MILESFORTIS – Page 678 – ESSE SINE METU IN FACIE INIMICI TUI. TUENDAM INOPS ET FACERE NON MALI.

Ghost Guns and the Deeply American Tradition of Gun Privacy.

“Ghost guns” are the modern manifestation of an American tradition of liberty that stretches back to Lexington and Concord.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) introduced the Untraceable Firearms Act, a bill that targets “ghost guns,” or unregistered firearms without serial numbers.

Also called “kit guns” or “80% guns,” most are built at home from manufacturer-produced gun kits. Improvised weapons, also known as “pipe guns,” are another variation, and they’re constructed using 3D-printed parts or salvaged and repurposed materials.

The proposed law would place strict limitations on the obtainment and manufacture of these guns. For example, it would prohibit building or housing a homemade, 3D-printed firearm, as well as trading a kit gun with a friend. Punishments for an initial violation include fines and up to a year in prison. Subsequent violations can incur up to a five-year sentence.

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Why Is Austin Media Refusing to Release Description of At-Large Austin Shooter? Just Kidding. You Know Why.

Early Saturday morning, a gunman shot and injured at least 19 people outside an Austin, Texas, bar. Rick Moran reported:

Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, was crowded with post-Covid revelers on Friday night when a man described as “black” with a thin build and “dreadlocks” opened fire outside a bar. At least 13 people were taken to the hospital. Of the 13 wounded, 11 were in stable condition with two critical.

On Saturday afternoon, the Austin Police Department updated its website to say that one suspect is in custody, while another is still at large. Earlier in the day, police released this description of the suspect:

The suspect(s) remains at-large. It is unknown if there is one, or multiple suspects involved. There is one suspect described as a black male, with dread locks, wearing a black shirt and a skinny build. The area will be closed for an extended amount of time to process the crime scene. Investigators are collecting and reviewing camera footage and surveillance video.

That description—black, male, dreadlocks—was not only in an official announcement by the APD, but it was all over social media as well on Saturday. But the city’s flagship newspaper, the Austin-American Statesman, is refusing to release the description of the suspect, a dangerous mass shooter who is still on the run, because—you guessed it—it would be racist to do so. The newspaper explained in an Editor’s Note appended to its main story on the shooting:

Editor’s note: Police have only released a vague description of the suspected shooter as of Saturday morning. The Austin American-Statesman is not including the description as it is too vague at this time to be useful in identifying the shooter and such publication could be harmful in perpetuating stereotypes. If more detailed information is released, we will update our reporting.

The description by police was not, by any stretch of the imagination, “vague.” The description, in fact, dramatically reduced the suspect pool in the Austin area, narrowing it down to black males wearing dreadlocks—or 50% of the 15% black population in the city, if you’re doing the math. If you’re a police officer (or a citizen who is on the lookout for an at-large criminal) wouldn’t you want to know that information? Wouldn’t you need that information to make an arrest?

And then there’s this bit from the newspaper’s report: “Police said they had zeroed in on two suspects involved in [a] previous dispute and were rapidly working to arrest them.”

In other words, the Statesman knew that the police knew who the suspects were. If police said the suspects were black, why didn’t the newspaper take the APD at its word? I’ll tell you why: the Statesman wants to perpetuate the fictional narrative that dangerous, gun-toting white supremacist rednecks are roaming the city of Austin, hunting black people.

The Statesman would have us believe that everyone in the Austin area was a potential suspect, when, in fact, the newspaper knew that not to be true. (On a related note, the same public safety issues arise when no one knows whether a suspect is a male or a female because assuming someone’s gender might result in hurt feelings.)

Austin is not alone in prioritizing the woke agenda over safety. As PJM’s Kevin Downey Jr. reported last week, San Francisco police released the picture of a suspect who lit a woman on fire on a BART train, but blurred out her face, purportedly to avoid perpetuating racial stereotypes.

Austin and other U.S. cities continue to demonstrate that they care more about being woke than protecting the public from dangerous criminals. That’s why, as PJM’s Bryan Preston has documented, police are retiring or fleeing these cities in droves and murder rates are skyrocketed all over the country.

If I were an Austonian right now I’d be putting my house on the market and getting out before it turns into another Chicago gangland.

Yeah, that ‘almost’. They’re still basically nonsensical.

Gun Control Group Almost Talks Actual Gun Sense

The phrase “gun sense” is generally nothing more than a euphemism for gun control. It’s a term that’s been corrupted from what it could have meant to be nothing more than a synonym for a term that has less and less popularity with the American public.

