Hour 3: Second amendment laws

Shop the Sherwin-Williams sale and get 30% off, Duration, Superdeck, and Woodscapes products August 14th through the 24th. Whether you're refreshing your interior or exterior, we've got the colors to bring your vision to life. And with delivery, getting everything to your door is easier than ever. Shop online to have it delivered or visit your neighborhood Sherwin-Williams store. Click the banner to learn more. Retail sales only, some exclusions apply. See Store for Details. Delivery available on qualifying orders. Strong values, strong opinions, the Mike Broomhead show, KTAR News 923, and the KTAR News app. All right. The ESA program, education has been a big topic. By the way, I'm going to give the plug once again. The, we got the series that's been wrapping up today. Our own Shiratanzer is education solutions reporter. And she's done a stellar job on this all week long and it has to do with teacher shortages. I'm talking about ESA specifically. But if you want to text the word education to 620, 620, you'll get put on the list. for the updates and for the newsletter. And you'll be able to keep up with this. I think the best coverage with all due respect to the other media outlets in town. I don't think you're going to see better coverage than we have here. And Shira's done a great job on this. So check out the work that she's done. The ESA program, there is an accountability measure that they've put on the ballot. They want on the ballot. It's called Prop 212. Well, a judge is saying that's a bit misleading. The wording may have to be changed. The issue I have with this is there's a double standard. And the double standard is this. I will tell you, if you listen to the show for any length of time, I am a huge believer in accountability of government programs, all of them. Because there is waste, fraud, or abuse in a program does not mean that the program should be limited or should go away. But the opponents of the ESAs are all of a sudden becoming budget hawks and oversight hawks on things that they wouldn't in other programs. And that's where the double standard comes from. And there also was a double standard where you will hear people, they don't mean it to sound this way. But if you look at it, they don't trust the parents. They do trust the school boards. And they do trust the superintendents. What they don't trust is the individual parent, which to me is laughable. Are there people out there that are dishonest? Absolutely there are. Are there people out there that are going to do the wrong thing? Sure, there are. Take advantage of a government program because the oversight isn't good enough. Absolutely. One of the guests we've had on a number of times to talk about this is the superintendent, Tom Horn. I know, and you can look it up. It's all public knowledge. They asked for more money for oversight. The program has grown 10 times since the superintendent's been in office. And the numbers of people overseeing the program looking for fraud that's verifying and allowing payments or repayments to families hasn't grown at all, not at all. So.

Addressing this issue is necessary. I agree. But that doesn't mean the program is flawed. The program is a very good one. Who should control education dollars? Who's in charge? I've heard all of the arguments about this. You wouldn't question a doctor. I absolutely would. And so would you. I don't know of a parent. And I unfortunately know parents. who have had children that have had serious illnesses, serious health conditions. There's not a parent I know that takes their child to a doctor and then blindly does whatever that doctor says. Many of them get second and third opinions. They want a comprehensive approach and then the parents decide. And the doctors have never argued this. The parents decide what course of treatment is best for their child. And then they turn it over to the expert, but they ask questions. I don't know of a parent that doesn't ask health care questions about their children. Does that mean that their doctors are the expert? No. It means they're concerned about their child and they're going to take the information in and make reasonable decisions about the health care of their child, just like they should do with the education of their child. Yes, the teachers are the experts. Yes, we absolutely respect the good teachers that do an excellent job of educating our children. Doesn't mean you don't ask questions. It doesn't mean that the same scrutiny that they want you to vote on in these propositions that would limit this, there'd be an income limit, and there are the other limits, and that they want you to limit what parents can do for their children with education dollars. And yet... If you talk to education experts, it's the autonomy of the districts that sometimes is the problem, that a lot of the dollars that are supposed to be allocated for teacher raises don't ever get to the teachers. Why? Because the state of Arizona and the federal government, they give the money to the districts, and then the districts do what they want with that money. And many of the districts love that idea. The other thing I would tell you, if you want dollars in the classroom, as long as we're talking about some solutions, reduce the number of districts we have by consolidating. Why do we have some districts that are massive? You know, Mesa Public Schools, MPS is a big district, Phoenix Union High School District, Big District, Phoenix Elementary School District, big district. There are other districts that have very few schools in them. Yet they have school boards. They pay a superintendent. They pay other administrative costs. They pay all of those things. Why couldn't they be absorbed into a district to make a bigger district with only one superintendent instead of two or three? And one set of administrators instead of two or three. But see, what that does is that threatens the existing system. And the people that are in that system certainly don't want to lose their job or give up their power. So you put these limits on the ballot and it sounds good. We're going to rein in spending. Well, let's rein in spending. And I'll give you real life examples right here in Arizona. There's a district in Arizona that had been in the red for so many years. It had to go into receivership.

