Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers said Friday the agency intercepted a record number of firearms at airport security checkpoints this year, a nearly 10% increase over 2021’s record level.
Officials reported the agency stopped 6,301 firearms from crossing through secure areas of airports since the beginning of 2022 and anticipates detaining approximately 300 more before the new year. Of those firearms, more than 88% were loaded, the agency said.
The number of firearm interceptions surpassed the previous record of 5,972 firearms detected in 2021.
“I applaud the work of our Transportation Security Officers who do an excellent job of preventing firearms from getting into the secure area of airports, and onboard aircraft,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a<a href="https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2022/12/16/tsa-breaks-record-number-firearms-security-checkpoints-announces-new#:~:text=As%20of%20December%2016%2C%20TSA,5%2C972%20firearms%20detected%20in%202021"> news release.</a> “Firearms are prohibited in carry-on bags at the checkpoint and onboard aircraft.”
Although firearm possession laws vary by state and local government, passengers are prohibited from carrying guns in carry-on bags at any TSA security checkpoint, even if a passenger has a concealed weapon permit. However, the agency <a href="https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition">says</a> passengers may travel with a firearm — but it must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container and transported as checked baggage only and declared each time they present it for transport as checked baggage.
The agency said that TSA had increased the maximum civil penalty for a firearms violation to $14,950 to reduce the threat of firearms at checkpoints.
“When a passenger brings a firearm to the checkpoint, this consumes significant security resources and poses a potential threat to transportation security, in addition to being very costly for the passenger,” Pekoske said.
According to the agency, TSA firearm catches have increased since 2010, rising from just 1,123. However, the number of interceptions dipped in 2020 by more than 1,000 amid the COVID pandemic, when the industry took a massive hit after non-essential air travel nearly came to a complete stop.
Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert on aviation security, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/us/tsa-firearms-record.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur">The New York Times</a>, “the majority of people are not doing it with malicious intent.”
“They’re simply forgetting,” Dr. Jacobson said, adding the gun sales increasing nationwide among first-time gun buyers could explain the rise in interceptions.
Last year, the Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/us/gun-purchases-ownership-pandemic.html">reported</a> data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center that showed about a fifth of all Americans bought firearms for the first time, with about 39 percent of all American households owning guns.
Comparing the number of Americans owning a firearm from 2016, a General Social Survey, a public opinion poll conducted by a research center at the University of Chicago, showed that the number increased from 32 percent.
David Fitz, a spokesman for the TSA, told the Times that “the most common reason given by passengers bringing a firearm into a checkpoint is ‘I forgot it was in the bag’ or ‘Someone else packed my bag for me.’”
Fitz added that most “parts of the country where open carry and concealed weapons permits are higher” trend typically in Southern states.
The agency said although some airlines may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition, passengers traveling by air who wish to transport firearms must do so in checked baggage by following <a class="survey-processed" href="https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition">proper packing guidance for firearms</a> in checked baggage.

Miami International Airport, prohibited items sign.

