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AP Sources: 1 rampage gun purchased legally By LARA JAKES and DEVLIN BARRETT (AP) – 20 minutes ago WASHINGTON — A 5.7-millimeter pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting was purchased legally by suspect Nidal Hasan at a Texas gun shop, law enforcement officials said Friday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5.7 at store called "Guns Galore" in Killeen, Texas, well before the attack that left 13 people dead, one of the officials said. The pistol has been dubbed a "cop killer" by...

For the past several years, Buckeye Firearms Association has published a series of articles entitled "All Politicians Are Not The Same," highlighting elected officials who have proven strong support for the Second Amendment. Today, I believe we can add two more names to the list: Rep. Josh Mandel and Village of Walton Hills Mayor Marlene Anielski. Many pro-gun voters will already be familiar with Rep. Mandel's Second Amendment credentials. As a freshman representative in the Ohio House he co-sponsored the House version of Senate Bill 184, Ohio's 'Castle Doctrine' Law, supported it from his position on the House Criminal Justice...

ersey City's top cop angrily denounced the influx of illegal guns onto the streets of the city and even took rhetorical aim at the National Rifle Association after an early-morning shootout left five cops wounded, two critically. "We need help to stop these weapons from hitting the street," said Police Chief Thomas Comey. "This weapon is manufactured for nothing other than to hunt man."

People on the government’s terrorist watch list tried to buy guns nearly 1,000 times in the last five years, and federal authorities cleared the purchases 9 times out of 10 because they had no legal way to stop them, according to a new government report. In one case, a person on the list was able to buy more than 50 pounds of explosives. The new statistics, compiled in a report from the Government Accountability Office that is scheduled for public release next week, draw attention to an odd divergence in federal law: people placed on the government’s terrorist watch list...

Two Anti-Gun Bills Scheduled for Consideration on Thursday, May 28 2009 Assembly Bill 962 and Senate Bill 585 are scheduled to be considered on Thursday, May 28. AB962, sponsored by Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), is in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. AB962 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the Department of Justice’s database. Ammunition retailers would have to be licensed and store ammunition in such a manner that it would be inaccessible to...

AN ALLEGED double killer, his accomplice and one of his victims were all carrying firearms at an anti-gun event in London, the Old Bailey heard today. Shakah Anderson is accused of shooting dead Mohamed Korneh and Selorn Gbesenete, both 21, at the Tudor Rose night club in Southall at Unarmed 2, dedicated to stopping gun crime among young black people, the jury was told.

BELLEVUE, Wash., April 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on April 7 acknowledged that gun registration is on her agenda, days after Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in Mexico that the Second Amendment would not "stand in the way" of administration plans to crack down on alleged gun trafficking to Mexico. "These are alarming remarks from Speaker Pelosi and Attorney General Holder," said Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb. "It appears that the Obama administration and Capitol Hill anti-gunners have dropped all pretences about their plans for gun owners' rights, and it looks like the gloves are...

Poplawski's friends at the scene described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns. One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon." Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."

N.O. Demo aiming to reduce violenceBATON ROUGE -- Carrying or using firearms at public events such as block parties, New Year's Eve celebrations and Carnival parades could send the violator to jail for at least five years if the Legislature enacts a bill filed by a New Orleans lawmaker. Democratic Rep. Juan LaFonta said he has filed the bill for the session starting April 27 as a way to reduce violence at events popular to New Orleans including second-line processions at funerals and Carnival Indian parades. "We are about to kill a part of our culture," LaFonta said, referring to...

First it was Attorney General Eric Holder’s trial balloon about renewing and making permanent the ban on so-called “assault weapons.” When that didn’t gain traction with Congress, the Obama administration — it appears — decided to take a different tack. Several days ago, ammunition manufacturers were advised that the Department of Defense has decided to no longer sell empty, once-fired cartridge cases as surplus to companies that polish and reload those empties, recycling them back into the marketplace. Instead, the empty brass will be destroyed so that it cannot be re-loaded, for commercial use, for law enforcement training, for hunting,...

