Lock and Load
Here we bring you all things Second Amendment because without the Second Amendment nothing else will matter.
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Virginia Governor Gets Bad News on Background Check Bill
Cam Edwards – Bearing Arms
Since the Virginia General Assembly approved a revised version of the bill last week, there’s been a whole lot of confusion about Virginia’s HB 1525, which raises the age to purchase handguns from 18 to 21 and requires the Virginia State Police to resume conducting background checks on private sales. Governor Abigail Spanberger’s amended version contained language that declared the act an emergency, which would allow it to take effect immediately, but the legislature did not approve the changes with a 4/5ths vote, which is supposedly what’s required in order for that “emergency” provision to be adopted.
The Virginia legislative website lists the effective date for HB 1525 as July 1, but the Virginia State Police put out a notice on Tuesday that declared the law is already in effect. That was the good news for Spanberger.
The bad news? The VSP won’t be resuming background checks on private sales of firearms anytime soon… at least not without a court order. Read more here.
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Illinois Judge Rules Shooting Was Self-Defense, but Armed Citizen Could Still Face Prison Sentence
Cam Edwards / BEARING ARMS
A judge in Adams County, Illinois has cleared a man charged for shooting two people in a confrontation at a shopping center in 2024, but the armed citizen is still potentially facing several years behind bars.
Alan Christopher Pacheco and his girlfriend were at a TJ Maxx in Quincy, Illinois when his girlfriend complained that a man was staring at her. Pacheco confronted Islam Woodson and the pair exchanged words before Woodson’s cousin Terence Horton got involved as well; allegedly hinting that he had a gun in a bag he was carrying and threatening Pacheco.
Pacheco and his girlfriend disengaged from the two men and continued shopping. But when the got to their car and Pacheco tried to back out of hte parking space, he saw Horton and Woodson in a vehicle that was stopped behind his own car, preventing him from backing up.
That’s when the defense says Horton and Woodson walked up to the driver’s side…Read more here.
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New Pew Research Confirms ‘Assault Weapons’ Rarely Used in Crimes
Cam Edwards – Bearing Arms
Pew Research has released some interesting and new collated data on gun-involved crimes in the United States in 2024, and their stats confirm what Second Amendment advocates and those opposed to bans on so-called assault weapons have been saying for decades: they are rarely used in crimes of any kind in the United States.
According to Pew, rifles of all kinds (including so-called assault weapons) were involved in just 3% of gun-related homicides in 2024. Handguns were involved in 53%, with “undetermined” firearms involved in 42% of homicides.
The Supreme Court rejected the idea that handguns could be banned just because they were the most popular choice of weapon for criminals, but gun control advocates are arguing that a category of commonly-owned firearms that is much less popular among violent criminals can be outlawed.
Of course, it’s not garden variety criminals who the gun control lobby invoke in their…Read more here.
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Arkansas Lawmakers Haven’t Forgotten ATF Raid That Led to Death of Airport Executive
Cam Edwards / BEARING ARMS
It’s been more than two years since Little Rock airport director Brian Malinowski was shot and killed during an early morning ATF raid on his home, sparked by Malinowski’s private sales of firearms at area gun shows.
The ATF described Malinowski as a “major gun trafficker” and an unlicensed dealer, and the agency’s raid took place just about a month before the Biden administration finalized a rule treating almost every gun owner who even offers a firearm for sale as someone “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms and subject to acquiring a Federal Firearms License. At the time of the raid, though, only those whose principal objective in selling firearms was “livelihood and profit” were required to get an FFL, and Malinowski’s primary source of income, by far, was his job as Executive Director of the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock.
Malinowski’s widow has maintained that she and her husband believed they were being…Read more here.
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