TSA Reports Record Number Of Gun Interceptions At U.S. Airports

Gun Interceptions At U.S. Airports Reach Record High, TSA Says

Air Travel

Gun Laws

Gun Sales

Left-wing activism on the part of corporations has hardly been unusual in recent years. What often flies under the radar, however, is how frequently progressive groups are able to strong-arm private businesses into entering the arena of politics against their will. Credit card companies being forced to track the sales of guns and ammunition is just such a situation.
After years of gun control measures failing at the ballot box and the Supreme Court, Amalgamated Bank — the largest union-owned bank in the country — hit upon a way to end-run around voters and the Constitution.
Billing the company as the nation’s most socially-responsible bank, its CEO Priscilla Sims Brown began lobbying the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create a four-digit merchant code to track the sale of guns and ammunition purchased on credit. As a global standards body, the Geneva-based ISO has no authority to make laws or enforce regulations. But like many other American industries, the financial services sector willingly allows the group to set policies for their business.
When Brown first made her request to ISO in July 2021, arguing that it’s necessary to stop mass shootings and crack down on gun trafficking, the credit card companies pushed back. As part of an advisory committee on ISO’s decision, American Express argued that employing a specific merchant code in such a narrow retail category would be too difficult. &#8220;Managing long lists of narrowly defined MCCs can become burdensome if there isn&#8217;t a compelling reason for the long list,” Amex wrote. To the company&#8217;s point, while most retail items like groceries and other common goods have merchant codes, they tend to be broad. Before this, for instance, gun sales were simply classified under sporting goods.
MasterCard acknowledged to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bank-credit-cards-suspect-gun-ammo-sales/">CBS</a> at the time that the company “[believes] that it is the responsibility of elected officials to enact meaningful policies to address the issue of gun violence.&#8221; In other words, MasterCard felt the question of whether it is appropriate to track gun purchases properly belongs to the legislators, accountable to the will of the people, rather than an unelected global administrative state.
Amalgamated’s petition was denied.
Yet Brown wasn&#8217;t done. She appealed the decision in February, but was again denied because the code would only apply to small stores that specifically deal in firearms and ammunitions. It wouldn’t capture guns and ammunition purchases at general retailers like Walmart or big sporting goods chains like Dick&#8217;s, placing an undue burden on small venders.
Running a financial institution backed by the SEIU and Workers United, Brown is in a better position than most executives to understand how to ratchet up pressure to achieve desired political outcomes. She went back to ISO a third time after giving <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/business/dealbook/gun-violence-amalgamated-bank-code.html">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bank-credit-cards-suspect-gun-ammo-sales/">media</a> <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/07/14/amalgamated-ceo-on-tackling-gun-reform-track-gun-purchases-through-merchant-codes.html">interviews</a> and soliciting support from the anti-Second-Amendment group, Guns Down America, as well as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and around 40 Congressional Democrats, who sent a letter to the credit card companies urging them to back Brown’s request.
MasterCard and Visa once again made it clear that they did not back the measure, with Visa saying in a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/credit-card-sales-of-guns-and-ammo-merchant-codes/">response</a> to Democrats, “We believe that asking payment networks to serve as a moral authority by deciding which legal goods can or cannot be purchased sets a dangerous precedent.”
This time, however, the pleas of the financial services giants fell on deaf ears. On September 9, ISO agreed to create the new merchant category code.
The issues critics, including the credit card companies themselves, have brought up regarding the gun purchase code have not disappeared — only purchases at mom and pop gun dealers will be tracked and the Democratic process had no hand in the decision. Visa went so far as to post a statement to its web site on September 13, registering its disagreement with the decision. &#8220;It would be an invasion of consumers’ privacy for banks and payment networks to know each of our most personal purchasing habits. Visa is firmly against this,&#8221; it stated.
Yet the company, along with MasterCard, Amex, and Discovery, says it plans to abide by ISO’s ruling, though the body holds no power over them.
Republicans are beginning to mount a response to what they say could easily become a national gun registry.
“I mean, obviously, [the credit card companies] have been pressured to do this,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told The Daily Wire. “We do know that there have been Wall Street banks that have not been willing to provide financial services to people in the firearm industry — that is not anything new. That says to me, this is just one more data point in a direction of a lot of very powerful financial institutions wanting to do indirectly what elected Democrats have not been able to do directly, in terms of in terms of restricting the firearms industry.”
A group of 100 House Republicans, led by New York’s Elise Stefanik, have sent letters to Mastercard, American Express and Visa seeking information about their reported decision to begin implementing the tracking codes. &#8220;Of course, there is no accepted, consistent, scientific, or legitimate way to determine from this date what is and what is not a ‘suspicious’ purchase,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;A gun control advocate could view any desire to own or obtain a firearm as per se suspicious. Instead, this is a transparent attempt to chill the exercise of constitutionally protected rights and to circumvent existing legal restrictions on the creation of firearm registries by the government.&#8221;
The NRA too, is pushing back, saying in a statement, “Implying that firearm purchases are suspicious demonstrates an obvious bias these attorneys general hold against choosing to exercise a fundamental constitutional right.”
What the history of corporate politics demonstrates, though, is just how difficult it is to get companies to reverse course, even when they’re headed in a direction they clearly don’t want to go.

Credit card detail photo focused on raised printed numbers

How The Left Is Forcing Credit Card Companies To Become Anti-Gun Activists

Banks

Leftists

Readers Pass

Visa

Wall Street

More than 100 House Republicans are demanding answers from major credit card companies over the controversial decision to categorize <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/guns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gun</a> sales.
In <a href="https://stefanik.house.gov/_cache/files/3/2/327afb2a-664b-41dc-ba6c-ce0f93af68ad/B339C19813330E1FBB3AD3B51FA773F2.rep.-stefanik-letter-to-visa.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letters</a> to the CEOs of Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and House Republicans demanded the companies answer questions about their decision to adopt new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/visa-to-categorize-sales-at-gun-stores-in-win-for-gun-control-advocates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Merchant Category Codes</a> (MCCs) set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that would categorize gun purchases separately from other purchases. The Republican members asked the creditors to provide their prospective standards to the public, and questioned whether categorizing gun purchases and flagging law enforcement was an attempt to skirt federal law by effectively creating a gun registry.
&#8220;As you know, the ISO uses four-digit codes known as MCCs to classify merchants and businesses by the type of goods or services provided,&#8221; the members began. &#8220;There were already two MCCs that captured legal firearm sales, 5999 for Miscellaneous Retail Stores and 5941 for Sporting Goods Stores.&#8221;
In July 2021, the left-wing activist banking firm Amalgamated Bank applied for the ISO to adopt a separate Category Code for firearm dealers. The ISO rejected the application in October, along with an appeal filed in November 2021, the Republican members noted. The ISO said at the time that such a narrow category would fail to capture gun sales at sporting goods stores and would place an undue burden on small firearm retailers.
Both Visa and American Express raised concerns about the effort to establish a firearm-specific MCC. &#8220;Specific MCC [codes] in narrow [retail] areas are challenging,&#8221; an employee from American Express told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/credit-card-companies-gun-sales-congress-letters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a> in September. &#8220;Managing long lists of narrowly defined MCCs can become burdensome if there isn&#8217;t a compelling reason for the long list.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/credit-card-sales-of-guns-and-ammo-merchant-codes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visa</a> also urged caution, warning against financial institutions acting as moral arbiters. &#8220;We believe that asking payment networks to serve as a moral authority by deciding which legal goods can or cannot be purchased sets a dangerous precedent,&#8221; the company wrote in a letter to Congressional Democrats who pushed for the credit card companies to adopt the new standard, via CBS.
Amalgamated Bank reapplied for the new MCC in June of this year. This time, the ISO relented, adopting the new MCC. Amalgamated Bank subsequently &#8220;stated its intent to utilize software to flag allegedly suspicious purchases made by Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights and file these red flags with law enforcement,&#8221; the lawmakers noted. &#8220;Of course, there is no accepted, consistent, scientific, or legitimate way to determine from this data what is and what is not a &#8216;suspicious&#8217; purchase. A gun control advocate could view any desire to own or obtain a firearm as per se suspicious. Instead, this is a transparent attempt to chill the exercise of constitutionally protected rights and to circumvent existing legal restrictions on the creation of firearm registries by the government.&#8221;
The lawmakers then asked the credit card giants to answer questions about their intentions in adopting the new standards:
<ul>
<li>Whether the companies actually support the ISO&#8217;s decision to create the new MCC, and if so, why the companies changed their view.</li>
<li>What criteria the companies will use to flag transactions for suspicious activity; how these criteria were devised, and what evidence there is to show that they will only focus on criminal intent and not on lawful purchases; and whether the companies will make these criteria public and share them with their cardholders.</li>
<li>How the companies will inform users about the impacts of implementing the policy; and whether they will notify and solicit feedback from customers.</li>
<li>Whether the companies will notify customers when their lawful transactions have been flagged and sent to law enforcement; if not, why they believe that it is not important to notify the customer.</li>
<li>Whether the companies have considered the &#8220;reputational risks and the possible implications for your 
fiduciary duties to shareholders&#8221; of potentially alienating a sizable number of the 100 million gun owners in the United States and the millions of prospective and potential gun buyers.</li>
<li>If the companies are aware this move could be perceived as an attempt to circumvent federal law by effectively creating a national firearm registry.</li>
<li>Whether the companies solicited input from the firearm industry before making this decision.</li>
<li>Whether the companies did their due diligence, including considering DOJ statistics, which show that a very small percentage of those who commit crimes with guns purchase them at gun stores subject to the new rules.</li>
</ul>
A total of 101 House Republicans signed the letter.

