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While both sides in the gun control debate regroup after our victory in the Senate earlier this week, I want to give credit where credit is due. The credit for Wednesday’s defeat of gun control goes to the countless gun owners and other Americans who drew a line in the sand--who sent emails and letters and made phone calls to their U.S. senators, urging them to protect private firearm transfers, semi-automatic firearms, and the magazines that millions of Americans own for self-defense.

The real reasons the Senate trounced the Obama agenda.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday that the Senate will “take a pause” and return to consideration of gun legislation at a later date.

The media are amplifying Mr. Obama's themes with less subtlety, amid a collective aneurysm in Washington and New York. Yet this combination of animus and overreach explains why the post-Newtown gun debate has been such a lost opportunity.The President might have forged a compromise from the political center out that reduced gun violence at the margins while respecting Second Amendment rights. Instead, liberals cleaned out their ideological cupboards in favor of gun restrictions that would have little practical effect but would have notched a symbolic victory over the National Rifle Association and those benighted rubes in the provinces. By so overreaching, Mr. Obama couldn't even steamroll moderate members of his own party.

The decision by some members of the media to come down so firmly on one side of a policy debate has only served to reinforce conservatives’ longstanding suspicions that the mainstream media has a deep-seated liberal bias.

Gun rights advocates fell silent in the Illinois House on Thursday night after falling seven votes short of approving the public possession of firearms statewide despite a federal court order that gives legislators just weeks to put such a law on the books.

Delaware's Senate has given final legislative approval to a bill expanding criminal background checks on gun purchases in the state, including most transactions between private sellers and buyers.

Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday he won't push for more extensive background checks for gun owners in Wisconsin despite inaction in the U.S. Senate and a recent poll showing overwhelming public support for such a move in the state.

The Obama administration was starting a process Friday aimed at removing barriers in health privacy laws that prevent some states from reporting information to the background check system.

Recently, Missouri media have reported that the Missouri Department of Revenue (DOR) initiated a new procedure of scanning and keeping personal documents related to the issuance of your driver’s license and right to carry permit.  This procedure violates the "spirit of Missouri law" prohibiting the state from abiding by the federal REAL ID Act, an intrusion into your privacy.  

House Bill 35, legislation to criminalize private transfers of firearms, passed in the state Senate today by a 13 to 8 vote.  Sponsored by state Representative Valerie Longhurst (D-15), HB 35 passed in the Delaware House of Representatives by a 24 to 17 vote last month.  It will now be sent to Governor Markell for his signature.

Last Thursday, House amendments to Senate Bill 69 were rejected by the state Senate, sending it to a conference committee.  This conference committee will meet to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of this bill tomorrow at 10:30am in Conference Room 312 of the State Capitol.  No public testimony will be accepted at this meeting.

Some misguided state senators in South Carolina are working to delay passage of Senate Bill 308, the Restaurant Carry bill introduced by state Senator Sean Bennett.  By introducing countless frivolous amendments, several senators are delaying passage of this critical self-defense bill.  

Several measures to increase school security in Texas are moving through the state House.  Contact your state Representative in support of House Bill 1009 and Senate Bills 17 and 1857.  

Next Tuesday, April 23, the Assembly Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear an important pro-gun bill.  Assembly Bill 134 blocks the release of personal information of concealed carry permit holders through the public records act request law.  This legislation is essential for the protection of law-abiding gun owners in the Golden State.  Recently, there have been several instances of anti-gun media outlets publishing the names and addresses of concealed carry weapons (CCW) permit holders which jeopardizes the safety and violates the privacy of law-abiding citizens.  Such publications place lawful CCW holders at risk to criminals who may target their home to steal firearms.  AB 134 would ensure that this never happens in California.  An individual exercising his or her Second Amendment rights should not be put at risk of being a victim of gun theft by the public exposure of their private information, and enactment of this concealed carry permit holders protection legislation will prevent such abuse.  The privacy of carry permit holders in 38 states is now protected by laws similar to AB 134.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively pulled his party's gun control bill Thursday after a critical background check amendment failed to garner enough support, as he and other Democrats vowed to resume their push for new gun laws in the months ahead.

Earlier this week, several anti-gun bills and one extreme anti-hunting bill passed in their respective committees and will be next referred to their respective Committee on Appropriations.  Hearing dates have not been set in those committees and your NRA will inform you of those dates when they become available.

Never before had President Barack Obama put the moral force and political muscle of his presidency behind an issue quite this big — and lost quite this badly.

The president raged. The mayor of New York frothed. Joe Biden cried. But at the end of the day, common sense prevailed. The Senate killed the effort to unreasonably expand background checks for buyers of guns.The measure is not quite graveyard dead; it can be brought up again, but prospects for that are remote. The vote was a bone-jarring setback for the gun-control lobby, and a decisive victory for the National Rifle Association (NRA), which led the fight to protect the rights of all. It was most of all a resounding victory for the plain and simple language of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Today, the U.S. Senate will vote on the Manchin-Toomey amendment to Senator Reid’s gun-control package. In a Monday post on the Volokh Comspiracy, I criticized the amendment because two of the important pro-gun-rights provisions in the amendment were misdrafted, and had the opposite effect of what was claimed.