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MD: Maryland’s Glock crackdown could test limits of Second Amendment
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Maryland’s new ban on some semiautomatic handguns is already headed for a constitutional showdown — one that could test how far states can go in regulating firearms that can be converted into machine guns.
Gov. Wes Moore signed the legislation Tuesday, barring the manufacture, sale, and purchase of a range of semiautomatic pistols that lawmakers say are especially vulnerable to illegal conversion using “Glock switches” or auto sears — small devices that can transform a handgun into a fully automatic weapon capable of firing dozens of rounds in seconds. |
Can wars still be just? Pope Leo XIV addresses the issue in Magnifica Humanitas
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“I always believe that itʼs much better to enter into dialogue than to look for arms and to support the arms industry, which gains billions and billions of dollars each year, instead of sitting down at the table solving our problems and using money to solve humanitarian issues, hunger in the world, et cetera,” he added.
In an interview with EWTN News, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, emphasized that, although the pope reaffirms “the right to self-defense" in the encyclical, it remains “impossible to justify a war.” |
OR: Appeals court overturns conviction in 2018 deadly shooting outside Moda Center
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According to court documents, a gun was later found in the center console of the SUV, but it is unclear if it was ever fired.
James’ attorneys claimed that one of the people in the car pointed a gun at the suspect and he acted in self-defense.
In its ruling released Thursday, the appeals court found that during the trial the court failed to inform the jury that James was not required to retreat in order to claim he acted in self-defense.
James remains in custody at this time.
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How Many Murders Involve ‘Glock Switches?’ You Won’t Believe How Few
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While anti-Second Amendment politicians have pushed laws targeting so-called “Glock switches,” their use in homicide has been rarer than fatal lightning strikes since 2021.
Supporters of the measures passed in four states claimed that so-called “Glock switches” are used to illegally convert Glock pistols into machine guns, claiming the bans would make streets safer. However, research by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) showed that murders with illegally-modified Glocks is rarer than fatal lightning strikes. |
NY: Appeals court puts stake through heart of New York's anti-2nd Amendment vampire rule
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A federal appellate court ruled that New York’s law that banned carrying firearms under a so-called “vampire rule” violated the Second Amendment.
Shortly after the Supreme Court struck down New York’s discretionary system for issuing concealed carry permits, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that enacted numerous restrictions on the carrying of firearms after convening a special session of the state Legislature. A majority of the three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that a provision requiring private property owners to post signs allowing concealed carry was unconstitutional. |
A Faith-Based Movement Is Destroying Guns — And Turning Them Into Garden Tools
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Jensen’s 59-year-old father had died by suicide seven months earlier, in May 2024, after a severe depressive episode following a quadruple bypass heart surgery. His fourth gun, the one he had used to end his life, was taken by the police. Jensen still doesn’t know what happened to it, whether it is still at the sheriff’s office or it’s floating elsewhere in the world. The guns in her trunk, though, were her responsibility — and her chance to do something meaningful. |
FL: Florida tax cuts cover guns, gear, school supplies and slots
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People who buy guns, fishing gear and tickets to two tennis tournaments, will see tax cuts as part of a bill (HB 7031E) approved by the Legislature on Friday.
The Senate voted 29-6 and the House 88-11 for the tax package, which is estimated to cut state and local revenue by $272.2 million, including $105 million in state general fund revenue in the next fiscal year.
“This is a broad-based tax relief package that positively impacts taxpayers, homestead property owners, positively impacts military service members, small counties and rural counties,” said Senate Finance and Tax Committee Chairman Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs. |
MN: 8th Circuit upholds state’s firearm permit reciprocity law
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The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a truck driver’s federal lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s firearm permitting regime. In a ruling filed May 26, it concluded that Minnesota’s permit reciprocity statute recognizing gun permits from some states but not others does not violate the Second Amendment.
Minn. Stat. § 624.714, subds. 1a, 16 states that an individual who “carries, holds, or possesses a pistol in a motor vehicle, snowmobile, or boat, or on or about the person’s clothes or the person, or otherwise in possession or control in a public place” must have a Minnesota permit to carry or one that is issued by a state with recipricoty with Minnesota. |
Who Is Prohibited from Owning a Gun Under Federal Law?
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The right to own a firearm is protected under the Second Amendment, but federal law still places strict limits on who can legally possess guns or ammunition. Drug use, certain restraining orders, mental health commitments, or even pending felony indictments may legally prevent someone from buying or possessing a gun.
A person does not always need a violent felony conviction to lose firearm rights under federal gun laws. Certain people are automatically banned from owning firearms because lawmakers consider them a higher public safety risk. |
SC: SC Attorney General’s Race | Candidate Profile: Stephen Goldfinch
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Stephen Goldfinch is vying for the Republican nomination in the race for South Carolina Attorney General.
Goldfinch currently holds the Republican seat for SC Senate District 34, which spans Georgetown and Horry counties.
He is an attorney and native of Conway, SC.
Goldfinch’s campaign platforms include cracking down on fentanyl trafficking, enforcing immigration laws, pushing back on federal mandates, and supporting the Second Amendment.
