After President Joe Biden again tacitly threatened to use military grade weapons against gun-owning civilians, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Arizona Blake Masters and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake are firing back.
“This is the logic of an authoritarian. ‘We have bombs and missiles, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Therefore surrender your puny guns.’ No,” said Masters in a Tweet.
Read the full story
Dave Kopp, the longtime lobbyist and founding president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), a Second Amendment organization in Arizona, passed away at age 56.
Kopp fought cancer for 12 years but succumbed to the illness on August 24. Several people in the Arizona gun industry told The Arizona Sun Times Kopp was responsible for transforming Arizona into the top-ranked state for Second Amendment-friendly laws.
Read the full story
I testified before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee last month in a hearing focused on “the economic toll of gun violence.”
Of course, there’s no doubt that gun violence imposes a tremendous cost on society, both financially and in far less readily calculable ways. How does one measure, for example, the mental and emotional toll of being shot?
Read the full story
An Ohio Republican state senator introduced gun-control legislation that would require a co-signer for 18- to 21-year-olds to buy any gun other than a single-round rifle or shotgun.
State Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, who lost a U.S. Senate primary earlier this year to J.D. Vance, said Senate Bill 357 protects both Second Amendment rights and the public.
Read the full story
A good guy with a gun in Arizona last week detained a suspect who allegedly intentionally ran another man over with his car.
“Mesa Police Officers arrested 61-year-old John Lagana after he used his vehicle to run over and kill a man in east Mesa,” the Mesa Police Department (MPD) said. “The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and was identified as 63-year-old Christopher Heimer.”
Read the full story
A leaked internal FBI guide about violent extremism lists the Second Amendment, the “Betsy Ross flag” and Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt as “Domestic Violent Terrorism Symbols” used by militant extremist groups in the United States.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, guest host Gulbransen welcomed TN5 GOP candidate Jeff Beierlein in studio to reiterate his platform, priorities, and agenda if elected to Congress.
Read the full story
Burt Jones, Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Georgia, took exception to the assertion by Stacey Abrams that Governor Kemp is more concerned with “protecting dangerous people” than the economy of the state by affirming the right for Peach State citizens to bear arms with the signing of the constitutional carry law.
“Music Midtown is the new All Star Game. It’s still illegal for criminals to carry guns, and Georgia continues to see record voter turnout. Notice a trend? Her name is Stacey Abrams–and she’s still being dishonest with Georgia voters,” Jones tweeted on Tuesday.
Read the full story
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Acting Director of the ATF over a rulemaking that seeks to regulate firearm parts and transaction records.
“The ATF is attempting to overshoot the authority granted to it by Congress,” Brnovich said in a press release. “The rulemakings are unconstitutional, impractical, and would likely put a large number of parts manufacturers out of business.”
Read the full story
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed John Harris, founder of the Tennessee Firearms Association, in studio to discuss his upcoming event and the difference between the Gun Owners Association and the NRA.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed The Tennessee Star’s national political editor Neil W. McCabe to the newsmaker line to discuss his recent interview with National Guard Captain Mickey Shelton and how those that refuse the vax remain in limbo with the possibility of dishonorable discharge.
Read the full story
With one-term Representative Eddie Mannis deciding not to run for another term, Tennessee House District 18 is the only one of Knox County’s seven state House districts that will have a contested Republican primary on the August 4 ballot.
Elaine Davis, Former Knox County Commissioner and former Vice Chair of the Knox County Republican Party will face off against Knoxville City Council member-at-large Janet Testerman in the district that lies mainly in West Knoxville and is now considered to be slightly more conservative after the recent redistricting that picked up a small portion of South Knox.
Read the full story
Arizona Attorney General candidate Andrew Gould, a Republican and former Arizona Supreme Court Justice, said he has been suspended from Mailchimp for violating its terms of service. He believes it may have been due to a press release he issued on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down a New York gun control law, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Gould stated in a message to his supporters, “After a year of using this service, they have suspended our account without the opportunity to appeal it. Mailchimp claims that we have violated their Standard Terms of Use and Acceptable Use Policy. They will not specify the violation. I find it highly suspicious that, immediately after the release of my statement supporting the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the 2nd Amendment in New York, Mailchimp shut down my account.”
Read the full story
One Connecticut-based firearms industry trade group has spent more on lobbying than the National Rifle Association.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade association based in Newtown, has spent 40% more than the NRA lobbying Congress since 2019. For 2021 alone, OpenSecrets – a nonpartisan nonprofit tracking money into politics – reports an estimated $5 million spent by NSSF on lobbying; the NRA spent $4.92 million.
Read the full story
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on New York’s anti-concealed carry law has broader ramifications for similar gun control laws across the country, many of which can now be challenged by Second Amendment advocates.
