April 10, 2013
With less than six weeks left in the annual session, a gun control bill has received its first hearing by a Missouri legislative committee.The Senate General Laws heard testimony Tuesday on a bill requiring parents to notify their child's school if they own a firearm.
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April 9, 2013
About 85 percent of officers say the passage of the White House’s currently proposed legislation would have a zero or negative effect on their safety, with just over 10 percent saying it would have a moderate or significantly positive effect.
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April 9, 2013
Congress returns to Washington on Monday with two issues reaching critical stages -- gun safety legislation in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration system.
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April 9, 2013
Senate Democrats are approaching decision time on whether they should try to get Republican support for expanding background checks for firearms sales or will follow the shakier path of pursuing the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's gun control effort on their own.
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April 9, 2013
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to join a Republican filibuster of legislation aimed at curbing gun violence should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D Nev.) bring it to the floor."While nobody knows yet what Senator Reid's plan is for the gun bill, if he chooses to file cloture on the motion to proceed to the Reid Bill (S. 649), Senator McConnell will oppose cloture on proceeding to that bill," a McConnell spokesman said.
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April 9, 2013
Obama for America’s post-election transformation into the grassroots lobbying group Organizing for Action (OFA) was supposed to provide the political heft (and supersized bank account) President Obama would need to implement his sweeping second-term agenda. So far, however, efforts to translate OFA’s success in turning out support for its candidate into generating support for his actual policies have thoroughly failed to impress.Take gun control. In the months since the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., the president has waged an aggressive campaign to implement stricter gun-control policies. He concluded his State of the Union address with a rousing appeal for congressional action — “The families of Newtown deserve a vote” — and continues to implore the American people: “Shame on us if we forget.” OFA, though legally prohibited from coordinating with the White House, has thrown its full weight behind the effort.
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April 9, 2013
State and local officials are pushing a new way to expand gun control: taxes.Gun owners in and around Chicago last week started paying a new $25 tax on every firearm they purchase. In California, a statehouse panel on April 15 will hear testimony on a nickel per bullet tax measure, and in New Jersey, lawmakers want to slap an additional 5 percent sales tax on guns and ammo.
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April 9, 2013
Up for public hearings Monday were proposals by Senate President Justin Alfond to ban the sale of high capacity magazines and another bill by Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D Brunswick, to close the so called "gun show loophole" by requiring background checks for sales at gun shows.More bills will be heard over the course of the week.
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April 9, 2013
Gov. Lincoln Chafee and state lawmakers are set to unveil gun control legislation that addresses background checks, mental health problems, firearms safety and weapons sales.The announcement is planned for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Statehouse.
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April 8, 2013
The survey, which was conducted in early March 2013, received 15,000 responses from law enforcement professionals. It found that the overall attitude of law enforcement is strongly anti-gun legislation and pro-gun rights, with the belief that an armed citizenry is effective in stopping crime. Response percentages varied only slightly when analyzed by rank and department size.
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April 8, 2013
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's threat to filibuster any new gun restrictions is gathering steam, as a dozen of his Republican colleagues have now signed onto his plan.The Kentucky Republican and Sens. Ted Cruz (R Texas) and Mike Lee (R Utah) first wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid late last month to warn him of their intention to try to tie up the Senate if, as planned, Reid moved forward with legislation that would expand background checks and attempt to crack down on interstate gun trafficking.
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April 8, 2013
At least six states are considering new taxes or fees on firearms or ammunition as a way to help pay for the consequences of gun violence.Gun and ammunition purchases are already subject to local sales taxes, and manufacturers pay a federal excise tax 10% for pistols and revolvers, 11% for other guns, shells and cartridges that funds wildlife programs.
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April 8, 2013
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is typically a cooperative group of top government officials from nearly every county and city in the Washington area. They work together on coordinating police and fire issues, transportation, growth planning and environmental matters.Last month, in response to the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, the COG board of directors voted to take a position on gun violence and support measures such as an assault weapons ban, closing the "gun show loophole" and approving firearms waiting periods. The resolution entirely adopted a position paper issued in February by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.But the vote angered some members, who said the organization was venturing far from its mandate of finding solutions to regional problems and into the controversial realm of politics.
