Department of Justice versus Virgin Islands Gun and Magazine Ban

It is nice that the DOJ is sort of on the side of the gun owner these days. DOJ Targets Virgin Islands Assault Weapon and Magazine Ban

New Jersey tried to limit magazines at 10. The appeals court said no way. The US Virgin Islands selected 15 rounds. The DOJ says nope.

The filing came just five days after the en banc Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s bans on semi-automatic rifles and magazines holding more than ten rounds in Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General New Jersey, formerly known as the Cheeseman case.

Because the U.S. Virgin Islands falls within the Third Circuit, the DOJ argues that territorial officials cannot enforce essentially the same unconstitutional restrictions under a different numerical cutoff.

Click thru for details and SCRIBID document of the DOJ's filing.

US Virgin Islands Sued Over Right to Bear Arms

From myMotherLode. US Virgin Islands faces second lawsuit over right to bear arms as Florida resident seeks license

Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation are suing the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and its police commissioner as a fight over the Second Amendment deepens.

The nonprofits are asking a federal judge to allow nonresidents to apply for and be issued licenses to carry concealed handguns in the U.S. territory.

They can't both be part of the US and ignore the Constitution.

“The Second Amendment doesn’t end at the shoreline,” Luis Valdes, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ outreach director for Gun Owners of America, said in a statement. “Americans don’t lose their constitutional rights simply because they travel to a U.S. territory.”

This will either be over in an instant, or take years. I don't think there will be a middle ground.

Dr. John Lott on SCOTUS Gun Rulings

WLW is one of the largest radio stations in Cincinnati. There was a time it was one of the largest radio stations in the country. They have a 500 kilowatt amplifier. They don't have a license to use it. On Cincinnati’s Giant WLW: To Discuss Supreme Court Gun Rulings and Canada’s Violent Crime Rate

Dr. John Lott appeared on 700 WLW’s The Bill Cunningham Show in Cincinnati to discuss two recent U.S. Supreme Court Second Amendment decisions, explaining the ruling against Hawaii’s restrictive concealed carry law and the United States v. Hemani decision limiting firearm prohibitions based solely on marijuana use. They also discussed our latest research on total violent crime in Canada and the concentration of murders in the United States.

Click thru for the audio of the discussion. It is a bit over 18 minutes.

The New Jersey So-Called Assault Weapons Ban

John R. Lott Jr. at RealClearPolitics: The Second Amendment Opinion That Scrambled the Partisan Script

Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Third Circuit handed down a decision invalidating New Jersey's ban on so-called assault weapons and magazines holding more than 10 rounds. While much has been written and said by the news media, it seems a lot of people have overlooked one aspect.

Few noted that Judge Arianna J. Freeman, a Biden appointee, wrote the sweeping opinion striking down the bans. Three Biden appointees – Freeman, Montgomery-Reeves, and Chung – voted to strike down New Jersey’s assault weapon ban, although Judge Chung only partially joined the opinion.

Click thru for more details on the strange split in the court, and reaction of the media. (Hat tip to The Crime Prevention Research Center, CRPC.)

Guns for Me, Not for Thee

Is it any surprise that anti-gun celebrities surround themselves with armed security? And I do mean surround.

This is Colion Noir's video Taylor Swift’s Wedding Shows Who Gun Control Really Applies To

So, Taylor Swift wants fewer guns in your hands. And she's about to get married inside one of the most heavily guarded buildings in America. Over a hundred cops, detectives, a literal fortress of guns, and her wedding just accidentally exposed something about New York that every gun owner in this country needs to see.

The video is about 6 minutes.

Trump's DOJ Versus California

Trump isn't perfect, and his admin isn't perfect, but Democrats would NEVER do this. Trump's DOJ threatens lawsuit against California over new gun law

The Trump administration's Department of Justice issued a warning to California's leadership regarding a new gun sale restriction law it considers an "unconstitutional 'Glock Ban.'”

The law that is set to go into effect on July 1.

