March 28, 2013
Despite a federal ruling that Illinois' concealed carry ban is unconstitutional, police, prosecutors and judges alike say they are disregarding the finding and continuing to enforce the law at least for now.
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March 28, 2013
New York will spend $27.74 million to develop a statewide electronic handgun permit database as part of its new gun control law, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday.Silver said the measure in the tentative state budget will create a central database of handgun permit records now kept at the county level.
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March 28, 2013
The Senate Judiciary committee released a bill Wednesday that would require Delaware gun owners to report lost or stolen guns. Gun advocates crowded inside a hearing room in Legislative Hall to oppose the measure that they say targets law abiding citizens, would do little to curb gun use by criminals and would be virtually unenforceable.
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March 28, 2013
The state House is set to vote on a bill subjecting most gun sales between private sellers and buyers in Delaware to criminal background checks.
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March 28, 2013
Hunters across the country say they are boycotting Colorado because of recent legislation meant to curtail gun violence.Colorado last week became the first Western state to ratchet back gun rights in response to mass shootings at a suburban Denver movie theater and an elementary school in Connecticut. Opponents warned that the gun controls would hurt hunters, especially an expansion of background check requirements to apply to personal and online gun sales.
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March 27, 2013
Past a deadline to move hundreds of bills, Maryland's House of Delegates turned its attention back to Gov. Martin O'Malley's sweeping gun control legislation on Tuesday.
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March 27, 2013
U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said Tuesday that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should worry about crime and gun issues in his own city, not North Dakota.Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat, was responding to a $12 million national ad campaign launched by Mayor's Against Illegal Guns, a group that Bloomberg co founded. The ads support background checks, and about $156,000 will be spent to run the ads in North Dakota.
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March 27, 2013
A bill that would expand the number of public buildings in Kansas where concealed weapons are allowed and let public school and college employees carry concealed firearms won first round approval Tuesday night in the state Senate.
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March 27, 2013
The Missouri Senate has given first round approval to a proposed constitutional amendment bolstering certain gun rights after a Democratic state senator blocked a vote for several hours.
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March 27, 2013
The North Carolina House has voted to bar the public from reviewing the detailed records of concealed weapons and pistol permit holders issued in the name of safety.
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March 26, 2013
Soon after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced an assault weapons ban would not be part of a gun control bill, a new CBS News poll shows support for stricter gun control laws overall has dropped since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Currently, support for stricter gun control laws stands at 47 percent today, down from a high of 57 percent just after the shootings. Thirty-nine percent want those laws kept as they are, and another 11 percent want them made less strict.
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March 26, 2013
Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening to filibuster gun control legislation, according to a letter they plan to hand deliver to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office on Tuesday."We will oppose the motion to proceed to any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions," the three conservatives wrote in a copy of the signed letter obtained by POLITICO.
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March 26, 2013
All things being equal, New York State's infamous new gun laws will go down in history as a prime example of the folly of hysterical calls to action; and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who led the chase for the measures, will join them in disgrace. After 20 children were killed in Newtown, Conn., last December, progressives saw a golden opportunity to reverse the liberalizing tide of recent firearms law and leverage the national outrage in favor of long desired gun control codes. Freed by his reelection, the president declared, in an increasingly tiresome formulation, "Now is the time to do the right thing for our children, our communities, and the country we love." In Albany, it appears that the governor took him literally.
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March 26, 2013
Gun owners relaxed a little last week when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid conceded that Democrats lack the votes for Senate passage of an "assault weapon" ban. But relaxing the fight is premature. Gun control advocates had a good week, too, with small victories in Colorado and Maryland. The struggle over who gets to determine the meaning of the Second Amendment continues.
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March 26, 2013
Mike Bloomberg is spending $12 million on attack ads designed to force U.S. senators to vote for national gun control laws that will supposedly save lives. However, the New York mayor's commercials running in 13 states over the next two weeks could cause injury or death by showcasing irresponsible handling of a firearm. Mr. Bloomberg's organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, produced two ads featuring a man holding a shotgun, wearing plaid flannel with a camouflage cap and sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck. While a child swings on a tire in the background, the man says, "I support comprehensive background checks so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can't buy guns." The ad does not specify if the man is an actor, but the text accompanying it says he is a "gun owner." Either way, the man violates all three gun safety rules taught by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
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March 26, 2013
The Senate unanimously passed two concealed carry bills on Monday, including one that expands the number of weapons that wouldn't require a permit under Idaho's concealed weapons rules.Both proposals have already received a nod from the House and were headed to the desk of Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter for his signature.One of the bills carves out an exemption in the concealed weapons law for Tasers, pepper spray and knives with blades shorter than 4 inches, including kitchen knives. People who carry the items wouldn't need a permit.
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March 25, 2013
The chief executive of the National Rifle Association said Sunday that his organization would lead a national campaign against efforts by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York to persuade Congress to adopt stricter gun controls.
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March 25, 2013
National Rifle Association head Wayne LaPierre said Sunday that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to "buy America" by spending millions of his personal fortune to urge key senators to vote for gun control."He can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public," LaPierre said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "They don't want him in their restaurants, they don't want him in their homes, they don't want him telling what food to eat. They sure don't want him telling what self defense firearms to own. He can't buy America."
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March 25, 2013
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Sunday: Sometimes government does know best. And in those cases, Americans should just cede their rights.“I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom,” Mr. Bloomberg said, during an appearance on NBC. He made the statement during discussion of his soda ban — just shot down by the courts — and insistence that his fight to control sugary drink portion sizes in the city would go forth.
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March 25, 2013
Gun control advocates complain that Congress stopped the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from making firearms dealers conduct costly annual inventories to keep their records straight. But ATF already has the power to investigate records and inventories in a number of common sense circumstances, such as a criminal investigation or when there is a suspected violation.Common sense tells us that placing additional burdens on law abiding gun retailers will do nothing to reduce crime, but placing the full weight of our criminal justice system on lawbreakers will.
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March 25, 2013
President Barack Obama called on the Senate to vote on a controversial ban on semiautomatic firearms modeled after military style assault weapons, despite dim predictions from Senate leadership that such a ban will have any luck passing the upper chamber.
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March 25, 2013
In the last batch of amendment votes to the budget, the Senate voted on several foreign policy proposals.Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced an amendment that would prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty in order to uphold the Second Amendment. His amendment passed on a 53 46 vote.
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March 25, 2013
Gov. John Hickenlooper, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, called a ban on assault weapons "a tough sell."Colorado last week adopted three gun control bills -- limiting ammunition magazines to 15 rounds, requiring universal background checks and charging gun owners for the cost of the checks.
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March 25, 2013
Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers rushed a gun-control law through in January that prohibits the sale of magazines that can hold more than seven bullets, the nation’s lowest limit.Problem is, nobody makes seven-bullet magazines.Now, state leaders are planning to suspend the prohibition, which is due to take effect April 15, until they can rewrite the measure.
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March 25, 2013
New York Rep. Charlie Rangel appeared on MSNBC this morning to opine about the assault weapons ban getting dropped from the Senate gun-control bill.He made a few claims about politics as usual and the power money can have in this type of a case, but his most noteworthy comment was about his knowledge on crime statistics.
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March 25, 2013
The effort to let Georgians carry concealed weapons in more places took another step forward Friday as the House approved the latest version of a gun bill.Senate Bill 101, as amended in the House, will allow churches to decide if concealed weapon permit holders may bring weapons into sanctuaries and will allow guns on most areas of public college campuses.
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March 25, 2013
A bill that would allow concealed carry without a permit is shooting toward passage after receiving the Senate's initial endorsement.House Bill 304 would allow people carry concealed weapons within city limits without obtaining a concealed carry permit. The measure is one of the many pro gun measures on the docket this session.
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March 25, 2013
Guns and ammo are selling briskly these days, and that means weapons makers are hiring. Some manufacturers are scrambling to find enough workers.
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March 25, 2013
A new bill moving through the state Senate, SB 224, co sponsored by Sen. Jim Davis, R-Macon, would remove a prohibition against Sunday hunting on private lands with shotgun, rifle or pistol, as long as the hunter is the landowner or has the landowner's permission.
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March 22, 2013
Senate Democrats said Thursday they will take up gun control immediately after a two week Easter vacation, and said the bill they'll bring to the chamber floor will include universal background checks for all firearms sales and a crackdown on gun trafficking and straw purchases.
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March 22, 2013
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will bring gun control legislation to the floor that includes a controversial expansion of background checks for private firearm sales. Reid said he would on Thursday evening begin the process of bringing legislation to the floor for consideration in April.
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March 22, 2013
In a case that backers vow to take all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, a major gun rights group filed suit Thursday in federal court in Buffalo seeking to toss out the state's new gun control law on a variety of constitutional grounds.The lawsuit by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, attacks the NY SAFE Act on several legal fronts, including claims that it violates interstate commerce protections and the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.
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March 22, 2013
Amid all the pious wailing we're reading in other papers about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to take a pass on assault weapons, Albany has given us a homegrown reminder what happens when politicians rush to exploit a tragedy.So desperate was Gov. Cuomo to beat President Obama to the punch on gun control in the immediate aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the gun law that was passed made magazines with more than seven rounds of ammunition illegal.One problem: No one seems to make seven round magazines.
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March 22, 2013
A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a key provision of Maryland's gun control laws, maintaining the state's tough restrictions on carrying handguns in public places.
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March 22, 2013
Some gun dealers were greeted with a line of customers waiting to get into their business Thursday morning, the day after three new pieces of gun control legislation were signed into Colorado law. "We had a line of more than 20 waiting; not that we have much left to sell them," said Richard Taylor, manager of Firing Line in Aurora.
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March 22, 2013
A Minnesota House panel on Thursday approved background checks for firearm sales at gun shows, but the measure may not have enough to support at the Capitol to become law.
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March 22, 2013
Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder, R Abbotsford, said the proposal would deny gun owners' constitutional rights. He called it a political stunt and unnecessary. Tom Evenson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R Juneau, said the legislation won't go anywhere while federal action is pending.
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March 21, 2013
The Senate’s upcoming vote on the assault weapons ban is going to put vulnerable Democrats in a difficult spot.
Democrats facing tough reelection races will either attract the ire of the National Rifle Association or prominent gun control activists such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I). A vote against the ban could spark primary challenges that could weaken Democrats in the general election.
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March 21, 2013
“This initiative seeks to turn neighbor against neighbor and use their own tax dollars to pay for the $500 reward,” Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin told the station.Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/21/new-york-state-offers-500-reward-for-reporting-illegal-gun-owners/?test=latestnews&fb_source=message#ixzz2OD7FeXUl
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March 21, 2013
The White House is still pushing for an assault weapons ban, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday, even though Senate Democrats all but sealed its fate by dropping it from the gun control package they plan to consider next month.
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