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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., are backing legislation that would allow persons with state-issued conceal carry permits to use them in other states with conceal carry laws. The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2014 (S.1908) is intended to defend the Second Amendment rights of individuals with conceal carry permits, allowing them to carry those privileges from their home state to other states that also have conceal carry laws. “I am strongly committed to upholding Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Wicker said. “This legislation would ensure this right is not limited to...

Use of Silencers is encouraged in Europe Photo Courtesy Gun World Virginia lawmakers chose to reform the state's gun laws in spite of pressure by police agencies to keep restrictive measures in place.   HB878  reforms an antique law that gives local police a veto over obtaining federal permits for gun mufflers, short barreled rifles and shotguns, automatic firearms and destructive devices.  Because of a controversial vote in 1986, the existing privately owned stock of automatic firearms was frozen, creating an artificial shortage that resulted in skyrocketing prices for legal automatic firearms.  The cheapest automatic firearms available to collectors are...

In western states, "school shooter" has a different meaning.  Many schools have rifle teams There are many likely contributors to the fact that Utah has zero school-related shootings.   Utah is one of the states that has the least restrictions on second amendment rights in the nation.   It is one of the few that do not forbid concealed carry permit holders from carrying their personal defensive firearms in schools.   Utah has very little crime, with one of the lowest homicide rates in the country.  As stated in this article from ksl.com, the odds that when you are in Utah,  someone...

An armed aggressor herding people into a back room is always a bad sign.  It often precedes a mass murder.  From the selmatimesjournal.com: Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman said the incident appeared to be a case of self-defense and no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting Thursday afternoon. The incident occurred when Dallas County resident Kevin Mclaughlin entered Dollar General reportedly waving a pistol in the air, Huffman said. Mclaughlin then ushered a group of people inside the store into a break room. One customer showed good situational awareness, and was able to escape out the...

John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm. He’d rather he didn’t feel the need, “but things aren’t like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I’m constantly going to the bank. “I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I’m standing on. But I’m not looking for any trouble.” Filippidis keeps his gun — a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic, barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case — in...

Reasoning that more guns mean greater safety, Kansas lawmakers voted last year to require cities and counties to make public buildings accessible to people legally carrying concealed weapons. But for communities that remained wary of such open access to city halls, libraries, museums and courthouses, the Legislature provided an exemption: Guns can be banned as long as local governments pay for protections like metal detectors and security guards, ensuring the safety of those they have disarmed. It turns out that in Wichita, the state’s most populous city, and in some other towns, the cost of opting out before the Jan....

What's your favorite CCW wear and why?

A jury convicted Philip K. Green, 40, of reckless homicide.  Green had a CCW permit, and called the police after the shooting.   Green knew the man he shot, and had gone to several bars with him and two others.  This is the first homicide conviction for a Wisconsin resident with a CCW permit.  The permit system has been in place for over 2 years, with over 200,000 permits issued.  If we assume an average of 100,000 permits per year, then the rate of convictions for CCW holders in Wisconsin becomes .5/100,000 with this conviction.  That is about 1/10th of the...

A study published in the latest issue of the academic journal Applied Economics Letters took on many of the claims made regularly by advocates of stricter gun laws. The study determined that nearly every claim made in support of stronger restrictions on gun ownership is not supported by an exhaustive analysis of crime statistics. The study, “An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates,” conducted by Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius, examined nearly 30 years of statistics and concluded that stricter gun laws do not result in a reduction in gun...

The evening of February 27, 2008, in the Miami area, Gabriel Mobley and a friend were viciously attacked by two men. Using his licensed concealed carry pistol, Mr. Mobley successfully fought off the attack, killing both of the aggressors. He was charged with two counts of second degree murder – murder which, under Florida law, requires “malice”. Mobley exercised his rights under Florida’s self-defense immunity state, 776.032 Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use of force, to avoid going to trial on the basis that it was more likely than not, based on the evidence, that he acted...