The National Park Service has set a goal of eliminating lead from fishing and hunting gear by 2010. Acting Park Service director Dan Wenk announced the goal Wednesday in Washington. Fragments of lead bullets are suspected to contaminate scavenger birds, like ravens and eagles, and lead used as fishing weights could poison waterfowl and other species. A firearms group was quick to condemn the action. “The National Park Service’s decision is arbitrary, over-reactive and not based on science,” Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in a statement. His group is a trade association for the firearms...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Springfield is headed toward a political showdown over guns, with both sides loading up like they haven't in years. The gun owners lobby is close to getting a floor debate in the Legislature on its pinnacle goal of allowing residents to carry concealed handguns in Illinois, which is one of just two states that still outlaw it. (Wisconsin is the other.) "It's heating up. We think we're close," said Todd Vandermyde, a National Rifle Association lobbyist who has pushed the concealed-carry proposal in Springfield before. "You've got 48 states that have this. That's a statement." Gun control...

As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters. I think closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent, would be something that would be permitted under Heller," Holder said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling in Washington, D.C. v. Heller, which asserted the Second Amendment as an individual's right to own a weapon.

Is it too easy to get certain types of guns in Minnesota? Some state lawmakers think so and will be introducing a new bill this week. The proposed law would require all buyers of pistols or assault weapons to have a permit-to-purchase or pass a locally-conducted background check. Currently, if you want to buy a pistol or assault weapon in Minnesota from a licensed dealer, you need a permit and background check. However, that's not the case if you buy from a private seller at places like gun shows, garage sales or on the Internet. "It's a fairly gaping loophole...

President Obama has been in office less than a month, but that hasn't stopped many West Michigan firearms dealers from referring to him as "gun salesman of the the year."

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   California: NRA Victory in San Francisco Lawsuit!   Thursday, January 29, 2009   PUBLIC HOUSING OFFICIALS DROP ILLEGAL BAN ON FIREARMS POSSESSION IN PUBLIC HOUSING An NRA-led coalition of self-defense civil rights groups including the Second Amendment Foundation and the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) has prevailed in a Second Amendment lawsuit challenging a ban on firearm possession in San Francisco public housing residences. “This success is further vindication of the U.S. Supreme Court's Heller ruling upholding the Second Amendment as protecting a fundamental, individual civil right for all law-abiding...

The political wrangling surrounding the nomination of Eric H. Holder Jr. for attorney general appeared to end Tuesday with his most vociferous Republican critic pledging to back President Obama's choice to lead the Justice Department. Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, said he will support Mr. Holder, 58, when his nomination comes to a vote Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which virtually ensures it will be approved by that committee. "I think that Mr. Holder is entitled to the benefit of the doubt in the context of the excellent record he has," said Mr. Specter, who is the top Republican...

Deputy Attorney General Designate David Ogden is circulating a draft of an executive order in which, among other things, firearms possession would be severely limited to people over 60. An assistant to Ogden told us, "It appears that in these changing times, it is no longer necessary to allow the elderly to be armed. With all of their physical ailments and increasing senility, to leave them in control of a deadly weapon would be ludicrous." While the Executive Order may sound too powerful, experts in Constitutional law state that it is not actually un-Constitutional. "It's a question of wording." states...

The line to buy a gun on this morning was long, if you take into account the time, the date and location, which was a Wheat Ridge shop barely larger than my living room. Used to be few folks bought guns this soon after Christmas, the shop's owner, Rich Wyatt, is saying as we sat in the large overstuffed chairs in the middle of the room. Those who did, he adds, for sure didn't go about it only a few ticks after 10 on any morning. The old man in the cardigan was standing first at the glass counter, almost...

The grassroots community organization, ACORN, is fighting for a new law it says will save lives. "Stop the Bullet" is a campaign that would make it harder for felons to buy ammunition from stores. When you buy a gun, gun shops have to run a background check first to make sure you're not a convicted felon. Although it is also illegal for convicted felons to buy bullets, a background check is not required. As it stands now, gun shops aren't required to ask any questions before selling bullets, as long as the buyer is 18 and can present identification. Community...

Cleveland Gun Rights As I've noted in several columns on the OFCC website (listed below), gun control advocates have been screeching about last month's rule change by the Department of the Interior that lifted the total ban on firearms in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges and instead specified that they follow the laws of the state in which it is located. If state law allows concealed handgun license holders to carry a firearm for personal protection, then it is allowed in National Parks; which, incidentally, is the same it has always been for National Forests. Today, I came across an...

Holder omitted Blagojevich link from questionnaire Announced as a ‘special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board’ in 2004 December 17, 2008 BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter/cfusco@suntimes.com Before Eric Holder was President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be attorney general, he was Gov. Blagojevich's pick to sort out a mess involving Illinois' long-dormant casino license. Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" -- a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000. Holder, however, omitted that event from...

