It was certainly good intentions that prompted a recent letter to the Chicago Tribune from Blase J. Cupich, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Chicago [letter available behind a paywall].  He believes Pope Francis meant more than disarming foreign tyrants when the pope last month admonished America “to stop the arms trade”. Cupich wants the Pope’s prescription applied within American borders as well.  He seems to share the civil rights-infringing instincts of Mayor Emanuel, the earthly ruler o...

What do a couple of well-educated investment professionals have to say about gun control?  A lot, if you’re Evan DeFilippis and Devin Hughes.  How authoritative are they?  Let’s say that’s a matter of opinion.  Highly, in theirs and in that of The Trace, which published their latest effort, What Caused the Two-Decade Dip in Crime Rates?  Not 'Good Guys with Guns'.  This is a scattershot opinion piece chock full of statistics and analysis to justify the usual anti-gun beliefs. They’re righ...

[Editor’s note: Last week presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson hinted his possible support for the creation of a database of “dangerous people” to reduce mass shootings by preventing such people from gaining access to firearms. Dr. Carson further stated he does not oppose repealing the ban on federal funding for gun research at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Below is DRGO’s open letter to Dr. Carson responding to his statements.] (more…)

[Editor’s Note: The following article from Dr. Miguel Faria was recently published at haciendapub.com and is republished here with the author’s permission.] An interesting conversation with a European neurosurgical colleague, who decries the "gun culture" of America, took place that may be of interest to readers of GOPUSA. The dialogue began with a difference of opinion on an unrelated topic, but in the course of that exchange, I happened to innocently use a figure of speech that offended...

President Obama, in his address on the Oregon Community College shooting, asserts that we are “collectively answerable”. As a responsibly armed American I heartily agree—we are answerable for the disastrous failure of so-called “gun-free zones” to stop mass shootings. The Chattanooga recruiting center, Charleston AME church, and Lafayette theater shootings, and now the massacre at Umpqua Community College all happened in so-called “gun free zones”.   (more…)

[Editor's Note: The following is a speech delivered by DRGO's Dr. Robert Young to the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix, Arizona September 27.] It has appeared that almost all mass murderers have some kind of mental illness. Only about half of them are known to have had treatment. Mass murder victims are actually just a fraction of a percent of victims overall, so objectively it is not the main problem of people killing people. But since there is a lot of attention to mental...

Phoenix was hot last weekend, but it’s a dry heat.  And nobody at the three-day Gun Rights Policy Conference cared anyway, because all eyes were on pro-gun rights luminaries such as Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb, Dave Kopp of the Arizona Citizens Defense League, D. Allen Youngman from the Defense Small Arms Advisory Council, rock star lawyer Alan Gura, Rashad Gray from the National African-American Gun Association, John R. Lott, Jr., and Breitbart.com columnist AWR Hawkin...

Thinking about gun culture led me to ponder its converse, which isn’t commonly mentioned.  Is there an “anti-gun culture”? Again, “culture” comes from the idea of “cultivating” things, including human achievements, and understanding and appreciating them.  It refers particularly to the customs and attitudes that characterize a particular social group.   The term applies to people who value certain traditions, skills and accomplishments (say, those who appreciate firearms).  But do people ...