And when asked, board members and the superintendent were surprised that it was as bad as it is. How is that possible? So here we are, and I'm not denying that there are people that misspend money on ESAs. Somebody bought a Rolex watch and somebody wanted to do this and we're not going to pay for all these things. You're right. We shouldn't. But let me ask you an honest question. If a school district. that you live in, in your tax dollars, your property tax dollars are going to fund that district. If I said to you that you know that that district, because right away we'll say, well, that was different money, different fund, totally different, but I'm going to tell you what they do. They had to cancel bus service in their district. This is a real world thing that happened here in Arizona, here in the valley. School district canceled bus service to save. It was necessary for them to cut. $400,000 from their budget. So they had to cut bus service to save $400,000. That same fiscal year, they spent $400,000 sending their teachers and administrators to professional development training in Las Vegas for a weekend. Got a lot out of it, they said, and maybe they did. But do you think that that's spending that you should have oversight for? If we're going to say, and I agree with you, that ESA parents can't buy Rolex watches and other things with ESA dollars that have nothing to do with education, do you think that $400,000 expenditure for professional development training in Las Vegas is an appropriate expenditure, especially when you can get it in Maricopa County for nothing? They will come to you. They will come to your school and they will do professional development training better than what you get in Vegas. And it's showing teachers you're concerned about their professional development. Isn't that the kind of oversight that they all deserve? What's good for the goose, right? If we are going to say, and these anti-ESA people will tell you all of the crazy spending that's happened, and they will list the most egregious ones, and they should. Again, I believe in the oversight. I'll hold the flashlight. Let's take a look. If you're buying Rolex watches or you're buying these ridiculous items, we should claw that money back. By the way, they are doing that as well. But then why are we not just as upset and questioning? And maybe there's a justification for $400,000 being spent on a weekend in Vegas. Maybe there is an explanation. But shouldn't we demand one? Shouldn't the superintendent and that school board have to answer in writing with why this is valuable and why that we can't take that money that was spent there and put bus service to get kids to school? I'm just asking for equal time. Don't you think that the people would like to see oversight of both? I think it's a great thing. I think it is a great thing.

All right, it's the AZ political podcast this week. Jim Sharp's guest is Republican candidate for Attorney General Warren Peterson. He is going to face off against the incumbent Chris Mays in the November election. You can watch the episode of the KTAR news app or on our YouTube channel. Coming up in a moment, we're going to talk about what some gun owners are saying is the biggest victory in the Second Amendment ever since its inception. We'll talk about that coming up here in just a moment. It's Gatos and U.S. soldiers are having a mental health crisis at the USS Lincoln out in the Middle East, and our government is ignoring them. We're going to talk about this outspoken with Bruce and Gatos, and make sure you watch it on the KTAR YouTube channel. So a gun rights advocates, gun owners of America, the GOA, is saying that this is a huge federal court victory that's happened. And I know that this is going to cause people to lose their minds. And I'm anxious to see how the country responds to this. If there's going to be a massive response, they say that this decade old firearms restriction, a federal judge says that it's unconstitutional. It has to do with suppressors, silencers, people call them. If you've ever watched a movie and you've seen James Bond or anybody else have a silencer on a firearm, and it makes this little whisper of a sound, and you think that that's what happens, you don't own guns and you've never been around a suppressor. But there's a tax stamp that you have to get, NSA, National Firearms Act. And it's about $200. So if you want to buy a suppressor, You got to pay for a tax stamp of $200 or $200 each time you do it so that you can put a suppressor on a firearm. And so as much as you think that this is going to be purchased by assassins and that's why people buy these things, the truth is all it does is diminish to a certain degree. how loud the report is from a firearm. And so it reduces noise. It reduces the damage it's done to people's hearing and all the other things that go along with it. What you are going to see is that somehow this makes firearms more dangerous. And I'm going to give you a real world example of this, of people overreacting. Years ago, the state of Arizona changed our laws when it came to concealed weapons. At least 20 years ago, yeah, at least 20 years ago, I got my concealed carry permit. Went through the course, went through the fingerprint check with DPS and they've issued. And I still maintain my concealed carry permit, even though when Arizona, the law was changed, that said if you legally own a firearm, you can conceal it without a permit. And people lost their ever-loving minds over this. This is dangerous. People should be trained. And the argument was this.

