{"id":2641018,"date":"2026-08-05T14:04:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnyt-writer-pearl-clutching-about-self-defense-laws-reveals-his-contempt-for-the-constitution\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:06:11","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnyt-writer-pearl-clutching-about-self-defense-laws-reveals-his-contempt-for-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnyt-writer-pearl-clutching-about-self-defense-laws-reveals-his-contempt-for-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT&#8217;s Tirade About Self-Defense Shows Contempt For Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnyt-writer-pearl-clutching-about-self-defense-laws-reveals-his-contempt-for-the-constitution%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2641018&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the constitutional right to self-defence in America, emphasizing that laws like \u201cstand your ground\u201d are firmly rooted in the nation\u2019s founding principles. It criticizes media narratives that suggest these laws and the growing number of firearms lead to increased violence, arguing that such laws protect lawful individuals and uphold personal freedom. The writer critiques journalist Mike McIntire for portraying these laws negatively, asserting that they reflect core American values of autonomy and self-reliance. The article also highlights a recent Tennessee law allowing lethal response to defend property and others,defending it as consistent with the right to self-defense and constitutional rights. It refutes claims that the right to own guns for self-defense is expanding in a harmful way,rather framing firearm rights as an ongoing part of American constitutional tradition rooted in individual liberty and the right to revolution. The piece concludes that the increase in supportive laws demonstrates a true respect for constitutional rights and individual sovereignty.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The right to self-defense, most prominent in the legal doctrine of \u201cstanding your ground,\u201d is an <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/25\/standing-your-ground-is-a-constitutional-right\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indisputable constitutional right<\/a>. This fact, no matter how longstanding and essential to American exceptionalism, elicits much chagrin from The New York Times\u2019 Mike McIntire, who recently argued that laws making it legally easier to protect yourself and your property are a concerning deviation from history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing a Gun to Defend Yourself? The Right to Kill Is Growing,\u201d McIntire<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/03\/magazine\/using-a-gun-to-defend-yourself-the-right-to-kill-is-growing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> snivels<\/a> in his headline.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate media are infamous for <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/08\/06\/triggered-political-journo-says-shooting-ar-15-for-the-first-time-felt-like-a-meteor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">clutching pearls<\/a> over Americans\u2019 right to bear arms. The reporters who aren\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/04\/watch-this-based-mom-school-a-reporter-on-why-good-guys-should-have-guns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">painfully ignorant<\/a> about gun laws and culture work hard to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/31\/media-malign-firearm-manufacturer-for-selling-gun-that-encourages-adults-to-teach-kids-safe-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shame firearm makers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/16\/after-media-brutalized-gun-freedom-law-violent-crime-drops-in-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mock gun freedom laws<\/a>. McIntire, it appears, is no different. <\/p>\n<p>Defending oneself and passing laws affirming that right, according to the reporter\u2019s subhead, is a \u201cdistinctly American tradition.\u201d More specifically, he asserts that \u201cacross American history, the justifications for using a gun seem to multiply, an ever-expanding terrain for legally sanctioned violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McIntire, whose journalistic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/mike-mcintire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claim to fame<\/a> is being \u201cpart of a team that obtained and published\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/09\/28\/new-york-times-trump-tax-return-bombshell-is-a-joke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tax returns<\/a>, attempts to make his case using a <a href=\"https:\/\/wapp.capitol.tn.gov\/apps\/BillInfo\/Default?BillNumber=HB1802&#038;GA=114\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recently enacted Tennessee law<\/a> that recognizes threatening or responding with lethal violence to protect property from trespass, arson, burglary, robbery, and aggravated cruelty to animals can constitute reasonable deadly force. The provision also affirms protections for anyone who uses deadly force to defend \u201ca third person\u201d from \u201cdeath, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statute includes several caveats of actions that would not be justified, including \u201cusing deadly force against another individual under this bill if the individual is facing away from the person.\u201d McIntire does not get around to mentioning that key fact until the literal last line of his nearly 2,000-word article.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, McIntire spends the majority of his ink on lamenting \u201ca new era of defensible homicides.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople do not merely own more guns in America,\u201d McIntire observes. \u201cThey now have more ways to justify using one to kill another person, simply by invoking an often inchoate sense of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stops short of recognizing that the alternative to defending oneself in the face of a threat of serious bodily injury or death \u2014 simply staying put or fleeing \u2014 could mean just that: serious injury or death.