National Shooting Sports Foundation NSSF

By Larry Keane

The firearm industry is leveraging unique partnerships to help firearm retailers become part of the safety solutions in their communities. iStock-648978888
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- The firearm industry is leveraging unique partnerships to help firearm retailers become part of the safety solutions in their communities.

Through Real Solutions the firearm industry trade association partners with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), for a campaign called Operation Secure Store (OSS). The goal is to deter and reduce the instances of theft and burglary of firearms from retailers. These partnerships have had a positive impact on reducing the criminal misuse of firearms. After all, local firearm retailers live and work in the same communities and want those neighborhoods to be free of crime too.

Resources for Safer Communities
More than 21 million customers since last January visited a firearm retail store and lawfully purchased a firearm. That figure includes more than 8.4 million buyers who did so for the first time. Firearm retailers work with NSSF on several safety initiatives, but OSS is one that’s critical to business vitality and community safety at the same time.
Operation Secure Store works with firearm retailers to enhance their operational security and identify potential risks to their businesses. The program focuses on five key areas:

Education and Awareness, so retailers understand potential security threats and how to address them;
Assessment and Risk Analysis, provided to identify vulnerabilities and security weaknesses;
Planning and Strategy, to assist retailers to develop an action plan to address any potential issues;
Engagement, encouraging retailers to work with their communities and customers to build trust; and,
Response, providing retailers timely response services in the event of any criminal activity.

By focusing on these key areas, firearm retailers can ensure their store and inventory are available and open the next business day when customers begin lining up.
Matching Rewards
In the event of a smash-and-grab burglary, the first priority is recovering the stolen firearms and bringing the criminals to justice. As part of Operation Secure Store, the NSSF matches ATF reward offers for information leading to the arrest and conviction of criminals that steal guns from retailers.

“ATF works closely with members of the firearms industry to curb the criminal acquisition and misuse of firearms,” said ATF Acting Special Agent Toby Taylor.  “ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence will leverage investigative resources across state lines combined with community partnerships to recover the stolen firearms.”

Business-Crushing Laws
Laws are often proposed under the guise of “gun safety,” but are really gun control. This is especially the case when local governments mandate onerous storage regulations on gun retailers that can make it impossible for small business owners to follow because of cost. The Littleton, Colo., city council passed an ordinance to force gun retailers to place their inventory in a “locked safe, gun cabinet or secured safe room after business hours.” This one-size-fits-all policy is unworkable for many retailers and will likely force businesses to shut down. It’s gun rights elimination by another means. 
Operation Secure Store initiatives and the efforts of gun retailers using available NSSF and the ATF resources have helped to reduce crime and break-ins at gun stores. According to data available for 2017 through 2019, the number of firearm retail burglaries decreased year-over-year, from 577 down to 343. The number of firearms stolen by criminals has trended down over the same period, from 7,841 in 2017 down to 4,490 in 2019.
Criminals are paying for their crimes too. In similar available data, the number of criminals arrested for firearm retailer burglaries, according to ATF data, jumped from 133 in 2016 to 280 during 2017. Those arrested for state-level firearm burglaries matched the trend, rising from 114 to 137 over the same period.
The firearm industry continues to believe Real Solutions lead to safe communities and will continue partnering with the ATF and community retailers to ensure Americans can safely exercise their Second Amendment rights and gun stores are safe and secure to provide the outlet to do so.

About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By Larry Keane

New York is an anti-gun dystopia. IMG iStock-884181314
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is feeling the heat for more than just his COVID scandal. He’s also dodging his citizens’ demands for reducing crime while at the same time denying them their Second Amendment rights.

Gov. Cuomo’s contempt for gun owners and the firearm industry dates back over two decades to his time as Housing and Urban Development Secretary for former President Bill Clinton and has continued throughout his tenure as New York’s top executive. Now he’s announced he’s eyeing a run for a fourth term next year. But as New Yorkers face a spiking violent crime epidemic and severely limited gun rights due to Cuomo’s flawed, and ironically named, NY SAFE Act, New York’s top executive assuaged Empire State gun owners’ concerns with, “You figure it out!”

