Gun Control

With the announcement early Monday that he had outlawed the public display of handguns in California, Gov. Jerry Brown bucked a national trend toward more lenient firearms laws and placed himself in the political cross-hairs of the state's 2nd Amendment activists. Brown, the owner of three guns, said in a statement that he signed a bill banning the open carrying of handguns at the urging of law enforcement officials, who included Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. It will take effect Jan. 1. "I listened to the California police chiefs," the governor wrote.

More Americans are in favor of gay marriage, and more place the importance of gun owner rights above gun control, according to a new Pew Research Center poll . While support for gay marriage and gun owners is on the rise, that increase is one that bodes well for opposite ends of the political spectrum, providing mixed signals to those still complacent with the established social standards of the past decade and beyond. The question is, what does it mean for this year's elections?

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the first time that the 2nd Amendment explicitly protects Americans' right to own guns for self-defense -- resolving one of the Constitution's oldest disputes and reviving the debate over gun rights, crime and violence. The landmark decision struck down a District of Columbia ordinance, the strictest in the nation, that barred homeowners from keeping handguns. The ruling brought immediate court challenges to similar laws in Chicago and San Francisco.

The off-target NRA Re "NRA is restless despite clout," April 13 Why is the National Rifle Assn. afraid of President Obama? The gun-rights group can't name one time when Obama has said a word about gun control after any of the massacres that have taken place since he's been in office. He hasn't said a word about it even after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The NRA is about stoking fear and looking for an enemy. I wish Obama and the Democrats would say more about gun control, but they remain silent.

What if we passed a gun control law but it led to more people carrying guns on our streets? That may be exactly what happens if a bill passed last week by the California Assembly becomes law. AB 144 would prohibit the carrying of visible firearms in California cities. It was inspired by the spectacle of gun-rights advocates showing up last year at Starbucks shops with their handguns prominently displayed. That's legal, as long as those guns are unloaded. If, however, California bans what is called "open carry," the state will probably have to loosen the standards for people to have permits to carry concealed weapons.

Acase to be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday poses a dilemma for supporters of civil liberties who also believe in gun control. The court will consider whether states as well as the federal government must recognize that the 2nd Amendment gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms. Such a finding would make it much more difficult to control guns at the state and local level, but it would reaffirm that states must honor the liberties found in the Bill of Rights. For us the choice is clear: The Bill of Rights should apply to the whole country.

Eight years after a national debate over gun control helped keep Democrat Al Gore out of the White House, the National Rifle Assn. and its Republican allies are launching a new campaign to defeat Barack Obama. But this time, the issue that GOP strategists once relied on to provide crucial votes in close elections has lost much of its political punch. The NRA may have become a victim of its own success. Congress hasn't passed major legislation to restrict gun use in 14 years.

Gun control is one of those culture-wars issues on which liberals and conservatives often don't even seem to be speaking the same language, let alone coming to consensus. Gun owners -- especially the hard-core enthusiasts who belong to the National Rifle Assn. -- are often thought to oppose any restriction on their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Except that, according to a recent poll, they don't. The gun-control debate is replete with suspect polls and fishy statistical analyses, so when Mayors Against Illegal Guns set out to survey gun owners, it knew it would be accused of putting a liberal slant on the questions.

Mitt Romney drew a warm reception from the National Rifle Association on Friday as he attacked President Obama for “employing every imaginable ruse and ploy” to restrict gun rights, which Romney pledged not to do if elected in November. Although gun control groups have complained that Obama has done little to support their cause, Romney took a page from the NRA leadership, which has been saying that the president is waiting for a second term to crack down on firearms. He warned that Obama would “remake” the Supreme Court in a second term, threatening constitutional freedoms.

On Gov. Jerry Brown's desk is a bid to bar Californians from openly carrying firearms, legislation that could open a new front in the state's decades-old gun control debate. The measure, aimed at an increasingly popular tactic used by 2nd Amendment activists, would make California the first state since 1987 to outlaw the controversial practice of publicly displaying a weapon. The governor — a gun owner — has not taken an official position on the bill, passed by the Legislature last week.

ST. LOUIS — Mitt Romney may not have been the sentimental favorite among the speakers at the National Rifle Assn.'s annual convention. That title might have gone to former Sen. Rick Santorum, or to even to Fox News host and retired Lt. Col. Oliver L. North. But Romney was clearly the headliner Friday in his new role as the presumptive Republican nominee for president. And he drew a warm reception for a speech in which he attacked President Obama for "employing every imaginable ruse and ploy" to restrict gun rights, which Romney pledged not to do if elected in November.

ST. LOUIS - These should be good days for the National Rifle Assn. The nation's leading gun group enjoys immense political power and has effectively muted the debate about the use of firearms in America. Under its leadership, gun rights advocates have seized the legislative momentum from gun control supporters. High-profile shootings such as the Trayvon Martin case have stirred outrage but few calls for action. Polls show the public, though still divided on guns, has shifted away from broad support for further restrictions.

Mitt Romney drew a warm reception from the National Rifle Association on Friday as he attacked President Obama for “employing every imaginable ruse and ploy” to restrict gun rights, which Romney pledged not to do if elected in November. Although gun control groups have complained that Obama has done little to support their cause, Romney took a page from the NRA leadership, which has been saying that the president is waiting for a second term to crack down on firearms. He warned that Obama would “remake” the Supreme Court in a second term, threatening constitutional freedoms.

Virginia is for lovers - of guns. Last week that state's Senate, newly under Republican control after a GOP election surge in November, overturned a 20-year-old law that barred residents from buying more than one handgun a month. Why? Apparently because in Virginia, deadly firearms are like Lay's potato chips - you can't stop at just one. Virginia's refusal to close the notorious "gun-show loophole" has long been criticized by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who frets that relatively tough regulations in his state are undermined when criminals can easily purchase firearms in other states and bring them into New York.

Gunfight The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America Adam Winkler W.W. Norton: 361 pp., $27.95 Adam Winkler's "Gunfight" is a potboiler of constitutional interpretation and is both a vital history and an intellectually satisfying, emotionally rewarding tale of a great case. The backbone of his book is District of Columbia vs. Heller, a landmark gun-control case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008. As a contest of constitutional principles, Heller tested the question of whether the famously ambiguous 2nd Amendment ("A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed")

Seal Beach tragedy Re "Suspect a haunted man," Oct. 14 How in the world was a mentally troubled man able to buy guns? When mass shootings like this happen, why doesn't anyone ever talk about gun control? Why is it so easy for anyone, including gang members, to get a gun in this country? Mexican drug traffickers get many of their guns from the United States. Does anyone see how many people are killed by guns in this country compared with countries with decent gun control?

The Obama administration took a concrete step toward curbing the flow of semiautomatic weapons to Mexico last week when it adopted a new regulation mandating the reporting of multiple sales of long guns to federal authorities. Under the regulation, some 8,500 licensed gun shops in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas will be required to inform the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when a customer buys more than one semiautomatic that is .22 caliber or greater within a five-day period.

The debate surrounding gun control laws has reignited following the Fast and Furious investigation, and the latest volley was launched Friday. Two House Democrats introduced a bill that would make the trafficking of firearms to known felons or someone intending to commit a felony a federal offense. The bill, put forth by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), was drafted in response to testimony from law enforcement agents, who have said current law leaves gaps in enforcement against straw purchasers who often supply drug cartels with weapons.