As recently reported, the State Legislature passed and Governor Phil Bryant (R) signed into law several pro-Second Amendment bills this session, including House Bill 2 by state Representative Andy Gipson (R-Braxton) and state Senator Giles Ward (R-Louisville).  This new law makes critical changes to the state's gun carry laws.  A July 2012 opinion issued by state Attorney General Jim Hood (D) determined that it was unlawful under existing statutes for anyone to a carry holstered, partially-visible pistol on their person. 

On Tuesday, June 18, the state House Policy and Legislative Committee will consider House Bill 203, a measure that seeks to make common sense improvements to Ohio’s current concealed carry and self-defense laws.

Today at the Barre Fish and Game Club, Governor Peter Shumlin (D) ceremonially signed into law the Sportsmen’s Act of 2013, House Bill 101.  As amended by the state House Fish, Wildlife & Water Resources Committee, this new law will allow Vermonters to carry a handgun for self-defense while bow hunting or dog training, provided that game is not be harvested with the pistol during archery season.  This law will take effect on July 1, and strengthens bow hunters and dog trainers inherent right to self-defense while afield.  

We are in trouble when even the best Senators don't understand the problems with how the apprehension rate is measured.
Republicans argue that Cornyn’s RESULTS amendment to secure the border is not radically different from language already in the bill. Both Cornyn’s proposal and the broader bill call for 100-percent monitoring and a 90-percent apprehension rate of illegal entrants along the Southern border. The crucial difference is that Cornyn’s amendment would require these goals be met before an estimated 11 million immigrants receive permanent legal status in 10 years. . . . .My discussion on the problems with this 90 percent measure is available here.

After an unusual and embarrassing series of events transpired in the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee last week, Democrat Leadership simply stopped a failing roll call vote in progress, pulled the bill from committee and assigned it to another committee where the outcome is most likely pre-determined.  This disgraceful attack on gun owners demonstrates just how ruthless and desperate anti-gun lawmakers are in the Garden State. 

The Maine Senate will decide the fate of LD 1240, legislation that attacks private firearm transfers, loans and sales, as early as today.

In April, the Senate voted on, and rejected, the Obama Administration's gun control agenda.  The administration was attempting to ban an ever-lengthening list of semi-automatic firearms, magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and to expand background check requirements to require government permission for many transfers of firearms among private citizens. The underlying bill Obama wanted to see pass was S. 649, by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the "universal background checks" provisions of which came from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).  Because Schumer's legislation was too severe to have any chance of passage, Senators Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), along with Schumer, proposed a compromise amendment in the hope of winning additional votes. However, the amendment was riddled with pitfalls for gun owners, and even some potentially pro-gun provisions added to sweeten the pot were flawed. The amendment fell four votes short of the 60 that were required for passage under a rule the Senate adopted to avoid a filibuster. (Click here to see how your senators voted.)

We've been reporting very regularly on ridiculous cases involving over-zealous school officials misinterpreting and wrongly enforcing "zero-tolerance" rules. In March, we reported on an outrageous case of a seven-year-old Baltimore, Md. student who, according to a March 2, Daily Caller article, was suspended for two days for the nefarious act of shaping a breakfast pastry into what his teacher thought looked like a gun.  Yes, a breakfast pastry. According to the young student, he was eating the strawberry pastry during snack time and was biting off pieces in an attempt to shape it into a mountain.  Apparently, the teacher thought the student's handiwork instead looked like a gun, and escorted him to the principal's office for prompt disciplinary action.

This week, we stumbled upon The Way of the Gun: Estimating Firearms Traffic Across the U.S.-Mexico Border, one of the strangest and most half-asked gun control-related "studies" to come down the sendero in a long time. It contends that a quarter of a million firearms are smuggled from the U.S. to Mexico annually--a figure far in excess of estimates offered by the BATFE, the GAO, and Mexican law enforcement officials--and that 47 percent of firearm dealers in the U.S. would go out of business if they were unable to sell guns intended to be smuggled across the border. And, it proposes several actions for our federal or state governments to take, without explaining why. First, the study--and in this instance we're using the term as loosely as the English language will allow--says that laws on our side of the border should require public disclosure of local gun purchase statistics. But in any jurisdiction, all or almost all firearms purchased have nothing to do with smuggling or Mexico. If you're looking for a needle in a haystack, why add hay? Furthermore, most firearm-related murders in Mexico are committed with handguns and, though the handguns used in such murders do not necessarily originate in the U.S., FFLs are already required to notify the BATFE whenever a customer acquires more than one handgun within a 5-day period.

