Gun Rights

The number of Virginians who obtained a permit to carry a concealed weapon jumped 60 percent last year over 2006, an increase that many gun experts say was a reaction to the fatal shootings of 32 students and professors at Virginia Tech.

WASHINGTON -- As Moses, Charlton Heston thunderously rallied his people with the Ten Commandments in hand. The tablet of his political life was carved with something else - the Second Amendment.Heston was not just the public face of the gun-rights movement but a good deal of the fire in its belly during a transformational time in the decades-old debate. He lived to see Democrats running away from a cause they once embraced, scared…

The often fierce debate over the Second Amendment has centered on whether it was intended to protect the rights of all Americans to own guns, or only those who are members of state militia groups. The poll makes it clear which side Americans come down on. Gun owners (roughly one-third of the U.S. adult population) are nearly universal in endorsing the view that the Second Amendment guarantees their right to own guns. Non-owners are less likely to view the amendment this way, but a majority still do.

Here are some different views of the Heller arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court:

If the Supreme Court were to say that the D.C. gun ban doesn't infringe on people's right to be able to own a gun, essentially there would be no gun regulation that could ever be struck down and so a lot's at stake at this.

Kathy Adkins moved from target to target, using a .38 revolver and a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol with deadly efficiency, putting holes in the dead center of paper targets meant to look like people. Adkins, 48, owns a real estate firm in Jackson and has been taking firearms training since March. Instructor Cliff Cargill said he has had many new students since the Legislature passed a bill last year giving residents expanded legal rights to protect…

A Fountain teenager who woke up to the sounds of robbers in his home said that he didn't hesitate to shoot the men before they took off with his flat screen television.

The NSSF Shooting Sports Summit will be held June 23-25 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo.

A lot of Americans who believe in the right to own guns were very disappointed this weekend. On Friday, the Bush administration's Justice Department entered into the fray over the District of Columbia's 1976 handgun ban by filing a brief to the Supreme Court that effectively supports the ban. The administration pays lip service to the notion that the Second Amendment protects gun ownership as an individual right, but their brief leaves the term essentially meaningless.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association of the firearms industry -- is encouraging all sportsmen, hunters and firearms enthusiasts to contact the Cook County Board of Commissioners and urge them to oppose a string of county ordinances that if passed would result in a shutdown of firearms dealers and a ban on guns. The move by NSSF follows the introduction of three proposed ordinances by County Commissioners Larry…

The legislation requires federal agencies to provide relevant data for use in the NICS system, a database that stores the names of individuals prohibited by federal law from purchasing or possessing firearms.

Things look a lot better for the Second Amendment than they do for the Republican party. A race-by-race analysis of the Senate suggests that, while party control of the Senate could change, the Senate is very likely to retain a pro-gun working majority.