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President Biden faced intense backlash from critics on Thanksgiving after speaking out against the purchase of semi-automatic weapons. During a press event in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Biden reiterated his previous support for new gun restrictions while speaking about the recent mass shooting in Colorado. "The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick," Biden said. "Just sick. It has no socially redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers." A reporter then asked Biden if he would be able to make any movement on new gun laws while Republicans...

President Joe Biden unleashed his disgust for semi-automatic weapons on Thanksgiving, vowing to ban them in the United States. “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Just sick,” he said. “It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero.” The president commented to reporters during his visit to a fire station on Nantucket Island during his Thanksgiving vacation. He brought pies to firefighters for their Thanksgiving celebration.

This week, Congressman Chris Jacobs (R-NY) introduced the “Federal Assault Weapons Licensing Act,” a bill that would establish a licensing system for prospective purchasers of modern sporting rifles (MSR). Per the legislation, one would need to take a mandatory safety course, pass an FBI background check, submit fingerprints and provide proof of identity as part of the licensing process. The license would need to be renewed every five years. Anyone who already owns an MSR would be grandfathered in, however, if they wanted to buy an additional MSR they would need a license. “My legislation is common sense and provides...

During the September 18 airing of CBS News’s 60 Minutes, President Joe Biden described the continued sale of semiautomatic weapons as “bizarre.” Scott Pelley conducted a wide-ranging interview with Biden, but when it turned to guns and gun policy, Biden pledged once again to ban “assault weapons.” Biden suggested that “there is no rationale” for owning firearms like AR-15s, AK-47s, etc. He talked of visiting Uvalde, Texas, after the May 24, 2022, school shooting, saying he not only visited there but “every one of those places.” Biden observed, “The NRA continuing to push the sale of assault and semiautomatic weapons...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) joined with state assembly leaders to announce ten new gun control bills, including a new minimum age and licensing requirement for the purchase of a “semiautomatic rifle.” On May 31, 2022, Hochul tweeted, “New York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country — but there’s more work to do to keep New Yorkers safe. We are going to strengthen gun laws, give law enforcement tools to prevent crime, & stop the spread of dangerous weapons.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged a ban on “military-grade” semiautomatic rifles in an attempt to redirect his campaign after his blackface controversy. City News reports that Trudeau announced the rifle ban on Friday in Greektown, Toronto, the area of the city in which a gunman shot 15 people, killing two, last year. Trudeau said, “We know you do not need a military-grade assault weapon – one designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time – to take down a deer.” His ban includes a two-year amnesty for current owners of the rifles....

Washington on Tuesday joined a handful of other states that ban anyone under 21 from buying a semi-automatic assault rifle after voters passed a sweeping firearms measure in November that has drawn a court challenge from gun-rights advocates. The ballot initiative seeks to curb gun violence by toughening background checks for people buying assault rifles, increasing the age limit to buy those firearms and requiring the safe storage of all guns. Only the age-limit portion of the measure goes into effect on Jan. 1; the rest becomes law on July 1. Kristen Ellingboe, a spokeswoman for the Washington Alliance for...

In 2017, Pennsylvania became the last state to restore the right to hunt game with semiautomatic rifles. On April 24, 2018 the Pennsylvannia Board of Game Commissioners voted to correct a strange twist of the Pennsylvania game laws. In five counties where rifles are not allowed for the hunting of big game, semiautomatic shotguns have been allowed for decades. In the rest of Pennsylvania, semiautomatic shotguns were not legal for hunting big game. Now Pennsylvania hunters will be able to use semiautomatic shotguns to hunt big game in the rest of the state. From fox43.com: Semiautomatic centerfire shotguns that...

A city board in northwestern Illinois near Chicago has taken a significant step to increase gun control in their town. On Monday night, members of The Deerfield Village Board of Deerfield, Illinois voted unanimously to ban what they view as “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines, CBS News reported. The ordinance also includes “semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns with certain features.” “The possession, manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the Village of Deerfield is not reasonably necessary to protect an individual’s right of self-defense or the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia,” the ordinance states. As noted by CBS,...

Visa rejected calls to cut ties with semi-automatic rifle manufacturers by announcing it is not their job to “[set] restrictions on the sale of lawful goods and services.” Their announcement comes after an anti-Second Amendment campaign resulted in over dozen companies cutting ties with the NRA. It also follows a New York Times’ suggestion that Visa and Mastercard could circumvent Congress and restrict “assault weapon” sales by refusing business with “assault weapon” manufacturers and/or dealers. According to CBS San Francisco, Visa received a petition with 150,000 signatures, asking the credit card company to refuse to process purchases of “assault weapons.”

