The Supreme Court of the United States announced this morning its 5-4 decision in favor of the plaintiffs in McDonald v. Chicago.

The short news is, “We Won!”

The slightly longer news is, the Chicago handgun ban wasn’t actually struck down, but the case was remanded to the relevant Federal court. Since that court must now incorporate the highest court’s ruling, it’s pretty much the same as if the ban HAD been, well, banned.

The fight, of course, is not over. Mayor Daley has vowed to oppose it in every way. Expect red tape the consistency of concertina wire when you attempt to acquire a handgun and register it in Chicago: insanely high registration fees, and the equivalent of a Master’s Degree in Firearms Safety from Harvard, if there was such a thing. There will almost certainly have to be follow-up litigation to implement practical change. “I think we need one more Supreme Court case on guns to make it clear to the circuit courts what they mean about reasonable regulation. That will take about 3-5 years to percolate,” pro-gun attorney Steve Harris wrote me today.

Nonetheless, activists for the civil rights of gun owners have every reason to celebrate. While the gun-banners are already putting their pathetic spin on it, the reality is that in conjunction with SCOTUS’ previous landmark decision in Heller, precedent has been set for other onerous laws that limit rights at levels below the Federal to be successfully challenged and set aside.

Backwoods Home founder Dave Duffy told me this morning when the decision was announced, “It’s a great day for freedom.” I’ll second that.

Let’s not forget that it was the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association that brought the suit, with the NRA jumping in later. SAF’s Dave Workman offers THIS commentary.

Read the decision in its entirety HERE.

Share or Bookmark

As we wait with bated breath for the United States Supreme Court’s anticipated Monday announcement of its decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, it may be an opportune time to listen to the pro-gun owners’ rights plaintiffs in this vitally important case. All four of them discuss their position in detail on the ProArms Podcast at

Otis Mcdonald

Colleen Lawson

David Lawson & Adam Orlov

It’s also a great time to listen to the following links from acclaimed commentator John Stossel.

Your Right to Own a Gun

Should Students Have Guns on Campus?

More Guns, Less Crime

Does Gun Control Make Us Safer?

Right to Carry Arms Reduces Crime?

At first, he was against us.  Then, he examined the evidence and the facts with an open mind.

Now, he is for us.

This says something important.

Link to Stossel.

Share or Bookmark

The reader commentary on the blog entry located just below this one, about senior citizens with six-shooters, gives me hope that there are some “young guns” who haven’t consigned the old ways to “the dustbin of history.” Some other recent events point in the same direction.

While I was teaching at the Reichard family’s Sand Burr Gun Ranch, at the end of the first week the top shot in class was Denny Reichard’s son in law, Austin Gibbons. The kid used a Smith & Wesson Model 386 revolver to beat everyone on the range (including me, on tie-breaker, the little brat!). His gun was chambered for .357 Magnum and had a SNUB BARREL no less, and having seen him shoot in the past, there’s no doubt in my mind that if he’d shot full Magnum loads instead of .38 Specials, the outcome would have been the same.

The same week, I shot the Indiana State IDPA Championships in the Enhanced Service Revolver division, using a Smith & Wesson Performance Center Model 625 revolver, caliber .45. Got whupped down into third place by a couple of younger guys using the same archaic technology: Pete White, whom I would describe as being in the “prime of life” age group, won the division overall. Right behind him was Caleb Giddings, a young buck who can be seen currently on The History Channel in their cool new series, Top Shots.

Just a few days ago, at the Carolina Cup in Oxford, NC, I watched Randi Rogers shoot the High Female score among a record field of 330 contestants and more than 30 women. Randi – in her early 20s now – performed that feat with a Glock 34 9mm semiautomatic pistol. However, she couldn’t be there for the awards ceremony on Saturday evening because she had flown West to compete in a major event of the discipline that is her first love: Cowboy Action Shooting. There, she uses SINGLE ACTION “frontier style” revolvers…and it was there, as a young teen, that she established her dominance in that immensely enjoyable and nostalgic sport, by beating the men and winning national championships.

Young people who dominate their disciplines in the shooting sports, with old-fashioned guns. Sniff…excuse me while a happy old man wipes a tear from the bags and wrinkles under his eyes and mutters, “It’s good to see the next generation understand the old values.”

Young Austin Gibbons kicks young and old butt alike with his short barrel S&W revolver. There are 60 timed shots in that target.

Twenty-something police officer Matt Morgan has won many trophies with the Glock he carries on duty, but recently had his S&W Model 66 .357 Magnum revolver worked over by Dennis Reichard for recreational shooting.

In her early twenties, Randi Rogers (shown here at last year’s IDPA National Championships) wins national titles with her Glock 9mm, but shot her way to fame with single action revolvers.

Share or Bookmark

One of my favorite stops on my teaching tour every year is the Sand Burr Gun Ranch in Rochester, Indiana. The facility is a shooting park with rustic classroom, five ranges, and a gun shop that makes you feel as if you’ve taken a time machine back to the 1950s. Founder Denny Reichard does his gunsmithing there, doing action smoothing work that’s as good as you’ll find anywhere in the world.

