Keep and Bear Arms - Gun Owners Home Page

TX: 'Constitutional carry' bill approved by state House would allow unlicensed Texans to carry handguns
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Texans would be able to carry handguns in public places without a license under a bill that was approved by the state House of Representatives on Thursday.

Republican lawmakers are pushing to make Texas the largest of about 20 states to adopt the so-called �constitutional carry� law. The measure, which passed largely along party lines, is a win for the state�s conservative faction, which has promised to uphold Texas� reputation as a pro-Second Amendment state even as Democratic President Joe Biden pushes for tighter gun restrictions.

Ed.: The senate has already killed its own version of constitutional carry for the year; it is vital Texans contact their senators to politely demand they pass HB1927. We have waited long enough.

New Poll � Five Charts Reveal Just How Bad A Losing Issue Gun Control Is For Dems Submitted by: Rev. R Vincent Warde Website: http://www.clergyinsupportofthe2ndamndment.org	There is 1 comment on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
Poll Reveals Strong Support For The 2nd Amendment Among A Sample The Mirrors Voting In November Election The latest poll results does not look good for gun control�� or for Democrats who support it.

MN: As sales surge, bearing arms means bearing responsibility
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Americans are buying guns and ammunition at a clip rarely if ever seen in history, not only in this nation, but anywhere, at any time, worldwide.

Consider: In the first six months of last year, the FBI conducted more than 19 million background checks on Americans wanting to purchase or possess a gun. That's more background checks than were completed in the entirety of 2012 or any year before, dating to the system's origin in the late 1990s.

In June 2020 alone, 3.9 million background checks were completed, a record that topped the previous 30-day mark set three months previously.

LA: NRA's opposition to gun ordinance is about Washington D.C., not Shreveport
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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The NRA doesn't live in Shreveport.

The NRA doesn't pay our taxes, attend our schools, or walk our streets. They don't hear the gunshots that disturb our nights, and they do not console parents who are grieving the loss of a child to gun violence.

The NRA is a D.C. special interest group that stokes fear and incites outrage to drive up donations and cement its political power. They do not care about Shreveport.

FL: Florida Senate sends Anti-rioting bill to the Governor�s desk
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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�But I don�t see any reason from a common-sense perspective that it wouldn�t hold up,� said Simpson.

As soon as the bill is signed into law, the changes will take effect.

Along with enhanced penalties for crimes committed during a riot, the bill allows state attorneys to appeal reductions in local police budgets, creates an affirmative defense from civil lawsuits for people who injure rioters in self-defense, and waives sovereign immunity for local governments, allowing businesses to sue for damages if their government doesn�t take action to stop a riot.

DE: Mag Ban Bill Assigned to Committee Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
The House of Representatives is reconvening next week. Senate Bill 6, to ban magazines over an arbitrary capacity limit, has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Please contact committee members and ask them to OPPOSE SB 6.

Nevada Lawmakers Seek Ban on High-Capacity Magazines, As Used in Las Vegas Rampage
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and US Rep. Dina Titus (both D) filed legislation on Wednesday to ban magazines that hold a large numbers of rounds, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

�Firearms with high-capacity magazines have no place in our classrooms, concert venues, or communities,� Titus said.

Titus said families across the country, including in Las Vegas, �know all too well the deadly consequences of inaction.�

Two Sixth Amendment claims and an ERISA lawsuit Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Corlett, 20-843 Issue: Whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit ordinary law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self-defense. (relisted after the March 26 and April 1 conferences)

MO: Strengthen law against celebratory gunfire Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There is 1 comment on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
Shooting guns in the air in celebration is almost obligatory for old westerns, but it has no place in modern society. A bill sponsored by Rep. Nick Schroer, R-O'Fallon, would make the practice illegal, and it's gaining bipartisan support, according to Fox 4 TV in Kansas City.

KY: Group organizes rally in support of 2nd amendment in Union Co.
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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A group gathered in downtown Morganfield on Thursday evening to show support for the Second Amendment.

Getting grievances to the government is part of the goal that Union County United is pushing.

�Legal gun owners are not the issue,� local organization President Jeffery Hart expressed. �Some of these new draconian proposals on the federal level, like an $800 tax per firearm, that�s like taxing a sober driver because someone drove drunk. It�s unheard of.�

TN: Permitless carry to become law Tennessee
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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What is likely one of the most talked-about topics of the year is Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signing a bill allowing most adults to carry a handgun without a permit.

The effort reportedly has been at the top of Lee�s� legislative agenda for the year. The law will take effect July 1 in Tennessee; officially joining 19 states where permitless gun carry will be the law.

In a Twitter statement last week, Lee thanked the Tennessee legislature and National Rifle Association for their work to pass the bill.

Senators Warner, Kaine reintroduce legislation to enact gun violence prevention measures
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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On Thursday, April 15, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine reintroduced legislation to federally enact a series of commonsense gun violence prevention measures adopted by Virginia last year.

The legislation is known as the Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act. It includes provisions to close current background check loopholes, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms and implement a one-handgun-a-month policy, according to a press release from Senator Kaine�s office.

