March 7, 2013
In the gun friendly state of Louisiana, the backlash against President Barack Obama's proposed restrictions on firearms seems to be everywhere.It can be seen in the frenzied sales and empty racks at Jim's Firearms store in the state capital, Baton Rouge, where customers have rushed to make purchases as Congress weighs several gun control bills.It is evident in the state Legislature, where a series of bills aimed at protecting gun owners' rights have been introduced as a counter punch to Obama's push in Washington.
FULL STORY
March 7, 2013
Utah lawmakers have advanced a bill that prohibits anyone from disclosing information about concealed carry permit holders or sharing that information with the federal government.
FULL STORY
March 7, 2013
A pair of pro gun measures approved by the Montana House hit the Senate Wednesday, including one that would prohibit local authorities from enforcing any federal ban on semi automatic weapons.That bill and another to allow hunters to use silencers or sound suppressors on firearms received a favorable reception among members of the Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, though the panel did not take immediate action on either bill.
FULL STORY
March 7, 2013
Legislation banning the sale of certain kinds of ammunition and requiring arms dealers to report sales of 500 or more rounds or more passed the Board of Supervisors unanimously on Tuesday.
FULL STORY
March 7, 2013
A Florida legislator wants anyone trying to buy ammunition to complete an anger management program first, in what critics say is the latest example of local lawmakers reaching for constitutionally dubious solutions to the problem of gun violence.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
Hundreds of Coloradans showed up at the state Capitol on Monday to cheer or jeer seven Democratic gun control measures that senators debated late into the night. By late Monday, two Democrat controlled Senate committees had passed all seven bills regarding stricter gun control.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
Amid boos and groans, a Colorado Senate committee passed a measure Monday that bans ammunition magazines of more than 15 rounds after hours of testimony from a barrage of experts, law enforcement officials and victims of mass shootings. House Bill 1224 passed on a 3-2 party line vote out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
The state's Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill banning online training for those seeking a concealed carry permitSenate Bill 195 passed on a 3-2 party line vote.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
House Bill 1229 passed out of the State, Veteran and Military Affairs committee on a 3-2 party line vote and will now head to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. The vote comes weeks after the state House passed the bill 36-29.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
Would be gun buyers in Colorado are one step closer to being required to pay for their own criminal background check. On Monday, the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee passed a measure requiring mandatory gun background check fees.The vote was a 3-2 party line on House Bill 1228.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
Three more state-wide sheriff associations have joined those opposed to President Obama's kitchen sink approach to gun control, raising the number to 14, or nearly one-third of the nation's statewide police organizations.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and leaders of the legislature were ordered by a judge to justify by March 11 why they expedited passage of the state's new gun control law. State Supreme Court Justice Judge Gerald Connolly asked for the explanation in a lawsuit claiming Cuomo and legislators abused their discretion in waiving the usual three day period between the time a bill is introduced and when it's voted on. The measure was presented to the Senate and passed on Jan. 14. It cleared the Assembly on Jan. 15, the day Cuomo signed it.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he's open only to "technical changes" to fix mistakes in his landmark gun control legislation, not substantive changes.Cuomo says he's not open to changing the provision that requires no more the seven bullets in an ammunition magazine, down from 10 allowed before the law was enacted.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
A new Mississippi law says the public no longer has access to records of state issued permits to carry concealed weapons.Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 485 on Monday, and it became law immediately.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
A crowd in Rock Hill Monday urged a state Senate panel to move quickly to pass a bill that would allow South Carolinians to carry handguns, concealed or not, without a permit.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
The names and personal details of gun owners licensed to carry a weapon in Georgia would be kept secret under a bill passed Monday by the Senate.Senate Bill 101 is the first gun bill passed this year by either chamber of the state Legislature, and it contains other provisions related to gun ownership. Most controversially, it would prohibit local officials from banning guns in public housing unless required by federal law or regulation.Meanwhile, a House committee was considering a wide ranging gun bill late Monday.House Bill 512 would make it legal to carry firearms into bars, churches and parts of college campuses.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
The Missouri Constitution already enshrines the right to bear arms, but a state senator wants to expand that protection.The Senate General Laws Committee voted 7-0 Monday in favor of a proposal by Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer, of Columbia.
