Gun Control

Take Gun-Control Proposals Elsewhere

by Scott McPherson April 24, 2013

“NH State House Unmoved by Newtown Shootings” is the headline of a Portsmouth Patch story about a recent gathering of “area gun violence prevention experts.” The meeting at the public library in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was hosted by the Portsmouth Democratic Committee (of course) and included a representative of States United to Prevent Gun Violence. A more accurate ...

Why I Want High-Capacity, Military-Style Weapons

by Benedict D. LaRosa April 24, 2013

During testimony at a legislative hearing in Hartford, Connecticut, on January 28, 2013, Neil Heslin, father of a Sandy Hook victim, asked, “I ask if there’s anybody in this room that can give me one reason or challenge this question: Why anybody in this room needs to have one of these assault-style weapons or military weapons or high-capacity clips.... ...

Gun-Control Demagogy

by Sheldon Richman April 17, 2013

Demagogues offend us because they try to bypass our rational faculty with appeals to gut emotion. That pretty well sums up what gun controllers have done since the Newtown tragedy. Note how politicians, led by President Obama, and organizations pushing new restrictions on gun ownership — which would not have prevented the massacre — shamelessly exploit the relatives of the ...

The Absurdity of “Universal” Background Checks

by Sheldon Richman April 10, 2013

Those who favor “universal” background checks on gun buyers make some ridiculous arguments. For example, opponents correctly point out that gun buyers with criminal intent will always find channels that require no background check. Gunrunning is among the oldest professions, and the black market will always be with us. Thus the promise of universal background checks — even if ...

Golden State Gun Grab Lays Groundwork for Mass Disarmament

by Michael Tennant April 1, 2013

A recent news story demonstrates the dangers of letting the government know who owns guns and determine who is permitted to own them. The state of California “requires most weapons sales go through a licensed dealer and be reported,” writes Bloomberg, and it sends agents around to confiscate weapons from people the state has decided are unfit ...

Chile’s Gun-Control Lesson for Americans

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2013

One of the popular arguments for gun control is that people don’t need assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and certain types of high-powered pistols to shoot deer. That argument, however, ignores the primary rationale for the Second Amendment, which was to ensure that people retained the means to resist tyranny at the hands of the federal government. Statists give short shrift ...

Gun Control Is Violence

by Anthony Gregory March 1, 2013

Mohandas Gandhi, the greatest pacifist of the 20th century, is widely quoted as having said, “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look back upon the Act depriving the whole nation of arms as the blackest.” Some have struggled to reconcile his pacifism with an opposition to disarmament. But there really is nothing to reconcile ...

Gun Control, Europe and America

by Scott McPherson February 21, 2013

After the turbulent years 1968–1972, the widespread civil unrest that plagued Northern Ireland calmed to a point deemed “an acceptable level of violence” by then British home secretary Reginald Maudling. City centers and army barracks were still being bombed; policemen and soldiers were still being shot. But things weren’t as bad as they had been, and so were considered ...

Who is Mentally Ill?

by Wendy McElroy February 8, 2013

The current push toward gun control is being presented in a particularly dangerous and dishonest manner. It is being framed in terms of mental health and packaged in a way that almost guarantees victory for the advocates of control. The debating point proffered is, “How do we keep guns away from the mentally ill?” Thus far, President Obama’s answer has ...

Guns Make Us Safer

by Scott McPherson February 1, 2013

Guns and gun owners are a hot topic. A maniac massacred 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut, and now, according to the wise and virtuous, something must be done about crime, particularly violent crime, in the United States. The number one target is gun owners, and the number one solution is more gun control. There is no doubt that the United ...

Fear Sells

by Rich Schwartzman January 31, 2013

There’s no way of knowing for certain how much ink, airtime, and bandwidth has been dedicated to the topic of firearms since the school shooting in Connecticut in December. Suffice it to say it’s been a huge amount. What’s come to the surface in the aftermath — once again — is an irrational fear of all things related to firearms. ...

Who Will Protect Us from Our Protectors?

by Tim Kelly January 28, 2013

It didn’t take long for the megalomaniacs and opportunists in Washington to exploit the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, as a pretext for another attempt to annul the Second Amendment and expand their power. Never one to let a good crisis go to waste, President Obama signed a series of executive actions expanding federal gun control, all while flanked by children ...