“Guns are completely inappropriate for the kind of sheep-like people the anointed envision or the orderly, prepackaged world in which they are to live. When you are in mortal danger, you are supposed to dial 911, so that the police can arrive on the scene some time later, identify your body, and file reports in triplicate.” ― Thomas Sowell, The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)
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#thomassowell #americaneconomist #thethomassowellreader #sheeple #armeddefense ...

"[I]n 1989, a newly invented category—`assault weapon`—appeared. It was invented as a propaganda term to promote the banning of firearms. The tragic murders of schoolchildren by a recidivist criminal in Stockton, California, in 1989 provided the impetus to ban rifles alleged to be similar to the one used there.

"President George H. W. Bush’s administration ordered a `study` that was predestined to find that rifles long considered sporting were no longer sporting. Importers made the changes necessary to comply, and imported rifles were sanitized of the evil attributes. When Congress passed its `assault weapon` ban in 1994, the rifles had none of the newly objectionable features and so were already compliant.

"But that was not enough for certain members of Congress for whom compliance actually meant circumvention. Unable to pass legislation doing so, they urged President Clinton to order the ATF to conduct yet another `study` to find that the subject rifles were `modified` assault weapons. The result was that in 1998, the ATF was required to find that what it said was sporting was no longer sporting and thus not importable."

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 230.
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#assaultweaponban #assaultweaponsban #bannedfirearms #americasrifle #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 #2asupporter #pro2ndamendmentrights #constitutionalrights #shallnotbeinfringed #gunprohibitionist #therightofthepeople #righttobeararms #assaultweapon #assaultweapons #whatisanassaultweapon #assaultrifles #federalassaultweaponsban #sportingrifle #sportingrifles #assaultweaponfeatures #modifiedassaultrifle #modifiedassaultweapons #1989 ...

Uh oh - looks like a frog intruder is boarding! Let`s hope it`s not up to something nefarious. Good thing that bear is bearing arms!

The "Remington Cubs" were a popular series of advertisements for the Remington Autoloading Shotgun that ran between 1911-1914. This particular ad was seen in magazines like Popular Mechanics and Life. The Cubs were drawn by artist Edward Windsor Kemble.
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#remingtoncubs #remingtonbear #edwardkemble #remingtonarms #remingtonarmsco #remingtonumc #remingtonfirearms #remington #remingtonshotgun #remingtonautoloadingshotgun #autoloadingshotgun #autoshotgun #remingtonad #gunad #gunads #vintagegunad #vintagegunads #vintageads #historyinads #bearbearingarms #bearsbearingarms #shotgunshooting #firearmsport #firearmsports #selfdefense #armeddefense ...

"In October 1774, the British Ministry decreed a ban on `the Exportation of Gunpowder, or any sort of Arms or Ammunition, out of this Kingdom....` In his speech in favor of Conciliation with America, Edmund Burke recalled an earlier epoch in which Parliament `prohibited by statute the sending of all sorts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with something more of doubt on the legality) the sending arms to America. They disarmed the Welsh by statute, as you attempted, (but still with more question on the legality) to disarm New England by an instruction.` Burke was referring to Dartmouth`s...1774 instruction to Gage to consider `disarming the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Rhode Island.` Conciliation was not to be."

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People of a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, pgs. 140-41.

Illustration: "A Long Hunter and his dogs" by David Wright.
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#1774 #BritishMinistry #exportationofgunpowder #gunpowder #gunpowderexport #firearmexport #ammunitionexport #armsandammo #firearmsandammo #walesgunlaw #welshgun #welshlaw #edmundburke #britishparliament #disarm #disarmament #americancolonies #colonialamerica #generalgage #lorddartmouth #firearmspossession #englishgunlaws #britishgunlaws #armsforselfdefense #therighttobeararms #therighttobeararmshalbrook #armedpeople #gunrightsmatter ...

"The United States has filed a Response to the District of Columbia`s Petition for Rehearing En Banc in Benson v. United States, in which the D.C. Court of Appeals held the District`s magazine ban to violate the Second Amendment. Applying Heller and Bruen, the court held that magazines `are unquestionably arms, they are in not only common but ubiquitous use for lawful purposes, and there is no history or tradition of blanket bans on arms in such common use….` The U.S. agrees with that, but argues that the ban should have been held unconstitutional as applied, not facially.

"Mr. Benson possessed a 30-round magazine, but that number is statutorily irrelevant, as the District bans any magazine holding over 10 rounds...."
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"While the courts have not questioned the government`s power to require a license to carry, the Benson court found that such license would not be issued unless the firearm was registered. The registration and licensing requirements were thus `infected` as a matter of law, regardless of policy arguments about `public safety` and pending prosecutions."