However, a gun-control group has decided to step away from talking about infringing on our Second Amendment rights for a moment to talk about something that almost equates to actual gun sense, more or less.

GunSense Vermont, a non-partisan group that works to keep Vermonters safe from gun violence, is looking to change the conversation around gun violence prevention by focusing on safe storage.

At a panel discussion on Thursday, the group focused their conversation on educating gun owners about their responsibility to safely secure guns in their homes to keep them out of the hands of kids, thieves, and anyone looking to cause harm.

Now, this is actually a non-controversial position we should all be able to rally behind.

Of course, the group also says some pretty ridiculous things, such as:

According to GunSense Vermont, a properly stored firearm is one that is unloaded, separate from the ammunition, and locked in a safe.

Meanwhile, one of the honchos (a deputy director) with the group also says that if you’re worried about needing your firearm in a hurry, you should get a quick-access safe.

Which, of course, would require one not to have the weapon “properly” stored.

Then there’s the very real concern of not being able to access the weapon from the quick-access safe because of a loss of fine motor control during a particularly stressful event. Trust me, trying to grab a gun in the middle of the night can be hard enough if it’s in a nightstand drawer. Accessing a combination safe in the mere seconds provided may well be impossible for some.

Yet I don’t want to be too hard on GunSense Vermont.

While they’re a gun control group, they’re actually trying to reach out and talk about non-legislative solutions to firearm-related violence. This shouldn’t be mocked or dismissed, but encouraged. This is something I’m willing to sit down with them and discuss things like this.

You really can’t claim you’re not about banning guns and then not at least try to find non-legislative ways to reduce deaths by firearms. Many of us agree that weapons should be stored safely away from children and thieves. That’s some common ground we can build from. Who knows, maybe we can build from that and find all kinds of other ways to address violent crime without infringing on gun rights.

Either way, this is a good thing.

However, this shouldn’t be taken as me being remotely open to any of their anti-gun proposals. I’m not and I won’t be. See, I think much of our problems with violent crime and other firearm-related deaths can be solved without infringing on the right to keep and bear arms in the least.

My hope is that GunSense Vermont is starting to see things that way as well. I’m not holding my breath, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

Is Critical Race Theory at a School Near You?

The Legal Insurrection Foundation released an interactive map that allows individuals to track Critical Race Theory training in education.

The resource serves to provide students and parents with more information about the curriculum that is being taught in 200 colleges in all 50 states.

As Campus Reform has reported, Critical Race Theory training has been used by colleges and universities as a form of “diversity” training for students and faculty. Former President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2020 banning these types of training. President Joe Biden reversed this order shortly after being sworn in.

William Jacobson, Professor at Cornell Law School and Founder of Legal Insurrection, spoke with Campus Reform about the project.“

This database is neutral, it simply provides the facts and links to programs and policies. Some people might like a school that has a lot of Critical Race Training mandates and initiatives, others may not like that. We provide the data and information so people can decide on their own,” Jacobson said.

The map does not focus specifically on the term “Critical Race Theory,” Jacobson explained that they “try to focus on programs that go beyond mere diversity initiatives, and cross over into so-called “anti-racism” and “equity” doctrines as well as other aspects of Critical Race Theory, though the lines are not always clear.”

New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California are among the states with the most schools on the map, with 24, 18, 14, and 20 institutions listed, respectively.

Florida Bans Critical Race Theory in Schools.

On Thursday, the Florida Department of Education approved a policy that explicitly bans Marxist critical race theory (CRT) from public schools.

The original rule, proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), did not explicitly condemn critical race theory, but barred teachers from attempting “to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”

The final version, however, prohibits “fiction or theory masquerading as facts, such as critical race theory.” By voice vote, the seven-member Board of Education adopted an amendment sponsored by board member Tom Grady. The board then unanimously passed the amended version, Just the News reported.

“Instruction on the required topics must be factual and objective, and may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence,” the proposed rule read.

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I’m taking my copy of the one on the left to Raton. We’ll see what we’ve got.

How a $500 1911 Stacks Up Against a $5000 1911
Does all that money just buy bells and whistles, or is there really something to dropping a few bills on a 1911?

Two model 1911 handguns on a concrete slab.

