Latest gun rights victory has implications far beyond North Carolina

As gratifying as it is that a federal court in the eastern part of North Carolina realizes that the Constitutional guarantee of the fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms is not conditional on pleasant weather, the larger implication--that federal judges are starting to apply strict scrutiny to gun laws--carries great significance right here in St. Louis, as well. [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

Congressional 'Gunwalker' investigation pursues former White House staffer

Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) are very eager to speak to Kevin O'Reilly, who until a sudden (and decidedly convenient) transfer to Iraq last fall, served on the White House National Security Council staff. From Fox News:

Two top Republican lawmakers investigating the Fast and Furious controversy are demanding the White House make a former aide available for testimony to see whether the scandal reached the upper echelons of the administration, according to a letter obtained by Fox News.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, fired off the letter Wednesday urging the White House to make available Kevin O'Reilly, a former National Security Council staffer who is currently stationed in Iraq for the State Department.

[More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

80-year-old Illinois man told his life not worth defending

The bottom line is that anyone who believes Wright can be legitimately denied the right to defend his family with a firearm is saying that decades-old defiance of Chicago's draconian gun laws should carry a life sentence of having a life less valuable, less worthy of defending, than anyone else's. That's a disgusting viewpoint. [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

A post-election Obama will 'have more flexibility' on guns, too

If reelected, Obama will have the "flexibility" to leave Americans vulnerable to missile attacks, and to impose new gun restrictions to render us vulnerable to common criminals and government oppression. If we let him. [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

Sen. Schumer calls for federal intervention against 'stand your ground' laws

Schumer will, of course, conveniently forget his contempt for state sovereignty if S. 2188, the "National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act," or the stronger S. 2213, the "Respecting States' Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act" gain enough momentum to make him nervous, just as Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) did in arguing against similar legislation in 2009 . . . [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

Brady Campaign takes Trayvon Martin exploitation to new low

Where this situation goes from tragic to astounding is in the Brady Campaign's apparent unwillingness to settle for "merely" advocating for repeal of stand your ground, instead holding this tragedy up as an indictment of "shall issue" concealed carry in general, and of Judge Benson Legg's court ruling against Maryland's requirement of a "good and substantial reason" for issuance of a concealed carry permit (self-defense is not "good and substantial" enough for Maryland). [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

Would ATK rather arm the government than the people?

Yesterday, we touched very briefly on the announcement that the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) and its subsidiary organization, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have contracted the purchase of up to 450 million rounds of .40 caliber pistol ammunition. That's enough to shoot every man, woman and child in the U.S., and then shoot almost half of us again. The company getting that vast contract is Alliant Techsystems (ATK) [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

The Goldilocks approach to ammunition bans

There are a good many reasons to object to the idea of banning lead ammunition for private use (including the fact that now we're being told that one component of "green" ammunition is itself likely to be carcinogenic), but today, we'll look at just one that might not be readily apparent. While the petition to pressure the EPA into banning lead ammo makes an exception for law enforcement and military, it does not seem to make provision for exempting handgun ammunition.

This is significant because under federal law, the composition of bullets used in handgun ammunition is already strictly controlled (with, again, exceptions for law enforcement and the military), in order to make it difficult for pesky private citizens to be able to shoot through the body armor their assailants/oppressors might be wearing . . . [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

'Gunwalker': The culmination of AG Holder's anti-gun 'brainwashing' scheme

Fast forward 15 or so years, and imagine needing a "really innovative, creative" way to sell Americans on the notion that the drug war carnage in Mexico is in large part facilitated by the commercial, civilian firearms market in the U.S., and by the fact that so-called "assault weapons" are legally available to most Americans. "I have an idea," someone (maybe Rahm Emanuel?) might have said. "We could pressure gun shops into selling to obvious cartel gun traffickers, and when the dead bodies pile up, with guns from U.S. gun shops right next to them, the brainwashing is in high gear. Heck, we can even help the killers pay for the murder weapons." [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

GRE Round Up. Mar 9

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

• Accused ‘illegal’ gun seller Terri Reese still awaiting bail release

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• The flimsy sham of ‘public safety’ in gun prohibition argument