Politico reports that some of the states with gun control laws that may now be in jeopardy after the ruling include California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. Such states and jurisdictions also have laws in place that similarly try to restrict the ability of residents to carry handguns in public, in what is known as a “may-issue” approach.
Read the full story
A pet store in California is facing intense backlash after announcing it would not allow any supporters of the Second Amendment to adopt animals from their shop.
Fox News reports that Shelter Hope Pet Shop, in Thousand Oaks, released a statement on their website declaring that “we do not support those who believe that the 2nd Amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons.”
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) to the newsmaker line to update listeners on where Congress is at in addressing the anti-Second Amendment Democrat gun-grabbing attempts and Nancy Pelosi’s one-way style of legislation.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) responded Friday to a set of gun control bills that passed in the House of Representatives this week. The group also criticized Tennessee lawmakers for “putting Tennesseans’ lives at risk” with current state legislation in place.
Read the full story
Tennessee Republican Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) voted “No” on two gun control bills brought to the House floor Wednesday.
Read the full story
A bill written by a Georgia congresswoman that would provide for a host of gun control measures is making its way through the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
“A family or household member of the applicable individual, or a law enforcement officer, may submit to an appropriate district court of the United States a petition requesting that the court issue an ex parte Federal extreme risk protection order or long-term Federal extreme risk protection order with respect to an individual,” says the text of H.R. 2377.
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-2) went on Fox Business to talk how to make schools safer for our children.
“We’re trying to treat the symptoms and not the cause. The cause is obviously mental health,” he said.
Read the full story
In the wake of recent mass shootings in New York, Texas, and Oklahoma, Democrats are once again sending Americans up a blind alley. Their “solution” is to punish millions of law-abiding gun owners for the crimes of a few evil maniacs. Undeniably, there is a certain appeal to this response. Gun control is a facile “fix” to a complex problem.
Americans have owned guns since the founding, but it wasn’t until comparatively recently that mass shootings became a concern. Guns are not the problem. Our culture is. Broken cultures produce broken human beings. For every school shooter, there are thousands of other weak, confused, mentally disturbed men who are drifting away from society. They aren’t dating, aren’t working, and they spend most of their time in their bedrooms playing video games, smoking weed, watching pornography, and stewing in social media echo chambers.
Read the full story
The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and several other officials, challenging the state’s ban on large-capacity magazines for handguns and rifles.
Senate Bill 5078 prohibits the sale of gun magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, along with the manufacturing, distribution or import of such magazines in Washington.
Read the full story
Democrat U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) continued his anti-Second Amendment tirade late Thursday.
In his second set of comments on Thursday, Cohen said in part, “Regardless if we give the Republicans a long time to think about bills and lots of notice, or very little notice, they vote the same way. They vote no.”
Read the full story
Perhaps, like me, you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the un-American Left is ignorant of many things. But then they open their mouths and remove all doubt.
The most recent example comes from the gaping maw of Elie Mystal on MSNBC, where he claimed that, like everything else in this country apparently, the Second Amendment is the creation of long-dead, racist white supremacists who supported it for the sole purpose of putting down slave revolts keeping the enslaved populations in bondage. Of course, there is as much “truth” to that as there is in the 1619 Project. Progressives use such revisionist history to discredit the founders so that they can dismantle the founders’ republic.
Read the full story
Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed John Harris, founder of the Tennessee Firearms Association, to the newsmaker line to comment upon Joe Biden’s speech Thursday night and detail the mechanics of red flag laws.
Read the full story
An anti-gun group will host protests in five cities later this month, as part of a nationwide effort to push gun control in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
“What we are demanding from our state’s legislators should not be controversial, and will help to prevent preventable deaths in our communities,” said Carson Ferrara, a rising senior at Vanderbilt University and representative of March For Our Lives. “Last year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a law that allows anyone to carry a loaded gun in public without a permit. He signed it at a weapons manufacturing plant.”
Read the full story
A far-left gun control group based in Arizona Thursday endorsed Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor, who is also the state’s Democrat nominee for Governor in this year’s election.
“For years, @JohnFetterman has been a powerful voice for Pennsylvanians who have lost their lives to gun violence, and I have no doubt that he will continue this fight in the Senate. I am proud to back Lt. Gov. Fetterman in his bid for US Senate,” Gabrielle Giffords said in a Thursday tweet.
Read the full story
Trump-endorsed Kari Lake celebrated the one year anniversary of launching her leading Arizona gubernatorial campaign Wednesday with a party. Still leading her Republican primary opponents by double digits, she told the crowd of her top supporters at the Pleasant Harbor Marina in Peoria, which she referred to as a “Lake front,” that the campaign has broken multiple records.
Lake brought the crowd to laughter multiple times, especially describing her opponents. She characterized one of the other Republican candidates, Karrin Taylor Robson, “If John McCain had a baby with Liz Cheney, who grew up to marry a 95-year-old billionaire.” Taylor Robson is “frail, nervous; a RINO who puts millions into deceptive ads, trying to buy the election.”
