Former New York Times Editor Makes A "Liberal Case" For The 2nd Amendment As the debate over gun control in the United States rages on, self-described liberal Craig Whitney is speaking out against fellow liberals' attacks on the Second Amendment. Whitney, a former New York Times editor, argues in his new book "Living With Guns: A Liberal "s Case for the Second Amendment" that Americans have a long-standing common-law right to have guns for self-defense. That right goes back to colonial times, when Americans felt they had a civic duty to use firearms when called upon to protect the common good, Whitney said in a recent C-SPAN interview. “If you could ask Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton or John Hancock after the adoption of the Bill of Rights whether they had an individual right to carry arms and use them for self-defense, or to hunt . . . they would have laughed at you,” Whitney writes, according to a review of his book in The New York Times. ...

TRUTH-OUT.ORG 10 Hours Ago New Poll Shows Surge in Support for Gun Control by Matt Pearce Do you support Truthout's reporting and analysis? Click here to help us continue doing this work in 2013! (Photo: Ken / Flickr)Public support for stricter gun laws has leaped to its highest point in eight years with 58% now in favor, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll released Thursday. That's a 14-point jump from last year. Of those surveyed, 92% of Americans want background checks for buyers at gun shows and 62% want to ban magazines that carry more than 10 rounds, which have played a frequent role in mass shootings. But Americans still oppose a full ban on semi-automatic assault rifles 51% to 44%, and opposition to a full handgun ban is higher than it has ever been, at 74%. The poll was conducted with 1,038 respondents by phone over Dec. 19-22, with a 4% margin of error. Overall, some experts say mass shootings aren't happening more often than usual, though 2012 has ...

GOPUSA 12 Hours Ago Reagan: Gun Control Won't Prevent Tragedy by Michael Reagan It's not tougher gun control, stupid. No matter how much tougher we make our gun laws we'll never prevent future tragedies like last week's murder of those innocents in Newtown, Conn. We won't stop future Newtowns if we outlaw every military-style assault weapon in America. We won't stop future Auroras if we outlaw semi-automatic pistols or rifles, or mandate that no magazine clip can ever hold more than 10 rounds. We won't stop future Virginia Techs if we make it tougher to buy a gun legally or if we shut down all gun shows on the continent for the rest of time. Let's get real. America has an estimated 300 million guns. We could make owning a gun a capital crime today and by tomorrow 100 million guns would be hidden in our closets and buried in our backyards. Good people, bad people and crazy people would still have access to tens of millions of guns and the ...

NEWYORK.CBSLOCAL.COM 7 Hours Ago Assault Rifles, Ammo Flying Off Shelves After Newtown Massacre NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Gun enthusiasts have been stocking up in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school massacre – flocking to gun shows to get their hands on parts and weapons out of fear that lawmakers will take a harder stance on gun control in the coming year. The phones at gun shops across the country have been ringing off the hook. Demand for firearms, ammunition and bulletproof gear has surged since the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which took the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers and administrators. The National Rifle Association proposed placing an armed guard in every school in response to the massacre. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said earlier this month. But for others, including President Barack Obama, the shooting has sparked calls fo...

MYSANANTONIO.COM 5 Hours Ago Teachers flock to free handgun classes by Zeke MacCormack SCHERTZ — Middle school teacher Kim Williams traveled from Houston Saturday to cash in on a free concealed handgun licensing course offered to educators after a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary this month. “I feel the need to be proactive,” said Williams, 38, during a break in the 10-hour class at LoneStar Handgun. “I'm entrusted to the care and safety of over 100 students. I want to be prepared, if and when things go that way,” said the long-time employee of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. The local firm's owner, Josh Felker, advertised the class on Dec. 17, three days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. All 400 available slots were booked within 24 hours, Felker said. “We're trying to educate the educators and get forward momentum in the Legislature to allow teachers and any other concealed handgun license holder into schools or any ...

WEASELZIPPERS.US 38 Minutes Ago Piers Morgan: I’ll Deport Myself If America Doesn’t Change Its Gun Laws… Sounds good to me. Via Daily Mail: I have fired guns only once in my life, on a stag party to the Czech capital Prague a few years ago when part of the itinerary included a trip to an indoor shooting range. For three hours, our group were let loose on everything from Magnum 45 handguns and Glock pistols, to high-powered ‘sniper’ rifles and pump-action shotguns. It was controlled, legal, safe and undeniably exciting. But it also showed me, quite demonstrably, that guns are killing machines. Rarely has the hideous effect of a gun been more acutely laid bare than at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, two weeks ago – when a deranged young man called Adam Lanza murdered 20 schoolchildren aged six and seven, as well as six adults, in a sickening rampage. [...] In conclusion, I can spare those Americans who want me deported a lot of effort by saying this: ...

TEAPARTYNATION.COM 44 Minutes Ago Dems Assault Second Amendment by Doug Nicholson The following is an email I received last night from my good friend of 40 years, Jimmi Bonavita. It is THE most important message I've read all year. With his permission, I'm posting it for all to see: We are in very serious danger of losing our 2nd Amendment rights very, very soon. Don't think so? Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) is set to introduce her 'new and improved' "Assault Weapons Ban of 2013" to the U.S. Senate after the New Year recess. The Democrat majority in the Senate will pass it and send it to the House, and the President has already enthusiastically said he would sign it into law if it clears the House. Considering how wishy-washy the Republican-controlled House has been over the fiscal cliff issue, I'm not so sure they can be trusted to unite against it, especially in light of the emotional Newtown, CT school shooting still fresh in their minds. I...

