I live in a very rural area, and have several guns for hunting and home security, as well as one for protection when travelling (transporting sensitive documents and materials), and own what some would classify as an "assault rifle"...a Ruger SR556. I use it to shoot coyotes and other predators that seem to like eating livestock (and pets!). A very effective tool, and have no issues taking out targets @ 400 yards...it's pretty hard to get close to a coyote. I'm not averse to limiting magazine size...although it came with 3-30 rd. mags., they are not necessary for my purposes. Neither are high capacity magazines for civillians...the 7 round mags for my 1911 are sufficient. If you practice proper "gun control" (hitting what you are aiming at), high cap mags are not needed.

Gun Haters take note:

Although national firearms sales and data on FBI background checks are not immediately available for the days before and after the second-largest school shooting in U.S. history, there is evidence that firearms sales are moving at a brisk pace.
Some gun dealers in Oregon, Virginia and Texas said Monday that stocks of handguns and shotguns were selling quickly.
"Our sales are astronomical,'' said Karl Durkheimer, owner of Northwest Armory in Portland, Ore. "We have customers coming in who are very worried for their personal safety. There is no question that sales are related'' to Friday's shooting, which left 28 dead including the 20-year-old shooter and his mother, and last week's deadly shooting at a Portland-area shopping mall.
Durkheimer said President Obama's emotional response to the incident and his pledge to deal with the issue also has likely prompted increased traffic.
Jim Jarrett, owner of Patriot Services in Richmond, Va., reported a surge in calls for guns of all kinds Monday. Some of the calls, he said, were related to the Christmas rush and others were more than likely a response to the Connecticut shooting and concerns about the future availability of assault rifles.
Since the shooting, some federal lawmakers, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
For the past five years, he estimated that business has increased by more than 70%, a reaction in part to what Jarrett described as "a perceived gun grab'' by the Obama administration that never materialized.
President Obama did not push gun-control legislation in his first term and guns were not a major part of the recently completed election.
"There's plenty of money out there (for guns),'' Jarrett said. "You would never know we were coming off of a couple down years in the economy. February is usually our best time of year. That's when the (tax) refund checks come back.''
In Lubbock, Texas, Mike Blackwell, a salesman at Sharp Shooters, said the store was packed Monday evening. "We're busy as all get-out,'' he said, attributing the rush to Christmas sales and "some of it probably due to this recent (shooting) incident.''
Well before Friday's school massacre in Connecticut, there were signs that gun sales were rising.
On Black Friday, firearms dealers swamped the FBI with a record number of required buyer background checks for a single day. The 154,873 calls represented a 20% increase from last year's previous one-day record, according to bureau records.
Though FBI background checks do not track actual gun sales -- in part because multiple firearms can be included in one transaction by a single buyer -- the checks have been an indicator of trends in gun sales.

Thank you very much, your flaming idiotic posts are pumping a million more guns into the public domain

@ Custom1911...That's fine and I'm glad you are such a crackerjack marksman.It's also OK with me if you want to throw away your 30 round magazines.

I believe in freedom of choice for you,now how do you feel about other peoples freedom of choice?

I believe mental health and guns should be on the table, needs two to fix this. The background checks, gun safes in homes, mental health in schools where it starts showing up, and treatment. I would start with AK 47 as one example of weapon you don't need for hunting or defending yourself. I hope this gets done on both party lines and not back and forth with the media helping unless there information is correct as we saw in Newtown news at first was way off. I not to crazy about Biden leading the way, he is a real old schooled democrat or liberal what ever, very vocal and screws up a lot on message. He doesn't believe in working together with republicans or conservatives to settle anything, mine way or the highway. I have seem him over many years and be real mean at people and name calling some on record and some not.

I have been opposed to Obama's policies on many issues, but this one is right on the mark. Noone believes that we need to arm kids or their teachers in elementary schools. This craziness is getting out of hand. Ban of assault weapons do not infringe on gun owner's rights for sports or protection. The NRA cannot be that insensitive to the loss of lives of school children to enrich gun manufacturers. Some sanity is in order.