Public Safety Whiplash
New York City residents can’t be blamed for their heightened concerns about rising crime. Throughout 2020, looters, rioters, and criminals demonstrated they aren’t worried about law enforcement or repercussions. In Gotham, violent criminals were already being released from prison early because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many were re-arrested quickly for committing new violent crimes. That was on top of New York state’s bail reform law signed by Gov. Cuomo making it even easier for criminals to get an “out of jail” pass like a frequent customer card at a sandwich shop. All the while, law-abiding New York residents watched and paid the price again and again. Over 450 businesses were destroyed between mid-May and mid-June.
Finally, in June 2020, following months of escalating violence, New York City’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his plan to cut $1 billion from law enforcement’s budget.

He proclaimed, “I’m excited to say we have a plan that can achieve real reform, that can achieve real redistribution…” Meanwhile, Gov. Cuomo sat on the sidelines of public safety.

Expect the Expected
It’s no surprise Gov. Cuomo failed to take action. His antigun record is clear on leaving New York gun owners high-and-dry when it comes to their rights and ability to protect themselves. It began during his tenure as HUD Secretary for President Clinton when he organized a scheme to have 3,200 public housing authorities sue firearm manufacturers blaming them for crimes committed within those housing facilities. Congress put a stop to that farce, but it didn’t stop Gov. Cuomo’s crusade against the Second Amendment.
Fast forward to 2013 when Gov. Cuomo strong-armed his New York SAFE Act gun control scheme through Albany in the middle of the night, restricting New Yorkers’ ability to purchase and possess firearms. That policy has been challenged in the courts often, including the magazine capacity limit provision being struck down by a New York federal judge in 2013 and the law again being rebuffed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2015.
Most recently, Gov. Cuomo shuttered New York firearm businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, deeming 5,500 total jobs in New York “non-essential” even though the industry is built on supplying and supporting the fulfillment of the essential Second Amendment.
If there were any remaining doubt Gov. Cuomo holds a special disdain for the entire firearm industry, when Ilion, N.Y.-based Remington Arms offered the governor to reconfigure their manufacturing facility to supply much-needed personal protective equipment and ventilators to ease the early supply burdens during the COVID crisis, he didn’t even answer the call.
New Yorkers are now demanding answers on his nursing home scandal that cost thousands of lives.
Failed Leadership
Now, New Yorkers are experiencing whiplash of their rights, slashed law enforcement resources, and top officials bickering about who is to blame for the public safety fiasco. Gov. Cuomo is doing his best to avoid any involvement as his constituents pay the price.

“All I’m saying to New York City is, you figure it out. You figure it out.” That was Gov. Cuomo’s response when asked about rising crime in New York City, the city’s previous cuts to law enforcement, and subsequent rehiring of police to patrol the city’s metro system. They’re experiencing an especially violent crime wave, including gruesome crimes by someone dubbed, “The A-Train Ripper.”
While Gov. Cuomo continues to leave New Yorkers vulnerable to the heinous actions of violent criminals, more than 21 million Americans elsewhere went to the gun store and left with a purchase, over 8.4 million for the first time, feeling more secure. Countless examples of gun owners using their firearms to protect their families, homes, and businesses have been seen through the past year as gun ownership reached a record high among a historically diverse population, while public support for restricting Second Amendment rights has fallen to its lowest level in many years
Gov. Cuomo has repeatedly made victims of New York voters. His hollow promises and vacuous policies left New Yorkers vulnerable. His empty answers expose him for what he truly is – an ideologue who refuses to recognize the reality of his own failure and the harm he has caused.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By Larry Keane

Biden’s one-two punch to destroy gun rights. IMG iStock 1006291908
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- President Joe Biden is throwing out just a few feeler jabs in his gun control fight. He’s talked of bans and repealing laws, which are certainly worthy of throwing up a guard to keep them from landing. Make no mistake. His fight plan is one of disciplined patience versus throwing haymakers.