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April 8, 2013
An international framework for controlling the global arms trade appears to be headed for a brick wall on Capitol Hill, and Idaho's junior senator is among the chief bricklayers."Save your ink. It's not going anywhere," U.S. Sen. Jim Risch said this week.
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April 5, 2013
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, a top lobbyist for the ACLU announced that the group thinks Reid’s current gun bill could threaten both privacy rights and civil liberties.
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April 5, 2013
Universal background checks for gun purchases are an attempt to address a legitimate problem: It really is easy for criminals to get guns, and it really is hard to prosecute those who sell guns to criminals. While licensed gun dealers are required to perform background checks and maintain records, private citizens may sell their guns without so much as asking a question. To prosecute a citizen for an illegal sale, the government must prove that the citizen knowingly gave a gun to a criminal or bought a gun for the sole purpose of transferring it to another party. In surveys, a large percentage of criminals report procuring guns through friends, family, and other private sources, yet these suppliers rarely face charges.But the fact that the problem is real does not mean this proposed solution would be helpful. Universal checks might be an inherently unworkable idea. And a universal-check policy capable of passing the current Congress will certainly not do much good. It is time for legislators to direct their efforts elsewhere.
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April 5, 2013
A sizable number of Americans think the federal government is coming after their guns. Forty four percent (44%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that the government will try to confiscate all privately owned guns over the next generation or so, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
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April 5, 2013
Rarely has the political class whipped itself into a lather that has abated so quickly. After the Newtown, Conn., massacre, so many invested so much hope in President Barack Obama’s pledge to “use whatever power this office holds” to pass new gun control laws.The president has certainly done his part. He has held rallies. He has used children as props. He has held events with parents of the little victims of Newtown. He has shamed the nation for its alleged forgetfulness over the terrible events of that day and urged members of Congress to “join me in finishing the job — for our communities and, most importantly, for our kids.”Yet the needle of public opinion is moving the wrong way. CBS News found that support for stricter guns laws dropped from 57 percent to 47 percent, and CNN from 52 percent to 43 percent.
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April 5, 2013
The Maryland Senate gave final approval to Gov. Martin O'Malley's sweeping gun control bill Thursday night, sending the legislation to the governor for his promised signature.
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April 5, 2013
Measures that would let judges, private investigators and public bus passengers carry guns sailed through an Oklahoma Senate committee Thursday.The Senate Public Safety Committee approved six gun related bills Thursday and sent them to the full Senate. All have already passed the House, but one would have to go back to the lower chamber for concurrence in an amendment.
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April 5, 2013
The Alabama Senate has passed legislation to ease some of the state's gun restrictions.The Senate voted 27-5 Thursday for the bill by Republican Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale. It now goes to the House for consideration.It would allow workers to keep guns locked in their vehicles while at their jobs, and it would allow people to get a lifetime permit to keep guns in their vehicles all the time.
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April 4, 2013
Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette drew national criticism Wednesday for remarks made at a public forum in which she said banning high capacity in ammunition magazines would be effective in reducing gun violence because "the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available."DeGette, who for years in Congress has been the prime sponsor on a federal ban on high capacity magazines.But despite the congresswoman's claim, ammunition magazines can be reloaded with more bullets and can be reused hundreds of times.
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April 4, 2013
Maryland's House of Delegates passed what would be among the nation's most restrictive gun control measures Wednesday, ratcheting up the state's already tough rules to require fingerprinting of gun buyers, new limits on firearm purchases by the mentally ill, and a ban on assault weapons and magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.
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April 4, 2013
In gun stores and firearms factories, reaction to the legislature's gun control package Wednesday was swift and pointed.Manufacturers raised the specter of leaving Connecticut, and customers at guns shops and outfitter's stores throughout the state feared that legislation the General Assembly was poised to enact in reaction to the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown would open the door to further limits on gun ownership.
