Rallies in Richmond target gun laws from both sides

Both sides of the gun debate make their case at state Capitol
Opposing groups rally at Capitol Square in Richmond during Martin Luther King Day, anti-gun and pro-gun supporters. Video by Chris I. Young (more) In the aftermath of a Mass Shooting in Arizona, and on a day off work designed to commemorate the life of an assassinated civil-rights leader, both sides of the gun debate converged on Richmond on Monday to prod state lawmakers for legislative reform. Armed, pro-gun advocates pressed their case for less Regulation of Firearms in the state by assertin...

Safer Streets 2011: What do you do in the absence of first responders?
I have often been asked how a Paramedic reconciles the use of lethal force with a mission or philosophy of saving lives. I was asked this so often that I put it on the liner notes on the back cover of my hardcover book. It is a most important question for non-gun owners to ask. Its answer is the message of Liberty. The question is what do you do in the absence of First Responders? My question is what can you do in the absence of First Responders? I have articulated this for more than three dec...

Response to shooting: Looser gun laws?
Less than 10 days after the Mass Shooting in Tucson that killed six and left a congresswoman in critical condition, the briefly revived Gun Control conversation -- such as it was -- already appears to be over.  That fact is striking in itself, and it's in line with what I described last week as a moribund Gun Control movement. But even more striking is that, in the wake of the mass shooting, Arizona State Legislators are preparing to push new laws that would actually make it easier to ...

Opening Shot On ObamaCare Scheduled for Wednesday
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to hold its first vote on repealing the anti-gun ObamaCare law this Wednesday. Good for them! As GOA has pointed out for more than a year, ObamaCare will allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to troll the federal health records database in an effort to disarm hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Americans. Even after the forced adoption of language to take care of SOME of the anti-gun problems with the bill, ObamaCare...

Adam Winkler: MLK and his Guns
One issue on everyone's mind this Martin Luther King Jr. day is Gun Control. King's calls for resolving our differences through peaceful nonviolence are especially poignant after Jared Loughner gunned down six people and wounded several others in Tucson. Amid the clamor for new Gun Laws, its appropriate to remember King's complicated history with guns. Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid- 1950s, as the Civil Rights movement heated up, King kept Firearms...

New Jersey gun case demonstrates no justice possible through lawful avenues
“A late flight landed Utah gun owner Greg Revell in jail for 10 days after he got stranded in New Jersey with an unloaded firearm he had legally checked with his luggage in Salt Lake City,” the Associated Press reports. Because of a late flight, Revell missed his connecting flight. His luggage had been erroneously routed to Newark. He collected it. And he was then arrested, going through a nightmare that included “10 days in several different jail”—and think about t...

Ron Paul: Gun control push after Tucson massacre is despicable
Stumble This! 'Guns and violence are a fact of life,' Texas Rep. insists Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul assailed as "nonsensical" the recent attempts at stiffening Gun Control laws in the aftermath of the shooting rampage in Arizona that killed six and thirteen injured In an op-ed for The Hill published Monday, Paul sharply denounced the violence in Tucson last Saturday, but said that "some have attempted to use this tragedy to discredit philosophical adversaries or score political points. Thi...

Gun supporters converge on state Capitol
Nearly 300 pro-gun advocates converged on the State Capitol this morning to lobby legislators to protect their rights to Bear Arms in the commonwealth. Gun-toting Activists wearing black and orange stickers stating "Guns Save Lives" and red, white and blue stickers saying "Freedom is not a Loophole," roamed the halls of the General Assembly Building on Capitol Square in Richmond before assembly near the Capitol Bell Tower for a late-morning rally sponsored by the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defens...

New Ammo Rules Face New Court Challenge
A hearing Tuesday in Fresno will challenge new restrictions on the sale of ammunition in California. Gun owners must be 21 years-old, and pass a safety test, to buy these weapons. However, Law Enforcement officials currently have no idea who buys ammunition in California. That's about to change. Starting Feb. 1, gun users must show a photo ID and give their thumb print when they buy hand gun ammunition making it easier for police to track purchases, and catch Felons and others who are not allowe...