He’s already setting up for a 1-2 combination that he believes would send the industry to the mat. He’s not looking to just win the round or the fight. He’s looking beyond the title. President Biden wants a knockout against the firearm industry that’s so painful, there’s no talk about a rematch.

President Biden is doing this by landing hard blows against the firearm industry’s ability to gain footing financially. He’s not fighting fair either. President Biden is swinging below the belt.
Round One
The president’s “be first” strategy started just eight days after he was sworn into office. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is structured to be independent of the Executive Branch so it isn’t vulnerable to political influence, hurriedly announced a “pause” of the Fair Access banking rule.
It was a convenient block of a rule that would have ended discriminatory lending practices targeted against the firearm industry and other industries. Banks have been denying services simply because the industry was out of political favor. This isn’t disqualification because the customer’s business was unlawful or poor credit risk, but because the customer’s business fell within an industry that “woke” corporate bank board members found distasteful.
The Fair Access rule would have made it a fair and even match-up. It would have stopped big banks from picking winners and losers based on executives’ personal politics and protected banks from outside pressure from special interest groups to take a dive when it came to seeking to do business with members of the firearm industry.
It put an end to the privatization of the illegal Operation Choke Point that was started by the Obama administration, run through the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that denied banking services to the firearm industry.
That’s like the referee loading up a fighter’s gloves right before the bout starts. But the ref got caught. When the Biden administration “paused” the Fair Access rule, they basically winked at the cornerman, letting him know that as long as the gloves are loaded up in the locker room, he’s not going to stop it.
Round Two
The Fair Access banking rule is just the first of two strikes intended to buckle the knees of the firearm industry. The second devastating shot is if President Biden gets his way and convinces Congress to repeal the bipartisan Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). This move would expose firearm and ammunition manufacturers and sellers to an avalanche of frivolous lawsuits by activist trial lawyers and gun control groups backed by their stable of big “white shoe” corporate law firms. The real intent is bankrupting the industry or, due to mounting legal fees, they are forced to throw in the towel and enter settlement agreements for court-imposed gun control measures. Repealing the bipartisan PLCAA would turn the ring into a no-holds-barred, no-rules, anything-goes cage match.
President Biden isn’t proposing holding criminals accountable for their horrific crimes but wants to allow special interest groups to exploit horrific crimes to land body blows against the firearm industry. It lines lawyers’ pockets and crushes businesses and jobs. This move does nothing to protect the public.

President Biden is blame-shifting. He’s shifting accountability for criminal actions away from the individual who committed a crime and putting it on manufacturers and retailers. To mix metaphors, it’s like suing Ford for the wrongful deaths caused by drunk drivers. The carmaker didn’t cause the criminal to commit a crime that tragically took a life. The same with firearm manufacturers and retailers. Criminals must be held accountable.
President Biden isn’t concerned about accountability. He’s looking to hit hard and if it means changing the rules to get his way, he’s not above landing kidney punches.
This fight is a rematch, however. The PLCAA was passed with broad bipartisan support in 2005 as a direct result of a wave of lawsuits filed by several dozen big city mayors in cahoots with the Brady Center and greedy trial lawyers looking for a payday.
Fighter Retire
This is what the firearm industry is facing. It is not a fair fight or one based on truth. It is going to be dirty. It is going to be emotional and it is going to be drawn out. It is, after all, the fight for the firearm industry’s very existence.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By Larry Keane

Smart guns are a dumb idea. IMG Jim Grant
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- President Joe Biden said he’s figured it all out. Guns can be made safe if the firearm industry would just team up with Silicon Valley to create bio-enabled so-called “smart guns.”

This is according to a long-buried interview with the Las Vegas Sun conducted during the presidential campaign. The information contained in it is just now coming to light and some of the findings might show why. President Biden, as a candidate, was making outlandish pie-in-the-sky claims about theoretical, unproven, and unreliable firearm technology.

President Biden claimed, according to this interview, “I also dealt with the folks in Silicon Valley; we have the capacity now to build any weapon where it can only be fired with your biometric marker. And that technology doesn’t violate anyone’s Second Amendment right at all. If you pass the background check, you can purchase a weapon which only you can pull the trigger.”