Detroit Chief of Police James Craig During his 28 years on the police force in Los Angeles, James Craig tended to agree with his state’s tight control over concealed carry permits, believing fewer guns would lead to fewer violent crimes. But when he moved to Portland, Maine, in 2009 to serve as the city’s new police chief, he discovered a different culture – one where guns actually made people safer. Now Craig, the chief of police in Detroit, Mich., has a message for the law-abiding folks in his crime-ridden city: Arm yourselves, and criminals will think twice about attacking...

Inside his neighborhood market, Mohamed S. Ahmed was screaming for help after a pair of armed robbers had left him bleeding. Outside the northeast Minneapolis store, two men pounded on the window, trying to get back into the University Market after Ahmed managed to lock them out. “They seemed really agitated, super agitated,” said Matt Dosser, who was walking by about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. At first, “nothing made sense, then I saw the gun.” Dosser, who has a permit to carry a gun, reached for his own weapon. One of the robbers “turned around and looked at me,” Dosser recalled....

Construction worker Craig Paulson was thinking about where to go for lunch as he worked on renovations inside a bank-owned residence in a quiet, tree-lined and well-manicured neighborhood in Uptown on one of the last days in November. His appetite and lunchtime thoughts quickly faded, however, when Paulson, working alone in a back room inside the residence on the 3300 block of Girard Avenue, turned around and found himself faced with a “large” man wielding Paulson’s own three foot crowbar just steps from where he was working. The lifelong construction worker and father of three kids of whom he has...

Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius has published a new study, "An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates," in the journal Applied Economics Letters. From the abstract: The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of state-level assault weapons bans and concealed weapons laws on state-level murder rates. Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other...

Wichita will open most of its public buildings – including libraries, recreational centers, CityArts and the Wichita Art Museum – to people carrying concealed guns under a new state law. Fearful of lawsuits, the City Council voted 4-2 to allow concealed-carry in all but 16 of 107 city-owned buildings effective Jan. 1. Guns will continue to be banned at City Hall, Mid-Continent Airport buildings, police buildings and city housing department facilities. In city buildings that are leased to third parties, such as the Wichita Boathouse, the operators retain the right to ban guns. The state law, Senate Substitute for House...

There is an interesting case in Wisconsin where a Concealed Carry Weapon license (CCW) holder has been charged with "negligent operation or handling of a dangerous weapon".  From jsonlin: According to the criminal complaint, Marvin W. Jackson, 34, was shopping in the Burlington Coat Factory at 3700 Durand Ave. After he took of his jacket and laid it on a rack while he tried on another, his female companion picked up Jackson's jacket and laid it over her arm because he had forgotten it on a rack earlier. But as she did, Jacson's silver .38 caliber two-shot derringer fell...

THERE THEY were, just below Martha Stewart and Paula Deen and Allure in the magazine rack at the supermarket: the gun periodicals. I bought three. Back at the place where I was staying — this was in upstate New York, a week ago — I pored over the ads and the editorial content, trying to understand what they were saying, and to whom. First, they want you to buy a gun. It will probably not be your first gun; it will be an addition to, and an improvement on, the gun or guns you already own. It may deliver “precision...

"And I Carry" - The real face of permit-to-carry holders in Minnesota. A 2.5 minute video created to dispel stereotypes: http://youtu.be/8pTsEGeqTaE Think you know who permit-to-carry holders are? Twin Cities Gun Owners & Carry Forum, with the generous help of Crucible Arms, put together this short documentary showing a cross section of Minnesota's permit-to-carry holders. Find Twin Cities Gun Owners & Carry Forum on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tcGunsAndCarry We need groups across the country to create and post videos like this.

The family of an armed robbery suspect is ticked off that a “Good Samaritan” shot their kin while he attempted to rob a dollar store in Mobile, Ala.

Ohio State Seal Practical experience has convinced skeptics that ordinary people can be trusted with carrying lethal weapons.  They go from skeptical, to neutral, to becoming supporters.   This is the typical progression for a person who is willing to be convinced by facts.   Most people can change their mind about an issue if it does not challenge their basic assumptions about reality, because that threatens their very identity.  The assumptions of the "Blood in the Streets" anti-rights groups are those of the "progressive elite" model of modern murder.   In that model, murder occurs when an ordinary citizen flies into...