Elise Stefanik

Stefanik, More Than 100 House Republicans Demand Answers From Credit Card Giants Categorizing Sales At Gun Stores

Gun Control

House Republicans

A prominent gun control measure proposed by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers is unlikely to withstand judicial scrutiny, considering recent precedent.
Many of the perpetrators of recent mass shootings were below the age of 21, including the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-shooting-at-texas-elementary-school-leaves-at-least-15-dead">Uvalde</a>  and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/buffalo-mass-shooting-suspect-had-been-flagged-as-troubled-a-year-ago-report">Buffalo</a> shooters, aged 18, and the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-respond-shooting-parkland-florida-high-school-n848101">Parkland</a> shooter, aged 19.
<a href="https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/does-customer-have-be-certain-age-buy-firearms-or-ammunition-licensee">Federal law</a> already prohibits the sale of pistols to citizens under 21, but young adults can purchase rifles in <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/2022/05/uvalde-mass-shooting-ar15-age-restriction/">44 states</a> — and some are <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/5/25/23142050/hochul-raise-age-ar15-rifles-gun-control">calling for new legislation</a> that would change that.
Representative Adam Kinzinger <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-congressman-claims-raising-age-to-purchase-guns-to-21-is-a-no-brainer">called the proposed measure</a> a “no-brainer”, stating that. “We know that the human brain develops and matures a lot between the ages of 18 and 21. We just raised, without really so much as a blink, the age of purchasing cigarettes federally to 21.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger tells <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jonkarl</a> that raising minimum age for gun purchases to 21 “is a no brainer&quot; to him.
“If you look at the Parkland shooting, you look at Buffalo, you look at this shooting, these are people under the age of 21.” <a href="https://t.co/Ndo3NsrFp7">https://t.co/Ndo3NsrFp7</a> <a href="https://t.co/mBpxDBiyJF">pic.twitter.com/mBpxDBiyJF</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1530916688153169920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
However, earlier this month the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-11/federal-court-rules-california-ban-on-gun-sales-to-people-under-21-unconstitutional">struck down</a> a very similar restriction in California, which banned the sale of semi-automatic rifles to young adults, with the 2-1 majority <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2022/05/11/20-56174.pdf">arguing</a> that the policy constituted an arbitrary violation of the 2nd amendment rights of adult citizens.
“America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army,” Judge Ryan D. Nelson wrote for the majority. “Today we reaffirm that our Constitution still protects the right that enabled their sacrifice: the right of young adults to keep and bear arms.”
With <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/05/27/supreme-court-gun-control-massachusetts-impacts">consensus</a> on the bench shifting towards a broader defense of gun rights, age based restrictions on the right to purchase long guns seem unlikely to stand.
Adam Winkler, a law professor  commenting on the California case for the Los Angeles Times, called the 9th circuit’s ruling “ a harbinger of things to come,” stating that “In the coming years, the courts seem certain to strike down numerous gun safety measures in the name of the 2nd Amendment.”

