Who Has the Right to 'Bear Arms'?

More than 200 years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court may finally clarify how far second amendment rights go

By Patricia Smith -


Otis McDonald is fed up. His Chicago home has been broken into three times, and he wants to be able to keep a handgun in his house for self-defense.

He can't, however, because Chicago bans the possession of handguns. McDonald, who is 76, is challenging the ban, saying it violates his Second Amendment rights, and the Supreme Court is now considering his case, McDonald v. Chicago. The outcome of this closely watched case could have a powerful impact on the rights of individuals in all 50 states to own guns and the extent to which state and local governments can pass laws restricting gun ownership.
 
McDonald v. Chicago is actually the sequel to a landmark 2008 case in which the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Second Amendment's "right to bear arms" applies to individuals, not just to state militias, as many had interpreted it for more than 200 years. In striking down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court established an individual right to keep a handgun at home for self-defense. That 5-4 ruling, however, applies only to places under federal jurisdiction, like Washington. The current case will determine if that individual right to bear arms applies everywhere else. When McDonald was argued before the Supreme Court in March, comments from the Justices suggested that a majority are prepared to strike down Chicago's ban and rule that the Second Amendment does apply to the states. One of the most disputed passages in the Constitution, the Second Amendment states, in its entirety: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The Bill of Rights The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted in 1791 in response to fears that the Constitution gave the new federal government in Washington too much power. The Bill of Rights was originally a restriction on only the power of the federal government, not the states. It was only after the Civil War, with the passage of the 14th Amendment, that the Supreme Court began to apply most, but not all, of the protections in the Bill of Rights to the states. (The Court has ruled, for example, that the right to a trial by jury does not extend to state courts.)

For three decades, starting in the 1960s, the story of gun control was one of notorious crimes and laws passed in response, beginning with the 1968 federal gun-control law that followed the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for President. In 1994, spurred in part by an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan years earlier, Congress created a national system of background checks for gun buyers and passed an assault-weapons ban (which was allowed to expire in 2004). Today, there are 280 million firearms in private hands in the U.S., and about a third of American households have reported having a gun at home. State and local gun-control measures range from requiring safety locks to outright bans on certain types of ammunition or on gun ownership for felons or the mentally ill.

  Advocates of gun-control laws say that much has changed since 1791, when people kept muskets to be ready for militia service and to hunt for their food. And modern weapons are far deadlier than those of the 18th century: They fire more powerful ammunition and can deliver dozens of shots at a time. In 2006, almost 31,000 Americans died from gun violence, more than in any other country. Gun-rights groups—the most powerful of which is the National Rifle Association—argue that any restrictions on gun ownership infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens. "The only universe of people affected by gun-control laws are law-abiding Americans, since most criminals obtain their firearms on the black market," says Andrew Arulanandam of the N.R.A. Loosening State Gun Restrictions  Amid fears in the gun-rights community that the Obama administration is about to tighten gun restrictions, a number of states have recently loosened their gun laws. (In fact, the President has been largely silent on gun control, and has signed bills allowing guns on Amtrak trains and in national parks. "We have had some successes, but we know that the first chance Obama gets, he will pounce on us," says Wayne LaPierre, head of the N.R.A.)  Montana and Tennessee passed laws exempting themselves from federal regulation of firearms and ammunition made, sold, and used within their borders. (Federal regulators say federal law supersedes such state measures; the Montana law is already being challenged in court.)  Virginia lawmakers have approved a bill that allows people to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. This change comes less than three years after the shooting at Virginia Tech that claimed 33 lives and prompted a renewed push for tighter gun control. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Arizona and Wyoming are considering whether to allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit.  There's also been a push recently among gun-rights activists to exercise their right to carry guns openly in states that allow it. Starbucks, in particular, has been a target for gun owners in Virginia and California, who have walked in and ordered their lattes with handguns strapped to their waists. Businesses can, in fact, ban guns from their premises, even in "open carry" states; California Pizza Kitchen, for example, has banned guns in its restaurants, while Starbucks has not.  Why Gun Control Will Likely Survive Even if the Supreme Court does use the McDonald case to extend Second Amendment rights to the states by overturning Chicago's handgun ban, it will not necessarily mean that all gun-control laws are unconstitutional. "Even when we've applied provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states, we have allowed the states substantial latitude to impose reasonable regulations," noted Justice Anthony M. Kennedy during oral arguments. "Why can't we do the same thing with firearms?" Justice Antonin Scalia made a similar point in the Heller ruling two years ago, suggesting that all sorts of restrictions might pass Second Amendment muster, including, "the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms." Comments like these have been cause for optimism among gun-control advocates. As Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence puts it, "The Court went to great lengths to state that the Heller decision is not an impediment to common-sense gun laws."  The specifics of what kind of restrictions are constitutional and which are not will likely take years—and many more court cases—to hammer out. "There will be a lot of litigation," predicts Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "But the vast majority of gun-control laws are going to survive."
(The New York Times Upfront, Vol. 142, April 19, 2010)

Constitution Check: Does the Second Amendment need to be amended?

 By Lyle Denniston - 4/15/2014     

          

Lyle Denniston looks at recent statements from retired Justice John Paul Stevens about limiting gun rights, and a political reality that runs counter to that idea.

THE STATEMENT AT ISSUE:

“As a result of [Supreme Court] rulings, the Second Amendment, which was adopted to protect the states from federal interference with their power to ensure that their militias were ‘well regulated,’ has given federal judges the ultimate power to determine the validity of state regulations of both civilian and militia-related uses of arms.  That anomalous result can be avoided by adding five words to the text of the Second Amendment to make ti unambiguously conform to the original intent of the draftsmen.  As so amended, it would read: ‘A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed.’ ”

 – Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in an opinion column posted online April 11 by The Washington Post.  It is excerpted from his new book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution.” The article was republished in The Post on April 13.

WE CHECKED THE CONSTITUTION, AND…

European Social Democracies and Gun Control

By Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D. - 4/14/2014  

Over the years, in both commentaries and letters to the editor in my local newspaper, I have noted the naïve expression of many letter writers and liberal pundits, who glossing over the Constitutional protections guaranteed by the 4th and 5th Amendments, opine, “If you don’t have anything to hide, then you don’t have anything to fear!”

 When the Soviet KGB needed culprits, their motto was “Show me the man and I will show you his crime.” In other words, charges can be brought against anyone, once the State has decided to trample on the rights of any targeted citizen.

In the U.S, ask David Koresh and Vicky Weaver, and all those little known Americans, such as Carl Drega (http://www.haciendapub.com/articles/ballad-carl-drega-book-review) and more recently John Gerald Quinn, whose home was subjected to a “no-knock” raid (once referred to as “dynamic entries”) based solely on the suspicion there was a gun in his house, or Bruce Abramski and all those lawful American gun owners who over the years have been victimized by the ATF.

Government Cattle Heist: Armed Cowboys Surround Federal Agents. . .Old West Returns

 By Ryan Gorman and Dan Miller and Meghan Keneally and Jessica Jerreat - 4/12/14                                  

Ranchers in southern Nevada have won a battle over the federal government’s round up of his cattle on public land after a week-long standoff with agents.

The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it would stop trying to seize the cattle of Cliven Bundy after armed militia gathered in Nevada.

Shortly after the deal was agreed, about 100 armed protesters, some on horse back, headed to a corral to demand the BLM also hands back cattle it had already taken.

Armed members of the BLM and the Bundy family were also reported to be involved in tense talks about the cattle.

The 2nd amendment examined by a historical language scholar - The Unabridged Second Amendment.

By J Neil Schulman 4/11/2014

 

The Unabridged Second Amendment

If you wanted to know all about the Big Bang, you’d ring up Carl Sagan, right? And if you wanted to know about desert warfare, the man to call would be Norman Schwarzkopf, no question about it. But who would you call if you wanted the top expert on American usage, to tell you the meaning of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution?

That was the question I asked A.C. Brocki, editorial coordinator of the Los Angeles Unified School District and formerly senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Publishers — who himself had been recommended to me as the foremost expert on English usage in the Los Angeles school system. Mr. Brocki told me to get in touch with Roy Copperud, a retired professor of journalism at the University of Southern California and the author of American Usage and Style: The Consensus.

 

A little research lent support to Brocki’s opinion of Professor Copperud’s expertise.