Goldfinch voted in support of South Carolina’s Heartbeat Bill, banning most abortions after 6 weeks. |
NY: New York Ban on Nonlethal Weapons ‘Undermines’ Supreme Court, Expert Warns
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A federal appeals court is defying a pivotal Supreme Court opinion on the Second Amendment and making New Yorkers less safe by upholding a New York City ban on nonlethal electronic weapons like Tasers and stun guns, legal experts warn.
“The 2nd Circuit [Court of Appeals] has found a way to undermine” a key Supreme Court precedent on the Second Amendment, Dave Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute, told the Daily Signal.
In 2021, five prospective stun gun owners sued New York City and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, alleging that New York Penal Law §265.0, which prohibits the possession of stun guns and Tasers, violates the Second Amendment. |
TX: The no-win Texas Senate race
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To be fair, this race was a no-win proposition before Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the GOP primary earlier this week. Cornyn, while lacking Paxton’s personal flaws, is perhaps the Republican Party’s biggest traitor on gun rights. Cornyn helped push through the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the worst gun control bill in decades. The law made it more difficult for citizens under 21 to buy a gun and provided federal funding and incentives for states to implement dangerous and easily exploitable “red flag laws.” |
Sacramento Journalist Calls for “Immediate Ban” on U.S. Gun Production — and a “Gun-Free Society”
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Gun-control advocates have spent decades carefully managing their public messaging. The Brady Campaign — originally named Handgun Control Inc. — changed its name after polling showed that “handgun control” as an explicit goal didn’t poll well with Americans. The organizational focus on “responsible gun ownership” replaced what had been a more direct argument about restricting handguns.
The careful messaging discipline occasionally breaks down. When it does, the unfiltered position behind the polished framing is worth paying attention to. |
NY: New York Sneaks Two Gun Control Laws Past Voters In Budget Bill
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New York lawmakers inserted two gun-control laws into the state’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget on Wednesday, one of which bans the popular Glock family of pistols.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the budget into law late after it was passed by the heavily Democratic state Legislature, part of a multi-document package, with the bans hidden on page 10 of a 314-page document. In the release, Hochul touted the ban on Glocks and a “first in the nation” law targeting the use of 3D printers to manufacture firearms or firearms parts, which face constitutional questions. |
Democrats play the long game with the Maryland Glock ban
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In the Heller and Bruen decisions, the Supreme Court ruled the Second Amendment acknowledges, but does not create, a fundamental, unalienable, individual right. Unalienable rights are bestowed by God; government cannot give or take them. The Court also ruled Americans may carry guns—mostly concealed handguns--wherever they go, with some exceptions such as courtrooms, jails, law enforcement facilities, and other “sensitive” areas. An equally important ruling was that guns in common use are presumptively constitutional. |
The Push by Democrats to Ban One of the Commonly Owned Handguns in the US
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Gun control advocates are trying a new tactic. Instead of trying to ban all handguns, some Democrat states are trying to ban one of the most commonly owned handguns – Glocks, which they claim can be easily converted into machine guns.
This week, Maryland’s Democrat Governor Wes Moore and Connecticut's Democrat Governor Ned Lamont joined California by signing into law a ban on the manufacture, sale, purchase, and transfer of guns with a cruciform trigger bar. A cruciform trigger bar is a vital internal component of semi-automatic pistols—most notably Glock and Glock-style firearms. Named after its cross-like shape, it connects the trigger to the firing mechanism and plays a crucial role in the firearm's safety and discharge sequence. |
Democrats Are Soft on Crime, but Hard on Law-Abiding Citizens
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Make no mistake: the soft-on-crime policies that Democrats support and enact are choices they willingly, knowingly, and repeatedly make. They know it's likely a criminal with a rap sheet a mile long will commit more crimes, but, as Massachusetts Judge Janet Sanders said, they'll 'take a risk' on giving a criminal a slap on the wrist. But the absence of law enforcement for violent crimes and property crimes does not mean the absence of law enforcement entirely. |
VA: Eighth Virginia Prosecutor Announces He Won’t Enforce Gun Ban
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“I want to be very clear, the Sheriff and I are in total agreement that we will not enforce the new Assault Weapons and Assault Weapons Carry bans just signed into law as we believe they are Unconstitutional on their face,” Fleet posted. “Case law is explicitly clear that this governmental overreach flies in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the citizens’ Second Amendment Rights.” |
NY: D.A. McMahon: New N.Y. budget helps combat Staten Island’s ghost gun problem
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District Attorney Michael E. McMahon applauded provisions contained in the recently signed New York State budget that pertain to ghost guns.
McMahon had previously advocated for action in Albany to combat the “Plastic Pipeline” of untraceable, unserialized firearms.
The FY27 budget, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed on Thursday, includes first-in-the-nation minimum safety standards for 3D printers sold in the state to be equipped with technology that would restrict the unlicensed, illegal production of ghost guns and firearm parts. |
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TO REMEMBER |
| We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily - given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal. — Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc., New Yorker Magazine, June 26, 1976, pg. 53 |
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