Guns

Proposed Gun Sale Ban For Citizens Under 21 Unlikely To Withstand Judicial Review

California

Gun Rights

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Supreme Court

A federal court ruled that some California counties’ lockdowns of gun stores violated the Second Amendment.
In March 2020, both Los Angeles County and Ventura County <a href="https://californiaglobe.com/articles/appellate-court-rules-la-ventura-counties-violated-the-2nd-amendment-by-shutting-down-gun-stores-during-pandemic/">ordered</a> gun stores to close their doors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, Judge Lawrence VanDyke — <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/firearmspolicycoalition/pages/5604/attachments/original/1642706843/McDougall_v_Ventura_County_Opinion.pdf?1642706843">writing</a> on behalf of a three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — explained that the policies limited “the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” since the Second Amendment “means nothing if the government can prohibit all persons from acquiring any firearm or ammunition.”
“Under California’s highly regulated framework for firearms, law-abiding citizens can only obtain firearms and ammunition by arriving in-person to government-approved gun and ammunition shops,” he wrote. “These blanket prohibitions on access and practice clearly burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment and fail under both strict and intermediate scrutiny.”
“The governments’ designation of ‘essential’ businesses and activities reflects a government-imposed devaluation of Second Amendment conduct in relation to various other non-Constitutionally protected activities during times of crises, irrespective of any of the unique dangers presented by firearms, ammunition, or firing ranges,” VanDyke added.
The <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20220120/nra-wins-case-against-los-angeles-county">National Rifle Association</a> (NRA) lauded the ruling.
&#8220;The court today rightfully recognized that Los Angeles County violated Second Amendment rights when it shut down gun stores and ranges in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,&#8221; said NRA office of litigation counsel director Michael Jean. &#8220;This is an important decision. It ensures that California — or any state — cannot use a crisis to trample on the Constitutional rights of citizens.&#8221;
Beyond the Second Amendment, Los Angeles County cracked down on First Amendment rights through its lockdown policies — namely, by stopping church communities from meeting together. However, Pastor John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church eventually defied the regulations, meeting for Sunday worship without social distancing or mandatory masking.
“In response to the recent state order requiring churches in California to limit or suspend all meetings indefinitely,” MacArthur <a href="https://www.gracechurch.org/news/posts/1988">wrote</a> in the summer of 2020, “we, the pastors and elders of Grace Community Church, respectfully inform our civic leaders that they have exceeded their legitimate jurisdiction, and faithfulness to Christ prohibits us from observing the restrictions they want to impose on our corporate worship services.”
In the fall of 2021, Grace Community Church <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church">won</a> a $400,000 settlement from Los Angeles County following the Supreme Court’s ruling that some COVID-19 regulations could not apply to houses of worship. The state of California paid the church $400,000 as well, bringing the total to $800,000.
“We know that there is no circumstance that can cause the church to close,” MacArthur said in a letter. “The church is not only a building but is the bride of Christ and exists to proclaim the truth.”
“We are very pleased to see Pastor MacArthur and Grace Community Church’s First Amendment protections fully vindicated in this case,” said Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri of the Thomas More Society, which represented Grace Community Church. It has been a hard-fought battle to preserve religious liberty and we hope that this result will encourage Californians, and all Americans, to continue to stand that the church is essential.”

President Biden Announces Regulation Of “Ghost Guns,” Updates Background Checks

Federal Court Rules California Counties’ Lockdown Of Gun Stores Were Unconstitutional

Los Angeles County

Second Amendment

Leaders in the firearm industry see no end in sight for the nationwide ammunition shortage.
Two executives — Mark Smith, CEO of firearms manufacturer Smith &amp; Wesson, and Rob Southwick, president of outdoor recreation statistics firm Southwick Associates — <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ammo-shortage-shows-no-sign-improving-smith-wesson">told</a> Fox Business that demand for firearms remains high.
&#8220;It&#8217;s widely known the ammunition shortages continue,&#8221; explained Smith. &#8220;There is still a lot of interest in firearms.&#8221;
&#8220;At some point, demand will certainly soften,&#8221; added Southwick. &#8220;However, frenzied purchasing and empty shelves often fuels further increases in demand. We do not see demand softening in the near future.&#8221;
Data show that Americans are purchasing firearms at record levels.
According to a National Shooting Sports Foundation <a href="https://www.nssf.org/articles/taking-stock-of-record-setting-2020-firearm-year/">report</a> released in January:
<blockquote>Twenty-one million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm over the past 12 months. That topped 2019’s totals of 13.2 million by 60 percent. It also shattered the previous record from 2016, when 15.7 million background checks were conducted for the sale of firearms. This year’s 21 million total surpassed 2016 by 5.3 million, or 34 percent… NSSF estimates that 8.4 million people bought a firearm for the first time in 2020. That’s 40 percent of all purchases. </blockquote>
The group noted that the firearms market is becoming “increasingly diverse.”
&#8220;Forty percent of 2020’s buyers were women and the biggest increase of any demographic category was among African Americans, who bought guns at a rate 58 percent greater than in 2019.&#8221;
The ammunition and firearm shortages occur amid a recovering consumer economy in the United States, a crime wave that began after the death of George Floyd, and a series of promises from President Biden to more harshly restrict gun purchases.
For instance, a statement from the White House released in April <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/07/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-initial-actions-to-address-the-gun-violence-public-health-epidemic/">reads</a>:
<blockquote>President Biden is reiterating his call for Congress to pass legislation to reduce gun violence. Last month, a bipartisan coalition in the House passed two bills to close loopholes in the gun background check system. Congress should close those loopholes and go further, including by closing “boyfriend” and stalking loopholes that currently allow people found by the courts to be abusers to possess firearms, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and investing in evidence-based community violence interventions. Congress should also pass an appropriate national “red flag” law, as well as legislation incentivizing states to pass “red flag” laws of their own.</blockquote>
President Biden also nominated <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/5-things-gun-owners-need-to-know-about-bidens-new-gun-control-czar">David Chipman</a> — a gun control lobbyist who spent nearly three decades working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms — to lead the agency.
During his confirmation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-bidens-atf-pick-provides-his-definition-of-an-assault-weapon-his-proposed-ban-would-outlaw-most-rifles-in-america">hearing</a>, Chipman seemed to define an “assault weapon” as “a semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine with a round greater than a .22 caliber.” As Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) replied: “I’m amazed that might be the definition of an ‘assault weapon.’ That would basically cover every single modern sporting rifle in America today.”

