IV – Know

SemperVerus™ Brotherhood/Sisterhood Launches to Help People ‘Stay True’

Comprised of 5 Catalysts + 1 Tactical Agent:
Prepare, Aware, Be, Know, Do, +Self-Defense

SemperVerus™ (Latin for “Stay True”) is a new dynamic motivational communications operative that has as its mission to inform, inspire, persuade, impel, and invigorate men and women to personal life-changing positive commitment, decision-making, and responsible self-defense awareness. It accomplishes this objective through its website and Twitter stream (semperverus.com and @semper_verus), publications, reminder wristbands, the SemperVerus Brotherhood™ and SemperVerus Sisterhood™ pledge, and group presentations.

“The best antidote to a culture shifting to bad behavior is to re-normalize good behavior,” says social observer and author Seth Godin. SemperVerus (the “V” in Verus also stands for the Roman numeral 5) believes the best way for a person to avoid drifting off-course into bad behavior—deviating from his or her life’s “true north” of fulfillment, happiness, and civic well-being—is by attending to 5 transformative catalysts that culminate in 1 tactical agent:

I.    Prepare:  putting your life into proper condition and readiness to successfully handle material and spiritual foreseen and unforeseen circumstances.

II.   Aware:  heightening attentiveness to be alert to—and anticipate—dangerous potentialities and temptations, as well as edifying opportunities.

III.  Be:  developing rich personal leadership character of exemplary moral and ethical quality.

IV.  Know:  becoming a life-long learner to clearly, and with certainty, apprehend situations from which to benefit personally and others.

V.   Do:  resolving to intentionally and skillfully act to accomplish positive and fruitful outcomes.

+    The sum total of these 5 catalysts cultivates the strategic and tactical agent of Self-Defense: the intelligent ability to responsibly protect yourself from menacing spiritual and physical threats.

The SemperVerus website blog is a regularly updated source of developmental information and curated resources for personal leadership and self-defense, with articles focusing on the Prepare, Aware, Be, Know, Do, and Self-Defense categories, such as:

  • A list of links to organizations that support the Second Amendment.
  • A list of links to self-defense training resources.
  • A list of links to mobile apps for instruction in dry fire, self-defense, survival, travel, personal leadership, and more.
  • A list of important judicial decisions regarding self-defense law.
  • A collection of every USA state’s constitution article that establishes the right of armed self-defense for its citizens.
  • The 4 basic rules of gun safety and links to basic gun safety videos.

As a motivational impetus, SemperVerus invites people to join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™ or SemperVerus Sisterhood™, where adherents are invited to pledge to stay true to common virtues as outlined on the website (semperverus.com/brotherhood).

SemperVerus is also the publisher of the pocket-sized booklet, The Case for Biblical Self-Defense (ISBN 978-0-692-08979-8; 26 pp.; $10; available by emailing staytrue@semperverus.com). For those who consider the Bible to be their authoritative guide for life and personal behavior, this booklet answers in the affirmative the question, “Is it biblical and in accordance with Christian faith to be ready to employ lethal force to protect your life from an imminent and wrongful life-threatening attack?”

Contact SemperVerus (staytrue@semperverus.com).

Invite SemperVerus to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

Join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™!

Important Judicial Decisions Regarding Self-Defense Law

The following legal decisions concern the law of self-defense. Some of the rulings are final and others are not. They’re presented here, along with salient excerpts, to be read for their excellent judicial logic about the absolute civil right of armed self-defense as established by the framers of the US Constitution.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, USA State Constitutions Providing for Armed Self-Defense ]

US Supreme Court unanimous ruling: Mexico v. Smith and Wesson (June 5, 2025) by Justice Elana Kagan (pdf).
This unanimous ruling says American gun makers are not liable for cartel violence carried out with their products in Mexico.

“Mexico’s allegations about the manufacturers’ ‘design and marketing decisions’ add nothing of consequence….Mexico here focuses on the manufacturers’ production of ‘military style’ assault weapons, among which it includes AR–15 rifles, AK–47 rifles, and .50 caliber sniper rifles. But those products are both widely legal and bought by many ordinary consumers. (The AR–15 is the most popular rifle in the country.) The manufacturers cannot be charged with assisting in criminal acts just because Mexican cartel members like those guns too.” *  *

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of the SECOND AMENDMENT ]

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting from the denial of certiorari in: David Snope, et al. v. Anthony G. Brown, et al., Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit No. 24–203 (June 2, 2025) (pdf pages 21-28).
“AR–15s are clearly ‘Arms’ under the Second Amendment’s plain text. In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 US 570 (2008), we held that the term ‘Arms’ in this context covers all ‘[w]eapons of offence, or armour of defence’ (explaining that ‘Arms’ include ‘any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another’). Thus, ‘the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.’ AR–15s fall squarely within this category.”

“[W]eapons ‘in common use’ today for self-defense and other lawful purposes remain fully protected….AR–15s appear to fit neatly within that category of protected arms. Tens of millions of Americans own AR–15s, and the ‘overwhelming majority’ of them ‘do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting.’….[A] prohibition of an entire class of ‘arms’ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for th[ese] lawful purpose[s] falls outside the government’s power.”

“Our Constitution allows the American people—not the government—to decide which weapons are useful for self-defense. A constitutional guarantee subject to future judges’ assessments of its usefulness is no constitutional guarantee at all.”

“I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade….And, further percolation is of little value when lower courts in the jurisdictions that ban AR–15s appear bent on distorting this Court’s Second Amendment precedents.”

“I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right. Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right.’” *

Read More…

Prepper Survival, Travel, Leadership, Reader Apps

General Apps

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Dry Fire and Self-Defense Apps ]

PDF and Book Reader Apps

Invite SemperVerus to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

Join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™!

Self-Defense & Church Security Training Directory

Personal Training Resources  |  Church Security Training Resources

The knowledge you acquire when you learn how to drive a car translates into safety and confidence every time you use the car. The same is true with firearms and their use in self-defense. Just as cars are dangerous machines when driven irresponsibly, so, too, are firearms when handled without the proper care, attention, and education they deserve.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

A gun is only as good as the training of its owner. Firearm triggers don’t pull themselves; they require someone to interfere with the physics law of inertia: if a body is at rest, it will remain at rest unless it’s acted upon by a force. That force (us) should be responsibly trained in basic—as well as advanced—gun safety rules, and self-defense principles and law. The following resources offer that training.

When practicing drawing from a holster or generally demonstrating gun handling, you may want to use inert, detailed, and realistic replicas of actual weapons referred to as “Firearm Simulators” or “blueguns” made with strong, steel-reinforced, impact-resistant polyurethane. Ring’s Manufacturing is known for crafting detailed and accurate blueguns. See its extensive line of products here.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Directory of Firearm Podcasts & Video Channels ]