Change: Nearly Half of All Handgun Owners Plan to Apply for a CCW Permit in 2011

If the supposed resurgence in support for gun control is real, why are gun control groups closing their offices?

Or, rather, support for gun control is dying.

AR-15 uppers for sale. At Sears. Yes, that Sears. Hmm, I think they’re trying to tell us something. ETA: All kinds of CMMG gear.

Les Jones on the local paper’s coverage of a home defense shooting: Didja catch that? The paper didn’t portray the Franklin family’s gun as something weird or scary or foreign. They called it a “household .357 revolver.” Awesome.

In FL: A Tampa TV station wants to do a 4-minute point/counterpoint piece on open carry, but they are having a hard time finding someone who is pro 2A but anti open carry. All of the anti-2A people they have found have been nut balls! They called police agencies in the Tampa area but no […]

Obama appointee from Chicago distancing administration from Brady Campaign agenda.

Sign at a bank in Chappell Hill welcomes lawful handgun carry.

More candidates cater to gunnies: Jesse Kelly, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona, is wielding an assault rifle in his political ads. Russ Carnahan, a Democratic congressman from Missouri, is pictured in a home state newspaper pointing a pistol at a target. Lou Ann Zelenik, a Republican congressional hopeful from […]

A shift: With the mid-terms looming large in a year where incumbents are expected to take a beating at the polls many Democratic candidates are favoring gun rights, aiming to win endorsements or positive ratings from pro-2nd amendment groups. Gun control these days is less along party lines and more regional.

The times, they are a changin’ Talk about a turnaround.

Angus Reid poll says 81% agree you have an individual right to arms.

Al Sharpton: I would say 90% of the calls I received yesterday were in support of the Supreme Court and people say they want to bear guns. They’re tired of the violence and it’s very very interesting. I have had a few on both sides today, but yesterday was overwhelming, it was stunning to me.

Second amendment: The new normal.

Chicks and guns meme hits a newspaper.

Gun carry permits up a bunch in Maine.

A look at Brady staff. And NICS Data.

Seen at Rusty’s: Millions more people went target shooting than went golfing.

Sure, the legal battle. But also, hearts and minds in Chicago: Gowder, who said his mother had always been in favor of gun control, has now changed her mind. “My mother, who is in 60s, now feels she needs to have a gun and she needs to take lessons so that she will be qualified […]

A lot of that is because they’re just losing.

David Hardy on where we’re at.

Or, rather, they’re losing: Not so long ago, Brady was pushing background checks, “assault gun” bans, checks for private sales, and whatnot. Today they’re hassling Starbucks (without result) and seeking publicity for praising a political has-been for something he did ten years ago. Which failed.

On the desk of AZ governor is a bill allowing carry without a permit. On the desk in Iowa, shall-issue concealed carry.

A Pew poll says protecting gun owners’ rights growing in popularity.

Open Secrets on gun money: … pro-gun forces spent more on federal lobbying efforts in 2009 than in any year since 2002 — all told, nearly $5 million. They targeted at least some of that money at both the House and Senate versions of the “Preservation of the Second Amendment in National Parks and National […]

Tennessee gun permits up 23% last year Highest concentration in Knoxville, which coincidentally: community registered 25 killings last year — 21 in the city and four in the county, according to police statistics. That compares with 38 killings reported in 2008, which included high-profile, public shootings at a high school, a mall and a church […]

Reader LD emails: I just saw the most amazing thing. While watching standup on Comedy Central, at around 6:35pm, I saw an ad for Henry Rifles. The mainstreaming of guns continues.

Breaking the stigma of the AR-15: Looking at NSSF’s campaign to educate folks and the press about evil black rifles. Of note is that this article appears on ESPN. No, really.

The year of the NRA: What follows is hardly a complete list (yep, there’s more!), but here are a few of the most significant pro-firearm, pro-2A successes of 2009, the Year of the NRA:

Gun permits up in MA of all places.