DOJ demands Denver repeal the Assault Weapons Ban
https://www.denver7.com/news/politics/doj-demands-denver-repeal-assault-weapons-ban-city-says-it-isnt-budging
Remington- Big Green Is Back making ammunition 24-7. This will put some ammunition on the shelves of empty gun stores
https://youtu.be/2CXOrlrgbFY
Washington Post Journalist Learns What Happens When You Violate Basic Gun Safety Rules
In February of 2015, I wrote what I thought was a helpful guide for journalists who wished to have a better understanding of guns and gun laws throughout the U.S. Entitled “14 Things Everyone Should Understand About Guns,” the guide summarized different state and federal gun laws, explained the mechanics of how different guns work, and included a list of ironclad gun safety rules that should be followed at all times, with no exceptions.
I didn’t just want anti-gun journalists to better understand the objects of their hatred. I also wanted them (and everyone else) to know how to safely handle a firearm. That’s why the very first of the 14 items in the article was about the four basic rules of gun safety: 1) Treat all guns as though they are loaded, 2) Never point the muzzle at anything you don’t intend to destroy, 3) Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you’re prepared to fire, and 4) Always confirm your target, as well as what’s in front, behind, and around it.
Unfortunately, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold did not read that article. How do we know? Because Fahrenthold had to go to the emergency room after he shot himself in the eye with one of his children’s confetti guns:
When I came home from my last TV hit, the kids, ages 4 and 5 months, were asleep. The house was quiet. I was still full of caffeine and do-gooder energy and decided to tidy up.
Among the clutter on the coffee table, I found my 4-year-old’s Party Popper, a bright yellow gun that fired confetti. For some reason, I held the gun up to my eye and looked down the barrel, the way Yosemite Sam always does.
It looked unloaded.
Then, for some reason, I pulled the trigger.
When I got to the ER, I had a swollen face, metal-foil confetti in my hair and a faint odor of gun smoke. Finally, the doctor could see me.
“I shot myself in the eye with a glitter gun,” I said. I showed him the Party Popper, which I had brought with me, in case he wanted to send it off to the National Institute of Morons for further study.
I got home from the hospital with a scratched cornea and a tube of eye ointment. The next day, with some of my dignity permanently lost, I got started on a bigger story.
He’s lucky his dignity is the only thing he lost, because he could’ve permanently lost his vision in that eye. And if he’d been as careless with a real gun as he was with a toy gun, he or someone else might have lost their lives. I don’t highlight this incident to mock Fahrenthold, and I disagree with his characterization of himself as a “moron.” The issue isn’t that he’s stupid, it’s that he was never taught to not do what he did.
The incident is important because it shows just how important it is to know the basic rules of gun safety, even if you don’t own any guns or ever plan to handle one. No responsible gun owner on earth would have done with a toy confetti gun what Fahrenthold did. Let’s go through his incident step by step to point out what he did wrong and how the four basic gun safety rules could’ve prevented what happened.
Mistake #1: “For some reason, I held the gun up to my eye and looked down the barrel, the way Yosemite Sam always does.”
That’s a direct violation of gun safety rule #2: Never point the muzzle at anything you don’t intend to destroy. Had he pointed the gun in a safe direction, nobody would’ve gotten hurt even if he violated all of the other rules. Instead, he pointed it at his eye and guaranteed that if the gun was fired, his eye would be the target.
Mistake #2: “It looked unloaded.”
That’s a violation of gun safety rule #1: Treat all guns as though they are loaded. Had he followed this rule and checked and unloaded the gun, nobody would’ve gotten hurt. Remember: there’s no such thing as an unloaded gun. If you always assume a gun is loaded, you’ll never be forced to explain to a doctor or law enforcement official that you didn’t mean to shoot that person since you thought the gun was unloaded. Always confirm a firearm is unloaded before handling it. If it’s not, unload it immediately.
Mistake #3: “Then, for some reason, I pulled the trigger.”
That’s a violation of gun safety rule #3: Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you’re prepared to fire. Or, as the instructors I’ve worked with like to paraphrase it, “Keep your #&$^#&%! finger off the *!^%#@$% trigger you #$#^%! idiot.” Violating rule #3 is the ultimate cause of every negligent firearm discharge. Even if you ignore all the other rules, the gun will not fire a bullet and potentially cause irreparable damage unless someone pulls the trigger. Fahrenthold could’ve walked away unscathed after ignoring rules #1 and #2 if only he had followed rule #3.
The four basic rules of gun safety exist for a reason: to keep you and everyone around you safe. They must be applied religiously at all times, even if you think you’re just playing with a harmless toy gun. Even if you don’t plan on ever owning or handling a gun, you should memorize and obey the four basic gun safety rules at all times. And if you disagree, just ask David Fahrenthold.