The 1911 is often considered a real man’s gun or the pistol of a professional. Prices range from less than $500 to beyond $5000, and that’s before gold inlays, engraving, or genuine ivory grips are added in. Nighthawk’s Turnbull VIP 1911 retails for $7999. Wilson Combat’s more practical X-Tac Supergrade Professional starts at $4795. And Springfield Armory’s Ultimate Carry Handgun will cost you $3395.

But there’s another end of the spectrum. Springfield also offers more than 50 other 1911 models with prices as low as $640. And SDS Imports offers Turkish-made 1911s starting at only $409. How can one type of firearm go from being that cheap to having prices equivalent to the cost of a good used pickup truck? It’s all about what’s going on under the hood.

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Just to point out the intellectual level of some people who believe they’re making a salient point about a subject that anyone can easily determine they are totally clueless about

Letter: What does any of this have to do with the Second Amendment?
Portsmouth Herald

June 10 – To the Editor:

In the news the past month or so:

A 57-year old retired NYC police officer is shot accidentally by a friend trying to break up a dispute outside a pizza parlor.

A 6-year old boy, a passenger in his mother’s car, is shot in a road rage incident.

Another young boy, retrieving his bike from the sidewalk near his home, is shot by a neighbor.

Several dozen are killed or wounded over a weekend in gang-related shootouts in Chicago.

An 18-year old from Ohio is found carrying an AK-47 in a NYC subway.

A woman in Texas shoots a beauty shop owner in a dispute about the cost of her pedicure.

A 5-year old boy is accidentally shot by his mother who was aiming at a dog.

Eight people are killed in Atlanta, followed by shootings in a supermarket in Colorado, an office building in California, a FedEx office in Indianapolis, a rail yard in San Jose. A total of 39 people.

Somebody….anybody….Please! Can anyone tell me what any of this has to do with the Second Amendment?

Anthony McManus

Dover

It’s not just how, but also when, and if you really can that’s important.

There Is Far More to Concealed Carry Than Just Buying a Handgun
You need the proper training and mindset before you decide to concealed-carry a handgun. Here’s what you need to know

There is a lot more to carrying a concealed firearm for self-defense than snapping a holster on your waistband and walking out the door. It’s a serious commitment that will impact pretty much everything someone does outside their home, from the clothes a person wears and how they wear them, to the way they get into a car and buckle a seatbelt, to the exact mechanics of picking something up off the floor—or at least, it should.

If you conceal carry, that means you carry a gun as much as possible to protect yourself and loved ones. It means having a self-defense mindset and having that defensive firearm at the ready. Today, there are a lot of people in the U.S. who may have the necessary physical tools for self-defense, but not the skills or the mindset, which is far more important than which handgun, caliber, or holster someone chooses.

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Three weeks until Tennesseans can carry without a permit

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – In three weeks, permit less carry goes into effect in Tennessee.

And is it impacting gun sales? The folks at Royal Range in Nashville say they’re not seeing much of an impact on sales due to the Permitless carry law. But, the gun range store says recently they’ve seen a new trend with women.

“So far not a giant impact,” Bob Allen, the Director of Training at Royal Range said. “We’re kind of steady, maybe just a little bit above right now. And really about the same with ammo,” Allen said.

Gun Owner Jarrett Williams said the Permitless carry law will make him buy more guns but not for obvious reasons.

“Yes it will but only because I know there are going to be more people who maybe shouldn’t have guns,” Williams said. ‘I’m going to possibly need something to defend myself against anybody who is less qualified to have a weapon on them,” he added.

Allen at Royal Range said some people are buying up; basically hoarding lots of ammo because they don’t know what the future holds.

“Ammo prices have gone up substantially, but they’ve dropped a bit,” Allen said. “Thousand rounds of 9mm ammo was about $240 before Covid and during Covid it got to $800 and people were still buying it it has since dropped here at our place to $500 for a thousand rounds. And its kind of hard to get nowadays,” he added.

Allen who oversees training at Royal Range says he has seen one major trend; more women buying guns.

‘We’ve seen a lot of; a substantial increase in ladies coming here to buy guns,” Allen said. “We are seeing that increase quite a bit, whether its women self-defense , first time gun owners,” he added.

Allen adds that even though the law takes effect in July, it doesn’t require in- person or online course anymore. Royal Range is putting a course in place to teach people the law when the permitless carry goes into effect.

“We’re all for a person defending themselves. They need to know the law, because if you don’t know the law, you will get in so much trouble. If I pull it out at the wrong time, that’s called aggravated assault which is felony,” Allen said.

