Removing Foreign Spies Helps Keep Americans Safe

113 active foreign spies removed from the United States is the kind of headline that makes you sit up straight, and it kicks off a packed Good News Friday where we connect the dots between national security and everyday life. We talk through why counterintelligence still matters, what it means when sensitive military information gets sold, and how those leaks can ripple into real costs and real risk for Americans. 

From there, we shift to a major Second Amendment development out of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas: a federal judge rules that National Firearms Act registration and approval requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns are unconstitutional after Congress eliminates the underlying tax. We explain what’s at stake, what an ATF appeal could look like at the Fifth Circuit, and we clear up one of the most persistent myths out there: suppressors do not make firearms “silent” like the movies, they reduce decibel levels and can help protect hearing. 

We also cover a court decision tied to a July 4 anti-ICE protest in Dallas where an officer is shot, and the sentencing sends a strong message about violence against law enforcement. Finally, we dig into the fight over mail-order abortion drugs shipped into pro-life states, including comments from acting attorney general Todd Blanche on steps the administration is working on to stop that pipeline. If you care about faith and culture, constitutional law, the ATF, the National Firearms Act, law enforcement, and protecting unborn life, this one is for you. 

Subscribe for more Good News Friday stories, share this with a friend who needs a hopeful update, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Welcome And Share The Show

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Boulder Show on a Friday, which of course is good news Friday. My favorite day of the week. David and Tim have been working on getting some good news for you. David Barton and Tim Barton. I'm Rick Green. I get to just listen and hear all the good news and be the ping pong guy that bounces back and forth between them. We're going to have a great time today, folks. We appreciate you tuning in. WallBulders.com, by the way, is our main website and wallboulders.show for the radio program. And as you're going into the weekend, make sure that you share the program with friends and family. They need some good news this weekend as well. You can do that if you're on a podcast app, just click that share button and send it off to folks either by text or email or however you prefer to do that. Or you can just send out email links as well. Appreciate it. All right,

Foreign Spies Removed From The US

SPEAKER_02 0:46

guys, let's jump into some good news. David, get it started, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Okay, guys. Uh, this is good news to me, but it uh it's kind of a strange good news. I don't think I've heard this in a number of years, and it reminded me of some cartoon characters from years ago. So I don't know, Rick, Tim, you guys, I I mean, Tim grew up in the same home. Do you remember anything about Boris Batternoff or Borce and Natasha or Fearless Leader?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Let me clarify. When you say grew up in the same home, do you mean the same 15-passenger van? Yeah, that's right. I feel like there's more growing up in the van than at the home in those early years. Um, but uh so when when you say say the two names again, all right, Boris Batternoff or Boris and Natasha. So my first thought is Rocky and Bullwinkle. You got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

You got it. I love it. Perfect. So you're right, Tim. It goes back to a cartoon series. Uh it was one back in my years, but growing up in the family, you would have been exposed to it too. All right, so next one, chaos and control.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Uh, well, that in theory, um, I I would like to say the right answer, but if I said the wrong answer and I was close, I could say missed it by that much.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You got it right.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So that's what show?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

That is get smart. So Max Smart and then Smart, Agent 99, Sigfreed, and Mr. Claw and Mr. Big and one more. I think this is gonna be before you might even remember. Do you remember anything about the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Okay, I I I don't want to waste the program's time trying to go through the index in my head. I I I feel like I would eventually find it, but that does not ring a good bell, just a distant noise in the back recesses of my brain.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