Front Sight Firearms Training Institute beckons visitors to the desert
Nestled away in the barren desert outside of Pahrump, Nevada, a mere 60 miles or so from Las Vegas is a 550 acre firearm training facility purported to be the largest of its kind in the world. It is hard to imagine anything exists in the great expanse of sand and tumbleweeds, yet on approach there is a glint of light that traverses the emptiness as the sun reflects off the buildings in the distance, and the rat-a-tat-tat of live rounds being fired at targets echoes through the canyon and beckons...

Taunting the nervous nellies
Taunting The Nervous Nellies by digby You have to hand it to the Right Wing. They don't back down, even in the face of a slaughter. They see it as an opportunity: Arizona has become a national leader in the Gun Rights movement in recent years as the state enacted law after law to protect the people's right to Bear Arms nearly anywhere, at anytime. The shooting rampage that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a former legislative colleague, has done nothing to slow down the Legislature. Gun right...

Janine Balekdjian: The Tuscon Massacre and Jan Brewer
There is a lot of blame going around for the rampage in Tuscon aimed at Representative Gabrielle Giffords last Saturday, leaving the Congresswoman in critical condition, six others dead, and fourteen wounded. Liberals have pointed to disturbing right-wing violent Rhetoric, like Sarah Palin's infamous crosshair map and Glenn Beck's daily panic sessions, as bound to have consequences eventually. Chief Wingnut rhetorician Rush Limbaugh has fired back, amazingly casting himself as the Victim, clai...

Sen. Boxer would expand California-style 'gun-control' nationwide
Missouri has had a "shall issue" concealed carry law (meaning that qualified applicants for a permit to carry a defensive firearm cannot be rejected on some government functionary's arbitrary whim or bias against armed self-defense) since 2003, although St. Louis residents had to wait another year-and-a-half, due to the anti-self-defense mindset of St. Louis officialdom (but hey--at least we're #1 at something!) As for across the river, Illinois bans defensive Handgun carry for Private Citizens,...

'Respect' for 'different gun cultures'; contempt for 2nd Amendment activists
In the wake of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others (six fatally) in Tucson, it has become fashionable for the moment to at least pay lip service to the idea of eschewing harsh, divisive Rhetoric, replacing it with constructive, mutually respectful dialog.  In that vein, writer Mitchell Bard states in the Huffington Post that "There Can Be No Gun Control Without Recognizing and Respecting the Different Gun Cultures in the U.S."  We'll ignore, for the moment, t...

Poll: Little support for gun control
Most Americans have not changed their views on Gun Control following the shooting nine days ago in Tucson, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll out Monday. Sixty-nine percent of those polled said the shooting that left six dead and injured 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), has not changed their opinion on gun control. Twenty-eight percent said the shooting has made them “more likely” to support stricter controls on the sale of Firearms, while 3 percent were &ldqu...;

Poll: 69% Say Az. Shooting Has Not Changed Their Opinion on Gun Control
*18 Have the shootings in Arizona made you more likely to support stricter Gun Control laws, less likely to support stricted Gun Control laws or has your opinion on Gun Control not changed as a result of the Arizona shooting? CNN poll Politico Most Americans have not changed their views on Gun Control following the shooting nine days ago in Tucson, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll out Monday. Sixty-nine percent of those polled said the shooting that left six dead and injured 13, includi...

Ex-Black Panther, Current Politician Bobby Rush Uses MLK, Giffords to Call for Gun Control
Rush’s office published a blog post on The Hill’s Congressional blog section for January 16. It isn’t likely that Rush himself wrote the thing, of course, but it is published under his name and carries his imprimatur, so it doesn’t matter who wrote it. What matters is that Rush is using MLK for cover for a gun grab. What matters is that he, like so many other left-wingers, is using Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting to serve his political agenda. The Rush piece started ou...

