Brand new Ruger revolvers enter final assembly in Newport, NH.
April 20, 2015
By Robert W. Hunnicutt
It's counterintuitive, but liberal Democrats seem to be very good for the gun business. The NSSF reported today that the economic impact of the firearms trade increased 125% from $19.1 billion to $42.9 billion between 2008 and the present, while employment in the gun industry went up from 166,000 to more than 263,000, a 58% increase.
Just to make the point even stronger, The Pew Research Center has reported that support for gun rights has reached an all-time high . Support for gun control reached its all-time peak in 1959, and has steadily gone down since.
What are we to make of all that? All the millions that Michael Bloomberg and George Soros and the Joyce Foundation have spent pushing gun control have mainly succeeded in making Americans stronger supporters of gun rights. That's gotta be frustrating, as is the fact that every state in the country and even the District of Columbia now have provisions for concealed carry. In a vanguard of states, legislatures are moving toward license-free "constitutional carry" and liberalized open-carry laws.
It has to be even more frustrating for them that the NRA, which an administration flunky said Jimmy Carter would "break" in 1977, now is claiming 5 million members.
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All is not rosy. If you live in California or Connecticut or New Jersey or New York, your rights are being trampled every day. And don't say your fellow gun owners in those states "can just move." Gay activists aren't saying homosexuals in Alabama can "just move." Abortion-rights supporters aren't saying women in South Dakota and "just move."
Rights are rights everywhere. We're doing pretty well right now, but we can't stop until we roll back repressive laws in all those dark corners of the country. Who knows? Another couple years of Obama may get us there.
Students Suspended for Photos with Airsoft Guns Two students at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School in Taunton, Mass., were suspended for posing with airsoft guns in one of their own homes.
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Luxury Gun Clubs Becoming More Popular "Guntry clubs," or luxurious shooting facilities offering the same sort of amenities one would find at a golf course: comfy lounges, food and drink, pro shop, locker rooms, professional instruction, etc., are becoming much more popular. Is this good or bad for the shooting community?
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Young Girl Loses Control of an Uzi, Kills Firearms Instructor A Lake Havasu City, Ariz., firearms instructor was killed when a nine-year-old girl lost control of an Uzi submachine gun and a bullet hit him in the head. How young is too young when it comes to automatic firearms?
Read here for the full story of the incident.
Guns & Pot: An Uneasy Combo Is there any overlap between gun owners and those in favor of legalizing marijuana?
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full story here. New House Bill Targets SMG-Toting Bureaucrats Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) has introduced the Regulatory Agency De-militarization (RAD) Act, a bill intended to force agencies not involved in law enforcement as that term is generally understood to disband their police forces. Do non-law enforcement agencies such as the USDA really need automatic firearms?
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full story here. Only the Polarized Are Actually Polarized? Are politics too polarized, or is polarization what you get when people actually believe in something?
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Why You Can't Always Trust the Police A police scandal in the British city of Rotherham, where a gang abused more than 1,400 girls while authorities looked the other way, illustrates why you can't rely solely on the police for your protection.
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The Straight Dope on Kalashnikov Sanctions Kalashnikov Concern products have been banned from further importation into the U.S. as part of sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. What do the new sanctions mean for gun owners?
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Smart Guns: What the Antis Won't Admit A California gun store that had planned to offer pistols with so-called "smart gun" technology scrapped the idea after receiving backlash from gun owners.
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full account here. Anti-Gun Initiative 594 Passes in Washington While the November 4 election was somewhat of a victory for gun owners with (mostly) pro-gun Republicans gaining seats in the Senate and the House, anti-gunners have scored a big win in Washington. What does this new initiative mean for gun owners in the Evergreen State?
Read here for the full story.
Open Carry Protests: Our Internal Dilemma Open Carry Texas (OCT), a group campaigning for gun rights in Texas, has stirred controversy among pro-gun groups such as the NRA and left the issue of open carrying of rifles up for debate. Where do we draw the line on what is reasonable in terms of achieving political goals?
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full story here. The Scourge of Toy Guns A New York professor says the cure for police shooting people with toy guns is to boycott toy guns. Is that the answer?
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Wolverines? Michigan Nixes American Sniper The University of Michigan temporarily cancelled a scheduled viewing of the film
American Sniper following criticism from some of the school's Muslim students.
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full story here .
Front-Yard Pistol Range: Bad Idea A Florida man built a gun range in his front yard with an impromptu dirt backstop, which would be fine if he lived in a rural area. That simply wasn't the case.
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whole story here. Pot Clubs Fund San Francisco Gun Buyback In what was inevitably dubbed a "joint effort," San Francisco police conducted a gun buyback funded by local marijuana dispensaries.
Find out more here. Maryland Stockpiles Pistol Brass: To What End? For the past 15 years, every pistol sold in the state of Maryland has had to come with a fired case that is submitted to the state's registry of fired pistol brass for reference. Now the state is running out of warehouse space to store the cases.
Find out more here. Legislator Wants to Ban Silhouette Targets A Pennsylvania legislator wants to ban the use of silhouette targets on shooting ranges in the state.
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full story here .
Campus Concealed Carry: The Toga Party Fallacy The group Students for Concealed Carry is making increasingly stronger pushes to allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed on college campuses. Unfortunately, some still hold the mistaken belief that all college students are wildly irresponsible.
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Feds Consider Gun Show Spying The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took the side of gun owners after it was uncovered that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had recently considered spying on gun shows.
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full story here .