 

Roy Copperud was a newspaper writer on major dailies for over three decades before embarking on a a distinguished 17-year career teaching journalism at USC. Since 1952, Copperud has been writing a column dealing with the professional aspects of journalism for Editor and Publisher, a weekly magazine focusing on the journalism field.

NYC Cop arrested at India airport. . .carrying ammunition

Posted - 4/11/14

 

Some of New York's most strident gun control advocates have rushed to the defense of an unwitting traveler who was arrested at an airport for a technical violation of a draconian gun law.  Has a new era of sanity arrived in the Big Apple?  Not really.  This defendant happens to be an NYPD officer who is alleged to have violated India's strict firearm regulations.

On March 10^th, NYPD Officer Manny Encarnacion was arrested when officials at the airport in New Delhi discovered three rounds of ammunition in his baggage.  New York City's NBC affiliate reports that Encarnacion had been to the shooting range before his trip and put three rounds into a jacket pocket. Encarnacion later packed that jacket, forgetting that it contained the ammunition.  Since his arrest, he has not been allowed to leave India and faces charges that could land him seven years in prison.

Gun group applauds Army officer's call for allowing arms on base

By Chad Groening - 4/10/2014  

A Second Amendment advocate says the concerns of a Fort Hood soldier who was defenseless during the recent massacre at the Texas Army post illustrates the need for service members to be armed on military installations.

The Washington Times reported on Tuesday that a Fort Hood soldier has urged lawmakers in Austin to allow personal firearms to be carried on base. In his letter, 1st Lt. Patrick Cook described the "utter helplessness" he felt when he reached for his belt "for something that wasn't there" as he and 14 other soldiers found themselves barricaded in a room as "a madman with a .45 pistol" fired away and kicked at the door.

Pentagon: Despite Navy Yard, Fort Hood shootings, not safe to allow armed military personnel

By: Claudette Roulo  - 4/6/2014

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2014 – The Defense Department does not support allowing its personnel to carry weapons on military installations, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said.
“The department took a close look at this after the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood and again after [last year’s] Washington Navy Yard shooting,” Warren said.

Such a move would create a number of complications, he said, not the least of which is safety.

“Another reason is the … prohibitive cost of the training, the qualification requirements [and] recertification,” the colonel said.
There are legal obstacles as well, he said. Local, state and federal policy requirements pose numerous challenges.

Warren pointed at the Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968, which makes it illegal for persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes to possess firearms or ammunition, as one example. Service members convicted of such crimes may continue to serve under certain circumstances, but still are prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.

Investigators are looking for potential gaps in the mental health care system or in security procedures, Warren said. One aspect of the investigation will cover whether red flags were raised about the alleged shooter by mental health professionals, he noted.

“It’s entirely too early to make a judgment. … We have to let the investigation unfold, and then we have to examine what we can do better,” he said.

Fort Hood, Gun-Free Zones and Progressive Insanity

By Matt Barber - 4/8/2014

They say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place. Not true. It does if you stand high atop a cliff’s edge waving a lightning rod above your head during a thunderstorm. In fact, in the unlikely event you survive the first strike, it’ll keep right on striking until you climb down.

So-called “gun-free zones” are lightning rods for mass murder. It’s time we climbed down from the cliff’s edge.

America mourns yet another needless and preventable mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. When will gun-grabbing liberals learn?

Self Protection - 83-year-old homeowner shoots home invader

By NRA - 4/5/2014

 

An 83-year-old man was at home in Huntsville, Ala. when there was a knock at his backdoor from a man claiming to need help. When the elderly homeowner did not immediately open the door, the man forced his way inside the home by kicking in the door. The homeowner responded to the threat by retrieving a handgun and shooting the home invader in the chest. Upon being struck, the criminal fled.

 

 

Another Tragedy at Fort Hood

By Tim Schmidt - USCCA FOUNDER - 4/6/2014

It is with a heavy heart that I once again, on behalf of everyone here at the USCCA, extend our sincerest condolences to the victims and families affected by Wednesday's Fort Hood tragedy. I have to admit that this latest shooting stirs up many emotions in me. Sadness. Anger. Betrayal. And, of course, the ever-pervasive question: "When will it end?" The tragedy in Texas serves as a chilling reminder of two important, unresolved issues affecting our great nation today: the delicate topic of guns and mental illness, and the danger of disarming our soldiers.

Self-Protection the Foundation of the 2nd Amendment - A Historical Review

Don B. Kates Jr.

Introduction

From the enactment of the Bill of Rights through most of the 20th Century, the Second Amendment seems to have been understood to guarantee to every law-abiding responsible adult the right to possess arms. Until the mid-20th Century courts and commentaries (the two earliest having been before Congress when it voted on the Second Amendment) deemed that the Amendment "confirmed [the people] in their right to keep and bear their private arms", "their own arms", albeit 19th Century Supreme Court decisions held it subject to the non-incorporation doctrine under which none of the Bill of Rights were deemed inapplicable against the states. [1] In a 1939 case which is its only full treatment, the Supreme Court accepted that private persons may invoke the Second Amendment, but held that it guarantees them only freedom of choice of militia-type weapons, i.e. high quality handguns and rifles, but not "gangster weapons" like sawed-off shotguns, switchblade knives and (arguably) "Saturday Night Specials. [2

Detroit residents use Second Amendment to defend their homes

By Detroit Free Press (MI) - 3/29/2014  

Frances Williams said she knows the people on her block near St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church on Detroit's west side.

Good people. Law-abiding people. Homeowners.

She wiped a tear as she talks about the anguish she believes her friend of 20 years and neighbor a few doors away must be going through. Police said the neighbor shot and killed two men trying to break into his house on Dexter this morning.

It's unfortunate that two people died, but the break-ins have to stop, she said.

U.S. Supreme Court Gives Broad Reading to Federal Firearm Prohibition for "Domestic Violence

By NRA - 3/28/ 2014

 

Since 1996, the so-called "Lautenberg Amendment" (named for its sponsor, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)), has banned the acquisition or possession of firearms by anyone convicted of a "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence."  Applicable crimes are limited to those that have "as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon" and that are committed by persons with a specified relationship to the victim, such as a current or former spouse or a parent.   The prohibition applies no matter when the offense occurred and can include convictions that predated the 1996 law.

Pennsylvania: Anti-Gun State Lawmakers Attempting to Derail Firearms Preemption Bill

By NRA - 3/26/2014

 

Anti-gun lawmakers in Harrisburg are attempting to kill an important firearms preemption bill, and have filed 122 amendments in an attempt to derail House Bill 2011.  HB 2011 passed in the House Judiciary Committee by a 20 to 5 vote on March 18, and is scheduled for consideration by the full House of Representatives after they return from their legislative recess on Monday, March 31.
Sponsored by state Representative Mark Keller (R-86), HB 2011 would strengthen Pennsylvania’s firearms preemption law to further ensure that firearm and ammunition laws are consistent throughout the state.  Pennsylvania law specifically states:

"No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth." 

 

State firearms preemption was enacted by the state legislature to avoid the possibility of 2,639 separate gun laws across the Commonwealth.  However, over recent years, nearly fifty local governments have knowingly enacted gun control ordinances in violation of the state firearms preemption law.

A myriad of local gun laws makes compliance very difficult and nearly impossible for responsible gun owners.  This type of system creates a scenario where gun owners and sportsmen have difficulty even knowing about certain laws, much less understanding them.

Ukraine Gun Owners Association Demands Their Own Second Amendment

By Mary Chastain - 3/24/2014                      

The Ukraine Gun Owners Association wants the new government to add their own right to bear arms to the country's constitution.

As of today Ukrainian Gun Owners Association will start to work on the preparation of amendments to the Constitution, which will provide an unconditional right for Ukrainian citizens to bear arms.

People gathered in Independence Square in Kiev after President Viktor Yanukovich rejected a European Union trade deal for a $15 billion bailout from Russia in November. It was relatively peaceful for three months, but violence escalated on February 18. Over 70 people died during the week and amateur videos showed snipers shooting at unarmed protesters.

People should have the right to bear arms, which will be put in written into the Constitution. Authorities should not and will not be stronger than its people!
Armed people are treated with respect!

America's founding fathers implemented the second amendment because it is a natural right for people to defend themselves.
According to GunPolicy.org, Ukraine's gun laws are described as restrictive. The government owns seven million guns while there are only three million guns for private citizens. A citizen must prove they have a legitimate reason to own a firearm.

