they present to the judge in their case.

Judges serving on FISC and FISC are real federal judges. Under Article III of the Constitution, all federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for lifetime appointments. Among Article III judges serving on federal trial courts and federal appeals courts, Chief Justice Roberts appoints several of those judges to serve for seven years on one of the FISA courts, in addition to their ongoing duties on a regular federal court.

Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Hugh Hewitt Wednesday on his radio show that that he was “grappling” with whether to ask the chief justice to appear before his committee to testify. The House Intelligence Committee wishes to better understand some of the details of the FISA courts, and considers Roberts a valuable source of information regarding process and personnel.

Nunes explained to Hewitt, “We don’t know the correct way to proceed because of the separation of powers issue.”

“I’m not aware of any time a judge has, for lack of a better term, testified before Congress,” the Republican lawmaker added.

Fortunately for Nunes and his committee, there is ample precedent for federal judges testifying before Congress. It is not uncommon for Supreme Court justices to give such testimony, including the chief justice.

But such testimony must be voluntary. The judiciary is a separate branch of government, coequal with Congress and with the president in power and in dignity. Roberts’ actual title is not the chief justice of the Supreme Court; it is instead the chief justice of the United States. Although he does not wield the same kind of unitary power that the president holds, Roberts is nonetheless the head of the third branch of government.

So issuing a subpoena to Roberts demanding testimony might well receive pushback, and a court could easily rule in favor of judicial independence by quashing the subpoena.

But a letter inviting the chief justice to appear voluntarily before the committee would be completely proper, leaving the nation’s top judge to decide how much he thinks the third branch of government can tell the first branch about how to oversee FISA activities conducted by the second branch, on matters that the third branch might eventually have to decide in a courtroom.

Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.