Volume 3, Issue 14 | November 2023
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“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. ― Ernest Benn |
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In this issue…
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From the ChairWe have accomplished so much this year, and we have so much left to do. I am in awe of the volunteers who work tirelessly to bring success to the LPNC. You all show up for events, for candidates, for protests, and more, driving our success, even when that success seems tiny compared to the machine we are up against. Nevertheless, success breeds success, and our journey in Liberty is for our lifetime. It is something inherent to who we are, each of us. We are the ones who can’t hold our tongue when we see injustice, who can’t ignore tyranny, who can’t turn off our minds when we see victims of authoritarianism, and who can’t sit back and do nothing as life and Liberty are casualties in the State’s insatiable lust for power. I know that this is a calling for most of you, and that you are exactly where you want to be. That doesn’t take away from the time you dedicate, the money you give, or the sacrifices you make, though. So, in the spirit of this month, I want to take some time to say thank you. First of all, coming off the 2023 election cycle, I want to thank all the candidates who ran for office. Ultimately, the biggest opportunity we have to drive change is through elections, and the biggest opportunity to win elections is at the local level. That doesn’t mean that running is easy. We had some wins, and we had some campaigns not end up how we wanted, but I am proud of all of you. I am proud to be the Chair of the party you represented and I am thankful for everything you did. I can’t wait to see what’s next. I want to thank the rest of the Executive Committee for giving your time to help keep the party functioning. You all show up week in and week out, keeping me on point and making sure the LPNC is heading in the right direction. I know it takes time and energy, and you all have other things you could be doing, and I appreciate it. I especially want to thank Dee, Christina, Brad, and Daniel for the work you did with the candidates, not just for this cycle, but in considering how we will approach elections in the future. Your help and advice are invaluable to me, and I want to make sure you know that you have my gratitude. To all of our affiliates, and the people making them work, thank you and thank you again. As Libertarians, we recognize the value of cohesion around ideas and decentralized applications, and you are proving us right. While I want you to hold me to the highest standard of making sure you have what you need to flourish, I am constantly reminded of how much gets done on the ground, organized and implemented by you all. Without you, there is no LPNC. Thank you. We had a big year in 2023, and we have a huge year in 2024, which we discuss more in this newsletter and will cover next month as well. We have state and national convention, presidential and gubernatorial elections, platform changes to consider, strategy to refine, successes to build on, opportunities to learn from misses, and work to be done in so many different places. Today, though, I am pausing for a moment to say thank you to all of you. Thank you to each volunteer who gave time, thank you to each donor who gave money, thank you to each voter who made sure to show up at the polls. Thank you to all of you who make up this party. Without you, we are nothing. Together, we are going to change the world. -Ryan Brown, LPNC Chair |
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2024 Candidates Filing Starts SoonGet Ready for the 2024 Election Season!The 2023 elections are now behind us, but 2024 has even more opportunities for Libertarians. In the 2024 election season we have the opportunity to run a multitude of candidates for the state legislature. State Legislature races have a filing fee of only $140 and gives candidates the opportunity to message at forums and on surveys. There are also opportunities to run in statewide races and congressional races. The filing fee in these races is approximately 1% of the annual salary. The LPNC will provide space on their webpage for all candidates, and have a MatterMost channel for candidates to coordinate and discuss surveys. The LPNC will also assist candidates with other issues they may have.
The NC State Legislature has redrawn the districts. Current maps can be found here |
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Candidates SpotlightSeen on the trail:
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OpEdSome Thoughts on Running for Officeby: Rob Yates, LPNC Communications Director
Last week my bid for mayor of Charlotte, NC ended on election day. While I fell short in my candidacy, I don’t consider the effort a failure. I got to meet some great people, and I learned a lot. I want to share a bit of that here, and hopefully someone will find it helpful or illuminating, and be motivated to run as well. I know many people have run before me in NC (respect), so I suspect some of this will be familiar fare. Even so, we need people to run and continue running, so I am hoping that my insight will further that objective. The first thing to think about when considering what a successful campaign looks like is how important it is to have money. I ran under the $1000 limit, but just the filing fee ate up half of that on day one. Then you need a website, cards, flyers, banners, yard signs, potential media buys on radio, tv, or social, and that’s just the starter pack. You need money to hold events, you need money for tabling, you need money to hold fundraisers to raise more money. You need money for mailers, money for volunteers, money for phone banking, money for text messages… Sometimes, you need money to rent an airplane to take a jab at your opponent. I’m not making that up, either.
