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SDI is A Veteran Supportive Campus

There are over 400 educational entities in the state of Arizona. Of those, only 35 are Veteran Supportive Campuses. On October 22nd, SDI joined those ranks.

With our high military and veteran population, it goes without saying this recognition is especially meaningful. According to the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, the purpose of becoming a certified Veteran Supportive Campus (VSC) is to better understand the needs of military students and become continually responsive to those needs. The impact and importance of being a VSC can best be said by Rob Howard, the Director of Military and Veteran Services here at SDI.

“It is a stamp of approval that shows that our organization is committed to taking care of our student-veterans.  As an organization, we know how much work we put into ensuring our student-veterans are successful, it is nice to receive a prestigious recognition from the highest level in our State.”

You may be asking yourself, “What does SDI do to support veterans?” Rob’s got us covered on that too.

“There are many things we do to support veterans: we have an office that our student-veterans can visit if they are in the Tempe area SGT Michael J. Beckerman Military and Veteran Services Office; Student Veteran Steering Committee that serves as advocates for our student-veteran population; we have the Military and Veteran Services department whose mission is to support our student-veterans.  Lastly, we have some awesome leaders in our organization that hire individuals that are technically proficient in their jobs and truly care about taking care of veterans.  At the end of the day, our job at SDI is to help others succeed and take care of people, we have a proven track record that says we are darn good at our job.”

Howard’s sentiments were echoed by SDI President Traci Lee.

“Having served the Veteran community for many years, it was important to SDI to ensure we became a Veteran Supportive Campus through the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services (ADVS). We are committed to ongoing training to ensure understanding and ability to respond to the needs of our military students. We are proud of this recognition and look forward to SDI’s ongoing involvement in the Veteran community!”

Massive Gun Manufacturer Quits Long Guns for Civilians

In a move that has proven shocking to many, Colt, one of the best-renowned firearms manufacturers the world over, has decided to make the drastic move to stop selling long guns to the civilian market.

Colt’s news sent shock waves throughout the industry early this month as one of the titans on the firearms community bowed out of one of the key sectors of the firearms marketplace. Many speculated, not unreasonably, that the move was made in light of the current political climate.

However, that appears to be completely untrue. The real reason is far more telling of the state of the firearms industry in the United States civilian market.

There are so many manufacturers selling so many sporting rifles that the market is flooded. Colt has made the call to step aside and focus on what markets serve their company best.

According to a statement by Dennis Veilleux, President and Chief Executive Officer of Colt:

There have been numerous articles recently published about Colt’s participation in the commercial rifle market. Some of these articles have incorrectly stated or implied that Colt is not committed to the consumer market. We want to assure you that Colt is committed to the Second Amendment, highly values its customers and continues to manufacture the world’s finest quality firearms for the consumer market.

The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity. Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, our warfighters and law enforcement personnel continue to demand Colt rifles and we are fortunate enough to have been awarded significant military and law enforcement contracts. Currently, these high-volume contracts are absorbing all of Colt’s manufacturing capacity for rifles. Colt’s commitment to the consumer markets, however, is unwavering. We continue to expand our network of dealers across the country and to supply them with expanding lines of the finest quality 1911s and revolvers.

At the end of the day, we believe it is good sense to follow consumer demand and to adjust as market dynamics change. Colt has been a stout supporter of the Second Amendment for over 180 years, remains so, and will continue to provide its customers with the finest quality firearms in the world.

While it’s hard to love Colt taking its leave (for the moment, anyway) of the civilian market after such a long and storied run, there are certainly much, much worse reasons for a firearms industry company to make a major pivot such as this.

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Here’s Why Constitution Day is the Biggest Holiday You’re Not Celebrating

The Fourth of July, or more properly Independence Day, is one of the biggest holidays on the American calendar. We mark it with parades, fanfare, fireworks, and of course, almost uniformly eating like starting on the fifth none of us will be permitted to ever eat food again.

That’s not a complaint — I like brats.

However you choose to note the day, there’s perfectly good reason for raucous celebration. It’s the day we declared independence from England, for crying out loud! We abandoned the rule of a monarch in one of the greatest blows struck for freedom in history.

So why is it then, that the day of the creation of our form of government — the very thing that we ultimately left monarchy for —  is far less visible to the public eye?

In fairness, the Untied States Constitution isn’t what many believed it would turn out to be — initially, we had the Articles of Confederation. These articles were ratified in 1781, and they didn’t last all that long. The intentional weakening of the national congress made their jobs just about impossible.

That didn’t go well, and you’ll remember from your high school history class how Shay’s Rebellion served as a stark warning that the federal government might need to do fun things like collect the funds they desperately needed to maintain a country’s functionality. What’s often not mentioned, additionally, is the Newburgh conspiracy.

The Newburgh conspiracy is one of the largest threats to the United States we’ve ever had, and it’s relatively unknown. In short, officers in the Continental Army and members of Congress attempted to instigate something akin to a coup, wherein states would be forced to grant more powers to Congress, who would in turn raise the cash that soldiers, extremely nervous about actually getting paid, would receive.

You can thank George Washington for shutting that down, but that’s an entirely different story.

So here we are, in 1787, with a weak amalgamation of states, a broke national government, a near-coup, and a failed rebellion. Obviously, something’s gotta give.

In May 1787, Philadelphia hosted a meeting of some of the greatest minds of the time to create the historic Constitutional Convention, and of course, the first thing they decided to do was ignore their mandate to amend the Articles of Confederation and create something new from scratch.

The rest is, well, history.

I won’t quote to you the entirety of the Constitution, or even paraphrase it — it’s lengthy, and dollars to donuts you know all about it already. What? You don’t? In that case, take some time and read it using the link here.

What you’ll want to take away, here, is this:

Today — September 17th, is Constitution Day, to mark the signing of the United States Constitution back in 1787.  Without what happened in Philadelphia on that day, we very likely not only would not have grown to the nation we have today, we probably would be either a territory or oblast of another power.

In other words, Constitution Day is every bit as important as Independence Day — we might even consider it an extension of the same.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go rustle up some brats.

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