He also adds another trend they’ve noticed recently is more people coming to the gun range looking for training.

Likely voters back right to carry concealed guns, 2-1

In a slap at President Joe Biden’s new effort to impose gun control and tax and regulate one of the nation’s most popular (and concealable) firearms, people overwhelmingly have endorsed expanding the Second Amendment to include carrying concealed weapons.

In a new Zogby Poll provided to Secrets Thursday just minutes before the administration released its rule to target AR-rifle-style pistols, likely voters by a 63%-29% margin endorsed the idea.

In his analysis, pollster Jonathan Zogby said that most voters “agreed that the Second Amendment to the Constitution should also encompass the right to carry a concealed gun. A majority of voters supported concealed carry as a part of the Second Amendment in all regions.”

The poll, one of a series he released through Secrets this week, is the first to find support for concealed carry laws to be added to the Second Amendment.

And it comes as the Supreme Court is considering a New York ban on concealed carry and Biden is eyeing new gun control laws, including taxing and registering millions of legally purchased AR-rifle-style pistols.

Concealed carry has become a hot-button issue as some liberal states move to limit the issuance of permits, though a majority do. And in Washington, there are several efforts in the House and the Senate to approve national “reciprocity” for permit-holders to travel between states with their concealed weapons.

The survey is likely to be seized upon by the authors of the legislation.

It also confirmed a trend seen in gun stores of many more buyers, including women, black people, and minorities, getting handguns to protect themselves as crime increases.

SECOND AMENDMENT PRESERVATION ACT TO BECOME LAW SATURDAY, WITH MISSOURI GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE

Legislation establishing a Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA) will be signed into law Saturday afternoon by Missouri’s governor, in the Kansas City suburb of Lee’s Summit. Governor Mike Parson (R) will sign SAPA Saturday at 2 at Frontier Justice.

State Rep. Jered Taylor (R-Nixa) speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on May 11, 2021, as Rep. Don Rone (R-Portageville) looks on (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

House Bill 85 is sponsored by State Rep. Jered Taylor (R-Nixa) and State Sen. Eric Burlison (R-Battlefield). They say it’s about protecting Missourians and gun rights. Critics like former State Rep. Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) say the bill is unconstitutional.

HB 85 declares that it’s the duty of the courts and law enforcement agencies to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. It also declares as invalid all federal laws that infringe on the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

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Hydroxychloroquine & Azithromycin Boosted Survival of Ventilated COVID-19 Patients by 200%: New Study Confirms

Observational Study on 255 Mechanically Ventilated Covid Patients at the Beginning of the USA Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction This observational study looked at 255 COVID19 patients who required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) during the first two months of the US pandemic. Through comprehensive, longitudinal evaluation and new consideration of all the data, we were able to better describe and understand factors affecting outcome after intubation.

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Heart Inflammation in Young Men Higher Than Expected After Pfizer, Moderna Vaccines — U.S. CDC

(Reuters) -A higher-than-expected number of young men have experienced heart inflammation after their second dose of the mRNA COVID-19 shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, according to data from two vaccine safety monitoring systems, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday.

The CDC and other health regulators have been investigating heart inflammation cases after Israel’s Health Ministry reported that it had found a likely link to the condition in young men who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The agency said it is still assessing the risk from the condition and has not yet concluded that there was a causal relationship between the vaccines and cases of myocarditis or pericarditis.

While some patients required hospitalization, most have fully recovered from their symptoms, the CDC said.

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I wouldn’t necessarily call criminal being criminals as a ‘failure’ of gun control. This just confirms that these laws aren’t for controlling guns, but controlling the average law abiding citizen.

Gun Control Failures Don’t Mean You Need More Gun Control

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, then there’s no doubt about how insane gun control really is.

Over and over again, proponents of it continue to take everything as an excuse that more gun control is needed. Study says that gun control reduced crime? Then it’s proof we need more gun control. Study shows gun control doesn’t work? Then clearly the problem is that we need more gun control.

It’s not any better when you have a total failure of gun control happen in real life, either.

A month after Gov. J.B. Pritzker took office in 2019, giving Democrats complete control in Springfield, flaws in Illinois’ gun laws were exposed when a convicted felon whose state firearm owner’s identification card had been revoked opened fire in an Aurora warehouse, killing five co-workers and wounding a sixth along with five police officers.

The case became a rallying point for gun safety advocates, who’ve pushed for mandatory fingerprinting for FOID card applications, universal background checks for gun buyers, and a system that ensures people whose FOID cards are revoked hand over their weapons to authorities.

