gun control
June 7, 2021 — John Hinderaker
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez ruled that the State of California’s ban on “assault weapons,” which dates to 1989 and basically refers to AR-15 style modern rifles, is unconstitutional. Benitez’s ruling was clearly correct under controlling Supreme Court precedent, in my opinion. Under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), as Benitez wrote, “the Second Amendment protects guns commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful
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April 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, Joe Biden lied about a range of issues. NRO identifies three of Biden’s deceptions. Phillip Klein exposes Biden’s falsehood regarding health care. Biden claimed that giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs will “strengthen the Affordable Care Act – expand Medicare coverage and benefits – without costing taxpayers one additional penny.” Nonsense. Klein points out that the Congressional Budget Office has twice concluded that
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April 9, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Many conservatives are pushing back hard against a series of executive orders on firearms that the Biden administration announced on Wednesday. I don’t doubt that Biden would ban or severely limit private gun ownership if he could, but what is striking about these specific orders is how trivial they are. Biden frames his actions in terms of gun violence being a “public health epidemic.” He refers to the recent Boulder
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March 25, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, upheld Hawaii’s restriction on carrying firearms. Under Hawaiian law, residents can carry a firearm only if they prove to the state that they have an “urgency of need,” are of “good moral character,” and are “engaged in the protection of life and property.” Thus, the state, if it’s clever, can effectively ban its residents from carrying guns. Alternatively, it can
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February 23, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
We have written about several problematic Biden nominees for high level positions: Neera Tanden (who is probably not going to make it), Xavier Becerra (who might not), and two DOJ nominees, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke (neither of whom should make it). Vivek Murthy, Biden’s selection for Surgeon General is another nominee to watch. Murthy, whose hearing is on Thursday, served as Surgeon General under President Obama. It’s impossible to
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November 24, 2020 — Steven Hayward
News item: Biden has ambitious plans for gun control, including bans on certain kinds of weapons, an excise tax on so-called “assault” rifles, and of course more background checks. You can read all the dreary details here if you’re a glutton. News item: “During my twelve-and-half years as a member of this body, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime. I am
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November 18, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Democrats are pouring into Georgia from across the country, trying to wrest control of the Senate away from Republicans. Some are talking about establishing fake residence so they can vote, others are going door to door, manning phone banks and so on. But one issue they probably won’t talk about much is gun control. With good reason. The Washington Free Beacon calculates that Joe Biden’s gun proposals would amount to
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August 3, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Everyone is familiar with stories of dumb criminals, like the person who calls an Uber for a bank robbery getaway car, but in fact most criminals are like everyone else: they respond rationally to calculations of risk and reward. And with current attack on policing advancing relentlessly, does it take a rocket scientist to know what message this sends to criminals? As such why is this a front-page headline: Homicide
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June 8, 2020 — John Hinderaker
I think “woke” capitalism may be a bigger threat than liberal rioters, looters and arsonists. Politics is, as we all know, downstream from culture, and our culture’s leftward drift has passed Danton and is heading for Robespierre. What prompts this pessimism is a report that a new series of Bugs Bunny cartoons is in production by Warner Brothers and HBO Max. The cartoons have been updated, however, for our “woke”
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February 7, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll explores the deep meaning of the RUGER SHIRT. She writes: Last Wednesday, I had a really good day at the Tactical Range. I’m sure we’ve all had them; you remember all your mechanics and execute well. Your weapon is really sighted in and seems to be almost incapable of missing the x-ring. You are – to use a popular sports figure of speech – IN THE ZONE. That’s
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January 20, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Today an estimated (by police) 22,000 people demonstrated at the Virginia capitol in Richmond in favor of Second Amendment rights, which are being threatened by the newly-elected Democratic majority in that state’s legislature. Liberal news outlets were hoping the rally would turn violent, and their disappointment when it didn’t was palpable. Thus, the Washington Post: And CBS: And CNN: The Babylon Bee headlines: “Media Offers Thoughts And Prayers That Someone
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December 18, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I am tempted to say that the Democrats’ pre-ordained, 100% partisan impeachment vote is the bottom story in today’s news. But that might be a slight overstatement, so I am grateful to my Power Line partners who have the patience to delve into something so boring and insignificant. While impeachment might not be at the very bottom, there were any number of more important news stories today, like this one:
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December 9, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It is still not clear whether Pensacola murderer Mohammed Alshamrani was part of an extremist Muslim cell or acted alone, although some of his fellow Saudis evidently shared his political views and bloodthirstiness. For now, I want to salute the contribution of Joshua Watson, 23 years old, who was one of Alshamrani’s three victims. Watson graduated from the Naval Academy in June and was stationed at Pensacola because he wanted
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September 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It is remarkable how little most people who are adamantly opposed to firearms know about them. In general, of course, blissful ignorance of guns is perfectly fine. But if you are a legislator, and you set out to ban something, you do have a duty to know what it is you want to make illegal. Sheila Jackson Lee is the latest to embarrass herself. She wants to ban America’s most
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September 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
The great people at the Washington Free Beacon, which as of today is under the leadership of a suspiciously familiar name, produced this supercut of liberals saying they don’t want to take away anyone’s guns—until of course Beto let the mask slip because of course liberals want to take away everyone’s guns. Totally worth the two minutes of, um, rapid-fire delivery:
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September 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I wholeheartedly endorse the conservative plan to reduce homicides that Paul wrote about earlier today. With respect to the latest round of mass shootings, I haven’t yet had time to delve into the statistics, but here are a few observations. First, the last couple of mass shooters likely are copycats. More than anything else, giving less press coverage to mass shootings, and especially refusing to publish “manifestoes,” would reduce the
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September 3, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Recent mass shootings have prompted calls for new gun control legislation aimed primarily at rifles. However, most murders are not the product of mass shootings by people who want to make a statement, political or otherwise. They are committed on a small scale, with handguns, by ordinary criminals. At Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz presents a seven-step plan to reduce homicides. I have distilled his seven steps to six, which are
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