The people that need the training are the criminals. The people that we're trying to stop are the criminals. And criminals don't obey gun laws. And criminals are the ones that are carrying concealed weapons illegally. So when you have a felon that is prohibited from owning a firearm, they don't care about concealing it because they're already breaking the law by having the gun anyway. There's going to be blood in the streets and now you're going to have people carrying concealed weapons and there's going to be gun fights and it's the okay corral and never happened. It never materialized that what the concerns were by the anti-gun crowd, and to be honest, by some of the people that are pro firearms. It never materialized. We didn't see this huge uptick in gun fights and not at all because reasonable gun owners like myself, people that understand the responsibility of having a firearm and understand the responsibility that comes with drawing a firearm and pointing it at someone. We understand that that is the most extreme situation we hope we never find ourselves in, that the real problem, it didn't change the lives of the felons at all. They were already breaking the law and they continue to break the law. So this, I don't think, is any different, that the 99.9% of people that legally owned firearms can legally purchase a suppressor, and it would be used in a hunting situation. It would use short barrel rifles, the SBRs as well, that they have these firearms for reasonable and prudent reasons. That this does nothing to disarm the illegal firearms carriers. that the idea that this is now going to be used in a James Bond style or a mafia style hit where the suppressor is used to shoot somebody in a restaurant and nobody gets to hear it because it's loud in the restaurant is a ridiculous proposition. And it really is. And I only bring this up because they're saying that this is a step in the right direction that if you legally own a firearm, this is a tool on a firearm that is helpful. And can it be misused? Sure, like anything else. But you're punishing the good people and you're not doing anything to stop the bad people. That's the other hand. You know, that's the tradeoff is that if you're doing some good, there's a conversation to be had. So let's see. I'm anxious to see now that this goes away. What's going to happen? Earlier, we had some conversations going on. The Prop 314, we've been talking about immigration. The ACLU has dropped their challenge to a voter-approved piece of legislation. I'm going to explain to you why this is a big deal when it comes to immigration or illegal immigration and enforcement of illegal immigration because I think that the dropping of this lawsuit is an important step in the right direction. We'll talk about it. Next.

Mike Broomhead, KTAR News 923, and the KTAR News app. All right, appreciate you spending some time with the show. Happy Friday. The ACLU voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit challenging a provision of Prop 314. Prop 314 is a voted on, obviously by the voters in Arizona. And it had to do with enforcement of illegal immigration laws. Prop 314 gives state and local authorities expanded powers to enforce immigration laws. This is the odd thing about this. If you talk to rank and file cops, which generally speaking, they don't do in these situations, they demonize them. Law enforcement works together very, very, very well. There's just this weird stigma now about immigration enforcement that somehow that's the one federal agency that should have to work completely autonomously without any help from local law enforcement whatsoever. There is, I think I even brought it in this group. I may have. I hope I did. that the U.S. Marshals arrest a Los Angeles murder suspect in Chandler, Arizona. So the U.S. Marshal Service, the bloodhounds of the federal government, if you are running from the law and you find out that you are on the list by the U.S. Marshal Service, you might as well turn yourself in. It may take them a while, but they will find you. George Nunez. 26 years old was taken into custody in Chandler back on August 6th by the U.S. Marshal Service-led Arizona Wanted is the acronym, Violent Offenders Task Force, and the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force. This guy was wanted by the LAPD in connection with a homicide in June. After the June homicide, the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force took over the fugitive investigation and tracked information on this guy. From California, they tracked him to Arizona. The United States Marshal Van Bayliss said in a release, crossing state lines does not end our pursuit. This arrest demonstrates how the reach of the U.S. Marshal Service and the strength of our partnership that allow law enforcement agencies across the country to work as one. He was booked into the Maricopa County Jail. I bring that up in conjunction with a story about illegal immigration is whether it's the DEA, the drug enforcement administration or agency, DEA, ATF, whoever it is, we don't ever argue with local law enforcement saying we will cooperate and help you.