More than two years later, however, Pritzker and the Democratic-controlled legislature haven’t enacted those policies or any other major gun safety measures, even as they successfully pushed progressive measures that range from legalizing marijuana to abolishing cash bail.

“These are complicated issues,” Pritzker said of gun control last week in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

“We have Democrats from downstate, from areas where people are deeply concerned about protecting their gun rights,” he said. “And then we’ve got people who live in other parts of the state who believe, as I do, that we need to have a greater focus on gun safety, but it’s a complicated challenge in order to get enough votes put together.”

And all of that ignores the simple fact that while the Aurora shooter was a convicted felon, he went through every hoop the state of Illinois cared to present. He got a FOID. He filled out the ATF’s Form 4473. He didn’t lie about any of his personal information–though he did lie about being a convicted felon, to be clear, but not his name, address, or other such data–and still was able to buy a gun.

Gun control failed at every single level.

That’s kind of like what happens every single day in Chicago. There, despite all the gun control laws on the books in Illinois, criminals are able to obtain firearms easily enough. Meanwhile, citizens trying to obey the law are dealing with a screwed-up system.

At what point do people look at these failures and recognize that doubling down on a failed strategy isn’t going to make anyone’s life any better? The gun control we see day in and day out in Illinois doesn’t work, and yet people are asking why isn’t there more of the very thing that has been amply illustrated to not accomplish a blasted thing.

Honestly, it makes no sense to me. It just doesn’t.

What a strategy fails to work, a reasonable person would try something new. In Illinois and far too many other states, they’re enamored with the idea of gun control that they can’t admit that it just isn’t working.

These states are like that friend in a toxic relationship who is convinced that they just need to do one more thing to make the relationship work. We all know how those kinds of things work out, don’t we?

Illinois isn’t likely to turn out the least bit better, either.

Letter To The Editor O’ The Day

As civil unrest grows, guns are essential for protection

Missing the mark

To Jimmy Dorrell: Your thesis that Christians (so-called) often use the Bible and twist scripture to justify their own selfish desires is certainly true, but Texas’ constitutional carry law is not an example of this practice [May 30 op-ed]. Actual examples could include the church’s gradual acceptance of homosexuality, defense of abortion or justification of adultery, rampant divorce, cohabitation and fornication. You chose this more politically correct topic as your hard line on Biblical malpractice but I look forward to your subsequent pieces on the rest of the issues listed above. Regardless, your piece was a mischaracterization of the argument, and the events that you cited from scripture were in no way related to the conversation of self-defense or willfully twisting the Bible for our own selfish desires.

Second, you assert that Jesus’ own disciples twisted his words for their misguided desires but then you cite three seemingly random instances that have nothing to do with your premise. When James and John were arguing about who would be greatest, they were simply arguing what they wanted, not twisting anything they had heard from Jesus. Judas betrayed Jesus, but nothing more — he didn’t do so out of some misinterpretation of Jesus’ words. And Peter attacked an officer that was simply trying to arrest his teacher. There was no twisting of words, only Peter acting independently, out of anger and fear. Jesus even rebukes Peter, asking him, “Am I leading a rebellion?” He was not, and neither are your fellow constitutional carry countrymen.

Third, your arguments lack an understanding in the difference between vengeance, which is the Lord’s, and the protection of yourself and others, which is your responsibility as a man of God. A constitutional carry law simply ensures that everyone has the capacity to protect themselves against those that would do them harm.

“For greater love hath no man than this, that he would lay down his life for a friend” — John 15:3.

We need to be prepared to protect those around us, stranger or family, and we need to be willing to die for them. But throwing yourself in front of a bullet doesn’t mean much when there are 30 more behind the one that put you on the floor. You seem to be dismissive of the growing threats in this country, but as our collective conscience wanes and civil unrest grows, violence, whether perpetrated by a lone, mad gunman or a crazed mob, becomes more and more likely. Those of us who enjoy the right to constitutionally carry will peacefully stand by, and on the day when the forces of hell come crashing down, I hope that I’m nearby so that I might have the chance to protect the people that were put in your care.

The Expansion of Constitutional Carry

~~Bureaucrats~~ Bureaucraps were never supposed to be in a position to make us ask—even to beg—for our constitutionally protected rights, as they can in jurisdictions with “may-issue” carry permit laws.