Smart Gun’s Failing Grade
He’s right on one count. As vice president, he did deal with tech leaders to attempt combining authorized-user, or so-called “smart gun” technology into firearms. It didn’t work. It didn’t get to the point where it could even be properly tested.
Then-Vice President Biden was in charge of an Obama administration task force to come up with gun control answers. One was to pursue so-called “smart gun” tech through the National Institutes of Justice. Officials there couldn’t even test a prototype because nothing was developed to the point where a safe and reliable product incorporating such a capability was available on the marketplace today. It still isn’t.
In 2017, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) Earl Griffith, chief of the Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division said the technology still wasn’t there. “Some critics out there would say we have the technology and it would work, but I’ll tell you we don’t think the technology is there yet,” Griffith said.
That was after the U.S. government sunk at least $12.6 million in research to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to work with the tech industry to produce a working solution. It still eludes, but that doesn’t keep President Biden from dreaming.
Campaign Promises
Early on in the presidential campaign, President Biden claimed, “… we have the capacity now in a James Bond-style to make sure no one can pull a trigger unless their DNA and fingerprint is on it.” That’s some serious science-fiction fantasy technology. It makes for a good movie. In real life, it’s clumsy and failure-prone at best and impossible at worst.
The president’s campaign-trail claim of DNA-enabled smart guns is completely false. No one has introduced technology that would match a DNA sample to activate a firearm. However, attempts have been made at fingerprint-style authorized user-technology. Think of the way a fingerprint is used to open a smartphone. Now, think of all the times a smartphone won’t open when a fingerprint is applied. A little wet, not the right angle, dirty, God-forbid bloody… all these can cause a failure of the fingerprint lock to not activate the technology.
In a life-or-death situation when an individual is under duress and trying to activate the tool that would save their lives, swiping a fingerprint screen is the last concern. If your iPhone doesn’t open, you’re inconvenienced. If your firearm doesn’t work at the moment you need it you could be dead. That’s why study and survey work on this topic show that reliability is of paramount concern. Because the technology is not yet sufficiently reliable, there is very limited consumer interest in purchasing authorized-user-equipped firearms.
Unwanted Mandate
Just five percent of those surveyed said they would consider purchasing a gun equipped with this technology. A full 70 percent said they had reliability concerns. They should. Firearms are more than just recreational target shooting tools. They’re also self-defense tools and in a life-or-death moment, they must work each and every time as intended. There is no room for a second attempt at a fingerprint match or battery failure.

Let me be explicitly clear, contrary to the false claims of gun control groups the firearm industry does not oppose the research and potential development of this technology being applied to firearms. Consumers are best left to decide what they want and the free market does a good job of weeding out bad ideas so good ones flourish. What NSSF strongly opposes, however, is the mandate of such technology, like what has recently been proposed by U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). She introduced H.R. 1008, legislation that would mandate that every gun sold within five years be equipped with the unworkable technology. It goes further. It also would require all legacy firearms be retrofitted within 10 years. That’s sure to go over well with collectors.
The firearm industry also has serious concerns about product liability. Even the DOJ’s researchers agree that any so-called “smart gun” technology has to be as reliable as present-day technology. There’s no room for failure. That’s what good engineering does – it eliminates points of failure. This is a particularly important concept for tools that are used to defend innocent lives. Forcing manufacturers to adopt this unproven and unreliable technology exposes them to lawsuits when it fails, and it will. It also exposes them to allegations that models that previously didn’t incorporate “smart gun” technology are potentially “defectively designed.”
Product reliability will be demonstrated when the government adopts this technology for the firearms used by the Department of Defense or federal, state, and local law enforcement. So far, however, none have stepped up eager to slap a microchip and fingerprint reader in the side of a service firearm. The National Fraternal Order of Police warned that police officers should not be used as guinea pigs. Not a single police department has adopted and mandated their use. It is an anathema on the battlefield where a soldier could be left defenseless if he or she couldn’t pick up a gun in a firefight to defend themselves and others. It’s easy to understand why. The technology isn’t reliable and if it is electronic, it is vulnerable to hacking or denial of service.
This is what gun control advocates won’t admit. There’s nothing that they promise can’t be done through so-called smart gun technology that’s not already available by less expensive and more reliable means. The solution to ending the unauthorized use of firearms is properly applied gun locks. That can be as simple as the cable locking device that comes with the firearm, which the firearm industry has provided in the gun case when they’re sold at retail. There are other options too, like trigger locks, lockboxes, or safes.
President Biden and his collaborators in Silicon Valley should take a drive through the rest of America. Americans prefer their elected officials to be a little smarter and their firearms to be left alone.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By Larry Keane

