NRA Feed

With a few days remaining in the 2013 legislative session, the Missouri General Assembly is taking critical steps to reform the state’s Right-to-Carry law and further protect your inherent right to self-defense.

National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data.

The debate over gun control is coming back to the Senate earlier than expected.Sen. Tom Coburn (R Okla.) intends to file a pair of firearms related amendments to the Water Resources Development Act that the Senate began considering on Tuesday afternoon.One amendment would repeal a gun prohibition on land under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers. The other would require annual reports from federal agencies on ammunition and gun purchases as well as firearm thefts, excepting some national security arms of government.

Gun crime has plunged in the United States since its peak in the middle of the 1990s, including gun killings, assaults, robberies and other crimes, two new studies of government data show.Yet few Americans are aware of the dramatic drop, and more than half believe gun crime has risen, according to a newly released survey by the Pew Research Center.

It's honestly a strange time for politicians to push ever tighter restrictions on gun controls. Even if you're the sort of person who thinks that everybody's personal liberty should be restricted if somebody, somewhere, misbehaves, a report released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics makes it apparent that crimes committed with firearms continue their steady, two decade decline. In terms of specific policy, the recent focus on restricting "assault weapons" makes no sense in an environment in which the preferred weapon for committing those diminishing crimes is the handgun. And the recent obsession with extending background checks on people making legal gun purchases is a true head scratcher, since most criminals don't buy their guns legally, with fewer than one percent acquiring their weapons at much demonized gun shows.

Even as President Barack Obama works with legislators in Washington to revive efforts to enact stricter federal gun control legislation, local politicians have filed seven pro gun bills in an effort to pass even more permissive state gun laws.

A Missouri House committee has advanced a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at protecting gun rights.The amendment approved on Tuesday would define the right to bear arms as "unalienable" and require the state to defend against any "infringement" of that right. It would also include defending one's "family" with a firearm as a guaranteed constitutional right.

Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney blocked four gun control bills from coming to the Senate floor to avoid what appeared to be a certain defeat for them.

The state's top gun advocacy group says membership has soared in recent months.The Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts said that it has surpassed 16,000 members in the state. The group said it has added about 3,000 members since January.

Gun owners’ patience and persistence was rewarded on Saturday and yesterday, as the Texas House of Representatives led by Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) gave approval to a wide range of pro-gun legislation while the NRA Annual Meeting was underway in Houston.  Most of these bills passed overwhelmingly, in spite of repeated attempts by anti-gun members of the minority party to kill some of these measures by raising parliamentary “points of order” against them for alleged violations of House rules.  Many violations are procedural in nature, involving the committee process and committee reports.  Thanks to the meticulous work of House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee Chairman Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) and his staff, none of the points were sustained, and debate and votes on the bills were allowed to proceed on the House floor.

Last Friday, Governor Nikki Haley (R) signed an important mental health reform, House Bill 3560, into law.  This new law takes effect on August 1, 2013.

Yesterday, the Colorado Senate Committee on Business, Labor, & Technology voted 3-2 to postpone indefinitely, House Bill 1306.

Legislators in both the state Senate and House are under extreme pressure to exempt Chicago and Cook County from any “shall-issue” mandate in the concealed carry law that a federal court has ordered to be adopted by June 9.  Any exemption for Chicago and Cook County could easily deny 40% of Illinois’ population “shall-issue” right to carry, and put gun owners state-wide at risk of felony prosecution if they happen to travel across Cook County or Chicago lines.  Please contact your state Senator and Representative TODAY and urge them to support equal right to carry laws for ALL Illinois residents.

On Thursday, May 16 at 10:00 a.m., Bill 20-170, the “Firearm Insurance Amendment Act,” will be heard by the DC Council Committee on Business, Consumer, and Regulatory Affairs.  Sponsored by Councilor Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), B20-170 would require D.C. residents to purchase liability insurance, of no less than $250,000, before they are allowed to purchase a firearm.  

An armed man wearing a hood entered Bonaci Fine Jewelers in Kent, Wash. and attempted to rob the store. The store’s owner responded to the attack by retrieving a gun and exchanging gunfire with the criminal, causing the robber to flee. In an interview with local media, Kent Police expressed their belief that the criminal was struck twice during the incident. Additionally, Sgt. Jarod Kasner made clear to reporters that “people have the right to protect themselves.” 

It's only been a few weeks since the Senate struck down a measure aimed at expanding background checks for gun buyers, but Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D Nev., says his party is already a "couple" votes closer to the support needed to approve the legislation.Reid, speaking in an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, was optimistic that the Senate would ultimately be able to pass the so called Manchin Toomey amendment, a bipartisan compromise that was hammered out after weeks of negotiations, and which fell five votes short of passage in last month's vote."Joe Manchin called me yesterday," Reid said, according to a video posted on the Huffington Post. "He thinks he has a couple more votes."

One of the principal sponsors of defeated gun background check legislation says he isn't giving up on getting a bill passed.

The Republican led House on Monday night tentatively approved a bill that would expand where concealed weapon permit holders can carry or store their pistols, while lengthening penalties for crimes committed with a gun.

The Texas House of Representatives on Monday gave final approval to a proposal to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry guns into buildings on college campuses.The proposal, which was approved on a vote of 102 41, would allow public colleges and universities to opt out of allowing guns in buildings after consulting with students, faculty and staff. Private colleges and universities could opt in.

A late amendment to a bill mandating universal background checks for gun purchases in Nevada has given the effort renewed life in the state Legislature.