Gun Control

Better Them Than Us

by Scott McPherson January 19, 2004

In response to soaring violent crime, Brazil has passed what some are considering one of the strongest anti-gun laws in Latin America, and Brazil’s pro-gun lobby, backed up by the powerful National Rifle Association, was powerless to stop it. Rather than mourn, however, Americans who fight against “gun control” ...

The Doomsday Weapon

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2003

Gun-rights advocates sometimes defend the Second Amendment in terms of the right to defend themselves from criminals and the right to hunt. Those things are, of course, important but they miss the real purpose of the right to keep and bear arms, which is to protect against tyranny imposed by federal officials. As Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski pointedly ...

The Gun-Control Tide Is Turning

by Scott McPherson August 4, 2003

Advocates of the right to keep and bear arms have modest reason to celebrate these days. The state of Alaska recently became the second state, after Vermont, to allow citizens to carry concealed firearms without a permit or any of the restrictive measures, such as fingerprinting or background checks, ...

“There Was a Report of Guns and Drugs”

by Scott McPherson June 6, 2003

On May 16 New York City police officers dressed in riot gear broke down a woman’s door and exploded a concussion grenade in her Harlem home. The woman, 57-year-old Alberta Spruill, was unarmed. She died a few hours later of a heart attack. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ...

Gun Control Misses the Target

by Scott McPherson April 1, 2003

In the aftermath of the Washington-area sniper killings, editorial pages and ambitious politicians alike are clamoring for more gun-control laws. This is hardly surprising, given that the professed connection between guns and crime is practically an article of faith. But what if guns really have nothing to do with violent crime? What if even the most restrictive gun-control measures dont ...

Piling it on the Second Amendment

by Scott McPherson March 10, 2003

Just as this year’s historic winter storm piled up snow faster than transportation officials could clear it away, so does D.C. Million Mom March president Ladd Everett aspire to pile on the nonsense regarding the Second Amendment in a February 19 Letter to the Editor of the Washington ...

The Growing Triumph of the Second Amendment

by James Ostrowski January 22, 2003

Something happened in Buffalo recently that contradicts the propaganda of those who support “gun control” — the control of law-abiding people who wish to own a gun for protection against the assorted nefarious elements in this world. A citizen actually used a gun, a shotgun, to defend his home ...

Stiff Upper Lip, and Absolutely No Shame

by Scott McPherson January 14, 2003

The British really ought be ashamed of themselves. But they’re not. In 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government banned all handguns and virtually all private gun ownership in the United Kingdom. It’s not surprising that the crime rate went through the roof when the guns went into the bin. But ...

Guns and Privacy

by Scott McPherson January 1, 2003

Ask a member of the mainstream political Left whether he would be willing to have a camera installed in his house by the government with the explicit purpose of monitoring his activities for any potential wrongdoing. Like any self-respecting human being, he would very likely recoil in disgust against so blatant a violation of his privacy. Next, assure him that, ...

Spitting on the Constitution

by Scott McPherson December 12, 2002

On December 6, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s ban on “assault rifles” on the ground that only state organizations, and not private citizens, have the right to keep and bear arms.  The Court ruled that the Second Amendment did not apply to “an ‘unregulated’ mob of armed individuals.” The ...

D.C. Sniper Didn’t Need Legal Loopholes

by Sheldon Richman December 4, 2002

Like clockwork, the gun controllers are shamelessly exploiting the D.C.-area sniper horror to press their agenda. How unseemly it is to attempt to parlay every decent American’s revulsion at random serial murder into support for their program, which would do nothing to prevent such crimes in the future. How many laws ...

Packing Heat, Part 3

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I confess that walking around armed for the first time felt strange. I was self-conscious, as though everyone knew I was carrying. Of course, no one knew. There are many ways to conceal a handgun on one’s person, thanks to the imaginative entrepreneurs who have deftly responded to the expanded ...