Tag Archives: National Rifle Association

Local governments in Arizona will soon have to sell firearms surrendered at gun buyback events to licensed gun dealers. A bill signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer prohibits public agencies from destroying the weapons, even if the melted-down guns would be repurposed for another use. The new law undermines what many see as the primary purpose of gun buybacks, which is to take guns out of circulation. But proponents of the law say it’s wasteful for the government to …

An armed, terror suspect was on the loose the Boston suburbs, putting a million people in lockdown. Before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured Friday night, authorities instructed residents to stay in their homes, behind locks and deadbolts, and to open their doors only to a uniformed police officer with proper credentials. The scene raised the question:  Would Bostonians feel and be safer if more of them had guns in their homes? The question comes at the end of a week when …

The U.S. Senate today rejected a bill that would have closed a major loophole in federal gun laws by subjecting firearm purchases made at gun shows and online to background checks. Currently, only purchases made from federally licensed  gun dealers require that buyers be cleared through the  FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Analysts estimate that 40 percent of all gun sales are not subjected to checks.  The background check amendment received a majority 54-46 vote in favor, but …

States with more gun-related laws in place see fewer gun-related deaths, according to a study released last week by the Journal of American Medical Association. The research was accompanied by an editorial cautioning that the data shows correlation, not causation, and couldn’t be considered comprehensive due to the number of variables involved. According to the findings, states with the most gun laws have a rate of firearm-related fatalities, including murders and suicides, that is 42 percent lower than states with …

  Illinois is the only state with a total ban on allowing gun owners to carry their weapons in public. But a federal court recently threw out this law as going too far, and violating the Second Amendment. Now, the Illinois legislature has a looming deadline to pass a concealed carry weapon statute that’s less restrictive. With the strong emotional differences in the fight over guns, state lawmaking has become a house divided. Lawyers.com supervising producer John McCarthy’s presents the …