gun control
April 9, 2013 — John Hinderaker
It seems very odd that President Obama has made gun control the signature issue of his second term, so far. He can’t possibly achieve any significant legislation; a few tweaks to the background check system, maybe, but there is no chance of getting any meaningful gun control through the House. The House Democrats aren’t even trying. So it also seems strange that all eyes are on the Senate, where Harry
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April 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In one of his routines on the justice system dating back to the early 1970′s, comedian Richard Pryor commented sarcastically (in language rated XXX): “You go down there looking for justice, that’s what you find: Just us.” Pryor was referring to the racial composition of the players involved in the administration of justice. Times have changed substantially in that respect, but reading Ben Shapiro’s account of President Obama’s gun control
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April 7, 2013 — John Hinderaker
In the U.K., private ownership of firearms is virtually banned. Professional criminals can still get guns, of course, but for your typical thug, knives are the weapon of choice. Thus there has been a steady outpouring of concern over burgeoning “knife crime” in recent years. The Sun undertook a bit of investigative journalism to find out how easy it is to obtain knives illegally, and was shocked at the result:
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April 6, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Well, not intentionally. But Jim Ragsdale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune attended a conference in Chicago on covering gun issues, which he describes this way: “Covering Guns” brought reporters with front-line experience covering mass shootings in Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn., and Red Lake, Minn., to meet with gun experts and advocates and gun trainers. Sponsored by the Poynter journalism center and funded by the McCormick Foundation of Chicago,
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April 4, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Last night I noted the absurd case of Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who has sponsored legislation to ban many, if not most, of the firearms magazines now sold in the United States, but does not know what a magazine is. Today it turned out that Barack Obama, who has campaigned tirelessly for gun control legislation over the last several months, doesn’t know the first thing about firearms either. Daniel Halper
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April 3, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Diana DeGette is a Congresswoman from Colorado. She has been in Congress since 1997 and is the Democrats’ Chief Deputy Whip in the House. One of her signature issues is gun control. DeGette is the principal sponsor of legislation to ban standard-capacity magazines. Her January press release on the subject said: “Since I came to Congress, I have been working to protect our children and our families from senseless gun
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April 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Guys like Wayne LaPierre have done a terrific job for the NRA, but the organization knows that with gun rights under fire to a greater extent than we have seen in recent years, it needs to reach out to the broadest possible constituencies. So NRA News has recruited several effective new spokesmen to carry the pro-self defense, pro-individual choice, pro-gun message. One of the NRA’s new spokesmen is former Navy
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March 29, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Over at NRO’s Corner, my daughter Eliana has an interesting preview of coming attractions in the Senate: Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee — the Senate’s rabble-rousing GOP triumvirate – seek nothing less than to fundamentally transform the debate over gun control. As has been reported, they will likely filibuster when Harry Reid brings his gun-control legislation up for a vote. In doing so, according to sources, they hope
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March 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
When Ted Cruz raised with Dianne Feinstein the question of the constitutionality of legislation she was proposing, the Senator from California reacted testily, stating that she is not a sixth-grader. I would have thought that, if anything, Cruz’s attempt to engage her in a discussion about the Constitution showed respect for Sen. Feinstein. Too often, Feinstein (a non-lawyer) has marginalized herself as a Judiciary Committee member by opting to play
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March 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sure, that’s an optimistic question to ask. But following the election, fissures have appeared in the Left’s coalition, and frustration is mounting. Here are a couple of examples. First, an email that MoveOn.org sent out yesterday on gun control. The email is long, so I will excerpt it: Subject: Argh! Dear MoveOn member, This is the nightmare scenario: “Reid guts Senate gun control bill.”1 “Tuesday’s developments are a major win
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March 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Walter Olson is Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and author of several books on litigation. He holds down the fort at Overlawyered. He has forwarded a column responding to the flurry of articles that appeared in the liberal press a few weeks ago opposing the federal law that bans certain gun lawsuits (the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act), led by the Washington Post. Since then the attacks
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March 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The National Rifle Association has signed up “a group of new, young and very diverse commentators” to help spread the gun rights message. Today they unveiled the first one, Colion Noir, in an ad on NRA News. Mr. Noir is well known on YouTube and Twitter (@MrColionNoir) as a pro-gun guy. Here is the ad, in which Noir criticizes the Obama administration: I find the ad particularly interesting in the
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March 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
As a pensioner, when I’m not blogging, I spend much of my time reading and watching sports on television. But nothing I do these days is more amusing than watching Ted Cruz annoy the legacy Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and cause some of them to betray their foolishness. The latest victims were Dianne Feinstein and Chairman Patrick Leahy. Feinstein has proposed a ban on 157 different models of
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March 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sources involved in the investigation of the Sandy Hook murders gave an interview to the Hartford Courant yesterday that included some interesting updates. The paper headlines the fact that Adam Lanza had studied prior mass shootings and may have been trying to outdo killers like Anders Breivik. This is consistent with the observation that mass shooters inspire one another, which is why such incidents tend to appear in streaks. The
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March 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Broad consensus exists for federal gun legislation that would improve background checks. But that consensus doesn’t take the anti-gun crowd even close to where it wants to go. Accordingly, as Charles Cooke reports at NRO, Chuck Schumer acted at the last minute to crowbar oppressive amendments into S. 374, the Senate’s background check legislation. The legislation was then approved by the Judiciary Committee on a 10-8 straight party line vote.
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March 11, 2013 — John Hinderaker
In an interview with Jason Mattera which was conducted last month but is just now hitting the news, Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky admitted that the Democrats’ effort to ban “assault weapons” is “just the beginning.” In addition, Schakowsky says that she wants to ban all handguns, and thinks this can constitutionally be done, despite the Second Amendment. I think it is obvious that Schakowsky was only saying what a great
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March 7, 2013 — John Hinderaker
That’s the headline you should be seeing, but won’t. Instead, you will see headlines like this one, on CNN: “Study links gun laws and lower gun mortality.” Or this one, from the Chicago Tribune: “States with strict gun laws found to have fewer shooting deaths.” The study they are talking about was conducted by Dr. Eric Fleegler of Boston and published in JAMA Internal Medicine. You can read it here.
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