President Biden’s call for gun control on the anniversary of the Parkland, Fla. tragedy is, well… malarkey. IMG iStock-648978888
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- President Joe Biden marked the anniversary of the tragedy at Parkland, Fla., by calling for three of the planks of his gun control platform. He showed with this gun control call that he’s more interested in pursuing an agenda that’s rooted in ideological goals and not grounded in reality. Instead of pledging to hold criminals accountable for their actions and improve security at public schools, President Biden chose to placate the radical elements of his party.

President Biden used the tragic loss of 14 students and three adults at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School to press Congress for laws that would have done nothing to stop the murderer. He didn’t once mention the need for justice to be served and the murderer to be held accountable in a courtroom, which still hasn’t happened three years after his horrific crimes. President Biden chose to blame-shift. He called for retribution instead of accountability.

His missed opportunity won’t do anything to achieve the shared goal of reducing the criminal misuse of firearms. It will only infringe on the Second Amendment and leave law-abiding Americans defenseless against those who would prey upon them.
Background Checks
President Biden called on Congress to pass a law requiring universal background checks. That ignores the fact that the murderer purchased his firearms legally. He completed the background check forms and the retailers checked his information against the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Nothing in the system prohibited him from purchasing his firearms.
That’s not because the murderer didn’t exhibit warning signs or give county, state, and federal authorities reasons to intervene – even to the point of arrest and involuntary commitment to a mental health facility. Law enforcement had as many as 45 instances where they could have intervened, including an allegation that the murderer put a gun to his mother’s head. That’s a felony offense with a firearm. Yet, nothing was done. It is worth noting that at the time Florida already had a form of a so-called extreme risk protective order law.
The murderer also gave enough warning signs that fellow students reported him. School Resource Officers recommended he be committed for a mental health evaluation. The murderer posted a comment to YouTube five months before his crime, writing, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The FBI got the first of two warnings that were never acted upon. The second warning came less than six weeks before his crime when a tipster called the FBI to complain. No one responded. The FBI admitted it failed to follow protocols.
The background check is only as good as the information it contains. The tragedy of Parkland proves this. That’s why the firearm industry championed the FixNICS campaign to fix the FBI’s background check system by changing the law in 16 states and in Congress to increase reporting of disqualifying adjudicated mental health records, resulting in a 266 percent increase. The industry’s effort to improve NICS is ongoing.
More background checks for personal firearm transfers aren’t the answer. That would overwhelm the system. Even backers of universal background checks know this. It also won’t work without a national firearm registry, another fact known by President Biden and others who want this law.
A national registry is against federal law. Gun rights advocates, and those concerned about protecting civil liberties, know that a national registry is the first step to confiscation – another plan President Biden said he would pursue.
Ban ‘Assault Weapons’ & ‘High Capacity Magazines’
President Biden’s second Congressional tasking was to send him a bill banning what he termed “assault weapons,” along with “high capacity magazines,” and purposefully conflating the semiautomatic rifle with “weapons of war.” These are emotionally-charged arguments that belay fundamental facts.