BREITBART.COM 4 Hours Ago Anti-Gun Senator Shoots Home Intruders by AWR Hawkins 29 Dec 2012, 7:15 AM PDT post a comment The senator, who has spent his political career fighting against the individual right to keep and bear arms, apparently believes the right to keep and bear arms is still valid for elected officials. The intruder Soles shot, Kyle Blackburn, went to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and Soles has refused to provide media interviews since the incident. All that is known is that another Democrat office holder who wants to deny average Americans the benefits that come from being armed, benefited from being armed himself. When intruders entered his house he didn't have to plead for his life. Rather, he pulled a gun took care of business. Shame on Soles if he does anything less than reverse his previous anti-gun positions.

GUNSSAVELIVES.NET 6 Hours Ago [Video] Houston, TX Store Clerk Shoots Armed Robber in the Chest, Protects Customers A gunman rushed into a convenience store in Houston, TX and ordered everyone to lay on the ground. Instead of listening to those orders, the clerk who was working drew his own gun and shot the would be robber once in the chest. The suspect is undergoing surgery at an area hospital. His condition is unknown. The clerk declined to be interviewed, but his wife said he was just protecting himself and the customers in the store. The wife of the store clerk said about the incident, “Is it shocking?…This is Texas, nothing shocks me.” Please follow the link below to read the full source article:http://www.khou.com/news/crime/Shooting-at-gas-station-in-no... Is the link above broken? You can view an archived copy of the source article here: http://www.webcitation.org/6DH1cyIeF

USACARRY.COM 3 Days Ago Why You Need Guns Now by Jason Hanson Even though I’m writing this on Christmas and hopefully you’re relaxing, I’d like to quickly remind you why you should have your guns now, as proven by the reactions by both the left and the right after the horrific Connecticut shootings. In short, the aftermath of these shootings has shown that far too many people lose all rationale and do crazy things after a “disaster.” For instance, it’s no surprise that the liberals want to ban AR-15′s, ban the number of rounds that a magazine can hold, and our favorite New York mayor even talked about confiscating all of the guns in New York. But the liberals weren’t the only one’s losing all rationale, so were some gun folks. For example, the website Cheaper than Dirt stopped selling firearms and essentially committed business suicide. Whatever gutless executive made that call ought to be fired and there’s nothing that ticks me off more than people without conviction. One...

USACARRY.COM 20 Hours Ago Would You Give Up Your Right to Self Defense? by Matt Schlueter The shooting in Connecticut was a terrible tragedy, which has driven our country into deeply divided debates regarding our constitutional rights on gun ownership. An Americans view on our constitutional right to bear arms is influenced by how we were raised by our parents, personal values & beliefs, political views and party affiliations. If every American were asked to give up their right to self-defense if attacked by another person bent on inflicting serious bodily injury or death, we would be hard pressed to find anyone of use who would do so for the greater good. Remember the second amendment is about personal defense, it is not about hunting or sporting purposes and did not limit what type of firearms our ancestors used or possessed when the bill of rights were first enacted. As terrible as the events were on December 14th, it is not the first time America has seen mass killings ...

LEWROCKWELL.COM 1 Hour Ago Merry Christmas and Happy Gun Control, Chicago by Karen De Coster Chicago, one of America's most Nazified, anti-gun cities, has just recorded its 500th homicide. This is another banner year for Rahm Emanuel's tightly-controlled non-gun "paradise." Breitbart recent reported that Chicago's own stats show that 440 school age children were shot in 2012 in Chicago's paradise. Breitbart's Awr Hawkins writes: These numbers are well above those for the 2011-2012 school year, in which 319 Chicago students were wounded and another 24 were killed. And yet, it has long been reported that the school where Rahm's children attend to their education has an armed security guard. Additionally, his children also have an armed escort to get them to and from school, just like those Hollywood celebrities who clamor for gun control while they enjoy full-time, armed bodyguards. And yet, the citizen gun control puppets continue to lap up the...

IREPORTERS.WORDPRESS.COM 2 Hours Ago Gun control laws killed 56 Million People in 1930′s Germany, Russia and China… Any Questions? In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were round…ed up and exterminated. In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated. China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated. Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Chris...

AMERICANTHINKER.COM 7 Hours Ago Articles: Sam Colt and the Law of Self-Preservation by Glenn Fairman "God made man but Sam Colt made them equal." Yt is said that the 2nd Amendment follows hard upon the 1st so as to serve as its bodyguard -- providing the added incentive of coercive force by a wary citizenry to guarantee that those initial cherished liberties, expounded by our Founders, did not go the way of the 10th Amendment. The 2nd Amendment, interpreted as the right to bear arms by a free people, has not escaped that yawning chasm that has opened up between the political Right and Left, and the rationale behind this stratification falls along the same familiar tensions of individual vs. collective. The nature of men, having proved insufficient in wisdom for the eradication of evil, must then paradoxically utilize the equalization of deadly force to not only suppress the jaundiced glint in our neighbor's eye but the tyranny that arises when men esteem the ch...