Anti-Gun Researchers Saddling Up to Ride Again

With the racetrack dust having barely settled after this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, and with the final leg of the Triple Crown--the Belmont Stakes--scheduled for this weekend, we can't help but marvel at the incredible ability of a horse, with 120 pounds on its back, to sustain better than a 35 mph pace over up to 1½ miles, often topping 40 mph in the home stretch.

But no matter how big an appetite the world's fastest three-year-old Thoroughbreds work up during "the most exciting two minutes in sports," they haven't got a thing on gun control supporters in the public health field, when it comes to jockeying for position at the feeding trough.

That's because the feeding trough the gun control supporters are galloping toward isn't one that's filled with oats; it's one that President Obama wants filled with your tax dollars. In January, Obama issued a memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a new "gun violence" research agenda "to improve knowledge of the causes of gun violence, the interventions that prevent gun violence, and strategies to minimize the public health burden of gun violence," and asked Congress to fund the research to the tune of $10 million.

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U.N. Arms Treaty a Direct Threat to American Gun Ownership

The global organization Oxfam America has long served as a reliable cheerleader for nearly all misguided United Nations policy. And a recent op ed piece by Oxfam America President Raymond Offenheiser, appearing on The Hill.com, offers a splendid illustration. Offenheiser wants us to simultaneously believe the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty is both the single most important tool to cracking down on war crimes, and that the treaty has absolutely no teeth whatsoever. That's twisted logic for sure. In reality, the ATT directly threatens the Second Amendment rights and privacy of American gun owners.

Bill Introduced to "Get State Department Out of the Gun Control Business"

As longtime readers--and especially gun collectors--know, the State Department has often stood in the way of importing historic military firearms from overseas. The issue was highlighted early in the Obama administration, when the department first approved, and then denied, the importation and sale of collectible, American-made M1 Garand rifles and M1 carbines originally furnished to South Korea by the United States government.

A Prescription for Gun Control Supporters in Massachusetts

We're not doctors and we're certainly not licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts. But if we were, we'd have some age-old device to give to gun control supporters in the Bay State's legislature, who are demanding that more gun control laws be imposed on top of unusually restrictive laws already in effect there: "Take a dose of common sense and call us in the morning."

Evaluating the patient's history, we would find that Massachusetts used to have almost the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Until 1998, that is, when it made its laws even more restrictive, while in most states gun control restrictions were being eliminated or made less severe. And since Massachusetts tightened its gun laws 15 years ago, the numbers and per capita rates of firearm-related murders have increased there, while decreasing in the nation as a whole.

Outrage of the Week

Reports of overzealous enforcement of "zero tolerance" policies in our nation's public schools have become extraordinarily commonplace. This week's outrage, however, is remarkable for its severity.

According to a recent Washington Post article, the target of the Calvert County, Maryland school system's wrath is a 5-year-old, who is "all bugs and frogs and cowboys," according to his mother. The little boy brought a cowboy-style, orange-safety-tipped toy cap gun onto his school bus to show to his friend, who had allegedly brought a water gun on the bus a day earlier. As a result, the kindergartner was questioned by school officials for more than two hours before his mother was called.

According to the Post article, a major concern of the family is, obviously, the long period the 5-year-old was questioned without parental guidance or support. How long does it take to ask a 5-year-old a few questions? His sister--a first-grader--was also questioned.