Michael Bloomberg

NYC Investigation Into AZ Gun Show Finds Dealers Sold Guns Without Background Checks

David Taintor | January 31, 2011, 5:35PM

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday announced the results of an undercover investigation into a gun show in Arizona -- and that those results show just how simple it is to buy a gun there with minimal oversight.

According to the the Gun Show Undercover: Arizona report, undercover investigators successfully bought guns after telling unlicensed dealers, "I probably couldn't pass a background check." The investigation took place January 23 at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Phoenix.

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Gun Control

Gun Rights Battle Heads To Bars, Churches, Doctors' Offices And Day Care

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | January 28, 2011, 9:40AM

After ignoring the issue of gun control for his entire presidency to date, aides to President Barack Obama said Wednesday he'd take up the issue within the next few weeks. Even former Vice President Dick Cheney has said he'd be okay with banning high-capacity clips in the wake of the mass shooting that nearly killed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and left six others dead.

But there's a whole other lot of Second Amendment supporters who, instead of discussing middle-of-the-road measures to curb gun violence, are advocating to rescind or roll back even current restrictions.

In state legislatures around the country, conservatives lawmakers are introducing some of the most enthusiastic right-to-bear-arms bills to date. Here's TPM's round up.

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Gun Control

Obama Doesn't Mention Gun Control In State Of The Union

Ryan J. Reilly | January 26, 2011, 9:55AM

To the dismay of groups hoping the White House would take the lead on proposed legislation to ban high-capacity extended magazines in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), President Barack Obama did not mention gun control in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

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Gun Control

Brady Campaign: 'Gun Violence Destroyed Christina And Her Dreams'

Ryan J. Reilly | January 25, 2011, 10:50PM

President Barack Obama

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, issued a statement criticizing President Barack Obama for not mentioning gun control during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

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Gun Control

Republican Jean Schmidt Doesn't Want Obama After Her Guns

Ryan J. Reilly | January 25, 2011, 7:15PM

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH)

There are plenty of people hoping President Barack Obama mentions gun control during his State of the Union address this evening in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) is not among them.

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Dick Cheney

Cheney Okay With Limiting High-Capacity Magazines In Wake Of Giffords Shooting (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | January 19, 2011, 1:45PM

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney is no gun control advocate. In fact, as Rachel Maddow pointed out in a recent segment, he was one of only a couple members of the House of Representatives who voted against a ban on plastic guns back in the 1980s and is a regular at meetings of the National Rifle Association.

But in the wake of the mass shooting in Arizona that gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others, even Cheney indicated he's support restrictions on high-capacity magazines such as the clip allegedly used by Jared Lee Loughner.

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Emerson Begolly

Alleged Nazi Jihadist Blamed Pedophile Pastor For Hatred Of America

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | January 17, 2011, 8:54AM

TPM Illustration

Instant messaging conversations allegedly written by Emerson Begolly reveal him as anti-Semitic, extreme, armed and dangerous. But they also reveal what he claimed was the genesis of his extremist views: an interaction with a Christian pastor who was a registered sex offender.

Begolly's is a cautionary tale about the threat of homegrown terrorism: the radicalized 21-year-old college student reportedly obsessed over violence and martyrdom and said he was disgusted by a country where "homosexuality... abortion... assisted suicide, whores, and dru(g)s r all legal."

But it's also the strange story of a loner living on a farm in a small Pennsylvania town who had easy access to weapons and vented his frustrations with his family (a father who dressed him up in Nazi regalia and hit him as a child and an estranged mother with reported mental health issues of her own) in jihadist web forums.

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NRA

NRA: Anti-High-Capacity Clip Bill Just A Scheme To Impose 'Gun Ban'

Ryan J. Reilly | January 15, 2011, 9:53AM

Sarah Palin speaks before the National Rifle Association

Six days after a gunman attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others in a mass shooting, the National Rifle Association (NRA) broke its silence, pledging to fight off any and all attempts to impose harsher regulations on guns and high-capacity magazines.

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Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro Baptists Not Big On Obama's Call To Dial Down The Rhetoric

Ryan J. Reilly | January 14, 2011, 2:30PM

Shirley Phelps-Roper

There's a least one group not taking kindly to President Barack Obama's call for civility this week in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ): the Westboro Baptist Church.

Not surprisingly, a spokesperson from the infamous congregation (best known for protesting the funerals of soldiers killed in action with anti-gay signs) blew off Obama's plea to bring it down a notch in a phone interview with TPM on Friday.

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Emerson Begolly

Alleged Jihadist Joked FBI Was 'Drunk' When He Got His AK-47

Ryan J. Reilly | January 14, 2011, 9:46AM

Nobody was more surprised than 21-year-old Emerson Begolly when he cleared an Federal Bureau of Investigation background check and was allowed to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle last year. After all, he'd been a moderator and contributor on Islamic extremist web forums, posted songs praising suicide bombers, discussed his jihad fantasies in the open and even made an appearance in Newsweek under a pseudonym that his grandmother clipped and saved. He knew for a fact "the man" was onto him.

"i honestly think that the day the[y] ended the hold and sold me the gun someone at the FBI showed up to work drunk," Begolly wrote on a jihadist web forum under the name Abu Nancy (the name of his imaginary daughter), according to transcripts filed by the feds yesterday.

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Frank Lautenberg

Lautenberg: 'We Don't Have More Madmen, We Have More Guns' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | January 11, 2011, 1:37PM

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said on Tuesday that America's problem isn't that there are more madmen, it's that guns are too readily available to them. In the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and the murder of six others in a mass shooting over the weekend is pushing legislation to ban high-capacity gun clips.

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Gabby Giffords

No Signs Obama Will Shift On Gun Control After Giffords Shooting

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | January 11, 2011, 8:37AM

Virtually since the Obama administration took office, the White House has avoided touching the third-rail issue of gun control with a 10-foot pole. So will the mass shooting in Arizona that gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others (including a federal judge) change their approach?

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Jared Lee Loughner

Woman Who Grabbed Loughner's Gun Clip: 'Extreme Right' Added To Problem (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | January 10, 2011, 10:49AM

Patricia Maisch, the 61-year-old woman who grabbed a magazine away from the alleged shooter on Saturday, suggested in an interview with Fox News on Sunday night that hateful rhetoric was in part to blame for the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and the mass shooting which killed six others and left more than a dozen injured.

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ATF

As Deadline On Anti Gun Trafficking Rule Passes, ATF Fights Back In PSA (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2011, 9:25AM

Today's the day the White House's Office of Management and Budget was supposed to give the ATF the go-ahead to implement a rule requiring gun dealers on the Mexican border to report bulk sales of semiautomatic weapons to the feds, a plan intended to combat the trafficking of such firearms south of the border.

But the Obama administration says it needs more time.

"ATF's information collection request is still under review," an administration official told TPM.

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