If you take those words, United Network Command for Law Enforcement, the letters are U N C L E. So that leads you to Uncle. Is that the man from? The man from Uncle. Okay. So I say all that because those were programs back in the day that you had good guys versus bad guys, you had the spies versus the Patriots, and it was real so. And you know, since then things are not as quite quite as clear as they used to be. But I saw this article and it really kind of surprised me. Trump so far this year has captured and taken out of the United States 113 active spies from foreign nations. And I don't know how long it's been since I've heard of any kind of effort against removing spies or what they were doing, or even what it takes to be a spy or prosecuting. And so, as it turns out, uh I mean, one of them was a senior advisor in the State Department who has taken hundreds of thousands of top secret documents uh to Chinese officials and their documents that show U.S. fighter jets and weapons capabilities that expose our military capabilities. Uh, here's another one, a U.S. Navy sailor was just sent us to 200 months in prison spying for Beijing. Um he he did all sorts of information on strike capabilities of like ships like the USS Essex and et cetera. And so far, there's 113 active spies that they have taken and removed from the country or prosecuted, put in jail. And those are people that are selling our security. And you know, I think of America being strong and how strong we are at the military. But you know what? We're strong because we're better and stronger than the other guys. But if we get them all of our secrets and they know how our stuff works, then they'll develop weapons to eliminate that, which makes us not as safe, which makes it more likely that if we get into something, we're gonna get injured and hurt and maybe lose. And I just haven't thought about spies, good guys and bad guys, really since way, way back. When I read this article, I started thinking of all the spy series that used to be out there. So the other thing that I think is significant is they point out that what this cost us with spies and having to kind of recover from this stuff and and reclassify stuff and change the way we do stuff, it averages between four and six thousand dollars per American per year, is what what it cost us to take care of spies and keep them out like these 113. So the good news is we're very conscious about protecting America. And again, I have not seen anything like this in years and years and years, but I'm glad that the Trump administration has uncovered 113 spies and they've taken them out. And 62 of the spies have been for China so far. So that's you know, that's that's more than half the spies are from China. But nonetheless, it's good news that that we're making America strong and secure. Uh, it should have an economic impact, reducing the cost of our billfold and all of us. But again, it's just good to have America stronger and safer.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Tim, next piece of good news. Where are you taking us?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

All

Texas Judge Challenges NFA Registration

SPEAKER_01 5:56

right, guys, this is something that happened this week, actually in Texas, and I'm just now finding out about it. So I I this is not one that I include in the good news. So, dad, you, Rick, Justin, uh, maybe one of our team uh printed this off and they're like, put this in the stat because this is this is incredible. And it's amazing. I was a little distracted, dad, while you were talking because I was reading this, going, I I did not know about this, and I am I'm blown away. So the article says, Judge says updated National Firearms Act violates constitution. Now, some of this is background that for people that are Second Amendment fans, um, that believe in self-preservation and that uh people should own guns and be trained how to use them. We all believe that. In fact, uh you can go to patriotacademy.com, uh, go to constitutional defense and go get trained with firearms. Highly recommend that. But one of the things we know is that uh the the government at times has come in and said we want to regulate um who can do what with uh what self-defense and self-protection weapons are available, usually the the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, they're the ones that get involved in this. Well, there was a decision from North Texas, and guys, it the article shows this week. I am gonna have to go look this up. Um, this is good news for me that I've got to find out more about. So all I can do is report on this article right now. So the article came out this week uh from the Epoch Times, the Epic Times, uh, which I love so much of their reporting because they they find good stuff like this that so often we don't hear about. This identified a case, uh is actually uh two cases rolled into one, and I'll give some of those details. Um, but essentially a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, this week, Wednesday, that the registration and approval requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, also known as SBRs, and short-barreled shotguns in the National Firearms Act are unconstitutional, meaning when there's a requirement that you have to register them or you're an illegal felon and they can arrest you and take all your guns away and you lose all your rights because you had a suppressor or a short-barreled rifle or a short-barreled shotgun. Uh, this judge says, Yeah, that that's not constitutional at all. Now, there's a lot of background for this. Um, part of it goes back, and the article highlights this. There was a 1937 U.S. Supreme Court case, Sunzinski versus United States. And this is when the the NFA, which is the National Firearms Act, um, was upheld where Congress had taxing authority. And in that decision, the court found that the government could gather information. Now, think about this. The government could gather information on the owners of certain firearms. So if you buy a certain gun, they are going to track you. And by the way, also if you have accessories for that, it was subject to the NFA's $200 excise as part of the tax collection process. So certain guns they're gonna tax you at a higher rate or give you a special tax for, and they're gonna track you if you have that. What's amazing is so that the case that uh was before this U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas is actually two cases consolidated. It was Jensen versus ATF, and then also Silencer Shop Foundation versus ATF, and the U.S. District Court for Northern Northern District of Texas held that once Congress eliminated the taxes for suppressors, the constitutional foundation for registration was eliminated. Now, this is a big deal because President Trump, uh, back in his big beautiful bill, he actually reduced the the taxing on SBRs, suppressors, etc. It was $200. He said, Yeah, we're doing away with charging people additional tax, like penalizing them for buying certain kinds of firearms. We're doing away with that tax. And what was just challenged is look, if if we're not taxed for this, which was uh honestly the only thing that was ever upheld, was that there could be a tax on these. If there's no longer a tax, you can't make us register these in a different special way. That that's also unconstitutional. Well, that is exactly what this U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas held. Uh the judge who oversaw the decision, uh, it says Hendrix. Hendrix stayed his decision, meaning he put a pause on it for seven days to allow the government, meaning the ATF, to appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, at this point, again, I'm just reading this article right now. Uh, I will absolutely follow this. Next week, we'll probably report on it more. Um, either the good news that they did not appeal, because again, there's seven days, uh, that he has stayed this for the government to appeal. So if by next Wednesday they haven't appealed, hopefully next Friday I remember to come back and report on this again. Hopefully, the good news, because having a a less woke government that is more in favor of an alienable right of self-preservation and self-defense, which is what the second amendment upholds, our right of self-preservation. Hopefully,