in enforcing those laws, ever. We never hear of this. When the U.S. Marshal Service is doing surveillance and they're trying to, or they're looking for, or maybe then surveilling where they believe a fugitive is, and they reach out to local law enforcement and say, we've got this person, can we get your help? Generally speaking, nobody bats an eye when a local law enforcement agency says, absolutely. We will absolutely help you. But for whatever reason, this and the apprehension of people in the country illegally only can be done by ICE agents. That's it. And it only can be done by Border Patrol at the border and CBP. And okay. So if that's the attitude of people, how many law enforcement agencies now that we've heard of right here in Arizona? We are a border state. We are ground zero for fentanyl. We are known as the fentanyl super highway in Arizona. And somehow. The only agency that's allowed to enforce immigration laws, and we don't even want them really doing that, is ICE, CBP at the points of entry, border patrol at the border away from the ports of entry. It is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. And so here's what the ACLU says. The voluntary dismissal of this case does not change that Section 5 of the Prop 314 is unconstitutional. Immigration enforcement falls under the federal authority and is not a state responsibility. There is a big difference between mandating that local law enforcement help you, which, by the way, was an Arizona case and an Arizona sheriff from Northern Arizona that said to the Clinton administration, when the Clinton administration was demanding local law enforcement. enforce their gun regulations and do background checks that the sheriff said, we're not doing that. And you cannot compel local law enforcement to comply. And the courts agreed that you can enlist their help if local law enforcement is willing to help, but you can't force them to help. So why is this any different? Because what they go on to say, and they word it very carefully, that the concern is that this could lead to racial profiling or others. And that, to me, is the hilarity of this. Prop 314 went into effect July 14th. The ACLU has warned that the attempts to enforce Section 5 of Prop 314 could lead, could, remember the key word here is could. Could. lead to rampant profiling of Latinos and other people of color by law enforcement authorities. But to date, according to the story, to the credit of the people that have written the story, they also put in here, there is no indication section 5 of Prop 314 is being enforced. So if you want local law enforcement to be able to arrest criminals,

They should be able to arrest all criminals. If you don't have a problem with local law enforcement helping to, whether it's, again, the DEA, if it's, we're not talking about fentanyl. Let's say it's marijuana. Let's say it's something else. It's something illegal that the local law enforcement is allowed to help. Okay. That's great. What's the problem here? And we all know what the problem is. The problem is they don't like some of the ICE enforcement issues that are going on. So therefore, local law enforcement agencies across Arizona have had to put out strong statements that say, we are not helping. The City of Phoenix put out a statement that said that we, not only are they not helping ICE in enforcement, that ICE has to ask permission to use City of Phoenix buildings and facilities. For anything. What this does is it makes the country a more dangerous place because it sends the wrong message to criminals. There are going to be times when people do the wrong thing. I've seen it. Other people have seen it. And it should be reigned in. But to make these blanket statements as a point of politics because there's a group of people that are screaming loudly, I am a huge believer in legal immigration. It is we should have a much better system of legal immigration in this country. We should. It is difficult. It is far too difficult for good people. But part of the reason why that's happening is because the massive incursion of illegal immigrants into this country over the last four years, the last previous administration, that bogged down our asylum system and our immigration system. If we could stop illegal immigration, we could have a much better legal immigration system. But the idea that local law enforcement is not allowed to help with federal law enforcement is a ridiculous idea in every other aspect of federal law enforcement except immigration. It's ludicrous to me. We need to talk about the Middle East. Tensions continue to rise. We are seeing a standoff that is happening. How does this standoff end? What does the U.S. do to end what's happening in the Middle East? How quickly should it be done? Should we just pull up stakes and leave and turn things back over to see what the Iranians do next? It's a great question. We'll dive into it next. La Donna here, are you burning a hole in your plastic these days? Well, it turns out all your friends are, and they're leaving skid marks on the card readers. Find out more Monday morning from 5 to 8 with Jim Sharp and me on Arizona's Morning News.

All right, so let's take a look at where we are. When it comes to oil prices, oil, Brent crude oil is up about 1.5% over yesterday trading at just over $88 per barrel. That's, of course, is the futures prices. And it's about 1.2% or just over $82 per barrel for West Texas intermediate futures as well. Tensions in the Middle East continue to be what they are. The Iranians certainly are not cooperating. The Iranians are talking out of both sides of their face, which has been doing forever. We continue it sounds like, or at least it feels like we're being very redundant in what's happening. I guess there's a couple of different ways to look at it. One of them is that the White House is being patient, which is not going to be reported that way. Or the other way it's being reported is that this is a quagmire and that we are stuck. As a matter of fact, the way Mark Kelly of Arizona said it, we are flailing. And he's talking about the administration, but that gets passed down to the military. The issue for me is what is the right thing to do? And for 50 years, whether it was this president or the next president, it doesn't matter who it was. There was going to come a day where the American military was going to have to deal with the real threat that is the Iranians. It's just a fact of life that most military experts agree with. There are some that tried to say that there was a deal that was put in place by President Obama that was working, and it wasn't working. And they've largely stopped saying that. There are a few people that will say it once in a while. But when you look at the weapons that are being used by the Iranians that were being used, they've been depleted and diminished. It was weapons that we didn't know they had. And so... 11 years ago, Marco Rubio and the United States Senate said, I want to be on the record. If we pass this deal, there are certain things that are going to happen, and the Iranians are going to do some things. And he was right on the money with everything he said, not because he's somehow smarter than everybody else. He's an observer. He's watched like I have. And like many of you have that are my age. I said this the other day, I guess it's worth repeating. If you're a younger person and you're confused about this, I guess I understand your confusion because you don't have the life, the length of life that I have to know how this started. You know, I was a child when this began. And for 50 years, the Iranians have been... A thorn in the side of the Middle East for sure, but the entire world. These are terrorists. And by definition, they are terrorists. They murder their own people. They, if you look at how all of their minions, all of their proxies behave. They all behave very consistently. They attack civilians. They attack civilian assets. They attack economies. That's what they do is they are going after.