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s nothing wrong and certainly nothing illegal about believing that you have a right to safeguard yourself, your family, and your castle. Guns are and will always be the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/07\/31\/the-story-of-how-samuel-colt-made-men-equal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">great equalizer<\/a>. Stewarding this right to defense well means taking <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/04\/after-you-buy-a-gun-for-self-defense-heres-what-to-do-with-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gun safety and carry<\/a> courses, properly storing firearms to prevent negligence-induced accidents, practicing draw and aim at a range, and learning states\u2019 specific self-defense laws.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what McIntire implies in his criticism of the Tennessee law, however, the lack of these best practices does not negate someone\u2019s right to defend himself when his body, his castle, and in Tennessee, his property are under threat.<\/p>\n<p>McIntire does acknowledge the\u00a0principle behind stand your ground laws \u201cis intuitive.\u201d He takes issue, however, with states\u2019 attempts to fine-tune those statutes to offer more legal protection to good guys with guns and even repeats the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/16\/after-media-brutalized-gun-freedom-law-violent-crime-drops-in-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lie<\/a> that self-defense laws have contributed to \u201chomicide rates\u00a0and reckless conduct\u201d to emphasize it.<\/p>\n<p>This is where McIntire\u2019s mask slips. His problem with Tennessee\u2019s new law might not be resistance to expanded self-defense protections or even the growing number of firearms in the U.S., which he mentions in every section of the article, but disagreement with America\u2019s core founding principles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt follows\u00a0a distinctly American strain of thinking\u00a0in which a person\u2019s honor and autonomy are sacrosanct. Throughout the country\u2019s history, defendants claiming self-defense have argued that their sovereignty is inviolable and must be protected, even to the point of violence,\u201d McIntire wrote.<\/p>\n<p>McIntire goes so far as to pretend that the Second Amendment \u201csays nothing explicitly about an individual right to have a gun for everyday self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLocating that right in the Constitution became the grand project of the modern gun lobby,\u201d McIntire confidently declares. <\/p>\n<p>On the contrary, advocates of the Second Amendment have faced uphill battles at the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/10\/this-supreme-court-is-woefully-weak-on-the-second-amendment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Supreme Court<\/a> and elsewhere to ensure the right to self-defense is not eradicated at the whim of gun-grabbers.<\/p>\n<p>McIntire knows this. In fact, he spends paragraphs documenting the centuries-long history of American courts ditching the English concept that you must run from aggression in an effort to de-escalate. He even quotes one Indiana Supreme Court justice who said in 1877 that, \u201cthe tendency of the American mind seems to be very strongly against the enforcement of any rule which requires a person to flee when assailed, to avoid chastisement or even to save human life.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>McIntire labels this concept \u201cpersonal honor\u201d and even suggests that courts\u2019 endorsement of it communicated that \u201cstanding your ground was a crucial aspect \u2014 maybe a necessary condition \u2014 of manhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who has studied American history knows that principle is not simply \u201chonor\u201d but personal freedom. The founders believed the right to bear arms is an essential part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2016\/06\/20\/the-second-amendment-isnt-about-hunting-or-self-defense-but-revolution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">right to revolution<\/a>, so much so that they <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2018\/02\/19\/second-amendment-worth-dying\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">were willing to die for it.<\/a> Infringing on or downplaying the Second Amendment threatens the rest of our constitutional system and undermines America \u2014 ideals and people.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cright to kill\u201d isn\u2019t growing, as McIntire purports in his headline. It\u2019s always been there thanks to the Second Amendment. What is growing is the number of states that are finally taking their constitutional duty to respect, protect, and reinforce constitutional rights like the Second Amendment seriously enough to pass laws that protect law-abiding Americans from unfair prosecution if they have to defend themselves and their property. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jordan Boyd is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-cruelty-is-the-point-folks\/\" title=\"The Cruelty Is the Point, Folks\">award-winning staff writer<\/a> at The Federalist and producer of \u201cThe Federalist Radio Hour.\u201d Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-defense rights are fundamental, despite NYT criticism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2641019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-3.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[8062,4439,15823,5579,11684],"class_list":["post-2641018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-constitution","tag-freedom","tag-nyt","tag-rights","tag-self-defense"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2641018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2641022,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641018\/revisions\/2641022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2641019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2641018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2641018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2641018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}