Is the tide turning?

Two years ago, guns and ammo of all kinds and flavors were scarce. Dealers were accused of price gouging and people who did not own guns up to that point were buying evil black rifles in fear that they might not be able to do so in a couple of months because of the looming specter of them being made verboten. In the 24 months since, prices and ammo availability have stabilized somewhat. More importantly, instead of seeing endless anti-gun bills to the left, right, above and below, we've b...
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Public Health, the Uplifters, and Interstate Handgun Sales

By Timothy Wheeler, MD The U.S. District Court in Texas ruled in a summary judgment last week that the federal ban on interstate transfer of handguns is unconstitutional. So we thought it was time to revisit a brilliant commentary from the last century on the subject, “The Uplifters Try it Again”. H.L. Mencken was a famously acerbic columnist for the Baltimore Sun in the early 20th century. Mencken’s reputation suffered in recent decades because of some frankly racist comments, but ...
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What’s old is new again in Oregon

By Timothy Wheeler, MD Last week came first a flurry of denials and defiance from Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, MD, culminating in his resignation under a cloud of scandal. Then from Portland congressman Earl Blumenauer came a report outlining steps to reduce “gun violence” by using (cliché alert!) a public health approach. Rep. Blumenauer’s announcement, which offers absolutely nothing new, would have been in vogue in about 1995, just before the public got wise to this ploy for a...
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Gun Control, Racist as Ever

In his February 9 DRGO post, “Slander as Science”, my colleague Dr. Timothy Wheeler illustrates several ways in which supposed “researchers” on health and violence pass off unsubstantiated bias and speculation as scientific conclusions. Part of the trick is using so many big-word phrases and references to similarly flawed work that readers may glaze over and assume that they know what they’re talking about. Well, they probably do know what they’re doing—advocating an anti-gun agenda for emot...
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Spuriouser and Spuriouser

Anyone interested in gun rights knows that both sides of the debate present statistics to support their claims. All too often, however it is the opponents of the natural and human right to self defense tend to stretch the premise. Cherry picking is an understatement at times. Spurious correlations abound in support of outlandish arguments against the right to keep and bear arms. I view statistics the way I view radioactive materials (with which I deal as a matter of my profession): they h...
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D.C. Mayor’s Civil Rights Hatred—Chapter Five

By Timothy Wheeler, MD Washington, D.C., to its lasting disgrace, is the epicenter of the civil rights struggle of our time—the fight to exercise our right to keep and bear arms. At a meeting in the District of Columbia’s St. Augustine’s Catholic Church last month, newly elected D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser assured her audience:   “You have a mayor who hates guns. If it was up to me, we wouldn’t have any handguns in the District of Columbia. I swear to protect the Constitution and what...
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Herd Immunity Courtesy of Concealed Carriers

By Timothy Wheeler, MD The psychiatrist Sarah Thompson, MD first wrote about herd immunity conferred on the general population by a small minority of people willing to accept the responsibility of concealed carry of a firearm for self-protection. Criminals hate the prospect of getting shot, and when they know a certain number of their potential victims are armed, they tend to look elsewhere for easier prey. With the current measles outbreak, the public is getting an education in the pr...
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ASLCVP & GVROs: Alphabet Soup that Could Put Gun Owners at Risk

Billed as “bipartisan” and even “bistate” (the history of competition, and even antagonism, between their states precedes the Civil War), two state legislators are seeking publicity for a proposal coming from the American State Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention (ASLGVP). Kansas state Representative Barbara Bollier and Missouri state Representative Stacey Newman presented their “common sense” plan to prevent domestic violence via confiscation of guns from convicted stalkers and domestic...
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