Newest Fox News piece on Bloomberg's false statements on concealed handgun laws

My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

Michael Bloomberg is spending tens of millions of dollars trying to convince state legislatures to support restrictive gun control laws.  From television and newspaper ads, to blanketing communities with flyers, to bringing in people from out of state to testify, no effort seems too great.  Then again, he is worth of over $36 billion.
But Bloombeg’s newest campaign has become so extreme that even gun control advocates may wonder that he is becoming a liability to their cause.  And he has already earned a reputation for fabricating numbers, with even liberal-leaning PolitiFact slamming Bloomberg for exaggerating the number of school shootings by a factor of five.  Other inaccuracies include that deaths from school shootings are increasing, that attacks with “assault weapons” are the most deadly, that firearms research fell dramatically after the restrictions on federal funding, and absurdly that “84% of female firearm homicides in 25 countries are in US.”
Bloomberg is now running advertisements attacking state legislators who are sponsoring legislation to eliminate gun-free zones.   Thus in Nevada, his campaign is targeting state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore who is sponsoring a bill to eliminate gun-free zones in schools and government buildings.  The 30-second ad announces that Fiore wants legislation "allowing criminals to carry hidden, loaded guns in our schools and college campuses. Anywhere we go, criminals and the dangerously mentally ill could be carrying loaded handguns, putting us at risk.”
But this is an outrageous falsehood.  Eliminating gun-free zones doesn’t mean that just anyone can pack heat. You still need to have a concealed handgun permit, which requires a criminal background check.
Besides, permit holders are incredibly law-abiding.  In 2014, there were over 90,000 permit holders in Nevada.  But only 128 people had their permits revoked for any reason. . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

Newest piece at Fox News: "Is gun ownership really down in America?"

My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

Is gun ownership falling? The answer is yes, at least if you believe a new General Social Survey (GSS) by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Supposedly, since the late 1970s, the percentage of homes with a gun has fallen from approximately 50 percent to 32 percent.  "The number of Americans who live in a household with at least one gun is lower than it's ever been,” reported Emily Swanson of the Associated Press.
Time magazine also points to a PEW Research survey that has done a couple much more limited surveys that suggest a similar drop in gun ownership over time.
But those claims are likely overblown.
Surely, gun control advocates such as GSS director Tom Smith view this decline as a good thing.  In a 2003 book of mine, I quoted Smith as saying that the large drop in gun ownership would “make it easier for politicians to do the right thing on guns” and pass more restrictive regulations.
Other gun control advocates have mentioned to me that they hope that if people believe fewer people own guns, that may cause others to rethink their decision to own one themselves.  It is part of the reason they dramatically exaggerate the risks of having guns in the home.
The Associated Press and Time ignored other polls by Gallup and ABC News/Washington Post.  These polls show that gun ownership rates have been flat over the same period.  According to Gallup, household gun ownership has ranged from 51 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 1999. In 2014, it was at 42 percent – comparable to the 43-45 percent figures during the 1970s. . . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

On the Mark Levin Show to discuss the Obama administration's report on racism in the Ferguson Police Department

I talked to Mark Levin on Tuesday, March 10th, 2015 from 7:35 to 7:46 PM. Interview available here.

I also talked about the DOJ report to David Madeira on 94.3 FM in Scranton. PA at 8:45 AM on Wednesday, March 11th.

Just how bad is the DC city government at treating people who don't pay their parking tickets?

Emily Miller at MyFoxDC has this story from October 2014:

Megan Johnson got about ten parking tickets, and they all doubled. Then, Megan's car was booted, towed and sold. . . . .  

Johnson's problems started when she had about ten parking tickets that she could not afford to pay. The fines doubled after 30 days, so the total got to about $1,000. . . . 

Meanwhile, Johnson's car was booted and impounded -- for which the city charged her $700 in fees -- and then the car was sold out from under her. 

I asked Megan if the city sent her a check after it auctioned off her car for $500. She said that the city was supposed to credit that amount to her debt but never did. 

I've asked the DMV, the Department of Public Works and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer about the city profiting $500 from the sale of Megan's car, but not one of these agencies will help rectify it. . . .

An earlier story by Pamela Brown at ABC 7 in DC from August 2012 noted:

More than 230,000 drivers have been turned over to the District’s debt collector this year. The reason – unpaid parking tickets. It’s an aggressive new measure that’s caught many off guard.  

Once the debt collector takes over, a person’s credit score can drop significantly.
“Someone with a higher score in the 700s is likely to get hit as much as 100, 125 points,” explained Anthony Sprauve, FICO spokesperson. FICO provides credit scores to consumers. “The better your score is, the bigger hit you're going to get.” 

In 2011, nearly 300,000 drivers were reported for unpaid parking tickets. There are several warnings about deadlines on the back of a ticket. However, those warnings do not mention collection agencies. . . .

Apparently the debt collectors weren't enough.