TACTICAL TIP-Watch the Tail Gunner
by Alan Korwin, Bloomfield Press
It’s not hard to catch many gun owners in this trap. Walk them through a mental exercise about home self defense. Mentally set up an assault scenario, and let them come out the victor. Surprise them at the end with the idea that the goon they beat had an accomplice they didn’t see or even think about, and they end up losing. Works almost every time.
United States Concealed Carry’s excellent magazine adds a novel wrinkle — the Tail Gunner. That’s the hoodlum in the restaurant, planted there before a stickup, to act like just another victim and keep watch for undercover cops — or CCW heroes — to take them out. It’s yet another good reason to generally prefer a seat with your back to a wall, with a view of the room, near an exit, and to avoid being a freelance police officer. Besides, it’s better for ogling. Am I allowed to say that? New gun safety rule from my recent book After You Shoot: “It’s always better to avoid a gun fight than to win one.” If innocent life doesn’t immediately depend on it, hold your fire. Click the link, read more.
Alan Korwin wrote his first book, The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide, in 1989. It is now in its 25th edition with nearly 200,000 copies in print. He went on to write or co-write nine more books on gun laws, including state guides for California, Florida, Texas and Virginia, and the unabridged federal guides Gun Laws of America and Supreme Court Gun Cases. His 11th book, which debuted in 2008, is The Heller Case: Gun Rights Affirmed!, and his 12th, After You Shoot, is about the deadly loophole in self-defense law. He recently completed Your First Gun, for people new to gun ownership, and for gun owners to give to their gunless friends.
With his wife Cheryl he operates Bloomfield Press, the largest publisher and distributor of gun-law books in America. His website, GunLaws.com, features a free National Directory to every gun law in the country and more than 300 books and DVDs for gun owners and the freedom movement. Alan’s blog, PageNine.org, is carried by scores of paper and online outlets. Rumors about his outrageous political parody band, The Cartridge Family, cannot be confirmed.
More than six months after two Colorado state senators were recalled over their support for stronger gun safety legislation, Colorado newspaper The Pueblo Chieftain continues to push false information to defend supporters of the recall.
Controversy in Colorado has erupted over the February 3 testimony of primary recall organizer Victor Head before the Colorado Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee. In calling for the repeal of a 2013 law that created a requirement for background checks on most gun sales, Head testified that he gathered recall petition signatures by telling people that the background check law would prohibit firearms loans between immediate family members for longer than 72 hours without a background check.
In fact, Colorado’s background check law allows “a bona fide gift or loan” without a background check “between immediate family members, which are limited to spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, first cousins, aunts, and uncles” with no time limit. State Democratic Sen. Angela Giron — one of the two senators targeted by Head for recall — was responsible for authoring this family exemption.
In a February 7 article (subscription required), the Chieftain attested to the accuracy of Head’s testimony in an article that stated, “But Head, a Republican who is running for Pueblo County clerk, was right when he told petition signers the new gun law blocked family members from loaning guns to each other indefinitely without a background check.”
Again positing that Head was “right,” the Chieftain article went on to inaccurately state: “It may seem like a technicality, but indefinite loans without a check — like a brother to a brother — are not allowed.”
From the beginning of a campaign to recall Giron and then-State Senate President John Morse (D) over their support for the background check law and a law restricting high-capacity firearm magazines, the Chieftain’s coverage has been questionable.
As the Colorado legislature finalized the new gun laws in March 2013, Chieftain general manager Ray Stafford sent an e-mail to Giron where he highlighted his role with the paper and expressed opposition to Giron’s support for stronger gun laws. Stafford’s email did not sit well with Giron’s senate colleague Morse, who said during an appearance on MSNBC, “He threatened her with how he’s going to cover her and then followed through, really, she was on the paper and the front page for practically a week straight.” While the Chieftain’s editorial board dismissed ethics concerns over Stafford’s email, it was later revealed that Stafford and other members of Chieftain leadership had signed petitions in favor of Giron’s recall — a fact not previously disclosed by the Chieftain.
While the editorial board was strongly anti-Giron — and in one case misstated Colorado’s new election law to baselessly suggest that the recall would be marred by massive voter fraud — the paper’s news coverage was also suspect.
In one instance, the Chieftain gave a story about an ethics complaint filed against Giron top billing on the local news page. At the time, Colorado Ethics Watch Director Luis Toro told Media Matters that the allegation against Giron — that she posted her state e-mail address on her campaign website — was “extremely thin” and predicted it would be dismissed as frivolous. Facing criticism for its promotion of the complaint against Giron, the Chieftain later published an article acknowledging that the complaint was flawed. Indeed, it was later revealed that the complaint was defective and never accepted by the Colorado secretary of state for review.
The Chieftain’s coverage of Giron during the recall process led to a petition drive by Daily Kos and ProgressNow Colorado that asked Colorado Springs ABC affiliate KRDO to end its “news partner” relationship with the Chieftain. The petition gathered more than 44,000 signatures.