Thanks in no small part to lobbying from the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, and to the many NRA members who stand behind the NRA by contacting their representatives, 20 states have now gotten bureaucrats out of the way by passing some type of “constitutional carry” (or “permitless carry”) legislation; in fact, four of these 20 states were added this year—Iowa, Montana, Tennessee and Utah.

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Antigun Advocacy Group Tries To Rewrite Current History Of Gun Buyers

It’s widely established that law-abiding Americans are buying firearms at record levels. No one disputes it. Gun control groups decry the trend. Supporters of the Second Amendment celebrate it. But during the past 18 months, the fact is a historic number of Americans have taken ownership of their self-defense and that includes millions of first-time buyers who bought a gun.

Leave it to staunch gun control advocate and billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s agitprop bullhorn The Trace to “report” on a new “survey” severely downplaying what’s happening.

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Comment O’ The Day:
“I could be down for this. Maybe it would keep those afraid of any firearm from moving away from the coasts.”

BLUF:
Virginia is concerned about a “bad” America.
The one to which she refers — one in which houses host guns — was previously known to both Republicans and Democrats as just “America.”

LA Times Writer Wants Gun Ownership Reported on Real Estate Listings, but for the Opposite Reason as You

When you’re considering moving to a new area, what are the pluses that matter most? Low crime? Good schools? Trash pickup?

A writer for The Los Angeles Times has another metric that may be worth consideration.

On Tuesday, opinion columnist Virginia Heffernan took to Twitter with an idea:

“Real-estate listings should include prevalence of gun-ownership in a 50-mile radius…”

She’d also like info on the “number of annual mass shootings in the region.”

“Time to change what a ‘bad neighborhood’ is,” she announced.

What if someone owns a modern sporting rifle, also known as the best-selling hunting rifle in America?

She believes that’d constitute a bad place for children:

“[A]nd introduce a meaningful tax on guns and gun violence. No one should say, ‘This is a great place to raise kids’ about neighborhoods where even one person has an assault rifle.”

Stop all the racializing:

“The metric would be simple. Example: Staten Island (pop 474k) has 4x the gun ownership per capita of the Bronx (pop 1.4m). If that reads as safer or more [free] to some people, Staten Island is for them. If not, maybe time for the Bronx. Take race, class, politics out of the real-estate equation.”

Real-estate listings should include prevalence of gun-ownership in a 50-mile radius and number of annual mass shootings in the region.

Time to change what a “bad neighborhood” is.

— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) June 8, 2021

The metric would be simple.

Example: Staten Island (pop 474k) has 4x the gun ownership per capita of the Bronx (pop 1.4m).

— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) June 8, 2021

There’d definitely be a lot of items to track.

In 2018, Switzerland’s Small Arms Survey reported there were nearly 400,000,000 guns in the United States.

That was, obviously, two years before 2020’s gun-buying surge.

As for “assault rifles,” the AR-15’s certainly been vilified courtesy of impressive, dedicated effort by some on the Left side of the aisle.

Meanwhile, of course, ownership of any firearm doesn’t equal impending murder, and the lightweight modern rifle isn’t employed in most gun crimes.

The vast majority of such are, as you know, committed with handguns.

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Gun Owners of America Blast John Cornyn

Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America sent out an email blast yesterday accusing Texas Senator John Cornyn of attempting to sell out gun owners:

We have an emergency on our hands.

While preparing to fight back against the ATF’s unconstitutional regulation of pistol braces, we learned some disturbing news…

Senator John Cornyn — a Republican who should be pro-2A — is quietly making a deal with the rabid anti-gunner, Chris Murphy, to pass universal background checks.

We need EVERY gun owner in America to take action right now to prevent what would be Armageddon for the Second Amendment.

The language seems overwrought in that direct mail we’re-all-going-to-die-unless-you-donate way. Is there some truth to it? Apparently so:

After years of failed attempts to pass a firearms background check bill, two senators think they have a path to agreement — at least on one key component of a deal.

Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, have been quietly negotiating a way to bolster background check rules by making a small but consequential tweak to current law, which they say would close an unintended loophole in the system that has led to preventable mass shootings.

House-passed legislation to require background checks on nearly all gun purchases has stalled in the Senate. But Murphy and Cornyn, who have been negotiating behind closed doors with little fanfare, believe they may have a formula that can attract broad support from both parties.

Bipartisan, of course, means that the Stupid Party and the Evil Party get together to do something stupid and evil. Or, in this case, Republicans go squishy in the face of Democrat demands.

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