Downrange: 12/03
DASCHLE PROTECTS GUN RIGHTS? You know that Democratic politicians have learned that gun-rights advocacy can save their jobs when Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) moves to protect gun manufacturers and dealers from legal liability when crimes are committed without their knowledge.
The vast majority of gun owners, manufacturers and sellers are honest and law-abiding, Daschle said of his support for the bill. It is wrong-and a misuse of the civil justice system-to try to punish honest, law-abiding people for illegal acts committed by others without their knowledge or involvement.
Daschle submitted an amendment to a current gun-liability law that would clarif...
Show Me State Carry Law Passes
In mid-September, the Republican-controlled Missouri House and Senate representatives voted on consecutive days to override Holdens veto, with one vote coming from State Senator Jon Dolan, who returned from active duty with the U.S. Army in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in time to help his GOP colleagues. The legislature also has joined 30 other states in enacting protection from lawsuits for companies whose products are misused without their knowledge in criminal acts, another law the Governor vetoed earlier.
Despite panicked claims that innoce...
Downrange: 10/03
Armed, and Safer, Iraqis
----------
June 26, 2003 - The June 14 deadline for Iraqi citizens to turn in banned weapons worked about as poorly as any gun buy-back program in the United States. After the two-week program ended, a guard at one of the designated places to turn in guns said, We have had plenty of reporters, but no weapons come in.
American soldiers are laying down their lives to protect Iraqi citizens, and the last thing that we want to do is put them in harms way. On Tuesday, six British soldie...
Downrange: 08/03
The U.S. Supreme Court justices have altered their summer schedule to make room for lengthy and complicated arguments against the campaign-finance reform law enacted by Congress last year. The National Rifle Association is challenging it in 12 related cases and others arguing that preventing involvement in political campaigns is a violation of the First Amendments freedom of speech protection. Oral arguments are scheduled for September 8, at a time when the court usually is standing down in preparation for a new session that starts in October.
----------
WAL-MART SETTLES IN NY
The nations largest retailer has agreed to pay $200,000 in a co...
Downrange 07/03: Firearms Industry Wins Victory
We welcome the advisory jurys common sense finding that the manufacturers and distributors of firea...
Downrange: 06/03
HESTON STEPS DOWN. At the NRAs annual convention in Orlando April 26-27, Charlton Heston stepped down as the groups president. Unquestionably, Hestons celebrity helped amplify the NRAs gun-rights message and put supporters in Congress and the White House.
As the NRAs public face for five years, he successfully steered the organization through several public-relations disasters involving shootings, and he won wide favor with fellow celebrities and politicians. For example, as part of his going-away event, country music singer Toby Keith performed in Orlando, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush gave the conventions keynote speech.
It helped the NRA immeasurably to have Charlton He...
Downrange: 05/03
JUNK LAWSUITS UNDER REVIEW. Congress is considering legislation that will stop lawsuits holding companies in the firearms industry responsible for the criminal misuse of legally sold guns. Forty-six Democrats are among 247 House members who originally co-sponsored H.R. 1036, introduced by Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns. And there are 52 co-sponsors of Senate bill 659, introduced last week by Idaho Senator Larry Craig, including nine Democrats with Minority Whip, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, among them. We strongly urge interested firearms enthusiasts and those who make a living from the responsible and safe use of firearms to write and call their representative in the House and...
Downrange: 04/03
BIG GUN, BIG NEWS. Smith & Wesson caused quite a stir when it unveiled its Model 500 five-shot revolver chambered for the new Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum cartridge. Anti-gun groups denounced the handgun as too powerful; it fires a round producing about three times the muzzle energy of a .44 magnum. Orlando-based TV crews scrambled to get pictures of it on the network feeds, even though area law-enforcement officials told them the 4.5-pound hunting firearm, introduced at the February SHOT Show, was hardly the sort of thing criminals would tote around. Then, Illinois Congressman Danny Davis made the curious observation that no one hunts deer with a handgun.
----------
GUN TES...
Downrange: 03/03
FINGERPRINTING GUNS NOT SO EASY. In a report to Californias legislature, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer acknowledges his Department of Justice finds technical limitations and a poor success rate in its attempts to expand ballistic imaging technology, designed to identify individual firearms found at crime scenes, into a database encompassing non-crime firearms.
The California Department of Justices own Bureau of Forensic Services used fewer than 800 semi-automatic handguns to test the system, and its experts discovered failure rates as high as 62.5 percent in attempts to match cartridge components with the handguns that fired them. Each year, according to the attorney gen...
Downrange: 02/03
THE NUTTY NINTH CIRCUIT: For better or worse, it seems that the issue of individual gun rights might be headed for a Supreme Court showdown.
The reason: Before Christmas, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made a reasoned, if mistaken, argument that put the California court at odds with the Fifth Circuit, which held last year in U.S. v. Emerson that the Second Amendment does, in fact, protect an individuals right to firearms.
The Ninth Circuits decision came in a case called Silveira v. Lockyer, which pitted nine plaintiffs against the state of California, which a decade ago banned assault weapons. But the law made an exception for individuals who owned such weapons...
Downrange: 01/03
TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS? If you had wondered if Smith & Wesson could recover from its troubles and travails, perhaps an advance look at one of the companys 2003 product introductions might suggest the company is returning to good health:
The SW99 line will be expanded with the addition of a full-size .45 ACP pistol and two compacts. The .45 ACP SW99 pistol will feature a 4.25-inch barrel, 9 + 1 capacity, and weigh 25.6 ounces. The compacts will be available in a 9mm and .40 S&W version. All these SW99s will feature interchangeable backstraps, interchangeable front sights and adjustable rear sights. From our perspective, the most interesting of these guns will be the SW1911, a 191...