How Many Times Should You Shoot?

 

Kevin Michalowski - March 21, 2014

                        

From time to time you will hear media reports about some bad guy getting shot a whole bunch of times. Typically the situation involves the police shooting someone multiple times. In the days that follow, community activists come out of the woodwork, claiming “excessive force” was used. That will be followed by claims that the dead man was “…a good boy.”

Well, I won’t delve too deeply into the idea that some “good boys” are good boys right up until the time they pick up a weapon and threaten other people with imminent death or great bodily harm. Once they do that, they are no longer good boys.

Right now I’m talking about what it takes to stop those good boys turned bad. How much force is reasonable?

Public housing tenants have a right to bear arms, even in common areas

By Eugene Volokh - 3/19/2014

 

Public housing tenants have a right to bear arms, even in common areas. . .So holds Tuesday's 

Delaware Supreme Court decision in Doe v. Wilmington Housing Authority) (Del. Mar. 18, 2014). The court applied the Delaware Constitution’s right to bear arms provision — “A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and State, and for hunting and recreational use” — and the court noted that this language may justify broader protection than that given by the Second Amendment. Still, the precedent is likely to prove influential in other states as well, since the case deals with having guns for self-defense, which D.C. v. Heller has held is covered by the Second Amendment. (If the case had dealt with hunting and recreational use, for instance, the matter might well have been different.) An excerpt:

Dr. David Katz: Don't invoke 2nd Amendment to put bullet holes in 1st

By Dr. David Katz - 03/15/14
I find it incredible, and deeply disheartening, that the confirmation of our next U.S. surgeon general may come undone because Dr. Vivek Murthy has expressed his support for widely favored gun control measures, such as an assault weapons ban.

Now, before you start taking shots at me, let's be clear: I am not writing about gun control today. I have done that before, and weathered the attendant barrage. Today, I am writing about bills, not bullets; dialogue, not Derringers.

The most ardent proponents of gun rights and the most impassioned advocates for gun control are obligated to come together and acknowledge the relevance of the Bill of Rights. Interpretations of the Second Amendment vary, but the fundamental relevance of the Bill of Rights and its amendments to the ineluctable aspects of being American do not. We are American; these are our rights.

NFL Bands Off-Duty Cops from Carrying Guns to Games

By Fox News - 3/11/2014
The New York Police Department is considering a challenge against the National Football League policy that bans off-duty police offers from carrying their weapons into stadiums. Two Minnesota police organizations have sued the NFL, claiming it violates state law.

The NFL's policy, adopted last September, prohibits firearms in any league facilities, including team offices and practice facilities as well as stadiums. The only exceptions in the policy are for law enforcement officers that are specifically assigned to work an NFL game or event as security or for private security contractors with valid licenses and firearms permits.

Gun control: free speech and sign laws

By Buffalo News (NY)- 3/10/2014
The Hamburg home owner whose sign protesting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his gun control legislation says that he is at war with town officials, but over free speech, not guns.

"They started this war, and we're going to finish it," E. Scott Zawierucha said Friday after Hamburg's two town justices removed themselves from the case against him to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Zawierucha, who is charged with violating the town's sign law, said his motive is to preserve the rights of other citizens when it comes to free speech.

Top 6 pocket guns

By: Richard L. Johnson -  11/11/2013
One of the most convenient ways to carry a handgun for self-defense is in a pocket.  With the right sized gun and a good pocket holster, a gun can ride comfortably and unnoticed in all but the tightest of pants.

Here are my top six guns for pocket carry.

Kahr PM9/CM9 

I think it is hard to beat the Kahr PM9 and CM9 pistols for pocket carry.  They offer exceptional reliability and accuracy with a smooth trigger and good sights.

Like all of the guns on this list, these pistols are double action only.  Both are chambered in 9mm, and use six round magazines.  Unloaded, both guns weigh less than a pound in part due to their polymer frames.

NRA Response to Facebook Policy Change

By NRA - 3/52014

The NRA enjoys 150 times more support on Facebook than Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns. That’s why Bloomberg and the gun control groups he funds tried to pressure Facebook into shutting down discussion of Second Amendment issues on its social media platforms. Bloomberg failed. NRA members and our supporters will continue to have a platform to exercise their First Amendment rights in support of their Second Amendment freedoms. – Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action.

 -NRA-Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America's oldest civil rights and sportsmen's group. More than five million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation's leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services. Be sure to follow the NRA on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalRifleAssociation and on Twitter @NRA.

Brady Law Has Done Little To Keep Guns Out Of Criminals' Hands

A13_ISSUES By John Lott Jr. - 3/3/2014s Daily3/3/ 
  

Last Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the so-called Brady Law, a federal gun control in honor of James Brady, Ronald Reagan's former press secretary who was wounded in John Hinckley's assassination attempt.

Since it requires background checks on all guns purchased from federally licensed firearms dealers, gun control advocates celebrated the law's purported effectiveness.
The description by the Capitol newspaper The Hill was typical: "The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which took effect 20 years ago Friday, has blocked more than 2 million firearm sales, preventing 'countless' killings and other crimes, gun control advocates said at an event to mark the anniversary ... ."

On Friday, the Brady Campaign claimed that half those blocked from purchasing a gun — over 1 million — were felons.

Carrying guns in public in California

By Jason Swindle/Columnist - 3/3/2014
Times-Georgian
A pro-Second Amendment decision recently came down from one of the most unlikely appellate courts in the Republic; the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit is considered to be the most liberal court in the federal judiciary.  It also has a history of hostility to constitutional rights protected under the 2nd Amendment. 

However, in Peruta v. San Diego, a three-judge panel of the Court affirmed the right of law-abiding citizens to carry handguns for lawful protection in public.

Don't believe mainstream media mistruths about firearms research

By John Lott - 2/27/2014

FoxNews.com

If we are to believe the mainstream media, the powerful NRA has used its political muscle to keep people ignorant of how guns impact our safety. They are supposedly to blame for the elimination of firearms research. This is all a result of a 1996 amendment to the federal budget stating “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”

Thus last month, ABC News reported: “In 1996 the NRA successfully lobbied Congress to pull millions of dollars out of government-funded firearms research. This has resulted in essentially a 17 year moratorium on major studies about gun injuries.”

Gun Advocates Say Pick for US Surgeon General Will Use Position For Gun Control

By Washington Times (DC) - 2/27/2014

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, is objecting to President Obama's nominee to be the next Surgeon General of the United States because of what he says is a history of political advocacy and push for gun controls.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, Mr. Paul writes that he has "serious concerns" about Dr. Vivek Murthy's ability to "impartially serve as 'the Nation's Doctor.' "
Mr. Paul notes that Dr. Murthy is the co-founder of Doctors for America, a project of the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

"The primary policy goals of Dr. Murthy's organization have been focused on advancing stricter gun control laws and promoting the Affordable Care Act," Mr. Paul, an ophthalmologist, wrote in a letter dated Feb. 25.

Right-to-Carry permit holder fells robber - Detroit

By FOX - 2/25/2014

A woman was heading inside after pulling her car into the garage at her Detroit, Mich. home when a man armed with a gun attempted to rob her. In response, the resident, a Right-to-Carry permit holder, drew a gun and shot the attacker, killing him.

The shooting marked the third recorded incident in a week in which armed Detroit residents defended themselves from criminal attack. This string of defensive gun uses follows a late-January statement by Detroit Police Chief James Craig, in which the he noted, “I did, in fact, say that good Americans, good Detroiters, if responsible, could get CPLs, and that it could — emphasis on the word ‘could’ — be a deterrent to violent crime.

 

US Supreme Court declines challenges to gun laws

By Lawrence Hurley - 2/24/2014  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to wade into the politically volatile issue of gun control by leaving intact three court rulings rejecting challenges to federal and state laws.

The court's decision not to hear the cases represented a loss for gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, which was behind two of the challenges.

The first case involved a challenge by the NRA to a Texas law that prevents 18-20 year olds from carrying handguns in public. It also raised the broader question of whether there is a broad right under the Second Amendment to bear arms in public.

CNN to Cancel Gun Hating Limey

By Washington Times (DC) - 2/24/2014  

CNN has given up on trying to make Piers Morgan the new Larry King after a three-year run and will pull the plug on the Briton's 9 p.m. talk show, which has been finishing far behind rivals Megyn Kelly on Fox News Channel and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.

According to Nielsen ratings from last week, "Piers Morgan Live" was seen nightly by just 270,000 viewers nationwide and only 50,000 people in the key advertising demographic of Americans ages 25 to 54. Ms. Kelly and Ms. Maddow had, respectively, audiences of more than 2 million and 900,000 overall and more than 350,000 and 220,000 in that key 25 to 54 age group.

Gun Rights Supporter Asked to Remove T-Shirt While Voting in Texas

By Fox News - 2/24/2014

A Texas man trying to cast his ballot at the local courthouse nearly lost his right to vote because he was wearing a shirt which supported his right to bear arms.

Chris Driskill was wearing the black T-shirt (above photo) which read 2nd Amendment -- America's Original Homeland Security.

Driskill was asked to turn the shirt inside out or leave. Why?

Ironically, Driskill was voting on a proposition on expanded support for the Second Amendment and the places where a concealed weapon can be legally carried. Driskill, who works as a security guard in Houston, apparently ran afoul of  Texas election law that bars campaigning for any candidate, measure or political party within 100 feet of polling place. His T-shirt could be construed as campaigning in support of gun rights under the law. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor.

He was ultimately allowed to vote after borrowing a suit jacket from a local Republican candidate who was outside the courthouse.

Definition of "Militia". . . .in the 2nd Amendment

2nd Amendment"---A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."


The co-author of the 2nd Amendment was asked, what is this "militia" you speak of. . . .

“I ask, Sir, what is the militia?  It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” — Founding Father, George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment.

More Guns, Less Crime

Posted by Wall Street Journal - 2/20/2014
A new FBI report says that violent crime continues to fall nationwide, which might annoy liberals because gun purchases continue to rise.

In the first six months of 2013, murders fell by nearly 7 percent, compared with the same period in 2012. Aggravated assaults fell by 6.6 percent, and robberies are down 1.8 percent. "All of the offenses in the violent crime category murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, and robbery showed decreases when data from the first six months of 2013 were compared with data from the first six months of 2012," according to the FBI.

Overall, violent crime in the U.S. fell by 5.4 percent. Burglaries, larceny and auto thefts also decreased.

Mother uses semi-automatic rifle to protect her children in Detroit, Mich.

Posted - 2/20/2014

A mother was at home with her children in Detroit, Mich. when three men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, broke into the house. The mother responded by retrieving a semi-automatic rifle and warning the intruders that she was armed. When the criminals persisted despite the warning, the mother fired at the home invaders. At first, all three intruders retreated outside the home, but the one armed with a pistol decided to try to enter the home again. The criminal's reentry prompted another round of gunfire from the mother, at which point the armed home invader fled for good.

Police captured the trio a short time later.

Colorado sheriffs stand up, resist new restrictions on gun rights

By: Raquel Okyay - 2/16/2014

County sheriffs unhappy with gun control laws enacted in the Centennial State last year remain steadfast in undoing unenforceable and unconstitutional laws.

Technically every law enforcement agency in the state is committing a crime, said Weld County Sheriff John B. Cooke, the first-named plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Colorado Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, Jr., a Democrat, who was elected into office in 2010 with 51 percent of the vote.

Under state law when one individual sells or loans a firearm to another, that transfer must be conducted through a Federal Firearms Licensee, said Cooke. The deputies come on duty and are transferring weapons without a federal firearm license making it an illegal transfer.

"Pop-Tart" gun bill would not punish children with simulated weapons at school

By Kathleen McGrory
Herald/Times

The Florida affiliate of the National Rifle Association has a new priority: the right to bear Pop-Tarts.

The group is supporting a proposal that would prevent children from being disciplined for playing with simulated weapons in school.

That includes brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food, according to the bill.

The language refers to a Maryland boy who was suspended for chewing his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. He was later given lifetime membership to the National Rifle Association.

Liberal Ninth Circuit Court blows a hole in gun control

By: John Hayward - 2/14/2014

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, aka the Ninth Circus, is hardly a bastion of judicial conservatism.  That makes its decision striking down California gun-control laws all the more earthshaking.  As is often the case with landmark court rulings, the story is far from over there is some more wrangling to be done in the Ninth Circuit before the scene shifts to the Supreme Court, which is likely to intervene due to conflicts with other circuit court rulings.  The next step will probably be a full court review of the 2-1 ruling from this three-judge panel.

Perhaps we will come to view Thursday's ruling as the beginning of the end of the gun-control movement as we have known it in the United States.  If this decision holds all the way through the Supreme Court, some core tenets of that movement will soundly defeated for a very long time to come.  For the moment, as SFGate reports, we have a challenge to a county ordinance that's already blossomed into the evisceration of California's permit system:

Disturbing gun fantasies of the Ruling Class

By: John Hayward - 2/14/2014
The big story out of California is a possibly mortal blow struck against the gun-control movement as it exists today.  Part of that story involves the assertion of dignity and independence by citizens who don't think their inalienable right to keep and bear arms should be a crumb they beg off their political masters table.  The Second Amendment is a powerful statement of citizen supremacy over the State: we have the right to defend ourselves, not place blind and helpless faith in the ability of the government to protect us, and yes indeedy, that means we will hold weapons that pose a serious obstacle to tyrannical ambition.

Why Boston's Mayor's Gun-Buyback Program Is Moronic

Arrests aren't the only thing, but they are a big thing.

By David S. Bernstein - 2/10/2014

Well, the new mayor of Boston made it almost exactly a month in office before doing something so utterly moronic that I feel compelled to heap verbal abuse upon him.

Marty Walsh has decided to institute a gun-buyback program.

Let me try to explain this through analogy: trying to reduce gun violence through a gun buyback program is like trying to reduce motor-vehicle accidents through a used-car trade-in offer.

If you'd like a more extensive argument, you can read the diatribe I penned when Tom Menino tried the strategy, back in mid 2006. I have data showing clearly that the level of gun violence remained virtually unchanged, both in the short term and for the next three years or so, after the buyback.

SIG P220 review: Ultimate .45?

By: Richard L. Johnson - 6/1/2013

Get the pitchforks and torches folks, I'm going to commit firearms heresy.  For my money the SIG P220 is the best .45 fighting pistol on the market.  Yes! better than the 1911.

How can I suggest that something other than the 1911 is the best fighting handgun?  After all, the 1911 is called the 1911 because that is the year the United States adopted it as the Army's official sidearm.  In addition to the great ergonomics and high manufacturing quality, the P220 is reliable.  Absolutely reliable.  And for a fighting handgun, reliability must be absolute.

The SIG Sauer P220 is a full size handgun chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge.  The gun has been around since the 1970's and appears to be more popular today than it has ever been.  Currently, there are a multitude of different models and variations of the gun, each of which attracts different shooters to the pistol.

Supreme Court to decide whether to hear cases regarding right to "bear" arms

By FoxNews.com - 2/09/2014
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this month whether to hear two cases seeking clarification on what the Constitution's framers intended in granting citizens the right to not only own but also bear arms.

Lyle Denniston, a National Constitution Center adviser, writes on the Philadelphia Inquirer's website that the National Rifle Association has, of late, brought two cases before the Supreme Court challenging prevailing legal wisdom that while the Second Amendment grants U.S. citizens the right to own or keep arms, that right does not necessarily extend to their ability to bear arms outside of their personal residences.

ABC News reports on guns mislead Americans

By John Lott - 2/7/2014
FoxNews.com
Gun control advocates not only push new fees and taxes on guns to reduce ownership, but they also employ another tactic: scaring people into not owning guns.

Last week, on January 31, ABC News saturated its news programs with the alleged danger of gun ownership.

It started early in the day with a segment on Good Morning America, then came a report on the evening news, and finally an entire hour devoted to the subject on "20/20."

Scaremongering about guns costs lives by making us less safe and turning people into sitting ducks for criminals.

 

The reports all focused on the dangers guns pose for children.

Although a producer for ABC News spent hours asking me questions about this subject before the reports aired on various news programs, our discussions seemed to have had no impact.

What I told them just didn't fit the type of story they wanted to tell.

Mayor: group's gun agenda is wrong

By: The Poughkeepsie Journal - 2/6/2014
I'm the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City.

I'm a life member of the National Rifle Association and a former member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, or MAIG, started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.