Granted, this is an extreme example, but its not as far out there as it might seem at first glance. North Carolina had one of the most expensive Senate races in history last year. Billions are poured into campaigns at every level. Special interests do not like taking chances on who gets elected, and they use their deep pockets to secure their candidates. Competing with this requires money. The next thing that really jumped out at me during this election cycle was how frustrated people are with the current state of affairs. Granted, we have not quite yet hit the inflection point where a critical mass abandons their “teams” and casts votes outside the uniparty, but we are getting close. The dissatisfaction with the current state of things was palpable, and people are starting to question the system. I connected with people from the entire political spectrum and then some. Connecting with people, one-on-one, instead of leading with partisan politics, really showed me how exasperated people are. Inflation is hurting family budgets, and they are asking why government is raising taxes to fund failing schools or militarize police departments when violent crime is increasing. Political affiliations mattered less when people are hurting and they see things failing around them. Most encouraging, though, is that I saw Libertarian messaging work, in real time. We face substantial hurdles in getting our message out more broadly, without a doubt. But the message itself works. A lot of people didn’t know what a Libertarian was. I told them, “It’s simple. Don’t hurt people, don’t take their stuff. Everything builds from that.” That’s an easy message to convey. When people inquired further, we discussed decentralization, self-ownership, government accountability, and the deliberate nature of polarization by uniparty politicians. No one disagreed. Some still have hope for the party where they came up, and I’m sympathetic. It’s hard to realize that you have been sold a massive lie by your anointed leaders your entire life. It’s even harder to stop seeing the other side as an enemy and embrace different ideas while rejecting partisanship. I’m confident we’ll get there. Finally, I learned that we can win. It’s a long road, though. We need candidates who relish the rigors of campaigning, we need money to support them, and we need to get our message out consistently, targeted properly, and unapologetically but with empathy. The other two parties don’t see people as human, they see people as votes, and they turn people against each other to get those votes. We need to do the opposite. We need to show people we are the pro-human party, and that we want to win them over so they vote for us, not against someone else. |
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Events and UpdatesPresidential Candidate Town HallsGet ready to be an educated voter and delegate! Libertarian Presidential Candidates are picked by their delegates. Both events are catered to potential delegates to the LP National Convention. Mike ter Maat is having a Town Hall November 21st 7:00 pm just for North Carolinians! This is our opportunity to ask Mike anything! Bring your questions about him or his campaign, public policy, and what it will take to successfully disrupt American politics. Here is the Zoom meeting link: Lars Mapstead is having Town Halls for the country November 15th & 29th at 9/8 pm central. Google Meet. (http://meet.google.com/fhd-myra-tfz) Becoming a Delegate for State and National ConventionsIf you are not registered to vote with another political party then you are eligible to become a member of the LPNC. You can look up the criteria to be a member at: Join the Libertarian Party of North Carolina (lpnc.org) Mattermost LinkWe're excited to announce that the LPNC has transitioned from Slack to Mattermost for our business communications platform. All members of the LPNC are invited to join Mattermost to stay connected, engaged, and informed about the latest developments within the party. To join the Mattermost server, simply follow this link: https://chat.lpnc.org/signup_user_complete/?id=donuuqgzhjddpyojz967tursoo&md=link&sbr=fa. |
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Help WantedThe LPNC is seeking passionate and dedicated volunteers to join our team and play pivotal roles in advancing the cause of liberty across North Carolina. Currently, we have exciting opportunities for individuals interested in serving as "Assistant Treasurer" and "Assistant Secretary." Job description. As our Assistant Treasurer, you will be instrumental in supporting the financial operations of the LPNC, ensuring transparency and accountability in our financial management. If you have a keen eye for detail and a commitment to fiscal responsibility, we encourage you to explore this essential role. Likewise, our Assistant Secretary position offers a chance to contribute to the smooth functioning of the LPNC by assisting in record-keeping, meeting minutes, and organizational documentation. If you have strong organizational skills and a passion for detail-oriented tasks, this role might be a perfect fit for you. To learn more about these positions and other exciting volunteer opportunities, please visit our staff page at https://www.lpnc.org/staff. Your involvement can make a significant impact on the success of the LPNC, and we welcome individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds to join us in championing liberty in North Carolina. Take the next step in your commitment to liberty by becoming a vital part of the LPNC team. We look forward to welcoming you aboard! If you are interested in filling one of these positions, please email why you would be a good fit to Ryan Brown at [email protected]. |