What Suppressors Actually Do

SPEAKER_01 11:14

having a government that supports and encourages that right means they will not challenge and and penalize people for buying a suppressor, which by the way, buying a suppressor for a pistol or a rifle or some kind of firearm is incredibly beneficial because it it does not make the gun silent where people think silencer and they've seen these uh Hollywood movies and they're like, nobody can hear when the gunshot happened. That's ridiculous. We have all of us in this program, not only do we have some firearms, we have suppressors, and it is all it does is make it hearing safe. But if somebody in the room were to yell and they're not right by you, you're like, that's so loud. Now, like it's not gonna damage your ears, but you're like, that's so loud, right? That's kind of like what it is when you put a suppressor on most of these guns, unless you're shooting subsonic animal out of a bolt action rifle. Generally speaking, it does not silence, it suppresses the noise. But all of this to say, when you look at these things, actually, we should encourage for the the sake of people's ears and longevity in the future, suppressors are really good for people's hearing. And there's actually entire uh moves saying we need a a hearing protection act which would uh remove all of these penalties uh for suppressors, waiting periods, etc. etc. etc. Well, what just happened is a really good step in that direction. So again, guys, I'm just now reading this. I I I will absolutely uh with my research brain go do some more research on this, but right now I am so encouraged by what I'm seeing that there is a a decision from the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Texas that is recognizing the unconstitutionality of a firearm registration process, totally unconstitutional. That's what that's what communist dictators do. That's that's not what we should be doing in a free America. So, right now, this is really good news. And again, hopefully we will have good news to report on this next week. Uh, hopefully the ATF doesn't appeal this to the Fifth Circuit. If it does, it's gonna be really interesting to watch this case because I I fully suspect that this decision will be upheld and recognized in spite of challenges if they come, but it'd be really cool if no challenges came. Guys, this is so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

And and Tim, with you explaining what you just did, uh so important for people to understand uh a suppressor does not make a silencer like you see on the movies. It does not at all. I was just looking up while you were talking about that. And if you take an AR-15, which is a typical uh kind of rifle that people will put a suppressor on, we hunt with that, we we do our pig hunting, deer hunting, other stuff with that suppressor. What this says here is that it reduces the sound of the noise from about 165 decibels down to about 130 decibels. So just to give an idea of what that is, now 130 decibels, I don't I don't know what what's 130? I don't know what 130 is. All right, let me let me tell you. 130 decibels is the same thing as as when a military jet aircraft takes off from an aircraft carrier. But when you're at 160 decibels, it's a whole lot louder than that. So if you were by an aircraft that's taking off, that's not a quiet sound at all. You would you would definitely know it was going up. And that's what it does, is it reduces the sound so that it doesn't really pierce your ears. It's still loud, but it's not necessarily loud enough that you have to have ear protection on. It's still good to have it on. But that's it, and I just got to reemphasize what you said, Tim, because so many people do think that a suppressor, a noise suppressor just takes the sound away. It doesn't. It reduces the decibel level, but not to a point where that it's a silencer at all. So this is a really good thing, and I'm with you. People need to have suppressors in their guns just for their own hearing protection because it's still a loud sound, but it's not unreasonably loud. Uh, let's take