Modern sporting rifles (MSRs) are semiautomatic rifles. This means one cartridge is expended each time the trigger is squeezed. This is a technology that’s been in existence since 1885 and first appeared as a sporting rifle for commercial sale in 1903. The MSR was designed in the 1950s and was first sold to the public as the Colt Sporter in the early 1960s. Today, it’s the most popular-selling centerfire rifle on the market, with over 20 million in circulation, used daily for lawful purposes.
His demand to limit magazine capacity is blind to the facts of the Parkland crime. The murderer didn’t use the magazines President Biden seeks to ban. During the six minutes of his murderous rampage, the attacker wasn’t stopped from changing magazines to carry out his crimes all while the police failed to enter the school.
The crimes in Parkland, while horrific, are thankfully rare. The FBI’s own statistics show that more murders are committed with knives, fists and clubs than with all rifles of all types combined. President Biden, backed by radical gun control groups, is gaslighting the issue. They’re calling for a ban on a rifle because it is similar in appearance to that used by the military. Yet, they ignore the murderer.
Repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA)
President Biden rounded out his gun control demands by telling Congress it must send him legislation repealing the bipartisan Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) by, “eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”
That’s madness. It would be the same as allowing activist lawyers to sue Ford for the wrongful deaths caused by drunk drivers. The bottom line is President Biden knows he’s shoveling “malarkey.” Instead of holding the murderer accountable for his crimes, he blames firearm manufacturers, whom he labeled “the enemy” in 2019. Instead of questioning the failures of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, he scapegoats the firearm industry.
The firearm industry isn’t waiting. While President Biden flails and lashes out, the firearm industry is working for Real Solutions. The firearm industry partners with 15,000 law enforcement agencies to distribute 40 million firearm safety kits, including locking devices, for safe firearm storage through Project ChildSafe. We are fixing the FBI’s background check system by changing the law in 16 states and in Congress to increase reporting of disqualifying adjudicated mental health records, resulting in a 266 percent increase. We partner with the ATF to prevent illegal firearm straw purchases and warn the public it is a crime punishable by 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. We are also working with ATF to improve security at firearm retailers and deter criminals from stealing firearms. We match ATF reward offers to bring criminals to justice that steal firearms. The firearm industry is also working with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Department of Veterans Affairs to prevent firearm suicides, which account for 60 percent of firearm fatalities annually.
The malarkey stops here. President Biden is welcome to join us for Real Solutions. Peddling radical gun control agendas doesn’t honor the memory of the lives lost to a criminal’s unspeakable acts and doesn’t stop the criminal misuse of firearms, reduce accidents or prevent suicides.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By: The National Shooting Sports Foundation

“President Joe Biden’s call for his gun control agenda is not working to address the shared American goal of reducing criminal misuse of firearms.” IMG: iStock-496689884
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- The anniversary of the tragic and senseless murders in Parkland, Fla., three years ago reminds us why the firearm industry is committed to Real Solutions. Safer Communities. The loss of innocent lives because of the unthinkable acts of a criminal defies explanation but deserves our efforts to try to prevent them from occurring again.

President Joe Biden’s call for his gun control agenda is not working to address the shared American goal of reducing criminal misuse of firearms. His demand that Congress ban the modern sporting rifle (MSR), which he knowingly mislabels an “assault rifle” and “weapon of war,” denies the reality that more murders are committed with knives, fists, and clubs than all rifles combined. Over 20 million MSRs are in circulation today, used daily for lawful purposes.

President Biden’s call to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a law passed with wide bipartisan support, panders to the radical base of his party. Rolling it back would be akin to allowing activist lawyers to sue Ford for the wrongful deaths caused by drunk drivers.
The criminal responsible for the horrors thrust on Parkland, and the nation must be held accountable for his crimes. Anything less is a whitewash of the failures of local, state, and federal authorities to act on any of the 45 instances of warnings, tips, and police responses prior to his final terrible crimes.
The firearm industry has been willing to take on this hard work. It has not waited. The firearm industry provides Real Solutions, including partnerships with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and local law enforcement to include:

Partnering with 15,000 law enforcement agencies to distribute 40 million firearm safety kits, including locking devices, for safe firearm storage through Project ChildSafe.
Fixing the FBI’s background check system by changing the law in 16 states and in Congress to increase reporting of disqualifying adjudicated mental health records, resulting in a 266 percent increase.
Partnering with the ATF to prevent illegal firearm straw purchases and warning it is a crime punishable by 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Improving security at firearm retailers, with ATF, to deter criminals from stealing firearms.
Matching ATF reward offers up to $5,000 to bring criminals to justice that steal firearms.
Preventing firearm suicides with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Department of Veterans Affairs.

