Last month, Oregon resident Wes Knodel hosted a show at the Tacoma Dome that did not require background checks for anyone buying a firearm from a private seller. The show was held just minutes from another gun show, hosted by Washington Arms Collectors, which requires a state background check before all gun purchases.

The City Council voted May 6 to close the so-called “gun show loophole,” at least on property owned or managed by the city.

Since then, the Tacoma City Council members say they have heard almost all positive feedback on their decision.

That changed Tuesday night when two men said they disagreed with the council’s action — and Arlington resident Jacob Kukuk said he planned to sue the city to reverse the decision.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/05/16/3198713/can-council-require-background.html

A new web series for young people produced by the National Rifle Association is being widely panned by critics as a phony and out-of-touch attempt at messaging. And for good reason -- the NRA's Noir is really about the same themes the NRA has been ranting on for decades, that the NRA is the only group that can stand up for persecuted gun owners and save America in the face of machinations by anti-gun elites.

Recently launched on the NRA's new "Freestyle" network, Noir promises to report on "the latest on firearms, fashion, pop culture and other hot topics." The show is hosted by NRA News commentator Colion Noir -- best known for his bizarre claim Martin Luther King Jr. was a gun proponent -- along with co-host Amy Robbins and is sponsored by gun manufacturer Mossberg.

Early reviews of Noir report that it reeks of inauthenticity. Indeed the 16-minute premiere episode is rife with product placements and lame pop culture and sports references, all awkwardly interspersed between features on high-powered, expensive-looking firearms.

In one cringe-worthy moment, Noir complains that the cardboard box his $5,000 rifle came in looks like "a Build-A-Bear beginning set of a homeless guy's apartment." During a glowing review of a compact Smith & Wesson handgun, Noir analogizes the pistol to Denver Nuggets guard Nate Robinson: "Sure he is small and unimposing, but the moment you drop your guard he will tear your ass up." There is also an obligatory twerking reference.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/16/how-the-nra-is-repackaging-its-angry-paranoid-m/199356

Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy turned over 10 guns to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Friday, and he appears to have been preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

The list of 10 guns, as posted by Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, includes a number of shotguns and hunting rifles.

But the first item on the list, the Tavor SAR .223 (pictured), doesn’t look like something you take deer hunting (unless you really hate deer).

Hardy’s accuser in his domestic violence arrest said he threw her into a bed containing 25 to 30 guns, so this list is obviously only a third of that amount.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/16/greg-hardy-turns-over-10-guns-to-cops-after-arrest/

Conservative media are touting a video from the right-wing Media Research Center purporting to show that vendors at gun shows always refuse to sell firearms to felons and other disqualified persons and that legislation to expand the background check system is unnecessary. But according to prior undercover reports, when private sellers at gun shows were not aware they were on camera, a substantial portion agreed to sell guns to people they believed could not legally possess them.

Vendors who have a Federal Firearms License are required to perform background checks on their customers, but so-called private sellers who say they are not "engaged in the business" of selling firearms have no such requirement at gun shows in 33 states. This discrepancy has been termed the "gun show loophole" and is the reason narco-terrorists, illegal gun traffickers and other dangerous individuals seek out unregulated sales at gun shows. The most infamous use of the loophole is the 1999 Columbine High School massacre where all four guns involved were passed through a local gun show by private sellers.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has estimated between 25 and 50 percent of vendors at gun shows sell without a background check. Adding sales over the Internet and through newspaper classified adverts, a substantial proportion of firearms are transferred without a background check in the United States. Federal legislation to expand the background check system to cover private sales failed in the Senate last year.

For an April 7 video report, MRCTV's Dan Joseph brought a camera crew to The Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly, Virginia to "dispel some of the myths that some people may have about gun shows." Joseph conducted on-camera interviews with several vendors who all said that they would not sell firearms to prohibited persons, with many describing how the background check process would weed out such individuals.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/13/conservative-media-give-cover-for-illegal-sales/199288

Reports that the handgun used by Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev originated in Maine should come as no surprise given guns are routinely trafficked from states with weak gun laws to states with stronger gun laws like Massachusetts. Meanwhile, attempts to create a federal law to crack down on gun trafficking have been stifled by the National Rifle Association.

Following the April 15, 2013, bombings that left three dead and hundreds wounded, the Tsarnaev brothers attempted to elude a massive police manhunt. On the evening of April 18 a Ruger handgun was used by the brothers to kill MIT police officer Sean Collier. Hours later the pistol was used again in a firefight that left MBTA officer Richard Donohue seriously wounded. On May 12, Los Angeles Times federal law enforcement and terrorism reporter Richard Serrano reported that the firearm was purchased at a Maine gun store, and "passed" to a well-known Portland, ME gang leader, before being obtained by Tsarnaev.

Massachusetts has the sixth strongest gun laws in the United States and also has the second lowest gun death rate, according to rankings by The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. When guns are used in crimes in Massachusetts, they are most often trafficked from other states (although the National Rifle Association's official state affiliate has denied this regularly occurs).