Our right to "bear arms" wasn't so much for gun lovers to collect every type of firearm on the market but rather for "we the people" to have the ability to defend ourselves from our Government if the day should ever come when they were to big for their britches. Imagine trying to fight off a rogue government with single shot rifles and single shot shotguns. The so called assault rifle you all keep talking about isn't. It is simply a semi-auto rifle that looks different than most long guns. Yea i know i am just some silly fanatic talking about our Government going rogue. It could happen, and God forbid it ever does the people of this country owning the best possible type of firearm that they can legally obtain will be the only thing that gives us a chance.

If Obama's response to the grade school tragedy is to ban "assault weapons" he will have failed Americans who are interested in seeing this not occur again. It's just window dressing. Had this event occurred because of a terriorist attack the media and Obama administration response would not be to focus on the gun but protecting the kids from terriorists. The person responsible for this attack was refused the opportunity to purchase a gun before the incident, so that part of the system worked. The failure occurred because the guns used were not secured. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a law that requires all semi-automatic weapons to be kept under lock/key under penalty of criminal prosecution and civil liability....severe criminal prosecution!

Mentally ill people need to be identified, evaluated and perhaps put into a national data base, that does not allow gun purchases. Right now all a person has to do is swear he/she is not mentally ill to purchase a gun.

Hello folks, a Sandy Hook parent makes a plea to you. See how this tragic event spurns this reaction just one day after the event. Now put yourself in his shoes, wouldn’t you react the same way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=urrRcgB581w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8nTZKpmtlQ&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdCTqY8TYIo

Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior. Average effect sizes for experimental studies (which help establish causality) and correlational studies (which allow examination of serious violent behavior) appear comparable (Anderson & Bushman, 2001).

http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.aspx

Commission not necessary when the truth is self-evident: America is not any more violent compared to other developed nations as our non gun assault rate is well down the list, but there is no equal for the lethality of American gun violence. There are almost as many firearms as Americans, almost double that of the #2 nation, and our homicide rate by firearm is greater than four times that of the next highest developed nation (Switzerland).

At the behest of NRA leadership, we have tried adding more and more guns to society and changing self defense laws to protect untrained scared gun owners and vigilantes from prosecution and civil suit with horrific results. Paraphrasing Einstein, it is insane to believe that doing the same thing over and over again will yield different results.

Twent-five years from now the NRA leadership may be found in hiding in its last remaining red state cave. Like the Japanese soldiers found in hiding on South Pacific islands many years after WWII ended, these guys may never get the memo that their war to force their bizarre gun culture on America ended on December 14, 2012.

"and better management of violence in popular culture." What ever is Hollywood going to do? They are the biggest sellers of violence in the world after our own government

Biden is reportedly an anti-gun type. Darn shame he wasn't in Wilmington, DE or New Castle county in late 1968 as I was. The Delaware National Guard patrolled the streets for months. I guess Joe boy was finishing up at law school. I had to drive the streets of Wilmington. But then many politicians (who receive armed secret service guards) don't need or want no stinking gun! Like Emperor Bloomberg

I love how odumbo blasts the NRA for their silence while he is busy using this tragedy to stuff his agenda up the a$$holes of americans.. what was probably just as predictable is the sheep following him to the land of allah and agreeing.. take over the media, destroy the economy, disarm the public... socialism 101. The bodies aren't even cold in the ground, and this POS is demanding legislation. Show some class a$$hole. Plenty of time to destroy america left..

