Editorial

Black Friday gun sales caused such demand that they caused outages at the FBI background check center. The FBI reported 154,873 background check requests on Friday, November 23 — a 20% increase on last year's record total of 129,166 checks. The requests came in such volume throughout the day that FBI call centers experienced two brief outages — one of 18 minutes and one for 14 minutes — during the busy day, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.

Got a subscriber note through customer service from Russ Rothman in Florida. He wrote, "I enjoy most of your reports on guns and ammo, and related products, but don't like the Republican Party propaganda. Why don't you report on firearms, and leave the Republican propaganda to the Koch brothers and Karl Rove? The economic, foreign, anti-scientific and mean-spirited policies of the Republican Party are bringing the American people down, and you're helping them. I cannot in good conscience support that."

The NRA has started a new program — Firearms For Freedom — that allows gun owners to donate firearms to help fund the NRA and the fight for 2nd Amendment rights. Clifford T. Burgess, the NRA Firearms For Freedom program coordinator, said the new program was an opportunity to leave a financial legacy for the next generation of America's gun owners. Burgess said, "Many NRA members ask if there's a way they can contribute firearms to help support NRA programs. The answer to that question is yes."

Working in the bowels of the Fast and Furious mess have been two largely unthanked writers, Examiner.com gun blogger David Codrea and citizen journalist Mike Vanderboegh of the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog. Over the months, and now years, of this newest BATFE scandal, they have continued to locate and publicize whistleblowers' accounts, incriminating documents, and other strings that unraveled this unbelievably stupid operation. I wish I could say it was "criminally stupid" what various DOJ lawyers and law-enforcement "professionals" committed in F&F, but the fact of the matter is, when you work for FedGov, you can wrongly shoot people (ask Randy Weaver) or immolate dozens of women and children (in Waco) and still retire with a fat taxpayer-funded pension.

There has been no significant change in public views on the issue of gun control and gun rights following the July 20th shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, a Pew Research Center poll released on July 30 shows. If trends hold, the same will likely remain true after surveys are conducted about the Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings. Currently, the poll results showed, 47% say it is more important to control gun ownership, while 46% say it is more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns. That is virtually unchanged from a Pew survey earlier this year in April, when 45% favored gun control and 49% preferred gun rights.

A number of developing stories that have to do with guns show me how fragile my ability to enjoy shooting firearms really is. By the time you read this, some or all of these issues will be resolved or moving toward resolution. They are all serious breaches of, or threats to, gun ownership and the civil rights of shooters across a spectrum of legal, cultural, and political venues.

David Kopel, the noted 2nd Amendment writer and lawyer, recently wrote that a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that the National Rifle Association was viewed favorably by 68% of Americans, and unfavorably by only 32%. That's a high favorability rating for the gun group compared to other years.

Indiana gunowners are celebrating the defeat of the most anti-gun Republican in the U.S. Senate, Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar. The NRA, Gun Owners of America, and other national, state, and local gun-rights groups endorsed the challenger, Richard Mourdock, early this year and strongly backed Mourdock's campaign ever since. Mourdock, who is Indiana's current state treasurer, is a strong Second Amendment supporter and understands that gun ownership is a fundamental, individual liberty that must be safeguarded in a free society.

An error in our April 2012 test of 22 LR semi-automatic rifles, which included experimentation with a suppressor, stirred up a hornets' nest of telephone calls, and we owe the wronged party an apology. The error had to do with the description of services available from Tactical Firearms of Katy, Texas, a Class III dealer and home to what is arguably the most advanced shooting facility in the United States. Whereas Tactical Firearms can help facilitate the licensing necessary for the purchase of suppressors in states outside of Texas, that does not include every state in the union, as the article claimed. Instead of referring to a one-time fee… "that according to Tactical Firearms is applicable to any state in the union," it should have read "almost every state in the union," or "every state in the union where suppressors are legal." The offending text can be found on page 10 column 2 and in the caption on page 11. There was never any intention on the part of the author, Gun Tests Magazine, or on the part of Tactical Firearms to mislead the public or the authorities.

The Brady Campaign gave its best grade on the group's 2011 State Gun Control Scorecard to California. The Brady Campaign said California "continues to blaze legislative trails saving lives," earning 81 points out of 100 on the Brady scorecard. That's the state in which the total violent crime, murder, robbery, and aggravated assault rates were higher than national rates in 2010, the most recent full year reported by the FBI.

Later in this issue is a quick-hit list of new products the staff encountered at the 2012 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Unlike some years in which manufacturers push banal items that are simply color or texture changes, we saw some cool stuff in the pipeline that's worth advising you about. Standard caveat applies: We didn't shoot anything enough to say "Buy It!", but we can comment about advances in design or execution that we believe hold promise.

On Black Friday 2011, gun dealers deluged the FBI with background-check requests for prospective handgun and long-gun buyers, breaking the previous record by more than 30%. Background checks, required by federal law, surged to nearly 130,000 during the day, surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008. The second busiest day on record was two days before this past Christmas, with 102,222 checks. Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said he was "skeptical" of the Black Friday gun surge. He said, "I think there may be no real significance at all."