A unifying principle of American law governing the defensive use of deadly force is that a victim may use such force when an attacker threatens violence capable of causing death or grave bodily harm.  There is little doubt that it is justified when the robber draws and points a handgun at the victim. But what if an unarmed assailant advances with fists clenched, clearly getting ready to beat his victim?  Should the victim take a few punches and hope he remains conscious long enough to dra...

Not since Mike Weisser (Huffington Post’s “The Gun Guy”) last lit into us have we felt so warmed by the disdain of people who delight in irrational ad hominem attacks. Maybe more, since the less than a year old Gun Lobby Watch claims to be an organization of more than one person. GLW called itself to our attention with the article “Irresponsible Doctors for Gun Lobbying”. Apparently, we’re a “front group” for the Second Amendment Foundation, not that we aren’t honored by our association w...

Violence is a global problem, which in the context of this article (interpersonal violence), is intentional force against another person or persons with the potential to cause injury or bodily harm, resulting in disability or death. Despite what one has been led to believe, America is not the most violent nation. When it comes to violence, objectively compared to developed nations, the U.S. is in the middle of the pack; when considering the rest of the world, the U.S is far behind Latin-Amer...

The New England Journal of Medicine doesn’t like “research parasites”. That’s the term used in its January 21 editorial "Data Sharing" to disparage people who, among other sins, may “ use the data to try to disprove what the original investigators had posited [my emphasis]. This is an amazing statement by what should be a preeminent reporter of  medical science, but for too long has allied itself with the antigun movement.  (more…)

[Editor’s note: a version of this article appeared in America’s 1st Freedom.] We can all feel it.  With mass shootings dominating the headlines, and especially since the Sandy Hook school mass shooting three years ago, the pressure to blame gun owners is mounting.  Everywhere we look we see the familiar gun grabbers calling for more background checks, a ban on modern sporting rifles, and that old saw, restoring funding to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for fi...

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...

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...

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...