What Is “Common Sense” About Guns?

(from npca.org) Gun control advocates speak constantly about “common sense gun laws”. The phrase runs trippingly off the tongue. Rights advocates respond that most existing gun laws, and all proposed laws, defy “common sense”.   This phrase “common sense”, as used in the gun debate, contradicts the plain meaning of the term, so it obscures any honest search for truth.  A definition of the phrase is: "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or...
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Firearms During Natural Catastrophes

(from personaldefense.com)
[Ed: We previously published this September 26, 2017, courtesy of Hacienda Publishing, where it first appeared September 24 that year. It is a timely reminder as leaders are clamping down on gun sales & permitting during today's COVID-19 contagion.] In 2005, at the time of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans police used the excuse of enforcing compliance with the mandatory evacuation order to confiscate firearms. They went door-to-door seizing guns from the people who stayed behind hoping ...
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Could Public Health Really Address ‘Gun Violence’?

(from thetruthaboutguns.com)
(from thetruthaboutguns.com) Public health methods could have enormous power to mitigate the scourge of firearm mortality and morbidity.  But only if faithfully applied. One of the earliest and most profound examples were Dr. John Snow’s actions in the 1854 London cholera outbreak.  This incident killed 616 people, occurred in the midst of the 1846 - 1860 worldwide cholera pandemic.  His method added the term “focus of infection” to the public health lexicon. The cholera-causing...
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Active Meditation

(from slideshare.net)
(from slideshare.net) If you’ve been on the internet lately, you’ve heard about meditation. It’s an ancient practice that’s gained popularity over the last few years, thanks to a number of successful and influential people who use meditation as a tool. Science seems to back up their claims that meditation can improve focus, creativity, and productivity (among other things). However, traditional meditation may not be your preferred method for achieving these results. It might be difficu...
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Review: “Why Meadow Died” by Andrew Pollack

[Ed: Why Meadow Died is a powerful testament by the father of one of the murdered students of the Parkland killings. Unlike most of those who hit the media after that, his is a rational voice for the protection of children in schools. While guns are necessary, much more change is required too. We thank Gila Haye's at the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Fund who allows us to republish this, first appearing in the ACLDF's March Network Journal. This is long, but worth it; lightly edited for clar...
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Red Flag Laws versus Reality

(from wikipedia.org)
(from wikipedia.org) As the 2020 Virginia Legislative session draws to a close this week, it appears that a version of a "Red Flag" law (House version; Senate version) will be sent to Governor “Blackface” Northam for his signature. I thought I had exhausted my complaints about these laws previously, but Virginia’s Bloomberg-purchased Democrats made changes that plumb new depths: “extreme risk” was lowered to “substantial risk” and the usual time frame of “imminent” was expanded to  “near fut...
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Review: “The Concealed Handgun Manual” by Chris Bird

(from privateerpublications.com)
(from privateerpublications.com) In 2019, my colleague Chris Bird published this 7th edition of his classic, comprehensive but thoroughly readable discussion of (as the subtitle says) “How to choose, carry, and shoot a gun in self defense.” I trust there will be more editions to come, even while being unable to imagine anything more up-to-date than this current compendium. Chris Bird has lived an active and wildly varied life beginning in England, immigrating to Canada with an Australian...
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Guns, Women, and the Medical Literature

[Ed: This was originally published October 1, 1994 on Hacienda Publishing. Dr. Faria discusses the breakthrough take-down of Arthur Kellerman's "seminal research." [sic] It is still relevant 25 years later as we face even more pseudo-scientific assaults on reason. Women training for self-protection is thankfully becoming widespread. Edited for DRGO in form and length .] It is becoming abundantly clear that the mainstream liberal media and the entrenched medical establishment support ...
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