These 11 Incidents Underscore Outrage of Biden�s Slap in Face to Gun Owners
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Just a little over halfway through its first 100 days, the Biden administration has made it very clear where it stands on the Second Amendment, releasing a slew of executive orders that are likely to punish responsible gun owners without meaningfully affecting crime rates.

Perhaps worse, President Joe Biden nominated gun control lobbyist David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a slap in the face to American gun owners.

Joe Biden and guns
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently announced his determination to use his powers as the chief executive of the federal government to infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms. This is a profound violation of his oath to uphold the Constitution.

It also perpetuates an attitude about the Second Amendment that was prevalent in state and federal officeholders in both major political parties from the FDR to the George W. Bush eras. That attitude was based on a misreading of the Second Amendment, which characterized the right to own a gun as a collective and not an individual, personal right. In 2008, the Supreme Court corrected that misreading.

Second Amendment isn�t absolute Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are 2 comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
After a second mass shooting in the space of a week, a friend noted that only one amendment in the Bill of Rights began with the words �Congress shall make no law.� �It�s not the Second Amendment,� he said.

NE: Dawson County commissioners sign resolution supporting gun rights
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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The Dawson County Commissioners joined with many other counties and unanimously signed a resolution supporting gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Around 30 other Nebraska counties, including neighbors Lincoln and Buffalo, have symbolically approved resolutions supporting the right to bear arms.

Commissioner P.J. Jacobson said he received more community input on this matter than any other in the past three to four years. Commissioner Dennis Rickertsen said he had a similar experience.

NY: Asian Women Don't Feel Safe In Public. Now Some Are Carrying Self-Defense Weapons.
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Amy Choi was assaulted and mugged at knifepoint in Manhattan�s West Village one morning six years ago. �I couldn�t leave the house for a few days,� she recalled in an essay for Shondaland. �I couldn�t walk alone for weeks.�

But Choi, who is 41 and lives in Brooklyn, said that attack and the trauma that followed did not spur her to buy any self-defense items. Rather, it was the recent string of crimes against women of Asian descent that made her feel more unsafe than ever, convincing her she needed to take steps to protect herself. She now carries around a kubotan, a pointy self-defense tool about the size of a pen, and a loud alarm button recommended by a self-defense instructor she worked with last month.

NM: APD ruled March homicide as self-defense
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Detectives have ruled the fatal shooting of a man last month at a Northeast Albuquerque apartment complex as a justified homicide.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said the March 19 death of Dominic Lueras, 39, is being considered a self-defense shooting after �consulting with the District Attorney�s Office.�

Prosecutors dismissed the murder case against Manuel Vargas, 24, on March 31. Gallegos did not say why detectives ruled the case justifiable.

MI: Michigan House passes bill to legalize stun guns
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Anyone 18 years and older would be allowed to possess and use a stun gun for self-defense in Michigan under legislation that passed this week in the House by a vote of 78-32.

The bill (HB 4029) now moves to the Senate where a similar bill died in committee last year.

Stun guns are devices that need to be held in direct contact with a person. They use an electrical current to create enough pain to temporarily disable an assailant.

Federal Ammunition Introduces New 22 LR Punch Personal Defense
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Different shooters have different needs, different limitations, and different firearms. Yet for all those variables, 22 Long Rifle has never really been an option for personal defense�until now. Federal Premium introduces Punch 22 LR, a new load using a first-of-its-kind 29-grain nickel-plated lead-core bullet, pushed at maximum velocities for the deepest penetration through short-barrel handguns. Shipments of this product have begun to arrive at dealers.

Man�s fondness for guns creates dangerous situations
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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In a recent column Eugene Robinson asks why we can�t pass gun safety legislation in this country. He notes that guns killed over 43,000 Americans last year � more than 19,000 homicides and 24,000 suicides. We have a problem, yet we do nothing.

The facts are clear. Owning a gun does not make us safer. It makes us more likely to get murdered. It makes a member of our household far more likely to be shot by the gun we own than the very slim chance that we use it in self-defense. It makes us a target for theft because thieves like to steal guns. And a gun in the house dramatically increases the chance that a member of the household who tries to commit suicide will succeed.

NJ: Gov. Murphy Announces Drastic Gun Control Agenda Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There is 1 comment on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
Thursday morning, Gov. Phil Murphy held a press conference to unveil yet another gun control package in the Garden State. Every time he reverts back to the same playbook, it is nothing more than an admission that years of gun control have been a failure. But because he has no real ideas about how to enhance public safety, the Governor doubles down on more of the same failed laws.

OK: DA: Man arrested after NW OKC deadly shooting acted in self-defense, cleared of charges
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The Oklahoma County District Attorney determined that a man, arrested Sunday after a deadly shooting at a northwest Oklahoma City home, acted in self-defense and has been cleared of charges and released, according to Oklahoma City police.

According to police, officers responded at about 5:19 a.m. Sunday to a report of a shooting at a home near Northwest 30th Street and Independence Avenue. They found two people who had been shot.

Smith & Wesson Model 25 Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
While I have long been fascinated with N-Frame Smith & Wesson revolvers, I came to the party only after seeing the movie �Dirty Harry.� Prior to the movie, all my shooting was done single-action, influenced no doubt by having grown up in the 1950s watching cowboy shows on television.