The resident teaching crew, for the most part, are gun geezers, and they carry classic Smith & Wesson large caliber revolvers. Well, “when in Rome…”  For the first of the two classes I taught in June, I alternated between two Model 625 S&W revolvers, chambered for the .45 Auto cartridge and quickly reloadable with six-shot moon clips. Denny’s trademark gun is a 6” barrel S&W .44 Magnum that he has carried for most of his 36 years of police work that will soon end in honorable retirement. (He’s kinda slowing down, and only carries the one. For much of his career, he carried two at a time. He won the Indiana State Action Shooting Championship several times with one or another of those Dirty Harry guns. The difference was, “Dirty Harry” shot blanks. Denny carries 180 grain Magnum hollow points that leave the long barrels at 1600 feet per second).

Also on the crew were Dave LaRue and George Voltz. George was carrying a Reichard-tuned Model 629 S&W Mountain Gun in .44 Magnum, lightened for concealed carry with a Reichard-installed Scandium cylinder. (George jokes that since he’s old and all, he needs to carry less weight or he might break a hip.) Dave is content with a .45 caliber S&W with moon clips similar to mine, a Thunder Ranch Special tuned by Denny with classic-style wooden stocks cut to fit his hand.

As they said in the first “Die Hard” “Lethal Weapon” movie, revolvers are what a lot of old guys like to carry. Only six shots…but six for sure, and if you use these large calibers, six that hit hard. With roughly a couple of centuries of handgun shooting experience between us, we’ve learned to hit what we shoot at, and have accumulated a collective history of doing so. When you figure out how to master a relatively heavy double action trigger pull, you’re better prepared to teach the next generation how to distribute trigger pressure on their 21^st Century “automatics.” Geezers are supposed to pass on The History Of The Old Ways, after all.

If we hadn’t been so tired after each day of class, we would have gone to the park and sat on those wooden benches and talked about old times, as befits people of our years.

…Feeding the pigeons…

…Trolling for muggers…

From left: Denny Reichard, 57, with .44 Mag; Dave LaRue; 65, with .45; Mas, almost 62, with .45, and George Voltz, 78, with .44 Mag.

From top: Denny’s .44 Mag; Dave’s Thunder Ranch .45; George’s Scandium-cylinder .44 Mag Mountain Gun; Mas’ Greco Custom .45.

On the cusp of retirement, Denney Reichard leads a parade in the city he serves, Rochester, Indiana. On his hip is his .44 Magnum duty gun, in a holster of his own design.

Share or Bookmark

There have been indications that America’s enemies intend multiple terrorist attacks in this country, patterned after the 11/26-29/07 incident in Mumbai, India that left 168 civilians and authorities dead, and 308 wounded. It was perpetrated by ten members of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba group, armed with explosives and automatic rifles. Only one of the terrorists survived.

Note that some of the responding police in India were unarmed, and some others were equipped with hastily-issued WWI technology Lee-Enfield bolt action rifles, and cartridges issued by the handful. They were poorly trained by American standards. By contrast, American police have gone heavily to coordinated “active shooter response” training since the Columbine tragedy more than a decade ago, and AR15-type patrol rifles are widely distributed. US law enforcement can be expected to respond much more swiftly and effectively to a Mumbai-style incident.

In India, the citizens were effectively unarmed and helpless against the ten terrorists who slaughtered them at will. Armed Americans are likely to respond differently, particularly in the Southwest where there are indications that such potential terrorists have already crossed the border, and may “stage” near it. In Southern Arizona recently, it became apparent to me that more ranchers and even townsfolk are now storing rifles in their cars, and carrying handguns routinely. They can be expected to shoot back, an assessment that comes not from this writer’s guesswork, but from history.

Northfield, MN September 1, 1876: The Jesse James/Cole Younger gang raids the community, and armed citizens use guns to drive off the most feared bandits of the time. It ends with two dead on each side.  Coffeyville, KS October 5, 1892: The five-man Dalton Gang, armed with Winchester repeaters (the “assault rifles” of the day), attempts multiple bank robbery and is annihilated in minutes by the rifle fire of armed citizens, with only one wounded gang member surviving. Death toll is four on each side.

Fast forward to August 1, 1966: the Texas Tower massacre perpetrated primarily with a long-range rifle by Charles Whitman. When his position in the 300+-foot tower proves impregnable to outgunned police with .38s and shotguns, rifle fire from armed citizens on the ground pins Whitman down and stops his death toll at 14 until citizen Allen Crum, armed with a .30 caliber rifle, leads police officers to the top of the tower, where they kill the sniper.

An American Mumbai? Yes, it could happen, and seems more likely than ever based on recent intelligence projections. If it does occur, look for a MUCH faster and more decisive response by American police than those of India…and if it happens near the Arizona or Texas border, look for bullets from armed citizens’ hunting and defense rifles in the bodies of at least some of the dead terrorists.

Cochise County, Arizona deputy, right, shows visiting out of town cop Colt AR15 with ACOG reflex sight and MagPul magazine that is standard equipment for all deputies in his agency. Yes, the cops on that Southern “Edge” are ready… Photo courtesy American Handgunner magazine.

Share or Bookmark