The above excerpts are from my latest Second Amendment Roundup blogpost, "U.S. Supports Rehearing in D.C. Magazine Ban Case" (4/8/26).
Read my whole post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste this link: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/04/08/second-amendment-roundup-u-s-supports-rehearing-in-d-c-magazine-ban-case/

Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com
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#BensonvDC #dccourtofappeals #2aviolation #historyandtradition #firearmregistration #gunregistration #magazinecapacity #magazinecapacityrestrictions #stephenhalbrook #secondamendmentroundup #nysrpavbruen #dcvheller #scotus #firearmsmagazine #gunmagazine #magazineban #largecapacitymagazine #commonusefirearms #commonusetest #historicaltradition #firearmregulation #2acase #2achallenge #2alaw #therighttobeararms #firearmslaw #firearmslaws #righttobeararms #guncontrol #gunregulations ...

In Bruen, Justice Samuel Alito questioned "why Justice Breyer in dissent thought it relevant to `to recount the mass shootings that have occurred in recent years,` asking:

" `Does the dissent think that laws like New York’s prevent or deter such atrocities? Will a person bent on carrying out a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home? And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator.`

"That referred to the racially motivated murder of ten victims, mostly African Americans, in Buffalo, New York, in 2022. Having passed the background check, the killer purchased a rifle that was compliant with New York law but converted it into an `assault weapon` configuration by using a power drill. He then murdered his victims at a grocery store, anticipating no resistance because New York law generally denied the right of civilians to carry handguns.

"As Justice Alito further wrote: `And while the dissent seemingly thinks that the ubiquity of guns and our country’s high level of gun violence provide reasons for sustaining the New York law, the dissent appears not to understand that it is these very facts that cause law-abiding citizens to feel the need to carry a gun for self-defense.` ”

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022) quoted in Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 59.
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#nysrpavbruen #newyorkgunlaws #nygunlaws #nycgunlaws #justicealito #justicesamuelalito #samuelaliteo #justicebreyer #massshootings #gunviolence #firearmsrestrictions #concealedcarry #opencarry #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 #2acases #firearmsban #gunban #therightofthepeople #2ndamendment #righttobeararms #2aright #2ndamendmentright #2asupporter #2ndamendmentviolation #2aprotection #2ndamendmentprotection #armedselfdefense #lawabidingcitizens ...

I can`t imagine smoking a cigar while hunting, but this dog seems to be all about celebrating his day. This illustration is from a vintage German postcard titled "Vermenschlichter Dackel als Jäger" (Humanized Dachshund as Hunter), created by the Leipzig artist Arthur Thiele (1860–1936). Thiele was known for humorous anthropomorphic animal postcards in the early 1900s. He especially liked using Dachshunds, a German dog breed, in his illustrations.
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#righttohunt #ArthurThiele #gundogs #gundogoutdoors #gundogoftheday #gundogsofinsta #vintagedogart #germanartists #huntingillustration #gamehunting #huntinglife #hunter #huntingisfun #huntingdog #huntingdogs #fieldhunting #outdoorsforthesoul #huntingquotes #dachshundhunter #dachshundillustration ...

Allen Dulles was "the last American to enter Switzerland legally before the Nazi occupation of Vichy France. Although he was officially attached to the American legation, Dulles described his real tasks as an assignment to `gather information about the Nazi and Fascist enemy and quietly to render such support and encouragement as I could to the resistance forces working against the Nazis and Fascists in the areas adjacent to Switzerland.` "

Dulles, who was aware that the Nazis made plans to invade Switzerland in 1943, reflected: "At the peak of its mobilization Switzerland had 850,000 men under arms or standing in reserve, a fifth of the total population.... That Switzerland did not have to fight was thanks to its will to resist and its large investment of men and equipment in its own defense. The cost to Germany of an invasion of Switzerland would certainly have been very high."

From Halbrook, Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II, pgs. 172, 181, 210.
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#allendulles #allenwelshdulles #espionage #ww2spy #wwiihistory #ww2history #naziinvasion #targetswitzerland #switzerlandmobilization #swissmobilization #resistanceforces
#armedswiss #swissresistance #nazigermany #resistance #naziinvasion #nazioccupation #Switzerlandhistory #swissarmywwii #swissarmy #armedneutrality #swissarmedneutrality #vichyfrance #islandofdemocracy ...