I think we are about to open pandora's box big time. For one when you start to get into mental health issues, who is going to classify those who can and cant have a weapon? Notice the last two young men who comitted these horrible acts were pretty smart. Take away a gun and they will find something else. Which leads me to the second point. Look at how many people are buying guns, ammo and have become NRA memebers? thats a whole lot of people who equal votes. Not to mention if the ban goes to far it can become an really ugly situation. Top that off with the mentioning of changing society and violence. That my friend will put the entertainment industry in the cross hairs. Think they will change? they'll just claim 1st amendment which in turn will cause others to throw up the second amendment and the circle will continue. I am praying we use wisdom here rather than emotions for this has the potential to tear our country even further apart.

Jake Tapper's question to Barack Obama yesterday at his press conference spoke volumes

"Where have you been for the past 4 years on gun control?"

Obama - as ususal was pissed and stunned that this was asked - began to drop one excuse after another - just as he did throughout the election

We've got a president - Barack Obama - who is a failure and ready to make excuses for it - always

For Barack Hussein's next trick, he's going to ban seatbelts to try to reduce traffic fatalities.

If Barack Hussein really cared about reducing gun homocides in America, he'd stop arming Mexican drug cartels with machineguns to use against American police officers.

A Little Gun History Lesson

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million 'educated' people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated...

Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.

It has now been over 16 years since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:

Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent

Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent

Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!

It will never happen here? I bet the Aussies said that too! Here is a link to an article on Wikipedia on what Aussies have to do to get a legal firearm!

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.

There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.

You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!

The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind him of this history lesson.

With Guns...........We Are 'Citizens', Without Them........We Are 'Subjects'.

During W.W.II the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

Note: Admiral Yamamoto, who crafted the attack on Pearl Harbor, had attended Harvard U 1919-1921 & was Naval Attaché to the U. S. 1925-28. Most of our Navy was destroyed at Pearl Harbor. Our Army had been deprived of funding and was ill prepared to defend the country.

It was reported that when asked why Japan did not follow up the Pearl Harbor attack with an invasion of the U. S. Mainland, his reply was that he had lived in the U. S. and knew that almost all households had guns.

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 20, 2012

The Communist Chinese government, via its state-run media front Xinhua, has called for Americans to be disarmed, arguing that the Sandy Hook school massacre demands "no delay for U.S. gun control."

Xinhua is virtually the press agency for the Communist Chinese government. The organization, "is subordinate to the State Council and reports to the Communist Party of China's Propaganda and Public Information Departments."

In other words, Xinhua represents the pinnacle of Chinese state-run media. Whatever is printed in its editorial pages represents the opinion of the ruling Communist Party leaders.

The article calls on Obama to exploit the tragedy to push his gun control agenda, adding that his lame duck situation represents "the best position to promote it," while blaming the National Rifle Association for curtailing previous attempts to regulate firearms in the United States.

Noting that after previous mass shootings efforts to impose gun control measures "disappointingly always fail," the editorial expresses the desire that the "gunman's cruelty and evil may provide a strong momentum and broader public support for the restart of gun control efforts."

The article adds that Barack Obama should begin "to make preparation for a protracted war," with a massive political cost if he wants to eviscerate the second amendment.

As Brandon Darby points out, "The current Chinese government, the communist People's Republic of China, was established in a revolution led by Mao Zedong, who killed an estimated 40-70 million people with starvation, executions, and re-education camps."

Indeed, it was Mao himself who said "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

This should provide a hint as to what happens when tyrants are unleashed upon a disarmed population, and why China's call to repeal the Second Amendment rings chillingly hollow.

Appearing on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show today, former Congressman and NRA board member Bob Barr called for members of Congress to speak out against the Chinese government, expressing his outrage than an authoritarian regime would lecture the United States about the rights of its people.

If you want to get a taste of how a state treats citizens who refuse to submit to big government tyranny yet who are completely disarmed, look no further than China itself.

As we reported earlier this year, a villager in northern China attempting to resist a forced government relocation by remaining on his land was brutally crushed to death by a road flattening truck on the orders of a Chinese government official.