Increased Demand For Guns And Ammunition, Leads To Nationwide Ammo Shortage

‘We Do Not See Demand Softening In The Near Future’: Smith & Wesson CEO Says Ammo Shortages Will Continue

Background checks for gun sales soared to an all-time record in March, reportedly spurred on by President Joe Biden&#8217;s threats to increase federal gun regulations, and by a wave of $1400 COVID-19 stimulus checks.
<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-04-01/firearm-background-checks-soar-to-record-high-in-march">U.S. News and World Report noted Thursday</a> that the FBI reported a record number of gun background checks in March. The bureau &#8220;conducted nearly 4.7 million background checks, breaking the record high that was just set in January, another month that was marked with violence and turmoil.&#8221;
&#8220;March&#8217;s background checks represent a 36% increase from February, which saw about 3.44 million checks. Additionally, nearly 1 million more background checks took place last month than in March 2020,&#8221; the outlet added.
Although it is not clear whether every background check resulted in a gun purchase &#8212; each individual sale is governed by varying state laws, and many buyers may not pass the FBI investigation &#8212; an increase in the number of background checks does appear to correlate with an increase in the number of gun sales, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/biden-stimulus-checks-spark-historic-surge-in-gun-sales-especially-ar-15s">according to the Washington Examiner</a>, citing gun retailer groups.
&#8220;After the FBI release, for example, Small Arms Analytics &amp; Forecasting reported that sales are set to break the yearly record of 22.8 million in 2021. &#8216;For the first quarter of 2021 as a whole, about 5.9 million firearms were sold as opposed to 5.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. If this rate of sales were to be sustained throughout 2021, last year’s record sales of 22.8 million would be broken,'&#8221; one group noted to the Examiner.
The increase in the number of background checks also seems to correlate with the threat of increased gun regulation, and in March, the number of gun background checks spiked following two reported mass shootings, both of which were followed by an increase in gun control rhetoric from the White House.
&#8220;Of the top 10 days for most background checks, six were in March 2021, according to FBI data, including the top three days,&#8221; US News reported. &#8220;Following deadly mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado, gun sales soared and five of the top days occurred following either one or both shootings.&#8221;
&#8220;In addition to mass shootings, gun-control legislation can also be a driver of gun sales and House Democrats on March 11 passed a pair of gun-control bills that would expand background check requirements on all gun sales and transfers,&#8221; the outlet noted.
Indeed, President Joe Biden is expected to announce gun control executive orders on Thursday that will expand federal background checks, outlaw sales of &#8220;ghost guns&#8221; &#8212; homemade, often 3D printed firearms, without serial numbers &#8212; and implement so-called &#8220;red flag&#8221; provisions, controversial rules that limit gun sales to people who have a record of being treated for mental illness.
The Biden administration has, as of yet, refused to commit to stricter regulations on so-called &#8220;assault&#8221; weapons and high-capacity magazines, noting in previous interactions with the media that those restrictions must be passed by Congress.
The Washington Examiner also noted that the Biden administration may have inadvertently spurred the increase in gun sales by passing a coronavirus relief bill that issued $1400 stimulus checks to most American taxpayers.
“There are obvious factors at play here: Biden’s gun rhetoric being No. 1, as well as two mass shootings that were heavily covered in the media. However, we also saw a lot of transactions of around $1,400 starting on March 17, so it appears many people are using their stimulus money to buy guns,” one gun retailer told the examiner.

AR15

Firearm Background Checks Soar To Record High In March Ahead Of Biden Gun Control Push