I'm no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I'm not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did.

MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives.

Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.

Negroes and the Gun: A Conversation

By: Raquel Okyay - 2/2/2014
A professor of law and author of  Negroes And The Gun  told Guns & Patriots his newly released book describes the mostly undocumented historical account of blacks bearing arms.

I grew up in rural West Virginia.  Everybody I knew had guns, said Nicholas J. Johnson a professor of law at Fordham University, a Jesuit college located in New York City.  In a score of scholarly articles Johnson has been covering the Second Amendment topic for the past 20 years.

The book is an extension of my scholarships, said the Harvard Law School graduate.

Historically blacks were targeted for gun control, he said. It is explicit as early as 1680 in Colonial America.

2nd Amendment right limited by state lines?

By Bob Unruh -2/3/2014                          

The U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly has sided with defenders of the Second Amendment, ruling that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to bear arms and that states cannot unreasonably restrict that right.

There’s also a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court considering whether or not states can limit the right to self-defense to a citizen’s private home.

Now, in a related move, U.S senators have proposed a law to establish that the right to bear arms cannot be restricted by political boundaries. The bill would establish that a permit to carry a concealed weapon in one state is valid in all states that allow concealed-carry.

Negroes and the Gun: The early NAACP championed armed self-defense

By Prof. Nicholas Johnson - 1/30/2014

When W.E.B. Dubois patrolled his home with a shotgun after the 1906 Atlanta race riot, he was an aberration. But not how you think. Dubois reports that he was unusual among his contemporaries because until that point he did not own a gun.

Dubois's gun purchase and his aggressive statements following the riot were not passion-of-the-moment things that he would regret. They were part of a continuing engagement of the practice and philosophy of armed self-defense. As editor of the NAACP's flagship magazine The Crisis, Dubois continued to champion armed self-defense as a core private interest. Indeed, in some instances, Dubois seemed to cast self-defense as a duty. After a lynching in Gainesville, Fla., he wrote: No Colored man can read an account of the recent lynching in Gainesville without being ashamed of his people. Without resistance they let a white mob whom they outnumbered two to one, torture, harry and murder. In the last analysis lynching of Negroes is going to stop when the cowardly mob is faced by effective guns in the hands of people determined to sell their souls dearly.

President Obama says he will continue gun control push without Congress

By Jeff Mason; Editing by Peter Cooney - 1/28/2014

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he would continue to work to reduce violence in the United States despite a lack of support in Congress for gun control measures he failed to get passed last year.

"I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say 'we are not afraid,' and I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools," Obama said, according to the text of his State of the Union address.

The what and why of Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms

By Prof. Nicholas Johnson - 1/27/2014

Much of my scholarship over the last two decades has focused on gun issues. Some find this an odd specialty for someone like me. Negroes and the Gun is a sort of answer to people who wonder and often have asked, how is it that a black law professor at a New York City law school comes to write sympathetically about the Second Amendment and gun rights. But Negroes and the Gun also demands its own preliminary explanation.

No one really uses the word Negro anymore. I haven't said it out loud in decades. So the title of this book is odd in that sense. But in other more important ways the title is entirely apt. Some will recognize the title as a variation on Robert Williams' memoir, Negroes with Guns (readers will become acquainted with Williams in the first chapter and again in Chapter Seven as he provokes a conflict with the NAACP that captures the central theme of the black tradition of arms). Negroes is also evocative of the deep roots of the black tradition of arms which emerged at a time in the American story when most black people had the legal status of mules and would have been gratified to be called Negroes.

Top 10 gun-toting American politicians

By Jarrett Stepman - 3/12/2013

America's strong gun culture has produced a large number of statesmen with firearm expertise. In fact, with the number of veterans that have served as elected officials, it is almost impossible to come up with a list of the best.

Here are the top ten politicians that could handle a gun and publicly demonstrated that expertise after they were elected.

1.) David Crockett

David Crockett

The hero of the Alamo was first known to Americans as a rough-hewn backwoods hunter from Tennessee who performed incredible feats of daring on the frontier. Most Americans today know him as Davy Crockett, but contemporaries in the early 19^th century almost always called him David Crockett during his lifetime. However, Crockett did in fact have a .40 caliber flintlock rifle named Old Betsey that was named after his sister.

In between sessions of Congress, Crockett would hunt and provide for himself and his family, once killing six buck elk in one day and a staggering forty-seven bears in one season! He would dazzle audiences with incredible displays of marksmanship, shooting holes through coins, and was a wonderful story teller of his own exploits on the frontier.

Yale pediatric study against guns is spiked with gang-bangers up to 20 years old

By Bob Owens - 1/27/2014

If at first you don't succeed, manufacture results to your liking: that seems to be the trick to getting sufficiently scary numbers into a study chaired by Dr. John Leventhal, a professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine.

Leventhal's study, published today in Pediatrics, says that 10,000 children are killed or injured by guns each year, but to get to that magic five figures, he has to do a statistical shuck and jive:

Studying the 2009 Kids' Inpatient Database (KID), which tracks pediatric hospital stays, the Yale researchers discovered 7,391 children under age 20 had been hospitalized for firearm related injuries, with 453 of those patients dying. The data in KID has been gathered since 1997 as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, with 2009 the most recent release.

Most of the injuries, 4,559, resulted from assaults, while 2,149 were from accidents and 270, the result of suicide attempts. The most common types of injury, were open wounds at 52 percent and fractures at 50 percent. Brain injuries were more common in the younger kids, most of whom were hurt in accidental shootings.

Yes, you read that bolded text correctly. The study dramatically inflates its count of children by including adults aged 18-19, and includes attacks (assaults) by criminal youths involved in drug-dealing, turf wars between gangs, drive-by shootings, home invasions, armed robbery etc., not just poor eight-year-old Timmy or five-year-old Sally finding an unsecured firearm (unsecured firearms are themselves quite troubling and preventable, but an entirely separate issue).

3-D gun bans mean more crime and violence

By: Raquel Okyay - 1/19/2014
Modern technology makes gun control measures even weaker as criminals continue to unlawfully use firearms while law-abiding citizens continue to follow the law.

Three-D metal printers make guns that look and function in exactly the same way as any metal gun would, said John Richard Lott Jr., founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, a research and education organization that studies the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety.

Proposed laws that seek to regulate the purchase of 3-D printers will have an opposite impact on violent crimes just as gun bans or background checks do, said Lott.  It is already very difficult to stop criminals from getting a particular gun to use, it is simply impossible to try and stop them from printing-off their own gun.

South Carolina bill allowing guns in bars, restaurants closer to becoming law

By State (Columbia, SC) -  1/17/2014  

A bill to allow concealed firearms in businesses that serve alcohol cleared a critical hurdle Thursday as the state Senate passed the proposal without the midnight curfew that Senate Democrats had insisted on.

The bill that the Senate returned to the House would allow people who have licenses to carry concealed weapons to carry guns into bars or restaurants as long as they do not drink alcohol. Businesses also could decide not to allow firearms on their property by posting signs. The Senate vote, 34 to 3, was on an amendment to improve some of the bill's language -- changes senators said were minor.

If the House gives the bill final approval -- as it is expected to do -- and Gov. Nikki Haley signs it into law, it will prove a victory for 2nd Amendment advocates who had tried but failed to pass similar measures in the past. The proposal found new momentum last year in the national debate about gun rights that was sparked by mass shootings around the country.

Home invaders didn't expect to see a .357 pointed their way - 2nd Amendment at work

By Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA) - 1/16/2014
Robbery attempt of armed man fails. 3 suspects in custody, 1 at large.

Francis Muchanic, Erica Major, Dylan Brewer and Evan Hess thought they had the robbery planned.

They didn't anticipate the .357 Smith and Wesson revolver in their target's hands. The fallout from the unseen variable led to three of them falling into police custody while one remains at large.

State police at Gibson said Mr. Muchanic walked up to David Braman's Creek Road home in New Milford and began to open the door just before 8 p.m. Monday. Mr. Muchanic, 31, of Susquehanna, said he was having car trouble and was hoping Mr. Braman would let him use the phone.

The 69-year-old man, armed with a revolver, knew it was a lie when he saw the ski mask and handgun.