Read the full story
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday Joe Biden has no interest in Republican proposals that focus on “hardening schools,” i.e., installing greater security and safety measures, because “the problem is with guns.”
Asked if she could elaborate on Biden’s promise to meet with members of Congress on new gun laws, Jean-Pierre said gun violence is an “epidemic” across the country.
Read the full story
The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a dispute over a 2011 state law that allows for penalties if city and county officials pass gun regulations. The hearing comes amid a ramped up debate over gun laws due to recent mass shootings in Texas and New York.
The case made it to the Supreme Court when a coalition of local governments and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried filed notices back in June 2021. The notices were the initial steps in asking the Supreme Court to hear the case and came a month after the 1st District Court of Appeal denied a request to send the case to the Supreme Court.
The efforts to get a Supreme Court hearing came after a Tallahassee-based appeals court upheld the constitutionality of the 2011 law in April, 2021
Since 1987, Florida has barred cities and counties from passing regulations that are stricter than state firearms laws, and the penalties in the 2011 law were designed to strengthen that “preemption.”
The law was challenged by local governments and officials who were urged to take action after the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people. However, attorneys for the local governments indicated in a 2019 court document that the requested actions were not taken up by elected officials due to the potential penalties outlined in the 2011 state law.
The requested actions included such things as requiring procedures or documentation to ensure compliance with background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases and requiring reporting of failed background checks.
Read the full story
Politicians, including some Republicans, are calling for gun control after a recent spate of mass shootings, particularly last week’s involving a gunman who shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas. Gov. Doug Ducey pushed for “red flag” gun control laws previously, including in 2019 after two mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, and indicated this week he may renew that effort. The Arizona Citizens’ Defense League (AZCDL) immediately sent out 53,000 email alerts.
“Politicians like Ducey are dancing in the blood of victims as opposed to saving people’s lives,” AZCDL Communications Director Charles Heller told The Arizona Sun Times. “We need to stop the psychopaths who are doing this, by taking action like implementing FASTER, which trains teachers and staff at schools to arm themselves after proper training. Ducey’s statement is a profile in cowardice, he’s acting like politicians do when they are afraid of not getting votes.”
Read the full story
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rejected a school safety bill proposed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) Wednesday, one that had been promoted by several of the parents of victims of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.
Schumer dismissed the legislation, first introduced in 2019, on which the Parkland victims’ parents had collaborated, claiming the bill “could see more guns in schools” and touting, “I blocked it.”
Read the full story
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in a Friday post accused her incumbent opponent of signing a bill into law that does not appear to exist.
“Our children across Georgia are bearing the heartbreaking consequences of gun violence. Instead of addressing the crisis, Brian Kemp signed criminal carry legislation that will put more guns on our streets and make our communities less safe,” said Abrams on Twitter.
Read the full story
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed John Harris, founder of the Tennessee Firearms Association, to the newsmaker line to discuss the implications of a civilian interfering in a mass shooter situation, Metro Nashville protocols, and removing the Second Amendment.
Read the full story
Georgia’s governor Tuesday signed a bill into law that will allow residents of the state to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.
“I certainly want to thank all of those legislators – many of them – that along with us have been pushing to get this bill across the finish line for a long time,” Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said in the bill signing ceremony at Gable Sporting Goods in Douglasville.
Read the full story
Georgians soon could be able to carry guns outside their houses without a license.
The Georgia House voted, 100-67, Wednesday in favor of Senate Bill 319 to eliminate the need for a permit. Currently, Georgians must obtain a firearms license, which costs about $75 but may vary by county.
The “constitutional carry” measure now returns to the Senate to consider changes the House made to the bill. A similar piece of legislation, House Bill 1358, is pending in the state Senate.
Read the full story
Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed GOP candidate for Tennessee’s Eight Congressional District, Dean Clouse to the newsmakers line to explain why he’s running and his background.
Read the full story
Democrat-sponsored legislation which contains creation of firearm buyback program and refers to gun violence as a public health issue is scheduled for Tennessee General Assembly Committee consideration over the coming days.
The legislation requires the Tennessee Department of Safety to develop a firearm buyback program “in
collaboration with local community groups.”
Ohio’s governor Monday marked a milestone for gun rights in the state, signing into law a bill colloquially called “Constitutional Carry.”
SB 215 became law Monday evening, to the applause of conservative groups in the state and nationwide.
Read the full story
On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced its intention to sue the state of Missouri over a law passed last year that protects residents’ Second Amendment rights from federal government overreach.
As reported by The Hill, the lawsuit was announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, targeting Missouri’s House Bill 85 as an alleged violation of the “Supremacy Clause,” which “is preempted by federal law and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity.” Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) will argue that the law harms cooperative efforts between the federal government, state governments, and local jurisdictions.