Yesterday marked a victory for Second Amendment rights and a defeat for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Nevada as Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed SB 221, an aggressive New York-style expanded background check bill which would impose unreasonable burdens and fees on law-abiding citizens while failing miserably to protect Nevada communities and putting violent criminals behind bars. In an extraordinary grassroots effort, thousands of concerned Nevadans called their representatives and Governor Sandoval's office in Carson City to oppose this legislation and remind those lawmakers that their duty is to protect our rights. The NRA and our members in Nevada thank Governor Sandoval for standing on principle and vetoing this extreme anti-gun bill.

A man entered a game room and tobacco store in East Fort Worth, Texas, pretended to play a game and then drew a gun on a clerk and demanded cash. The clerk complied with the demand, but a second clerk, who had overheard the robbery from another part of the store, retrieved a shotgun and fired at the criminal, striking him in the knee and head, and ending the robbery. When police arrived, the armed robber was taken to a local hospital, with police planning to charge him with aggravated robbery once he has recovered. Local media has reported that the armed clerk will not face charges. 

Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House renewed their push for gun legislation on Thursday, just months after it was defeated in the Senate, amid delicate talks on a new background check measure that advocates hope could change enough votes from no to yes.

In his veto message, Sandoval said the universal background checks provision "imposes unreasonable burdens and harsh penalties upon law abiding Nevadans, while doing little to prevent criminals from unlawfully obtaining firearms."

A measure adding more places to where people can carry or store concealed firearms in North Carolina and repealing a requirement to get a license to buy a handgun passed the North Carolina Senate Thursday.

The Daily Caller has this word about a petition on the White House’s official petition website to make the WH a gun-free zone (see here).  

Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around themGun Free Zones are supposed to protect our children, and some politicians wish to strip us of our right to keep and bear arms. Those same politicians and their families are currently under the protection of armed Secret Service agents. If Gun Free Zones are sufficient protection for our children, then Gun Free Zones should be good enough for politicians.

Today, the North Carolina Senate passed a comprehensive right-to-carry reform, House Bill 937, by a 31-14 vote.  This bill now returns to the North Carolina House of Representatives for a concurrence vote on the Senate version.  Please contact your state Representative TODAY and respectfully urge him or her to vote to concur on H 937.  Click here for help identifying your state Representative and his or her contact information.

Today, Governor Brian Sandoval (R) vetoed Senate Bill 221.  SB 221 is misguided gun control legislation being forced on law-abiding citizens of Nevada by extremist New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his national anti-gun organization, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” (MAIG).

As recently reported, your NRA is aggressively working to pass a comprehensive right-to-carry reform bill, House Bill 937.  H 937 contains numerous pro-gun provisions, including a section to repeal the antiquated permit-to-purchase requirement for anyone who wishes to purchase a handgun in North Carolina.  However, the North Carolina Sheriffs' Association is apparently circulating a letter to legislators that urges them to remove this section from H 937.

From the Daily Herald:Arthur Lovi sat down with a therapist one day last August to talk about some things that were bothering him. He had high blood pressure, and his physician suggested he talk to someone.
He already spoke to a VA psychiatrist once a month — he has persistent memories from his days as an Air Force crash rescue helicopter pilot in the 1960s — but he agreed. He’d been through a lot lately and figured it couldn’t hurt to get some of it out.
“I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders,” he said.
Lovi told her about the loss that had been all around him the past few years: his mother, a 3-year-old granddaughter who drowned, a son-in-law lost to a drug overdose, and worst of all, his wife of 33 years…
…After the session, Lovi’s therapist was concerned. She called the Arlington Heights police to report he had made a threat against the first doctor who saw his wife. . . .
According to an Arlington Heights police report, officers contacted the doctor who diagnosed the cold. The doctor told police he "did not feel like his safety was in immediate jeopardy."
But that night about 11 p.m. there was a knock at Lovi's door. His son answered and saw four or five police officers standing outside. . . .