Blame Philly gun violence partly on Iraq, mayor says

By Philadelphia Daily News  Mayor Street said yesterday that the Iraq war is a contributing factor in the frustrating increase in gun violence and homicides on the streets of the city. Speaking to the Daily News editorial board, Street said the daily dose of violence streaming back in news reports from the Iraqi battlefields has changed attitudes in the city. "I believe the fact that we are a country at war has something to do with the attitude of people in the streets. Let me tell you, it's not just this city. I have seen it everywhere and I've talked to people a lot about it," Street said. "We are a country that is becoming less and less civil. We are a place where people will pull out a gun and shoot it at the drop of a hat," he said. He recalled the shock 10 or more years ago when reports began to surface of youths brutally beating another child over a pair of sneakers. Today, he said, adults draw guns and fight over seats in a restaurant, over parking spots and over highway indignities.

New York restrictions on bullet sales take effect

By API - 1/15/2014

ALBANY, N.Y. -- It is now illegal in New York state to buy ammunition unless a licensed dealer can actually see you.

The requirement for face-to-face bullet sales is part of the law pushed through a year ago by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, one month after the massacre of 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Conn.

The law has taken effect incrementally since, banning sales of some popular semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines, requiring federal background checks on private gun sales and imposing felony penalties for illegal gun possession. It has also drawn crowds of protesters to the Capitol and lawsuits saying it infringes on Second Amendment rights.

Some realities to consider before passing more gun-control bills

By John R. Lott Jr. - 1/12/2014

John Lott is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of "More Guns, Less Crime"

The new year has brought yet more gun-control regulations. President Obama announced new executive orders on background checks. Connecticut citizens stood in long lines to register their guns, and, next door in New York City, registration lists are used to confiscate them.

While the research by criminologists and economists keeps showing that gun control doesn't work, technological advances and practical problems mean the laws are increasingly likely only to disarm the law-abiding.

In the era of 3D printing, you won't be able to ban guns and it will be even more difficult to stop unapproved people from obtaining them. A part metal/part plastic gun printed from a 3D printer will be completely indistinguishable from a traditionally made gun, even down to whatever serial number you want.

Canadian Newsman Warns America about Gun Registration

By Michael Allen, Thu, January 09, 2014

Brian Lilley, a Canadian newsman, recently warned the United States that gun registration will lead to gun confiscation.

The Sun News host first showed a clip of President Obama speaking in 2013 about a federal gun bill that would have required universal background checks for purchases, but specifically forbids a national gun registry, which is already banned (video below).

Lilley then showed a clip of gun owners registering their guns in Connecticut under that state's law.

He claimed that Connecticut has a list of "every gun they don't like," but that would only be true if there were evidence that every resident actually registered his or her gun in 100 percent compliance.

Women arming themselves. . .a growing trend

By Montgomery Advertiser (AL) - 1/13/2014

With feet positioned shoulder-width apart and eyes narrowing in on a target several feet ahead, arms and hands are steady and knees, slightly bent.

The top third of the forefinger rests on the trigger of a .38 revolver and the outline of a man is the target. First shot: It is powerful and loud, with the sound of the force muffled only by ear protection. The target is hit in the chest area. The shooter looks at the instructor slightly and she is told to continue. Second hit: chest. Third hit. Fourth.

"You actually did really good," said Lt. Stephen Lavender, training bureau commander with the Montgomery Police Academy. "Want to do it again?"

The revolver is reloaded.

Russian Gun Lobby Seeks Right To Bear Arms

By Glenn Kates - 12/19/2013
MOSCOW -- The mass shooting last week at an elementary school in Connecticut sparked calls for stricter gun control laws in the United States. But thousands of kilometers away, the fledgling gun lobby in Moscow drew a different lesson: Gun laws in Russia should be liberalized.

And while the powerful U.S. gun lobby group, the National Rifle Association, waited four days before issuing a public statement on the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults, the Moscow-based Right To Bear Arms made its voice heard within hours with an announcement on its website calling for increased access to weapons.

"In this shooting six teachers died, six people who could literally use only their hands to defend children," said Maria Butina, the organization's 24-year old founder. "The murderer planned this knowing that no one would be armed."

A Lesson Learned As Chicago's Gun Laws Fall

By Bob Barr - 1/8/2014

In his ruling this week that struck down one of the last relics of Chicago's long-standing gun ban, U.S. District Court Judge Edmond E. Chang made a startling observation. Chang noted that while one of the fundamental duties of government is to protect its citizens, certain fundamental rights are protected by the Constitution, and thus should be outside government's reach. To put it more bluntly, government cannot and should not -- be trusted with those rights.

This was bad news for Hizzoner Rahm Emanuel, who along with President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, have been trying to rewrite America's gun laws during their tenure in power (in the case of Holder, I have called publicly for his resignation, and for Obama, the I word should no longer be off-limits).

Yet, Chang's ruling was just one of many since 2010 that have struck down, blow by blow, key parts of Chicago's gun ban that made it one of the most unfriendly cities in America for gun rights and, by no coincidence, among the most dangerous for its citizens.

Boom for guns likely to trigger rush on ammo

By Washington Times (DC) - 1/10/2014

Gun records checks, fueled by a post-Newtown boom of gun sales, hit a new high in 2013, and industry analysts expect ammunition to be the big seller this year as consumers catch up to all of those firearms purchases.

More than 21 million applications were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System last year, marking nearly an 8 percent increase and the 11th straight year that the number has risen.

Background checks serve as a proxy for the number of gun sales, which soared in the months immediately after the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. But NICS checks plummeted in November and December compared with a year earlier, suggesting that the boom may be over.

Locked & loaded: Gun maker finds warmer surroundings in South Carolina after leaving Connecticut

By Joshua Rhett Miller - 1/7/2014

FoxNews.com

    

From beat cops to cashiers to Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s newest gun manufacturer has received an “absolutely tremendous” amount of support since leaving Connecticut for The Palmetto State, according to the firm's CEO.

Josh Fiorini, CEO of PTR Industries, formerly of Bristol., Conn., told FoxNews.com that the firm’s new facility in Aynor, S.C., remains a week away from production, but 11 local employees began sorting inventory on Monday along with a team of training personnel from Connecticut. The manufacturer of military-style rifles announced in April that it intended to leave Bristol following the passage of gun-control legislation after the shooting deaths of 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown.

“In general, things are going very well,” Fiorini said Tuesday. “Basically, we’re just unpacking and training right now, but the building is coming together and we’re putting on the final touches. We’re all very excited.”

Utah gun manufacturing company has walked away from a potential $15 million deal

By Fox News - 7/1/2014 

A Utah gun manufacturing company has walked away from a potential $15 million deal to sell precision rifles to Pakistan.

Desert Tech President Nick Young says he employs many military veterans, who expressed concern that their products could someday get into the wrong hands and be used against U.S. troops.

It was a hard decision, but we feel it was the right decision, Desert Tech Sales Manager Mike Davis said. Basically it was just our company's stance and we were sticking with our founding principles, and that was to keep the American troops safe, that's all the decision really was about.

President waves privacy rights of citizens by executive order

By Neil W. McCabe - 7/1/1214
Editor, Guns & Patriots

President Barack Obama announced Jan. 3 his waiving of privacy requirements of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to allow states to turn over Americans' mental health files to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

"In April 2013, HHS began to identify the scope and extent of the problem, and based on public comments is now issuing a proposed rule to eliminate this barrier by giving certain HIPAA covered entities an express permission to submit to the background check system the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands," according to a White House statement.

The HIPPA law has strict protections for patient privacy, and in many cases requires an individual's written permission before his medical or medical billing information can be released.

SIG P220 review: Ultimate .45?

By Richard L. Johnson - 6/1/2013
Get the pitchforks and torches folks, I'm going to commit firearms heresy.  For my money the SIG P220 is the best .45 fighting pistol on the market.  Yes! better than the 1911.

How can I suggest that something other than the 1911 is the best fighting handgun?  After all, the 1911 is called the 1911 because that is the year the United States adopted it as the Army's official sidearm.  In addition to the great ergonomics and high manufacturing quality, the P220 is reliable.  Absolutely reliable.  And for a fighting handgun, reliability must be absolute.

New York's Fact-Free Gun Ruling

By John R. Lott Jr. - 1/3/2014

Most of New York's new gun-control laws have been upheld  on a totally dubious basis.