Click thru for more. (Hat tip to KABA)

The Left Is Pissed the DOJ is Defending the Second Amendment

They don't like the second amendment, but that isn't news. From Tom Knighton at Bearing Arms we get the following: The Trace and Mother Jones Big Mad That Civil Rights Division Defending Civil Right They Hate

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has a long and storied history of standing up for, well, civil rights. They've taken on a ton of cases over the years, and they've got an impressive record in court cases. However, throughout all that storied history, there was always one civil right they ignored.

Before the Trump administration, they never took on a Second Amendment case.

You can imagine how that is being received.

Click thru for the wailing and gnashing of the teeth.

Illinois Sued Over Firearms Owners ID Card

The FOID card is one of many things Illinois does to stand in the way of your Second Amendment RightsIllinois Sued Over Firearms Licensing Scheme | The Daily Caller

Illinois requires anyone to obtain a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card (FOID) before they can possess any firearm or even ammunition, according to the Illinois State Police Firearms Service Bureau. The New Civil Liberties Alliance announced the litigation in a Tuesday release, bringing the action on behalf of several Illinois residents including a Navy veteran and a restaurant owner.

Click thru for the details, as it is a fairly straight-forward suit in the era of Bruen.

“Under the FOID scheme, the state denies all residents the right to keep and bear arms unless and until they satisfy the ISP that they are eligible—and reserves the right to revoke permission instantly, at any time,” the complaint says.

Need to buy some popcorn. Oh, and the liberals with be screaming about the end of the world in a few seconds.

Florida AG Smacks HOA Over Firearms Ban

This is the kind of story I love to see. Florida attorney general issues warning to Port St. Lucie HOA over firearms ban

There plenty of stories out there, apparently a few on Redit, and even some on YouTube, about Homeowners Associations, and the Karens that run them, getting smacked down while overstepping their authority. While most of those stories are fiction, this one is a true story.

A week or so ago, the board of directors for Tradition Community, in Port St. Lucie, Florida, changed their bylaws to forbid the carrying of weapons, concealed or open, in all common areas. That included offices, club house, pool, storm water areas (which are often set aside as parks), etc. It included residents of the community, guests, independent contractors, and employees of the association. Or so they thought.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is warning a Port St. Lucie homeowners’ association that its ban on firearms in common areas violates state law and could trigger legal action.

In a formal letter sent on Thursday to the Tradition Community Association, Inc., Uthmeier said the association’s policy prohibiting firearms in shared spaces conflicts with Florida statutes protecting the right to keep and bear arms.

Ouch. That is going to piss off the Karens who came up with this policy. It will impact them for 2 reasons.

1. They cannot forbid guns from the community, and they are scared of guns
2. They are not the Law

To be a fly-on-the-wall for the next board of directors meeting...

Here is the statement that Attorney General Uthmeier made on X:

Tradition Community Association, Inc. is on notice:

Enforcement of its discriminatory policy against anyone for exercising the constitutional right to keep and bear arms will be met with legal action by my office. pic.twitter.com/1j4hjeoeUf

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) May 21, 2026

Liberty Doll also has a video on this topic: HOA Bans Guns, AG Threatens Legal Action

For the record, I consider HOAs to the evil. I lived under one for 7 months in Florida. It took me an extra few weeks to sell the condo. When I bought my current house, I researched to deed back to the 1840s, when the US military was first surveying this part of the country, to make sure that there were no covenants or restrictions. There are not.

I tend to agree with The Fat Electrician when it comes to HOAs:

Unfortunately this gentleman lived in an HOA, a homeowners association, which if you don't know is basically diet communism. It's where a bunch of people build some nice houses, then they get together and they're like:

Hey we got all these nice houses; you know what we need? More government! We've got federal, state, county, municipal... it's not enough. We need even more rules. We should come together, designate a tribunal of Elder Karens to make all the important decisions for us.

You can watch/listen to the Fat Electrician's video on WW2 Veteran, and Medal of Honor recipient, if you like. It is classic Fat Electrician. WWII history, and an HOA that gets an epic beat down. It is just over 11 minutes.

