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Video of Theater Shooting link On January 13, 2014, a retired police officer, Curtis Reeves, and his wife were preparing to watch “Lone Survivor” in a theater in the unincorporated area of Wesley Chapel, part of the Tampa Bay Florida metro complex.Directly in front of the retired officer and his wife were another couple, Chad Oulson and his wife.Reeves and Chad got into a dispute after Reeves asked Chad to stop using his cell phone during previews.The case has been characterized as a retired police officer shooting someone who threw popcorn at him.  I was surprised to see the reality...

A Pennsylvania Court has found that automatic knives are not protected arms under the Second Amendment. The case is not precedential, and is unlikely to be appealed. The finding was made on 9 March, 2017. On July 29th, 2014, William Battle entered the Pike County Administrative Building for an appointment with a probation officer.  Battle had plead guilty to aggravated assault involving a firearm in 2009, when he was 18, for a crime committed eight months earlier, when he was 17.  He was convicted as an adult. Aggravated assault is a felony in Pennsylvania.  Under Pennsylvania law Battle may...

After nearly four years in the courts, Wisconsin Carry, Inc. won a historic victory for the right to bear arms in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Carry had sued the City of Madison, because the City had refused to remove a rule that had been instituted in 2005 by the City Transit and Parking Commission. The rule forbid the transportation of any weapons on city buses. The case started in 2013. Wisconsin has a strong state constitutional protection for the bearing of arms. Wisconsin Carry did not invoke that protection directly, nor did they cite the Second Amendment.  Wisconsin had passed a...

Chart done by David Scott Total private guns in the United States,  404 million Gun Watch Total private guns added during President Obama's two terms, 96 million Gun Watch Murder rate in the U.S. (latest from 2015)  4.9 per 100,000  FBI Murder rate in the U.S.  1993  9.5 per 100,000  FBI Murder rate in Brazil (latest) 24.6 per 100,000  Wikipedia Murder rate in Mexico  2013 15.7 per 100,000  Wikipedia Number of people with Concealed Carry permits in the United States: 14.5 million  CrimeResearch.org study Number of States where no permit is required to carry concealed or openly:  12 No...

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit against five out-of-state companies he claims were selling kits, that contain the parts necessary to assemble normal capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds. From cbslocal.com: SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera Thursday sued five online gun equipment suppliers selling disassembled large-capacity ammunition magazines as “repair kits” in an alleged attempt to get around state laws.The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Badger Mountain Supply, 7.62 Precision, Shooters Plus, LAK Supply and Buymilsurp.com are engaging in unfair or fraudulent business practices and...

The Womens Defense league of New Hampshire (WDLNH) celebrated the New Hampshire passage of "permitless" or Constitutional carry with their third annual Gun Rights rally. The celebration was held on the Capitol steps in Concord New Hampshire on 4 March, 2017. The weather was sunny but cold with a wintry, gusty, wind. It was a dedicated group that gathered on the Capitol steps, with temperatures a few degrees above zero, and winds that gusted to over 40 mph.  They had much to celebrate. After years of difficult work, the state legislature had restored rights that had been severely infringed...

Our universities have become hotbeds of paranoia about guns. They have become irrational about guns in the hands of anyone who is not wearing a uniform. The paranoia has spread to any object that might be perceived as similar to a gun. Idaho University at Pocatello showed this paranoia on Monday, the 27th of February, 2017.  A student reported seeing a man carrying what she thought was a gun *case*.  This deserves emphasis.  She did not see a gun.  She thought she saw a gun case. The police were quickly alerted and the school was pretty much shut down...

Is the Czech Republic taking a hint from the American Constitution? The Interior Minister, Milan Chovanec, has authored a proposal for an amendment. He says that it would not be as strong as the Second Amendment is in the United States. From euractive.com: The right to be armed could be included in the Czech constitution. This controversial proposal was discussed by the Czech government this week, with the proposed EU Firearms Directive being mentioned frequently in the debate. The amendment was backed by the Social Democrats, the main coalition party. The position of other coalition members was not so...

On Saturday, 25 February, 2017, Senator John Cornyn (R) Texas announced that he will introduce the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act in the Senate this week.  From the dailycaller.com: Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn announced Saturday at the general meeting of the Texas State Rifle Association in Austin that he will introduce the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act in the upper chamber next week. The bill is said to mirror H.R. 38, in the House of Representatives.A similar national reciprocity bill was put forward by Senator Cornyn in 2013. It came within 3 votes of overcoming the Senate fillibuster. ...

This picture shows the “bullet hole” in the window of the class room at the Temple Adath B'nai Israel complex in Evansville, Indiana.  Rabbi Gary Mazo has been going “ballistic”, claiming that this is evidence of a hate crime designed  to intimidate and silence Jews. The damage is supposed to have been done on a Sunday, the 26th of February.  It was discovered Monday, and reported to the authorities on Tuesday. Image from tristatehomepage.comYou can see the damage to the window in a close up. It is clearly *not* a bullet hole. The horizontal measurement of the cone is...

SB 24, the "permitless" or Constitutional carry bill in Alabama, cleared another hurdle on the first of March, 2017. It passed the Senate Judiciary committee. From thenewstribune.com: A bill that would add Alabama to the list of states that allow people to carry a concealed handgun without a permit advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The committee voted 6-3 for the bill after a fiery public hearing with law enforcement officers largely opposing it and gun rights groups speaking in favor of it. The bill now moves to the Senate floor. There were numerous Second Amendment supporters...

In the picture the 3D printed replicas are in the lower row. From the left, they are 1,3,4 and 5. The typical 3D printed striations are easily visible on #4. Australia has, in many ways, some of the most extreme gun regulations in the world. By jumping through a great many hoops, and carefully filling out the right forms over several months, you can own and use a significant number of firearms. The regulations are a wish list of most of those proposed by gun hating activists from around the world. The were rushed through the Australian political machine...

On 20 February, 2017, Governor McAuliffe (D) Virginia vetoed HB 1432.  The bill would have reformed Virginia law to remove the blanket prohibition on carrying, possessing, trading or selling  of switchblade knives.The law was a holdover from the 1950's when bans on the ownership of switchblade knives swept the nation. The bans were based on groundless hysteria about their supposed use by street gangs. The play “West Side Story” was said to have a role in the passage of these laws.  A federal statute banning the interstate sale of switchblade knives was passed.  From the excellent article by Bernard...

In a report on the state of crime problems plaguing Sweden, Katie Hopkins reported that pepper spray was illegal, because your rapist might be hurt. From the dailymail.co.uk: I followed up on the riots last week. Not a single arrest was made. After Peter's Facebook post, in which he drew attention to the volume of crimes allegedly perpetrated by migrants, he was branded a racist, a Nazi, a xenophobe I spoke to residents who know burglaries will not be attended, rapes not prosecuted, car fires accepted with a shrug, pepper spray banned in case your rapist is hurt. The...

House Study Bill 133 is an omnibus weapons law reform bill. The authors of the bill appear to have searched through various weapons laws enacted in the United States in the last several decades.  They looked for the best features of the laws that have worked elsewhere.  When they found them, they incorporated them into this omnibus bill.  There are a couple of twists unique to Iowa. HSB 133 was introduced on February 20th, 2017. The bill covers so many reforms that amendments and wording changes are almost certain. Here is an overview of most of the prominent features...

In late November of 2016, the leftist Guardian, in the UK, reported that 3D printers were used to make illegal submachine guns in Australia.  Reports of homemade submachine guns in Australia have become fairly common. From theguardian.com: A highly sophisticated weapons production facility using 3D printers and computers to make machine guns has been uncovered in a series of raids across the Gold Coast. Police say they found four homemade automatic submachine guns, silencers, ammunition, a replica handgun, a .45 calibre pistol and equipment used to make weapons at two Nerang businesses, as well as a pill press. The...

Suppressors are currently under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). That means suppressors may not be sold to individuals overseas, only to approved governments. Suppressors are not extraordinary high technology. Sophisticated suppressors are not secrets. They can be produced by any concern with modern machinery. The current restrictions were put in place by a memorandum from the Department of State in 2002, a few months after the attack on 9/11.  While U.S. manufacturers are forbidden to sell to individuals overseas, foreign manufacturers are not.  A bill was introduced in the House of representatives in 2016...

North Dakota has passed a “permitless” or Constitutional carry bill in the House. The bill had very strong support, passing 83-9, with two representatives not voting. From nd.gov: 11th Order – Final Passage House Measures – HB1169 – Energy and Natural Resources – Do Pass – Votes Required 48: PASSED – Yea 83 Nay 9 N/V 2 Exc 0 For a Constitutional carry bill, the legislation is fairly complicated. It removes various restrictions in ten pages of text. It applies only to North Dakota residents. Residency may be shown by displaying a North Dakota picture ID that was issued...

Kentucky seems a natural match for "permitless" or Constitutional carry. The state is very Second Amendment friendly.  But in the Kentucky Senate, the Constitutional carry bill was pulled from consideration a week ago. It was said that the votes for the bill were not there, and the Republican leadership did not wish to risk a loss.  The Senate bill is SB 7.  SB 7 has now been changed to conform to the House version of Constitutional carry, HB 316.  One of the changes was to limit Constitutional carry to adults who are 21 years old, or older. A Second...

On 21 February, 2017, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that common semi-automatic rifles are not protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. The ban includes semi-automatic rifles that can take detachable magazines and have two of these three features: folding stock, grenade/flare launcher, or flash hider.  There is a long list of existing models that are explicitly banned, including all AR15s and variants, and all AK47s and variants. The list of banned guns includes some firearms that are not semi-automatic, such as a version of the Mossberg 500 pump shotgun. The law also bans all detachable...