• Guns, bears and differences of opinion


• Grays Harbor courthouse shooting; no rush to judgment

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
• LA Anti-Establishment
• Michigan Firearms

Congress considering measures to expand access to shooting ranges

There can be no "well-regulated militia" without a large pool of proficient shooters among the citizenry. Much of that proficiency is forged at the range. This legislation can thus be considered "necessary to the security of a free state." [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

GRE Round Up. Mar 8

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• SMACKDOWN: Gun rights prevail as WA Supremes deny Seattle’s appeal


• Seattle bitterly vows to lobby for erosion of state preemption

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
• LA Anti-Establishment
• Michigan Firearms

Maryland ruling in favor of defensive firearm carry likely to survive appeal

Constitutional lawyers said Tuesday that a recent federal court decision overturning a portion of Maryland's gun-control law will likely be upheld on appeal and called the ruling groundbreaking given the liberalism of the state from which it came.

And contrary to CSGV's contention that "binding 4th Circut precedent . . . found that banning guns in public is constitutional under the Second Amendment," the United States v. Masciandaro ruling, decided in that court, devoted three long paragraphs to explaining why the Second Amendment probably protects carrying firearms outside the home (see the sidebar slide show for the relevant section of that ruling). Judge Legg's ruling, in fact, borrowed heavily from the Masciandaro decision. [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

GRE Round Up. Mar 7

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

• ATF trivializing Fast and Furious with Ziegler defense


• Cease Fire bus ad campaign a willful violation of Metro policy

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• Kitsap County authorities take action under existing law


• Maryland ruling: State AG will appeal, antis demonize decision


• Ceasefire’s $50K anti-gun message v. U District rapist


• Astonishing response to crime in the ‘other Washington’

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
  • Fast and Furious: 100 Congressmen call for Holder resignation
• LA Anti-Establishment
• Michigan Firearms

Perhaps there's something to the claim that guns alone cannot rein in government

Feinstein, remember, has something of a history of wanting to ban things that scare her personally. The reality, of course, is that the country is best served when oath-breaking public officials like Feinstein are terrified of the wrath of the people. If knowledge of improvised explosives in the hands of every potential militiaman in the country helps foster that fear, so much the better.
[More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

GRE Round Up. Mar 5

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

• DOJ not only cabinet department deflecting Issa inquiry


• Official strategies give survival advantage to school shooters

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• Maryland ruling a huge victory for CCW and SAF


• Magic Monday: Second win for gun rights posted in Colorado

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
  • Gun store owners: fears of Obama reelection driving skyrocketing gun sales
• LA Anti-Establishment
• Michigan Firearms

Indiana bill would restore teeth to Fourth Amendment

The legislation was motivated by an Indiana Supreme Court decision last year ruling that citizens had no right to resist illegal entry into their homes by law enforcement. The Northwest Indiana Times explained last May:

Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.

In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry.

Think about that--Indiana's black-robed guardians of justice removed a protection that has been codified as a core principle of a free society for almost 800 years. [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

GRE Round Up. Mar 2

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• Republicans caucus on Saturday…but where? Newspapers don’t say


• Gun owners won’t miss the ‘down side’ of Norm Dicks


• BREAKING: Romney picks up key endorsement from Ted Nugent

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
• LA Anti-Establishment
• Michigan Firearms

Is Obama a threat to gun ownership? Only if we allow him to be

Still, though, getting reelected, promulgating numerous oppressive anti-gun policies through the fiat mechanism of executive orders, or even getting a Congress in place that is willing to play along with the anti-gun agenda legislatively, is only part--the easy part--of disarming the American citizenry. The hard part is actually taking the guns away, when many of us will only give them up bullets first.

As the late Andrew Breitbart said last fall, "we have the guns." With them, and the will to use them, we can make taking them away far more difficult--and far more expensive and dangerous--than winning elections and passing laws. [More]

That's today's St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner. Please give it a look, and tell a friend.

Oh, and if you could spare a digg?

GRE Round Up. Mar 1

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

David Codrea/National:

• ‘Operation #EFAD’ using social media to send anti-tyranny message

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• BREAKING: Andrew Breitbart: A giant voice has been silenced


• Subtle agenda at work in OH, WA school shooting aftermath

Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
• LA Anti-Establishment
• Michigan Firearms