FULL STORY
March 5, 2013
South Dakota lawmakers have given final approval to a bill that would make the state's concealed weapons permits valid for an extra year.The House voted unanimously to make the permits valid for five years, up from the current four years. The Senate approved the bill earlier, so it will become law if signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
A Long Island state senator who voted for the state's comprehensive gun control law now wants to repeal it.Sen. Philip Boyle (R-Bay Shore) said yesterday that the law, championed by Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as the nation's toughest, "was a mistake." The freshman senator said the bill was rushed the Senate acted on it just hours after it was printed and that it went too far in limiting assault weapons and ammunition magazines."Its passage lacked transparency and public input and its wording was ill conceived and of questionable legality," Boyle said in a statement. "Lawmakers like myself might have caught these mistakes if we were given more than two hours to read the bill. A good leader admits a mistake and works to rectify it. That is what I am doing."
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
A group of 1,200 New Yorkers has forced a court review of whether New York's new gun controls were rushed into law in violation of the state constitution.Robert Schulz, of Warren County, calls Gov. Andrew Cuomo a "king" for pushing through the nation's toughest gun law by suspending the three day review usually required before votes on bills.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
With congressional action on gun control largely stuck in a holding pattern on Capitol Hill, the real battlefields on the issue may become local, state and federal courtrooms.The New York attorney general's office is due before the state Supreme Court next month to defend the constitutionality of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's tough new gun control package, and two separate appellate courts recently issued opposing opinions on whether the Second Amendment guarantees the right to carry a concealed weapon in public.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
Mass shootings such as last year's searing incidents in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., have put gun and mental health policies back atop the nation's agenda. But the narrative of crime over the past two decades runs in a different direction. Law and order has largely vanished as a political issue in 1994, more than half of Americans called crime the nation's most important problem; by 2012, only 2 percent of those surveyed by Gallup said so.Today, there are more theories about why crime has fallen than there were slayings on Hanover Place in the past decade.The drop in deaths from firearms and in slayings overall over the past two decades, homicide declined by 80 percent in the District and overall crime fell by 75 percent in New York City has come even as the economy has tanked, the number of guns owned by Americans has soared and the number of young people in the prime crime demographic has peaked.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
The Utah House has advanced a bill that would eliminate the need for a permit to carry a concealed gun in Utah, as long as it's unloaded.House lawmakers approved the bill 51-18 Friday morning. It now moves to the Senate for debate.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
State lawmakers plan to unveil several bills in coming weeks designed to strengthen state gun laws. The package of legislation was worked out by lawmakers and representatives from the state police, attorney general's office and the administration of Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
The Missouri Constitution already enshrines the right to bear arms, but a state senator wants to expand that protection.The Senate General Laws Committee scheduled a vote Monday on the proposal by Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer, of Columbia.The proposed constitutional amendment would define the right to bear arms as "inalienable" and require the state to defend against any "infringement" of that right.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
As North Carolina legislators move to close public access to firearm permits, some sheriffs are already refusing to hand over the records.Following a public showdown with the sheriff in Cherokee County, a local newspaper editor quit last week after his records request -- which was denied -- made him the target of death threats. The county has the state's highest rate of concealed handgun permits.In Gaston County, Sheriff Alan Cloninger responded Friday to a newspaper's request for gun permit records by withholding names and addresses of permit holders.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
Unnoticed amid dozens of tract homes in the Denver suburbs, a nondescript industrial building is suddenly in the middle of the gun control debate in Colorado.The company, started in an ex Marine's basement in 1999, is in a standoff with Colorado Democrats who want to restrict the size of ammunition magazines after mass shootings in a suburban Denver movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school. Magpul has issued lawmakers an ultimatum potentially worth millions: Pass the bill, and the business will move.