Signers Of The Declaration Spotlight

SPEAKER_00 15:20

a quick break here.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

We'll be right back. We've got more good news when we return. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Okay, we want to let you know about a new product we have here at Wall Builders called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, the Signers of the Declaration. Like most Americans, you might be someone that you recognize some of the names of the Founding Fathers, but do you know their story? We want to help remedy that. My dad and I have written biographies on all 56 signers of the Declaration to help reintroduce people to the men who literally sign their names on the line for the sake of the nation. And when they did this, they knew that they were essentially signing their death warrants. They were risking everything for the hope that they might be able to purchase freedom for the rising generation with their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honors. In spite of the hardship that every one of them endured, none of them recant or backed away. Now, if you don't know their story, you can get to know all 56 of them. Go to wallbuilders.com and look for the book Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, the signers of the Declaration. This is Tim Bard from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. Many today wrongly claim our founding fathers were largely atheists, agnostics, and deists. Certainly some founders were less religious than others, but even they were not irreligious. Consider Benjamin Franklin. Definitely one of the least religious among them, yet when the delegates at the Constitutional Convention hit an impasse in their deliberations, it was Franklin who called them to prayer, invoking numerous scriptures to make his point. As he reminded them, God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. So even the least religious of America's founders urge public prayer and dependence on God. For more information about the faith of the Founding Fathers, go to wallbuilders.com.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

We're back with David and Tim now to get some more good news on our Good News Friday. And David, I think you got the next piece of good news.

Dallas Anti-ICE Attack Gets Sentenced

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Okay, guys, this has to do with a um an incident that happened about a year ago. It's now made it through the courts. A decision has been rendered, but July 4th, a year ago in Dallas, um, with all the anti-immigration uh or I best not I I don't want to say anti-immigration, anti-ICE. So ICE is the immigration enforcement facility, all the stuff that was going with protesting ICE, and with Dallas being a larger town, Dallas is one of the blue towns in Texas. And so we had protesters there. Most most towns in Texas are not going to protest immigration enforcement, and particularly Texas being a border state. We think immigration enforcement is really important. But in a very blue town, you're going to get a lot of people who want open borders. Everybody can come here, everybody can can do what they want. And so during that, there was an incident that happened that involved a police officer being shot. And so this protest is going on. Police officer shot. It goes through the legal system, and um the the the guy who pulled the trigger was convicted. Now, here's what I here's what I want to throw out. So the defense attorney for the the folks that were behind this, and there was there was a group of people and they were associated with Antifa and they were protesting ICE and and protesting arrest of illegal immigrants, etc. Um the attorney for for these the the particularly the lead guy who was head over this kind of protest, uh this this guy says, Look, our issue with this sentence is that this group isn't a bunch of terrorists. This is a bunch of kids and young adults who really have a really big heart and they just wanted their voice to be heard. It was never intended that anybody get hurt. It was never intended that any shots would be fired. Okay, now this is the defense laying out his case and laying out why he thinks the judge got it wrong. Because you got a bunch of uh kids here who had no intent to do anything harmful, no intent to fire any shots. Okay, well, here's what happened in in the incident, and all this is recorded, and the police are there. So this guy that he's talking about, this is a really nice kid, a really peaceful kid. During the attack against uh uh against ICE, he yelled, get to the rifles. And then they opened fire on the officers. He himself fired 11 shots with his AR rifle until it jammed. He hit an officer in the neck. They had a 911 call that came and got the officer. Uh the police were able to take the guns away from from from the butt I I I'm number one, I'm glad that justice was served. You don't shoot an officer and you don't go into an officer saying, get to the guns and open fire and shoot 11 times and get away with nothing on this. And this is uh man, this is one of my personal peeves. This is why I really don't like when defense attorneys do this. I think everybody should have a defense when they go to court. Everybody should be represented by an attorney. Everything should be done right by the Constitution. You should have a jury, you should have have a right to present your case. But man, when you just make up stuff, apparently like this this guy did to make these kids seem harmless and innocent, that that just that really gets to me. So what happened was this guy that the defense attorney says was so peaceful and so nice, got a hundred years in in prison as a result. And all the others involved with this, including even those that did not fire shots, got from 30 to 70 years. And the message is we don't want you attacking law enforcement. We don't want you bringing violence against those who are enforcing our laws. And I really applaud the decision. Um and it just gets my personal pet peeve that that you have attorneys that would say something so seemingly nonsensical when every bit of evidence goes the other way, which is why they got the sentence they did and why they got a hundred years. So the good news is that in Texas, you're not gonna do those kind of crimes and and get away with it. Uh, there's going to be punishment for them, which there should be. I'm glad justice is upheld, and I'm glad the officer survived and w was able to to get get back to work. But good news we're not going to put up with this kind of attacks just because you think the borders should be open and you think we should ignore all federal laws. That's not gonna happen just because you want it to be a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

All right, let's jump over to Tim, see what our next piece of good news is.