New York's new gun-control law, the so-called SAFE Act, largely survived its first federal-court challenge on this past Tuesday. The more than 1,140 New Yorkers it's made felons will remain so. But even the testimony of the state's own expert witness failed to show that the law will cut crime.

The judge in this case is William M. Skretny, chief federal judge for the Western District of New York. His decision upheld the state's gun-registration requirements and ban on assault weapons, but he rejected the seven-round limit for magazines, deeming it arbitrary.

Are blacks their own worst enemies?

By Felicity Bower

Is there really a covert movement underway to keep African Americans disarmed? Should the United Negro College Fund have a position on such a thing?

Is there historical proof to back up this radical notion -- which ties gun bans to slavery, and gun possession to freedom from slavery?

Were the anti-black Jim Crow laws the start of gun control, and do they exist to this day?

Is this a hot potato or what?
Should free speech even protect a discussion like this?

Detroit police chief: Legal gun owners can deter crime

By G. Hunter - 1/4/2014

Detroit If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he's changed his mind.

When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they'll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department, Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.

Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

Magpul taking 200 jobs out of Colo. over gun laws

By Associated Press - 12/3/2014

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - One of the country's largest producers of ammunition magazines for guns is leaving Colorado and moving operations to Wyoming and Texas because of new state laws that include restrictions on how many cartridges a magazine can hold.

Erie, Colo.-based Magpul Industries Corp. announced Thursday that it was moving its production, distribution and shipping operations to Cheyenne and its headquarters to Texas, making good on a vow it made to leave Colorado during last year's gun control debate.

"Moving operations to locations that support our culture of individual liberties and personal responsibility is important," Magpul CEO Richard Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "Moving to a true multi-state operation will also allow Magpul to utilize the strengths of both Texas and Wyoming as we continue to expand."

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said in a statement that Wyoming offers Magpul "a firm commitment to uphold the Second Amendment."

Liberal, gay. . .and loves guns

By San Francisco Chronicle - 12/2/2014

Marlene Hoeber is feisty, tattooed, transgender, a self-described feminist, a queer activist -- and a crack shot with her favorite "toys," guns of just about every kind.

One thing she's not -- and proud of it -- is a member of the National Rifle Association.

"We make ourselves a special place where we don't have to hear about the 'Kenyan Muslim socialist' in the White House," said Hoeber, a biotech equipment mechanic who says she's politically "somewhere around Emma Goldman," the turn-of-the-20th century anarchist.

Instead, Hoeber -- whose array of firearms includes an M1 carbine rifle from World War II and a custom-made .44-caliber pistol -- and other left-leaning gun lovers have their own organization: the Liberal Gun Club.

A good thing, says Hoeber, since she would never consider joining any club that has "Grover Norquist on the board," as the NRA does.

Free teachers to be armed. . .if they choose

By: Raquel Okyay - 12/28/2013
One year after spree-shooting at the Sandy Hook School, a leading firearm trainer told Guns & Patriots that while strategies to prevent deadly shootings at schools are being implemented, more must be done.

The question is not should we arm teachers, the question is should we allow teachers to be armed, said Rob Pincus, owner and operator of I.C.E. Firearm Training Services. I.C.E. is a full service company offering training and consulting to armed professionals and those interested in self-defense.

Being armed is a personal choice, not a prerequisite to being a school teacher, he said. When you sign-up to be a teacher you do not make a decision to be armed.

Since the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last year, calls for specifically arming teachers have fallen on deaf ears because it is not the right solution, he said.

Conn. gun owners rush to register weapons, ammo

By GOPUSA - 12/30/2013

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut gun owners are rushing to register certain firearms and ammunition that will be considered illegal contraband in the new year.

People have been lining up early in the morning at the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection's headquarters in Middletown in recent days to turn in applications for assault weapons certificates and high-capacity magazine declaration forms so they can legally keep the items.

Under a wide-ranging gun control law, passed earlier this year in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, gun owners have until Tuesday to submit the paperwork.

Michael Lawlor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's undersecretary for criminal justice, predicted a flood of registrations over the final days of 2013.

Anti-second amendment UN Treaty blocked in US Senate

By Dick Morris - 12/29/2013
The Inhofe Amendment to the Defense Appropriation Bill has passed and been signed by the president!

The Arms Trade Treaty will not receive any money for implementation for all of 2014!

As you may recall, the Treaty  a backdoor UN gun control effort was signed by Secretary of State Kerry in March of 2013. While it has not been ratified by the Senate (and probably cannot be), under the Vienna Convention, it acquires the force of law in the U.S. until it is either turned down by the Senate or withdrawn by the president. Harry Reid will not bring the Treaty up for a vote, so it would remain in force for the duration of the Obama presidency. By 2017, its structures and commitments would have bitten deep into American law and practice.

But Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) saved the day by inserting a ban on funding for the Treaty into the Defense Appropriation Bill for 2014. With the Administration eager to get the money, he was able to keep it in the final bill that was signed by the president on Thursday.

Be prepared: Wall Street advisor recommends guns, ammo for protection in collapse

By Paul Bedard - 12/26/2013

A top financial advisor, worried that Obamacare, the NSA spying scandal and spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a bug-out bag that includes food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.

David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, said in a note to investors, Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.

Mall shooting proves New Jersey's anti-carry laws make state less safe

By: Raquel Okyay -12/22/2013

A leading Garden State Gun rights advocate told Guns & Patriots New Jersey state laws that prohibit gun owners the right to carry firearms in public puts lives in danger and penalizes innocent citizens.

Criminals in this state realize that anybody they attack is a defenseless victim, said Frank Jack Fiamingo, president of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society. NJ2AS promotes the free exercise of Second Amendment protected-rights within the community and New Jersey Legislature.

Except for a few narrowly-defined exceptions, no one is able to properly defend their lives outside of their homes, he said. If you live in New Jersey the criminal already knows you are a victim; the criminal already knows you are not armed.

Fiamingo said an example is the case of Dustin Friedland, a 30-year old Hoboken-attorney shot in the head and killed, when two assailants attempted to steal his 2012 Range Rover in the parking lot of Short Hills Mall in Essex County last week.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, Creator of AK-47, Dies at 94

By C. J. CHIVERS - 12/23/2013

Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the arms designer credited by the Soviet Union with creating the AK-47, the first in a series of rifles and machine guns that would indelibly associate his name with modern war and become the most abundant firearms ever made, died on Monday in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic, where he lived. He was 94.

Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic's president, confirmed the death, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Born a peasant on the southern Siberian steppe, General Kalashnikov had little formal education and claimed to be a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weapons to conceive of a rifle that achieved battlefield ubiquity.

His role in the rifle's creation, and the attention showered on him by the Kremlin's propaganda machine, carried him from conscription in the Red Army to senior positions in the Soviet arms-manufacturing bureaucracy and ultimately to six terms on the Supreme Soviet.

Armed response, not restrictive gun laws, brought swift end to school shooting

By Valerie Richardson - 12/18/2013
The Washington Times
CENTENNIAL, Colo.  It's a stark fact that is fueling an already intense debate about gun rights in this state: It was an armed deputy who stopped the Arapahoe High School gunman last week from unleashing a deadly massacre, not the expansive new gun control laws approved by Colorado Democrats in March in reaction to two mass shootings.

That is the increasingly inescapable takeaway as details emerge from the school shooting Friday, when the 18-year-old gunman injured another student at random before turning the gun on himself in the school library as the armed deputy was closing in on him.

The gun control laws didn't make a difference, said state Sen. Greg Brophy, a Republican who is seeking his party's nomination for governor next year. What made a difference was a person in the building who was armed and who rushed to end the threat.

Even Gov. John Hickenlooper, the Democrat who signed three gun control bills in March at considerable political risk, acknowledged on CBS- Face the Nation on Sunday that the laws in this specific case aren't going to make a difference at all.

Connecticut's gun laws hamper business

By GOPUSA - 12/1713

BRANFORD -- It's been about 10 months since Mike Higgins opened the doors at TGS Outdoors, and while he'd like to hire more employees, he said the state's new gun laws are hindering his business's ability to grow.

"I'd love to hire more people if I could grow my business, but I don't have the product to sell," Higgins said.

Higgins said his shop's spot in Branford is a prime location near a number of hunting clubs. The opening of the store caused some controversy and sparked a couple of town meetings, although Higgins argued that the number of supporters vastly outnumbered the opposition, and that the media sensationalized the issue.