Licenses Delayed = Rights Denied

Mark W. Smith, of the Four Boxes Diner channel on YouTube, and Rumble, had an article published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Licenses Delayed, Rights Denied: How Contemporary Firearm Carry Licensing Regimes Continue To Violate the Second Amendment. It is from the fall of 2025, but I only recently ran across it.

The Supreme Court's decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen¹ was meant to vindicate the Second Amendment's text and historical traditions against discretionary state licensing schemes that denied ordinary citizens their constitutional right to bear arms in public. Yet three years after Bruen, a predictable pattern has emerged: jurisdictions hostile to gun rights have responded not with compliance, but with sophisticated resistance.

Click thru for some examples of the delaying tactics, which Smith calls "Obstruction By Design."

Mark W. Smith doesn't talk about if any lawsuits are directed at this resistance, he only mentions that the Supreme Court noted such lawsuits could be brought. Even so, I'm a bit surprised to see this in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Maybe I have misjudged them. It isn't so much a "Pro-2A" article, as an article exposing how "Progressive" states are fighting against Bruen.

The Tactical Rabbi in the News

I don't love this guy's videos, but I do watch them from time to time. NJ rabbi promotes gun ownership, offers weapons training to US Jews | World Israel News

Rabbi Raziel Cohen, 29, has built a public profile around teaching Jews how to use firearms, respond to active-shooter scenarios and organize security teams for synagogues and community institutions. His National Defensive Firearms Academy, founded in 2019, says it has trained thousands of people, including more than 5,000 over the past two years, according to Ynet.

The fact that he is in New Jersey doesn't make it easier. He is reaching a group usually associated with the Progressive Left; that has to make the Leftists a little crazy, all on its own.

You can find his YouTube videos at this link.

Guns at Home and Around the World

Professor David Yamane, at Light Over Heat, posted a collection of links a while back, that got stuck in my drafts folder. They are still worth looking at. (More timeless than timely.) Illuminations #7. Curiosity: An Idea Worth Spreading

There is also another link to his recent TEDx talk. It is a 15 minute (or so) video, once you get past the YouTube ads. I thought it was interesting. The video is “Escaping the Gun Debate Trap,” TEDxWakeForestU (26 March 2026). Click thru

From The Christian Science Monitor: More liberals are buying guns. Why?

In the last couple of years, a growing number of women and people of color have begun training with Mr. Mills. His clients are conservatives, moderates, liberals, and those who defy simple labels altogether.

Then from Open Source Defense: OSD 370: Let me show you the gun of my people, we get a look at gun ownership in Japan and in Europe.

This video is about an American guy who moved to Japan and then did the obvious thing: figure out how to buy a gun.

The requirements are bonkers, including $2100 in fees. The crazy thing is that the US government wrote the Japanese constitution, and didn't give them the 2nd amendment.

Professor Yamane includes a partial translation of the Danish article »Automatgeværer er fede«: Millioner følger ham på YouTube. Nu vil han have deres stemmer in What a Danish Newspaper Got Right About American Gun Culture. It is about guntubers generally, and Branden Herrera (The AK Guy) in particular.

Professor Yamane includes more, but click thru and see for yourself.

Anti-Gun Group Hates Concealed Carry

From Lee Williams at The Gun Writer: Fearing expanding gun rights, anti-gun group creates absurd concealed-carry policy

Times are good and possibly getting even better for those who value guns, gun rights and the Second Amendment.

And so the anti-gun crowd is becoming hysterical.

So, it’s understandable that those who want to restrict and subvert the Second Amendment are getting desperate. In fact, they’re willing to try almost anything to restrict access to firearms while President Trump is in office. It’s as if they never even heard of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Enter the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

These egg-headed goons want to roll back the clock to the late 1980s. Their just-released “Public Carry Permitting: Model Policy Guide” is pretty much what some states offered decades ago. It’s laughable—a trip back in time. Nowadays, it’s likely too restrictive for even the bluest of blue states.

Click thru for the details.