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was able to determine the origin of 999 Massachusetts crime guns in 2012; 453 came from in-state while 546 were trafficked from other states. Maine accounted for the second largest number of out of state gun traces after New Hampshire. The top six crime gun importers to Massachusetts -- New Hampshire, Maine, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- all received a D or worse grade in the Brady Campaign/LCPGV gun law ranking. Overall the rankings found a correlation between weak gun laws and the exporting of crime guns into states with strong gun laws.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/14/interstate-gun-trafficking-the-nra-and-the-bost/199303

It was a long week in Atlanta, so I headed to a dirty unkempt bar to start “taking a bit of the edge off.” Now, I’m getting ready to have my first of many drinks when my periphery catches a scene so confusing, it makes me think I should just drive home and lay off the bourbon for a while. Playing on the TV is an overview of a bill recently passed by Georgia’s legislature that will take effect starting in July.

The law, labeled by liberals as the “Guns Everywhere Law” and by conservatives as the “Safe Carry Protection Act,” allows licensed gun owners to take their weapons into bars and churches. It also even lets people pack heat inside government buildings, schools, and some areas of airports.

I have to admit that I panicked a little bit: how was no one else finding the scene of a fellow dipsomaniac packing a Smith & Wesson at a bar– AT A BAR – strange?!

After signing the bill into law, Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal (R), stated that, “Our state has some of the best protections for gun owners in the United States. And today we strengthen those rights protected by our nation’s most revered founding document.” The NRA called it, “the most comprehensive pro-gun reform legislation introduced in recent history.”

http://www.article-3.com/the-guns-everywhere-law-keeps-us-safe-nowhere-913902

An 11-year-old Oklahoma boy came home to his grandmother's Tulsa apartment with a bad progress report from his school. He gave his grandmother the report and while she sat reading, authorities say he went to her room, grabbed a .22-caliber gun, before returning and shooting her in the back of the head.

"All I saw was a big bang of a flash and heard it, and I knew I was shot in the back of my head," the grandmother, Annie Mougell-Walker told local station KOTV, after being treated at a local hospital.

While Mougell-Walker, 42, was able to return home the same day of the shooting Monday wearing a neck brace, the bullet remained logged in her head, the New York Daily News reports.

Her grandchild was arrested and charged with shooting with intent to kill, police told the Daily News.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/05/_11_year_old_shoots_grandmother_after_getting_in_trouble_in_school.html

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop thinks the city's new push for more data from gun companies that supply weapons to the police department will help "shape the dialogue" nationwide on gun safety, according to today's Wall Street Journal.

The city initiative, which Fulop devised last year, seeks information from the gun manufacturers such as how they dispose of old weapons and whether they make assault weapons available for sale to civilians. Gun-rights groups have protested, calling the plan political.

Fulop, who advocates for stricter gun-control measures, told the Wall Street Journal the city can change the firearms industry.

"It shows municipalities and police departments have the ability to shape the dialogue," he said.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2014/05/jersey_city_mayor_wants_to_shape_the_dialogue_on_gun_control.html

More than a decade ago, New Jersey mandated that handgun merchants switch to selling personalized “smart” handguns once the technology became viable. That effort to make firearms safer for gun owners and their families now has provoked a nasty and dangerous crusade to keep the guns off the market.

The latest victim of this campaign of intimidation is Andy Raymond, co-owner of Engage Armament, a Rockville, Md., gun store specializing in custom assault rifles. No gun control advocate, Raymond decided to carry the Armatix iP1, a handgun that requires its handler to wear a matching watch for it to work, to provide his potential customers a wide choice of firearms.

Instead of sales revenue, however, he got death threats from gun nuts who do not want to see the New Jersey law come into effect. If no one in the country sells the iP1, the law will remain dormant. As did the owner of a Los Angeles-area gun store who was also set to carry the smart gun, Raymond gave in, deciding not to sell the product. When The Washington Post asked him if he would ever carry the iP1 under different circumstances, he replied, “I just can’t.”

Now New Jersey’s lawmakers are thinking about lifting the mandate, with the idea that doing so would blunt the opposition that has cohered around smart guns and ease their entry into the market. Once more consumers know about, experience and trust the technology, the thinking goes, more of them will choose products with simple electronic safeguards against unauthorized use. The number of suicides, accidents and other tragedies, which kill thousands every year, would drop.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/05/editorial_new_jersey_should_be.html

The National Rifle Association, no stranger to bad publicity, is under fire from the media for its plan to bankroll its own TV and Internet media channel that plans to launch a variety of shows promoting different approaches to firearm culture.

The NRA has spent months promoting NRA Freestyle, a new multimedia initiative that, according to its website, is a place “where adventure, style and culture collide.” Shows slated to begin soon are “Media Lab,” featuring a Navy SEAL’s commentary on violence in TV and movies, “NRA Sharp,” and “I Am Forever,” about a teenage girl on “her journey toward personal protection.”

The show to attract the most attention, though, has been “Noir,” a talking heads show featuring Colion Noir and Amy Robbins, who says her intention is to “highlight women shooters and our influence in the gun world.” The shows premieres later this week, but Noir, an African-American, has been the subject of an online conversation for his new position in a world seemingly made up of, as he put it, “old, fat white guys.”

He’s attracted more than 35,000 Twitter followers, 181,000 Facebook likes, and over 200,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. It was YouTube where he made himself known, posting short videos in which he describes himself as an “Urban Gun Enthusiast,” and sermonizes about the ridiculousness of a certain politician’s anti-gun comment, for example, or on how powerful a specific gun is.

http://rt.com/usa/157804-nra-creates-tv-channel/