People would be required to separately register every box of "encoded ammunition" and the registration would be supplied to the police. Each box of ammunition would have a unique serial number, thus a separate registration. Gun owners would have to maintain records if they sell ammunition to anyone, including family members or friends. The cost of ammunition would soar, for police and private citizens alike. The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturing Institute estimates it would take three weeks to produce ammunition currently produced in a single day. A tax of five cents a round would be imposed on private citizens,...

Editorials Executive order reverses 25-year-old ban to let park visitors carrying loaded guns National parks are supposed to be sanctuaries, not only for people, but for wildlife as well. But the possibility that the peace and tranquility of federal parklands will be violated has increased with the latest executive order by President Bush that will allow concealed loaded weapons in federal parks and wildlife refuges. The new rule reverses the ban on loaded weapons in federal parks that was signed by President Ronald Reagan more than 25 years ago. If this is the legacy that Bush wants to leave the...

A gun rights group says it has launched a court challenge of the University of Colorado's ban on carrying concealed weapons on campus. The gun rights group says a state law allowing licensed owners to carry concealed weapons has no provision that would permit the university to ban guns. It also says the weapons ban is so broad that it violates the state constitution.

I knew that there was something odd going on, when I woke up at 7am on Tuesday and found that over 200 e-mails had arrived in the seven hours that I had been in bed. It turned out that my article on world government had been “Drudged” - ie put on the much-read Drudge Report and this had set off a torrent of e-mail traffic. The pace of comments - and their vituperative tone - persuaded the blog-masters here to shut down the comments section on that article pretty quickly. But this had the unfortunate effect of encouraging people to...

From the prospect of an incoming president and vice president with decidedly anti-gun-rights voting records, to a liberal West Coast mayor determined to ban firearms by "executive order" without benefit of city council or legislative review, American gun owners have good reason to doubt the sincerity of liberal Democrats now in control of Congress and soon to control the Oval Office, who claim to support firearm civil rights. Far too many red flags are being waved for gun owners to take a benign posture just six months after a landmark Supreme Court ruling confirmed what they had known all along:...

Charlene Fernandez, chairwoman of the Yuma County Democrat Party, stated in a front page article ("Gun Sales On Rise," Nov. 18) that she doesn't understand why people have always associated the Democratic Party with the loss of gun rights. The answer to that is very simple: The Democratic Party has always been at the forefront in attempting to disarm the American populace since the late 1960s. A perfect example of this is the Gun Control Act of 1968. It accomplished the following: Congress set up a massive new bureaucratic scheme run by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to regulate...

The Tiahrt amendment, which prevents every local police and sheriff’s office from fishing through federal firearm records will be repealed. Currently, only BATFE is authorized to access the sensitive data, provides it to local LEOs as needed and only while conducting bona fide criminal investigations. NY mayor Bloomberg is instigating this, to get his hands on the data and advance his harassing lawsuits against the gun industry. The Uninvited Ombudsman predicts the next step will be complaints that most private gun ownership data is not in federal hands, and can’t be searched “to keep Americans safe.” This line is too...

With a new president who takes office in January 2009 and the thoughts of possible changes in firearms laws, local firearms dealers have noticed an increase in the sales of weapons usually large caliber and military assault-styled weapons. Fears of a change in the law were evident across the country after the election of Barack Obama who, according to reports, will not attempt to make drastic changes in gun laws. Warren Duncan of Volunteer Ordinance Works said a rumor mill and the "great conspiracy theory" which had fed the increase in sales has been generated at gun shows and relates...

Wonder how many others here were doing the same? Left for the local Cabela's with my dad this morning at 5 AM. Got there at 5:45 and about 300-400 people were already in line for a store which opened at 6! Simply unbelievable. Long lines at the gun counter made for a wait which was hours long, especially since the PA dept which approves gun purchases opened at 8 AM making for an incredible backlong. The state of PA really needs to add 2 hours next year for this one day. But in the end, I got my Kimber Ultra...

From CavMom comes this disturbing email: This is frightening - they want my ammo they will get it one damn round at a time!!!We are under assault from all sides. Ammo registration.Ammo Confiscation (Many Americans are scared-to-death at what’s coming….)The bill that is being pushed in 18 states (including Illinois and Indiana) requires all ammunition to be encoded by the manufacturer in a data base of all ammunition sales. So they will know how much you buy and what calibers. Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009 unless the ammunition is coded.Any privately held un-coded ammunition must...