More guns were purchased in 2020 than at any other point in American history, with Americans buying more than 16.5 million guns, 1.6 million more than they purchased in 2016, the last record year.
The Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski <a href="https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/2020-sets-all-time-gun-sales-record/">reported</a> that the figures related to gun sales through the month of October, meaning the total number is likely to be higher after an additional two months. Gutowski analyzed FBI data and found that four million more guns were sold in 2020 than in 2019, an increase of more than 33%.
“The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry&#8217;s trade group, also estimated nearly seven million people purchased a gun for the first time between January and October,” Gutowski reported. “The record sales come during a year in which Americans have faced a pandemic, economic downturn, prisoner releases, racial tension, and rioting. Those factors, as well as a contentious presidential election, have driven sales throughout the year, according to industry experts. And those gun sales—especially to new owners—are now likely to drive votes.”
NSSF spokesman Mark Oliva told the outlet: &#8220;This much is clear as we head into Election Day: Americans of all political persuasions are exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and doing so in record numbers.&#8221;
&#8220;It cannot be discounted that today&#8217;s gun buyers are faced with polar opposites of presidential candidates when it comes to protecting Second Amendment rights,&#8221; Oliva said. &#8220;President Donald Trump vowed to safeguard this right and former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, have both embraced outright confiscation of lawfully owned firearms as the headliner of the most far-reaching gun-control agenda to be presented to the American voter.&#8221;
Oliva also told the Free Beacon that October 2020 had the highest sales of any October on record and that he viewed the increase in sales was due to Americans disapproving of national gun-control messages and policies.
&#8220;America is watching and is already voting with their wallets when it comes to lawful firearm ownership,&#8221; Oliva told the outlet. &#8220;This has been a sustained period of firearm sales since March. This is clearly not a one-off event.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/health-care-workers-made-up-majority-of-people-who-purchased-guns-during-coronavirus-pandemic-study-says">reported</a>, health care workers surprisingly made up the majority of people who purchased firearms during the coronavirus pandemic.
A <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/emp2.12293">study</a> from New Mexico State University and the University of Toledo found that 67% of people who said they bought a gun during the coronavirus pandemic worked in the health care industry. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, the researchers found, working as a health care professional was a strong predictor of firearm purchasing.
In addition to gun sales, permits for concealed carry have also soared in 2020, with women and minorities leading the increase, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/women-minorities-leading-increase-in-conceal-carry-permits">reported</a>. “There were 2.7 million concealed handgun permit holders in 1999, 4.6 million in 2007, 8 million in 2011, 11.1 million in 2014, and now 19.48 million in 2020,” said a report from John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center.

Guns on rack in store

Gun Sales In 2020 Set New Record

Remington Arms Company has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in over two years.
The gun manufacturer, one of the oldest in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday as it struggled under a mountain of high-interest debt and legal fees, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/remington-arms-declares-bankruptcy-despite-surging-gun-demand-11595903187">The Wall Street Journal</a>. The filing comes as gun sales are surging across the United States in a market driven by the pandemic and violent protests.
Remington has faced steep financial challenges for nearly a decade following a lawsuit by family members of victims killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman used a Remington gun, the Bushmaster, to kill 20 children and six adults.
Gun-control activists used the tragedy to pressure Remington’s investors as well as stores that carry Remington products to cut ties with the company. The pressure campaign worked to some extent, forcing the gun company to take out high-interest loans to buy out investors. At the same time, the company borrowed to cover mounting legal fees as the shooting victims’ families attempted to hold the company accountable for the gunman’s actions.
In 2018, Remington filed for bankruptcy and restructured, transferring most of its ownership over to its creditors, including Franklin Templeton Investments and JPMorgan Asset Management, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/business/remington-bankruptcy-guns.html">The New York Times</a>.
In March of last year, the Connecticut Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/families-sandy-hook-victims-allowed-sue-ar-15-amanda-prestigiacomo">ruled</a> that the lawsuit over the Sandy Hook mass shooting could move forward, a blow to the company.
The plaintiffs argued that Remington’s marketing for the Bushmaster, an AR-15-style rifle played a role in the shooter&#8217;s choice of weapon. The gun company argued that federal law protects it from liability should its products be used to commit criminal acts such as in the case of Sandy Hook.
UCLA law professor Adam Winkler told the NYT that the gun company’s financial troubles are almost entirely due to its poor management and legal troubles, and the company’s failure is not likely to be repeated throughout the industry.
“Remington’s problem is mostly a problem of Remington mismanagement and not a reflection of larger trends in the gun world,” Winkler said. “I don’t think we’re going to see a whole bunch of gun companies going under now.”
In June, gun sales at retailers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-wake-of-protests-gun-sales-so-high-retailers-running-out-of-guns-and-ammo-report-says">surged</a> over 145% from June 2019, according to a study by Small Arms Analytics &amp; Forecasting. The spike in sales came after the outbreak of violent protests and riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Floyd, a black man, died in police custody after an officer kneeled on his neck for close to nine minutes.
The June spike followed similar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gun-sales-in-may-hit-record-again">surges</a> in demand in May and April after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and forced government shutdowns of wide swaths of the economy. National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman Mark Oliva said the high demand is being driven by widespread “uncertainty.”
“This shows us there is continued appetite among Americans to be able to provide for their own safety during times of uncertainty,” Oliva said. “These are buyers who have witnessed their government&#8217;s empty prisons … Police departments are stretched beyond capacity in many cases. Law-abiding Americans recognize this and exercising their right to own a gun and defend themselves and their loved ones.”