Not military assets. They go after the Houthis, going after commercial ships in the Red Sea, which they've done. These UAE flag ships now that the Iranians have gone after. That's what they attack. Not the military assets only. They are trying to commit acts of terrorism. They are trying to disrupt the lives of people. I think the Iranians are just trying to wait it out. The Iranian regime can live as comfortably as they can. Their people suffer, and the people of Iran are going to suffer mightily. There's going to be great suffering. As a matter of fact, Scott Bessent, the... Treasury Secretary said that Washington is going to impose measures that have never been seen before, which means the people of Iran are going to suffer greatly because of it. And is that a reasonable way to respond if the president is waiting for some kind of an economic... shift where the economy gets so bad that the regime is either overthrown or they change course. I don't know that. I just know that they are going to try to wait it out. They firmly believe and they may be right. I wouldn't be surprised if they're right. that the this election cycle, that the Republicans are going to pay a big heavy price and a lot of it's going to have to do with trying to reverse course in this war. If you listen to people on the other side of the aisle, we are a divided country on this issue. And the Iranians are accounting on that division to ride this out. That's what they are doing. I think it's the wrong thing for us to do that we should follow this through, that we should never, we should be. As a country say, we can disagree on a lot of things, but you will never have a nuclear weapon. And the Strait of Hormuz is going to be open for commerce. And you are not going to stand in the way of that. And the world should be standing up and saying those two things. The entire Western world should be standing up and saying those two things. That if you want peace in your country, if you want us to leave that region, there are going to be two verifiable things that must happen. Number one, you must not ever have a nuclear weapon. And number two, you will never try to hinder traffic or control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. If you don't comply with those two things, the world will never be on your side, that the Western world will never do business with you. And if war has to be made, it will be war against you. I think the world should be standing up and doing that. I don't know why they're not, but they should be. And the United States right now leading the way is doing the right thing. That's my opinion on this. And the disagreement from a lot of others, I get it. I hate war like you do. And there are a lot of people that say we are war weary. And we're hearing now about the – everybody's focused on the record deployment in the region. And listen, I get it. These men and women who sign on the dotted line to serve in the United States military, they do so because –

They want to serve their country. And the people that are enlisting now, knowing that a deployment to the Middle East is a very real possibility, especially if you join the United States Navy, you know, God bless them. You know, it is a difficult job. You are separated from your family. It is an arduous job. And it's a dangerous job. That's why we hold them in such high regard. But my gosh, at what point do we have to send a unified message to the world? You know, the American people are going to vote the way they're going to vote. But to hear decorated veterans like Mark Kelly and Senator Gallego say some of the things that they've said, I just absolutely disagree with them and the timing of how they're doing things. And again, I think the Trump administration has made a mistake in not inviting them to be a part of the solution. If I were truly trying to be a unifier. And if the Trump administration is saying that they want to be a unifying force, they should be saying to the decorated veterans like Mark Kelly and Senator Gallego, instead of bashing and instead of badmouthing, why don't you come help us be a part of the solution? I think that's a unifying message. Ask them publicly. Come join us. Come help us win. And that's what I would be doing with it. Quick reminder about the Amazing Arizona podcast that is available. Resolution Copper is our title sponsor. We want to thank them for that because they're the only, they are helping us tell these great Arizona stories. Another season is going to be releasing soon, but some of the biggest names in Arizona, some of the best names that you know of have made huge impacts in this state. They talk about them right here on our podcast, available at the KTA or YouTube channel, our news app or anywhere you download podcasts. Just after 11 o'clock, what we're going to do here on the show is we are going to talk about something important, the flock cameras. We talk to the sheriff. We'll talk about it again. Next.