New state laws have created a tough situation for gun store owners, he said. Before the law went into effect, Higgins said, for example, he could have sold a standard Glock pistol with a 13-round magazine. The same applies to a number of other guns.

Judge: Gun waiting period 'burdens' 2nd Amendment

Possession of firearm necessary prerequisite to exercising right to bear arms'

By Bob Unruh - 12/13/2013

A federal judge in California has ruled in a Second Amendment case that a state-imposed waiting period to take possession of a firearm is a burden on the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

The ruling came in a challenge brought by the Second Amendment Foundation to the state�s mandatory 10-day waiting period to obtain firearms. The case, Silvester v. Harris, continues.

It was Senior Judge Anthony Ishii of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California who said in an 11-page decision that California Attorney General Kamala Harris argues that the WPL (Waiting Period Law) is a minor burden on the Second Amendment, [but] plaintiffs are correct that this is a tacit acknowledgement that a protected Second Amendment right is burdened.

Gun-Control Dishonesty

By Charles C. W. Cooke - 12/13/2013

The push to do something, anything, has nothing to do with preventing deaths.
 
Earlier in the year, as the gun-control movement tried clumsily to transform an abomination into a cudgel, the Washington Post's Kathleen Parker distilled its problem into a single sentence. Nothing proposed in the gun-control debates would have prevented the mass killing of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Parker contended plainly, and everybody knows it.

This was abundantly clear at the time, and it is even more so in retrospect. And yet I must nitpick ever so slightly with Parker's excellent contention, for it is missing the crucial word almost. Almost everybody knows it. The public seems to know it. Legislators seem to know it. But, judging by the abundance of vexed anniversary columns, a significant cabal of journalists and activists have never got the message. A year later, their cry is as it was at the outset: Why won't we act?

Yesterday, Michael Bloomberg delivered a speech in which he utilized what I have come to regard as the Newtown Template. Having established the tragedy in the audience's mind December 14 will mark a very somber anniversary, Bloomberg noted, correctly  he went on to claim that unlicensed sellers of firearms were illegally flooding the Internet with weapons, causing a massive online, unregulated, second-hand firearms market that threatens public safety. Then, for good measure, he took a swipe at the government for doing nothing.

California has toughest gun control laws in country

By Los Angeles Times - 12/10/13

SACRAMENTO -- California has the toughest gun control laws in the nation, receiving an A- grade in a state-by-state analysis by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, officials said Monday.

In the year after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, eight states, including California, passed "major gun reforms," said Amanda Wilcox, the legislation and policy chair for the California Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

California chapters of the Brady Campaign supported 18 bills sent to Gov. Jerry Brown.

"A record 11 bills were signed into law, including measures to keep guns out of dangerous hands and closing loopholes in California's law prohibiting large capacity magazines," Wilcox said. "The research shows that strong gun laws can keep people safe from gun violence. We know that California's strong gun laws are saving lives."

The best .22 pistol? An examination of modern rimfire pistols

By Richard L. Johnson - 12/8/2013

Everybody should own a .22 pistol.  They are incredibly valuable as a training tool, can be used to shoot competitively and can bag small game for dinner.  Add to the mix that they are just plain fun to shoot, and you've got a winner of a platform.  But the question becomes what is the best .22 pistol?

While there is no single best pistol for every person and situation, there are several exceptionally good guns on the market.  This is a look at currently produced .22 LR pistols, and not a look at every rimfire handgun ever made.  If I expanded the scope of the article to that level, I would have to include pistols like the old Hi Standard and Colt Woodsman.  Likewise, there are some exceptional revolver and .22 Magnum options on the market.

I no particular order, here are some of the best 22 pistols currently being sold.

CNN Poll: Support for stricter gun control fades

By CNN Political Unit - 12/5/2013

Washington (CNN) - As memories fade from last December's horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a new national poll indicates that support for stricter gun control laws appears to be fading, too.

According to a new CNN/ORC International survey, 49% of Americans say they support stricter gun control laws, with 50% opposed. The 49% support is down six percentage points from the 55% who said they backed stricter gun control in CNN polling from January, just a few weeks after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a lone gunman killed 20 young students and six adults before killing himself, in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

The poll's Wednesday release comes on the same day that 911 tapes from the Newtown shootings are being released.

The Three Most Important Ongoing Second Amendment Cases

Brian Doherty - 12/4/2013

 

Since the 2010 Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago, which applied the ruling in the 2008 Heller case (which said the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms) to states and localities, the Court has so far evaded any new case about the limits and meaning of the Second Amendment.
Those two cases, though, did not resolve all the important questions about how and when and why the government can restrict Second Amendment rights. Heller and McDonald said that the right to possess commonly used weapons for self-defense in the home cannot be infringed, but Justice Antonin Scalia in his majority opinion in Heller explicitly said this didn’t mean anything goes when it comes to Americans and their guns.

100,000 veterans lose their 2nd Amendment rights under Obama administration

By Dom Raso, NRA News Commentator - 12/04/2013

Under Obama's administration, there's been a serious downsizing of our military. I've got my own thoughts on that, but I'll save them for another time. Reality is, we've got a large number of people getting out of the military with a ton of combat and military experience; men and women being thrown back into civilian life. There have been several incidents already involving these vets and their rights being taken away from them.

Recently, there was a vet that had to defend his home from a felon who was trying to break in. He fired a warning shot in the ground to scare the guy off and then told the police that his military training kicked in. Now whether that's true or not, or even if he went into combat mode, the guy was having his house broken into. He clearly stated to the guy that was trying to force entry into his home and that he was going to give him a warning shot if he didn't stop his forward progress. All he did was fire a warning shot into the ground, and then the criminal ran off.

Anti-Gun NFL: National Frauds League

By Michelle Malkin - 12/4/2013

The National Football League's hypocrisy and selective decency standards reek like a post-game locker room. On the one hand, the organization refuses to run a firearms manufacturer's self-defense Super Bowl ad under the guise of neutrality and taste. Yet, the professional football conglomerate routinely revels in raunchiness, gratuitous physical violence and anti-gun screeds.

Welcome to the National Frauds' League.

Guns and Ammo magazine first broke news last week of the sports empire's rejection of a commercial created by gun-maker Daniel Defense. The polished paid spot emphasized home security protection and self-defense without even showing or mentioning any of its actual products. But a quick flash of the company's logo at the end of the ad, which includes a DDM4 rifle, apparently violated the NFL's high-minded advertising regulations.

How the Nazis Used Gun Control

The Weimar Republic's well-intentioned gun registry became a tool for evil.

By Stephen P. Halbrook - 12/2/2013

The perennial gun-control debate in America did not begin here. The same arguments for and against were made in the 1920s in the chaos of Germany's Weimar Republic, which opted for gun registration. Law-abiding persons complied with the law, but the Communists and Nazis committing acts of political violence did not.

In 1931, Weimar authorities discovered plans for a Nazi takeover in which Jews would be denied food and persons refusing to surrender their guns within 24 hours would be executed. They were written by Werner Best, a future Gestapo official. In reaction to such threats, the government authorized the registration of all firearms and the confiscation thereof, if required for public safety. The interior minister warned that the records must not fall into the hands of any extremist group.

Young developer of 3-D printer gun proud to make ‘most dangerous people in world’ list

By Joe Saunders - 1/1/2013 

The former law student who developed a one-shot gun that can be created on a 3-D plastic printer has been voted among Wired magazine's 15 most dangerous people for 2013.

And he still has higher ambitions.

I hope to make it back up the first, but I'll settle for 14, Cody Wilson said, according to the Daily Mail. It was a good run.

Governments around the world would probably agree with Wired that Wilson is a dangerous man even at the young age of only 25. The Obama administration's State Department certainly does.

Women the "Holy Grail" of gun rights movement?

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By: Raquel Okyay - 12/2/2013

Women seeking to arm themselves and their daughters are figuring out that guns are not taboo but a powerful means of protection.

Women are the holy grail of the Second Amendment movement, said Skip Coryell nationally recognized firearm expert and author of the newly released The Shadow Militia.

The Second Amendment will stand or fall depending on the way women vote, he said. Women make-up about 52% of the population and they vote with a mind of their own.

Women and particularly women with children have been raised with an idea that guns are dangerous. Yet once women get over their initial fear of the firearm, they feel empowered by it, he said. Women want to be armed and capable.