Viewpoints

If you had a class for 'Weapons Designed by a Committee of Lawyers,' I’d second the nomination of the Phoenix HP22A. In the 'fire' position, you can’t remove the magazine. In the 'safe' position, you can’t rack the slide nor drop the hammer. Under stress, I hope one possesses all of one’s cognitive and psychomotor skills, because you’ll need them all to make this weapon function after a failure. We teach clearing drills for fail to fire, fail to feed, stove-pipes and dual feeds. With the trusty Phoenix, (different model, same safeties), we’ve been there and it ain’t pretty! Maybe if we’d had the manual to study, we could have looked less like a beagle

The upcoming Supreme Court review of District of Columbia v. Heller, which will examine Washington, D.C.’s gun prohibition, has allowed a variety of views about the Constitution to creep into the sunlight for examination. Herewith are three excerpts on what the 2nd Amendment means, and doesn’t mean. Two of these we at Gun Tests wholeheartedly agree with—Halbrook’s and the NRA’s views. One we consider dangerously misguided—Gaillard—but we include it because we need to know what the other side is thinking. We start with the worst first:

The legislation requires federal agencies to provide relevant data for use in the NICS system, a database that stores the names of individuals prohibited by federal law from purchasing or possessing firearms.

Things look a lot better for the Second Amendment than they do for the Republican party. A race-by-race analysis of the Senate suggests that, while party control of the Senate could change, the Senate is very likely to retain a pro-gun working majority.

A new agreement between NSSF's ranges division, the National Association of Shooting Ranges (NASR), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows shooting ranges to submit Environmental Stewardship Plans anonymously.

Forty million Americans today are active in shooting sports and hunting. During their lifetimes, the total retail value of their recreational activities will top $4 trillion, projects the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a nonprofit trade association for the firearm industry.

The 'Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2007' (HR 4900) legislation represents a major advance in protecting the rights of firearms dealers.

Ron Sieg, Flagstaff Regional Supervisor, will present issues associated with lead from spent ammunition.

I am generally a disciplined gun buyer—you don’t see the range of guns that comes through this office without having some restraint, else you’d be living in a tent with gun safes all around to block the wind. But this year, I have a powerful craving that might only be satisfied with the acquisition of new blued steel. For that, I blame my cohorts, whose names appear at the right. Each Gun Tests writer has his own thing, and it is their collective knowledge and enthusiasm that threatens my wallet this year. As I redacted the material in the Guns of the Year ‘07 feature that begins opposite, I got re-interested in guns whose specs I’d reviewed before—largely because I could trust what I was reading as the informed opinion of someone who knew more about a given gun than I did.

Fear about guns seems greatest among those who know the least about them. Children face greater dangers from common household items than from guns. In 2004, the overwhelming number of children under 10 who died-more than 1,400 children-were killed by cars. More than 90 drowned in bathtubs. Perspective: In 2003, 28 children under 10 died from accidental gunshot wounds.… Weird product news of the day: Savage Sports Corporation has purchased the Eugene, Oregon-based BowTech company. Other Savage subsidiaries: Savage Arms (centerfire rifles), Savage Range Systems/PortaTarget (shooting ranges), Stevens (budget firearms), and Fox (high-end shotguns). Savage is the largest rifle manufacturer in the U.S.…

In early September, the District of Columbia formally asked the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of Parker v. District of Columbia. The case is now officially called District of Columbia v. Heller. History: On March 9, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in Parker v. District of Columbia that D.C.s prohibition on the possession of a handgun, and keeping any gun assembled and loaded in the home (the condition required for self-defense), are unconstitutional. The court agreed that the Second Amendment protects a pre-existing right of individuals to possess handguns.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it will significantly revise a recent proposal for new "explosives safety" regulations that caused serious concern among gun owners. The proposed rules included restrictions that would shut down most gun shops, sporting goods stores, and ammunition dealers. After continued publicity and after dozens of members of Congress complained about the rules impact, OSHA decided to go back to the drawing board.