The Gun Debate Trap

Professor David Yamane at Light Over Heat gave a TEDx presentation. Escaping the Gun Debate Trap

On March 22nd, I presented my thoughts on “Escaping the Gun Debate Trap” at TEDxWakeForestU.

My idea worth spreading: The gun debate traps us in a false choice between rights and safety. We escape this trap the same way we escape a finger trap: we release tension by moving toward each other. Curiosity makes this possible. Democracy makes it worth doing.

This is the video: Escaping the Gun Debate Trap | David Yamane | TEDxWakeForestU

A Gun of Her Own Author Talks to Professor Yamane

This is a long conversation, and probably not for everyone, as it skews heavily toward the academic perspective. That said, I found it interesting. Q&A with "A Gun of Her Own: The Everyday Lives of Women Who Shoot" Author Margaret Kelley

Welcome to this Q&A with Margaret Kelley, author of the new book, A Gun of Her Own: The Everyday Lives of Women Who Shoot.

As you will see in the course of this hour-long discussion, this is a very special book and Professor Kelley is a special author.

While it is an hour long, you don't really need to watch it, as it is just a conversation/conference call. I keep these kinds of things on in the background, while I am doing other things. As I said, I found it interesting. Most of it anyway.

The video is at the link above, or at Virtual Book Club Discussion of Women and Guns with Author Margaret Kelley (Light Over Heat #154)

One of the statements that Margaret Kelley made, which I appreciated, is that she is tired of people dismissing others whenever they have a different opinion. Both sides do it, and both sides accuse the other side of doing it, though I will readily admit that the main push of Cancel Culture is currently coming from the Left. I'm old enough to know that it hasn't always been that way. Or why was there a Free Speech movement on UC Berkley's campus, back in the day? ("How the turntables, have ...")

The video is an hour, but there isn't much to see. I do recommend listening.

Another Example of British Gun Control Failure

Or maybe that should just generic gun-control failure. When you outlaw guns, the outlaws will still have guns. Ring doorbell catches killer saying ‘the f***ing idiot's dead’ moments after shooting

It is funny how criminals don't follow the law. Who knew?

This is the moment a killer was caught saying “the f***ing idiot’s dead” on a Ring doorbell camera moments after a dad was shot dead outside his girlfriend’s house. Rikki Berry, known as "Nuggy", died aged 36 after being shot three times by a balaclava-clad assailant on an electric bike on Quarryside Drive in Kirkby on July 17 2024.

Hey, at least he's doing his part to reduce his carbon footprint.

The statement by the judge is too rambling to quote in a small bite, but it seems there was some "drug business" between the involved parties.

Ryan Walsh-Westhead was sentenced to "life," with 28 year minimum served before he can be paroled.

So. It's a good thing that the UK outlawed guns. Too bad doing so doesn't matter to the criminals.

I get that people want to "do something" to reduce crime. Florida, in the late 1980s was in the same position. They made it easier for law-abiding people to defend themselves, and crime decreased substantially, and fairly quickly.

More Guns, Less Crime

The Left wants you to be afraid of guns and crime. Probably others as well. Fear makes it easy to control people. Disarming people makes it easy to control them. Deflating Another Gun Control Bogeyman

First of all, the term "Gun Violence" is in itself a problem.

Violence is violence regardless of the weapon or method used.

Gun violence is a handy bogeyman for gun control and other groups advancing similar agenda. By lumping homicides, suicides, and accidents together, gun grabbers of every stripe can use this family-sized phantasm to alarm the public.

There is a problem of course. "Gun crime" of all kinds has been going down. Even with the recent surge, as Democrats wage war on Police and Law & Order.

FBI statistics for the 65 years from 1960 to 2024 prove this. The decade from 2010 to 2019 had a lower average murder rate than any comparable period going back to the last year of Eisenhower’s term. In fact, the 2010-2019 average was 12% lower than in the previous decade.

COVID-19 and widespread civil unrest in 2020 produced a sharp spike in the rate that peaked in 2021. However, the rate fell in 2022 and has continued to fall.

