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Bloomberg’s “Scientists” Hoping to “Disprove” Your Fundamental Rights

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Bloomberg’s “Scientists” Hoping to “Disprove” Your Fundamental Rights

On October 15, a group of researchers at the Michael Bloomberg funded Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research did what they are paid to do: deliver “evidence” to support the necessity of banning guns. This time, they went after firearms on college campuses. Spoiler alert: they determined “the research” showed it’s a bad idea.

There are plenty of sound reasons to criticize the findings of the report from a scholarly point of view. You can read about some of them at this link, among other places.

But the question all gun owners must ask themselves in response to this or any similar effort (and there will be many more to come) is simply this: will your surrender your freedom because a group of people with fancy academic titles behind their names insist on it?

One of the most famous quotes on the law comes from Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote: “The life of the law has not been logic – it has been experience. … The law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics.”

This helps explain why law students study case law, rather than just read books summarizing events, trends, or statistical sampling. Each case involves an actual dispute between real people arising in the real world. And each case is resolved individually, on its own merits. Together, they help form a body of law by which an entire people are governed.

The Second Amendment is a prime example of how experience drives legal precepts. Its proponents understood, many of them by first-hand experience, the essential lesson that a people could never be truly free if they had to depend on others to protect their very lives.

That lesson is as applicable today as it was in 1792. For all that military and law enforcement forces do to protect the nation on a grand scale, they won’t be there when the prowler shows up at your house at 3:00 a.m. or when a college student is accosted in a parking garage after an evening class.

But because they cannot alter essential human nature and experience, nor suppress the instinctual drive of every living being to self-defense, gun control proponents continually try to refocus the debate. They tell stories about victims who law-abiding gun owners didn’t harm. And they write “reports” concluding your gun won’t protect you when you need it.

Yet even their own statistics show that people do defend themselves with guns. 

Each one of those people has a unique story, like the stories told in law school case books. And each one of the lives saved by a defensive gun used mattered.

Let’s be clear: antigun researchers are not seeking to discover the truth. They are seeking to support the policy goals of the antigun individuals and organizations that fund them.

But whatever they claim the “research” tells us about guns, you have a fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms to protect yourself and your loved ones. That right is not dependent on anyone’s academic efforts, and it does not yield to them. 

There is an entire industry devoted to undermining the Second Amendment, with branches in academia, politics, entertainment, law, and science. It wants to ban firearms. It assumes it will eventually succeed.

So hold fast to your rights. Hold fast to your guns. Because whatever they try to tell you, your life matters, too.

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California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

Monday, October 13, 2025

California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

For someone who has claimed to be"...deeply mindful and respectful of the Second Amendment and people’s Constitutional rights,” Governor Gavin Newsom has once again proven that actions speak louder than words.

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

Democrat Jay Jones, candidate for Virginia attorney general, still has not suspended his campaign, even as pressure mounts over disclosures that should disqualify, to put it mildly, any individual from serving as the chief law ...

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

Three years ago, Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), writing for RealClearInvestigations, described how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was vastly undercounting, “by an order of more than three the number of instances in ...

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation—announced the filing of another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Monday, October 13, 2025

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members—filed a lawsuit challenging California’s Glock ban.

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Today, the National Rifle Association announced the filing of a petition for rehearing en banc in Siegel v. Platkin, a challenge to New Jersey’s carry restrictions.

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

The 36th Legislature of the US Virgin Islands is continuing to advance sweeping gun control measures through the legislative process.

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Today, the National Rifle Association, along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the federal lifetime prohibition on ...

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

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Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.