Anthony Ogline calls it America's rifle: the AR-15. “It's the most popular sporting arm that's ever been produced,” said Ogline, president of Verona Gun Safe, which sells an array of firearms. “A massive amount of these are out there and there's a reason for its popularity.” He's far from alone in declaring his love for the gun. Americans own 10 million AR-15 rifles, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Gun enthusiasts like that it's customizable with lots of accessories, easy to build, lightweight and easy to handle. Most gun manufacturers produce some version of an AR-15. “Honestly they are...

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Second Amendment challenge to a Connecticut law banning many semiautomatic rifles. The law, enacted in 2013 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., made it a crime to sell or possess the firearms, which critics call assault weapons. The decision not to hear the case, not long after the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., does not set a Supreme Court precedent. But it is part of a trend in which the justices have given at least tacit approval to broad gun-control laws in states and localities...

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – A lawsuit can go forward against the maker of the rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, a judge ruled Thursday. Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis said that a 2005 federal law protecting gun-makers from lawsuits does not prevent lawyers for the victims' families from arguing that the semi-automatic rifle is a military weapon and should not have been sold to civilians.

Perhaps the most important thing to know is this: It’s perfectly legal for a police charity to raffle off a semiautomatic rifle and a semiautomatic pistol. Whether it’s entirely appropriate, however, may be another story. Several deputy sheriffs’ associations – including those in Orange County and San Diego – sold tickets for the rifle raffle on behalf of another organization (one ticket for $5, five tickets for $20). The grand prize: An AR-15 rifle which, in some incarnations in years past, fell under the federal assault weapons ban, and was on the failed 2013 Assault Weapons Ban’s no-no list.

A Pennsylvania bill that would legalize AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles for hunting is being criticized by hunters themselves. The bill proposed in 2013 by Republican Rep. Rick Saccone claims that rapid follow-up shots will increase the odds of harvesting game. Saccone says only two states have banned their use and that there is nothing “frightening or extreme in this proposal.” A deer hunter of 54 years who wrote an op-ed for YDR.com says the proposal will make hunting unsafe and unethical. “Marksmanship is the essence of an ethical deer hunt. Spraying 11 shots at a deer (or group of deer)...

Global Gun Control: Despite a prior Senate rebuff, President Obama will likely sign and push a treaty embraced by the world's oppressors and thugs who fear armed citizens. The treaty's prior rejection by the Senate 53-46 in a nonbinding test vote as part of the budget debate in a body where a two-thirds vote to ratify is required would seem to doom the United Nations pact endorsed by the Obama administration. However, the president will likely sign it and, as is his custom these days, try to enforce key provisions by stealth, executive order and by "common-sense" regulations and restrictions....

... For the purpose of this article, we'll focus on AR-15s since it is what CBS calls "the most popular rifle in America" and one often designated an "assault" rifle. An AR-15 is the civilian equivalent to the military's M-16. So what's the difference? Kelly Alwood, a firearms trainer and consultant, told TheBlaze the only difference is that one [the military AR-15] is fully automatic and the other is semi-automatic [the civilian AR-15]. It's a small yet simultaneously big distinction. Firearms for use by the military are able to shoot continuously with one pull of the trigger, machine-gun style....

With both the ‘old’ 1994 Assault Weapon’s Ban (AWB) and the looming specter of a new one for 2013, there are several unlikely firearms out there that are caught up in the flakiness of this type of legislation. Many of these are arms that were perfectly legal when they were designed and sold mail order to your grandfathers. Today, if these heirlooms are in your gun rack, pending actions by Washington could mean they are now unforeseen targets. John Browning’s Model 8 In 1900, John Moses Browning invented a long recoil-operated semi-automatic rifle that uses a rotating bolt. Chambered for...

How many times can a person hear a stupid comment before turning off the tube? Apparently, it's thousands, because I've not blown up the large screen yet, and I'm still hear dumb comments like, "Why on earth does anyone need a magazine that will enable them to shoot more than a few rounds?" Have you heard that one? How about, "What reason is there for anyone to need an assault weapon?" Let's take them in order. We'll talk real slow for the uninformed among the glitterati set. (It the world of set theory, that would be a set containing about...

If gun-control advocates and our media want to have a conversation about government restrictions on gun ownership, I think that’s fine. Debating more issues, rather than fewer, is probably good for our politics. But the conversation about guns needs to be a bit more factually precise. Today’s New York Times story on the AR-15 has a lot of good information and aims to be balanced, but the story still manages to perpetuate many of the most stubborn myths about rifles. Some points I would like to make in response: