John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm.
He'd rather he didn't feel the need, "but things aren't like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I'm constantly going to the bank.
"I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I'm standing on. But I'm not looking for any trouble."
Filippidis keeps his gun -- a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic, barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case -- in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home.
"There are kids in the house," Filippidis says, "and I don't think they'd ever bother with it, but I don't want to take any chances."
He's not looking for any trouble, after all.
Trouble, in fact, was the last thing on his mind a few weeks back as the Filippidises packed for Christmas and a family wedding in Woodridge, N.J., so he left the pistol locked in the safe. The state of Florida might have codified his Second Amendment rights, but he knew he'd be passing through states where recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms have been met by hostile legislatures and local officials.
Read the article: The Tampa Tribune
Gun owner unarmed, unwelcome in Maryland
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Monday, October 26, 2026
Another election, same former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg working to shape the nation’s gun laws. For years, NRA has exposed Bloomberg’s relentless efforts to export New York style gun restrictions to the rest ...
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
FAIRFAX, Va. — Today, the NRA Victory Fund Inc. released a new 30-second ad highlighting Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s longstanding support for banning so-called “assault weapons” and standard-capacity magazines—the firearms and accessories owned by ...
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
As your NRA-ILA has reported over the last several weeks, the Democrat-controlled Virginia General Assembly and Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) have, between them, approved a sweeping array of radical gun control bills aimed, as NRA’s John Commerford says, ...
Monday, November 2, 2026
A new Essay authored by NRA-ILA Litigation Director Joseph Greenlee and University of Wyoming College of Law Professor George Mocsary has been published in the Yale Law Journal Forum.
Monday, November 2, 2026
“Crime’s way down thanks to Trump — Dems will fight to send it back up,” warns an editorial in the N.Y. Post. “Law-and-order works. Immigration enforcement works. And — like it or not — Trump’s ...
More Like This From Around The NRA
















