Gun Free Zones: Who is Liable?

Tennessee Senator Dolores Gresham recently introduced Senate Bill 1736 which would establish that "if the person or entity posts to prohibit the possession of firearms on the property, the posting entity, for purposes of liability, assumes custodial responsibility for the security and defense of any concealed handgun permit holder harmed while on the posted property.” This is not a new concept. Arizona has had several bills introduced since 2002. The Defenseless Victim Act of 2002 (HB 2456...
More

Volokh Conspiracy on Wollschlaeger—The Doctor’s Dissent

I was glad to see Professor Eugene Volokh weigh in on Wollschlaeger vs. Governor of Florida, concerning the so-called Docs vs Glocks law in Florida. Curiously, to my knowledge none of our familiar Second Amendment constitutional law experts have discussed it at all before he recently did. Volokh thinks the Court of Appeals erred in upholding Florida’s Firearm Owners Privacy Act (FOPA) and believes the law unduly limits doctors’ First Amendment right of free speech. But I think the court w...
More

Can Auto Safety Teach Us How to Reduce Gun Deaths?

The idea that "gun violence" can be addressed in a similar manner as automobile safety has been proposed many times, and for many years.  President Obama has hammered incessantly on this theme.  In the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack Shannon Muchmore and Steven Ross Johnson in a recent article published in Modern Healthcare, attempt to rehash the subject once more. The annual number of deaths in America from automobile accidents and those related to firearms (not only accident...
More

You Just Want Everyone to Have a Gun!

When a person who believes in strict gun control argues with a supporter of gun rights, you can tell when one of them realizes they can’t win the argument. The gun owner will usually fall back on the Second Amendment and the phrase “shall not be infringed” as being the final word on the subject.  Supporters of more gun control laws will often resort to some variation of:  “You just want everyone to have a gun!” This argumentum ad absurdum signals their inability to process any more inf...
More

Executive Action, Gun Control and Mental Illness: Too Little is Still Too Much

President Obama is now using executive actions to fill in certain “gun safety” gaps in our present hodgepodge of laws and regulations. One might wonder whether he is motivated not only by the possibility of “saving just one life” but also by the fact that most of the nation disagrees with him about the need for further gun control and about his right to rule by fiat. (more…)
More

Obama’s CNN Town Hall Disgrace

It was hard to stomach the entire one hour and eleven minutes of President Obama’s choreographed propaganda session “Guns in America” on CNN last Thursday night.  Still I felt obligated to watch it, because I knew it would hold insights into how far this president’s personal hatreds have pushed him on the gun issue. But I wasn’t ready for what else was to come—a full recognition of his utter contempt for the American people. Obama has finally accepted that he no longer enjoys that exhilar...
More

You might be a hoplophobe …

[Editor's Note: Dr. Young recently collaborated on this piece on hoplophobia and its effects.  The article was first published as "What Gun-Haters Feel" at the Slow Facts blog by Rob Morse, who also co-hosts The Polite Society Podcast. It is edited for publication here with permission.]  I don’t like horror movies.  There is nothing attractive about sitting and waiting for the monster to jump out of the dark screen at me, even though the fear is irrational.  Hoplophobes are people who hav...
More

New York Times Attempts to Revive the Viral Theory of Gun Control

Pity the poor New York Times.  Like most of the so called mainstream media, their ad revenue and readership have been declining for years.  They must know that their extreme leftward bias has accelerated this death dive, yet they strive to spew propaganda all the way down. Polls say that trust in the media is at an all-time low and a recent article in the Times (titled: “When Gun Violence Felt Like a Disease, a City in Delaware Turned to the CDC”) is a good example of why. (more…)
More