Guns blind Liberty

Blind N.J. Man Gets Guns Back Years After Police Took Them Away

Judge Rules Steven Hopler's Disability Can't Take Away Right To Bear Arms

Steven Hopler (credit: CBS 2)

ROCKAWAY, N.J.

A blind New Jersey man is declaring victory in a legal battle over his gun collection.

The state confiscated his weapons citing safety, but now a judge’s order — citing the right to bear arms — means he will get them back.

Steven Hopler of Rockaway knows a lot about guns. The 49-year-old has been handling them since childhood, and practices regularly at a local gun range. His aim is incredible, especially considering he’s blind.

“I’ve handled guns for many years — being sighted and being blind — and I’ve never had a problem,” Hopler told CBS 2′s Derricke Dennis on Friday.

But four years ago, Hopler had an accident. He shot himself in the leg. Police responded and took six of his guns, citing safety concerns. They also accused him of drinking too much.

“They had taken the guns that were out in plain sight,” Hopler said.

That episode began a legal battle that wound up in Morris County Superior Court. Prosecutors argued Hopler shouldn’t have guns because he’s a danger. However, a judge ruled otherwise, saying his disability shouldn’t take away his constitutional right to bear arms.

 Guns .45 Arsenal

The AF2011-A1 Double Barrel Pistol comes actually as the very first industrial double barrel semiautomatic pistol of all times. The original idea came about ten years back to Swiss armourer Vivian Mueller, who at the time experienced cutting and welding together multiple parts of the famous Sig P210: the result was a long slide,

Arsenal Firearms

 Illinois Left Guns antigun procrime

Measures frustrate law-abiding gun-ownership

Raquel Okyay

Plan on purchasing, owning, transporting and/or operating a firearm in your lifetime?  Do not relocate to the state of Illinois. The state has one of the worst gun laws in the country and the Illinois Police and the Illinois Attorney General really need to stop pursuing innocent gun owners, sellers, and users, and pursue those who actually commit crimes that injure or harm others. 

Stemming from a public safety initiative, Illinois implemented a law in 1968 that says a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card must be issued by the Illinois State Police before a resident can possess or purchase firearms or ammunition. Whether this initiative has been successful in providing safety to the public is a story where the evidence in support of such an act leaves much to be desired. 

Upon reviewing the State’s crime-rate statistics, nothing out of the ordinary has occurred after FOIDwas made law. Nationally, we see crime rates increase through the 1980s with a decrease across the board, in the mid 1990s through today. My gut tells me that FOID has done absolutely nothing to provide for public safety, and instead, FOID serves as a template for other anti-firearm states in the Union to pass similar laws, costing the Illinois taxpayer an untold amount of funds, all in the name of “public safety.” Um, I don’t think so.

In fact, there is no evidence to show that obscene gun control laws protect anyone but criminals. Venues where we see lenient gun control laws, we see less crime. Creating and implementing obscene laws that restrict innocent American's from selling and possessing firearms violates the Second Amendment, and opens the door for more hoodlums to commit more crimes.

 ATF Obama crimes Guns

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations

Sharyl Attkisson

Guns recovered by ATF Agents (Credit: CBS)

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."

On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as "(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue." And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: "Bill--well done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case."

This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 "disappointing and ironic." Keane says it's "deeply troubling" if sales made by gun dealers "voluntarily cooperating with ATF's flawed 'Operation Fast & Furious' were going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles."

The Gun Dealers' Quandary

Several gun dealers who cooperated with ATF told CBS News and Congressional investigators they only went through with suspicious sales because ATF asked them to.

Sometimes it was against the gun dealer's own best judgment.

 Guns Ruger review

James Allen

The Ruger 10/22 is nowhere near being new to the market but has been a long time favorite of plinkers and small game hunters. Introduced in 1964 the 10/22 features a rotary feed magazine, push button safety and an aluminum receiver. Over the years Ruger has produced quite a few variations of the 10/22.

The current variations include carbine, compact, tactical, sporter and target styles. You can buy the 10/22 with an alloy steel or stainless steel barrels. Depending on which 10/22 you choose you have options on stocks, be it traditional hardwood, synthetic or laminated.

I purchased my 10/22 Carbine used many years ago in a pawn shop for less than $100. It was one of the cleanest and smoothest operating guns I have ever seen pawned before, and it already had a scope mounted and sling added.

Through the years I have put tens of thousands of rounds through my 10/22 with no major issues with the gun. The gun has never given me any mechanical failure and only one cosmetic issue. After several years of use (and many rounds) the barrel band cracked and eventually broke.  The broken band only effected the cosmetics of the guns, it did not change the gun’s accuracy at all.

 Guns Liberty civilization

Daniel J. Mitchell

I don’t know if this is a real letter-to-the-editor or if Major Caudill really exists, but this is a very strong statement in favor of the civilizing impact of firearms. And since I like to share good things that arrive in my inbox, it’s now yours to share.

I recall hearing saying that went something like this: “God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal.” I probably butchered that quote, but it captures the essence of this letter.

Letter to the Editor by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument or forcing me to do your bidding under threat of force.  Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year-old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year-old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations.

These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat—it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.