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Counterfeit Laws are for You, Not Uncle Samby Joshua D. Glawson A North Carolina man and woman were recently accused of counterfeiting $100 bills made from bleached $1 bills. The small team, with two additional co-conspirators, traveled through a few cities in North Carolina and into West Virginia spending their counterfeit hundreds. They were finally caught in West Virginia and prosecuted federally. Do you see the irony in this example of private counterfeiting? Working in concert, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury have effectively done the same thing over the past 110 years of the Fed’s existence. They have printed trillions of "dollars" that aren't worth what dollars are supposed to be in their original, Constitutional sense. Except when these central planners do it, no one goes to jail. Aside from the obvious act of fraud, counterfeiting money – whether it be done by public officials or private persons – is detrimental to economies in multiple ways. The businesses that the counterfeiter deals with first – along with the counterfeiter himself – benefit most from the production prompted by the money received. As long as they can pass that money along without restriction, the greatest losses will be absorbed by others. This continued counterfeit process tends toward price inflation because the circulating bills are diminishing in value, even as this process occurs largely undetected. As socialist economist John Maynard Keynes stated: “Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing society [Capitalist System] than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.” In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 which made the holding of gold coins, gold bullion, and gold certificates illegal within the United States. This also ended the U.S. Mint’s production of gold coins. This executive order stayed in effect until 1974. As the debasement of America’s currency has accelerated, U.S. government debt has grown and fiat dollars have been spent increasingly on entitlements, military, and global aid. Accordingly, fiat money enables the U.S. government to overpromise, overextend, and overspend at home and abroad. Today, we are seeing a mass deterioration in the standard of living and the decay of the Federal Reserve note dollar’s purchasing power while the U.S. national debt is swiftly reaching $34 trillion. The debasement of U.S. currency allows for greater spending and the generating of new bills (or the electronic equivalent) with no stable value associated with them, and the result is felt in the symptoms of price inflation. Sadly, $20 purchasing power in 1932 is now equivalent to around $450 according to government-admitted inflation statistics, which is over 2145% inflation. An ounce of gold, roughly the amount found in a 1932 $20 face value Double Eagle gold coin, is now almost $2,000. That reflects a 99% devaluation of the dollar. While federal prosecutors may punish private counterfeiters of the paper currency, the federal government itself engages in a similar process, except on a much larger scale. This article originally appeared on Money Metals Exchange. Joshua D. Glawson is a writer and speaker in the Liberty Movement. He has been active with the Libertarian Party of California since 2015. He now resides in his home state of North Carolina. Check him out at Home - Joshua D. Glawson (joshuadglawson.com) |
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2A TalkDebunking Mass Shooting Myths Quicklyby Justin Hinckley, LPNC 2A Issues CoordinatorThis article is meant as a sort of "pocket guide" for mass shooting discussions. As with any discussion worth having, this is one full of minute details, individual data points that require contextual understanding, and an incredible degree of nuance. With the citations, examples, and discussion in this article I hope to provide easily memorized and transferable data for casual conversations, since that is where most of these discussion happen. It is a difficult thing to expect any one person to have a wide and deep understanding of something as complex as "mass shootings." Therefore, it is our responsibility as the comparative experts in our families and social groups to disallow strong opinions from those who are almost totally ignorant of actual facts without challenging such stances at every opportunity. 