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April 4, 2013
A bill to regulate the sale of ammunition in California cleared the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D Berkeley, said Assembly Bill 48 adds "reasonable safeguards" to the purchase of ammunition by requiring sellers to be licensed and purchasers to show identification.
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April 4, 2013
Amanda Collins was walking to her car after finishing a class on the University of Nevada, Reno campus when an eight minute ordeal changed her life.As she approached her car on the night of Oct. 22, 2007, James Biela lunged out from a hiding spot behind another vehicle and threw Collins to the ground before raping her at gunpoint.Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the campus police cars. She was defenseless.Five years after her attack, she is urging support for AB143, which would allow carry concealed weapons permit holders, like Collins was, to bring their firearms on Nevada's higher education campuses for personal protection.
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April 4, 2013
Kansas legislators were close Wednesday to finishing work on measures declaring that the federal government can't regulate some guns and allowing public schools and colleges to arm employees with concealed firearms.
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April 4, 2013
Gun owners called on legislators Wednesday to simplify the state's strict but "convoluted" gun control laws, saying they had failed to stem violence in Massachusetts.The Gun Owners Action League, which claims more than 15,000 members in the state, staged a Second Amendment rally on the Boston Common as gun control advocates pushed for even tougher laws in Massachusetts in the wake of the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
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April 4, 2013
A bill that would permanently prohibit the public release of information about individual concealed weapons permit holders in Maine has been endorsed by a legislative panel.
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April 3, 2013
U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Max Baucus (D-MT) and James Inhofe (R-OK) – cosponsors of S. Con. Res. 7, the bipartisan resolution which makes clear a United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that undermines Constitutional freedoms of American gun owners will not be ratified by the Senate – today responded to the vote in the U.N. General Assembly to pass the U.N. ATT. The General Assembly vote was forced as a result of Iran, North Korea and Syria blocking the U.N. ATT last week and infringes on the Administration’s previous insistence on consensus.
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April 3, 2013
Liberal hopes to renew Bill Clinton's "assault weapon" ban are beginning to fade, but liberal bitterness is hard to conceal. Opponents of gun rights are turning their attention to legislative harassment.U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney's proposed Firearm Risk Protection Act would make it a federal crime to buy a pistol without first purchasing a government approved insurance policy. If enacted, this would most affect a single mom in the inner city who just wants to protect her family and can't afford the expense. Malefactors of her sort would face a fine of $10,000.
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April 3, 2013
Warming to a gun control package that he wouldn't endorse the day before, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he intends to sign the comprehensive gun control bill that lawmakers will vote on Wednesday.
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April 3, 2013
Customers packed gun stores around Connecticut on Tuesday ahead of a vote expected to bring sweeping changes to the state's gun control laws.
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April 3, 2013
Gun owners from across Massachusetts are planning to rally on Boston Common in support of Second Amendment rights.The Wednesday rally is scheduled to begin at noon and is being organized by the Gun Owner's Action League of Massachusetts.
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April 2, 2013
Sen. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, said Sunday that universal background checks on all gun sales are “a bridge too far for most of us” as Democrats try to cobble together a package that can win 60 votes in the Senate.
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April 2, 2013
Senators from both parties signaled Sunday that universal background checks could be the next gun measure to get shoved toward the legislative scrap heap or significantly watered down.
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April 2, 2013
Two months ago, we were willing to cut the White House some slack given the paucity of recent data. But the president's failure to acknowledge the significant questions about this old data, or its slippery phrasing, leaves us little choice but to downgrade this claim to Three Pinocchios.Three Pinocchios
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April 2, 2013
A group of congressional Democrats has signed on to new legislation that would mandate liability insurance for all gun owners in the United States -- and fine those who refuse to purchase it as much as $10,000.
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April 2, 2013
Connecticut lawmakers announced a deal Monday on what they called some of the toughest gun laws in the country.
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April 2, 2013
The Maryland House of Delegates is scheduled to take up Gov. Martin O'Malley's gun control measure.The House is planning to consider changes to the bill on Tuesday.Two House panels voted 27-18 on Friday to move the bill to the floor.
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