Remington shotguns

Major U.S. Gun Maker Files For Bankruptcy

Gun retailers in Virginia say they&#8217;re seeing sales of weapons and ammunition skyrocket as the now fully Democratic Virginia legislature moves closer to passing strict gun control within the state &#8212; including a provision that allows the state government to confiscate so-called &#8220;assault weapons&#8221; if citizens who own them don&#8217;t register the weapons.
<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/virginia-gun-store-says-firearms-ammunition-and-magazines-flying-off-the-shelves-upswing-on-buying-by-cash">The Washington Examiner reports</a> that at least one gun retailer has seen sales rise more than 200% year over year. Cash sales are way up, especially amid news that Democrats in Virginia and in Congress want to use credit card information to track gun purchases.
“This is the largest Christmas and November, December that we&#8217;ve had, basically, since Trump has come on board. The only other person that was a better salesman right now is when we had President Obama,” one retailer told the Examiner.
Gun sales have taken a downturn since Donald Trump became president, likely because the Republican leader doesn&#8217;t pose the same threat to gun rights as his predecessor, Barack Obama. That downturn has been marked by a few peaks, however, usually in the wake of a mass shooting when gun control advocates are their most vocal, taking advantage of tragedy to pass strict legislation limiting the sale and use of weapons.
“Every time [Obama] turned around he was going to ban something or make something illegal. But even that isn&#8217;t even close to the amount of sales we&#8217;re selling right now of magazines, of guns, of every kind of gun from pistol, rifle, shotguns, to AR platforms,&#8221; the retailer added. &#8220;We can&#8217;t keep it in stock.”
Democrats in Virginia say they&#8217;re paving the way for a national gun control program, and have proposed a number of possible restrictions, including a complete ban on assault rifles, backed up by the threat of confiscation. The Examiner adds that Democrats are also pursuing  &#8220;restrictions on magazine capacity, universal background checks, and restrictions to one gun a month purchases.&#8221;
&#8220;Eighty-six counties – over 90 percent – in the Virginia commonwealth have adopted Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions&#8221; in response to the effort, according to Fox News. Many have passed a similar resolution, using the language of The Federalist Papers, &#8220;declaring that county police will not enforce state-level gun laws that violate Second Amendment rights.&#8221;
Virginia Democrats are hoping that those &#8220;sanctuary&#8221; propositions won&#8217;t be enforceable but county sheriffs told Fox News that they plan on defending the sanctuary protections all the way to the Supreme Court, if need be. Virginia governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat best known for appearing in a photo wearing either a Ku Klux Klan hood or minstrel-style blackface (and never facing consequences), has said he will support Democrats&#8217; efforts to ban certain classes of weapons and strictly limit gun ownership altogether, even pursuing confiscation if need be.
The Virginia Attorney General agreed, <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/virginia-second-amendment-sanctuary-cities/65-885b5e9c-0454-4f6c-8bee-7c6785e0af08">according to local news.</a> &#8220;When the General Assembly passes new gun violence legislation, they will be followed, and they will be enforced,&#8221; Virginia AG Mark Herring said.
&#8220;It is my opinion that these [sanctuary] resolutions have no legal effect,&#8221; Herring said in a letter issued by the AG&#8217;s office late last week. &#8220;It is my further opinion that localities and local constitutional officers cannot nullify state laws and must comply with gun violence prevention measures that the General Assembly may enact.&#8221;

Guns, Ammo ‘Flying Off The Shelves’ In Virginia As Dems Pursue Confiscation

The number of firearm background checks conducted in August surged 15% over both the previous month and the previous year, meaning Americans are suddenly buying more guns, just as members of the 2020 Democratic field are proposing strict crackdowns on weapons purchases, and even &#8220;gun buyback&#8221; confiscation programs.
<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/gun-sales-surge-15-driven-by-self-protection-pelosi-schumer-demand-for-limits">The Washington Examiner reports</a> that &#8220;background checks done for security, concealed carry permits, and gun sales&#8221; soared over the summer, making August the best month for gun sales since the National Shooting Sports Foundation began keeping track of how many individuals apply for a federal background check — and thus try to purchase a firearm — per month.
The NSSF does caution that it&#8217;s likely not every background check resulted in a gun sale; the background check system exists for a reason, and it does turn down some potential buyers. Individuals interested in purchasing a firearm can also complete a background check but may not ultimately buy a weapon.
&#8220;NSSF said that the FBI told it that the overall NICS number for August was 2,341,363,&#8221; according to the Examiner. &#8220;That is 310,702 higher than July and 268,067 higher than August 2018. The FBI hasn’t posted the number yet on its NICS page.&#8221;
The surge, WashEx says, comes on the heels of increased pressure from Congress to stiffen the country&#8217;s gun laws. Democratic Congressional leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced last week that they plan on introducing a bill in both Houses to expand federal background checks and create a universal gun registry system that would keep track of Americans owning and purchasing firearms.
Democrats vying for the 2020 presidential nomination have gone even further, proposing everything from a ban on so-called &#8220;assault rifles&#8221; (it&#8217;s not immediately clear what that would include), and &#8220;military-style&#8221; guns (also not specific), universal gun registries, registries for Americans treated for mental illness, and even gun &#8220;buyback&#8221; programs that reward gun owners who turn in their weapons, ostensibly ahead of a nationwide confiscation.
Republicans, of course, aren&#8217;t immune from the temptation to broaden gun regulations, particularly in the wake of a spate of mass shootings that took place over the summer. Even the White House, which has regularly demurred on the top of gun control, briefly considered a &#8220;red flag&#8221; system that would empower law enforcement to investigate individuals who they deem unfit to own a firearm, and would allow family members of a gun owner to petition for a temporary removal of that person&#8217;s firearms pending an assessment.
Some states where hunting and gun ownership is popular saw huge spikes. Alabama, where gun ownership is common, and Minnesota, where hunting is a state pastime, both saw increases over 50% as Democrats ramped up their anti-gun rhetoric.
A similar surge happened, according to NSSF, back in 2016, just before the presidential election. Fearing that a Hillary Clinton victory might mean more stringent gun control measures, Americans purchased firearms at a record pace. Weapons sales dropped off when President Donald Trump took office in January.
But with uncertainty about who will control the White House after 2020, Americans are clearly hedging their bets. NSSF reports that first-time gun buyers are among those who made the August surge happen.