1. MYTH: Mass shootings are shootings that occur at schools, churches, malls, and other similar high-profile vulnerable targets which kill a lot of people. FACT: There is no agreed upon "official" definition of a mass shooting. It is a media term, not a legal, criminal, or scientific term. On its website, the US DOJ (without a reference to where it is published) cites the FBI (via a report written by a known partisan anti-gun group) as defining a mass shooting as any single shooting event that injures four or more people with a gun (1)(2). The FBI itself uses the term mass killing, since they have no definition for mass shooting, whose definition is laid out in US code in 28 USC 530C: "three or more killings in a single incident."(3). For the purposes of this article, we will call the "four or more people shot in a single incident" the simplified definition of a mass shooting. As we can see from the myriad issues of simply ascribing a definition, we can tell this is a hazy and confusing topic. Part of the issue in discussing mass shootings, active shooters, school shootings, public shootings, etc. is the realization that any definition one uses will inevitably include multiple shootings that the user feels are not appropriate to the goal of the definition and will exclude multiple shootings which the user feels are relevant to the goal of the definition. For example, a quick search finds multiple instances of bystanders stopping shooters before they can meet the official definition of "mass shooting," but which met the template of what many consider to be a mass shooting. A key element of most discussions surrounding mass and school shooters is the specific goal of the shooter of death and destruction for their own sake. The overwhelming majority of mass shootings in the US are actually related to more pedestrian criminality such as those tied to drug trafficking and gangs, which just happens to injure or kill four or more people (4). While we do not want to flippantly dispense with these examples of mass shootings, to say they are relevant to the discussion of young men entering schools (and other notably unarmed and usually peaceful places) with the intent of randomly killing as many people as possible is either vastly disingenuous or wildly ignorant. In recent years, The Violence Project adopted one of the more robust definitions of mass public shooting, written by the Congressional Research Service: "a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms—not including the offender(s)—within one event, and at least some of the murders occurred in a public location or locations in close geographical proximity (e.g., a workplace, school, restaurant, or other public settings), and the murders are not attributable to any other underlying criminal activity or commonplace circumstance (armed robbery, criminal competition, insurance fraud, argument, or romantic triangle)." (5)(6). This definition provides a useful tool for what most people mean when they talk about mass shootings, dispensing with the inadequate (but usefully deceptive) simplified definition. For the purposes of this article, we will call The Violence Project’s definition the robust definition. To see why these differences in definitions matter we can look at the disparity in results of gathering data using each definition. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which uses the simplified definition, so far in 2023 there have been 597 mass shootings (6). In 2022, there were 645. Contrast that to the data assembled by The Violence Project: 191 mass shootings so far in 2023. Oops, no wait that was 2022. Dang, messed up again THAT’S HOW MANY MASS SHOOTINGS HAVE OCCURRED SINCE 1961! All of them. That’s right, 62 years of data reveals a paltry sum of shootings compared to what manipulative politicians and corporate media constantly berates us with. Using the robust definition (which more accurately categorizes the types of shootings we generally mean when we say “mass shooting”), you get fewer shootings in 62 years than you do in a few months using the simplified definition! For comparison’s sake, in 2022 there were seven mass shootings and so far in 2023, there have been eight using the robust definition. 597 mass shootings with the simplified definition compared to eight with the comprehensive definition in 2023 so far. 645 versus seven for 2022. The corporate media and politicians will of course point out they aren’t lying: they haven’t said that all 597 mass shootings this year were school shootings, or shootings which meet a more specific definition. Or that they all targeted unarmed people in public places at random. All shootings which kill four or more people are bad, aren’t they?! This misdirection is an attempt to paint anyone who addresses their deception as being callous, uncaring, and dismissive. They use the vagueness to their advantage and to avoid responsibility. While they’re not lying outright, they’re also not being honest. 2. MYTH: Good guys with a gun don’t really exist and they pretty much never stop mass shootings. FACT: Bystanders regularly intervene in mass shootings. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center armed citizens stopped 35.7 percent of past active shooter events (8). Good guys with guns tend to stop pretty much all mass shootings and some crime, if we were to include law enforcement in the definition. Since I am honest in my discussion, I can acknowledge that including law enforcement in the "good guy with a gun" might draw mixed reactions. But it is worth noting for anyone who says even if you had a gun, you couldn’t stop someone else with a gun. That is an idiotic statement mean to dismiss the idea of self-defense. If we were to confine the good guy with a gun definition to that of only bystanders who are carrying a firearm for general purposes, there is still substantial data indicating it happens regularly. Yet again we are faced with a long breakdown of a seemingly simple fact. According to the FBI’s yearly report “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2022”, 4.6 percent (14 incidents) of active shooter incidents were stopped by armed citizen involvement (2). One of these is the infamous Greenwood Mall shooting in Indiana, stopped by Elisjsha “Eli” Dicken. In an analysis of the above-cited FBI reports, The Crime Prevention Research Center states that from 2014 to 2022 armed citizens stopped 35.7 percent (157 incidents) of active shooter events (8). The Gun Violence Archive so far this year have identified 1,022 defensive gun uses. They do not break out further to identify how many of these involved a mass shooting or likely mass shooting. There is little in the way of specific data related to mass shootings here as well, but the CPRC is certainly a leader. Currently, they host a web page documenting hundreds of specific instances of armed citizens stopping active shooters (9). Of note here is also the rhetorical tool of citing individual, relatable incidents. To create an understanding of the reality of good guys with guns in action, we need real examples to recall in conversation. We already discussed the saga of Elisjsha Dicken, who stopped a mall shooter with 10 rounds from his concealed handgun at 40 yards (10). An example of someone stopping a mass shooting before it met any common definition is Jack Wilson who stopped the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting in Texas. The shooter stood up during Sunday service and shot two people in two seconds and within four seconds Wilson stood up and fired one round, hitting the shooter in the head from 15 yards (11). An example of someone stopping a mass shooting from transitioning to a second location, Stephen Willeford stopped the First Baptist Church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The shooter was leaving the church after killing over 20 people and Stephen Willeford shot him twice with his AR-15 rifle. Following the initial engagement, Willeford and another bystander pursued the shooter with a vehicle until the shooter crashed, then took his own life (12). 3. MYTH: AR-15s are the chosen weapons of mass shooters. FACT: Handguns are the chosen weapons of mass shooters. According to the Violence Project, AR-15s have been used in 28 percent of mass shootings (13). In the interest of honesty, the trend of using AR-15s in mass shootings is rising. It is not unexpected, as the very things that make AR-15s good rifles for peaceful citizens also make it a good rifle for mass shooters. Compared to the historic favorite, handguns, AR15s have greater magazine capacity and are easier to shoot quickly and accurately because of the ability to stabilize the gun. Once again corporate media and politicians often avoid the label of "lying" when they say mass shooters "prefer" AR-15s, a statement of opinion about what sort of preferences a third party has. The implication is of course the analysis of preference is based on how often the AR-15 is selected. Occasionally they stumble into the outright lie of stating AR-15s are used more often in mass shootings, which we see here is clearly false. More importantly, this particular point of how often this or that gun is used is an attempt to misdirect rather than discuss the underlying issues. Whether it is an AR-15 or a handgun, mass shootings are often so deadly more due to the unarmed nature of the selected populations and locations and less because of the specific firearm. This point is merely addressed by the anti-gun crowd because decades of fighting for handgun bans in the 80s and 90s led to absolute defeat due to an inability to understand people want to be able to arm themselves for daily self defense when out in public. Now, the anti-gun people want to focus on AR-15s because they believe it is a more achievable target then handguns. My prediction is that, like handguns, it will take the anti-gunners way too long to realize that they do not have the pulse of Americans in pursuing bans on the most popular rifle in the US, despite their treacherous tactics of misleading people about what guns are used how often in mass shootings. 