Read the full story
Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed legislation designed to protect Pennsylvania residents’ Second Amendment rights against municipalities that enact restrictive gun ordinances.
“Once again, this governor has failed to live up to his oath to ‘support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth,’” said Rep. Matthew Dowling, R-Fayette, sponsor of House Bill 979. “By vetoing this bill, the governor has put the Second Amendment rights of every citizen in jeopardy, effectively encouraging communities to continue enacting illegal gun control measures.”
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed John Harris of the Tennessee Firearms Association to comment upon recent legislation put for by Representative Rusty Grills renamed ‘enhanced and concealed firearm carry permits .’
Read the full story
A bill named after a high-profile murder defendant, who was later acquitted, has been introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-District-75) announced via press release Wednesday that he has introduced what he calls “Kyle’s Law,” named after Kyle Rittenhouse.
Read the full story
I testified earlier this month at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Chicago on underlying causes of the spikes in gun violence in that city and around the country.
Although Sen. Dick Durbin’s interruptions of my opening statement stole the show in many respects, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the Illinois Democrat also solicited disparaging remarks on the right to keep and bear arms from another witness—Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.
In direct response to one of Durbin’s questions, Brown remarked that armed civilians make police officers’ jobs more difficult, and that he never has seen a lawfully armed civilian make a situation safer.
Read the full story
Former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed former State Representative Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) in his campaign for State Senate.
Citing his stances on a host of issues and priorities of the former president, Trump awarded his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to Kern.
“Former Arizona State Representative Anthony Kern has already forced RINO Senator Paul Boyer out of the race for Arizona State Senate. Anthony is an incredible fighter for Election Integrity, and will bring back honesty to our voting system. He will advocate for America First policies, protect our Second Amendment, fight for strong Borders, Jobs, Great Education, and he supports decertifying the fraudulent 2020 Presidential Election results. Anthony Kern has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump said in a statement.
Read the full story
In just one year, the Biden Administration has collected records of over 54 million legal gun-owners in the United States, for the purpose of increased surveillance of such citizens by the federal government, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
As shown in internal documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), the ATF processed approximately 54.7 million records in fiscal year 2021. These documents were obtained by the gun rights advocacy group Gun Owners of America (GOA). The records in question are “out-of-business” documents, which consist of all firearms-related transactions made by a particular gun store after the store has gone out of business, at which point those records become property of the ATF.
In the year 2021, the ATF used this method to collect 53.8 million paper records, and roughly 887,000 electronic records. Gun stores are currently allowed to destroy records that are 20 years old or older; the Biden Administration is actively pursuing avenues to ensure that such records are made permanent and cannot be destroyed.
Read the full story
An NBC reporter said Monday that he has contacted the Secret Service about a gun dealer’s anti-Biden weapons parts. As Joe Biden sinks in the polls, multiple gun dealers appear to be capitalizing on his unpopularity to sell weapons parts and ammunition.
The dealers, according to NBC News’s “Fusion” Ken Dilanian, are “using a right-wing slogan widely understood as code for profanity” to mock Biden, and sell gun supplies.
That slogan—”Let’s Go Brandon”—”isn’t actually about supporting a guy named Brandon,” NPR explained in a hard-hitting investigative report this past weekend. The publicly-funded radio organization spilled the beans on what the phrase actually means: “it’s a euphemism that many people in conservative circles are using in place of saying, ‘F*** Joe Biden.’”
Read the full story
Many of our once revered and most hallowed institutions are failing us. To mention only the most significant ones: our top-ranking military echelon, the leadership of our federal investigatory and intelligence agencies, the government medical establishment—and of course the universities.
For too long American higher education’s reputation of global academic superiority has rested mostly on the sciences, mathematics, physics, technology, medicine, and engineering—in other words, not because of the humanities and social sciences, but despite them. The humanities have become too often anti-humanistic. And the social sciences are deductively anti-scientific. Both quasi-religious woke disciplines have eroded confidence in colleges and universities, infected even the STEM disciplines and professional schools, and torn apart the civic unity of the United States. Indeed, much of the current Jacobin revolution was birthed and fueled by American universities, despite their manifest hypocrisies and derelictions.
Read the full story
Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration are attempting to nibble away at the Second Amendment from both within and without the U.S., gun rights advocates warn, as Congress seeks to pass a red flag law for military members and the president eyes signing on to a United Nations arms treaty.
Red flag laws that would apply to military members were slipped into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by the House of Representatives last week with the help of 135 Republicans.
Red flag laws are “essentially bypassing due process,” Gun Owners of America’s Director of Outreach Antonia Okafor told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Wednesday. “It is going from one person who says they accuse you of being a danger to yourself, or to somebody else, and then going to a judge that then gets reasonable suspicion, right, that you are a danger to yourself or somebody else.”
Read the full story