The firearm industry is committed to the shared goal of reducing and ending criminal misuse of firearms, as well as accidents and suicides. That is the common ground. These are the proven answers to achieve this goal.
Click here to learn more about Real Solutions.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By Larry Keane

The NSSF reports that African Americans among the largest growing portion of new gun owners. IMG PCS/NAAGA
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Anubis Heru did the math. With solid numbers, he just needed to provide education, training, and space for practice to a record-high new customer base. Heru launched Denver’s 1770 Armory and Gun Club, the Mile High City’s first Black-owned gun club, so the thousands of new local gun owners felt welcomed and comfortable.

“We have a huge responsibility,” Heru explained of his mission to reach an underserved community. “There’s a lot of miseducation and misinformation about Black gun ownership because it’s been shown that only certain types of individuals carry firearms, and that is the furthest thing from the truth.”

Numbers Don’t Lie
The eye-popping number of 2020 was 8.4 million. That’s how many new first-time gun buyers made a literal investment of their hard-earned dollars in their Second Amendment rights. Of more than 21 million background checks run for the sale of a firearm in 2020, retailer data suggests nearly 40 percent were buying a gun for the first time. With numbers like those, it’s no surprise the face of the American gun owner is changing fast. Women accounted for 40 percent of 2020’s overall firearm purchases.

While many in the media and antigun interest groups often drawing up a caricature of gun owners as “old white men,” the largest increase of any demographic group from 2019 to 2020 was among African Americans. Gun purchases by Black men and women increased 58 percent from 2019 to 2020.
Philip Smith, President, and Founder of the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA), understands why.

“We’ve seen a trend of more African Americans choosing to express their Second Amendment rights to own a firearm, especially for personal protection,” Smith explained in a press release extolling the need for safe firearm storage between his group, NSSF and Project ChildSafe. “Purchasing a firearm is one step to protecting your family, but it also means safely storing your gun away from children, so they don’t hurt themselves.”

The historic firearm sales numbers aren’t slowing in 2021. Earlier this month, Trish Wendt, an African American woman, left the Pittsburgh Gun Show with a couple of new purchases.

“I have one for home defense and one for carrying,” Wendt explained. “The others are for hunting. I have kids and we’re alone a lot, and it’s my responsibility to protect my children.”

Taking Ownership
The coronavirus pandemic, government shutdowns, and economic uncertainty in 2020 led off the gun-buying surge, but riots, looting, and increased community violence kept it going through the summer. Calls by politicians in communities hit hardest pronounced “defund the police.” Smith noted NAAGA saw membership increase by 2,000 each day at points during 2020. That’s their normal new membership mark for an entire year.
Cities like New York cut $1 billion from their law enforcement budget. Portland, Ore., cut their budget as well; $600 million from Chicago and the pattern continued across America. It’s no surprise that so many Americans chose to act for the security of their homes, businesses, and loved ones.
In Florida, Danielle Campbell, also a Black mother, recognized the severity of her situation and acted.

“A lot of us are single mothers…We’re learning that we can protect ourselves; we don’t have to be victims,” Campbell said. “People were being robbed and shot down in the street, so I decided I needed to take the safety and security of my family into my own hands.”

New Year
2020’s gun purchasing numbers show no signs of slowing down. Two million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm last month. One change has been the political landscape. Antigun politicians now control the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ran on the most aggressive gun-control platform in history.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters President Biden is “personally committed” to enacting stricter gun control. It will be a Herculean task to get moderate Democratic senators to agree to the gun control wish list, which includes bans on entire classes of firearms. Other forces are at play, including activists pressing lawmakers on “defund the police” promises and that drives concerns for personal safety.

