The Good News Review
of 2018 for Gun Owners
By Rob Morse. December 28th, 2018
Original Source
Our memory is uneven. I looked back at 2018 and found plenty of good news for gun owners. This is where we were.. and a glimpse of where we’re going. Happy New Year to you and yours.
December
The state house and senate improved gun laws and overrode Ohio Governor Kasich’s veto. The new law reinforced state preemption. It also shifted the burden of proof in self-defense cases to the prosecutor. You are innocent until proven guilty..even in Ohio.
Epidemiologists said that mandatory background checks and firearms purchase prohibitions for minor crimes didn’t reduce homicide or suicide. Gun control is a placebo.
The American College of surgeons said that issuing concealed carry licenses or recognizing constitutional carry does not lead to increased violent crime. Gun control is neither safe, nor effective.
The preliminary report on the murders at the Parkland Florida High School said that school staff should be armed. A public survey at the end of the year said government error is more responsible than a lack of gun control for the massacre at a Florida high school.
November
The first school board in Pennsylvania voted to allow some trained staff to be armed at school.
Gearfire Payments joined McMillan Merchant Solutions to process credit card transactions for gun stores.
Concealed carry permits in Washington, DC increased 14 fold in the first year of shall issue.
October
Justice Brett Kavanaugh succeeded justice Anthony Kennedy on the US Supreme Court. President Trump has appointed 85 judges so far.
Ammoland shooting sports news turned 10 years old.
The state court of appeals decided that constitutional carry is the law in Arkansas.
September
Welcome back to school. Recognized training programs graduated their 2000th school staff member to defend students and treat the injured in case of a school attack.
National Public Radio looked at a report on school violence. The report came from the US Department of Education. NPR found that 70 percent of the school shootings reported to the Department of Education didn’t happen. I guess filling in the correct bubble with a number two pencil is harder than it sounds.
The US attorney general’s office prosecuted a fifth more cases for firearms violations. Elections matter.
August
The fifth circuit court of appeals confirmed an earlier decision that campus carry in Texas did not deny two professors their right of free speech.
The state of Louisiana rejected Bank of America and Citigroup when the state sought short term construction loans. The reason given was the banks previous abuse of gun owners and firearms manufacturers.
The number of concealed carry permits rose to 17.2 million.
July
The US State Department settled their court case with Defense Distributed. Online plans for firearms are considered free speech. Also, the State Department said that semi-automatic or bolt action firearms under 50 caliber are not weapons of war.
The first school board in Virginia votes to allow some trained staff to be armed at school.
Another year of campus carry ended and the summer recess began..and no one noticed.
June
Unreleased data collected by the Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention from last century showed that as many as 1 percent of us use a firearm in self defense each year.
Ordinary citizens who happened to be carrying concealed stopped two high-profile murders in public places, one in Oklahoma City and one in Tumwater, Washington.
May
A middle school teacher in Indiana tackled an armed student and stopped mass murder.
A Gallup poll asked school teachers if they wanted to be armed at school if it were part of an approved safety program. School staff were three times as likely to say yes when compared to the average rate of concealed carry across the USA. Teachers want to protect their students.
Crime dropped by a third in Dallas, Texas.. during the NRA convention.
April
Research shows that licensed concealed carry holders are among the most law abiding and non-violent group on the planet.
For the first time, School Boards in Wyoming, Georgia and Florida voted to allow some trained staff to be armed at school.
March
There was a media blitz for gun control after the murders at a high school in Parkland, Florida. NRA membership jumped.
February
The Illinois Supreme Court struck down the states 1000 foot gun free zone around public parks. The unanimous decision said the law interferes with innocent behavior and the right of self-defense.
The Ohio Supreme Court said that Cleveland is not special. The city can neither ban guns nor register them.. and it gets to pay court costs and attorneys fees for trying to do so.
January
A three judge panel of the 9th circuit said California’s law confiscating standard capacity magazines is unconstitutional.
Three democrat congressmen asked the General Accounting Office to try and buy guns illegally. They wanted to see if guns were available on the internet. The researchers in the general accounting office were scammed several times, but were unsuccessful in their attempts to illegally buy a gun online.
We were told that gun sales crashed after President Trump was elected and that gun culture is dying. When you dig into the data, you see that 40 percent of gun sales were to first time buyers.
Maybe not all was bad news for gun owners in 2018 even if there remains much to be done as always, such as fighting the 'red flag' laws and the bump stock ban as just two very important examples. However, with the new year looming there is likely to be a lot of extra pressure as the left takes up a house majority and no doubt will be trying everything they can to interfere with Second Amendment rights as well as rights in general. Stay alert, aware and motivated.