Handguns

Gun Sales SURGE Following Spike In Anti-Gun Rhetoric From 2020 Dems

Trump Administration

Yesterday, my Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51337/walsh-calling-gun-confiscation-mandatory-buyback-matt-walsh">wrote a terrific column</a> in which he accurately noted that a prospective mandatory gun &#8220;buy back&#8221; program — such as that which hapless former Rep. Robert Francis &#8220;Beto&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke (D-TX) has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/beto-orourke-vows-mandatory-buyback-of-assault-weapons-if-elected-president">harrowingly proposed</a> for so-called &#8220;assault weapons,&#8221; on the infinitesimal chance America is so doomed that the bumbling bloviator is elected president — is &#8220;just another name for confiscation.&#8221; As Matt succinctly put it, &#8220;It&#8217;s a bit like calling armed robbery a &#8216;compelled donation.&#8217; The latter characterization wouldn&#8217;t hold up in a court of law, and the &#8216;buy back&#8217; ruse shouldn&#8217;t hold up in the court of public opinion.&#8221;
Of course, to buy something &#8220;back&#8221; would be to linguistically imply that the underlying item in question was in the possession of the purchaser to begin with. That is factually false in the case of mandatory gun &#8220;buy back&#8221; programs — the overwhelming majority of gun owners in the United States acquire their weapons via mutually beneficial transactions with private merchants.
But not only is it factually false to suggest that the government ever owned our guns in the first place — it is also logically perverse in the extreme. As the Constitution&#8217;s Framers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50263/hammer-conservatives-must-not-go-soft-assault-josh-hammer">understood quite well</a>, a free citizenry possesses firearms precisely to serve as a meaningful civilian check on the power of the state and to disincentivize the government from ever overreaching in tyrannical, authoritarian fashion. Viewed from this perspective, so-called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44327/hammer-here-are-three-core-reasons-oppose-ban-josh-hammer">&#8220;assault weapons&#8221; are nothing less</a> than the 21st-century technological analogues of the single-shot muskets that served the Minutemen of Lexington and Concord. As National Review&#8217;s David French has <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/assault-weapons-preserve-the-purpose-of-the-second-amendment/">articulately put it</a>, &#8220;for the Second Amendment to remain a meaningful check on state power, citizens must be able to possess the kinds and categories of weapons that can at least deter state overreach, that would make true authoritarianism too costly to attempt.&#8221;
Put another way, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2018-03-02/citizens-dont-need-ar-15s">yes, leftists, we need our AR-style rifles</a>.
Given this background — given the historical purpose of the Second Amendment, <a href="http://keepandbeararms.com/silveira/enbanc.asp">in the 2003 words of</a> former Judge Alex Kozinski (a son of Holocaust survivors) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, as that of a &#8220;doomsday provision &#8230; designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed&#8221; — I have a very simple message for O&#8217;Rourke, former Vice President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51296/no-compromise-biden-goes-extreme-guns-calls-ban-ryan-saavedra">Joe Biden</a>, Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42837/hammer-kamala-harriss-flirtation-banning-all-semi-josh-hammer">Kamala Harris</a> (D-CA), and all the other members of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49056/hammer-democratic-party-fundamentally-unfit-lead-josh-hammer">Orwellian menagerie</a> that comprise the Democratic Party&#8217;s 2020 presidential field:
No. I will not oblige. My <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1104844636558905345">staggeringly awesome</a> so-called &#8220;assault weapon,&#8221; replete as it is with multiple sights, numerous &#8220;high-capacity&#8221; magazines, and hundreds and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, is the ultimate guardian of my life and liberty. It is, in Kozinski&#8217;s &#8220;doomsday&#8221; scenario, the final fail-safe mechanism that, if all else were to fail in America and tyranny or anarchy were to reign, still gives me a chance to defend home, hearth, family, and self. It is the weapon that the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/10/the-warsaw-ghetto-uprising-armed-jews-vs-nazis/">Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising</a>, much like oppressed people living under <a href="https://twitter.com/SamElizabethan/status/1168281769277370368">totalitarian regimes</a> the whole world over, wished they could have had. Such weapons are — here, there, and everywhere — the ultimate guardians of a citizenry&#8217;s freedom.
As Augustine once said and Martin Luther King Jr. famously emphasized in his timeless missive from his Birmingham jail cell, it is the natural law tradition that &#8220;an unjust law is no law at all.&#8221; And while opening the Pandora&#8217;s box that is natural law reasoning is always a dicey proposition, our constitutional system has perhaps no more paradigmatic example of a positivist decree that flouts the natural law than a would-be commander-in-chief opting to unilaterally seize from a free citizenry the very arms intended to keep the government at bay and maintain the citizenry&#8217;s freedom. After all, as Kozinski concluded, &#8220;However improbable these [tyrannical government] contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.&#8221;
Indeed. <a href="https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/03/23/meaning-history-molon-labe/">Molon labe</a>.

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