Move To Stop Mail-Order Abortion Drugs

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Well, yeah, guys, I think uh hopefully uh we can get uh a solid piece. Dad, I don't think I'll have time for you, but have one ready just in case. Um, this one is dealing with the acting attorney general Todd Blanch, and the acting attorney general uh actually was on a call with the White House faith office um very recently. And while he was on there, he was talking about the fight uh from the White House where they are trying to stop the mail order abortion drugs that for some of these states that have ended abortion in their states, um, and then there are uh there's companies in other states or other states that are advertising in some of these pro-life states saying, hey, just uh order these abortion drugs from us, we will ship them by mail to you. And and of course, um, there are states, we are actively working with state legislators as they're trying to come up with ideas of what's the constitutionality if we pass a law and other states are trying to help people in our state uh defy or violate some of those basic laws we're passing. And so there will be some um some different kinds of action steps that are uh given perhaps in uh future amendments to some of the legislation in these states, not to digress. What was really encouraging is that Todd Blanche said that the White House is working to put practices and policies in place to stop other states and abortion organizations from mailing abortion drugs into states that protect unborn life. This is this is part of one of his quotes where he says we're putting practices and policies in place so that other states and organizations can't attack that. They can't do things like they're doing with mailing in mail order drugs. He continues on. He says, We will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent. Now, this is also a big deal uh because as I mentioned, he is the acting attorney general. Why? Because one of many frustrations we have with the Senate, not only that they have not taken up the Save Uh America Act, but they have stalled in some of these nominations, getting them through. So uh Attorney General Todd Blanch has been held up in the Senate, and actually there was a couple Republicans that said, We're not gonna do this unless you change your position on some of these issues. So there's been some negotiating going on. Now, if I told you it was uh John Cornyn and Senator Tillis, who were the ones that were primarily holding this up, that that might already change some people's perspective, uh depending on how you feel about some of those senators. But the good news is that finally uh he did make it uh with get his nomination from the committee. It was a straight party line vote. It was 12 to 10 out of the committee. Um, but at this point, um, that there is still some yet to be decided. So, guys, it seems at least to some extent, um, there's first of all really good news that the acting attorney general for the United States of America, for the White House, is acknowledging that they want to defend unborn life. They want to help uphold laws in states where other states are actively seeking to violate those those laws or undermine those laws at the very least. Um, and the fact that we have, again, a presidential administration and and a staff, a team around him, and the acting attorney general who is wanting to protect and defend life is so encouraging. And then on top of the fact that now he finally has uh got his nomination from the Senate committee, uh again, straight party line vote 12-10, but at least that nomination came out. So, guys, to me, that's really encouraging news.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

And it should be good news that it looks like he's gonna get confirmed. Both uh Cornyn and Tillis announced they're going to support him, they're going to vote for him. Uh now one of the other Republicans has bailed off and said he's not going to, but it looks like the votes are still there for Todd Blanche to get through. And this is a huge thing because you have a state like Texas that we said we don't want abortion Texas. I think 23 states have limited abortion, and abortion clinics are going, they're closing at a fairly rapid rate because you don't need them anymore because you can get these mail order abortion drugs. And for Todd Blanche to say no, we're not going to let those mail order abortion drugs go into states that say they don't want abortion. We're not going to let the abortion industry run all 50 states. That is a huge thing to be able to protect life in those two dozen states that are pro-life. And so this is going to be a great nomination to see get confirmed, which it looks like it's going to happen now. And he's got a great position on this, on shutting down these abortion industries that are sending their drugs into all the states.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

More good news, of course, next Friday.

Final Thoughts And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_02 26:36

And again, the websites wallbuilders.com and wallbuilders.show. Everybody have a fantastic weekend. Thank you so much for listening to the Wall Builder Show.