Great Moments in Gun Control
This is the kind of foolishness that occurs when you have Zero Tolerance Gun Control laws: Revell was flying from Salt Lake City to Allentown, Pa., on March 31, 2005, with connections in Minneapolis and Newark, N.J. He had checked his Utah-licensed gun and ammunition with his luggage in Salt Lake City and asked airport officials to deliver them both with his luggage in Allentown. But the flight from Minneapolis to Newark was late, so Revell missed his connection to Allentown. The airline wanted...

Coburn: Mentally Ill Should Not Be Able to Acquire Guns
Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) thinks the U.S. needs to implement harsher measures to ensure that the mentally ill are unable to buy or own guns. “I’m willing to work with Senator [Chuck] Schumer [D., N.Y]. and anybody else that wants to make sure people who are mentally ill cannot get and use a gun,” said Coburn on Sunday’s Meet the Press, calling Jared Loughner’s access to a gun a “real problem.” But he also defended current Gun Laws, arguing that stricte...

Senator Schumer joins Senator Lautenberg and others in gun safety conversation
After January 8th's Tucson shooting, there have been multiple discussions. A good deal of those have revolved around the issue of gun safety, gun Regulations, and what might be worth proposing to lessen the deadly impact of guns especially guns ending up in the hands of unstable individuals. Gun regulation often becomes a heated conversation especially when 2nd Amendment rights people on one side clash with those who want increasingly tougher Gun Laws to the point of "jeopardizing" those 2nd Ame...

Supreme Court To Hear Case Involving Man Arrested For Traveling With His Gun
A man booked a flight from Utah to Pennsylvania with connections in Minneapolis, MN and Newark, NJ and checked his legally-owned gun. Unfortunately, his flight got canceled in New Jersey and his luggage was lost. He ultimately found his luggage, but only after the bus from Newark to his Final Destination arranged by the airline had left. So he checked into a Hotel Room and re-booked a flight for the next day. Upon checking in, he again attempted to check his gone only to have the TSA report him ...

Gun Crazy in Florida!
In the wake of the Arizona killings, with most states moving towards stricter Gun Control, there is one state that seems to be going against the tide. Florida is about to earn that dubious distinction. The Florida legislature is now beginning a push to actually allow gun owners to carry their weapons visibly, in public, by passing an open carry law. Much to the chagrin of most rational and logical individuals, this Legislation will bring back flavorings of the Old West and the image of the gun m...

Wisconsin expected to expand gun owner rights
Milwaukee (Reuters) - Wisconsin, one of two states in the nation that prohibits citizens from carrying a Concealed Weapon, is expected to reverse this law during the upcoming state legislative session despite shootings in Arizona that highlighted lax U.S. Gun Laws. Only Illinois and Wisconsin forbid carrying concealed weapons. A Republican was elected Governor and Republicans won majorities in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature in November, bringing many more supporters of Gun Rights to t...

Wisconsin expected to expand gun owner rights
By John Rondy Milwaukee | Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:13pm EST Milwaukee (Reuters) - Wisconsin, one of two states in the nation that prohibits citizens from carrying a Concealed Weapon, is expected to reverse this law during the upcoming state legislative session despite shootings in Arizona that highlighted lax U.S. Gun Laws. Only Illinois and Wisconsin forbid carrying concealed weapons. A Republican was elected Governor and Republicans won majorities in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature in No...

Safer Streets 2011: The system is not broken, it is short-circuited.
In 1987, the City of New York did to Billie Boggs what our public servant governments are doing to the rest of us. It is important to understand that when the rights of some are violated, all our rights are violated not as one people at one moment, but sooner or later, where everyone else is next. Gun Control has a great deal in common with the abuses of powers in the case of Billie Boggs. I describe the story in Chapter 21 in my E-book Safer Streets 2010 . Briefly, Billie Boggs was among...