Click thru for the details. (Hat tip to MaddMedic at Freedom Is Just Another Word…)

NYC Residents Start to Realize that Police Won't Be There to Protect Them

That they are late coming to that realization is amazing to me, but better late than never. From the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF - the trade association for the firearms industry) we get a story from New York City. New York Understandably Seeing Surge in Second Amendment Interest, Gun Purchases

Gun store retailers are working overtime to quell anxious and worried residents of the nation’s largest city, even as those customers are shocked to realize they aren’t able to walk in, purchase a firearm, and leave with their new gun that same day – or week, or even month.

The Left goes on at length about how easy it is to purchase a firearm. Sadly, in places like New York City, that is just not the case.

The red tape in New York amounts to barricades against the exercise of a Constitutional Right, put in place by politicians who hate freedom, and self-reliance.

There are several reasons for the increase in permit applications. Riots during the Lockdown. Decreases in punishment thanks to "prosecutors" like Alvin Bragg. Police have been retiring at increasing rates, and the recent election of Zorhan Mamdani has created a new surge in police retirements. (Cops can't answer your 911 call, if they are not working for the city.)

Click thru for much more in the way of detail.

Hat tip to Bearing Arms: It's Not Surprising That Residents in Big Apple Are Turning to Gun Ownership

Mamdani is going to be the best gun salesman New York City has ever seen. He doesn't believe in prisons, policing, or literally anything other than letting criminals run rampant across the city. That may be fine for a nepo baby who will have taxpayer-funded security while he's in office--generally staffed by the same cops he's spent years demonizing, ironically enough--but the rest of us can't outsource our protection to other entities.

And this first came to my attention from Jews Can Shoot.

Concealed Carry in NYC

NYC is still not obeying the law, or so says a lawsuit. OSD 349: What’s going on with gun carry in NYC?

It has been three and a half years since the Supreme Court struck down may-issue carry permit regimes in NYSRPA v. Bruen. How are things going in New York City, which ran the final boss of may-issue regimes?

Things are so bad that they stopped reporting on the statistics around gun permits. They didn't do that because they were doing such a great job of cutting through the red tape.

And our final useful data comes from Milani et al v. New York City (PDF), a federal lawsuit from a group of New York gun owners arguing that NYC’s permitting process remains unconstitutionally burdensome.

You can read all of the ways that NYC and NYPD drag their feet to delay permitting.

They had to stop releasing the statistics on the length of time it takes to process permits. It would have fueled more lawsuits.

Open Carry Is Legal in Florida. The Usual Suspects Are Upset

OK, for the record, I don't like Open Carry. But there is a reason it needed to be legal in Florida. (See below) Florida Flap: Newspaper Details Where, Where Not to O.C. - Liberty Park Press

The Tallahassee Democrat has just published a report which explains where one can, and cannot, ,open carry, and in the opening paragraphs, the newspaper—perhaps unintentionally—exposes how some people are reacting. The newspaper quotes a Tallahassee resident who declared, “I just don’t want to get caught in the crossfire over the last jar of peanut butter,” in reaction to the announcement by Publix Supermarkets that the chain will allow open carry in their stores. It’s a response which typifies the squeamish attitude some people have about legally-armed citizens, especially if they openly carry.

People were exercising their right to concealed carry in Publix Supermarkets, but out of sight, out mind or something.

The reason O.C. needed to be legal is that if your firearm was visible for even an instant as you got out of your car, or whatever, you were technically guilty of a crime.

But back to the usual suspects.

“While Second Amendment advocates celebrated the decision,” the newspaper noted, “some residents said it infringes on their right not to be among armed individuals when they sit down to eat, attend a play, or go searching for buy-one-get-one-free specials in crowded grocery store aisles.”

A quick check of the Constitution doesn’t reveal any such specific right.

It is all about 'feelings.' If they can't see the firearm, they think it doesn't exist. But today, you should always assume that there are people armed. Any bad guys in the area are likely to be armed. You shouldn't worry about the law-abiding citizens, but only those bad guys.