FULL STORY
March 4, 2013
Permits granted in Minnesota for individuals seeking to carry a firearm surged past the 30,000 mark last year, with very few applicants being denied, state officials said Friday.There were 31,657 permits granted by county sheriffs in 2012, up from 20,772 in 2011, according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). There were 285 applications denied last year. There are still some applications from 2012 that have yet to be processed, meaning more approvals are in the bureaucratic pipeline.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Senators postponed consideration of legislation limiting gun violence for at least a week Thursday as members of both parties said they wanted more time to review the bills and potentially propose amendments.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Vice President Joe Biden told Field & Stream magazine in an interview published Monday, "[if] you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door."
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
What should America do about gun violence? That was the Senate Judiciary Committee's topic for its first hearing of 2013.In my testimony during the hearing, I explained that the ability to arm oneself is even more important for women than it is for men, since guns level the playing field between women and the physically stronger men who might attack them. We preserve meaningful protection for women by safeguarding our Second Amendment rights to lawful self protection. I urged the senators to eschew self defeating proposals that would fail to make Americans safer and would harm women most.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Gov. Scott earlier this year reiterated his support of the Second Amendment and said he didn't anticipate any need to change the state's gun laws in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings. Last week, he told reporters he was a card carrying member of the National Rifle Association and that he and his wife, Ann, own several firearms.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
House lawmakers clashed Thursday on the question of whether an assault weapons ban should be approved in Illinois, a split that put on full display how hard it will be to balance the rights of individual gun owners with the desire of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn to put the prohibition in place.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
The prospects for the administration's proposals, however, are murky at best. Six weeks after Obama announced his initiatives, the assault weapons ban reinstatement is widely considered to have virtually no chance of passing the Republican led U.S. House of Representatives. It's not even a good bet in the Democrat controlled U.S. Senate. The powerful National Rifle Association, which sees Obama's plan as an infringement on the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, staunchly opposes the effort.Gary Kleck, a professor at Florida State's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a national expert on violence and gun control laws, agrees the assault weapon ban won't go anywhere -- and shouldn't.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Starting July 1, people with handgun carry permits can keep guns in their locked cars on most parking lots in Tennessee including at most workplaces against the business owner's objections without fear of state or local criminal charges.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Maryland Senate Democrats passed sweeping gun control legislation proposed by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley on Thursday, with tighter firearm restrictions on the mentally ill and token concessions on a new licensing requirement that will force most gun buyers to be fingerprinted.Before Thursday's 28 to 19 vote, Republicans attempted a filibuster, railing against the plan for more than four hours and warning that the bill proposed by O'Malley (D) would put Maryland in the untenable position of requiring fingerprints of residents to exercise a constitutional right.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Hundreds of gun rights supporters have filled the Rhode Island Statehouse to protest a proposal to require gun owners to register their weapons with local police.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
No House opposition emerged against a measure to help residents legally carry concealed weapons beyond Idaho's borders.Representatives voted unanimously Thursday to send Meridian Republican Rep. Joe Palmer's "enhanced" concealed weapon permit plan to the Senate, where it's also likely to encounter little or no resistance.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Thousands of people gathered here on Thursday to protest New York State's new gun restrictions, denouncing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers in one of the largest rallies at the State Capitol in recent years.The president of the National Rifle Association, David Keene, told the demonstrators that Mr. Cuomo had sacrificed the United States Constitution "on the altar of his own ambition and on the ego of Michael Bloomberg of New York City." Mr. Keene vowed to help New York gun owners fight the measure in court and defeat legislators who supported it.
FULL STORY
March 1, 2013
Employees of the Butler County Sheriff's Office are skipping coffee breaks and working through lunch to keep pace with applications for gun carry permits.
FULL STORY