China is routinely rocked by riots staged by residents furious at the arbitrary theft of their land by the state, which under the Communist system claims that the government owns all land and that private property rights are non-existent. However, the state-owned media ensures that news of the protests does not reach a national audience.

Since the state has all the guns, the idea of government thugs arbitrarily kicking people off their own property is a routine occurrence in China. The kind of massive land grabs and forced relocations that occur almost every day in China is not a situation that has yet been visited on America primarily because Americans have the second amendment with which to protect their private property rights.

A law was recently passed in Indiana which legalizes the use of deadly force – including against a police officer – in the event of an unlawful intrusion.

The Pentagon's recent geopolitical pivot made it clear that China was the primary military threat to the United States. In addition, Chinese military and Communist Party leaders have repeatedly indicated that they are preparing for a future war with the United States. Others have threatened to launch a nuclear attack against America during any potential confrontation over Taiwan.

In this context, it's noteworthy that Japan's Admiral Yamamoto refused to invade the United States during world war two because he feared the fact that there "would be a rifle behind every blade of grass," therefore it's not surprising that the Communist Chinese regime would also want to see the American people disarmed.

Concerns that China was also interfering in U.S. media were also heard after MGM was forced to delay the re-make of Red Dawn for two years after Chinese state media complained that depicting the invading villains as Chinese "would demonize their state and its citizens." The bad guys were changed to North Koreans and entire portions of the film had to be revised.

It's unprecedented to see foreigners like the Communist Chinese and others like Piers Morgan advising Obama on ways to exploit the school shooting in order to disarm the American people.

China can keep its forced relocations, its summary execution of political dissidents, its mobile execution vans, and its draconian police state. Americans will keep their guns, no matter how many times the Communist Chinese government – and all its political allies within America – talk down the second amendment.

obama is between a barak and ... no I will not say it but you know. NRA is great! Go NRA!

Well, I guess the bottom line is that we've tried it the leftist's way- every victim in that school was unarmed, just like the leftists wanted, and I think it is painfully obvious that their way doesn't work.

Gun Free School Zone =Mr.Psychopath please come here and shoot me.

A gun belonging to a former assistant special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was found at a Mexican crime scene where five people were killed in a shootout, including a Sinaloa beauty queen, FoxNews.com reports.

The crime scene is also mysteriously linked to the disastrous federal gun-walking operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. On Tuesday, it was reported that a semi-automatic rifle from Fast and Furious was found at the same location.

Now, congressional investigators in Phoenix want to know why an FN Five-Seven semi-automatic pistol belonging to an ex-ATF official was recovered at the scene of a Nov. 23 gunfight between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Mexican military. The FN Five-Seven is a high-powered handgun originally intended only for military and law enforcement.

FoxNews.com has more details:

Records show the gun was purchased in January 2010 by George Gillett, the former No. 2 in the ATF office in Phoenix. Gillett now works at ATF headquarters in Washington as a liaison to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Gillett purchased the weapon at Legendary Arms, a Phoenix gun store. On the federal form 4473 used to buy the gun, Gillett used the ATF office address, 201 East Washington, and said "Apt 940." On subsequent purchase, Gillett used a commercial address, that of a strip mall.

Both actions are illegal, since ATF regulations require buyers use their residential address.

"Lying on form 4473 is a felony and can be punished by up to five years in prison in addition to fines," Sen. Charles Grassley said in a letter Wednesday to Michael Horowitz in the Office of Inspector General. "I request that you initiate an investigation into these matters and that you specifically examine whether Mr. Gillett was the purchaser as indicated by these documents, why the forms list multiple, inaccurate residential addresses while purchasing the weapons, and how the weapon purchased on January 7, 2010 ended up in Mexico."

So, because people can murder people in different way, we should just ignore the carnage that guns are causing. You logic fails reality.

I was responding to greatwhitedope.

Oh, and your comment is moot. The fact that details are always sketchy at first comes as a surprise to you?