Guns

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Justice Department is effectively banning rapid-fire bump stock devices, like the ones used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre, making them illegal to own or sell and likely setting the stage for long legal battles with gun owners and manufacturers. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed and submitted a regulation prohibiting the firearm accessory …

Media Matters reports: The National Rifle Association is encouraging people to buy its membership by playing on the fact that service members will be away from their families during the holidays. In the two-minute spot released on December 12, NRA President Oliver North points out, “As we gather with loved ones this holiday season, tens of thousands of American soldiers, …

Media Matters reports: A veteran producer for the National Rifle Association’s media operation, Cameron Gray, announced today that he and several of his colleagues had been laid off from NRATV. The layoffs follow reporting on the NRA’s most recent tax filings, which show a $55 million drop in revenue between 2016 and 2017. The launch of NRATV in 2016 presaged …

The Daily Beast reports: The nation’s leading gun rights organization saw its income dip by $55 million last year, after a record-breaking 2016 in which the group and its political affiliates spend unprecedented sums to elect President Donald Trump. The National Rifle Association of America reported $98 million in contributions in 2017, down from nearly $125 million in 2016, according …

Mother Jones reports: The National Rifle Association is doing away with free coffee and water coolers for employees at its Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters—a cost-cutting move that has NRA insiders perturbed. “The whole building was freaking out,” said one former employee who remains in contact with current staffers. The coffee cutback is the just latest indication that the NRA is hurting …

ABC News reports: The mother of one of the victims killed in the shooting that erupted at a Thousand Oaks bar said she was done receiving thoughts and prayers and pushed for better gun control. Susan Orfanos also said her son, Telemachus Orfanos, survived the Las Vegas mass shooting last year. “My son was in Las Vegas with a lot …

CNN reports: Authorities have identified a Facebook post believed to have been made by the shooter around the time of the attack, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the ongoing investigation. In it, the writer says: “I hope people call me insane… (laughing emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah.. I’m insane, but the …

Courthouse News reports: The former CEO of the Freedom Fighters Foundation pleaded guilty Monday to felony gun trafficking and forfeited 16 guns he’d acquired illegally. Chad Clay Kipper, 34, of Carlsbad and/or San Diego, faces up to five years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and will be prohibited from ever legally owning a gun, the U.S. …

McClatchy reports: The National Rifle Association’s political spending is sharply down heading into the 2018 midterm elections, a shift that could reflect declining fundraising in the wake of a string of mass shootings and an FBI investigation into the group’s Russia ties. The politically potent gun advocacy group has this year spent one-tenth of what it had spent politically at …

“As President Trump pointed out yesterday, he got 52 percent of the women vote. And I expect that to continue because I think women will be very upset with what Dianne Feinstein has done to the woman that you just saw, Christine Ford, who is being used as a pawn in this giant play. Just as we’ve seen with victims …

Politico reports: Everytown for Gun Safety, the group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is rolling out a $5 million digital ad campaign targeting 15 House races, as the group continues heavy investment in the midterm elections. The digital ads, part of the group’s “Not One More” campaign, feature news footage of the aftermath of mass shootings …

CBS News reports: The owner of a Texas company that sells blueprints to make untraceable 3-D printed guns has been arrested in Taiwan, CBS News has confirmed. Cody Wilson has been accused of having sex with an underage girl and paying her $500 afterward in Texas. Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency and Criminal Investigation Bureau confirmed to CBS News Friday that …

Well, this is a just a shame. A new third-party audit of the National Rifle Association’s finances, obtained by OpenSecrets, found the group to be in the red for the second year in a row. The audit found that after a high-spending year during the 2016 elections, the NRA has seen a sharp decrease in income from dues-paying members for …

The Associated Press reports: Taiwan said Thursday it is looking for the owner of a Texas company that makes untraceable 3-D printed guns who is wanted on an arrest warrant tied to an accusation that he had sex with an underage girl and paid her $500 afterward. The National Immigration Agency and Criminal Investigation Bureau confirmed that Cody Wilson was …

The San Antonio Express reports: Cody Wilson, the owner of a controversial Austin business that distributes blueprints for untraceable 3-D printed guns, fled to Taiwan after he was tipped off about a police investigation into sexual relations between him and a 16-year-old girl, police said. He faces a charge of sexual assault of a child in Austin. “Before he left, …

The New York Times reports: Cody Wilson, whose push to post blueprints of 3D-printed guns online has made him a key figure in the national gun control debate, was charged on Wednesday with sexually assaulting a child in Texas. Mr. Wilson, 30, is accused of having sex with a girl under 17 at a hotel in Austin on Aug. 15 …

“This could have been very different if Botham Jean had been, say he was a law abiding gun owner and he saw somebody coming into his apartment. I mean, there’s no — I don’t think there’s any context that the actions would have been justified. If I see somebody coming into my house and I’m not expecting them and they’re …

Courthouse News reports: Blueprints for 3D-printed guns are now available to anybody who wants them, the owner of a Texas company said Tuesday, claiming a federal judge’s order the day before applied only to free online instructions. Consumers in the United States can name their own price for the controversial files that began shipping on USB drives Tuesday morning by …

“Texas is asking to spend federal Department of Education grant money to buy firearms for teachers that have gone through the state’s school marshal program. Teachers trained to carry firearms in school, in firearms, and the state needs permission to use federal money to do that. As you can imagine, the left is melting down. I would argue of all …

The Associated Press reports: Court records obtained by The Associated Press show that a man accused of killing two people and then himself at a video gaming competition in Florida had been hospitalized for mental illness. Divorce filings from the parents of 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore say that as a teenager he was twice hospitalized in psychiatric facilities and …