From sea to shining sea, the election of Barack Obama has sparked a run on guns by firearm fans who fear stiffer rules are on the way. During election week, the FBI did 374,510 background checks on prospective gun owners, compared with 251,804 in the same week last year. Last month, the G-men did checks on 285,894 people buying handguns, compared with 223,141 in Oct. 2007. "It is a significant jump," Special Agent Jason Pack said. Obama has vowed to protect gun ownership rights, but as an Illinois state lawmaker, he supported a ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons...

In California, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens unveiled a new policy that could cause “dozens, if not hundreds,” of concealed carry permit holders to lose permits issued by the previous sheriff. Did these law-abiding Orange County citizens do anything illegal, immoral, or unethical to cost them their permits? No, they’ve merely fallen afoul of a sheriff that spent the bulk of her career as a deputy in the Los Angeles County prison system, and who apparently has issues with trusting those citizens she was appointed to serve. If Sheriff Hutchens’ priority as a law enforcement official is to protect those...

There are pressures to give up rights, according to Wayne LaPierre Historic victories for gun rights occurred in 2008, but the fight for firearm freedoms must continue to preserve the Second Amendment, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told a crowd on Monday at Ashland University. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down a handgun ban in Washington D.C., that affirmed the right to keep and bear arms, there is a battle for firearms ownership in America, LaPierre said. He urged NRA members and firearms owners to stay vigilant while pressures mount domestically and internationally for...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Sales of rifles, pistols and ammo are surging in parts of the United States, as many gun owners fear President-elect Barack Obama's administration may seek to tighten ownership of certain weapons. "The day after the election, I had many more calls than usual from people looking for semi-automatic rifles," said David Greenberg, the owner of the Second Amendment Family Gun Shop, in Bisbee, Arizona, who sold out of AR-15 rifles in recent days. "There seems to be a fear they will be banned, and it's fairly likely," he added. "Obama and Biden are driven to eliminate firearms...

Gun Sales Thriving In Uncertain Times By Fredrick Kunkle Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 27, 2008; Page A01 Americans have cut back on buying cars, furniture and clothes in a tough economy, but there's one consumer item that's still enjoying healthy sales: guns. ...SNIP... Several variables drive sales, but many dealers, buyers and experts attribute the increase in part to concerns about the economy and fears that if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency, he will join with fellow Democrats in Congress to enact new gun controls. ...SNIP... "Even though [Obama] has a lot going for him,...

The following is from an interview of John Lott by Dave Bose, substituting for Michael Medved on the Michael Medved radio show. Lott is currently a professor at the University of Maryland and is the author of "More Guns, Less Crime" and "Freedomonics." Lott taught at the University of Chicago the same time Obama was an instructor at Chicago. The transcript picks up approximately half way through the audio file... Dave Bose: Just before the break, Professor Lott, I was mentioning that actually know Barack Obama. You met at the college. John Lott: We were both at the University of...

BEAVER — An Industry man arrested after openly carrying a handgun to an August presidential rally in Beaver wore an empty holster to court on Monday and defended his right to bear arms, but the judge wasn’t buying his argument. District Judge Douglas Loughner ruled in Beaver County Court Monday that John Noble, 50, of 1063 Willowbrook Drive should stand trial on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and disrupting a public meeting, stemming from the Sept. 29 rally for Democratic presidential running mates Barack Obama and Joe Biden. According to hearing testimony, the incident was at least partially triggered by...

In this letter sent this week to TV station managers from Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer, obtained by ABC News, the Obama campaign argues that a TV ad by the National Rifle Association should not air. "Unlike federal candidates, independent political organizations do not have a 'right to command the use of broadcast facilities,'" Bauer writes. "Moreover, you have a duty 'to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising.'" The Obama campaign takes issue with an ad called "Hunter," pointing out that claims in the ad were called "false" by Factcheck.org, and was given three Pinocchios by...

Police investigating the Finnish college massacre are looking into possible direct links with the country's last mass shooting Detectives believe gunman Matti Saari, who killed ten people at a college in the town of Kauhajoki, may have had contact with the killer of eight people at a school in Jokela last November. They are examining email and telephone records and suggestions the guns for both massacres could have come from the same shop. Tuesday's shooting was an almost carbon copy of that in November. Pekka Eric Auvinen, 18, also posted warnings on YouTube. Both gunmen shot themselves and died later...

