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 ...