“A lot of people are reaching out to us, mainly new gun owners and people who wouldn’t have considered owning a gun or firearm for their protection, have been lining up to purchase firearms and access information from our website,” said Derrick Morgan, a national leader with Black Gun Owners Association.

The firearm industry will continue partnering with local gun retailers, law enforcement, and pro-Second Amendment organizations to make sure opportunities for education and training for new gun owners abound. The Second Amendment right is an American right.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

By Salam Fatohi

A recent child death study cherry-picked data to support anti-gun rhetoric. IMG iStock-940915470
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)-There is no greater loss than that of a child’s life. Unintentional or accidental death can be even more jarring due to the seemingly preventable nature. Certainly, unintentional childhood death is an especially sensitive topic, but a recent study led by Dr. Archie Bleyer, M.D., opens the door for discussion.

His study calls into question the use of biased sources upon which he draws predetermined conclusions.

Dr. Bleyer, a Clinical Research Professor of Radiation Medicine, took an interesting approach to bring this topic to the forefront. The study is highly speculative about firearm ownership as a whole and calls into question the safety steps that firearm owners take at home. Aside from the obvious bias present in the report and relying upon research from a gun control advocacy group, Everytown For Gun Safety, the most alarming issue with the research is the distorted use of Center For Disease Control and Prevention WISQARS (CDC Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) data.
Instead of publishing the exact figures reported by the CDC, the authors elected to condense and convert the numbers to push their agenda: blaming the existence of firearms for unintentional deaths of children.

Anyone would be alarmed to hear that, “the rate of unintentional firearm deaths in children ages 1 – 4 increased exponentially at an average annual percent of 4.9 between 1999 and 2018.”

The problem with this claim is that the authors are cherry-picking and obfuscating while not making available the full breadth of data. Using the CDC’s WISQARS system to collect the same data as Dr. Bleyer, NSSF researchers came to a different conclusion.
Intentionally Misleading
The CDC WISQARS reported 431 unintentional deaths of children aged 0 to 4, from 1999 to 2018, noting a “firearm” as the only cause or mechanism of injury. This is a staggering number for anyone, let alone responsible firearm owners who practice and preach safety daily. Using the same criteria for the previous result but excluding firearms as a factor, NSSF found a total of 51,857 unintentional deaths for the same group of children and timeframe. This means that firearms were involved in less than one percent – 0.83 percent – of unintentional deaths in children aged 0 to 4 years for the nearly 20-year time span studied. Dr. Bleyer is not alone in his use of sensational statistics to attempt to muster support for more restrictions on Second Amendment rights and the firearm industry. Studies like this are used to rationalize the false narrative that firearms are a public health crisis.
The very small percentage of unintentional deaths among this age group is due to programs like NSSF’s Project ChildSafe and others that promote responsible gun handling and storage. According to the latest CDC Childhood Injury Report, the leading cause of death for children under one year of age is suffocation. For one-to-four-year olds, the most imminent dangers are transportation-related, drowning, fires, and burns, respectively. Americans do not avoid dangerous things simply because there is risk involved. When there is a risk present, education is the primary avenue pursued to make sure those who own swimming pools or drive cars, for example, are aware of the dangers posed to their children or those visiting. The same approach is applied to safe firearm ownership.
A Successful Strategy
On behalf of the firearm industry, the NSSF is the leader in responsible firearm ownership and education through initiatives like Project ChildSafe. Our commitment to genuine firearm safety is accomplished through safety education and free firearm safety kits all across the United States. Project ChildSafe has distributed over 40 million locking devices in partnership with over 15,000 local law enforcement agencies, provided up-to-date firearm safety material, and even a Firearm Storage and Safety Assessment Quiz that we encourage everyone to take.
Safety is an ongoing practice that must be habitual for it to be effective. With over 8.4 million new gun owners estimated in 2020, the discussion around firearm safety is paramount. The firearm industry will continue to lead the way by offering Real Solutions for safer communities.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation

NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org