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Biden accepted the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations this morning on behalf of the Democratic ticket, pledging to again provide a seat at the table for local law enforcement. Biden, speaking on a conference call with NAPO President Tom Nee, made a plug for the “Biden Crime Bill,” which he said was contributed to a 30 percent drop in violent crime in the 1990s. “Then, for some reason, because this administration and my good friend John don’t think it’s a role of the federal government to be involved in local law enforcement … they...

The Washington D.C. City Council has created so many hoops for handgun owners to jump through before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights, they may require legal counsel just to identify what the hoops are.  This sorry state of affairs is much to the satisfaction of The Washington Post, which called for just such an obstructionist policy in an editorial.  At least one of those hoops is illegal, according to the Supreme Court, but a Post news story spun that fact as the opinion of “opponents of the handgun ban.”  Is editorial policy coloring the news?The Washington Post is...

Pasadena officers talked to girlfriend after shootings A woman who knew one of the burglars gunned down by Pasadena homeowner Joe Horn told police she had warned her friend that his habit of breaking into homes would cost him his life, according to recently released police records. As part of a 31-page police report, Diamond Morgan, 24, of Houston, told Pasadena police investigators that she knew Diego Ortiz was a criminal. "Morgan stated that she told Ortiz three days ago that he was going to end up dead for the things that he was doing," police detective M.E. Bruegger wrote...

Scalia's selective historyBy Jack RakoveAppeals to the evidence of history figured prominently in last week's Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia vs. Heller, striking down a sweeping ban on handguns and affirming that the 2nd Amendment protects a fundamentally individual right "to keep and bear arms." Yet read the two main opinions by Justices Antonin Scalia (for the conservative majority) and John Paul Stevens (in dissent), and you will see that different ways of defining and reading what counts as historical evidence expose a fault line between them.One would have to be terribly naive to think that how these...

Letter to the Editor: It's about time we get real about gun control in our cities. If we can have sobriety checkpoints and now motorcycle checkpoints, why don't we have cops creating gun checkpoints? Have them create checkpoints in the city where the gun violence is running rampant. Give the cops metal detectors and make people stop and get checked for guns. They are illegal and they are a lot worse than drunken drivers, and motorcyclists without the correct credentials. Let's get real here and start doing something about all these guns on our streets. If it's legal to stop...

On Tuesday, April 8, the Assembly Public Safety Committee will consider legislation that would require gun owners to obtain a “permit-to-purchase” before buying handgun ammunition. Introduced by State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), Assembly Bill 2062 puts ammunition sales in the crosshairs. AB2062 would require that law-abiding gun owners obtain a permit to buy handgun ammunition and would impose severe restrictions on the private transfers of handgun ammunition. Applicants for a “permit-to-purchase” would be required to submit to a background check, pay a $35 fee, and wait as long as 30 days to receive the permit. Under AB2062, it...

An airline passenger claimed that a security guard threatened to arrest him because he was wearing a T-shirt showing a cartoon robot with a gun. Brad Jayakody, 30, from London, said he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 after his Transformers T-shirt was deemed 'offensive.' The IT consultant was set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf in Germany when he was pulled to one side. Brad Jayakody w Brad Jayakody wearing the Transformers T-shift which caused offence at Heathrow Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character...

City Hall Reporter One set of rules for aldermen, one set for rest of us, he says Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue today decried the "double standard" that prompted Mayor Daley to endorse the idea of temporarily re-opening gun registration in Chicago after a request from Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). "We have retired police officers who have a right to carry concealed weapons across the country, and they're being barred from registering their weapons in Chicago. We've taken one of these cases to Circuit Court. Dick Mell has taken his case to the City Council," the union president...

OAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS) -- Oakland police are worried that more and more people will take the law into their own hands, after two store owners shot two robbers in recent days. People have a right to protect themselves, but things can get out of hand quickly if everyone starts packing a weapon, said Deputy Police Chief Dave Kozicki. "That's a concern that law enforcement has all the time, that people will engage in vigilantism," said Kozicki. A 22-year-old Oakland man was shot at least three times and critically wounded when he tried to hold up a liquor store Saturday night....