4. MYTH: Almost all mass shooters are white. FACT: Once again using The Violence Project’s data, we find as a per capita ratio, white people are underrepresented as mass shooters. While 60 percent of the general population is white, 53 percent of mass shooters are white (13). I decided to add this myth after I wrote most of the article because I stumbled on this data point while reviewing other data for this article. I never attempted to look up racial data of mass shooters, since I don’t find that to be a contributing or relevant factor in mass shootings. Prior to writing this article, if you made me guess the percentage of white representation in mass shooters, I would have probably said 75-85 percent. This just illustrates how powerful the corporate media's propaganda is. I had never looked it up or even really discussed it, despite hearing it cited in personal conversations. I simply assumed it was true that almost every single mass shooter was white. The constant repetition of the "hundreds of white males murdering kids in schools with AR-15s" trope can burrow itself into your head, even if you spend uncommon amounts of time researching firearm and crime data. If you are not armed with the actual data then you may start to accept the crap the talking heads say, simply because it’s difficult to combat a narrative if you do not have a counter-narrative. 5. MYTH: There are hundreds of mass shootings every year. FACT: There have been eight so far in 2023, and seven in 2022. I’m adding this at the end because it is important to understand the malicious use of murky definitions and out of context data to drive fear and panic. As is the suspiciously common theme, we see that any subtopic in the "mass shooting" topic gets mired in the "what is a mass shooting" obstacle, and usually disintegrates into minutiae about specific guns and demographics following the inability to reach a suitable definition. If we define mass shootings using the simplified definition, there are hundreds of mass shootings per year. Corporate media likes this definition because it inflates the numbers massively, knowing if you were to look through each shooting individually, almost none of them would be akin to the types they cite in their reporting: Newtown, Pulse Nightclub, Uvalde, Sandy Hook, etc. Just barely scraping the definition of lying, the special interests love being opaque here because they know most people are too busy to understand the many nuanced elements of their lies by omission and obfuscation. They know full well that when Americans hear "there have been X hundred of mass shootings so far this year," they’re envisioning several AR-15-armed white teenage boys walking into schools, hospitals, churches, and malls all across America and executing dozens of kids and families every single day. They do this to summon emotional reactions and stoke fear, as fear blurs the mind and heightens emotionality, hence the constant calls to "do something," without any substantive policy prescriptions. At over 600 per year, it feels like just a matter of time before your kid’s school is shot to pieces, your chosen grocery store is preyed upon, your church is targeted, and on until you can barely walk outside without fear. After all, humans rapt in fear will shout down political opponents, dehumanize them, accuse them of being complicit in genocide or murder, and use shaming tactics to shut them up. Well, I am not ashamed to support the idea that all Americans have the right to self defense and all peaceful adults should have the ability to arm themselves to effectively defend against would-be mass shooters. No amount of lies, manipulation, or intimidation will make me refrain from advocating for my fellow humans right to defend themselves with a firearm. References:
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Support Your Fellow LibertariansPort City FirearmsOur very own Justin Hinckley, 2A Issues Coordinator, has opened an online store, and you don't want to miss it! Port City Firearms and Training
--- Non Crappy CraftsAngela Humphries is a free-spirited watercolor artist who lives by the calm, colorful waters of New Bern, North Carolina. With her loose, expressive strokes, she works to impress the magic of flora and fauna onto her canvases. Her lighthearted, whimsical mark making, infused with the inspiration of her surroundings, invites admirers to walk in nature to enjoy it’s beauty and magnificence. Angela is a member of the North Carolina Watercolor Society and enjoys working in the privacy of her small home studio. She shares more of her work in the digital realm on her greeting card creations. Her work may be discovered in New Bern, NC at the local Bank Of The Arts Gallery, as well as the Nautical Star Coffee Shop and finally her online store via Etsy.
--- Dr. Dan's Freedom Forum Radio
"The right to own private property that cannot be arbitrarily regulated or confiscated by the government is the moral and constitutional basis for individual freedom" Listen Live: Freedom Forum Radio Podcast: Freedom Forum Radio Podcast Index ---
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In Charlotte's hotly contested District 6, Democrat Stephanie Hand challenged Republican incumbent Tariq Bokhari, ultimately losing by 352 votes, which is nearly identical to the 357-vote margin of victory for Bokhari over Hand in 2022. How much were those five votes worth? Nearly a million dollars, by several estimates. Counting money spent directly by each campaign and the money from outside groups and State parties, total expenditure on a section of the city with a 
One of Bokhari’s expenses was $5,700 on a private plane to 
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